Thursday, June 18, 2009

18 month well baby appt.

The girls had their well baby appointment yesterday. I had my 13 year old sister go along with me because Dusty was tied up with work all day and couldn’t break away.

Addison was 32 inches tall and 27 pounds.

Samantha was 32 inches tall and 26 pounds.

They are both doing very well. Addison talks SO much more now that she has tubes in her ears. And Samantha is still picking up new words everyday. We talked about the fine and gross motor skills, potty training, eating habits, speech, sleeping habits and overall behavior. Both girls were right on track. The doctor even commented that she thinks Samantha is a bit ahead of the game (which we have always thought) she understands everything. They both follow directions well but Samantha seems to understand pretty much everything we say. For example, I can say “where is brother?” and she says “Jooooosh!”

They both received 2 shots. They both handled them well. Cried but were over it in 30 seconds or less.

I’m going to post a bit about each girl (maybe brag a bit too..lol)

Addison:

Has the cutest little dimples. Her voice is so sweet and girlie. She is finally standing up for herself against Samantha. Is super cuddly. Loves her soymilk or drinking sippies in general. Her diaper output also reflects this ;). She is the first to wake up in the morning and also the first to wake from naptime. She loves hugging her stuffed kitty while she sleeps. She needs to be held and snuggled when she first wakes up. She also finds it funny when she “beats you up” and you “cry”. She is a very good thrower. She was the first to throw over hand and she does it well. She gets scared walking down stairs by herself.

 

Samantha:

Has beautiful bright blue eyes. Has gorgeous wavy hair. Is a master at stairs- up or down and a lot of the time with no hands. She is definitely our daredevil girl. She loves to climb on anything and everything and will find a way to climb up on stuff by dragging toys over and using as step stools. Will mimic almost everything we do- physically and verbally. She loves to run around wildly with her brother. If we are in the room and she finds something she shouldn’t play with, she immediately brings it to us. She also enjoys “clean up time” I start to sing the song and she starts picking up all her toys and putting them away.

Both girls love to play outside. We have quite the set up in the yard (small yard) and they can play out there for hours while mommy lounges and watches them (and surfs the net with her phone!)

Both girls also love to count. If someone is getting into trouble, I count them down (1, 2, 3- then time out or beating =P ) All I have to do is say 1 and they say two, free!

They also love to play with their purses (some old ones of mine) and put them over their shoulders and say “bye bye” and go running down the hall away from me. They can do this for 20-30 mins at a time.

I don’t have any recent pictures of them that are really great but I’ll share what I have.

Playing at a friends house:

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And here is some fun with big brother Josh

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Can I just say how much I enjoy having twins? It is SO fun! It’s also a lot of hard work but I think you quickly learn how to multi task. You also learn how to be one step ahead of the game. I’m always thinking ahead. My house may not be organized well but my mind is. If an outing is planned, I can get the job done in no time flat and am usually armed with anything and everything needed for any situation that may arise. I pride myself in the fact that I can get me and the kids ready in less time than most people can get themselves ready with no other responsibilities than themselves. I’m talking fully dressed, hair and makeup, snacks, sippies, extra diapers, wipes, phone, and keys. I think when you’re dealing with multiples, you learn you have to be like this in order to survive.

The first 3 months were torture with the girls. I’m not gonna lie. It was ROUGH. Next to no sleep. Seriously. I was lucky to get 2 hours straight at any given time. From 3-6 months it got easier. I got more like 3-4hrs straight. 6-9 months was 4-6hrs straight and then from 9-12 months, they transitioned to 10-12 hrs straight (which is where we have stayed). They are much more independent. I really enjoy that. I love cuddling babies and taking care of them but I enjoy sitting back and watching them play MUCH MORE! I feel more alive now. I’m no longer in a fog. I’m really just enjoying it!

Monday, June 1, 2009

Addison’s tube surgery

Today was her surgery. We left the house at 5:30 am. I just snatched her out of her crib and on we went. Luckily there wasn’t too much waiting around. We had to be there at 6am and surgery was set for 7:30am. They had so much to do, that it didn’t really feel like we waited around for 1.5hrs.

We were first taken to her room. Then, after vitals, we were taken to Pre-op where many nurses and doctors came and talked to us. Then Addison was given some medicine (in liquid form) to calm her and make her relax. It made her silly. She was trying to sit upright in her crib (or cage, as it looks!) and kept having to balance herself with her arm. She was so happy and giggly. That made it easier to part ways, for both of us. She didn’t care that we had to leave in a different direction down the hall and we were glad that she was happy.

We were in the waiting room for about 1.5-2hrs. Its a quick surgery but they also did a BAER test

 

Description:
Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR), sometimes called Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response (BAER), measures the 8th (auditory) nerve and brainstem’s response to sound. This testing can be used several ways, including newborn hearing screening, estimation of hearing sensitivity in very young patients, estimation of hearing in difficult-to-test populations, neurodiagnostics to rule out retrocochlear pathology and, sometimes, is used during surgical procedures to monitor the auditory brainstem status.

http://www.everhear.com/procedures/audiology/procedures-audiology-baer.html

 

Initial results show normal. The surgeon said that he would have more detail at our follow-up in 2 weeks. The results are printed in a graph and need to be analyzed but look normal at first glance.

She was very cranky when she woke from anesthesia. Nothing really helped her calm down. She just eventually got happier as it wore off. She was in recovery for about 15 minutes and then we were taken back to her room. We spent about an hour in her room and then she was discharged.

Here are some pictures from my camera phone.

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This is her after her “happy juice”

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Daddy and I waiting impatiently in the waiting room

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After surgery, back in her room

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She pulled her IV out shortly after I took this picture. Little stinker!! It was set to come out anyway. She’s impatient like her mommy.

She did SO well. I am very proud of her. She handled no sippy or food in the morning. She wasn’t able to drink anything until after surgery- around 9am, although she had been up since 5:30.

She took a longer than normal nap today (4hrs) and has been her normal happy self!

What a relief this is all over with! I had myself pretty worked up over it.