18 months

I have an 18 month old child now. Is that crazy, or what? It's hard to remember how old Dallin really is because he's basically a 6-9 month old, developmentally. But you can tell he has the brain of an 18 month old and the definitely the temper of an 18 month old. Here's a little update on how Dallin is doing.

*He still weighs right around 15 pounds. He's been floating comfortably at that weight for at least the past 6 months. Yet when I look at him, he looks like he's grown. His face definitely looks older.

*He is crawling all over the place. (See the video in the previous post.) He hardly does his little inch worm crawl anymore, it's all real crawling. I still can't get enough of it. I get so happy every time I see him crawl. I'm so amazed at my little boy.

*He pulls himself up to stand on things all the time. I especially love when he wakes up from a nap and I find him standing in his crib (also a new accomplishment). He gets this big smile when he sees me and starts bouncing on his legs.

*He's sleeping longer and better at night. I've been feeling so well rested recently.

*He's more content to play by himself now, requiring less constant attention from me. This is probably related to him being able to crawl now and get to all the fun stuff he wants. It's now a daily occurrence for him to crawl over to the diaper bag to grab my wallet.

*He can drink water from a cup in very small amounts. He will drink out of a bottle very willingly now. 3 months ago you couldn't get him near a bottle, but he loves it now and he can hold the bottle by himself.

There are still some things that we are struggling with too.

We're still working on eating solid foods. He likes to watch us eat and he starts to lick his lips or move his mouth when we chew. You can tell that he wants to eat food, but he still can't get over the strong gag reflex. He likes to hold food like crackers and lick them. But you have to watch carefully, because every once in a while, he'll get daring and take a bite out of the cracker, and then start gagging.

He throws up daily. Sometimes it's to get attention. If we aren't looking at him, he'll put his fingers down his throat or start a deep coughing. It's really gross, really annoying, and I'm really sick of everything in our apartment smelling all the time.

Through the many blood draws and tests that Dallin had this summer, we found out that he has calcium in his kidneys and high levels of calcium in his blood. That is a common occurrence in children with Williams Syndrome. So we got to add a Pediatric Nephrologist (Kidney Specialist) to the list of doctors he sees. Because of the Hypercalcemia, we have to limit his intake of calcium and vitamin D. That's not too hard at this point because he doesn't really eat anything but milk, but it does affect the kinds of milk he can have. Breast milk has less calcium than formula or cow's milk, but it still does have some. So it'a good thing that I've been nursing him this whole time. Who knows how bad the situation could be otherwise. I found out about a very low calcium, no vitamin D formula made specifically for infants with hypercalcemia. Even more exciting is that with a prescription from our doctor, we can get the formula (normally $120 for a case of 6 cans) for free through the local WIC clinic. Dallin is losing interest in sitting still long enough to nurse, and he will eat more from a bottle. I also wonder if his throwing up is related to the calcium in the milk he's now getting. I'm hoping that this formula will work out well for him and make things better. And hopefully he'll gain a little weight?

It's a struggle being in a new place and meeting new people who have no idea about Dallin's WS. I'm often asked, "How old is he?" And after telling them his age, people always say, "He's so tiny!" or "He's the size of my 5 month old!" Sometimes I get, "Was he a premie?" Because, of course, that is the only reason that a child would ever be smaller than normal. And he would have to have been born 12 months early (do the math, that isn't even possible) to explain what they are trying to suggest about him being the size of a 6 month old. It's hard being in a place surrounded by a lot of other young families with children the same age as Dallin who are huge, walking, talking, and eating large chunks of food in one bite. It's even harder when children much younger than Dallin are doing those same things.

Now one here in our new ward knows about his condition yet. It's not that I'm embarrassed or worried about mentioning it, it just never seems like the right time to bring it up. I want it to come up naturally in conversation. Like, "So your child seems like he might have some sort of genetic condition." Me: "Yes, in fact, he does. He has Williams Syndrome." Yeah, that just doesn't happen. I guess I should find a way to bring it up with people I know, because pretty soon we'll be at the end of our 5 years here, Dallin will be the same size he is now, and all the parents will be wondering why I don't feed my son.

As you can see, there are a lot of ups and downs with raising Dallin. Some days it feels like there are so many negative things and it's hard to deal with them. Other days are really great and Dallin does wonderful things. It's important for me to keep a good perspective, to realize how lucky and blessed we are. Yes there are rough times, as there are raising any child, but I get to be this amazing kid's mom. How cool is that?