Eliza's check up at SICC

So a couple posts back we mentioned that Eliza was going in for her check up at the Special Infant Care Clinic. This was also her first developmental testing with a developmental psychologist. (I should get a nickle for every time we say "developement" or "developmental" around here.) Per usual, it was an all-day event and Eliza was completely toasted by the time we left. BUT she really did great while we were there.

So, the results were not far from what we expected. For extremely premature babies delays are always expected. Eliza really did an awesome job of demonstrating everything  she's been working on lately so I really feel that the results were representative. The 3 main areas the psychologist looks at are motor, cognitive, and language. Eliza's motor skills are at a 4 month level and cognitive and language are at a 7 month level. They compare these numbers to her adjusted age (10 months) verses her actual age (14 months).

Motor skills are a huge struggle for Eliza. She has hypotonia (or low muscle tone) and it takes SO much longer to learn a new motor skill than the average baby. In addition to that she is dominated by her extensor muscles which are the muscles on the back of her body. This is why her arms are usually extended backwards. We call those her "preemie wings" Its also why anytime she is tired or unstable she arches, and why lying on her back is the most comfortable for her (verses being held or sitting in someone's lap). As you can imagine both of these are big hurdles for learning to sit. She is not able to sit on her own yet, but we are working very hard at this and she is making gradual progress. She's also poor at tummy time. She is able to lift her head but only infrequently puts any weight on her arms. Since rolling over a couple times around 2 months ago, she has not repeated it. Also, when you try to help her roll she completely locks her body down to prevent it.

The most interesting news of the eval was about her cognitive skills. Apparently in babies as delayed in motor skills as Eliza they usually see cognitive skills equally delayed. At this age motor skills can hold back progress in cognitive skills as well. The biggest reason for this is just how different a baby's interaction with the world changes once they are able to sit. The psychologist said it's typical to see babies that are still just lying down to only be able to bat at toys. But Eliza is holding a toy in each hand, passing a toy from one hand to the other, starting to imitate play with toys, interacting with small objects, longer attention span...more like a baby that is sitting. So that was really great to hear and very encouraging!

After the eval we met with her doctors and there was a lot of talk about her feeding plan. And by feeding plan I mean what and how much is being pumped through the g-tube. There is always lots of talking about this. Really continuing to grow isn't too much of a problem since she has the g-tube. As long as we can keep the reflux under control with her meds (that we are slowly weaning as well) to minimize vomiting she doesn't have issues with keeping on her growth curve. (Which for 10 months adjusted was about 25% for length and 10% for weight).

I won't talk about Eliza's actual eating right now. I just get tired of talking about it. I'll let you know if we make any consistent progress on that front.  I am so thankful for her new feeding pump though!  Any other g-tube mommies out there reading this... get a portable pump! We have a Kangaroo Joey and it works so much better than trying to either gravity feed with a syringe or the regular Kangaroo on the IV pole. Feedings are soooo much less frustrating and messy!

She also had her hearing test and all is good on that front.The girl has no problems with hearing! OK long enough post now! Goodbye.