Happy New Year!

I hope everyone's holidays were amazing! We spent the night at home, so that was amazing enough (if you don't know/remember, we spent the night at Children's on Christmas Eve 2011).

I'm sorry I didn't post anything last month. With the holidays, it was just hard to find time.

Chase is doing amazing. He's crawling and pulling to stand. His sitting is a lot better too.

This year, I want to post more...I hope to anyway. My dear friend Lydia had a blog post today and she is doing a portrait a week project. I've decided to do the same here.

Now, I'm not a "photographer" and I'm sure that most (read all) of my pictures will be from my phone, but I do think it will be cool to do a weekly picture of him.

Here is 1/52:

'till next week

-e

13 months

Today Chase is 13 months old.


I often reflect on where we were a year ago. For instance, today we were waiting to leave the hospital after an overnight stay. It's something I do often and more and more I feel I need to stop. If I keep living in the past year (which by the way went unfairly quick) how will I ever move forward.

I still struggle with Chase's diagnosis. Everything happend so fast, I feel like I needed time for each thing to sink in before being thown into the next, but that didn't happen, and by now, I should get over it.

I need to focus on the now.

Chase army crawls like crazy. He's getting so good and so fast at it. He has also figured out that he can move past the living room. Last night he was "crawling" in the kitchen and the hallway. It's that left leg that he just hasn't figured out can work the same way as his right. His PT says he will get there and will figure it out in his own time.

The PT and Chase worked on climbing stairs last week. He rocked it. Only problem...his left leg, LOL.

I'm so bi-polar (not to offend bi-polar people) about everything that has to do with Chase. I'm either really happy or really sad about it. I have no inbetween. I'm happy with where his is at with his milestones, but I'm sad that he's not exactly where he should be. I guess I just wish I could have a view of the future, just to know what he will be like, what obstacles he will have to face, and what ones he will have overcome. I just want to be prepared.

Chase was having a rough time for a while transitioning to solid food...now, he will eat EVERYTHING!! He has been feeding himself by hand for awhile. It's fun to have dinner with him :)

Coming up:
1 year SB check
15 month check

-e

1 YEAR

We made it!

Chase is offically 1 years old. What.A.Year.

I mean, look what was happening last year.

It definitly has been a roller coaster of a year, filled with blood, sweat and tears. We've worked hard to get here.

Chase's stats for 12 months are:
Weight: 23.3lbs
Height: 30 1/4 inches
Head circ: 43 1/8 cm

He sure is getting big.

Chase has been army crawling. He just pulls himself wherever he needs to go and he is getting so fast at it.

His eating has gotten better too. He is starting to feed himself more and more now. It's really fun to watch him eat!

We have a lot to work on. Hopefully, we can get him caught up, but at the same time, we know he will catch up in his own time.

Coming up:
1 year SB Check, Video CMG, Muscle Test, Kidney US

15 Month check up.

-e

Happy Spina Bifida Awareness Month

October is Spina Bifida Awareness Month.

So, not only does Chase have Spina Bifida, he was born in the right month ;-)

This month, we'll be posting SB facts on our Facebook page.

Share SB facts. Spread awareness!!!!

11 Months = sad face.

:(

Already?

I'm crushed. Seriously. CRUSHED!
Where did my baby go?

What's new?

Chase can sit up from laying down. It's his new thing to do. He basically falls down to sit back up to fall down again. He is like a weeble wobble.

Eating has been going FABULOUS!! He eats everything we eat. We have family dinner together. It's amazing that a month ago, anything solid he would he, he would gag and throw up. Now it's like he's been eating solid food his whole little life!

It probably helps that he has 5 teeth! 5 teeth! It's weird to look at him with teeth.

No real crawling yet, but he's getting better everyday. He's starting to army crawl forwards bit by bit.

He healed well from his orchiopexy/hernia repair. We will see his urologist again in November.

I recently started another blog that's not so focused on C and more on just random topics that I feel the need to get off my chest. If you want to check it out, click here.

I mentioned in my new blog how different our life is now. Not only because we have a child, but it's more different than the average parent because we are special needs parents. B and I love our friends very much. I hope you all know that. We don't call, because, well....because we just can't. We have a different adgenda that people who are kidless. While bar hopping, concert going and sleeping until noon on a Sunday used to be our way of life (and there is nothing wrong with this), that time is now reserved for us to cuddle with our baby, work on eating food so he doesn't gag on it, helping him learn to crawl. He's a bit behind, so our extra time is devoted to helping him catch up.

We don't decline invitations because we want to, we decline because we have different responsibilities.

Our idea of a fun night has changed. Chase keeps us going. We get tired earlier than we used to so a fun night includes our jammies and our DVR.

Please don't be offended that we don't call. It's nothing personal. <3

Coming up:

MRI of spine/brain

Someones birthday? :(

12 month check up

Appointment with Dr Bowman (neuro), Dr Yerkes (Uro), and Dr Swaroop (Ortho) along with a muscle test, a kidney ultrasound and another Video CMG

Till next time

-e

10 months and a shunt check

Chase turned 10 months on the 19th.

We're offically in double digits. Nothing really has changed. He's still the same height and weight. He's still "army crawling" backwards and still prefers to roll.

We've recently started more solid foods. He didn't do so well at first, but the more we try, the better he does.

He likes to stand and he bears weight well, but he's not really pulling himself up on his own.

He's sitting up longer too!


On the 21st we got to see Dr. Bowman. His ventricles remain unchanged from his last visit in May and his pressure will stay at 2.5. She is please with how he is developing and states that he will develop at his own place.

We don't need to go back to see her until November and we won't have to have a repeate MRI of his ventricles! Overall it was a great appointment.

He will however be getting a MRI of his spine and brain before the end of the year.

Chase is also geting a stronger lens for his glasses as his perscription has changed.

Coming up:

Orchiopexy/hernia repair post op

MRI of spine/brain

Someones birthday? :(

12 month check up

Appointment with Dr Bowman (neuro), Dr Yerkes (Uro), and Dr Swaroop (Ortho) along with a muscle test, a kidney ultrasound and possibly another Video CMG.

Until next time
-e

Surgery update

Chase's surgery went well. He ended up having a large inguinal hernia and the sac was filled with CSF from the drainage of his shunt. I've read it's common for VP Shunt patients to get inguinal hernias like this.

He only needed Tylenol with Codeine after surgery and Thursday night. Thursday during the day, regular Tylenol worked well and Friday he only had one dose.

We stayed low key all week, jammie days filled with Finding Nemo, Octonauts, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and other various shows on Disney Jr.

Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts.

Till next time.

-e