1) We hope it is safe to say that Retta has now fully recovered from her upper GI. That barium was nasty...thank goodness it is now behind us!
2) Retta had a little set back in weight gain due to the barium; however on January 10th (3 months 4 days old) Retta weighed 8lbs 4oz! (she later pooped a good 4oz; but we are giving her credit for it!)
2) In addition to occupational therapy - weekly speech therapy and nutrition has also been added to our ECI services! This will help with Retta's feeding and ensure she is gaining enough weight to get her to the big 11 lbs by 6 months!
3) And with help from our new speech therapist; we changed pediatricians! We LOVE Dr. Tardy! He is very thorough and has invested a ton of time meeting with us and looking over Retta's medical history (dating back to her NICU stay). Having a physician who can act as the "quarterback" of Retta's medical team is exactly what we needed! We can't believe that he actually calls us on the phone - just to check in and make sure we are doing OK! Having reassurance from a physician who seems to better understand the stress of caring for a medically fragile child has already made all the difference in the world! Since there several medical conditions associated with DS that will need to be assessed for as Retta grows Dr. Tardy is making a "care plan" to guide us through Retta's first year! He takes a conservative approach to new issues and places focus on Retta's quality of life!
4) Retta is now sleeping through the night....well, we are now ALLOWED to let her sleep through the night. (Another plus to the new pedi!) If Retta had It her way she would have been doing this from week eight.
5) I went back to work! Well, kind of. It would be nice to be able to go in and help out a day a week or so to break up the monotony of these hour long feeds. Bapcia was able to come over and watch Retta last Wednesday which enabled me to get a few things at the hospital taken care of in hopes of going back.
6) And the best thing; Retta has started to smile! I struggled to get the phone in time to record Retta playing with Szymon this morning. I caught the end of her chuckle session...
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