Catherine Update!

Isn't she so smart? She doesn't care much about the animal sounds, but she keeps banging on those buttons until she gets to the music.

Catherine has been doing well lately, staying healthy except for a couple of colds. I usually dread Catherine's colds as much as I dread the others getting the flu because usually she and I don't sleep because she can't breathe out of her nose and she usually throws up quite a bit because she tends to swallow air. But since she has been on the erythromycin, I have seen great improvement in her reflux and vomitting episodes. The past two nights she has had a cold, but she has not thrown up once! She still throws up occasionally, but it is wonderful to have some night of no throwing up.

She had a couple of appointments this week, GI and genetics. Of course the GI doctor was pleased that the erythromycin is working and everyone is pleased with her weight gain. She now weighs almost 21 lbs. and is 28 inches long. She sees genetics once or twice a year just so they can keep tabs on her growth and development and to make sure she is seeing all the specialists she should be (are there any she isn't seeing?). She had her blood tested for Factor 8 which is important in blood clotting because she is missing a portion of one of her X chromosomes that is important in making Factor 8. Since she had no bleeding issues with any of her surgeries or any other symptoms of this disorder, it is unlikely that she is missing Factor 8, but we're checking anyway.

Catherine has been making great progress lately. She gets on her hands and knees quite a bit and is attempting to army crawl. It won't be long before she can get to a sitting position on her own. Because she has hypotonia (low muscle tone) she can also get into many other positions that seem impossible to do! She can do a really great split. She is doing a terrific job of keeping her hearing aids in and wearing her glasses. I hope this is because they help her see and hear the world around her better. She is becoming more vocal, not really making many more different sounds, just more babbling and louder too! In this video, she is initiating clapping her hands when I say pat a cake. She usually just claps her hands whenever she wants to but lately she has been learning that pat a cake is a game and that she is supposed to clap her hands when I say that. I am always amazed at what she is learning and how much she is developing!



I apologize if some of you find this gross, but tell me, who else do you know that has this kind of a skill? The boys are all jealous that their little sister can blow snot bubbles out of her nose. We are so proud!