Russia (okay, well, Putin) still bombards Ukraine every day. And we still have a kiddo who needs our full attention. So we move on with life — with teething, with trying to get her to nap, with doing everything in our power to make sure she’s growing and developing. We’re privileged to be in a place right now that we can do that, so we will. Because life will not always be this peace-filled for us. In the meantime, we’ll just hope that the Estonian military experts are correct — that Russia isn’t strong enough to take Kyiv.
Seizures
Friday night, after Brian was already long settled in his tiny little cabin 45 minutes from our house, and a friend I hadn’t seen for a long time was with me, Eloise had a seizure. Saturday, she had 2 more. Sunday, she had one while she was doing physiotherapy. I was afraid maybe the seizures were back and we’d return to December where she was having them all day every day. But Tuesday — a day after Brian returned — he came out of our bedroom after Eloise’s first nap and said, “I’ve got some bad news. I just found yet ANOTHER tooth poking through.”
We both laughed. And then sighed. No wonder she’d stopped eating the day before.
So, I think it might be safe to say that her seizures 2 weeks ago and then this week were all related to new teeth. That makes me feel relief that there is a reason, and that they haven’t stuck around for long.
Growth
But, thankfully, even though she has downright refused almost all solids during this week, she’s still somehow gaining weight. Not only is she GAINING weight, but she’s gaining centiles! At birth, her 2.254kg meant 99.2% of other babies were bigger. On Tuesday, weighing in at 7.590kg, she’s now bigger than 4.9%! Almost all kids with deletions as large as Miss E’s have weight gain troubles, so this is a huge victory.
What makes it feel like even more of a miracle is because she’s probably only taking in 200-400ml of milk (7-15oz) on an average day, and it feels like she’s barely eating any solids at all. We’re guessing the weight gain is probably due to the fact that we’re mixing her milk with a lot of Jimmy Joy. A few months back, when we were trying to get her to take in more fluids, we figured out Jimmy Joy helped her drink more. Though it’s not specifically made for kids, it’s at least nutritional — which is more than we can say for the banana and/or caramel coconut pudding she will often only eat. So we’ll go with it for now.
Development
Saturday morning, when I left Eloise on the floor, I stopped counting at 5. Five times she rolled from her back to her belly that morning. I think she’s finally getting her 8-month-old skill back that she lost after her first big seizures at 9 months.
What’s even more amazing is that every single therapist she saw this week — there were four of them — kept mentioning not only how much better she was tolerating therapy, but how much she had improved. Therapies 5 days a week are making an impact!
Taking care of ourselves
In the meantime, as far as Brian and I go, the strategies we’re implementing to give us more mental energy are helping.
Brian’s time away in the cabin was so good for him. He went from the tiniest things making him feel overwhelmed, to having enough energy to take care of Eloise even through her fussy periods and not napping sometimes this week. I’m so glad we did it.
Me? I’ve been steadily working on getting rid of more and more stuff. Between weekly trips to donate stuff, selling things online, working through digital clutter, and the sun reappearing in Estonia these last few weeks — I’m feeling lighter and lighter. And more hopeful we can bring out house to a much less stuff-filled place of joy before Brian or I (or both of us) return to work this summer.
And we’re on week number two of trying out a local Estonian service called Clean Kitchen. We pick out several recipes and they deliver everything to our door once a week. I still have to do all of the cooking, so it doesn’t save time there. But where it DOES save time is the mental energy of trying to figure out what to make that week, and the many trips I would make to the grocery store. I have been shocked actually at how much time it has opened up.
Anyway, on to this week’s @eloisethetinyfighter instagram recap for how this week was for our little Miss E:
“But I want them.” -Eloise
Eloise is stealing my glasses more and more these days. Maybe this will be the catalyst to have me consider laser eye surgery.
What that means is that around 90% of our mental energy goes into trying to get her to eat. Regular healthy solids? No. What if we put pudding on it? No. Surely a banana? Or peanut butter? No. What about a bottle? No. Okay, then what about a cup with thickened Jimmy Joy milk? No. What if we put you in your bouncer, will you drink it then? Yes. Okay!
At least she’s still in an incredibly good mood at the moment— so that’s helpful. I have a feeling it’s going to be an exhausting next 6 months as her teeth come in.
Is it this hard with neurotypical babies, too?
All our love,
Mallory, Brian, and Eloise
Eloise The Tiny Fighter 
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