Oy! Enough doom and gloom! It's a whopping 70 degrees outside, gorgeous sunshine, and (thanks to yesterday's blog vent) the Ides of March are firmly behind us. I want to share with you some of our new tricks.
Audrey now sits confidently, and is getting close to being able to pull herself into a sitting position. But she would much rather STAND-- those little strong legs do not want to bend when we put her down. If we hold her hands while she's standing, she'll even walk a little. Then, it was the cutest thing when a week or so ago she started waving at us, rotating her wrist like a princess on a float. And she says she's also ready to drive.
Another one of her favorite tricks is splashing in the tub. She got to go in a hot tub for the first time last weekend, and she loved it. I only let her put her legs in but she leaned over as hard as she could in order to splash in the water. See her cute swimsuit? Aww. It even has a tutu. Tell me you're shocked.
Actually, one of her tricks that has charmed us the most is her new habit of sucking on her blankie to self-soothe. With a regular baby that would be no big deal, but for someone who has hated having things in her mouth as much as she has-- it's nothing short of awesome. I caught her on camera as she was sitting upright and sucking on her blankie falling asleep. She kept almost falling over, and then righted herself, 99% asleep and just that tiny bit awake to keep herself from falling over. I could barely keep from laughing out loud and spoiling the moment.
I have a few tricks to show off too. Her uber-sensitive skin has had SO MANY problems that I've been trying from day 1 to avoid putting tape on her skin, but her G-tube and gauze has to be secured somehow. I am proud of the little system I came up with to get around the need to tape stuff down to her skin. Here we are: first, instead of taping the gauze to her skin, I tape it shut on itself. Comme ca--
Then, I had to come up with a way to secure the tube so that it wouldn't pull out anytime someone accidentally yanked on it. This was a trickier trick to be sure, but here's our (now tried and true) method that has prevented many an accident:
That's no casual safety pinning job you see there, however effortless it may appear. This puppy employs physics, I tell you! First, I put a firm piece of Mefix tape on the tube itself, about six inches from the button to give it some extra "give" if it was yanked really hard, then use a STRONG AND LARGE safety pin and pin it to the thickest part of the diaper (while my hand is between the diaper and her skin to protect her from pokes). I am careful to give the distance between the pin and the button a good amount of slack, that way, if the tube is tugged hard, the tension is not transferred to pulling on the button. See?
Yet another disaster averted. All in a day's work.
Also ran across a great website of G-tube tips and tricks discovered by other moms-- I have yet to read them all, but we immediately latched onto the butterknife trick for cleaning the gunk out of extensions! After the initial rinse, we just scrape the back side of a butterknife along the length of the tube, and it gets any last stuff off the sides lickety split. Works like a charm. I can hardly wait to see what other gems are waiting on this site:
I have a few tricks to show off too. Her uber-sensitive skin has had SO MANY problems that I've been trying from day 1 to avoid putting tape on her skin, but her G-tube and gauze has to be secured somehow. I am proud of the little system I came up with to get around the need to tape stuff down to her skin. Here we are: first, instead of taping the gauze to her skin, I tape it shut on itself. Comme ca--
Then, I had to come up with a way to secure the tube so that it wouldn't pull out anytime someone accidentally yanked on it. This was a trickier trick to be sure, but here's our (now tried and true) method that has prevented many an accident:
That's no casual safety pinning job you see there, however effortless it may appear. This puppy employs physics, I tell you! First, I put a firm piece of Mefix tape on the tube itself, about six inches from the button to give it some extra "give" if it was yanked really hard, then use a STRONG AND LARGE safety pin and pin it to the thickest part of the diaper (while my hand is between the diaper and her skin to protect her from pokes). I am careful to give the distance between the pin and the button a good amount of slack, that way, if the tube is tugged hard, the tension is not transferred to pulling on the button. See?
Yet another disaster averted. All in a day's work.Also ran across a great website of G-tube tips and tricks discovered by other moms-- I have yet to read them all, but we immediately latched onto the butterknife trick for cleaning the gunk out of extensions! After the initial rinse, we just scrape the back side of a butterknife along the length of the tube, and it gets any last stuff off the sides lickety split. Works like a charm. I can hardly wait to see what other gems are waiting on this site:
http://hydranencephaly.com/Care/tipsandtricks.htm
We also figured out a great trick for getting excellent results from her esophagrams. Since the oral ingestion of "pretend pudding" or barium drink from a bottle or cup is traumatizing for Audrey and has caused her to aspirate, we have found much greater success with inserting a thin NG tube down her nose to her throat just to the point above her stricture, and squirt liquid contrast down through it. We have used Isovue for the past two esophagrams, a non-barium contrast that is safer in the case of aspiration.
Last of all, but probably best-- a few weeks ago we finally captured a little clip of her first laughs. (Warning. If super cutesy baby talk makes you gag, you'll probably want to skip this one.) We were going for a new all-time "giggle record" for Audrey. Hahahah!
Enjoy!
We also figured out a great trick for getting excellent results from her esophagrams. Since the oral ingestion of "pretend pudding" or barium drink from a bottle or cup is traumatizing for Audrey and has caused her to aspirate, we have found much greater success with inserting a thin NG tube down her nose to her throat just to the point above her stricture, and squirt liquid contrast down through it. We have used Isovue for the past two esophagrams, a non-barium contrast that is safer in the case of aspiration.
Last of all, but probably best-- a few weeks ago we finally captured a little clip of her first laughs. (Warning. If super cutesy baby talk makes you gag, you'll probably want to skip this one.) We were going for a new all-time "giggle record" for Audrey. Hahahah!
Enjoy!
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