Happy 6 Months and Spine Obsession

Can you believe Liviana is 6 Months old? She has developed so much in just the last week or so. She grabs at anything and everything in her sight. She is so interactive....she is coming such a little person. She is SO happy and anyone who has the joy/privilege/luck to be around her will be touched by her.

She continues to make strides towards crawling. She has crawled backwards a couple of times (well scooted really). She uses her arms to move from side to side but has not quite gotten the hang of going forward yet. She actually lets out this really sad, pathetic little whine when there is something out of her reach. I try to help her along with moral support but I eventually move the object closer because she persuades me with her high pitched whimper and big blue eyes.

Liviana has graduated to sink baths. I don't usually get to see her sitting around with no clothes on so I had not noticed the shape of her spine/back while sitting. We of course knew that spinal issues were a real possibility because of her hemivertebrae but I had hoped that she would have an equal number on each side and they would cancel each other out.

In her bath the other night I was struck by the appearance of her back. The left side almost looked sunken in while the right protruded a little. Even when she changed positions it still looked uneven. Later, when I was looking at her again it almost seems like the shoulder blades on each side are no where near lined up. the left is lower and further to center while the right is higher and further to the right. Now, Livi did/does have the torticollis issue although it is MUCH improved. At first I thought it could be from one side being more developed than the other. The issues on her back however are opposite of what I would expect if that were the case.

She has her 6 month appointment tomorrow morning (yes, we have an awesome doc who sees patients on Saturdays). I will talk to her about it of course. She also has her follow up with the Orthopedic Surgeon, Dr. G. in September. I'm sure we will just wait until then because there is nothing they can do about it now, if she is developing curvature.

I have attached a photo of her back. I know you really probably can't see what I see but it is worth a shot. Incidentally, those little marks (dark spots on the left side, there are four total) are her surgery scars since it was done laproscopically. She is so amazingly lucky to have been in the hands of the surgeons here at Children's.

Sweet Baby Seth

Sweet, strong Seth has lost the fight against CDH around 1:15am, July 16, 2008. Please pray for his family. This is their second loss.

I realized I had a bad link for his page but I have corrected it now.

Personality Plus!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Wow! This little girl is developing quite the little personality. As you can see she had her first taste of solid food last night, organic oatmeal. I had intended to wait well past 6 months as she was growing well being exclusively breastfed and I did not want to push her little digestive system too much. She however, did not want to wait. She kept grabbing at my food with a death grip and pulling it to her mouth. She could hardly control her excitement when she would see food on a plate. As you can see, she is thrilled! Aria and Miles, while loving their food, never grabbed the spoon like that, let alone the very first time they ate.

She is sitting up although she seems to want to stand more and will stiffen her legs so I will hold her up to standing position. She is SO strong. She also has started rolling all over the room. It is amazing the floor space she can cover in a short period of time. She is so thrilled each time she rolls and gets a new perspective on things. She also loves hair....playing with it, pulling it and eating it. I think it is because she does not have much of her own :). She has definitely gotten to the point of expressing her dislike also. She lets out a little ornery scream when she wants to be picked up or is unhappy for some other reason. These screams are sometimes hard to distinguish from her happy screams though which often leave me running over only to find a laughing, smiling little babe.

She is such an absolute joy! I am loving seeing her grow and develop. I think that even though she will never remember those first 30 days they have indeed shaped her personality as a strong, roll-with-the-punches, feisty little girl.

More later.....