First, the update on Elizabeth:
Since we might fall asleep if things got too calm around here...a week ago Elizabeth slipped and fractured her clavicle! She was incredible stoic and endured the X-ray (still one of her least favorite hospital procedures) and now wears a "figure 8 brace" whenever she's awake. Praise God for our sweet friend who has adopted our family and become our in-town Auntie, who rushed over so I could take E & A to the dr and hospital. All in all, it was not as traumatic as it could have been, and now we just try to keep Elizabeth from over-using it. According to her teacher, her classmates have decided it's a parachute!
In other news, what a difference a year makes! We had a wonderful outing to the hot air balloon festival last weekend and Elizabeth, though clearly uncomfortable, did a great job coping and was able to stay within sight of the ballons for almost an hour! The last two years we've tried to go to the balloon glow and Elizabeth has had major panic attacks so it was a huge relief to see how much progress she's made.
Last week Elizabeth had her routine ear and hearing exam. The great news is her ears look great from an infection standpoint. However her Audiogram shows she has mild to modate conductive hearing loss, and as a result, we'll be getting her fitted for hearing aides as soon as we can be worked into the schedule...probably a few months from how. In the mean time, we're working to get her an amplification system (a small speaker she'll carry around with her) which will hopefully help her with her overall understanding of what's going on in school.
She continues to love kindergarten and we are so thankful for her full time Aide, her teacher and the wonderful school that has done a super job so far providing support for our sweet angel. She's been in school for 4 weeks, and has yet to get sick with anything! Praise God!
Ava has been doing pretty well at home. She's 4 weeks adjusted (which means that although she's four months old, she's acting like a four week-old who was born on her original due date of Aug. 18) she's given us a few smiles and has started cooing! All these are reassuring signs in light of her MRIs) Sadly, she hasn't managed to coordinate nursing as well as we'd hoped. In addition to some behavioral things, she's dropped from the 50th percentile for weight (while in the hospital) down to the 15th percentile. (Harms babies don't do that!) The first half of September she only gained three ounces! So last weekend we started bottle feeding her at every feed and she took off, and in the last five days has gained almost four ounces! So as sad as I am to give up nursing her, I'm so relieved to know she's capable of eating what she needs to grow and thrive...even it it's from a bottle!
Thank you all for your continued support and prayers. It has been busy and at times completely overwhelming but we have not been left completely alone. After my mom left, matt's mom came for a spell and now that she's returned home, we're slowly finding our footing. Thanks to the incredible generosity of many friends and family, we've been able to hire someone to help me a few hours here at home a few days a week. We've also been adopted by a few gals from our church who want to come love on the girls regularly and intermittently we are still humbled and blessed to receive a meal. God continues to take care of us and most often it's through you. We are eternally grateful.
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