Appointments and Sit Ups

We had myelo clinic last week and all areas had good reports. Urology is happy with her vesicostomy. PT and OT all said she made improvements and commended our home PT and OT for doing great jobs. We didn't really get to talk to neuro but they checked her shunt and said all was well. Physical medicine was a bit concerned about her left leg, but ortho came to look at it and had no concerns. Her hips have always been under great scrutiny and she's had I don't know how many x-rays of them for everyone to decide her sockets are shallow. Her left leg always appears shorter than the other, mostly due to her muscles being so tight up the back of her leg. Once you do her stretches for PT, both legs are the same length. It just takes some effort and it's something we work on daily. We met another friend and her mommy, so happy to continue getting to know fellow SB mommies that are near to me!

In other happy news, Callista is working on her abs. Literally. She has been doing crunches lately, wanting to sit up so badly. We are happy to see such progress, but at the same time, I think it is making her reflux much worse. She had an upper GI study yesterday and they said everything is digesting fine but her reflux is so bad that once her stomach fills up, it basically shoots up her esophagus to her throat. We are doing slower feeds, and longer continuous feeds overnight to try and cut down on the amount she throws up. Weighing in at almost 16 lbs now, I don't think it has been hurting her growth!


My little brother and his new wife had their wedding reception last night and Callista got as much attention as the new married couple! We don't take her out much so when we do, everyone oohs and ahhs over her. She enjoyed the new faces and being held a lot. I do not know how, but she slept through the DJ, announcements, and constant stream of people. Then we get home and she doesn't sleep in silence. Perhaps the trick is to play really loud music? ;) All I can say is I have a REALLY good baby, and am so thankful for that!

A Bouncing Baby Girl

It's been one year since we saw the words "It's a GIRL!" flash across the screen at our Ultrasona gender determination appointment. I didn't know what would come ahead for us when we made that appointment. We made the appointment because I was impatient and wanted to know if we were having a boy or a girl, like, NOW. So yes, I paid $75 to know the gender a few weeks early. And I am so glad we did, because we had two weeks to completely and utterly enjoy our pregnancy. I had two weeks to buy girl clothes and think about how I was decorating the nursery. Two blissful, happy weeks. What a blessing for us, to have had that positive experience rather than having the fact that we were having a little girl be eclipsed by a piece of news we never in a million years expected to hear.

I didn't even know about Ultrasona until we ate at the Japanese Steakhouse and sat by a woman who had a new baby girl. She told us her and her husband did it to find out the sex before he left for Iraq. This woman was put in front of me for a reason, and looking back, I wish I could thank her over and over again for leading me to a few weeks of joy.

Now my baby girl is almost eight months old and growing like a weed. She's come a long way from looking like the alien baby we have in those 3D pictures! We are still learning how to be our own kind of normal and we're getting there. We learn something new almost every day and we're just as insanely in love with our little girl now as we were a year ago <3