CHOMP!

Adam is getting his first teeth! Yesterday he started chewing on the nipple of his bottle and I thought we were going to have yet another feeding issue. But the wise preemie parents in the online group I'm in said that it's probably teething. So I stick my finger in his little mouth and I can just barely feel the sharp little edges of teeth making their way through. The little guy is chowing down on anything hard and textured he can find. He's such a good baby, but this has even got him a little crabby. It was a little sad since it's a sign of growing up and I can already see how quickly the baby days fly by, but I can't help but be happy for another milestone. I felt Eleanor's mouth, too. Nope, nothing yet.
We had quite a busy week! Aunt Rachel visited with Becca and Anna, we vistied Aunt Sheri and Uncle Ralph and Robyn, Aunt Steph spent the night and went to IKEA with us on Thursday, and, like every weekend the grandmas visited on Saturday. The twins went swimming for the first time with Aunt Sheri and Robyn. They have a beautiful pool and both Adam and Eleanor enjoyed the water. Eleanor enjoyed it so much, she fell asleep in my aunt's arms right in the pool. It was difficult to get smiley photos since the glare was a bit bright, but the pictures are cute anyway. We got an awful lot of attention at IKEA. SInce it just opened a few weeks ago, the place is a madhouse so maneuvering the double stroller was a bit challenging, but it turned out just fine. As usual, the babies were great--not a peep from either of them. Alex was excited to go, too, since he has his eye on a new loft bed he saw there.

On the Move

Eleanor can no longer stand to be in one place for long. Except when shes tired and will stand to be held, her favorite place is the floor. We've had to move the coffee table out of the family room, put pillows everywhere and just let her go. She rolls and rolls, and she also pivots her whole body around to get to different toys. The family room floor is her equivalent of freedom!. She's not crawling, but she is pushing her whole chest and stomach off the floor--or she pulls her knees up under her. She just can't do both at the same time. Really she has to master sitting up before she can crawl. Sometimes I think if I leave her for more than a minute, I'll go back to find her walking toward me asking for the keys to the car, she's just developing so quickly lately.
Adam is doing MUCH better on the increased dose of Zantac. He hasn't thrown up any formula in three days, but will still toss his cookies when it comes to solid food. He's actually back to gaining weight and was 17 pounds 4 ounces this morning. I've been trying to give him as much tummy time as possible so he can catch up to his sister, but it is difficult since it makes him choke and spit up. He is always on his tummy first thing in the morning and is starting to push up on his arms and grab his little toes. See cute photos! We got the appointment with the pediatric gastrointerologist at UofM (never thought I'd be going there--Go Green!) and it's for October 6. You'd think they might consider opening up a few more appointments when the next available slot is over two months away. Sheesh.
Heading toward one year old...can you believe it? Only two months away!

Puke-A-Palooza

Adam has, of course, had eating issues since early March. He was throwing up a lot then until we started him on Zantac. I know Zantac doesn't work for many babies with reflux, but it worked for Adam. At least for awhile. I even remember saying to Jim, "Adam hasn't thrown up for 4 days!" Those days are no longer. When I say "throw up", it's no little baby spit up. He throws up between 2-5 ounces, splat, on the hardwood floor after making scary cough/burp noises. Last Thursday, he started vomiting just about everything we gave him, including the squash. Pretty. Since it continued into Sunday and he was crying in pain, I took him to the ER. He wasn't dehydrated, thank goodness. They tripled his Zantac dose which I then discovered was too high a dose for him, thanks to the idiot ER doctor who prescribed it. Now that he's on the correct dose we need to feed Adam small amounts until the medication kicks in again. I calculated it once--how much of my day it takes to feed Adam--even on a good day. It is at least 6 hours of the day, sometimes 7. This is why we have NEVER both left the twins for even ONE feeding since we brought them home in January. It is so difficult to read all his little signs. Just because Adam starts to get upset, this doesn't mean he's done eating. It may mean he needs to burp again. It may mean he's tired. It may mean he's still really hungry. If you don't figure him out, he will throw up, guaranteed. And he will only eat sitting in a bouncy seat, watching TV. If he doesn't eat enough, then he doesn't gain enough weight--and as all preemie parents know--that's a lot of pressure. We've done pretty well so far being that he weighs 17 pounds, but I know he's lost weight in the last week. Some people may think I'm crazy--that if they just try, they will be able to feed him. Nope. It's not me, it's not them, it's that Adam doesn't like to eat most of the time. He deals with it, but it's not comforting for him, it's not really enjoyable. That's understandable since he's just going to throw it all up 5 minutes later, anyway. It's just something he and I deal with out of necessity. I hope this Zantac does it and he will be back to his good ol' puke-once-a-day self, rather than this crazy puke-a-palooza, but if not we have an upper GI scheduled in August and an appointment with a pediatric gastrointerologist at UofM as well. I'm just praying that this isn't anything even more serious than the reflux. Sigh. You can see why we don't get out much...

A Happy, Happy Day

Today the physical therapist from St. Joe's came to see Eleanor. We had made this appointment because of the observation that another PT had made back in May about Eleanor having some possible high tone in her legs. I was so worried about this because hypertonia is a sign of cerebral palsy. We have always known that the twins have been at risk for CP simply because they were born at 23 weeks, although the fact that neither of them had any bleed on their brain at all was encouraging. But today when she looked at Eleanor, she thought she looked great, had no increased tone in her legs and even has some abilities beyond what she would expect at her age. In other words, no cerebral palsy! I have had tears in my eyes ever since she said that. I think I was so convinced that she had it, that I haven't even let it all sink in yet. To celebrate, I put a bow in her hair so she could look especially cute. Our little miracles just keep beating the odds. We are so blessed. Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Eye Spy

So what's wrong with this picture? Or should I say pictures... Two of the kids in our family have figured out what time bedtime is. One has not. Can you guess which one is not like the others before I finish my song?

Jim said, "He needs to either go to sleep earlier or learn how to close up for the night." Adam is such a night owl--and he won't wake up until at least 8am tomorrow. Sounds more like his mom than his dad on this one.
We just went to the twins' eye doctor and it's all good news! Both of them have straight eyes (crossed eyes and lazy eyes are a risk of prematurity) although Adam's are still a bit immature and his right eye will sometimes take a little while longer to find what it's looking for. They are also both far-sighted, which is exactly what is normal for any baby their age. And no appointment for a YEAR. Wha-hoo!
We also had a pediatrician appointment on Friday. I can't tell you how great our pediatrician is. Besides being fabulous with the kids, when I asked if he had heard about the Mentos/Diet Coke thing that was on NPR (see photo!), he knew just what I was talking about AND gave me the website to see these 2 guys do an experiment with 100 bottles and 500 Mentos. (If you haven't seen it, go to www.eepybird.com) So, back to more medical issues... Eleanor is great and has gone to regular 20 calorie formula. I guess being a little pudge ball did it and we can now afford to buy that second home in Maui with the money we're saving. She had a wart (eeew) and he removed it, but that's it. Adam is also doing well, but stays on 22 cal formula because he's still throwing up at least once a day. The bad news is that we think he has a paralyzed vocal cord. After reading about other preemie moms with kids with this problem, I realized it was probably what Adam has, too. He doesn't really have a good cry--I often refer to it as "the silent scream". Makes me think of that Munch painting. The doctor said that the process for diagnosing it is awful, so if it isn't causing physical problems for Adam, not to do anything about it now. His voice will be a bit raspy if this is indeed the situation. Of course, we aren't happy about it because, being a teacher, I always worry about kids teasing him, but we made lots of bargains with God when they were first born. If this is the only problem that Adam has so far, we are so fortunate and we are hardly going to complain. He will probably eventually have voice therapy from what we read, but other than that, we'll have to wait and see.
The twins' good friend Carter came over to visit again. Looks like he and Eleanor are officially dating. What little flirts they are! It's been so nice having visitors. We still make sure people are healthy and haven't been sick or around anyone sick for a week, but we feel a little more normal. I'm dreading RSV season this winter when we will have to go back into hiding again. I think that starts November 1, but I'm not sure. It wasn't so bad last winter because we hadn't tasted sweet freedom then. I know, I know, it's only July, but I can't help thinking about hibernation mode again. Well, for now , we will enjoy being social!

The Sweetest Thing

I couldn't resist posting this picture. I love being a Mom.

Happy Fourth of July

We hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July! The twins didn't stay up for the fireworks, but they still dressed in their most patriotic wear!

Since the last entry, which was ages ago, lots has been happening! Adam has rolled over, despite his rather limited tummy time. His reflux is still a problem as far as gaining weight, though he is 16 pounds 15 ounces. That's about the 4th percentile for unadjusted age, and 55th for adjusted. It doesn't seem to bother him at all as he just smiles all the time, even right after he throws up several ounces. What a happy content baby. As I sit here, he is just chowing away on my hand, so we think he may be teething. He'll take both of his hands, grab mine and SHOVE it into his mouth. He absolutely loves the exersaucer and grabs at everything on it. His favorite lately is the star as you can see in the photo. His fuzz head hair is still about the same. It's exactly the same color as Jim's was when he was little...with the red tones and everything. Little Irishman. He's the sweetest boy and not much ever bothers him. Just walk into a room and he squeals with delight. Oh, unless he's tired and is falling asleep--then he's a crank. The kid will do anything to keep himself awake.
Eleanor has been packing on the ounces. She weighs 18 pounds now! That means her weight is at the 30th percentile for her UNADJUSTED age! (And 95th for adjusted) Her length is at the 7th percentile which isn't too shabby, but it does put her at the 90th percentile weight-for-length. In other words, we have a little pudge ball on our hands. I took a picture of her thighs to prove my point. (Got the idea from another preemie parent blogger--thanks!) By the end of summer she will definitely be in 12 month clothes. Eleanor rolls around like crazy now and just yesterday I found her under the coffee table. We now put a barracade of pillows around her. She is also doing some assited sitting in her boppy and has started to bring her legs up and grab her toes. How cute! Her personality is starting to show--she knows what she likes and will whine and cry until she gets it. I hear you out there mom---shush.
The kids have really started noticing each other lately. They will "play" together on the floor and look right at one another and smile. Every time they do that, it reminds me how lucky we are to have both of our darlings with us, especially as healthy and happy as they are.

We took some great photos of the 4th of July, and I also included one of Alex at baseball. He got the game ball! He also did a fabulous job at his piano recital and even won a medal for most minutes practiced. He'll be starting up again in August and he's really looking forward to it. Alex is a fabulous big brother and a great help. For those of you who know him, that's probably not a surprise! Pediatrician appt. on Friday--updates then!