A Time For Celebration!

Hello All! This entry brings with it much joy! It all started March 3rd with Colin taking his first steps! I managed to have the video camera nearby and though I didn't catch the literal first steps, I caught steps 7, 8, 9 and 10! :-) He went through a brief phase of wanting to crawl more than walk as he was faster at crawling, but he's now wanting to walk more and more (especially since he likes to show off his own pair of Stride Rite classic white, old-school kicks)! When he first put them on, he acted like he was wearing cement shoes! It was hilarious. He would look up, then down, then up again. He would sway back and forth without moving his feet, as if they were stuck to the ground. But since, he has literally taken off! It's so cute watching him learn to walk and it melts our hearts as it's yet another step (no pun intended) toward showing the world how much he's capable of overcoming the odds.
The second big piece of information is that we've ruled out Cystic Fibrosis! Yeah! That was something that, although we didn't think was too likely despite Colin showing the clinical signs of it (heavy mucous production, vomiting, and fatty stools), the GI docs wanted to rule it out. Naturally this caused us some stress as there was that little bit of doubt. Well, no more! What a HUGE relief! Now we're waiting anxiously for the results of his tests last week at Wake Forest (we should have those in the next week or two). They did another upper endoscopy and took some new biopsies - including that of some unspecified nodules in his esophagus and stomach, an esophageal manometry and a pancreatic stimulation test (enzyme challenge). I'll post as soon as we learn something new.
And the last bit of good news is that our family will be participating for the first time this year in March for Babies. This event, sponsored by March of Dimes, helps to raise awareness and research dollars to help fight and understand further the causes of prematurity. As you are aware, our family knows first hand the difficulties, challenges and unbelievable stress that comes with having a premature baby (in our case, a miracle, micro-preemie)! We would be honored and humbled if you would please donate to what we think is a very worthy and important cause that has altered our lives in many, many ways. We encourage you to donate even the tiniest amount to help us reach and break our fund-raising goal. We understand this is a difficult time for most given the current economy, but every little bit counts! You can click on the donate tab in the upper right-hand corner of Colin's blog. Thank you for your continued support, and thanks for cheering on our now 19-pound, walking, babbling, beautiful, I'll-show-you, determined, young man! :-)