The Baylor Family Blog

On Tuesday, I brought this cutie to see her GI Specialist. We survived our nearly three month weight and finally go to meet the doctor, instead of seeing the P.A. The doctor was happy with Abi’s weight (12.5 pounds), so we are going back to the normal concentration of formula (instead of the higher calorie version). She also told us that 2-5% of babies on Prevacid (medicine for acid reflux) have abdominal pain and diarrhea. Since Abi has exhibited these symptoms for months, she recommended decreasing the medication or starting a new one. Our choice. After talking to Matt, we decided to completely stop Abi’s reflux medication to see how she responds. Abi had been super fussy prior to our visit (we theorized she was either teething…the easy answer to all fusses…or was getting over her GI bug). Ironically, within 24 hours, her fussiness was nearly gone. I’m not ready to say for sure, as things change all the time, but it seems Abi may have been having the “rare” side effects from her Prevacid, causing her some discomfort. Interesting. If her reflux exacerbates, we will re-start her meds, but for now, she seems to be doing fine without them.

The other issue we talked about was the introduction of foods. I’ve started wondering if its possible that our kids have both had very immature GI tracts, explaining why they just can’t seem to tolerate hardly any food during their first year. The doctor said that is likely, but their response is more or less demonstrated as an allergic reaction to the foods. Because of Abi’s sensitivity to rice cereal, which is unusual, she is referring Abi to an allergist for allergy testing. Though allergy testing will show us if Abi has any very strong immediate reactions to food, it won’t show us the foods that Abi will have a delayed non-anaphylactic reaction to. So far, all of Abi’s reactions have been delayed, so the allergy testing won’t solve all of our problems! It will however, take some of the pressure off of watching for serious reactions to foods. Her allergy testing is scheduled for Wednesday morning at a clinic in town.

Matt and I found an organic baby oatmeal with a probiotic that has no dairy or soy in it that we are going to introduce to her soon. Since her GI tract has struggled, we are hoping the probiotic may increase the possibility that her body may tolerate it. From that point on, we will introduce one new food every two weeks. We will go extra slow, watching for delayed reactions.  Our hope is that we will be able to find at least 3-5 foods that we can give her consistently during the next several months to help her survive this developmental milestone without any delays.

Our hope and prayer is that 5-6 months from now, Abi, like her older brother, will outgrow all these GI/allergy issues and be able to eat anything and everything.

Eli is growing up so fast! I look at Abi, and then I look at him, and I’m so amazed how much he has changed since he was a baby!!

Eli loves listening to music. He especially love when Matt and I sing. He hasn’t been confident to join in until just recently. I teasingly sing “Trust and Obey” to him on days when he is particularly struggling with obeying. Though he has heard many other songs much more often, “Trust and Obey,” is the song he is first learning to sing. Its quite cute. He often dances and claps to music, too!

As far as I can tell, he is able to identify and say every letter of the alphabet. When asked his age, he is able to say “two.” He can count to ten, but often forgets a few numbers here and there!

During his recent speech therapy evaluation, we were estimating that he probably has 400+ words. That is an amazing improvement from the five words he had at the start of the year.  Though we have to cue his words at times, it is fun to hear the spontaneous conversation that comes out of his mouth.

Just this past week, Eli came running up to me and said, “Me sit on potty.” Shocked and slightly stunned, I pulled myself together and said, “Okay.” Though no results to date, his interest in sitting on the potty are positive signs to us. He has asked to sit on the potty a couple times a day throughout the past few days. We aren’t interested in pushing potty training, but we will definitely follow his lead!

Eli is turning out to be a great big brother. I was concerned how he’d handle having a sibling before Abi was born, but he has surprised me with his positive interactions with her. With Abi’s increasingly mobility, Eli is learning to share his toys. Some moments go better than others, but I’m surprised how well he is handling Abi playing with his toys! On the flip side, Eli also enjoys playing with Abi’s toys. They also take baths together. Eli has learned its okay for Abi to splash him, but not vice versa.

Eli has recently started working with an early intervention specialist, who is also a preschool teacher in town, to help work with him on transitioning. Like the speech therapist, this specialist also comes to our home. Eli still has a lot of anxiety with change, definitely more than the average kid. Some of his behaviors are typical for a two-year-old, some of them are a bit extreme. We want to provide every opportunity we can now to help him learn to cope and be successful later in life.

This past week, Abi reached the 6-month mark! Here are the stats of our tall and skinny little girl:

Weight: 12.5 pounds (6 percentile)
Height: 25.8 inches (72 percentile)
Head Circumference: 16.1 inches (22 percentile)

At Abi’s appointment, we sadly said goodbye to our pediatrician who is moving to New York, as her husband was transferred. The office has several doctors, but we just have to find the best fit for our kids. As you probably know, our kids are a bit complex, at least in their younger years! So I’m a bit picky

Abi’s personality is blossoming. Her interest in toys has peaked. She tends to push toys away when she grabs at them, making her rather frustrated. She has started pushing up on her arms trying to move, but doesn’t have the strength or coordination to go far. But she has mastered rolling across the floor. She can get wherever she wants to go (provided there are no stairs to conquer on the way!). She is able to sit in the tripod position for a second or two before tumbling over.  She  has recently started watching Eli’s every move, too!

She continues to wear 3-6 month clothes, but she’ll probably break into some 6-9 month clothes before too long! She  has blessed us by sleeping through the night a few times during July. However, the cycle was broken with sickness. Hopefully, we’ll get some restful nights again soon. At the beginning of the month, she was taking 16-20 ounces Elecare daily, but now she is closer to 25-30 ounces daily.

Abi spent her first morning in the church nursery. Without a doubt, it was harder on me than her! She slept during the whole service and woke up full of smiles just before I came to pick her up. It was nice to be able to sit with Matt without distractions for the whole church service!

This morning I expected Abi to sit in the new toy while I unloaded the dishwasher… Huh…

The older this little girl gets, the more we realize what a perfect fit the name, Abigail Joy, seems to be.

I bet you would never guess these pictures were taken while she was fighting off yet another GI bug? Without a doubt, she has felt miserable. But her joy still creeps through…

Don’t get me started on her beautiful blue eyes…

Saturday was a double blessing. For one, we were actually entering into a weekend with no big plans! Two, we received a spontaneous phone call from Matt’s brother, Than, saying they wanted to spend the day with us. How perfect. Our families spent the morning at the zoo, and after nap time, the kids enjoyed playing in the water in the backyard. We had a beautiful day with great conversations and quality time.

Eli loves spending time with his older cousin, Nathan. They walked through much of the zoo holding hands.

Abi enjoyed the animals from a safe and snug position in the Baby Bjorn.

Eli and Nathan sliding into the pool…

…and pouring lots of water into the water table!

Katya was very interested in baby Abi. It will be sweet watching these two interact more as they grow up!

Eli enjoyed lots of tickles from Aunt Michelle while going down the slide!

Than, holding onto Katya, who is on the go and ready to explore with her great big smile!

On Sunday morning, Eli was talking about the fun things he did the day before with his cousins. Then he looked longingly at his daddy and asked, “Again?”

We got a new toy at our house. I’m not sure which kid likes it more, though!

Thanks to my nephew, Andrew, sharing this toy on our recent trip to Wisconsin, Matt was determined to find it when we returned home for Abi. We returned home on Friday. After a quick search through Craigslist, we had the toy by Sunday. Eli was never a big fan of toys that restrained him to one place as a baby, but Abi, on the other hand, has really enjoyed sitting upright and playing with toys that won’t move away from her. She hasn’t mastered the art of jumping yet, but I’m sure that will come with time. Even though its only been just over a week, I feel like we have already gotten our money’s worth considering the entertainment it has provided for both kids!

Isn’t summer time just the greatest? It just doesn’t get much better than this

Eli said, “me sit.” I said, OK. Wow he used to be so small…