Happy Monday

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We're kind of going through the post-holiday lull right now. There's not a ton going on, but we're keeping busy.

Jake has his MRI on Wednesday. To prepare for it, he can't eat for a few hours before (only water) and also is supposed to only get half of his regular amount of sleep. I'm thinking that will result in a very upset baby, but we have to follow the rules. Michele will be taking the full day off to be with him after the test, but I thought it might be smarter to let daycare deal with him :) Actually, we like his teachers, so we probably wouldn't want to subject them to that.

Jake has a lot of toys that are pretty cool. We found one, however, that I think every parent with an infant/toddler should get. Jake fell in love with the drum we gave Elle for Christmas, so we went out and got him one as a 9 1/2 month birthday present (good reason for a gift, huh). Not only does Jake like watching the lights, rolling it around, and beating on it, but it doesn't annoy us! The melodies are not harsh, and the lights really are spectacular. If you have access to a Discovery Channel Store, I would highly recommend it, or you can find it here.

Also, we just got back Jake's 9 month professional photographs from JCPenney's. We ended up getting four different poses this time. You can see them here: POSE1, POSE2, POSE3, and POSE4.

Pediatric Neurologist Exam Results

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Before I get started, I think this has to post has to win the award for best blog title... maybe not.

Jake met with Dr. Manica, a very experienced (old) pediatric neurologist today. Dr. Manica is VERY personable, and took the time to not only explain why we were sent there, but to give us a mini-education on how the brain works. Once we had the fundamentals of the sides of the brain, the ventricles, the fissures, and the pores (arachnoid granulations), he was able to overlay our pediatrician's findings from the ultrasound so that we fully understood it. From a very high level, Jake is probably fine. He will have further tests, and his pediatricians need to pay close attention to his head growth, but for now they think he will likely outgrow his condition. Now, I'll try to explain what we learned.

In layman's terms, Jake DOES have too much fluid in his brain. Basically, the brain produces a bunch of fluid that the brain floats in, and to protect the spinal cord. This is not a pool of fluid, but a moving stream. After it leaves the brain, does it's job protecting stuff, it returns to the brain where it's sucked in by the pores and travels through the arteries to the heart, and eventually to the kidneys where it's passed out. The process typically takes 8 hours, and is started over. It's kind of like a continual flush of the system.

The problem Jake has, is his pores are a little too small to allow for the proper absorption and passage to the kidneys. This has caused some back pressure and has increased the amount of fluid in the top-front part of his brain. As his brain grows, hopefully the pores will also get larger, and have better capability to absorb the fluid. This article does a good job explaining hydrocephalus, but it is VERY technical, and provides information not relevant to Jake's condition.

If this was more serious, the fluid would back up all the way into where it is created (in the ventricles) which is on the inside of the brain. You can see why swelling there could cause problems. From the ultrasound, however, his ventricles appeared to by symmetrical and not shifted off-center.

Dr. Manica, then performed a neurological test that checked Jake's language skills, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, and his social skills. He said Jake did excellent on all the tests for a nine month old even though he should really be tested as a 7 1/2 month old.

On the 17th, Jake will be headed back to the center for an MRI. The ultrasound was blurry in parts due to the fact that Jake was moving around. The MRI will give them a much better picture to make sure that their observations are correct. After the MRI, we will be meeting with a neurosurgeon to discuss the findings of the MRI, and then he can inform us of any further treatment that might be necessary.

We are all very happy with the news, and hope that the MRI will only confirm that he's doing OK, and will outgrow this problem. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.

In other news, Michele visited with DLCnM yesterday on her last day of vacation. The whole family seems to be settling in well, and Maiya is starting out as a very good sleeper. We hope she keeps it up for Lynette's sake.

Happy New Year!

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Michele and I opted to ring in the New Year at home this year. Jake's sleep schedule was thrown for quite a loop over Christmas, and now that it was finally back to almost normal, we didn't want to risk breaking it before we start work again.

We had a lovely evening. Jake went down around 6:30 as usual. I then grilled out a couple of Top Sirloin steaks from Omaha Steaks while withstanding varying states of downpour. We added to the steaks with a mixture of baby redskin potatoes and asparagus cooked in olive oil and then sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. We accompanied the meal with a bottle of Jacob's Creek Shiraz. I'm not much of a wine drinker, but I've decided to be more open to it for Michele's sake. While one glass was plenty, I actually did enjoy it. We then played a little PS2 (yes... Michele actually played a video game) before cleaning up from dinner. I got a collection of Midway arcade games for Christmas, and one of those games was a variation of Michele's favorite arcade game, Tapper. She cursed me for both beating her, and getting her hooked on it, insisting that she'll be spending more time in front of the PS2 in the future. After cleaning up the kitchen, we watched the movie Click while eating the creme brulee that I finally got around to making (from a mix). When that ended, we had enough time to flip over to ABC to watch their New Years Rockin' Eve party, and countdown to 2007. We then took Jake's first picture of the year, downed our mini bottle of champagne and went to bed.

Today, Jake really started getting into feeding himself puffs. You can see those photos here.

Also, here are some more shots of Maiya from DLCnM.

MPnA are headed down this afternoon to watch the Rose Bowl with us. I think we're going to have some delicious Taco Pie and then finish off the creme brulee.

We hope everyone had as good a start to 2007 as we did, and hope it continues through the whole year!

Happy Birthday - Maiya (part 3)

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We all made it up to the hospital today. DLCnM were, of course, all there, along with Pete and Teri. Dana Wingblad paid a visit while we were there as well. She brought Lynette all sorts of snacks and sweets that looked like they'd really hit the spot.

Everyone is doing well, and it looks like Mom and baby should both be discharged tomorrow after a final checkup. Knowing how well Lynette does on exams, I'm guessing they'll be home in time for the Lions game!

Michele and I are about to settle in for the night and hopefully watch the Spartans clinch the GLI Championship over the Wolverines.

Happy Birthday - Maiya (part 2)

Please click on the picture to see a few more photos of Maiya. Hopefully we'll have even more shots to post tomorrow after our visit.

Michele also wanted to let everyone know that Dan WAS there. He may even be in some of the pictures on their camera. We'll be sure to link to them if/when they get posted.