Sales, Sinus Surgery and um, some more videos.

Last weekend we stayed with my parents to help with their garage sale. Let me tell you that my family knows how to do garage sales right as you can see… 

That’s SOME of what we had ready Friday night to put out Saturday morning! It was crazy but ultimately successful. Kiersyn had fun helping and learned to wave in the process. Here’s a video to prove it AND a video to show you how to keep an 8 month old entertained all day at a garage sale.

Kiersyn has been off of Carafate for awhile now. The first few days were not fun for anyone and even though she now fights having to do anything laying down (which makes diaper changes pretty difficult) and has fussy days here and there, things seem to be evening out. She has gone to a milk-based formula (no more prescription formula!!) and is a happy girl for the most part. In fact the baby that screamed non-stop only a short time ago seems somewhat like a distant nightmare. It is possible that she outgrew a milk allergy around 6 months and it is also possible she is still intolerant as this formula is “partially hydrolyzed”. I don’t know if we will ever know since it is likely she will outgrow the problem before she can talk to us about it. Despite these improvements, she is still having major issues trying to eat solids. All it takes is 1/3 a jar of the wrong food and we are up with a very angry baby in the middle of the night. It’s hard to figure out WHAT the “wrong foods” are and WHY. We don’t know if some foods just irritate her reflux or if it is allergies or intolerances… it is so frustrating that she can’t just tell us what’s going on. It is also difficult to keep trying different things knowing we are constantly taking a chance of her being in pain and us not getting any sleep at all. It seems consistent that carrots and anything with carrots in it causes problems. No big deal, just don’t eat carrots right? It’s not like carrots are the number one ingredient in baby foods right? No, water is. But guess what’s second? That’s right, carrots. Almost EVERY “Stage 2” baby food available has carrots as a filler. Pick up a jar of “Tender Beef and Spinach” and read the ingredients: water, carrots, beef, spinach. Yeah, that’s right. Since I don’t want to spend all day making a million different purees WITHOUT carrots in them to try just one bite and then toss, it also seems easier to wait until she can eat finger foods. Since she has had so little experience with foods, we’re a little behind on that. We’ve tried to use those Gerber Graduate puffs to teach her the concept of putting food in her mouth but she consistently hands them to the dog…  They look similar to her reflux pills which may be part of the problem…

In any event, she is on the move! Crawling, pulling up, standing for .2 seconds at a time, even cruising a little. Luckily the little chunk isn’t very fast…yet. J She claps, waves, and says “Dada”, “Uh-oh” and “Whoaa” when she is surprised or impressed.  She is basically brilliant. J

In other news, as many of you know, I have been fighting chronic sinusitis that has turned into full blown bronchitis and upper respiratory infections many times over the past 6 months. I saw an ENT a few weeks ago who stated I would not find relief until I had my deviated septum repaired. Thinking that was ridiculous, I went to a different ENT for a second opinion who promptly did a CT scan and even more urgently assured me that I need surgery. My septum is severely deviated and she actually suggested 5 surgeries (to be done at one time) that involve a lot of bone removal and reshaping in addition to a balloon sinuplasty. The pain and time involved in recovering sound really unpleasant and will require a lot of help around the house and with Kiersyn… I am pretty apprehensive about it and have been putting off actually scheduling the surgery because of it. However, the thought of being able to breathe normally again and not being sick every month is thoroughly appealing and I know it really needs to be done.

Please keep these issues in your prayers and send up one of thanksgiving for Kiersyn’s continuing improvement.

Here's a couple more videos for good measure :)

Even more videos

Kiersyn learned a new word!

Crawling...or something like it.

Clapping!

Skills

First - Praise God that Kiersyn appears to be improving. We are using Carafate (her magic medicine) on an as-need basis in an attempt to eventually wean. Though, when and if that can happen could be a long way off. We are also attempting to transition from her elemental, amino acid based formula to a soy formula. It has only been a couple days but so far, she has not had a terrible reaction to it. She is spitting up less and drooling less. Both indicate that her reflux may be improving. Infants with severe reflux often produce excess saliva to help neutralize the acid. Please continue to pray that we are slowly seeing signs that she is on the way to outgrowing reflux.

Also, her Steri-Strips came off and you can barely even tell she had surgery! There is a tiny little line where you can see the incision was but I think her scar will barely be noticeable.

On a different note ....
Kiersyn's newest skills.

Locomotion:
She is amazingly accurate at rolling. She will look, assess where she wants to go, turn her body in the right direction, roll a few times, re-assess, rotate if needed and roll again. She can get anywhere she wants to go doing this. However, she does rock on her hands and knees occasionally. So maybe she is slightly interested in crawling. She also stands holding on to things and tries to pull herself up but we don't have anything the right height for that. Which is fortunate since the child loses her mind if she bumps her head.


Voice:
She says Dada and Da-ad non stop. But even BETTER she has started seeing how loud she can scream/squeal in the highest pitch audible to human ears. It is precious and not annoying. Ever. At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

Dexterity:
She's gotten really good at manipulating (read: grabbing, yanking, tearing, and generally destroying) objects with her hands.
Major developments: She figured out how to undo simple velcro. That's right. That means you have approximately .2 seconds to get pants on her before she rips the diaper off.
She also learned to clap! But, of course, she refuses to when you ask her to. Video coming whenever I can catch her doing it.

Curiosity:
She's all about exploring her world and grabbing anything within reach to examine.
Major developments: Apparently this also means putting her hands IN anything that looks like a large enough opening. In case you were wondering, the dumb attach-another-toy-here ring pictured below IS NOT large enough for her to stick her arm in it and easily remove it again. That's right. Arm-stuck-in-ring-angry-baby-chaos did indeed ensue.

And lastly, right before we lowered the mattress, she developed the very cute habit of checking to see who was coming to get her from the crib.

Home Videos

Note: The music can be turned off at the bottom of the page in order to hear the videos better!

Sorry, I know I ask her "what she's doing" way too much - just encouraging metacognition!!