3 Months Adjusted

Eliza is 3 months old adjusted (since her due date) and 8lbs 10oz as of her last weight check at the pediatrician a few days ago. It's a little strange to have so many different ages for Eliza (actual, adjusted, developmental). Just today a physical therapist* from our county Early Intervention program was calculating yet a different age. I find myself having to pause and think about it when someone asks how old she is. :)

So what is she up to?

-- Continuing to babble and smile. She is the most happy and smiley in the mornings. I cherish the mornings with her when she is happy and calm. As for the babbling, she uses it when she is content and when she is working herself into an over-stimulation melt down.. noticing the difference can be quite tricky.

-- Sat in the bumbo seat for the first time. She's definitely not sure about it yet. I'm fairly certain she's thinking "what is this weird contraption that's making me bend the opposite way I like to be." Thanks to all that time outside the womb, Eliza is pretty stiff and gets herself in a backward swan-dive position when left to her own devices. Practicing for the high dive I believe!

-- Found her mouth with her hands. She gives them a good lick but hasn't worked it out enough to prefer it to her paci.

-- Fighting naps with a vengeance. She is pretty much on hyper-alert when she is awake during the day and she only has short periods of calm. The hyper-alert times transition into full melt down in the blink of an eye.Thanks to some advice from the Doula we are watching the clock more to try to get her into a better sleep pattern during the day. I think it does help when it works but it means I spend most of the day trying to get her to sleep and when she finally does go to sleep, trying to keep her there.

-- And as of the last week - getting better at her feeding! No really! For the last few days the volume she has been able to take by bottle has increased quite a bit and she's even taken a few full bottles! Do you know how good this is?! Let me explain:

I gave E a good talking to last week after our Speech therapy follow up (Speech therapists, along with occupational therapists are the ones that help with feeding skills) at the Special Infant Care Clinic and she must have been listening. At our appointment last week they were concerned with how little progress she's made feeding-wise. Apparently most babies if they are going to be make progress with the NG tube then they will within the first month of having it. She's had it almost 8 weeks now and before this last week there was very little progress in how much she is taking by bottle and her state (attitude) while eating by bottle. She's usually quite unhappy while eating and trys to pull away by arching and squirming. Previously this behavior has been attributed to reflux and even though she does have reflux no one believes that is the main cause any longer. So their suggestion? A g-tube or gastrostomy tube which would replace her NG or nasal tube. A g-tube provides direct access to the stomach instead of going down the nasal passage and esophagus. It would mean major surgery. I was shocked! I was not expecting this to be suggested since during all previous complaints by us about how poorly she fed we were met with some version of "She's gaining weight fine and just give it some time, as she gains weight it will get better." The story had changed all of a sudden. Since she hasnt made quick progress she will probably need help (either NG or G) for many more months and there is concern with the NG tube affecting her development negatively. I definitely can agree with this. I hate having to put the tube down her nose every couple of days when she pulls it out and the frequency will increase as she gets older. We have to worry about inflammation and irritation all in the area that we want her to have positive feelings about. There is a lot more to this of course but in summary what we have gleaned is that-- the NG tube is the less invasive, better option for short term situations but when it looks like things are going to require long term intervention then putting in a G-tube works best developmentally  We don't want Eliza to have to go through another major surgery but we also want to do what is best for Eliza in the long run. The fact that she is making improvements this week is great! We are hoping that it continues and is enough improvement to not have to make the surgery decision. We have the first consultation with the surgeon this week to talk about things. We will see.

Oh look, feeding talk has hijacked my post.. thats a pretty good representation of our days as well. Ok I am done with this post.. I need to get to bed while Eliza is sleeping! More sometime later.


*The physical therapist was here to assess Eliza's development and see what if any therapy she currently needs. Fortunately she thought gross and minor motor skill-wise Eliza was doing OK and didn't need weekly therapy yet. Of course they agreed that she needs feeding therapy and hopefully will have someone out here soon for weekly sessions.

Called in another Expert

So since Glenn went back to work and my mom had to head back home it's been a little nuts around here (hence the lack of posts, or responses to emails, or anything else productive really... whoops and sorry about that). I've decided that doing vigilance at the hospital is possibly easier than watching her by myself at home... just kidding...well, parts of it at least (and I'm definitely not asking to go back!!). I've been very overwhelmed caring for her by myself during the day. I just keep thinking "yeah she's a little complicated but she's only one baby, this should be no problem!" Talk about a blow to my confidence that my reality doesn't seem to agree with that thought.

Thankfully Glenn's parents gave us a gift certificate for some sessions with a postpartum doula agency when we were expecting the babies, so last week I called them to recruit some help. Today was our first session. We ended up with the owner of the company as our doula since Eliza is a little more tricky than the average peanut, at least when it comes to feeding. This doula has taken care of over 400 babies since she started the company -- wow!

So yeah, it was great to have a break today. She was here for the afternoon and worked hard today to get Eliza to take a nap or two. We think she's not getting enough sleep (because she's constantly overstimulated due to being a preemie?) and thats part of why shes so fussy during most of the day ... so all we need to do is stimulate her less (while also making sure she does her physical therapy stretches, tummy time and all those little things) get her to sleep more and we might be golden. ;-) That should be easy...

Auntie Hannah and Uncle Bizzy came to visit last weekend. They brought lots of food to bribe us into letting them hold Eliza. It worked (we forgot to tell them how inexpensive Eliza-holding is going for these days :-). Everyone wins. Except Pasha. She seems to think that everyone should be coming to visit her alone. Poor jealous puppy.