Sunday, June 10, 2007

Big Girl

Claire thinks that she is a big girl now. She has to hold a spoon while I'm feeding her mushy food, so usually we each have one. When she drops hers she wants mine. She tries to feed herself a little and enjoys chewing on the spoon. She loves feeding herself Cheerios. She isn't much interested in other "finger foods."

Claire now helps pull shirts down over her head. She likes to stand for as much of clothes changing time as she can.

She only likes to face out when I'm carrying her around the house. If I try to carry her on my hip she immediately turns around.

Claire will take a few steps when supported to reach a desired object. She has pushed herself forward while lying on her tummy and is good at pivoting to change the direction she's facing while on her tummy. She can sit unsupported for a long time now but still doesn't know how to get back onto her tummy when she get's tired of sitting. (She just flops over or leans back.)

The Ocupational Therapist came for the first time on Friday. I was happy to learn that she is a Christian and has a special needs daughter who is grown up now. I think OT will be more fun for Claire than Physical therapy is. Claire has become resistant to many of the things the PT wants her to practice.

She had an allergy test (a blood test in which they look for antibodies that are specific to common allergens.) It turns out Claire is allergic to Milk, various nuts, wheat, eggs, soy, dust and cats. She had two other blood tests which showed that she is not anemic (but rather quite healthy) and doesn't have high levels of lead.

Claire's MRI is scheduled for July 18. I am concerned about it because they will have to sedate Claire since she can't lay still for an hour for the proceedure.

Her sleep pattern has been terrible this past week. She's been waking every two or three hours. Last night was worse... she woke up at 1:00 and we would get her to sleep for only a few minutes at a time until 3:15 when she finally went to sleep and slept til 7:00. Maybe teething plus itchies plus warm weather is a bad combination.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was great to hear news of our "big girl"!! Sorry you all have had a rough couple of weeks. Please know you are often in our thoughts and prayers. It's good to be able to get some clues on the alergies. Love and hugs to all of you! Nanna Pennie

Beth said...

Jen Marie,

My, oh my! You should have heard me squeal when I read all that Claire is allergic to!

What and how are you doing with this? Milk and soy!

I am also pretty curious the standards of this allergy testing and what the sensitivity and specificity is of the results. I will try to do some research, though I am working nights the next two weeks, so my access to the hospital library will be a bit limited.

Excuse my outburst! It is wonderful to hear about Claire's other big progress.

Thinking of you,
Elisabeth