Ruthie's 13 month stats

Ruthie's stats:

Chronological Age: 13 months 0 days

Adjusted Age:  9 months, 2 weeks, 0 days

Weight:  16 lbs 1oz at her last checkup

Height:  26.75 inches

Head circumference: 17 inches

Diapers: finally moved to a 3, though they are WAY big in the waist. the legs of the 2s were getting tight

One-Pieces & Dresses: 12 months for 1-pc outfits, 6-9 for dresses. She's long & skinny!

Sleep'N'Plays (what we use for pjs):  12 months

Shoes: still refusing to wear shoes, and that's fine with me

Teeth: still none

Naps:  hit or miss....sometimes she takes 1 nap that might be anywhere from 30min-3hrs, sometimes she takes 2 naps that might both be 2 hrs. Having therapy at different times every day screws up her schedule, but I'm working on getting it all organized.

Sleeps:  7:30/8:00pm to 8:00/8:30am

Feeds: 100% G-tube fed nutritionally, but starting to accept a few small bites of things

Personality: This girl is WILD and we love it! She has mastered crawling and zips around the house getting into all kinds of trouble things. We get remarks all the time about how "busy" she is. She's doing well in all her therapies and will be starting speech therapy this week to work on verbalization. She still makes no consonant sounds and very few vowel sounds, but is quite the master of growling. It's her "hello" to everyone - including strangers at the grocery store, who either think it's adorable or she's being mean. (Seriously, whose 1-yr old is knowingly MEAN to strangers? Come on, lady.) She is making HUGE strides in OT lately - today I got her to take a few small (tiny) pieces of chicken and a couple of dairy-free yogurt melts. She's moved to twice a week now for OT and it's making a difference. Her PT and EI therapies are being combined into one visit now and it will be nice to have another day free of therapy. She is excelling in PT, especially - crawling everywhere and pulling up on things. She's lightning quick, too - just today she was out of my arms for literally 2 seconds and less than a foot away from me before she snatched the dog's water bowl and dumped it all over the kitchen floor, then took off. 

I took the big plunge last week and put Ruthie in the nursery at church for the first time. It was SO hard - so much more emotional difficult than I thought it would be - I could hardly let go of her at the door. She's never been in anyone else's care other than Momma, Daddy, or Meemer. We I don't anyone keep her....in this day and age I don't trust anyone and even among family/friends it's hard to know who can really keep up with her and all the requirements with her feeding issues. It's just easier if I do it. So anyway, Ruthie did fantastic in the nursery and I only cried for half the service. I checked on her twice and she was having a blast - totally oblivious that I was gone. (Sniff.) 

Lately we've been hearing a lot of the same question - how long is Ruthie expected to have her feeding tube? I don't mind being asked this question, but I have no answer for it. It's impossible to tell. When they first tubed her (with the NG) in February, it was assumed she would pick right back up on bottle-feeding and we'd be rid of the tube shortly thereafter. That never happened. She quit eating completely during that hospital stay and never started back. While she is making great strides in feeding therapy, she has a long way to go. She will accept miniscule bites of things and is finally using her tongue to move it around, but the end result is usually having the piece fall into her lap. On rare occasion she will accidentally swallow something. She gags MUCH less now and hardly ever throws up with it. She really likes strong flavors and we're having to use the same few items every day until we can get more into her. She's proved allergic to a few things other than her usual dairy/soy, but we're slowly branching out. 

So, to answer the question - we don't know how long she'll need the tube. She has a long way to go before she's eating enough calories to not "need" the tube, and even then they'll keep it in for probably another year to make sure she's gaining appropriately and will not regress. We're probably looking at at least another couple of years with it, if she keeps progressing with feeding therapy.

Now for the best part - PICTURES!!

Her new favorite toy - Daddy's glasses.