Six Months and Sitting Pretty

Little bit is 6 months today. Time is not my friend these days. Seriously, she has been here half a year already. If time continues to go this fast, I might as well be seeing them off to college tomorrow. Ok dramatic, I know, but would expect any less?

As you can tell from the title, Katelynn is sitting now. Well, actually she has been sitting for about a month now. But it took me about a week to get pictures, and then another week or 2 to upload them onto the computer, and then another week to get them on here. Either way, her she is, my little Christmas Elf!

Little bit is such a doll. Such a relaxed and laid back baby. There are only 2 demands she ever makes. 1) Under no circumstance are you to give me a bottle or even attempt to give me a bottle. 2) If mommy is in the room, and I am the least bit uncomfortable, you are to get me to her immediately. I will except no substitutes. And when I'm finally in Mommy's arms, I will let out the cutest scream/laugh in approval as your reward. And that about sums Katelynn up! She does love her Daddy and brother too and laughs when she sees them. And of course, the girl loves her some doggies! Katelynn sleeps about 12 or 13 hours at night and takes 1 long nap and 2 short naps each day. She eats a ton too. Still nurses 6 or 8 times a day and then eats 3 big jars of baby food a day. Obviously she is in a growth spurt. Her first 2 bottom teeth also poked through about 2.5 weeks ago, and let me assure you, she knows how to use them if you smell what I'm stepping in...ouch!

Little bit is actually sick today with a nasty cough. When she is sick she wants to sleep with me and take naps in my bed...I told you there is a little obsession with Mommy (and of course I love it!). I'm taking both of them to the Doctor on the 29th for their 2 year and 6 month check up. But we were at the geneticist last week, and she weighs 15lbs 6 oz and was 26 and some change inches long.

And that leads me to my next update. We took Katelynn to see the pediatric geneticist last Friday. She came up low on her biotin levels on her newborn screen just like Jack. It takes about 6 months to get an appointment for a genitic evaluation because there is only 1 pediatric geneticist in this region. And when I mean region, I mean all of MS and TN! Last October, Dr Ward determined that we didn't need to treat Jack with Biotin because his levels were equal to Nathan's and he had no symptoms, he is probably just a carrier of the gene. But Dr Ward wanted to see her since these cases are so rare and each sibling is different. Well, we were all surprised (including Dr Ward) to see that Katelynn is actually presenting possible signs of biotinidase deficiency .She has a rash on her back that I thought was just dry skin or a reaction to detergent and a red spot on her head that I thought was a birth mark. Both of these started about 2 months ago. I was planning on speaking with her pediatrician about it, I thought it was maybe excema. Dr Ward informed us that biotinidase deficiency usually begins to present on the skin in forms of rashes. She also thinks that Katelynn's thrush could have been a symptom. She originally thought that both of the kids were pulling Nathan's carrier gene, but since I am low as well (Nathan is a 1.8 and I am a 2.2 - normal is 4-12 - Jack and Katelynn are both 1.8), she thinks that there is a possibility that Katelynn is not a carrier like Jack, but rather has partial biotinidase deficiency. She ordered some blood tests including a genetic mutation on Katelynn and put her on biotin. Biotin is just a vitamin that I add to her baby food and is really easy to give her. Her rash does seem to be clearing up and the red spot fading. Dr Ward told me not to do anything different except give her the biotin. We won't know for sure until she looks at the blood work and gene mutation when we go back on Jan 29th. Obviously anything dealing with genetics is incredibly complex, but biotinidase deficiency has such an easy fix - just give biotin. Even if she does have a deficiency, it is a mild case. We also caught it at an early age so there will most likely be no long term damage such as hearing or vision loss. But who knows, maybe the rash is a coincidence? I'm just so thankful that we have good insurance to pay for the $1000 in genetic testing and the ability to get the testing we need - LEAVE IT ALONE OBAMA! (sorry just had to slip that in there!). I'll keep you posted on any updates!