6 Months!

Madeleine is 6 months old today! We can hardly believe it. In some ways, we can hardly remember a time before her birth. In other ways, it has been the craziest, hardest, scariest, happiest, and fastest six months of our lives. Regardless: it hasn't been boring.

For those that haven't heard-- Madeleine came home from the hospital last Friday and we spent a relaxing weekend in the DC area. We've struggled a bit with Madeleine's feeding as the pump can be cumbersome when you're moving her around. Additionally, Madeleine started displaying some signs of reflux over the weekend and we've decided to stop bottle feeding for the time being. Instead, we'll supplement additional hours on the feeding pump and we'll re-try bottle feeding in a few weeks once we've seen significant growth and feel that Madeleine will be better equiped to control her reflux.

In the meantime, we're focused primarily on keeping Madeleine comfortable and hope that she'll begin to put on weight. Her stay in the hospital caused her to lose weight and she's now about back to her previous weight of 7 lbs 11 oz. Once we've ironed out all of the feeding issues-- Kirsten is meeting with our pediatrician today-- we're hopeful that Madeleine will begin to gain 1 oz/day again. More importantly, we're hopeful that the feeding changes we've made will ensure that we avoid the hospital for at least a few months.

That's really about all that's on our plate right now. I've been reluctant to post in the last few days as I've been rather frustrated with all of the changes we've made with Madeleine and the associated concerns about these changes. In the long run, Kirsten and I are confident that Madeleine will overcome all of the challenges. On a day-to-day basis, it gets a little bothersome and frustrating when you're constantly worrying about the health of your child. I'm starting to get more confident that we're out of the woods associated with reflux, pneumonia, and hospital visits and I'm hoping this continues.

Thanks again for everyone's support. Here's to a much healthier next 6 months.