We're ready for spring!!!

Just an update with what has been going on with us...

We are desperately waiting for spring!! This winter hasn't been bad as far as the snow goes, but it has been super cold! We've been having weird warm days every other week or so where it gets warm enough to take Landon outside to enjoy the sunshine. I posted some pictures of a day when it was in the low 50s. We went outside and rode in his car...he mostly just sat there and looked around. :) I'm not sure he knows what to do with himself outside. He ventured into the neighbor's yard and stood there pointing at their house for about 15 minutes. When we tried to move him, he whined. He's just a goofy kid. :) This summer should be fun...

Yesterday we went to see a gastroenterologist (a doctor that studies the stomach) for Landon. He is going to keep track of Landon as far as his weight goes. I think I've mentioned before that Landon has always been on the low side as far as his weight. He was being seen at a feeding and growth clinic that keeps tabs on kids that have problems with eating or gaining weight. He was doing so well with growing that he was graduated from there and we were told that we would only have to come back to see Dr. Zapata (the gastroenterologist).

While talking to Dr. Zapata, we went over Landon's eating schedule. He told me that he wanted me to send him a journal of everything that Landon is eating. From that he was going to figure out if we would be able to maybe cut back on how much Pediasure we are giving him. We are going to see if Landon is getting enough nutrition just from the foods that he is eating orally. Then we will be able to see if we can cut back on the Pediasure!! YEA!!! So, we will see how that goes...

Other than that, not much is going on. We are working on trying to get Landon back in to see Dr. Yakes (the doctor in Denver) in March. We called to make an appointment in February and he was already full. It's probably a good thing considering the weather could be bad next month... but who knows?! I think after March we are going to try and hit Denver every month to month and a half. We don't want to prolong this anymore, you know? We want him better and working on getting that trach out!! But for right now, we are just taking one day at a time. :)

We're getting so big!!

Hi everybody!

I just wanted to let everyone know that we had a fun day of going to the doctor. We went for Landon's 18 month check-up to get some shots...not fun although Landon handled it like a champ. :)

The doctor was very happy with his weight gain. He's at 25 pounds 1 ounce which puts him in the 35th percentile for his weight!!!!! I was very excited to hear this news cause we have been struggling with Landon gaining weight since we brought him home from the NICU. He's always cruised around the 10th to 15th percentile, so I was so excited to hear how big he's getting! He measured at 33 inches long (the 60th percentile) and his head is a huge 50 cm! That puts him in the 95th percentile for his head...hehe. I guess he has to make room for all those brains he has. :)

Other than that, we just talked to our pediatrician about how much he's eating. She was excited to hear about how much table food he is eating, and encouraged us to keep that going. Since Landon gets most of his nutrients through his G-button, we have been basically giving him a liquid diet of Pediasure. It's kind of like formula but it has more calories. His doctor told me to start giving it to him in a cup like he's drinking milk. If we can get him to drink several ounces of this a day, we can eventually cut back on having to give him an extra feeding a day!! That makes me super excited cause I'm normally up until 11 or 12 at night waiting to have to feed him...it's such a hassle!! She said that if we can get him to where he's taking enough of it a day, we can talk about taking the G-button out completely!!! Needless to say, we are going to be pushing him to learn how to drink out of a cup!!!! Keep your fingers crossed that we have an easy time with this!

Other than that, she said he was growing well and she didn't have any concerns at all. She said she did want to see us back in 3 months for a weight check to make sure he's still doing well. Today's doctor visit was definately a good one! :)

YEA for our working camera!!!

So we finally got a working camera!! YEA!!! It's been fun playing around with it and learning all the buttons and gadgets. Here are some recent pictures of Landon that he posed for. :)

By the way, he decided that he wanted to eat the refrigerator while I was taking pictures of him. I know...he's a weird kid. :) I still thought it was pretty cute.

This one was taken when dad came home and Landon wouldn't let him go. He loves his daddy!

There will be more pictures soon!!! Love you all!

To thicken, or not to thicken...that is the question...

Hi everyone! We hope you all had a happy new year!! We're excited about what will happen in the next year with Landon.

I wanted to let everyone know that we received our brand new camera today!!! YEA!!! I'm so excited to have a new one, but it's so fancy, I have to read the novel that came with it. :) I will post some new pictures soon.

We also had a field trip to Children's today for an appointment with Chelli (Landon's occupational therapist). We did a swallowing study to test Landon on how well he is swallowing foods and liquids. He sits in a chair in this x-ray machine and they video tape him swallowing. Whatever they give him has barium in it to make it glow. It shows (in profile) him chewing and the way he moves his tongue around, then when he is done eating it, you can watch him swallow it. It's really pretty cool.

Landon has been drinking juice from a cup, but ever since we got clearance to give him liquids when he was a baby, we've had to thicken it up so that he won't aspirate (breathe it in). Chelli wanted to see if there had been any changes in the past year in how he's eating and drinking since the last swallow study. We started out giving him liquids that weren't thickened and he did really well with them!! We also tried giving him some pudding which he also did really well with! We went back to giving him the unthickened liquids, and on the second gulp Chelli said he aspirated a little bit, but not even enough to make him cough! So, just to be safe, we have to stick with the thickened stuff for another year.

I was hoping for some progression with all of this, but i guess it's better to stay on the same track than to be getting worse. I'm definately counting my blessings!! Landon's been growing up so much recently. He's learning about laughing and has been imitating me when I laugh at things. It's really cute. He's learned how to throw everything in the house, so we are learning about what is acceptable to throw and what is not. (That's great fun, let me tell you) :) I might kick myself for this one, but we are learning how to color with crayons. He's been doing really well with it, making lines and dots. He understands when I tell him to only color on the paper, but then he wants to carry the crayons around the house. ARGG!! I think my walls will soon become canvases for Landon's drawings. :)

We have our 18 month appointment with the pediatrician next week, so we'll see what she has to say.