10 Weeks and 9 pounds

This week has been a lot better for Natalie and I.  Natalie’s gas pain seems to be getting less and less.  I’ve been giving her a massage every night before bed and on bath days in the mornings too.  Quite a life of luxury to have two massages per day!  I haven’t slept on the couch in over a week and she’s been going at least 6 hours between feedings at night.  She still consistently has trouble at dinner time with waking up early from her nap but we’ve started letting her go back to sleep in the sling (if I can get her too) while I scarf down some dinner.  I’m starting to think she just wants to participate in the family meal instead of sleeping through it! :)

Yesterday we had some good news.  I returned the hospital pump to the lactation office at Presbyterian Matthews.  Since we were there anyway, I asked if they could weigh her for me.  She weighed 9 lbs 2 oz stark naked!  That means she gained a pound in 2 weeks.  That’s incredible.  The doctor guessed she’d be 9 lbs at 12 weeks if she continued along the same growth rate so looks like she’s exceeding expectations.  Slow growth and even failure to thrive (no growth) is common with Down’s children so this is a huge praise!

I’ve got all the Medicaid applications ready to mail.  We have one to send in for January 18-31st and one to send in for March 1st on that goes to a different department.  They told me that if insurance doesn’t cover the physical therapy visits over 30 then Medicaid would pick it up.  Her therapist seems to think we won’t have any trouble going with the 30 visit limit this year anyway.

Natalie has her hearing screen on Friday this week and starts physical therapy at home next week.  

Amy

P.S. The pictures are of the huge tutu I made for Natalie to match Julia’s birthday tutu.  Couldn’t get Julia to put hers on for a ‘twins’ picture, though.   Hopefully, she’ll consent someday!