Pictures from the past 2 weeks

Very sunny day. Garden of Hope, Covington, Ky overlooking downtown Cincinnati. Gabe liked the view.

Swim Class

Look mom I'm a fish!

Halloween costume #2 - R2D2

Pumpking painting...mmmmm corn syrup and food coloring

Han solo, Princess Laya, and R2D2 (the yoda costume was better)

ECHO, Echo, echo

Gabe had his first Echocardiogram in year. His heart looks really good. He has minimal leakage around his mitral and tricuspid valves and the doctor couldn't even hear a murmur. What does this mean? We don't have to go back to Cardiology for a year and he can come off Captopril. We are so thankful.

May the force be with you

Gabe went to a Halloween Party on Friday. He was Yoda...the wise one.

On Saturday we went to a Pumpkin Patch. Gabe picked out his very own Pumpkin.

They had a petting zoo. He wasn't too interested in petting the animals, but they did get his attention.

I haven't been updating as much as I'd like. We've been so busy and I have started a new position at work, this month has just seemed to fly by. Gabe is doing well. Feeding is progressing slowly. Drinking is still the hard part. We have our IFSP meeting with all of our therapists for Gabe's 1 year review this week. Our biggest issue is gross motor. Gabe has no desire to move. Even if we take his toys away to make him get them, he'll just play peek-a-boo and crack himself up. As soon as he sees our PT, he screams. He knows PT is only 45min and he can scream the whole time. He likes his bouncer, kneeling, pulling to stand, and reaching up while kneedling on the stairs, so we're trying to work on that. He just hates being on his stomach to crawl or roll consecutively. The hard part is, we know he's strong enough. We know he can do it. I think he's just that stubborn. For awhile, we were thinking he had some vestibular sensory issues where he didn't like feeling off balance, but he loves to swing and be bounced around, so I don't think that's the case. We're trying to sneak in therapy before he realizes he's working. Our new technique may be even leaving him in the hallway with no toys while we are in the next room and make him work his way towards us. It's a change in thinking that's for sure. We've always been in his face to stimulate him in some way, and now he's going to have to work for that stimulation. I am happy from a cognitive stand point that he's challenging us so much, but he really needs to start showing some type of movement. Patience.

His speech is really progressing. He yells for attention. He has finally started saying "mama" about once or twice a day. He is mimicing B's, S's, T's, etc. He has become quite the chatter box.

Our bedtime routine has also been great. Since Gabe started teething, he would always be fussy at bedtime and want his pacifier. It became a struggle and he would cry so hard when we would leave the room. We stayed strong and after a month of crying at bedtime, he is finally going to bed without a problem. We read a story, sing a song, kiss goodnight, put him in his crib, he rolls over and is a sleep within 5 min. It's awesome.

Speaking of teething. Gabe has his 2 bottom teeth in. His left bottom canine has recently cut. His top left tooth is very close, and the poor kid is getting a huge molar on the bottom left that just feels painful.

We have our year post op Cardiology visit on Wed. I'll post about it later in the week. Here's hoping to good news!

When autumn leaves start to fall

My Grandma Beiting makes homemade goetta (it's a Cincinnati German thing). Anyway, I decided to see if Gabe likes it...how could he not?...it's delicious. He took 4 or 5 good bites and then I think he decided he'd rather play with it and get it in his hair. We're playing around with different textures for him. He tried meatloaf and mashed potatoes last week and did pretty well. I made more potatoes for this week. We're also working on regular oatmeal. He starts off doing really well with it, but I think he tires out quick with the thicker texture, so I'm trying not to concentrate on volume. He still doesn't want to drink from a cup. I think he's aversed to thin liquids. But I did get him to drink out of my water bottle and he did great...I don't get it. We are getting good sounds out of Gabe. He's mimicking us with b's and m's. We're also doing lots of sing-a-long songs with hand gestures. He is now consistently putting his hand on his head for "5 Little Monkeys" when they bump their head. We are also working on "Itsy Bitsy Spider". He likes grabbing for my hands when I do the motions. Gabe has recently been putting his 2 thumbs together. We thought that maybe it was "more", but his "more" sign is more obvious with all his fingers involved...this was just the thumbs. We think we figured out tonight that he wants more "itsy bitsy spider" and is signing the spider going up the web. He seemed so excited that we figured it out...at least I think that's it. I'll have to keep trying tomorrow.

Justin and I have been a little discouraged lately with Gabe's gross motor skills....or lack of I should say. He rolls on and off his belly, but not consecutive rolls and he generally hates his belly. He refuses to crawl. He can push from lying to seated and pull from sitting to standing with minimal help. He just isn't mobile at all. He screams with physical therapy to the point where PT says he's acting like we don't make him work...but we do. We work with him alot. True he is our only child and he is not in a daycare environment, but he definitely is not held all day. We let him cry till he calms a little before picking him up. I just don't know what to do. Our year eval with our early intervention team is coming up soon and I'm trying to think of a new way to approach physical therapy. Gabe has been through so much over the past year and I think he's come a long way. It's just hard when other kids his age are running all around him and he doesn't even care if he has to sit there. He doesn't even really lunge for a toy out of reach. He likes kneeling, so I thought we could work on that. He also seems to get less mad in other rooms of the house like his bedroom, the staircase, etc. Maybe we could move around the house more. Also, Gabe loves being outside, so maybe we could do some sessions in the yard. Our OT is having us work on some vestibular sensory things thinking maybe he just is fearful of falling and feeling off balance. We are also putting him in these spandex mermaid pants to help decrease his base of support while sitting and help with rotation. I know it will come, I'm just trying to think more creatively because the hour long screaming sessions are no fun.

Happy Heart Day Gabe!

1 year ago, Gabe had open heart surgery. What a scary time that was. We love our strong little man.

Buddy Walk

The Buddy Walk was this past weekend. The first hour was great and then as soon as we started walking, it rained. Oh well. Thanks to everyone for walking with Gabe. He had a great time...even if he was asleep by the end of it.

Last night I went out to dinner with the northern KY mom's group. It was so much fun. It's nice to talk to other mom's who have been through it or are going through it, especially when you feel like you're kinda in a rut. We laughed alot and it was a great night to be outside having drink and eat yummy food.

Buddy Walk Saturday

Gabe loves the laundry basket.

We have had a busy 2 weeks around here. Last week, Gabe started refluxing really bad. We had changed to a new formula the week before and he had been doing fine up to that point. He was heaving and b/c of his Nissen, he can't throw up. He started sounding really congested and his eyes were watering and he would cry in his sleep. I had even called the pediatrician to get Pedialyte instructions while I was waiting for the GI RN to call me back. After 3 days, it magically disappeared. I think it ended up just being a stomach bug. He's back to his old self and eating great. I've started pureeing what we eat for dinner and giving it to him. Gabe loves spaghetti and mac and cheese. Our speech therapist was watching him eat and determined that what looks like tongue thrusting is actually not. Gabe has control of the back half of his tongue and swallows well. The front half is just really weak. You can sometimes even see the tip shaking like muscles do when they are exhausted and have been worked out. We will continue to do exercises to make Gabe's tongue muscle and jaw stronger. That's the good thing...it's about strength and coordinating movements....we don't have to correct a wrong behavior as would have been the case if he was tongue thrusting. He's back up to about 16 Tbsp a day, but he is now taking pureed or stage 3 baby food. He's actually starting to look a little chunky. Hopefully when we go back to GI in Oct we can back off some of the tube feed.

Gabe has also been very clingy to mommy lately. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome being #1, but he screams for babysitters and won't let others hold him. He just looks around the room for mom and dad and starts sobbing and signing "mom". He just gets so worked up. Even when I come home, he won't let me leave the room b/c he thinks I'm going to leave again. I know it's a phase and the Pediatrician even said that it is a good sign for later in life that he won't be a kid who runs off in a crowd, not caring where mom and dad are....at least that's what I'm telling myself.

The Buddy Walk is Saturday...hopefully it doesn't rain.