A Little Something Extra

Friday, August 28, 2009

Micah did it!

Micah did it, and got the t-shirt. :-)

Thanks to Jennifer at Three's a Charm, Micah has a new t-shirt to show off. If you feel led, please buy an "I Did It" shirt for your little one. Jennifer is using the proceeds to buy books for parents who have received a Down syndrome diagnosis for their baby. Inside the front cover, she's putting a note saying who gave them the book and the blog address of that person. So hopefully one of these days I'll hear from someone who came to visit our blog and read about Micah! If you don't have a blog, or if you feel led, when you buy the shirt, ask Jennifer to put a blog address in the front cover anyway, whether it's our blog or another blog of a child with a little something extra.

And doesn't he look studly in the black shirt and jeans?

You might ask, "What did he do?" Well, I've mentioned some of it. But I thought it was a good time to share what Micah is doing these days.

1. Crawling... on all fours consistently (unless he's really tired and resorts to the army crawl, but that's happening less often these days).

2. Signing - Micah can do the following signs: more, ball, car, bus, eat and signing time (to request his video every morning). Also, in the photo above where it looks like he's signing "more," he's really doing the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

3. Verbal - Micah only says Dada consistently (which makes Mark's heart melt). He also yells loudly when he wants Nathan's attention. He's starting to click his tongue, which is great for building up strength.

4. Eating - Micah is now opening his mouth for baby food at the table. This is huge, because it means he doesn't have a total oral aversion. I'm sure part of it is due to him mimicking his baby brother (you know... the little piggy). Micah's tongue functions like a newborn, though, in that it doesn't draw food to the back, so most of the food is pushed out by his tongue. But we're working on tongue strength with him.

5. G-tube feeds - Micah now receives EVERYTHING through his G-tube so today we went to the pediatrician's office and had his GJ-tube button removed and replaced with a G-tube button. Praise God! No more trips to interventional radiology in Milwaukee every time he has a tube issue. It's taken a long time to get here. He's still on mostly continuous feeds (compared to bolus feeds, which is more like meals), so we still have to take the pump everywhere. But moving to all G-tube feeds is a major step and we definitely don't take it for granted. One of these days I'll post some photos of the difference between the tubes.
(For those of you astute blog readers, yes, he did get new glasses. I was planning to buy him some Specs4Us anyway, and by leaving his other glasses on top of the car, I expedited the purchase).
OT - I have to add these photos of Matthew because I'll forget to post them later. I call this one:
"I'm so hungry, I could eat a train!"

15 comments:

Kelly said...

OH MY GOSH-Micah's accomplishments are HUGE!!! YAY to Mom & Dad & the therapists & doctors! Keep up the good work Micah!!!
xoxo
Kelly & Scott, etc.

Ami said...

Hooray, Micah! And Matthew - too cute! Love the teeth coming in... Carolyn has a couple on the bottom just waiting to push through. :)

Kim said...

That is awesome and such a cutie!

Sara P said...

what a great update!! wonderful news all around:) and i did notice his glasses, super cute:)

Ann @TheAssetEdge said...

What great news on so many fronts! Praise God!!!

I love the shirt - what a great idea!

Rena said...

Hooray Micah!!!

Kris Delaney said...

WTG Micah!!! He is doing so well with so many new things. Yes, you can do it, Micah, and we'll all celebrate with you!!! Kris

My name is Sarah said...

I LOVE the I Did It pictures. So cute.

Heidi said...

Way to go Micah! It sounds like he is doing so well!

I love his new shirt and his new glasses!

Anonymous said...

YAY MICAH!!! You've come a long way, baby. What great news, Jennie. Thanks for sharing! Matthew's eyes are just breathtaking - such a cutie! Now, we need some more new pics of Nathan... Congratulations on the G tube and all the other wonderful accomplishments. Love, Dove

Kim Rees said...

Wow! Your Micah and my Lily are going through some of the same exact things right now. How do you do continuous feeds all day long? We only do continuous at nighttime. We bolus feed Lily 4x during the day. I can totally relate to the button. We are so happy about Lily's new button. So much easier than that ol' G-tube. That is wonderful that Micah is wanting to eat orally. I know what I struggle it can be to get Lily to eat some days, but we continue to work on those mouth exercises and feed by mouth. The pictures of Micah are adorable! I love the shirt and hope to get Lily one. Also the glasses are fantastic too.

Angela said...

Cute pictures. :) Way to go Micah! Angela
http://thesuburbanjungle.blogspot.com

Andrea K. Van Ye said...

So proud of Micah! He is amazing! The girls and I are catching up on blogs and the girls think that he looks so cute with his glasses. Praying for you, dear friend.

Kate said...

What a cutie! It's inspiring to me to see the accomplishments of other kiddos with DS, to know what they struggled through and where they are now. My little girl is coming up on three and the end of early intervention, so we are now looking forward with excitement and apprehension. Your pictures are priceless. So glad I stumbled upon you today.

Unknown said...

Hello... I'm afraid I'm in need of some help.... My daughter has 22q11.2 deletion with major reflux and cardiac issues. She was given a g-tube for venting purposes only, and cannot handle stomach feedings, so she was given an NJ tube for pump feedings. We need to have it replaced with a GJ tube, but children's hospital of wisconsin seems incompetent in this area of expertise. We have been in the hospital all of Ruby's life (2 months on the 20th)... I was wondering where your child had a GJ tube placed.