Another month has gone and
past. Today, you are 17 months old! It so happens to be St. Patty’s day as
well. Happy St.
Patty’s! You have to always embrace your
Irish heritage Alayna. I guess that is where you get your fair skin from.
Before I get into talking about
all the exciting new things you have been doing and that lovely
gastroenterology appointment, barium swallow x-ray, and hitting your head on
our bed, I wanted to reflect on a year ago.
Here is the post from your 5 month update.
After I read your 5 month post
I almost fell out of my chair. I have no
idea where all this time is going and I wish we could pause it for a little
bit. Mommy and I both cherish every day with you even when you have your not so
favorite days. But I have to say you are
a FANTASTIC toddler! When you read this one day do not let that get to your
head as I am sure you will rub that in our face one day, how perfect of an
angel you were.
A year ago you were becoming
more flexible eating your toes and sucking your thumb. It looks like the toe eating has subsided but
the thumb sucking looks to have no end in sight. During your 5 months you began to finally lay
on your belly and even rolled over from belly to back. I can still see this in my head as your mom
and I left the room for a second to see if you would roll over. What a feeling that was to see you
progressing. Today, you are like a
toddler full of sugar RUNNING all over the house. You even climb up the stairs with no
assistance. If I compare your social
awareness from a month ago you no longer just smile at people. You now will say hi and give the occasional
wave. Yes, we are going to be in major
trouble with you once you get to be a little older. In fact, the other day you pointed at a toddler (of course he
was a boy) in a cart at the grocery store and called him be be!! That is how
you say baby. We asked his father how
old he was and he was only a month older than you!! I guess you will be picking
up the boys in NO time. Just remember
daddy has the final say when it comes to any man that comes into this house!
Sorry, you will always be my baby girl even when you THINK you are an
adult.
You still seem to really enjoy
food, naps, and you are still one of the happiest now toddlers. We have been very blessed to have a happy
Alayna in our house. I think we wouldn’t
know what to do if you were a fussy toddler because we really haven’t
experienced that with you. I guess I
should say we have not had many episodes where you are beyond fussy except for
this past month.
Before we get into what caused
your fussiness lets begin with the ever so exciting gastro dr. visit. We originally had scheduled this appointment
to figure out why you had diarrhea for what seemed like FOREVER. THANKFULLY, the diarrhea episodes finally
went away as you were diagnosed with toddler diarrhea. But the gastro dr. did let us know that we
should expect this toddler diarrhea thing to come back again sometime maybe a
few years down the road. If it does come
back I hope you are fully potty trained and can handle all the wiping stuff on
your own because it was not fun at all changing your diapers. I should mommy got the brunt of all the
diapers because most of these diarrhea episodes occurred while I was at
work!
Back to the gastro dr. appointment,
we still kept the appointment as you have been struggling to eat solid
foods. I guess I should rephrase that,
you have been gagging/chocking drinking liquids and eating meat and other solid
texture foods. It is really strange
because you still love to eat baby food.
In my book, I think you just have texture aversion right now. So the gastro dr. said he wanted to check
your esophagus to make sure that structurally it was OK! If nothing showed up on the barium x-ray
swallow then we would have to do an upper GI scope to check for other
stuff.
Off to the barium x-ray swallow
we go. Honestly, this was terrible I
think more so for all of us including your mom and I. Basically, you were held down by 3 people not
including your mom and myself. They
wanted to make sure you didn’t scream and held still during the x-ray pictures
while dumping barium down your mouth.
Talk about pure torture for you and your parents! The icing on the cake
was the nurse administering the barium had what appeared to be a
cold/virus. She was wiping her noise a
lot before giving you the barium. We
were afraid that meant you were going to get your first cold. Thankfully, the x-rays came revealed that
your esophagus structure was perfectly fine.
There was a question on one of the images where it looked like you had
some reflux from swallowing the barium.
They suggested you might have some GERD type issue going on there. Are job is to try some toddler prilosec to
see if that will help with your possible gagging/choking. Today, you seem to be doing a lot better with
solids which is strange. But we still
have reluctantly not fed you much meat or anything like that.
As for the nurse and her
cold/virus, you picked up whatever she had a few days after the test. I can honestly say we are so blessed you
have never been sick before this. It was
honestly very tough to see you so upset battling this cold/virus. You had a temperature of close to 102 degrees
thankfully it never got any higher. The
odd thing is that you never developed any other symptoms just a mild
fever. You did however develop a rash
that scared us to death. We took you to
the pediatrician and you checked out fine.
That weekend you got extra space in our bed. Yes, you still sleep in our
bed on a nightly basis but this time daddy got the couch for two nights. See look what I do for you!!!! All you wanted
was mommy 24/7. I don’t blame you though
as mommy has the power to fix anything!
Also, after your cold symptoms
passed, you decided you wanted to go to the pediatrician again. So what did you do this time. When daddy was about to change your diaper on
our bed you decided it would be fun to toss your entire body backwards and smack
the side of your head on the bed frame.
I will tell you it was a loud thud and scared both mommy and I. So the following day we took you to the dr
again to have your head looked at. You
checked out fine no need for concern.
Thank god this is why we have skulls!!!
In other news, you continue to
learn new things constantly. You seem to
really like drinking strawberry lemonade from a straw. Another thing you love is Pizza Hut
pizza. You can eat an entire piece! As
for your activity I think you are born to dance. I don’t know what it is about dancing to
music but it truly seems to be something you will love. Soon we will have you signed up for your
first ever dance class. Guess who gets
to participate with you its going to be me your daddy. It’s a good thing I like to dance with you
all around the house.
Tonight, you decided to say
your first full sentence! You just said it out of nowhere. I guess it was more of a song then a
anything. But it was to Barney. I sang I love….. You said you. Then you continued with “you love me!” It was the cutest thing! When you read that when you are 13 or
whenever I am sure you will be embarrassed.
As I have said many times in
all these monthly updates, you continue to amaze us ever day. You have given both mommy and me more joy to
our life than we could ever imagine. I
cannot wait to see what new things you are doing in a few months.
We love you always Alayna!
Alayna a year ago! Time flies!!
Alayna's first art project for her daddy!! It's her feet!
Family time at the rainforest! Alayna loved all the monkeys
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