Sophia

So I went in to change some things and add some things on my post about Sophia and accidentally deleted the entire post. Then I went back and did it over again and realized there was an error and I couldn’t publish. Now I am trying again. Sophia doesn’t change a lot, but I do have little bits of news. She still has very little interest in eating, but we can usually get her food in her if we stick to yogurt and a few baby fruits and sweet potatoes. She drinks PediaSure for calories and vitamins. She will also eat a little meat -- baby food. But, feeding time is not usually fun. It can be very difficult. One of the things I had wanted to add was that she is very picky about who feeds her. It is actually strange. If the right person doesn’t feed her she will actually refuse to eat.

We have had a hard time with her eczema lately. It started off with a few patches and turned into a total body take over. It was terrible. We have had several prescriptions that haven't worked, but we just got something new that seems to help. We use it several times a day and then she is covered with an oil and thick cream at bedtime. This seems to be helping, but it has been a battle. We also have a new prescription to help with itching. Funny that it just developed this year. I'm not sure why, unless it is her very limited diet. 

She still doesn't like to go anywhere. Not therapy or church or basically anywhere. When we get in the car for therapy, she usually yells most of the way there  --  her way of telling me she wants to be home.

She had a hard spring and summer -- a lot of yelling and noises and seemingly discontent. But, all of a sudden about a week or so ago she started to seem more interested in things and she has been looking around at what is going on and scooting around all by herself. She has stopped spending her days yelling and just seems a little more interested in life. I have no idea why, but it is nice. She does seem to go through moods. 

She just seems more engaged this past week or so. Looking at what we are doing instead of rocking back and forth. Even laughing at what the other kids are doing. This has come on so suddenly and unexpectedly that I am actually afraid that it will end just as quickly as it came.. It is so nice to feel like she might want to be involved in what we are doing. She seems a little more alive. We did nothing to cause this. One day I just realized that she was quiet and watching -- really watching. Not sure this will last, but I hope so. This isn't the first time she has seemed to be a little more connected with us -- it seems to come and go. But, this time seems to be a little different -- maybe just my imagination. I will enjoy this while I can.

I think that if I had to name her favorite thing to do it would be to have Bethany or Claire play with her -- rough play. Holding her hands and pulling her back and forth and back and forth. She loves movement. She still chews on her poor hand and we can not keep her hair out of her mouth most of the time. She wears her arm brace a lot of the time to keep her hand from getting chewed on till it bleeds. We actually have not had to use the brace this past week. That has been nice for her and it also is better because of her eczema -- the arm brace makes it worse. 

 She still won't really look at me when I rock her and I'm not sure why. She will look at me from the floor, but if I pick her up to rock and try to really look into her eyes and talk to her she does everything she can to arch back and look away. But, if I put her down, she will look up at me for a few seconds. I guess everything takes more time than we think it will. But, today Sophia seems happy and involved  -- happier than she has been all summer. A real blessing for sure. 

Oh, and she doesn't like me to take her picture. Well, I'm not sure if she does or doesn't, but just know that whenever I try to get her picture she seems to do everything she can to not look my way and is pretty successful most of the time. But, I usually manage to get a couple even without her cooperation.