Dr. Appts, ear infections, and more

Taylor has had a busy few days since I last wrote - unfortunately they haven't been fun. She's had a raging double ear infection since Sunday and just started to show signs of improvement today.

First on Friday, we had her 9 month appt with Dr. Dudas. This was late, but he wanted her to see all of the specialists first and I had to cancel once for one of her therapy appts. Anyway, Taylor is a total peanut - 3% in height/weight/head circumference. Lauren was around 5% at this age too (and is now 75% height - go figure), so we aren't too concerned about that - her parents aren't huge people. She now weighs 16 pounds. The appt was very uneventful - it was mostly me updating Dr. Dudas on the various specialist appts and keeping him updated. He's a great generalist pediatrician and we've seen the specialists, but I still wonder if we need someone else that is really well-versed with her condition. I think we should explore this more. The best part - she didn't need shots, so it was a relatively easy appt. The worst was completing the questionnaire for normal development milestones at the beginning of the appt. Of course, that is not too fun for us.

The rest of the week-end - bless her heart - we had another fun, sunny week-end with lots of pool and beach time. She typically goes for awhile and then one of us takes her home. Unlike Lauren and Jacob, who are having the best time in the sun - Friday and Saturday were 5 hour beach club days for them! I knew Taylor wasn't chipper, but didn't realize she was sick. I just thought the heat was making her lethargic. We didn't realize until Sunday night that she was sick.

On Sunday, we went to church and it was a good time of rejuvenation. I was a little emotional on Sunday for some reason - I got teary eyed on my morning long run and then again at church. Coincidentally, we were seated across the aisle from a lovely family that we've seen before. The child is clearly a patient at nearby Children's Hospital for cancer treatment - he's probably 3 or 4 years old. During the opening hymn, I saw the father look up to the sky, close his eyes, and then realized he was crying. My heart went out to him and I was again reminded that we are truly blessed. Our load is much, much lighter than that poor family's. I hugged Taylor extra tight and realized she was having a blast looking at the light from the stained glass windows.

That evening we went over to David's sister's house for a family dinner - our first since they returned from Hawaii. We're so thrilled they are home. Taylor was clearly out of sorts and didn't want to be held by anyone but David or I. I learned a good lesson - my first instinct was to think it was related to her cortical vision condition - oh no, she doesn't like lots of faces and is overwhelmed by too many people. She did seem to calm down when I took her to a quiet place, but as it turns out, she was just sick.

After we got home I put her to bed and woke up at midnight to her shrieking in pain. She was contracting her stomach so I was worried that her stomach was upset. I was also worried that she was dehydrated from the heat, so tried to give her a bottle which she wouldn't take (very unusual for her). For the next four hours, she was really upset and cried whenever I tried to lay her down. It was an exhausting night for everyone. I've never seen her that upset. Finally, at 4am, it dawned on me that it was probably an ear infection (she's had a lingering runny nose), not stomach pain. We gave her Tylenol and she slept a few hours upright in her swing (without pressure on her ears). You would think after all of the ear infections we've seen, we would have diagnosed it more quickly (Lauren had a bunch and Jake has had two sets of tubes put in his ears).

Anyway, I took her back to Dr. Dudas on Monday and she had a double ear infection, 103 degree fever, and was generally miserable. She gagged every time I tried to give her a bottle or even her binky and only managed to drink a few ounces of Pedialyte. I held her all day and she was a limp noodle. The grand finale - when I took her to Dr. Dudas' office she threw up 4 times!!! It was seriously unbelievable - kinda like the girl in the blueberry pie eating contest in the movie Stand By Me. She threw up once by the check-in desk, once nearly on Dr. Dudas' shoes, and twice in the pharmacy. Thankfully, they were little and mainly Pedialyte, but she and I were both a disgusting mess by the time we finally got home. Dr. Dudas said it wasn't the stomach flu - she was choking on mucus and gagging herself - ewwww.....but at least it isn't contagious. We were quite the pair at the doctor's office though.

Today she was still very lethargic and slept a ton, but she ate nearly normally and hopefully will feel better tomorrow. My big lesson - I can't jump to associate a bad night out with her condition. It's easy to think every small thing might mean something bigger, and we need to start small (ear infection) before jumping to big conclusions. I'm looking forward to seeing her smile and laugh again when she feels better - and I'm so thankful that the cause is an easily treatable ear infection - not chemotherapy like the poor family at church.

Therapy and more therapy

This picture is of Jake and Lauren helping their babies on Taylor's exercise ball. Totally unprompted....amazing kids, aren't they?

The last several days have been busy with playing and therapy. Taylor had physical therapy on Tuesday and vision therapy today. Both sessions were hard for different reasons.

Although Taylor has two former college athletes as parents, she really does not like to work out. She was grumpy again for Sarah and Sarah kindly summed up their session as "good quality, not quantity". Hmmm.....we have work to do. Taylor tolerates the grasping exercises with her hands, particularly as long as she gets to lay on her back. She is getting good at grasping a toy, holding a toy with two hands, and passing a toy from one hand to the other. She will tolerate sitting a little bit, but Sarah must work her harder than we do, because she tires much more quickly for Sarah. Like the last session, she was ready to be done at that point, before we'd even gotten to the hardest part - tummy time. Without a doubt, she does not like tummy time. I haven't had many parent moments that make me as sad as watching her struggle to straighten her arms during tummy time. She struggles and cries and Sarah has to keep coaxing her. She gets lots of hugs afterward, but she has to work hard to get better. You hate to tough love a baby, but we're trying. She is typically wiped out after physical therapy and takes a long nap. She fell asleep within 20 minutes of Sarah leaving. As Julie says, imagine doing your hardest exercise for an hour straight - you wouldn't be thrilled either. She's so right and I'm trying to keep my expectations in check.

Today was vision therapy at the Boyer Clinic. I hadn't actually visited the clinic before and was prepared for a sad day. David had gone to drop off some paperwork previously and he had seen a lot of kids in tough shape. We're still torn between embracing the special needs community and desperately not wanting to belong. We'll figure out the right balance over time. As it turns out, the Boyer Clinic is an amazing clinic with three preschool classrooms, multiple physical therapy rooms (similar to Gymboree), other therapy rooms (all with parental observation rooms) and other offices. It's a cheerful place, if you can get over having to be there. Everyone is really nice. We met with Mary Ellen, our vision therapist and she was really encouraging. She thought Taylor was tracking objects much better than our last visit several weeks ago. She basically holds many different objects at different levels (horizontal and vertical) to help Taylor practice following objects with her eyes. Mary Ellen remarked that she seemed much less light sensitive (she tracked better with bright light this time) and that is positive. We're going to focus on Taylor reaching for toys (not just grasping when they're given to her) and reaching up (when she wants to be lifted out of her crib, high chair, etc). It seems like minor goals, but reaching with her arms and focusing on objects will help her in so many different ways. Mary Ellen also encouraged us to push Taylor to be self-sufficient (such as holding onto her bottle) and reaching for food. She's a sweet lady and she always makes us feel good during our session. And, I hate to admit, we didn't see too many challenged children in the halls which makes it easier for us.

So, those were our appointments this week. We need for these appointments to become routine - right now they're exhausting for Taylor and selfishly, emotionally hard for me. We'll both get better. In the meantime, when Taylor isn't doing therapy, she's a happy camper. One of her new tricks is she hugs on to you when you hold her now - which is really special. As Mary Ellen has quickly noted "she has a sweet disposition" and we agree.

Standing in her exersaucer

Today was a great day! We got off to a fantastic start. Taylor was super smiley this morning. I gave her some time in her exersaucer this morning during our morning routine and for the first time, she stood on her feet! Usually she just kind of sits in the seat and today she stood up for several minutes. This is the first step toward fun in the exersaucer - I still remember Lauren bouncing like crazy in that thing and Taylor is now on her way. She will bat at a few of the toys but hasn't really figured out how to have a blast with them. But, I feel like she's on her way now. She also tolerated tummy time for awhile, so I started the day very encouraged. She slept more than usual the rest of the day (in fact, she's taking a late nap now still at 5:30pm), so she must be recovering from the crazy week-end. Anyway, it's a beautiful sunny day in Seattle and I'm always thrilled to report good progress!

This picture is of Taylor shaking her favorite rattle.

Happy 4th and More

Time has flown since I last wrote. We had a wonderful 4th of July week-end on Whidbey Island. The kids absolutely love it there. They did lots of beachcombing, swimming, and bike riding - and of course, love playing with their cousins. Taylor goes with the flow and it's very sweet how much everyone loves her. The anti-climatic part for us should have been the highlight - the fireworks display. We had prepped perfectly - Lauren slept in that day and Jake actually took a nap so he could stay up late. Taylor took a late nap and we were ready for a great show over the water. Unfortunately, Lauren was spooked after the first small fireworks and we quickly retreated to our house. Jake decided he was all done too, so we exchanged fireworks for Annie (the movie). Maybe next year...

This is also a special week-end for our family for other reasons. David and I celebrated our 9th anniversary on July 3rd. It's amazing how quickly nine years (plus 5 years of dating!) have gone by and we're so proud of the family we've created. My parents also celebrated their 40th anniversary on July 5th - it's such a testament to them and their devotion to each other. They've taught me so much about unconditional love and how to be a great spouse and parent - I'm so thankful for them and can't wait to see them when we head to Missouri in August.

So lots of celebration and family time over the past week. Taylor didn't have physical therapy because The Boyer Clinic had the week off, so we tried to work with her extra hard at home. She's getting better at her tummy time (although she still doesn't like it) and she's becoming a pro at grasping for toys and holding on to a toy with both hands.

I'm so proud of her progress, but I have to really coach myself to treasure every accomplishment and not want a faster progression. She's working so hard and has come a long way over the past few months. But....I can easily fall off of my positivity wagon for seemingly random reasons. I've banned myself from The Right Start (children's store) because I can't go in there without compulsively asking other mom's how old their kids are. Usually the kids that catch my eye are between 10 and 14 months and are crawling, early walking and talking. We try to forget where Taylor should be, but The Right Start catches me everytime. We've also shared our story with more people and usually I can talk about Taylor's condition fine now. Every now and then, for no particular reason, talking about it will send me into a funk. So if you happen to catch me on a bad day, please don't worry - I'll do better the next time.

For all of our concern, Taylor is a very happy baby and just precious. She loves to laugh and her face literally lights up when she sees one of her close family members. Usually if I've had a bad moment, all I need to do is see her smile and life is good again.