Hard to believe it has been almost a month since the last post. We've had a busy holiday season but things are starting to slow down a little. The kids had a great Christmas and really enjoyed seeing all of the family. Josie was in to unwrapping gifts this year which was neat to watch. Henry would rather just climb on top of them:) He is like a little monkey. Josie gave us the best Christmas present ever! We stayed home Christmas Eve and Josie slept through the night. She hasn't done that in 6 months and hasn't done it since, but what a blessing to have a good nights sleep on Christmas and Chad and I actually woke up in bed together. Chad had a few days off after the holidays and it was so nice to be home together with the kids.
In the midst of all the holiday stuff we continued Josie's medical tests to determine why she wasn't sleeping. We had an MRI of her brain a couple of weeks ago and it actually showed improvement! The MRI was done at 4 in the afternoon and our pediatrician called at 6 from home she was so excited to share the news. Josie's myelin has improved. This is basically the mechanism that allows the brain to transmit information faster and effects complex brain functions. Josie's previous MRI a year and half ago showed fairly delayed myelination and there was concern that we may not see an improvement. Her new MRI showed that the myelination was closer to age appropriate. This is huge! We went from dreading the thought that we may find something bad in her MRI to an improvement! Dr. White, Josie's pediatrician, believes this could be due to the fact that Josie is now on a diet that is allowing her to truly get the nutrients she needs and also the fact that she has a form of communication which allows her to be more involved in the things around her. Beyond these findings we did several x-rays, a lot of bloodwork and really didn't find anything that could be causing her to have trouble sleeping. So, Dr White has come to the conclusion that Josie is experiencing muscle-skelatal pain. We are now giving her an anti-inflammatory twice a day and we have seen a lot of improvement. Josie is happier in the day and sleeping better. She is definitely experiencing pain but she just can't tell us where. For now, we are going to continue on the pain medicine and slowly reduce it to see how Josie does.
Henry is starting to make more noises lately and pretends to talk on the phone which is very entertaining. He has also started to try to jump. It is hilarious he squats with those short little legs but never gets off the ground when he tries to jump. Henry has also developed an obsession with the older boys in the neighborhood. He can see them playing outside from our back windows and as soon as we go out he is running to get back there. The weather has been unseasonably warm lately which has allowed us to spend a lot more time outside. This is the last full month that Josie will be at home with Henry and I before starting preschool. Life is about to change a lot with just Henry and I at home, while Josie is off enjoying school. I don't know if I'm ready for it, but I know Josie is.
I'll try to update more later this month. Hope you all had a great holiday!
