babyreview 2

Finally getting around to posting some photos from Baker's little birthday party on the old, neglected blog. I shared some of these on Instagram , too. We hosted some family for the day and it turned out to be a pretty good afternoon celebrating our superhero! I decided last minute that we needed a "theme" so the superhero trend was a no brainer. We had everyone representing: Thor, The Justice League, Wonder Woman, Captain America and our very own Superman. I was so impressed with Baker, he was totally into his gifts and all of the wrapping paper that came with them. He had plenty of helpers and sat back to take it all in. He's still working on self feeding but didn't have any issues getting after that cake. Not sure how much he ate but he managed to make quite the mess! We had the best time celebrating you, baby boy! We love you big time.

I have every intention of blogging more than once a month but this thing called life keeps getting in the way! We've had a BIG month over here... BAKER IS ONE! Can you believe it?! I cannot. Hands down, fastest year of my life even with all we had going on with this boy. He kept us busy and the days/weeks/months seemed to fly by. At the same time, he just didn't seem like a one-year-old to me. I know it's because he's not doing everything typical kids his age are doing - he seemed so babyish to me still - but the calendar doesn't lie. He's officially a year old. Shortly after he turned 11 months old , he started taking Vigabatrin to help control his infantile spasms. After a week or so on that medication, we stopped visibly seeing spasms. It was wonderful. He quickly came back to us and started smiling all day long, interacting with us on another level, actually PLAYING with toys. He was a different kid! That gave us hope that this medication was working but I c...

E L E V E N  M O N T H S He'll be ONE in a few weeks and like always, I'm left wondering how this is even possible. It went faster than ever, even the moments where we were barely hanging on by a thread. We've had a lot going on this past year and this last month was no different. Infantile spasms have consumed our days (and nights) as Baker continues to receive treatment to get rid of the seizures. He has 3 ACTH injections left and started Vigabatrin, an anti-seizure medication last week. Once he's up to the full dose of the new medication, he'll have another EEG to see if it's working. While it does seem like the spasms have drastically decreased since starting the vigabatrin, I'm hesitant to say for sure they're gone. We need the EEG to tell us that; infantile spasms cause  hypsarrythmia which are abnormal, chaotic brain waves. Once the EEG comes back clean, we can breath a major sigh of relief. Until then, I'm a little on edge and possibly going...

Our Baker boy. Keeping us on our toes from day one . Well, before day one , actually. From the moment we learned about Baker's existence, life has become a whirlwind of sorts and we've come to learn how to roll with the punches. The last few weeks have been no exception. Baker has added a few more specialists to his medical binder and doctor appointments to his calendar along with a diagnosis for infantile spasms . Infantile spasms are certain types of seizures that appear in babies, usually showing up around 4-8 months of age. IS is rare (only 1,200 or so cases are diagnosed a year), hard to recognize and is a very serious condition. The longer it goes undiagnosed and untreated, the worse a child may do developmentally. For someone like Baker, who is already delayed when it comes to gross motor skills and could potentially face his own struggles when it comes to learning and cognitive abilities, the thought of him having damaging seizures on top of everything else was (and is...

Time to recap another month with our boy! HOW IS HE ALMOST ONE!? I'm not sure how much he weighs or how tall he is - I think we've gone a full month without any medical appointments! He has bi-weekly checks for his helmet but they don't take height/weight at that office. If I had to guess, I'd say he's close to 18 pounds. I still feel like he's a shorty and hasn't really grown much length-wise this month. His head continues to round out nicely! I'm reallllllly hoping we can ditch the helmet sooner rather than later but he's not growing entirely too fast so I think we're stuck with it for a few more months. That thing hits me in the face on a daily basis and the poor kid gets so sweaty. I'd say Baker's biggest accomplishment this month was really getting the hang of drinking out of a straw. This is something I don't think I even thought about with the girls because, like a lot of things, they just seemed to "get it" from the...