18 weeks

Well last week was 18 weeks and I am feeling fine. I think I have felt the baby move some. In fact I know I felt it last night about 3 am as I was laying there waiting for Davis to wake up. This one is not as active as Davis was, I was already feeling Davis from the outside at this point. Jason says that is good, maybe it will have Garrett's personality. Davis has definitly been a challenge- good thing he is so cute!!

Things are going ok on the PKU front. His level was good this week, so we are keeping everything the same. I have started to try to introduce his formula in a sippy cup- he isn't so sure about it, mostly it just pisses him off. I think it comes out too fast. I am going to buy one of the straw ones today to see if he likes that any better. I think that is what I started Garrett out on. Katie, the dietician, says the earlier we get him on sippy cups of formula the better and easier it will be to get him off the bottle. I want him off the bottle by the time the baby comes, for sure!

I had a pretty sad day on Sunday thinking about PKU. On the message board that I read, I read some threads about what others are feeding their babies. It made me sad to think that Davis will never have any of that stuff and his whole life is going to be full of measuring out foods and reading labels and restriction. Then we went to 7-11 and the cashier gave my 5 year old a cookie. It made me really sad to think that we would have had to tell Davis no- he can't have that cookie. It sucks. Generally I try to have a good attitude about it because I KNOW things could be alot worse, but Sunday was just hard. I try to think of all the things he CAN have and how healthy he will be- but I was just down on Sun. I am sure I will have those days throughout his life. I can't dwell on the "can't haves", I need to focus on how LUCKY we are that he was diagnosed properly and how far the diet has come. I read an article that those that were not diagnosed (before newborn screening) were mentally retarded by a year of age... He is almost 8 months old, so he would be showing signs of brain damage already, if he hadn't been diagnosed. When you look at him and watch him interact with Garrett it is had to believe that things could be so different! Thank goodness for newborn screening!