GI Appointment

We went to see Dougie's pediatric GI today. We had a long wait to get in but it went really well. At this point, the doctor wants me to more aggressively cut out milk and soy products. I was already cutting out obvious sources (milk, ice cream, etc) but this goes a lot further. He suspects that Dougie may have a Milk Soy Protein Intolerance (MSPI). It's not particularly uncommon and most children grow out of it around age 1.

The new diet isn't going to be easy. It's amazing how many foods are out. Ingredients that need to be eliminated are:

milk
modified milk ingredients
milk protein
caseine
caseinate
butter
whey
lactalbumin
lactoglobulin
rennet
cream

soy flour
soy protein
soy
soya beans

This site goes into a lot more detail about the milk side of it. Notice, McDonald's fries are out... yes, it's that bad.

And, since I haven't posted some pictures in a while. A few of Dougie in his swing.

Unblocking Tear Ducts

We took Dougie to the pediatric eye specialist yesterday. They dilated Dougie's eyes and did a basic check-up. The doctor concluded that he did indeed have a blocked tear duct. Otherwise, his eyes are developing normally. This is particularly good news because it means Dougie doesn't likely have strabismus. So, the doctor said they could open the duct or we could wait longer and see if it opened on its own. Based on the number of infections he's had and the fact that the longer you wait, the less likely it is to open and the more difficult the opening procedure becomes, we decided to have it done.

********* Procedure Detail *********

Dougie was taken to a procedure room. After we went through the details and signed all the necessary forms the physician's assistant took him to the table. They wrapped him in a blanked and then strapped him to a board. He did surprisingly well with that. Once they tried to hold his head still and put in the cleansing eye drops, he started to scream. A second drop was applied to numb his eye and duct. Once that had time to take affect, they inserted a small probe into the top opening of the duct. This was used to pop open the bottom of the duct (nearest the nose). The entire procedure didn't last more than 3 minutes. We picked Dougie up and he stopped screaming quite shortly afterwards.

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We have to apply eye drops for the next few days to make sure there won't be an infection but so far, Dougie seems to be doing well with everything. His eye was even dry this morning when he got up. We'll know for sure if it worked within 2 weeks but it's looking very promising.

Crawling

Dougie crawled today!

Currently, he can only go backwards but he did get into a clear crawling position and was purposefully moving. His method made him look quite a bit like an inch worm. We're trying to get a video of it but he wasn't cooperating this afternoon. We'll keep trying.

Six Month Check-up

Dougie went to the doctor today for his 6 month visit. He did well and HE IS HUGE!!

Stats:

• Weight - 15lbs 10oz (25%)
  
• Height - 27 3/4" (90%)
  
• Head - 17 1/4" (50%)

He got his DTaP and Heb B shots. He didn't love that part but otherwise the visit went really well. He is a bit ahead of target on his physical development and right around target for his vocal development. The doctor said that we could start him on more mature foods when he turns 8 months. That was a bit of a disappointment because I was hoping we could start that a bit sooner. He also said he sees no signs of teeth. Several people have told me that the longer teeth stay under the gum the healthier they are so I'm not anxious at all about that.

All in all, it looks like we're doing things right. So, we're very happy about that. Now if we can just get him to sleep.

The First Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

Today was Scott's first Father's Day as a dad. Dougie went all out to make it as special for him as possible.

Dougie started the day off by letting Daddy sleep in. We then brought him some orange juice in bed to wake him up. We kicked off the day with presents. Dougie gave his dad a very large version of Candy Land that they can play together when Dougie gets a bit older. He gave him a custom embroidered shirt that says "This Daddy Belongs to Dougie" and a frame of some pictures of himself. I helped a bit with that last one. Here are the pictures. They sit side by side in the frame.











We took Scott to his favourite burger place for lunch. Dougie finished the day by watching some golf with his Dad. It was a nice relaxing day.

Dougie is very lucky to have such a great father.

6 Months Today

Dougie turned 6 months today. It's hard to believe that he's half a year already. I have no idea where the time has gone. By the same token, I hardly remember what life was like before him. Parenthood is a strange thing.

For those following the eye color saga, 6 months is the official time to call eye color. We'll likely hold off until he's a year but here are some pictures from this morning.

Dougie the Fish

Dougie got "promoted" again at swim class. He now goes entirely under water when we do our "jumps". He stays under for a second. Next week, we'll likely move that to 2 seconds. The teacher said that he was clearly holding his breath before the "jump". In fact, he squishes up his entire face and closes his eyes. It's quite cute to see.

Medical Update

We took Dougie into the doctor yesterday. The new medication wasn't working well enough and the doctor wanted to see him. Dougie decided to get an eye infection just in time for our visit as well.

We got some new medication for his eye and the doctor wants us to go and see a specialist to get the tear duct opened. It doesn't sound like a fun activity but I gather that once they do it, things get better instantly. This is Dougie's 7th eye infection in 4 months so I had to agree that it's time. We have an appointment to get that done on June 22nd.

The doctor then said that he was out of ideas on the reflux front. Dougie is on the maximum dose of all his medications and the doctor isn't comfortable giving him more than that. So, he'd like us to go see a Pediatric Gastroenterologist. We'll be going to see Dr. Ogunmola on June 26th. We're keeping a log of all of Dougie's symptoms and activities until then. Hopefully, that information will help him determine what is going on. He apparently specializes in GER so I'm very hopeful. Now, we just need to make it through until then.

Here's a bit of Dougie fluff so you can see how big he's getting.



And a picture Auntie Suz took of Dougie the cowboy

Auntie Suz's Trip - Part 2

Our visit with Auntie Suz went really well. It was great to see Dougie get along with her so well. We could tell that he really liked her. She was great with him too. Here are a few more pictures from her visit.







And, incase there was any doubt Dougie was my son, I think this picture should remove all doubt.

Auntie Suz's Visit and Swim Class

Auntie Suz is here!! She arrived last night and she and Dougie have been having a great time getting to know each other. We're going to get more pictures but here are some initial ones.









The last one is from swimming today. And, since we had an extra pair of hands, we have a few pictures from swimming. Unfortunately, Susan was just getting used to the camera so a few are a bit blurry but I wanted to share them anyway.













This is our teacher, Miss Nicole.


Swim class was exciting today because Dougie was moved from "dry jumps" to "wet jumps". Basically, now he gets his lips wet when we do our "jump". The teacher wanted us to start that because he started to put his face in the water during some of the activities and she felt he was ready. They like to encourage the kids, as soon as they show signs of being ready, to advance. We're very proud of our little fish.

Kindermusik and the Night Before Auntie Suz

The new session of Kindermusik started today. This will be our last session with Miss Kat. The description of this one is:

Peekaboo! I Love You!

More than a curious story, Mother Goose games like peek-a-boo help your baby understand language. Uncover more ways to say "I love you" using bubbles, American Sign Language, and parent-baby dances. Connect with other newborns and families in the community and learn how music improves your child's development process.

There are a lot of babies in the class but I think it should be a lot of fun. Most of the babies seem to be about a year old so it's a bit younger class than the one we had last time.

In other news, Auntie Suz is coming tomorrow. Dougie is very excited to meet her. She's going to come to his swimming classes and she can even participate in My Gym on Friday. It should be lots of bonding fun. We'll definitely post pictures.

Some Dougie Pictures

This is what happens when Daddy feeds Dougie




Dougie in the tub


More Dougie and Mags


Have you seen the movie "Alien"?

New Medication/New Hope

We got the results from Dougie's ultrasound. It did confirm that he had reflux and that there were no other physical problems. So, that's good. Unfortunately, he's maxed out on the Prevacid so we can't increase that. The doctor wants us to try a new medication, bethanechol. It is from a group of drugs called "prokinetic" and is normally used to treat delayed gastric emptying. The drug causes the stomach to empty faster thus reducing the amount of acid that can build up and cause reflux. We're hoping that this may help things along substantially. If he isn't improved by Friday, we're supposed to talk to the doctor again.

Slept Through the Night

Dougie slept through the night!!!! He's technically done it once before but it was from 7pm to 1am so we didn't get as much extra sleep as we hoped for. But last night, he slept from 12:30am - 6:30am. I'm practically giddy.

Swimming Lessons

Dougie started swimming lessons today. I am so excited!! It was a lot of fun. He loved every part of it except hanging on the wall. That's hard for him right now anyway so I'm not surprised that he didn't love it. There are 5 kids in our class and Dougie is the youngest by a year or so. We're taking the lessons at a place not too far from here called Emler Swim School. They have programs specifically designed for babies learning to swim. The pool is 90 degrees so it's very comfortable.

Our teacher mentioned that getting him swimming at this age can be a huge benefit. He doesn't know enough to be scared of the water yet and by the time he reaches that age, he'll likely already be swimming. The focus of the class at this stage is largely water safety. There is a lot of focus on swimming to the wall of the pool and being able to pull yourself out. Once Dougie is a bit older they focus on strokes but at this stage, just being able to have fun and be safe is enough.

Ultrasound Update

Dougie went in for his ultrasound today. There was a bit of confusion on exactly what was going on. The nurse at the pediatrician's office told me that he would drink some barium and they would do the test. They didn't have him drink barium though. That is the test that would normally be done on a baby Dougie's age but for some reason he was scheduled for a different test that is normally performed on younger babies.

Regardless of all that, he was tested. During the test he refluxed twice. At this point, we haven't heard from the doctor with the results and I expect we won't hear today now.

Dougie in his new hand made tie-dye shirt

Ultrasound Tomorrow

Dougie is going in for an ultrasound tomorrow at 11:30am. He continues to have refluxing episodes and the doctor wants to be sure that there is nothing else that could be causing it. From what I've read, the test takes 10-15 minutes and the worst part is not being able to eat for 4 hours prior to the test.

Needless to say, we're concerned for him but hoping that this is the first step in finding a more permanent solution.

Our Boy Can Sit

For a while, I've suspected that Dougie could sit but every time we tried, he'd flop over and try to crawl (which he can't do yet). Over the weekend, we decided to get him some "sitting toys". We thought that having something to sit and play with would encourage him to stay sitting instead of flopping over. Well, it worked!! Here are a few pictures from Dougie's first independent sitting.

Weekend Update

We had a wonderful long weekend. It was so quiet. We spent most of the time doing some organizing things around the house and relaxing. We've gotten a playroom made for Dougie. I did most of the work last week but we put the final touches on this weekend. We just have to hang blinds and paint but as far as Dougie is concerned it's finished. We love going in there during the day and spending some time.

We also went over to Uncle Rudy and Auntie Carol's new house. We haven't seen them in a while and it was great to catch up. They don't live too far from here in a great little community. Hopefully, we'll be able to see them more now that they're back in DFW. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera so we don't have any pictures from the visit. Uncle Rudy took some though and said he'd send them along. I'll include some once we get them.

President MOM

Our MOMS Club had their elections for the board today. I was elected president of our chapter. I'm really excited because I'm hoping to be able to get a few more activities that are inclusive of people that have children younger than toddler age. I think it's going to be a great opportunity to meet more people and get more involved as well. I officially take over at the beginning of July.