Ambrose can do the mashed potato

Ambrose has made slow and steady improvement with his nutrition. He is tolerating his tube feeds better, rarely vomiting, and is gaining weight. We are feeding him Pediasure as well as goat's milk by g-tube, and we've recently reintroduced breast milk.

Although he is not taking a lot, he is definitely interested in tasting food by mouth. He receives weekly visits from both an occupational therapist as well as a speech therapist, and they are both focusing on his feeding. He's doing very well trying different textures, temperatures, and flavors, and we expect to see great improvement over the next few months.

He barely passed his overnight oxcimitry study last month, and is waiting for an official discharge from the pulmonologist, who has ordered another overnight study just to be sure.

A recent x-ray showed that Ambrose's hip remains in good position, but has not yet ossified, so we'll x-ray again in 6 months. Ambrose is crawling well, climbing stairs, cruising on furniture, leaping between pieces of furniture, and can walk holding on to something. A developmental specialist visits twice a week to help him practice.

Ambrose and Charlie are talking more saying "mama", and "dada" discriminately as well as the names and sounds of a few animals and the sound of Peter crying.

Welcome Peter Ignatius Iker!

Born: Thursday, September 16th at 7:24am.
Wt: 6lb 10oz
Length: 18"

End of Summer

Well, we survived the summer.

John Paul started kindergarten at a new school this year. He had a bit of a rough start, but settled in after a couple of weeks.

Josef turned 3 in July and is reluctantly potty training. He is home with the nanny and the babies. They spend their days rearranging the contents of the pantry and kitchen cabinets.

Charlie is walking and talking. He likes to look out the upstairs windows at the neighbors' dogs and say "dog". He is healthy and has caught up to his adjusted age group for height and weight. His head circumference is bigger than 90% of his birth age group. So he's a bit of a lawn dart and has to wear shirts with buttons on the shoulder.

Ambrose is close to walking, but he can crawl faster than Mommy can chase him. He is tolerating his tube feeds better and is gaining weight. His height to weight ratio is now proportionate, although he is still small for his age. He is also tasting lots of food by mouth, though mostly cheetos and pretzels.
His last overnight oximetry study showed that his blood saturation is still .1% lower than it should be when he sleeps. Next week he'll see the orthopedic, who will hopefully find that his bones are calcified and officially discharge him from the Wheaton hip brace. However, Ambrose is non compliant on both counts: he'll wear neither the oxygen nor the brace when he sleeps like he is supposed to, so discharge from either specialist will be just a formality anyway.
He has four visits a week of in-home therapy: a developmental specialist twice, and a speech therapist and occupational therapist both for feeding.

Ryan has been busy at work and recently spent a week in Albuquerque and another in Kansas. The boys missed him terribly, but not as much as Gina, who is full term and currently 1cm dilated and 50% effaced. The pregnancy has progressed extremely well since the little guy's bag of waters broke in May but mysteriously self-corrected. So Gina had no excuse but to return to work when school started in August. He still has no name, but we're sure he will by October.

Ryan also travelled recently to Ave Maria, FL for the baptism of our newest godchild, Xavier Augustine.