A Big Dose of Grandparents Time

Lexi has gotten the opportunity to spend some special time with her grandparents these past couple of weekends. With her big surgery on the horizon, I think they wanted to make their way down to St Louis, wish her the best, and tell her how important it is that she pulls through without some of the drama that accompanied previous procedures. Lexi seemed to be all smiles when interacting with them, so hopefully that's a good sign that she plans to listen to their pleas and make next Wed an uneventful day, at least as far infant surgeries go.

We definitely take solace in the fact she is significantly bigger and stronger than she was the last time she went to the operating table last September. At her most recent thyroid specialist appointment, she weighed 15 lbs, 12 ounces, which means she seems to have stabilized around the 25th percentile for weight. She also topped the 15th percentile in height, which was a pleasant surprise considering she had been in the bottom 5th percentile until just recently. When it comes down to it, though, we know these numbers and percentiles mean very little. Lexi's shown in the past that her attitude trumps all else, so we're hoping she chooses to fight for the right to heal quickly, and not fight the ventilator, or fight taking her bottles or meds afterwards.

Happy and Healthy Again

All indications are that Lexi has now completely recovered from the respiratory infection she battled for the past two weeks. Her coughing and wheezing have stopped, and she is back to being her animated and active self again. Her pediatrician said we can stop the nebulizing treatments, so all that remains now is finishing out her 10-day supply of antibiotics for good measure. We've learned that there certainly are no guarantees with our mysterious gal, but at the moment, it appears all systems are go for hip surgery to take place next Wednesday the 25th.

One quick side note since people occasionally ask about this, and we never actually addressed it on the blog. Brian did manage to stay employed at the new Anheuser-Busch InBev company. Although his previous department was dissolved just before Christmas, he landed a position within the Mergers and Acquisitions group shortly before he was to be severed. He's pretty excited about the scope of work with the new job, but won't bore you with the details until you make the mistake of asking him about it. This stay of execution was important for keeping Lexi in St. Louis near her specialists, as well as for keeping medical insurance so we don't go bankrupt.

Puffs

With all the eating issues we've had, we're trying to introduce items like the sippy cup and solid foods a little early in hopes that we can one day all quit dreading feeding times. Her baby foods continue to go great, it's just the bottles that continue to be a monumental struggle. The doc said when Lexi sits and can grasp, we can introduce finger foods. Well, she recently started sitting, and she has been grabbing and pinching our faces a lot lately. Although this usually happens during feedings, which is probably her way of warding us off, we still took it as a sign that we could try the next stage. So, today we gave her her first puff. At first she couldn't figure out how to get it in her mouth, but we were kind enough to help her a little. You could say she wasn't exactly into it, as you can see in the picture, but she stuck with it and didn't totally throw a fit. She actually did a great job of gumming and melting the puff and seemed to enjoy it when all was said and done. We're hoping that the more she gets used to them, the sooner she'll start feeding herself! We're still holding out hopes that solids are our savior and life will be good when she hits the age of one and doesn't need the bottle any longer!