Fall Update :: Skywalker

:: Skywalker :: 

Well, Skywalker is 6 months old. Half-way to his first birthday. I am not quite sure where time has gone or where it keeps flying off to, but it is going somewhere.

Skywalker is so different from Marshmallow in so many ways. He always surprises me. He does things that either Marshmallow never really did or I just completely forgot about him doing. Skywalker is hitting all his milestones with ease. He is actually tracking ahead and hitting many 9 month milestones already. He is currently on his way to becoming a furniture cruiser with all the pulling up and standing he is doing lately. He crawls now with gusto and sits himself up with ease. He loves to tell me stories, babbling all day long. He absolutely loves his feet and is constantly sticking them his mouth. He has the sweetest smiles and the cutest squeak of a giggle. Definitely stealing our hearts the same way that Marshmallow did.

Back in September, Skywalker had a seizure while we were spending time with family in NH. We are not entirely sure what caused it or why. We did take him to the ER just to be sure that he was okay and nothing more was going on with him. Thankfully, he has not had any more since then. We have taken him to a neurologist to have it looked into. They had him get an EEG to see if there was any abnormal brain activity. Everything thankfully came back normal. If he has another seizure they will repeat with a longer test. They will also want to do a brain ultrasound or an MRI pending his age. The neurologist has no concerns about it though as he is developing normally and hitting all his milestones. Typically a child that suffers from seizures will be delayed with milestones as it interferes with how the brain functions. So for now, we wait to see if it will happen again. 

Currently the only concern with Skywalker is his weight gain. He seems to continually be falling off his growth curve. He was originally a big boy in the 50-75^th percentile for weight. But lost weight from 3 to 4 months dropping him to the 15^th percentile. And at his last appointment he only gained a few ounces from 5 to 6 months putting him in the 5^th percentile for weight. We did a swallow study in October, as he chokes a lot while breastfeeding. The swallow study showed that he was not having reflux or issues swallowing. That does not mean that there is not issues happening, they just did not show on the test. We also had his lip tie revision done at the end of September. I was hoping this would help with some of our struggles that we are still having with breastfeeding. While it has gotten better, we are still having some difficulty. I am currently looking at getting another opinion on his tongue tie to see if it is worth having that released. As many of the issues I have having with breastfeeding are pointing at him having a tongue tie. The doctor that preformed his lip tie, did say that Skywalker has a tongue tie. That it is a deep posterior tie that did not seem all that significant, but after seeing a lactation consultant again yesterday, we think it is best to have it evaluated again. As it may be more significant than it is appearing to really be.

In addition to further looking into his tongue ties, we have also now been referred to a pediatric GI. So just waiting for them to call so we can set up the appointment. For now, I am just continuing to feed him every two hours and we have begun adding solid foods two times a day as well, in between breastfeeding sessions. We have a weight check tomorrow and another then he turns 7 months old in a couple weeks. We are hoping he will not continued to fall in weight.

Everything else is going grand with him. Marshmallow is really warming up to being a big brother and seems to sometimes enjoy having Skywalker around. Skywalker sure loves being a little brother and loves his big brother. He follows Marshmallow all over the room and tracks his every movement. It will be fun to see how they interact as Skywalker continues to grow. It is exciting watching their bond form. I have a feeling Skywalker is going to totally be the annoying tag-a-long little brother, the shadow that big brother really does not want to have. But at the same time I see Marshmallow totally starting to love on his little brother, he really thinks at times that his little brother is a doll for all his games. It certainly is fun to watch.