It was teeth!

Elaina-bug is pointing at......
Her new tooth!! That's right! On the top. In fact, she's cut 2 teeth since I last posted. That brings her total number of chompers up to 3. Two on the bottom and now one on the top. She's still got a little bit of a runny nose and a pretty icky cough, but I'm really blaming it all on teething. Who knows, maybe the other top tooth will decide it wants to make an appearance soon!

Other than some teething grouchies (that's to be expected), Elaina has been doing great! There was some confusion with the nurses on how to administer her feedings, but it finally got worked out and Elaina seems to be tolerating them very well. We went to the GI doctor on Wednesday. He pulled the long tube out and replaced it with a nice mickey button. It's so much nicer to hook her up to for feedings! He said that things looked great and we only needed to come back and see him if she started having problems! Yay Elaina!!!

After we got back from our appointment with GI at Primary Children's, we were able to meet with Early Intervention. Elaina meets with Carole a few times a month for physical, occupational, etc. therapies. When Carole comes in, she also works with the staff to teach them what to do with Elaina so that Elaina is having some type of therapy daily from the nurses, respiratory or Mom! This visit was also our 6 month review. I can't believe that Elaina has been at South Davis for 6 months, holy cow! When we had our evaluation 6 months ago, Carole determined that Elaina was developmentally about 4 months along. This was in all her areas of development. When we evaluated her this time, here's what we came up with:
Gross Motor 4 months old (still)
Fine Motor 9 months old
Cognitive 7 months old
Language 6 months old
Self Help 12 months old
Social/Emotional 7 months old

That all averages up to be about 7 1/2 months old. Very good progress, considering that she's only been without her no-no's for 2 months! Carole gave me some good ideas for "play" time and wants us to start learning some sign language. Elaina doesn't use her voice very much, and when she does it is SUPER quiet. We think that her vocal cords sustained some damage from all the intubations, etc. She is making some coo's and grunts, and I finally heard her giggle the other day, but her language skills are pretty far behind. As of right now, we don't have any appointments up at Primary Children's until the end of May when we have a Cardiology follow up. I'm kind of excited (and scared at the same time) for this appointment. I feel like she's doing so well, but I'm worried to find out otherwise. Oh well, it's too far away to start stressing out now, all I can do is continue to pray that Elaina will get stronger with each passing day. Her saturations have been wonderful. She 's almost always in the 80's (unless her naughty fingers have pulled the canula off!), and she even set her alarm off when I was holding her yesterday because she was at 92! The alarm sounded on and off for about half an hour and then her respiratory therapist decided to change the parameters so that it would stop alarming!

Anyway, that's what happened in our world this past week. Ben is doing great. No more seizures that I've been aware of. He is very anxious for some warm weather. He's an outside kind of boy, and winter makes him very restless. He's got some severe spring fever! I've started my house hunt again in Bountiful. I'm hoping to find something that I can move into by the beginning of June. School is out at the end of May, and I'm pretty wishy washy about transferring Ben to a new school this close to the end of the school year. Part of me wants him to stay in the same school, with the same teacher and friends, but part of me thinks that he'd make new friends quite easily in a new school, even if it is at the end of the year. I guess I'll just have to see what happens and have faith that things will work out the right way.

On a sad note, I learned today that Dr. Hawkins, Elaina's heart surgeon was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given 3 months to live. He has resigned his post as Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery. I will be forever grateful for his abilities and his dedication. He has touched many families and saved many lives. Please keep him and his family in your prayers during this difficult time.

Well, I'm heading to bed now. My eyes don't want to stay open much longer. Thanks for checking in on us!
Hugs,
Hollie, Ben and Elaina