Caroline experienced her first time at the lake house for Fourth of July! She LOVED every second of the trip. 

We noticed a Ed a lot of changes in Caroline after coming home from the lake. We think she enjoyed all of the new noises and faces! In the past couple of weeks, she has become much more responsive to people talking to her and is trying to explore her environment more. 

Caroline has also discovered her hands! She is using them with a lot more purpose now. She is reaching for toys and tries her best to pick them up. It has been so exciting to see her manipulating her toys! 

She also has continued to make progress with feeding. We recently gave her a taste of carrot purée and she really seems to like it! So far, Caroline seems to be a veggie girl vs a fruit girl. 

On Monday, we had a vision expert come out to evaluate Caroline’s vision. She has already seen an ophthalmologist, but the person who saw her Monday assesses the “behavior” of the eye. He told us that she has great “visual attention” and is basically doing everything she should. There were a couple things that she can work on, so we will have someone come out once a month for vision therapy. The good thing is that he doesn’t think that she has a visual processing issue. More of a muscular issue in the eyes. We will continue patching and hope to avoid surgery in the future. 

We have become very busy with appointments lately. Here is what we have coming up:

Orthopedic Surgeon: meet with the pediatric orthopedic surgeon to get Caroline’s hip checked out as they are worried about potential hip dysplasia. 

New PT: meet with a new physical therapist through Peyton Manning outpatient services. We are ready to amp up her PT and also want to get a second opinion. Two brains are better than one right?!

Developmental Pediatrician: this will be our second time meeting the pediatrician who specializes in caring for kids with special needs. I am looking forward to seeing what the doctor thinks about Caroline’s progress. Last time we saw them was in January! 

Neurology: in September we will travel to Cincinnati to meet with a neurologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. They are number 2 in the country for pediatric Neurology so we want to go to them for a second opinion. 

Feeding Team: in December we will travel to Cincinnati again to meet with their feeding team. This is a very unique experience that could be really helpful for Caroline. We will meet with several doctors for 2 hours. The best part is that all of the doctors and therapists will be in the same room, at the same time, evaluating Caroline. There will be a GI doctor, ENT doctor, pediatrician, physical therapist, occupational therapist, feeding expert and maybe a couple others. They will all brainstorm ideas, as team, to help with Carolines feeding plan. 

We we have a lot coming up! Caroline continues to make so much progress and we couldn’t be more proud of her. She is still very behind in meeting her milestones but her smile makes everything a little better. She’s a happy, funny little baby and already seems to have such a sweet, tolerant disposition. She’s been though a lot and continues to press onward with a big smile on her face!