Friday night update

Sophie in for a weight check today and was 15lb 14oz. This is fantastic. She has gained 1.5lbs in just over two weeks! (for perspective, she was 13lb2oz way back in September until end of October, then only gained a little over a pound the 2mos after her surgery--so this much this fast is huge for her) When we saw the dr the week before xmas, he wanted her to come in and get weighed every two weeks. Well, after the first two weeks, she didn't gain anything over the holidays. Turns out that the coconut oil didn't sit too well with her in larger amounts and she started spitting up a lot more after the visit with him. This may also have been due to dropping the antacid medication. However, she finally seems to be on track.

The real difference (I believe) is that we finally figured out a way to stop feeding the bed at nights. Sophie is still getting her nutrition via feeding tube, even though her spoon feeding is progressing. She gets half of her calories overnight while she is sleeping. Except the tube would pop out all the time. So then there's formula all over her pajamas, the bedcover, etc. Oh yeah, and it almost always would wake her up because you had to change her clothes and wipe her off with a wet washcloth. This would happen almost every night, and sometimes 2 or 3 times a night, despite our various efforts at safety pinning the tube and taping it to her tummy (which irritated her skin). And sometimes she would cry to let you know it had come out and she was getting wet, but most times not. So we had no idea how much food she actually got and how much the bed got. For a couple nights, we resorted to getting up every 2 hours to check on her, but realized that just wasn't realistic.

So we got desperate and we tried using little tiny rubber bands to hold the tube in, which worked better, but still not great. And then, finally, we hit upon a new tape solution that has worked every night for a week now. We are so excited about this. And apparently it's paying off with weight gain. We're hoping she'll continue this pace so she can catch up and stop wearing 6mo clothes!


In other news, Sophie is now a pretty good "creeper" along the edge of couches, end tables, whatever she pulls up on. And she's starting to imitate stuff. She'll try to put something back in a cup if she sees you do it, or she's started sticking suction cup toys back on the mirror instead of just pulling them off when you put them there. And I think today she really figured out peekaboo. She started putting the blanket back in front of her face and waiting for someone to ask where she was, then she'd pull it back down and smile. We also think we witnessed our first little tantrum after dinner the other night. I put her in my lap, but she was trying to grab my fork, so I put her back on the floor, but she stood back up by my leg and cried. So I picked her up again, but she was still grabby, so I set her back down. She stood up again and cried, but I didn't pick her up. Then she started patting my leg with her hand and having a little hissy fit. She didn't get much sympathy, though. Stephanie and I thought it was so cute that we couldn't help laughing at her.