Thursday 20 March 2014

Talking and tantrums!

Where has this month gone?! G's birthday seems so long ago. We've a fully fledged talking, but non-walking toddler on our hands.
This month has been a busy one, and I've plenty to share....

Podiatry appointment
We recently visited our local podiatry clinic with G to get her toe nails assessed. We'd hoped to get them cut. Due to her Turner Syndrome, her nails are deep set in to her toes, they are overly curved, and her two big two nails are nearly vertical to her toe as opposed to laying flat.
Unfortunately G screamed as soon as we entered the consulting room (as she now does with every appointment, everywhere), and her screaming was so unrelenting that the podiatrist didn't dare touch her toes!
We have been given advice on footwear, and been told that when she's old enough to be happy to let someone else near her feet, or near her fullstop, then we can go back for help with cutting her nails.

Weigh in
Our little sausage, who this time a year ago was so diddy that she was on the 2nd centile, is a porky 22lb and sitting close to the 91st centile. Best stop feeding her up, especially as she lurrrve d'cake!! 

Dietary advice
The time has come to start reintroducing milk in to G's diet. Eeeek! Thankfully we have contact with an extremely good dietician who is also an allergy specialist, and he has given a plan of action. Step one, give her biscuits with butter, that are cooked. The only complication is that they can't have wheat in. So the usual method of a bit of malted milk biscuit a day for a week is not going to be suitable for us. Best brush up on my baking skills! If she can tolerate milk in the form of a small amount cooked in a biscuit then we move to milk or butter in dinners, then cheese (cooked initially), then yoghurts, then finally milk as a drink. It will be a long slow process which we will halt at any point should her symptoms return. Once we've established her long term tolerance to milk, we move onto wheat, gluten and soya testing.

Sleep, hurrah!
On the subject of diets, we have made another big change to her foods. We've suspected for a long time that fruits upset her. We knew that the more acidic ones did anyway, and thus avoided them, but even the milder fruits with less sucrose in we're upsetting her. So we took the decision to do a two week fruit free trial. My oh my what a difference it made! Our baby is happy, less gassy, has (slightly) better nappies, and above all else she's sleeping for most if not all of the night.
Her dietician said she may have a sucrose intolerance and that we'll need to slowly reintroduce fruit later on once we've gone through all of the other reintroductions.....I sense a long road ahead of us on the food front.

Poorly again
G catches every germ going. I know all babies do, but we don't even get a full week in between the bouts of virus/colds/coughs, and when she is ill it an be for up to a month.
So after speaking to the doctor this week, we are going to have her bloods tested for low immunity. Not that anything  can be done should she have a poor immune system, but still it's best to know. Only complication is that her blood now gets taken from her hands (as opposed to heel prick) but they are so swollen from the lymphodema that it's impossible to see her veins. That will be a fun trip to the hospital!

'Who's dat?'
...... she says when the dog barks, a car door slams, or when someone walks through the door. 
'Woof woof' she says when we are in the car and I tell her we are going home.
'Cat' she says when she sees Grammy or Nan's cats.
Duck and baba (for her new baby) are also in her repertoire. For a babe who's been behind with her crawling and walking, she sure as Eck isn't behind with her speech. Me and hubby giggle to ourselves as she is always mimicking me. Today she was telling Winston to 'say er' or stay there whilst I was emptying the car. So funny that our little babe has a voice now.

Tantrums
Stubborn, impatient and strong willed are three characteristics which shine out brightly at the moment! Full blown tantrums occur on a regular basis, with the added effect of throwing herself down to the floor and wailing. Have the terrible twos hit early??

Parents evening and reports 
Work for me has been super busy and I've struggled a bit this month. Between G being ill, 3 nights of parents evenings, reports for parents evenings and two uni sessions for my masters, I have found it tough going. But heyho, when I get to spend my Thursday and Friday with my chatty princess, the woes of work are put aside.

So with only a week or so left of March, we have just one more appointment. The dreaded heart scan. I say dreaded, I think more so because all of her other appointments are relatively mild in comparison. Hearts are important. So here's to her heart being just as healthy as it was this time last year :)



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