Henry, his blankie, and Pablo
We officially are a house of walkers now. It is like living with a couple of little drunk people but is very fun and entertaining:) Both kids are walking more than crawling and get better at it every day. Henry's is more of strut and he sticks his chest out while he walks which is pretty funny. Josie can get going so fast that it is almost like she is running.
What a few weeks we have really had since the last post. We are starting to come out of the fog of a couple of illnesses just in time to celebrate Henry's 1st birthday this weekend! Both kiddos have had a stomach virus and cold/flu in the last few weeks which makes for very tired parents. Unfortunately, this is not the kind of recovery from surgery we were hoping for Josie, but she really has been very tough through the whole thing. Last week we did put her on an inhaler for awhile because her airway has just taken a real beating with the illnesses and surgery. I'm hoping this will help her sleep better. In the middle of all this Henry also cut his first two teeth! I was afraid the kid was going to turn one without a single tooth in his mouth, but luckily he now has two on the bottom and working on the top two.
In between the bouts of bugs and flu we made it down south for a trip to the lake and Pittsburg. This was the first time that both kids were able to go out on the boat and they loved it! Josie had never been on the water before and she just looked so pleasant the whole time. Josie has always liked wind and a breeze. It seems to do something to her senses that just feels really good, so she really enjoyed the boat ride. Henry enjoyed watching the other boats and the birds. The weather was just about perfect and Chad and I were able to get quite possibly our last ski of the year in.
We have also been busy of course with lots of doctor's appointments, too. The exciting news for the month is that Josie's scoliosis of her back is getting better!! The last time we saw the orthopedic we talked about possibly needing future back surgery and this time he said she looked much better and said we didn't have to come back for 8 months instead of 4. Supposedly walking has really helped straighten her up. I can't tell you how exciting it is to get good news every once in a while. You get used to expecting to just hear more bad news when you go to the doctor so that you are prepared. We've also been dealing with some GI stuff because her scope results came back abnormal, mainly saying that she has chronic gastritis and chronic reflux. We've been modifying meds to see if this makes a difference. Also, saw the feeding clinic at KU. We are still fairly far away from qualifying for the program to wean kids off of feeding tubes. Their suggestion was to get Josie into feeding therapy at least once a week for awhile and see if she increases the amount of food she will swallow. Basically right now she won't swallow anything. They voiced their concern that Josie has a lot stacked against her when it comes to eating so we could very well be looking at a long road here. It was disappointing for Chad and I to hear, but we came home and started mapping out our next steps. That is really all we can do and just keep giving Josie the best opportunities we can. We are in the process of getting appointments with GI and a feeding team at St. Louis Children's Hospital for second opinions. Our pediatrician agreed it may be a good idea to get a second opinion on all of this stuff and is helping us obtain appointments.
We have also been busy of course with lots of doctor's appointments, too. The exciting news for the month is that Josie's scoliosis of her back is getting better!! The last time we saw the orthopedic we talked about possibly needing future back surgery and this time he said she looked much better and said we didn't have to come back for 8 months instead of 4. Supposedly walking has really helped straighten her up. I can't tell you how exciting it is to get good news every once in a while. You get used to expecting to just hear more bad news when you go to the doctor so that you are prepared. We've also been dealing with some GI stuff because her scope results came back abnormal, mainly saying that she has chronic gastritis and chronic reflux. We've been modifying meds to see if this makes a difference. Also, saw the feeding clinic at KU. We are still fairly far away from qualifying for the program to wean kids off of feeding tubes. Their suggestion was to get Josie into feeding therapy at least once a week for awhile and see if she increases the amount of food she will swallow. Basically right now she won't swallow anything. They voiced their concern that Josie has a lot stacked against her when it comes to eating so we could very well be looking at a long road here. It was disappointing for Chad and I to hear, but we came home and started mapping out our next steps. That is really all we can do and just keep giving Josie the best opportunities we can. We are in the process of getting appointments with GI and a feeding team at St. Louis Children's Hospital for second opinions. Our pediatrician agreed it may be a good idea to get a second opinion on all of this stuff and is helping us obtain appointments. We'll the rest of the week the kids and I are going to be getting ready for Henry's party. We checked out the Signing Time Happy Birthday video today from the library so we are learning how to sign things about birthday parties. I think Henry is just going to have a great time and I can't wait to see what he does to the cake. He has a little bit of a sweet tooth like his mom, so I bet he digs in. I'll be sure to post pics this weekend!
