5 months old on Monday

6 Pounder Club!!

Her first smile caught on camera!

Can you believe it?!! Cate is in the 6 pounder club as of Monday. We took her to the pediatrician. We see Dr. Maxwell so often we are becoming great friends. :) Cate weighed in at a wopping 6 lb, 4 oz. Immediately after she was weighed she took the biggest #2 I have ever seen. She got it all over the place. Duke and I were laughing hysterically. I am no longer nursing Cate. That seemed to be part of the problem. I don't think her suck was strong enough. So now we are giving her breast milk in a bottle with fortifier. Then I pump so we can keep the supply up. Whatever is best for Cate... I feel bad that I may have been starving her. I was so insistent that it would get better. Now that she is gaining weight she seems to be thriving in every way. She is smiling at us and cooing. She just seems so much more alert. She looks different every day. Duke still calls her 4 pounder. I think he'll call her that when she's 27. I am so excited to see her doing so much better and sad at the same time to see the time flying by. I am glad that I am home with her. This is definitely where I am supposed to be right now. We are all getting more sleep, which makes for a happier home. We have the eye dr on Monday. I am anxious to see how her eyes are doing. More later... Thanks for checking in on us.

Slideshow :)

Mobile

Here is Cate enjoying her mobile :)

Fortified Cate

Cate returned home a day after surgery on March 7. She seems to be a different baby now. She is quiet and sleeps more often. The doctor is a little worried about her weight gain and was thinking about putting her back in the hospital to monitor her weight. As of last week she had only gained 1 1/2lbs since coming home on Jan12. A bunch of tests were ordered to rule out any possible reason for her slow weight gain. We have a sweat test on Thurs and should get some final results from everything back in the next few weeks. She went back on fortified milk and gained 6oz in 3 days! She now weighs 5 lb, 14 oz. She's getting a big double chin. :) Hopefully there is nothing wrong. Hopefully we just had to change up a couple things. Also, the school system (Area 13) came out today to give us their report based on their prior meetings with Cate. They feel as of now Cate is where she is supposed to be developmentally for her corrected age.

Hernia Surgery

Cate is now in her room recovering from hernia surgery. She took the anesthesia well and the doctor said she had hernias on both sides, which we were unaware of. These hernias had to be bothering her so I'm sure she is going to feel much better in the coming weeks!! Thanks for your prayers!!! We are in Room 490 PICU Childrens.

Weekend

We've had a pretty good weekend. There's not a lot of sleep going on at the Perfect House. Cate just doesn't sleep much. We will put her in her bassinet when she's asleep and she'll start crying within ten minutes. She wants to be held a lot. I don't like letting her cry too much because she's burning calories and she doesn't have too much weight to lose. I went to the dentist today and the visiting nurse came by. Cate gained 2 oz since Friday. Kind of slow I suppose, but we'll take it. Right now she's laying in her bassinet. We've been working hard on trying to figure out what will make her like her bassinet. We now have a mobile hanging over it and just put in a memory foam sleep positioner. I have read that you shouldn't use either, but our baby isn't sleeping and neither are we so we've got to try something. I love the weekends because I get a lot more sleep than during the week. It's always nice to have someone there to help you. I also love the weekends because I can actually leave the house. I'm usually home alone during the week and I'm not supposed to take Cate out and about so I don't get out much. I ran some errands on Saturday and I was thinking that that was the first time I had been out of the house since Monday. I even enjoy going to Wal-Mart. :) Speaking of staying at home, it looks like I am now a stay-at-home mom. Many of you have been asking what is going on with work. I requested a leave of absence till June because of Cate being quarantined. My boss denied it. So I am now officially unemployed as of last Wednesday. It has been a stressful situation, but I know everything will be okay. Maybe a blessing in disguise. I know that being with Cate right now is where I belong. Thank you everyone for your prayers and gifts. It has made this whole situation so much easier having the support of so many. We love you! Please pray for Cate's surgery to go well this Friday. The video below is not the best quality, but we thought you'd like to see how active Cate is ALL THE TIME.