Big People Food!

Well, seeing as Urijah is almost 6 months old (the 31st is his *half* birthday!), we decided to go ahead and try big people food! Going along with our semi-crunchy lifestyle, I decided not to start with rice cereal - it's not really very nutritious, usually just sits like a brick in baby's tummy making them feel full when they aren't getting much nutrients, and can constipate. So we're starting with Sweet Potatoes!! I did make my own, thanks to the help of a homemade baby food website that I used for Mika too. After a few days of this, we're going to do avocado.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas Spring

Ahhhhh. Springtime in the Rockies. Since a picture's worth a thousand words, here's you're 1K for today:

(BTW, this storm started as a THUNDER-snow storm! How bazaar is that?!)

Update on Mika's brace and Urijah's Reflux

Since my last post I've been meaning to post pictures of the brace, but Zarik has been monopolizing the laptop, which is where I upload my pictures. Bad, Zarik! (LOL!)

Here are a couple of pictures I got of her when I'd first put the brace on for night time.




I also called the orthopedic back, and we now go for a checkup on her feet in August, when she turns 2, instead of just October. So about 4 months instead of 6 months. We'll still have an x-ray of her hips in 6 months to see where those are and if we need an additional brace for those.

She has done remarkably well adjusting to the Denis Browne Bar. She does wake up and fuss for a minute when she tries to roll over or pull her feet under her, but she goes right back to sleep. She doesn't protest us putting the shoes on for bedtime and naps either, which is definitely a small miracle! We call them her "Night Night Shoes" and try to be upbeat when getting them and putting them on her, so I think that helps the situation.


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Urijah's reflux is really good now! We had a friend of ours suggest we try using Dr Browns Bottles for him, and even gave us one of hers to try. After just 3 feedings we were convinced and ran out to Walmart to buy our own! We had been trying soy formula, which had made a little difference, but not much, but we decided to see if he could handle regular formula on these new bottles, and it worked. Which is great on our budget, lol. I talked to the pediatrician, and she is thrilled that these bottles are working so well. We have a plan to start weaning him of the previcid next week and see if we can control the reflux with just these bottles. Yeah!

For Grandma

Here are some videos of Mika, specifically for Grandma to watch over and over again, but I hope everyone who reads my blog enjoys them. :-)

The first is of Mika trying on her Easter dress. At first she was dancing around in it and I was trying to capture that, but she decided she was done when I pulled out the camera. Oh, well.

The second one is Mika singing our "Night Night, Baby, Night Night" song Zarik make up for her to one of her babys and putting her baby to sleep. Note that moments before she was doing the "Mommy Sway" with the baby while singing the song. SOOOOOOO Cute!!

More Medical Mumbo-Jumbo

Today consisted of two different Dr. appointments.

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First was Mika's Orthopedic, Dr. Siegel (finally!). It was waaaaaay back in January when our pediatrician, Dr. Cunningham, told us we should probably go see her because Mika was looking pigeon-toed. To refresh your memory, we also needed to make another appointment for her hips to be checked at about 21 months because of her hip dysplasia so we just lumped it all in now.

So, should I give you the bad news or the bad news first?

OK, I'll start with the bad news.

Mika's x-ray on her hips show that they are not progressing as we would like. I don't fully understand all the angles and such, but I know that at 1 year we wanted the angles to be less that 30% and at 2 years they want them to be less than 20%. At 1year they measured 28% and 27%. Well, now 8 months later they still measure 28% and 27%. Not good.

As far as the other bad news goes, Dr. Siegel explained that when a kid is pigeon-toed they look to see what joint/bone is causing it: is it the hips, tibia, or feet themselves? We already know Mika's hips aren't perfect, so that is a little bit of our problem. Most of it is her tibia's, however. Her right isn't as bad as her left, but they both still turn in.

So, here is what comes next: We are going to first deal with the feet. Dr. Siegel has prescribed what is called a Denis Browne Splint for Mika. I believe she wants to be this aggressive because a) we need to deal with the hips as well, and b) Mika's getting to an age where she can get out of/take off braces and splints. She will only wear this at night. We have an evaluation with the prosthetic/orthopedic people tomorrow to get Mika fitted and find out more about her wearing it.

At this point here next appointment is in 6 months, when she'll be 26 months old (2 years and 2 months for those of you who need it broken down). Looking back on that I'm not sure if it was a mistake, or if she really doesn't need to be seen with the Denis Browne Splint for 6 months. If the people tomorrow don't have any insight into this I'll call Dr. Siegel's office back and ask them.

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As for Urijah, he had his weight check today. He is a whopping 13lbs10.5oz!!! Eat boy, eat!!! I can't tell you exactly how much he's gained 'cause I can't find my record right now, but if I do, I'll update this post. The only bad thing is that I've had to completely stop nursing him because I just completely dried up. :-( I'm bummed about that, but happy my boy is getting fed.

His reflux is still going strong, unfortunately. So we'll just keep him on the Previcid until his 6 month appointment (which will be when he's 7 months, thanx to me not knowing I need to schedual his appointments 4 months in advance), then wean him off and see how he does.

Urijah did get 2 shots today - PC and HIB. He's a little grumpy so far but not bad, poor boy.