She went to the pediatrician 2 weeks ago, and she weighed 18 pounds, 4 ounces (85th percentile). She was 25 3/4 long, which was in the 47th percentile. Once again, all that rice cereal we have to give her packs on the pounds, but the pediatrician isn't worried about it, at least not at this point. Emma is enjoying her baby food, but we can't get a great read on how she feels about green beans. Sometimes she makes the funniest this-stuff-is-disgusting face, but other times she eats it fine. So far, Emma has had applesauce, carrots, bananas, and green beans, and applesauce is by far her favorite. Here's a great video of several things: (1) Emma's love for her applesauce while simultaneously being suspicious of and fascinated by the video camera; (2) one of her new favorite pasttimes - sucking on her bottom lip; and (3) a brief glimpse of a smile.
We've just discovered that Emma's second tooth is going to be making an appearance soon! You can barely, barely feel it, and when you look down in her mouth while she's smiling, you can definitely see it starting to come in. Any day now! Luckily, Emma wasn't too fussy with the first one, so hopefully this second one will only bring us a night or two of brief crying as well.
Emma had a CT a week ago, and Dr. Troup will look at it and give us his thoughts on it next Monday. I think the CT is really only going to show how her ventricles are doing, to make sure that the fluid is draining off of them well and that her shunt is really doing its job. Emma was so good for the CT. They basically taped her head down and wedged it between rolled up sheets and THEN wrapped her up in one of those heavy iron aprons. I had to hold her chin in place to try to keep her from moving her head too much, and she did pretty well with it. Of course, she wanted to move her head all around to check things out, but I believe they got the pictures they were looking for. Here's a quick one I snapped with my phone (therefore, the poor quality) right before she took the big ride into the machine.
Emma has done really well at therapy lately. She uses her left arm ALL THE TIME, and they want her to get used to using her right arm. Emma has to sleep on her side, and whatever arm she's not lying on goes flying back behind her...so now she sleeps on her right arm so that it's pushed forward. We asked for it. Her infant carrier rattles are all on the right side, and she constantly plays with them with her right hand now. I think this is just the beginning of parenthood with toys that make noise. Emma hates to be on her tummy, so it might take a while for her to crawl for that simple reason. Most babies with spina bifida either don't crawl at all or they're delayed because of their limited mobility, but Emma actually does really well pulling her legs up. She's making great strides with her cognitive development, especially considering she lost so much time laid up in the hospital (11 of her first 12 weeks).
As far as Emma's choking goes, it's been pretty bad the last few days. She has scared a few people by it, but Emma doesn't get very upset. In fact, during one of the worst episodes she's ever had last week, she looked up at me and my mom and smiled in the midst of trying desperately to catch her breath. It was so cute and sweet yet pitiful at the same time. It almost seemed like she was saying to us, Don't worry, I'll be ok...just give me a minute.
I tried desperately to get a good picture of Emma smiling in her pumpkin outfit, sitting with Lola in her ghost costume. The problems with this photo op are as follows: (1) Emma is too fascinated by the shiny camera I'm holding in front of her to smile at it; (2) Emma was cranky; (3) Lola's costume is cuter on her back, but you wanna see her precious face, too! and (4) getting the two of them to sit still. This is the best I could do:
Okay can I just I love the pic of Lola and Emma! How absolutely precious! Of course she looks great in Orange, who wouldn't in the Young family! Thanks for sharing the latest!
ReplyDeleteJoyce
She is the cutest pumpkin I have ever seen and of course the color is the best! Give her a big hug from me. Love to all of you!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHolly
The Halloween costumes are precious!!! Thanks for the update!
ReplyDeleteThe costume picture is adorable!!!! She is precious! And can I tell you how jealous I am that Emma held still for her CT scan???? Whitt had one a couple of weeks ago and it was torture---they had to try it three times before they could get it right--once with no sedation, once with oral sedation, and once with IV sedation, and even with the IV sedation he woke up halfway through the two minute scan and they had to sedate him some more! Emma needs to give my stubborn boy some lessons on laying still and cooperating! :)
ReplyDeleteI love the video. She's like "mom, I'm trying to eat here. Give a girl a break!". And it took me about 50 pics to get one of Andy with the dog at Christmas one year. Needless to say, I only tried it that holiday. So good job getting them both in the shot and looking at the camera!
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