Turning the Corner

Well, I know we promised to update everyone on a more regular basis, but here we are weeks after the last blog post. Our lives have been extremely hectic since we brought Viv home, but it seems like things are calming down a bit. Hopefully that will allow us more time to focus on the blog.

Viv is now 3 months old and is finally starting to have more good days than bad. She cries and fusses less and is generally a happy baby.

Obviously we are thrilled about this development. It has been an exhausting month for all three of us, but it truly seems like the worst is over. Viv is very content in her new environment and is changing everyday. She loves giving us big toothless grins and lets out adorable coos. She has discovered her hands and has starting gripping things. She even holds her pacifier in her mouth and like to put her hands on the bottle during feeds.

We had a check-up at CHOP two weeks ago, and everyone is very pleased with her progress. Her growth is good - she's up to 10 pounds 11 ounces and 23 inches long as of yesterday - and she continues to improve with her feeds, though she is still largely reliant on the tube. The doctors have been fiddling with her medication to help improve her reflux, and it seems like those adjustments coupled with age are helping. Her bottle feeding skills have improved and she's doubled her intake over the past few weeks. She now takes about an ounce at a time, meaning 1/3 of her intake is coming from the bottle. Her ability will continue to improve as she grows. The doctors at CHOP said that generally half of the CDH tube-fed babies are off the tube by six months and the rest are usually off by 12 months (a few need the tube longer than that, but we're hopeful that won't be the case in our situation).

One final bit of news has to do with Viv's care. We have hired an au pair through an agency. Her name is Kayla and she is from South Africa. Kayla will live with us and take care of Viv while we are at work for the next year. She arrives in July, and we're looking forward to introducing her to life in the United States.

We also want to say thank you to everyone who has called, texted, emailed, and sent gifts (we're working on thank you notes!). As always your support means so much to us, and we are very grateful.

Settling In

It's been a crazy few weeks, but overall we're happy to report that Vivienne is doing great! She's putting on weight (up to 9 pounds, 5.2 ounces and 22 inches long at our last pediatrician appointment - a gain of 11 ounces in one week!), sleeping through the night except for when we wake her up for feeds, and settling into her new home. We've had two pediatrician appointments since we got back and several in-home visits from a nurse and in every instance she has been pronounced healthy.


Bringing her hands together...so advanced!!



Allison and I are doing pretty well now but the first week after we got back was rough. Viv was throwing epic fits starting in the afternoon and continuing off and on until around 9pm. Complicating matters, I had two overnight out-of-town trips in the first seven days we were home from the hospital. When I scheduled them I assumed we'd still be in Philadelphia and that my absence wouldn't be felt that much. As it turned out, the nights I was gone were probably Viv's worst.

The good news is that Viv seems to have turned a corner. She's been a little moody later in the day but hasn't had an inconsolable meltdown for over a week now. We aren't sure if the issues she was having were related to colic, morphine withdrawal, not being comfortable at home or some combination thereof, but we're just glad that she's calmed down a bit. We were even able to easily console her after a feeding tube replacement (she ripped out the tube she came home with last week). She also made it through her latest bath without screaming her head off...yay for progress!

Enjoying a meal after a successful bath.

Last weekend, Allison's parents were in town visiting and did a lot of work to help us put the place in order. Our house wasn't really put together for a baby when we left for Camden at the end of February and when we got home there were a lot of little things that we needed to do but couldn't seem to find the time. One of those was finishing off the nursery:



Allison's sister Lauren made all of these pillows (with a little help from our nephew Landon).

Overall we're just trying to get into a routine. Our next step is to finalize childcare. We've decided to bring in an au pair from a foreign country through a cultural exchange-type program. Daycare isn't really an option (though we are checking into one in the area for special needs children), and hiring a nanny is extremely costly. An au pair provides steady assistance for a very reasonable price. We'll have to share our home for the next year, but we're hopeful that it will be an enriching experience. 

Finally, here's a few more pictures and a cute video to make up for the lack of blog posts. We'll try to keep Viv's adoring public satisfied in the coming weeks and months.

Her scar is healing very well; it's barely noticeable at times.