Hi Daniel

--Daniel is learning how to wave and we were able to capture him in action on video.

B.R.A.T Diet

--Bananas --Rice --Applesauce --Toast
--We fed Daniel the B.R.A.T diet yesterday (until around 4:30 p.m.).
--Morning Drink - 6 oz. Pedialyte
--Breakfast - 1/4 c. rice cereal mixed w/apple juice, 2 tbsp. bananas
--Snack - 2 oz. Pedialyte
--Lunch - 4 oz. applesauce, 1/4 slice toast
--Snack - 6 oz. Pedialyte
--After Daniel woke up from his nap, he was pretty fussy and nothing we tried seemed to satisfy him. So we made the "parental judgement" that he was probably hungry for real food and decided we would try a couple ounces of soy formula and see how he handled it. (You are never going to know until you try.)
--Daniel drank 3 oz. of soy formula around 4:30 p.m. He did not throw up or have diarrhea. Yea!
--Supper - 1/4 c. spaghetti, 1 tbsp. garden vegetables, 3 bites of diced pears, 3 oz. of soy formula
--Daniel did not throw up or have diarrhea after supper. Another success!
--The success with spy has continued this morning--
--Morning Drink - 6 oz. soy formula
--Breakfast - 4 oz. rice cereal with apples and cinnamon, 1/4 slice toast with butter and jelly
--Daniel is taking a nap right now, we will continue to feed him his "regular diet" using soy formula instead of whole milk and we hope that he continues to tolerate it.
--We are to call the Peditrician today to let her know how he is doing and to discuss any changes that might need to be made.

Nap Time with Elmo

Tummy Trouble

--We are continuing to battle Daniel's "sick tummy".
--Monday morning we gave him Pediasure after a 24 hour "dairy break". Daniel threw up and had diarrhea after drinking about 3 ounces. We called the doctor and were given a 2 p.m. appointment. After going over everything with the Peditrician and answering a few questions we were given a couple cans of Enfamil ProSobee formula (soy based) to try. The doctor was hesitant to diagnosis him with milk allergy and said that she would prefer to try the soy for a month and then try whole milk again and then test for milk allergy.
--Daniel drank 7 ounces of the "new milk" Monday night and immediately threw up and had diarrhea. We thought maybe his tummy needed time to adjust to the change.
--Tuesday morning Daniel drank 7 more ounces of the soy based formula and he again threw up and had diarrhea. About an hour later he at breakfast (scrambled egg, puffs and pears). He handled all the food fine, no upset tummy. Daniel had another 3 ounces of formula at lunch and he threw up and had diaherra.
--We called the Peditrician and were told to stop all raw milk products for a week. She said we could give yogurt, pudding, cottage cheese, cheese toast, etc. They said to really push oatmeal and yogurt as those are foods known to help heal the tummy and kill bacteria.
--Daniel was hungry when he woke up from his nap and we decided to give him some yogurt because he has had in the past and showed no reaction to it. Daniel ate about an ounce - 2 ounces, arched his back and wiggled around and cried and threw up and had diarrhea.
--We hit the frustration point and called the Pediatrician back. We were told not to give Daniel anything to eat or drink until we heard back from them.
--The Pediatrician called back around 7 p.m. and right now she is puzzled as to what is really going on. There is many things that it could be but his symptoms make a diagnosis complicated. Since he is throwing up the soy formula that rules out a lactose intolerance. It could possibly be an infection that is only being affected by milk products, that is a rare side effect but a possiblity. Daniel could have a milk and soy allergy. There could be some kind of blockage in his GI track but that diagnosis would make more since if he was throwing up everything, not just milk products. Since the doctor is not quit sure what to diagnois him with she thought that we should give his tummy a break for 24 hours and then go from there. So, for the next 24 hours Daniel will be on the B.R.A.T diet - bananas, rice, applesauce and toast with Pedialyte, juice or water to drink. We will call the doctor back on Thursday to discuss the next step, which will probably be to s-l-o-w-l-y introduce the soy based formula.

Video Time

videos, fun!

i was caught

guilty but cute

Dairy Free Diet - Day 1

--We began Daniel's dairy-free diet today.
--We were told to give Daniel Pediasure in place of whole milk. We gave him a cup of Pediasure last night and he threw it up. We decided to give Pediasure another try this morning and Daniel threw up again. We called the Peditrician and she said to give him Pedialyte for the next 24 hours and let him eat whatever non-dairy food he wants. We can add juice after 24 hours of no throwing up and no diarreha. If he tolerates the juice then we are suppose to try Pediasure again Sunday night or Monday morning. If the Pediasure makes him sick again we are to take him into to the Peditrician's office.

No Dairy for Daniel

--Daniel's Peditrician gave us the go ahead to start him on whole milk at his last appointment. She recommended 2 cups of milk and 1 can of Pediasure a day to hopefully help with weight gain.

--Due to the dime swallowing incident we did not start whole milk until last Thursday. We started noticing that Daniel was having a lot (5-6 per day) of nasty dirty diapers since starting the whole milk. We called the doctor on Monday and asked what (if anything) we should do. She suggested stopping milk and giving only Pediasure for a couple of days so we could determine if it was the milk or Pediasure causing the problem. So, Tuesday and Wednesday he drank only Pediasure and Thursday he got half and half. He seemed fine those three days. Yesterday (Friday) we gave Daniel milk at breakfast and lunch. (Warning: post may get too graphic for some.) After breakfast, (about 30 minutes after breakfast) Daniel had 2 nasty diapers. He was fine the rest of the morning. After lunch (more like during lunch) Daniel started throwing up, he threw up 4 times in an hour and had one of those nasty diapers. We called the doctor back and she said to not give him any dairy products for a month - no milk, no yogurt, no cottage cheese, no baked potato with butter and sour cream, no eggs with cheese, no bagel with cream cheese...the list could go on and on. She said to give Pediasure in place of milk and he at least needs 2 cans of Pediasure a day. So, we are now trying to figure out how to get calicum and calories into Daniel without making him sick. This is tough for us (not that it is easy on other parents) but Daniel needs all the calories he can get and we have been using dairy products to get those high calories into him.

--Just a note: The doctor said that she was not going to diagnoise him with milk allergy yet, she was just going to call it milk sensitivity. He has an appointment on October 1 and we are to start adding dairy products back into his diet three days before the appointment to see how he tolerates it and then we will discuss what his "diet" should be.

Pulling Up

--Daniel started pulling up to a standing postion in his crib a couple of weeks ago.
--He will pull up to his knees on any other piece of furniture.
--Last night we were watching a movie and Daniel crawled over to the couch and pulled up to a standing postion. Way to go Daniel! Of course, we did not have the camera near us so we didn't capture this milestone, maybe he will do it again today and we will be ready to capture it.

14 Months

You know you are a parent of a preemie when.....

(I found this on another site and thought I would share it because we can relate to so many of these.)

1.) You use strange initals (C-PAP, CCs, NICU, NG, etc.) when discussing your child's history.
--We experienced this when Daniel swallowed the dime. We were going over Daniel's medical history with the ER doctor and he stopped and said I can tell when I am dealing with a parent of a preemie because of the terms they use.
2.) You actually remember how many CCs make up an ounce.
--30 ccs equals one ounce
3.) You count his/her weight in grams.
--We don't do this but we can tell you that Daniel weighed 907 grams (2 pounds) when he was born.
4.) The skin on your hands is peeling from washing so often.
--We use really good soap and lotion so we do not have this problem.
5.) You hesitate when someone asks his/her age, but you know how much he/she weighs.
--We do hesitate at times but not because we don't know but because we know what kind of questions will follow.
6.) The answer to "How old is your baby?" is 30 minutes long.
--This is very true, once you tell the age you have to go thru all the other questions that follows.
7.) When someone asks his birthday, you reply "which one"?
--I don't know that this has ever happened to us but we have wondered it.
8.) You start to understand some of the things thay say on ER.
--We don't watch ER.
9.) You turn into Kung-Fu Mom when someone tries to touch your baby.
--It depends on who the someone is.
10.) You attempt to measure just how much spit-up he/she just had before you clean it up.
--We use to do this but Daniel doesn't spit up any more.
11.) You know how much he/she weighs before putting him/her on the scale at the doctor's office.
--We have our guesses.
12.) You cry at "Maternity Ward" and get mad at "Baby Story".
--I wouldn't say I get mad but a little jealous.
13.) You see a term newborn and say "Wow! She's so BIG!"
14.) Your baby is months old before he can go to the mall.
--I remember the first time we took Daniel to the mall. He was 5 months old and we kept the canopy on the car seat and the canopy on the stroller up the whole time.
15.) You have ever explained why your baby is on an apnea monitor.
16.) When someone says how tiny your baby is, you argue that he is humge and to demonstrate you whip out pictures of him from the NICU.
17.) You do a health check on people when they come to your house to visit.
--We don't do a health check but we do let people know that if they are sick they won't be allowed in and we won't be visiting until they are well.
18.) You make people wash their hands before going near your child.
--We don't enforce strict hand washing anymore.
19.) You want to scream when someone says that she just wants to have this baby now - at week 29, 32, or 34.
--This makes me mad. I would love to know what it is like to be 34 weeks pregnant.
20.) You are so amazed when someone actually tells you that your baby is big for his age.
--This has never happened to us. Daniel is 14 months old and the size of a 6 month old.
21.) You tried to find a place to buy newborn size diapers in bulk.
22.) You called half your relatives when your baby grew out of their first pair of pajamas.
--I do think we called half our relatives when Daniel outgrew 0-3 month clothes.
23.) You never take your child for granted.
--This is a lesson I learned after loosing Noah.
24.) You worry about RSV season and it is still weeks away.
--Daniel is on the list for Synagis shots.
25.) You know what "RSV" stands for.
--respiratory syncytial virus
26.) You donate his/her tiny clothes to the NICU and marvel that they seem so small, when they were to large at one point in time.
27.) Your son/daughter gets a simple cold and his/her doctor sees her within the hour.
28.) People say "He can't be ___ old..he's too little!".
--This happens to us all the time.
29.) It has taken them 5 months to grow into newborn clothes.
--It took Daniel about 6 months to grow into newborn clothes, he is now 14 months old and wears 3-6 months clothes.
30.) You pick up 2 pounds of ground beef and think that your baby was born at the same weight.
--I have thought this before.
31.) You buy Purell in bulk.
--We are never without hand sanitizer.
32.) You can stare at your baby for hours when he sleeps.
--I think all parents can do this.

Opthamologist Visit - Update

--Daniel has perfect eyesight. The opthamologist feels that Daniel's facial structure is causing his eye to appear to be turned in at times and that Daniel does not have Strabismus (wondering eye). He said that are concerns are validated because when you look at Daniel's eyes without a light it does appear to turn in. He said that if we continue to see problems to bring him back in.

Opthamologist Visit

--Daniel has an appointment with the opthamologist today at 2 p.m. to check for Strabismus (wondering eye). Daniel's right eye has been turning in. We have seen it, his EI therapist has seen it and his peditrician has seen so now it is time for the opthamologist to see it. We will update you later on Daniel's visit.

Mystery Object Revealed

--The mystery object that appeared on Daniel's x-ray yesterday was a dime.
-- Daniel was taken into surgery around 1:15 p.m. Dr. Morrow (the surgeon) came into the waiting room around 1:40 p.m. and told us that everything went great and gave us the dime in a cup. He said he was surprised to see that it was a dime because most kids choose to swallow pennies. He also said that kids usually don't swallow coins until they reach the ach of 2. (Daniel's advanced in coin swallowing.)
--We were taken to recovery around 3 p.m. Daniel was so sweet laying there sucking his thumb and rubbing his blankie. The nurses said he was wonderful that he had not cried once.
--Daniel was discharged from recovery and we went up and packed up our belongings and headed home.
--We arrived home around 5 p.m. Daniel drank some milk and was ready to sleep.
--Daniel's recovery period should be brief and without complications. He is on a liquid only diet the rest of the day. He can eat soft foods tomorrow and we add more solids as he tolerates.
We are to take him back to the ER if he can't eat, we see any sign of bleeding, he starts running a fever of 101 or higher or the wheezing (caused from being intebated) does not go away or gets worse.
--Thank you for all your prayers.

Non-Ediable

--Daniel is mobile (crawling) and has been for about a month. He loves being mobile and being free to roam. He also likes to stop and pick up items off the floor and taste them. We are constantly jumping up and saying, "No, don't eat that.". We feel that we are quick with our response time and are very aware of what he is attempting to eat. We have "child proofed" the house as much as possible and we vacuum twice a day (morning and night) to prevent non-ediable food items from entering our child's mouth. It became apparent last night that we are not as quick and acurate as we think...
--The story actually began on Tuesday night (we think). We were all in the kitchen, Mommy and Daddy working on getting supper on the table and Daniel exploring. Mommy picked Daniel up to put him in his high chair and he coughed, gagged and spit up slimmy junk with what looked like a piece of lettuce. We discussed what had just happened and cleaned up the slimy mess off the floor. Our conclusion was that he had eaten a piece of lettuce that had fallen on the floor and it did not go down "easily". We fed him (attempted to feed him) supper. He would take a few bites and then spit the bites back ok with slimy junk. We decided that maybe his throat was irritated from the previous "incident" and we did not force him to eat. He had no other "issues" the rest of the night. He woke up Wednesday and we went about our day - diaper change, play, snack, nap, lunch, nap, snack, supper - and then our routine stopped. Daniel had spit up slimy stuff and uneaten food at every meal, supper being the worse and spots of blood was in the slimy stuff at supper. Mommy and Daddy guessed that what had happened Tuesday night (lettuce eating) had scratched Daniel's throat or maybe/possibly there was something stuck in his throat. We decided to head to the ER. Before going any farther we must fill you in on where we live and what our choices of medical treatment is...we live in a small town...we have a small ER (more like an emergency walk-in clinic)...we are 45 minutes from Nashville that is home to a lot of good ERs, especially Vanderbilt Children's...we are about 20 minutes from 2 fairly decent ERs in Clarksville (Gateway) and Springfield (Northcrest)...where to go? We haven't had too many ER visits with Daniel (considering his medical history) and the few we have had we have gone to Vanderbilt. We talked about it and decided to go to our small town ER. We had great hope that we were being overly paranoid parents and the doctor was going to look in Daniel's throat, do an x-ray and tell us he had a sore throat. Well, the doctor looked in Daniel's throat, did and x-ray and we were not being overly-paranoid parents. Since we were at a small ER we got to see the x-rays before the doctor and on the film we see a round spot that is the shape of a coin in our child's esphogas (sp?). We knew then it was going to be a LONG night. The ER we were in was not equipped to take care of this type of emergency. Daniel was transported to Vanderbilt via ambulance where we were greeted by a team of doctors that included GIs and surgeons. A repeat (better) x-ray was done and the doctors have guessed what is being seen on flim is a quarter that is stuck behind Daniel's esphogas. The treatment for this is to put the patient to sleep and do a scope to retrive the foreign object. Daniel was admitted to the hospital and the foreign object will be removed later today.
--If you made it through this long story, please keep Daniel in your prayers. This is a minor procedure but as with al procedures there is a risk of complications.

Standing Up

--Daniel woke up from his nap crying, he usually wakes up happy and "talking". When we went in to check on him he was standing up in his crib.

Early Intervention Evaluation - Final Summary

--We recieved the summary from Daniel's early intervention evaluation. The "results" are not what we were really hoping for but we have accepted them and will overcome all the "challenges".

--Vision- 12 - 24 month (he has advanced eye sight)
Things to work on - encourage Daniel to point at a picture and offer opportunties to use his eye-hand coordination to refin his pincer grasp - continue to observe eye movement for any eye turn, return to the opthamologist as needed (Daniel has an appointment on 8/20)

--Hearing - 10 - 15 months
Things to work on - continue to monitor Daniel's hearing, encouraging any communication attempts and the imitation of enviromental and animal sounds

--Gross Motor - 9 months
Things to work on - encourage Daniel to extend hands behind him, cruise furniture in a side step, bend knees to bounce in a stand, and make stepping motions while holding on to furniture or with both hands being held

--Fine Motor - 10 months
Things to work on - encourage Daniel to poke and point with his index finger

--Communication - 9 months
Things to work on - encourage Daniel to increase the number of sounds he makes and strings together, increase his number of gestures and begin use of single words to indicate wants or needs

--Cognitive- 9 months
Things to work on - encourage Daniel to look at named picture for 60 seconds, finding hidden objects, rolling a car on the floor, throwing a ball and turning a toy to find it's functional side

--Social/Emotional - 9 months
Things to work on - show increase fear or insecurity with previously accepted situations and strangers, begin testing parents at meal time or bed time (I think this has begun.), extend arm to show toy or share food when asked

--Self Help - 12 months
Things to work on - increase success with scooping food with spoon, putting on hat, indicate discomfort over soiled diaper

1 year, 1 month, 21 days

Daniel

Noah

--Today is a bittersweet day.

--On August 22, 2000 I lost my first son, Noah. Noah was 1 year, 1 month and 21 days old when he passed away.

--Daniel is 1 year, 1 month and 21 days old today.

Professional Pictures

--Daniel had his one year pictures made yesterday. We tried so hard to get him to smile but we were not real successful, however he made a lot of faces that shows his true personality. Daniel is not a "smiler" but a very happy, outgoing baby boy.
--You can check out his pictures by going to http://www.mericrisp.com/, choosing order online and in the drop down menu choosing Daniel Lloyd. Enjoy!

Early Intervention Evaluation

--Ms. Ginger re-evaluated Daniel for Early Intervention today. The following is a "summary checklist" of milestones. Daniel's average is in the 9 - 12 month range which where he should be based on his "adjusted age". There are a few concerns with gross motor skills (pulling up, walking with assistance) and language development. We will be working on these during the following months.
--Daniel is also being recommended for PT due to his "stiff legs". When he stands he locks his knees and keeps his legs straight and tight. There are many different things that could be causing this. It could be something as simple as it being Daniel's way of feeling secure to some sort of muscle disorder. We will be finding out more in the next couple of weeks as he is evaluated.


1-2 Months
Turns head in direction that cheek is touched X
Able to suck and/or swallow easily X
Startles easily in response to loud noise X
Gaining in length and weight X
Pays attention to someone's face in direct line of sight X

3-4 Months
Makes sounds other than crying X
Holds a rattle and smiles X
Rolls from stomach to back X
Turns head toward a bright light and color X
Shows gains in height and weight X

4-6 Months
Reaches for and grasps objects X
Moves toys from hand to hand X
Smiles in response to others X
Rolls from stomach to back and back to stomach X
Shows gains in height and weight X

6-9 Months
Creeps or crawls forward on tummy by moving arms and legs X
Babbles and laughs out loud, plays pat-a-cake and peek-a-boo X
Sits independently X
Turns head to locate sounds X
Shows gains in height and weight X

9-12 Months
Pulls to stand
Picks up small objects X
Crawls on hands and knees X
Walks with both hands held
Imitates simple sounds X
Waves "bye-bye"
Able to sit on own X

12-15 Months
Says words besides "mama" and "dada"
Walks without help
Drinks from a cup or glass
Takes turns rolling a ball

15-18 Months
Looks at picture books, turns pages
Feeds self with a spoon
Likes to push, pull, and dump things X
Walks without support
Tries to talk and repeats words
Indicates needs by pointing and/or grunting X

Welcome To Holland

--I was searching the web for a some preemie related information and I ran across the following story. It is a good description of how your life changes when your son or daughter is born prematurely.

Welcome To Holland

By Emily Perl Kingsley

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes on and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

It's Hot!

--There hasn't been much going on in our life lately and we are not complaining.
--We are complaning about the weather.....IT IS HOT! We have been under a heat advisory for the past 3 days. We are staying inside as much as we can and staying cool.
--Daniel has an Early Intervention re-evaluation today at 11. We are anxious to see where he "rates". We will let all of you know how he does later tonight or tomorrow.