Eating progress..

Recently, we've had some progress getting Ella to eat new foods. A lot of this has just been overcoming her toddler instinct to reject any food that is unfamiliar to her, which is pretty typical at her age.

However, some of this is due to her texture aversions. Ella really doesn't like to eat bread products very much, but recently she's started eating sandwiches if they're cut up and put on a fork. Her teachers have a theory that the texture aversion is actually not liking the rough feel of bread against her lips, which is what lead them to try putting it on a fork. This weekend, I took that a bit further, and got her to eat the top of a corn muffin by breaking it up into pieces she could pick up and stuff in her mouth.

yay for new frontiers in cuisine for Ella!

Cardiologist results..

As her mother already mentioned, Ella visited the cardiologist today.

Again they did an EKG (which she screamed at me through because she did not want to lay still) and an echocardiogram (which she was fairly good for). The results are fairly good, or at least as expected. (edit - fixed electrocardiogram to echocardiogram)

Her PDA is still present, but her left ventricle is now a tiny bit enlarged, but there is no damage to her heart or lungs. The enlargement is too slight to be harmful anytime soon, but it is a sign she's going to need a procedure to close the PDA at some point. We've been referred to the doctor that performs the cauterization, and he'll take a look at her. If he deems she's a good candidate for the catheter procedure, she'll have it this year, or the next, depending on how he feels about her size. If she's for some unusual reason not a good candidate, she'll have conventional surgery sometime this year.

This is all pretty much what we expected based on last year's visit.

Anyway, just wanted to share the news that Ella's still doing OK, but will be getting a procedure sometime in the next 18 months or so.

signs and a heart full of love.

I've updated Ella's list of sign language signs (google docs link in links section), and we're now up to 141 signs that I've documented. She's also getting pretty reasonable at 2 new colors, black and brown.

Also this Wednesday, Ella has a cardiologist visit to check on her PDA, and to see if she's going to need a corrective procedure for that. Last time she saw the cardiologist, they told us it was likely to be necessary at some point, but it wasn't anything significant, but that was a year ago. Fortunately it is likely to be a catheter procedure, not a surgical one, if it is necessary at all.

Regardless, wish us luck.