Vivienne's CDH Story: September 2015

Notice anything missing?? Read below to get the scoop!

Well, more like 6 and half months....sorry this post is so delayed! Things have been super busy here, so let's get right to the update.

Vivienne is doing really well. She is hitting a ton of new milestones and is growing like a weed. She now weighs 13 pounds and 8.5 ounces, and she's over 26 inches long. She's rolling over (front to back and back to front), putting her feet in her mouth, and is able to sit with minimal assistance. We've also started to introduce solids. Viv isn't much of a fan so far, but hopefully she'll embrace all of the new flavors/textures soon.

All of these things are wonderful, but there's one new update we are particularly excited about. Viv has been feeding tube free for about 60 hours (as of this post)!! It was time to switch out her tube a few days ago, and we decided to give her a break and see what she could do. I've noticed lately that she seemed stronger and more efficient with the bottle. I had a feeling that she was ready to ditch the tube. She did well enough the first day that we decided to keep going. She did better the second day, and has finished every one of her bottles today!! She's totally rockin' it, and barring some major regression I think her feeding tube days are behind her. Needless to say we are thrilled and are so proud of our little champion.

In other news - and the main reason we've been so busy lately - our au pair has decided that she would be happier taking care of older children, so she will be leaving us in a few days. The experience has truly been wonderful. Kayla worked so hard with Viv to help build up her strength and improve her eating. We owe a lot to her and are going to miss her! Obviously we weren't expecting Kayla to leave so soon, and we suddenly had to decide our new childcare plan. We had the option of choosing a new au pair or leaving the program. We reviewed other candidates but ultimately decided to decline to continue with the au pair program. Fortunately there was an opening with a nanny share in our neighborhood. We met with the other family, - a lovely couple with a 10 month old boy - interviewed the nanny, and made the decision to join the share. Viv will start next week and Dave and I will be working to make sure the transition is as smooth as possible. We're excited to get to know another family in the neighborhood and think it will be good for Viv to learn from a baby a few months ahead of her.

All in all things are going really well. Vivienne is a beautiful, happy, and funny girl, and we're loving every minute with her. It was impossible for us to imagine that we would get to this point a few months ago, but here we are...and it feels damn good.

Picture time!