Happy 16th Birthday Catherine Therese!!

Although you'll never read this my sweet Catherine, I love you. 16 years ago you changed our life forever. All of your siblings have done this in their own way but you have done so in a very special way. You have made me more empathetic, compassionate, and much more prayerful. Your smile lights up the world around you and we are all blessed by it.  It's not easy living with a saint. You remind me of my weakness and limited time on this earth. You challenge me to go deeper within myself and find what the Lord is trying to teach me...usually patience. You are made in His image and likeness but He uses you so that I can see my own beauty, goodness, and shortcomings.  You struggle mightily against me with every bath, diaper change, and wardrobe change. I struggle mightily with Him against all the changes He wills in my life. You depend on me and your mom for even the simplest of things. You teach me to depend on Him for everything and not rely on my on strength. You teach me that I

Catherine Update



Here is a rare picture of Catherine without her eye patch...isn't she pretty? She still wears her patch for most of each day without too much complaint. We have an appointment with the eye doctor later in the month and we will find out if and when her eye surgery will be and hopefully she won't have to wear that patch too much longer. Catherine had a plethora of appointments this week and they were all in one day. It was a long day but she did great.

She had a renal (kidney) ultrasound to monitor her vesicoureteral reflux. I don't have any results yet but I don't expect anything major. She should grow out of this condition. She then saw the neonatology team (nurse practitioner, occupational therapist, physical therapist, and nutritionist). She weighs 14 # 5 oz. and is almost on the growth chart! So, they are allowing us one more breastfeeding during the day. Please pray for a greater milk supply so that we can continue to drop tube feedings and add breastfeedings. Developmentally Catherine is around 4 months old, so she continues to get physical, occupational, and speech therapies several times a month. The therapists are glad to see the progress she is making and she gets a workout everyday from us!

Lastly Catherine had a hearing test. It was a behavioral test to see her reaction to different sounds. The results were consistent with the previous behavioral test (moderate to severe mixed hearing loss in both ears). So she got fitted for hearing aids! I am actually excited about this because the sooner she gets hearing aids the better she will hear and the better her speech and language development will be. She is going next week to have a better hearing test done that will measure actual brain activity in response to sound. This will give them more information regarding her hearing. Catherine needs to stay asleep for this test, so hopefully she will cooperate. If not then she will have that test done later with sedation.

Thank you for all your continued prayers for our family! You all continue to remain in ours.

God Bless!

Comments

Barbara said…
If you're in Columbus for a long while -- give me a holler.
Nicole said…
Thanks Barbara! I'll remember that.