Addison's 4 month check-up

Addison had her 4 month check up today with Dr. Machen. She weighed 13 pounds 8 ounces. (She weighed 13lbs 5oz Tuesday but she had a full diaper today.lol) She's 24 inches long and in the 49th percentile in her weight and length and 10th percentile in her head size. He said she has a pea head. :) Neurologically he said she's doing perfect and all around she's "fab-u-lous." He kept on and on commenting on how good she was doing. She kept blowing bubbles at him and grabbing for his stethoscope. She even let him put the tongue depressor in her mouth and didn't get mad. As soon as she finishes what Neocate (preemie formula) she has left then we will be going to Similac Alimentum. Then when she finishes what he gave us, we're to start regular Similac. He said she's ok on eating baby food and cereal and whatever else she wants basically. He's hoping they take the G-tube out soon too. He was surprised she still had it with how well she's been doing. Then of course he had to drop in there that she looks just like her daddy. (What am I chopped liver?!? LOL) He tried to sit her up to see how she's doing with that and he laughed because she didn't want to sit up, she wanted to stand up completely. He asked her if she thought she was older than 4 months or something. LOL That's my girl (or Daddy's girl, so he thinks.) Then the nurse came in with the shots. She had 2 shots and then had 2 medicines by mouth. I stuck the pacy in her mouth the minute the first shot went in and she didn't even make a noise. Then when the second shot went in she made a face with her eye brows and then she quit. She didn't get fussy or anything. I'm so proud! :)Needless to say I'm really excited that she's doing so much better. Now to get the g-tube out and start turning over again and crawling. Yay!

Waiting on Dr. Machen

Addison and her ring. She loves these. We had to show the doctor she can hold onto things and put them in her mouth. She definately knows how to do that.

After her shots, ready to go home.

GI appointment 8/24/2010

We took Addison to see Dr. Al-Tawil today. She weighed 13 pounds 5 ounces. Big difference from her 10 pounds 13 ounces that they said she weighed about a month ago. The reason we took her in today is because she's been starting to have choking episodes again and spit up a few times yesterday after she would eat. Here's what they said: her stomach is 3/4 the size that it should be since she's had the surgery done. When she over eats that's what will cause her to spit up. So basically he's saying that she's overeating. lol But last month he was telling us that she was doing good and to let her eat as much as she will. (I'm rolling my eyes right now.)Which I was starting to have a feeling that she's eating too much because she's waking up a lot at night but all the doctors were saying that's ok for now so I didn't think anything about it. So now we have to write down what all she's eating and take it back in a week and let them see if that's the case. She's getting little fat legs and starting to get a belly but everyone still says that she's so little but then they turn around and call her a "chunky monkey." Good grief. Will everyone make their minds up. :)

8/19/2010 Dr Fowler appointment

Dr. Fowler is Addison's surgeon (which I love.) She doesn't have much of a personality but she's really good at what she does and she's actually grown on me. We went in yesterday hoping to get her g-tube taken out but it didn't happen. Dr. Fowler came in and automatically said she had gained some weight just from looking at her and she seemed very happy. She even asked if she was always that happy. She was smiling and squealing when Dr. Fowler came in and even lets her mess around and look at her belly and still continues to laugh. Even tho Addison is eating completely by mouth (formula, cereal, and baby food) and burping on her own some now, she wants to keep the g-tube in one more month just to make sure. Dr Fowler said that she usually keeps them in a minimum of 3 months just to make sure so they don't need to go back in and put another g-tube in if she ended up needing it. So we have the tube in still for another month. Oh well. I was a little upset and almost started crying but I'm just glad that she's healthy and doing so much better. She loves eating baby food with cereal now. So far she's eaten apple sauce, bananas, peaches, and sweet potatoes. She loves all of them so far and gets so excited and thinks it's funny to spit her food out. Oh and they didn't weigh her yesterday so I don't have a current weight yet.

I bought her a Bumbo seat last week. Best thing since sliced bread!!! She loves the seat. She will sit in it and watch tv, play, and it's really easy to sit her in it to feed her. I've even brought her to work a few times and sat her in her seat on my desk and she just sits there and talks to everyone and watches the computer screen. It's awesome!

Here's Eli getting his hair cut before school started. The mohawk had to go.

Jacob and Addison. They're such hams. :)

Addison loves watching tv. Cartoons, movies, whatever. But she's starting to take after her cousins and getting into Mickeys Clubhouse.

Addison at 3 months old

Addison says "Thank you Ben for the Bumbo seat." Ben says "What are you doing in my chair woman." lol

Update on Addison

Addison turned 3 months on July 20th. On July 26th we took her to the pediatrician to get a weight check and they said she now weighs 10 pounds even. But then the following day we took her for a GI check-up and they said she weighs 10 pounds 13 ounces. So someone's scale is wrong and we're not really sure how much she weighs right now. :( The important part is she's gaining weight now. The GI doctor said that he's happy with her gaining weight and eating everything by mouth now so he estimates that we can have the g-tube removed in about a month. Yay! She's eating by mouth and she's even burping some on her own as well so he said "I'm proud!" (He's foreign so that came out funnier when I say it. lol) She's still on the Neocate formula for preemies and I've started her on cereal, applesauce, and even gave her some bananas yesterday. She loves all of it so far.



This is when I put her 1st pair of shoes on. She's looking at them like "what is that on my foot!" I thought it was too cute. :)


Jacob has been such a little helper thru all of this. He enjoys picking her clothes out and now that she has her first pair of shoes, he likes to put her shoes on her. He will even use her tube to burp her sometimes and likes to feed her. The boys think it's hilarious to watch her formula come up the tube when we use it. Eli still isn't too comfortable holding her so he usually doesn't pay her much attention but I do catch him talking to her and playing with her someimes. He's just still a little shy about touching her and gets ansy when she starts to cry. They fight over who gets to sit next to her in the car but as soon as she starts crying, Eli is the first one to move over and let Jacob help her while I'm driving. I want to thank everyone for all the prayers and thoughts for her thru all of this. It's been a long and emotional time but she's made it thru it (and so have I and Josh) and no one got hurt. LOL :)



We've also taken Addison to her first time at the lake and first time swimming in a pool. She loves it even tho the picture I have on here she looks pitiful. I just took that one because I thought it was cute. The others look much better. :)

This was her 1st time in the lake up in Roane County.

This was one of the 1st times in the pool. Maybe the time after I stuck her under water. :/ lol

This is just a random bath time picture I took. She loves the bath and she didn't know what to think of rubber duckie.

Addison's hospital visits

So we've spent a total of 3 1/2 weeks in the hospital with Addison. She's now had a head and abdomen ultrasound, upper GI test, modified barium swallow, NJ tube placed (and removed), sweat test, and a ph probe test done. She got admitted to the hospital the first time by her pediatrician. They sent us home after she gained a few ounces. When we went back to the pediatrician, she had lost again so he sent us to a GI doctor. As soon as he saw Addison he said that she was malnourished so sent us to the hospital to have an NJ tube placed. When we got to the hospital the doctor on call decided not to do that and sent us home a few days later after gaining 1 ounce (no joke.) 2 days later we had a recheck appointment with the GI doctor and he was upset they didn't place the NJ tube so we went back to the hospital. This is when they finally did the NJ tube and ended up doing a fundoplication, g-tube placement, and a pyloriplasty all in the same visit. So she's been out of the hospital for 2 weeks now and has only gained 5 ounces. They're still worried about her weight and we're going for weight check and GI appointments and also starting on a feeding pump at night starting tonight. We go back in 2 weeks to see if this has helped and find out what to do next. Secretly, I'm starting her on cereal to help. LOL. Here are some pictures from the hospital:

I think these 2 are during her first visit when they didn't do anything to her.


This is the NJ tube. It bypasses her esophagus so food can go straight to her stomach. This was to see if her refluxing in her esophagus was what was causing the problem.

This was after the G-tube was finally placed with her poor little IV in her hand.

All wrapped up like a burrito. :)

That's a picture of her G-tube. While we were in the hospital she never acted like none of this was bothering her. She did awesome!

Jacob and Eli came to see her in the hospital. Jacob missed her. He was worried about her and kept asking if she was ok.


This one is when she had the IV in her head...which we were not fond of. :(

ER and hospital visit

So on June 1st we took Addison to the ER. I got home with her and she started crying and fussing until she started choking and spitting formula out of her nose and mouth and gasping for air. The doctor in the ER said that she had reflux and that we needed to follow up with her Pediatrian. We already had an appointment scheduled for the following Thursday. In the hospital she was weighing 7lbs 11oz (she was 8lbs 3oz at birth.) So when we went to the Pediatrican on Thursday he recommended that we go to the hospital to find out why she's losing weight. She started at 8lbs 3oz then went to 8lbs 1oz, then 7lbs 11oz, so off to Children's we went. On the way there my cell phone breaks and the clip on my transmission line falls off...just to make things worse. While we're at the hospital we see 2 different doctors and do a upper GI barium swallow test and an echo since they found that she has a slight heart murmur. Everything came out fine and normal and she started gaining a little bit of weight so they sent her home. We're still not sure why she had been losing weight and she all the sudden went from having constipation to diarrhea (yeah I know, too much info.) So we got discharged home and went into Dr. Machen's office again the following Monday (after staying 2 night in the hospital.) Dr. Machen ordered a sweat chloride test which checks for cystic fibrosis on Thursday so that's our next step. Since we've been out of the hospital she has had 2 more of her choking episodes. Once while she was screaming and once while just laying on the couch having her diaper changed. Apparently the most important thing to the doctors was to get her weight under control. So for right now...mission accomplished. :) Here's some pics of her in the hospital.
Sleeping in the hospital with daddy.

Having an Echo done. And actually sleeping thru it!

Staying in the hospital

Smiling even in the hospital. Plus, 1st picture of her smiling. :)

1 month check up and new brother & sister

Addison had her one month check up Monday. She had lost down to 7lbs and 14oz and she's 22 inches long. So she grew taller but she's losing weight and Dr. Machen wants to figure out why so we go back in 3 days. (Honestly, how much weight can she gain in 3 whole days.) Anyways. She's been sleeping thru the night (like 7 and 8 hours if I'll let her) and she's been spitting up a little which I think is the formula that WIC gave us. She didn't do this on the sensitive stomach formula. So we switched back to the sensitive to see if that's what's causing it. She had her 2nd Hepatitis shot and actually only cried for a second or two until Josh gave her her pacifier. I refused to hold her while she was getting the shot. :) When I told the doctor that she likes to sleep on her stomach and sleep all night, he said that she can't sleep on her stomach and I needed to wake her up to eat. Yeah right! Wake a sleeping baby AND make her mad by putting her on her back. Yeah ok. So that night...she slept on her stomach and slept for 6 hours. :) Other than all of that he said she was neurologically doing good. Very alert and had good color so over all she's good.

I went back to work on Monday but only took a half day to go to her doctor's appointment. Yesterday was my 1st full day back to work and I was proud...I only cried once. lol Josh keeps Addison while I'm working. I'm glad because that gives him and his mom time to spend with her and now that we've introduced them to her brother and sister that gives them time to bond with her too since the boys have already had a month with her.

Which leads to the new brother and sister. On Sunday Josh explained to the kids about Addison and I brought Addison to meet them. I'm sure it was a little confusing but since they're so little they were just excited about the idea of a baby. I'm sure all of us will be getting questions asked in the future and we will just have to take them all one step at a time but for right now they are doing really well with her. Once the newness wears off like it did with the boys then it'll be easy to get to some kind of normal with everybody. Right now everybody of course wants to hold her and play with her and always be touching but I know that will die down so I just let all the kids (all 4!) help and do as much as they want to so none of them feel left out. Jacob of course likes carrying her around and actually does really good with her and is a HUGE help so I let him do as much as he wants so he doesn't get jealous. I think of the 4 of them, he will be the one to be protective since he's the oldest. I did get asked by one of them "if she's my sister, and she's his sister, then does that make us brothers?" I'm still trying to figure out how to explain that one to them. Luckily the short attention spans helps out a lot.

Made Daddy hold her while she got her shot. :)

1 month checkup pic...yeah bad pic I know :(

Better 1 month picture at the waterpark sleeping.