Allie's First Birthday!

Allie turned one on Wednesday, July 22, 2009. I've been looking for a park with baby swings and finally found one. So to celebrate we brought her to the park for the first time. She got to ride the swings and she really enjoyed herself. She squealed with delight as she swung back and forth. We also let her try out the slides. At first she had no reaction. But, once daddy took her on the big slide her eyes lit right up with excitement.

After the park, we brought her back home and let her open up presents from the family. Of all the things she got her favorite thing she wouldn't put down was the number one candle that was supposed to go on her cake. She was also quite fond of the noise makers we got her... the kind that you blow in and the paper tube rolls out and makes a noise. She thought the noise makers were really silly.

Once all her presents were opened we changed her into her new bathing suit. We laid out a table cloth on the front lawn and brought the cake and ice cream out there. We were trying to prevent a nasty mess in the house and thought the front lawn would be a better place to have cake and ice cream strewn about. Anyway, we sang Happy Birthday to her and let her dig in. She loved her cake and ice cream. Her favorite part was the ice cream, she couldn't get enough. Once it seemed like she had enough fun with the smishing and smashing of cake and ice cream we brought her in and gave her a bath.

Then, we gave her some milk and let her calm down. Finally, we capped off her afternoon with a nice long nap. She slept like a baby, no pun intended.

Overall, her birthday was lots of fun. We wish we could have shared it with more of our family, but still had a great afternoon. We love you all.

Escape Artist???

So I called my husband after my interview yesterday, which went GREAT btw, and he tells me he has some news for me too. I asked what and he said that when he went into Allie's room she was walking around. I asked if he meant in her crib and he said no, outside of her crib. Again, I asked was she holding on to anything or touching something. He told me she was up against a wall. I then said alright, I didn't think she was brave enough to take a step without help yet. I then asked HOW IN THE HECK DID SHE GET OUT OF HER CRIB?!?!?!?!?

I checked her out when I got home and she had a tiny scratch/bump on her head but it was gone within the hour. I can't imagine how scary it must have been if she had toppled out of her crib while reaching for something. My husband wondered if she climbed out. I have no clue.

It sounds like we have a little escape artist on our hands. It's scary and silly at the same time. She cracks me up. We'll be lowering the crib to the very bottom in hopes this doesn't happen again anytime in the near future.

Milk Scan Results

My doc finally called me back. Allie showed mild reflux during the scan and her stomach emptied fine. The doc said he didn't see anything physically wrong either which is good. He told us she should grow out of it soon. We're keeping her on the Zantac and Mylanta but we can change to Prevacid if she needs it. The Zantac and Mylanta are working pretty good so unless she gets worse I think we'll be ok.

Allie's Milk Scan This Morning

Every thing went really well. It wasn't that bad but it was no walk in the park either. We got really lost trying to find the place... had to go to 3 different buildings and ended up parking in the wrong hospital parking lot so we didn't get validation and had to pay anyway.

We arrived on time after going through a series of desks to get to where we needed to go. Allie was sleepy and was starting to get pretty hungry. We sat in the waiting room for about an hour. When they called our name we took her back and they took her bottle and put some radioactive stuff in it. The lady said it had no taste. Allie drank about half of her bottle. Then she was wrapped up and strapped down to a long plank table. The radiology equipment was then maneuvered directly above her leaving only about 3 and a half to 4 inches of space from her face to the machine. She of course screamed her head off for about 15 minutes. The x-ray tech put a kids music toy on next to her head to help soothe her. After about 15 minutes she fell asleep. She had to stay there for an hour. Once the hour was up we unstrapped her and got to go home.

It wasn't too bad just a little scary at first. We get the results on Monday. They told us they took an image every 10 secs and the doc would have 360 images to review to determine if she has reflux, how bad it is, and how long it takes her stomach to empty.

Milk Scan

	So Allie has been on Zantac (Ranitidine) for a little over a week now. She's still not drinking the amount of milk that they would like her to drink. I took her back to the doctor today and they told us to give her 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Mylanta every 6 hours as needed along with her Zantac. The doctor also ordered a milk scan test. It's for this coming Friday morning. She can't eat or drink 4 hours before the test. We bring her in along with her milk. The doc told us to expect everything to take 3 hours. He also gave us some prevacid that she can start if the Mylanta isn't helping. Milk Scan: A Milk Scan test determines whether or not your child has reflux (food or liquid coming up from the stomach). It also determines how much reflux your child has and how well the stomach empties. How is the test performed? A technologist will take you and your child into an exam room. You will see a large table and camera connected to a computer. The nuclear medicine technologist will ask for a bottle of your child’s formula or will provide milk for older children. A small amount of radionuclide will be added to the milk (there is no taste or smell), and your child will be asked to drink it. When your child is full, he will lie on his back on the exam table for about 1 hour while diagnostic information is gathered. There are no side effects, and the radionuclide loses radioactivity within a few hours. The technologist will check the pictures to make sure they are complete before you and your child leaves the hospital.

Oh No Reflux!

Over the past few months Allie has been a little difficult when it comes to drinking her milk. I've taken her to the doctor because of this and they all said it was probably just teething. Well it has become increasingly difficult to get her to drink any milk whatsoever. I have come to dread feeding her. It should not be such a difficult challenge to feed my daughter.

I called the doctor again on Monday. We got to see a different doctor this time. When we got there the nurse took her weight and in the past 3 weeks Allie had LOST 9 oz. I knew something wasn't right and just needed someone to listen. Well, after talking to the other doctor she told me that she thinks Allie has reflux which can also be silent reflux. Silent reflux is when she only spits up a little or it goes up but she swallows it and it goes back down. My poor baby has been in pain and not wanting to drink because it hurts. The doc said it was probably due to her prematurity. She told us that the valve that closes her stomach off from her esophagus was probably a little loose and still working on tightening up. She was surprised that no doctor had done any studies on her and caught it before.

Allie was prescribed some medicine to reduce the amount of acid in her tummy. She was given Ranitidine and takes it 2 x a day. It's peppermint flavor and she loves it. I'm so happy that she takes it without a hassle because she hates every other medicine she's ever had. She even spits out Tylenol and Motrin. On Monday Allie only drank 9 oz. and yesterday there was an definite improvement. She drank 16 oz. That's still not as much as she needs but I'll take any improvement.

We go back for a follow up in 2 weeks to make sure she is gaining weight and drinking her milk.

10 Months Already

I can't believe it has been 10 months already. Allie has come soo far. She's crawling, pulling herself up to stand, she even let's go and stays up for a good 20 seconds or more before she falls because she is soo proud of herself that she starts jumping up and down, and she's started cruising along furniture too! She hasn't attempted to take that first step away from furniture yet but I bet it is coming soon. We need to finish baby proofing.

Allie now weighs in at 16 lbs. and 13 oz. and is 26.5 inches long. She has been given the go ahead to start table foods and is doing great with the little things we've given her. She eats all kinds of baby puff snacks, little crunchies, which are like baby cheetos, and small pieces of soft fruit. She really seems to enjoy yogurt too! We give her the YoBaby yogurt made from whole milk especially for babies.

Allie now has four teeth in. Two on bottom and two are working there way all the way down on top. Allie, of course is getting her chompers on everything she can. You have to love teething babies and all of their drool.

I snapped a few silly shots of Allie last night. Enjoy!