Today Mia went to the dentist. Her teeth look really good, she didn't have fun with the cleaning process, but they are really quick about it. One of our concerns is that she has started to grind her teeth more lately, but her dentist said it's very common and we shouldn't make a big fuss about it. The irony is that she doesn't do it when she sleeps, it's something she does during the day, lots of times without realizing it. It's a bad habit. :) I guess we all have a few of those.

After the dentist we met some other moms and went to story time a at a local bookstore. Mia immediately was more interested in the books around her than the actual story that was happening. It was nice to take her somewhere that wasn't a doctor/school appointment, we will definitely have to do that more often.

This afternoon Brother got checked out and he's doing just fine. He's head down ready to go when the time is right, which isn't for another month or so. We are still planning on a VBAC, so you can be praying that the delivery would go smoothly without any complications.

Mia is becoming such a better walker. She now doesn't put her hands so high in the air and her steps aren't so wide apart, she's becoming more balanced. She's also taken to "running", where she takes itty bitty steps really fast, she thinks it is great. Her therapist was really impressed with her walking today.

Mia weighed in at 22 pounds again today, which was rather frustrating for me because I really thought she was eating better this week. Since we are back on dairy, I think I will go back to adding some cream to her milk for some extra calories and see if we can't move up on the scale.

Brother has made it to 36 weeks. I delivered Mia a day before 36 weeks, so this is the longest I've ever carried a baby. Aside from having no desire to do anything, I'm actually feeling really well. I go get checked out tomorrow and now I'll be having weekly doctor visits. I can't really fathom having another child in the next month, but I'm definitely ready to be done being pregnant. But I will let him bake a little longer so that he's healthy when he does decide to come. :)

One More Thing...

With everything that was going on yesterday, I forgot the cutest story of the day. After Mia woke up from anesthesia she was rather unhappy and wanted something to eat and drink, she first signed milk and then immediately signed cracker. Well, they didn't want to give her milk, so her only choices were apple juice or water. Both of them were not on her "I want" list, so she was really upset when I tried to give her water. At that point she no longer wanted anything to drink, she only wanted a cracker. Of course, they are scared to give you food before you drink anything, so Brad went downstairs to find some milk, hoping she would take that first. She was extremely upset by that point that she wasn't getting a cracker. I'm super grateful that her nurse decided to bend the rules and got her two different crackers, a graham cracker and a saltine. She inhaled them, I told her to go slow, but she was so hungry at that point...I've never seen her eat so fast ever. :) And then she was done, her tummy was happier and she didn't want anything to drink regardless, even the milk that Brad brought back. In fact, she didn't drink anything the rest of the night, but she did eat some dinner. I wasn't too worried because they had pumper her full of a bunch of fluids before we left. :)

She's back to her regular self this morning, you wouldn't even have guessed she'd been through all of that yesterday. Praise God!

Endoscopy

So we went to LA today to have an upper GI endoscopy for Mia. After discussing with the doctors, they decided to also look at her colon from her bottom. We hadn't prepared for this (you are supposed to get cleaned out), but they said if her stool is loose enough, they can push it aside/wash it out and still get a good picture of what is happening down there. Overall Mia did really great, she wasn't even too fussy without food, but by the time they were ready, closer to 2, I believe, she was no longer having fun. Brad got to stay with her while they gave her some gas to put her to sleep, which was much better for her than being around complete strangers, I was grateful that it worked out that way.

After looking at her throat, stomach, small intestine, and colon, the impression is that everything looks great and she has no inflamation. They still took some biopsies and will look very closely at everything, but we are anticipating that to come back normal. So that would mean she has no malabsorption issues and definitely no Celiac disease. That would be a huge blessing for us.

So, what is going on with our little girl. His thought is that she should have an evacuation study done with a barium enema, to see exactly how she evacuates her stool and that when she is 4 or 5 they can do another study (if we are still having issues then) to see exactly how much pressure she feels down there.

His other thought is that her extreme anemia is causing her to not eat enough (something we have continually struggled with), which is resulting in her poor weight gain. He said with all of her surgeries, she may have depleted her iron and then with not eating well, never replenished it. So, we are going to add an extra iron supplement in addition to what she already gets and push lots of spinach on the little girl. He thinks that as her iron gets back to normal, she will also then want to eat more. I sure pray that is the answer.

We thought it was a really good day, we are pleased with so much good information. We feel that this was so worthwhile to push us in the right direction with Mia, now we will focus on her nutrition and not worry so much about allergies. We will continue to pray that she figures out how to use her muscles in her bottom to gain control of her bowel movements. Praise God for lots of good information! Thank you for praying for our little pumpkin.

Endoscopy

I finally got in touch with Mia's GI doctor and she is scheduled for an upper endoscopy on Friday. The good news is that since it is an upper endoscopy, she doesn't have to get "cleaned out", she'll just be on clear liquids Friday morning. The procedure isn't until 12:30, so pray that she'd tolerate going without food. Pray for the entire team, that everything would go smoothly without complications and that we'd gain some clear understanding of what direction to go with her.