A Long Overdue Update

Hello, dear friends. I have done a poor job of keeping up with this blog, and while I know we have a pretty darn good list of excuses...

[Moving to a different state]
[Living in transition while waiting for household goods]
[Working to unpack and settle into our new home]
[Dealing with a severe back issue]
[Going to the chiropractor twice a week]
[Rarely actually sleeping]

...the fact is, I really do want to share more details about how Verity is doing since so many prayer warriors care about her [and our family], bless them!!

Picture for cuteness...

In the interest of time, here is a quick rundown of Life with Verity since we drove away from Iowa on July 14, 2017.

• Verity has not seen ANY doctors since we arrived. This is not really by our choice; it's a long story, but "mistakes were made" and we are having to jump through hoops with our military health care in order to get her to her new Primary Care Manager so that we can then start getting her specialty referrals.
• Thankfully, we have not necessarily NEEDED to see a doctor (i.e. no illnesses); however, there are some concerns we want addressed ASAP.
• Probably the biggest issue is that things have drastically changed with her feedings. Whereas she was doing fairly well with oral feeding attempts and seemed as if she would soon make gains, she has instead regressed completely. We have almost given up even trying...except we are determined not to totally give up on the idea of her orally feeding some day. Tongue thrusting, fussing, spitting, spewing, gulping and coughing are some of the ways we can clearly tell that she has not wanted to suck from a bottle. (And yes, I did attempt nursing her a few times, but that resulted in a scream fest each time, and let's be honest...I don't have the energy to do this. I'm done. I'm pumping every 3 to 3.5 hours during the day, so she continues to get breast milk only, but that's it. I'm done attempting to nurse her. Perhaps if she were my only child, it would be different.)
• Besides the rejection of bottle feeds, we ended up dropping the volume of her feeds because Verity started having terrible reflux, as in projectile vomiting through the nose and mouth what seemed to be the entire feed amount. We had worked her up to 75ml but then backed off once the reflux began, even going as low as 60ml. She is back up to about 70 now, though we are keeping the 8pm feeding at 60-65 since 8:30pm seems to be the Vomiting Hour. She is still on a continuous feed at night that goes over 10 hours. The total volume kind of depends on how much I've pumped that day but can be anywhere from 200-240ml total, so 20-24ml/hour.
• Verity's hernia at her belly button seems to balloon out uncomfortably. The surgeon we met with on July 13 (who was doing a follow-up to the g-button surgery, during which he also repaired this hernia), said that sometimes this happens and it usually resolves itself. I don't know anything about this issue, but it looks uncomfortable to me, and I would like some input as to whether it could be hurting her at all.
• We have passed the 12-week mark for Verity to wear her boots and bar 23 hours a day. Technically we are supposed to keep her in them constantly until we get the OK from an orthopedic doctor that we can go to naps and nighttime. But--shhhhh--we are often letting her be barefoot and fancy free while she's awake anyway. Those little feet look pretty good to me, and besides, it helps her be more content. Which leads to the last major bullet point...
• Since arriving in Colorado (a rough estimate), and particularly this week, Verity has seemed to get progressively more miserable. At first we wondered if it were due to the altitude change. Now we just don't know. Perhaps it's altitude; perhaps it's a combination of some of these other factors. Maybe the pressure change is causing pain with her little tiny ear canals. Whatever the cause(s), in general, Verity is not a happy baby. She's a far cry from the contented cherubs we've raised before, babies who got into a good routine early on and loved life. And because she's so unhappy, she doesn't sleep. Oh, she naps here and there, but it's not a deep, restful sleep. And therefore her parents don't sleep. 

I won't take time to outline all the things we've done to help Verity (and us) rest better. Suffice it to say we have probably tried everything, though I'm sure there are other options we could pursue. The point here is that this has been a consistent problem for months, and while it could very well be as simple as "it's a Trisomy 18 thing," my concern is that there is something causing her distress, and I want answers. It is an awful, awful feeling to listen to your baby scream and not know how to help her. Every day is different, every night is different--what works one time won't work the next. 

This week has been particularly brutal for some reason. Whereas often Verity will sleep for 2-3 hours before starting her "night time fussies," this week she has not had any stretch longer than about 40 minutes during the night, with every 5-20 minutes being the average "sleep" interval.

I realize I wrote above that Verity hasn't seen any doctors--however, I did take her to my chiropractor on Monday. She did a wonderful session on Verity, addressing her hernia, her esophagus and midline, and some neck and cranial work. I was so hopeful that it would result in some better sleep! Alas, starting that night things were worse! Dr. Molly encouraged me to bring Verity with me every time I have an appointment so that we can continue to work on her. I am grateful for a caring staff in the Thrive Health Systems who are helping not only me but also our kids. 

So, that's where we are at. Once we get into the system at our new military treatment facility, I have a host of appointments/tests I plan to ask for, including: 

• GI--let's see why reflux is all of a sudden an issue
• Ortho--can we graduate from boots and bar 23/7 to naps and night?
• Cardio--we need a baseline echo so we can keep an eye on her heart
• Swallow study #2--this was recommended to us before we moved and will hopefully give us some clues regarding the oral feeding issues
• Sleep study--now that she's older, I'd like to see if she is dealing with any kind of apnea. (The NICU staff assured us that it wasn't an issue while they were observing her back in March.)

Any Trisomy mamas who happen to be reading this...would you add anything to this list? 

Thank you for reading this far. And thank you for praying us all along this journey. It's definitely a stressful season for our family. Now that we are a little more settled, I will try to put some of my current thoughts and feelings into words on this blog...meanwhile, here are a few more of my friend Melissa Pennington's beautiful photos of our Verity. Stay tuned for more in future posts! :-)