A Stitch In Time Hurts Like Hell...

But it certainly DOES save you more "stitches" in the future!  This is what happens when I start to slack on my posts ->  I end up having to get 3 or 4 topics crammed into one entry.  Couple that with the fact that I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my blog, and you're talking about a very lengthy post.  I'm pretty sure I only need to do two post's worth to get caught up though, so that's good, right? 

Anyway, the Friday before last, Ryker went in for his exam under anesthesia.  I took this picture with my camera phone because I just couldn't resist:
 

He looked so cute in his hospital PJs.  :)

Thankfully, they didn't sedate him this time around.  They just gave him laughing gas in order to lull him to sleep and then Dr. Dries looked into his left eye to see whether or not he had a mole (as the good doc suspected) and, if so, whether or not there were others.  It turns out there was just one mole and it looked normal and benign, so it's a relief that there's not one more thing to have to worry about.  While he was looking at the backs of Ryker's eyeballs, Dr. Dries took a few pictures as well.

The mole is the big dark spot near the lower left-hand section

Left

Right

The above pictures are of the backs of Ryker's left and right eyes, showing underdeveloped optic discs - an indicator of Optic Nerve Hypoplasia.  Below I've is a picture of a normal-sized optic oisc, and another picture showing the back of an eye, but pointing out where to locate the Optic Disc (as the ones above may be hard to find if you don't know what you're looking for).

As you'll notice, Ryker's optic discs are much smaller, and less pronounced in color and vibrance than normal optic discs, due to underdeveloped optic nerves.  You wouldn't know it by Ryker's attitude and development, however!  Last Wednesday we met our teacher from the School for the Deaf and Blind.  This first visit pretty muched served as an assessment of where Ryker is in development, what senses he's drawn to the most, and to just get an overall game plan about how we're going to work with him to develop whatever sight we can.  Our teacher's name is Sherilyn, and I warmed up to her immediately (a good sign in my world).  She started off by exclaiming how strong Ryker is!  This, I knew...and I had a feeling he was stronger than your average 5 or 6 month old, despite having visual impairment.  Right after that, we had him sitting on the living room rug and let go of him so Sherilyn could see where he is in terms of balance and back strength.  Wouldn't you know that that's when Ryker decided to show off his ability to sit all by himself, with absolutely ZERO assistance, for approximately 4 whopping seconds straight!  I think I might have a bit of an attention hound on my hands.  Go figure, Ryker would wait for a large audience to show off his new skill.  It was evident by the look on his face immediately afterward that he was pretty damn proud of himself too!  He's getting more skilled at sitting up unassisted, so I'm gonna try to get a video of it one of these days so I can help him show off for even more people.  ;)

Sherilyn tested him out with all sorts of objects that lit up, made sounds, or had all sorts of varying textures.  She determined that Ryker really uses his auditory and tactile senses for most of his learning and experiencing.  That's a given, of course, but apparently some babies with ONH respond to lights a lot more than Ryker did.  So, that's something we're going to be working on.  We'll be using his auditory and tactile senses to guide him towards teaching his brain to control his eyes better.  How much Ryker will be able to see is still unknown, even while doing this, but it DOES help.  And every little bit helps.  Sherilyn also gauged Ryker's social skills and motor skills.  Those apparently really impressed her because, by the end of the visit, she said she was very excited to work with Ryker and believes he's going to be, and in many ways already is, a highly functioning child with ONH. 

I've always felt that way, but never had anything to compare my experiences with Ryker to.  Sherilyn, however, has.  She's met and worked with many children with ONH - that's her job.  She said that most of them don't show so much strength, impressive motor skills, and great social skills.  Apparently, most babies with ONH are afraid of many things, but Ryker didn't seem to be afraid of anything.  He's just like any other baby would be around sounds, textures, being around other people, etc.  So, needless to say, we're all pretty excited about Ryker's current, and potential, progress!

So...Ryker's flipping over from his back to his tummy almost every chance he gets.  Which is great except that he subsequently gets frustrated at being on his tummy.  LOL!  Sometimes he manages to flip back onto his back, and he's getting better and better at rolling over again and again.  It really depends on his mood though.  A lot of the time he just fusses on his tummy 'til I flip him back over onto his back.  It's a bit exhausting for the both of us, but it's all necessary and good for the little tyke.

Oh, and just when I thought Ryker couldn't get much taller, he's still growing.  Nope, no plateauing yet.  He just keeps on growing.  It's unbelievable. At our WIC appointment Friday, they measured him at 27 & 5/8 inches, which puts him in the 90th percentile for babies his age!! 90 PERCENTILE! If you're saying to yourself "But wait Ms. Alexis! What is all this talk about percentiles? What does it all mean?" then here's a little example I got from BabyCenter.com:

"If your 3-month-old son is in the 40th percentile for weight and the 80th for height, for instance, that means 40 percent of 3-month-old boys in the United States weigh the same as or less than your baby and 60 percent weigh more. Similarly, 80 percent of boys his age are the same length as or shorter than your child and 20 percent are longer."

So, basically, Ryker is longer/taller than 90% of all other 6 month old babies in the US. For all you mothers, there's a plethera of growth percentile calculators online to help you determine where your own little one ranks. I find it pretty interesting anyway. Ryker's in the 50th percentile for weight (weighing in at around 17.5 lbs, give or take), and the 25th percentile for head circumference (though I don't remember the measurements on that). All-in-all, he's meeting or exceeding the averages. I'm pretty stoked because 70-80 percent of children with ONH have hormone deficiencies which generally lead to growth problems. There's still a chance that he can a develop hormone deficiency later on, but since his MRI showed a normally developing Pitutary Gland and he's been doing so well on growth, it would seem he's likely beating the odds. Let's hope it stays that way! :)