Yay, I'm 88 weeks old today!
Masinja has been pretty busy this week. He is now standing up all by himself like a pro. He doesn't like to sit still for very long at all, so he is constantly on the go.
Masinja also went to the doctor this week. He was having some tummy problems and was pulling on his ears quite a bit, so we took him in for a checkup. The PA and pediatrician noticed that his right eye was turning in quite a bit, so we decided that it was time to call the opthamologist. He had an appointment scheduled for November, but the last time we were there, the opthamologist said to bring him in sooner if we saw any changes. He has his appointment tomorrow so we'll give y'all an update in next week's post.
And as if this week wasn't busy enough, this next one will be even busier for Masinja. Aside from his eye appointment, he has an Early Childhood Intervention evaluation. The team will be coming to our house to evaluate him and determine whether or not he has any developmental delays. His pediatrician thinks that he may qualify for speech therapy, but we won't know the results of the evaluation until early next month. We'll be sure to let you know the results as soon as we do.
Last, but not least, we video taped Masinja at bath time.
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Weekly Update -- 1 - 7 September 2008
Yay, I'm 87 weeks old today!
We were so intent on posting a video of Masinja walking so y'all could see it, that we forgot to mention a few things in last week's post!
Masinja will be undergoing another evaluation in the middle of this month. A week ago this Friday we met with a woman who is the coordinator for the Early Childhood Intervention program. It is a program that is run through the local school district. Basically, they will evaluate Masinja to determine whether or not he has any developmental delays. Depending on the outcome of the evaluation, he may qualify for a number of services. Based on what we talked about with the coordinator, Masinja may indeed have some delays as far as speech and communication are concered. We won't get the results of the evalution until the first of October, but we will keep y'all posted.
Also, Masinja got to go to a picnic last week. T.M. had a picnic for work and we all went. At the picnic, we had a welcome/send off for people who were new and people who were leaving. After each person was recognized, everyone clapped. Well Masinja decided he was on the 'delayed' clapping program. He would wait for everyone to clap. Look around to make sure everyone stopped, and then he clapped. It was like he couldn't clap when everyone else was clapping. So, he basically did the delayed clapping for about a dozen or so people. It was pretty amusing to say the least. Masinja also got to meet another NICU graduate that was at the picnic. One of the folks from T.M.'s division had a premature baby. He only spent 3 weeks in the NICU, though, and is doing very well. Overall, everyone seemed to have a good time.
Now, on to this week. It started off pretty slow for Masinja, but he has had a pretty eventful weekend.
He went to PT on Friday and proceeded to be his usual self, doing things for his physical therapist that he doesn't do for us at home. This has been the norm with him since she started working with him and she gets the biggest kick out of it :O)
Anyway, our goal when we left the last time was to get him to stand without having to use a piece of furniture to pull himself up. His therapist showed us a few tricks to get him to do so. Needless to say, T.M. and I didn't have much luck at all. Well, shortly after we got to PT on Friday, Masinja was pretty much standing up on his own. His therapist tried a technique that involves just giving him a cue by pushing on his hips with your index fingers. It worked like a charm and after about 2 or 3 times he didn't need the cue anymore. He has even done it a few times at home yesterday and today. At the rate he is going, he will be a PT graduate before we know it. He doesn't go back for 3 weeks since he is doing so well.
Masinja also went to the park for the first time today. We finally found a park close to the house and we decided that since it was such a beautiful day we would take him. He got to swing in a swing, (which he really wasn't all that impressed with), walk across a bridge (which he loved), slide down the slide, (which he thoroughly enjoyed) and "ride" a motorcycle (which was by far his favorite)! He also got to play in the sand a bit after which he promptly put his hand in his mouth. Oh well, eating a little dirt won't hurt him that much!! All in all I think his first trip to the park was a success.
Here are some pics from his time in the park:
swing
motorcycle
slide
bridge
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
We were so intent on posting a video of Masinja walking so y'all could see it, that we forgot to mention a few things in last week's post!
Masinja will be undergoing another evaluation in the middle of this month. A week ago this Friday we met with a woman who is the coordinator for the Early Childhood Intervention program. It is a program that is run through the local school district. Basically, they will evaluate Masinja to determine whether or not he has any developmental delays. Depending on the outcome of the evaluation, he may qualify for a number of services. Based on what we talked about with the coordinator, Masinja may indeed have some delays as far as speech and communication are concered. We won't get the results of the evalution until the first of October, but we will keep y'all posted.
Also, Masinja got to go to a picnic last week. T.M. had a picnic for work and we all went. At the picnic, we had a welcome/send off for people who were new and people who were leaving. After each person was recognized, everyone clapped. Well Masinja decided he was on the 'delayed' clapping program. He would wait for everyone to clap. Look around to make sure everyone stopped, and then he clapped. It was like he couldn't clap when everyone else was clapping. So, he basically did the delayed clapping for about a dozen or so people. It was pretty amusing to say the least. Masinja also got to meet another NICU graduate that was at the picnic. One of the folks from T.M.'s division had a premature baby. He only spent 3 weeks in the NICU, though, and is doing very well. Overall, everyone seemed to have a good time.
Now, on to this week. It started off pretty slow for Masinja, but he has had a pretty eventful weekend.
He went to PT on Friday and proceeded to be his usual self, doing things for his physical therapist that he doesn't do for us at home. This has been the norm with him since she started working with him and she gets the biggest kick out of it :O)
Anyway, our goal when we left the last time was to get him to stand without having to use a piece of furniture to pull himself up. His therapist showed us a few tricks to get him to do so. Needless to say, T.M. and I didn't have much luck at all. Well, shortly after we got to PT on Friday, Masinja was pretty much standing up on his own. His therapist tried a technique that involves just giving him a cue by pushing on his hips with your index fingers. It worked like a charm and after about 2 or 3 times he didn't need the cue anymore. He has even done it a few times at home yesterday and today. At the rate he is going, he will be a PT graduate before we know it. He doesn't go back for 3 weeks since he is doing so well.
Masinja also went to the park for the first time today. We finally found a park close to the house and we decided that since it was such a beautiful day we would take him. He got to swing in a swing, (which he really wasn't all that impressed with), walk across a bridge (which he loved), slide down the slide, (which he thoroughly enjoyed) and "ride" a motorcycle (which was by far his favorite)! He also got to play in the sand a bit after which he promptly put his hand in his mouth. Oh well, eating a little dirt won't hurt him that much!! All in all I think his first trip to the park was a success.
Here are some pics from his time in the park:
swing
motorcycle
slide
bridge
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Weekly Update -- 25 - 31 August 2008
Yay, I'm 86 weeks old today!
Here's a video of Masinja doing his 'thing'! He's gotten so vocal lately, that we're having trouble getting into the conversation. Of course, he wouldn't talk that much for this video. That is, until after we shut off the camera, and he talked non-stop for 20 minutes...
Enjoy!
That's all for this week.
Peace,
T.M.
Here's a video of Masinja doing his 'thing'! He's gotten so vocal lately, that we're having trouble getting into the conversation. Of course, he wouldn't talk that much for this video. That is, until after we shut off the camera, and he talked non-stop for 20 minutes...
Enjoy!
That's all for this week.
Peace,
T.M.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Weekly Update -- 18 - 24 August 2008
Yay, I'm 85 weeks old today!
Masinja had a very eventful week. On Monday he had a feeding evaluation done by an Occupational Therapist and a Speech Therapist, who is also a feeding specialist. We had gotten a referral, because we were having trouble transitioning him to table food and to a sippy cup. We found out that there is actually a food continuum and that we had skipped a level completely!! I don't know about anyone else, but I figured since the baby foods are labled stage 1, stage 2 and stage 3, that you just go from one stage to the next. Well, that is not the case. Before you move on to stage 3, you're supposed to introduce things like carrot sticks and celery stalks and pretzels and such. These things are not intended for consumption, but are meant to teach the baby how to chew and to increase the gag reflex. Well, needless to say, we're having to backtrack with Masinja now. The OT and ST both said that we are feeding him what we should be feeding him though.
The week before his evaluation I was actually successful in getting him to eat the gerber graduates meat sticks and cut up veggies and fruit. He still isn't exactly chewing them though. He has a high palate due to being intubated for so long. He basically just puts whatever we give him in the indentation and then smushes it with his tongue.
We also pretty much got him transitioned to a sippy cup the day before the evalution too. T.M. forgot to put the rubber stopper in the sippy cup Sunday and Masinja chugged his juice! From that point on he was pretty much ok with the sippy cup with and without the rubber stopper. Some mornings he still gets a bottle, but we're working on that.
The most exciting news from this week though is that Masinja started walking on his own!! T.M. and I were sitting in the living room watching TV and Masinja just pulled himself up to the coffee table and proceeded to start walking. We were so excited!! He is still pretty wobbly but I'm sure he will get better as he gets more confident. His physical therapist was so happy to see him walking on Friday. She just said, "Masinja, I have been waiting for this!"
Our next goal is to get him to stand up without having to pull himself up on a piece of furniture. His therapist was so impressed with his progress that she said he can go back to a biweekly schedule. She is hoping that by the time we go back in 2 weeks he will be standing up on his own and then he can be released. We will take some video of him walking and post it next week.
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Masinja had a very eventful week. On Monday he had a feeding evaluation done by an Occupational Therapist and a Speech Therapist, who is also a feeding specialist. We had gotten a referral, because we were having trouble transitioning him to table food and to a sippy cup. We found out that there is actually a food continuum and that we had skipped a level completely!! I don't know about anyone else, but I figured since the baby foods are labled stage 1, stage 2 and stage 3, that you just go from one stage to the next. Well, that is not the case. Before you move on to stage 3, you're supposed to introduce things like carrot sticks and celery stalks and pretzels and such. These things are not intended for consumption, but are meant to teach the baby how to chew and to increase the gag reflex. Well, needless to say, we're having to backtrack with Masinja now. The OT and ST both said that we are feeding him what we should be feeding him though.
The week before his evaluation I was actually successful in getting him to eat the gerber graduates meat sticks and cut up veggies and fruit. He still isn't exactly chewing them though. He has a high palate due to being intubated for so long. He basically just puts whatever we give him in the indentation and then smushes it with his tongue.
We also pretty much got him transitioned to a sippy cup the day before the evalution too. T.M. forgot to put the rubber stopper in the sippy cup Sunday and Masinja chugged his juice! From that point on he was pretty much ok with the sippy cup with and without the rubber stopper. Some mornings he still gets a bottle, but we're working on that.
The most exciting news from this week though is that Masinja started walking on his own!! T.M. and I were sitting in the living room watching TV and Masinja just pulled himself up to the coffee table and proceeded to start walking. We were so excited!! He is still pretty wobbly but I'm sure he will get better as he gets more confident. His physical therapist was so happy to see him walking on Friday. She just said, "Masinja, I have been waiting for this!"
Our next goal is to get him to stand up without having to pull himself up on a piece of furniture. His therapist was so impressed with his progress that she said he can go back to a biweekly schedule. She is hoping that by the time we go back in 2 weeks he will be standing up on his own and then he can be released. We will take some video of him walking and post it next week.
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Weekly Update -- 11 - 17 August 2008
Yay, I'm 84 weeks old today!
Masinja had a follow up appointment with the neurologist this week. He now weighs 25 pounds and he is still measuring 31 inches long. He had to have his phenobarb levels checked to make sure his dose is correct. He did pretty well considering the phlebotomist ended up having to stick him in both arms because the vein in the first arm rolled!! He got to sit in T.M.'s lap instead of having to be pinned down though so that helped a lot.
On another note, we got the results of Masinja's rapid MRI this week. According to his neurosurgeon here, he no longer fits the criteria for hydrocephalus. The ventricles in his brain are still slightly enlarged though. He also has some fluid between his skull and his forehead but that should go away as he gets bigger. He has to go back in 6 months to have another rapid MRI to see if there have been any changes. If everything is still the same, then Masinja will be released from the neurosurgeon. If his ventricles have gotten bigger though then he is eligable for an alternative procedure to drain the excess fluid. That means he won't have to have a shunt!!
Masinja has a feeding evaluation next week because we are having trouble transitioning him to table food and to a sippy cup. We'll let you know how that goes.
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Masinja had a follow up appointment with the neurologist this week. He now weighs 25 pounds and he is still measuring 31 inches long. He had to have his phenobarb levels checked to make sure his dose is correct. He did pretty well considering the phlebotomist ended up having to stick him in both arms because the vein in the first arm rolled!! He got to sit in T.M.'s lap instead of having to be pinned down though so that helped a lot.
On another note, we got the results of Masinja's rapid MRI this week. According to his neurosurgeon here, he no longer fits the criteria for hydrocephalus. The ventricles in his brain are still slightly enlarged though. He also has some fluid between his skull and his forehead but that should go away as he gets bigger. He has to go back in 6 months to have another rapid MRI to see if there have been any changes. If everything is still the same, then Masinja will be released from the neurosurgeon. If his ventricles have gotten bigger though then he is eligable for an alternative procedure to drain the excess fluid. That means he won't have to have a shunt!!
Masinja has a feeding evaluation next week because we are having trouble transitioning him to table food and to a sippy cup. We'll let you know how that goes.
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Weekly Update -- 4 - 10 August 2008
Yay, I'm 83 weeks old today!
Masinja did a great job at PT this week. He took more unassisted steps than T.M. and I have ever seen him walk. His theraptist was pretty impressed too. He pretty much performed for us also. T.M. and I were telling her all the words that Masinja is saying now and each time we said a word he would repeat it. His vocabulary now includes: Mama, which he uses both to address me and whenever he wants something, probably because he knows Mama will give it to him; Daddy, which sounds more like Gaggy sometimes; Doggie, which he says whenever he sees or hears the dogs; baker's man, he obviously loves playing Patty Cake; and last but not least, hockey, which we think stems from the fact that he loves to watch T.M. play hockey on the play station.
Masinja also walked up stairs for the first time this week. We often have to take him downstairs to the undercroft and let him walk around during church because he gets restless. I usually let him walk back to the staircase and then pick him up and carry him back to the chapel. This Sunday he decided he wanted to walk instead! I let him walk to the base of the stairs and was about to let go of his hands and pick him when he picked up his right leg and placed in on the bottom stair and began to push. He walked up the entire flight of stairs except for the last 6 steps. I was so proud of him. I told T.M. when we got back to our pew. It was T.M.'s turn to take Masinja downstairs about 15 minutes later and when they came back Masinja walked up the entire flight of stairs again!! He is certainly making progress. It will be interesting to see what he does at PT next week.
Masinja has a followup appointment with the neurologist next week. We'll let you know how it turns out.
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Masinja did a great job at PT this week. He took more unassisted steps than T.M. and I have ever seen him walk. His theraptist was pretty impressed too. He pretty much performed for us also. T.M. and I were telling her all the words that Masinja is saying now and each time we said a word he would repeat it. His vocabulary now includes: Mama, which he uses both to address me and whenever he wants something, probably because he knows Mama will give it to him; Daddy, which sounds more like Gaggy sometimes; Doggie, which he says whenever he sees or hears the dogs; baker's man, he obviously loves playing Patty Cake; and last but not least, hockey, which we think stems from the fact that he loves to watch T.M. play hockey on the play station.
Masinja also walked up stairs for the first time this week. We often have to take him downstairs to the undercroft and let him walk around during church because he gets restless. I usually let him walk back to the staircase and then pick him up and carry him back to the chapel. This Sunday he decided he wanted to walk instead! I let him walk to the base of the stairs and was about to let go of his hands and pick him when he picked up his right leg and placed in on the bottom stair and began to push. He walked up the entire flight of stairs except for the last 6 steps. I was so proud of him. I told T.M. when we got back to our pew. It was T.M.'s turn to take Masinja downstairs about 15 minutes later and when they came back Masinja walked up the entire flight of stairs again!! He is certainly making progress. It will be interesting to see what he does at PT next week.
Masinja has a followup appointment with the neurologist next week. We'll let you know how it turns out.
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Weekly Update -- 28 July - 3 August 2008
Yay, I'm 82 weeks old today!
Masinja has had a pretty eventful week. We took a roadtrip to Ohio to visit family and we have had a great time. Masinja went to the zoo for the first time this week. We went to the Columbus Zoo on Friday and it was absolutely HUGE!! He got to see all sorts of animals and he got to spend time with his Uncle Gary, his cousins Taylor and Jordan, and his Godparents Tom and Leslie.
We went to a giganitc mall and an Irish Festival on Saturday which was pretty neat. Masinja also got to spend time with his Uncle Sean and his Aunt Joyce that day. Everyone was surprised with how big he was because the last time they saw him was last October. His Uncle Gary kept calling him Hulk-a-Baby because he has gotten so big :O)
We also had a family picture taken on Sunday and Masinja was a complete ham!! It took the poor photographer at least 8 tries to get a good shot of all 8 of us because Mason wouldn't cooperate and look at the camera. She told the rest of us to look at the camera while she would do whatever was necessary to get Mason to smile and look at the camera at the same time. The reason it took so many shots is because the rest of us were watching him to see what he would do :O) We finally got a good shot though and she took some other pictures as well. One of the pictures that she took of Mason is absolutely priceless!! He looks like an angel.
Pic
We are heading back to Nebraska in a few days and we only hope he is as content on the ride back as he was on the way here!
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Masinja has had a pretty eventful week. We took a roadtrip to Ohio to visit family and we have had a great time. Masinja went to the zoo for the first time this week. We went to the Columbus Zoo on Friday and it was absolutely HUGE!! He got to see all sorts of animals and he got to spend time with his Uncle Gary, his cousins Taylor and Jordan, and his Godparents Tom and Leslie.
We went to a giganitc mall and an Irish Festival on Saturday which was pretty neat. Masinja also got to spend time with his Uncle Sean and his Aunt Joyce that day. Everyone was surprised with how big he was because the last time they saw him was last October. His Uncle Gary kept calling him Hulk-a-Baby because he has gotten so big :O)
We also had a family picture taken on Sunday and Masinja was a complete ham!! It took the poor photographer at least 8 tries to get a good shot of all 8 of us because Mason wouldn't cooperate and look at the camera. She told the rest of us to look at the camera while she would do whatever was necessary to get Mason to smile and look at the camera at the same time. The reason it took so many shots is because the rest of us were watching him to see what he would do :O) We finally got a good shot though and she took some other pictures as well. One of the pictures that she took of Mason is absolutely priceless!! He looks like an angel.
Pic
We are heading back to Nebraska in a few days and we only hope he is as content on the ride back as he was on the way here!
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
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