Updates!

It's been a little while since I last posted, so let's see if I can actually remember everything I have to update on.

I'll start off with Baby Number Two. For those of you who don't know, when we went in for our anatomy scan, the ultrasound tech discovered that Number Two had more fluid than what is considered "normal" on his/her brain. We WERE (No idea why I originally wrote weren't or why it took me so long to catch it...)sent to a doctor in Kettering for a level two ultrasound to have a better look. Now, this is where it gets confusing, because after that appointment, the Kettering doctor never contacted my OB's office with the results, my OB had to call their office the morning of my last appointment to find out what was going on before she came in to talk to me. And I guess at that point, there was a miscommunication because I was told by my OB that our baby had what is called hydrocephalus, which is a condition where basically there's some sort of blockage or something that won't allow the fluid in the brain to flow through to the spinal cord, which means the fluid builds up in the baby's head and can cause other problems, including brain damage. So then we were sent back to the Kettering office for a follow-up/consultation regarding what to do about the condition, the severity of our case, etc etc etc. My OB office scheduled that appointment for me, but didn't bother scheduling us for another ultrasound to check on the state of things. Luckily they were able to squeeze us in for an ultrasound a little while after my actual appointment. ANYWAY, I'm getting ahead of myself. Before we got the ultrasound, during my initial appointment, the doctor cleared a few things up for me. He said that he wasn't ready to officially diagnose it as hydrocephalus, that at the last ultrasound they had been at the high end of the "normal" range, but nothing too serious at that point. He wanted to see how things had progressed and go from there, so I waited for an ultrasound. The doctor came in during the ultrasound, and he and the ultrasound tech showed and explained to me that the fluid levels had gone down to a more "normal" level, they showed me the dark areas that represented fluid, and how those areas were smaller now than they had been before, and that the baby did not have hydrocephalus. After a month of stressing out over this, I was so relieved I just started cry-laughing and I couldn't stop thanking them.

Carter turned 18 months old two days ago. He had an appointment this morning for his 18-month checkup. At this point, he can crawl, walk, run, climb onto things, and tries to jump, but at this point he has yet to leave the ground, so he just kind of bounces on the balls of his feet. He's still not talking, but he's regaining/re-learning some of the sound and letter combinations he used to be able to make, and he's getting much better at non-verbal communication. If wants to nurse, he'll bring me my nursing pillow; if he's thirsty, he'll bring me his cup; if he wants to go outside, he'll bang on the front door and try to turn the knob. So at this point, he's starting to communicate, but not actually talking. At today's appointment, we talked about the possibility of autism and other learning/developmental delays/disorders. His pediatrician said that at this point, since he is capable of communicating, she's not too awfully worried, but we're going to see how he's developed at his 2-year checkup and go from there.

At his 15-month checkup, Carter was still almost exclusively breastfed and not very interested in solid/"real" food. Since he had learned to walk and gotten so active, and since my breastmilk is designed specifically for what his body needs, his body would use it all up and there wasn't much "left over" for him to gain weight on. So his weight dropped a bit and the pediatrician said if it didn't go back up by today's appointment, she would consider classifying him as "failure to thrive". She had us introduce juice and cow's milk, and start encouraging him to eat more solid food. The juice and milk was no problem, it took him a short time to adjust to the cow's milk, but it wasn't a big deal. What I was most worried about was getting him to eat more food. He ate most purees with no protest, but he's been a picky eater since we first started out with "real" food. There's not a wide variety of what he will eat, and when he does eat something, it's usually not in large quantities. There are some days when all he'll do is nurse and snack on dry cereal. I wasn't sure if he was going to gain "enough" weight to satisfy his pediatrician, but I was relieved today when she told us he's gained a little over two pounds, which came out to almost a full point on the BMI scale. That put him back on track with where he was previously falling on the growth charts, so all is well on that front.

That pretty much wraps up what's been going on with the kids lately, and there's not much new with us, so I guess that's it for now. :)

I was on Tumblr last night when I saw someone post a list of "red flags" that may be indicators of autism, with certain signs bolded or italicized to show signs that her nephew exhibited. It never occurred to me until I saw this list, but Carter exhibits quite a few of these signs. I started looking into it a little more last night (though it was already midnight by that point, so I haven't done too much reading on it yet), and I found this list of red flags, which now that I look at it more, I think it's actually the same list she used. I'll do as she did and bold signs that I think apply to Carter and italicize ones that may or may not apply. For instance, one of them is "Doesn't follow directions" and well, Carter does know and follow certain directions (like "open" or "close" the door), but not consistently, so that one would be italicized. Here we go.

• Does not consistently respond to his/her name.
• Cannot tell you what he/she wants with words or gestures.
• Doesn’t follow directions.
• Seems to be deaf at times.
• Seems to hear sometimes, but not others.
• Doesn’t point or wave bye-bye (past 15 months) or use other gestures such as shaking his head “yes” or “no” appropriately and back and forth in conversation.
• Used to say a few words or babble, but now he/she doesn’t.
• Throws intense or violent tantrums.
• Has odd movement patterns such as flapping arms or shaking body, especially when excited.
• Shows other odd visual behaviors such as staring repeatedly at spinning wheels on a toy or shifting his eyes to the side as he runs.
• Seems hyperactive much of the time; is always “on the go.”
• Is often uncooperative or oppositional during daily routines.
• Doesn’t know how to play with toys. Might spin or line them up excessively.
• Doesn’t smile when smiled at.
• Doesn’t make eye contact. He/she seems to look right through/past you.
• Gets “stuck” on things over and over and can’t move on to other things.
• Seems to prefer to play alone.
• Gets things for him/herself only without asking for help.
• Is very independent for his/her age.
• Seems to be in his/her “own world.”
• Seems to tune people out.
• Shows very little interest in other children.
• Or may interact inappropriately with other children.
• Walks on his/her toes.
• Shows unusual attachments to toys, objects, or schedules (i.e., always holding a string or having to put socks on before pants).
• Spends a lot of time lining things up or putting things in a certain order and gets upset if this is disrupted.
• Has delayed speech-language skills when compared to other children of the same age.
• Memorizes and quotes long scripts of favorite TV shows, sing entire songs, or label lots of objects, but he/she uses very few “real” or meaningful words to ask for things or participate in conversation.
• Repeats what he/she hears rather than using words on his own.
• Learns to read at age 2 or 3 (or has a very strong interest in visual symbols such as letters and numbers), but has difficulty communicating with others in a meaningful way.
• Is a very picky eater. May eat only 3 or 4 different foods.

So there's that. Now obviously I'm not saying outright that my son does or does not have autism, or even that he may be autistic. But I am concerned about the number of indicators that seem to apply to him. And of course, some of them, such as "Has delayed speech-language skills when compared to other children of the same age." may prove to not apply to him. It could be that he, as other children have, is just taking his time or just isn't really interested in communication at this point. When I've talked about my concerns about Carter not speaking yet over on my main blog, I've had lots of people tell me that their children/other children in their lives didn't talk until "later" because, well, they just didn't. Children develop at different paces, and I've read that it's not uncommon for boys to start talking "later" than girls, closer to around 18-24 months. So things like that may end up not applying to him, but for the time being I've marked them as "maybes". I'm going to take this list with us to his next pediatrician appointment, later this month, and talk to her about these indicators, see what she thinks, maybe get a second opinion elsewhere, and go from there.

Carter still hasn't said any words yet, but lately he's picked up a few new sounds and seems to understand a few new words as well. Most recently, he's started running around yelling, "Yeeeeeeee!!", and if you ask him to "spin", he'll go to the Sit-n-Spin he got for Christmas and give it a little spin. He picked this up after only about 24 hours of the word being introduced! He also seems to finally be grasping the meaning of "cup", which took a while but that's probably partly our fault, because without really thinking about it, we call it "juice", "milk", "water" (whatever's in the cup when we hand it to him") so we weren't consistently using just one word for it. I tried handing his cup to him earlier today, he didn't see it and took off running, but when I said, "Carter, do you want your cup?", he came back, grabbed it, and started gulping at it like he hadn't had a drink for days, haha. Such a silly boy!

I am hoping that he continues to add sounds and understand new words, and that that will be enough to satisfy his pediatrician for now. At the rate he's been picking up new sounds and grasping new words, I feel pretty optimistic that he will say his first word before his second birthday.

He's also figured out (completely on his own, I might add!) how to drink out of a straw. I've been meaning to get him a straw cup for a while now, but our Wal-Mart is pretty limited in the selection in the "baby" aisles. we were at my mom's on Friday though, and my 4-year-old niece has one of those 1-dollar straw cups where the straw is the handle, that you don't even really have to suck on, just tip it towards your mouth. Anyway, Carter just was not interested in his own cup, so my niece let him have a try at hers, and the first couple of attempts ended up with juice down his front, but finally he figured out which part was supposed to go in his mouth, and started sucking away. He didn't tilt it at all, but you could see that he was getting the juice out, so he literally figured it out all on his own, within about five minutes. He's also taken to grabbing mugs, with one hand wrapped around the handle and the other hand supporting the other side of the mug, raising it to his mouth, and...chewing on it, instead of drinking from it. I saw a little plastic mug at the thrift store the other day, and I should have got it for him, but I didn't think about it at the time. I'll have to see if I can find one for him somewhere.

He's been much more snuggly lately, but at the same time more independent. He'll play on his own for quite a while, try to help himself to snacks, but every 15 minutes or so, he'll run up to me and either raise his arms for me to pick him up, or if I'm on the floor, he just runs up and tackles me. That's my favorite, it's so cute! He will literally run to me as fast as he can and throw himself into my arms, shoving his head to my chest like he's trying to put his head THROUGH my chest. He'll just sit there for a few minutes, letting me hug him, rub his back, kiss him, sing to him, whatever. Or if he wants me to pick him up, he'll lay his head on my shoulder or just stare at me, and he wants to be held for several minutes. If I put him down too soon, he immediately wants back up. Several times a day, he'll just climb up onto the couch and either sit on my lap or right next to me with my arm around him. I'm absolutely loving it!