Owen Speaks and an Update

Owen is 10 months already! It's hard to believe!

We have seen some improvement recently with his reflux. Who knew when all this started that we would still be dealing with this all these months later!

I'm not sure if I've ever put the complete story on here, so if not, here's a synopsis... Owen started acting funny with feedings at about 6 weeks. He would nurse a little, then start arching his back and crying. He was only happy if I would stop feeding him. It seemed strange, and as it turns out, there really was a problem. He has what is called "silent reflux." This means that he doesn't spit up (much) but he has frequent heartburn symptoms. We have him on medication, which helps, but doesn't completely take the reflux away.

At his worst, Owen has had to be fed mainly while sleeping. We would have to get him to sleep for his naps/bedtime first, and then get him up and feed him. This is apparently not unheard of in babies who have the type of reflux that he does. Their bodies know they need the food, but they have to be sleepy to overcome the pain and actually eat. This stage was not enjoyable for anyone, but you do what you have to do to keep your child alive!

Owen was sick off and on from mid-February to mid-March and fought us on almost every bottle during this time. We have been working with a wonderful feeding specialist that we found through a friend at church, and she suggested seeing a dietician to evaluate Owen's weight and calorie intake. This sounded like a good idea. We had two options: seeing the dietician that our feeding specialist works with (who is very good) through her private practice, or going through Early Childhood Intervention (called ECI - it's a government program) and taking whoever they sent out. While on the phone with the feeding specialist about this, I was texting another friend who works with ECI as an occupational therapist. She had told me about a dietician that she worked with who was really good. Well, the two recommended dieticians were actually the same person! This was great confirmation that the Lord was working things out on our behalf to get us in touch with someone good to help Owen. We decided to set up a visit through her private practice because we would not be able to see her through ECI, and at this point, we'd rather pay to get good advice than risk getting someone who is not so good. Feeding issues are a big deal.

The dietician came to our house in mid-March. She was sooooo helpful. She weighed and measured Owen and found him to be in the 1st percentile for weight (not good), 3rd percentile for head size, and 8th percentile for height. This showed that he is not getting enough calories. She thought that his reflux was not under good control, though, and that there was not much we could do until he was more willing to eat. She suggested trying a new formula to see if he was intolerant of dairy. I was skeptical, as I had tried cutting out dairy while nursing, and it didn't seem to help. (I didn't cut it out completely, though. I mean, who can live without pizza?) She said that we would know in 3 bottles if it was going to work, so we decided to give it a try.

The verdict is... the new formula works! Owen is eating much better. It's so wonderful to not be struggling with him over the bottle, and he is eating solid food better too. The formula is smelly and expensive, but it is worth it! Owen has never had much of an appetite, but he is showing more signs of hunger since being on the new formula. Today, lunch was 30 min. late, and he whined until he was fed! I never thought I would be so happy to see a child whining for food!

On Thursday, I am taking him to a pediatric gastroenterologist just to make sure that we are not overlooking anything else. The dietician suggested this. So stay tuned for another update!

Here is a video of Owen and his new favorite word... "bap." He said it all day long today. I don't think it means anything, but it's pretty funny to hear him say it!

The Discussions We Have

Our real-life lesson for the day...

Aidan: That was cool seeing that blimp yesterday. Do you think there is a battlefield near here? Next door neighbor boy said that blimps are usually in battles.

Mom: Uh, the blimp said "MetLife" on it, so I don't think it was for a battle... That's the name of an insurance company.

Aidan: Oh. (disappointed) Well, maybe there is a battlefield near here somewhere.

Mom: Wars don't just happen on "battlefields" that are set aside for that. Modern wars happen wherever.

Aidan: Oh. Huh. Do they just find a big field somewhere?

Mom: Not exactly. Sometimes people attack cities.

Aidan: Oh. Wow.

Pictures

This is what we call a brother sandwich.

Our 3 sons. Owen still had a little bit of his rash in this picture.

Who wants a bottle? I do! I do!

This boy is into things much more than any of the other two.
Today he took a bite out of a stoneware coaster. Who knew you could bite into stoneware?

Kind of ironic that the book in his mouth is "The Tale of Two Bad Mice"...

Dishes

The other night, we had chili and cornbread for dinner. Neither of the boys are really into chili, but they sure like the cornbread part. As soon as dinner started, they were both stuffing cornbread into their mouths. I explained for the 300th time that we don't stuff our mouths full and that eating is never a race. Noticing that my lecture was falling on dead ears yet again, I said, "Whoever finishes their cornbread first wins a prize!" Aidan asked, "What prize?" "You can do the dishes!" I responded.

A few seconds later, I noticed that Gresham's mouth was completely stuffed full of cornbread. He was using his hands to keep it from falling out. He ended up having to take some of the cornbread out of his mouth, drink a little water to help it go down, and then re-eat the part that he had taken out. I still hadn't caught on to what he was doing until he swallowed the last morsel and proclaimed, "There! I won! Now I can do the dishes!!"

He then rolled up his sleeves so that he would be all ready come dishes time. "Doing the dishes" to him means pouring water and playing in the bubbles, but hopefully he'll retain his enthusiasm once he is old enough to actually help!

Dr. Visit #376

So our new hobby is going to the doctor. We go there all the time. Today, we had our 5th visit in 3 weeks time! It was Owen's 4th visit in 3 weeks. First we had a 9 month well visit for Owen and a 3 year well visit for Gresham, followed by a sick visit for Owen for a fever 5 days later at Aidan's well visit. Then, a week after that we went back because Gresham had an ear infection. Two days later, we took Owen in for an ear infection. (Did you follow all of that?)

The other day, I cleaned up the van a little and found about 25 discarded lollypop sticks from all those doctor visits. We've got to stop going, or we're going to have to schedule some dentist visits! There are some benefits, though. We don't have to sign in anymore because the receptionist knows who we are and signs us in automatically...

Today, we took Owen in for this:

About 20 min. after he got over his ear infection (from last week), he developed a new cough, runny nose, and fever. Then today he woke up with this horrid rash! We weren't able to see our doctor, but they got us in with another doctor. She thought it was probably just a virus and not a reaction to the antibiotic he is on, but she brought in another doctor just to make sure! They consulted together and decided that it's just a virus. I'm pretty sure we picked up this virus at the doctor's office last week. I've been getting lax and letting the kids play on the benches and read all the books there. Guess we'll have to go back to bringing our own books...

Hopefully in a few days, he'll be back to his happy self again. He looks worse than he feels, but his eating is really suffering, especially since eating is such a low priority for him anyway.

We're ready for spring!

A cute video

Here is Gresham doing a little rhyme that he learned at Sunday School (during their potty break time, they do little rhymes like this to keep everyone entertained!)

The words are (in case you can't understand him...):
There was a little turtle who lived in a box.
He swam in the puddles and climbed on the rocks.
He snapped at a mosquito.
He snapped at a flea.
He snapped at a minnow, but he didn't get me!

He caught the mosquito.
He caught the flea.
He caught the minnow, but he didn't catch me!

Birthday List

This morning, Aidan was updating us on what he has on his birthday list. (His birthday is in July, so this is a high-priority activity you know...)

I said, "Well, my birthday is coming before yours, I really should be making my list! Do you know what I want for my birthday?"
Gresham said, "A backhoe loader!"
"Yes," I said. "How did you know that's what I wanted?"
Gresham: "Because it is a good thing to have!"

New Bikes

We got new bikes! Gresham's bike already looks too small for him... yes, we knew that when we bought it... It's a balance bike, so it has no pedals. He got a balance bike for his 2nd birthday that he has had a blast riding, but it is broken. The idea of this kind of bike is that you learn to coast on it and balance, and then can go right to a pedal bike with no training wheels. Now that Gresham has experienced the speed of a balance bike, he didn't want to ride Aidan's old bike with training wheels, and he is not tall enough to ride Aidan's old bike without training wheels. So we bought another balance bike. At least Owen will be able to use this one, probably around age 2 or 2 1/2. It's a cute little bike, and Gresham likes to ride down the driveway with his feet up. His balance is really quite good!

It's a Miracle!

Gresham is potty trained! At the age of 3 and 4 months (almost 5 months) we are finally potty trained!

This has been a battle of the wills for some time, and I have been losing. I figured that it just wasn't worth the fight, and with all of Owen's feeding issues, I haven't had the time for cleaning up little puddles from someone who doesn't care whether he makes it to the potty or not. Just at a time when things have been especially rough with Owen, God was gracious and allowed our little sweetie to be potty trained pretty much overnight! Last Friday, we went to Gymboree to buy a baby present, and Gresham saw some tractor underwear that he wanted. I bought them for him (figured it was worth a shot!) and he wanted to take the tags off right away and wear them home. I told him I thought we'd wait until we got home... He came home and put them right on and started taking himself to the potty when he had to go!

He is even staying dry most night and at naps. Amazing!

Owen Playing Peekaboo