Thursday, January 25, 2007 8:44 PM CST
Sorry it takes us so long to update...as you can imagine, things are busy in our household. All the usual stuff though, not too much new going on lately.
We still struggle to get the girls to gain weight. It doesn't help that they refuse to drink milk (flavored or not) in anything except a bottle. We have tried every different type of sippy cup, tried straw cups, open cups and nothing works. We tried refusing to give them any other fluid except milk in sippy cups and they just refused to drink --at all--. Since the girls don't drink fluids that well to begin with, we had to go back to letting them have their juice/water in cups throughout the day and one bottle of milk in the evening. None of us are happy about it, but the nutritionist thinks its very important that they keep the high calorie milk, no matter what we have to do to get them to drink it.
They were last weighed on 1-8-07
Emily...........21 lbs 2 oz.........32 3/4 inches
Alexa..........20 lbs 8 oz........34 1/8 inches
Madison......18 lbs 8 oz..........33 inches
The girls are speaking so clearly now, and are putting words together into sentences. This has been helpful with some (but not all) of the fighting because now they tell each other "don't want it" or they will ask "where Madison doll?" and things like that.
Madison and Emily love to sing and seem to know the words to "twinkle twinkle little star" the best. They both also love to dance (especially Madison). Alexa doesn't care for singing and dancing as much as her sisters do. She would rather look at a book, or study her toys to see what makes them work. She can say her entire alphabet and knows each letter by sight. She can also count to 12.
Right now their favorite thing to do is to "swim" in the bathtub. I can only imagine how much they will love to be in the pool this summer. They also play with their babies contantly. They love to be the mommy. They push them around in their strollers, feed them, try to change their diapers, rock them to sleep...the whole bit. It's too cute. Emily probably enjoys it the most. Especially if there is a real baby around. Now that they have 2 newborn cousins in the family, Emily is LOVING that!
February will lighten the amount of therapy appointments that we have (a little) as Emily no longer qualifies for first steps services anymore. Madison is the only one that qualifies for therapy now so we will still have her speech therapist, her developmental therapist and the nutritionist.
As for doctors appointments, we haven't been to any recently. I didn't schedule any around the holidays. The girls will go back to Riley for more testing near the end of February to see how their kidneys are doing. Hopefully we will find out at the appointment that Emily's surgery was a complete success. We will also have to decide if we will have the same surgery for Madison or not, based on what her test results show. We hope that Alexa's tests show that her kidney reflux is improving as it did last time and maybe she will not need the surgery.
I don't anticipate us updating the website before the doctor appointment in February, so have a Happy Valentines Day everyone and we will give updates in a few weeks!
Thanks for checking in on us!!
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Thursday, January 25, 2007 8:44 PM CST
Sorry it takes us so long to update...as you can imagine, things are busy in our household. All the usual stuff though, not too much new going on lately.
We still struggle to get the girls to gain weight. It doesn't help that they refuse to drink milk (flavored or not) in anything except a bottle. We have tried every different type of sippy cup, tried straw cups, open cups and nothing works. We tried refusing to give them any other fluid except milk in sippy cups and they just refused to drink --at all--. Since the girls don't drink fluids that well to begin with, we had to go back to letting them have their juice/water in cups throughout the day and one bottle of milk in the evening. None of us are happy about it, but the nutritionist thinks its very important that they keep the high calorie milk, no matter what we have to do to get them to drink it.
They were last weighed on 1-8-07
Emily...........21 lbs 2 oz.........32 3/4 inches
Alexa..........20 lbs 8 oz........34 1/8 inches
Madison......18 lbs 8 oz..........33 inches
The girls are speaking so clearly now, and are putting words together into sentences. This has been helpful with some (but not all) of the fighting because now they tell each other "don't want it" or they will ask "where Madison doll?" and things like that.
Madison and Emily love to sing and seem to know the words to "twinkle twinkle little star" the best. They both also love to dance (especially Madison). Alexa doesn't care for singing and dancing as much as her sisters do. She would rather look at a book, or study her toys to see what makes them work. She can say her entire alphabet and knows each letter by sight. She can also count to 12.
Right now their favorite thing to do is to "swim" in the bathtub. I can only imagine how much they will love to be in the pool this summer. They also play with their babies contantly. They love to be the mommy. They push them around in their strollers, feed them, try to change their diapers, rock them to sleep...the whole bit. It's too cute. Emily probably enjoys it the most. Especially if there is a real baby around. Now that they have 2 newborn cousins in the family, Emily is LOVING that!
February will lighten the amount of therapy appointments that we have (a little) as Emily no longer qualifies for first steps services anymore. Madison is the only one that qualifies for therapy now so we will still have her speech therapist, her developmental therapist and the nutritionist.
As for doctors appointments, we haven't been to any recently. I didn't schedule any around the holidays. The girls will go back to Riley for more testing near the end of February to see how their kidneys are doing. Hopefully we will find out at the appointment that Emily's surgery was a complete success. We will also have to decide if we will have the same surgery for Madison or not, based on what her test results show. We hope that Alexa's tests show that her kidney reflux is improving as it did last time and maybe she will not need the surgery.
I don't anticipate us updating the website before the doctor appointment in February, so have a Happy Valentines Day everyone and we will give updates in a few weeks!
Thanks for checking in on us!!
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Tuesday, April 17, 2007 2:15 PM CDT
Good news, and not so good news. Let’s start with the good news. We went back to the girls’ urologist in February for their routine tests regarding their kidney reflux. Emily had to have the test they dread the most (VCUG) and they all 3 had to have ultrasounds, which they do okay with. Emily’s test results showed that her surgery was successful! Woo Hoo!! Since Madison and Alexa aren’t scheduled to have the VCUG test for another 6 months, we didn’t really get any new information about whether their reflux is better or worse. The ultrasounds are done mostly to check that their kidneys, bladder, etc are growing normally and that there is no evidence of scarring.
The bad news is that we have decided to go ahead and schedule Madison for the same surgery Emily had. We have the option of trying collagen injections instead of ureteral reimplantation surgery, however, the success rate isn’t as high as surgery and there isn’t nearly as many years of research on that procedure as there is the surgery so we felt like surgery was the route we wanted to take. The doctor said the sometimes children that are having trouble gaining weight and growing will gain and grow better after surgery. (Let’s hope Madison is one of those kids.) Madison’s surgery is scheduled for May 3rd.
The nutritionist weighed the girls on 4-10-07 and …
Emily…………..22 lbs 13 oz…………33 ½ in
Alexa…………..21 lbs 10 oz………….34 ½ in
Madison………..19 lbs 0 oz………….33 ¼ in
We have finally said farewell to the girls drinking milk from bottles! We talked to the girls about drinking milk in sippy cups because they are big girls, not babies like cousins Devon and Nathan and they seemed to be okay with that. So, near the beginning of February we put all the bottles away and put their milk in sippy cups instead. The first week they barely drank any, but we decided we were sticking with it anyway. They are getting a little better each week, but they still drink much less than they did with bottles. Alexa might be the exception to that statement since she drinks her milk better than her sisters do as long as it’s chocolate! She drinks almost as much now in her cup as she did in her bottle. Their water/juice intake has increased, so I guess they are at least drinking more fluids even if it isn’t milk.
Since the girls will be turing 3 yrs old soon, they will no longer qualify for First Steps early intervention services. That means they won't get to see their favorite therapists anymore. In the next couple weeks they will be tested to see if they qualify for RISE services which is kind of a developmental preschool, I think. I don't know whether to hope that they qualify for hope that they don't. I would be wonderful to hear that they don't qualify because they no longer have a significant delay, however I also know that it would be good for them to be in a preschool setting and get help with some trouble areas.
I can't think of much else to update on at the moment. We'll try to update as soon after Madison's surgery as possible. Until then...have a good day!
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Sunday, May 6, 2007 2:04 PM CDT
Madison's surgery was Thursday, May 3rd, and it went extremely well. She was given some medication to calm her before they took her back to surgery (versed, I think) and boy did it work!! She was so loopy! Then she took a wagon ride into the operating room. She was so happy to ride in the wagon, she didn't even cry when she left us.
The surgery lasted about 2 hours, and there were no complications. She did not need tapering of her ureters like Emily did, and did not need stents. Her incision goes across her abdomin (much like a c-section) and is nearly from hip to hip on her. We don't have to worry about changing bandages since they used surgical glue instead.
Friday morning they took her catheter out, and we got her out of bed and on a wagon ride. She also played in the playroom as much as she could with all the wires attached to her. Before we knew it lunch was ready. She ate a good lunch and then took a nice long nap. When she got up from her nap her face was really puffy and she was itching her face so much she gave herself a nose bleed. They decided it was probably caused by her morphine, so they switched her to tylenol with codeine and unhooked her IV. At that point, she was no longer tied to any poles except when they hooked her up to her monitor.
The freedom must have felt good, because she was walking up and down the halls, and jumping up and down like a monkey in her "cage" bed. As a matter of fact, she felt so good I nearly couldn't get her to lay down and sleep that night.
Saturday morning they discharged her from the hospital. She was sent home with an antibiotic as a preventative, a medication called ditropan for bladder spasms, and tylenol with codeine for pain. She doesn't seem to be in much pain and we haven't even given her the bladder spasm medicine yet today. She's been outside playing and going on wagon rides with Daddy.
She has done so well with this surgery and I'm glad it seemed to be much easier for her than it was for Emily. She is even eating and drinking much better than we expected. With any luck, she won't even lose any weight! It will be around 6 months or so before we know if the surgery was successful in correcting her kidney reflux, but we have every reason to believe that it will be a complete success.
Thanks to everyone who has kept Madison and the rest of us in your thoughts and prayers! God is good!!
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Friday, August 17, 2007 2:33 PM CDT
Okay, where do I start? I know it’s been a long time since I’ve updated the website. Sorry. I forget about it most of the time. Let’s see….
Madison and Emily continue to do well after their kidney reflux surgeries. All 3 girls will go back to the urologist for follow up visits in October. Alexa will have the horrible VCUG test and all 3 girls will have an ultrasound. The test results for Alexa will determine if she will have to have the surgery or if we can wait it out to see if she outgrows it. Emily and Madison’s ultrasounds are basically to be sure their kidneys continue to grow properly and that everything continues to look normal.
The girls have officially graduated from First steps. They no longer have therapy appointments, and no longer see their nutritionist. This was both good news and sad all at the same time. The girls (especially Madison) still wake up some mornings and ask if Patty (speech therapist), or Teresa (nutritionist) or Karen (developmental therapist) is coming today. It’s nice to have complete freedom during the day, but the girls greatly miss play time with their therapists.
The girls have started a new phase… biting! Mostly Alexa for the moment, but Madison joins in occasionally. Luckily Emily only did it once or twice. I struggle with Alexa’s biting. I have tried just about everything I can think of to get her to stop and it might help for a couple days and then she starts up again. All three girls continue to pull hair and hit each other. I have decided that probably won’t stop any time soon. Sometimes I wonder if I am a mom or a referee.
I still need to go get the girls 3 yr old pictures taken. When I do, I will make sure to post some for everyone to see. Not much else is new. Not that I can think of anyway. I will try to update again (hopefully sooner than last time).
Have a good one!!
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Tuesday, September 18, 2007 1:03 AM CDT
Sorry I don't have new pictures right now, just an update. **Note: new pictures have been added as of 10/1/07**
I hate to even type these words for fear that it will jinx things, but hopefully the whole biting phase is over. It's probably been a couple weeks or so since the girls have bitten each other. The hair pulling has calmed down a lot too, although they haven't stopped that completely.
Emily is well on her way to being potty trained. So far she is the only one making any progress, but I'll take what I can get!! She didn't really start showing interest until last Tuesday (9/11/07), but now that she's ready she is doing great. She wears training panties or pull ups during the day (and does a great job of keeping them dry) and although she doesn't like it, she wears a diaper to bed. We tried letting her wear pull ups to bed, but when she has an accident she wakes up screaming. So...we'll wait a little bit and try letting her wear a pull up to bed once she's had a little more practice.
Alexa could care less if she uses the potty. The only reason she shows any interest at all is because she wants stickers like Emily gets when she uses the potty. She will sit on the potty for about 5 seconds before she is off and running. Even when I make her sit for longer and try, it doesn't work. She has not used the potty at all yet.
Madison...poor Madison. She shows interest, but I don't think she's ready yet. She wants to wear pull ups and training panties, but when I let her wear anything but a diaper she holds it in until she comes crying to me that her belly hurts and asks me for a diaper. Once she has a diaper on, she fills it up like we've soaked the diaper in water or something. With her, it's not that she doesn't have patience. She will sit on the potty for a LONG time, but she just doesn't go. She says she's trying (it's so cute to hear her say that) but only once has she gone in the potty. I worry about her holding it in like that, especially with her kidney/bladder issues, so I am not pushing the issue with her and will gladly let her wear diapers until she shows more readiness.
We recently took the girls to their NICU reunion. The hospital has a reunion every 3 years for kids that were in the NICU. It was nice to see the nurses and doctors that took care of our girls for so many weeks just 3 short years ago. They were all glad to see the girls looking so healthy and happy. The girls had a blast playing the games, jumping in the bounce house, climbing the huge inflatable slide, and getting all their prizes. We also enjoyed spending time with our friends from the NICU, the Hamblen family and the Hall family. It was a nice time.
The girls went back to their pediatric endocrinologist a few weeks ago. She wasn’t happy with their growth/weight gain in the last year and was talking about possibly starting growth hormone therapy. I was surprised to hear that since they have gained weight better this year than they have in the past. She could tell that I wasn’t enthusiastic about growth hormones at this point, so we settled on running some tests for now (blood work, about 21 tests for each girl), and then if all the tests come back okay then we will wait to see if they do some “catching up” and then reassess the situation at the next appointment in a year. Emily’s and Alexa’s blood work must have come back okay because I haven’t heard anything about them. The nurse called about Madison’s tests and although she didn’t know all the details (or couldn’t tell me) she said that they want to do some more blood work for her. She said something about her alkaline phosphatase level being higher than they expected. They said it could be nothing, but they wanted me to take her for some more blood work in about a month to be sure. I’ll keep you posted on what we find out about all that.
**Update 10/1/07** Madison had more bloodword done on September 19th and the tests all came back fine this time. The doctor said everything was fine and she would see us again in one year.
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Wednesday, November 7, 2007 0:24 AM CST
Hi everyone! Sorry it's been so long since we last updated.
The potty training mission still has not been completed. Alexa and Madison still show very little or no interest at all. After talking to their urologist (mainly about Madison's reaction to potty training) I've been advised not to push the issue, so I guess now it's a waiting game to see how long it will take for them to be "ready". How does the old saying go? Something along the lines of...You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. It's frustrating, to say the least.
Emily has been doing so well with her potty training and probably only needs pull ups at nap time and bed time, because she keeps her pull up dry for the rest of the day. Well actually, that was true until about a week or so anyway. She's gotten spooked by a toilet with an automatic flusher on it and now she is terrified to use a public restroom. She says she has to go, but when we take her she's too scared and can't do it. So for now, she is having accidents while we are away from home. Hopefully it won't last too long.
We recently took our very first trip away from home since the girls were born. Last month, we made the journey to southern Kentucky so the girls could meet their Great Grandmother for the first time. We planned it for the same time that Mamaw Linda and Papaw Ron were making a trip for Cousin Shannon’s baby shower. It worked out well, because we shared a cabin with Mamaw & Papaw, Great Aunt Jo, Great Aunt Jean, and Cousin Debbie. (The cabin was super nice!!) It was about a 6 hour drive, but believe it or not the drive went really well. (Thank goodness for vehicle DVD players!!)
Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the girls’ first night sleeping somewhere new. They have never slept anywhere but their cribs (except for hospital stays) and when we tried to get them to sleep in a new place and without cribs it proved to be pure torture for Mom and Dad. They were sharing a bed (inflatable mattress on the floor in our room) and they were stealing covers from each other, kicking, hitting, pulling hair and anything else they could think of to aggravate one another so they wouldn’t have to go to sleep. Somehow we finally managed to get them to fall asleep for an hour or so by putting Madison in bed with Daddy and Mommy slept on the floor next to the bed Emily and Alexa were sleeping on. Since that only worked for a short time, at around 3 am we loaded them up in the van and tried driving around until they fell asleep. After driving for about an hour with them still wide awake and Mommy fighting to keep her eyes open at the wheel, we took them back to the cabin and eventually got them all back to sleep by putting Madison back in bed with Daddy and Mommy on the floor next to Alexa and Emily. Needless to say, we cut the trip short and drove back home later that evening so we could all sleep soundly in our own beds.
The girls went to a pumpkin patch this year and picked out their own pumpkins to bring home. This is the first year the girls carved pumpkins for Halloween (with help, of course). They had a good time getting messy and playing in the pumpkin “gunk” and they loved it after the pumpkins were carved and lit. Every evening they would ask Daddy to “turn light on Pumpkin” and before bed they would each blow out their pumpkins.
They also went trick or treating for the first time this year. We hadn’t planned on it, but it worked out that way. We had decided to stay home and let the girls pass candy out to other kids, but once we realized that they weren’t terrified by the costumes and they were interested in all the activity outside, we put them in their ladybug costumes that still fit from last year and they went to some houses in the addition.
I hope everyone had a great Halloween! Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and it will be Christmas before we know it!! Ooooh, we love this time of year!!
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Thursday, December 20, 2007 1:21 AM CST
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, as we did. We have a lot to be thankful for, that’s for sure! I’m thankful that we are all in good health. I’m thankful for my husband, Scott, and all the things he does (little and big) that makes my day easier and more enjoyable (I don’t say it often enough, but you are a HUGE help and I would be a mess without you). I’m thankful for 3 beautiful healthy girls that I could only dream of and hope for just a few short years ago. I’m thankful for all the family and friends that help us on a regular basis (physically, financially, emotionally, and just being there for us and caring about us). The list of things we have to be thankful for goes on and on…but I know you don’t want to read endless pages of that, so I will get on with the update.
I am pleased to say that potty training is going much better now. Emily is back to using the potty on a regular basis now, with only a few accidents here and there. Alexa peed in the potty for the very first time on December 9th. She’s done it a handful of times since then, but nothing consistent yet. But hey, I’m not complaining….it’s still progress! Madison has also been using the potty since December 9th. She has had very few accidents, and is very consistent. She does as well as (or better than) Emily does so that’s a big accomplishment for her! All 3 girls still use pull-ups for nap and bedtime, but are in panties or cloth training pants the rest of the day.
This year the girls are enjoying the snow. Last year they still didn’t want to walk in it, let alone play in it. The first day it snowed, Emily begged to go out and play in it. When daddy got home from work he took them outside for a few minutes, but it was dark and we didn’t have proper attire for them to play in the snow. Emily didn’t want to come in even though her feet, hands, and face were frozen. We literally had to pick her up and bring her in kicking and screaming. Luckily we were able to get them snow boots before it snowed again and they can still fit into the hats and gloves they wore last year, so that helped.
The girls absolutely LOVE the Christmas season (or as Alexa says, “Crit-mas”). They are singing Jingle bells (Madison even sang for strangers in the store the other day), they’ve made sugar cookies for the first time, and Emily actually asked me yesterday if she could hug our Christmas tree! Tonight we took them downtown to see the big Christmas tree. They had a good time, but it was cold! I don’t know what they were more excited about…seeing the Christmas tree or getting a candy cane from the Firefighters in the mall. Probably the candy cane.
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!
Monday, January 1, 2007
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