-6 Month Checkup-

Brielle had her 6 month checkup yesterday and Dr. Henness was very happy with how well she is doing. She weighs 16 pounds 12 ounces and is 26 1/2 inches long. If any of you didn't know, she did get an infection around her button last Monday, 3/21 and was on antibiotics for 10 days. The doctor said it looked good and Brielle is no longer on any extra medication. Yay! We are also thankful that Brielle is no longer receiving extra calories in her formula! She was getting 24 calorie formula since we got home from St. Louis in November, but she is down to the normal 20 calories! Brielle is around the 50th percentile in both height and weight! We were also told that Brielle has had excellent and consistent growth with her head circumference...right on track! Good job Bri!

We are still working hard on Brielle's neck, upper body and core strength. She is getting so strong and is much more steady while holding her head up. She is rolling over from her back to her tummy and is sitting up with little support and is getting pretty good at prop sitting! When she's playing on her tummy she scoots her knees up underneath her...but is still lacking the upper body strength to lift up with her arms while doing that. She is getting good at lifting up her head while on her tummy if she is just playing around. We are also still working on her swallowing strength and coordination. Hopefully she'll get this down soon and we can try some food by mouth. At least that's what we're praying for!

We are hoping to make some more trips out of the house (besides appointments) once the weather warms up a bit more. Brielle said she's really excited to play in the garden with daddy! So maybe we'll see ya around! :-)

good little veins!

We just got back to the room where we met Dianne's parents. It is really good to see them. They are amazed at how big Brielle's getting!

Yesterday we saw a Pediatric Ophthalmologist and he examined Brielle's eyes. He did a couple tests and said she has fairly healthy eyes. Her focus is good and her retinas are good! She does have Esotropia, which is the inward turning of the eyes. We will most likely correct this with surgery. The doctor would like to wait until Brielle is at least a year old if we decided on the surgery. He does want to see us back in 3 months when Brielle is 9 months old to do see if she has gotten any better or worse and then we would discuss the surgery in more detail. He did tell us that he's had one patient who's eyes corrected themselves. So there is definitely hope for not having surgery! But even if we decide to, it isn't a huge surgery like her other ones have been. It is usually an outpatient surgery.

We had a really good report from the Neurologist this morning. He is very happy with Brielle's progress and is glad to see everything that she is able to do! The Dr. does not see the need for any more brain scans but would like to see her back in about 3 months. He told us that right now we will be moving at Brielle's pace in her development. He does not see any major concern with her progress so far only that there were a few things he would like to "tweak"...such as adding Physical therapy to her regime just to make sure we do everything possible to help her out! He was very pleased with what she is able to do and is looking forward to see how she continues to progress.

Our second appointment was with genetics and the genetics Dr. was also very pleased with Brielle's progress. Today Brielle has been called "plumpy", "chunky", "healthy", and "tubby"! All the Dr.'s we have seen have been very optimistic with how Brielle is progressing. We did have to have blood work done and Dianne and I were both very uneasy about it... especially after the last couple experiences! We sat in the waiting room for about 50 minutes waiting to be called back and dreading every second of it. Everytime Brielle has needed to have blood work doen it has always ended with Brielle being poked multiple times, and Dianne and I on the verge of tears. When we were called back into the lab we had one nurse look for around and said she couldn't feel anything. Then the LORD stepped in and brought us a nurse who verbally hailed the power of Jesus' Name and found Brielle's vein first stick! It was AMAZING!! There is nothing too big or too small that God cannot overcome!

Everyday belongs to Jesus and I feel like it is especially appropriate to say that He had His hands all over today's appointments!

In His Service,

Cody