Monday, March 19, 2007

Quitters














This is CJ's foot, isn't it the cutest? He is growing so fast -10 pounds already. He's sleeping better at night in his Amby Baby and so I'm sleeping better too. He's doing well with his methadone reductions and should be completely weaned off by the end of the month.

Jo has been watching a potty video in the mornings and that has lead to her asking to go potty throughout the day. It hasn't lead to actually going in the potty, but I'll take what I can get. Lili has went potty a few times so I'm hopefully I might have two underwear-wearing girls by the end of the year. They're both very interested in TP and wiping. Last night Jo and Lili got out of bed went into my bathroom and proceeded to tear off a whole roll of TP and put it in the toilet in little pieces. I had to put a grocery sack on my hand and scoop the stuff out before I could get the toilet to work again. Yuck.

Lilia had her 3 yr check up this past week and the doctor is referring us to an endocrinologist to see about putting her on growth hormone. The thought is a little scary to me- so chemical and unnatural. Sometimes as a mom to a special needs kid I forget that our typical is not "normal". At three years old she's only 21 pounds and 33 inches. She's still wearing 12-18 month old clothes and hasn't appeared on a regular growth chart. Anyone have experience with growth hormone?

In other interesting news of note.....my mother is attempting to quit smoking. I come from a long line of raspy voiced smokers. All of the women in my family are big smokers, my mother since she was 13. That's a 60 year habit. I told her I would buy her patches if she wanted to quit and she's gone a week now! Yeah mom.

I'm a three time quitter myself. The first time I quit it lasted a few months, the 2nd time lasted a whole year and this 3rd (and final!) time it's been 5 years.

8 comments:

Maggie said...

So much to comment on! I'm glad CJ is doing well. That has to be hard on his little body to wean off of the methadone. I'm glad he's handling it well.

Good luck with the potty training. Hopefully the fascination with TP was satisfied with that one venture, though.

I have no experience with GH. But I know that the little guy I hosted from Russia was very, very tiny and I worried about it becoming problematic. He was so tiny he didn't land on the growth charts at all, either. (8 years old, 42 pounds) I was worried about how he'd do socially in school being so much smaller than the other kids.

Maggie said...

p.s. Congrats on quitting smoking!

Amanda said...

I'm glad to hear that he's sleeping better. Yay!

FosterMommy said...

Yay for the Amby! They should give me a little somethin' for all the hammocks I've off-loaded for them. Two in the past month, in fact.

CJs foot is so cute! I was just munching Squeak's feet earlier, in fact.

MommyNay said...

J was placed with us at age 38months and weighed 22.4 pounds and was 33" tall. So about the same size as Lili. We see an endocrinologist every 3months. When they ran her blood work he discovered that her FTT wasnt actually hormone related and that (thankfully) we didnt need HGH(yet) He has continued to moniter her. I am so happy to say now at 47months old she is now 36" tall and weighs 29.3lbs!!!!!!! so that 3and 1/2"'s and SEVEN pounds in 9months! She was 9 lbs at 9months and only 18 lbs at 2! I wish you luck at the endo and I hope Lili doesnt end up needing the hormones...the last year has been just what J needs to finally make it onto the charts! 3% but we are ON the chart!

Anonymous said...

I don't know if you're familiar with it, but there's a pill that is being prescribed for people to stop smoking and it's working wonders! Your mom should look into it. :-)

Beth said...

My partner and I fostered a little boy for one month who had an abnormal pituitary gland and had to take all his hormones as either oral medications or injections. His condition was kind of extreme because his body did not produce any hormones naturally, and wiothout his medications he wouldn't just not grow -- he would really be in a life threatening situation.

The growth hormone was intimidating at first because it was a subcutaneous injection so we had to learn to give a needle. Luckily for us he was already very used to it, and cooperated! We also got good training at a big children's hospital in our city. Once we got used to it, it was not too bad. It was also very expensive and therefore a big hassle with the insurance company.

In training they told us that many kids get a growth hormone deficiency as a side effect of some other condition like cancer. But growth hormone deficiency can also happen in ex-preemies (our little guy had been a preemie).

Certainly there's no harm in seeing an endocrinologist. The growth hormone is so outrageously expensive and difficult to get, it's unlikely anyone will prescribe it lightly! We were lucky to have an endocrinologist who was very accessible and did not like to overmedicate kids, and we felt confident in her decision.

Fostermama said...

Beth, Thanks for the info! I'm a little scared of the idea of giving shots! I know we will do whatever we need to in order to give her the best opportunities!