Summer Sam

Checking out the Air and Space museum with Daddy!

I brainwashed him into loving this dog "lovey." He loves to sleep with it stuffed under his face like this:)

Sleepy face.

Smiling sleepy face!

What To Say?

I have been feeling for awhile that I should update on Kate, but I don't really know what to say. There are so many questions I have with no answers, so many thoughts, and so much emotion that I don't know how to compose it into readable material.

There are all the clinical facts. She is still having 1-4 seizures a day. Is on two different medicines the second of which we have been increasing the dosage of for 2 months straight trying to make a difference in her seizure activity. She is having side effects pretty much every time we bump up to a new dose but they seem to resolve after about a week...just in time to bump the dose again. She is in a period of having difficulty sleeping too, probably related to all the changes in medicine.

I can't tell you how much I want for her to get to a place where medicine is working and we can be stable for a time. I often worry that won't happen to be honest. It is hard to be giving these powerful medicines to my little girl and not be able to have her tell me how they make her feel. I worry if they will have long term effects on her body. I wonder if there are other avenues of treatment we should be pursuing and how would I find them? Am I doing all I can and being responsible? I am praying for God to lead us in wisdom. We need it so badly. I was reminded today of the scripture to be strong and take heart, and wait upon the Lord. It is hard to do, but not impossible because He is caring for us. And He is caring for our Kate. We have seen evidence recently that He ministers to her in ways we can't know and that has meant to much to me.

Kate does seem to mostly be doing well. She is very happy and makes some small developmental changes from week to week. She is really enjoying playing with Sam when he is in his exersaucer or johnny jump up. She has loved the times we've gone to the pool this summer and has gotten really good staying upright in the water with a little floatie around her middle. Real Simple magazine provides her unending amusement and she has dogeared several of my issues. In her therapy she is learning to put stickers on paper and color without eating the stickers or the crayons (baby steps friends, we make baby steps:) Laura, our therapist, has a little plastic birthday cake with candles that light up when you press a button and then the cake sings "Happy Birthday" and you can blow the candles out. It's really cute and Kate just loves it. She says "hap birtday!" and asks Laura for the cake first thing when she arrives. Those are a few little peaks into her life right now. I want to be grateful for each little step we see and not just look at the massive amount of things I hope to see in her. Kate isn't distressed about where she is developmentally and I don't want to be either!

Well, it is quite late and one or both kids will be up in the night so I should go get some rest. Thanks for reading and thanks even more for all your prayers. Nothing means more to us then prayers!

A Big Month for a Big Boy

Wow! Sam is 6 months old (as of June 14th.) The last month has brought a ton of changes for him!

-He sprouted his first two teeth (bottom left, then right)

- Learned to sit up.

- Can hold and examine toys and get them to his mouth, also transfer from hand to hand (this, combined with sitting, makes for wonderful play times for him!)

-Started solid foods which he devours without spilling more then a drop or two. So far he has had sweet potatoes, pears, and carrots. He has eaten all three with equal eagerness. I love how he opens his mouth and sometimes sticks his tongue out for another bite!

-He has begun holding his arms out to the sides when he wants to be picked up. It is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. If I ask him if he wants "up" he'll hold out his arms and wait for me to get him. Adorable I must say!

-He has gotten a little habit of slapping his right hand on his leg, or high chair tray, or whatever is there. It's really funny.

I took him to his 6 month appointment last Monday and his stats are as follows: 20 pounds 4 ounces (90%), 27 inches (75%), head is 43 cm (25%.) I asked the doctor if it's bad for his head to be so small compared to his body. She said that because he has followed the same growth curve and is meeting his milestones there is no reason to worry! While he still has some flatness to his head we are still waiting on the helmet because it has gotten better. His doctor doesn't think he'll need one at all!

Sam Playing

Sam is loving his excersaucer! I love how he pounds it with his fist to get the music to play! A few seconds before he was squealing tons and tons the way he does in the middle of this video but of course he stopped when I pulled out the camera:)

Notes on a 5 Month Old

My darling boy is now 5 months old and he is just bursting with cuteness! He laughs (especially at Kate) oohs and ahhs with increasing loudness, rolls both ways, can pivot around on his tummy, has the beginnings of an inch worm army crawl, loves his exersaucer, trembles with excitement when he sees an interesting toy, wants to stand not sit, is sleeping 100% of the time on his tummy and still wakes up around 6am to eat even after a 10:30pm feeding, weighs a whopping 19 pounds (according to my home scale which has always been very accurate to what he weighs at the pedi), is growing attached to a "lovey" and snuggles it SO sweetly, adores his daddy and so many more precious things!

This brother and sister are starting to really love each other! It is so precious to see.

Kisses from Kate!

Most of these pictures are from last weeks beach trip to New Smyrna, Fl. Sam really liked the water both of the ocean and the pool. He was super comfy thanks to this adorable bathing suit from his Greataunt Allie!

David was holding his hands down in the picture below because he is constantly chewing on his fingers these days. I think his bottom front teeth might be coming in! He would beat his sister to first teeth by 3 months if he does!

I was able to upload a video of his laughter!

Scroll Down

I finished a post today that I started two weeks ago about what God showed me through some of the events with Kate. For some reason Blogger published it to the date I wrote it on, not that I posted it on. If you want to read it you can scroll down to the April 4th entry entitled "Walking in the Valley"

Slammer Sammer

Sam turned 4 months old on the 14th! To me the 4 month mark begins the next stage of babyhood. You start to think about things like solid food (not until 6 months), sitting up, playing with toys. Bigger baby stuff:)

I took him to his 4 month appointment this morning and he is growing well! He weighed in at 16 lbs 12 oz which put him in the 80%. He was 26.5 inches long which is in the 93%. And his poor head is still lagging way behind in the 10%! Although, I don't think the nurse measured it quite right. I think it's a bit bigger then that. He does still have some "pronounced flatness" of his head according to Dr. P. She said it will not effect him except cosmetically and so we are going to wait until 6 months before making a decision about whether or not he should get a helmet (ugh!) If you think of it, will you pray with me that God would cause his head to round out correctly in the next 2 months?

I picked the title for this post because "Slammer" is the nickname my dad has given to Sam and David and I have been calling him Sammer lately. He also gets called Sambo, Budster, Samson, and Chicken Little by various people:)

Sam is lots of fun these days! He has become quite a conversational "cooer". If I make gurggling sounds to him he will make them back to me and smile. He chuckles now if I play peek-a-boo with him and he loves for us to "eat" his neck/belly/face while making silly sounds. He is rolling tummy to back and even rolled back to tummy once during "naked time" the other day! He is staring to bat at and grasp toys and LOVES chewing on his hands including sucking on his right thumb for a few seconds at times (come on buddy!) He is quite wiggly and wants to be sitting or standing. He arches his back or struggles hard to sit up if he's back against a cushion. I have to watch him in the Bumbo seat because he arches his back so much that he almost falls out! I think maybe he is going to be more of a tantrum thrower then Kate. I get lots of comments about how laid back he is and it's true most of the time, but if he gets upset, watch out! He is very social and wants to be held lots and if he's not being held he wants to have Mama and Daddy in his sights. He is a little afraid of Kate because she's very loud these days and is still having trouble treating him gently. I look forward to seeing their relationship blossom as time goes on though! I just have a feeling that they are going to have a very sweet bond. I have felt more then once (maybe impressed by the Lord?) that Sam is really going to care for, protect, and lead Kate. We shall see.

Our biggest accomplishment of the last week has been that we've gotten Sam to start taking naps with no pacifier! He was beginning to show signs that it was disrupting his sleep and I would really be glad for him to not be attached to one. It took 3 days but he now goes down for naps with almost no trouble! He was really struggling with not having it at night and has also not been on a great night schedule so we are still letting him have it at night for now. We'll work on getting rid of it at night after he turns 6 months. It's also very helpful for him to have the paci in the car or when he is getting bored/fussy.

*This next part is probably only interesting to me. I'm just including it for future reference.*

As far as night sleep. It's a work in progress. With my two children I have learned that babies aren't necessarily born knowing how to sleep well! I recently decided to feed him for the "last" time at 7:30 pm and put him to bed right after. I had been getting him back up to eat again at 10:30 pm. He was then waking back up at 3:30 and then not getting up until 8 or 8:30 (well, he actually wakes up again around 6:30 needing a paci or position change then going back to sleep) which is later then I would like him to start the day feeding schedule wise. I know with only feeding him at 7:30 he'll be back up between 12:30 and 2 but I don't mind that. It's really nice to lay him down around the same time as Kate and know that David and I have the rest of the evening and I can go to bed whenever I want rather then having to stay up for that 10:30 feeding. I also dropped his 3rd nap (the evening one) to enable him to be ready for sleep around 7:30/8. That makes for some fussiness in the late evening as he gets tired but it's manageable and sets up a much better pattern overall.

Ok, enough information! Here are some pictures.

Little buddy was dealing with his first bit of diaper rash the other day so I gave him so extended "naked time" to help dry his skin out. You can't use diaper rash creams with cloth diapers and I was hoping to avoid having to put him in disposables to get it cleared up. It seems to have mostly worked! He only has a small patch left and it's not bothering him.

He just loves those hands!

I took this one to show how lush and flowing his hair is becoming:) It is several inches long on top but I just can't bring myself to trim it yet.

I wanted to see if he could sit up inside the Boppy pillow yet, but not really, as you can see.

"Mom, why are you doing this?"

Going at those fingers again!

Giving a half hearted smile while falling over in ernest:)

That's our Sammer at 4 months! He is such a delight to us in ever way!