October 14th, 2010
I haven’t had much time to write about Amelia’s progress lately, since we were dealing with some of her grandpa’s health issues. But he seems to be on the mend now, so I’ll try to get you caught up.
We don’t have nearly as many doctor’s appointments now which is nice, but we still take her to occupational therapy, physical therapy and she has been to the ENT clinic, the endocrinologist and the family physician. The endocrinologist did another blood work-up which showed that her growth hormone is still low, but she has been staying very consistently on her growth curve in the 25th percentile, which is pretty good. At her one year check-up she weighed almost 20 lbs and was 29 inches tall. The visit to ENT showed both ear tubes clear for the first time. A couple of weeks ago we were very worried about a lot of discharge from her eyes and a quick visit to the eye surgeon revealed that she has a blocked tear duct. Some surgery may be needed to deal with that in the future. Her eyes are extremely light sensitive and she does not like to be outside when the sun is shining. She hates hats and sunglasses don’t fit on her nose, so we are quite limited with outside activities.
Kristina’s efforts to have Amelia evaluated at the House Ear Clinic in LA have been absolutely frustrating! You would not believe the number of phone calls, faxes and the amount of paperwork that has gone into trying to get the insurance company to agree to this. After two rounds of appeals (each requiring about 30 days) they finally approved the visit, but when Kristina tried to make the appointment at House Ear, she was told they did not accept her insurance company! At this point the insurance company itself is appealing. We just keep praying for the Lord’s timing in this.
Amelia is of course quite unaware of all of this hassle and is having fun learning new things every day. She is still not walking on her own, but getting a bit more adventurous. She has been cruising along the furniture for such a long time that she only knows how to walk sideways, but lately she is trying a few forward steps. She loves all her toys, especially wooden puzzles and board books and things that fit inside each other or have levers to pull and buttons to push. She’s very curious and explores everything she can reach. She pokes her head behind the doors, under tables and chairs and inside cabinets. She’s willing to eat just about anything we put on her high chair tray and she recently started holding her own bottle. This may not seem like such a big deal for most babies, but since Amelia has very little suction and has to chew on the nipple while squeezing the bottle at just the right rate we think it’s a great accomplishment.
Her sign language vocabulary is growing also and she is trying to communicate with us in her own little way. She is now only wearing her right hearing aid and is tolerating is much better. As far as we can tell there is no hearing, but until we know for sure we’ll keep using it. Please continue to pray that we will be able to meet all the challenges ahead for Amelia.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
laughing video
I have been trying to post a video for about a week now and just can't get it to work. I am trying a shorter one just to see if it will go through............
Monday, August 23, 2010
Communication
August 2010
At almost 14 months Amelia is trying hard to communicate with us by watching our hands and trying to imitate our signs. I made a list of the ones I have actually seen her do and there are about 20 of them by now. Of course there is “eat, more, milk, mom, dad, up and hat”, but she’s signing so many more now, such as “flower, bird, cat, dog, fan, cold and butterfly”. Usually the signs are just random, which means she is “babbling” with her hands, but she is beginning to do more than just imitate and has signed “eat” or “milk” when she’s hungry. The easiest way to teach her more signs is when she is sitting in her highchair and we have both hands free to show her a picture or a toy and make the sign for her. She is very attentive and will sit for quite a while for these “lessons”. We have covered just about all the farm and zoo animals now and many toys and clothes, probably about 30 more signs. She loves it when I play “where is …?” with her and hide an object for her to look for. It’s such fun to see her brain develop in this way and I hope that we can keep a step ahead of her in learning sign language.
Amelia also seems to realize that we have to squeeze her bottles for her when she drinks, so she let’s know when we’ve stopped squeezing by growling at us. Or sometimes she’ll touch our hand to get our attention. It works!
At almost 14 months Amelia is trying hard to communicate with us by watching our hands and trying to imitate our signs. I made a list of the ones I have actually seen her do and there are about 20 of them by now. Of course there is “eat, more, milk, mom, dad, up and hat”, but she’s signing so many more now, such as “flower, bird, cat, dog, fan, cold and butterfly”. Usually the signs are just random, which means she is “babbling” with her hands, but she is beginning to do more than just imitate and has signed “eat” or “milk” when she’s hungry. The easiest way to teach her more signs is when she is sitting in her highchair and we have both hands free to show her a picture or a toy and make the sign for her. She is very attentive and will sit for quite a while for these “lessons”. We have covered just about all the farm and zoo animals now and many toys and clothes, probably about 30 more signs. She loves it when I play “where is …?” with her and hide an object for her to look for. It’s such fun to see her brain develop in this way and I hope that we can keep a step ahead of her in learning sign language.
Amelia also seems to realize that we have to squeeze her bottles for her when she drinks, so she let’s know when we’ve stopped squeezing by growling at us. Or sometimes she’ll touch our hand to get our attention. It works!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
new things
Sorry for the long overdue update!
Amelia had her post surgery follow-up about 3 weeks ago and her doctor was very happy with the way her palate has healed. She still has a small opening at her gum line which we didn't realize will be there until she gets a bone graft at 6 or 7 years old. She will need that to help her adult teeth come in properly. We were disappointed to find out that she will have a hole in her palate for that long but I'm sure she will figure out how to deal with it and it won't slow her down at all. She is trying all kinds of new foods and very little comes out of her nose now.
Omi took Amelia to her physical therapy appt last week and that went very well. The therapist hadn't seen Amelia since before her surgery and was suprised at how far she has come. In those couple months Amelia has learned how to crawl, pulls herself up to standing, "cruises" along furniture and sits unassisted for long periods of time. The next step is walking......yikes! It may take her a little longer to fiqure that out since she is most likely missing the balance nerves in her ears but she is a very determined little girl and will get it eventually. The therapist said that her development at about the level of a 10 month old and for everything that she has been through so far that is pretty amazing.
Amelia is figuring out how to communicate with sign language and has really taken off with it. We counted ~ 30 signs that she seems to understand and tries to imitate. She is very engaged when we play with her and will now bring us toys that she wants to play with. She especially enjoys chunky puzzles, playing with magnets on the fridge and books. She is very curious and is into everything!
Amelia had her post surgery follow-up about 3 weeks ago and her doctor was very happy with the way her palate has healed. She still has a small opening at her gum line which we didn't realize will be there until she gets a bone graft at 6 or 7 years old. She will need that to help her adult teeth come in properly. We were disappointed to find out that she will have a hole in her palate for that long but I'm sure she will figure out how to deal with it and it won't slow her down at all. She is trying all kinds of new foods and very little comes out of her nose now.
Omi took Amelia to her physical therapy appt last week and that went very well. The therapist hadn't seen Amelia since before her surgery and was suprised at how far she has come. In those couple months Amelia has learned how to crawl, pulls herself up to standing, "cruises" along furniture and sits unassisted for long periods of time. The next step is walking......yikes! It may take her a little longer to fiqure that out since she is most likely missing the balance nerves in her ears but she is a very determined little girl and will get it eventually. The therapist said that her development at about the level of a 10 month old and for everything that she has been through so far that is pretty amazing.
Amelia is figuring out how to communicate with sign language and has really taken off with it. We counted ~ 30 signs that she seems to understand and tries to imitate. She is very engaged when we play with her and will now bring us toys that she wants to play with. She especially enjoys chunky puzzles, playing with magnets on the fridge and books. She is very curious and is into everything!
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