Lily Update

When Lily was born she weighed a healthy 9 lbs, 3 oz.  She was given a wonderful bill of health, no hint of jaundice, no problems with blood sugar, just extremely healthy.  Healthy, until she was about 5 months old and we realized that she wasn't gaining much weight.  The doctor reassured us that she probably just hit a plateau and we just needed to keep an eye on it.  So, that's what we did.  At six months, absolutely no gain.

By her 9 month appt, the doc diagnosed her with failure to thrive and suggested that we do some testing, just to make sure iron levels, lead levels, etc were all normal. They were.

Fast forward to her 12 month appt and she again had a very small weight gain.  She weighed only 15lbs 15oz.  Which means that she had gained only 6-1/2 lbs in her first year of life.  More testing.  Cystic fibrosis- negative.  Celiac disease- negative.  Thyroid probs-negative.

Ok...

When Lily was 14 months she finally started being interested in trying to walk.  Until this point she had barely done much cruising and, although she had been scooting around for months, she never crawled.  As she started practicing walking, I noticed that her right foot was dragging.  She could make large motions with her left foot, but the right one continued to drag.

I called the Early Intervention program in our county.  Between the EI specialist and our doctor we now know that Lily has hypotonia, which means low muscle tone.  She is very wobbly when trying to walk and cannot stand on her own for more than 5-10 seconds. 

And, although she no longer seems to be dragging her right leg, we've since noticed several other areas where she's not developing correctly.

She has a tremor in her hands and trunk.  This is especially noticeable when she is trying to do small motor tasks, like grabbing a pen or putting a coin in a slot.  Also, when she's tired.  When she first wakes up from a nap or in the morning, her whole body shakes, often for several minutes.

She gets tired very quickly.  After playing for a long time, she'll often put her head on the floor and rest for a few minutes.  That is usually followed by her climbing into my lap to rest or nurse.

There are a number of things that may be going on, including muscular dystrophy, a metabolic disorder or cerebral palsy. The doctor didn't think it would be a metabolic problem, he said that she doesn't seem to have the characteristics of a child with a metabolic problem.   So, that leaves cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy.  Or it still could be nothing...

Muscular dystrophy is a degenerative disorder, which means that it just keeps getting worse, not only would her developmental progress slow down, but it would regress.  Cerebral palsy is a neurological disorder that usually resulted from some sort of damage to the brain, generally in utero.  It is not progressive.  She could make progress with physical therapy (and perhaps occupational therapy, as she also has a fine motor delay), but she may need crutches or braces or other walking assistance.  If it's mild cerebral palsy, it may be barely noticeable to other people that anything is wrong at all.

From now on, I'm going to use this blog to update on her progress and her diagnosis, when/if we ever get one.  I'm doing research like crazy to try and figure out what the best options are for us, and right now all we can do it to help Lily gain as much functionality with her gross motor and fine motor skills as we can.  This will probably mean regular physical therapy and perhaps occupational therapy.  We also will have a feeding specialist come out and observe Lily eating, which would tell us if she has has low muscle tone with her facial muscles, which would explain her incredible pickiness and low weight.

On a more positive note, while the EI specialist was doing the assessment on Lily, she was impressed by Lily's language development and her cognitive development.  She said that Lily is very smart...which, of course, we knew.  I mean, look at who her parents are...

Lily's First Birthday!!

I'm a Faucet Again!!

At Lily's 6 month appt, we discovered that she had only gained 11 oz in two months! I was suspecting that I had some milk supply issues, so I needed to do something about it.

I went what I thought was the easiest route and ate 1-1/2 cups of oatmeal per day for the last month in order to boost my boobie milk supply. But, now I think I would rather get every one of my teeth pulled out than to ever look at that mushy stuff again.

So, it's time to go with something a little more potent: fenugreek. Fenugreek is an herb that they (I have no idea who 'they' are) put in capsules and will apparently boost my milk supply. The bottle also says it helps with digestion. Not sure sure how those are related, but whatever.

I took two pills yesterday and this morning I woke up with boobie milk all over my nightgown, all over my bed, all over the walls, the floor, and the ceiling (ok, that's a bit much). So, it was a success!! I'm going to take Lily back to the doc in a couple of weeks and hopefully she will have gained some weight. Maybe I could just give her some of my extra weight. I've got plenty.

Push-Ups Kick My Ass

Apparently, push-ups are good to help you with any problem area (including flabby stomach, dimply butt, and spaghetti arms), because this is the only move that's included in every damn workout DVD out there!

But, I actually like that push-ups are included on every DVD because it means that there is at least one chance every DVD where I get to walk into the kitchen and pour myself a nice cold glass of water (or vodka) without having to hit the stop button on my DVD player.

Why don't I do the push-ups? In 5 simple words:

Because They Kick My Ass.

Simple as that. I'm no hero. I'm not doing this to show off. I don't want to do a faceplant into my carpet. Seriously, there has GOT to be another exercise that can help me get rid of the wiggly jiggly under my arm. Really.

And while I'm on the topic of exercises that suck: Plank exercises. I was first introduced to these beauties on my Wii Fit. In no way is my body ever supposed to be in this position:


unless I'm lying with my back flat on the ground. In the snow. About to make a snow angel. Who thought of this?

Linux!

So, my husband finally wore me down! I (well, he) installed linux on my computer today. No more microsoft. No more bloated programs that run my hard drive too much (at least that what my live-in computer wizard says). No more internet explorer (firefox only now!). And, in installing this new browser, I realized that in firefox, my header on my front page looks all wonky. I'll have to add that to my to-do list, I suppose.

Weightloss Update!

Well, no results yet. But, really, who are we kidding, I'm not getting in a bikini for this summer anyways. So, my real goal is to eat right, exercise often and just generally stay active. I have been doing pretty well at this!

So, I know it's probably cheesy, but I've been using workout videos to do my exercising. Who doesn't love Denise Austin, right? Also, I got a Momma and Baby Yoga DVD that's awesome, and I can do it with Lily, so it's perfect for anyone whose baby never sleeps!

As far as eating right, this has been more of a challenge for me this time around. I almost constantly feel hungry. I don't know if it's because of me breastfeeding or what, but it's been hard to not just snack all the time. But, I have plenty of healthy stuff in the house, so I'm trying to stick to that stuff- lots of fruits and veggies mostly.

Right now, Lily's napping, so I'm going to join Denise Austin in a little step aerobics!

Ok, Here's the Deal....

I've been cheating on you. I have been slacking on this blog not because I have fallen off the face of the earth, or been eaten by a martian or beamed up by scotty, but because, I've been busy with another blog! Boooo me! If you're trying to throw eggs at me because of this news, know that I'm a good ducker.

So, now that I've revealed my double life as a double blogger, let me explain.

One night while trolling around online, I found a site where people make goals to do -----(blank)---- in 100 days. This gave me the brilliant (albeit, not original) idea to set a weight loss goal to be accomplished in 100 days (more on that in a later post). And then blog about it.

OK, now that I'm starting to tell the truth, here's another one for you: It's hard trying to be funny all the time. Since I've started this blog, I've tried hard to make people laugh. Every post has been extremely real, from my life, but I try to tell it in a funny way. This has caused me to leave out some super fun stuff (mostly minute details of my life).

So, in an effort to merge several lives into one (my weight loss blog and this blog AND my non-funny life with my funny one), I'm going to start posting everything here!!! Whoo Hooo!

I might even change the look of my site to go with my new content. And given the countless hours my husband and I worked to get this site looking like it does, I'm sure he'll be thrilled to hear that news! (We'll just let him read about it on my blog)

Here is my DISCLAIMER regarding my site now:

- Every post will NOT be funny
- Every post will continue to be real
- Some posts may be so real, that you'll be bored to tears
- I don't care if you are bored to tears, I'm gonna write what I want!

"But wait, Katy", you say after reading my disclaimer, "your blog is not funny now". Well, screeeeew you!

So, to make a short story long, be on the lookout for lots of new posts, funny and not. There will be some about weight loss, still some about poop, and one funny one about how my darling daughter looks like a 60-yr old prostitute (pic included)...