July 2006

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7/3/06

Carrots and other cute pics

Today I mixed some carrots with David's rice cereal and gave it to him. He was NOT amused. Anyways, the home health nurse told me I should wait for the doctors approval, but frankly, I'm tired of having the doctor tell me how to raise my baby. So I tried it. And I'll wait the three days to make sure there's no allergic reaction (anyone know what to look for, anyways?). But here are the pictures :)



What a HANDSOME kid!!!


This picture looks really bad....but I was trying to get a picture of him sitting up (with me holding him) and he started to arch his back right as I was snapping the picture.....hahah it looks like I'm jerking him around :O


By request - pictures of David sitting in my lap :) He was NOT happy.



David has his days and nights confused BIG time. So I tried my best to keep him up all day long. And he was GRUMPY. And here it is, eleven PM - and he's WIDE awake. Oy.



Just some cute pics





SMILE!!!!





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7/4/06

David's First Independence Day!!!

July 4th, 2006, Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Cape Canaveral. Here's a screen shot from the NASA live broadcast:



And, help me pick 4th of July pictures to have sent out this month - I'm thinking #1.
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Happy Fourth of July, everyone!!!



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7/9/06

Amazing Kid!!!

David is amazing me!! Everyday he learns a new trick! I'm really impressed with the way he's trying so hard to catch up! Today, he reached out and grabbed his little red phone for the first time!! WHOO HOO! Go, David!! And his head control is really improving! Check it out:

Saturday, needing a boppy to sit upright -






And today!!! (Please excuse his ghetto tape job - that was done in the dark at about four am)



He can't quite sit without something behind him, but we'll get there!! :)

And we tried sweet potatoes the other day for the first time! David LOVED them! He wouldn't even swallow before he'd start crying for more!! He ate an entire jar in two sittings!



Today we tried squash. He didn't like it AT ALL. So far he loves sweet potatoes and hates carrots and squash. He's not too fond of plain rice cereal, either. Next time is green beans!!!

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7/11/06

David's NEW trick (from 7-11)

David figured out that if he kicks something, it will move!! He played forever in his bouncy seat, kicking the toys!! WHOO HOO!!!

Here's a video (it's kinda dark)







And last night we had to take an EMERGENCY bath - if you know what I mean!! And David figured out how to splash!! It was fun!!

Here's a video!



I LOVE this picture:



I guess I forgot to update you all on David's last doctor's appointment - he gained ELEVEN ounces in ONE week, so they took him off the high calorie formula. Ummm...there was more, but it's 7am and I haven't slept so I'll think of it later :)

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7/16/06

Our exciting week!!!

On Thursday our air conditioner went out. After having to put David in a cool bath for over 40 minutes, waiting for them to come fix it (it had to have been about 100 degrees in there - no exaggeration - sweat was just POURING off of us), we decided we were going to have to do something. So, we went to Meme's! Meme was excited because David had never been there before! He's actually never been ANYWHERE except the doctor's and the hospital...oh, and up to my work for a few minutes. So, we loaded up and went over there! David had so much fun! We left him there for a couple of hours while we went home to shower and figure out what we were going to do. Meme said David just laughed and smiled and flirted with her and her friends.
We finally got to sleep in a cool house - which was nice, except David pulled the tube off of his button during the night, and didn't cry or anything to let me know...so when I woke up in the morning I discovered that he was COVERED in milk. Poor baby! I didn't sleep good either because I had forgotten to bring our pulse ox over and I was constantly worried that he had pulled the canula out of his nose.
Anyways, here are the pictures at Meme's.

On Meme's couch (sitting up like a big boy!):



The next morning I decided it would be a good time to take David outside for the first time! It was still cool outside, and we stayed on the porch.










And finally, Friday afternoon, we were able to bring David back home. He slept like a ROCK that night. It was wonderful.




From this morning - CLICK HERE to watch what David does when I put him on his tummy - and then you'll know why I hate doing it :)


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7/18/06

Lots o' pics

David did wonderfully at his physical therapy yesterday! Here are the pictures:











Starting to get mad!!!







I got the most amazing gift yesterday! I received a doll that is actual size of David when he was born - both in weight and height. It's amazing. I put it up next to David for comparison:






July pictures are in the mail!!!

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7/21/06

Update and Pictures

David's doing great! We have another doctor's appointment next Monday. He's really amazing me with his developmental progress...even the physical therapists are impressed. He is getting better balance, and I'm hoping that it won't be too much longer until he's able to sit up all by himself.

He still has no interest in putting weight on his legs, and we recently discovered that his right leg will not straighten all the way out. Javier and I were thinking that it was because of the central line that they put in his leg when he was in the hospital, but Dr. Dave said that its probably the CP that's doing that. Either way, I'll be asking about that when I go to the doctor next Monday.

His eating still isn't great, we've now tried prunes and bananas, he didn't like either one of them really...but even now with sweet potatoes (which he LOVED the first time) he'll only take about four bites and then cry.

But, they gave us a different type of bottle called a "haberman" or something like that, where he just has to bite on it instead of suck, and he's been doing fairly well on that. He can swallow, just not suck.


Here are the pictures from this week -

I love it when he makes this face:


Playing with his Meme:



hmmm...what's that?


lemme try...



Of course he's not sucking on the straw...but still cute pictures!!


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Edit - I finally got ahold of the pictures from my little sister and brother's graduations! Class of 2006! WOOT WOOT! I wish I could have made it, but David was in the hospital at the time, so that just wasn't an option :( Anyways, here are the pictures!

The Graduates!

JoAnn


James


JoAnn's graduation -



James' graduation -




From left to right - JoAnn, James, Dad, Mom


James' friends (I have no idea who these people are)


Grandma & Grandpa Monroe with JoAnn (they came all the way down from Washington state to see them graduate!)


Grandma & Grandpa Monroe with James and Mom -


My little sister and brother (awwwww!)


Proud Father



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7/26/06

new pictures

David sleeping...




Playing with Meme and Weston


David's birthday gift from Meme and Lizzie - HATING it at first....



OK..maybe it's not THAT bad...





And chillin with the pretty girls...



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7/27/06

More Pictures!!!

So I had noticed that David's right leg wouldn't straighten out all the way. The PTs and OTs said it was probably CP...so I didn't worry about it too much, but I did ask the nurse practitioner Monday at our appointment.

She did this circle thing with his leg a few times and then said she heard a popping noise (which I didn't hear, but whatever), and she told us to go over to the hospital to get xrays done.

She thought his hip was dislocated.

I panicked when she told me that. She says it probably wasn't something that someone DID so much as it just 'happened'.

She didn't seem too concerned because they didn't even look at the xray until the Dr got back on Wednesday.

If it WAS dislocated, it really would have answered alot of questions - like why he hates his bumbo, why he won't put weight on his legs, why he cries when you do the range of motion exercises. But - the CP diagnosis answered all those questions also.

Needless to say, from Monday till Wednesday I was a NERVOUS wreck, trying to figure how and when and where it happened.

Susan (our nurse) called them on Wednesday afternoon and the doctor said his hip is normal...and that the fact that his leg won't straighten is in fact CP. That doesn't exactly answer very many questions, however...I mean, CP does answer quite a few questions, but why is one of his legs bigger than the other? The dislocated hip, although a blow to my parenting ego, was easily fixed..whereas CP will take many many months of PT to fix, if it's ever even fixed.

So anyways...ugh. There's still alot of work to be done...I'll be asking about the size difference (they say it's swelling from his central line - but that was done on April 7th...so it SHOULD be down by now if that was the case) at our next dr's appointment.

Other than this incident we've had a pretty good week.

David developed a cough last Friday and it was pretty nervewrecking since he has chronic lung disease, a simple cough never seems to be so easily fixed. But round the clock doses of Robutussin seemed to clear that out after a couple of days.

Oh! And David is all of a sudden vomiting. He's got the nissan so he shouldn't be ABLE to vomit...but he is. I don't know what that's all about. I'll be calling his ped this morning when they open.

OK...I think that's all.

David liked his exersaucer SO much more today!!



Notice he still carries that red phone - even with all those other toys he wants that phone! He cried when I tried to take it away to show him the other toys!







David ate an ENTIRE jar of applesauce today! Whoo hooo!!



My big kid -



David was laughing his little head off, so I had Susan (our nurse) get the camera...it didn't turn out at all


David loves his Daddy!! When Javier got home David was fussing...and Javier picked him up and he was all happy



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7/29/06

David in his bumbo - and more pics!

WE HAVE A TOOTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHOO HOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


First tooth - broken on 7-29-06!


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David in his bumbo!

Here's a video of David sitting in his bumbo - notice how he gets mad and then gets distracted by his facinating hand - and then gets mad again ...we have him propped like that so he'll feel safe in the bumbo.







Here he is - in the outfit that Valerie got us (thank you Valerie - I LOVE it!), and sitting up like a big boy (still using the couch - but we're sooo close!)





I wonder what he's thinking here -


Sitting in our home health care nurse's lap - her name is Ruth (she's not our primary - Susan's on vacation)


And mmmmmmmm that is SUCH a good blanket!!