GI Update

We saw the GI today for the first time since December.

First good piece of news is that Hallie hasn't lost too much weight. We knew she's slimmed down a little, but were afraid that her newly-restricted diet of goat cheese and pears (if only I could turn this into a salad with crunchy fried prosciutto, walnuts, and a nice orange-raspberry vinaigrette, it wouldn't be too bad of a diet, really) had led to a major drop in weight. People kept telling us that she looked 'great' and 'huge', but you know how us micropreemie moms are---we have been calculating calories and running spreadsheets all week about this. Anyway, Hallie weighed in at 11.82 kilos, or 25 lbs. 15 ounces, so the most she lost is 2 or 3 ounces, and that's not too bad. She's still at the 50th percentile for weight.

She did shrink though! Not really...it never ceases to amaze me how wildly different heights and head circumferences are when we get different people doing the measurements. Doing them on a screaming kid (you'd have thought it was an RSV shot, the way our kiddo yelled) doesn't help any, either. I can't wait until next year, when she's three, and they can get her height while standing. Given the number of times our girl has been pinned down for all sorts of procedures, can you really blame her for screaming?

Second piece of good news is that the GI fellow didn't really recognize Hallie. She has hair now, and more importantly, she looks like a toddler and acts like one, too. (That's both good and bad, obviously) Anyway, Hallie behaved really well for Dr. J and he was quite impressed by her. Nothing new to us, but it's nice to hear.

Third piece of good news: We don't need to go back for six whole months! Woo-hoo. The GIs agree that a lot of Hallie's tummy issues are allergic responses, so if we see progress on that front, we can start reducing the Reglan and Prilosec. We'll take it slow, obviously. But we've already gotten rid of the miralax, and honestly, we see no negative change where pooping is concerned. We have added a new probiotic (Lactobacillus GG, which is sold under the brand name Culturelle) and this has perhaps added some help to her GI system, but so has getting rid of some probable allergens.

Anyway, not a terrible appointment all around, even if we did have to wait for the GI (we saw the fellow very quickly, but then had to hang out and see his supervisor) for a while. We were in and out in two hours, though, which all things considered isn't too bad. And since the weather here is cold and rainy today, it's not like we missed much park playtime.

On the park front: Hallie is not only more independent in the playground, but also is more interactive. She had a nice game of catch with an almost-three-year-old neighbor yesterday, and stole a ball from a 14 month old (in her defense, she did try to engage him in a game of catch, too) and wanted desperately to partake in a fast-paced soccer game in which some 8 to 10 year olds were engaged (at least she wanted to steal their soccer ball; she has a fetish for them---I can't wait until we can sign her up for a soccer league). I hope the weather improves some soon because Hallie really does relish her playground time!