Friday April 28, 2006
Zora’s 4 month appointment was today. She is now 12 lbs 2.9oz (5th-10th percentile), 24.5 inches (50th percentile) and her head circumference is 39 cm. (10th percentile). She is catching up! About the only thing she is behind on developmentally at this point is that she doesn’t have a full blown giggle or laugh, although she is cooing, gurgling, squeaking, and making bubbles with her mouth. She smiles big and has the beginnings of a laugh, but it isn’t there yet. She is also starting to look like one of those kids that might skip crawling and go to walking. She strongly prefers to be vertical and has good head control and is gaining a lot of strength and balance for being upright. (still a bit bobbly, but I can hold her with one hand and she can remain standing for a good 10-20 seconds.
Zane is going to undergo some testing in the near future too. The dr. talked to the developmental pediatrician (who we have an appointment with in August) to see what tests she thought were appropriate and could be justified to insurance. He will probably have an MRI and some genetic testing along with a lead test. He might have a sedated hearing test (if it is more reliable than the one we took…he hasn’t been able to do a tone test, just a general ‘reacts to sounds’ test). After the allergy appointment, they will see if a colonoscopy would be appropriate too. All of these will be under light sedation so they would all be coordinated at the same time. The hospital we have the dental surgery at is not the hospital she usually deals with, but she is going to see if they can do the blood stuff then. The only thing that doesn’t appear to be covered is a mercury test, but she is going to find out how much out-of-pocket that test would be. If it shows up elevated she is going to find a specialist to explore the possibility of chelation because she doesn’t have any experience with that and it isn’t something you mess around with. We would probably have to go to the Children’s Hospital up in KC if that were to happen.
She brought up vaxes, but didn’t get nasty about it. I do, however, have another stack of reading material. lol. I think she can understand why we want to wait a bit to vaccinate Zora until we have a bit more clear of a picture of what is going on with Zane and if his body is handling the byproducts of the vaccines appropriately. I honestly don’t think vaccines are inherently dangerous, but I do think that not every person’s body handles them correctly. She pointed out that breastfeeding actually offers Zora quite a bit of protection at this point, so she wasn’t going to worry as much as long as breastfeeding is her main source of nutrition, and she agrees that we can hold off on food for a while since she is obviously thriving on breastmilk alone.
Zane and I both picked up our new glasses today. It is so nice to have glasses on that haven’t been superglued together, sit square on my face, and have both nosepads on them. lol. The prescription seems a lot better too. We haven’t been able to get Zane to wear his yet. We have managed to get them on for brief periods of time, but he wants them off. I am not sure if it is because they aren’t correct or because he doesn’t want anything touching his face. The prescription itself was a bit shocking in how strong it was. It is stronger than mine is. We will see if we can get a picture of it.
One really cool thing: When we were leaving the doctor’s office I asked Zane “Do you want to go down the steps, or the elevator?” instead of just heading the direction he wanted to go, he pointed (shocker #1) and said (shocker #2) “steps”. He made a choice (hard for him) and verbalized the answer. I know this seems like a small thing, but for us it is huge! Go Zane!
First to comment! ALRIGHT! Zora is already using an exersaucer? I think Sophia might be ready, but I’m not sure, and scared to get it because we really don’t have room for things she won’t use. Is 5-10 in between the 5th and 10th percentile? *I’m assuming so* Looks like she’s growing well. It looks like she might even be bigger than Sophia, but we won’t know how much Sophia weighs until Monday. I’m sorry to hear about all the testing that Zane is having to go through.
Hope you have a great day!
God Bless!
Beth
Yeah, we got her an exersaucer earlier this week. She insists on being vertical and my back can only take so much sling time (and she gets irritated at it after a while too). She is only in it for a few minutes at a time, but it gives me time to scarf down some food or do a few dishes and such. She really loves it and actually gets a little upset when I try and take her out of it sometimes. lol. We really don’t have room for it either, but that’s how it goes sometimes.
Yeah, she is in the 5th-10th percentile…I will go edit the post to reflect that.
she’s got a double chin!
Such an adorable picture! Sorry about all the testing, but at least if you know what you are dealing with, you will know how to work with it.
Wow, I just read through your last 4 posts. Lots going on, huh? I am sorry to hear about Zac’s mom, I hope the surgery goes well and a speedy recovery follows.
Zora looks great! Way to go with the elixir of gold, mama!
Zep had dental surgery when he was 2. It ended up going really well and what a relief that it was over with. He was a changed child after his teeth stopped hurting. I wish we would’ve been able to find a dentist who would do it sooner. I have never heard of stainless steel fillings…interesting.
So much going on with Zane. Are they thinking it may be diet related? hence the colonoscopy? Have you done an elimination diet with him yet? I can’t believe you have to wait so long until the appointment. Sorry, mama.
The appointment was originally Jan 2007, with the appoinment to get the results being in March 2007. Getting it moved up to August was an amazing piece of luck. lol.
I think the bulk of Zane’s core issues are genetic, however, he has looser than average stools, and we need to get a handle on it before we can attempt to potty learn. We are introducing some of the gluten-free caisen-free snacks to get him to diversify his food a bit before cutting out foods. I plan to incorporate GFCF diet at some point in the near future to see if that helps. I have food allergies in my family, so that is an area we are looking into. Food issues could certainly be magnifying some of his behaviors.