We love having the warm days since the boys love being outside.
We set up our little kiddie pool for Atreyu, which I knew he would hate. But once he got his crying out I think he actually enjoyed it a little.
And Ezra was out there with us playing with his hands. He is getting better at it and every once in a while can get them in his mouth.
Ezra had his normal 4 month check up this week. technically he had it when being almost 5 months, but close enough. He is 12 lbs 6 oz. 24 in tall. He is growing so well, even though he is still small.
I had the camera on him for a few minutes trying to get a smile, a tongue sticking out, a really adorable frown, just something! But nope, Ezra just was so content.
Last week we went down to Grand Rapids to follow up with his Urologist. We woke up bright and early to make our 9 am appointment. He had an ultrasound to make sure his bladder and kidneys are still health, and they are. Since Ezra can’t feel what is going on with his bladder and whether or not he needs to pee we need to continue to monitor everything to make sure it is emptying and working. Once his bladder is full the pee just leaks out, which is fine for a baby but as he gets older there are options we will look at to help him not need to be in diapers. But for now he gets to be a baby.
Later the family spent the day around Grand Rapids and we met some other Spina Bifida parents for lunch. It was nice to chat and catch up. We are blessed to have other parents to talk and relate too.
Now that doctor appointments have slowed down (from once a week to every 3 months now) I have been enjoying life with an infant and toddler. Ezra is so much easier than Ateryu is/was.
Atretu is sleeping on his new bunk bed. He did great at first but just this morning he discovered that he can get out of bed. We have been working on that today. Things are going well but there are moments in the day that are hectic.
I have still been trying to finish all of Ezra’s paper work. Sometimes I feel like updating the blog is just another form to fill out. So it has been lacking.
Over the past month I have been working on getting Ezra started in Physical Therapy (PT). He is still pretty weak from all the things he has gone though, so we are trying to make Ezra stronger so he can somewhat catch up. I didn’t expect how crazy figuring out how to get Pt could be. The State offers a program until he is 3 where he can receive PT (or OT, or Speech Therapy) from the schools system. The awesome part is that they come to the house. I don’t have to go anywhere. It took a while to get an evaluation, and because it is a part of the school system, they all were on Spring Break. Now that we have started PT,school is almost out for the summer, and Ezra’s PT will only be here once a month. So we have started PT at another Therapy place. That also took some time to get figured out. Ezra had to be evaluated and approved by insurance. But of course insurance denied that Ezra needed PT for Spina Bifida, so we had to go back and call it something else. Now he is approved, but our insurance renews in May, which means that our family deductible renews in May. So then we would have to pay for it anyway. Right now Ezra is getting as much PT as he can get in the last weeks of April. Then we will see what happens. I am leaning towards switching over to Munson’s pediatric therapy since it is covered by Medicaid and Ezra has that for a year.
I know you all wanted to know all that information, but if you have read this far I guess you survived. I think I dislike insurance stuff more than the Spina Bifida. Ezra has shown improvement with the PT he is getting. Which is great, as a mom you always worry about the little things. Atreyu is a fan of PT also, he likes the stairs and the giant exercise balls.
Here is Ezra and I enjoy the sunny days we had before this snow!
