I can't believe I've neglected telling stories on my sweet Sam. Well, we've had fairly good reasons. He's not been feeling well. He's been a Snoochy mess for weeks, and not sleeping at night. He's taken to running away instead of coming when we call his name as we head for the Tissue box. He also is Outright Refusing. He says, "I Fine" even when he's not. He'll argue about it. Sometimes we even fight off. He's getting smart. He will apologize, or give us the sweet boy head tilt to ham it up a bit. And that works...Sometimes.
We consider a solid 4 hour block a Good Night anymore. We've been just kind of putting up with it, goodness knows we did it for nearly 3 years with Chris. This weekend, Sam kicked it up a notch, by starting Coughing too. He's also been pretty clingy...yelling at me that he wants Up, and when he gets on my lap he wiggles around so, kicking me, or putting his hand down my shirt that I let him slither off, which makes him mad. He's of a short temper lately, if he doesn't get his way, he flops down and cries. It's a bit hard to take him seriously. But when he has back to back to back tantrums over little things, or starts swatting at me..another fun trick, we start to wonder if he's not feeling well.
So Monday I ran him into Dr. Cooper. On Monday he weighed 22 pounds, 8 ounces dressed at the office. The doc listened to his lungs, and they were Clear. His ears were good. But his throat looked Nasty, he said, there was some Goo draining. He thought it Could be a Sinus infection moving south, so we went ahead and started him on an antibiotic.
He's not coughing as much, and he's not up every hour all night long, but he's still not 100% either.
Today, we got 'Lucky' and had an opening come available for Sam to see a Developmental Pediatrician at Riley. Oh Boy. We were Informed last month that upon review of Sam's swallow study, the Radiologist wanted him seen by Developmental Pediatrics within a month. They tried playing phone tag with us for a while before telling me that this was what they wanted. But we got an appointment...oh boy, and didn't have to wait until March. Today at Riley, naked boy weighed 21 pounds, 3 ounces and was 32 inches long. It sounds like a big difference, but it's all good. It put him on the Charts, about 10% for height and about 7% for weight.
Very appropriate since we upgraded him from his baby bucket seat to a new rear facing carseat. Though I think he actually had more room for his leg in the baby seat. It's OK if he doesn't hang out there long, he can be turned around anywhere from 22-35 pounds, but I'm of the belief that the longer he's rear-facing the better. That's why he stayed in the bucket so long...and he fit. Sometimes there are perks to having a small child!
Anyway, today at Riley we had the ultra-thorough Dr. B for nearly an hour and a half. He was on call and called away briefly a few times, which amazingly didn't anger me at all. For once I was on the other end, the NON-EMERGENCY end, the end that didn't require immediate care for my child, so it was refreshing to see him Hop Up and help people. I was totally happy to be there for a checkup, not because my child was the one that was Suffering. As I said, Dr. B was very Thorough. He went over Sam's birth, pregnancy, feeding history...I almost wish I had been better prepared. I couldn't remember when he'd hit which milestones. (Should've Consulted the all-knowing Blog!)
We talked about Sam's Night Terrors. Turns out that's what they are. The way he described them was Sam to a tee. His recommendation was to make sure he was Safe (watch he doesn't flail his arm into the slats of the crib) and not wake him. We kept trying to wake him, but Dr. B says it's better to not dig him out of the sleep patterns. Very Interesting really, apparently Night Terrors are in the same family as Sleepwalking...which Mommy has been known to do when she's sick. Sorry Sam.
We also talked about his Not Sleeping. He says Don't Pick him up. We don't....unless the cry is of a certain pitch. We told him we've tried to let him Cry It Out, but that just doesn't work for us, for him. He's as stubborn as we are, and he'll go for a half an hour...and with that much crying, he wakes Brother. But we just tap him, turn on his music, maybe readjust his position in bed, and he goes back to sleep. Dr. B. recommended that we try to keep the physical contact minimal...even Wean him off. Like to the point of Just Standing by the crib and not touch him at all, just speaking to him to calm him down back to sleep. It got to that point with Chris..where Chris would cry and we'd smack the music and he'd drift back off...then Chris got big enough to smack the music on his own...and we got more sleep. ;)
When we started talking about the Swallow Study...that's where our concerns were heaviest. He didn't think it a big deal that there wasn't much change between Sam's June and November Swallow Studies. They often have to try the Xantac first before they can offer Prevacid. I told him we were willing to kick up the prevacid. Apparently Sam is right on the Cusp of weight, 22 # and lower get a half pill, and above 22# get a whole pill. So we'll sit tight waiting to see how Prevacid helps or doesn't help on the half pill dosage for now. He wants to do a repeat swallow study in April/May. If it's good, no problem, he'll see us in July. But if it's not, we may have to consider alternative plans. He shook Sam and decided that Sam has 'Low Muscle Tone', Whatever that is. But he says often kids that have low gross motor muscle tone have reflux/digestion issues because eating involves Muscles...(that's the Very Basic translation of a long discussion). Sometimes these things go together for other ickier rarer reasons. So if Sam flunks the next swallow study, he recommends an ENT for a Bronchoscopy, and an MRI to rule out a couple things. Hopefully it won't come to that, but if it does, they aren't bad tests, just General Anesthesia to knock him out. Not looking forward to that either. So we'll pray that his Swallow study in the spring looks good, or at least better. Reminds me of White Christmas, 'It's not Good, but it's a...' Plan. At least we have a Plan.
On a Much Lighter Note, Some Sam sweetness.
His new favorite games are Bbbbrrrr.....DING! Pretending he's the oven timer and Silly Hair, seen here, where he pulls my hair into my face, tries to blow it out of my face, and laughs hysterically when I blow out of my own face...calling Me Silly Mommy...clearly he's a Silly Sam. It's hard to Videotape this when there's a bunch of hair in my face.
He's
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