A year ago today, I posted about my 20 week ultrasound and all of the scary tests that followed. At the time, we had no idea how Taylor's diagnosis of aqueductal stenosis would impact his life.

Here we are at 8 months old and I'm happy to report that as far as the neurologists are concerned, he's doing great. The shunt seems to be working well, the MRI they did in April looked good, and while they ultimately decided he does NOT have a cavum septum pellucidum (CSP) it doesn't seem to have an impact on him. We are so grateful that he is doing well on this front.

We get a lot of questions about his shunt. Unless it fails, he will have it for the rest of his life. There's a messy spool of tubing in his abdomen that will unfurl as he grows. The tube connects to the shunt and drains the fluid from his brain to his abdominal cavity. He has a variable shunt, meaning that there's a cool magnetic wand thing that his neurosurgeon puts over the back of his head where the shunt is, activating the tiny magnetic pin in the shunt, so they can easily adjust the pressure in his ventricles.

As a result, we have to keep magnets away from his head. He won't be able to play contact sports when he is older, but that's not a big deal.

Cognitively, Taylor is doing really well. He is very alert and responsive. He hasn't missed too many of those types of developmental milestones.

One of the concerns I talked about in last year's blog post was that Taylor was measuring very small – over a week behind where he should be. Turns out this was what we had to be stressed out about.

I love to eat. I never ever thought I'd have a kid who had very little appetite and needed to be put on a weight gain diet (at age 5 months!). He has been diagnosed as failure to thrive, had an 8 day stint in the hospital at the end of April, and came home with an NG tube. He gets colds that last forever which is the last thing a kid who won't gain weight needs (sucking from a bottle is tough with a cold and there's the whole lack of appetite issue).

Last week's check up with his gastroenterology team was hopeful. While it's still slow, they were all satisfied with the rate at which he gained over the past month.

He has missed physical/motor skill developmental milestones. But his doctors think that it's mainly because he's so tiny. We are hoping that once he gains more weight, those milestones will follow.

All things considered, Taylor is doing really well. We are so grateful for the love and outpouring of support we have received over this last year. It has been a crazy year. While we have had our moments (months?) of frustration and emotional exhaustion, we love this little person so much and couldn't imagine our lives without him.