6 months old!

Hello everyone!

We just wanted to send everyone an update on Zeke. We have put together a web page for Zeke that will be updated more often than we send out update letters, so please visit often! It is still under construction, but we will be posting updates frequently.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ezekielhines
Zeke will be having reconstructive surgery on his head in the very near future. We met with the plastic surgeon and he said that for right now he wants to increase Zeke's "tummy time" to 85-90% of the day in order to help strengthen his neck muscles and help him to tolerate being on his stomach. (He will have to stay off of the back of his head after the surgery.) So far, this has been very difficult. First of all, he's rolling over with no problems so if he doesn't want to be on his stomach, he just rolls over--so it's been difficult to keep him off of his head. But the bigger challenge has been that spending long periods of time on his stomach significantly worsens his reflux. He throws up a lot when he's on his stomach and one morning he stopped breathing because he was refluxing and couldn't catch his breath. Please pray that he will be able to spend more time on his stomach in preparation for the surgery. After the surgery, Zeke will wear a cranial band and we had his pre-op visit and we're very excited. Zeke's biggest developmental delay his been head control and we've talked with parents who've said that cranial banding and the therapists at Cranial Technologies (there is a link to Cranial Technologies on the link section of the web page) really helped with their children's head control. We are very excited about this. Please pray for Zeke's upcoming surgery and all of the preparations being made by the different specialists.
We also ask that you continue to pray for Zeke's eating and his reflux. It is very difficult to get him to eat at his reflux is so severe. We have talked to a gastrointerologist about doing a Nissen Fundoplocation (there is a link about this procedure on the link section of the web page) which is a complicated surgery that we want to avoid if at all possible. Please, please continue to pray that Zeke's eating will improve so that we don't have to take this route.
Zeke is continuing to improve developmentally. He saw a neuro-optimologist who assessed Zeke's vision. He said that his optic nerves look perfect (which we think is a miracle because if you'll remember in Zeke's first MRI, no optic nerves showed up--they said there was the possibility he was blind) and that at this point it looks as if his vision is just delayed. He was very impressed with many of the things he IS able to do--he said that he was a couple of months delayed. That was very good news!
As always, we thank God for all of you and your prayers. Please continue to remember our family in your prayers.

We love all of you!

Brian and Melissa Hines