Ooh...The Mystery May Have Been Solved!

Hallelujah..we think we may have figured out the mystery of the retching and gagging. We hope!

Jen and Kalista went to the GI clinic yesterday for Kalista's quarterly visit to ensure that her g-tube and site are doing well. It was also an appointment to address her retching and gagging. From what was discussed and from our understanding, there are two causes: (1) aspiration and (2) pressure on the sphincter muscle between the esophagus and the stomach. Because Kalista never really eats by mouth and from her previous swallow study months ago, we know she doesn't aspirate food or fluids. This means it's a volume and pressure issue on the sphincter.


If you can remember, Kalista caught the stomach flu in February and all she was on for a few days was Pedialyte. She did not gag at all for those four days because evidently, water and clear fluids are cleared from the stomach to the intestines rapidly. This leads the GI clinic to think it may be the formula or milk that it not clearing the stomach fast enough and causing Kalista to accumulate too much food in her stomach. Can you imagine a buffet for every meal? Poor thing...she just can't accommodate all that yummy food!




After this appointment, it was decided that we need to change the formula Kalista is getting, since Similac Advance is not broken down enough compared to breastmilk. Because Similac Advance is a "large food molecule" and breastmilk is a "small food molecule", Kalista is having trouble breaking down the larger food molecules and it ends up staying in the stomach for a longer period of time. We hope this alternative formula is not some crazy expensive stuff that we need to sell an organ for....we like having all our body parts.


The other question we brought up was: what is the impact of fortifying Kalista's feedings with rice cereal, since it bulks up each meal and slows down the mobility of the food? To test this theory, Jen decided to do a mini experiment and took away the rice cereal for Kalista's feeds today. What did we find out???....drum roll please........NO GAGGING or RETCHING! Isn't that awesome?!?! The only issue now is that we are missing a bulk of calories and will have to bring it up when we see Kalista's nutritionist in two weeks. We'll see if this is a repeat performance tomorrow and keep you updated.


On a different note:
One of our favorite photographers, Peter Lik, is debuting his collection and the stories behind them on The Weather Channel. It is called "From The Edge", airing every Thursday, 8- 8:30 pm PST. We just finished watching the replay of the first episode and wanted to share. If you have a chance to sneak a peek into one of his galleries, his photographs are amazing!!! We have been to four of his galleries and all of them are a breathtaking. We have visited the one in La Jolla (San Diego), Lahaina, Maui, Honolulu, Oahu and the one in Las Vegas. "Island Hideaway" is one of our favorites since it reminds of our kayaking adventure the day after our wedding, right off of Lanikai Beach in Oahu.

Belated Mardi Gras and More

I can't believe that March is almost over and that it's been awhile since we have posted any news. Maybe it's because we don't have too much share...we live through others now and their exciting lives.

Where do we start?

Kalista is getting much better at standing up on her own and finally did it all by herself last week. She is also more comfortable with the crawling thing, but it's still not her favorite activity to do by any means. She prefers to hop and scoot on her butt...it looks more like a bunny hop. She'll be able to keep up with the Easter bunny at least.

Here are a few Kalista pictures since our last post:

Standing and playing

We tricked her into the bottle with a sock covering

Kalista loves playing with Mardi Gras beads

Standing up takes some hard work

She has finally outgrown her swing

Um...wrong end girlfriend!

Our final thoughts for the day... it's Grandma Susan's birthday. Hooray!

Kalista says:

" HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND LOTS OF KISSES GRANDMA!!! "

The Retching Is Back...Why?????

We had a great weekend shopping trip at the outlets. We were on a search to find Kalista a new sweatshirt since she has outgrown the two we have for her. Can you believe she fit the 3-6 month size for this long? After searching, Matt found a winner...it's a super cute hoodie sweatshirt with little butterflies and flowers on it. Kalista will have to model it for everyone. She also got some really cute Puma crib sneakers that we will have to show you all. So adorable when she has them on! Okay...enough about our shopping adventure.

It's like a never-ending battle. The awful retching is back.

We were so happy since we thought it went away for good and then....it came back again over the past week or so. Luckily, it doesn't happen as frequently as before, but it is so painful to watch her turn a nasty shade of red-purple as she dry heaves. With our detective skills, we have noticed it comes on at the beginning of almost every feeding and potentially at the end. We have tried every trick under the sun and can't seem to find a way to avoid it. We tried venting her before her feed and after..sometimes in the middle to get out the excess gas she has stored up in her tummy. We tried water before the feed in case the milk was shocking her stomach. We tried giving her a little milk and then stop and let her adjust for a few minutes before continuing in spurts. It is so frustrating since we can't figure out the cause or a remedy. We thought Kalista might be lactose intolerant, like her parents, but it doesn't matter if she's getting milk or soy. Hmmm...I hope our GI appointment at the end of the month with give us some answers.


On the brighter side, Kalista has graduated into her big girl seat (as you can see in the picture above). The toddler seat (Thanks Martinez family!) is a really cushy and posh seat. Kinda wish they made those for adults in cars...oh wait...maybe they have. All in all, Kalista loves her new seat since she can admire the world through the car's moon-roof much better.

I'm Ten Months Old!

We are one month closer to Kalista's FIRST birthday. Since we have posted last, Kalista has attempted to crawl a few times, but melts into a baby pancake when her arms buckle under her. She's working hard on it and our guess is that she will master crawling in the next few weeks.


Yes...we keep saying this, but it might be true this time. We think her first tooth may be coming soon. Her tongue has had a mind of its own lately and she has been rubbing her tongue on her lower gums. We can't keep her clothes from being drenched since she has been drooling like a faucet and chewing on all her clothes. It amazes us that she will put all these zany things in her mouth, but when it comes to food...she dodges our attempts to get it in her mouth.


We have been struggling to get her interested in purees and baby foods again lately. We're not sure if this is a phase or if she's teething and just sore....we have no idea. We just hope we're not taking steps backwards.


Kalista has been babbling and babbling loudly. She has added many letter sounds to her vocabulary. Yesterday, she was saying "bababa" and today it was "nanana". It's like Sesame Street, wonder what the "letter of day" will be tomorrow?

Let Me Try It

Kalista had a few visitors this past weekend, Grandma Susan (Por Por) and Uncle Bill (Kau-Fu). It didn't take long before she warmed up to them and remembered who they were. She was spoiled again for another few days with constant attention and being held in everyone's arms. Kalista showed them her new talents of standing up with a little assistance and the start of crawling.

Kalista is looking more like a little girl now with Grandma

Speaking of standing and crawling....we saw Tami, Kali's physical therapist, this week and we have been challenged to work on getting her crawling and standing up on our own. For the past few days, Kalista is getting better at pulling herself up to a stand and has taken on getting into crawling stance on her own (which is a big step for her). Every little day we are learning something new.

We even saw the neurologist, Dr. Mehl, this week for our routine developmental milestone check up. We found out the size of Matt's head circumference at this visit since they measured Jen's at the very first office visit. It is to get a sense of what Kali's head size should be. After a few peeks with his scope and a few taps with the reflex hammer, Dr. Mehl told us that Kalista has a "good brain" and that we don't have to see him again until six months from now.

Bleh....that plum is so tart!

I love paper products

Kalista has taken on to touching and mouthing everything, except food of course. Well, we take that back, she does have a select amount of "allowed" foods that go in her mouth. Today, she took on licking a plum, gumming Baby Mum Mum rice crackers and mouthing her favorite vegetable item, carrot sticks. Baby foods and purees have not been a big hit lately for some reason. Besides that, she loves to suck on paper and all sorts of items that don't seem threatening to her.

You could be the next one I call...

She is definitely a kiddo of the future. Her favorite items happen to be electronic products ranging from the laptop computer and remote control to our cell phones. She seems to know how to text and IM folks too. Her little thumbs come out and dance around the keyboard. Her messages look like this most of the time: "qoeieieo....skakalaskfjalsi ....afalsifhoaiw" and on some occasions they get sent to some lucky friend/family member. So you may be next lucky person to get a message directly from Kalista.