I've been dwelling on a Facebook comment that I read a couple of weeks ago. A friend with a new baby posted something about the fact that her baby is growing up too fast. That's what everyone says. Someone else chimed in with, "I wish there was a way we could make them stay small for longer." My sarcastic self thought, "Ummm. I think I've got the recipe for that but I don't think it's recommended...?" Don't worry. I didn't actually put that on Facebook. I just thought it.
But then I thought some more. And some more. I figured that since I didn't want to type my comment that it probably was because it wasn't very nice. And since it wasn't very nice I should probably think about an attitude adjustment.
Another friend of mine has a daughter who got RSV shortly after she was born ten years ago and is now struggling with all kinds of medical problems. This friend is one of those people that quotes Ghandi all the time and seems to have this never-ending flow of positive energy and thoughtfulness. I love reading her quotes. They're always inspirational. Anyway, she once told me that, "I choose to see the beauty in it." I go back to that comment often. I love it.
So I got to thinking. Yes, it's tough to have a baby with medical problems and to constantly fret about when she'll ever sit, crawl, or walk. Worry about her getting sick or what medical problems are yet to come. BUT, on the other hand, I should also appreciate the fact that I still get to snuggle Chloe without her toddling away, hold her bottle for her and study her face while she eats, carry her around because she still needs me to, etc. They DO grow up fast. But I guess in a way I'm lucky because I get just a little extra time with my little one being, well, little.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
She's Getting Glasses!
Chloe had her second surgery follow-up today. She's doing well after surgery. In fact, we've really enjoyed this good week off from patching and the dreaded contact lens. (She's actually been wearing a hard eye guard over her left eye and only seeing through her [good] right eye since surgery.) Dave and I are amazed at how much better she obviously sees when only looking through her right eye. I'm convinced that some of her developmental delay can partially be attributed to her frequent lack of vision. If you think about it, she wears a patch over her good eye for four hours a day. That's four hours a day of significantly impaired vision! The thing to remember is that she will catch up in the other areas but we have a limited window in which to train her brain to use that left eye.
To answer a question from our friend, Jen, Chloe's prescription strength in her left eye was +23 but they're changing it to +18. This is good, I guess. It means (supposedly) her eye is getting better. I take this with a grain of salt and just hope that they doing they best job they possibly can when deciding on her prescription. It's hard for me to believe they can really get the right prescription for an infant by looking into her eyes. Plus, her vision isn't fully correctable. It's not like their assigned correction helps her to see perfectly.
We also talked about the fact that Chloe is near-sighted in her right eye. The doctor put her lens in front of my eye. It's not super bad. Her prescription strength is -2. I'm actually near-sighted with an astigmatism and my eyes both require a correction of -5.5. It's on the strong side and Dave laughs (and I certainly can't blame him :) when I'm feeling around for my glasses and they're right in front of me. The good thing is that it's completely correctable and it makes -2 seem not that bad at all. It does make +18 seem pretty far out there, though! Anyway, we're going to put glasses on her to correct her near-sightedness and give her the best vision possible. Of course, this will only be the case while her good eye is not being patched. Yes, the patching continues with no end in the near future. But it'll be fun to see how she fares with her new glasses. One of her favorite games is pulling mine off my face and waving them around in triumph as I mock-complain that she's so horrible for stealing them from me. (Her squeals are absolutely wonderful during this game!) We'll see how she keeps her own glasses on. The good news is that she's absolutely 100% ADORABLE with her new glasses! I never knew how much I'd love her in them! Really. You'll see. They're ordered and arrive in 3-4 business days.
Seriously, though, the really good news is that she does have such good vision in that right eye. She will read. And for that I'm relieved and thankful. As for playing sports. Well, I'm not so sure about that. The doctor suggested she'd need to wear safety sports goggles for sports since she doesn't have a "back-up eye" in case of injury. We might opt for a more eye-safe hobby like piano or flute... That's yet to be determined...
To answer a question from our friend, Jen, Chloe's prescription strength in her left eye was +23 but they're changing it to +18. This is good, I guess. It means (supposedly) her eye is getting better. I take this with a grain of salt and just hope that they doing they best job they possibly can when deciding on her prescription. It's hard for me to believe they can really get the right prescription for an infant by looking into her eyes. Plus, her vision isn't fully correctable. It's not like their assigned correction helps her to see perfectly.
We also talked about the fact that Chloe is near-sighted in her right eye. The doctor put her lens in front of my eye. It's not super bad. Her prescription strength is -2. I'm actually near-sighted with an astigmatism and my eyes both require a correction of -5.5. It's on the strong side and Dave laughs (and I certainly can't blame him :) when I'm feeling around for my glasses and they're right in front of me. The good thing is that it's completely correctable and it makes -2 seem not that bad at all. It does make +18 seem pretty far out there, though! Anyway, we're going to put glasses on her to correct her near-sightedness and give her the best vision possible. Of course, this will only be the case while her good eye is not being patched. Yes, the patching continues with no end in the near future. But it'll be fun to see how she fares with her new glasses. One of her favorite games is pulling mine off my face and waving them around in triumph as I mock-complain that she's so horrible for stealing them from me. (Her squeals are absolutely wonderful during this game!) We'll see how she keeps her own glasses on. The good news is that she's absolutely 100% ADORABLE with her new glasses! I never knew how much I'd love her in them! Really. You'll see. They're ordered and arrive in 3-4 business days.
Seriously, though, the really good news is that she does have such good vision in that right eye. She will read. And for that I'm relieved and thankful. As for playing sports. Well, I'm not so sure about that. The doctor suggested she'd need to wear safety sports goggles for sports since she doesn't have a "back-up eye" in case of injury. We might opt for a more eye-safe hobby like piano or flute... That's yet to be determined...
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Vitrectomy today
Chloe just had her vitrectomy. The doctor said the surgery went well. He tried to remove enough so that the film doesn't grow back but he said it's frustrating with little ones because it often grows back on them (as opposed to adults where it does not) requiring future surgeries. I'm glad the surgery went well but a little disheartened about her future vision outlook. He said that kids with this problem can usually only see the big E on the eye chart - and that's only if we continue with the patching and contact lens use.
Deep breath. Don't worry about what's to come. Just do what you can for now.
Deep breath. Don't worry about what's to come. Just do what you can for now.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Chloe's Trying to Sit
I've been meaning to write a post about Chloe's sitting workouts for quite a while but I never seem to have a photographer around when I work with her. It's amazing to me how much time and energy we've put in to get her sitting. I don't even remember working with Solana at all. She just....did it! Chloe has weak upper body muscles so we do lots of exercises to develop her muscles and build coordination. Who knew so many muscles came into play when sitting?!? Here's just a sampling of what we do.
Chloe's PT lent us a big red exercise ball. I put a blanket on top so you can't really see its cherry red color in these pictures. We already gave it back and I don't really miss it in our living room. :-) I also do these same exercises by sitting on the floor with my legs out in front of me and placing Chloe on my knees.
1. I set her on top of the ball and roll the ball a few inches toward me. Chloe is forced to use her back muscles to hold herself up. Notice her "wings" are out. She uses her arms to help maintain her balance. She should stop doing this eventually - once she gains strength.
2. Now I roll the ball away from myself and Chloe is forced to use her abdominal muscles to sit up straight. She's in the process of pulling herself up here. It almost looks like she's doing a situp - you can really see those abs working!
3. Now I put her on her belly. I work for a while to make her straighten her arms. I push the ball away from me and she's forced to use the muscles across the top of her back. We find lots of creative ways to get her into this position around the house. Those muscles (between her shoulders) need lots of strengthening so she can use her arms to help her sit.
She's able to sit for a little while. We have a few great toys that are motivation enough to keep her up.
I think she enjoys sitting up.
She looks proud of herself but I don't think she realizes...
She's beginning to lose her balance.
She doesn't yet know how to use her hands to catch herself. Once her balance is lost it's all over.
She didn't even cry. She just laid there for a moment before rolling over. Then I sat her up and she tried again.
Her progress is very VERY slow. We're used to slow progress with Chloe and take what we can get. She'll get there soon enough. Sitting by herself behind the piano for even a minute is tremendously better than what she could do a month ago.
Chloe's PT lent us a big red exercise ball. I put a blanket on top so you can't really see its cherry red color in these pictures. We already gave it back and I don't really miss it in our living room. :-) I also do these same exercises by sitting on the floor with my legs out in front of me and placing Chloe on my knees.
1. I set her on top of the ball and roll the ball a few inches toward me. Chloe is forced to use her back muscles to hold herself up. Notice her "wings" are out. She uses her arms to help maintain her balance. She should stop doing this eventually - once she gains strength.
2. Now I roll the ball away from myself and Chloe is forced to use her abdominal muscles to sit up straight. She's in the process of pulling herself up here. It almost looks like she's doing a situp - you can really see those abs working!
3. Now I put her on her belly. I work for a while to make her straighten her arms. I push the ball away from me and she's forced to use the muscles across the top of her back. We find lots of creative ways to get her into this position around the house. Those muscles (between her shoulders) need lots of strengthening so she can use her arms to help her sit.
She's able to sit for a little while. We have a few great toys that are motivation enough to keep her up.
I think she enjoys sitting up.
She looks proud of herself but I don't think she realizes...
She's beginning to lose her balance.
She doesn't yet know how to use her hands to catch herself. Once her balance is lost it's all over.
She didn't even cry. She just laid there for a moment before rolling over. Then I sat her up and she tried again.
Her progress is very VERY slow. We're used to slow progress with Chloe and take what we can get. She'll get there soon enough. Sitting by herself behind the piano for even a minute is tremendously better than what she could do a month ago.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Feeding Excitement - Baby Food Making
I'm so excited! Chloe's actually still sitting next to me in her high chair playing with cracker crumbs as I type. As I mentioned before, Chloe does not like any type of texture in her food. We've experienced vomit at the dinner table a few times. 1 - mashed avocado experiment gone horribly awry; 2 - first homemade chicken experience was a grainy nightmare; 3 - "melt-in-your-mouth" puffs that really don't m-i-y-m; 4 - I actually don't remember the 4th but I'm certain there was a 4th.
We had a visit from the Occupational Therapist on Thursday and she suggested that Chloe's vision issues might be partly to blame for her texture issues. She noted that we all look at our food to see what we're about to put in our mouth and that maybe Chloe just can't see the chunks in her food. She's not expecting them so they surprise attack her gag reflex when they hit her mouth. She also said that Chloe may need practice moving food from side to side with her tongue. I'm skeptical because I know of two other babies with similar issues and neither has vision issues but I'll never throw out an educated suggestion.
We're taking a two-pronged approach to the issue. First, I'm starting off meals with a wash cloth routine. I get a clean and rough-ish wash cloth and rub it up her arm and neck and toward her mouth. Then I rub it on her lips and on the inside of her cheek giving her a chance to reflexively attack it with her tongue. This sort of warms up her mouth for what's to come. Then I crumbled up some saltine crackers and put a bunch on the tray for her to play with. She seemed to enjoy moving them around with her fingers. This is another way to prepare her for what's about to hit her mouth. I then sprinkled a few cracker crumbs on top of a spoonfull of pureed baby food and into the mouth it went. No reaction! We continued this over and over and I even started sprinkling bigger crumbs. At one point she was even doing a chewing motion when a fairly large chunk of cracker went in. And not a single gag! This is terribly exciting! We mixed smooth and crunchy! I can't wait to try again :-D I'm using saltines for savory foods and will try graham crackers for sweeter foods.
And speaking of baby food. I just started making it about three weeks ago and am crazy about it! Thank you to my anonymous friend who suggested lentils. I LOVE giving Chloe lentils. They're helping to keep her regular, too! This is always a concern with Chloe. She seems to have small pipes, if you know what I mean. If you have ever considered making your own baby food I strongly recommend it. I don't know for sure if it's cheaper but I wouldn't be surprised. Plus, you don't even need to buy a fancy baby food maker. I just cook in the oven or stovetop, puree in the blender, and freeze in these handy dandy trays ( http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4312595 ). The next day I pop them out (very easy to do with these trays) and into a labeled Ziploc and then just use the cubes as I need them. The quality of the food is amazing. Plus, I'm able to buy many more organic foods than stores sell in baby food jars. Some of our favorites are:
- lentils mixed with blueberry juice (the juice is leftover and frozen from when I made blueberry puree)
- lentils mixed with canteloupe
- blueberries (I also mix into yogurt)
- nectarines
- plums
- spinach mixed with blueberries
- peas
- peaches
- green beans
I've also made chicken and that wasn't a huge hit but I've been able to successfully hide it in peaches and nectarines. I also heard babies love pears so I bought a bunch of pears yesterday.
I'm using wholesomebabyfood.com as a guide but have also received a couple of recommendations for Annabel Karmel.
We had a visit from the Occupational Therapist on Thursday and she suggested that Chloe's vision issues might be partly to blame for her texture issues. She noted that we all look at our food to see what we're about to put in our mouth and that maybe Chloe just can't see the chunks in her food. She's not expecting them so they surprise attack her gag reflex when they hit her mouth. She also said that Chloe may need practice moving food from side to side with her tongue. I'm skeptical because I know of two other babies with similar issues and neither has vision issues but I'll never throw out an educated suggestion.
We're taking a two-pronged approach to the issue. First, I'm starting off meals with a wash cloth routine. I get a clean and rough-ish wash cloth and rub it up her arm and neck and toward her mouth. Then I rub it on her lips and on the inside of her cheek giving her a chance to reflexively attack it with her tongue. This sort of warms up her mouth for what's to come. Then I crumbled up some saltine crackers and put a bunch on the tray for her to play with. She seemed to enjoy moving them around with her fingers. This is another way to prepare her for what's about to hit her mouth. I then sprinkled a few cracker crumbs on top of a spoonfull of pureed baby food and into the mouth it went. No reaction! We continued this over and over and I even started sprinkling bigger crumbs. At one point she was even doing a chewing motion when a fairly large chunk of cracker went in. And not a single gag! This is terribly exciting! We mixed smooth and crunchy! I can't wait to try again :-D I'm using saltines for savory foods and will try graham crackers for sweeter foods.
And speaking of baby food. I just started making it about three weeks ago and am crazy about it! Thank you to my anonymous friend who suggested lentils. I LOVE giving Chloe lentils. They're helping to keep her regular, too! This is always a concern with Chloe. She seems to have small pipes, if you know what I mean. If you have ever considered making your own baby food I strongly recommend it. I don't know for sure if it's cheaper but I wouldn't be surprised. Plus, you don't even need to buy a fancy baby food maker. I just cook in the oven or stovetop, puree in the blender, and freeze in these handy dandy trays ( http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4312595 ). The next day I pop them out (very easy to do with these trays) and into a labeled Ziploc and then just use the cubes as I need them. The quality of the food is amazing. Plus, I'm able to buy many more organic foods than stores sell in baby food jars. Some of our favorites are:
- lentils mixed with blueberry juice (the juice is leftover and frozen from when I made blueberry puree)
- lentils mixed with canteloupe
- blueberries (I also mix into yogurt)
- nectarines
- plums
- spinach mixed with blueberries
- peas
- peaches
- green beans
I've also made chicken and that wasn't a huge hit but I've been able to successfully hide it in peaches and nectarines. I also heard babies love pears so I bought a bunch of pears yesterday.
I'm using wholesomebabyfood.com as a guide but have also received a couple of recommendations for Annabel Karmel.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Visit from Peggy
We moved to Ohio in January of 09 - going on two years now. The only reason we decided to move to Ohio was because Dave got a great job that would afford us the luxury of me staying home. We were living in Denver and I loved my job but commuted almost an hour each way to work. I'd drop Solana off by 7am and pick her up at 5:30. 10+ hours in daycare and only a couple of hours a day at home. That wasn't enough for me. Anyway, we moved to Ohio with zero ties. Dave is from San Francisco and I'm from Houston.
So far, we've had two visitors from Texas who were visiting the Dayton area for completely different reasons but decided to swing by for a visit. I find that absolutely amazing and wonderful! First was my cousin in July and last week we had a visit from one of my mom's Houston friends, Peggy. I actually went to HS with Peggy's daughter, Jennifer, and we went to the same church, too. It was great to see a face from home. And Solana and Chloe made out with some great gifts :-) We're actually going to design Solana's Halloween costume around one of her gifts. Pictures to come... Thanks Peggy! It was great visiting with you, your mom and sister!!
(These fuzzy pictures were taken with my phone.)
We had so much fun chatting that their "quick stop to say 'hi' on the way to the mall" magically turned into an hour visit! We had 10 minutes to make Solana lunch, eat, and get out the door for the bus. Somehow, (using the miracle of PB&J) we made it - LOL!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
