December here we come!

We have been very busy around here lately with lots of holiday fun. Gabe is doing well. We're really pushing the honey bear cup lately to try to get him to drink out of a straw. He puts his lips around around the straw well...just needs to figure out how get the liquid out. We have also been working alot on transitioning movements from sitting to crawling and sitting to standing. He is doing very well with it...just requires lots of repitition. Gabe has also been very loud lately. He is making some great sounds. He can BZZZZ like a bee and say BRRRRRR when it's cold out...too cute.

What's missing from this picture?

...look closely
That's right! All this stuff!

Gabe is off oxygen at night! The sleep study in July showed that he was growing out of his apnea. His oxygen saturations are great. He looked great today at his doctor's visit and the Pulmonologist said it was time to take him off. What great news! They will do another sleep study in July just as a screening. Gabe also had a hearing test today and he passed. While he was the lower end of normal (especially in his left ear), his hearing still came out okay with the tubes in place. He has a little wax that the ENT will have to get out at our next appointment, but it's good to know he can hear us. At dinner tonight, Gabe was signing more for food and reaching for his sippy cup. While he still isn't crawling, he's starting to pivet on his belly some and be less opposed to pushing up, shifting his weight and reaching for stuff....I feel good things are coming our way. Go Gabe Go!

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.