Luke was my introduction to the common condition known as “reflux”. I swear it’s often mistaken for colic (do we even know what that is?). This boy cried every waking hour and because Hannah had been such an easy baby, for the 1st couple of weeks, I figured, it was just normal. Finally at his 4 week well-check, I described his inconsolable crying and all the paraphernalia I had desperately acquired to soothe him…(vibrating bouncy seats, front carriers, snuggle blankets) and his doc (who normally is reasonable) told me that if I wasn’t ready to jump out a window yet, he wasn’t inclined to put him through the battery of tests to diagnose reflux. Can you believe I went home accepting that answer?
Thankfully my good friend, Stacey, called that same day to see how things were going. She and her husband are both pediatricians living in Nashville and their first child suffered from reflux. She asked all the right questions and diagnosed him over the phone. She admitted that before her baby had reflux, she asked the moms of her patients all the wrong questions and probably missed a lot of cases. She suggested that I ask for a prescription for Zantac and give him Maalox a couple of times a day in-between to see if that improved things. Within 4 days, Luke was a completely different baby and he steadily improved into a happy, normal baby when he was awake.
Luke has always been industrious and doesn’t believe me when I tell him he’s patient. He’s been shoveling my mom and neighbor’s sidewalks for years and never expects to be paid-when they insist, he accepts graciously but reluctantly.
His first word was “ball”. He loves nearly any sport and is good at anything he tries. I’ve been told he’s a leader on the field and I believe it. He’s always gotten along with kids of all ages.
One of the reasons I decided to homeschool was to accommodate Luke’s approach to learning. He thinks about and studies a problem or challenge long before he tries it. I remember when Hannah was a little over a year old and she stood at her booster seat trying over and over again to clip it until she finally got it. Luke isn’t interested in a skill until he knows he can master it. One day, he just walked right up to the booster seat and clipped the darn thing. It’s been the same with a lot of things. That was the case with coloring and drawing. He just wasn’t interested in all the trial and error. He hardly ever draws and one day he drew a perfect likeness of ‘The Cat in the Hat”.
I can’t say much more about Luke without thoroughly embarrassing him. He may tell me to delete this whole post-so, I’ll just move it to my draft file again.
I’ll just post a few of my favorite photos….
