18 month update

Brie had a good check up with the pediatrician yesterday. She is developmentally on target for an 18 month old. No correction needed for her gross or fine motor skills. She is still small for her age, but has finally landed on the growth chart. She was 20 lbs 4 oz and 29 5/8 inches tall putting her in the 3% for both height and weight (this is also not corrected and would be higher if you used her adjusted age of 15 months). Her head was 46 cm which is in the 25% where it has always been. Her new pediatrician is not concerned with her slow growth and just feels that she is going to be petite. At this point he feels that she is doing well.

As for the milk issue. His suggestion is that we add some lactaid to her milk and retry whole milk again in a few weeks. He does not agree with the GI docs suggestion to cut out all dairy and soy for the next 6 months. We explained to him that many of the things she actually eats and asks for are milk products so to take them away would not be beneficial to her growth. We also discussed the bottle and how to get rid of it. He suggested that we not take it away until we can get her off of the Elecare and onto something she likes to drink as she needs the calories from the formula. Hopefully our next milk trial will be successful and we can get rid of both the elecare and the bottle before the new baby comes.

Brie has also had another language explosion. She enjoys repeating things that we say and has actually started to put some words together. Instead of just signing all done when she wants to get out of the highchair she says all done and signs it. She has also started saying bye-bye da-da and ma-ma. In addition she says hi, beans, book, eyes, baby, and eggs. We think she has about 15-20 words that she says on a consistent basis, which is right on target for her age.

Another big development, which was more a mommy issue then something Brie had control over, is that we finally turned her car seat forward facing. I was leery of doing it because she is still so tiny, but she has consistently been over 20 lbs now for a month and before the pneumonia she was almost 21 lbs. This weekend she took her first long car trip forward facing and she was very happy. Normally she fusses in the car after about 30 minutes, but this time she was pointing out the window and saying truck and giggling if she saw cows, doggies, or any other animal out the window.

Sorry there have not been new pictures recently. I have to get them off of the camera and will try and add some tomorrow.

Feeling better

Well after a few rough days and nights our peanut is pretty much back to normal. She is still not eating well, but we have been trying to get her to eat better in her high chair as well. She has been running around the house asking for yum-yums, but when you sit her in her highchair she refuses to eat what you put in front of her. We know she is hungry because if you pick her up and walk around with her she will eat. For some reason sitting at the table is the problem. This is one habit we would like to break before the new baby arrives. It is a difficult predicament we are in, we want her growing and gaining weight, but the more we carry her around the more we feed into the problem. Her weight has dropped again because of the illness and she is now 20lbs 0.5 oz today, so she lost 12 oz. Hopefully she will be able to gain it back fairly quickly.

Today Pop came for a visit and he and Marcus built a closet in the new babies room. Now all that is left to do is finish spackling, prime, paint and order carpet. Marcus has the new dresser all sanded and ready to refinishing. In a few weeks we will order the crib and then our little girls room will be complete. We already have her crib set and are going to paint the walls lilac. It should be nice. My c-section is just 12 weeks away and we are nowhere near ready. Most of our newborn and 0-3 month clothes are summer so we will have to buy some warm outfits. Nana Green has already started her out with a few outfits and Brie and I bought her coming home outfit yesterday.

Pneumonia... again.

Well after a great day on Saturday, Brie woke up somewhere in the night screaming. After about 10 minutes she vomited her entire stomach contents and she has not been the same since. She started with nasal congestion during the night and coughing the next morning. Yesterday she refused to drink or eat anything and she is just shy of being dehydrated by some miracle. After another rough night of fevers, vomiting with coughing and breathing very labored we were off to the pediatricians this morning. Sure enough Brie has pneumonia again. The chest x-ray confirmed it. Currently she is sleeping and has had about 2 oz of fluids so far today, so hopefully this time we can manage to keep her home and treat this pneumonia with some antibiotics and rest. Marcus and I decided it was best if I stayed home today as she eats and drinks best for me. We both were scheduled to work and Sandy and Donnie were going to watch Brie for us, but with her being so sick we figured it was best I stay home. Hopefully she will recover quickly and be back to her old self in a few days.

Just a quick look at our bbq pictures!

Brie had a blast helping Poppop fill up her new pool. She of course had to check it out with her clothes on!
Look at me!
Christina and Marcus playing on the slide. The swing, slide and pool were a big hit.

Meghan and Erin had a great time sharing their chair and enjoyed the slide and swing.

Kerrilee and Chris made the long trip as well. Kerrilee is expecting a baby girl at the beginning of December as well. We joke that maybe our new little ones will share a birthday like Brie and Erin.

Meghan cuddling with her mommy, Michelle.

Here is daddy balancing Brie and Michael. I think he is practicing to see how difficult it will be to carry two babies at once.

Finally found our camera!

Well after 3 weeks of not being able to locate our camera, I found it today. It was hiding in Brie's diaper bag that we rarely use. Just in the nick of time for our summer bbq tomorrow. It should be alot of fun and it looks like the weather might actually hold out. It was originally looking like it was going to be a rainy weekend, but now the skies are clear.

Both of our little munckins are doing well. We had another ultrasound on Wednesday to see how our little girl is growing and she is right on target. She weighs 1 lb 7 oz, so just a few ounces shy of where Brie was when she was born. My next ultrasound is in 3 weeks so hopefully she will continue to grow and thrive.

Brie has also been doing well in the weight gain department. Yesterday she was 20 lbs 12 oz. She is still a little pill to feed and will not eat at the table, but at least we are getting enough calories in her to get her growing again. She saw the GI doctor here yesterday. She was 29 inches tall and was 21.4 on their scale, but that was fully dressed. He wants us to cut out all dairy and soy for the next 3 months, do a milk scan to check gastric emptying and do some blood work to test for celiac, cystic fibrosis, and lactose intolerance. If everything comes back normal we will confirm that it is behavioral and go back to feeding therapy. Marcus and I are pretty reluctant to stop all dairy because Brie seems to love her yogurt, cheese and cream of wheat with heavy cream. These are the things that have finally gotten her to gain weight and she is tolerating them fine. She is going to see the nutritionist in 3 weeks so we will see what she says. The doc also did not want to increase her prevacid. He added a second medication Axid which did not go well last night. I gave her her 2 ml dose and 10 sec later it was back with part of her dinner. I am not sure if we will try again or not.

Milk gone sour.

Well after 2 very long weeks attempting to transition to whole milk we have decided to throw in the towel. We got up to about 6 oz of milk a day before we stopped, but prior to that we noticed Brie was not eating well again and she was acting like her belly hurt. We proceeded on because she was also getting two top teeth and the left molar, but starting Monday things got worse. Brie was refusing to eat even her favorite things. Bottles were becoming a battle again so we knew it was time to quit. Today she seems to be back to normal. She ate fairly well today for me and was happy all day.

In addition Brie finally hit 20 lbs! We weighed her last Friday and she was 20 lbs 2 oz. Hopefully the last few days of poor eating did not allow her to lose weight. Marcus and I are not sure what the next step is to get her off of formula. She sees the GI doctor on the 22 of this month so hopefully they will give us some direction. Some ideas we have are to try goats milk or soy. At this point it seems to be a tolerance problem. She does fine with a few ounces of yogurt and cheese a day, but add some milk and forget it.

A tribute to Grammoo

As many of you know Brie's great grandmother died this Tuesday. Brie got to see her one last time on Sunday morning before she passed. She will be missed.

Here is the obituary from the paper for all who didn't get to see it.

Ruth A. Green, formerly of Germansville, Slatington, Slatedale and Allentown, passed away Tuesday night, July 29, 2008, in Gracedale, Upper Nazareth Township. Born May 31, 1917, in Schoenersville, she was a daughter of the late William and Clara (Abbott) Schmoyer. Ruth was employed as a sewing machine operator for several factories in the area until retiring. She was a member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Slatedale. Ruth will be deeply and greatly missed by her family and friends. Survivors: Sons, Ralph F. Green Jr. and his companion, Darlene E. Nesfeder, of Pen Argyl, David M. and his wife, Lee A. Green, of Germansville; daughter, Joan M. Shea of West Lawn; six grandchildren, seven great-grandchilren; numerous nieces, nephews. She was preceded in death by numerous brothers and sisters. Services: 11 a.m. Saturday, August 2, 2008, Kevin E. Hunsicker Funeral Home Inc., 4214 Main Street, Slatedale. A calling hour will precede the service at 10 a.m. The Rev. David L. Hess will be officiating. Interment, Cedar Hill Memorial Park, Allentown. http://www.hunsickerfuneralhome.com/. Contributions: To the church, c/o the funeral home, P.O. Box 29, Slatedale, PA 18079-0029.