picture update

here's what we did in January!

kinsley is enjoying coloring these days, she does better in her highchair rather then on her table right now. she can't run away with the crayons this way. she makes some good scribbles!!!


gma and gpa came to visit! i didn't get a good pic of gma with my camera tho :(
gpa and kinsley talking about her new cat!


peek a boo!


she loves her cell phone!!!!

kinsley can wipe her own nose!!!!!!! she even blows sometimes, it is hilarious tho!

so glad santa brought this toy, she loves it!!!

we went to world of bounce for carmine and rece's birthday party. kinsley had a great time in the bounce houses and going down the slide with daddy!!! i was so happy that daddy got the day off and could come with us!!!!

mommy's birthday. brandon made me a cake! kinsley helped me blow out the candles and then gave me a big kiss!

bffs...they just don;t know it yet!

her new favorite place to sit. she likes to look out the windows here too.

we had a great January. busy but fun! we also got the basement drywalled and painted, brandon has been working so hard. he has had lots of help from papa joe along the way too! we need to put up doors and molding and then carpet and we are done!!! kinsley got her big girl room too. it is crazy pink and she got a new crib since she is no where near ready for a bed, it would be play time all night long!!! she loves it tho!

swallow study

well we had kinsley's swallow study done the other day. i have to say it was very cool to see. she was in a chair next to an x-ray chair and she drank/ate barium which they can do a moving x-ray with. i had to go to a viewing room but Brandon was lucky enough to be able to come with us so he got to stay with kinsley. so as she ate and drank we watched the liquid or food go in her mouth and down her throat. this test only does the what not the why...so we did find out that she is aspirating (liquid going down to the lungs not stomach). they gave her 3 different thicknesses of liquid, she aspirated the thin and medium, but not the thick, so we are not thickening all her liquids with a special gel to keep her from aspirating it. with the food she did not aspirate but they said that doesn't mean she doesn't do it at other times just not that time. with how much she aspirated the liquid they think she may be doing it with food also at times. they also said she has a delayed swallow which is leaving her airway open to long, causing this problem. they called it silent aspiration because she did not cough or choke during the test at all, but the x-ray showed the liquid going to the lungs. which means for all the times she is choking and coughing there are who knows how many times she is aspirating that we don;t even now about. not good! they also said we have been very lucky that she has not had pneumonia, or chest infection yet.

so where do we go from here? good question. we got referred to the speech and ot services so they can observe and see what they can do. it was also recommended to see a neurologist and/or go to the developmental delay clinic. our doctor wants to try the speech and ot services first and see what they say before going further, but i am not to sure about that. he said since we saw the phys med doctor and he cleared kinsley he isn't sure the others can help. but i did not like that doctor and was very unhappy with how he watched kinsley walk across the room for 5 min and said she was fine and did not account for any previous delays or other issues we were having at the time. he never even spoke about the choking or spitting up, saying they weren't is area. well if they are do to muscles weakness which we now know the swallowing is then it is his area. so... i don;t really know what i want to do next, i think the SLP and OT services could be helpful but i am wondering if we need to see a specialized doctor to figure out why this is happening. i don;t know the long term effect but pneumonia is no good. i would like someone to put all the pieces together, as i have said a thousand times. we are still going to the GI in march but they doc we saw for the swallow study thinks the two issues are unrelated, meaning the puking isn't due to the aspiration, although they could both be from muscle weakness.

if anyone has had experience here or knows someone who has any advice would be helpful. kinsley is obviously mild but bad enough to have concerns. thanks!

appt

we had our doctor's appt today to talk about kinsley's choking. we have been referred to children's for a swallow study and also to a ped. GI. her dr thinks it is time to get the GI involved since we have had eating issues for so long. the swallow study will see if it is a physical issue and an OT and possible SLP will be present to look for oral motor issues or sensory issues that could be causing the choking. it could be a blockage, which i doubt since it is not every thing she eats, or it could be a muscle issue which i think is more likely. and if all that fails it could just be her, which hopefully they will still have some way of helping us.

so we are just waiting for a phone call to tell us when we have the next appts.

15 months appt

we had kinsley's 15 month appt a week or so ago. all is well with her. she got shots and did so good. she did cry but nothing to crazy. we talked to the doctor about her choking issue. she is choking more and more lately and we can't seem to narrow down why. he seems to think it is a learned reaction from her reflux. i agree with that for when she chokes on drinks but not so much when i have to do a finger sweep and back blows...not fun! so i scheduled another appt to just talk about that and see if there is something more to it. i feel like it all still stems from that left side weakness and her large muscles have grown out of it but her small ones maybe not. she is a very oral kid and a sensory seeker orally so that could be playing a part also. she plays alot with her food in her mouth, moving it around and manipulating it. it takes a while for her to swallow something and she lip smacks alot too. so these are things i will mention, i can never think of what to say in the first appt. there is just so much to discuss i forget things, so i am glad to get an appt for just this issue.

so other then that she is doing so great. talking all the time, words and crazy babbling, she is doing better imitating but still only when she wants to. she is climbing, walking, running, opening everything, throwing fabulous tantrums, screams like crazy too! over all she is usually pretty happy these days and loves to talk to anyone anywhere who will listen and respond.

oh she was 23 lbs 12 oz, and 32.75 inches. so she is still considered tall and skinny.

christmas craziness...yes there's more

ok backwards again, whatever!
so after christmas we went to PA for a quick one day trip to see my family. then after we got back brandon's parents came here to do christmas.

this is from when brandon's parents came down. kinsley did great opening presents, by now she was a pro!


digging in the bag!


when is PA we got to see kinsley's great grandparents, as well as some family that have never met kinsley, my aunt and uncle, my dad's cousins and my great aunt stell. it was nice for everyone to finally meet kinsley!

ggma and ggpa


great great aunt stell!

christmas with my mom and dad. we had a nice morning opening gifts with my mom and dad and my aunt and uncle were also there to see kinsley at work!

on the way in town we stopped to see kinsley's other ggma and ed

our tradition santa hat picture!!!!!

wow, it was a crazy Christmas but it was great!!! i think i covered it all....we still have a small exchange left too!!! in the midst of all that we also had brandon's birthday, and we took kinsley out in the snow for the first time. i will post later about that...i hope!

Christmas craziness

ok these are backwards but oh well! we have had quite the holiday party around here, despite all of us getting sick to different degrees we had a great christmas and kinsley loved every bit of it. we got lots of cool things and got to see lots of family and friends.


this is from our christmas at home. kinsley opening some of her stocking. we had to do presents in shifts because she would find something she liked and just walk away to play with it. so it took all morning but it was nice family time together.

her jammies were delivered on Christmas eve morning by Rudolph!


her big gift was a climber...she loved it!!! so sad tho the elves sent us a broken slide so we are waiting for them to send a replacement! for now she enjoys jumping off into her bean bag!

christmas morning!

on christmas eve we spent the evening with the tonies. we ordered pizza and did presents and had a great time together. i was sad to miss my families christmas eve party and have kinsley sit on Santa's lap and get a presents, but no worries he stopped by the tonies house too!!!! (that would be brandon!) he is so sweet, he secretly rented a suit and showed up after work at the tonies with a bag of gifts for the kids. everyone but me knew about it, but it was great. the kids were hilarious, carmine couldn't believe his eyes, rece says, "hey your not santa, your brandon" tierney cried and only wanted to get her present and ran, and kinsley didn't seem to mind...i think she knew it was daddy!!!!! all in all it turned out to be a great christmas eve.

at home after the party with santa. i video taped at the tonies but forgot to take a picture, i was too shocked!

all the kids on christmas eve! can you believe next year there will be 2 more babies!!!!!

ok so before we had our christmas we had christmas with kelsey, adam, and mel.

mel and kinsley

more presents!!!!

diving into the pile from kelsey and adam

kinsley with her new jammies, headband, and one of each new shoe! she loves her crocks!