Growth stress & Christmas spirit

So I never really posted an official update as to how Kaleb's appointment with the specialist went. Here goes...We took him in and met with the pediatric gastroenterologist last week. The doctor was very friendly and knowledgeable and took all my my concerns very seriously. He agreed that no weight gain in 13 months is cause for concern and that going from the 99th percentile to the 15th percentile in 1 year is not normal. It felt good to have my concerns validated and not be told "oh he looks fine" - Yeah, the only reason he looks fine is because he was SO big to begin with! Ugh. Anyway, he took a stool sample from Kaleb and then sent us over to the hospital to get an x-ray done on his hand to check for his bone age and to get blood taken to run a whole battery of tests to check for celiac, check his thryroid, check for pituitary disorders, etc. We go back in on Thurs. the 24th to get the results of everything. This has got to be the longest wait of my life! I thought waiting to find out if you were pregnant after TTC was bad. This is so much worse! I want to know what's wrong with my baby so I can start helping him. I'm just hope they were able to find something through all the testing. My worst fear is that all the tests come back and they still don't know why he isn't growing. For a full month now we have had Kaleb on a high calorie diet...whole milk, butter, half & half, heavy cream is added to everything he eats. I make him high cal smoothies (made w/ whole milk, half & half, heavy cream, a banana, ice cream and protein powder) TWICE a day and he has those along with his high cal meals. I know he's taking in a TON more calories than he used to because he's going #2 a lot more but as of this morning, after 4 full weeks of this, he has LOST 2 more ounces. I seriously am fighting back tears. Something is definitely wrong here. I found this website that talks about normal monthly growth in children: http://www.hawaii.edu/medicine/pediatrics/pedtext/s01c02.html and according to this if Kaleb had continued growing at just a "normal" rate (keep in mind that he had been growing at an above normal rate and was in the 99th percentile), he should have gained 7 lbs. and be 31 pounds by now.

This is just so stressful and the worst part is not knowing what is causing it. I really, really hope the doctor can give us some answers on Thurs. Even if he does have Celiac, it will be good news because then I will know what to do to FIX it. I will throw myself into researching it and fill up a cart at Whole Foods with gluten free foods and be on my way to helping him get better and start growing again. Sigh. Patience has never been so hard! Let's hope that his appt on Christmas Eve brings us some definitive answers - that would be the best present I could get.

Well aside from that whole issue, we have been having a wonderful time getting into the Christmas spirit and have the whole house decorated with lights. My mom, Kevin's mom and Kevin's grandma are all going to be here for Christmas which will be wonderful! The kids are getting totally spoiled this year and Kevin and I have been trying to wrap some presents every night so by Christmas Eve I think they will all be wrapped and we can actually enjoy spending Christmas Eve with our family instead of having to wrap presents into the wee hours of the morning like we usually do. :) We are going to have a big Christmas dinner w/ all the trimmings and my only wish is that the rest of our family and friends could be here to join us. I'm so looking forward to it!

On Jan. 2nd we will be moving into the new house and I am very excited about that as well! We took Katie last week to register for her new school and we took a tour of the school. It seems really nice and even though Katie was very sad on her last day of school here, I think she is looking forward to it. She is currently enjoying her winter break and is completely engrossed in the Harry Potter book series. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to see her finally finding a real passion for reading. She's always been a good reader but I've never seen her LOVE it the way I do, until now. I think she's going to spend her whole vacation with her nose in a book....and is there any better way to spend a vacation?! I think not! :)

I've got all the kids signed up for swimming lessons at the rec center by our new house as well as tumbling lessons and Katie will also be doing a volleyball camp on Sunday afternoons. I have a hunch she is going to be really good at volleyball. It's one of the first sports you can play in school so I want to give her a chance to learn now so she can play on her middle school team if she wants to. I can't believe middle school is only 1 1/2 years away. That blows my mind.

Well I've got 2 boys in the tub who need to get dried off and dressed so I better go...