Always knock on wood

Addy usually sleeps through the night fabulously and I've told everyone who asks about her awesome sleeping habits.  In bed between 8 and 10, doesn't get up until 6-6:30, doesn't wake up for anything.

Until last night.

Didn't go to bed until 11.  Woke up at 1 and fell back asleep pretty much as soon as I picked her up.  Woke up again at 3 and fell back asleep pretty much as soon as I picked her up.  Woke up at 4 and fell back asleep pretty much as soon as I picked her up.  (Have you figured out the pattern yet?)  That'll teach me.

Hungry Like Tiger, Sleepy Like Bear

Yesterday (Saturday) Addy was back to her sweet and smiley self.  Her appetite was back to it's usual voracious level and she spent less of the day sleeping.  I think it was probably just the long car ride home from Nashville that had her so worn out on Friday.  She seems to have that pattern after we've gone there for doctor's appointments.

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig

Addy was released from the hospital Thursday morning as expected.  She seems to have a bit of a headache, but the nausea (or at least the throwing up) is gone now.  Her discharge orders crack me up, though.  Under the "Activity" section it says:

"As tolerated; NO rough play or physical exercise for 6 weeks; no heavy lifting (> 5 lbs)"

Sounds to me like doctor's orders to not do tummy time!

Today was a very sleepy and not very hungry day.  I'm not sure I'd be at my best having had brain surgery 48 hours ago, but it's a little concerning none the less.  She seems to have perked up a little more since Daddy came home from work, though, so hopefully she's on the up swing again.

Shunt successfully revised

Addy's surgery went well this morning. She's working on slowly recovering in her hospital room now and with any luck she'll eventually forgive us for not feeding her since last night. From talking to the neurosurgeon, it sounds like there was a partial blockage in the tube that drains into her abdomen, so that has been replaced along with the valve. He always goes ahead and replaces it since it's the most likely thing to fail and adds another 10 seconds onto surgery time to swap out once he's in there to check everything out. Afterwards, he was much happier with how her soft spot felt than he had been prior to the surgery. So here's hoping this shunt will last a good bit longer than the last.

Hopefully I should have a few more new photos from her hospital visit uploaded later.

Patience young grasshopper

Surgery date is set for a week from today.  Fortunately she has the first appointment of the day but it will still be a very long morning of not eating for her.  The poor thing really only fusses when she's hungry, but she expresses her opinion quite loudly if she thinks her needs are being ignored.

Just when her hair was starting to really grow back in...

Addy had an appointment with the neurosurgeon today because her head circumference has been getting bigger at a faster rate than it should be.  The sonogram of her ventricles shows that they're bigger than they should be if the shunt were working correctly, but they aren't as big as if the shunt were completely malfunctioning.  Conclusion: shunt is partially blocked.  And since partially blocked is not a good thing, it means that Addy gets to have her first shunt revision (date yet to be determined).  She's really not going to like that whole "no food after midnight" thing.

Slow down there, tiger

Addy's head circumference has been getting bigger at a faster rate than "normal" so I put a call in to the neurosurgeon to let him know.  (In this case "normal" means "compared to a baby without Spina Bifida and most shunted babies who do have SB.")  He is apparently concerned but not alarmed so we need to take her in for a head sonogram in a few weeks to get a look-see at what's going on.  So far her head circumference is the only symptom, so we're just keeping close tabs on it.  Hopefully something simple like a tweak on the shunt settings is all that will be needed.

In other medical-related news, we received the all clear from the plastic surgeon this week.  He wants to give her a chance to grow into her scars before we look at doing anything more with them.  The PT and OT who work with Addy have us working on massaging the scars to try to loosen them up and keep them from impeding her movement.  They're kind of tender and pretty leathery, so it's not one of her favorite things, but she'll usually tolerate it for a little while.

Addy has been working on doing more swatting at toys in her line of sight lately.  This afternoon she even managed to grab hold of a rattle a couple of times (and promptly thwacked herself in the head with it the second time).   Also today she managed to get mostly rolled over from her back to her side a couple of times.  We're still working on getting that (big) head of hers nice and steady.  PT claims that tummy time is the key to that, but Addy disagrees with the theory.  She much prefers just sitting up on a lap and looking around instead.  Not bad for an almost 3-month old!