Austerman Family: September 2010

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Where are you Zay???

"bllaah maaah daah bllahh maah dah" = I'm in here, Mom!

"bllaah maaah daah bllahh maah dah" = Let's take a bath, Mom...I'll turn it on!

Iowa City Trip - just Zay and Mommy...

I'm a little behind, but last week was my first time taking Zay to the Iowa City Children's Hospital all by myself. ANd it was NO BIG DEAL! Shane felt very guilty for having work obligations and not being able to go with us, but as you can see...we did just fine! :)

We met with Zay's PKU Dr. and his dietician. They both said that Zay is doing GREAT! His Phe levels have been managed very well and he is developmentally right on track! What a great appointment!

Later in the week we had Isaiah's 9 month well-child checkup. This appointment wasn't as fun...we found out that our little guy has a double ear infection! :( Bummer...I felt like a bad mom for not even knowing! Zay had been a little fussy the previous week, but he also had THREE teeth pop through!!! Poor little man...he really is a trooper! So...since he really didn't have symptoms of an ear infection, we have to take him back in a couple weeks to get his ears checked. Our doctor said if Zay was a little older he probably wouldn't worry about getting his ears re-checked, but since Zay is really starting to talk more and more he wants to make sure that an ear infection wouldn't cause any delays in saying more words, etc.

AND one other thing that came out of his 9 month appointment....we have been referred to an allergist. We have an appointment this next week to see if there is anything more we can be doing for Zay's breathing. We still haven't confirmed if he has asthma or allergies, so hopefully getting him tested will help us find a solution. (I'm really hoping that eventually we can get rid of the nebulizer treatments...) So - I guess we will know more after our appointment!

Overall, this probably seems like a lot of doctor appointments, follow-ups, etc. But honestly, it's like our new normal. Sad as it is, all our doctors and nurses know us by name, and care about Zay so much. They all say what a HAPPY and cute boy he is. As a matter of fact, last week I saw our doctor's nurse outside of Zay's appointment and she was asking me about him. She made the comment "you are so lucky".....at first I was taken by surprise. Lucky...? Is she serious....?

Lucky that we go to the doctor what seems like every other day? Lucky that we have to watch our sweet little boy get poked and prodded ALL THE TIME? Lucky we have to miss work to drive to Iowa City? Lucky we have to make our 9 month old sit on our laps and constantly try to prevent him from putting his mouth all over objects at the doctor’s office while we wait for lab work? Lucky that our "little man" has the pain tolerance of a man? Doesn't sound lucky to me...sounds sad!

HOWEVER, that comment has seriously changed my perspective! We are lucky! Zay is 1 in a million...actually Shane has done the math and he's more like 1 in 62 MILLION! :) Either way, God made the odds land in our favor! Zay is ours and we are lucky!!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

9 Month Notes

Well...another month has gone by!

Amazing!

This has been another eventful month for Zay! He continues to grow and learn and discover new things everyday!!

Some things that went on this past month...

-Zay is a expert crawler now! He has figured out how to go forward and now really understands he can go get his toys, the dogs, mommy and daddy. HOWEVER, he prefers to go get things he's not supposed to have!

-Along with crawling Zay is ALWAYS wanting to pull himself up on things. Seems like most of the time he is much happier standing than sitting!

-I mentioned that we were working on teaching Zay to clap...he's a great clapper now! Really gets excited when he's done something and cheers for himself. Very cute.

-Something Zay started to do very recently is give kisses. Nice wet open-mouthed kisses! Daddy worked with him on this and was the first to receive a KISS! Then, he proceeded to give everyone around a kiss except mommy. Even Bongo and Bailey both got kisses before mommy! I am so happy to say that today, Zay decided to give me a kiss...yea!!!

-Zay has really taken off eating finger foods. He's a pro at feeding himself, using perfect pincher grasp form! His favorites right now are pears and puffs.

-Zay continues to love reading and looking at books. He often gets prematurely excited about turning the pages!

-Sleep........we are doing better!! Yea!! We had a slight setback a couple weeks ago when Isaiah was sick, but otherwise there is no more bottle in the middle of the night. He wakes up once in a while and needs his pacifier, but otherwise is sleeping really well! We're soooooooo thankful for this milestone!! Hope it continues!

-Another random for this month - Zay will sit up and play in his crib in the mornings. It was really weird the first time we walked into his room and saw him sitting there waiting for us! I don't know what I'll do when he is STANDING in his crib waiting for us!

So we are on to another month...Zay's 9 month appointment was changed to this week, so I'll have to post his stats later. We also have another appointment in Iowa City this coming week, so we hope all goes well with that too!