check up – mauter.com

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Can you believe this little runt turned 3 last week?

Ellie is full of laughs and energy, independence and compassion, nerve and courage. She loves her froggie, her big sister, and Rapunzel. She just moved up to a big girl bed and hasn’t had any trouble adjusting. Her favorite colors are green and purple. She’s a lefty. She eats at least two breakfasts, a decent lunch, and not much for dinner every day. She loves corn (all kinds including popcorn). She drinks way more than the rest of us (milk, juice, water, you name it).

ebed

We had her birthday party last weekend. Thanks for coming, friends! I thought the weekend was going to be a wash out, but it turned out to be perfect! We spent all day outside playing.

ecandles

On her actual birthday, we brought Krispy Kreme for her class. I intended to take her out to lunch, but we are a one car household these days (what is with all the drama in the Mauter house lately?) so lunch was a no-go. We had dinner on the porch, which is where we always have our birthday meals for Sam (October) and Ellie (early May).

Here are all three dresses that I finished just in time: Rapunzel, Minnie Mouse, and Mickey Mouse. Brian was thoroughly concerned about making a Mickey Mouse dress, but I knew she wouldn’t care. Sam wants one too.

dresses

rap

mickey

And the finale was the tent!

tent

We had her three year check up too. She didn’t get any shots, so we got out of there pretty easily. The doctor is somewhat concerned about her speech so we will need to see an audiologist and speech therapist soon. I’m not really that concerned because she has always been “delayed” on speech. She’ll get there on her own time, but if we need to have her checked out, that’ll be fine.

And her heart danced

On Friday, we went to the cardiologist to get a check up on the ASD in Ellie’s heart.

Sam heard me talking earlier in the week about taking Ellie to the doctor, and she had lots of questions. She was very concerned for Ellie and was sure the doctor was going to “slice her.” Yes, those were her words. When Ellie got up from her nap that day, the first thing Sam did was tell Ellie that she was going to the doctor to get sliced. Yikes! I began telling Ellie that we were going to the doctor to get a picture of her heart. She said “No, Mommy do it.” I apologized for not being able to do it. She said “Daddy do it.” I again apologized and said that the doctor had to do it. She said “ok.”

We went through the same routine again, getting an EKG first. Ellie laid down on the exam table and quietly let the nurse put 10 stickers all over her chest. It only lasted a minute or so before all the stickers had to come off. She didn’t mind.

Next, we went back to the exam room for a sonogram. The doctor asked if she was ready to see her heart dance. They gave her a sucker, which occupied her sufficiently during the exam. She sat in my lap for most of it, but because she was doing so well, he asked if she could lay down on the table by herself. She had to crane her neck more to see the pictures, but she was so calm and nonchalant about the whole thing. We watched her heart beat, jump and dance on the screen. He turned the colors on, so we could see oxygen-rich blood and oxygen-poor blood coming and going.

The doctor spent lots of time looking at all the chambers and valves of her heart. He commented that her heart had a 71% pumping rate, which is very good. Everything looked good, and he couldn’t find anything abnormal. The hole has closed up and healed. Hurray!

We came home with a sonogram picture to show Sam. I’m not sure what she was expecting, but a black and white grainy image was not it. You can see the 4 chambers of the heart, with the mitral valve open. I’ll try to get it scanned and added here.

UPDATE
Here is the sonogram picture. The line straight up the middle is the septum, separating the left and right sides of the heart. This is the ventricle side, but you can see the atria in the background. The mitral valve is open, which are the two squiggly lines on the right side (from the left atrium into the left ventricle).

What? You don’t see that?

EllieCardiogram

15 or 16 months

I’m behind on getting news out about Ellie. Typical, I know.

Ellie had her 15 month check up a few weeks ago. She’s a whoppin 19 lbs, which puts her in the 3rd percentile. However, she’s 31″ tall which is about the 95th percentile. She’s a regular Long Tall Sally. I still have her turned rear-facing in the car, but Brian has yet another car seat in his car so she can ride face forward.

She started at St. Peter’s daycare in early August. After an initial rough week or two, she’s doing just fine now. We’ve got our routine down for drop off and pick up, and they are accommodating to my schedule.

She has a particular squeal when she sees Molly. She can say “All done.” She can squish her nose, which is so cute. She knows a few body parts, like ear, eye and teeth. She can use signs to say “more,” “all done,” and just recently “please.” She still has only 6 teeth.

Ellie likes to play with whatever Sam is playing with. She like cars or things with wheels. Ellie is a Daddy’s girl and loves to rough-house with him. She’s all ears.

To catch up on Ellie

Ellie is 7 months old! She is such a happy girl. Whenever we go out, she smiles at everyone so she gets lots of attention. She is beginning to sit up for a few minutes at a time. She has been wanting to sit up for months now (it looked like she was doing crunches) so I’m sure she’s glad to finally see the world from an upright position.

We went back to the doctor recently to get a check up on her ears. There was still a little residual fluid from the last ear infection, but otherwise, looked good. She weighed 16 lbs 4 oz.

Today, we went to the pediatric cardiologist to check up on her congenital heart defect. She still has the ASD. It’s very small (5 mm), but it should have closed up by now. At this point, the only thing we’ll do is continue to get a check up by the cardiologist so he can monitor it. Other than that, there’s no reason to treat her any differently. If, by some reason, she is in the hospital one day and needs an IV, we would need to caution the staff that she does have a heart defect. There’s a very rare chance that oxygen could enter the IV, and because the two chambers of her heart are connected, could make its way to the brain. I can’t remember the name of that condition, but it’s bad. At any rate, she’ll most likely have day surgery (by cardiac catheterization, not open-heart surgery) when she’s about 5 years old to close the hole. The doctor said the device used to close the hole is made perfectly for her case. Apparently, the hole in her heart is in the center of the wall separating the two chambers, so there is plenty of room on all sides to insert this device.

If you didn’t want to know all the details, I’m sorry. I’m recording all this information because it’s fresh. I know that in two years time when we go back for a check up, I will have forgotten all these details. Like most blogs, I use this place as a record!

Ellie’s 6 month checkup

Ellie is 6 months old!

She was a sicko last week, so I was glad to get to the doctor on Tuesday. Turns out, she has an ear infection in both ears, just like her big sister! She has had a low grade fever, but other than that (which I attributed to teething), she hasn’t shown any signs of infection. She’s just so happy!

We started baby food (squash) last week and added sweet potatoes this week. She’s getting much better at eating with a spoon, but I just don’t think she’s going to be a big eater. She’s now at 15 lbs 10 oz, which is near 40th percentile.