All About Anderson

 My sweet baby boy will be one tomorrow!  I can't believe it!!  Anderson is such a sweet baby.  He looks so much like Everett did at this age, but he has beautiful blue eyes and Everett had brown very early on.  Anders LOVES his big brother and is completely enraptured with watching Everett any time he is in the room.  He is such a mama's boy, but is crazy about his daddy.  He said "mama" first on July 23rd , then on the 27th said "dada".  He said both of these previously, but we didn't count them as words until he said them consistently and associated them with a person.  He started pulling up and cruising months ago, but hasn't taken his first steps yet.  He does stand without holding on to anything sometimes.  Anderson is a monkey!  He climbs on everything-the ottoman, the dishwasher, the bookshelf, the dining room chairs, basically anything that he can get his hands on.  Ander loves to be held.  Sometimes he'll follow me all through the house saying "mama" and pulling up on my legs anytime I stop.  It makes it awfully hard to get anything done!  I'm still nursing him which means we have almost officially made it an entire year nursing!!  We have started giving him cow's milk in his sippy, but he's not wild about it.  He is a great eater.  His favorites are probably beans, chicken, apples, cheerios, and french fries.  He ate baby food for a very short time because he prefers table food.  He is such a smiley guy, and will "talk" to and smile at anyone who pays attention to him(as long as they don't try to take him from his mama).  He is still not sleeping through the night which means I am one exhausted mama.  Everett started sleeping through the night in his own room in his own bed at six months old.  Anderson's crib is still in our bedroom.  The plan is for Everett and Anders to share a room and with Anders not sleeping through the night we don't want his night waking to wake up Everett.  Sometimes he wakes up just to make sure I'm there and goes back to sleep once I pat him on the back.  He still takes his pacifier, but we are limiting it to naps, bedtime, and when he's in the car in hope that when we are ready to take it away it won't be too traumatic.  He loves to splash in the bath, and has been caught splashing in the toilet more times than I want to admit.  He adores Bella and chases after her and terrorizes her.  She is quite protective on him and is very tolerant of the hair/tail pulling and any other terrible things he does to her.  He is wearing size 3 diapers, and mostly 9 month clothes.  He has eight teeth and is cutting his left top molar.  It's barely peeking through.  I'm not exactly sure how much he weighs or how long he is these days; he has a check-up on Friday and we'll find out then.

In January, Anderson was diagnosed with GERD.  He was put on Zantac, and when that wasn't controlling his reflux well enough he was put on Prevacid.  At birth, he failed the newborn hearing screen.  Ever since we have been going to the audiologist/ENT for testing.  He continually failed OAE(Otoacoustic emission) testing, so in February he had ABR(Auditory Brainstem Response) testing.  The ABR is more detailed and has a smaller margin of error.  He had normal results on the ABR, so we thought we weren't dealing with hearing loss.  He started getting ear infections.  He got one that didn't respond to Amoxicillin so we tried Omnicef.  When that didn't work he was given Rocephin injections which cleared up the infection, but not the fluid.  Then, when I was brushing his teeth one night I realized he had a severe frenulum(the connection between the top lip and gums) tie.  It suddenly clicked for me that he had had a shallow latch when breastfeeding the entire time, and that it was because of the frenulum tie.  At our next appointment, the pediatrician sent us to a different ENT for a consultation about the frenulum tie, the persistent fluid on his ears, and the failed OAE's.  Dr. Ostrower said that he most definitely needed tubes put in his ears to get rid of the fluid and that he would do the frenectomy at the same time.  On May 23 he had the surgery.  He wasn't in the OR long, and we had him home by the afternoon.  Breastfeeding immediately became easier for him, and his latch was much better.  He also started going longer in between nursings because he was getting fuller because of the proper latch.  After we got back from Texas we had a follow-up visit with the ENT and audiologist.  All of us (the doctors included) thought that he would pass the OAE testing with the tubes in place,  but he didn't.  Because of this, we were told he would need another ABR test done and that he would need to be sedated.  Last Thursday I took him for his sedated ABR.  It revealed that he has mild-moderate mixed (both sensorineural and conductive)  in his R ear and mild hearing loss in his L ear.  He will need a hearing aid for the R ear, and most likely will need speech therapy to ensure that his speech and language develop normally.  We have an appointment with his regular audiologist and Dr. Ostrower on the 27th and will know more about what we need to do from here.  As of right now we have no idea why he has the hearing loss.  We are heartbroken, but are determined to do all that we can to advocate for him and get him whatever he needs to excel in life. 

Anderson has been the perfect addition to our family, and we can not imagine life without him.  I am so very blessed to be his mommy.  Happy Birthday, my darling boy! I love you through and through.