Has it really been that long?

I just realized that it's been 5 days since I last blogged. I'm not so delusional as to think that our friends and family are on the edges of their seats waiting for me to post; I'm amazed and feel immensely blessed that so many of you care for and love our Emma so much that you actually WANT me to keep the blog updated more often than every 5 days. What a testament to God's love for us.

So much has happened this week. Emma had her first vaccines on Tuesday, and she barely flinched over the shots. "Big deal," she said. "I've been poked and stuck more times than you can shake a stick at." She's 13 and a half pounds and 24 and a fourth inches long. Russell calls her fatty bobatty. Here's a really funny picture of the fat face she makes when she's tired. She pushes all her chin fat forward and pooches her cheeks and lips out.



On Wednesday, Emma had another swallowing study. This study didn't show us a whole lot more than the first time it was done in the hospital, except that her swallowing hasn't gotten worse. Emma started eating thick formula and moved to slightly thinner formula. They could see on the X-ray that she started to aspirate some of the thinner formula into her lungs. Luckily she pulled it back out and swallowed it, so they stopped the swallowing study at that point. I know this all doesn't sound great, but the speech therapist and radiologist were encouraged. The speech therapist especially was pleased that Emma's swallowing hasn't worsened. On top of that, if you've ever met Emma in person, you may have noticed that she clears her throat a lot. The speech therapist says this is a good thing as well; if she clears her throat and coughs occasionally, she has good sensitivity. Her body's natural reaction is to clear whatever's stuck in her throat. The next step is to have an appointment with Dr. Troup and see what he thinks about the results. We'll have a visit with him soon to discuss doing Emma's Chiari decompression. That surgery could be coming up in the next couple of months.

Also during the swallowing study, Emma became a star! The therapy office she goes to is starting a new website or something, and they were thinking of some cute kids to take pictures of for the site - they thought about Emma! So she got a few shots taken; unfortunately, I was in them as well. Y'all, I was looking ROUGH. I had to do a warehouse inventory for work that morning in our unairconditioned warehouse...and THEN take pictures?! Yikes.

Emma had physical, occupational, and speech therapy this week. PT and OT mainly focused on her head control and arm strength. Emma's head size is in the 99th percentile, so she can't control it quite as well as other 3-month-olds. I know that the 99th percentile sounds like she'd look kinda freakish, but I swear she doesn't. As I noted a blog or two ago, I couldn't possibly imagine what speech therapy would be like for an infant...here's the explanation: speech therapy is more than speech - it's also about cognitive development based on our interaction with Emma. I gotta be honest - speech therapy for an infant sounded like hooey at first, but it was really fascinating to hear about the studies that have been done regarding infant development. Here are some pictures from Emma's occupational therapy: she fell slap asleep during part of it! Check out the fat arms and leg cellulite.





Russell and I officially enrolled in a genetics study this week. It's hard to explain the deal about spina bifida - they say it's not hereditary, but it's still a genetic disorder. I don't know. Anyway, the Greenwood Genetic Center is a pretty big deal in the world of genetics, and a nurse came to our house this week to conduct an interview and take blood samples from me and Russell. They will pay for my multivitamins and for my jumbo doses of folic acid. These are only jumbo DOSES, not jumbo pills. I'm currently taking 4,000 micrograms of folic acid per day; the recommended amount for prepregnant and pregnant women is 400. I've been taking 500 for years. Anyway, they'll pay for all my vitamins through the study, and we'll become one of their statistics if we have another child naturally: a second child with a neural tube defect even when taking 4,000 mcg of folic acid or a second child without a defect. Russell got stuck 3 times because his veins roll around a lot in his arm. So that's where Emma gets it.

Emma had an appointment with the hospital pulmonologist on Thursday. We're not sure why we had to go see him. This is the guy who did 2 bronchoscopies to make sure she doesn't have vocal chord paralysis. I honestly think he was expecting to find a child who was withering away. He was shocked that she had grown (um...hello...that's what children do: grow. Aren't you a PEDIATRIC pulmonologist?) and that she was awake and alert and happy. Then she choked...and it was a bad one. That doctor FLIPPED OUT. He ran outside and asked if she needed oxygen and was just freaking out in general. Of course, Emma brought herself out of her choking spell. The best part is this: my mother-in-law, Mary Jane, was with me. Mary Jane was wearing a shirt with a regular scoop neck and then a little keyhole opening below the neckline. Well, Emma mistook this doctor's visit for target practice. After she choked, she puked and hit the bullseye: right through the keyhole so that the puke started to run down inside MJ's shirt. So on top of the doctor flipping out about the choking, he also was trying to figure out how to help MJ (who wasn't upset by the puke at all) clean puke running down her shirt. He finally just handed her some paper towels, rather than dab the puke on a rather personal part of her body. MJ and I have really gotten some chuckles out of that.

While Emma was in the hospital, they had a photographer there who was taking pictures, and we took advantage of this "complimentary" service in the hospital. Luckily, my in-laws and my parents were there, so we all got pictures with Emma. However, I haven't seen them. But they're coming this week! I don't know how many or how good they are (there's only so much you can do in a hospital room), but I'm excited to see how they turn out. Even more exciting than that, though, is the portrait session we had today with our friend Susan Brewer. She is WONDERFUL. Check out her website. We're going to have some fantastic shots from our session with her today...oh, I can't WAIT to see them!

Ok, I think I've pretty much caught you up. Big week, huh? Miss Emma has been an angel this week, for the most part, and she's been sleeping great. Oh, except for last night. We only slept for about 5 hours. Call me boastful, but after all we've been through, I'm the QUEEN of finding the small blessings in life. One of those small blessings (well, actually, it's a big one) is that when Emma was going through the newborn, middle-of-the-night-feeding stage, she was in the NICU. So Russell and I were able to sleep peacefully at home. I guess we should just suck it up and deal with the less restful nights that we'll experience here and there now.