Operation Big Boy Underpants

The mission started today. Randy has on underwear. No pull-ups except at bedtime. Four hours in and he has peed on himself twice and has NOT peed in the potty. I am hoping that Brobee will motivate him to pee in the potty.

2011 in Review

Randy made so much progress in 2011. He changed from a baby to a little boy. Physically he is so much stronger. He is handling stairs with a rail and can handle one step without a rail. He has gotten "big". He is still slightly smaller than his peers, but not by much. At almost four, he is about 37 inches and 33 lbs. He added two whole fruits to his diet: mandarin oranges and bananas; and one vegetable: green beans. I still mash and/blend much of his food, bur he is slowly starting to take risks.

His speech has exploded! He speaks in 4-5 word sentences and will question you all day. He is currently working on W questions in speech and is learning something new all the time at pre-school.

Of course I still worry about his development. His attention and maturity are poor, thus he finds it difficult to play with his peers. It I'd even more worrisome because he now wants to play with them. Before he would basically ignore other children. I am hoping that time and pre-school will help in this area.

2011 is another year that I am in awe of my son and his progress. I feel so blessed to be his mom and to be able to witness first hand what a miracle that has taken place through him.

Glasses

Randy wears glasses now. I ordered two pairs; a main pair and a backup. The main pair were ordered November 23rd from a optical shop. They have the bendy handles that loop behind the ear. They are not in. I ordered the backup pair on December 3rd from Walmart; they were ready Monday.

Randy has done a great job keeping them on. His opthamologist hopes that his eyes will work together better with the glasses. This should result in better visual function.

There's more than one way to skin a cat!

My five followers may remember mentioning that Randy was diagnosed with failure to thrive in late 2008. Although my rational mind knows that it was due to his numerous hospitalizations and shunt surgeries, there's something very painful in hearing that your child is not thriving due to adequate nutrition. As a mother, it cut like a knife. That was also the beginning of our feeding woes.

Randy went back on NG feeds, but for overnight only. He would pull the tube out a few times a week. He would gag and choke in the middle of the night. He would vomit constantly. But he gained weight and length and the doctors were happy.

April 2009, his pediatrician was concerned that he was only taking stage 2 purees. He sent him to feeding therapy. We worked on desensitizing his hands and mouth. We used techniques to help him tolerate textures. He responded well. In July 2009, he was eating chicken drummette, baked fish, chicken nuggets, soft green beans, soft carrots, crackers, dry cereal along with his purees. Then I went back to work, he went back to daycare and went back to eating baby food.

Feeding is still a battle today. While he eats plenty of foods, they fall into three categories: soft: bread, chicken nuggets, macdonals fries; purée: applesauce, stage 2 Gerber (don't judge me); or crunchy: cereal, chips, crackers. Occasionally, I can coerce him to eat a few bites of spaghetti or beans.

He ate about 1/3 of that dish. But he's growing. I just don't know how nutritionally sound his diet is.

So I'm trying another tactic. I am going to start baking. I'm starting with muffins. I'm putting things like flaxseed, purée squash and carrot, and wheat germ in them. I welcome recipes. Remember his egg white and milk allergy (he can tolerate small amounts in cooked food).

Help me out.

I have an I Phone!!

Random pictures. I can post and add pics from my phone. Yay me!

Summer Fun 2011

Operation ditch paci

This is night one. I'm very nervous. Will update tomorrow. Almost time for bed.