Well, Jacob is 19 months old now, but he had lots of follow-up appointments around the time he turned 18 months and it’s been a wild week over here! This age has been so special because I really feel like I missed the 18-24 month stage with TJ since I was so busy with Jacob in his newborn stage. Jacob is saying new words every day and is growing into the sweetest little toddler. He’s still followed by his team of specialists, but, for the first time really ever, I feel like I’m not waiting for the next big health emergency with him.
The good news is, most of Jacob’s issues are steady or improved at this point. His food allergies are what they are and, with the exception of a reaction to tomatoes about a month ago, he hasn’t had any new allergies or FPIES triggers in quite a while. We’re still avoiding dairy and he’s still taking his belly medicine every day, but he genuinely enjoys eating which is a far cry from where we were this time last year. He’s graduating from feeding therapy and is down to regular thin liquids with no thickener, and that’s a huge victory for him with his history of laryngomalacia.
The other big improvement recently has been that Jacob’s kidney is totally healthy for the first time in his life! On one of my last ultrasounds, they picked up hydronephrosis, or extra fluid in his kidney, which is from a condition called pyelectasis. We’ve been following it with renal ultrasounds since he was born and 18 months was the point that we were going to have to consider surgery if it hadn’t resolved on its own – and it did! His ultrasound last month showed a complete healthy kidney with no extra fluid.
One of the biggest things we were worried about at his 15-month-appointment was that Jacob wasn’t walking. We saw Physical Therapy for an evaluation and they were so amazing with helping us help him. Jacob never crawled – he did this adorable little bum scoot – so he didn’t transition from crawling to standing like most kids do. He had to figure out how to get from sitting straight up to standing, and his balance wasn’t great. Physical Therapy showed us how to set up activities for him to play with that would help his balance and strength, and after only a few appointments, he took off walking at 16 months. Walking was one of the biggest points of comparison I made between TJ and Jacob – TJ was walking steadily the week he turned one and was always really confident on his feet. Jacob still isn’t as confident and prefers to hold my hand, but I think that’s just his sweet and cautious demeanor. I’ve learned a few lessons over the past few years, and comparison is one I’m still working on!
My sweet boy has come so very far this year, and I couldn’t be prouder of him. Watching his sweet, sensitive, caring, and mellow personality develop every day is bringing us so much joy and we can’t wait to see where the next few months take us!
xo,
Stephanie
Recent Comments