Saturday, December 18, 2010

Three Months

  • Almost 13 pounds (according to my bathroom scales)
  • Falling into a routine finally
  • Sleeping better at night
  • Still hates to take the bottle
  • Still cries quite a bit
  • Smiling sporadically - especially at her big brother
Gracie's shunt is still pretty visible, but I feel like I've found a way to handle the questioning looks. Recently we were at a party and the gentleman across from me kept glancing at Grace's head, then quickly looking away. He wasn't gawking or pointing, but I could tell he was curious. So I just struck up a conversation with him by saying, "She gave us quite a scare before she was born..." and elaborated from there. It turned out to be a very nice conversation about Gracie and her health. He admitted that he was curious, but was afraid it would be rude to ask. I hope that I'm able to handle other situations so well.



Grace is doing really well health-wise. So far she's meeting all of the milestones but one. Her eyes wander quite a bit and she has trouble focusing. Her left eye is especially weak and doesn't always move with the right eye - as you can see in the picture. Her pediatrician in the NICU said she may experience some weakness on her left side and it seems that weakness seems to be mostly in her eye.   (While not as bad as Gracie's, I also have a weak left eye and had to wear a patch in kindergarten to help strengthen it - some of you may remember that :-) ) Physically, she moves her arms and legs quite a bit and shows no weakness there. She also has a very strong neck and can hold her head up for quite a while.


She tends to favor laying her head on the left side and we were told to expect that. It's something that happens quite a bit with babies who have been shunted. Both 'issues' are most likely things that will just take some strengthening exercises and we'll be working with First Steps to help her out as much as possible.
Meanwhile, we'll keep cuddling, playing and we'll soon be breaking out the 3-6 month clothes. She's growing so fast!!

*Post Theme Song - "Never Grow Up" by Taylor Swift*


Get a playlist! Standalone player Get Ringtones
at

1 comment:

  1. AnonymousDecember 19, 2010 at 12:45 PM

    Oh B, I love this especially with the song. Our girls are going to forever be wrapped around our fingers and we will forever jump at the slightest cough or fall im sure. I have had to dig down deep again recently as Bee is closing up again and coughing and gagging through eating most anything. Well yesterday we ate out and people just stared and did the sighing. I just took a deep breath, gave her a drink and took Matt's hand and reminded myself they dont know and Im thankful she can eat and that she is here and for the most part very healthy and so I try to remember that when people stare, im thankful we have her for people to stare at.

    ReplyDelete

Sweet Buzzes

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)