Xander, Emilie and Baby #3 » December 2007 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

< > December 2007

Tue, Dec 25, 2007 9:10 PM
Emilie must have made the famed request to Santa--All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. Well, actually, her remaining missing top front tooth. Mommy was pointing out how close it was to coming in to Grandma Cindy Christmas night. Grandma felt her gums and noticed it had cut through! She now has all of her four front teeth and is working on the two on either side of her front teeth on the bottom. All of these teeth are definitely making her loose her baby look!

Comments:

Add a comment:

Name: Email:
Comment:

Notify me of scrapbook updates
Thu, Dec 6, 2007 8:53 PM
Tis the season for some long overdue updates!

Anyone that has been around Emilie has seen her moving around in her unconventional scoot, earning her the nickname Monkey Girl. They may have also noticed that at now 13mo+, she can't pull up to standing, kneel, or get on all fours (without a major fit!) so her crib mattress is still at the highest setting! She's also earned the nickname of Turtle because she can't get from her belly or back to a sitting position on her own.

Finally, this had become a big enough concern to her doctor that he recommended she be evaluated by the First Steps program (they provide kids with physical, occupational, speech, etc therapy). They've been here 3 times now to enter her into the program, have her evaluated by physical and occupational therapists, and set up a treatment plan/schedule for her. She scored at or above on all skill categories (she scored a 13 when 7.5 was normal for cognitive skills!) other than gross motor skills (she scored a 5 when 10 is normal).

The recommendation of the physical and occupational therapists was much better than we had anticipated! They said she's a quick learner and is very close to being able to do these things on her own. They gave us a some exercises to do with her and they'll come to her babysitter's house twice a month to check on her progress and give us new exercises to do. They told us they think there's probably a combination of reasons that she doesn't crawl/get on all fours/get to sitting on her own: 1) She doesn't like to have her head out of line with her shoulders 2) she lacks upper body strength 3) her left hip is tighter than her right hip and may cause her some discomfort. When they rotated/stretched it, her head shot up like it hurt or she didn't like how it felt. Dr. Duck has always hesitated when he rotated that hip at birth and at each well baby appointment. At her 9mo appointment he said she'd probably need to be checked for a hip problem if she hadn't made more progress (remember, she didn't even like to stand at 9mo!).

They've also told us to discourage walking or she'll never figure out how to get on all fours. That's a concern to them because if she would fall down in the middle of a room, she wouldn't be able to stand back up. She was just really wanting to hold our hands and walk everywhere so she's not liking that too much right now either!

Since we started her on the exercises 1.5wks ago, she's already made progress! She can now get on her knees by her self and has sat up on her own a few times! She still completely hates being on all fours but at least she rocks back and forth while she's screaming now!

Her first appointment would have been scheduled for right before Christmas (and right before our health insurance change) so we decided to start at the first of January instead. Cross you fingers that a couple months of exercises helps her to strengthen her muscles and loosen her hip so that's she's back on track with all the other kids!

Comments:

Add a comment:

Name: Email:
Comment:

Notify me of scrapbook updates
Thu, Dec 6, 2007 11:24 AM
Yesterday when I walked in to pick the kids up, Xander walked right up to me and told me his tummy hurt. Donna said he woke up from his nap, crawled up on the couch, and said he wanted his mommy...over and over again. She asked him if anything hurt, pointing to every part of him, and he said no. He had seconds for lunch and even had snack so everything seemed to be okay. I just thought the tummy ache was due to his recent trouble having bowel movements.

We walked out to the van and the poor guy slipped and fell twice on the ice! :o( We'd driven about half way home and I heard, Mommy...blech....blech! The poor little guy was not having a good day!

When we got home, we changed his clothes and he told me he didn't have to spit his mouth out anymore. :o) Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. He got sick about 8 more times last night. He couldn't even keep down a sip of water!

We ended up sleeping on the couch bed in the basement (berber carpet is MUCH easier to clean up!). He must have started feeling somewhat better because he asked for drinks of water...all night long!

He seems to be feeling better now. He's kept down another 2-3 cups of water but refuses to drink any Pedialyte or eat any toast. While we were sitting at the table for breakfast, he asked where Emilie was. I told him she went to Donna's to play and he asked me if I could go get her. She's his baby! Awww! He's napping right now so hopefully when he wakes up, he'll be ready to eat something! And hopefully this doesn't spread!!

Comments:

Add a comment:

Name: Email:
Comment:

Notify me of scrapbook updates