A Rough Week

Kinsey's got yet another cold this week. It started on Monday and it's pretty been up and down all week. Sometimes she acts like she feels fine, and other times she's been very grumpy and needy. Two things have been consistent though - a bad cough and no appetite all week. We've even had a couple incidents of puking, probably due to all the mucous in her throat and stomach.

We also had an incidence of Kinsey getting more Miralax than normal early in the week and she's been pooping like crazy all week, even though she hasn't had any Miralax since then and she hasn't been eating. We're not sure if the extra Miralax was possibly a "happy accident" that has now cleaned out a backed-up system or if all the pooping is caused by the upset stomach that seems to be coming along with the cold. She's been drinking enough though so we're not worried about her being dehydrated. She also has plenty of energy so she's doing fine, it's just frustrating as usual. And she's back down in the 19 lb range :(

Anyway, the weather has finally decided to be Spring and we spent the afternoon outside today and Kinsey seemed to perk up. She even ate a decent dinner tonight so maybe (hopefully) we're on the upswing now.

We are desperate to figure out why she's been getting sick so much the last 10 months and put an end to it. The Dr. said this year has been bad for everyone. She also said that when kids get to being more active like Kinsey is now, they typically go through one really bad year followed by a year that's bad, but not as bad as the first and then they don't get sick as much after that because they've built up their immunity. I'm hoping that will hold true for Kinsey, but it's hard to say because her immune system doesn't work quite like the rest of us. We'll see.

In the meanwhile, we're going to try some other things. A old friend of mine is a pediatric chiropractor back in FL and she suggested we take Kinsey to see one here, that they can do some things to boost the immune system. So we are going for a consultation on Monday to see what they say. I'm also going to start giving her some immune boosting supplements - Vitamin C or maybe something else (herbal). Not sure yet what it will be, but I'm going to try something. I've also resurrected the shopping cart cover. I always clean the cart with antibacterial wipes, but she tends to chew on various parts of the cart inevitably, so this will be another line of defense.

And finally, we are pulling her out of the classes to limit her exposure to other kids and toys touched by other kids. I know this isn't a long-term solution, but we're going to try it and see if it makes a difference. That means no more swimming or music class (more on that below).  Of course, we're also moving into Summer so hopefully the germs will be less this time of year anyway.

So that's been the story of this week. Hopefully next week will be better. Here are a couple of pictures and videos of Kinsey playing in the grass this afternoon:

She's going to be a gardener like Gramma: http://youtu.be/N8Z2iWpuU5c and http://youtu.be/CYSggqqTEQ0







About swimming and music . . . Kinsey likes music class, but I don't think the new class is as much fun as the old one was, so I'm ok with quitting that one. And while Kinsey loved the first swimming class, she has not been liking it since then. The last two weeks, she spent most of the class crying. We have no idea what happened, but she doesn't like it and tomorrow is the last class anyway, so we're not missing anything there. Last Saturday Jamie did take some pictures and video while Kinsey and I were in the pool. Here's a video of her with the instructor learning something new and some pictures: http://youtu.be/8iuouQwDH4s Maybe we'll try swimming again some day.

Growing & Learning New Things

We can't really explain it (since she still isn't eating that great), but Kinsey is definitely growing. I weighed her this morning before she ate or drank anything and she was at 20 lbs 9.5 oz. We measured her this week and we think she's at 33 1/2 inches, which is a whole inch taller than a month ago.  I can't explain it, but I'll take it! Oh, and I forgot to mention it last week, but Kinsey's also another month older. Next month will be her 1/2 birthday!

We're still trying all kinds of different foods with her and are pretty much off baby food at this point. She does still eat some of it in the pouches, but not much. We also stopped trying to feed her breakfast since that was always the hardest meal of the day. Now she gets her Prevacid and a little water with Miralax in it followed by her milk (with carnation breakfast in it). She has been drinking 1.5 - 2 Honey Bear's full of milk before lunch every day (that's 300 calories), so that seems to be working pretty well.

She's also starting to use a spoon on her own, although she seems to only do it for Jamie, not me. She doesn't scoop up the food herself, but she will take the spoon from you and put it in her mouth, without losing the food most of the time. Here's a little video (she's eating cottage cheese here): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wNTIJA-q9s

On another note, Kinsey has some new sounds! It sounds like she's making a "da" sound, but when you watch her you can see her putting her tongue between her teeth, so it's actually more of a "the" sound. Sometimes she's quiet, but when she decides to start talking she makes all kinds of cool sounds now.

And she found a new toy in her room this week: the door stop! She closes the door to her room then goes over to play with it. Here's a video (She doesn't know I'm standing there while filming this and notice how well she responds when I talk to her at the end - she's not wearing her hearing aid and I'm not speaking loudly, but she hears me right away even though she's making noise with the door stop.) hhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1zGmThlb7s

We had some crazy weather here this week with the most snow we had all winter - more than a foot! Kinsey and I were trapped in the house for 3 days and Jamie even came home from work early on Wednesday because of all the snow that was expected during rush hour that day. When the snow finally stopped falling, we decided to enjoy it and go play. Here are some pictures and videos: http://youtu.be/aQYkiKRurlA
 http://youtu.be/2R_DvPrat7M


She was excited to go outside!


Getting ready


Sledding with daddy


Playing in the snow


This is Kinsey's snow angel. Can you see the arms up and the shape of her hat?

Last weekend, Jamie got his first farm animals - piglets! So now we have 2 Berkshire piglets in our barn. They're only about 2 months old so they're still pretty small and cute, but they'll be HUGE in no time!









Finally, I discovered some pictures on my phone today that I'd forgotten about. So here are some pictures from a few weeks ago.


Kinsey says "Go Gators" at the park


Checking out some baby chickens at a farm store

Growing Pains

Kinsey still has a runny nose, but she only had a cough for a day or two and has been acting like she's feeling fine.

She's definitely going through a transition with eating again. She really wants to feed herself, but it's so hard since she needs to learn how to chew in order to be able to pick up foods to feed herself. We've gone back to the food pouches that she can suck the food out of. I even bought some that are refillable so I can put the baby foods she likes in them. Sometimes she likes that and will pick it up to put it in her mouth herself, but other times she doesn't want anything to do with it. Sometimes it seems like she just wants food with more flavor even if it's on a spoon, but other times she doesn't want anything on a spoon, even an old fav like mashed potatoes and gravy. We've been getting creative and trying new things like shredded cheese, tiny pieces of lunch meat, banana (that did NOT go over well), small pieces of roasted potato, Mac n cheese and other noodles, and fruits like strawberries. She doesn't care for things that stick to her fingers (like little pieces of pb&j), but we have discovered that she really likes pickles (we give her small pieces with the skin cut off). I'm going to try fish sticks and some homemade cheese and broccoli fritter things. Maybe some roasted apples, although those could be sticky. She does seem to be trying everything and doing well with it (except for the bananas!). We've also been stripping her down to the diaper for eating so she can make a big mess and it's still easy clean up. We've even seen some good chewing action so that's an improvement.

Even though she's not eating that much lately, she is drinking well. Most days she drinks quite a bit of her whole milk with carnation breakfast in it, which has 300 calories in 8 oz. We've also recently discovered that she likes white grape juice, which is also high calorie. It's great that she's finally drinking something other than milk and water on a regular basis.

And on another positive note, she's also staying above 20 lbs! I even weighed her one day this week before lunch, but after she'd gone potty and she was at 20 lbs 5 oz (I usually weigh her before bed when she's at her heaviest - which she was 20lbs 10.5 oz in the evening this week).

These growing pains for Kinsey have been painful for me. It's frustrating to me when she won't eat, when I can't find something that she'll eat, when she has a setback like she's had with her new, less supportive foot braces, when I can't get her to focus on therapy exercises because she's not interested and scoots away, when it's challenging to change her diaper or get her dressed because she doesn't want to sit still for it.  I love that she's developing, changing and learning, but that process is hard sometimes, probably for us both. Part of it is because I'm so used to things one way and I have to adjust and find new ways (like finding new foods and stripping her down to the diaper). Some of it is the same stuff that all parents experience with their kids and some of it is unique to us. Some of it is me, the control freak, letting go and realizing she has a mind of her own.

For example, a couple of things put the eating issues into perspective for me. One is the wisdom of other moms and their experiences with their kids who won't eat or won't sit still to eat, etc. The other was listening to my father chat with Kinsey about my eating habits as a kid, and how frustrating I was. She's not going to starve, she will eat when she's hungry. She has plenty of energy, she's happy and she's not losing weight. It's ok! (This is a chant I have to remind myself during just about every meal)

Anyway, Kinsey does seem to be making some progress with understanding "No." This week she keeps trying to play with the cords and surge protector in my sewing room and when she does that and I say "No" sternly to her, she pulls her hand back and looks at me. Then she gets all excited and reaches for it again, but she seems to be listening. I tried to get a video of it, she didn't listen the best here because she got distracted by another cord, but here's a little example: http://youtu.be/nHtKSy2i1rI

I also took this cute video of her wiping her own face with a tissue she found in her toy boxes. She still hates it when we wipe her nose or clean her face, but she seems to be getting the idea herself. http://youtu.be/oIrJbBidaN0

She's so busy scooting around that we haven't been working on crawling at all (the PT thinks we should spend our time on sit to stand and things like that instead), but we still find her trying to figure it out on her own sometimes. The other day when she was supposed to be napping, I checked on her and found her up on her hands and knees and her head and torso was up pretty high. I've also seen her trying to move forward a little.



And here's a funny picture of Kinsey walking with her walker and a push toy at the same time. She was walking in her walker and went over and got the wagon push toy and was trying to walk with both of them!

Spring . . . Finally, but Kinsey's Sick Again

So Kinsey has yet another cold :( She's had a stuffy nose all week, but was still acting like herself, aside from the fact that she hasn't been eating well. But today she got a pretty bad cough and wasn't very happy about it. I hope she gets over this quickly. In the meantime we missed music today and will be skipping swimming tomorrow - more on those later.

Anyway, Spring has finally decided to show up and I'm so happy that Kinsey and I can get outside more! We've been playing in the yard and breaking out some of the new toys she received for Christmas.









And we've learned that Kinsey can push her walker outside on the gravel/dirt! (Or at least she could before we got the new splints - not sure if she can do it now. More on that later). http://youtu.be/dhU0Voa_SZg



We also just found out about a new Stroller Strides program that just started in Fort Collins last month (I don't know how it took me a whole month to find out about it since I've been searching for one since we moved here). Anyway, we're going to get out for some fresh air, exercise (for me) and friendship for us both very soon! I'm so excited! Another T18 mom who writes a blog is always saying how God gives her reassurance in various ways just when she needs it most and that's how I feel about finding this group. It's just what I needed and totally made my day!

This week Kinsey got her new foot splints. They're a lot shorter and have a lot less support to them. They still cover her ankles on the sides, but not in the back and the top strap is even stretchy too. The splints are also made from a slightly more flexible material than the last pair. As a result, Kinsey's had a little set back in standing and walking since she has less support now. She's doing OK walking, but she doesn't seem to be able to get her balance standing on her own yet. She'll get there again. She just has to relearn again.







Kinsey's been getting into all sorts of trouble with scooting all over the house. We basically keep all the doors closed so she can only be in the living room/kitchen and her room, but she still finds plenty of trouble. I finally had to buy some baby proofing items - like a strap to keep her out of the trash can in my craft room (because I do let her play in there when I'm in there), outlet covers, blind cord covers, etc. I'm really struggling with figuring out how to teach her "No". She just thinks it's funny. According to my friends, this is totally normal behavior, which is reassuring and not at the same time. I just hope I can get her to understand the concept.



Last Friday we went to our first new Music Class. As I mentioned before, this is a music therapy class and they focus more on teaching through music. They do some sign language too. We really enjoyed it and the teacher even asked me after class what types of things we're working on with Kinsey so she can incorporate that into the class.

And last Saturday we went to our first swimming lesson. The classes are at an indoor, heated therapy pool so the water is really nice and warm. The kids are between 6 months - 36 months and it's really focused on learning safe handling techniques in the water. We worked on holding her so she feels like she's swimming, floating, and we're working our way up to submergence. Kinsey LOVED the class! She was doing all the different things, but also kicking and splashing like crazy. The lifeguard was even laughing at her!

Here she is in the new, adorable ladybug swimsuit I bought her (she totally didn't need this, but I couldn't resist!):



My father reminded me that I never shared an update on Kinsey's heart condition. We did the Holter Monitor in February (the device she wears for 24 hours to monitor her heart rate). Unfortunately, they sent it to us when she was sick, and the worst day of her sickness no less. I'm not sure how much that impacted the results, but we did make them aware that she was really sick while wearing it. Anyway, the doctor said the monitor still showed some signs of the Wolfe-Parkinson-White Syndrome (irregular heartbeat), but that it is clearing up. He said it's ok to keep her off the medicine and he doesn't need to see her for a year. So, we'll see. I figure we'll take her back in December so we can do another Holter Monitor on the same insurance to save the money.

And here's just a fun picture of Kinsey Skyping with Gramma: