18 Month Checkup

Friday morning, Colton had his 18 month checkup! He is still on the typical growth scale, so that's good news! His growth is starting to slow down, but she said that's normal for his age. Adults with Down Syndrome are usually pretty short, so I wasn't surprised to see that he was in a lower percentile for length. The biggest celebration for me is that his HEAD grew (1/4 inch)! Yay! Last time we went, his head hadn't grown and I had to go see a specialist. So, I just wanted to see some growth!
Here are his stats:

Weight: 23 lbs. 12 oz. (39th percentile)

Length: 31.5 inches (13th percentile)

Head: 18 1/4 inches (19th percentile)

It was a pretty easy checkup. Colton will stay on Zantac for his reflux. If he doesn't take it, I can tell that it starts to bother him, so I'm glad it does help. We are requesting a repeat Swallow Study to see if he has any improvement in swallowing liquids. Right now, I thicken all liquids to Stiff Honey. I know we won't be able to come off of thickeners completely, but it would be nice if we could just thicken to Honey or Nectar. His Speech Language Pathologist wants to come with me to the Swallow Study so that she can talk to the tech and ask questions that I wouldn't think to ask. If he still needs to thicken to Stiff Honey, then we are going to request an appointment with an ENT to see if there is something else going on with his throat other than the low muscle tone. Hopefully, the Swallow Study will happen at the end of August or early September.

Colton still only has 3 teeth (2 on bottom and one on top), but a few more are in the works right now. I'm SO ready for him to get some more teeth! I feel like he's been teething for months...and months...and months! Colton is a really great eater and will eat anything I feed him...but I have to feed it to him. I've tried to get him to pick things up and put them in his own mouth, but he just hasn't been interested. I finally decided that I had to find something that he REALLY wanted to eat. I went with something that I'd want to shove into my own mouth.....BROWNIES...and it worked!!!!!!!! HALLELUJAH!!!! I've never seen him so motivated to self-feed. Since then, he has fed himself pieces of grilled cheese and puffs. So we are making progress! And he can also hold his own cup! Yay! At least now I know that he can self-feed and hold his own cup if he wants to...he's just a mighty stubborn little dude, at times. Why feed yourself when mom will feed you if you make her wait long enough??? Hehehe.

Overall, his checkup went really well. I was very excited not to have a bunch of new doctors to go see. We will have our annual Genetics appointment soon and our repeat swallow study, but hopefully, that's it for a few months! Please continue to pray for Colton's heart. I pray that the holes in his heart close so that my sweet boy won't have to have open heart surgery in a few years. God, please close the holes in Colton's heart!!!

I just can't even begin to describe the love I have for this little boy. He is the sweetest, most loving, easy-going, happy baby! And I call him a baby because he is still very much a baby. The kisses, cuddles, and smiles that I get from him are the best! I feel like I'm looking into the eyes of an Angel when I'm with him. I never knew how happy this little boy was going to make me. Not a day goes by that I don't thank God for him. He melts my heart and is SO loved by my entire family. I'm thankful that God knew we needed him even before we knew it.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I post a lot of videos and pictures of him on a regular basis. If not, you're welcome to follow me @carriescott22. Here are a few pictures of my handsome little man taken in the last month...













In the last few months, Colton has really come alive. He has such a funny personality and has started actually playing with toys, rather then just throwing them. He especially loves playing with big brother's toys! He LOVES watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and will whip his head around to see the TV if he hears it first. He finally decided to start clapping....I'm not sure why it took so long but he decided he finally wanted to. He is army crawling all over my house and getting into trouble! I can tell that he's getting more body control, which is great! He loves emptying out my laundry basket and "helping" me with the laundry. He is starting to mimic more words. So far he's said ball, up, down, Mama, Dada, yeah, yay, bye bye, and more. The other day he even tried to mimic "brother." We are very proud of our little man!

Colton, we love you so much! Keep working hard!!!