Isabelle Bentley

Look who is finally in her big girl car seat!

When we went to the ER the other day, the doctors kept mentioning how she has eczema. Other doctors have mentioned it before but really no one said to do anything. Anyways, she has it everywhere. Arms, legs, back, face, chest. It doesn't seem to bother her. I think it may be connected to us not washing her clothes in dreft anymore because I never really noticed it before then. But it could be anything. So we are rewashing ALL of her clothes now.  It also started around the time we put her on milk... God I hope it's not milk related. She didn't start milk until December 9 though. As I look back at pics she didn't have it in the summer but did as the weather got colder so maybe it's cold weather related? I've also been putting vaseline and aquafore because other people with kids who have it recommended it. 

Isabelle is clapping and giving high fives if you ask her too. She also is sitting up by herself form the floor and going from sitting to the floor neatly.  She's also feeding herself a lot. And likes to. Although she haaates holding her bottle. Refuses to do it. She eats the food we are eating and chunky baby food too. Not eating with spoons yet by herself but with hands.  If you help her, she will stand for a few seconds and she loves to jump. MUCH better at putting weight on her feet.  Babbling like crazy. Mostly saying "dada". And... drum roll please... we saw her take 4 crawl "steps" this weekend.  And so it begins.

Isabelle had two Christmases - one in RI with Scott's family.  And one in NY with mine. Here are 4 generations: my grandma, my mom, me and Isabelle.  My mom made her that hat and the xylophone is probably her favorite toy.  Loves ripping the paper open. Most of her gifts. And sibling pics.

Isabelle's runner sent a new medal. AND  HAND MADE QUILT OF ALL THE SHIRTS SHE'S GOTTEN FROM RACES SHE'S DONE since being matched with Isabelle. 

I am so proud of Isabelle. She's eatin stage 3 chunky food. And she eats all the food we give her off our plates. And puffs and this baby Jax stuff. Some kids with DS have sensory issues and need purees much longer. You may notice that she is in the ER above. Another trip due to her turning dark purple on her hands and feet for a few hours. They did a chest xray. They are clear. Her SATs were 96-100.  They also did an ekg and called her cardiologist. He basically said he's not worried. He said some kids with ds just do this and there is no explanation for it. She had a cyanotic episode.

Isabelle's hair is starting to grow in back finally. It gets matted very easily if she's on her back too much, though. But it's long enough to put in pigtails. <3

Recently I started giving them baths together. SO MUCH EASIER and quicker.  However I don't really trust her to sit up so I got this sit up seat for her. Lifesaver. They got recalled because parents were leaving the kids in them and walking away and so the kids were tipping them over and drowning. I literally don't get that. I don't move an inch away from them when they are in the tub. She loves splashing around in it. By the way, the water has colors because we have tablets that turn it colors. One of Jack's favorite things to do is pick which color the bath water will be.

The title of this entry is inhalers. Plural.  We went to a pulmonologist today. She's had a terrible cough since September. It really hasn't gone away and it's gotten worse in the last few days. I took her to the doctor on Monday and they said her lungs are clear but wanted her to see this pulmonologist. Izzie coughed all night and all day at daycare and all the way to the doctor and then NOTHING for the entire time we were at the doctor. I explained how bad it was and that we had 2 ER visits and 2 rounds of steroids for 2 croup incidents. But since they didn't hear it and her lungs are clear... the doctor wanted to do Zyrtec for a month to reduce the phlegm and open her tiny airways more. When I started to put her clothes back on... she had a coughing fit and the doctor said "Oh... nevermind. We're gonna skip right to the inhalers and treat her for asthma." She doesn't have asthma but they treat it like asthma to open the airways more. So she has

I put Izzie's 9 month clothes in her drawers! Her legs are still 6 month but her body is 9 month. So cute. 

Izzie had her ear tubes follow up. They checked her tubes and they look good. They did a test of them to make sure they weren't blocked by fluid or wax. They're not. They also did a few different hearing tests on her. In one, she was wiggling around too much so we need to repeat it in 3 months. In the other, we sat in a sound proof room and they played noises through speakers and talked to her through a microphone. She did not do well. At her EIT appointment yesterday they also noticed she doesn't respond to noises - she doesn't turned her head if you ring bells to one side of her, for example. However, if someone talks, she turns. However, she didn't really turn for quieter noises on her right ear. It's not definitive so we need to repeat. She's obviously not deaf but people with DS can have hearing loss so she may have slight hearing loss. Nothing I'm worried about.

So Izzie sees early intervention (EIT) for physical therapy once a week and speech twice a month (but that's switch to once a week in January). They did her re-evaluation that happens every 6 months and they look at 5 areas: social interaction, cognition, gross & fine motor skills, adaptive and language (receptive and expressive). I'll get her exact scores next week but she qualified for 4/5 areas. You need to get a 76 or less to qualify for services. She was in the 60s except she got an 82 for social interaction. She's very attentive and copies things with her mouth (like kisses). That's awesome! She didn't qualify for one area! It uses something called the Battell test. 

Christmas 2016 card.