Adventures in eating...round 2

One of the subjects I focused on when I first started blogging about Xander back in 2007 is food.  Anyone who has spent any time with me knows I like good food.  I married a chef who obviously likes good food.  So when it was time to start feeding my precious baby boy solid food, I wanted to do it right.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find much direction on the web.  Hence, I figured I would try to chronicle my own journey.

I don't think I lasted very long (a side effect of my spasmodic blogging style), but I did make little notes here and there in his first year calendar.  I've looked back at these notes every now and then as I begin the journey again with Amelia - what vegetables did we give him?  how long did it take us to work up to three meals a day?  when did we start finger foods? - but on the whole, I haven't been quite as worried about the specifics (doesn't that just sum up the second child entirely?).

Don't leave the bowl on the high-chair tray or Amelia will take it and try to eat it!

I am making her food just as I did with Xander.  I just love the process, and I feel good knowing exactly what went into her meal.  I hope it encourages her to be an adventurous eater; Xander's not very picky for a three-year-old, and of course I credit it to our policy of feeding him what we're eating for dinner.  Of course, it may just be one more thing for them to bring up in therapy when they grow up..."Mom always made such a big deal out of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!"

Amelia at 7 months

We're already past the half-year mark?  How did that happen?  Our little girl is sitting up, can roll from her tummy to her back easily now (even with the bar), and she's thisclose to rolling from her back to her tummy (it's gotta be hard to get momentum with those shoes!).  She's eating three meals a day and loves her food - we're working on the sign for "more", but she usually just opens her mouth like a little bird and bangs on her high chair tray.  Xander is enjoying his little sister more now that he can interact with her, too.

She's a cutie, that's for sure!

*Ppppbbbbbttttttt*

Look at what Amelia has learned to do!  You can tell she's just happily babbling to herself - she doesn't even notice I'm there until about 20 seconds in.  Oh, and the coughing is her way of talking - kind of like a laugh.  Enjoy - this was one the bright spot of my day.

I think we've recovered...

I believe the sickies have left our house.  Xander was feeling much better yesterday, and today I let him resume his normal diet.  Bring on the peanut butter and waffles!  Brian didn't feel well last night, but he was fine this morning.  We're still not sure if we all had some kind of stomach bug, or if there was some bad pizza involved.  That was the last thing Xander ate before he got sick, and Brian half-jokingly blamed that pizza.  So I suggested he try a slice and see what happened.  Brian didn't get nearly as sick as Xander did (thank goodness!), but he did feel a little ill.  Whether it was the pizza or just coincidental timing, we'll never know.

The good news is that whatever swept through the house seems to have skipped Amelia - yay!  Today I stepped up her meal schedule; now she gets breakfast, lunch, AND dinner.  She really enjoys mealtime - she doesn't suck her thumb in between every bite anymore, and she even opens her mouth like a little bird when she wants more.  It's so cute when babies start communicating.

Amelia at 3 months

Happy 3-month birthday, little Amelia!  Our little girl is growing so quickly, and she's starting to smile and laugh and babble.  She is such a fighter, and I can't wait to see what next month will bring.

Swing Baby, Swing

So yesterday was a big day in more ways than one.  You already know about Amelia's surgery that went exceptionally well.  The other milestone is that yesterday marked the end of the two weeks that the neurosurgeon told us to to wait before letting Amelia be on her back as often as we (and by we, I mean she) like.  It's exciting and freeing not to have to worry about how long we have her out and on her back!

How did we celebrate this momentous occasion?  Brian, my dad, and Xander put the swing together that we received at Christmas.  We were fortunate enough to borrow a swing when Xander was tiny, but now we have our own adorable one (seriously, it has ears!) for Amelia.

 

Amelia's been in swings at church and at the YMCA, so the concept wasn't new.  She seems to like hanging out in there, but she doesn't really fall asleep in it like I had hoped.  I thought maybe this would be a good way to get her to learn to sleep on her back.  Last night we put her to sleep on her side with her bunny pillow propping her up from behind, but she woke up every couple of hours crying out.  She finally woke up for good around 6am, far off her usual wake-up time around 8:30.  Of course, I don't know how much of that is the new position and how much is because (hello!) she just had surgery.

 

As you can see, she really doesn't mind being in the swing (or anywhere, for that matter) if she can see big brother.  In fact, she got a little fussy while Xander was watching a cartoon and I was doing some things around the house.  I thought she might like to swing front-to-back instead of side-to-side, so I switched her.  She fussed in this new position at first, too, but as soon as her eyes locked onto Xander, she calmed right down.  I love seeing the bond develop between them.

This last shot is Xander's work.  I've been showing him how to hold the camera so that every picture he takes isn't of his hand.  You can see the smile that Amelia likes to give her big brother.

Surgery: The Trilogy

As someone who has only had maybe two surgeries in her entire life (does having my wisdom teeth removed count as surgery?), I am thoroughly amazed that my little girl has now had three surgeries before she's even three months old.  The first, of course, was her myelomeningocele repair at one day old.  The second, her VP shunt placement.  And today, we add a quad tenotomy (meaning the doctor will cut her quadriceps tendon so that she can bend Amelia's leg the right way) to complete the trilogy.

We arrived at the hospital just after 7am this morning to check in.  After that, we went up to the surgery floor to get her weight and change her into her hospital gown.  I have to admit, as nerve-wracking as this whole situation is for me, she looked pretty darn cute in a teeny-tiny hospital gown that was still too big on her.

After a short wait, we went back to get her vitals and answer a bunch of pre-op questions (medical history, medications, etc.).  Then it was back out into the waiting room.  The third time we went back it was to meet with Amelia's orthopedist, the anesthesiologist, and the OR nurse who would be with Amelia during the surgery.  The anesthesiologist told us how they would put Amelia to sleep during the procedure: gas via a breathing mask, a breathing tube that would come out before she woke up, and an IV that would come out just before she leaves the hospital.  She also explained that it's common to see irregular breathing with general anesthesia, especially with babies as young as Amelia (apparently, she's never met our little fighter - our girl didn't have any breathing problems the entire time!).  Then came the hardest part of our day - handing our little one over to the OR nurse.  Brian and I trudged back to the waiting room just after 9am and quickly busied ourselves with making phone calls, reading (him), and catching up on notes from cough Christmas cough (yeah, that's me).

About an hour and a half later, Amelia's orthopedist came out to tell us that the surgery went "perfect" - and a feeling of relief washed over me.  She said Amelia's quadriceps tendon was buried and super-tight, but that they were able to get an almost 90-degree bend on her leg as soon as they cut the tendon.  I was amazed to hear this, since she was expecting only about 45 degrees.  They put a cast on her leg, including her foot, and we don't expect it to move at all.  We'll wait until our follow-up appointment next week to also cast her left leg.

We waited another 20 minutes or so while Amelia was in surgical recovery, then we were called back to the outpatient recovery room.  The nurse brought her into the room in one of those cribs that I've grown to hate from our time on the floor back in December.  She looked so much bigger in that crib today.

Not five minutes after she was wheeled in, she was waking up and wiggling around.  She was alert and happy, and as soon as I saw her I had a hard time holding back tears.  I was so relieved to see that we were indeed going to go home today, because my biggest fear through all of this was that she wouldn't tolerate the anesthesia well and would have to be admitted to the hospital.  I should have known better - Amelia is a tough gal, and within 15 minutes of her arrival, I was giving her some Pedialyte, then nursing her!  Her pulse, oxygenation level, and respiration rate were so good that the nurse was prepping her to leave as soon as I was done feeding her.  All said and done, it was about three and a half hours from handing Amelia off to the OR nurse to walking out the door of the hospital.  Now we have a happy, but sleepy, little girl, and I pray we can start measuring the length between surgeries in years, not weeks.

Amelia at 2 months

 

*Blink*...and our little Amelia is already two months old.  These last couple of months have absolutely flown by.  I remember driving to the hospital every day thinking that we were in an interminably long phase with our little girl, and now she's been home with us for over a month.  All that time in the hospital seems so long ago.  Granted, we get to drive down that way at least once every week, but we're so happy she's here.  Nothing and no one could have prepared me for the way I just take her condition in stride:  she's my daughter, she's a beautiful baby, and oh, by the way, she has spina bifida.

Doctors and Banana Slips

Amelia says hi! She's really happy tonight despite the fact that she had two shots and an oral immunization today.  Plus, both shots had to be in the same leg since her cast comes up almost to her hip.  Poor thing.

I took both Xander and Amelia to the pediatrician today.  Amelia for her two month checkup (Can you believe she's already two months old?), and Xander because he developed a cough a couple of days ago and I'm not taking any chances - especially with Brian sick.  No worries, though - Xander is fine.  He's cutting all of his two-year molars (top ones are almost fully in, bottom ones are just starting to come up), so the cough just developed from the runny nose he has.  He did end up getting his flu shots today, though, so I had two slightly puny little ones.  There were a lot of snuggles and cartoons this afternoon!  Plus, after dinner he got to enjoy his first banana split - "banana slip" as he called it.

Amelia is doing great - she got a new cast yesterday (a little more fitted than last week, so I think we have a good chance of keeping this one on again until next week), she's starting to smile at us, and she's growing so fast (9lb 13.5 oz, 20.5" - woot!).  She's also sleeping through the night every other night or so, which I am so thankful for.

Brian's feeling better, too.  He's on the tail end of a pretty nasty upper respiratory infection (like he gets every year), but the doctor put him on a strong antibiotic and a heavy cough syrup.  Tonight he even made dinner - a sure sign he's feeling more like himself again.

Taking a sick day

Brian never calls in sick.  In fact, I can really only think of one occasion in almost eight years of marriage when he was so sick that he voluntarily stayed home from work.  Today marks the second time I've seen him call in sick.  It's that bad.  All the poor guy's been able to do today is sleep.  I'm praying I don't get whatever yuck he has because, um, moms don't get sick days.

Xander's still running full bore, though.  Yesterday after breakfast he asked for a game, so I asked if he wanted to play a board game or a video game.  By video game, I meant computer game since we've been playing a lot of fun games at the PBS and Playhouse Disney websites.  Xander must have taken "video game" literally though, because he lit up and said, "Oh yeah, I go get my guitar!" as he ran for the closet where we keep the Guitar Hero controllers.

The kid's actually been raised on Guitar Hero in a sense: I played frequently while I was pregnant (most famously the night I was in labor) and Brian would play with him strapped in the Baby Bjorn to settle him down when he was fussy.  However, today he went for the microphone.

Later in the day, we got down on the floor and played with Amelia.  She's really pushing up now; I guess that's one nice benefit of having her prone all the time.

I took Xander to the playground this morning.  It's been a challenge to keep him occupied and away from Brian.  Usually having Daddy home equals fun times, so I've had to work at explaining that Daddy is sick and we need to let him rest.  Xander wisely asked if Daddy was going to go to the doctor.  Happily, I can say yes, tomorrow Daddy is going to go see the doctor.  As is Amelia - I'll have an orthopedic update tomorrow, too.

Sunday Haiku

Poor Brian is sick

I napped in the sun and breeze

And made him some soup

Amelia's cast came off at church today, too, but I couldn't figure out how to fit that in.  Besides, we managed to put it back on.  I hope it doesn't cause any problems.

A new record

Today was a rough day...Xander is being very two, and we spent the day in our pajamas. Not the good-lazy-do-nothing-spend-the-day-in-your-jammies kind of day, but the steam-rolling-fight-to-change-a-diaper-day-with-no-chance-to-change-out-of-your-pajamas kind. In fact, I think the only things that happened of note were that Brian picked up Xander's new big-boy bed and mattress, I finally saw the last half of "You've Got Mail" (yeah, I know it came out over ten years ago, and I can't really pin down exactly why I've never seen the whole thing, but 'tis true), and - the big one - Amelia's most recent cast is still on.

She tried to roll from her tummy to her back yesterday. As you can see, she's pretty angry about it and she didn't quite succeed (probably because of the cast), but she did try. I think her attempt had something to do with the fact that I propped her chest up on that little pillow in her floor gym. I'm just happy she tried; since she's been prone her whole life, she's really content to lie on her stomach and I really worry that this milestone will be severely delayed. I'm already preparing for "back time" once our neurologist clears her for it. She'll have to be trained to be happy on her back just like most babies have to be trained to be happy on their tummies. Just one more thing to be concerned about, I guess.

Anyway, back to the cast. This is attempt #4 to keep the poor thing's right leg in a cast to begin correcting her knee. We abandoned the idea of correcting her knee and feet at the same time last week, hoping that the bend in her foot would help keep the cast on. Unfortunately, it didn't work. Her right knee is straight right now - much better than bending the wrong way like it wants to, but the cast just wants to slip right off. On top of it, she likes to wiggle around. So on Tuesday, the orthopedist decided to just cast from her hip to her ankle in the hopes that her foot would really stop the cast from sliding off (you can see it pretty well in this picture). I am happy to report that it seems to be working; we're going on day 4 with no major problems. The cast does slide down, but I can easily stretch her leg and move it back up her leg. I also keep her sock kind of tucked up under the bottom edge of her cast to keep it from chafing her foot. I feel really good about this new approach; hopefully, we can get through the next couple of weeks with some good improvement and be able to bend her knee the right way so we can start in on her feet.

Holding on

Xander is a really good big brother. In fact, he keeps surprising me with how kind and loving he is toward his sister. I'm sure you've already seen how he sings to her when she's crying (the ABC's, of course), and I've already told you that he likes to bring her a pacifier and put it in her mouth, too (which leads to a lot of pacifier washing, since sometimes it takes a detour on the carpet as a car before it makes it to Amelia). This morning he blew me away, though. I had just finished feeding Amelia, and was getting up off the couch when Xander reached for his sister and said, "I hold baby sister, Mommy. I hold her."

He went from sweet in the morning to sour in the afternoon, though. We tried to go to the playground since it was such a nice day, but the slides were really wet and had a lot of mulch on them. I'm not sure how that much mulch accumulates on the slides, but it was probably done by a child who likes to pick it up by the handfuls so it can rain mulch like mine does. Anyway, he just walked around the playground area for a few minutes, picking up rocks, and then we moseyed back home. Where he proceeded to act very strong-willed and dramatic (i.e., 2 1/2). Amelia was fussy, too. I'm not sure if she was picking up on the mood of the house or if she had her own reasons, but I was trying to calm either one or the other for the rest of the afternoon. Tomorrow's forecast is for rain all day, so I hope we're all in better moods to deal with the dreary weather.

Finally, we meet

Today, Amelia and I paid a visit to the urologist.  He is the only doctor involved in Amelia's care that we never got to meet in the hospital, so I was eager to finally get to talk with him and ask some questions that Brian and I never really got answers to.

Things actually look pretty good; the VCUG Amelia had in the hospital shows that she's eliminating well enough not to need a catheter, which is a huge relief.  We know that we'll very likely have to cath her at some point, but the farther back we can push that day, the better.  She does have some low-grade reflux (basically, urine backup) in one of her kidneys, but apparently it's not enough to be too concerned about right now.  In fact, the doctor said that this kind of reflux is very common in little girls and usually goes away on it's own - we're just keeping a closer eye on it because she already has a neurogenic bladder (typical with spina bifida).  He even said that he thinks that hers may clear up in a few years!  So, our course of action right now is to prevent a UTI with a daily dose of antibiotics and keep an eye on things via another ultrasound in three months.  She'll probably have to have another VCUG in about a year, too, which I am already not looking forward to.  Still, to walk away from the urologist with only a couple of prescriptions for antibiotics is a huge blessing, considering many babies have to be cathed from the beginning.

Xander was busy taking pictures with our camera today.  As you can see, he really likes his new airplane.