Mouthful

Maria not only has 2 molars coming in, she actually has 4 molars coming in!! She also has a bit of a cold. She's a little cranky, but not as bad as I would be... Worst thing is that neither Motrin nor Tylenol seem to be doing much and she's been gagging and choking worse on them with every dose. I may go back to the baby version, which is more expensive but much more concentrated. She's still eating pretty well, her drinking has suffered a bit, but she's still ok, and her sleep hasn't been too bad. Such a good baby!

Yesterday we updated her Indvidual Family Service Plan (IFSP), so we had a houseful -- of course Mom, Dad, Maria, and Uncle Andy were here, plus the physical therapist, hearing therapist, parent advisor from AZ Schools for the Deaf and Blind, and the state (Division of Developmental Disabilities or DDD) person, who is responsible for filling out the plan. We saw what goals Maria has met in the last 6 months and what new goals we have for her. I keep having to remind myself how far she's come, how much she's progressing, etc etc, instead of dwelling on the fact that she can't sit unassisted yet, she may have to get a contraption to help her stand because she's not bearing any weight on her legs, and on and on.

I think probably the highlight of my day was when the parent advisor actually admitted that I was right about how much Maria can hear. She has been rather condescending and acting like I'm just another parent in denial. Now even she's puzzled by Maria. She has a call into the audiologist, the very experienced one who doesn't know what Maria's last hearing test results mean, and he hasn't called her back.

Next week is another evaluation of her progress by someone at Phoenix Children's Hospital. She's very nice, but I always get rather depressed when reading her reports. I'm just hoping that we're getting all this nonsense out of the way while Maria won't retain any of the memories and one day we'll lead a more normal life...

Only a few more weeks until we traipse (sp?) off to Vegas Baby to do our Drive-Through Wedding in a limo. Pretty exciting stuff!

Oh yea, that Pediasure the GI doc wants Maria on, well some mothers call it Baby Crack because the babies love it so much. Why do they love it so much? The 2nd ingredient is "sugar (sucrose)", and the 3rd is "corn maltodexitrin" - another form of sugar maybe? The 1st ingredient? Water. No way would I give it to her full strength; I'm mixing it either half, 1/3, or 1/4 with cow / soy milk. It's getting so complicated I have to write it down whenever I make it.