You may think I fell off the face of the earth...alas...I have not!!!

It has definitely been a while since I have had time to sit down and update again...something called life keeps getting in the way!!

So...here is the long awaited update.

Faith has been doing wonderfully. We have been to see the local organization in our town for special services for kids. They assessed her to see if she would need services with them or not. Faith shocked them all. The therapists and dr's keep saying that according to her past trauma she really shouldn't be this advanced...her physiotherapist plotted her on a chart and Faith is at the 50th percentile...which makes her an average 3 month old...

I find it hard to not keep thinking that this is the child that they wanted us to give up on...we would have missed the smiles and the 'chattiness', we would have missed her rolling over to her side on her own and enjoying laying like that. We thank God everyday, as a family, for bringing her so far.

A few minor issues have shown up...one is nystagmus - that is when the eyes shake. It doesn't affect the vision very much and there is lots of research going on about how to correct this...she seems to have a very minor form of this. Today we are heading to the optometrist at the university here and I will ask about that for sure. I am excited to learn how much vision she has...we know she is seeing us because she laughs and smiles when we smile at her...

Another minor issue is how she holds her arms. They kind of bend up into her chest quite a bit. We are just continuing to do therapy and moving her limbs around more often. She also clenches her fists quite often, so we are working on having her holding toys instead. Her upper bocy strength while laying down is beneath where she should be, so we get to roll her around on an exercise ball to help her build that strength. She will also be getting a Bumbo chair to help with that as well.

Otherwise, she is hearing us fine, she does see a bit and she has such a wonderful personality. She is pretty calm...excpet at night time around 7-10...but she sleeps through the night after that. We tried to up the amount of formula she was drinking, but she wasn't tolerating that too well, so we have knocked it down just a bit and will try to slowly bring that up. It stretches her stomach and we have to do it in very small intervals, so it is still quite a long process.

We have started to try oral feedings. Instead of using the bottle, which is learning to co-ordinate a lot at once, we are feeding her water with a spoon. She loves it!! Doing it this way isolates the actions needed to eat. So we are just focussing on the swallowing right now. We will probably not bother introducing a bottle, because it will just be easier to start her on a sippy cup instead. My kids really didn't care for bottles much...(until they were older and the bottle wasn't theirs!!).

Faith anticipates the spoon coming to her mouth and readily opens her mouth for it. We can hear her swallow and she isn't coughing during this anymore, which shows that she is swallowing and not aspirating...she would choke if it went down the wrong way...so we are 1 step closer...

We have been fortunate enough to be able to receive some funding which will allow us to hire a caregiver who knows how to deal with feeding tubes so we can go out and have a life as well!! Yay!! So, for Valentines day my hubby is taking me out to see STOMP!! I am sooo excited!!

Anyhow, we need to run and get kids to school. I will try to update more frequently...