Friday, March 12, 2010

Doctor's Office Called


This is Mena and Mommy right after the doctor's office called. All the tests came back negative or normal! Even the test that was supposed to take a week came back already. The doctor isn't sending us to anyone else for further evaluations. We're continuing with the diagnosis of Developmental Delay and we'll continue to meet (hopefully weekly) with Sue, the physical therapist, and Ann, the language teacher.

Whew! We're celebrating by eating dinner at Burger King tonight--that's mommy's favorite fast food restaurant and Mena really likes the french fries :)
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18 Months Old!


Yesterday Mena had her 18 month check up at the doctor's office. She is 33 1/8 inches long (88%), 25 pounds 13 ounces (73%), and her head is 18 3/4 inches (75-90%). The last month has been a bit rough for Mena--she's got 5 new teeth that have broken through the skin. That brings her up to a total of 9 teeth. The funny thing is that usually teeth will come in from front to back, but she's getting some of her molars before all her teeth to the front! Nothing wrong with that but I had no idea she had a molar coming in and one day I saw something in her mouth. I stuck my finger in to get out whatever she had "picked up" and discovered it was a molar! Mena continues to wear size 2 tops and her pants are size 12-18 months. Mena has continued to improve her walking skills. She can now walk across the room without falling and sometimes can make it into another room before loosing her balance.

The doctor said that if he didn't know her medical history he would say she were a totally healthy 14-15 month old. But she's 18 months old. At her 12 month check up she was at the developmental level of a 10 month old (2 months behind). At her 18 month check up she is now 3-4 months behind. Dr. Bernhardson is happy that she's making progress but concerned because she's falling further behind. He's asked for a report from Mena's physical therapist and suggested that we need to go back to meeting weekly with the PT. When Mena started walking the PT suggested that she didn't need to come weekly any more. Mena went 3 weeks without walking more than 2-3 steps at a time so I'd already requested the PT to come back for a follow up visit. She'll be here on March 17th so we'll be able to discuss what her opinion is versus what the pediatrician's opinion is. Mena's language is more like 6 months behind and he was glad that the speech therapist has continued to come weekly.

Because Mena's physical development is continuing to fall further behind, Dr. Bernhardson wanted to draw blood to run some tests to see if we can find a cause for her developmental delay. I can't remember everything he was trying to tell me yesterday, but I know one of the tests was for muscular dystrophy. We'll hear back on some of the tests today and the rest will be back in a week. He doesn't think any of them will come back positive but we'd rather rule things out now than find out later we could have been doing something for Mena earlier. About a year ago Mena was sick and they drew blood trying to find out what was wrong at that time. The doctor is going to compare this recent blood work with the blood work from a year ago to see if that will tell him anything, also. If we can find a specific diagnosis then we can get specialists involved to help Mena. If we can't find a specific diagnosis then we'll continue working with our PT and speech therapist. There is also a possibility that he will send us to a specialist (I can't remember what kind) to have her evaluated to see if that person can find a particular reason for Mena's developmental delay. I'll put another post on our blog when we get the test results back.
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Happy Birthday Great Grandma!









March 5th we spent the evening in Fremont to celebrate Great Grandma Olson's birthday. It seemed a good time to get pictures with all the kids. First we took the 4 generation picture with Mena which turned out pretty well. Then Grandma wanted a picture of her and Grandpa with Peyton and Tyler. Those are some silly cousins that Mena has! Then Grandma decided she wanted a picture of her and Grandpa with all three of the kids. Peyton decided he was done and didn't want anything to do with our pictures. Mena was trying to get away with Peyton and Tyler was the only one who seemed to like the idea of more pictures.

In the last picture Mena is talking to Tyler. He'd been fussing so she went over to him. Almost looked like she wanted to pick him up like she does her dolls. He stopped fussing and started smiling at her. Yea, Mena!
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Mena the Motivator




Duncan is just learning to crawl and Mena was motivating him to join her on top of the mattresses. She kept the cool whip bowl just out of his reach. It'll be interesting to see how she responds when he starts climbing with her!
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My Daddy


Watching tv together. She's still a snuggler and we're enjoying all her cuddles!
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Silly Face


Here Mena is laughing as I peer in at her. She's playing with a calculator in her tunnel. Maybe an accounting major like Daddy?
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Valentine's Day



Mommy and Daddy gave Mena a Valentine's Day gift in a heart shaped basket that she can hook over her arm. We put some heart clappers in the basket but she has since filled and dumped out that basket with many different toys. She also had a book to unwrap. Books are still her all time favorite toys, but purses/bags/baskets are becoming high up on her list of favorites.
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Opinions



Not liking Daddy's hat in the first picture and enjoying her purses in the second picture. Anything that she can hook over her arm thrills Mena. She likes to fill and carry bags, purses, baskets, and pails.
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Outdoors


Mena loves playing outdoors and seems drawn to mud puddles. In the first picture you can see her muddy bottom inside her new playhouse. I found this used playhouse on Craig's List and Mena really likes it--the day I took that picture she was screaming mad when I made her go inside for lunch! In the second picture you can see how muddy her pants get as she crawls through every muddle puddle she can find. We're looking forward to more time outside as the weather warms up!
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