Our Daughters Are...
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Happy Valentine's Day!
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Swallow Study
Eleanor had her swallow study done on Friday afternoon. Of course, she didn't choke once the whole time we were there! The speech pathologist put some really thin barium in her bottle and had her start with that. While Eleanor was drinking it they had her lay sideways on the table and they watched on the x-ray machine as the liquid went down. They didn't see any problems with any of the parts or how things were working. They said everything looked great! That only took a couple minutes. Then we put some actual formula in Eleanor's bottle and the speech pathologist had me feed her like normal. Again, no choking. Again, everything looked fantastic and she didn't see anything concerning. Through all of this we were using a regular bottle and nipple, not the Haber.man feeder that we've been using. The speech pathologist said that she doesn't see any reason for us not to continue using the regular nipple. This is nice because feeding should take a more normal time frame rather than the 30-60 minutes it takes with the Haber.man. Also, we only have one Haber.man but lots of regular nipples so this means we don't have to wash it out after every feeding!
On one hand, we are so glad that everything looked good! But on the other hand, we wish we knew why Eleanor is choking when she eats. The speech pathologist did show us some differnt positions that we can hold Eleanor in while we're feeding her to try to help with the choking. So right now we are starting each feeding with Eleanor on her side. This way the formula falls in her cheek first rather than straight back into her throat. This does seems to be helping.
We'll keep an eye on things and hopefully they get better as Eleanor continues to grow. The speech pathologist seemed to think this would be the case.
On one hand, we are so glad that everything looked good! But on the other hand, we wish we knew why Eleanor is choking when she eats. The speech pathologist did show us some differnt positions that we can hold Eleanor in while we're feeding her to try to help with the choking. So right now we are starting each feeding with Eleanor on her side. This way the formula falls in her cheek first rather than straight back into her throat. This does seems to be helping.
We'll keep an eye on things and hopefully they get better as Eleanor continues to grow. The speech pathologist seemed to think this would be the case.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
1 month appointment
Eleanor had her one month appointment today. It's no wonder my arms are starting to hurt after holding her for a while - she's up to 9 pounds 7 ounces! She's also grown almost 2 inches since she was born and is measuring 21.25 inches long. Eleanor is in the 48th percentile for weight and the 45th percentile for length. Since she's still having some choking when she eats (it's better with the slower nipple, but still not gone) they did order a swallow study. I should know by Friday when that is scheduled for. Eleanor also had to get a shot today. I hadn't prepared myself for that! She did great though and only cried for a few seconds afterwards. But that little blue bandaid on her chubby little thigh makes me hurt for her. This was her second round of the Hepatitis B vaccine. She got the first one in the hospital when she was born.
Here are some photos of Eleanor over the past couple of weeks. I take tons of pictures on my phone and really need to figure out how to upload them here from my phone rather than emailing them to myself, saving them to the computer, and then uploading them. Anyway, here she is. As you can tell, she's getting more alert and really starting to look at the things around her! She has a good chunk of time each evening where she's awake and generally in a good mood.
Here are some photos of Eleanor over the past couple of weeks. I take tons of pictures on my phone and really need to figure out how to upload them here from my phone rather than emailing them to myself, saving them to the computer, and then uploading them. Anyway, here she is. As you can tell, she's getting more alert and really starting to look at the things around her! She has a good chunk of time each evening where she's awake and generally in a good mood.
Friday, February 3, 2012
One month old!
Little miss Eleanor is one month old today! How is that possible already?
The bear next to her was mine when I was little :)
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Family
Matt and I don't have family here in town. Our closest family members are my parents, who live 2-2-.5 hours away. That's not far, but it's also not super-close. And while my family has been able to come up and see Eleanor and help out some, it's just not the same as having family here. But having Eleanor has helped Matt and I realize that even though we may not have actual family here, we do have a family, a community. Family isn't necessarily defined by blood, but by relationships.
-Family is having meals brought to your home three times a week from the week after we brought Eleanor home until mid-February. I'm not kidding. With the exception of last night, every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday someone brings us a cooked meal. And usually there is enough food that we can have leftovers the next night. It is such a blessing to not have to worry about making dinner while trying to adjust to our new normal.
-Family is our house church giving us cans of formula that they haven't used after we had to make the switch to bottle-feeding.
-Family is members of our house church emailing or calling to check in and see how we are doing. This is after we made it back to house church for our first time since having Eleanor and I cried a lot, since this was the day after we made the switch to formula. It's so nice knowing others are thinking of us and care about us. And that we can be vulnerable and honest with them when things are hard.
-Family is people reaching out with their stories of struggling to breastfeed and having to switch to formula. It's the reassurance that things will be okay and that it's okay to grieve the loss of breastfeeding.
-Family is spending an entire Saturday afternoon with friends who are incredibly excited to meet your daughter. We were able to spend the afternoon with the family that I started babysitting over seven years ago and it was amazing to watch their entire family love on Eleanor all afternoon.
-Family is friends offering to come over for a morning or an afternoon and being willing to sit downstairs with Eleanor while I take a nap. This happened a few times the first two weeks that Matt was back at work and it was such a blessing to be able to get a solid hour or more of sleep and know that Eleanor was in good hands just downstairs.
-Family is getting phone calls from coworkers just to check in and see how things are going.
Matt, Eleanor, and I are so lucky to have amazing family - both in our blood relatives and in our community here in Indianapolis. It's definitely a reflection of Jesus for us.
-Family is having meals brought to your home three times a week from the week after we brought Eleanor home until mid-February. I'm not kidding. With the exception of last night, every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday someone brings us a cooked meal. And usually there is enough food that we can have leftovers the next night. It is such a blessing to not have to worry about making dinner while trying to adjust to our new normal.
-Family is our house church giving us cans of formula that they haven't used after we had to make the switch to bottle-feeding.
-Family is members of our house church emailing or calling to check in and see how we are doing. This is after we made it back to house church for our first time since having Eleanor and I cried a lot, since this was the day after we made the switch to formula. It's so nice knowing others are thinking of us and care about us. And that we can be vulnerable and honest with them when things are hard.
-Family is people reaching out with their stories of struggling to breastfeed and having to switch to formula. It's the reassurance that things will be okay and that it's okay to grieve the loss of breastfeeding.
-Family is spending an entire Saturday afternoon with friends who are incredibly excited to meet your daughter. We were able to spend the afternoon with the family that I started babysitting over seven years ago and it was amazing to watch their entire family love on Eleanor all afternoon.
-Family is friends offering to come over for a morning or an afternoon and being willing to sit downstairs with Eleanor while I take a nap. This happened a few times the first two weeks that Matt was back at work and it was such a blessing to be able to get a solid hour or more of sleep and know that Eleanor was in good hands just downstairs.
-Family is getting phone calls from coworkers just to check in and see how things are going.
Matt, Eleanor, and I are so lucky to have amazing family - both in our blood relatives and in our community here in Indianapolis. It's definitely a reflection of Jesus for us.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Our first ER visit and sick visit to the doctor
Friday night Matt and I ended up having to take Eleanor to the emergency room. I'm sure that's not the last time we'll be there with her, but I would be completely fine if it was. Toward the end of last week we noticed Eleanor choking when she was eating. She has a really hard time getting her breath back after this, and she was also breathing really heavily a lot of the time. We called the on-call line at our pediatrician and were told to take her in to get things checked out. We spent several hours there Friday night and into early Saturday morning. Eleanor was great the whole time we were there, even through the x-rays they took. The doctors in the ER didn't find anything and thought she might have reflux. We were told to follow up with our pediatrician this week.
I called this morning and was able to get an appointment with Eleanor's doctor today. Again, Eleanor is checking out healthy (they listened to her chest, looked in her throat and ears, etc). Eleanor got hungry while the doctor was in the room so I started feeding her while the doctor watched. She thinks Eleanor is taking her bottle too fast, which is causing her to choke. So we are using a special slow-flow nipple (even slower than the infant nipples sold in stores) to see if that helps at all. If it does, the doctor wants us to use that for a month and then try introducing regular nipples again to see how it goes. If this nipple doesn't seem to help then the doctor will order a swallow study to see what's going on. The doctor does think Eleanor has some reflux, but since she doesn't seem to be in pain when she's spitting up we are holding off on medicine for now since the medicine wouldn't help the spitting up but would only make it painless. Neither the doctor nor Matt and I want her on medicine if she doesn't need to be. Eleanor has her one-month (!!!) appointment next week so we'll follow up with the doctor then to see what our next steps are.
Some good news, though - Eleanor is up to over 8.5 pounds! Woo hoo! We started using the Mo.by wrap this weekend now that she's finally big enough and she LOVES it! Plus, putting her in the Mo.by on Sunday allowed me to actually stay in the whole service at church because she slept the whole time :)
I called this morning and was able to get an appointment with Eleanor's doctor today. Again, Eleanor is checking out healthy (they listened to her chest, looked in her throat and ears, etc). Eleanor got hungry while the doctor was in the room so I started feeding her while the doctor watched. She thinks Eleanor is taking her bottle too fast, which is causing her to choke. So we are using a special slow-flow nipple (even slower than the infant nipples sold in stores) to see if that helps at all. If it does, the doctor wants us to use that for a month and then try introducing regular nipples again to see how it goes. If this nipple doesn't seem to help then the doctor will order a swallow study to see what's going on. The doctor does think Eleanor has some reflux, but since she doesn't seem to be in pain when she's spitting up we are holding off on medicine for now since the medicine wouldn't help the spitting up but would only make it painless. Neither the doctor nor Matt and I want her on medicine if she doesn't need to be. Eleanor has her one-month (!!!) appointment next week so we'll follow up with the doctor then to see what our next steps are.
Some good news, though - Eleanor is up to over 8.5 pounds! Woo hoo! We started using the Mo.by wrap this weekend now that she's finally big enough and she LOVES it! Plus, putting her in the Mo.by on Sunday allowed me to actually stay in the whole service at church because she slept the whole time :)
Saturday, January 28, 2012
At 3 weeks old...
Here are some things I don't want to forget about Eleanor at this stage...
-Her "pirate eye." When Eleanor is waking up or going to sleep she does this thing where she opens only one eye at a time. It's cute.
-Her hands. Eleanor LOVES her hands. They are constantly on the move. And when Eleanor sleeps she likes to have her hands straight up in the air.
-Her noises. She makes the funniest noises, especially when she's sleeping and starting to wake up. Eleanor has one noise that sounds like an elephant, which is made even funnier when she lifts an arm straight up into the air when she does it :)
-Her faces. Oh, her faces. They are hilarious. She has this one that she does where her eyes get big and she makes an "O" shape with her mouth. Adorable. And when Eleanor is waking up she makes all sorts of funny faces. Here's a series of pictures Matt took during one of her waking-up sessions. Too funny!
-Her hiccups. When I was pregnant with Eleanor she got the hiccups quite often, and a lot of the time you could see my stomach move with the hiccups. She still gets pretty violent hiccups that shake her whole little body. If she's asleep or anywhere near it when she gets the hiccups, you can count on her waking up. And when she's awake with the hiccups her eyes get so big and sometimes her mouth makes this "O" shape, kind of like, "whoa, what are these?"
-Eleanor is starting to look toward us when we are talking while holding her. She's also starting to sort of look at a rattle and book that we have that are mostly black and white - the contrast is easy for her to see. It's fun to see her start responding and being interactive.
-Most of the time Eleanor likes her swing and bouncy seat. If she's awake when we're eating dinner she'll hang out in her bouncer on the floor next to the table and she just looks around with her eyes wide open.
-Eleanor loves sucking on her hands and fingers. LOVES it. When she's really upset it's almost a frantic thing. So as much as I hate it, we've started using the pacifier some to soothe her. I'd rather her not use a pacifier or suck on her thumb/fingers, but if I have to choose I'd rather the pacifier because at least I can take that away at some point. But we are still only using the pacifier as a last resort.
-Right now Eleanor is eating 2.5-3 ounces roughly every 3 hours. She'll usually get in a 4-5 hour stretch at night, which is great!
-Her "pirate eye." When Eleanor is waking up or going to sleep she does this thing where she opens only one eye at a time. It's cute.
-Her hands. Eleanor LOVES her hands. They are constantly on the move. And when Eleanor sleeps she likes to have her hands straight up in the air.
-Her noises. She makes the funniest noises, especially when she's sleeping and starting to wake up. Eleanor has one noise that sounds like an elephant, which is made even funnier when she lifts an arm straight up into the air when she does it :)
-Her faces. Oh, her faces. They are hilarious. She has this one that she does where her eyes get big and she makes an "O" shape with her mouth. Adorable. And when Eleanor is waking up she makes all sorts of funny faces. Here's a series of pictures Matt took during one of her waking-up sessions. Too funny!
-Her hiccups. When I was pregnant with Eleanor she got the hiccups quite often, and a lot of the time you could see my stomach move with the hiccups. She still gets pretty violent hiccups that shake her whole little body. If she's asleep or anywhere near it when she gets the hiccups, you can count on her waking up. And when she's awake with the hiccups her eyes get so big and sometimes her mouth makes this "O" shape, kind of like, "whoa, what are these?"
-Eleanor is starting to look toward us when we are talking while holding her. She's also starting to sort of look at a rattle and book that we have that are mostly black and white - the contrast is easy for her to see. It's fun to see her start responding and being interactive.
-Most of the time Eleanor likes her swing and bouncy seat. If she's awake when we're eating dinner she'll hang out in her bouncer on the floor next to the table and she just looks around with her eyes wide open.
-Eleanor loves sucking on her hands and fingers. LOVES it. When she's really upset it's almost a frantic thing. So as much as I hate it, we've started using the pacifier some to soothe her. I'd rather her not use a pacifier or suck on her thumb/fingers, but if I have to choose I'd rather the pacifier because at least I can take that away at some point. But we are still only using the pacifier as a last resort.
-Right now Eleanor is eating 2.5-3 ounces roughly every 3 hours. She'll usually get in a 4-5 hour stretch at night, which is great!
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