Goals for Crew

Well, we spent a long time with Crew's physical therapist, coming up with goals for our little guy. We hope to meet most or all of them within the next 6 months, by the time his adjusted age is 15 months.

Feeding:
Crew will hold his bottle independently
Crew will pick up a cracker and progress to cheerios
Crew will play with toys and feed himself equally well with both hands
Crew will signal "all done" and "more" in a recognizable way

Independent Movement:
Crew will roll across room to get toys or follow mom
Crew will get into or out of sitting and sit independently to play with toys
Crew will get onto hands and knees to crawl across the room
Crew will independently get around the house to find mommy and to play with siblings
Crew will get up to 1/2 kneel to stand, holding onto a solid surface

Play Skills:
Crew will be able to pass a toy between both hands
Crew will bang two toys together
Crew will clap
Crew will play pat-a-cake
Crew will take toys in and out of basket/bucket
Crew will begin to stack one block on the other, using both hands
Crew will reach/signal with his arms when he wants to be picked up

Wow.

He's got a lot of work ahead of him, that's for sure!

We are very excited that he has made some progress in the last few weeks with his hands. My dinner plate is no longer safe when he's on my lap!! When I hold something in front of him, he now almost immediately reaches out to grab it, with both hands no less! That's a huge step for him. He doesn't stare at it for 30 seconds, waiting/trying to make his arms/hands respond to his desires. Also, once he gets it into his hands, he holds onto it for a long time. A few weeks ago, I was having to pry open his hands to put things into them half the time, and then he would drop them within 10-30 seconds. Now he is actively reaching and grasping and will shake them around, holding onto items for several minutes at a time. He can even hold onto one toy in each hand. Huge accomplishment; pretty exciting stuff :)

Go, Crew!

Playtime with Crew

Toothy

What? Is that a tooth I see? Is that two teeth?? Yes, indeed, it is!

Brothers

Tanner, what who have you got under your Bambi?

Tuckered Out

Cute Crew

Cute little Crew remains very cute and very little. We continue to get the "he's how old?" bug-eyed gasps at the grocery store. One of these days I think he might grow out of his 3-6 month clothes, but the swine flu didn't help him out any.
See how my big boy is reaching and playing with the toy in front of him?! Yay!
See how he is reaching with his weaker left hand??

Big Brother

Tanner is such a helpful big brother and so gracious about it...MOST of the time...

Sigh..... All Better

It appears that Crew really and truly has overcome the Piggy Flu at last. Seeing how hard it hit his Daddy, we feel especially fortunate that Crew fared as well as he did. And we feel very blessed that Crew's breathing was never impacted one little itty bitty bit. Not bad for a little guy that has "Chronic Lung Disease" plastered all over his medical files, eh? What a kissable little miracle he is. It seems Heavenly Father still keeps one eye peeled for the occasional Crew Crisis. He is at about 95% wellness, sleeping horizontal in his very own bed tonight.

Piggy Flu Update

Crew is doing so much better. He slept for most of the day and continues to cough on occasion, but his appetite has fully returned along with his good humor, and he is overall in very good shape. Phew. I feel so relieved. It was very stressful to have him suffering from The Plague. He'll continue to sleep propped up for a few more days, slathered in oils, just to be safe.

As for Justin... wow. He's a mess.

Piggy Treats

Darbi asked her parental reps to drop off some get-well piggy treats to her boyfriend. I laughed and laughed! Then I "pigged out"...

Thursday

Morning Update

Crew is still sleeping. He has slept the entire night without waking up. He only had 4 coughing fits (none of them needed intervention.)

In bad news:
The Swine Flu Truck ran over Justin in the middle of the night.

Wednesday 2

Evening Update

• Fever gone
• No ibuprofen/tylenol in 12 hours
• Diarrhea from Tamiflu (blech)
• Congestion/stuffiness lessening
• Coughing about the same
• Ate solid food for dinner
• Drinking more formula
• Appetite returning
• Lots of smiles from our littlest guy

We are feeling grateful and optimistic. We won't let up on our vigilance quite yet. Pneumonia remains a very real threat. We feel so amazed that so far his breathing has not been compromised AT ALL. It is truly a miracle.

Wednesday

Morning Update

• Fever down
• Hasn't thrown up in 24+ hours
• Sleeping for longer stretches
• Coughing seems increased
• More congestion
• He sounds hoarse when he talks/cries

Smile

Morning Update

At 3:00 this morning, with Daddy singing endless repeats of "Popcorn Popping", Crew offered up the first smile we have seen in days. Then he slept for an entire 5 hours straight before waking up to drink 4 luscious ounces of milk for breakfast. He even had a damp diaper in the middle of the night. After sleeping through his next time for medicine, he woke up with his fever just barely above normal. He is taking a nap right now in his bouncer to keep him elevated.

We are keeping him plied with piggybacked ibuprofen and tylenol every three hours (when he doesn't sleep through it). He is on Tamiflu twice a day. He is covered from head to foot in four different essential oil mixtures. We're doing a hokey alternative "energy thing" that seems to relax him and hopefully does even more on the inside. He's had a priesthood blessing and we're praying our little hearts out.

As far as the rest of us, we're pounding Vitamin C like it's candy, along with Vitamin D (something I read), Airborne, Noni Juice, salt water gargles and nasal washes (something Justin read), drinking water until it comes out our ears, and washing our hands until they bleed.

We've been reading that it often gets much better on "Day 3" and then backslides again to utter misery for a few more days. Trying to beat the odds here! Thank you so much for your kind prayers!

Oink, Oink

This morning I took Crew's temperature. With ibuprofen and tylenol in his system and after a cool bath, his temperature was 101.6 degrees. He is utterly miserable. My heart breaks when he cries, but it's so much worse when he is too tired and weak to cry, which happens when his fever is being especially difficult and unmanageable. I've broken out all of our "alternative" remedies to pile on top of the western medicine, throwing everything at him that we've got in our eclectic arsenal.

He is still eating some, though signs of dehydration are already apparent. His diapers have been dry since yesterday. We are trying valiantly to get as many fluids into him as possible, with varying degrees of success. He just reluctantly drank 2 ounces of apple juice.

When my pediatrician told us that it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better and that we are just entering the "ramping up stage", my heart fell into my shoes. He is spending the evening on Daddy's lap and he'll spend the night in my arms again. We hope to turn the corner by the weekend. Praying for sooner than that though.

Blech.

On the bright side, we had been agonizing about whether to get him the immunization. After much debate, we had tentatively decided to go ahead and get it for him. Now we don't have to worry about that, nervous laughter, nervous laughter...

Piggy Flu Crew

After a rough past 48 hours and a hellish night last night, I took Crew in to the pediatrician this morning.

He has officially tested positive for the piggy flu, otherwise known as the swine flu or the H1N1 virus.

Awesome.

Moose Meat

Mmmmm...... Moose is my favorite snack....

Hearing Test

Getting a hearing test. He passed, but his hearing has always seemed just fine to us so we weren't worried about it.

"Oooooh, what's that sound, Mommy? Chipmunks?" He was thoroughly mesmerized during the whole test.

Sweet Baby Crew

This is my darling little Crew. He is 11 months old this week (8 months adjusted). His sweet and expressive personality just begs kisses and loves all the time. He gets a bath almost daily to rinse him of the "family spit smell" as well as dinner grunge that gets trapped in his neck creases. We still occasionally call him "The Tiny Prince", but have lately been referring to him most often as "Beast". It started when he was teething (and exhibiting fairly beastly behavior) and it stuck.

This picture features our Beast positioned in a new physical therapy pose designed to strengthen his arms and torso and to prepare him for future crawling. He looks especially adorable in it, don't you think?

We met with our new physical therapist this morning and we're excited to get this show (back) on the road. The new PT will come twice a month and will help teach us tricks of the trade to guide him toward success. We have the parental intuition and the unconditional love necessary to help him, but we need a few keys/tools/details to fill in the blanks.

We reviewed his results from last week's evaluation and found that most of his scores were in the 4-month range with a very few items creeping more toward 5-months. We continue to work with him aggressively every day and he is making progress, albeit slow.

I intentionally positioned myself with the Intervention Coordinator last week as rather timid about this whole intrusion and fairly high maintenance. It's been alluded that they very carefully chose someone to work with us from among their more elite team members. I have no problem with that. And hopefully my sweet spirit and genial disposition will be a pleasant surprise for them in the future. I did verbally commit to our PT this morning that I would speak my mind and not be passive aggressive--I volunteered that tendency in the interest of full disclosure...

Our PT (Julie) sees a lot of good things that Crew is doing. He has been (tentatively) sitting like a gorilla for (very) brief periods of time for 8 weeks with very little improvement. This morning he was sitting up straighter, putting his hands on his lap, and even reaching out for a toy. Little show off. He rarely rolls from his front to his back anymore and has only made it to his stomach one time. He is starting to roll to the side occasionally and is beginning to show greater interest in reaching and grasping. My dinner plate might not be safe much longer when he sits on my lap!

Kinley and Tanner are always on the lookout for new accomplishments. Tanner will come running to me, shouting "Mommy! Crew touched my face!!" or "Crew rolled to his side to look at me!"

I have really enjoyed the extended newborn stage of our little miracle. It's been a tender mercy to be able to hold on to his early stages for so long, knowing he is our last child and missing out on the snuggles of our anticipated twins. I've been able to thoroughly enjoy Baby Crew for long enough to help me through a large portion of my grief and to not have his newborn stage be a forgotten blur. I haven't been ready to move on with him and have turned a blind eye to his (ardent) desire to remain a tiny, cuddly, helpless newborn forever. Nevertheless, the time has come when he needs to step it up and move out of the newborn stage and start acting like a big boy. It's time for him to bust through this development plateau and continue on in his journey of health and progress.

Come on, little tiger!

Now tell me, is he not the CUTEST thing EVER?

Cookie Monster

We all got a little weepy over the weekend when Crew reached a milestone. Not only did he actually hold something in his hand for longer than 4 seconds, but he guided it toward his mouth. And then.... after many many unsuccessful attempts, he got it into his mouth!

Yay, Crew!

Sometimes he still ends up frustrated with his wrist in his mouth instead of his biter biscuit, but he's getting more successful every day.

The Routine

Dear Crew,

I would appreciate it if you would please save your poopy diapers until after 7 in the morning. This relentless pattern of bowel regularity is getting very old.

Love,
Mommy