9 month check up

We had our first "routine" pediatrician visit today. In the past our visits have been because of illnesses or follow up with illnesses, so today it was very nice to take Mackenzie in for her 9 month checkup knowing everything was going well. It went well, btw. Mackenzie is now 17 pounds even (fully clothed so not entirely accurate, but we'll take it!) She's 26 inches long - shorty pants.

I asked about starting juices (organic apple and organic pear) because of Mackenzie's oral aversion. She's really not digging the formula in her sippy cups (which she's still trying to figure out but I think she's really like the Tomme Tippy - thanks so much Clare!!!), so I was hoping that perhaps a little tasty juice would spark her interest. The pedi said that the American Academy of Pediatrics doesn't recommend juices until 2 years old, but that for Mackenzie's oral issues one to two ounces a day will be fine. I told her I plan to water it down with 15cc water and 15cc juice twice a day, so that'd be an ounce a day anyway. She said it was okay and I'll be trying that this afternoon to see how it goes. Can you tell I'm desperate to get her to enjoy eating? lol Another trach mom said her child didn't do the bland juice (trached kids have a very low sense of taste) as a baby, but it's worth a try anywho. And I'll also have to thicken up the juice a little too because I have a sneaky suspicion that it'll be too thin for Mackenzie to manipulate. So I'm going to try 1/2 an ounce of organic pear juice with 1/2 an ounce of nursery water, both mixed with 1 tbs of rice cereal. If the rice cereal is throwing her off, then I'll order an actual thickener. I wonder if I could mix some juice in with her formula and if that would make it taste more "interesting"?? Oh heck. Now I'm confusing myself on what to try first. Too bad our speech therapist is on vaca this week!

Everything else is pretty much same ole, same ole. We're continuing with her current feeding regimen as she's gaining a good amount of weight. She gets about 29.5 ounces of formula over a 24hr period which equates to 885 calories. We tentatively have a bronch scheduled for next month (after the docs at UNC figure out what's going on). I told the nurse today to make sure that the ENTs understand that whoever does the bronch should n-o-t touch the hemangioma. Just leave it be and see if it'll go away on its own. I'm afraid of coming off as the Mom who never wants her child decannulated, which definitely is NOT the case. I just don't want a whole bunch of surgeries done in her airway when it's something that could potentially go away on its own. I don't want anymore scar tissue in her airway. It's bad enough she has some on her vocal cords from the lasering in December. :o(

I figured I'd take some pics of Mackenzie's room to show off. ;o) Andy and I put a lot of work into it and I love it. Here ya go! ((And I threw in a few random pics too.))

This is the front wall, with the door on the right. In the center on the floor is her oxygen concentrator, with her trach "go bag" to the right. The go bag has all our emergency medical supplies like spare trachs, ambu bag, suction catheters, etc. To the left of the concentrator is the IV pole with her feeding pump, and then the crib. Above the foot of the crib are two emergency trachs (the current size and a downsize) and her ambu bag.


On the left of this pic is her ventilator that we use to provide Mackenzie CPAP at night, and to the lower right of that is her pulse oximeter which tells us her oxygen saturations and her heart rate.


Voila - her crib. Under the head of the crib (you can't really see it) is her suction machine. You'll also notice the head of the crib mattress is at a slight incline for her reflux.

To the left of the crib on the floor is the air compressor for Mackenzie's trach collar that she wears during the day (if you notice where the bottle is at). The trach collar provides a cool mist into her trach to keep her from lungs from drying out. On top of it is her green nebulizer. And ontop of the stand is her pulse ox.


The back of her room. On the right closet door is her schedule and a list of contacts the nurses might need. On the left closet door is a Baby Sign Language poster.



And the right wall. The lamp is for the night nurses to see her at night (otherwise I'd have it pitch dark - arg). Then the organizers for most of her supplies. What we don't have in the organizers (like vent circuits, corregated tubing, bottles of saline and sterile water, etc) are stored in Mackenzie's closet and the garage.


And here is Mackenzie examining her Upsy Daisy dollie that her trach friend sent her. She spent a lot of time trying to eat Upsy. Yum.


Night time! Mackenzie hanging out with Upsy just before lights out.


Mackenzie and Daddy playing golf on his PSP. She loves electronics! I ended up taking the battery out of one of my old cell phones to give to her to play with. She loves it. ;o)