Ruby had her 6 month check-up this morning. She's doing really well. Her stats are:
Height 24.5 inches (10%)
Weight 13.03 lbs (5 %)
Head Circ. 41.4 cm (25%)
Ruby has a hearing test scheduled tomorrow morning. ECMO and CDH babies have a higher chance of progressive hearingloss. We need to get hers checked every 3 months for the first year.
Now for the proof of how much Ruby loves oatmeal.
It was bound to happen sometime. Our happy go lucky Ruby took a vacation this weekend and in her place we had cranky Ruby. Apparently the new formula did not sit well with her tummy. She made it quite clear. We had a weekend of screaming, spitting-up, and diarrhea. Not fun for the whole family. Since we changed the reflux medicine and the formula at the same time, we were unsure which one was causing the problems. After talking to the GI doctor's nurse yesterday morning, we decided to switch back to Carnation Good Start Gentle Plus and see if that fixed the problems. If she continued to have problems we would know it was the switch from Prilosec to Prevacid. As it turns out it was the formula. By yesterday evening she was back to her happy go lucky self. Here's a picture of a fussy Ruby.
Now if only she would stop rebelling at nap time. In the couple weeks Ruby has decided that long naps aren't necessary. She used to take a three hour nap every afternoon. Now she takes 3-4 45 minute naps through out the day. Which is fine for Ruby, but not for Mom and Dad. As always Ruby sets the schedule and we're along for the ride. I do miss my solid three hours to get things done, though. She's still sleeping through the night, unless we do things like change her formula.
We tried applesauce again yesterday. She didn't seem to like it much more than last time. We'll try it again today, but it's becoming apparent that she's not an applesauce girl. She sneezed out her tube while I was getting her food ready. It's kinda freaky to see her sneeze the tube out. It just comes flying out of her nose.
She does however LOVE oatmeal. She gets so excited about it. I had to tighten the straps on the highchair becasue I though she was going to bounce right out of it. I don't have a picture of her eating oatmeal, yet. She doesn't really swallow much of the solids we are giving her. It's more about her experiencing different tastes and textures.
Here are some pictures from the very few happy moments last weekend.
Ruby has her 6 month check-up with her pediatrician this morning. She gets her 3rd round of vaccines and flu shot. I'm sure we are in for another cranky day after all of that. She also sees her pulmonologist on Friday for her first RSV shot.
We had our first appointment with a GI specialist. We really really liked him. He spent more than hour going over Ruby's history and talking with us. He also said "I will stand between her and any surgeon who wants to operate." He did say he might change his mind as time goes on, but for now he really doesn't think surgery for the reflux or for a g-tube is necessary. He also said Ruby is gaining weight and looks good. She weighed in at 13lbs 7oz! He wants us to let her skip a few meals and let her get hungry to see if she takes more. We have to give her potassium chloride every six hours. We can skip the feeds in between every once in a while to let her get hungry. We tried this this afternoon and she took 40 ml from the bottle! It took her 40 minutes to do so, but she did it! We can't do this everyday but if she misses a feed every couple days, it's OK.
He also changed the formula we use to fortify breast milk to 27 calories. We are now using Similac Alimentum. Luckily our insurance covers the formula cost becasue she has a medical need for higher calorie formula. He also changed her reflux medicine from compounded Prilosec to Prevacid tablets. We now crush up the Prevacid and dissolve it in water our selves. The main perk to this is that it's covered by our insurance. We were having to pay out of pocket to get the prilosec compounded. Since her diuril and KCl have to be compounded also the costs were adding up. Hopefully Prevacid will work just as well as the Prilosec. We don't want to base medical decisions on cost, but it is nice to not have to pay 80 dollars for compounded Prilosec.
The doctor as with every doctor we have seen took the time to tell us we are doing a great job with Ruby. He said we are obviously part of the reason she's doing so well. He then told us he's got a couple other babies he'd like for us care for too. Jokingly of course. I'm sure he says that to all the parents, but it's nice to hear. When dealing with feeding stuff it's hard to see the big picture day after day, feeding after feeding. We are very thankful to be worrying about feeding problems. Six months ago we weren't sure if we'd get to worry about this stuff.
I know the real reason everyone comes here:
We tried Butternut Squash for the first time yesterday. So far sweet potatos and pears are her favorites. She doesn't swallow much yet. She does "store" it in her cheeks, though. It kinda funny to give her a bottle and watch pears start running out the sides of her mouth.
Her head control is getting so much better. She can almost sit up on her own. Right now if you let go she slowly falls over. You can also see her new favorite toy. She loves those singing flowers. She still loves all ceiling fans the most, but those flowers are a close second.
