The Eclectic Dabbler

Initially I wanted to do a “Micah at One Year” post, but that thought occurred to me three months ago. . . so now it’s “Micah at 15 months.”

I am always amazed when I look back to old posts, even a few months back, and see how far the kids have come developmentally or how different our daily life has become in such a short amount of time. It all goes by so quickly that I literally forget what they were like, even a couple months back. I don’t want to forget. So here it is, mostly for my benefit, and possibly a few family members who find it interesting as well.

Verbal/Nonverbal Communication:

Micah still only babbles. He says, “Da-da-da-da,” “Na-na-na-na,” and “Aaaa!” but that’s about it. We think he has said “Da-da” (meaning “Daddy”), but we are certain that he has never said “Mama.”

Daniel and I have talked about it a lot, because he is probably a good six months behind where Mara was at this age. She could say, “Dada,” “Mama,” “ball,” and a few other words before her first birthday. She was babbling the way Micah is now around 10 months. So even adjusted for his prematurity, he’s still several months behind Mara.

But when we look at his development overall, we really aren’t concerned about Micah. His hearing is definitely fine, and his comprehension seems excellent.

A few examples:

• Whenever we say his name, he turns around to see what we’re talking about, often smiling mischievously, if it’s a story about him.
• We say: “I’m going to feed the fish,” he leads you to the fish bowl or goes there himself and stares at the fish till you feed it.
• We say: “Let’s go for a walk,” he goes straight to the stroller or stands by the front door.
• He has a dirty diaper, so he pulls a diaper and wipes out of the diaper bag and starts hitting his diaper until I come change him.
• He signs “more” and “all done” at meals.
• He pulls on his toes when he wants to play “This Little Piggy” on the changing table, or signs “mark it with a ‘b’ and toss it in the oven” if he wants to play “Patty-Cake.”
• We say: “Are you ready to go ‘night-night’?” and he heads for the stairs, clutching the nearest piece of fabric (for a blanket) and sucking his thumb. (One time he pulled my panties out of the laundry basket and clutched them to his chest, sucking his thumb! LOL! . . . I didn’t take a picture . . .)

We feel like if he’s understanding our communication, he will verbalize in time. And he has his 15-month-old checkup in a few weeks, so we can ask the pediatrician to be sure.

He loves to imitate sounds. Last night he perked up, having heard a dog barking outside. Then he did his best little doggie imitation; it was adorable! . . . Recently I sat down and sighed deeply after a busy morning; ever since, he has been “sighing” a humongous sigh, and then grinning mischievously. Sometimes if I’m frustrated at myself, I do this little growl: “Argggghhh.” Which Micah of course has picked up, and he WAY over-uses it!! It’s crazy how much kids notice, even the littlest things you do. But it is good to be reminded that I am modeling life for these little ones, who will imitate me whether I want them to or not!

Activity:

Micah walks everywhere! It wasn’t until about 14-1/2 months that walking became his primary way of getting around. We laugh because he looks so awkward, but as Daniel reminds me, that’s why they call them ‘toddlers.’

He loves rolling balls. Even better: throwing balls! and he’s actually pretty good at it–well, for a 15-month-old, that is.

He enjoys Legos and blocks, putting things together.

But he has yet to willingly sit still through an entire book. He doesn’t even care to look at the pictures. Occasionally he will look at the cover of a book! (In contrast, Mara was about 13 months old, when I remember counting as she brought me 13 books, one after another, and climbed up into my lap for me to read them to her! Such a difference!)

Food:

What can I say?! He loves all of it!! And he eats man-sized portions already!

He may eat bacon, eggs, toast for breakfast. Or muffins or banana bread. Or french toast, waffles, or pancakes (no syrup yet!). Or oatmeal & applesauce. He loves bananas! He would eat one every morning if I let him! He loves most fruit: especially strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and watermelon too.

If we are eating it, he wants it: roast beef, mashed potatoes, tacos, ham, sweet potatoes, green beans, hot dogs, french fries, popcorn, rice cakes, potato salad, chili, potato chips, meatballs, chicken (in almost any form–baked chicken, chicken nuggets, chicken tenders. . .). He likes peanut Butter and jelly sandwiches, but I don’t. Because when he is finished eating his sandwich, his entire head and arms are covered with sticky jelly and greasy peanut butter. It is amazing what a big mess he can make with one sandwich! (Oh, and he does eat an entire sandwich himself–while Mara eats 1/4 – 1/2 sandwich!) He also enjoys grilled cheese sandwiches and they are not nearly as messy!

For the most part, he is a good eater, but we have a few foods we are “working on.” He is not fond of pasta, which is frustrating because that includes macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, pasta salad. . . He also is not a broccoli lover, like Mara is! But he still has to have a couple bites.

Of course, he loves anything with sugar: cake, cookies, ice cream, jello, animal crackers . . . all of which we try to limit, for obvious reasons.

to be continued . . .

One of the best parts of having a zoo membership is that you don’t have to see all of it in one day. You can take your kids and let them see whatever they want to see, for as long (or as short) as they want to see it, and you’re not wasting your money, because you can always come back another day and see the rest. Plus you can randomly go to the zoo when the weather is perfect and everyone else is at work! And no, the zoo is not giving me anything complementary for blogging about it. I’m just enjoying our membership!

We were at the zoo for a birthday party on Sunday and Mara commented a couple of times that we didn’t see the goats. So when we went back on Tuesday, the goats were one of our first stops.

“Who goes to the zoo to see goats?” my husband asked.

And of course, the answer is: City kids. My city kids.

We had the goats all to ourselves this morning. No one else even came by to see them until we had moved on to the chickens.

This was Micah’s first experience with the goats. I was curious what it would be like.

Initially he had some reservations.

It helped that Mara was so comfortable with the goats. And they were so comfortable with her.

Mara showed Micah how it’s done. . .

Micah kept calling out to Mara. . . I can’t wait until he starts “verbalizing” instead of just “vocalizing”!

I have to say: these must be the gentlest goats in the world! They are sooo patient with even the littlest children!

All in all, it was a good experience–for the goats and the “kids.”

Kudos to The Dad who made the necessary “arrangements” this morning before I even got up.

But before you send your condolences or boxes of tissue, I should mention . . .

. . . it was a MOUSE!!!

As a courtesy to My Faithful Three readers, there is no picture to go along with this post.

We had an ultrasound today! Little Boo is 15 weeks and 3 days.

Daniel and I made a date of it. I believe that makes 7 dates so far this year. (My goal is 10 for the year, and since it is only September and we have one scheduled for October and our anniversary is in December, I’d say we’re doing pretty well!)  We dropped off the kids at 7:15 AM and drove up to Starbucks for a sandwich and coffee before I drank my 20 oz. of water for the ultrasound at 9 AM.

I will call him/her a “he,” since Mara is convinced she is having a little brother.  (Although calling him/her a “he” makes me more convinced it will be a girl!)

He was pretty calm during the entire ultrasound–very little movement, despite the coffee I had on our early morning Starbucks date. I love seeing “his” tiny, tiny hands.  Everything looks good so far–healthy heart, stomach, kidneys, bladder–all those necessary organs . . . They also checked my cervix for cervical shortening (3.4: within the normal range).

After the ultrasound we were scheduled for a consultation with a high-risk specialist, Dr. Smith, who went over my pregnancy history and discussed with us how to proceed during this pregnancy.

He said that while they do not know what caused Micah’s preterm delivery, it is clear from my records that it was not cervical incompetence or insufficiency. It was preterm labor, caused by weeks of contractions (for whatever reason). This is important to us, because it rules out the “need” for ultrasounds every two weeks. (We were very grateful to hear this, from a financial perspective, since these ultrasounds can be super-expensive!)

The only thing that has been proven to reduce preterm delivery is progesterone treatments. If we take this approach, I would have weekly shots starting between weeks 16 – 20, up through week 36, when delivery would be much safer. There are not really any side effects of the shots, other than the swelling/tenderness at the injection site. And thankfully, in the big scheme of things, progesterone shots are not terribly expensive. (The cost of the shots throughout the entire pregnancy will probably be less than the cost of one ultrasound.)

Dr. Smith says one of his pet peeves is doctors recommending bedrest or limiting other activities, as precautionary measures for someone who has had a preterm delivery. There have been no studies or research to show that those measures are effective in delaying preterm labor.

That said, he added, “However: this is not the time for you to, you know, go out and run a marathon. I can see you out there with the two-kid stroller [laughter] . . . You have to use your head.”

You know me and those marathons!!!! I guess I’m going to have to cancel all the ones I signed up for this fall!

My Chances of Another Preterm Delivery

According to Dr. Smith, on average, pregnant women have a 12% chance of having preterm delivery. Once you have had one preterm delivery, your chances are 25 – 30% (roughly doubled). Women who take the progesterone shots typically see their “preterm delivery risk” reduced by 1/3.

So Dr. Smith concluded:  in my case, I have a 25-30% chance of delivering this baby prematurely, and with progesterone, my risk is reduced to a 15 – 20% chance.

Timing of Subsequent Preterm Deliveries
I asked Dr. Smith about what I had heard: Often the subsequent preterm delivery is even earlier than the initial preterm delivery. (For example, Micah was born at 32 weeks. Does this mean the next one, if preterm, would have a greater chance of being born even earlier than 32 weeks?)

He said that actually that is not true. The subsequent preterm deliveries are often within a week or two (on either side) of the initial preterm delivery. If my probability for preterm delivery were shown on a graph, he said, it would be a bell curve, centered around week 32. If I have preterm labor again, it is likely that it would be between weeks 31 – 33. That was a little comforting.

Delivery Options

Mara was delivered vaginally, full term after a completely normal pregnancy. Micah’s c-section at 32 weeks was due to his oblique presentation, and he was delivered “double footling breech,” so there was nothing about me (physically) that required the c-section. I had the low transverse incision, so the risk of widening of the scar on my uterus is between 0.5% to 1%. The risk of uterine rupture during labor is about 1 in 1,000. Dr. Smith said while this is very rare, we should know that it can happen, and in such cases, the baby could die during delivery. But he emphasized that this is very rare.

After going over all the risks and possibilities, he said he thought I was an excellent candidate for a VBAC and saw no reason why I shouldn’t pursue it.

Once again, very encouraging!

Recommendation

Dr. Smith recommends the weekly progesterone shots and is hopeful we will have a good outcome. He would recommend another ultrasound in four weeks or so. If the baby is to come early, he would foresee it being again around week 32. But for now, we should just treat it as a normal pregnancy, as far as calling the doctor if I’m having a lot of contractions and so on. If contractions do come, despite the progesterone, at that time, we would look at bedrest or other medications.

So that’s about it.

Thank you, to all of you who are praying for our little one!

I really am encouraged! And I know the baby is in the Lord’s hands no matter what. There is no safer place to be!

You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.

Psalm 139:5-6

And you have a big sister. . .

And you’re only 15 months old . . .

There are certain things that may be a little confusing . . .

Like . . .

How often boys need to brush their hair

Or whether they should wear headbands around the house all day too . . .

He will learn . . . in time . . .