Fun Camping

I'm so terrible at updating lately! Sorry... Well, now that Cody has Tuesday's off (a lot of his dept. got cut recently :( .. and those that got to stay were cut to 32 hrs) we ended up with a nice four day weekend with memorial day... so we went camping for part of it. Ansel was so excited about it and kept talking about it for weeks (even though I don't think he really knew what camping was) and he was quite upset when we took down the tent to go home! I think he had a pretty good time!

We brought Lexi with us too.. who had a few first experiences of her own. She went and chased some cows in a field. Who knew she was a cow herding type of dog? (esp. given her fear of cats!). She also went on a nice LONG hike (good thing for the cool weather or she never would have made it..she's not exactly a long distance dog breed, and she overheats easily!) and she even took a swim (not by her own choice.. Cody thought she should try it :)

Anyway.. here's a few pics!

New Pediatrician

Ansel got to see his new pediatrician today. Ansel weighed 25 and a half lbs and 35.5 inches. (So, another pound and another inch since January!) I did like his old doctor.. she was really nice and I loved her staff (anytime I'd call to ask something.. medicine dosage, etc... they'd ask, "Who's the patient?" and every time I'd say Ansel they always would say, "Aww.. Ansel, we love Ansel". (We'd gone there ever since he got out of the NICU) So, I do miss some aspects about his old office, but his office shut down and we had a to find a new doctor. The one thing I didn't like about the last place I went was I didn't feel like his last doctor was great with following up on things. (When we were supposed to do follow up blood tests or anything I always had to call to see if we were still supposed to do those like we'd talked about and even if she'd mention something that seemed like a concern she'd never have me bring him in for a follow up to keep an eye on things (it was just always... "see you in a year at his next appointment" type of thing.) Anyway, I feel bad that her office got shut down but hopefully the doctor change will be a good thing.

His new doctor seemed really good though. He asked me a bunch of different things (I'd made my little list of things to cover just in case so I didn't forget but didn't even need to use it because I think he pretty much covered it all in the things he asked!) We talked about the asthma thing (we'd just still been doing breathing treatments at night.. which with a home nebulizer they take about 2o minutes or so) Anyway he switched us over to an aerochamber thing (that has a little mask on it too) and you only have to have a couple of "puffs" of medicine a day (so I guess you get the inhaler medicine and attach it to this device and it's supposed to diffuse the medicine properly through a little mask.) We haven't tried it out yet, we still have to pick up the medicines for it. It's much more portable though and will be quicker to use too. His doctor added a medicine to help prevent asthma stuff too instead of just treating it.
Then, while he was talking to me he heard Ansel making this little clicking noise at the back of his throat and started asking me questions about that and asking if he had allergies (which he'd been coughing a ton the past few days again), so he prescribed some Nasonex to help with the drainage from allergy stuff. He said a lot of times kids will make that noise when their throat is getting kind of itchy from the allergies. Oh, and the part I really liked (well, not money wise but I think it's wise) is he said he wanted to see Ansel again in a month to see how the medicine changes are going and if there's anything that needs to be changed at all. (Follow-up.. and I didn't even have to ask!) So, so far I like his new doctor! The medicines are sure expensive though!! (Well, they have been for awhile though.. I wish the insurance covered a little more on them!!)

His doctor seemed pretty funny too. He came in with Ansel's 3 inch (or more) stack of paperwork and said, "Obviously there's history here! How about you give me a good summary of it to begin with!" (Seeing as how a good chunk of it was likely NICU stuff!) Ansel was pretty funny too. When he came over to listen to Ansel's heart, check his ears, nose, etc. Ansel kept saying, "No, it's not my turn, it's Mommy's turn. You can't get my arm!!" (Yeah.. he had more bloodwork done recently) Then the doctor asked to look up his nose and Ansel said, "I don't have boogers.. Mommy does.. check her nose.. it's her turn!) He doesn't like to be messed with.

Also, Ansel has an appointment with his GI doctor next week. All the bloodwork (and samples, etc. that were done a few weeks ago) went to him so he should be able to tell us more there. (We hadn't picked out a new pediatrician at that point yet.) Hopefully the blood tests are more normal this time!

Video trouble

Well, I have actually tried to do a few posts... but they were all video posts and for the life of me I cannot seem to get my videos to upload with my newer camera. I can watch them on the computer.. but have tried uploading through blogger and youtube with no luck. (I don't have this problem though if I use a video from my older camera.. that I no longer have) I really like my camera.. I'd just like to figure out the video part of it!! When they save to the computer.. it shows two different icons (one with a picture for it and another blank looking one with a play button.) Both of them have the exact same file name... but it's almost like I somehow need to try to combine the two in order for all the information to be there to upload right!! Hopefully I'll get it figured out one of these days. If you're better with this kind of stuff than I am and have any ideas I'd love to hear them!!

We're all doing well though. We just got back from our trip to Utah on Sunday. Cody's grandparents live out there so we drove out with Mom over her spring break. Our niece Jewell got to come too. Ansel and I went out with them last year, but it was nice that Cody got to come along with us this time! I think Ansel enjoyed all the extra Daddy time too! We also got to see Cody's sister Melinda and her family! They live in Idaho so we don't get to see them too often. The weather was amazing this year! I brought warmer stuff after last year, but didn't need a coat at all and rarely even needed a jacket! (Luckily that meant perfect weather to drive in as well.. last year was a little crazy in a places and it was hard to see driving at times with all the snow!)Yeah.. we got lucky this year! I'll try to post some pics from the trip in after while. I usually put some on facebook too... which is partly why I've been slacking with pictures here.. because it's easier to just post the pictures with a caption of them on there! I'll try to be better though. Hopefully I can figure out the video thing soon too.. I've had some cute ones. Ansel does a cute "thriller" dance!

Abnormal blood tests

I just hate it when Ansel's blood tests come back abnormal. It's a little unsettling, even if things are completely fine (or at least seem fine).. it makes you wonder why the tests were abnormal in the first place. The first time this happened was when Ansel was about 10 months old... 6 months after his last transfusion they did blood work to make sure things looked good. His doctor said something was abnormal but she looked through lots of stuff trying to figure out what the codes meant and wasn't coming up with much. She sent that test to Kansas City and they replied that as long as the child seemed healthy not to worry about it. So I tried to drop worrying about that one even though it always bugged me a little bit.

After Ansel's last appointment with Dr. Porte (his NICU doctor who he saw for developmental follow up) he thought it'd be a good idea to have some blood work done. I'd asked about Ansel's slow growth, (at 3 years old he's 24lbs and 34.5 inches tall) and how should I know if it was just preemie related or if there were other issues (like his cousin who has celiac's disease (gluten allergy that highly affects growth and proper absorption of nutrients). Dr. Porte thought it'd be good to atleast rule that out since it was in the family and that maybe he should go see a GI doc also. To be honest I felt like Ansel had some kind of issue (stomach wise.. perhaps some type of allergies..or something that's maybe aggrivating his stomach lining?) I didn't really think it was celiac disease, yet I really felt like if he had the blood work done to check for c.d. that perhaps it would reveal something else (I was thinking like some other type of allergy or something). Nearly every day says he says he has a hurt tummy (which has improved a lot with the new reflux medicine though).

Anyway, at his doctors appointment this past week she said it didn't look like things indicated celiac's disease (which is a relief because I've seen my sister deal with that with her little girl and I know it's not easy... not to mention expensive). She said the weird thing was that in fact he had quite high B12 levels (and usually when there's issues with growth and such the levels run low and that's why those levels were checked). She kept saying how odd it was for someone.. especially someone his age to have high B12 levels. (low levels are fairly common but I guess high levels aren't often seen unless there are certain drug treatments which would make it high.. which Ansel obviously isn't on anything like that!) I guess the other thing is that just because the levels show high doesn't necessarily mean that his body is still absorbing all the necessary B12.. it could just be getting discarded.. I'm not really sure how all this stuff works.. just trying to sort out what bits of information I've gotten so far!! Also his doctor kept saying that high levels could indicate some different things, but things that didn't at all match how he looks and everything so those other things are likely not it because he doesn't have the symptoms, coloring, etc for them (really don't remember what all they are as I was getting a bit of info and not having the background on this, I didn't really know what everything was that she was talking about. She said what we're hoping for is that it's just some kind of transitory thing where he happened to have some high levels.

The other factor, that could quite possibly be related is that he's been (off and on) having reddish brownish sediments in his urine the past few weeks.(the urine color is still normal but it has all these sediments that fall to the bottom) I got a picture of it to show her.. and she said.. "Yeah.. that is NOT normal", but haven't been able to get a sample of it yet. Last week it only happened once or twice.. although the week before it probably happened at least five or six times (and just a couple of times the week before.. so it's very sporadic). I guess the plan is we'll redo blood tests at three months to see if the levels are still elevated, but his doctor really wants a urine sample (one of course that has the abnormalities) before the blood test is ordered because the outcome of the urine test could change the order of the blood test a little. I would imagine the two things are interrelated somehow. The thing is he doesn't seem like he feels sick at all... so that's good, (and hopefully this is all some odd random abnormal thing that just goes away!) I also hope that if there is some issue we need to deal with that we can figure it out and treat it!! (Oh, and also with the urine I ask him if it hurts to pee and he always says no, and he hasn't had fevers or anything to go with it, so it doesn't seem like normal symptoms for just a typical infection either) So, with all of this it's just kind of waiting on timing and tests and stuff to see if there's anything to it or not. I would imagine that if the tests are still abnormal next time around then we'd go see the GI doctor (and atleast we could then go to him with all the tests that have already been done) to try to sort it out better.

This really all is probably not a big deal, I just thought I'd write about it as it is on my mind at the moment especially as there doesn't seem to be a lot of info about high B12 levels (just low levels). The thing is B12 is a necessary thing to have and those who are low have to supplement to get their levels up.. and in their case if they get too much it's no problem they just get rid of the extra in the urine.. it's just odd though when your doctor tells you it's real unusual, especially for his age. Oh, and if anyone's heard of this happening before (with either the weird urine or high b12 levels) I'm always up for added info!

Christmas pics

Christmas was fun! We hope you all had a great one too! Here's a couple of slideshows from our Christmas :)

Christmas morning:

My little rockstar! Ansel was all about the guitar. It was his cousin's Christmas present.. (hence the Hannah Montana on it) but he sure had some fun with it.

Ansel's third birthday!

Time is such a funny thing... I can't believe my little guy is three years old.. yet his crazy birth seems like a lifetime ago! It seems like he's been a part of our family forever and it seems weird to think of what life was like before he entered our world :) I'm so grateful things have gone the way they have.

This is such a fun age! I love all the conversations and funny and witty things Ansel comes up with. Oh, and being potty trained.. love that too. Makes life a little easier!

He was so excited to have a Thomas Train cake this year! He woke on his birthday so excited to see it.. (It took awhile to make.. having to mix all the colors!) Just a few minutes after he came across it.. I could hear him playing in the kitchen.. still very excited about it. I went out there and he proudly showed me the additions he had made!! So funny.. He added the other trains (that I was originally going to use.. so atleast they were brand new and washed already!) They were heavy though.. and had magnets in them..so I decided not to use them after all! Well, Ansel fixed the cake up a little by adding them.. and even had them all going the same direction. Funny though.. it looked like a little train wreck with the log that flew off to the side. He definitely had more fun playing in it.. ( and it was more for that than for eating!)

He had his last appointment with Dr. Porte (his NICU doctor.. who does the developmental appointments until they turn three). Dr. Porte was thrilled with his progress. The only thing he's a little behind on is his gross motor skills that involve the side trunk muscles (like jumping and stuff).. he has low muscle tone there still which is common with little preemies (but it's mild and just improves with time.. so nothing major or to worry about). They changed around some of his medicines to see if that will help him a little (mostly for his asthma and reflux.. he seems to have the whole asthma/allergies/acid reflux trio....) Dr. Porte said his lymph nodes in his neck are pretty good sized and figured he has some type of allergies (but we're not sure what...aside from the typical seasonal ones) Ansel says he has a hurt tummy nearly every day (likely the reflux issue) but he's doing a little better with that now that he's regularly on reflux medicine again. He had to go get a bunch of bloodwork done the other day too.. just to kind of check some things out.. but we're still waiting on that to come back. He's still of course not hitting charts.. but he had gained a little bit! He was almost 24 lbs. and was 35inches tall. Dr. Porte kept saying though how great he's doing.. especially given his start.. and that we should be proud :) And of course we are... I'm happy he's done so well. It's so exciting to see him progress and learn everyday. We're very lucky to have him in our lives.

On another side note.. we also just had our fourth anniversary a few weeks back (November 26th).. Our fifth will actually be on Thanksgiving next year! What a great thing to be grateful for. Cody's so wonderful and (kind of like I mentioned the weird time thing earlier) it's seems like we've been together forever already! I'm grateful I have him... he makes my life so much happier :)

I love this time of year anyway.. Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite holidays.. and then to add to that we have such special family memories at this time of year which seem to enhance the richness of those holidays even more!

Halloween

Ansel was a cute little monkey this year and had a lot of fun saying "trick or treat" to everyone! I didn't think he was going to wear the costume at all because he'd never try it on, but he finally did on Halloween day and kept it on pretty much the whole day! (Once he realized it would get him candy... suddenly being a monkey was a lot of fun!) ... Also.. a little flashback at his first two Halloween costumes. I think the Bob one was definitely the best (and was perfect for him).

It was a full day though.. first we went trick or treating at Daddy's work.. then the square (met up with some friends there), then the ward trunk or treat.. and ended at Grandma's house! At Grandma's house Ansel would run to the door every time he'd hear the door bell and greet the trick or treaters.