Posts filed under 'Milestones'
It seems like it has been awhile since I posted new pictures. We also have a few movies to show.
Anna has been doing some great things with her left hand! The first movie is of Anna crawling (almost 3MB). It was taken about 5 days ago and she has already improved immensely in her speed and synchronicity. The video is pretty grainy because of the poor lighting conditions.
The other two movies were captured this evening. Anna and I have been working on using her left hand to grasp things. She has difficulties rotating her arm and hand inward, which makes feeding herself with her left hand quite diffcult. Using a long cookie or a spoon, we’ve been working on maintaining her grasp and rotating her arm and hand to get the cookie or spoon to her mouth. She’s caught on and now wants to feed herself yogurt with her left hand (2.5MB). Notice I’m not constraining her right hand at all.
The last clip shows Anna banging on the table with her left hand (almost 2MB). This is the first time Anna has banged repeatedly (and rapidly) on anything using her left hand. Actually, it is the first time she’s done anything that rapidly with her left hand. Of course we’re not neurologists, but we feel this shows that her brain is working to send multiple, rapid signals to her left hand. The video is pretty grainy because of the poor lighting conditions.
Anna is such an amazing little girl. Neal and I often find ourselves on the verge of happy tears when we witness her doing new things with her left hand. She’s truly come so far! Now if only she’d grow some more hair… 
February 28th, 2007
Anna has finally given up the commando crawl in favor of all-fours crawling! She’s also managed to synchronize her arms and legs and is crawling reciprocally. And now she’s working on speed! Yeah Anna!
Another big accomplishment: Anna has learned how to get down from a standing position. No longer does she scream and cry at us or the ladies at daycare to help her down when she doesn’t want to stand any longer. She can do it all by herself. Yet another move towards independence.
February 23rd, 2007
As Neal mentioned in his post yesterday, Anna has just started crawling. She’s doesn’t move far, nor is it very graceful, but she’s trying and that is key. The simple fact that she is getting herself on her hands and knees is amazing considering the fact that her left arm is not that strong. Here’s a movie (7.5MB about 1 minute or so) of Anna that I took just this afternoon.
Anna’s cousin Henry is quite the dancer. Recently he’s started groovin’ to music of any kind. Here’s a short clip of him dancing to one of Anna’s toys.
January 26th, 2007
Tara called me this morning at work to tell me that we’ve passed two major milestones in one day:
1. Anna sat up all on her own! (This is the first time either of us have actually seen her do it).
2. Anna actually crawled. On all fours. Not far. Not fast. But she crawled. And then she did it again for our therapist.
I’m at work, and swamped, but I had to share. I’m so incredibly happy! I think any parent understands the emotions we’re feeling, but this milestone in particular has become so much more important for us because of Anna’s CP.
Ms. Anna: You are truly amazing.
January 25th, 2007
As I’ve mentioned in past posts, we’re working on getting Anna to sit up from being on her tummy. Yesterday morning I put Anna in her crib for a nap. About an hour later I went in to get her because I could hear her playing and chatting away. I walked in and was pleasantly surprised to see Ms. Anna sitting up in her crib waving at me! Now that she knows she CAN do it, I’m hoping we’ll be seeing more and more of her sitting up.
I took this opportunity to work on a little child-proofing. Since I KNOW Anna can pull herself to standing if she’s in a sitting position I thought it would be a good idea to lower the mattress in her crib. I’ve also been installing covers on all the electrical outlets. She’s very interested in drawers and cabinets lately, so I’m going to be installing some of those cabinet/drawer lock-thingies soon.
January 23rd, 2007
The title pretty much sums up the time since our last post.
We spent Christmas in Kansas this year. This was Anna’s first Christmas, which was actually a lot of fun. She had no idea what she was doing, but she enjoyed ripping paper off. Not so that she could see what was under the paper, but so that she could eat the paper. We had to keep a pretty close eye on her with all that paper laying around. We had a great time visiting with all the grandparents, aunts/uncles and cousins!
Due to the snow storm in Colorado and Kansas over the weekend of the New Years holiday, we stayed in Kansas a couple of days longer than anticipated. We had a room booked at the Burlington High School gymnasium, but thankfully we didn’t need to use it! We returned to Longmont on Monday night to find that our driveway was completely shoveled! Thank you Andy and Barbara (our next door neighbors). However, the plows finally came though on our street and deposited a large mound of icy snow in front of our driveway. After an 11 hour drive we had to dig ourselves out of the mound so that we could pull the car into the driveway. Not something you want to do at 11pm. Especially considering we all had to return to work the very next day!
Anna made it to daycare on Tuesday and Wednesday that week and by the weekend she was sick AGAIN! On Saturday she had a very high fever and on Sunday she had labored breathing. We interrupted our Christmas with Neal’s parents and cousin Sandra to take Anna to the urgent care clinic on the advice of our on-call doctor. The on-call doc said that we should begin to be concerned when her respirations per minute reached 40-50; Anna’s were 80 when we left the house and 96 when we reached urgent care! While there they had her do a breathing treatment, which is a lot of fun with an infant (NOT). They also tested her for RSV and influenza. Unfortunately she tested positive for RSV. If you haven’t had a child recently, you may not know that RSV is a potentially very dangerous respiratory virus for babies. It manifests itself as a cold for adults and older children, but it wreaks havoc on the ability of infants to get enough oxygen. It is also highly contagious, so no daycare for at least a week.
Anna was KO’d for that entire week. She didn’t begin to feel better until the following Friday. Even then she was still not her usual jovial self! The fever continued throughout the week. She developed two ear infections. And breathing remained an issue. Every night for a week we gave her a breathing treatment using a home nebulizer (again, a lot of fun). And then the cough started. It was just a terribly horrible week. Anna slept with me because the doctors wanted us to monitor her breathing; Neal slept on the couch. In sum, no one slept very well. On Monday we went back to the doctor to see if she would be cleared for daycare starting this last Tuesday. Unfortunately, she was still wheezing and rattling so we were told to wait for a couple of days. To top off that fabulous time, Anna gave me her virus. So now I’m coughing all night!
Last but not least, Anna is cutting more teeth! She now has 3 on the bottom, her two front teeth on top are coming in nicely, and she’s started to cut one of her first year molars. Needless to say, she is a drooling queen and has been quite fussy lately. It’s hard to tell whether she is fussy because of her sickness or because of the teeth. Maybe it’s a combination of both.
I posted some new pictures as well. I want to upload some new movies, but I need to use Neal’s desktop to do that. I’ll try to do that sometime this weekend. We have a couple of really good ones.
Oh, and on the therapy front, Anna is cruising around on the furniture now. We still aren’t hands-and-knees crawling, but we are continuing to work on that. I’m of the opinion now that she will walk before she crawls (on her hands and knees). She’s also doing a great job pulling to stand on her own. Now, if we could just get her to sit up from commando crawling, we’d be in business. Her OT today was absolutely amazed with Anna’s use of her left arm. She had expected a bit of a regression given the fact that Anna was out of commission for more than a week, but she was pleasantly suprised to find that Anna had actually gained skills. Baby girl truly is amazing. We’ve got some interesting therapy news on the horizon. I won’t elaborate now because it is still in the works, but I’ll be sure to share when we know more.
January 18th, 2007
On Thursday Anna had her 9-month check-up. She’s 29 inches long (still in the 95 percentile) and 18 1/2 lbs. The doctor is a bit concerned about her weight. Up until this appointment Anna was following a perfect growth curve. She’s fallen off her curve pretty significantly and the doctor wants to keep an eye on her to make sure her weight corrects itself. She’s been sick off and on for some time now, so this may be the reason for her smallish increase in weight. It could also be that she is using more calories due to all her exercise and increased mobility. The doctor wants her to come back in about a month for a weigh-in. For the time being we’ll see if we can’t increase her caloric intake.
Other than her weight Anna is developing on track in all ways (except, of course, those areas that involve the use of the left side of her body). She’s babbling like a brook lately and has started to wave. We also suspect that we are seeing Anna’s first sign - food! She doesn’t make the sign too consistently yet, but we definitely feel she is making it deliberately. It is quite a trip to think that she’s communicating with us! Anna has cut her 3rd tooth. We suspected she was teething, but I was focused on her top gums (typically babies cut the top 4 after the bottom 2). It was a total surprise to me when I noticed the top of a tooth on her bottom gum!
Anna’s therapy is going well, too. She’s started to pull up to a kneeling position and often to standing (with a little help from Mom or Dad). This evening she suceeded in pulling up to standing from a sitting position all on her own! Now if she could just get from lying to sitting, there’d be no stopping her. She’s pretty much obsessed with pulling up and standing now. Much to her chagrin, we’re very much still working on the crawling-thing, as it is a keystone skill for her. You don’t usually think of crawling as more than a means to get around, but it is MUCH MUCH more. The hands and knees position facilitates sitting up, kneeling, pulling up, etc. etc. We are working on strengthening her left arm so that it can support her weight when she’s in the hands and knees position. For those that haven’t seen Anna lately and wonder whether she’s mobile at all, she IS getting around by commando-crawling. She uses her arms (and legs) to drag her body around. And she’s fast! We’re in the process of installing baby gates to keep her from taking a nasty spill down the stairs. Talk about some strength…try pulling your body around with just your arms (and a little help from your legs).
December 15th, 2006
Five years ago today I married my best friend. On the best day of my life.
Thank you, my wife, my partner, my guide, my strength, my joy, my dearest love for making each day since then even better.
Let there be five and fifty and five hundred more years to come!
December 8th, 2006
Where did November go? We’ve had a lot going on lately - family visiting, changing jobs, therapy appointments. I often feel as if I’m running just to stand still.
Hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday. We spent Thanksgiving in Fort Collins with Neal’s family this year. His brother and sister-in-law flew in from Southern California and his cousin from Germany, Sandra, joined us, too. She’s currently doing a study abroad program at a school in Aspen. This was Sandra’s first Thanksgiving celebration. The verdict? She likes pumpkin pie, but she likes pecan pie better. 
All of the relatives enjoyed spending time with Anna and it seemed Anna enjoyed spending time with them! I’ve uploaded some pictures of our festivities.
While Colin and Roby were here we had an early Christmas. Anna enjoyed opening everyone’s presents (actually, that’s a lie…she enjoyed eating the paper. The opening of the presents was simply a means to an end). Thank you Colin and Roby for the gifts! The reader you gave Neal has already been put to good use. Did you know that dolphins nap with one eye open?
Anna’s recovering from another one of her month-long colds. At the one month mark I took her to the doctor. From her symptoms the doctor thought she probably had a sinus infection. She’s in the middle of a 10-day course of antibiotics right now. God bless the person who created flavored medications. I can’t imagine these antibiotics taste very good on their own, but with flavoring Anna actually likes them. When I say she likes them, I mean she gets all excited when I bring out the medicine-filled dropper. I suppose it could be worse, she could hate them and kick, scream and spit when I gave them to her, but there’s just something wrong about a baby getting super-excited about taking medication. She does the same thing with the Tylenol. Yippeee…give me my drugs!
I forgot to mention that Anna has gone to her first swim lesson (loosely defined). We thought it would be a good idea to introduce her to the water earlier rather than later, and also thought that the water might have a therapeutic benefit. Anna’s therapists agreed. In water she gets instant feedback when she moves her arms or legs. She seemed to like it, but the water in the pool was very chilly. Thank goodness the lesson only lasted about 30 minutes; otherwise we might have had an Anna-cicle on our hands. We bought a little nyoprene swimsuit that should keep her trunk a bit warmer. We haven’t had a chance to try it out yet because Anna’s been sick. I hope that we’re all healthy this Saturday for her next lesson. We’ll see if the wetsuit makes a difference.
I’m going to post a movie soon of Anna babbling. The week before Thanksgiving Anna went from single syllable vocalizations to babbling like a brook. It is such a joy to listen to her “ba ba ba ba ga ba da da”. She’ll talk to anyone who will listen, and even those who don’t. It was the most bizarre thing, she literally started babbling overnight. On Wednesday she wasn’t saying much of anything, and on Thursday she wouldn’t stop talking. She’s also figured out how to make noises by moving her fingers over her lips. She’ll even mimic you if you do it first. She’s got “dada” down pat; we’re stil working on “mama”. And we *think* we may be seeing the beginnings of Anna’s first sign: food! It’s honestly hard to tell whether she’s just being orally fixated at the moment or actually trying to communicate.
This last Friday our daycare arranged for Santa to visit during the morning. Friday isn’t one of our normal daycare days, but I wanted Anna to have a picture with Santa. We dressed up in a new dress that Granny Debbie bought and stopped by the daycare center. It was so fun to watch all the kids of different ages sit on Santa’s lap. Several from Anna’s room were completely freaked out by the man in the red suit. When it was Anna’s turn the photographer told me to keep Anna facing away from Santa while I placed her on his lap. Tricks of the trade, I guess. Anna was fine with Santa. She stared at his beard (she has a thing for men with facial hair and hats) and seemed quite content. She wouldn’t smile despite my efforts at tickling her and generally making a fool of myself. All was well until…Santa spoke. She started crying and the photo-shoot was over.
In other news, Anna’s therapy is going well. Despite a two-week interruption of our routine, her therapists still see she’s making progress. This is a good thing because I was feeling tremendously guilty for not being as diligent as I could have been about making sure we did all our exercises. I guess this is something that I’m going to have to get used to. There will be weeks when Anna’s therapy schedule is thrown off by holidays, illness, whatever. Being a goal-oriented person, I am finding it difficult to remember that this is a long process, and that nothing is going to change overnight - no matter how many exercises I do with her. Anna has made such incredible progress in the short time since we’ve been working with her. Neal reminds me constantly to think about where we were just a few months ago. He also acknowledges how hard this is for everyone. We’re having to teach Anna many of the skills her peers just learn on their own. That said though, Anna is very bright and picks up on things rather quickly. This evening she amazed us both by following the steps she learned on Thursday to pull herself up to standing (with help, of course). Those are the moments when I am so incredibly proud of her.
Anna is still commando-crawling, and getting pretty good at it, I might add. She seems to resist going up onto all fours. Her arm is getting stronger and stronger, though. She’s also using her arm/hand much more these days. She’s bringing it to midline to play with toys (as a helper hand). Anna’s occupational therapist has recommended that we get a Joe Cool strap for her thumb. This strap should help pull her thumb out so that it isn’t tucked in as much. Kathy thinks that this might encourage her to play even more with her left hand. As I mentioned previously, Anna is working on the steps to pull herself to standing. She has been attempting the brute force method for the past week or so - trying to pull up using just her arm strength. Her physical therapist thought it would be best to teach her the proper steps before she develops some bad habits. Pulling up is a big challenge because she isn’t really transitioning well from being on her tummy to sitting. It would all be a lot easier on Anna if she were able to get up on all fours, but we’re working on it nonetheless. We’re also working on helping Anna recognize that her left hand can do things independently of her right (i.e. that she can have objects in both hands and can chew on either one of them). This one is going to take a lot of patience on both our parts.
December 3rd, 2006
As many of you know, I’ve decided to leave my current place of employment and pursue a new opportunity as Director of Web Development at a small web development shop in Boulder.
Both Tara and I are extremely excited about this opportunity. Foraker Design is a very small company (I’m employee number 9!), but they’re growing fast. In this role I’ll have a chance to do quite a bit more “hands on” programming than I was afforded at Insight (the breakdown should end up being about 75% programming / 25% managing), and since Foraker is job shop that gets business from all shapes and sizes, I’ll also get a chance to play with some of the technologies and languages all the “kids” are raving about: Ruby, PHP, ASP, Java, et cetera. And while several people have commented on how leaving the “safety” of a big corporate environment is borderline crazy, in many ways I feel much more secure in working for a company where the employees are more than just entries on someone else’s budget sheet, and where I’ll likely have more say in our collective direction.
Yet the parting is obviously bittersweet. After four and a half years, I’ve made many, many friends at Insight. I am enormously grateful for the support, guidance, and encouragement I received during my tenure. I had so many teachers, from every part and every level of the organization. I thank all of them for allowing me to learn as we helped grow this business together. I am especially grateful to the members of the Software Development team, whom I now leave in my successor’s exceedingly capable hands: Thank you for your support and friendship, for the opportunity to be a part of the most dynamic and talented team of developers on the Front Range, and for all that you have taught me over the last few years. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve you. I will miss you all.
I’ll start up again after the Thanksgiving holiday with a full belly and much enthusiasm for the new challenges that lay ahead.
November 21st, 2006
Last Friday Anna had her six-month check-up. She’s doing great! She is now 27 1/2 inches long and weighs 17 lbs 4oz. (90-95th percentile for height and 75-80th percentile for weight). We had our normal round of shots - three total, which is one less than last time. Those are always so much fun for both of us! Our doctor was very impressed with the progress Anna’s made on the use of her left hand/arm since she saw us about a month ago. I thought that was encouraging.
Anna’s two bottom teeth have finally pushed through, so we’re a little less grumpy about our gums these days. Thank goodness! Although now that we’re not using tylenol and teething tablets before bed, getting her to go to sleep has been a real challenge. Tonight she screamed for about an hour total (broken up in 10-15-20 minute increments). What a nightmare.
This week Anna is “skipping a grade” (as Neal likes to call it) at daycare. I’m really excited about this move. Anna is at the top of the food chain in her current room. She’s a few weeks younger than the two oldest boys in her room, but neither of them is sitting independently. The rest of the crew is much younger and barely rolling over. I’m hoping that seeing babies crawling and whatnot will give Anna some ideas that she can try out. I swear that she is learning things from her cousin Henry who is crawling all over the place!
I neglected to post anything about my Mom coming to visit during the week before last. We had a wonderful time and we hope she did too! She spent most of the week playing with her grandbabies and buying them outrageous toys. As always, it was great having her here. We’re very much looking forward to seeing the entire Kansas family when we go home in October for my cousin Aaron’s wedding. Anna and I will be spending a week visiting everyone.
September 24th, 2006
About a month ago we took Anna into her pediatrician because we were concerned with the use (or disuse) of her left hand (affectionately known as Bob). Mom, being the neurotic type, had done some research which stated that infants are basically ambidextrous until at least 12 months of age, and that any hand preference exhibited before that age is a developmental red-flag that points to a neuromuscular issue. Well, Anna is VERY right-handed at 6 months and we thought it would be best to have her checked out. Our pediatrician confirmed our suspicions that Anna’s preference for her right hand (otherwise known as Martha or “bossy right”) was problematic. Furthermore, Anna showed some definite developmental delays in the use of her left hand. She believed that Anna’s core body strength was very good and that she was developing equally on both sides, but that her left side seemed weaker than her right with her arm more affected than her leg. Her initial thoughts were that she’d suffered a stroke (yes, babies have strokes!) or had some malformation of the brain. She referred us to a pediatric neurologist from Children’s Hospital in Denver for more tests and evaluation.
Unfortunately, we had to wait two weeks for our appointment with the neurologist. As you can imagine, Neal and I were pretty much beside ourselves. We were worried and upset: will Anna be able to run and jump, will she be able to type or play the piano? Will she have difficulties with speech or learning? Will she be able to do everything that she wants to do? These types of questions, among others, consumed our thoughts. I basically flipped out and let my obsessive/compulsive tendencies have free reign. I read more and more about Anna’s symptoms and became more and more distraught. I basically had her diagnosed before we’d even seen the specialist: cerebral palsy.
During those 2 weeks of waiting we discovered that we have an amazing support network. The director of our daycare center has a daughter with a mild case of cerebral palsy. I met her daughter and you’d hardly know that she had any impairment at all! After years of therapy and hard work, her daughter graduated from high school and college and works at the daycare center while looking for a full-time job. The director has already been a wonderful resource. She has offered to teach me the therapy games she used to play with her daughter and has purchased a few toys for Anna that promote use of her left hand. She wants to be an active part in Anna’s therapy program and will be working with Anna while she’s at daycare. What a surprise and relief!
Last Tuesday we had our appointment with the specialist from Children’s. I was very stressed and anxious. We went in knowing that there was definitely a problem and that it was probably cerebral palsy, but we didn’t know what level of severity or what other areas of Anna’s body may be affected. She asked us many questions about my pregnancy, Anna’s birth, and her development. She confirmed what we suspected: Anna has cerebral palsy (non-specific left-sided hemiparesis). However, she was able to say that it was a very mild case and that with therapy and early intervention, she should be able to do anything she wants (Neal: Like become President, for example). At this point, the doctor does not believe that Anna’s speech or cognitive abilities are affected. She wants us to have Anna’s vision tested by a pediatric ophthamalogist as soon as possible to rule out any vision problems, although she doesn’t think that there are any major issues. And most importantly, she has ordered both physical and occupational therapy for Anna.
Sometime during the next month, Anna will be going in for a sedated MRI down at Children’s. I have to admit, the sedation part freaks me out a little bit, but if it has to be done I’d prefer it be done at Children’s with anesthesiologists who work only with children. The scans will give the doctor a better idea of the extent of the damage to Anna’s brain and what may have caused it. If it turns out that Anna did have a stroke, the doctor would like Anna to visit the stroke clinic at Children’s to rule out the possibility that she has some underlying clotting disorder that might cause her problems as she grows. We’ll see what happens.
During the days since our appointment I’ve been attempting to navigate the social services maze in an effort to get Anna “in the system.” We’re awaiting an evaluation with the St. Vrain Valley School District’s Child Find program. It’s my understanding that they can help coordinate Anna’s therapy and bring together all the interested parties (i.e. daycare, therapists, etc.). I’m hoping that our pediatrician can help us in this department as well. We have Anna’s 6-month check-up on Friday. She’ll have the information from the neurologist and we can proceed from there.
We’re remarkably calm about the entire thing. We have a plan of attack now. I know I will feel even better once we find physical and occupational therapists and we start our sessions. In the meantime, we’ll continue to do our “common sense” approach when working with Anna. She’s really made a great deal of progress in such a short time. We’re very hopeful. Who knows, she may very well grow out of this. Only time will tell. One thing is for certain, she’s still Anna! And we love her so very much.
September 17th, 2006
Tara fed Anna her first “solid” foods last night. The doctor told us at our last visit that Anna could probably start on solid foods after her fifth month or whenever she really started being interested in what we grown-ups were eating. Well, she’s been grabbing at our plates for the last couple of weeks now, so we thought we’d try her out on some yummy rice cereal!
Here’s a little movie of Anna eating her first food (QuickTime, 2.6MB).
August 18th, 2006
Anna’s starting to get a little mobile. Tara got a good little movie of Anna enjoying some tummy time (QuickTime, 1.7MB), and another of her rolling over (QuickTime, 1.6MB) from her back to her tummy all by herself (yes, the binkie is a true motivator for the pre-crawling set).
Lots of milestones here of late!
August 18th, 2006
Another “first”: Anna’s now able to sit up by herself for something of an extended period of time. Tara took some good pictures.
August 15th, 2006
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