Defying Gravity

You know the saying "What goes up must come down?" Well our child has decided to defy gravity and reverse that saying this week. In our world it has been more "what goes down, must immediately come back up." Spit-ups have pretty much been our theme of the week, and by "spit-ups" I mean we all need a bath after she eats. Not pleasant at all!  We had a long discussion at our Nutrition appointment this week, and our first order of business is to address the constipation problem that has persisted. Our plan is to give her a couple ounces of apple or prune juice every day to try to regulate her, and then we will see if that helps with the discomfort as she eats or if it truly is just reflux that we need to address with medication. Casey has her 6 month check up with the pediatrician this week, and based on how the past couple weeks have gone, I suspect medicating will probably be the route we take for a while. Despite the spit-ups and a decrease in volume, she did still manage to have an above average weight gain of 8 ounces over the past week, and her weight is now 11 pounds even. Her spit-ups have worsened over the days since the weigh-in, so we are hopeful that our pediatrician will have some advice for us so that she can continue gaining weight and getting the nutrition that she needs.

Our Speech Pathologist had some advice as well to help with her decrease in feeds, and we are having to bring out many of the old "tricks" again to help her eat. One of the things we are trying now when Casey starts to get uncomfortable during a feed is distracting her, and she loves the new Look Baby app that our speech therapist showed us. Now if only I had a third hand to hold the bottle, the iPad, and support Casey as she eats! One of our other big goals in Speech right now is for my mom to feel comfortable with all the tricks of Casey's feeds since she will be taking over three feeds a day in just a couple more weeks when I go back to work. In addition to Speech and Nutrition, we also had our SST appointment this week, and Casey has continued to make great progress developmentally. She was particularly impressed with how well Casey is holding up her head up during tummy time. We will be setting new goals at our next appointment since Casey has far surpassed the ones we set at our initial evaluation. The things she is hoping to see next time are that Casey has started to watch and focus on her hands (she has been bringing them to her mouth for a couple of weeks, but doesn't  necessarily look at them yet), and that we continue to work with her on batting at her toys.

We have a busy week ahead with not only our pediatrician appointment, but also a more in-depth follow-up with an Audiologist to make sure there are no complications that the original hearing screen at the hospital did not indicate. I also have my six month appointment with the Endocrinologist where the discussion will probably include the possibility of transitioning to an insulin pump and what the next steps will be in treating my Diabetes.  Our prayer needs now are for these appointments to go well and for Casey to have some relief from the spit-ups so that she can keep down the calories she needs for healthy growth.

And of course, here are all the latest pictures:

 So stinkin' cute

 I adore this happy girl!

 I'm pretty sure we should be the ones wearing this shirt, since most of the time it is actually us waking her up to eat.

 They don't know it yet, but these two are going to be best friends.

 Porter is always hanging out nearby

 We have been working on saying our prayers

 And we have mastered the pouty lip

Looking cute in her giraffe jammies

 "Is picture time over yet?"

 When Casey gets really tickled at something she gets a huge grin and turns her head completely to the side.  It is absolutely precious, and I was finally able to catch a picture of it.

 Smiley girl

 "No, I'm a really good babysitter Mom, honest!"

Time for bed!