My Daughter is Amazing

This weekend Natalie did three very cool things:


1. Used a sippy cup. She has been eyeing Jeff and I drinking out of our cups so I thought I would let her try one for herself. I put some juice in it and took a drink out of it. She saw me do it and when I gave it to her she took a swig just like a pro!


2. Crawled to the bathroom. So, for the past 6 months, when Natalie needs a bath I get her naked in her room, pick her up and say in this really annoying high voice, "Naked Baby!" then, I act like she is flying and take her into the bath room. Well, Saturday night we were getting ready for a bath and I said "Naked Baby" and she crawled into the bathroom. How did she know how to navigate her way to the bathroom? She is a genius.


3. Let go while standing. Natalie was playing with an activity table in her play yard, or as my Dad likes to refer to it "jail" when she decided she wanted to move from the table to the play yard fence. She had to physic herself up with lots of screaming, but she did it. She let go of the play table and moved to the fence. It was too cool to watch.

Jeff and I are convinced she is highly advanced and intelligent. :)

Another Day, Another Feat

So, when we picked up Natalie from daycare, who by the way has a terrible summer cold, Nicole asked if she had been pulling up. We said that she had been attempting to, but hadn't really done it on her own. Well, I guess today at daycare she decided to pull herself up on the Exersaucer they have there. WHAT?!? I mean, she just learned to crawl a week ago today. I couldn't believe it. So, like any good parents, we got her home and got the video camera out. Doesn't she look cute in her t-shirt and diaper? She kills me. You can see by the photos that this was a very proud moment for her. Oh, Jeff is the one who had the great idea to take the cushions off the couch so they would be the perfect height for her to attempt to pull up on. He is so smart. I will have to post video later, the battery is almost dead!

There are a couple of other photos from the week I am adding too. The one with her hair pulled up is from daycare. They thought it would look really cute and I agree.

8 Month Photos

Here are the photos we had taken for Natalie's 8 month birthday! This time she took them with Daddy. Jeff got her that dress in Hawaii at his sister's wedding. It is really cute on her and the adorable outfit with the headband came from Aunt Linda. It is just too precious!! The too cute bracelet came from my good friend Kendra. I have a matching one. She didn't seem to mind it at all, so I think she is going to love wearing jewelry! Hmmm....wonder who she would get that from?

CRAWLING!!!

Natalie started crawling tonight! Just a couple little scoots, but it was crawling! Here are two videos we got of her.

8 Months Old

Natalie is 8 months old today! I can't believe it! We took her to the doc yesterday and here are her stats:

Weight: 17.6lbs - 40%
Height: 26.5 inches - 35%
Head:17 - 40%

She is getting ready to crawl any time now. It is so much fun to watch her grow and learn.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!

Natalie and Daddy.

Natalie just being cute!


Natalie, Dad and her Grandpa's.

Our happy family!

Natalie and her Godfather.

Jeff's Family

Amy's Family

News

We finally heard from the Nephrologist today. On Monday the nurse called and told us that her right kidney was only working at 66% and her left at 33%. As you can imagine it was a shock for us. The nurse couldn't answer any questions, so I requested a call from the doctor.

Today she told us that the test had been translated to us incorrectly. She said that ideally each kidney would give 50%, but Natalie's share of work is not equal. Her right kidney seems to be functioning normally. She did confirm that she does have a left kidney and it is in her pelvis, right behind her bladder. She doesn't think it is a cystic kidney, but can't be sure until she observes Natalie a while longer. Natalie is scheduled to have another sonogram at her 1 year birthday and repeated blood work.

The doctor said that if the kidney is not cystic, then there were only a couple of complications with a pelvic kidney. First, because of it's location, it is surrounded by large blood vessels. At any time, one of those blood vessels can "move" and block the ureter. If that happens, Natalie would have sudden pain and I think it is corrected with surgery. Also, when she becomes pregnant she will need to be monitored because of the location of the kidney. She also said she would use any medication that causes the liver to work hard, like Ibuprofen in moderation. Lastly, she said that if Natalie would need to have surgery we would need to make them aware of the kidney. I think I might buy her a medical alert bracelet just in case.

All in all, I think we got pretty good news. Sounds like we are just going to have to take it a little bit at a time.

WOW!

So, Natalie is still getting up about twice a night to eat. Usually between 1 and 2 and at 5. This morning she got up at 5 and I could hear her grunting on the monitor. Nothing unusual about that. I decided to go to the restroom and then go get her. By the time I was in the bathroom she was screaming - out of the ordinary for her. So, I ran to her room and when I got there she was sitting up in her bed. Right in the middle screaming. I couldn't believe that she got herself into a seated position in the middle of the bed. Obviously, she was stressed about the situation too!!

Here are a few photos from the past couple of weeks.

This is Jeff and Natalie having a little Saturday afternoon nap.

This is Natalie and Dad right before he left to head back home.

This is Natalie helping Jeff open his Father's Day gift just a little early.
She really loves tissue and helping!

This was Natalie's first trip to the Zoo. It was a couple Saturday's ago and it was pretty warm,
but we had a great time.

This is Natalie stuck under her stage. Now that she can get around a little - she finds herself in all kinds of funny predicaments.

She is so cute in hats!

Aunt Linda got her this very cute outfit. Thanks Aunt Linda!!

Who can resist a naked baby?

Now that Natalie has 2 teeth we are trying to do our best to take care of them. We started brushing her teeth every night and she just loves it!

Teeth!

I finally got a photo of her teeth! Poor baby, this shot is from yesterday. Doesn't she looked like she has a glazed over look?

Day From Hell

So, yesterday we had an appointment with a Nephrologist (kidney specialist) to follow up with Natalie's kidney situation. I thought we would go in and have her say, "Why are you here?" But of course, that was not our luck.

She said that she didn't think that Natalie had two kidneys, but only a right one, with her left one being a cyst. She called it a MultiCystic Dysplastic Kidney. What it means is that she does have a growth there that may be acting like a kidney, but it is not really a kidney. She said that within a year the growth will actually disappear and she will just be left with the one kidney. She said she wasn't 100% sure of her diagnosis and would need more tests.

So, today, we took Natalie to the hospital for a Mag-3 Renal Scan. It included an IV, catheter and sedation. It was terrible. We hated every minute of it. Natalie did great, even when they had trouble putting the cath in. They had to get a doc from the NICU to do it. By doing great, I mean she screamed her head off and cried louder and harder than I have ever heard her cry. The doing great part is that she was still smiling at me after it was all over. The photo is of the machine they used.

Jeff and I have no idea how parents with critically ill children do it. God bless them.

This is a good link to learn more about a MultiCystic Dysplastic Kidney:
http://www.childrenshospital.org/az/Site1318/mainpageS1318P0.html

Natalie has a sonogram on Friday and then the Nephrologist will read both test results and let us know something next week. We hope that the function of her right kidney is good and doesn't show any further problems. We are very thankful that this isn't life threatening or life altering for Natalie and know that she will be just fine. It is just a little scary right now. It just sucks when something is wrong with your baby - no matter how big or how small.

Well, I think we are headed to bed. Today was both mentally and physically exhausting. Jeff actually fell asleep at a stop light on the way home. I will post the results just as soon as I hear anything more.