Archive for May, 2007
Dear Mama,
I love you so much!
Thank you for your smile and for all the hugs and especially the snuggles. Thank you for reading me books and playing games, for taking me on adventures, and even for the tickles. Thank you for letting me eat yogurt and cookies and beets and green beans. Thank you for helping me wake up when I’ve had a bad dream, and for coming and sleeping in my room when I’m not feeling well.
Thank you for spending so much time with me. You are my very favorite person. Thank you for teaching me to do things with my left — I know that’s important even if it makes me frustrated sometimes. Thank you for your confidence in me, and for teaching me how to be big and good.
I hope someday I can be as big and good as you.
I hope you have a happy day!
Love,
Anna Rose
May 13th, 2007
Okay…so what is the deal! Why can’t Miss Anna catch a break? We found out this morning that Anna has croup. What a scary thing it is! Last night I was downstairs doing some work on the computer and I heard this weird noise. I honestly thought it was coming from outside - perhaps our neighbor’s dogs. Nope, it was coming from upstairs. It was Anna. Her cough sounded like a bark.
I think she slept okay last night, though. She woke up early this morning because of her cough. She also sounded like she was having trouble breathing. So we made an appointment to see the doctor. It’s funny, Anna seemed almost fine when we went to the doctor’s office at 10am. Just a short 2 hours after we had called to make the appointment. I guess that’s the nature of croup, though. Nights and early mornings are the worst and the symptoms become much less severe (to non-existent) during the day. Unfortunately, croup is contagious - no daycare for this week. Neal and I will be working half-days for the next couple of days.
Hopefully, Anna will have an okay night tonight. The doctor gave us a single-dose steroid treatment to reduce the inflammation, so that may help with the coughing. I’m not taking any chances…I’m heading to bed now in anticipation of being up for some portion of the night.
By the way, Anna weighs 22 1/2 lbs. And so far she doesn’t have an ear infection. Let’s hope it stays that way.
May 7th, 2007
So Anna has been standing a lot lately. She just lets go of whatever she’s leaning against and just stands there. Well, on Thursday during her OT session Anna walked! She took 4 steps all by herself. Anna’s OT held out a toy for her to come get and Anna let go of the couch and walked to her! The OT kept moving a little further back and a little further back and Anna just kept coming! I was stunned. She hasn’t repeated her 4 step performance, but we have witnessed 2 and 3 step attempts.
Walking here we come.
May 5th, 2007
Busy busy busy. That describes these last couple of weeks since our mid-April post. Both Neal and I have been crazy-busy at work lately; simply not enough hours in the day. I have to wonder where the last 2 weeks have gone, though.
Update on Anna…shortly after Neal’s last post on the 16th of April, Anna either developed another ear infection or had a flare-up of the same one she’s had since…oh, I don’t know, the first part of March! She had an ear infection when she went in for her 12-month check-up. She was given a 10-day course of antibiotics, which didn’t clear it up. We went back to the doctor and were given a different family of antibiotics - 6-day course. And we most recently went in and received yet another family of antibiotics - 10-day course. We’ve been off the antibiotics for 4 days now…so far, so good. We have an appointment next Friday to see if this round of antibiotics actually killed it. I hope so. If not, there is talk of ear tubes. Let’s hope that we do not have to go that route.
Otherwise, Anna is doing well! She is gaining weight and growing tall. At one of her last doctor’s appointments she weighed in at 21 lbs 7 oz. She gained 1 lb 4 oz in about 2 1/2 weeks. We’re less concerned with her weight these days. We’ve discovered that the things on the edges of table tops are now fair-game. Anna can now peek over the edge of a table and check out what’s on top. Yikes.
We’re still actively cutting teeth. I know I’m tired of all the drool and fussiness - I can only imagine how tired Anna is of the entire business. We’ve pretty much got all the first year molars now and the 4th front tooth on top is pretty much in. I think we’re starting on some of the canines, although I can’t see anything yet. She’s chewing on EVERYTHING again. She won’t let me put my finger in her mouth anymore to check on tooth status and with the number of teeth she has, if she doesn’t want my finger in there, she’ll let me know by biting it! Those baby teeth are wicked sharp.
We have some news to report on the therapy front. During the second week in April we had the 6-month review of Anna’s IFSP (Individualized Family Service Plan) through Imagine! Anna’s OT, PT and our service coordinator met at our home to discuss Anna’s progress to date and develop some goals for the next 6-month period. Anna met all the goals we set back in October, and by pretty much any measure she has made excellent progress. Our new goals consist of learning how to walk, clapping hands, and developing a refined pincer grasp. It was also determined that Anna would benefit from weekly PT visits rather than the bi-weekly we had during the previous 6-month period. So we now have PT on Mondays and OT on Thursdays every week.
Yesterday Anna was fitted with a pair of orthotics made by a company called Cascade. They are designed to help Anna regain the arch of her left foot and keep her feet in alignment, which should help her to walk and prevent her from developing some bad walking habits. They are made of a semi-flexible plastic and come up just over her ankle bone. We went shoe shopping yesterday to find a pair of shoes that would fit over the orthotics; that was a challenge. We found a pair of teva-esque sandals and a pair of Converse canvas hi-tops. When she wears the hi-tops, you can’t even tell she’s wearing them (she just looks like she has amazingly fat feet). Right now we are only wearing them for 45 minutes a day. We’ll do that for 3 or 4 days and then gradually increase the amount of time she’s wearing them until we reach 4 hours a day. Once she starts walking she’ll probably wear them for longer.
Anna’s OT is going well. She’s using her left hand to help with more and more bi-manual tasks. We’ve been working on using two hands to pick up a ball and a large cereal box. We’re still wearing the cast on Fridays and Sundays all day and the sock during dinner. I must admit it is getting harder and harder to stick with the regimen. She’s started fighting the cast and I find it difficult to be the “bad guy.” How do you tell a 13 1/2 month old that this is for her own good?
Hope to have some pictures to post soon. I need to download them from my camera.
May 1st, 2007
This last weekend was the March of Dimes WalkAmerica. Team “Miss Anna” drove down to Denver and walked 6 miles around downtown. It was a beautiful day - plenty of sun. Neal, Anna and I were joined by our friend, Wil. Unfortunately, Henry and Uncle Gus weren’t able to join us due to a family emergency. Anna managed to sleep in the stroller during a large part of the walk, but enjoyed the final 45 minutes or so riding in the backpack. When I figure out how to get pictures off my cell phone I will post a few we took during the walk.
Some very special thanks are in order here. Thanks so very much to those of you who supported our team. We were able to raise nearly $2500 for the March of Dimes thanks to your generous donations. Every penny counts! And thanks to our Team “Miss Anna” members: Henry, Gus and Wil. Each member raised money on their own, which contributed to our team total.
Thanks again for your support of the March of Dimes!
May 1st, 2007