The Gregoire 4: Recovering from surgery...

Friday, March 28, 2008

Recovering from surgery...

What a busy two weeks we've had! My surgery went well and I am beginning to feel much more like my old self again - just in time for the warm Spring weather! Many, many thanks to Gram, Aunt Jo-Ann, and Grandma Chrisanne for spending so much time with us helping to take care of Sophia and Ethan. We couldn't have done it without you!!!

The latest and greatest developments with the babies... Sophia has started grabbing onto toys. Sometimes she hangs onto a toy and cries until we help her to remember that she can let go... Ethan is reaching and stretching to grab onto things and continues to practice rolling. They are both so much more alert, are "talking" a lot more, and are interested in playing games like patty-cake. We can't believe how big they are!

Ethan is only slightly smaller than Sophia - he's 23.5" long (5th percentile), 12 pounds 9 ounces (10th percentile), and her head circumference is 40.5 cm (10th percentile). It surprising that such small differences make such a big difference in the percentiles - boys in general tend to be bigger than girls, so even when Sophia and Ethan are exactly the same measurement his percentile is lower...

We had a scare with Sophia this week. We had a pediatrician visit and learned that Sophia is 24" long (45th percentile), 13 pounds 3 ounces (50th percentile), and her head circumference is 43.5 cm (95th percentile). Developmentally, she is right on track with full term babies, but her head is so big and out of proportion with the rest of her that our pediatrician scheduled a head ultrasound for us to rule out megacranium due to hydrocephalus. He told us not to google hydrocephalus, but of course we did... It's caused by an accumulation of fluid in the brain, is more common in preemies, and can cause brain damage. The treatment is a series of surgeries to relieve the pressure by implanting a shunt that runs under the skin from the brain to the abdomen. Yikes! Needless to say we were terrified for 48 hours while we waited for the test.

Sophia was tested yesterday morning and while she does have a big head, she DOES NOT have hydrocephalus. We are so thankful that she is okay. Yet another reminder how precious our children are to us and how grateful we are that Sophia and Ethan continue to be healthy... Our pediatrician will continue to monitor her head growth. Eventually her proportions should even out. What a relief!!!

Grandma Chrisanne with Ethan (he loves to play patty-cake with her!)