15 months

Yeah, yeah, I know it is the end of January and I am posting a Christmas picture. Well if you read my previous post then you will understand!

CoCo turned 15 months on the 19th and she is doing so good! We can see how much she is really understanding now. She still isn't verbalizing anything other that vowels and "duh" but she has started pointing at things (not on command but if she wants something) and she will walk over to us and raise her hands at us when she wants to be picked up. These are HUGE steps for her! She had an appt last week and she was 28" and 19lbs. She has started picking up in the weight category but still lagging in the height. Our dr knows that we understand her deficits but he always shows us exactly where she is even if it is hard to hear. It is hard for us to remember that although she is progressing in our eyes, time is still passing and she is still getting older. She is not progressing as fast as she ages, therefore she is further behind in all areas. She was referred to Magnolia Speech School for a hearing evaluation and another speech evaluation just for us to look at our options. This will take place Feb 25. I do not believe that anything is wrong with her hearing and the ENT doesnt either but we want to cover every base.

Now back to her size, we are starting her growth hormone testing on Wednesday, Feb3. She still isnt on the growth chart but catching up a little in the weight category. We are having all the bloodwork done at our Peds office and then sent to the Endocrinologist for interpretation and planning. We have found out the hard way to make sure that we have at least 1 dr knowing what every other dr is doing. This is so hard because all of our drs are associated with their own private practice and then 2 drs are at UMC. There is no system that they can just type in her name and all of her info come up, so I now have all bloodtests at one place where they will fax me all results and I get them to the right dr.

I know I always say this, but she is really such a fighter. She is just so happy and sweet, we can't help but be so thankful at how far she has come!

January's Over....

and it has been CRAZY here! I have wanted to sit and post so many things but I have barely had time to sit down! The good thing about January being over is that there are only 75 days left in tax season :)
January is always so stressful for me and this year we decided to make it a little more tense. We started out the year the same way we ended-- Bear doing lots of studying, which means lots of time home alone with the kids. He took his test Jan 12 (we wont know the results until sometime around the 20th of Feb), this was also right after I had spent a whole week at work with NO WATER! Can you imagine what it is like when 150 men cant flush the toilet for a week?! TERRIBLE is an understatement....
Tax season is up and running, dont expect to see me without at least one of my kids until after April 16th!
We never go a month without sickness in this house, but Kinson has been doing so good lately so I was not surprised when he woke up from a nap on MLK Day with 103 fever. Motrin and 2 hours later it was gone. Went to bed that night, 102 degrees, motrin, woke up, it was gone. This was the same cycle for the next 5 days. This was our first time to experience a fever virus-- it was so frustrating because I kept expecting something more to happen and just when I thought we were done with it , it came back!
Cohen had her 15month check up-- lots to say about that in another post....
Then to end the month, I thought it would be great timing to have surgery that would help fix a breathing problem that I have had since I was pregnant 3 years ago! I had turbinate reduction surgery Thursday and so far so good. A few things that I wasnt expecting but overall pretty smooth recovery.
During all of this, I always seem to forget that my little boy has a birthday approaching. So then I am scrambling to put something together. This year I decided that we were having a party away from home (where my son will not hoard himself in his room to "protect" his toys like last year) and where it required me to do minimal! Pump It Up it is! So far I only had to order a cake and party favors. I also brought handwritten invites back in style (I was late in trying to order printed ones :))
This is just a few excuses for me to give my diligent readers as to why I have been so tardy (aka LAZY) in keeping up with my blog!!! I cant promise that over the next few months I will have a lot of spare time on my hands (well of course if Congress can't get their act together and pass a bill addressing Therapy caps then I might have too much time on my hands...again that is for another post/rant!)

New Years Resolutions....

I always have about a gazillion resolutions each year and they last about....oh, maybe til the end of January and if I am real good maybe even til March! This year one of my resolutions needs to be to at least try and keep them the first half of the year! I am hoping this year that if I post them publicly (and by that I mean to the 6 people who follow this blog ;) ) I might be geared to keep them. So here it goes:

1. I am going to diligently try to stop buying things because I get a great deal on them. This is going to be so hard for me because I literally get a high from getting a great bargain anywhere!
2. Which leads me into my next resolution....I am going to start making a grocery list. This to is difficult for me. If you have ever been to Walmart with me then you know how I am. I have a certain way I walk through the store to ensure meat is the last thing I get and produce and bread is safely on top saving it from damage. I walk up and down every aisle, every time I go. And don't even get me started on how I unload groceries when it is time to checkout....boxes first, then can goods, frozen items, etc. I know there are a few checkout people who have stared at Bear and wonders why he cant help his one-handed wife unload groceries out of the buggy, but he has learned to just stand at the end and put the bags in the buggy.
3. Start and enjoy working out with my husband again. Those who didn't know us before we were married, don't know that this was the center of our relationship before we started dating up until we had kids. We met at the gym, rode to the gym together, and worked out together. With our crazy schedule lately, it has been tough to find time for anything. But Bear is sooo disciplined when it comes to this. I will be joining him now bright and early in the am as I try and catch up with him!
4. Try and keep a clean car. If you have ever been in my car, most people have not because I always say I cant drive because there is no room (I drive a freaking Yukon!!!), or if you have parked in the vicinity of my car and just looked at my dash board then there is no explanation need to this resolution. My car is getting a fresh new start (cleaning and detail) this Wednesday, so I should have no excuses.

I know these sound a little easy to some of you, but baby steps, baby steps, PEOPLE!!

Answered Prayers....

Cohen's therapy started!!! I have kept saying how frustrated we have been with the First STeps process, but after 4 months and LOTS of phone calls, Cohen started 1 hour a week Special Instruction, which is kind of a "play skills" therapy and they reinforce her socialization skills, and 1 hour a week Speech Therapy. Over the Christmas vacation, Cohen exploded with sounds. She is still just making vowel sounds but they are definitely more frequent and louder. Although we would like her to get to a more age appropriate verbal skill level, one of the main focuses of ST will be to strengthen her oral motor skills and tongue control. We have been diligently working on our "homework" of beeping/locating her nose and clapping our hands. We are getting closer everyday to reaching our goals!!
So what else is Miss Coco doing? She is now 14 months old and LOVES to get into everything!

• she is finally fitting into 9 month clothes pretty well, except for dresses she is still in 3-6 month
• she LOVES her sleep, she sleeps 7-7 and takes a great nap, sometimes 2!
• she stated walking right after Thanksgiving, still a little wobbly but manages to go everywhere
• she loves to eat and eats anything
• her favorite activity is pulling things out and putting things back
• she is starting to stand her ground against Kinson and the kids in her class-- she likes to push them down
• we have 100 single mismatched socks because Cohen takes her socks off and hides them everywhere-- she took a pair off in my office and we still have yet to find them
• she HATES socks or footed PJ's-- she acts paralyzed!

Who killed Jolly Jo-Jo?

The Crawfords hosted our annual Christmas Bunko this year and as always they are the most creative host/hostesses. This year instead of the traditional Christmas party, we had a Murder Mystery party with all the props including our "tacky" attire! Sorry to disappoint, but this is not our usual attire! If you are stumped for an idea to add some fun to a usual get together, I highly recommend it. We had the BEST time!


Anna, Brandy, Priscilla, and Helen

All the ladies with our most favorite Christmas sweaters!

All of the guys, we had a few good sports that joined in on the tackiness, including the winner--Stanton (farthest to the right)!!

This is me and one of my bestest friends Lyndi! I can't wait to show my Mamaw this picture because we are both in sweaters that she let me borrow. i can already hear her asking me, "Did everyone like your outfits, darling?" She gladly let me borrow them, I don't think she quite understood why!!

I know these arent from Christmas!

But I know I havent put any pictures up in awhile so these will have to do for the moment!


Kinson walks in the door and he automatically takes off his shoes and pants....not sure why but he feels this need!

Ok, the remark has been made that Cohen needs a haircut, but I REFUSE! I want her hair to grow out so right now we are at this "in between stage"! She has enough hair for pigtails but that little girl won't have any part of it. Well I guess we just start wearing hats!

An email from our Neurologist

I could type it all out but I decided to just copy and paste part of my exact email :

From Dr Bruce

"I have good news....Cohen's EEG was normal. I am happy for 2 reasons....#1there was no sharp or spike waves that would indicate seizure activity. Secndly, her brain activity is not slow--which can be seen with children who have any degree of mental retardation."

PRAISE GOD!!!! I can handle all these test as long as we get results like this!! I am sorry I didnt post on Thursday when we found out but I have been on the phone fighting with First Steps and it has been soooooo frustrating. Thank goodness January is coming soon and we will be able to start Cohen in whatever therapy services we choose and let our insurance pay for it (at least for the first 25 visits).

Drs, specialist, therapists, O My!!

Cohen has had a battery of tests run and continues to see one dr after another. We did get the official MRI report that showed that the development of the structure of the brain was completely normal!!! It was an answered prayer!
She was evaluated officially by First Steps at the end of Oct-- she is on a verbal level of a 3month old and on the physical level of an 8-10month old. She qualified for 1x/wk Special Instruction and 2x/month Speech Therapy for oral motor to assist with controling her tongue. Like I said that was October and here it is Dec on Tuesday and we haven't begun her therapy yet---this has been very FRUSTRATING to say the least.
We saw a Neurologist at Batson on Wednesday and she was TERRIFIC!!! We can not express how truly blessed we are to have found such great drs so close! She spent a ton of time with us and sat down on the floor in the room and played and loved on Cohen, we could really tell that she cared about her and ensuring she gets proper care. The other thing that I really liked about her, is that she did not "hide" her concern. She was very upfront with me on the reality of Cohen's prognosis-- which is still undetermined at this time. She scheduled us an EEG on Wednesday at Batson to study the brain activity and rule out seizure activity. We have never seen anything resembling a seizure go on in Cohen, but she said some can be so mild that they are not detected. Also, the MRI can not show the actual connections of fibers and firing going on so this will continue to help with the diagnosis. She did say that if everything turns out normal, then she says any damage done so far is very likely reversible. Babies brains are so plyable and still forming that through therapy and time, hopefully things will catch up. She was a HUGE advocate for therapy and was very disappointed to hear that it has taken us so long to start First Steps and gave us a few alternate routes to think about to get more services.
Cohen is just stealing our hearts daily as she smiles and grins at us! She is taking a few steps everyday-- she is dying to start running after her brother-- she eats us out of house and home, she is wearing 6 months clothes, we moved up to a size 3 diaper but they are HUGE on her, we think we are going to have to go back to a size 2 for daytime when she is moving and use the 3s at night, she loves her sleep 12+hrs a night!! She loves every man that comes near her (not sure what this will mean as she gets older)!!! She is truly a little fighter!!

Has it really been a month?!

I have never gone this long without updating the blog, but work and life have gotten the best of me!
Here are a few latest updates:

• We celebrated Cohen's first birthday (pics to follow)! She never got to have her party because she ended up with strep throat the weekend it was planned....the story of her life :(
• They celebrated Halloween. Kinson still didnt quite get it--he kept telling people "thats enough" when they were giving him candy! This was the weekend Cohen had strep so she didnt get to partake :(
• Our favorite family from Virginia came to visit us! We miss them so much and usually only get to see them for a week during the summer, so we were so excited that they got to come down. We are planning for us to head up there in June for Stefani's graduation-- can't decide if we should drive or fly with the 2 kids???
• Cohen has had multiple dr visits and I will do a separate post to update and get my prayer warriors ready!
• Bear has been diligently studying, we couldnt be more proud of him! He has past the 2 hardest sections of the CPA test and took another part Nov 24. We will be anxiously awaiting his scores as he studies for the last part on Jan 12. He has continued to persevere through his fatigue and stress at work-- he has worked soooo hard for this!

I hope that the Holidays have brought many blessing and good times! I am hoping to get my pictures uploaded and added soon!

Sibling Rivalry.....

Don't be fooled.....this doesn't happen very often!

Deja Vu

I don't have Kinson's baby pictures on the computer anymore but you can look at my old post from Oct/Nov 2007 and see this same act taking place! The only difference is that Kinson discovered the doggy door at 8 months old and at least Cohen held off til she was almost a year!

Here she is putting blocks outside! By time I figured it out she had already gotten 9 blocks and 2 hotwheels outside!

So Sorry for the late update!

I can't believe that I haven't updated about Cohen's MRI yet, but we are really frustrated right now! Cohen did better than expected with the actual procedure, she made it until the procedure started at 9:30 without eating! It took 5 sticks before they were able to get the IV started and after she screamed that much she went fast to sleep! They came and took her from us and it took about an hour and then she was in recovery. I was expecting her to be like she was after the tubes (screaming uncontrollably!) but she was very groggy and disoriented. They said she was in a twilight. It was really short lived and then she just cat napped all day.
As far as the results, that has been the frustrating part. We had the MRI done at UMC but our endo has a private practice therefore he has to request the results. Well we love our dr, however his office staff leaves a lot to be desired. So i called them on Monday to let them know the results were ready but they had to call and get them. They said fine, well on Wednesday they call Bear and ask if she went and her MRI they hadnt received the results yet!! He told them they had to call and get them. Friday came and we still havent heard anything, so Bear called UMC on Friday and gave them our dr's number for them to fax it to them! They arent open on Friday afternoons so we werent able to call and verify they received it. The latest we could hear anything is the 30th, we actually have an appt that day..........so we wait :(
And a new appt to add to the list--Neuro Nov 25th.

She loves Spaghetti!!

She has just started on table food over the last 3 weeks and she LOVES everything we put in front of her (except bananas)! This was her first try at spaghetti and just like her big brother, she devoured it!

Genetisist Visit

This morning we met with Dr Omar at Batson Specialty Clinic. He and his staff were sooo thorough! They asked a lot of history questions and examined her looking for anything that might stand out or remind them of another patient. The genetisist will determine whether or not she has a "syndrome" or genetic disorder. GOOD NEWS--He did not see any signs of any "syndrome" at this time!! But he feels as though she is still a complicated case of hypothyroidism. Both he and our endo believe that she was born this way even though she passed her newborn screening TSH Level. Both feel that the test was either performed too early for it to show up or the during the testing process there was an error. They feel with my autoimmune hypo-T that was not regulated during my pregnancy actually might have a lot to do with the malformation of her thyroid. So now we are pretty certain she went the first 6 months of her life with a critically high TSH level.

We are going to continue with our current plan, MRI next Friday (Oct 9), follow up with endo (Oct21), but we have added a few new things. She will be evaluated for First Steps on Tuesday to see what therapy services she will qualify for, and we are also going to see a Neurologist to determine what if any damage was done to her brain during the period when she had excess of TSH in her system. She will hopefully be able to assist with knowing more long term effects.

And for those who have been following her saga, we finally have a diagnosis for her chronic ear infections! She had streptoccocus and h influenza strand A harboring in her ear---YUCK i know! The bad part is that there are no FDA approved meds approved for a child her age. So we are now seeing the ENT for thorough cleanings (It is nasty!!!) and some antibiotics to hope the bacteria doesnt spread.

I know that this was kind of a boring post but I have had so many phone calls and emails letting us know that they are praying for Cohen and us and it means sooo much to me. This was the most efficient way to relay what is going on so far. Again, it really means so much to me all the kind words and prayers that have been sent our way. I will keep everyone posted as more things unfold!

I havent taken all my recent pics off my camera but i felt like if you made it through this post, you at least deserved a picture!

She's on the move!

I have talked about her new skills of mobility but i figured I would give yall a sneak peek! And I need to give a quick update/praise--- the genetisist appt has been moved to SEPT 30th!! That is just next week! We went and had some tests run last week that the endo called and told us to go and get run, not sure if we will get the results at the genetisist appt or if they will call and give me the results. We are not really sure what the tests were, the lab sheet were for a lot of stuff I had never heard of, so we will just wait and see. We also started the process for "First Steps", it is Mississippi's Early Intervention services. The dr has recommended she start speech therapy again but this time for actual verbal skills. So hopefully this week she will get evaluated. Until next time....