Happy Five Months!

Rebekah is officially five months old today! Time seems to be flying by - it really doesn't feel like we headed to Charleston to begin this adventure five months ago.

As you know if you have been following the blog, Rebekah is still struggling to gain weight. This has been her biggest challenge so far. We have been seeing Rebekah's dietitian weekly for weight checks and adjustments to Rebekah's feeding plan. The frustrating thing is that we haven't seemed to be able to find the "magic" combination of feeding times and amounts to allow Rebekah to gain weight. In the last few days, Rebekah seems to be showing an intolerance to the formula that we are using to fortify her milk, so we are back to the drawing board to figure that out.

Developmentally, Rebekah is really making some good progress! Of course she is still not where the boys were at five months old, but we are really pleased to see how far she has come in the last month or so. Rebekah is holding her head up on her own almost all of the time now. She does tire easily, so we don't push her for long periods of time, but she is getting stronger all the time. We are currently working on teaching Rebekah to roll over. She is getting to be a pro if we help her by rolling her onto her side first. Then she can get right to her tummy or her back on her own. Rebekah is also working hard at playing with her toys - grasping toys in both hands, bringing toys to her mouth, and turning her head both directions to follow a toy or some other object. Our therapists have been great in helping us learn how to work with Rebekah on her developmental skills.

Mommy loves Rebekah's dimples!

Other than therapy this week, Rebekah has her weight check and an appointment with the infectious disease doctor. I'm not sure exactly what they will be looking for or testing, but they will be checking her immune system. I think it will involve labwork, so please pray that it will go smoothly!

We will update later in the week after Rebekah's doctor's appointments and let everyone know how things are going.

Nancy

Charleston

What a day! It was a long day, but Rebekah has her Mic-key button now. It was not without a little trouble, though. Her old tube seemed to be perfectly happy right where it was and had no desire to come out, so it was a little painful for Rebekah. The new button is in now, and it will be much nicer for Rebekah. After a couple of doses of Tylenol and some sleep on the way home, Rebekah seems to be feeling a little better.

Rebekah has occupational therapy in the morning, so we're off for hopefully a good night's sleep!

Nancy

Disappointing

I have to say that Rebekah's weight check today was disappointing. For the first time in her struggle to grow, she actually lost weight this week. Not much - just an ounce and a half, but still it's not the way we want to go. So our dietitian is tweaking Rebekah's feeding plan again. We will have another weight check next Tuesday. We (Rebekah's doctors and Drew and I) are really working hard to find the right combination of feeding amounts/times/frequency that works for Rebekah. Too little and she doesn't grow; too much and she becomes overfed and refuses to eat at all. This is a very difficult and very frustrating hurdle for us to get over right now. Please pray with us that Rebekah will be able to gain some weight this week.

Rebekah "talking" to her brothers!

On a brighter note, Rebekah's endocrinologist had nothing but good things to say about Rebekah today. He was so pleased with how she was doing that he didn't see a need for labwork today. Rebekah will be seeing an infectious disease doctor in the next few weeks to follow her immune system, so we will be able to check her calcium and vitamin D levels during the labwork that the infectious disease doctor will require. Rebekah didn't know enough to be happy about getting out of the labwork, but it sure made my day! She is a hard stick and the last blood draw we had was rather rough.

Tomorrow we are heading to Charleston to change Rebekah's tube for a Mic-key button. It should be a quick in-office procedure, so hopefully we will be back tomorrow evening. We will try to update tomorrow night and let everyone know how things went.

Nancy

Updated prayer requests

We seem to have found a break in the chaos here. I thought I would take some time to update the prayer requests for Rebekah and the family. We appreciate all of you who have faithfully prayed and followed along with us as Rebekah has joined our lives and begun her long journey. Please check out the updated side bar to the right for our current praises and prayer request.


D

Feeding......

Bekah is not responding well to the increased feeding. We are trying a totally new approach for her feeds for a week. We will let you know how it goes. Hopefully we can get this little girl figured out. I some how misplaced the manual on her.....

D