Precious!

How precious is this picture?? Elle is getting her first kiss from a boy! My friend, Courtney, and I had sessions with this great photographer on Sunday and she snapped this picture at the end. I especially love this picture because there is a story behind it... Elle was also born at 25 weeks, weighing 1 lb, 6 oz, and spent five months in the hospital too. Courtney and I share a special friendship through this experience and she has been a great support to us. We really understand what the other goes through--past and present. Its so neat to see these two together. Lucas is usually intimidated by other babies because they move so quickly or are loud (he typically cries if they reach for him or are in his face). With Elle, its different, he's interested in her and is not afraid. He didn't hesitate when I told him to give her a kiss. Its like he knows she's safe and as Courtney has said before, "they're going to have each other's back." I kept thinking as I watched them this weekend, how amazing they both are. You would never know by looking at them today that they had to fight so hard to be here.

I don't have the rest of the pictures yet, she just happened to post this one yesterday. I'll share the rest when I get them. I've attached a few below that the same photographer took last month at the Cherry Blossoms when they were in bloom here in DC. We had them done for the grandmothers for Mother's Day, but just got around to ordering them (delayed, as usual... the story of my life)!

A few activities since I last posted... we saw the plastic surgeon last week to discuss having the surgery on Lucas' nose this summer, but I think we're going to wait another year or two. First, he told us that he'd love to do the surgery but that he was leaving Children's National to take a position as the Head of Plastic Surgery at Children's in Akron, Ohio. I know... what? Ohio? We're sad because we really like this guy (and all the other doctors we've talked to that know him say nothing but great things about him). I guess that's what happens when we have the "best of the best" doctors at the National location... they're a catch! He referred us to another doctor, but said that he is more on the conservative side, so it is likely that he will want to wait for Lucas to be bigger. We are really torn because there is really no good "developmental window" for this, because they will have to splint his arms for three weeks to keep him from touching his nose. We talked about it with our PT, Carla, and thought that this may be a good time because he's not using his arms much for crawling yet... and where in several months, he hopefully will be. But, there is the argument that it is better if the nose is more grown and more likely that they'll only have to do one surgery. If they do it too early, it is possible they would have to go back in and do an adjustment later. So... what to do? We're not sure yet, but it is looking like we're going to wait. We see the other surgeon in a couple weeks and will determine it then.

We saw our holistic pediatrician (Dr. Razi) again last week, Lucas woke up with a slight rash on his back and he's been showing dry patches of skin around his hairline and the area is getting bigger. I decided to take him to her rather than the regular pediatrician, with the suspicion that it had to do with food. She's awesome, by the way... I called her office in the morning to make an appointment, and she calls back. Not a receptionist or office worker, it is the doctor herself. She asked a bunch of questions, then we made an appointment a few hours later. She asked me to bring a list of everything he eats. I was worried about this because I know that we are on this mission to "fatten" him up, which I know is not always the most healthy food. Even the GI tells us to give him very high fat, non-healthy foods because weight gain is more important than nutrition right now (which totally conflicts with other medical opinions). Seeing Dr. Razi is not clinical at all... she is so sweet and personable with him, its like I'm taking him to a relative. We spent the whole hour talking about family history and the food he eats. Then she dropped the biggest challenge on me yet... remove all dairy and as much processed foods as possible from his diet. Dairy?? All of my "cheat sheets" on fattening him up contain butter, cheese, yogurt, adding powdered milk, etc. She went on to explain how difficult dairy is to process and that it ultimately restricts blood flow. And for a special needs child, blood flow is especially important for the brain. There are other ways to get protein, calcium, and vitamin D... it doesn't have to come from dairy.

She told me that if she were a researcher, she'd have case study after case study of children she sees that have completely changed after removing dairy... they are strong and healthy kids, and neurologically improved beyond her expectations. If anyone has followed Jenny McCarthy in the media and her messages about nutrition and Autism, this is very similar. Removing caisen (dairy) can have an amazing impact on the brain and behavior. I believe it wholeheartedly, its just going to be hard to make the change, and it will require adjusting the way we eat too. We've been at it for almost two weeks now and its going pretty well... Lucas' diet has to start with a base of brown rice, quinoa, couscous, barley, etc., and then vegetables (preferrably yellow), and fruits. Some meat is ok, but not every day. I found out this weekend that the boy LOVES fresh cherries... how about that, Mom? Grandma would love that! My grandmother had a cherry tree in the front yard and as a kid I loved to eat them right off the tree... or when they weren't in season, she'd pull out frozen ones just for me that she'd canned the year before. Kind of like the nastalgic black eyed peas thing for Bran! :-)

So, even though we were already eating pretty healthy fruits and veggies, no more processed food, pasta, nutrigrain bars, yogurt, mac & cheese, graham crackers, etc... she wants only natural "straight from the earth" foods. No minute rice either (which zaps the nutrition from processing). So, I bought a rice cooker and have been becoming a regular Whole Foods shopper! I was putting things in my cart last weekend from the doctor's list that I had never even heard of, let alone ever cooked! I have to admit that although a lot of it is foreign to me (...like what the hell do I do with quinoa?), I am excited about the possibilities and am totally up for the challenge!

The doctor told me she bets by removing this from his diet, that the eczema-looking patches will probably go away. I have to tell you that already in a little over a week, the area is becoming smaller and smaller. I know that if I had taken him to the regular pediatrician, we would have been sent home with a prescription to treat the skin instead of looking at the reason it started in the first place. How many times do we treat the symptom with medicine and chemicals instead of treating the cause? This is exactly why we changed to the ABM therapy, which trains the brain (the root cause of the motor issues) rather than treating and stretching the tight muscles (the symptom of the issue). I still have a lot to learn, but I've become fascinated by natural remedies. I truly believe that people come into your life for a reason, and I have been blessed this past year to cross paths with some amazing ones.

On to some not-so-great news... we're scheduled for an MRI early tomorrow morning. It is time for Lucas' checkup with the Neurosurgeon right now, but I'm also seeing some behavior in him that makes me suspect another malfunction. When I called Dr. Yaun last week, she decided rather than expose him to more radiation with a CT, that she'd give him an MRI slot that just opened up. This will also give her a much more granular view of the ventricles, something she's been wanting to do anyway. I've been wrong before on this, so I'm trying not to jump to conclusions... but I've also been "right" on my suspicions more often than wrong. And the closer we get to the test tomorrow, the more he seems to be showing symptoms. I hope I'm wrong, but if I am not, there is a chance we'll be doing another shunt surgery. I'll try to post here tomorrow after the scan to let everyone know the outcome. I sure wish he could get a break with this... most kids go years without a shunt revision, Lucas can't seem to get more than six months.

I just hope that if we have to do it, it will be this week. We are scheduled to go to New York next weekend to see the Anat Baniel practioner, Marci. She is an ABM trainer and one of the best in the Nation. She is only person that Anat (herself) views as her equal. We have talked about taking him to see Anat in California (which many travel from all over the country to see Anat), but New York is a lot more convenient (3 hours by train). Our ABM PT, Carla, highly recommends supplementing treatments with Marci because she is so good. She's sent a lot of kids to her and said they have really catapulted to the next level after being treated by her. We've been excited for awhile and she's tough to get into, so I definitely don't want to have to reschedule several months out due to surgery. She is scheduled to treat him twice on Friday, twice on Saturdy, and twice on Sunday. This won't be a typical New York City trip for Bran and I with sight seeing, restaurants, and shopping... but it will be a special trip nonetheless.

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Here are the cherry blossoms pictures... these were supposed to be of just Lucas for Mother's Day, but it was a short 20 minute session and since he can't quite sit up unassisted yet, she decided to shoot most of them with all three of us. I'm ruining the gift for our families by posting these before you've all gotten the prints we ordered, but what the heck.

Not the best view, but the tree is pretty

Happy Boy

Mr. Serious

Kisses from Daddy

Little Ham

I love this one...
Come on, Mom... I am done!