3 & 23

My kids are 3 months old (as of yesterday) and 23 months old (as of tomorrow). I can't believe how fast the time is going! I am sure someday I will wake up and they will be in high school, and I won't even know where the time has gone.

June update:
She is now weighing 13lbs 13oz. This is what Lincoln weighed at 2 months old. She is a chunky little thing, but not nearly as chunky as Lincoln was. She smiles a lot, especially in response to attention from people. She has been cooing up a storm as well, and seems to have a little laugh sound that she makes when she is especially happy. She has slept through the night a few times, but recently has been up every 3 hours or so during the night. Hopefully this is in response to a growth spurt and will not be long lasting.

One interesting thing that has us slightly concerned is that she only seems to want to turn her head to the right. She will look briefly toward the left in response to a loud noise or interesting object, but then quickly turns her head central or toward the right again. Because of this she has some extreme molding of the bones in her head going on. We are doing all we can to get her to turn the other way while she is lying down and during the night, trying to reverse the molding. We will be bringing up this issue with her pedi at her 4 month check-up, but we are hoping that this is not a hearing or vision thing, and is instead just a baby thing.

Some pictures of June in June. ;)








Lincoln update:
He now weighs 31lbs 10oz. He had been eating very well a couple of weeks ago. Self-feeding himself crackers, fruit loops, basically anything crunchy. He has been holding his sippy cup well, and sometimes his bottle. His seizures and side-effects have been pretty bad this past week, so he has been a cranky, crabby, tired mess most of the time. This makes mealtime fairly unproductive.

He is getting closer to walking everyday. He can stand for several seconds without holding onto things, and has been experimenting with taking a step without holding on. He usually falls, but at least he is feeling a bit more confident. I credit this new stability with gaining clinical control for the past several months of one of the types of seizures that he was having. This seizure began when he was 6 months old, and had been the most resistant to any of the drugs that we had tried over the past 1.5 years. Also, this seizure showing up coincided with the slow in reaching his gross motor milestones.

He has also been making more sounds recently. I feel that this improvement coincided with stopping the use of Topamax. One of the known side effects of Topamax is the difficulty in putting words together and speech development delay. It is nice to be off of Topamax because of the side effects, but the lack of control of his spasms has made it clear that we need to try the Topamax again. This is pretty much our last hope for seizure control through medications. At our neuro appointment in the beginning of August I fully expect him to recommend trying the ketogenic diet. I really wish, hope, and pray that it doesn't come to that...as the side effects and difficulties of treatment are very high. But, hopefully it will work, and hopefully the payoff turns out to be well worth everything that we will be putting Lincoln through, and everything that he will be giving up.

Some recent pictures of Lincoln.