Florida

This past week we had the opportunity to go and see Brad's grandparents in Florida. It was a very sweet trip for us and we enjoyed this special time we got with them. Grandpa Bob and Grandma Lois really enjoyed seeing the great grandkids, and us too, but Mia and Calvin were definitely the stars of the show. They both quickly adjusted to being there and had a great time.

Happy 9 Months Calvin!

Where did those 9 months go? This month Calvin decided to start crawling. It took him about a week to get used to it...and now he's on the move. He also became quite a mama's boy this month. He's doing great though, he keeps gaining weight and getting bigger. We also decided to start him on some reflux medicine and we've noticed a bit of an improvement. He still spits up some, but some of his other symptoms I don't notice anymore. Here are some photos of the handsome little man.

And He Crawls

Yes, Calvin tried a bit of crawling this morning. I'm not going to classify him as a full blown crawler yet, but we are moving out of the Flowerpot Stage, which makes me so sad...you know, the stage where you put them down and they stay put and play with the toys around them, the Flowerpot Stage. He's only crawled a few times today, but I'm sure in the next week he'll be quite an expert at it.

Mia got weighed again today and she's holding her own at 26 pounds. I've been reading some about gastroparesis (a slower emptying stomach) and one of their recommendations is to replace a meal with pediasure because it empty's quicker as a liquid. Since she's been drinking the pediasure she's been gaining weight, so we are going to stick to it for awhile. I'd love to see her catch back up to her growth curve, which is still below the growth curve. :)

Another LA Trip

Yesterday we were back in LA for two different doctor visits. Daddy went with us, so that was really nice that I didn't have to drive. Our first appointment was for Calvin with the Neurosurgeon to evaluate his head shape. Great news, he is just fine. The doctor was very satisfied with his head and did not think that would we should be concerned in any way. Thank you God! After that appointment we had a third opinion on Mia's eyes by another ophthamologist. His recommendation is that we do eye surgery on her muscles to correct her lazy left eye. His ultimate concern is for her binocular vision (depth perception, etc), you get that when your eyes are working together appropriately, so if you have a lazy eye, then you can have issues with balance and depth perception. The good news is that her eyes work well together at close objects, so there is some binocular vision working, just not all of it. Anyway, he thinks we should do the surgery in the next 6 months, so we have tentatively scheduled a date for that in september, but we'd like to research and pray about it before we ultimately go ahead with it. So, if you know anyone who has had children who've had that surgery, we'd love to talk to them about their experience. And of course you can be praying for wisdom on our part also.

On a different note, today Calvin got himself into sitting for the first time. He's been up on four's for awhile now, and we think he's getting closer to crawling, but Mia's physical therapist told me they usually get into sitting before they crawl, so I was expecting that to happen one of these days. And today was the day.

More GI Stuff

So, we saw Mia's GI doctor today and got the results from her stomach emptying test. She does empty slower than we do, she empties 1/3 less than what we do in a given time period. This explains why she doesn't eat as much since she probably feels full more often than we do. She also has some reflux, there were 3 episodes during the 90 minute test. This explains why she has episodes of throwing up, or at least why she did in the past. There are some surgical procedures to correct both of these issues, but at this point there isn't a need since she is gaining weight (praise God she is now 26 pounds!) and the vomiting only happens very rarely. But, if these were to become issues as she gets older, there are some options for her.

We then talked about Calvin because I have been concerned about him having reflux for awhile now. He agrees with me and thinks Calvin does have reflux based on some of the things I have mentioned, but still thinks he has some time to outgrow it. Although most babies have outgrown it by his age, he says to wait until he's about a year to reassess. There is some medicine we could try for it, but I opted to wait a little bit to see how he does on his own.

One thing about Calvin that I've noticed lately is that at night he always sleeps on his tummy. Ever since he could flip over, he's been doing it on his own. He's been a horrible napper in the day, napping at most for 30 minutes, unless I nap with him or hold him and so it hit me the other day to try putting him on his tummy for his nap. Apparently that's it. He'll now take an hour and half nap in his crib. I've read that babies with reflux sleep better on their tummies and so this makes alot of sense.

Just yesterday Calvin started getting up on all fours. He hasn't gotten into sitting himself yet, so I think we have a little time until he's crawling, but we are definitely getting closer and it will probably happen real soon.

Four Generations!

When we were in North Dakota before Easter, we took another four generation picture of Mia, myself, my mom, and my grandma. We did this right after Mia was born, it's just neat that we got to do it again. So, here is the updated picture along with a few others from our trip.

Happy Mother's Day!

From our home to yours, Happy Mother's Day!

GI Stuff

So, we saw Mia's GI surgeon yesterday. Her anus has narrowed, so we are now going to start doing some dilations again to stretch her anus to the proper size. This wasn't a fun task when we did it before, so I'm not looking forward to doing it again. He also was concerned that she might be constipated, so we had an xray done for that. I just spoke with him on the phone this morning and she is constipated, so we are going to start her on some miralax and see if we can't get her to have more regular bowel movements with the help of the miralax. This is actually really good news, I know you don't want to hear that your child is constipated, but if this is what it takes to get her to have regular bowel movements, we are so hopeful. Please pray with us that this would be the answer and that things would start to improve.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

When did it become May? I can't believe it's here already. Lots of different news to report from our home. This morning I weighed Mia and she's up to 25 1/2 pounds! Praise God! The only thing I can think that is doing this is the pediasure she's now drinking, so we are going to stick to that and hopefully she'll keep gaining weight.

We had a trip to LA today that ended up being a very long day. The doctor was behind several hours so there was quite a bit of waiting before our appointment. Anyway, we saw Mia's craniofacial doctor and the good news is that he doesn't think Mia will need a cosmetic surgery for her head shape. We were leaning that direction anyway, so it was really nice to have him reaffirm what we felt about her head. It's good enough. And since he doesn't think she'll need that, we are officially done seeing him for Mia. Yay, 1 less doctor on our list...maybe...

So, he immediately checked out Calvin's head when we got there and there is a slight concern there. His sagital suture may be fused slightly early causing his head to be more elongated than it should be. His gut feeling is that there isn't a problem, but he wants us to have his neurosurgeon look at it and give us his opinion. There is a slight ridge running the length of his head, but it is so subtle and he believes that it would be more pronounced at this point if it were a problem, but just to be safe he wants us to see the neurosurgeon. So, you can pray that there wouldn't be an issue, we are scheduled to see him next week Thursday when we have to be in LA anyway for another appointment for Mia.

Tomorrow we go back to LA again for another appointment with Mia's GI surgeon. I will be so glad when we don't have to go so much. But, both of my little ones have become very good travelers and the trip is usually very smooth. :)