9 months old

Preston Vaughn is nine months old! I can't even believe how fast this year has flown by. He has grown so much. To put it in perspective he has tripled his birth weight, and grown 9 inches! He is now very interested in everything around him. He thoroughly enjoys watching Sam and Soph running around him all the time, and I am sure is wishing he could join them. He is rolling all over the place, sitting, and his newest thing that he enjoys doing is eating his toes. At his nine month well child check up he weighed in at 17lb 13oz and was 28.5 inches long. He still has no teeth but continues to drool like crazy so I am sure they are coming. He is still nursing probably 6ish times a day and also eating baby food three times a day. I have been making most of his food, and his favorites seem to be the green veggies. I just started giving him broccoli in the last couple of weeks and he loves it. I have mixed it with carrot and sweet potato. He also really likes peas, and green beans as well. His favorite fruit concoction that I have made was mango and apple. He is also really enjoying cold water in his sippy cup, and the little tiny gerber puffs, some fruit pieces, and cheerios. On his official nine month birthday was the first time this little monkey slept through the night!!! He has been such a stinker about sleeping but he finally did it last night. He slept from 9 to 5:30. I am praying that this is a new trend. He says Mama, which totally melts my heart. As well as Dada, and "Mmmmm" when he wants to nurse. He is so friendly and will go to just about everyone for a second but typically wants to come right back to his momma. His laugh is so contagious, and we have really had lots and lots of giggles in the last couple of weeks. He is so ticklish under his neck and his arm pits. This is one of Mr P's favorite new past times. When I lay him down to change his diaper he does it then too, and it makes it so difficult to change his diaper. This is P's army bear. My brother Dennis and Johanna got it for him when he was born. I take these photos with him with the bear every month. It is a great visualization of how he is growing, but it is also a reminder to always be praying for our troops as they defend our freedom. Hanging out in Dr V's office. He wasn't completely sure of what was going on but he was really good. Thankfully no vaccinations this month. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful doctor. All of our kids love her. She actually checked immunoglobulin levels on him to see if he is like Sam. We haven't gotten the results yet.

IVIG Update and BIOPSY RESULTS!!!!

SO not even sure if I wrote on here about Sam's reaction to his IVIG a couple of weeks ago. Anyways due to that we had to go in and see his immunologist today. I will be honest, the plan for us was that the may IVIG was going to be the last one if Sam was illness free the last couple of months. I had that so stuck in my head and was so looking forward to our break, but there were too many things stacked against us:-( So not only are we not done, we are going to try a new product and we have to go back into Boston Children's to do it. I love it there, I really do. But financially it is so hard to be there. Parking is astronomical and they don't feed him while he's there, so then there is buying food, gas to get there, babysitters for the other munchkins, etc etc. I am hopeful that we can switch products have Sam do well with it, and then switch back to our local hospital. His immuno was also concerned about his skin and is sending us to a dermatologist. We actually arent able to get into that doctor until July, but that is ok. WE have tons of appointments going on in the next few weeks. And the BEST NEWS OF THE YEAR: Sam's repeat biopsies for the eosinophilic disorder have come back negative!!! I am beyond thrilled and so thankful. So the dietary restrictions have worked and now his gut is healing! I am just so excited about it. So we will meet with the specialist team, to see where we go from here next week. His regular GI seems to think that we may be able to add back a food that we have taken out. But that will all be decided next week. He weighed 44lbs exactly today so he has gained the weight he lost back almost completely, and is up to 47 inches I think!!!

Memorial Day

I grew up in a military family. Both of my parents were military, my grandparents, many uncles, cousins, friends, and my brothers ALL military. We live in an area of the country where unfortunately the military has downsized, which is sad. I remember growing up and going on military bases and really being in awe of the men and women. I feel like these days most people don't realize the sacrifices that our military make because they aren't directly affected. The town I grew up in is a small town. A close knit town. And a town that has lost a young soldier. And a town that appreciates our military. They have a great parade, and lots of veterans are in the parade. It is such a wonderful opportunity to say thank you to them. We cheer and yell thank you. And at the end of the parade there is a solemn ceremony to honor the men and women we have lost. And we get to personally say thank you to the military that are there. My mom marched in this years parade, as a "Blue Star Mom", a mom who has a child serving our country. So the kids and I were with my sister Doreen and her son DArius, and my BIL Ron and his three children, Davion, Dasanee and Danae. WE had a great time.

I am so blessed and have such a wonderful family. It is so awesome to be raising my kids so closely with their cousins. I am so sad that my brother DJ and Lyndsea and their brand new baby Trenton is so far away. I can't wait to get all of the kids together

Cookouts

So after church we were invited to a cook out at my wonderful friend Meg's parent's house. It was their annual church picnic. It was such a blast for the kids and I. They live in a relatively isolated area, and have a huge wonderful yard, so the kids just had a wonderful time running around and enjoying a beautiful day. Preston had his first taste of watermelon, and absolutely loved it. Hard to believe this little guy is already almost nine months!!! I sure wish he would get some teeth.

These sweet girls are Meg and Jeremy's oldest two children. Abigail and Gracie. They are the sweetest things, and absolutely love Preston and helping take care of him.

My munchkins had such a wonderful time. They ran around, ate some yummy food, and all around just had a blast. There was even a cotton candy machine there. You know the kiddos all loved that one. I have pictures of my kids, Grace, and one of the twins (unfortunately not sure which one).

Just a great day!!!

Birthday Party

So today we had the priviledge of going to Catherine's birthday party. Carol and I have been friends for about seven years or so. She works at the hospital with me. And she was pregnant with Catherine at the same time that I was pregnant with Sam. She is also the nurse that does IVIG most often for Sam. Lately we have had a few other nurses but she is the one that usually is there. My kids absolutely love her and her family. The kids all get along really well. Here they are snuggling with Carol

The party was at a bowling alley. But I forgot to take any pictures of the kids bowling! They had a blast. The bowling balls of course are a little heavy for Sophi but she really enjoys them. Carol actually takes a picture of her children with the person that gave the gift. Isn't that a great idea? I just thought it was awesome.

So at the bowling alley the way things work is that included in the party is that the kids get to play two rounds of bowling, then they have pizza and drinks, and cake and ice cream. That is of course if you are not Sammy. But he still had a blast even though he couldn't eat that stuff. After all that the bowling alley also has a few arcade games and the kids are given some coins to play games. Sam and John, who is Catherine's big brother, had a blast doing the racing game. They worked as a team and did really well.

And Preston was all tuckered out from playing so hard.

Sinus Infection

So Little Miss Sophia has a sinus infection. I brought her in and that is what they said. She is on amoxicillin 3 times a day for seven days, and boy does she hate it. It is going to be a long seven days. I hadnt even thought to press on her face to see if that was uncomfortable for her. But Dr V just lightly pressed on her cheeks and that was very uncomfortable for her. We also got the stool study back that we did a few weeks ago! She did in fact have NORO virus. She had lost a significant amount of weight. Well 3 pounds is a lot when you are so little to start with. Prior to being sick she had been 33.6 lbs, and she got down to 30lbs. But today she was 31,4 pounds so we are moving in the right direction

Cold Vs Allergy???

My goodness we have coughing and boogies everywhere it feels like. PReston and Sophia have been suffering with what I have felt like was allergy symptoms since last friday. Soph has not had a fever, but Preston has had intermittent low grade fevers. They are both drinking and eating ok. But they just have so much mucous. Preston has been a complete cling on, he wants to be nursing almost the entire time he is awake which is exhausting. Yesterday poor little pumpkin woke up with his eye stuck shut from all the mucous. I have been going back and forth for months now about wondering if his immune system is not functioning well like Sam's didn't. It just feels like he is ALWAYS sick or constantly get over something or brewing something. I keep going back and forth about bringing them to the doctor. The coughing is just atrocious. Poor Sophia has a tough time catching her breath when she goes into the coughing fits. I did call the on-call doctor last night and got a recommendation for something to help her, but still I wish she was just better. I guess we will see how both of them are tomorrow.

A pic of Mr P with his yucky eye!!! My friend Shannon took some amazing photos of my boys the other day. It was a super quick short little session, but as always she got some amazing shots, I don't have the CD yet, so I am just bringing them over from her blog. But I am so excited they came out so well. I can't believe my little Sammy is going to be six in a few weeks, and Preston nine months!!! Time sure does fly when life is so crazy:-) But I wouldn't change a thing. WEll I would change Sammy to make him not have to go through so much medically....