Gift of Gab

Yesterday, I took Maggie back to Lankenau for her 9 month developmental follow up.

She is just below the 3% for her weight (corrected), and 10% for length and head circumference.

Maggie excelled in cognitive testing, and communication. She is at about a 7-8 month level. (She gets both from ME...)

She is lagging a bit in her motor development, and obviously with feedings. She is testing at about a 4.5-5 month level. Not terrible, but we don't want to continue to slide backwards.

I was happy to see Dahlia, the speech therapist that worked with Maggie in the NICU. She spent alot of time talking with me, catching up on Maggie's feeding issues. When I was finished, she said "So what's the plan?" And I said "There isn't one. They just keep telling me to keep doing what I'm doing. I feel like I'm doing alot of this on my own." And of course, this made me cry.

Dahlia suggested that we start dedicated speech therapy sessions once per week to address Maggie's feeding issues more aggressively. We already see Allie, Maggie's county Occupational Therapist once weekly, but Dahlia suggested that it might be better if we concentrate on Maggie's motor delays with Allie, and feeding issues with Speech Therapy.

So that will start hopefully next week. We are hoping insurance will pick up the cost. If Cigna doesn't, we think Medical Assistance should take care of it.

Maggie's been doing a little better with eating in the last 24 hours. Yesterday, during our visit with Allie (after our developmental follow up), Maggie ate a tablespoon of rice (mixed with a tablespoon of formula), a tablespoon of sweet potatoes, and a tablespoon of apple puree. She was wearing quite a bit of it, since we encourage her to play with her food. But I would say she ate about 3/4 of it. She was actively opening her mouth for more, seemed happy the whole time, and she sat in the high chair for an entire 30 mins! Afterwards, she took about an ounce of formula by bottle, and I gavage-fed the rest via tube. It reassured me, to say the very least.

This morning, she took about a tablespoon of oatmeal with a tablespoon of formula, and a tablespoon of apples. She ate pretty much the whole thing. She wasn't as active in her eating, I had to sing and make her laugh and smile and then I'd shove the spoon in her mouth. She swallowed, though, and didn't fight me too much. Afterwards, she didn't take anything by bottle, and so I put all five ounces through her tube. She had a moderate spit up towards the end, but I was able to give the last half ounce without a problem.

She's sleeping away in her swing now.

I know this will be a long, slow road. I try not to wish away her infancy, I want to enjoy her. Especially since I think she may be my only child. But it's hard not to think about her being 3 or 4, and hopefully being beyond these problems.

Maggie is big enough now to fit into some of her 6 month clothes! Her 3 month sleepers were getting to be too short! We just did a mountain of laundry, full of cute new outfits. She's such a fashionista!

Pictures, soon, I promise.

~Sara