Amazingly, Lime is now 9 months old and had his 9-month checkup today. He continues to be a little teapot, short and stout, being 20th percentile for weight but only 6th for height. It's a charming combination in a young man of his age, though. Everything checked out fine at the appointment, although we did get some disappointing news. Our pediatrician, who has been taking care of our family since we moved here to Madison two years ago, is moving away. Since Lemon's pulmonologist just left last month, that means we've lost the two anchors of his care team here in Madison. Neither one has a definite replacement yet, either. I suppose the pediatrician will be easier to replace, although I was very fond of this one--she really cared about both kids, and was very thoughtful about how she guided their care. I also feel like the timing is really unfortunate--we're losing both of the providers who know Lemon and his history well at the same time, so no one who has that memory will be here to help get a new person up to speed. Except, of course, yours truly (and Papa Bear).
My love/hate relationship with the G tube continues, although in the spirit of Lime's milestone I'm trying to view the glass as 3/4 full. We've gotten up to our target of 3 cans of Pediasure 1.5/night with no issues, so that's great. Lemon continues to have boundless energy and is getting heavier by the day--we have to be mindful about using good lifting technique when picking him up! But, the wound site is continuing to give us trouble. He now has some granulation tissue around the tube, which is a very common complication. It's not a lot yet, but it is definitely painful and bleeds easily. I sent a message to the surgery nurse looking for advice so we'll see what happens there. Hopefully they don't have some kind of black mark next to my name for being one of "those" mothers.
I think that last week was our first more-or-less normal week since sometime in November. Normal in that Lemon was at respiratory baseline, no one was traveling, no one was in the hospital, and all the childcare arrangements worked the way they were supposed to. I had forgotten what having all those things happen simultaneously felt like. I had so much energy that on more than one occasion, I stayed up past 8:30pm reading a magazine. I baked some bread. I went running. I voted. A girl could get used to this! Papa Bear may need a bit more recovery time.
