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. :)