Emma Victoria: 3 Months

Happy 3 Months, Emma!

What a month we've had!  We have spent a lot of time at Dr. Dalton's office and Cook Children's downtown.  Emma has continued to have a deep cough, and after testing for RSV & whopping cough (both negative) and having a chest x-ray done (clear), Dr. Dalton referred us to a pulmonologist downtown. 

Through all our appointments, we've discovered...

• Emma has silent reflux.  On May 1, she had a sonogram at Cook Children's which showed that she was refluxing significantly--in just the 5 minutes that they monitored, she had five episodes.  Poor baby!  But, we had no idea since she never spits up.  Once we explained her symptoms to the pulmonologist, he said his initial thought was that she had silent reflux, and the sonogram showed that he was exactly right!
• Emma also aspirates, meaning a small amount of her milk goes into her airway and her lungs.  On May 9, we had a swallow study.  Basically, I fed her several bottles under moving x-ray with different levels of flow and different consistencies of milk to see how she swallows.  The only time she didn't aspirate was when she had thickened milk.  So, we now use a thickener in all her bottles to help her slow down her swallowing, which allows her to swallow correctly and not aspirate.   I was really sad to find out that she was aspirating--especially when the speech pathologist told us that she'd likely been doing it since birth.  We are so thankful that her worst symptom was a cough--even though it was a horrible cough, she could have been so much more sick.  And, Emma is doing great on the thickener--so great that she gained 10 ounces in just the last week on it!  (Good-bye, newborn clothes!) 

Because of these things, Emma now sleeps on a slinged wedge.

But, I don't really think she minds at all, because this is the smile I see each morning!

Emma has been sleeping in her own room for the past 2 weeks.  She seemed so little to move out of her room, but then I remembered that we moved Isaac into his own room when he was only 6 weeks.  As of this week, Emma has dropped her late night feeding, so now we do her last feeding around 8 p.m.  It seems so surreal that both Emma and Isaac go to bed at the same time!  She usually wakes up around 6:45 or 7, which gives us a good hour of "girl time" before Isaac wakes up at 8.  :)

Emma also had an EEG on May 15 due to some random, scary movements she had several days previous.  As soon as I told Dr. Dalton about them, he knew exactly what I was describing and said that they can indicate a type of seizure that can be very serious.  Poor Dr. Dalton--he must think I'm the most weepy mom alive!  It just completely caught me off guard to hear that my baby girl had to have an EEG.  Thankfully, David was able to go with me.  It definitely wasn't fun to see Emma like this, and I only took this photo to remember everything God carried us through this month... 

...but we are **so thankful** that Emma's EEG came back perfectly normal! 

Thank you, Jesus, for this healthy, happy baby girl!

A few more pictures from this month...

This is my favorite way to "carry" Emma--I love having Emma so close in my Moby wrap! 
My friend Shari took this picture of Emma & me with Amber and her little girl Liv at BSF.  :)

Isaac loves to "show" Emma how her toys work.  :)

And, we've been doing lots of tummy time this month!

I wish you could hear the squeals and coos that this sweet girl is making all the time now...she's such a delight!

Emma Victoria, we love you!