4.20.2012

Curcumin Stains Be Gone!!!!

Thought I'd share as Im very excited about this.
Last week D got Am up in the morning and found she had thrown up in the middle of the night. He knew this because her sleeper, as well as, the 4 blankets she was sleeping with were covered in bright yellow Curcumin stains. They were already dry, so I didnt have much hope for getting them out, but did a quick search and found someone claiming dishsoap worked to remove curcumin. I doused the outfit and blankets in Seventh Generation dish liquid, rubbed the fabric together, and then washed them. When I pulled them out of the washer, the stains were noticeably lighter, but still there. I then tried putting zout on them, rubbing the fabric together and rewashed. D ended up putting in the dryer and I forgot to warn him about checking, but as it turns out, everything is 100% stain free. The worst of the blankets is white and light pink, and there is NO trace of any curcumin -- yey!

Over the bridge and through the traffic to Swedish ER we go!

I dont know how I forgot our most exciting adventure of the past few weeks.
While rushing to get ready for the QA egg hunt, D had a picture fall on his head and got a 2" gash from it.
We couldnt tell how bad it was because there was SOOO much blood -- Ill spare the details except to say that head wounds bleed  A LOT!
D and I were taking bets on when our first trip to the ER would be, but that was with Max. D was the unexpected entry into the game.

Ok, 1 pic.

4.17.2012

Egg Lovin Eggers

im going to skip over the guilt of not posting for 2 weeks again and go straight to the good stuff.

supplement wise we upped Am's ginko to 2x a day, and upper her curcumin to 1000 mg per pay.
we havent noticed any change in energy or sleeping patterns, or any huge developmental changes.
we have noticed Am is saying ee words much more often hiieee, and mommee
-- before she could only say ahh sounds
she's also talking more and trying to say more. sometimes i say words to her and i can see her trying to figure out how to imitate my mouth movements.
she's also taken a BIG interest in books lately, and i can trust her to not rip or mouth paper pages

we had our first consult with PT last week, (only had OT and SLP before) and PT provided us with some great exercises to get Am to push her weight back onto her legs to get to standing instead of pulling up with her arms. i've noticed a big jump in core strength since we started that.
we should get Am's SPIO suit in the next week or two, and I think that will really help if it is long enough to go over her hips as I think her walking difficulty stems from her loosey goosey hip joints.

the biggest development i noticed last week was during that PT session. we were making Am walk to the table to have a snack and she was tired and about done with working so hard.
she alternated from me, to the PT, to Daniel to complain to each of us and in essence ask us to pick her up and take her over to the table. she has become quite assertive and vocal in letting us know what she wants, or doesnt want lately, but that was the first time i really saw her devising a scheme and targeting specific people to help her implement it -- i think its a big leap in reasoning on her part :)

im still going back and forth on whether we should go get a formal neuro-dev evaluation and plan done soon. we are doing ok with everything we are doing now, and at some point she just has to be allowed to be a kid and have fun, but i also dont want to look back and think, we should have done more..

anyhow, we are off to a fabulous spring, so i have dusted off my camera again and can share some kid lovin....

Happy Egg Dance at St Annes
Am wasnt so into the collecting eggs thing
Easter Party with Friends
Easter Party Apples :)
I love these pics because they are just sooo max.

4.02.2012

Vitametavegimin!!!!

blogging is not good for my self esteem.
i look at the date of the last entry and feel guilty every. time.
the truth is, we are busy, and its not yet a habit, and i just forget to update, but i am determined to be more consistent as i just read through some past entries while looking for a particular pic of am and had quite the trip down memory lane.
actually, my memory is TERRIBLE, so its almost like reading someone elses story :)

anyways, im starting back up to school today and get to take lots of fun classes this quarter, so i am excited about that, but i should really be reading through 4 syllabuses right now instead of on here so quick synopsis:

Week 1. we started Am on 1/8 tsp 2x p/d of nutrivene d about a month and a half ago
Week 2. upped to 1/4 tsp 2x per day -- her full dose as we are ALmost up to a whopping 16 lbs!
-- (sarcasm here folks, just found out that puts her between 0.0-0.1% on the growth charts)
week
Week 3. started 1/5 dropper of ginko in am
Week 4. started 2/5 dropper of ginko in am
Week 5ish 2/5's in am / 1/5 in pm, and a tiny bit of juice plus powder
Week 6. just this past saturday started 1/4 tsp of Longvida Curcumin in the am, but i need to look and see if we can switch to afternoon as she tends to spit up more in the am, and this stuff stains like the dickens

this past weekend, we stayed in mostly to work on IPT, if you dont know what that is, I'll spare you...
ok, I wont, it's Intensive Potty Training -- Livin It Up Here in the QA.

anyhow, this weekend Am said 3 new words, including a very clear mommy while I was passing her over to D -- v. happy about that one ;)

The Curcumin is supposed to have an effect on language so I was hoping to see some change within a week or so.... Im hesitant to say Am's new words were LC based, but the timing is suspect!
She has also started sideways cruising really well -- she can go down the whole length of the couch now and in general just feels more solid -- hopefully walking will be soon, but we still need to get an orthotic consult -- another thing to add to the list!
We have plans to add or up about 10-15 more supplements, so will update as we do.


In other catch up notes:

We did the 3 day lockdown PT method with Max and it worked REALLY well!
-- and then we had some backsliding, but all in all, max is such a champ and hes such a sweet sweet guy. his new thing is to take my face in his hands out of no where and whisper i love you. its honestly the best thing ever.
after almost 9 years of living up here, I FINALLY found an awesome PCP for myself who is in  practice with an NP who we met in the office and I am going to take Amelie to for a variety of reasons, but mostly thyroid related -- to be discussed in another post.
ae successfully made it through another quarter of dental school and had some exciting new opportunities open up for D, also to be discussed later.
after a month and a half of specialists and pins and needles, determined my vision loss was not caused by anything neurological and thus not indicative of an autoimmune disease -- hurrahh!!!

im sure there's lots im forgetting so will update as my memory is refreshed, or as d refreshes it rather!