Five Months!

This may be almost an entire month late, but better late than never. What can I say? January was just a crazy and busy month, and the aftermath of the swallow study kind of consumed me. I haven't talked a lot about my maternity leave, but after extending it twice due to daycare issues, I decided to take the entire school year off so that I can take care of Elodie and sort through the whole feeding tube situation. We still have the NG tube, but from what I've read and from what different specialists have told me, neurological issues related to swallowing tend to be the most difficult to recover from. So, most likely we will switch to a g-tube in the future. When she is close to sitting independently, we will begin feeding therapy at the Children's hospital to see how she does with purees. I look forward to that milestone! Figuring out the feeding tube was a little tricky. Feed too much? Puke. Feed too fast? Puke. We were both miserable for about a week, but right now we're in a good rhythm. We are working on increasing her volume to 20 ounces per day, and right now she's getting about 17.5. Once we get to a good volume, we'll start bumping up the rate. Currently we set the pump to feed her over about 40-45 minutes, but our long term goal will be to get closer to 20-30 minutes. I can't wait for that day, because with feeding taking so long we spend most of her awake time feeding and then letting the food digest a little. 

Elodie's fifth month included her first Christmas! (Wow, I really am behind!) We enjoyed three different visits from family, and everyone felt so grateful that Elodie was there to celebrate with us. I can't even tell you how emotional it made me to hang up our new family stockings. 

The two best gifts I'll ever receive!

Elodie went through three outfit changes on Christmas, and sadly I never got around to putting her in my first Christmas dress. But she looked adorable all day long!

All right, now onto the stats.

• Elodie was wearing 3 and 3-6 month clothing when she turned 5 months. There were still a few 0-3 she could squeeze into, but most of them were packed away. 
• She had an urgent care visit on her 5 month "birthday" due to some weird breathing (but checked out fine), so she was weighed and came in at 13lbs 1.5 oz. Still riding the 13th percentile.
• Elodie was eating between 14-17oz per day up until she got the feeding tube. We decreased her to a 27 calorie recipe of fortified breast milk. She still had 5 feedings per day, and I was still waking her up between 4:00-5:00am for one of them. Yawn. 
• This month we finally got belly laughs! Kissing her neck and making funny gulping noises (as if I'm going to eat her up) made her laugh the hardest.
• She continued to explore her voice by grunting and yelling a lot. We noticed that when she is really concentrating on trying to figure something out (usually with her arms/hands), she grunts and groans like nuts. It's kind of funny, but sometimes it's a little off-putting.
• Elodie became much better at reaching for and grabbing toys. She also got a lot more coordinated with her ability to get toys to her mouth to suck on. She definitely started holding onto things longer and began exploring them more, too. Before she would just grab things, but at this point she began to really look at them.
• Prior to five months, Elodie's trunk and head control felt like it was really lagging. When I held her she was often very rigid, and she tended to arch her back a bit. We saw some improvement in this area, and as she approached 5 months she started to even pull herself forward a little bit (like doing a mini crunch) when propped back against a pillow, or when sitting propped in my lap. She usually did this to reach for my hand.
• She continued to roll onto her side, but that's as far as she got. Tummy time was getting better, and she could keep her head up for longer periods of time.
• She still enjoyed sucking her thumb. No interest in pacifiers.
• Elodie began blowing raspberries. 
• Her eyes remained a vivid blue. Absolutely beautiful!

Happy 5 months, my love!