Life with a New Shunt

I posted last time that a new shunt made for a happy baby.  Boy was that an understatement!  I should say that a new shunt makes for a NEW baby.  It's really incredible how much happier she is, and it was pretty amazing how quickly she started feeling better.  In the last 10 days she has started pulling herself forward, she's rolling forward and backward in her zip-zac (though she's not really going anywhere yet), doing high-fives, waving her little fingers, and talking  babbling up a storm.  All the while she's in the happiest mood ever. 

She's been out of daycare for a week and will be out again this week.  It's the best thing for her but it's also the worst thing.  The last few nights she has not been tired at her normal bedtime of 7:00 and was even up until almost 9 last night.  I just cannot wear her out and stimulate her like they do at school.  This afternoon Leah and I stopped over at daycare so I could pick up her linens that come home each week.  She was so excited to see everyone!!!  She was trying to jump out of my arms and into her room!  I could tell she recognized her teachers and the other kids and really wanted to stay.  It made me feel a little better that she'll be happy to go back to school next week.  

In the meantime, we've been trying our best to keep her busy here at home, which has been more difficult since the Minnesota winter has settled in.  We were very fortunate to have a warm Thanksgiving last week, and we were able to go for a walk down by the lake for the 2nd year.  We took a picture at the same spot we got one last year when Leah was just 2 weeks old.  We also had a low-key dinner again this year with just the 3 of us.  I made a full turkey dinner again, though this time I made homemade stuffing instead of the box kind.  What a difference!  It was super yummy!!  While it was great to have a very relaxing 4-day weekend, it also made me very sad that we had to cancel our trip back to my family.  We had planned on flying there on Tuesday night, but we decided to cancel when Leah needed shunt surgery.  We were here in Minneapolis for both holidays last year and now we'll be here again for both holidays last year.  At least we were able to get credit for our tickets so we'll just have to plan a trip there after the holidays.

In general health news, we had Leah's 1-year appointment today.  She weighs 20 lbs and is 29" long, so she's in the 30th percentile for both.  She's meeting all of her milestones and seems be growing and developing right on track.  I had also taken her to the eye doctor a few weeks ago, right before her shunt failure.  Because of her hydrocephalus, we want to make sure any increased pressure doesn't affect her eye health.  Thankfully her eyes are looking good, haha!  Up next, we are going back to the neuro team later this week to get her stitches removed.  Then in a couple weeks we have her big 1-year Spina Bifida appointment where she gets a full brain and spine MRI, followed by a renal/kidney scan, and then on to SB clinic.  It's the longest and most intense regularly-scheduled appointment that she'll have.  I'll be thankful when it's over.  Hopefully that will be the last time we're at Children's for a long, long time.