Our Little Giant

[Okay, so I actually wrote this post  last Thursday and am publishing it at that date and time even though it's now a week later.  I haven't quite taken comparison pictures of Ellie for you to see how big she's gotten, but I did measure and cut out the paper for it today.  So rather than continue with the non-sense that is failure to actually hit Publish, I'm going to go ahead and do so...]

Yesterday Elise weighed in at a whopping 11 pounds, 15 ounces!  I hadn't fed her beforehand because I didn't want her spitting up when they gave her her 6-month immunizations.  Normally I feed her right before her appointments so she definitely would have been over 12 pounds if I had.  She's so big!  She measured in at 24-1/8 inches long.  That's over 9 pounda and nearly 10 inches gained since birth!  See...

[Pictures Forthcoming]

She was a champ for her shots (four total). She cried from the first poke to the last and then stopped crying as soon as they were done and began staring at the items on the wall.  She's always very fascinated by the medical instruments they have on the wall above where she lays.  Then she got lots of loves from mommy and a good meal to fill her hungry tummy.

The pediatrician was very pleased with Elise's development and growth.  She said she's at about a 4-5 month range developmentally.  And her height is finally on the charts (for a 6 month old!!).  She also recommended going ahead and trying Elise on pureed solids--beginning with rice cereal--and seeing if maybe having something more sold in her stomach might help with her reflux, which has been getting worse and worse over the past week and a half, including beginning to lose full meals again.  We're planning to try thinned rice cereal made with breast milk as the liquid on Saturday unless the gastroenterologist (see below) recommends otherwise.

When I told her the appointment we got with the pediatric gastroenterologist wasn't until October 21st, she said to call and see if she could see a different doctor in the practice sooner or if they possibly had any cancellations.  I called this morning right as they opened and was initially told they didn't have any openings but that they could put me on the cancellation list.  As the gal was getting to that list, she got another call and put me on hold to pick up that call and place them on hold.  As it turns out, the call was a cancellation for this afternoon so we'll be able to see a GI today and maybe get some next steps.

[Appointment with GI was had.  He explained that although neutralizing stomach acid - aka taking Prevacid and the like - works for older children and adults, doctors have found that infants are actually bothered by the fluid coming up even when it's not acidic.  Most adults don't notice that they still have fluid coming up.  The doctor was amazingly understanding though at how lame it is that there's basically nothing else we can do for her.  He did say that she basically has no acid at this point so at least she's not doing any damage.  Somewhere between 6-12 gestational months we should see improvement; however, there's no guarantee that she won't have lifelong problems.]

Otherwise, Elise is making advancements every day!  This morning she was loving me singing, "She's a maniac, maniac, [insert random lines about Ellie here]," over and over again.  She just kept smiling and squealing.  She's also started what sounds to be much more like talking than cooing or squealing.  I love it!!  She says words that sound like "yeah" and "ha."  Her favorite word for us to say to her definitely seems to be, "Hi!" in very animated tones.  I think maybe it's because that's one of the main things we would say to her over and over in the NICU because we couldn't think of anything else to say.  Now she's making sounds that seem to be her version of trying to say, "Hi!" back.  Too cute.

OH, OH, OH!!!!  I almost forgot something!  Last night I realized that I could see two teeth showing on the bottom middle of Elise's mouth!!  Teeth!!!!!!!!!!  I can hardly believe it.  You really have to look to see them because they're still pretty far down in her gums, but I just love that they're starting to show!  [The teeth seem to be showing a bit more but don't seem like they're going to come through any time soon.]

We started Ellie on rice cereal Sunday.  The pictures and video are priceless and will be posted soon.  For now, you'll just have to believe me that it was adorable.  She's still not too sure how she feels about it, but we're having fun making messes every day.