The New Belly Button!

Elodie had her g-tube surgery on Wednesday. Thankfully it went very smoothly. The procedure itself was about an hour. Elodie was her usual happy self while all of the nurses, doctors, and anesthetists examined her pre-op. 

Brian and I got some breakfast while she was actually in surgery, and by the time we were done it only took maybe 10 minutes before the surgeon came out to tell us how things went. She did need one small extra incision to help move her shunt catheter out of the way, but otherwise everything went just the way he wanted it to. We then got to meet her in recovery. Initially she was crying and very loopy, but after her pain medication kicked in she was pretty happy again. This girl is such a trooper! 

After about 30 minutes we were wheeled up to her floor. On the way there was a lot of excited chatter about Garth Brooks visiting the hospital to help open a new unit where kids and families can play together. As we waited for our elevator we saw a security officer get into an elevator holding Garth's black hat. Once we got onto Elodie's floor, we realized that Garth was visiting patients there. Sure enough, a woman stopped in our room and asked if we would be okay with him stopping in for a minute. Although we're not really country music fans, and I honestly couldn't name a single song of his, we couldn't really miss such an opportunity. He turned out to be extremely genuine and kind. He asked us about Elodie's health issues, commented on how beautiful she was, and wished her well. Elodie even got a little Garth Brooks teddy bear! I have to admit, the timing was a bit awkward considering that our daughter literally just came out of surgery and now suddenly we're posing for photos with a celebrity, but it will make for a fun story to tell her when she's older!

Elodie's hospital stay was pretty uneventful. She did have a short and anxiety-provoking episode of stridor overnight and when I paged the nurse to report that she was having trouble breathing, we got quite a rapid response! They brought respiratory medicine to come have a look at her and concluded that her airway was probably just a bit swollen and irritated from being intubated during surgery. After she had woken up a bit her breathing returned to normal and we both went back to sleep. We only needed to stay the one night. Since we had already been using a pump to feed her with the NG tube, there wasn't a whole lot of teaching I needed to learn how to use the g-tube. It's actually quite simple, and such an improvement from the NG! And after 5 days of using it, I have noticed a lot less reflux which is so nice because she always coughs and chokes on it when it doesn't come all the way up. Apparently the NG tube holds open the esophagus just a little and can exacerbate reflux, and that definitely seems to have been the case for her. 

So for now, life is back to normal and we're happy to have all of that over with! I am loving having her sweet cheeks tube and tape-free. They are oh so kissable!

Seven Months!

Elodie is 7 months old today! It has been a pretty good month and I'm amazed at all of the things she started doing right after she turned 6 months. Remember how I said she was delayed across the board on the ASQ-3? Well, if we had waited just a week or two for her 6-month appointment, she would have been within the "typical" range in both problem-solving and personal-social! So take that silly questionnaire! We had a brief visit from my dad this month but I neglected to take any pictures. Other than that it's been mostly business as usual. I still need to schedule her ophthalmology follow-up, but I've been more focused on her upcoming g-tube surgery. Provided that neither she nor I come down with whatever little stomach bug Brian and Noah have had, her surgery should take place on Wednesday. Keep fingers crossed we both stay healthy and her surgery goes smoothly! I can't wait to be done with the NG tube and I would hate to postpone the surgery.

I really don't know how much Elodie currently weighs, but I'm guessing she's over 14 pounds. We switched her up to size 2 diapers this month, and although they're a bit big, her size 1s were getting snug and she kept having yucky leaks. Elodie is wearing 6 month clothing, although 3-6 month pants still work. She is wearing a few hand-me-down sleepers from Noah that are 6-9 months that also fit. Feeding continues to go pretty well. She is eating about 19 ounces per day now, and takes her reflux meds (omeprazole) twice a day. She spits up a little with every meal and when it doesn't actually make it out of her mouth, she coughs and chokes on it. If it weren't for that I would still feel really skeptical about her aspirating, but yes, she definitely does. Thankfully she's not a huge barfer or we would have to consider getting a nissen fundoplication performed along with her g-tube. I am still pumping away so she is still getting all breast milk fortified with formula, and yes, we are still on the 27 calorie recipe. Elodie continues to sleep well. We stopped swaddling her this month, and just like her brother, she decided that sleeping on her side is where it's at. Her naps may have shortened just a bit, or it's just a complete coincidence, but she seems to fall asleep and stay asleep better through the night without the swaddle. She still takes three naps per day, with the morning being the longest and the evening being the shortest. 

Brunch on the deck yesterday morning. The weather has been gorgeous!

Elodie continues to receive early intervention services through our county. She will be due for her 6 month progress review sometime next month or early May. Her occupational therapist left on maternity leave at the beginning of February so we have another woman filling in. Both have been great and I feel like we've seen so much progress. Our biggest focus right now is working on building up Elodie's core strength to help her with sitting independently. She's not there yet, but she is so motivated! She constantly pulls herself up to a sitting position when she's reclined, but she doesn't yet put her hands down to balance herself. Occasionally she can sit by herself for 5-10 seconds before she topples over. She loves to sit in our laps and in her knock-off bumbo seat. She also loves her jumperoo! Just this month she finally got strong enough to lean forward and play with all of the toys on it. It's been so much fun watching her starting to really interact with her world, and not just passively take things in!

Part of her core strengthening exercises are to work on grabbing her feet. Well wouldn't you know, just after turning 6 months she started grabbing her feet during a diaper change. And now it's all the time! One day she even succeeded in getting her big toe in her mouth. So cute!

As I said in the neurology update, Elodie has also begun reaching for things in front of her while sitting or standing. She's not always the most coordinated when it comes to actually getting what she wants, but she usually succeeds. And when she does, everything obviously goes straight to her mouth! She loves to suck on my hands. They are better than any toy!

Elodie also began passing toys back and forth from hand to hand. That was a skill that she picked up and mastered really fast! 

Aside from all of that, I think some of the most exciting changes we saw this month came in her social and communicative development. Elodie now loves to look at herself in the mirror, and smiles and squeals at herself. She even reaches out to touch the baby in the mirror. This felt like such a big step to me, because before she would barely even look at herself. I was far more interesting! She also began exploring consonant sounds. She will make an "mmm" sound when frustrated or hungry, but our favorite new skill is repeating "da da da." There is really nothing cuter than listening to a baby babble! I love it, and my heart nearly bursts each time I hear her jabbering away. I completely forget that she's anything but a cute, chubby, happy little baby girl! 

Elodie and Noah continue to adore each other. They are so stinking cute together! She loves to watch Noah and he loves to make her giggle. It's such a joy to watch the two of them interact! I continue to feel so incredibly lucky and blessed to have both of them in my life, and each day I thank God and the universe for Elodie's remarkable health and happy spirit. I wished on countless stars for this girl. I'm so glad she came true!

I love you.

What Went Right

When I was pregnant with Elodie, I had a few specific hopes for the second time around. One, I wanted to try baby wearing. As it turns out, it's just not for me. (How the HELL does that damn ring sling work anyway?!?) Two, I wanted to be able to nurse longer with less worry about weight gain and way less pumping. Clearly not in the cards. Three, I wasn't going to adhere to some ridiculous feeding schedule in the beginning and instead nurse on demand. Um, definitely impossible when you have a NICU baby! And four, I hoped to build up a better milk supply by pumping right away. Well...

In some ways, this has gone so right that it's almost wrong. When Elodie was in the NICU I had to pump. While I was in the hospital, and whenever I was visiting in the NICU, they allowed me to use the Medela Symphony. They also loaned me one to use at home for the duration of Elodie's stay. I was encouraged to pump every three hours, which I did except overnight when I stretched it to 4-5 hours. But I still pumped 7 times a day. For a month at least. In the beginning I had issues with burst capillaries and something called "rusty pipe syndrome," and felt like I wasn't producing that much. Then as the weeks went by I started to get more and more. The NICU nurses were all amazed at how much milk I could pump. Apparently a lot of mom's struggle because something about being away from your baby and your body just not responding because of it. Not an issue for me. I stopped bringing my milk to the hospital because they had multiple crates full in their freezer, so I began creating a stash at home. When Elodie was discharged they told me to bring a cooler for my milk but our freezer was getting full so I told them to just dump it. Instead I was hooked up with a milk bank and did blood work so I could just donate whatever was left there. 

Somewhere along the way I was able to wean myself down to 5 pumps per day, but regardless my supply continued to increase. I think at it's peak, I was pumping about 65 ounces per day. Since Elodie was only taking about 14.5oz per day, my freezer quickly overflowed with milk. This was at it's worst (best?). We seriously couldn't open the freezer without a bag of milk falling out. (This was also before I learned about flat freezing. Changed my life!)

The milk bank is far away so it wasn't easy or convenient to get my milk to them. As a result, I probably dumped hundreds of ounces between November and December. Then I was finally able to arrange a pick up and cleared out the whole freezer. Since I was home with Elodie I wasn't at all worried about keeping a stash at this point. I just wanted to be rid of it all!

All three boxes were packed full, and it ended up being around 800oz, though I can't be sure. It felt great to get it out of my freezer, and I loved knowing that I would be helping other NICU babies and moms. 

The milk bank gave me 100 more storage bags which I have now used up, so I continue to dump everything except what I save for Elodie. That means I have about 500oz in the freezer again. I need to schedule another pick up!

The current situation in my freezer.

I am so thankful that I haven't experienced the dwindling supply and the need to supplement with formula like I did with Noah by this age. Yes exclusively pumping SUCKS and no, when the time comes I will not miss it. But I'm still pumping between 50-60 ounces per day and trying to wean even just a little often ends in clogged ducts (which is the main reason that this blessing sometimes feels like a curse), so for the time being I am still pumping 5 times per day. I have no goal, but I don't think I'll have any trouble making it to a year if I want to. Especially since I am staying home with her. Thank you universe for making at least one thing really easy when so much else has been hard!