Happy Monday, everyone! I hope everyone had a good weekend. Ours was busy, but good. Claire hung out with her Gigi and Papa (my parents) on Friday night while Bo and I played kickball, and then Bo, Claire, and I spent the majority of Saturday catching up on work.
Claire also got to spend some time with her Uncle Chris and Aunt Kati this weekend:
As you can tell, our little Bear is getting bigger and bigger every day! She is now solidly in her 3 months clothes, and enjoys playing on her playmat, and sitting in her bouncy chair and Bumbo:
Finally, I don't have any pictures, but Claire started daycare on August 26th, and she has done really well with the transition. Bo and I really like the ladies taking care of her, and her BFF (Carter Anne, the daughter of our close friends, the Brammers) also goes there, so it is a good fit. Although we loved having Claire stay home with either my mom or Bo's mom, we knew it couldn't continue forever, and we were lucky to get a spot in the daycare when we did (there are 17 other babies on the waiting list!).
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Okay, I know the title of this post is "Surgical Update," and I have talked about anything but, so here goes:
Today was another appointment with Dr. F. He is still impressed with her "O," and has given us the go-ahead to increase the pressure of her compression wrapping to further things along since we seemed to have reached a plateau. Her wrap now consists of the following steps: (1) a wad of gauze (about the size of a golf ball) is placed on top of her "O" and used to press it entirely inside her abdomen. (2) Claire's abdomen is then wrapped in Kerlix to provide a little extra cushioning (although Dr. F. said that we could skip this step if we wanted). (3) Her abdomen is then tightly wrapped with the ACE bandage to keep everything in place.
Claire appears to be tolerating the new wrap (well, at least for the 2 hours it has been on). I dropped her off at daycare after the appointment and told the ladies about the new wrap so they can let me know if she acts extra fussy or spits up more than usual.
Our next appointment with Dr. F. is October 9th, but it is not just a standard appointment. Instead, it is her pre-op appointment when we will be scheduling the date for her surgery. Dr. F. said that it could take place as early as the end of October, although I am all for pushing it out into November! While I am excited that Claire will be having her closure surgery before the end of the year (especially given that, before she was born, we didn't know if she would even be out of the NICU by then), I am nervous all the same, even though I know Claire will be in the wonderful care of Dr. F. and the rest of the amazing CHKD staff. I am probably not doing a very good job of explaining how I feel, but suffice to say that all my fears are pushed aside whenever I look at this precious face:
Okay, back to the invoices! I hope everyone has a great week! Claire has her 4-month pediatric appointment on the 16th, so I will try to post a quick update then!
(Wow ... that was a lot of exclamation points. Sorry.)
~~ Val
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| What?? It's hard work looking this cute. |
As you can tell, our little Bear is getting bigger and bigger every day! She is now solidly in her 3 months clothes, and enjoys playing on her playmat, and sitting in her bouncy chair and Bumbo:
Finally, I don't have any pictures, but Claire started daycare on August 26th, and she has done really well with the transition. Bo and I really like the ladies taking care of her, and her BFF (Carter Anne, the daughter of our close friends, the Brammers) also goes there, so it is a good fit. Although we loved having Claire stay home with either my mom or Bo's mom, we knew it couldn't continue forever, and we were lucky to get a spot in the daycare when we did (there are 17 other babies on the waiting list!).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Okay, I know the title of this post is "Surgical Update," and I have talked about anything but, so here goes:
Today was another appointment with Dr. F. He is still impressed with her "O," and has given us the go-ahead to increase the pressure of her compression wrapping to further things along since we seemed to have reached a plateau. Her wrap now consists of the following steps: (1) a wad of gauze (about the size of a golf ball) is placed on top of her "O" and used to press it entirely inside her abdomen. (2) Claire's abdomen is then wrapped in Kerlix to provide a little extra cushioning (although Dr. F. said that we could skip this step if we wanted). (3) Her abdomen is then tightly wrapped with the ACE bandage to keep everything in place.
Claire appears to be tolerating the new wrap (well, at least for the 2 hours it has been on). I dropped her off at daycare after the appointment and told the ladies about the new wrap so they can let me know if she acts extra fussy or spits up more than usual.
Our next appointment with Dr. F. is October 9th, but it is not just a standard appointment. Instead, it is her pre-op appointment when we will be scheduling the date for her surgery. Dr. F. said that it could take place as early as the end of October, although I am all for pushing it out into November! While I am excited that Claire will be having her closure surgery before the end of the year (especially given that, before she was born, we didn't know if she would even be out of the NICU by then), I am nervous all the same, even though I know Claire will be in the wonderful care of Dr. F. and the rest of the amazing CHKD staff. I am probably not doing a very good job of explaining how I feel, but suffice to say that all my fears are pushed aside whenever I look at this precious face:
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| Claire's new favorite toy |
(Wow ... that was a lot of exclamation points. Sorry.)
~~ Val
