Day 57 at Home- March 6, 2013

Avery met with the pediatric neurologist, Dr Neil Freidman, on Tuesday. He said that Avery looks really good. He didn't see anything wrong with her. She is delayed but doing everything that a 2-3 month old would do. (That is her corrected age.) He said that he would like to get another MRI to check her cerebellum but doesn't want to put her under anesthesia if we aren't seeing any symptoms of anything wrong. He said he will try to do it the same time as her cleft palate surgery since she will be under then.  He (as well as the cleft palate doctor) would like us to see genetics. He said just because we don't see anything wrong now doesn't mean there isn't anything wrong with her. We might not see it until later on like when she starts walking since the cerebellum deals with mobility. When Avery was first born, they did some general genetic bloodwork and it came back normal (no down syndrome, etc.). We are going to genetics in April and they might want to order some more testing.

On Wednesday we met with the nurse in pediatric surgery. Avery was scheduled to have her gtube changed. The nurse looked at her and decided her gtube is great right now and it doesn't need to be changed to a bigger size. She said she might not need a new one for two months. It wasn't necessarily a wasted trip because she did check the water in the balloon part of Avery's gtube and put new water in it. She showed us the procedure of changing out the gtube. I am glad she demonstrated it for us because now I am not nervous when she actually has to get it down. It is very simple. They remove the water from the balloon, which in turn deflates the balloon, and they just slide it out, put the new one in and then fill it with water. It seems simple enough.

Avery has been doing pretty well with bottle feeding. On Sunday she took 72ml from the bottle and Monday she took 65ml. This doesn't happen all the time but she definitely seems to be improving which we are excited about.

On Sunday I will be attending a Parents of Preemies Day event at University Hospital. It is sponsored by Graham's Foundation which provides care packages and support for parents in the NICU. I am contemplating bringing Avery. This would be her first fun outing, going to a place besides a doctor's office.

Daddy showing off my strawberry butt

I was such a good girl waiting for my appointment this week

There she goes again. Lily is trying to play with all my stuff

Hanging out with my buddy

 He puts up with me even when accidentally kick him or grab his fur.