9 month update

Sarah-Hope has recently turned 9 months. With the recent conclusion of the most well-supported and high profile paralympics in history, we are so grateful that we have the opportunity to raise Sarah-Hope at this time in the world!

Superb sitting

We are so proud of Sarah-Hope - she's sitting unsupported, but not unsupervised! For a few months now we've been putting her into a box supported by cushions right up to her chest to give her the experience of sitting... and with the "table top of cushions", she has a surface which her hands can reach and interact with objects. Her legs are strong and dominate her interactions. One of the reasons for this is that she can use her legs to reach out, touch and sometimes pick up an object that is in her front line of vision. We've found this "time in the box" to be important because her legs are hidden away and she can focus on touching objects with her hands and mouth. She has developed really good mobility in her shoulders and with strong neck and back muscles she can use her hands and mouth to explore what’s in front of her. And if she’s on the ground, Sarah-Hope rolls and rotates to get her hand in range of something that she'd like to touch. It seems that all this work her trunk has to do contributes to her strength for sitting. She has become much more stable over the last few weeks as well - we can take for granted how much we use our arms to balance! Initially she would topple over if she suddenly played with her feet excitedly or if she started sucking one of her fingers... but she's working out how to do it all together now. And a friend has kindly lent us a tyre that she can sit in the middle of... and safely topple over to any side if needs be, it's wonderful!

Growing, feeding a little, and platelet count improving incrementally

Just after Sarah-Hope turned 6 months, she picked up a respiratory virus and was sick for about a month. With breathing difficulty, she refused to drink from the bottle, but amazingly through straight tube feeding gained a kilogram in that time! We've kept her milk feeds at the same level for a few months now, hoping that perhaps straight hunger would give her an appetite for solids... while we're delighted to report that she is now eating a whole ice-cube worth of real food from a spoon each day (yahoo!), she must be using her calories well as she just keeps getting bigger! And this has no doubt added to her strength and development.

Sarah-Hope is easily making a 2 week stretch between platelet transfusions now. Just after she was born she was getting these about every 9 days, so we're delighted with the improvement we've already seen in this. Drips are going in pretty easily (into her foot or big toe!), although she certainly makes her displeasure regarding this procedure known to the paediatrician and nurses!

And parenting?

We’re really lucky as Sarah-Hope is an easy baby and we're so enjoying her. Leigh specialises in the therapy and development programme... Rich, of course, specialises in pure play! We’re thankful for seeing so much progress and are excited about what the next few months hold.