Or. Has it only been a month?
Well...that depends on the day around here!
Eli continues to do great. He is generally (about 95% of the time) a happy and easy going little guy. He is still eating great for us, although maybe showing a little more preference and aversions to certain foods these days. I take that as a good sign that he doesn't feel he needs to eat everything put in front of him.
His language is progressing...again slowly but surely. At home he will repeat most anything we say and probably says about 10 to 15 words on his own on a regular basis...Momma, Daddy, Ezra (usually followed by a frustrated "NO!") Ella, Levi, truck, all done, shoes, and eyes to name a few. He loves music and (besides Beyonce) has developed a special affinity for Jesus Culture and can sing along with several of the songs. Boy has some moves too. His favorite toys are most anything with buttons...the fridge leap frog toys, an alphabet school bus, or play cell phones.
He did great with all the travels we did over the last week...other than the one carsick episode. He was a trooper and just seemed to blend right in wherever we went.
He is making strides with his gross motor skills, getting stronger and taking more risks. Thanks in part to following the example of brother Ezra. He is running faster, can climb up into his own bed now, and is a lot stronger when swimming. He still has a lot to go...but it is exciting to remember how weak he was and how much progress he has made in one short month.
His fine motor skills continue to amaze us and the doctors. He painted yesterday for the first time and besides making quite the mess...really had a lot of focus and enjoyment while doing it.
His sleep remains the one area where we are still struggling. A lot. He is still waking up repeatedly throughout the night. Although he isn't doing the heart wrenching crying anymore. Now it is just an annoying whine. We moved him into our room for a little while to see if that would help (and maybe because we thought it would be easier than walking across the hallway 5 times a night) and it seemed to only make things worse. We are just tired. And it can be hard to feel loving and patient towards him when you are sleep deprived. Good thing we aren't doing this in our own strength, huh.
We had his ct scan and consultation with the pediatric neurosurgeon at Duke this past week. He did incredible for the ct scan...so much so that they didn't even have to sedate him! The good news we found out from our meeting with the doctor is that his brain is fine and perfectly healthy! The doctors initial feeling was that the shape of his head is positional, meaning that he was left in the same position for basically his entire infancy and early toddler days...causing the abnormal shape. (Very sad to think about what his life was like...)The not bad news...but sort of ambiguous news for now...is that there is some concern about the sutures in his head could be closing up prematurely (which would contribute to the abnormal shape) and we have to go for another more detailed ct scan in two weeks. Because we love spending $600 a pop on these things...you know. The risk involved in that would be that it would not allow his brain to grow or expand with any new growth. If that is the case there would be surgery involved. We also discussed the shape of his head and what could be done, if anything. While he is too old for a helmet, surgery is an option. We would have a lot of consultations with a team of cranio-facial and plastic surgeons and spend a lot of time in prayer before we made any decisions about that though. Please pray for wisdom for us as we make these decisions.
On the attachment front I think we continue to make strides. I have fondly nicknamed him "my little shadow" because he is never far by my side. He may play away from me...but never for long and always returns to "base" aka: Mom. He is very affectionate with us and will give hugs and kisses. I know that the process of attachment (him to us and us to him) is a long one...full of ups and downs, but I feel that so far everything has been going well and we share a definite bond.
3 comments:
Thank you for sharing this update. It's reassuring to know a child who has had a life before "us" can still adjust and, especially, attach in a healthy way.
wow, well it sounds good. Overall it sounds like everyone is progressing and it seems encouraging. I hope that's how you feel.
also, i guess you thought that you were gonna get to skip the "up all during the night" stage with this kid. haha. sorry, i know, not funny, but still it does make me smirk. and sympathize too!! maybe you should trade off....everything is harder when you aren't sleeping. for sure. but.....YOU CAN DO IT!
Philipians 5:13.
love ya
Just sharing...with Ava(she's 3 also), I do keep her in our room to sleep. What I do is rock her for about 10 minutes(this gives her snuggle time...and well, she lets me:)), then I lay her in her bed(at the foot of ours) and lay on our bed beside her until she goes to sleep...or is drowsy enough that I can leave her. She woke up every night crying like Eli does for about a week and a half, then it just stopped. When she woke up, I would just tell her "Mama's here" and she lays back down...sometimes, I don't think she's fully awake anyway... I honestly expect her to be in our room for 6 months:\! But...it's working and we're here when she wakes up in the night or morning..which is what she needs to see...Praying it gets better for you:)!
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