Just This Week.....

     Mason has made a LOT of progress this week. On Tuesday, I went to get Mason from his crib after his afternoon nap. He was sitting up in his crib barely awake. This was the first time that Mason sat up on his own. YEAH! In the last month and a half, Mason has made so much progress that I have been lucky enough to have a LOT of proud mommy moments :).

     Then while at MiSue and Grandpa's (my parents) house, my mom found him sitting up in their crib after his morning nap on Wednesday. Okay I know what some of you are thinking (including me a little bit and Doug too), that maybe he used the crib to help him sit up. Nope! During PT yesterday, he sat up unassisted :). I saw it! He went from a four point stance (hands and knees) to pushing to a side sit position to a full sitting up position. It's nice to see his hard work paying off ;).

     Then yesterday afternoon, he refused his afternoon nap. I went to get him out of his crib and he was STANDING up! I know we really should have lowered his crib when he started pulling up on the sofa, but he showed NO interest in pulling up in his crib or other places until yesterday. There he was standing up, and of course it would be near the end of the crib with the changing table attached to it. He had popped open the wipes and had one in his hand staring at it. So needless to say we lowered his crib last night and took off the stuff on the top of the changing table. 

     When I put him to bed last night he noticed the lowered mattress right away ;). I sat him down in his crib and he gave me a kinda strange look. He spun himself around while staying in a sitting position, looking all around his crib. He pulled himself up and smiled (maybe a sign of approval?...LOL!). After his normal bit of fussing, he went on to sleep ;).

     

WOW! Mason is 16 months!

     I can't believe Mason turned 16 months old a few days ago! Seriously?!?! WOW! Time flies, especially when you have a child! The beginning of March, Mason had the stomach bug that lasted off and on for almost 1 week. YUCK! He went for his 15 month check up right after that. It was discovered that he had lost over 1.5 pounds and had fallen off HIS growth curve. His immunizations were put off for 3 weeks since he had just gotten over the stomach bug and he also needed a weight check because of falling off of HIS growth curve. The stomach bug took more of a toll on Mason than just weight loss. He reverted back to mostly rolling instead of commando crawling and taking 100% formula.
     In the weeks that followed, Mason gradually put back on the weight he lost and gained the strength to commando crawl again. Once the opened can of formula was finished, I decided to try giving him straight 100% cold milk. Before the stomach bug, we were doing a gradual reduction in the percentage of formula in each sippy cup and increasing the percentage of milk along with getting him used to the coldness of the milk. For whatever reason, Mason took that first sippy cup of 100% cold milk with no problem and no looking back. When we had tried that before the stomach bug, he flat out refused it.
     At the 3 week follow up he received his immunizations and the weight check showed he had regained the lost weight. So you would assume that was the end of it, he gained back his lost weight. Nope. Like I mentioned ^^^, he had fallen off of HIS growth curve. The doctor plotted the weight gain, he is back on his curve for now, but just barely. He goes back in June for his 18 month well child visit.
     On a side note, I'm getting a little tired of hearing people say not to worry about his growth curve. I guess ignorance is truly bliss because this is very important for 2 reasons. The first reason is for EVERY child, staying on his/ her own growth curve is important for achieving milestones. The second reason is that for a child with CP, EVERY movement is several times harder for them than for a child without CP and delays the progress of achieving milestones. Since a child with CP expends more energy/ calories on 'simple' movements, then the risk for falling off the growth curve is higher and increases the delay in milestone achievement even more.
     I will end on a more positive note ;), we have noticed a substantial gain in Mason using of his left hand (even when the splint isn't on...YEAH!).  It was truly a PROUD mama moment when he instinctively reached to turn off the light switch with his LEFT hand. 

Finally A Full Update :)!

     Good grief! I think it's been since December since I did a complete update for Mason :-/. If you all have been reading the medical/ therapy updates you can see why. Mason is really starting to show his personality!
     He is a talker, well babbling with some words mixed in. I have been trying to count all of his words, the best list I've come up with is about 15 words or so. He has also started to put 2 words together and use them correctly too. He has said 'oh boy!' (his first 2 word combo), then followed that with 'get it' and 'get up' (uses this regularly when finished eating). In addition to saying more words, he is moving more too!
     Much to the dismay of Marigold and Noelle, Mason is getting more proficient in Army crawling and is starting to get his hips up off of the floor when he crawls too. He now Army crawls more than rolls to get somewhere. Hopefully he will be sitting up on his own and 4 point crawling (normal crawling) soon!
     This is a fun and busy time for Mason! We are very impressed with all of his progress lately! With the help of his PTs and OT, we hope our next update will be bragging on a new milestone that he has met!

P.S. March is Cerebral Palsy Awareness month, we would appreciate it if all of our friends and family would do something to celebrate it please. Even if it is just to wear a green ribbon and tell people why you are wearing it ;), this is especially important on March 25th (National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day). Thanks! Doug, Kim & Mason

Punched In The Stomach

   In January when Mason went for follow up with the neurologist a MRI of the brain was ordered. He came through the procedure just fine (including being sedated). Yesterday we got the results. They were definitely not what we wanted, but weren't totally unexpected. He has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a result of brain damage to the right side of his brain. My first thought was 'Thank God! It's not a brain tumor'....that was my greatest fear, that I would lose my perfect little boy.  My next thought was my poor little boy :(.  Even though I am very worried about how this will affect his life, I am so grateful that I get to keep him. My heart goes out to parents that get truly horrible news of fatal conditions.
   Undoubtedly Mason will have more challenges than the average person, but with God's grace and the support of family/ friends he will get the best life possible! He has a wonderful team (pediatrician, occupational therapist, physical therapist, neurologist, etc.) to get him started off. Please keep him and us in your thoughts/ prayers for the long journey we have ahead.

Mason's Follow-up Appointment

      In December he went to a new pediatric neurologist. We liked her better than the first because we felt she listened to us and didn't just ask some questions from a questionnaire  She asked us questions based on what we said and how we answered her questions.
      We were told then to keep up the visits from Miss Kelly and they (doc's office) would set up a PT evaluation. Mason continued to have Miss Kelly come and work with him.
       Mason went for a follow up appointment today and I asked about the PT evaluation. Turns out there was a misunderstanding on our part, we were supposed to set it up so I will be taking care of that later today. He has to go for another follow up in March.

Miss Kelly's Latest Visit

     Today Miss Kelly came to do therapy with Mason. He was finishing up lunch when she arrived. When he saw her he began to laugh and smile, then play with his food rather than eat it. So with lunch over, we all sat down on the floor as Miss Kelly began to work with Mason. As she went through his exercises with him, he would laugh and smile at her.
      Then she decided to work with his left hand by trying to trap his right hand in his shirt (notice I said TRY to work with his left hand). She sat Mason facing outward on her lap and pulled his arm into the shirt so that is was touching his belly. She began tying the right sleeve into a knot (so that he couldn't put it back in). As she was trying to tie the knot, Mason decided that he could get his right arm out of the shirt another way. He raised his arm up through the neck hole, exposing his arm and shoulder with the sleeve dangling underneath. Smart boy! So I went to get him another shirt to try.
     As Miss Kelly was trying to get it on him and the knot tied in the sleeve again he began to fuss, wiggle, and complain (and to try to escape that shirt too). She decided that wasn't going to work, so she untied the knot so that Mason could put his right arm in the sleeve. After she got his shirt on, he turned towards her with a stern look on his face. He then said a bunch of garbled sounds that included some screams and screeches, we couldn't tell what he said but he certainly sounded as if he were cussing her out in baby talk, lol.
     The session continued with Mason laughing and giggling throughout.

Mason's 2nd Christmas

     Even though this was Mason's second Christmas (technically) it felt more like his first Christmas. For his first Christmas he was about 2.5 weeks old and slept through most of it (except for eating, of course ;). We went to church on Christmas Eve with Nana and then spent the night with MiSue and Grandpa.
     On Christmas morning, Mason seemed to enjoy opening his presents with help from me, at first, but then he seemed to be confused by getting to open all these new toys and no one would let him play with them :(. Then came the rocking horse AND we put him on it....he just smiled and smiled. He really seemed to like it. He got to play with the other toys later too ;). After eating a big, yummy breakfast we went home.
      We stayed home long enough for Mason to have some lunch and get a nap in before heading to my brother-in-law and sister-in-laws' house for more presents and dinner. On the way over Mason decided his nap wasn't quite finished (either that or the morning wore him out, lol) so he napped more and we woke him up to take him inside. After a few minutes of sitting in my lap, he got down on the floor. He hung out with his cousins and other family members. After opening presents and eating a delicious dinner, we returned home. By then it was bedtime and a busy, fun Christmas had come to an end. I got Mason ready for bed and he was out in less than 5 minutes.