Pediatric Orthopedist

Ellie's went to see Doctor Henderson today at UNC.  She had a blast!  I was a nervous wreck.  Being the paranoid idiot that I am I have been googling every imaginable issue that Ellie could have and all the possible things that could go wrong.  I was pleasently surprised when the resident working with Doctor Henderson came in and so kindly shared some of the things his 5 month old was going through.  The flat head and things like that.  The resident checked Ellie over and did alot of asking what I thought was wrong with her.  Do you think her head is mis-shappen?  What brings you here today?  What do you see as an issue?  I was surprised because my pediatrician reffered us there because there were issues I didn't expect them to want to know what I thought.  After explaining my concerns he completely reassured me that alot of things I had read about and had been told actually happen to more babies than people realize.  The uneven folds in Ellie's legs are completely normal, the doctor actually joked and said it's fat, it's not neccesarily going to match up in both her legs.  They want to see her back in two months to do an x-ray of her hips just to make sure everything is fine.  He said everything sounded and looked fine to him, but that an x-ray wouldn't hurt just to reassure us that there aren't any future problems.

As far as Ellie's misshapen head and Torticollis go he assured me that it was positional plagiocephaly.  Which basically means that Ellie's head is flattened because of her torticollis.  It simply is that her neck muscle needs to be stretched more so that her range of motion in her neck is better and she wont be prone to lay in the same spot at night.  Dr. Henderson and his resident said that babies that are good sleepers, those that sleep a significant amount of time almost right out of the gate often have positional plagiocephaly because they spend so much time "laying down" (sleeping) and aren't fussed with as much because they are sleeping.  He gave us some stretches to work on with her neck (most of which we have allready been doing) and he said once that range of motion gets better, her head will round out and be just fine!

I had to take a deep sigh of relief because I was so afraid that Ellie would have to wear a helmet, not because of what people would say but because of the mere cost.  Cranial headbands run anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 dollars and unfortunately our insurance didn't cover them, because I did check into this prior to our appointment.

So thank you all for your prayers!

I finally got around to getting Ellie a floaty for the pool and wanted to test it out before we hit the pool and before we head to Michigan.  Since it was late, I decided why not try it in the bathtub?  So here's a picture of her floating in the bathtub!  SHE LOVED IT!!

4 month check up!

Ellie celebrated her First Father's Day by giving her daddy this wonderful gift!

This photo shoot took forever to do, because some little person thought it was a game to move the letters everytime mommy had them just soo! It was funny that she had such a big smile on her face though! She sure loves her daddy!

I had the joy of taking Ellery to her 4 month check up this morning. :( Our little girl surprised me and did better than before. If you know Ellie she is very laid back and content. When she gets her shots she usually gets upset and then calms down right when I pick her up. Today I didn't even need to pick her up, she calmed herself down by the time the nurse had her little band-aids on. Our little girl is right on track. She is weighing in at 15 lbs. 5 oz. 25 1/2 inches long, and a head circumfrence of 42 3/4! She is in the 90% percentile for everything!

Our pediatrician is so patient with all my thousands of questions about every little thing. I had noticed for awhile that Ellie's right eye seemed a little smaller and her face isn't symmetrical and her head tilts to one side. The doctor reassured me everything was fine and that the more tummy time we gave her the better it would get. Well when I brought back this time, she noticed she still had the tilt and she prefers one side over the over. The doctor thinks she may have torticollis, which is a shortened or tight muscle on the right side of her neck thus causing some assymetry in her face and on the right side of her body. She also noted that the "folds" or fat rolls as I refer to them in her legs don't match up from the left side to the right side

of her body. She was pretty confident this is all related to the torticollis but wants us to take her to a Pediatric Orthopedist to get checked out just to be safe! Of course I got upset and she reassured me that with a little physical therapy things would be fine. She wanted to rule out Hip dysplasia as well. So we are off to see the great ole doctors at UNC because they have a wealth of pediatric orthopedists.

Ellie belly also gets to start cereal and solids!! WHoooHOO....this girl is excited because for the last couple of weeks she has been eyeing every piece of food around, you can tell she thinks the milk's just not cutting it anymore!

I just have to keep remembering that she will be fine! I know she will be, but it's hard to explain your feelings when that's your child. You'll never know until you have your own!

Welcome Ellery Faith.....this was a long time coming!

Welcome to the World Ellery Faith Villanueva!
Born: February 15, 2012
Time: 3:43 p.m.
Weight: 7 lbs. 7 oz.

YOU ARE THE LOVE OF OUR LIFE!!

I am sure most of you have allready met her or seen the gazillion photos we have posted of her, since this post is coming almost 4 months late.

Birth Story:
Ellery's due date was not until February 25th, 2012, however as we have found out this little girl does not wait on anyone!  My entire pregnancy I struggled with kidney stones and on Monday February 13, I started having alot of pain in my lower right quadrant.  I knew it wasn't contractions, but thougt it may be another stone or possibly appendicitis.  I called my Ob and she told me the usual go to Labor and Delivery.  We arrived, they admitted me, pumped fluids, did a catscan and found nothing!  Not a surprise because stones don't always show up and they couldn't do an x-ray due to the safety of Ellery.  The pain was still so severe so they kept me until late Tuesday when the pain still did not subside, which is unusual because the pain usually subsided after two bags of fluid which pushed the stone out.  My Ob came in and said that because I was 37.5 weeks, they were going to go ahead and induce me the next morning and then we could further explore what/where the pain was coming from.  So the doctor inserted a cervisil strip to help thin my uterus and get things prepped for the pitocin the next morning.  Well things worked out well.  They induced me at 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday Feb. 15th.  At 6:00 I was not dialated but my uterus had started to thin.  By 7:45 I was 5 centimeters dialated and in extreme pain.  I had planned on going natural as far as I could, but with three days of severe pain, and then intense contractions that came I wasn't really eased into the contractions, they came hard, and they fast!  Things slowed after that and about 1:30 or 2:00 I started to push.  Little Ellery came quickly and quietly.  Not a sound, which fits her to a "T" to this day.  She came out content and quiet, just observing everything around her.  Around 5:30, they took me to postpartum and from there the rest is history.  My doctor came back the next day and asked if I had been having any pain, and I said that I hadn't.  She stated that litlte Ms. Ellery was just eager to come out and was positioned in a way that put alot of pressure on my ureteur causing "kidney stone" like pain. 

Ellery was fine the first day or two but when we were discharged on Friday, they noted her billirubin levels were elevated and we went to the doctor the next morning to have her checked.  They sent us to the lab and I lost it!  This was the first time I saw them do a billirubin test and my poor baby was screaming!  They don't prepare you for this!

My poor little girl! 

We got the results when we arrived home and they were elevated.  They couldn't get us a billi blanket so they sent us off to Wake Med Raleigh.  They admitted mommy (because I was breastfeeding) and Ellie and put her under a billi light and a billi blanket.  Grandma and Daddy went home and came back the next morning.  They checked her billi levels all night and they were dropping.  So we were discharged.  We spent the next week going back and forth to the doctor and lab getting her weight checked and billi levels checked.  After a week, finally little Ellie's numbers were normal, but she wasn't gaining weight.  I had to start supplementing her with formula because she wasn't getting enough milk. 

We continued supplementing for three weeks and her weight finally started increasing but she still wasn't getting enough milk, so we switched her to formula.  After trying every supplement out on the market, I just wasn't producing enough for my little girl.  As much as I hated the idea of putting her on formula, I was getting frusterated and it wasn't making things easier and I wanted to do what was best for her.

We knew we had a fiesty litlte girl on our hands when she rolled over in her crib after one week.  We knew it was somewhat of a fluke that she did, but something just told us she was ahead of her game!  After a couple of weeks of real fussiness, because of constipation and pooping issues, which took us another two weeks to get under control.  We finally saw our happy, content little girl. 

We traveld to Michigan with her at 4 weeks old so she could meet her grandpa.  She was such a great baby, she slept the entire time, except when she was wet or hungry!  We spent two weeks in Michigan with family.

I finally returned to work after being at home for 8 weeks.  What a blessing and joy that was (staying at home with her!)

Ellie continued to surprise us by smiling at 3 weeks old, rolling over at 10 weeks (from tummy to back) she HATES tummy time and to this day it's hard to keep her on her belly because she rolls right over to her back!  She is so full of live laughing, and giglling, and cooing.  One day we were driving in the car and I hear in the backseat "aahh.,daaa, baaa.....AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH.....aaahhh, baaaa, daaa......gggggg AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!  Little girl is finding her voice! 

Hopefully Mommy will be better at keep this updated now that summer is here and I can get caught up on life!