She's Growing!!

It has been nearly a month since I posted and in that month we have seen so much change!

Ruby continues to be more comfortable each passing week. She is less hesitant to show excitement and assurance. When she awakens for the day, we are sometimes greeted with a smile or excitement to show us the stuffed animals she shares a bed with. When she sees one of us across the room she will now run to us with arms up. Before, we had to encourage her to come. Her beautiful smile is shining more everyday, often still takes some work to get, but she will surprise us every now and then with a spontaneous smile.

Ruby enjoys playing with toys but has recently taken a liking to books. She prefers the ones with textures and flaps to lift as she likes to be busy. She does not have the patience yet to listen to a story in a book, even the short ones. She likes turning the pages faster than one can read. And when she has flipped all the pages, she gets another book, and another, and another. This is a good start for a child who has had zero interest in books of any sort when we got her; as if she has never seen a book before.

Ruby is doing very well is therapy. Occupational therapy is now every other week as she is better with sensory and fine motor skills. Her therapist reports her doing things at a 12-14 month level, which improved from a 6-9 month old when we started therapy in July. Physical therapy continues to be every week but she makes big strides weekly. She is working on trunk strength, balance and going up and down steps. Her balance has improved the most over the past few months and she is sitting upright more now with increased core strength. Before she would only sit on her sacrum which is her lower back and she would be very hunched over. Now she is upright most of the time, unless she is tired then she goes back to the old way of sitting. Steps have and will continue to be challenging because of her size. She crawls up and down steps well, but the PT wants her to walk up them (even though steps are higher than her knees!) She has been practicing a lot at home and is starting to get it with help. Walking down steps is difficult for Ruby as she does not bend her knees; she wants to sit or kind of slide down them straight legged.

In the past two weeks, Ruby has really been focusing on our faces more when we talk and doing more imitating of sounds and words. She now says about 15-20 words and uses several signs to communicate. She has become much more social with others. She waves and says, "Hi" to everyone everywhere we go.

Ruby continues to be on the restricted diet and is doing well with it. She has very few episodes of diarrhea now so I feel she is on the right path for healing her stomach. Her diet, vitamins, minerals and enzyme schedule is becoming more regular and she is tolerating them well. She goes back to the holistic doctor in a few weeks so we will see if we need to change anything. I'm hoping she can continue with oats because Aunt Becky made these amazing treats for her with oats, almond butter and almond milk, baked into homemade cheerios. And my mother in law invented special pancakes and even cookies she can have using the few ingredients she can tolerate. She loves them! And with a diet of only veggies, meat, oats, almond butter and almond milk, it's hard to be creative.

I believe in the last post I mentioned that Ruby was getting up several times a night. We ended up moving Jack into the basement (which he absolutely loves), and moved Ruby into Jack's old room. Elliana and Audrey could not continue to be displaced or woken up every few hours. She is enjoying her new room as it houses most of her toys and she is sleeping much better at night. She only gets up a few times and occasionally sleeps through the night. When she does get up, she just wants to be comforted and then she goes right back to sleep.

Ruby had an appointment yesterday with her pediatrician and she grew an inch and now weighs 12 pounds 9 ounces!! YEAH!!! She had more blood work done for the follow up genetics testing and we should get those results in 3-4 weeks.

Overall, Ruby is doing great! She is such a joy and has a very content personality. She is learning so fast and continues to amaze us everyday. I am enjoying my time home with her and watching her little personality blossom.

                                                   Just when you think you know love, 
                                                      something little comes along to
                                                   remind you just how big it really is.


Have a wonderful week!

Janel