Vivienne's CDH Story: 5 Months

Happy baby!

Viv turned 5 months on August 18 and we celebrated by driving up to CHOP for a checkup. Viv's surgeon and all of the staff were very pleased with her progress. She's up to 12 pounds, 5.5 ounces and 25.2 inches long. They commented on how happy she seemed and mentioned that her abdomen and scar look very good.

Viv still isn't drinking from the bottle very consistently but they weren't all that concerned about it, which was reassuring because Allison and I have both been worried that she hasn't been progressing in that area. They think that as long as she doesn't have too much discomfort while she eats (she seems to be getting more comfortable) that eventually she'll figure it out.

The BEST news is that they gave us a new feeding plan that eliminates Viv's 3am feed! We still have to wake her up at midnight and 6am but the new schedule means that one of us gets to sleep for 7 hours uninterrupted every night.

It feels like everything is slowly getting a little bit easier. Viv doesn't fuss as much as she used to and when she does it is easier to calm her down. A lot of that is her reflux subsiding a bit (although she is still definitely bothered by it) and part is just her growing up. In addition to our trip to Philadelphia we went to visit Allison's sister outside Reading, PA last weekend and on both trips Viv tolerated the long period in the car without a single major meltdown.