Lil' Tex

This morning was the Halloween parade at the elementary school up the street. Luke's cousin Zac goes there, so we went up to see all the kids. We dressed Luke up in his cowboy costume that Barrett's mom made out of the leather from a deer that he shot when he was young. Doesn't he make the cutest cowboy ever?!




I love his cheeks in this picture





Luke and Zac

Good News!

Luke had his appointment with the Pediatric Orthopedic Specialist this morning up at Primary Children's Hospital. For those of you that don't know, Luke was born with Infantile Scoliosis. From the day he was born we noticed that Luke would always arch his body to the right. So, at his two month appointment I mentioned this to his pediatrician and she noticed red creases on his right side from always leaning that way. His pediatrician sent us to get his spine x-rayed and sure enough she called us the next day and told us that Luke has a 23 degree left thoracic curve in his spine. A 23 degree curve is considered mild to moderate so his doctor wanted us to take him to see a specialists to see if he needed to be put into a brace. We were dreading the thought of a brace because he would have to wear it 23 hours a day for several years. The other major bummer of all of this is that Luke was diagnosed right as we were applying for a private insurance plan (since I just quit and Barrett's work doesn't have a group insurance plan we had to go to a private plan.) Needless to say, Luke was denied by all of the insurance companies because they determined that he was an "unknown risk" because there was not a treatment plan in place. So were are faced with putting him on COBRA which has an astronomical monthly premium. Barrett and I signed with HumanaOne because they were the only company that agreed to reconsider covering Luke after a treatment plan was put in place.

Anyway, so that takes us to his appointment today. We went and saw Dr. John Smith who specializes in Scoliosis. He took a look at Luke's x-rays and examined his back, tummy, and hips. Luke was a very good boy during all of this, he just stared at the doctor trying the figure out what the heck he was doing. Dr. Smith explained to us that there are two types of Infantile Scoliosis. One type is progressive and needs to be treated immediately and the other type will spontaneously correct itself as the infant gets stronger and sits and stands up (we have noticed that he doesn't arch as much as he used to.) Dr. Smith told us that he thinks that Luke's curve will correct itself on its' own and that no treatment is necessary!!!!! We just have to go back in four months for some follow up x-rays and we're supposed to play with him sitting or standing up as much possible in order to strengthen his back. Dr. Smith was able to determine that Luke had the type of Scoliosis that would correct itself because his ribs are symmetrical on both sides and his vertabrae are all normal and intact. While Infantile Scoliosis is very rare (only 1 in every 10,000 infants have it), Dr. Smith said that among those that have it it is most common in large, first born, male infants. That definitely describes Luke. While they don't have an explanation why infants may develop curved spines, Dr. Smith said that because Luke was such a big baby he was probably very scrunched inside of me which made his spine curve as he grew (I could have told you that.) Now hopefully we can get him on our insurance plan in stead of COBRA.

A huge thank you to all of you who kept Luke in your prayers. We appreciate it more than you will ever know.




Pictures of Luke watching Bob the Builder before we took him to the doctor. Can you believe that he is only three months old?

Bath Time!

Luke is definitely a water boy. He takes after his dad and absolutely loves being in water. His favorite activity is taking a shower, but taking a bath is the next best thing. He would probably stay in the water all day if I let him, but as soon as his hands and feet start looking like prunes I know it's time to get out! Anyway, here are a few picture of Luke enjoying the bath.

Where's Luke?

This is how I found Luke napping today after I ran downstairs to put in a load of laundry (don't worry, I checked to make sure he could breathe before I took the picture.) Simply stated, Luke LOVES his blankies. It doesn't matter which one, just as long as it's soft. He has a hard time falling asleep unless he has a blankie right next face. What he loves most is to rub his face in his blankie and then fall asleep, as you can see from the picture. Because of this, he is only allowed free reign with a blankie when we are awake and in the same room with him. At night we tuck his blanket in on the sides so he can't move it, which of course he hates. He'll lay there and kick his legs up and down trying to free the blankie until he falls asleep. Give Luke a binkie and a blankie and he's happy!

Cousins

Here is Luke with his cousin Hailey. Luke has lot's of cousins, but Hailey is the closest one to his age. They are four months apart, here Luke is 3 months old and Hailey is 7 months old.


Two of the cutest chubby babies I have ever seen!!


"If you go down two blocks and take a right you should see it."


"Hey, what's she doing with my toy?"


Luke giving Hailey luvs. (Hailey didn't like it so much!)

Adios Uncle Lincoln

Barrett's brother Lincoln left today for the MTC. He is going to the Chile Rancagua mission. We are so proud of him and know that he will be a great missionary. We love you Elder Bradshaw!