Videos

I rarely post videos on our blog these days because 1. they take forever to upload-like 2 or 3 minutes (I guess I've successfully forgotten the dialup connection days) and 2. they don't convert to book form all that easily, and since the main reason I post most of the pictures I post is to have them in our blog book we make every year as our family journal. But we take videos pretty often, and this month we have videos of all 3 kids with their new milestones they've been reaching lately. So we have not just 1, but 4 videos to share today.

Annie is talking more and more clearly every day. It's a lot of fun to see her working on her enunciation and she's so pleased with herself now that she's able to communicate what she wants a lot better. We have some longer videos with more words, but like I said, I'm not all that patient waiting for a 40 second video to upload, so I don't even try with the 2+ minute videos.


Rachel has become Miss SuperReader. She can read just about anything she feels like reading (though if she doesn't feel like reading you can't get her to sound out CAT). At preschool a few weeks ago they had Dr. Seuss day and when she got home I found her laying on her bed with her Cat in the Hat hat she'd made at preschool reading Green Eggs and Ham.

I love her commentary at the end. We got that on video so now anytime she doesn't want to try a new food we can just play her own words back at her.

Last week Ryan got up on his hands and knees for the first time, in preparation for crawling. We got the camera and this is that first night when he was figuring it out. He caught on pretty fast. Heaven help us because if he keeps going as he is we'll have a crawler on our hands in no time.


And the last video is of Ryan laughing. Nothing's more fun than a baby laughing.
At Ryan's 4 month check up he had dropped down to the 5th percentile for weight, having gained just a pound and a half since he was 2 months old when he was in the 30th percentile, down from the 40th percentile when he was 1 month old. With that drastic of a drop the doctor wanted me to see if solids would help him gain weight, so we started feeding him 2 or sometimes 3 times a day, then brought him in a month later for a weight check around his 5 month mark, which was last week. He had gained only 4 ounces in those 4 weeks, dropping completely off the charts. Hmmm. Since Jake has Celiac Disease, which has a genetic component to it, that was my first thought, so the doc and I agreed that I should try going gluten-free since the only way he could be getting gluten would be through breastmilk. After a week of being gluten-free I went in on Wednesday and he had another weight check and, lo and behold, he gained 6 ounces in one week. That's more than he'd gained the entire month previous. Since the main symptom of CD in infants is failure to thrive and going GF obviously made a big difference we're under the assumption now that Ryan has Celiac Disease. We have an appointment next week with a pediatric GI doctor, but from what I've read there are no reliable tests for kids this young, besides just try the GF diet and see if it helps, which we've already done with obvious success.

I have some very mixed feelings about it all. I am very happy that the little guy is gaining weight (and he seems to be spitting up a lot less these days, too). And I'm thankful that we knew what to look for so it didn't have to go undiagnosed for months or years with all the damage and malnutrition that would hae resulted from it. The doc said how rare it was to be able to catch it so early, so I am thankful for that. But when I think ahead I start to dread what it will mean for him (and me) when he starts to be out of my control where I can comtrol what he can or cannot eat (nursery, preschool, elementary school...). And I'm not particularly looking forward to all the extra cooking this will mean for me since half the GF substitutes for bread, etc. are reminiscent of cardboard, and cost 4x what their gluten-containing counterpart costs.

But I am very thankful to have had 2 years to learn how to do gluten-free with Jacob before I have to do it for a kid. It makes the idea of our house becoming a total GF house less intimidating than it would have been had Ryan been the first one diagnosed in our family. And that is my plan: to get rid of all gluten in our house, except for snacks that will be eaten out of the house (like granola bars Rachel can take to preschool for her snack), at least until Ryan is old enough to understand why he can't eat everything his sisters can.

And thus the adventure begins.... Or continues, I guess....