Milestone month

Grayson is quickly catching up, after his months of being sick. In the past several weeks, he's started talking, crawling and even got a tooth!

He still has a really long attention span. And even though he is mobile, he doesn't just crawl for the sake of moving. He makes cautious, intentional moves either toward a toy or his brother. When he gets to his object, he'll sit there and play with it for a long time. Well, unless of course, the object is Tyler who runs away when Grayson reaches him. Grayson loves to chase Tyler through the house. They both laugh loudly, giggle and scream when they get to eachother. It's so fun to watch.

On a less positive note, he was diagnosed with iron deficiency at his doctor visit on Tuesday. We started giving him prescription-strength iron supplements, and we will check his levels again in two weeks. We also started treating him for asthma. Although the doctor is hesitant to call it that just yet, we went ahead and started the treatment in hopes it will keep him healthy and prevent more respiratory infections. We do at least two preventative breathing treatments a day, morning and night. And we also do another type of breathing treatment when he starts to wheeze.

Okay, back to good news because this health stuff depresses me. Grayson has been catching up developmentally and even gaining weight! He gained a whole pound in the 10 days between doctor visits! He's now 9 lbs and 6 oz. I knew there must have been a growth spurt in there somewhere, because he outgrew all his 6-12 month clothes and his size 3 diapers seemingly overnight.

Here is a full list of his recent milestones. I'm chronicling these mostly for my purposes (the baby book is nearly complete), but you may enjoy reading as well.

First official "Grayson Day" - Nov 2 
Last time to nurse (tears) - Nov 4
First Baylor football game - November 5
First time to eat puffs - Nov 8
First surgery- Nov 23
First time to say "dada" - Nov 28
First time to say "mama" - Dec 1
First official crawl - Dec 6
First time to meet Santa - Dec 8
First time to taste "table food" - Dec 8 (a banana at Cheesecake Factory)
First time to try a sippy cup - Dec 9
First tooth - Dec 20
First time to get one leg into a standing position (I need a picture to explain this) - Dec 21

Here is a photo of his first tooth. Look closely. It's the one coming in crooked in the bottom middle. He's my son. Here's to awkward years of braces, ha.

Here are some photos from his 9-month picture session. I love the progression of his crawling off the chair.

Grayson's 9-month stats

A longer post is warranted, but unfortunately, you'll just have to deal with this. :)

Weight: 18 lbs 5.5 oz (14 percentile)
Height: 29 1/2 in. (84 percentile)
Head circumference: 17 1/2 ( 24 percentile)

His iron levels are low, so we must start vitamin supplements again. He reached all of his milestones, except one, which is a significant improvement from the last visit.

The all-good-news health updates

I wanted to give you all a quick update on our latest medical adventures.

Grayson went for a post-surgery follow-up appointment with the ENT (ear, nose and throat) doctor. The audiologist repeated the same hearing tests, and Grayson did remarkably well. His hearing is back to 100 percent, and all parts of his ears are working perfectly. The tubes will continue to prevent fluid from building up, so infections and subsequent hearing loss should not be an issue. The doctor was very pleased with Grayson's progress and responsiveness. He did bring up the possibility of an adenoidectomy in the near future. Grayson has another chest cold, and the doctor wants to monitor the frequency of these. We go back in six months. If he has remained chronically sick, we may schedule the surgery to remove his adenoids. If not, he will wait and do it at the same time as the second set of ear tubes. The doctor said that we shouldn't take his RSV diagnosis lightly. It could take a year to fully recover from it. And since Grayson has already had RSV twice and bronchitis twice, it's not surprising that he has lingering respiratory issues. But overall, it was great news! Our little guy is doing wonderfully.

As you know, my thyroid has not been functioning properly since Grayson was born. Today, I went to see an endocrinologist, Dr. Baum, at Medical City Dallas hospital. Turns out, there is a good reason that my primary care doctor couldn't figure out what was going on ... it's because there is absolutely no medical explanation for it. My body is healing itself, without medicine. To make a very, very long diagnosis easy to understand ... I'll just say that I am getting better. In my opinion, the entire conversation did nothing but prove the ever-present and powerful nature of our God. The auto-immune disease (Hashimoto's thyroiditis) is no match for prayer. He said that if my levels continue to decline, I will have no symptoms in about three months.   I go back in March for more blood work, but it looks like the first quarter of 2012 will start on a positive note.

Thanks for supporting us during a rough year. It's been a challenge  battling Kawaskai Disease, thyroid issues and Grayson's chronic illnesses. It's not surprising that when we asked Tyler what he wanted from Santa, he responded with "Tylenol." Ha! 

Merry Christmas from the McKinneys