2.4.11

Doctor appointment today!
It was a pretty good appointment. She gained 3 oz. (she's 5 lbs. 14 oz.), which I was totally excited about. I was worried that she would lose some, just because of coming home, changing her schedule up, and the fact that she is breastfeeding more and she doesn't eat quite as much breastfeeding yet as she does with the bottle. So a gain is a good thing! We will have another appointment next Friday to just check and make sure she's still gaining.
The things of concern were a couple of "minor" things in the doctor's terms. Her frenulum (the small fold of tissue under your tongue, you know the part that piece that keeps your tongue from dangling outside your mouth) is really close to the front of her tongue. When she sticks her tongue out or when she cries she almost looks like she has a forked tongue. I actually didn't really notice it, but Matt said one of the nurses in the hospital had brought it up (of course, he told me this today, not when she was still in the hospital). She had said that she would most likely grow into it, or they may just clip it eventually. Something like this could affect her speech, as well as, affect how she feeds, because she can't suck correctly. Well, today, the doctor said that she was actually surprised that they didn't clip it, so she set us up with a ENT doctor to have them look at it and probably have it clipped (ouch!) I hate that thought, but it will help her out.
The other concern is her umbilical hernia. She's always had a small one, but since they inclined her bed at the hospital, which causes her to strain more with the reflux, her hernia has gotten bigger. Most of the time a hernia like this is not a concern, because it will either go down on it's own, or by 6 months to a year, they would surgically fix it (minor surgery). The concern with Harper's is that it has gotten pretty big in a short period of time. It's pretty soft, but it's pretty big. She set us up with a general surgeon to look at it and see if they need to do anything. It's a minor surgery, but it's still surgery, so this has mommy worried. She said that it's fine as long as it doesn't turn black, so now I freak out every time I unzip her outfit because I'm worried it's going to be black!
So, next week is going to be full of doctor's appointments! ENT and general surgeon on Monday. Eye doctor follow up on Wednesday and regular doctor appointment on Friday. Poor girl, although, she's so used to doctors by now.
These two things are concerns, but overall she was happy with Harper's progress and was happy with how she looks. Now, if we can just get through next week!