I guess I am overdue for an update on Catherine! I had planned to take a picture of her and post it with this, but I didn't want to wait any longer. I will post a picture soon!
Catherine has been sick these past few days with a bit of a cold. A few of her brothers have it too and it doesn't seem to bother them very much. But with Catherine it was a long couple of nights. If she can't breathe through her nose, and I don't think she realizes that she can breathe through her mouth (how long are babies obligate nose breathers?), so she starts swallowing air and then she throws up. So I was up most of the past two nights trying to remedy this with a bulb syringe and saline drops, and she fighting me every step of the way. You would think she would get used to the bulb syringe by now and realize that it helps her breathe better. Last night was a lot better than the previous one, so it looks like she is well on her way to recovery!
Catherine has been doing great things physical therapy-wise. She is rolling all over the floor and she is spending much more time (voluntarily) on her belly. Tummy time is good because it helps her develop better head control and it develops the muscles in her arms. She is even pulling herself forward a little on her arms to try to reach toys. She will get on her knees while on her belly and rock a little. I can put her on her hands and knees and she will hold that for a few seconds. She is doing great sitting all by herself too! She can do this for minutes at a time before she falls backwards. Oh yes, and now she is bearing weight on her legs. In her exersaucer she straightens her legs and bounces on them and if I hold her upright she will straighten her legs and bear weight on them. A month ago she was not doing this at all! She is becoming much more animated when we talk to her. Mostly she just gets excited and giggles and kicks her legs a lot! It's cute.
Monday she got a new piece of equipment to help her develop more strength in her upper body. It's called
Theratogs. It's a vest with a hip component that's made out of some special material that was developed by NASA. It's soft and stretchy but it provides some compression. Hopefully it will give her some support that will help her with rolling, sitting, crawling, and eventually standing. I meant to get a picture of her in it, but the therapist said not to put it on her if she gets a cold (which she got that evening).
Feeding wise she is doing ok. The new formula is helping her not to throw up so much volume wise, but she still throws up 1-3 times a night. I am still working on tweaking her feeding schedule to minimize this. She had a swallow study done a few weeks ago to see if she was aspirating while eating and drinking and it showed that she is not. So we will continue to offer her solids and liquids hoping that one day she will catch on!
Thank you for all your prayers, please keep them up! We will pray for you.
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