What the Henkel, Padawan?

During our hospital visit last Monday we met with the doctor who will be observing the progress of Adrienne’s eye. The staff took a blood sample, her blood pressure (both resting and active) and heart rate levels. Since all seemed normal we were set to start the treatment.

At the beginning of the meeting, the doctor read her chart where it said that we should start a steroid treatment and if that didn’t work, we could move on to the beta blockers. I was shocked! I would have been confused if any of the past meetings had been in Swedish, but since I understood everything that had happened I knew it was a mistake. I can’t believe that our doctor would write such a thing! We NEVER talked about steroids, just how lucky we were that this new beta blocker treatment came along when it did. Anyway, we corrected the information with this (very nice!) doctor and went on with the original plan. He even tried to call the other doctor but she was unavailable.

The doctor suggested that we wait for our next visit when a dermatologist colleague (who has a special interest in vascular anomolies) could join us. It would be in a couple of days and we could get started then. When I said we didn’t know (before the appointment) if we were suppose to be starting immediately or not, but were prepared for either, he changed his mind and said we could start right away! I really like him!

We talked about how much supervision would be needed, so he called his friend the cardiologist (this guy seems to have a lot of friends around there! haha) who said that this medicine is used frequently in the cardiology wing and they have never had a problem with it. He suggested that we handle it ourselves, since he didn’t think there would be a problem plus he said they have been getting overloaded with all the extra cases who have to be observed unnecessarily.

Our new doctor was convinced by this and wrote us the prescription that we’ve been waiting on for months. We thought we had made it, until we were told at the pharmacy that the drug was unavailable and had to be special ordered. Our old doctor called today and informed Erik that it was harder to get since our prescription is for the liquid version, older children and adults could have used the regular tablets. That makes sense, no one at the pharmacy had been able to explain why it wasn’t available.

We started last night and I think I can see a difference already. I might be fooling myself or it might have just been a good day, but I think it’s starting to work. She also had to get her second round of vaccination shots today, so she has been crying which usually makes it bigger not smaller…so I’m just saying…maybe it’s working!

Here’s a picture of her from today. I don’t think you can see the progress from it but it sure is cute.

I call it “Whatchoo talkin’ about Willis?!”

Adrienne is 5 months old today. At the hospital they weighed and measured her. She is 6.85kg (15lbs) and 63cm (25in). We’re planning on starting solids in a month, but we won’t push her if she’s not ready. We’ve been using her corrected age to follow the development milestones and she is spot on. The only thing that she hasn’t done so far is roll over and she is so close! We’ll have to keep practicing!

I can believe that Adrienne is 8 weeks old, but when I think that she is 2 months old - it just doesn’t sound right! I think it has to do with the fact that I compare her to all the milestones in the baby books/websites with her “corrected” age. If we treat her as if she was really born at the end of June, then she should technically be only 1 month old. Really, she’s 2 months old.

She’s been developing dramatically over the last couple of weeks. She is having more and more awake time, as well as more and more fussy periods. One of the things that she’s done that is completely amazing is how any time that I’ve laid her down for a nap with me (on my pillow), she falls asleep right away or stays there calmly looking around the room. Of course, I’ve only tried that when all else has failed. I never believe that it’s going to work, but it does! I really don’t want to wear that one out since it’s a wonderful way to get her to sleep and I will need it when I’m taking care of her all on my own.

We’ve just started taking Adrienne out to social gatherings and she has done well so far. We have joined some new mommies from Stockholm group for fika, had lunch with the girls and for supper over at Heather and Måns’s. During all of these visits, she’s slept through most of the time - so I hope that keeps happening. When my father was here, she was a wonderful sightseeing tourist . She’s such a natural!

Just look at the fun we can have while she is sleeping

She’s also becoming more interactive with us. Here she is having a conversation with her grandmother. I’m not sure who was doing most of the talking at the time, but they both seem quite involved.

This is the latest picture taken of our little one. It took forever to get a good shot the the baby’s face since our “Shelby Luke” started hiding and playing peek a boo with the sonographer.
We will be getting a “bonus” ultrasound since I’m taking medication for my thyroid and it’s procedure to check on the development when this happens. Hopefully, there will be another photo in a couple of weeks’ time.