Monday, June 2, 2008

The endocrinologist....

thinks that there's nothing wrong with Charlie. In that area anyways. I think her pedi as just being overly cautious when he referred us. That's ok. Better safe than sorry! I wish her neurologist felt the same way!

So her funky sodium levels were probably just a fluke, since she's been normal for the last month or so.

She got long! She dropped to the bottom of the chart for length and I was disappointed because I thought for a while that she might end up being tall (well taller than me anyay LOL) but she's had two back-to-back growth spurts recently and she's back up to the 50%tile. That's more like it! And her weight has leveled off, so she's well on her way to slimming down. She's back on the charts there, at about the 85%tile. Her head grew a cm, which isn't much and she's still well below the 1%tile, but ANY growth I consider good at this point! It may not be "optimal", but growth means progress, so I'll take what anything we can get.

Charlie is still smiling and she's getting more consistant with it. Sometimes all I have to do is smile at her to get her to smile. This is huge because it means she's seeing well enough to see me smile. I have certain games I play with her that work everytime. She's still not doing BIG smiles, but at least I can tell when she's happy!

Her eye contact is getting better. She's following better. She's seeing smaller objects. Today she somehow got a hold of her feeding tube and pulled it close to her (unintentional I'm sure), and her eyes got really big and the look on her face was..."Woooowwww...what is this....?" She was in awe of this tube in front of her. I went to move it over and she watched it, still in awe. So I put it back. LOL She was happy just staring at the white tube.

She's putting more weight on her legs. Especially when she's mad. She really tries to push off!

I'm trying to teach her to lift her arms when I'm going to pick her up. She started doing this a bit herself, when she would hear me undo the car seat buckle. I'm trying to teach her to do it every time I pick her up though. I think it's a simple skill to learn and well within her capabilities. I tell her I'm going to pick her up, then kind of stroke under her arm to let her know where I'm going to put my hands, and then wait for her to lift her arms before I pick her up. If she doesn't lift them, I gently do it for her. She's doing really well with this and seems to understand what it means already.

She's studying *everything* now, so I'm starting to do some simple sign lanquage with her. I know signing is going to be SO important with her, so I'm starting very early, even if it's 3 years before she signs back. With Adrian, I would try, then get frustrated that he didn't "get it", and then try again a few months later. He was 14 months before he signed back so I know it's going to be a long while yet with Charlie. But I'm determined to not get frustrated. She needs this input! We are doing "yes" and "no" right now. These are easy for her to see...right up close to her face, and they are very simple. I can also take her hand and make her do it, so she's not only seeing me do it and hearing the words, but she's feeling her own hand do it. I don't know how quickly I should be adding new signs, as I don't want to overwhelm her. Maybe her speech therapist will know.

Charlie made a new friend! His name is Evan and he lives by Vicki and Ava. He's 3 and has ovecome many of the same hurdles that Charlie and Ava are dealing with right now. He's 3 and tube-fed, but no longer needs suctioned. He's adorable and I love being able to actually SEE that Charlie *will* eventually do more than just lay there looking around. He plays with toys and vocalizes a lot. He also blows kisses. Adorable. LOL

1 comment:

Unknown said...

ooh, awesome update! :) re: sign language - I figure it's like any language - use it in front of her and eventually she'll 'get it'. .. i know my kids are/were slow at expressive language, but they were soaking it up - I just didn't know it until they finally started giving me some feedback. let me know if you want to borrow any ASL videos, stuff. . . :)

BettyAnn