On Her Way!!

So I realized it had been a while since my last update and I left everyone in limbo. Well, a week and a half ago, the dietician came and weighed Ellie. She had lost little weight, but she felt this was okay since Ellie had been gaining so much and had actually been getting too many calories with all the milk. She approved 2 more hours off the pump (11 total) and encouraged us to try 1/2 oz more of milk at each meal. Ellie did better than that! In fact, one of the days she had 12 oz!! This was a new record! Okay, I need to clarify a bit. She is not actually "drinking" it from a cup. She tends to like it thicker (I use a drink thickener to do this) and a lot of times I spoon feed it to her. Sometimes she lets me tip the cup in her mouth..but I figure, whatever we can do to get her off the pump. Well when the dietician came this week, she weighed Ellie and it was a 9 oz gain from the week before (21lbs 3oz)!! She was very happy with the progress. So happy that now she is only on the pump for 9 hours (that's sleeping hours only!) and what is in the pump is half formula and half water!! Wahooooo! She also said that Ellie is really close to being off the pump!!!!! I never thought she'd move this fast. She will check her again in 2 weeks. The next steps, in case you're wondering, would be to move to only water at night and then to completely off the pump. That's how close we are~!!!!! Can you tell how excited we are ? The girls are excited too because now they don't have to worry about tripping over pump cords.

As if this weren't enough, she had another tooth break through...we are at 12 total now. It's hard to believe that 10 of those have come in since May. And....she said "ball" very clearly last week when early intervention was here and then I got her to say "bye"!! I have also moved her bed completely flat (I've been slowly moving it from an inclined position) and put crib bumpers around. This seems to be helping her with sleeping at night. I spoiled her 2 weeks ago by letting her sleep in bed with me and it's been hard keeping her in her crib every since. But she does like the bed flat now. It is easier for her to roll around, sit up and play in and she really likes to hold the edge, pull up and down and peek at who is on the other side. This is so much progress for her. I told Dave that I really believe she may be crawling or close to crawling by Christmas. She is already working her way all around the living room scooting and piveting on her bottom. It's hard for the girls to remember she can get into their stuff now.

Finally, a quick reminder that the Buddy Walk is the 18th and there is still time to donate. We are so excited to finally participate this year. Especially since she was in the hospital during it last year.