Wow Five Months

Baby girl is FIVE MONTHS OLD!  I can't believe it!  She is doing really, really well!  She is "talking" and laughing and smiling.  My heart is full!  She also discovered she likes blowing bubbles, and she is experimenting with the volume of her voice.  It is so funny!  She is the best baby!  She still loves her swing!  She also discovered recently that she loves playing with my hair when I hold her.  It is sooo sweet and melts my heart!  We pretty much go anywhere and everywhere, and she is really good unless she is hungry or sleepy.  The only thing she really doesn't like is lotion after her bath.  Well, that and therapy on some days.  :)

She is a growing girl!  I posted her four month stats in a previous post, but she is 50-75%tile in weight and 50%tile in length.  Of course, her head circumference is <5%tile, but she has microcephaly, so that wasn't surprising.  We go back in about a month for 6 month immunizations.

Grace is wearing size 3 diapers most of the time.  She is in size 6-9 month clothes.  Her eating schedule is being disrupted because we are introducing solid food!  So, as far as formula goes, she is eating anywhere from 4 to 7 ounces every 4-ish hours during the day.  We were adding rice cereal to her morning and night bottles, but she is now eating one serving of cereal via spoon!  She likes oatmeal better than rice, and I recently added a little apple baby food in with her cereal.  She is a good eater!  She is also a great sleeper!  She goes to bed usually around 10 pm and doesn't wake up until we wake her up 99% of the time.  We usually wake her up around 6:30-7 am.

All of her doctors are really pleased with how well she is doing!  The most recent big news we have gotten was from her opthamology appointment.  Dr. M said she can see!  I thought she could see, but I needed an opthamologist to confirm it!  I knew she had some vision problems, because she can't always focus, and she rarely follows anything.  Dr. M said that she does have vision delays, and she probably either has delayed visual maturation or cortical visual impairment.  There is no treatment.  The delays may or may not correct on their own, but we will just have to wait and see.  Dr. M said he was optimistic.  I guess we are getting good at that (maybe?).  ha!  We know God will continue to carry us through the wait and see, just as He has done for the past 10 months. 

Grace is doing really well with her therapy.  I guess we are finished with speech therapy.  We are continuing physical therapy every 2 weeks.  Grace continues to amaze us with her improvements in her motor skills and in her tone. 

We will have another round of doctor's appointments in September, including 6 month immunizations, follow up with her neurosurgeon, and follow up with her palliative care doctor.

So how can you pray for our sweet girl??  Well, pray that she continues to improve with therapy, that her vision continues to improve, that her shunt remains infection-free, that a replacement PT will be found while hers is on maternity leave, and that our next round of doctor's appointments goes well.  Thank you so much for loving and praying for her!  We are blessed!

Below is her 5 month picture.  Notice the blurry arms and legs??  That's because she was excited and moving them!  She is my heart!