Today Mia went to the dentist. Her teeth look really good, she didn't have fun with the cleaning process, but they are really quick about it. One of our concerns is that she has started to grind her teeth more lately, but her dentist said it's very common and we shouldn't make a big fuss about it. The irony is that she doesn't do it when she sleeps, it's something she does during the day, lots of times without realizing it. It's a bad habit. :) I guess we all have a few of those.

After the dentist we met some other moms and went to story time a at a local bookstore. Mia immediately was more interested in the books around her than the actual story that was happening. It was nice to take her somewhere that wasn't a doctor/school appointment, we will definitely have to do that more often.

This afternoon Brother got checked out and he's doing just fine. He's head down ready to go when the time is right, which isn't for another month or so. We are still planning on a VBAC, so you can be praying that the delivery would go smoothly without any complications.

Mia is becoming such a better walker. She now doesn't put her hands so high in the air and her steps aren't so wide apart, she's becoming more balanced. She's also taken to "running", where she takes itty bitty steps really fast, she thinks it is great. Her therapist was really impressed with her walking today.

Mia weighed in at 22 pounds again today, which was rather frustrating for me because I really thought she was eating better this week. Since we are back on dairy, I think I will go back to adding some cream to her milk for some extra calories and see if we can't move up on the scale.

Brother has made it to 36 weeks. I delivered Mia a day before 36 weeks, so this is the longest I've ever carried a baby. Aside from having no desire to do anything, I'm actually feeling really well. I go get checked out tomorrow and now I'll be having weekly doctor visits. I can't really fathom having another child in the next month, but I'm definitely ready to be done being pregnant. But I will let him bake a little longer so that he's healthy when he does decide to come. :)

One More Thing...

With everything that was going on yesterday, I forgot the cutest story of the day. After Mia woke up from anesthesia she was rather unhappy and wanted something to eat and drink, she first signed milk and then immediately signed cracker. Well, they didn't want to give her milk, so her only choices were apple juice or water. Both of them were not on her "I want" list, so she was really upset when I tried to give her water. At that point she no longer wanted anything to drink, she only wanted a cracker. Of course, they are scared to give you food before you drink anything, so Brad went downstairs to find some milk, hoping she would take that first. She was extremely upset by that point that she wasn't getting a cracker. I'm super grateful that her nurse decided to bend the rules and got her two different crackers, a graham cracker and a saltine. She inhaled them, I told her to go slow, but she was so hungry at that point...I've never seen her eat so fast ever. :) And then she was done, her tummy was happier and she didn't want anything to drink regardless, even the milk that Brad brought back. In fact, she didn't drink anything the rest of the night, but she did eat some dinner. I wasn't too worried because they had pumper her full of a bunch of fluids before we left. :)

She's back to her regular self this morning, you wouldn't even have guessed she'd been through all of that yesterday. Praise God!

Endoscopy

So we went to LA today to have an upper GI endoscopy for Mia. After discussing with the doctors, they decided to also look at her colon from her bottom. We hadn't prepared for this (you are supposed to get cleaned out), but they said if her stool is loose enough, they can push it aside/wash it out and still get a good picture of what is happening down there. Overall Mia did really great, she wasn't even too fussy without food, but by the time they were ready, closer to 2, I believe, she was no longer having fun. Brad got to stay with her while they gave her some gas to put her to sleep, which was much better for her than being around complete strangers, I was grateful that it worked out that way.

After looking at her throat, stomach, small intestine, and colon, the impression is that everything looks great and she has no inflamation. They still took some biopsies and will look very closely at everything, but we are anticipating that to come back normal. So that would mean she has no malabsorption issues and definitely no Celiac disease. That would be a huge blessing for us.

So, what is going on with our little girl. His thought is that she should have an evacuation study done with a barium enema, to see exactly how she evacuates her stool and that when she is 4 or 5 they can do another study (if we are still having issues then) to see exactly how much pressure she feels down there.

His other thought is that her extreme anemia is causing her to not eat enough (something we have continually struggled with), which is resulting in her poor weight gain. He said with all of her surgeries, she may have depleted her iron and then with not eating well, never replenished it. So, we are going to add an extra iron supplement in addition to what she already gets and push lots of spinach on the little girl. He thinks that as her iron gets back to normal, she will also then want to eat more. I sure pray that is the answer.

We thought it was a really good day, we are pleased with so much good information. We feel that this was so worthwhile to push us in the right direction with Mia, now we will focus on her nutrition and not worry so much about allergies. We will continue to pray that she figures out how to use her muscles in her bottom to gain control of her bowel movements. Praise God for lots of good information! Thank you for praying for our little pumpkin.

Endoscopy

I finally got in touch with Mia's GI doctor and she is scheduled for an upper endoscopy on Friday. The good news is that since it is an upper endoscopy, she doesn't have to get "cleaned out", she'll just be on clear liquids Friday morning. The procedure isn't until 12:30, so pray that she'd tolerate going without food. Pray for the entire team, that everything would go smoothly without complications and that we'd gain some clear understanding of what direction to go with her.

Yesterday Mia weighed in at 22 pounds 8 ounces, we are finally back to our highest point. We are still waiting to hear back about her intestinal biopsy.

Last night Mia fell out of her bed for the first time. She was fine, we only have a mattress on her bed so it isn't that high from the floor. I'm quite surprised it actually happened since she's been in that bed for quite awhile and hasn't had a problem yet.

We are really enjoying not having to rush off to school in the morning. It's fun to have a little bit more flexibility in your schedule. :)

Blood Work Results

I was finally able to talk to Mia's GI doctor today and it left many unanswered questions. Apparently her blood work results were mixed, she was absorbing some vitamins and proteins while not absorbing others. She also had some blood in her stool and was extremely anemic, which could either be because she isn't getting enough iron or because there is an absorption issue. He also said that her villi were slightly inflamed, I have no clue how he knows this, but he was concerned that she might have an allergy and now he thinks she might actually be Celiac. The only way for him to truly know is to do an intestinal biopsy on her, which he'd like to do next week. This will be done down at UCLA and will require anesthesia, it will be a short procedure and she should be able to go home that day, but I believe that she'll have to be on a liquid diet the day before and she'll have to get cleaned out for the procedure. Just pray for timing and all the details, that this would give us a clear answer and direction.

Last Day Of School

Today was Mia's last day of school for the summer. I was slightly nostalgic, so I stayed with her in class, it was obviously a much bigger deal for me than her! Because of scheduling changes, in the fall she'll end up with a new teacher for 6 weeks before she gets moved to an entirely different class when she is 3. I was a little disappointed about that, but we'll just work through it when the time comes.

Mia has become little miss independent over the past day, she now refuses to let me hold her hand while walking, she must do it herself and she does great. She'll walk from one end of the house to the other without falling and mostly without stopping. It's neat to see her turning corners without having to hold on to something.

We are looking forward to not having to rush off to so many things for the next 5 or 6 weeks! Yay for breaks!

Yesterday I had another visit to the doctor, Brother is doing great. I'm now 34 weeks, which is when my water broke with Mia, so I've been told to take it easy these next couple of weeks just to be on the safe side. Brother is super active, it is starting to become a little bit uncomfortable sometimes, I don't enjoy my kidneys being used as a punching bag. It's very different than Mia, I barely felt her at all because she wasn't processing my amniotic fluid, so there was too much fluid in there, it was like she was in the ocean...plenty of room to move around.

Mia is doing really well, walking even more, she'll walk long stretches now without falling, which is so great. She still needs to work on her balance, but we continue to see lots of improvement in that area too.

We haven't heard back from the GI doctor yet regarding her blood work, hopefully that will happen today or tomorrow. Yesterday she weighed in around 22 pounds 5 ounces, which can't ever seem to move past 22 pounds 8 ounces...I truly believe that we'll get there, it's just a matter or time and patience. God has been so faithful in so many ways that I know he will grow her little body in his own time. Praise God for all He continues to do in her life!

Today we had a baby shower for Brother. It was very sweet and a good time spent with family and friends. Brother got a couple of stuffed animals and I said those would probably quickly get snatched up by Mia. The joys of being the 2nd child, I guess. I was right, as soon as I got home and Mia saw the bear on top of the diaper cake, she needed it. She has such a love for animals that I am not surprised. She hasn't come across the stuffed dog yet, we'll see if we can't save that one for Brother. :)

We are still waiting for bloodwork, I anticipate sometime early next week. Not much else new to report, which is really nice. Hope you are enjoying your weekend!!!

Blood Draw

Mia had to have her blood drawn today because our GI doctor wants to run a blood panel to make sure she is absorbing nutrients like she should be. We have a guy we take Mia to because in general he is really good and can draw her blood fairly quickly. So, I called to make sure Mike was there, and he was, and we went over this morning. She needed quite a bit of blood and she tends to clot fairly easily, so I was anxious, but just kept praying the whole time. He got her blood drawn fairly quickly and it was just the exact right amount when she started to clot. Praise God! And such a relief for this mommy. There were lots of tears, but both Mia and Bear got a band aid for being so brave and we quickly forgot about it as we were driving away. Thanks for praying! I'll be curious to see what comes about from this blood panel. Pray for wisdom for her doctor in assessing the next step.

Not Celiac?!

We met with a GI doctor today regarding Mia's celiac diagnosis. He does not think she is celiac. He is still concerned about her loose stools and frequency of stools and he wants to do a blood panal to see if there is a metabolic disorder that we are missing. The other thought is that this might be related to all of her intestinal issues, so he is going to do some research there, hopefully ruling out that as an issue. This will change quite a few things if she really isn't celiac. It would make our life easier, but we will do whatever needs to be done for her to have normal bowel movements and proper weight gain. She's right back at 22 pounds today, it is such a fight to get that scale to move in the right direction! Pray for wisdom and direction as we go from here on this neverending ( or at least that's how I feel sometimes ) journey!

Pray for our blood draw tomorrow morning, that it would go quickly and easily.

Sacramento

For 4th of July, Mia and I went away with Grandma Cheri and Uncle Paul to visit my brother and his family. They have 4 boys ages 7, 5, 3, and 1. There is alot of energy in that house! We left Daddy behind to work on the backyard sprinklers and although he made great progress we were sad he wasn't with us.

Mia's cousins adore her and she really likes them too, it was fun to watch them interact together. Every time we ate, she would always comment on how dirty the baby got eating.

It was a nice weekend, but were glad to be back home with Daddy. I was super pleased with how well Mia did in the car, it was a long trip! We broke it into 3 pieces to give her some breaks (and me too!) and that worked well.

On Sunday, we went to my brother's church and while Mia was in the nursery she ate her first piece of crayon. It was green, go figure, her favorite color. I tried to get as much out of her mouth as possible, and then just made her wash the rest down with water. I think it should be ok, I'm pretty sure crayons are safe if ingested. She hasn't been acting too different since. ;)

LA Again...

So we went to LA again today, this time to see Mia's neurologist. He is so pleased with how well she is doing. She was playing with her Grandma Cheri and laughing while he was in the room and he commented how he loved that she was not only making progress, but that she had personality too. It speaks well of her cognitive ability because it shows us that she's "there".

His plan is to see her in another 6 months. As of this summer she has been seizure free for a year, he said that if she is seizure free for 2 years, we can then think about taking her completely off her anti-seizure medicine and looking at another EEG. That sounds like a good plan to me.

LA twice in one week, I can't complain though because our next visit isn't until August, I'll be glad to have the rest of the month "off".

Praise God for such a wonderful report, we know she's a miracle!