Therapy

We have decided to go ahead with some private physical therapy for Chloe, since she is not making much progress in the mobility department. She is 9-months-old, but she has ceased to roll over in either direction, and she can't transition to and from different positions. With high recommendations from some friends, we are now taking her twice a week to a woman who has been working with children for 25 years, and we are really hopeful that we will start to see some progress.

Oddly enough, Chloe can actually walk a little on her own. She has taken up to 5 independent steps... OUI! She doesn't seem to think that she needs to do any of those pesky in between milestones!!! I guess she watches her big brother too much! :)

Chloe is also still receiving therapy from Infants and Toddlers. She is now getting physical therapy once a week with a wonderful PT, Bonnie. We also have occupational therapy coming once a month now (downgraded from every 2 weeks!), and her global development therapy every 2 weeks. Needless to say, therapy is taking over our lives.

Unfortunately, it appears that all of the therapy for Chloe is really taking a toll on Noah. He has been incredibly difficult and argumentative as of late. We are really struggling with him, and the temper tantrums are getting out of control and are occuring with increasing frequency. We try to include him in all the therapy sessions, but he is at the stage of not wanting to share anything with his sister. It's so hard to see him behave so badly, especially when we know that he is truely a wonderful and sweet little boy. :(

We are just going to have to find new ways to get him to feel special and appreciated. Hopefully if we can figure that out, then his moods will improve dramatically. As parents, we are trying our hardest to provide both of our children with love, support, time, and attention, but most days it really feels like Noah is getting the short end of the straw. It makes me feel like such a failure as a mother. All I can do is my best, and I will let God do the rest!!!!

Preschool!

Noah is officially registered for preschool for the 2009-2010 school year. He will be attending the 3-year-old program at St. Francis de Sales Preschool here. It is right down the road, so the location could not be more perfect for us. We wavered between sending him to the Tuesday/Thursday AM program and the Monday/Wednesday/Friday PM program, but decided that since he already doesn't want to take afternoon naps often, the afternoon program might benefit him more. Also, since he will turn 4 in early December, the 3-day program might be more age appropriate for him. We figured that he could do the 3-day program this coming school year, and the following year he will transition up to the 5-day 4-year-old program for pre-k. He could do AM or PM for that program, so we will have to see how the first year goes.

We visited the school yesterday, and got to see his classroom and meet his teacher. Everything seemed lovely, and his teacher seems extremely nice. Noah warmed up to the environment fairly quickly, so hopefully he does well there. It seems so crazy that we had to secure a spot for him so early, given that it's 7 more months before he will even start school!!!! He won't even remember visiting there by the time the school year starts! :)

It's hard to believe that he is growing up though. He really isn't a baby anymore... he really is a little boy.

And so the battle begins.....

So, we had our very first run in with our insurance company in regards to Chloe. We knew that it would happen at some point, but so soon!!!!!??????

Because of Chloe's reflux, she is on prevacid (the WONDER drug). Ever since she went on it, it has been the difference between night and day! She has FINALLY started to gain weight... you can even pinch the chub on her thighs! Yeah! She nurses well, and has three meals a day of homemade baby food! Well, her perscription was almost out, so I called in for the refill three days before we would need it. I called the pharmacy two days later to make sure that it was ready to be picked up. What did they say???? Oh, that was DENIED. Denied??? What do you mean denied!!! Don't you think that it would have made sense to pick up the phone and call me when a Rx couldn't be filled????????? Well, I guess not!!!! It turns out that our lovely insurance company (Blue Cross) will only authorize 90 days of prevacid during a calender year!!!!!

So.... the pharmacy said that they would fax the doctor about it, and that since it was the weekend (this all finally came to a head on Friday!), it probably wouldn't get sorted out for at least 5 days. Are you freaking kidding me!!!!!

Well, over the weekend, Chloe started to lose her appetite. Come Tuesday evening, she wasn't eating or nursing well at all. Wednesday was a NIGHTMARE!!!! She was refluxing like crazy, gagging, choking, crying, refusing to eat. I called in first thing in the morning to the pharmacy, and they were like... "oh, well we haven't heard anything." And once again.... they couldn't CALL ME!!!??? Of course not! So, I put a call into the doctor, and left a message. I new that she wouldn't get her messages until the afternoon, so I called her pediatrician to see what dosage of zantac I could giver Chloe while we waited for this mess to be straightened out.

Finally, around 2:30 her GI doctor called me back, and says that she has not gotten any sort of correspondence about the situation with Chloe's medicine! She was wonderful, and said that she would take care of everything and call me back. She called the insurance company and explained that due to Chloe's disease, she would very possibly need to be on prevacid for the duration of her life, and that taking her off of it was not an option, since Zantac is crap and doesn't work! So, she was able to get them to pre-authorize the medication for a year!!!!
Wahoo!!!!!! When she called back and told me this, I was OVER THE MOON. Kenton was able to pick it up on the way home from work, and she is already doing so much better!!!!

However, she has now developed a really nasty cold along with a fever. She can barely breath because her nose is so runny/stuffed. Her poor little voice sounds so pathetic, and she just looks dreadful. But at least she is eating!!!!! So, hopefully she will start to turn around soon. We just feel so bad for her. :(

Chloe's new talent!

So, Chloe has developed a brand new talent over the last couple of days! She has figured out how to clap! It is entirely too cute, and brings back so many memories of Noah doing the same thing. Since she finally figured it out, she spends most of the day clapping away, with a huge grin on her face. You can tell how very proud she is of herself! So, for your viewing enjoyment, here is a little video of her accomplishment!

Happy Holidays!

So, I haven't updated in a while! We recently spend 9 days up in PA visiting our family. It was a very nice vacation over Christmas. Noah and Chloe were BOTH sick over Christmas (go figure) and Noah looked like he was hit by a cement truck on Christmas Eve/Christmas. He STILL has a nasty cough! But even though he was feeling miserable, he has a fabulous time! He got to see Rudolph outside in the backyard of Grandma and Grandpa White's house right before going to bed! He was so excited to see the shining red nose out in the dark and hear Santa's sleigh bells!

Santa brought Noah new trains from Thomas and Friends, and Pat Pat Rocket from Little Einsteins. He was over the moon! Chloe wasn't sure what to make of it all, but she sure did think that the wrapping paper was yummy!

Since returning home, we have been able to just have time as a family while Kenton is still off from work. We enjoyed a very quiet New Year's, and regretted not going to bed early (kids will do that to you!).

I also took Chloe in to have her x-rays done in preperation for our visit with Dr. Shapiro at KKI on February 20. As I am not a skilled radiologist, I have no idea what I am looking at, but it doesn't seem like there are any fractures, at least not any visible ones. We are hoping that this is the case, and that she will indeed have a mild form of OI. Only time will tell I guess. We are anxiously waiting for her appointment though, since after that we will have a better understanding of all this.

I will leave you with some pictures from Christmas!

Here is Noah showing off the cookies, milk, carrots, and letter that

he left out for Santa and his reindeer.

Here is Noah unwrapping his Pat Pat Rocket! He opened it and said, "I KNEW Santa would bring me Rocket!!!"

Chloe in all her glory! She made such a pretty little present! :)

Chloe in her Christmas dress.

Noah in his Christmas outfit! Look at that expression!!!!!!

Chloe and Daddy!

Noah completely exhausted after a LONG vacation!!

Turkey Day!!! :)

Well, we are all d oing well down here in Maryland at the moment. Chloe is doing very well with eating, although she still isn't a fabulous nurser. Especially since she is entirely too distracted by her big brother!!

Chloe had physical therapy today for the last time with her current PT, Theresa (she is due to have her own baby in only 9 days!). The PT taking over Chloe's case will be coming on Saturdays. I am hoping that this will work out, although that will possibly limit what we can do on those mornings. It will be nice in the sense that Kenton can be here to see the therapy in action and have a better idea about things to do with her to help her get moving! :) It's only every other week, so I think that it will all work out fine.

Noah as been having a great time at preschool. This week was all about Thanksgiving and he made an Inidan feather hat and a pilgrim's hat. He was very proud of them! He also made a turkey with a toilet paper roll and construction paper. It was pretty cute.

We are also getting ready to head home for Turkey Day! We will be leaving Tuesday night and staying until Saturday night. We are really excited to go home, since we haven't been there since Labor day! That was a very very long time ago!!! I miss my family!!!!

Haircuts!

If you can believe it (MOM!), my boys got desperate enough that they needed a haircut ASAP. Since we won't be home in Punxsy for another couple of weeks, I decided that it was now or never that I attempt to cut their hair myself. I have seen my mom do it a bazillion of times, so I had at least a VERY SMALL idea as to how to go about it. Although not perfect, Noah's hair turned out rather well, and Kenton's hair looks great! No complaints from him at all! As I was trimming it, I kept telling him that if it was awful, he would just have to go and get it fixed. Thankfully, that was not the case, and it looks fabulous! I can only say that I am so proud of myself, since I have always been such a chicken about doing this! But Kenton hasn't hasn't had his hair trimmed since the first week of September, he was growing wings! :) We will have to be sure to get it trimmed again when we are home visiting for Thanksgiving! But I can honestly say now that I feel comfortable enough to do it myself during those interludes between visits. Wahoo!

Here's a picture of Noah with his new haircut. Like I said, not perfect, but better than it was with his hair hanging down to his nose! :)