Timmy Tidbits: My Little Pancake Eater! And first words!

I started to post the latest tidbits over two weeks ago, but never got a chance to finish.  Now, as I reread what I had started, I remember why!

On November 15th, we had home visits from Deanna (NICU follow-up) and Kindra (developmental specialist).  We also had a visit from the plumber in between - nothing like toilet water all over the floor of your bathroom coming from a place that a plunger can't resolve.

Anyhow, the visit with Deanna went well.  She sees Timmy quarterly so changes are more apparent to her.  She also checks Timmy's height, weight and head circumference and plays with him for a bit to see where he is with milestones. His height is now 29 inches (still ~5th%), weight was 19 lbs. 7 oz. (also still ~5th%), height/weight ratio is good - in the 25th percentile and head circumference is, in true Brimhall kiddo fashion, in the 75th percentile.  Seriously, our kids have big heads!  Some of the cutest outfits I've been given for them have never been worn by them because by the time their bodies fit the clothes, their heads are too big to pull the tops over!

The visit with Kindra went well also.  Still working on getting Timmy to crawl a bit more, although I'm not worried about this at all anymore myself.  Over Thanksgiving, it was probably at least 50% of the time that he crawled instead of scooting.  He now also stands on his own and has taken somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-10 steps at a time.  Usually closer to 3-5, but he loves holding hands and running around the house.  Funny thing is that he trusts Callie and will let her pull him up and walk with him.  Landon, not a chance.  He plays dead weight and won't even come to his feet!  Poor Landon.  He is soooo ready for Timmy to be a big boy.  Sometimes he gets a little too excited and rough houses a bit more than Timmy is ready for.  Can't imagine why Timmy won't pull up on his hands...  ;-)

Both Deanna and Kindra suggested helping Timmy to learn to use utensils.  I have been trying more in the past couple of weeks, but this has proven to be much easier said than done.  When all the kids are hungry, it's priority to get food on the table and he's usually finished or beyond the point of wanting help by the time I have a chance to work with him on utensils.  We usually get the first bite or two in off a spoon or fork and then I rarely even see what he does between that bite and the last.

*** (Continued once again.)

The day after Kindra's visit, I took Timmy in for his first Synagis shot of the season.  It happened to be a Wednesday and preschool was at Carrie's so I was able to drop off the other kids and run over with just Timmy.  Honestly this is one of the most on-time offices I have ever been to.  Unis took us back right away.  Since we had been running late that morning (I know, shocker!), I hadn't had time to feed the boys before we left the house so I gave them some pancakes to eat on the way.  Timmy was still eating his.  I do try not to have food in anyone's office, but I didn't want to starve Timmy either.  So we just tried to keep the crumbs contained in the car seat as well as possible.  As we entered the procedure room, Unis got a good look at Timmy, did a double take and asked if he was eating a pancake.  I felt kind of bad and started to apologize, but then she kept going.  She was amazed.  She asked if he ate other things.  I told her that we lucked out and Timmy didn't have any problems latching on as an infant once he was given the opportunity and LOVES table food.  Apparently they have two other patients who have both been decannulated and still refuse to eat by mouth.  It's really not uncommon for babies who have have been intubated to have to be tube fed because they develop an oral aversion. Believe me, I count my blessings.  Keeping up with the trach is about all I can manage right now.

After weighing Timmy, Unis went to get the medication and was back in a matter of seconds because she had run into Dr. Riordan in the hall and Dr. Riordan wanted to see "the pancake eater" for herself.  It was nice to get to talk to her.  It makes me happy to have such a stellar little guy doing things that people would bet against.  I know there were nurses in the NICU that had never seen a trached baby nurse.  (Most of them still didn't get to see it, but they heard about it.)  I'm so happy that Timmy was able to show that there is still a good reason to give babies a chance to feed orally and not give up hope.  You never know.

***

Kindra came again last week and I was beyond thrilled to share updates on Timmy.  He crawled as much as he scooted over Thanksgiving and did so for her.  Excellent form.  He still scoots about half the time, but he will now crawl of his own volition.  He has also said his first two words, "Ma-ma" and "Up".  In that order, although I was the only one who heard the first "mama" but James and Melissa have heard both words as well.  He is up to about 10 signed words or more also.  He added "thank you" on Thanksgiving Day and also made his first sign indicating that he was thirsty.  Oh happy day!  I used to have to just follow his pointing finger until I made it to the kitchen and he could point to a cup. Now he taps his lips with an index finger.  'Thank you" also looks like he's blowing kisses so that's also a fun way to get him to blow kisses.

He hasn't taken too many steps lately but still loves to stand on his own.

Here is the long awaited video of Timmy walking.

This has also been a rough winter for Timmy so far.  Missing the humidity of monsoon season.  Fortunately, we've had a number of rainy days - including today and predicted for the next two.  The dry air just wreaks havoc on Timmy's trach.  He ends up hacking a lot more, getting dry crusties in the trach that limit (or impede) air flow and had his second bout of bloody secretions a few weeks ago.  Tom and Sharon (James's oldest sister) were down for a weekend and we had a lot of family over for dinner on Sunday and poor Timmy couldn't stop hacking up bloody mucous.  Everyone felt so sorry for him but there was really nothing we could do for him, other than suctioning and getting him on the moisture collar.  I ended up taking him to see Dr. Parry again the Monday before Thanksgiving but he couldn't see where the blood was coming from - thank goodness it wasn't the trachea itself - but by then symptoms were decreasing so we just made sure he spent as much time with the moisture collar as he could and things have been much better since.  Likely it was a touch of bronchitis but I'll be so happy when the trach is gone and he doesn't have to deal with it anymore.

With cousin Emory.

Timmy LOVES to tickle the ivories! 

"Your Baby Can Read!"

 Timmy's cheesy grin.

 

One day I felt so behind on everything that I gave the kids lunch and sat down to make a couple of phone calls/send emails and the next thing I knew, Callie was asking me if Timmy had fallen asleep in his high chair.  Sure thing.  It was one of those days where he had been fighting napping, in spite of obvious exhaustion, so I was glad he had finally fallen asleep.  And equally glad to have a few things off my "has-to-be-done-today" list.











We had family pictures taken a few weeks ago and I honestly think these pictures I got of Timmy are much cuter than anything they snagged.  Just need a little photo shop on the background.  Any takers?

Sure love this little man.