"Too bad the week is almost over."
Since Kalista has been home, it is truly amazing how fast time flies each day. On our days off, we never seem to get much done around the house. We are sure that once we get our daily regimen down...it will be much easier.
My taxi service to all my appointments
Here is the latest Kalista news:
- We saw Dr. Mehl, the pediatric neurologist, this week for her high-risk infant consultation. He is the person who will tell us if Kalista is where she needs to be developmentally. From his exam, she is right where she should be for a cute 4 month old. His only small concern was her neck strength since she has been laid up in bed for so long and not able to get in that quality tummy time. It just means we need to work on sitting her up more and having her hold her own head up. Her reflexes and motor response skills were all age appropriate. Dr. Mehl told us that with everything going on, he is not too concerned if she crawls or walks later than most kids. He also told us she has great communication skills and eye contact. For those of you who have seen or talked to us recently, Kalista is a chatterbox with her "oohs" and "ahhs". Sometimes she even talks herself to sleep. Dr. Mehl told us to look for the "motorboat" sound as the next milestone in speech development. Can't wait for that one! All in all, we don't have to see him until December for her 6 month old follow-up visit and make sure she is where she needs to be at that time.
- We also saw Dr. Saenz this week for her follow-up on the fundoplication surgery and G-tube. It looks like she is recovering well and we don't anticipate any more visits with him until her final closure surgery at the age of 2 or 3. We asked him about her reflux and the retching that still happens. He told us the retching and gagging, she does multiple times a day, is something she will have to just out grow...poor baby. Nobody likes to see their child dry heave and turn that scary shade of red-purple.
- So it looks like we have now officially been turned over to Dr. Gossman, the plastic surgeon, for her expertise in tissue expanders. The goal is to make her belly cosmetically appealing for her final closure. The tissue expanders are to create extra skin for the surgeons to work with, so they can discard the scar tissue that is currently on her belly (that purplish skin). She may also get a cosmetic belly button too in the process. We have an appointment with her in the later part of October.
- We had a few breakthroughs this week in the bottle feeding department. Yesterday, she wanted to suck on everything...fingers...blankets...toys...and even her pacifier and bottle. The last time she truly enjoyed sucking on her pacifier was in mid-July. We'd like to think it means that she is finally feeling more secure about certain items in her mouth and swallowing...but it could also be from the full moon the other day. Odd yet sometimes good things happen when there is a full moon. Since she has been home, we have taken what we learned from OT in the NICU and applied it. So every time she eats now, we make sure we give her different textures in her mouth and have recently started just placing a small amount of milk in a bottle for her to taste and she seems to be more accepting of it. We hope she will catch on and eventually bottle feed most of the time. We know it might be a while from now, but every step counts.
