Hose Up The Nose

Matthew has been having feeding issues. We have been attributing the issues to his persistent congestion and subsequent ear infection, but as the ear infection has cleared the issues have remained. At Occupational Therapy on Monday, our therapist, Yvonne, was feeding him as I updated her on the pediatrician’s concerns about his slow weight gain. She asked if we had done a GI study. Actually, that is one of the few tests we haven’t done with Matthew. Her recommendation was that we get an appointment w/a gastroenterologist to check for reflux, since Matthew acts like he might have it when he eats. She also mentioned she’s seen kids w/reflux that has caused persistent congestion and ear infections. So, before we left the building, we made an appointment w/a gastroenterologist for next Tuesday.

A few hours after OT, we had an appointment w/ENT (ear, nose, throat). The ENT looks at Matthew, whose ear infection has cleared, and states that Matthew’s congestion is not in his nose but a little further down and he has a suspicion he knows what is going on but we need to take a better look at Matthew’s voice box. After sticking the camera hose up Matthew’s nose, the ENT declares that there is some evidence of reflux and that is probably the cause of the persistent congestion. We left his office w/a prescription for baby prevacid and a follow up appointment in a month. We are all hopeful that this is the fix… fix the reflux, fix the congestion, fix that particular feeding problem, and fix the slow weight gain.

Other big news-- as we were waiting for the ENT yesterday, Matthew grinned at Darren. So, within the past 3 days, Matthew has begun using non-crying sounds and smiled! We have moved out of what one of our friends kindly calls ‘the parasite stage’. We are now interacting!! Yippee!!

Finally, more big news, our genetic testing results are in. Always in our minds was the fear that if Darren or I had a rearranged chromosome, not only was it passed on to Matthew as a duplication, but it might have been passed on to Alyssa and Jackson as a rearrangement that they might one day pass along to our grandkids either as a rearrangement or duplication. But more good news came this morning—Matthew’s chromosome duplication is de novo, meaning it was a completely random occurrence. Neither Darren nor I have any chromosome abnormalities. Matthew is completely unique…and obviously meant just for us!!

May Day

We have had a wonderful and jam-packed weekend!

Dark and early Saturday morning, all five of us piled into the car for a trip to the Houston medical center. We were glad to be going for a reason other than a doctor's appointment. The Blanton-Davis Ovarian Cancer Research Program at M. D. Anderson was hosting the 13th annual Sprint For Life. Our cousin and friend Jenn Johnson passed away last November after battling ovarian cancer, and we were blessed to walk with her parents and other friends and family members for Saturday's 5K. A lot of tears, laughs, and stories were exchanged throughout our walk, and everyone was thankful for the experience.

The group photo was before the walk. We were all a little ragged around the edges afterwards; no group photo included to help us save face. The full day of family festivities were a bit much for a few of us.

Sunday brought the Randolf kids, Katie and Graham, for an extended visit; a family emergency resulted in parents Peter and Kirsten being out of town for the weekend. Katie and Graham are each six months younger than Alyssa and Jackson respectively. A fun-filled day of a house-full of children resulted. Check back next week to see if the Hoy House is still standing, but a trip to the neighborhood park, a viewing of the Disney movie "Earth" complete with popcorn, and a sleep-over were the big things that kept the kids busy.

In between the large scheduled events of the weekend, we had several big moments. Matthew decided to wait until the family visiting from Chicago had left before making a couple of huge steps in his development. Katie and Matthew spent 20 minutes "talking" on Saturday night, and he made his first non-crying sounds! Very exciting and a huge development for Matthew and his parents. *grin* Sunday morning, Katie saw another big moment for Matthew. Quickly grabbing the camera, I captured it to share with everyone.

Matthew grabbed the butterfly on his bouncy seat on his own. On the great Matthew roller coaster this weekend has definitely been a high point. A very high point.

Meanwhile, Jackson had a breakthrough of his own. Katie had been hiding a new (and as of yet too large) pair of shoes for Jackson. This is a very special pair of shoes; Toy Story's Woody and Buzz Lightyear adorn the sides. Jackson found these and immediately coveted them. When informed that they wouldn't fit and instructed to put them back, Jackson did just that without hesitation, question, or whine! I'm still in complete shock.

Not to be outdone, Alyssa had a big moment of her own. She helped Jackson clean the playroom (without being asked/prodded by parents). It was spotless!

A huge thank you to Papa Tom, Grammy Karen, (Godfather) Uncle Gary, and (Godmother) Auntie C. Their first trip to visit us here in Houston was wonderful; we can't wait until their next trip to Texas. Sprint for Life 2011 is less than 52 weeks away!

Truly a momentous weekend was had by all. Hope you had a great one as well!

Thankful Thursday- Family

Matthew’s baptism was this past weekend. It served as a wonderful reminder of how lucky we are to have the family that we do.

Darren and I are both very blessed to have wonderful immediate families. We are also unbelievably blessed to have an amazing extended family…people we would love to be around even if we weren’t related!

We were so excited to spend time with many of our favorite people as we celebrated Matthew. Thank you to Carol, Gary, Karen, Tom, Deron, Jacob and Kyle for traveling from Chicago to celebrate with us. We missed those that couldn't make it. We are very thankful for our terrific family!

Pictured: Matthew's Great Aunt Marilyn, Grandma Joy, Granny Kendall, Big Brother Jackson, Daddy Darren, Big Sister Alyssa, Mommy Katie, Matthew, Great Aunt (Grammy) Karen, Cousin Kyle, Cousin Jacob, Great Uncle (Papa) Tom, Great Aunt Carol (aka GodMommy), and Great Uncle Gary (aka GodFather) across the front. Uncle Deron, Granddad Kendall, Uncle Bryan in the back.

Happy Month 2!

Happy 2 months!

Looking back, time does seem to go by so quickly. When you are in the midst of it though, the newborn period seems like dog years (1 day seems like 1 week). Today we celebrate 2 months of knowing our sweet baby Matthew. He likes to sleep, loves to be held, cries a little, eats when we make him, and smiles just as he’s drifting into sleep. The 4 of us (Alyssa, Jackson, Darren, and I) fall in love with him more and more every day.

We finally downloaded the pictures from the last 2 months and they can be found here.

The update on Matthew’s latest doctors’ appointments:

-Today we had our 2 month visit with our pediatrician. As I expected due to his unusual fussiness yesterday, Matthew has an ear infection that we’ll treat with antibiotics. This is not a big surprise given that he’s been congested for over a month. We’ve got a follow up appointment with an ENT to see if there is anything behind the persistent congestion. Hopefully he can help!

Matthew is growing, but our pediatrician is a bit concerned because he’s falling down the growth curve (not gaining as quickly as they would like). This happened to both Alyssa and Jackson as well. So, we aren’t sure whether the slide down the curve is (a) a normal Hoy baby (b) a bi-product of the congestion (c) ‘typical’ for his uniqueness or (d) concerning and a possible bi-product of his feeding problems. If it is A, and he’s like Alyssa and Jackson, he’ll stay on the curve, but hang out at the bottom 1-10th percentile. If it is B, hopefully we can get the congestion addressed at the ENT and he’ll pick back up. For C, I’m following up with the genetic counselor to see if we might need to track him on his own curve. If it is D, we’ll have to address it most likely by assisted feeding (ie tube feeding). We are praying it is not D!

The geneticist recommended we follow the typical immunization schedule, as did our pediatrician. I struggled with it, knowing how important immunizations are but also being concerned that there is so much unknown about Matthew’s uniquenesses. At this appointment, Matthew got his first round of immunizations.

-Last week we visited w/the urologist and nothing new there. We have a follow up with him in 6 months.

-We continue to see an Occupational Therapist on Mondays and practice his exercises ever day.

-Our next big follow up appointment is another diagnostic ABR (hearing test) in mid-May. We pray that his hearing either improved or remained stable compared to the previous test.

Thank you for keeping Matthew and our family in your thoughts and prayers. We know they’ve made a difference!

Never Enough

Having a unique child is like having your first child all over again, on steroids. Constantly going through my mind: “I need to read more about child development. I need to do more exercises with him. I need to play Mozart for him. I need to talk to him more. I need to learn infant massage. I need to do more! What if this one thing is the one thing that will help him meet that milestone? Get those synapses to fire?”

Alyssa and Jackson were (and are) always good at reminding us that we are not in total control but I’m still coming to terms with it with Matthew. Even if I do everything I can, Matthew still might not meet his milestones. And like Alyssa and Jackson, he might hit them if I did none of the above. It’s hard to accept having so little control over something that seems so important. Just thinking about it is a bit overwhelming.

When I have these overwhelming moments, I'm reminded that God made Matthew just as he should be-- the perfect child of God, the perfect 3rd child for us. We love Matthew as he is and pray that we can help him reach his fullest potential…whatever that may be. Until then, I need to be reminded to let it go and enjoy the moment we are in today.

Good Change

Change is hard and life is full of change. We’ve recently experienced a voluntary change for which we are very grateful!

Two weeks before Matthew was born, we changed Alyssa and Jackson’s daycare. We had been debating about the change for over 6 months. We had been with the original daycare for 3 + years and were happy the majority of the time. Unfortunately, the long time director had left last summer and no director since gave us the comfort we needed. Our initial thought was we would move all the kids together when Matthew started daycare. But sometimes enough becomes enough and we decided that although Alyssa and Jackson would be undergoing a major change with the addition of their new little brother, we would go ahead and move them to a new center before he was born. Thankfully they had a 2 week adjustment at the new center before Matthew’s arrival.

We were pleased with the move immediately. The center is warm and welcoming. The director and manager are responsive and friendly. The teachers were smart and caring. They have internet cameras so we’ve been able to check in on the kids during the day to see how they are interacting. Since the move, Jackson has made a vocabulary jump and Alyssa has been excited about her new friends. All very positive changes.

Then Matthew was born and our decision to move was discovered to be an even better decision than we originally thought. The center will welcome Matthew (when the time comes for him to go to daycare) and work with his uniquenesses. They already have some kids with atypical development in their enrollment. The infant teacher has training as an occupational therapist. We feel very comfortable that Matthew’s needs will be met at the new daycare. What a blessing!!