SO HOW'S SHE DOING WITH...

When I see people who read the blog, they often ask me about some of Lauren's most basic day to day struggles, so I thought I would give you an update.

It all started with her new reflux medicine and the doctor dangling the carrot of a full night of sleep... but that was just a carrot. Then one of my doctors told me that for my own health I should consider not breastfeeding anymore and that night was the end. Matt grumbled that his vacation days were spent sleep training (aka not sleeping) but since then Lauren has consistently slept through the night. Sometimes Lauren has bad dreams and then she'll need a cuddle before going back to sleep but that is nothing compared to getting up every 45 minutes to two hours with her like I was before. Exhausting!

Lauren typically goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00pm and she doesn't wake up until 8:30 or 9:00am the next day. She is not a morning person but that works just fine for me! Lauren's naps are a bit less predictable. She usually naps for two hours but it can be as short as 30 minutes or as long as three and a half hours. But I'm so not complaining! Being able to finally get nighttime sleep has helped with my depression, activity level and ability to function with both eyes open throughout the day.

Lauren has been signed up to see feeding specialists since last October, almost 9 months ago! Since then we have spent countless hours cleaning up vomit, doing laundry and wasting time and money at the grocery store trying to find food that she could keep down and put some weight on her bones. In the last month, it is like Lauren has flipped a switch and suddenly she can, and wants to, eat! 

A few months ago, all of her foods were purees and now she rarely eats purees. She self-feeds and is adding to her food selection daily. Today she ate proscuitto and pears for the first time. 

Of course, during this month of incredible progress she has finally gotten in to see the complex feeding team. When they ask me what the problem is, it is hard to find too much to complain about! I know that Lauren is still behind other kids her age for eating but it is hard not to be so impressed by her leaps lately. 

However, the best part of all might be that she hasn't puked in a month now! While I love that it cuts down on the laundry (though eating is pretty messy), I love even more that she doesn't have to go through that. And it only reinforced that eating was bad because that scary pain of puking would only happen when she was eating. It is so fun being able to eat with my little girl, to share our food and our time together.

The day after her first cardiac arrest the doctors pulled us into the back room and told us to prepare ourselves for cognitive issues due to oxygen deprivation. For a period of time after the hospital, Lauren was behind in everything. It was like life had continued but she had been put on pause. With her muscles becoming weak, she had to relearn a bunch of gross motor skills that she had previously mastered and that took most of her energy and focus. 

Since she has recently caught up on her gross motor skill and then her fine motor skills, she is now working on problem solving. Today she was tested and she is ahead of her age. No big deal, but my baby is kind of a genius (well, she was able to figure out how to get a small candy out of a bottle and stack some blocks a certain way). 

She is still behind on her speech, but that is coming along as well. Is it weird that her first "word" is "Wow!"? When I point to things or share discoveries with her I find that I will say what the thing is and then say, "Wow!" so she has started to copy that. Any time that something is new or she does something great, she says, "Wow!" It is so cute because she draws the word out and opens her eyes really big when she says it. 

Wow, Lauren, wow.  We are so proud of you!