Milestones

We have our first offiial tooth! Last friday the doctor told us Kinsey's tooth was still pretty far under the surface, then on Sunday the tooth popped through her gums. So much for that! Anyway, you can feel it (pretty sharp) and the Dr. said she's got about 1/4 of a tooth so far. She was fusy for a few days and we're pretty sure it's the tooth's fault.

Also, this week Kinsey was seen for the first time rolling over! We knew she could do it because we've found her on her stomach in her crib in the morning several times, but no one ever witnessed her doing it until now. Unfortunately, it wasn't one of us. The Nanny saw her do it. I was in the other room and heard her saying "You did it" and I thought maybe Kinsey "reached" for a toy or something (she doesn't really reach for them on purpose yet). Anyway, it turned out she has rolled over completely on her own. Of course, I tried (really hard) to get her to do it again, to no avail. Oh well, we'll see it happen ourselves eventually. The important part is that she can do it :)

Kinsey continues to pack on the pounds - this week she's at 14 lbs 2.5 oz (that's another 5.5 oz since last week!). According to the standards, once a baby hits 6 months, they should only be gaining 3 oz a week, but Kinsey has put on an average of 6 oz a week for the last 7 weeks! I guess she's playing catch up. She hasn't grown any more - still at 25 3/4 inches, but her head has grown a little more - now at 15 3/4 inches. Her weight, height and head circumference are all just about at the 3rd percentile for growth - still blowing that Trisomy chart out of the water.

Actually, speaking of growth charts, a friend of mine told me the World Health Organization's standards are different than the American Academy of Pediatrics charts (which are adjusted for overweight Americans). The CDC even recommends using the WHO charts for infants up to 2 years in the US then switch over to the American charts after that. So who knows why the doctors (and everyone else out there) still use the other charts, but I'm going to use the WHO charts and by those standards, Kinsey is fairing much better. On the WHO charts, Kinsey is 50th percentile for height and about 12th percentile for weight.

Kinsey got her hand splints (gloves) this week. They're still pretty bulky and hard to get on, but they will work. Now we just have to see if she can sleep with them on so she won't have to wear them during the day. She is wearing her foot splints (or boots as we call them) during the day and that seems to be going just fine. I haven't taken a picture of her gloves yet, but will share one soon.
Dr. Perszyk (the geneticist) was very interested to see how much Kinsey has progressed since he last saw her in January. He was impressed with much of what she is doing. We talked about a lot of things to think about and watch for in the future. He mentioned the boots and gloves are good, but that we should take her to see an Orthopedist around her 1st birthday and see if anything else should be done. Not sure about the feet, but he mentioned surgery could be a possibility to open her hands (the middle fingers particularly) at around age 2. He also talked about her skull development and how that's a little uneven and she holds her head to one side more than the other. He said that could even out over time as her brain develops, but it could be something we need to watch and possibily need surgery down the line. Nothing to worry about right now though. He's also very upset that the insurance is trying to get out of paying for her diagnostic blood work and is going to help us out with that. We'll see how that goes!

Jamie's first Father's Day was last weekend and we took our 2nd annual tractor ride to Sonic with friends. Kinsey was strapped into her carseat and rode in the trailer with the rest of us. Aside from the heat, she liked it. I made her a dress out of Farmall fabric and she wore it for the tractor ride (even though our tractor is John Deere).

Practicing Sitting with the Occupational Therapist

Practicing in the Bumbo

Sitting on the tractor with Daddy at Sonic (wearing her Farmall dress)

Doctors, Doctors and some Fun!

Kinsey had a visit with the cardiologist who specializes in the electrical problem with her heart - Wolfe Parkinson White Syndrome (the fast heartbeat). He had her wear another Holter Monitor for 24 hours to see how the medicine is doing (last time was before the medicine). He also increased the medicine slightly since she has grown. That does seem to be making her a little more tired, but that should be temporary until she gets used to the new dosage.

The Dr. explained a little more about what's causing her to have a faster heartbeat. He also told me that most of the time this goes away at some point in babies and then can return at age 5 or 10. We just have to watch her and see if or when that happens. I'm not sure if it's possible that it could go away permanently or if it's always temporary. Anyway, I can call them next week to get the results of the monitor and then she has another appointment with him in 3 months.

We had an unscheduled visit with the pediatrician today - Kinsey is working on her first tooth and we thought it was coming through the gums, but today it turned into a pussy blister. I did some research and found that can happen when a tooth is coming through, but I took her to the doctor to be sure. The doctor said that's all it is, but also said the tooth is still pretty far below the surface. So the white thing we thought was a tooth on the verge of coming through turned out to just be a blister, but the tooth is coming . . . someday :)

Kinsey was eating like crazy last week and put on about 6 oz in only 2 days! She's back to her normal level of eating now, but she still gained another 3 oz. That puts her at 13 lbs 13 oz this week! In a couple of weeks we have an appointment with Dr. P (the geneticist who told us she wouldn't grow no matter how much we got her to eat). I can't wait for him to see how much she's grown!

I've been in a crafty mood lately and started making all kinds of things for Kinsey. I wanted a Gator pillowcase dress for her, but people sell them for like $30 so I figured out how to make it myself. Once I realized how easy it was, I've made a bunch of them! I also figured out how to make hair bows and felt flower hair clips for her. They're also really easy and cheap. Now I can make her bows to match all her outfits :)

Here are some other fun pictures from this week:



Taking over the remote control already!



Sleeping in her jumper



Lots of Fun!

This week has been full of fun and new things! First of all, we discovered that Kinsey prefers to be sitting up (even though she hasn't figured out how to do that herself yet). We put her in the stroller without the carseat for the first time and she really likes it. We've gone on several long walks that way now. We also discovered that the seat of her swing was fully reclined, but could be changed to a more upright position. We moved that and now she likes the swing too! She'll sit in it for a quite a while just looking around without fussing. Here's a video of her in the swing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWat6JVf10s

Kinsey started eating "solid" food again this week. After much research, I discovered that most of the 1st Foods are gas producing fruits, vegetables or starches. In fact, the only thing they make that doesn't cause gas is Squash. Fortunately she likes that, but she needs some other things to eat too. So I researched foods I could make and only found a few things that are ok to give a baby her age - Pumpkin, Zuchinni and Avocado.  For pumpkin you can used canned pumpkin and just add a little formula to it - she liked that ok. We also tried Avocado, but that didn't go over well AT ALL! She made such a horrible face, sort of gagged on it and I thought she was going to projectile vomit it at me. She ate what I gave her, but wasn't happy about it. We'll try it again a few more times before I give up. We haven't tried Zuchinni yet.

Anyway, when we first started with foods, I wasn't sure how much to give her and when. I found a chart that suggested 3 feedings of food a day so that's what we were doing. Also because you have to introduce one food at a time, she was eating 3 meals of the same thing each day and those things were all gas producing foods. It was too much for her little system to handle! Now I found a new chart that says when you're first introducing foods that you should do 1 meal a day. So we are now doing 1 meal a day of the non-gas foods and after another week or two, we will do 2 meals a day and reintroduce some of the other foods again and see how that goes.

Speaking of eating . . . Kinsey has been doing a lot of it lately and keeps packing on the pounds. She's now up to 13 lbs 4.5 oz and nearly 26 inches.

After we discovered how much she likes the pool, we bought her a little baby pool that she can lay in and splash around. She likes it :)  Click here to see a video of her in the pool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atU2lZgWgkg

Kinsey got the splints for her feet today. She was supposed to get the hand splints today too, but what they had was not going to work. It was too easy for her to move her fingers out of the splints the way they were. So we are back to the start on those and we'll go back in 2 weeks to see what they have then.

Anyway, for the first couple of days she only has to wear the foot splints for a few hours each. We'll increase it an hour at a time until we get up to 8 hours a day. She doesn't mind them so far. The therapist said she can wear them at night. We'll see how she feels about sleeping with them. Here 's what they look like:

And here's one final video - Kinsey LOVES to talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGeOWZoxfMU

Vacation

As I mentioned in my last post, we took Kinsey on vacation last weekend. We went to the "mountains" in GA (Pine Mountain to be exact) and stayed in our very own log cabin. Kinsey did well with the trip, although she seemed to get tired of being in the car by the time we were on our way home.

We had our own private hot tub at the cabin, so the first night we dipped Kinsey in to see how she would like it. We didn't get her too wet because of the heat, but she seemed to like it. The 2nd day we took her to the pool in the evening. We thought it would be best to go once the sun wasn't so bright, but that made the water cooler. She didn't fuss at all, but she seemed to be kindof in a trance. So the 3rd day we took her to the pool during the afternoon and she definitely liked it then. She started smiling and splashing around! Click here to see a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-mPAvE38wA

It was a quiet week so there's nothing else to report for now. Here ae some other pictures from our trip: