Friday, September 29, 2006

A long overdue update

I need to apologize for my absence from blogland the past week. Things have been crazy to say the least and I haven't had time to think, let alone use the computer for pleasure. I have tons of things to update on but I will space them out over the next few days. Today will be all about Eli!


Big things have been happening in the world of toddlerhood at our house. Our tiny miracle boy is officially a one year old. His 12 month adjusted birthday was in the middle of this week and Eli celebrated the occasion by WALKING!!! Yes, we are now the proud parents of a walker. He still crawls almost all of the time but if you stand him up or he pulls up on something, the little stinker will walk 10-12 steps to get where he wants to go. Unfortunately that location is usually to get one of the toys his big brother is playing with. This tends to result in either a small shouting match between the two that goes something like this....

"Eli, no! This is my toy!" -C
"AHHHH......" -E
"NOOOOOO! Get your own toy." -C
"Na na na AHHhhhhdadadadda" -E
"AAHhehehehaaaa. Shut up Eli!" -C

Then Carson shoves Eli down and Eli with his "new walker" balance falls on his butt, hits his head on the ground, cries, then gets back up to try and get Carson's toy away from him again. By this time Carson is in time out. Did I mention that I have been tired this past week???





Eli also added two wonderful developmental milestones last week that we have been waiting to see for months. Our baby started waving and clapping!!! It is so cute to see him clap when we play patty-cake. I need to stop referring to him as the "baby" pretty soon as you can see. Eli is turning into a rough and tumble toddler right before our eyes. In this pic he was enjoying some truck time in the backyard at Gigi and BobPop's house with Carson. Boys will be boys. Aside from the dirty boy persona, Eli must think he is the most adorable baby ever because the child flirts shamelessly with every girl he sees. He will smile, tuck his chin to his chest, then wave at any female he can, the whole time keeping this sheepish grin on his face. Boy, I'm in trouble with Carson and Eli.



Now for the medical update on our peanut. Eli is doing well. He is 20lbs even and just over 30". His chromosomal microassay came back completely normal! YAY! Unfortunately his growth hormone testing did come back low (specifically his IGF-1 for all of your medical people reading). We haven't discussed treatment direction yet with his doctors but growth hormone replacement in the form of daily injections is most likely in the future for Eli. It's not the worst possible outcome in the least but a parent never wants to give their child a shot every night. The blood test for Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome came back negative as well, just as suspected. Eli's GI doctor believes that he has an allergy to milk due to his problems with rashes, bowel issues (severe constipation then changing to nasty diarrhea--never a happy medium) but since he is on an elemental formula and is pushing away a lot of milk products on his own now, she is holding off on testing him unless his symptoms get severe. His surgery is scheduled for December 4th. The surgeon that preformed his Nissen fundoplication in May will do the incisional hernia repair and the 2" muscle biopsy out of one of his thighs. Then his GI doctor will do an endoscopy and colonscopy with biopsies from both. The surgery will take a little over 2 hours but they can get all four things done under the same anesthesia. I will only be 12 days post-op from my own major surgery (see post later this weekend) so Al is going to need to help out a lot with Eli and his recovery!

Now that this Eli update is super long I will leave you with a pic of a tuckered out Eli laying on Gigi's lap. He loves to swing on the front porch on her lap just like I did when I was a baby. Our teeny, tiny miracle boy has made huge strides in the past week and we can't wait to take him to the neonatal clinic on 10-12 to show him off to the doctors who told us he would have CP!

8 comments:

Tiffany said...

Oh Kellie, SOOO glad to hear good news about Eli! And walking, wow!!! Keep us updated, we all LOVE seeing new pics of Eli and Carson!! :)

(Sept. 05 mommy)

Lisa said...

Kellie,
Great update! I'm so glad that Eli's testing has turned out normal for the most part. You are right, growth hormone shots (although not ideal) are certainly a good outcome. And if it is truly what is causing so many problems, it is crazy that a food allergy could cause so much trouble! I never knew it could.

I would love to get Margaret and Eli together and watch the flirting! She is quite the flirt, too!

Congrats on the walking, Eli!

tiffany said...

WOW! He is doing amazing!! Every time I see a new photo of him I am amazed at what a good couple months he's having.

Congrats on hitting twenty pounds and walking! That is fabulous!

tiffany said...

PS He always has the cutest shoes! I need shoe help! Which are good for babies learning to walk?

Jamie and Jill said...

Good Job Eli! You definately need to show him off at the NICU.......he proved them wrong.

Anonymous said...

He is getting so big. He is really getting some weight on now. I can see it in the pictures. Congratulations on 20 pounds. Christina and Kaylee

Shawna said...

What a GREAT update!!! Eli looks soooo cute walking, what a little ham. He sure has come a long, long way hasn't he? I am so happy for you guys. He looks like such a happy and healthy little boy. SOOOOO PRECIOUS!!! YAY ELI!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

ohhh wow kellie, this is a post i was waiting for, he is so amazing, brings tears to my eyes everytime i see his precious face. you sound super busy, isn't two small toddlers fun!lol maddy is a huge flirt too,only with boys and men so i bet eli would have a blast with her, both of them batting their eyelashes at each other!lol i am just so happy things are going great. tons of luv and hugs from your canadian pals lori, josh and maddy