18 Months!

It is unbelievably hard to imagine, but Miss Rebekah is already 18 months old! Where does the time go?! Rebekah had a good check-up at her pediatrician's yesterday, and we are pleased with her stats. At 18 months, Rebekah is 29 and 3/4 inches long and weighs 18 pounds and 12 ounces. That puts her in roughly the seventh percentile for height and less than one percentile for weight. That's my girl! :) Rebekah wears somewhere between 12 month and 18 month clothes. Most of the 12 month clothing tends to be too short in the sleeves and pant legs, although she is nowhere near the weight for 18 month clothing. We don't worry too much about size and just use whatever fits best!

I realized that I never posted these pictures from Rebekah's December hospital stay. So, here they are!

Rebekah had a couple of special visitors during her hospital stay. Santa came while Rebekah was sleeping (during the afternoon, not the middle of the night :), and left an adorable plush teddy bear. Rebekah loves it, of course.

Rebekah's other visitor was Landon Powell of the Oakland Athletics. He is a super nice guy, and as we talked, we realized that his son is only a couple of weeks older than Rebekah. Rebekah wasn't all that impressed, but I thought it was very sweet of Landon to spend time during the holidays to visit with kiddos in the hospital.

Rebekah is making good progress in all of her developmental areas. She is saying around 15 words and has close to a dozen signs. I love knowing what Rebekah needs/wants so much of the time. Of course we do have times of frustration when Rebekah tries to communicate something that we don't understand, but overall she does a great job of letting us know what she needs.

In fine motor skills, Rebekah is very close to being age-appropriate, thanks to the hard work of our OT, Beth! :) Rebekah can stack 2, sometimes 3, blocks, color with a crayon or piece of chalk, mash and smash play-doh, stack rings, finger feed herself and push buttons of all kinds and sizes. Rebekah can identify one body part (nose!) consistently, and sometimes she can identify eye, mouth and belly button. :) Sounds like she has all of the important parts learned!

Rebekah received two dolls for Christmas this year. This doll has a pacifier that she enjoys taking out and putting back in. She also has a doll stroller that she likes to push around the living room.

As usual, Rebekah's weak area of development is in her gross motor skills, specifically locomotion. Rebekah is doing much better, however, with standing, pulling up and cruising. She plays completely freely in all positions - sitting, standing, cruising and walking with her push toys. We are so pleased with how well Rebekah is doing just two months (to the day!) after surgery.

Daddy and the kids before opening gifts.

Rebekah's other Christmas dolly. She is so soft and cuddly, and Rebekah loves to hug her.

Rebekah went back to physical therapy today for the first time since surgery. Her PT was very pleased with Rebekah's progress. One area of concern is Rebekah's left hip. Drew and I had noticed on several occasions over the past couple of weeks that Rebekah's left hip pops when it is rotated. I mentioned that to Rebekah's PT today, and she extensively worked with Rebekah's left hip and leg. By the end of our session, she was pretty certain that Rebekah's hip is not rotating correctly. This would definitely play a part in Rebekah's late walking, her unusual style of crawling, and as we are beginning to see more of now, a little "shuffle" with her left leg when she does practice walking while holding on to something. Rebekah has an appointment with a pediatric orthopedist (add another "-ist" to our list of doctors!) on January 24th for x-rays and hopefully a diagnosis. Depending on what could be going on, Rebekah may require some different exercises or treatments during therapy, a brace to keep her hip in the right location, or worst case scenario, possibly corrective surgery. We really will not have any idea until the doctor is able to look at the x-rays and tell us what he feels is happening.

Patiently waiting at the dinner table. As a Christmas "bonus," we took Rebekah's oxygen off for a few hours at each grandparent's house on the days we celebrated Christmas with them. It gave Rebekah a little bit of a break, and it helped to not be tripping over tubing!

Rebekah wanted to help me unload the dishwasher on Sunday after church. She got as far as the whisk and decided that it made a great toy! :)

This little step-stool makes a perfect little bench for Bekah. She was so proud of getting on and off it by herself!

So tomorrow (Thursday) we will see Rebekah's audiologist for a re-check of her hearing. I am going to ask about discontinuing further re-evaluations unless we begin to see problems. Rebekah passed her "long" hearing test, so I really do not see the need to keep doing these "short" tests every six months that usually produce negative or inconclusive results for Rebekah. Originally the audiologist recommended re-evaluations to monitor hearing in the likely event of ear infections (which most kids with DiGeorge Syndrome are very prone to having). However, Rebekah has only had one mild ear infection and one possibly borderline ear infection in her entire life. I hardly consider that "recurrent" ear infections! It may seem like a small thing to only have to go every six months, but when 3 or 4 doctors want to see Rebekah every six months, plus a handful of doctors want to see her every 3 months or less, it adds up in a hurry! This month we have nine doctors visits scheduled for Rebekah, not to mention three therapies a week. It's no wonder I feel like I'm never home to catch up on laundry and cleaning! I'm not complaining about it, though, not one little bit! I will take having Rebekah at home and all of her doctor's visits rather than her being in the hospital! We sure love having that little girl in our family!

Nancy