More October

Go Blue!

The battle begins between Emme and Vince. Emme won this year.

Five months old

Silly face

It has been a busy month so far, I can't believe it is almost over. Our excitement last week was that Vince rolled over. He did it six times in one day and once the next, but has decided that he is now to cool for it and has not done it since, but we know he will do it again. :) We are also working on sitting and bearing weight on his legs. We also experienced his first fever last week. I was sick and must have given it to him, but we made it through it and are doing much better this week. Nick has been keeping busy with work and school. He will be done with his MBA at the end of November. We hope you are all enjoying fall and the colors that go with it.

Love,

Nick, Andrea, and Vince

5 months

Remember this picture - 1 month old trying on pants

These pants fit me now

Big smiles

First day of daycare

Watching the Michigan football game

Vince will be 5 months old already on Sunday. September has really flown by for us and we can't belive it is over already. It was quite a busy month for all of us and I don't see it slowing down too much soon. Andrea is doing well and getting adjusted to all her new students at school. Vince is enjoying day care and is back to two days a week at physical therapy and continues to improve on his head and neck strength - all that tummy time is paying off. We are now working on sitting up and rolling over. I've been busy traveling and getting acclimated with my new job and working on my last two classes for my MBA. Luckily, the only doctor's appointment we've had this month was for Vince's 4 month check up and shots. He weighed in at 14lbs, 4oz and was 24in long but was not a big fan of the shots.

Tomorrow we plan on going to watch the Michigan - Michigan State game with Andy, Amy and Emme. Hopefully I can teach Vince how to say "Go Blue" by then.

Love,

Nick, Andrea and Vince

Back to Work/School

Ben and Lindsay's Wedding

Vince at 4 months old

Crazy hair after his bath

Enjoying his bumbo

So exhausted during his first night in a hotel

Well it has been a little while since we last posted. Vince has been very good, we have not had a lot of appointments lately which is nice after this summer. Nick and I decided to count and see how many appointments we had including physical therapy in Vince's first 4 month of life and we came up with 72. We were pretty surprised it was that many. Nick started his new job and is enjoying it. He is very busy getting everything set up how he needs it and visiting customers. He is working for a foam company again. I have also gone back to work. The first week with students went really well. This year I have all Econ classes which does make it a little easier for me because last year that is what I taught, so I have some experience with it. Vince is going to a lady's house each day where he is the only little one there. She was recommended by my principal and has been great so far. I think Vince is really going to enjoy it there. Other than learning how to balance work and be parents at the same time we think everything is going great. We hope you are all enjoying what is left of summer. Also, congratulations to Ben and Lindsay Chargot, your wedding was beautiful!

Love,

Nick, Andrea, and Vince

Great Week

Big smiles

Tummy time is paying off.

The beginning of sitting up, even though it looks like Nick is holding him up, he is not.

We have had a great week. Nick got a job and Vince continues to do well. On Thursday last week Nick had an interview and was offered the job that day. His new company is based in Indiana, but he will be working from home. He will be traveling about four days a week, but will be home most nights. Because of this we have been in the process of finding day care for Vince and we think we have found a couple of really great options. It will be hard leaving him at first but we will all adjust very fast I am sure.

Vince had an MRI as well that day and it showed that the blood was going away and that there is just a little bit of staining left. Hopefully that means when we go back for an EEG it will show normal activity and we will be able to take him off of the phenobarb.

Vince continues to do very well with his physical therapy and keeps showing improvements. He is getting better at tummy time and sitting. He does not have sitting down yet but he is able to hold himself up for a few seconds at a time with his hands. I know it does not seem like very much but it is really exciting for us. He has also decided to giggle at therapy on Friday after his therapist bounced him on the ball. It was very cute.

Today we went to the GI specialist to have a check up due to the blood in his stool and it looks like it has cleared up. He thinks it was fissure, so Vince is on Miralax until November to make sure it does not come back. I think that is all for now. We hope you are all having a great end of summer (hard to believe that school is about to start). Oh and congratulations to David, he left to college today. I can't believe my little brother is starting college.

Love,

Nick, Andrea, and Vince

Busy Weekend

They wore matching outfits up at the cottage

A very nice sunset after a very cold day.

Vince all bundled up and ready for his first boat ride. He slept through the whole adventure.

Vince at 3 months old

Vince and Sam

He had crazy hair when he woke up from his nap.

Emmie and Vince. They are about three months apart in age.

Vince dipped his toes in the water at Paul and Kathys house for the first time, he was not to sure what to think.

The Bellmore Boys, at least the ones that were there. Luke, David, Nick, Tom and Vince, and Andy.

The Bellmore great grandkids minus Ethan. Korine holding Emmie, Madeline, and Chloe holding Vince.

I can't believe it is already August! Where has the time gone? We had a very busy weekend, Grandma and Grandpa Santini came down on Friday, and we went to Uncle Paul and Aunt Kathy's house on both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday we went and saw the newest addition to the family Emmie, Andy and Amy are her parents, Andy is Nick's cousin. She is only a week old and so cute. Vince and Emmie got along very well, they looked at each other, held hands, and Emmie even sucked on Vince's hand when he put it in her mouth. It was so sweet watching them together. Nick's other cousins were there too, David, Courtney, their kids Korine, Chloe, and Madeline, and Becky. We had a wonderful dinner and stayed pretty late but Vince did very well.

On Sunday we went back to their house to see Luke before he left for the Army. All of the people above were there plus Tom and Aunt April. Being that it was about 95 degrees and very humid Paul and Kathy's pool came in handy. Overall it was a great weekend.

Vince also turned 3 months old on the 4th so we took some pictures again. He is getting so big. On Monday he weighed in at 12 pounds 4 ounces. You will notice in the pictures that the jean overalls he has on in the 3 month pictures are the same ones that were huge on him in the pictures of him trying on clothes at about 1 month old. We have had to start putting away his newborn clothes.

Other than all of this, last week was a pretty slow week with the exception of Vince having a little bit of blood in his stool. Last Sunday we ended up at the ER because he had quite a bit of blood in it but after all of the tests they ran they were able to rule out any infection and they sent us to a GI specialist the next day. They are still not exactly sure what is causing it but we are trying to figure it out. They are treating him for a fissure right now but if that does not work they are going to look into him having a milk protein allergy. If he does have that the doctor said that most kids outgrow it by the time they turn one, so that is not too bad.

This week is going to be a busy one. I am going to be working Monday through Wednesday for sure and possibly Thursday. I was able to get some work writing curriculum for the ISD. It will be a good test for what it is going to be like when I go back to work in September. Vince has physical therapy like usual, his first Early On home visit, a MRI to check the blood that was in his brain after the seizures, and a Neurosurgeon appointment. We hope that everyone is having a wonderful summer and that it is not going to fast.

Love,

Nick, Andrea, and Vince

Catching Up

Already a Tigers fan.

Vince with Donkey at Luke's graduation party.

At the Micketti Family reunion.

He is smiling a lot more lately.

It's been a while since our last post and we have had many appointments and trips since then, so I'll try to do my best with the updates to get everyone up to speed.

Two weeks ago, we had a total of six appointments in four days - two sessions of physical therapy, two meetings with the Early On program, a pediatrician and a urologist appointment. At the pediatrician, Vince got his 2 month shots which he was not a very big fan of. We only got 2 of the 4 shots that time, so he is not going to be happy when we go back soon to get the other ones. The urologist said that Vince's bladder and kidneys looked really healthy, but from the VCUG test that he got the week before it looked like he wasn't emptying his bladder completely. Since that could lead to kidney problems in the future, he decided that we should cath Vince with every diaper change for a week to give him more data. So we have been cathing him a few times a day and recording how much liquid was in his bladder and we will have a follow up with the urologist in the next couple of weeks to go over those numbers and see what he recommends.

That weekend we drove 4 hours (it now takes about 5 hours with a 2.5 month old) up to Rogers City for Nick's family reunion and his cousin Luke's graduation party. Both parties were on Saturday, so Vince had a busy day meeting all of his relatives but he did very good and I'm sure he had a fun time.

Last week was a bit slower for us which was nice. We had an ultrasound on Vince's head to look at his ventricles and see if his shunt was working correctly. We will go back on Wednesday to meet with the neurosurgeon for the results of that. Friday we took a drive up to Grand Rapids so Vince could watch Uncle David play in a baseball tournament and then Uncle Chris met up with us after that for dinner.

The next couple of weeks shouldn't be as busy so hopefully the weather gets to be nicer and we can get out and enjoy the summer.

Nick, Andrea and Vince

2 Months Old/4th of July

Last weekend we took our first trip up north since Vince was born. Wow, we did not realize how much stuff has to be packed when you have an infant. Our car was packed. We got up there late on Thursday and came home on Saturday. It was very busy but we had a very good time. My cousins from Texas were up at the cottage as well as my Aunts and Uncles. Vince did great with everyone and all of the stuff going on around him. He stayed content and happy pretty much the whole time. Nick's parents also came over to the cottage on Saturday and they brought his Grandma. Being that Vince turned two months old on Saturday we took a lot of pictures so I thought I would share some of them. After our busy weekend, our week started out very busy. Between Monday and Tuesday Vince had four appointments and I had a work meeting. Vince had a Swallow test, a Bladder Ultrasound and VCUG, Physical Therapy, and a Neurologist appointment. We do not know the results of the swallow test (this test was to see if he has reflux) and VCUG (this was a test to see if his bladder is working properly) yet, we will find out next week when we meet with the doctors, at physical therapy he did really well and continues to get stronger, and at the Neurologist appointment we found out that he has to stay on the seizure medicine a little while longer. The EEG still showed a little bit of abnormal activity so in six months we will repeat the EEG and see what is going on at that point. After those appointments we do not have anymore until Friday when Vince has physical therapy again. It is going to be really nice to have two days off this week. Next week is very busy again, we are hoping that everything starts slowing down soon. We hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July.

Love,
Nick, Andrea, and Vince



Our little family.

Nick's Grandma, Mom, and Dad

My Grandpa, Mom, and Dad

My Grandpa, Cousin Amy, and her son Colton. He is about a year and a half older than Vince.

Our Grandparents

Four generations

Four generations again.