Friday, December 3, 2010

4 Months Old!

Well, she is almost 4.5 months old now, but better late than never!

Ruth is doing great. Right on track developmentally.

She is smiling and really talking/cooing to us. Almost giggling, so close to it. She is SOO sweet!

She is now sleeping through the night consistently. She is still sleeping in our room, but as soon as my knee heals enough that I can walk up the stairs easier, she will move to her own room!

She has also found her hands. She will suck on them, and chew on them. She bats at her toys with them. She will hold her hand out and just stare at it while she wiggles her fingers. That is kinda funny to watch!


She is holding her head up well, and seems to enjoy tummy time when I can keep her from rolling over! I tried to take some photos of her on her tummy, but she was too interested in looking at all the stuff around me, I couldn't get her to look at the camera!


She does have hair. I know it's hard to see in some of the photos because it is pretty light, but she isn't completely bald!


She weighs almost 15 pounds with her casts on. We estimate the casts weigh about 2 pounds, so that 13 pounds! Little chunker!

It is hard to get a true length with the way her legs are bent in the casts, but even with BENT KNEES she is at 50% for a 4 month old! Keep in mind she is really only suppose to be 2 months old (since she was born 2 months early), so she is a tall girl!!


NEURO

Her head circumference percentile has also gone up from 10% at 2 months to 50%. While this is concerning, the pediatrician wasn't overly concerned since the rest of her body has also grown SO MUCH. Her sisters all have big heads too, so it could just be genetic.

Remember this photo? Look at the HUGE difference from 2 months to 4 months. She would look kinda funny if her head didn't grow with the rest of her body, right? I hope that's the case.


We go see the neurosurgeon here for the first time this week. I am very nervous about this appointment. I have visions of emergent news, surgeries, and other bad things. I really have no reason to believe any of that will happen, other than it CAN happen. Ruth is showing no signs of increasing hydrocephalus other than the increase in head size. Which could be normal growth. And of course, the appointment at 7:30 AM, a good distance away from our house, so I am grateful for good friends that can take our other kids to school and preschool so Matt can join me at this appointment.

UROLOGY

We are also having some concern over her bladder and kidney health. Remember that UTI a few weeks ago? Well, her pediatrician ran a repeat culture last week to make sure it cleared up, and IT DIDN'T. Or she has a new one. So, she is back on antibiotics.

Before Thanksgiving, I spoke with one of the MOMS trial nurses (they call every 3 months or so to check in), and got the email address of the urologist we saw in SF. So I sent her an email, just asking what we were risking by not cathing, and she told me we were risking bladder growth and kidney damage. And she felt our case was being mismanaged. SO, that's concerning!! I called over to Scottish Rite to update them on the latest UTI and also told them about the SF urologists concerns, and they are bringing her in earlier now. She has a DMSA scheduled in 2 weeks, which is a scan that checks for kidney damage and scarring. She now has an appointment with the SR Urologist the day following that scan. I'm hoping we can get some of my concerns cleared up. I think I would prefer the conservative (or is it aggressive?) approach of cathing and medicine to prevent damage from happening, although I hate that too! Ugh! Renal problems aren't something to mess around with tho, in the past RENAL FAILURE WAS THE LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH FOR SPINA BIFIDA KIDS. No messing around here.