Another Eventful Week

Nathan continues to seem more happy and alert. He did better this week with keeping his feeds down. He went to the chiropractor twice this week. These visits really seem to relax him.

Nathan in the bouncy seat.

Nathan during tummy time.

We made it to church again this week. Nathan didn't make it to class. Too many people wanted to hold him. I think he enjoyed the attention. We weren't able to get many good pictures of Jacen today. Hopefully with time, he will understand that he can't be the center of attention and will start enjoying Bible class more.

We moved Jacen into a new carseat because he had outgrown his carrier. He wasn't sure what to think.

We decided to see what Jacen would do if we had him stand up holding on to things. He seemed to really enjoy it, but he was very wobbly.

Jacen hasn't liked sitting in the Bumbo for a while, but he decided this week that it would be fun to use it as a toy.

We have started practicing holding a cup during snack time. He hasn't been interested in holding his bottle, so hopefully he will hold a cup. We are also trying to get him to eat finger foods using MumMums. It took him a day or two to figure out that it was something to eat, but now he does pretty well.

All kids that come to see us love to play with the wooden coasters. Jacen found them this week and really enjoyed them too!

The boys had their 9 month appointments on Tuesday. I only managed to get one picture. Jacen was very vocal. I think he thought he wasn't getting enough attention.
Stats:

Jacen:
height - 30in (90%)
weight - 20.75lbs (50%)
head circumference - 18in (90%)

Nathan:
height - 24.75in
weight - 15lbs
head circumference - 14.8in

My birthday was this week, so the girls from our Sunday school class took me out to celebrate. I really enjoyed the girl time, and Nathan bottled for Kyle!!!!!!

First Time to Church

We had another eventful week. We practiced sitting, did tummy time, and read books. We even got to go on a walk Wednesday afternoon.

Nathan had bloodwork done that showed everything is about the same. He went to see the chiropractor on Wednesday and Friday. It seemed to really relax him and maybe even help his twitching some. He still loves to swing.

We continue to try to convince Jacen to crawl. He prefers to roll around everywhere. As you will notice in the pictures below he doesn't stay on the blanket anymore and prefers to try to get other things besides his toys. He got in the "crawling" position at one point, but then fell back down to get what he wanted. We tried baby food meats on Saturday, but we will not do that again. Kyle and I couldn't tolerate the smell of it, and Jacen didn't like the taste. We weren't brave enough to try it. He still loves to play with the Silly Town and has figured out that the slide thing moves. He has started waving today. It is so cute.

We went to church all together for the first time today. It was wonderful. The elders prayed over our family, and we had lots of sweet people give us well wishes. The boys were both calm and quiet during church for the most part. Jacen went to Bible class and really seemed to love it. He doesn't understand that you can't take toys or grab other children. Oops. The teacher had to move him We will have to work on that. Nathan sat in class for a little bit with Gwen. Thank you for taking care of Nathan during Bible class, so Kyle and I could do our Cradle Roll duties. Thank you also to Dondra for finding them matching outfits for their first trip together to church.

Jacen

Silly Town

Crawling soon?

Baby Food Meats

Nathan

Church

Video from the Drake Design Photo Shoot

Drake Design Photography Photo Shoot

Thank you to Kathy and Jennifer at Drake Design for capturing these precious memories of our family.

Teeth, Toys, Thumb, and Tub

This past week we found out the results of the EEG. Nathan is still having some subclinical seizures, but for the most part with medicine his seizures are under control. They will not ever be able to completely stop all the seizures without completely sedating him. The eye twitch is not seizures, so we are happy about that.

Dr. Arnold finally made it to Lubbock to see his nephrology patients. He gave us his best guess as to how long Nathan's kidneys will be able to function. He thinks that he will outgrow his kidneys by age 2. This is a prediction of more time than we have been told by doctors before. At any time though, if his system gets out of whack and his potassium goes high then he could go into cardiac arrest. We are still continuing to do our best to enjoy every moment.

For an insurance update for Nathan, we are, with the help of some wonderful people at church, going to pay for Cobra insurance until we can get something figured out. We are working with Hospice and some other wonderful people to try to get him on Medicaid still since Kyle's insurance has denied him.

We rescheduled the chiropractor appointments to this week because Dr. Sanders had a cold. We will have an update on Nathan's first appointment next week.

We are doing bloodwork again this Monday.

Now for the week in pictures.

Jacen is getting his two front bottom teeth.

Jacen is very persistent when playing with toys. He finally got the yellow part of the toy open, but of course he continued to try the other ones too!

Jacen still loves his thumb, but he has also started holding things and sucking his thumb. I think it is so cute!

Friends from our Sunday School class came over to clean the house on Monday night. One of the girls gave him the whole basket of toys and he loved it.
I have continued to do the same thing this week.

Jacen is figuring out how to move toys to where he wants them. I do not know still how he gets this toy on his lap.

Nathan enjoyed watching the lights and listening to the music on this toy.

I love his precious face.

Nathan was sleeping so peacefully that I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Bath Time

I give Nathan swaddle baths because he stays more calm that way. This is where you swaddle him in a towel and only uncover one part of the body at a time to wash.

Before

After

Jacen