I've been meaning to post this for a while (like a lot of other things!) because I thought this might be important for other adoptive parents to know.
When our girls' bloodwork came back, all of their vaccinations looked good so they will not be redoing any of the vaccinations that were already done. However, one of the additional things that was tested was their vitamin D levels. Apparently in the past year vitamin D levels have become a big concern in the medical community, and they have recently started recommending that internationally adopted children be tested for vitamin D levels.
The normal levels are 30-100 ng/mL. Our girls tested at 7 and 10 ng/mL, so they are considered extremely vitamin D deficient. Our pediatrician prescribed vitamin D for the girls--4000 IU per day for 30 days to bring their levels up to normal. However, when we went to fill the prescription it was going to be $150 per prescription. After calling our (fantastic! wonderful! love her!) pediatrician, she did a bunch of research including calling the endocrinologist who works with their practice and several pharmacies. She waited to call us until she had found a pharmacy that carries over-the-counter vitamin D drops (in olive oil) with a concentration of 2000 IU per drop. We bought one bottle which contains 900 drops for $16. Much better than the original $300 for the prescription! :)
Vitamin D is not something the boys were tested for when they came home, so I am a little concerned that they too may be deficient. Apparently with levels as low as the girls you cannot make up that large of a deficiency with a normal diet, even with daily multivitamins. Lack of vitamin D prevents proper calcium storage and use thus leading to bone growth problems (rickets and others). We are hoping to have the boys' vitamin D levels tested the next time they go to the doctor, but I especially wanted other adoptive parents to be aware of this as I would imagine with the lack of sun exposure and poor diets in most of the orphanages that this may be a problem for most of our kids.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Surgeries
Yes, plural.
I really need to figure out how to start updating this every day. Otherwise I end up with so much to post that I either leave things out or have to write a novel. :)
Danielle had her ophthalmology appointment on Tuesday morning for her strabismus. We were surprised and pleased to learn that her vision in each eye is actually very good and she does not need glasses. This is because her strabismus switches eyes depending on which eye she is using to focus. So if she is focusing on something with her left eye, her right eye will be turned in, and if she is focusing with her right eye her left eye will turn in. Because her strabismus is not an issue of muscle weakness she does not need patching. Instead she will have surgery. The surgeon will release muscles on the inside corner of both of her eyes in a relatively short surgery...five days after Emily's surgery (to put tubes in and for the cleft palate surgeon to decide what can be done with her palate).
Thankfully both surgeries are pretty minor and they will both be able to go home the same day. Emily's surgery is next Wednesday and Danielle's is the following Monday, but we won't know times for either of them until the day before the surgery.
I really need to figure out how to start updating this every day. Otherwise I end up with so much to post that I either leave things out or have to write a novel. :)
Danielle had her ophthalmology appointment on Tuesday morning for her strabismus. We were surprised and pleased to learn that her vision in each eye is actually very good and she does not need glasses. This is because her strabismus switches eyes depending on which eye she is using to focus. So if she is focusing on something with her left eye, her right eye will be turned in, and if she is focusing with her right eye her left eye will turn in. Because her strabismus is not an issue of muscle weakness she does not need patching. Instead she will have surgery. The surgeon will release muscles on the inside corner of both of her eyes in a relatively short surgery...five days after Emily's surgery (to put tubes in and for the cleft palate surgeon to decide what can be done with her palate).
Thankfully both surgeries are pretty minor and they will both be able to go home the same day. Emily's surgery is next Wednesday and Danielle's is the following Monday, but we won't know times for either of them until the day before the surgery.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
More Pictures
Emily playing with bubbles
Danielle playing with bubbles
Bubbles in the front yard
Relaxing at the base ball game
Playing at the base ball gameSaturday, June 06, 2009
A quiet moment
All of the kids are asleep. :)
Normally only Emily takes a nap in the afternoon. I've found the bigger kids don't sleep as well if they sleep during the day, so they do have a quiet time in the afternoon while she naps but I don't let them fall asleep.
However, today Mark has a base ball festival and I'm hoping we can go see Shakespeare in the Park tonight so I'm letting all of the kids sleep as long as possible. They'll all fall asleep at the play anyway, but it will still be later than their normal bedtime.
We've been having a small problem with Emily waking up in the middle of the night. Starting a week and a half ago, for about a week she woke up every 3-4 hours at night and would start crying. It wasn't night terrors as she was most definitely awake before she started crying. We tried several different things with her. The last one I tried was getting her up to go to the bathroom every time she woke up. Apparently she didn't like that tactic as she stopped waking up at night. ;) I have several theories (bathroom, congestion, uncomfortable in a new place, temperature) as to why she was waking up but I'm not sure I'll ever know which (if any) were correct. I'm just glad to be back to a full night's sleep again. :)
Danielle's English is taking off. I've been introducing numbers to her in school this week and we've gotten up to 4. Last night as I was doing her stretches she started counting..."1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9." The boys like to play school with the girls and do flashcards and number puzzles with them so I know where she's getting it.
Dima is doing really amazing with his reading. If he just reads and doesn't try to sound things out he does much better. He's not an auditory learner so he does better memorizing the words and just being able to read them. I can understand--I'm the exact same way. I'd like to try to get some video of him reading, both for you all to see and for posterity. ;)
We received the boys' report cards the other day, and I was brought to tears because included were Dima's results from the standardized test they took a month or so before school was out. My son, who has speech problems and has only been hearing and speaking English for a little over a year, actually scored about the 50th percentile in sentence reading! I was quite frankly amazed that he scored over the 10th percentile in anything, given his background, but he actually scored over the 10th percentile in half of the clusters. I am SO PROUD of him! He's had a lot to overcome and I hope with a lot of continued hard work he will be able to continue such great progress.
I know it doesn't sound like much--10th percentile?? But really, considering all that he has been through in the past year and a half, it's incredible! That means 10% of students scored lower than he did. And the fact that over 50% of students scored lower than he did in any area just blows me away. :) :)
Last weekend we went and picked strawberries and I got my first ever answer out of Emily. I think I've downplayed the communication difficulties with her a little bit, because there really isn't any communication at all. She's excellent at mimicking and loves to "talk" but doesn't actually respond to questions--she just parrots back whatever you say. Last Saturday she figured out (with a LOT of coaxing) that she could eat the strawberries. She put one in her mouth and I asked her "Dobre?" (good, in Ukrainian) and she turned to me with a big smile and nodded. This was seriously the first time since we had known her that she had actually responded to a question without some form of prompting. I was excited beyond belief. It's starting to become more common now, that she will respond to a question with a nod or shake of the head, but most of the time it's still mimicking (i.e., you ask " Are you all done?" and she says and signs "all done" with the same inflection as the original question). It will be a slow process but she's starting to figure out that this is the only way to communicate and that you may not get things if you don't ask! :)
Normally only Emily takes a nap in the afternoon. I've found the bigger kids don't sleep as well if they sleep during the day, so they do have a quiet time in the afternoon while she naps but I don't let them fall asleep.
However, today Mark has a base ball festival and I'm hoping we can go see Shakespeare in the Park tonight so I'm letting all of the kids sleep as long as possible. They'll all fall asleep at the play anyway, but it will still be later than their normal bedtime.
We've been having a small problem with Emily waking up in the middle of the night. Starting a week and a half ago, for about a week she woke up every 3-4 hours at night and would start crying. It wasn't night terrors as she was most definitely awake before she started crying. We tried several different things with her. The last one I tried was getting her up to go to the bathroom every time she woke up. Apparently she didn't like that tactic as she stopped waking up at night. ;) I have several theories (bathroom, congestion, uncomfortable in a new place, temperature) as to why she was waking up but I'm not sure I'll ever know which (if any) were correct. I'm just glad to be back to a full night's sleep again. :)
Danielle's English is taking off. I've been introducing numbers to her in school this week and we've gotten up to 4. Last night as I was doing her stretches she started counting..."1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9." The boys like to play school with the girls and do flashcards and number puzzles with them so I know where she's getting it.
Dima is doing really amazing with his reading. If he just reads and doesn't try to sound things out he does much better. He's not an auditory learner so he does better memorizing the words and just being able to read them. I can understand--I'm the exact same way. I'd like to try to get some video of him reading, both for you all to see and for posterity. ;)
We received the boys' report cards the other day, and I was brought to tears because included were Dima's results from the standardized test they took a month or so before school was out. My son, who has speech problems and has only been hearing and speaking English for a little over a year, actually scored about the 50th percentile in sentence reading! I was quite frankly amazed that he scored over the 10th percentile in anything, given his background, but he actually scored over the 10th percentile in half of the clusters. I am SO PROUD of him! He's had a lot to overcome and I hope with a lot of continued hard work he will be able to continue such great progress.
I know it doesn't sound like much--10th percentile?? But really, considering all that he has been through in the past year and a half, it's incredible! That means 10% of students scored lower than he did. And the fact that over 50% of students scored lower than he did in any area just blows me away. :) :)
Last weekend we went and picked strawberries and I got my first ever answer out of Emily. I think I've downplayed the communication difficulties with her a little bit, because there really isn't any communication at all. She's excellent at mimicking and loves to "talk" but doesn't actually respond to questions--she just parrots back whatever you say. Last Saturday she figured out (with a LOT of coaxing) that she could eat the strawberries. She put one in her mouth and I asked her "Dobre?" (good, in Ukrainian) and she turned to me with a big smile and nodded. This was seriously the first time since we had known her that she had actually responded to a question without some form of prompting. I was excited beyond belief. It's starting to become more common now, that she will respond to a question with a nod or shake of the head, but most of the time it's still mimicking (i.e., you ask " Are you all done?" and she says and signs "all done" with the same inflection as the original question). It will be a slow process but she's starting to figure out that this is the only way to communicate and that you may not get things if you don't ask! :)
Friday, June 05, 2009
Ten years
Happy anniversary to us!
Today marks ten years since Mark and I got married.
A couple of nights ago, Mark was working on the computer and he looked up. I had the instantaneous thought that he has such beautiful eyes. It makes me happy that I still think things like that about my husband. :)
I also realized the other day that while 10 years sounds like a long time, if things go well Mark and I could have another 60 years together ahead of us.
That thought makes me smile. :) :)
Today marks ten years since Mark and I got married.
A couple of nights ago, Mark was working on the computer and he looked up. I had the instantaneous thought that he has such beautiful eyes. It makes me happy that I still think things like that about my husband. :)
I also realized the other day that while 10 years sounds like a long time, if things go well Mark and I could have another 60 years together ahead of us.
That thought makes me smile. :) :)
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Updates on all
The van: I love it. I love love love it. I would also love if it got 45 mpg, but hey, nothing's perfect, right?
Dima: Dima is struggling with being expected to actually do work on his own now that school is out and we are homeschooling over the summer. And yes--it's pretty much full, all-out school with reading, writing, math, etc. And you can't play until you finish your work, which on one day took him until 3:30. See? A full school day (we start right after breakfast). Dima's learning that if he stays focused and does his work that he gets done faster. This is a great lesson for him to learn now. :) There are some areas where we feel we were grossly misled as to his abilities coming out of kindergarten. I'm not sure, honestly, that he is really ready for first grade. We're going to ride out the summer and re-evaluate when school starts again. Dima has speech therapy twice a week and his therapist is really excited about the progress she's seeing with him.
Zhenya: Zhenya is breezing through the work he's had so far this summer. It's a pre-kindergarten "curriculum" to prepare him for kindergarten so it starts out with a lot of very basic concepts that he already knows (shapes, colors, etc.). I'm ramping it up a bit with him to make sure we get to the things I want him to see/know before he starts kindergarten in the fall. Other than that, he's our resident mouth who likes to talk just to hear himself. He and Danielle (our resident "twins") are two peas in a pod and are nearly inseparable.
Danielle: Danielle also participates in "school" in the mornings. We introduced numbers in English this week and she has been able to remember and apply them in every day life. Her English is coming along very quickly and her new favorite word is "silly," which is aptly applied to her two brothers quite often.
Emily: Emily can now mostly dress herself including putting her shoes or slippers on and off. She can nearly go to the bathroom independently but needs help getting up on the toilet. We have stools but they tend to get moved by one of the bigger kids--go figure!--and she doesn't move them if they're not where they need to be. She's not entirely potty-trained yet. She won't let us know she needs to go to the bathroom if she's doing something fun or playing outside, but she's doing great about letting us know other than that. She's doing much better about communicating with us through both signs and words and will hopefully be starting speech in the next few weeks.
Me: I love being at home. I love being with the kids all day. I do not always love working with Dima on his schoolwork. He can be as stubborn as a very thick brick wall. But I'm making progress on figuring out what works best for him.
Mark needs the computer so I'll have to update you on him later. He's staying busy with work and base ball! :)
Dima: Dima is struggling with being expected to actually do work on his own now that school is out and we are homeschooling over the summer. And yes--it's pretty much full, all-out school with reading, writing, math, etc. And you can't play until you finish your work, which on one day took him until 3:30. See? A full school day (we start right after breakfast). Dima's learning that if he stays focused and does his work that he gets done faster. This is a great lesson for him to learn now. :) There are some areas where we feel we were grossly misled as to his abilities coming out of kindergarten. I'm not sure, honestly, that he is really ready for first grade. We're going to ride out the summer and re-evaluate when school starts again. Dima has speech therapy twice a week and his therapist is really excited about the progress she's seeing with him.
Zhenya: Zhenya is breezing through the work he's had so far this summer. It's a pre-kindergarten "curriculum" to prepare him for kindergarten so it starts out with a lot of very basic concepts that he already knows (shapes, colors, etc.). I'm ramping it up a bit with him to make sure we get to the things I want him to see/know before he starts kindergarten in the fall. Other than that, he's our resident mouth who likes to talk just to hear himself. He and Danielle (our resident "twins") are two peas in a pod and are nearly inseparable.
Danielle: Danielle also participates in "school" in the mornings. We introduced numbers in English this week and she has been able to remember and apply them in every day life. Her English is coming along very quickly and her new favorite word is "silly," which is aptly applied to her two brothers quite often.
Emily: Emily can now mostly dress herself including putting her shoes or slippers on and off. She can nearly go to the bathroom independently but needs help getting up on the toilet. We have stools but they tend to get moved by one of the bigger kids--go figure!--and she doesn't move them if they're not where they need to be. She's not entirely potty-trained yet. She won't let us know she needs to go to the bathroom if she's doing something fun or playing outside, but she's doing great about letting us know other than that. She's doing much better about communicating with us through both signs and words and will hopefully be starting speech in the next few weeks.
Me: I love being at home. I love being with the kids all day. I do not always love working with Dima on his schoolwork. He can be as stubborn as a very thick brick wall. But I'm making progress on figuring out what works best for him.
Mark needs the computer so I'll have to update you on him later. He's staying busy with work and base ball! :)
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