Miss O

Little Miss saw the pediatrician today & her occupational therapist.

She had a good day!  The occupational therapist feels that she's doing everything right on target for a one month old.  She does not have any concerns for Miss Ollie right now!  I was excited!  I thought she seemed relatively strong (babies with DS tend to have lower muscle tone & feel some what "floppy").  Her head control is really good.  She can pick it up and turn it.  I think her weakest area is her legs, but we do some exercises to work on that.  I am really proud of her - she's already meeting the goals!  Most likely based on how well she's doing right now, they will not start therapy yet but re-evaluate her at 6 months of age.  I'm happy about this - I want to save every single ounce of energy she has to her chubbing up for surgery.  Our primary goal is to fix her heart, then we can make sure she's working on all her developmental goals and tackling them.

At the pediatrician she weighted 8 pounds 5 ounces.  She only gained 3 ounces since last week when she was in St. Louis.  The doctor & I were a bit disappointed with this so he has me adding a specific amount of preemie formula to her breast milk bottles to ramp up the calorie intake.  Breast milk has 20 calories in 3 ounces and this addition bumps it to 24.  It's amazing that a mere 4 extra ounces a feeding can make a huge difference, but he said it will.  Other than this, he was also pleased with her.  He thinks she's looking great & he also mentioned he thinks she's relatively strong with her muscle tone.  She has those good Fox family muscle genes in her!  She also received her second RSV vaccination after a battle with insurance.  My pediatrician threatened to contact the lawyer to get her approved - and voila - she was approved!  I heart that man!  It was terrible though, she hardly ever cries and when she does she sounds like a kitten.  Today she screamed so hard she was shaking - hated.every.second.of.it.

When I went to St. Louis they gave me a Down Syndrome growth chart.  I'm very glad they did.  Children with DS tend to be much smaller than their peers.  Ollie on a typical growth chart is only 20% in her weight (she was 62% 2 weeks ago) and 40% on her height (she was 85%).  On a DS growth chart her weight is really about 60% and her height is about 55%.  This is a huge help to know that she really is right on track, even though she is growing a bit slower than typical babies.  She's nearly 5 weeks old and still wearing newborn clothing!  I can't believe it because even though Aubrie and Everett were tall and skinny babies, they were in 0-3 months by now.  She is going to be a wee thing for quite awhile I am guessing!

Overall she's doing great.  We are thrilled with her!  Aunt Maggie showed us how to style her with bows.  She's rocking that look, especially after I picked up some more bows today.  She's a beauty!