Health and Medical Update
A few weeks ago Joey had an appointment at Children's Hospital for a developmental screening. Since before he was born, he has been a part of a research study that will monitor his learning and development for the first 5 or 6 years of his life. The study is to try and find any links between children with congenital heart defects and developmental delays as they have seen trends. The study will require screenings every 9 months or so, and he will continue to do them with the neuropsychology team at CHLA.
This was his first assessment and it required playing with two fun interns and all of their toys for over an hour. Joey loved it and did really well considering his nap schedule was thrown off by the appointment and the drive there. He played with a rubber ducky, blocks, spoons, and lots of other fun things, but everything that they gave him to play with he just wanted to put in his mouth. While Joey played, I completed some very long questionnaires about his behavior and development, which took over an hour to complete as well.
The examiners completed both the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System (ABAS-II) and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (Bayley-III). For the Bayley-III, Joey's performance placed him on target and average across the domains of cognitive, receptive and expressive language, gross motor skills, social-emotional and adaptive development. The only areas in which he scored low average on fine motor tasks and communication. All of the areas of the ABAS assessment placed him in the average range as well.
We are lucky to be part of this research study as these assessments done throughout his early childhood would be something that would not be covered by insurance in a regular instance. So we are grateful. His next appointment will be when he is 18 months old.
Joey goes in next week for his 9 month checkup with his pediatrician. Because of a couple of extra nurse appointments in the last few months, Joey is now all caught up on his immunizations. He did go in for an extra visit to see another pediatrician right before Thanksgiving as he started breaking out in a rash. It seems as if he probably had a viral infection and the rash was the last of the symptoms to show. We did notice extra fussiness in the days before as well as a low grade fever, so we just assumed teething was the culprit, turns out he had caught a little bug. But all is better now!
Firsts and Milestones
Joey learned to crawl and pull himself up to standing all in the same week! And since then, there has been no stopping him. He loves to stand up in his crib and his favorite place to crawl is into the bathroom (for some reason). He can stand up in his pack-n-play for EVER. (He has been standing the entire time it took me to write this blog post, he just doesn't get tired!) He also likes to play the up and down game with Papa where he sits down and stands up over, and over, and over. But with all of this gained mobility, comes more bumps and bruises, most of them on his head!
We have introduced lots more foods and more finger foods. He gets the food in his mouth about half the time, but he has liked most things that we have given him. We are hoping that his fine motor skills improve with the introduction of more finger foods.
His two bottom teeth are officially in, and he loves to crunch on Cherrios with them. One of his top teeth just cut through a day or two ago, with just a little bit of fussing and drool this time around. We love seeing his toothy smile!
Joey has gotten the hang of the word "baba" and other baby babbling, but has yet to say the long awaited "mama" or "dada". Maybe he is saving it for our Christmas presents!
Joey's sleep has regressed a little since our last update. Teething, growth spurts, switching from three naps to two, and a slight disinterest in nursing has all contributed to it, but he is just now starting to get back on track. But he has learned *just* how loud he needs to scream to get Mom and Dad's attention while in his crib and supposed to be sleeping... (hint: it's really loud). Jamie and I are still working on trying to let him work through it too.
Likes and Dislikes
Joey has continued his love for hands and it has grown even more this month. He can get caught up simply looking at his own hands, but he also loves to look at and laugh at everyone else's hands too. He grabs others' hands and makes them clap, and has started to get the hang of clapping his own hands too. And if he really likes you he will grab your fingers and put them in his mouth!
Joey loves playing peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake. He has also just started giving big slobbery kisses. Most of them time he kisses you by opening his mouth and putting your nose into it, but he giggles like crazy when we say "mama kisses". He still loves watching TV, and it is so funny to see what positions he gets into in his play pen in order to see it. He sometimes has to squish his face up against the mesh on the side.
We are also practicing waving and high fives, but we will only get the occasional (and coincidental) success.
Earlier this month, Joey really hated the word "YAY". It scared him a few times when we said it out of excitement, enough of a scare to make him cry! But he continued to get a worried look on his face even when we said "yay" without any excitement or if we whispered it. As time has gone on, he has gotten more used to the word and thank goodness it no longer makes him cry!
Family Update
We had a rough month with pets this month as my parents had to put down our family cat, Dusty after a good 21 years or so, and Scruffy has had some more serious seizure episodes and is now taking medication. The medication has seemed to help so far, so we hope it continues to keep his seizures at bay. Scruffy has gotten a little less territorial with Joey this month because he realizes that the little creature that crawls all around the house also drops a lot of food that Scruffy gets to eat! But we are still very careful with the two of them together because we don't want Joey to use his "death grip" on Scruffy's beard or tail.
Joey celebrated his first Thanksgiving with the Sbicca family. He got to meet his second cousin Caroline and see a few family members for the first time! We all can't wait until he can partake in the annual Thanksgiving bocci ball tournament.
Another big first happened last weekend... It was Joey's first Brush Christmas Party! But because we were so busy visiting with everyone that we could and because Joey pooped out and crashed early, we didn't get any family photos during that night!!! (I know... WHAT the HECK!?! I'm still upset about it. We almost dressed up in the same clothes the next day to take a photo in front of the tree when we went over to do his pacemaker test...)
We are excited to announce that Joey's future girlfriend was born earlier this month! One of my besties gave birth to lovely, little Abigail Jane. She couldn't wait to meet Joey that she joined us a few weeks early! Joey can't wait for their first introduction! We are so happy for Kevine and Ryan!
We are also so excited for Joey's first Christmas and to see all of the family again. We've got our matching family Christmas jammie jams and some of our shopping is done. Can't wait to update you all next month! He has already met Santa at CHLA and he was mesmerized by his beard!
See you next year!
