Progress

Huge grins :D

Answered Prayers
First and foremost, Isaiah continues to be infection and obstruction free in his shunt!!
Isaiah laughs. He looks at us and smiles and if you tickle him or shake his legs he'll laugh at you. I remember praying that Isaiah would just smile at us. And now he laughs multiple times a day. Definitely an answer to prayer.
Isaiah met one of his goals for ECI. He was able to tolerate ten minutes of tummy time without getting super upset. Considering he couldn't even do a minute when we first started, this is pretty exciting. You always hear that tummy time is important for development, and that's because it really is. Especially in Isaiah's case when he has muscle hypertonicity (tight muscles) in his arms.
He has also started gaining weight well again. Since my last post Isaiah slowly fell down to the third percentile in weight. Even though I offer a bottle pretty much every day he is NOT a fan. I've never been able to get more than half an ounce in him. Well, a couple of weeks ago we started solids. Isaiah LOVES solids. He will kinda grunt at you and sit there mouth wide open waiting for the next bite if he thinks you aren't shoveling it in fast enough. I'm continuing to nurse and Isaiah is getting formula mixed in with his rice cereal. I'm looking forward to when he'll actually drink from a bottle so Gabriel and I can leave on a date before 9pm :)

ECI
Isaiah is doing pretty well with all of his therapies. He is now reaching out for things more often, especially crunchy toys and books. He is not rolling or sitting up yet but he is showing signs of both. In terms of speech, he's still not making a variety of consonant (mamama, bababa, papapa are usually first) sounds. Starting next month we will increase his speech therapy to twice a month to make sure we are doing everything we can to help encourage him.

Isaiah's pirate patch

Ophthalmology
Isaiah had an appointment with his ophthalmologist, Dr. Kumar, early last week. The main purpose of the visit was to assess if Isaiah would need surgery to fix his left eye which has amblyopia (lazy eye). We will most likely be going forward with surgery in the next two weeks. They will try to help fix the muscles that are causing Isaiah's eye to turn in towards his nose.

Christmas Morning Kisses

In the interim, we are patching Isaiah's good right eye to encourage his brain to take input from his bad left eye. Because his right eye is so much better, his brain was starting to ignore his left eye. You could cover the eye and he wouldn't care. Patching forces the brain to take input from the bad eye and make connections that it would not do otherwise. It's amazing how much better his left eye moves when his right eye is patched. We also ordered glasses to help the brain see clearer from the left eye which will give it another reason to make connections. We are trying to maximize what the brain is receiving from both eyes. So Isaiah is patched for half of the time he's awake every day. When I take the patch off he fusses for about three seconds (because it's like pulling off a bandaid) and then he opens his eyes and you can see his brain realizing, oh hey this eye is working again.

Prayer Requests
-That we make the right decision regarding eye surgery
-That Isaiah will continue to move back up in percentiles for his weight (as of today he's back up to 9th percentile)
-That Isaiah will drink happily from a bottle (so momma can go places :) )
-That Isaiah's speech will develop and he will make consonant sounds regularly

And finally, a video of Isaiah chuckling when I tickle him. Enjoy! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaQIt_8_9mE

Thank you for all the prayer and support you have given us!