She’s GROWING!!

 

Here's an update on her health issues.

We've been seeing this amazing pediatrician in Edmonton since January, trying to get her health and growth on track. He said for most people a cold lasts 7-10 days but when a person can't shake it, either asthma or acid reflux or both is the culprit. So, we are treating Sienna for both. She takes QVAR -1puff twice daily to make her lungs stronger and she takes 3.3ml of Prevacid twice daily. When she gets a cold, it lingers for weeks; for example, from January 20th to March 10th, she was sick with a cough and runny nose for 7 weeks out of 8 weeks. She also sometimes gets these cough attacks and then pukes. She was like this until the beginning of May and has been healthy since then until now. A cold is going through our family and of course Sienna caught it and it's been 9 days now that she is fighting it. Hopefully she can shake it fast cause we have a wedding to attend this weekend!!

 

As for her growth, her appetite is there when she is healthy. These are her measurements from our last two visits at the pediatricians:

March 10th- weight-21.6lbs height-86cm

June 26th- weight- 22.6lbs height-91cm

 

She is still very tiny as she will be 4 in August and is not yet 23lbs. However as you can see, she is GROWING!!!! She gained an entire pound in 3.5 months compared to last year when she gained a pound in a year and she also grew 5 cm, unbelievable! According to the growth chart, for her height she is following the 5 percentile curb which is awesome cause for the longest time she was way below the curb. As for her weight, she is still below the bottom curb but she is now finally narrowing the gap. Her doctor said, whatever we are doing, keep doing it. You don't know how great that was to hear! It's been a battle with her growth since she was a baby and finally now I feel we are on the right track. Our next pediatrician appointment is in September so until then we are going to fill her little belly and put her on the curb once and for all!!

 

 

 

Sienna’s first year of pre-school

Sienna ended her first year of pre-school at the end of May and I have to say she made tremendous progress since the day she first began. She spent 2 mornings a week in a colorful, energetic and positive classroom full of French speaking classmates, a teacher and a teacher assistant.

Mme Marthe, her energetic teacher, spent an enormous amount of time preparing enriching and interesting activities, and crafts. She always had positive words and ways with all the children, when they would act out, she would look them in the eyes and say, "Je t'aime!" At the end of the class, every child would line up and take a turn to listen to Mme Marthe whisper kind words in every student's ear. Sienna was always excited to go to school, every night before bed she would ask if she has school tomorrow. You can just imagine our summer holidays, "est-ce que j'ai l'ecole demain?"

Mme Diane, her teacher's assistant, was introduced to Sienna in the middle of January and they hit it off from the start. This was not surprising as Mme Diane is a gentle, kind and has a gift of listening which is exactly what Sienna needs to flourish. She drops down to her knees to listen to Sienna's words, she speaks slowly in a calm voice with great articulation. Sienna and Mme Diane prepared a special box with vocabulary cards used to play games to enrich her vocabulary. Sienna's very lucky to have found these two people along her hearing journey. They both played an important role in her progress.

We can't wait for September when school starts as I can just imagine what kind of leaps and bounds she'll make next year.