It feels strange to not have taken pictures in the last few weeks. It feels equally strange to not have typed up a blogpost recently. I'm learning that pictures and memory-keeping are some of my favorite things...
But, it has been a whirlwind lately.
New job. Twelve days in, and I'm really liking it. The first day (or two...) was filled with anxiety and fear. After all, it was so hard to leave Burke. I was so happy there. But, I do believe this door opened to me for a reason, and I'm already beginning to get excited about the coming year. Toni, whose place I'm taking and who retired (as of 5 p.m. yesterday!) was wonderful during our two weeks together. She is so sincere and helpful, and I wonder how I'll manage without her. Jeff is great- I've been so lucky to have Wally, Scott, and now Jeff as my boss.
Jacob is growing like a weed. He grew an inch in about five weeks. (Labeled in ink on the kitchen wall growth chart to prove it.) He just left this afternoon to go with momma to Steph's for a few days. I miss him already.
Brian has been so great helping me adjust to my new job. I don't get home until late, and he has both kiddos on his days off now that summer is here. But, he lets me go to bed early when I crash from my new-job-adrenaline-rush. And he doesn't say a word when I shop for new clothes (you know, for my new job). And he washes all the beach towels from days at the pool, cooks delicious meals (except for that burnt steak, right honey?
Olivia. Our mystery girl. Chromosome testing came back normal. Next step is MRI, I guess. We took her off of whole milk, switching her to soy milk about three weeks ago. We try to keep her off all dairy, but we haven't researched enough to know exactly what to look for in nutrition labels. So, for now, we are keeping obvious milk products out of her diet. We'll fine tune it soon, when I have some time to get serious about it. I know there isn't a ton of research out there about casein/gluten free diets and the effect they have on brain functioning. But, in the last three weeks, Olivia's speech has taken off (comparatively speaking) and her eye contact has improved. Before soy, it seemed she could recognize and say "O" and "W" sometimes. Two days ago, she had a toy with buttons for every letter of the alphabet. The batteries were dead, so she just pushed the buttons and proceeded to name THIRTEEN letters. She randomly pointed to the letters and said thirteen of them. (A, B, E, I, M, N, O, P, R, W, X, Y, Z) Could it be a fluke? Could it be that she was going to say them anyway and that she was already improving her eye contact? Maybe. But, baby girl may never see a cup of milk again.
Some of her other new words-
ba-na = banana
li = light
flow = flower
She is starting to repeat a few words, which she has very rarely done in the past.
Olivia hasn't been taking good steps for quite a while now. She'll drag her feet a couple of times, and then collapse. Jeanine has started coming back once a week and she thinks this is related to another growth spurt. Thanks to zoloft, I'm not crying every day like I was. But, it is still so hard...
Sara had a tiny baby boy last week. Colten Ian. He's such a itty-bitty cutie pie.
We are going to have a new Walgreens down the street. I told Steph last week, I prayed A LOT of selfish prayers, and within two days of the announcement, I had Steph and Shaun excited about moving to Lenoir! I'll keep praying that things fall into place... selling the house, finding a house... before next May when Shaun will start at the store here. I'm still in shock! So exciting.
So many changes. Thank you God, for I see You in all of these changes. You make good of what I perceive to be bad, and you guide me through every season. Even these
3 comments:
I was wondering where you've been....I was just about to e-mail you! It's great to hear things are going better & your new job sounds great. Praying things keep looking up! Are you still planning to attend convention this year? We hope to see you there!
Just so you know, Marcy's chromosome testing came normal the first go around too. I get all flustered trying to explain it, but this is the best way I know how:
The initial test just is a "snap" test. It sees if there are any deletions (missing pieces) or additions (extra pieces) on the chromosome map. If they see nothing extra or missing that is it.
It took us some more indepth testing to find out about our distal AMC. They knew it was probably a protein substitution on the 9th chromosome so they looked there.
I hope you don't think I'm talking down to you because I'm not. I'm just trying to explain it if you have any readers pop by and read the comments section who aren't familiar with genetics.
I don't know if Olivia had a snap test done or a more specific look at a specific chromosome.
But I know how frustrating it can be. It wasn't until Marcy's 3rd birthday we knew anything, and here we are at age 5 and we still know very little because there just isn't much they can test for, with so little research and families stepping forward to get tested.
So I wait and hope that by the time she is an adult, we'll know alot more so she can do her own family planning.
I'm so nervous about her going to school. She will be getting some adaptations in the classroom---but I hope it is okay for her. I want her to blend in, so much.
Quit working and start blogging... :) I miss you! Love reading and wondering if and when I'll see you again. Will you ever meet Jeremy????
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