The Amazing Growing Baby

For all you chart and numbers people out there, here's Shayna's latest growth chart from 12-months to now.  The astounding thing is the 330g gain between this week and last week.  I wouldn't have believed it except we had a doc apt on Tuesday that show her at 9.8kg making the 9.91kg (21#13.5oz) today plausible.  (That's a jump from the 17%-ile to the 24%-ile.)  She doesn't show any obvious fat rolls from the gain and her belly actually has looked smaller this week (her large liver piece still makes her belly girth much larger than normal) so I'm wondering if she got taller too.  She's definitely getting stronger as her climbing skills and little shoulder muscles are much more evident.  My guess (from past experience) is she'll hold steady and take a couple weeks to actually reach the 10kg (22#) mark.

On the internal numbers side, things looked good this week.  We just checked liver numbers this week and they were holding steady with the last two weeks making both Shayna's doctors and parents happy.  If the numbers go up we're looking at another possible rejection episode and, with her immune suppressing drugs low, there's a distinct possibility of that.  Right now we're fighting the EBV (a virus that causes a harsh flu in normal people with the worst case leading to mono; in an immune suppressed person it can lead to EBV hepatitis where the virus attacks the liver and worst case leads to lymphoma (cancer)) so we've had to drop her immune suppressing drugs to try to get the active virus level in her blood stream down before it attacks organs/tissue.

On the fun side, we did a little family outing today of the Blacksburg Gardens Tour and saw some beautiful gardens that people have put tremendous work into.  My favorite was the yard with lots of curving beds with colorful, textureful plants that looked like wild organization.  Shayna liked that one too but for another reason; it had a water fountain.  Her second favorite was the one with rocks and dirt she could play in.  She likes to show us the rocks and sit in the dirt, picking up fistfuls to pour on her legs.  She also really started saying "Aba" and "Ima" today quite distinctly and in context.  She's been able to say both for a while but just didn't want to until today.  Nahum turns into a little puddle on the floor every time she says Aba.

Bubble beard baby from 6/25.