Doctors visits and more doctors visits

Well, we've had lots of doctors appointments and lots of information given to us since our last post. Our first appointment for Samuel was to a specialized general pediatrician that works specifically with children of foreign adoptions. He was quite amazing and has been very helpful to us, even before going to China. He checked Samuel over and gave him a clean bill of health except a double ear infection, which we expected. Samuel has gained even more weight, and is up to 22.5 lbs and has grown an inch since we got him a little over a month ago!! The doc then sent out a script for an antibiotic and ordered a blood draw of 6 vials of blood. My poor baby. He was a trooper though and stopped crying very quickly after he was done. I did make daddy hold him for that one, I couldn't be the mean one for that. The doctor then set us up appointments with an ENT and plastic surgeon.

We met with the plastic surgeon and were very impressed with him. He is world renowned and teaches at universities all over the world. He explained in depth what all Samuel's surgery would entail and then told us he would prefer to wait 6-8 weeks. He wanted us to go to an orthodontist to get Samuel an appliance to wear until his surgery to stretch his palate as to have more tissue to work with. He explained how this would help Samuel in the long run, and of course we told him we were willing to do whatever was best for our little boy.

So off we went to the orthodontist the next day. What a cool place it was!!! It was a kids only office and was decorated amazingly and they even had a trained golden retriever whose job was to go around and soothe the children. Spencer the dog was amazing, and Samuel loved him as well. We will be getting the appliance for Samuel within the next week. It will be somewhat painful, so please keep him in your prayers, and hopefully these next 8 weeks will pass by quickly for him.

So that is what our lives have been full of in the last couple of weeks. Along with lots of singing, snuggles, playing in kid friendly waiting rooms, snow days and Samuels first time playing in the snow!! Wow, he was not a fan at first, but once he saw his brothers having fun, he decided it wasn't so bad after all. He even helped us pat the snowballs for our snowman!!

He is also becoming quite a pro at baby cereal. He's eating much bigger bites now and is swallowing them much faster. He also has fed himself puffs, noodles and peas!!! Yes, that's right, his little fingers put food in his very own mouth. This is a HUGE step!!! He also crawled up our front steps for the first time!! He is amazing. He is progressing so beautifully. Our little man is surprising us every day.