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.
02/23/07 11:12 AM
Tara
Babies Milestones
Anna is wide awake and ready to start her day an hour and a half early.
The joys of parenthood abound.
02/20/07 5:42 AM
Neal
Parenting Babies
A couple of new things to report regarding Ms. Anna. First of all, you may have noticed that Anna is wearing a splint on her left hand in some of her pictures. They call it a Joe Cool strap and it is designed to keep Ann’s thumb out of the palm. Anna generally tucks her thumb under her fingers when she makes a fist and it often stays there even when she opens her hand. This makes it incredibly difficult for her to grab anything. The splint prevents this from happening. She doesn’t seem to mind wearing it and it does what it is supposed to do. In our opinions (and that of her therapist), she is better able to grasp things with her left hand now that her thumb isn’t in the way.
We took Anna in for an RSV follow up and weigh in on Friday. Fortunately, her ears have cleared up and she looks to be in good health. The other good news is Anna’s weight gain. She gained over 1 lb. in a little less than a month! Anna has turned into a heavy-hitter when it comes to eating. I’m amazed at how much that little body can put away.
And lastly…a little rant on my part. I hate insurance companies. My employer is switching one of our insurance plans (the one Anna and I are on) to a vastly reduced plan with very very few doctors in our area. We’re now supposed to drive to Aurora (southeast Denver metro area) for Anna’s therapy and to visit a hospital. In its stead they are offering a crapppy plan with a high deductible. Grrr…. And we’re also having to jump through several hoops to get some of Anna’s therapy approved by our current insurance plan. Universal healthcare…I’ll vote for it in a heartbeat. You shouldn’t have to look at your finances to determine whether or not you can give your family the care they deserve/need.
I’m hoping to post a few pics soon…Anna had some spaghetti today. It was a mess, but she certainly had a good time.
02/11/07 2:33 PM
Tara
Parenting Babies Photos
Josie and Henry came over to visit Anna and me today. Jo and I decided that both kinds were kind of stinky, so we thought it would be fun to give them a bath together. They had a BLAST! There are a few pictures I uploaded of the event. We also were able to shoot a short movie (a little over 4MB).
We also uploaded earlier this week a couple of pictures of Anna in her new felt cowgirl hat. She received it along with a whole bunch of new outfits from her great uncle Mike and Julie. Thanks so much!!
02/8/07 2:56 PM
Tara
Family Babies Photos
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.
01/26/07 4:00 PM
Tara
Movies Milestones
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.
01/25/07 4:14 PM
Neal
Babies Milestones
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.
01/23/07 11:01 AM
Tara
Parenting Babies Milestones
We’re supposed to get another 3-5 inches today. I’m getting a little tired of it snowing every weekend for the last 5 weeks. I’m tired of shoveling. I’m tired of driving my Honda. I’m tired of tracking in gloppy black snow stuff on my boots. Not to mention the fact that it’s COLD!
01/21/07 12:44 PM
Tara
Outdoors
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.
01/18/07 9:16 PM
Tara
Family Babies Health Travel Photos Milestones
I’m sure everyone has heard the news reports of the blizzard that hit the Denver metro area starting yesterady. I’ve included some photos of the aftermath of that storm. It snowed pretty consistently from Wednesday morning until Thursday noon. The streets are still pretty much a mess in our neighborhood. The plow probably won’t hit us because we live on a cul de sac. I started shoveling on Wednesday during the storm. I probably shoveled almost a foot of snow at that time. By the time I was finished with the drive, the front steps were completely covered, as was the part of the drive I shoveled first. And boy, am I thankful I shoveled some on Wednesday because we had another foot plus some to shovel today. And thats not including the areas with snow drifts. We are extremely thankful to our neighbor, Andy, who helped me shovel today. Neal’s not allowed to do any physical activity for three weeks after his eye surgery. We don’t want him to go blind! So it was all me on shovel-duty. I imagine I’m going to be pretty sore tomorrow. I think I’ll take some ibuprofen tonight.
12/21/06 7:53 PM
Tara
Photos Adventures Outdoors
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).
12/15/06 9:02 PM
Tara
Babies Health Milestones
Neal’s eye surgery happened today and I’m pleased to report that everything went well! The laser surgeon described the process as “spot welding” around the holes in his retina so that they do not lead to a retinal tear. Neal’s feeling pretty good, all things considered. His eyes will probably be dialated throughout the day tomorrow (which anyone who’s ever been dialated before can attest - is a total pain because you can’t do jack! No reading, no watching TV…just staring at the wall while wearing dark glasses). He also has a terrifically sore throat due to the tube they inserted in his throat while he was out. Other than that, his eyes are supposed to be back to near normal tomorrow - maybe a little scratchy-feeling. Laser surgery is pretty darn amazing.
12/15/06 8:34 PM
Tara
Health
I just found out I’m going to have to have laser eye surgery on Friday.
It’s a surprise to me as well. Honestly, I feel fine and don’t notice any problems at all with my vision (the voices in my head are another matter…). But I went to the eye doctor right before I left my old job just to use up the vision benefits before they went away, and the doctors found what they call “lattice degeneration”, some holes in my retina (eek!), and some significant “traction” (huh?), all of which lead up to imminent “retinal detachment”.
Here’s a Wikipedia article on the subject, for the curious.
So I’m in for some preventative lasering on Friday.
It’s a quick procedure, and I’ll get to be unconscious through most of it (Good news: I really enjoy being unconscious!). Recovery time is super fast (I could go to work the next day, which I won’t do because it’s Saturday), and the prognosis is generally good.
Funny thing: We’d never have known there were problems had I not quit my job a couple of weeks ago! So, um, thanks to Foraker Design?
12/14/06 4:53 AM
Neal
Family Health
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!
12/8/06 6:13 AM
Neal
Family Milestones
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.
12/3/06 11:52 PM
Tara
Family Babies Health Photos Milestones
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