Emma update

I heard from Emma's Pediatrician yesterday & she has another change to her feedings, per the nutrionist. They are upping her calorie intake a little more & adding fat to her diet (a tsp of vegetable oil a day, believe it or not). We have another weight check next Wednesday & hopefully she will gain more than 2 ounces this time.

I also heard from MUSC Childrens Hospital today to schedule Emma's heart cathe. It will be Feb 10 & she will have to stay overnight for observation since she will have to be put to sleep for the procedure. So we will most likely head down the day before & then come home the day after. We are still trying to make sure insurance will cover the procedure & the Peds Cardiology dept at MUSC + Emma's Cardiologist are helping us figure all that out.

10 pounds

Emma had another weight check this morning & she finally weighs 10 lbs, but she should have gained more than 2 ounces in a week. Her pediatrician is going to contact the nurtionist about adding some additives to Emma's diet along with the higher calorie formula she is already eating.

We are also waiting on Emma's cardiologist to schedule a heart cathe for her. He has recommended that we go to MUSC Children's Hospital in Charleston, SC for the procedure & surgery if its needed. They have one of the best Children's Heart Centers in the country. We just need to make sure our insurance will cover for us to go there.

2 month checkup surprise

Wednesday was Emma's 2 month checkup at the Pediatrician & as all mothers know the first thing they do is get the child's weight. Emma's weight was 9 lb 14 oz, which didn't seem too bad to me but maybe a little low. So her doctor comes in the room & starts asks me how Emma was progressing developmentally & I told her fine. She smiles, coos, all the things she askes me Emma was right on track with, except for her weight. She said Emma had only gained 1 ounce in the last 12 days & her rate of weight gain was too low. She continued her exam & went to discuss the possibility of putting Emma in the hospital, I was shocked. She went & called Emma's Cardiologist & he agreed. So Emma & I went home packed our bags, waited on Chris to get home & we all headed to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 4pm & they took some blood from her to run labs almost right after we got there. They also scheduled a swallow test, a echo of her heart, a consult with a nutritionist & a possible CT scan. Her swallow test came back fairly normal with small signs of reflux but nothing out of the ordinary & the nutritionist put her on a higher calorie diet to hopefully start increasing her weight. Then she had an echo of her heart done, which she has had several of those already. Her cardiologist recommended they put her on, Lasix to remove any fluid that may be around her heart or lungs due to the VSD (holes in her heart). He said we would see an immediate difference if it was working. By the next day her heart rate & breathing had gotten slower & gained 2 ounces.

We came home on Saturday afternoon & it appears that her heart & lungs were working too hard & burning off too many calories. She will stay on the Lasix + the higher calorie diet for now but she will probably have to have a heart cathe done soon to get a better look at what is exactly going on. There was mention of possible surgery to repair the VSD in the future but her cardiologist only want to do surgery if absolutely neccessary. Emma has a weight check tomorrow & a follow up with her cardiologist on Thursday.

Colds & Crud

Emma & I came down with colds a few days ago & unfortunately mine has turned into the crud, as it always does. Thankfully Emma's hasn't gotten any worse & it still only a cold, she sounds so pitiful with her stuffy nose, but it doesn't seem to bother her very much. In fact Chris & Emma went to church this morning without me & I plan to go the urgent care this afternoon when it opens.

Crud update: I went to urgent care this afternoon & I do have an upper respiratory infection. The doctor didn't really want to give me any antibiotics, she thought it would pass on its own but she gave me a script for z-pac so I wouldn't have to come back if it took a turn for the worst. She also told me to get some mucinex, which I have never used but I hear it works pretty well. Hopefully I will be feeling better soon.

Believe it or not

Our little Emma Grace is 2 months old today. Looking at her everyday I sometimes have a hard time noticing that she is growing right before my very eyes except most of her newborn clothes are too small now. Which you would think that would be a good thing but her 0-3 clothes are too big, they swallow her whole & look silly on her. Either there is a lot of chubby/long babies out there or Emma is just a petite little girl. The waist in her pants don't even touch her body so she is mostly wearing one piece body suits or oneies.

She hasn't had her 2 month check-up yet (its next week) but as of this past Friday at her sick visit to the doctor she weighed 9 lbs, 10 oz. She is cooing & smiling more & more each day, which we love. My favorite part of the day is when she is ready to get up & I am greeting her in the morning, she gives me a big smile.

Here are 2 of the best pictures I could get of her this morning of her smiling. They just don't do her pretty smile justice.