Boo to the Big Boy bed! (And lots of pics!)

We are on day (nap) number 2 of the big boy bed! Boy, naps are hard... please tell me we aren't going to lose the naps!?

The first night Duncan was just so tired, we didn't know if this was going to work against us or in our favor. He was excited at first, but then he realized that's where he would be sleeping and then he completely freaked out! He's always been such a good little sleeper in his own bed, but that's where he liked to be and now we are switching things up on him. He's never had to cry himself to sleep and this was just big and new. So in and out, in and out. Finally Matthew went in and read him another book so he would calm down a little and that seemed to do the trick. Last night he actually went right down... I must know the trick Matthew used! The first morning I heard the little pitter patter of feet running down the hall way and his little jibber jabber. This morning the door was shut so he didn't come out. He had only been awake maybe 10 minutes when I went in but he had pulled a little stool over to turn on the light and he was just playing. Love it.

Naps however are a different story. I tried all the tricks yesterday and finally, after about 2 and half hours of in and out he gave in and went to bed. The problem is, it was 4:00... so we only let him sleep an hour and then got him up. He's not the type of dude you want to wake up either. Oh yay! I just peeked in on him, after only having to put him back in bed once he's curled up and napping, or close anyway, yayayay! He does look so itty bitty in the bed though, and he's used to a crib so he curls up any which way. Poor little guy, we are making him grow up!

The other day we went shopping with Aunt Jill and Duncan kept yelling "Jiiiiilllll!?" Even when she was only a few feet away. He likes her... a lot... We like Jill too, she made Dylan bows!!! Okay, we would like her a little anyway, but she made her some adorable bows on put on her piggies! Apparently she's been a bow making fool ever since she found out her little one's a girl and she has a serious over-production problem that I told her Dylan and I (and possibly the new baby?) can help her with! Last night we got a little baggy with some and we threw some right in her hair. It's so cuuuute! And I am not a bow person! Which I think has been fairly obvious... watch Dylan be one of those fru-fru girls. For now she still HATES me doing her hair. Pure torture.

This morning we actually had our first good feeding since Dylan got that nasty cold. She ate probably 3 ounces? Fairly willingly so I am quite pleased! I am sure we will get back to the two feedings a day, and at least this morning it was somewhat rewarding for me! The little pill. She just clamps her little lips closed when she doesn't want to cooperate.

Also - We are off the seizure med Topomax! She was on an extremely low dose (remember me mentioning quartering the teeny tiny pills?) so no weaning was involved, we could just stop giving it to her. She's still on B6, but we are giving the no Topomax a few weeks and then we can start taking that down a little bit. Sometimes they want to keep them on some sort of seizure med since it's so likely they will develop other seizures but since it was such a low dose it wasn't making a difference anyway. I am all for getting her off of a few meds, expecially seizure ones.

Thanksgiving was great for us, we went over to my mom's for dinner Thursday night and then last night went to Matthew's mom's for the traditional chinese food dinner. DELISH! I only wish I had more room for the great food!

This was pretty much the only happiness to be found with the big boy bed. He quickly discovered the entry (and exit) route!


He was pretending to go to sleep, he pulls the covers up and gets this goofy blank look on his face. This was almost the only going to sleep to be found as well!


BUT, the big boy bed allows us to reach higher things, like the blinds... and the shelves with the monitor and high up toys!


Better picture of her kneeling (as in, the hair is done!) She was used to being IN the chair and is now discovering this toy from the other side!


Cute little smile at her daddy. I like it because you can see her cute teeth. Uncle Michael holds her and laughs and said they are "I EAT BABIES!" teeth!


More smiles for daddy, she's a skinny little mini isn't she?


She's our little adrenaline junky, she love being tossed up and swung around. Dad was just swinging her back and forth and this is the face we get when he stopped.


All dressed up for Thanksgiving Dinner!


Why I have problems taking cute pictures of Duncan these days. Cheeeeeeese! Nuff said.


Bows and bows! So cute!


Her daddy thinks these might be a little too big but I think they are so cute! And I am the one that's not the bow person! What does he know?!


I went to Quilted Bear and saw these adorable blankets with Minky on both sides. Minky is that super soft fuzzy fabric. There was a boy one and a girl one and they were $125!! Matthew told me that he thought my mom could make one in like 30 seconds... so I bought fabric (Well, Jess did anyway =) ). Mind you, gender neutral minky is a bit hard to find. Really, it's pretty much one gender or the other! This was as good as it got! I told ma that I would do the binding if she would quilt the two pieces together on her machine which I didn't think would take too much time. Well, when it came down to it, she asked me if I WANTED to do the binding, to which I replied that I was just going to do it so she didn't have to. So she did it all! And it took a while because the minky wasn't cooperative. Over all I think her turn around from when I gave her the fabric to when she gave me the blanket was about 48 hours. She's a machine! And it's ADORABLE! Seriously! Look at this thing!! Now let's have a baby shall we?

So big!

Two posts in one day!? Well... the other one is more for my journaling efforts, this one's the real deal. Even though there's not much to say.

Dylan had Sara come over for OT this morning for the first time since she's gotten really sick. Well, a lot has happened in the few weeks since we last saw Sara. Dylan's crawling in a straight line for everything, not just an old flip flop. And she's gotten a lot better at holding on to her toys. Before she would hold on to them for a while and then accidentally throw them accross the room. This was great for the therapist because she could grab it and move it to where she wanted it to get Dylan to do what she wanted. Not so much anymore... she found herself having to take toys away!

But the BIG NEWS is that Dylan pulls up to her knees!! She's only been doing it for about 5 or 6 days but she think she's a pro now! We went to Aunt Jill's the other day so I could get my hair done and she had little piano that Dylan loved... so we borrowed it. At least until we can ask Santa for an activity table! She goes up and then looks so darn proud of herself!

As we go into Thanksgiving, we are so grateful to have such wonderful kids! Every new thing that each of them do, in their own time, is amazing and truly something to be thankful about! Our family, both this little one and our extended family is so wonderful and supportive! We are so blessed! I hope everyone has a fabulous holiday... eat lots of turkey for me since I only have so much room! =)

You'll have to excuse the hair in these pictures. We weren't going anywhere yesterday so I decided not to do it. Skip the torture right? It did not make for cute pictures but stuff had to be documented!

We also ate an Oreo... it was the best Oreo EVER.


Doesn't it look yummy??


Notice the hand in the hair? And DONE! (I think she still might have Oreo in her ear!)


Look how big I am!!


Mom pulled out some taller toys so we can practice all day long. It's pretty darn cute!

Duncan and Dylan's Birth Story

We ALL love a birth story and as we get prepared for our very own second birth story I though I would jot down birth story #1 since it happened before I started this blog.

In the wee hours of the morning on October 22nd, 2007 I woke up, needing to go to the bathroom (or having already =) details...) and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why I couldn't stop going! Every time I moved, more... I changed like 4 times. Okay, I know... this is funny. People who think they just keep peeing when their water breaks, but I was only 30 weeks and 6 days! So that's a good excuse for the idiocy right? I ended up going to back to bed during a dry spell but I was a little concerned, trying to figure out if it was IT.

So when Matthew got up I told him I was concerned and I think he would have been more concerned had I been, but I was playing it cool. I told him to go ahead and go to work and if I felt like we needed to run in I would let him know and we could then go to the hospital. I knew that a UTI was possible, and that often there was the same type of symptoms... so I kind of resigned myself to thinking that's what it was.

But I did say a little prayer... that if it was the real deal I would start to have contractions or some pain to clue me in. So, I did. Yup. I did.

When Matthew and I arrived at the now 'late' Cottonwood Hospital they did a barrage of tests and found out my water had broken and I was in labor. And it hurt =) They gave me a bunch of shots, some to try and stop labor and some steroid shots for the babies lungs. The steroids have to be in my system 24 hours for it to help the babies, it's a set of two... so in order for them to work I would need to stay pregnant for 48 hours. Apparently the needle was HUGE, I didn't see, Matthew was describing it in great detail though.

Then they gave me Morphine. Uhm. Boo to Morphine. I couldn't keep my eyes open. I could hear everything that people were saying and I understood and absorbed it all, but I must have looked stoned out of my mind. I just wanted to tell everyone that I could hear them... I just need to close my eyes... just for a minute. Had I tried to talk though, I am not exactly sure what would have come out of my mouth. It was crazy.

They needed to transfer me up to LDS hospital where there was a NICU that could handle the kids so they put me in the transfer ambulance. About mid-way the guy in the ambulance realized I was wincing from contractions. His understanding was that I wasn't having them any more... he was NOT prepared to handle a pre-term delivery! He timed the contractions, three minutes or so. So, me, still on Morphine, has no idea what's going on when they pull over on the side of the freeway. Needless to say... neither did Matthew who was following close behind! A woman climbed in from another ambulance, apparently SHE was prepared to deliver preemies if necessary.

Once we arrived at the hospital we were on watch with one-on-one nurse care. (Her name was Julie. =) ) I did keep having contractions though, no matter what they did. They wouldn't give me an epi though until they knew the contractions weren't going to stop, which I understand... but DANG! They ended up giving me some wonderful happy drug that made me melt when they gave it to me, it was wonderful. And MUCH better than Morphine!

The doctor who was working with us came in and said she just had to check me one more time before she left for home because she couldn't stop thinking about us. She did, and sure enough... I was dilated to an 8, and definitely going to have these babies! Hello epidural! Mwah!

They wheeled us in to the delivery/surgery room and asked me if I could scoot my bum to the table on the side of me, uhm... NOPE! Hardly. I was numb numb numb. I could barely function cognitively, much less physically! Dr. Rose, a Perinatoligist, and actually the wife of Dr. Jackson who was my Perinatologist, kept the ultrasound on the babies the whole time to make sure they weren't under stress and to make sure they didn't do any flip flops and another nurse on the other side watched the regular monitor. There was probably 8 people in the room, tons of privacy.

Dr. Rose told Matthew "You know this isn't going to be the touchy feely cut the cord type moment right?" To which Matthew said 'hooray!' actually, I don't remember his response, but I think he was glad he didn't have to deal with that gooey mess. He kept making jokes about it being a football team and the nurse who was with us all day being the catcher and he told her to make sure she didn't drop the ball in the end-zone. I think Dr. Rose was the only one not amused, and she wasn't, not at all. Ha!

The babies showed no sign of stress at all, Dr. Rose even commented "These are the babies we LIKE!" Duncan was born at 8:20 with a wee squeak and the 'It's a boy!' was said and then he was quickly passed from nurse to nurse and right through the window to the NICU and put on CPAP to help him breath. He was 4 lbs 2 oz and 17.5 inches long. Dylan followed 20 minutes later and she was so silent, tiny and floppy it took a minute for the 'it's a girl' to come. Her legs just flopped from side to side, and not open... Her APGAR scores were 2, 5 and 7. She was just put on Oxygen but then she had to be intubated because the trauma the feeding tube did to her little nares. She was 2 lbs 9 oz and 14.5 inches long.

Dr. Jackson came in toward the end and took a look at the placenta, Dylan had always been small and he said "Ahhh... that's the problem!" and he showed us her (disgusting) placenta. She had a velamentous cord insertion. Normally the cord goes into the placenta like a pencil poked through paper. Dylan's went almost there, then kind of knotted and the veins splayed out on top of the placenta rather than being buried within. Gross, but Matthew still wished he had a picture of it! This complicates normal deliveries, if they break the water (which they did for Dylan) they run a risk of knicking a vein and losing the baby! They didn't know Dylan had this issue, we are lucky!

Matthew got to see the babies earlier than I did, I didn't get to see them until about 12:30 in the morning. They were tiny, and adorable... we took lots of pictures, none of which did them any justice.

People always asked us if we were freaking out and Matthew and I never really did get scared. We knew that the right people were in charge and whatever happens will happen, and whatever that might be would be just fine. I think this is pretty much how we are, and I think it's why we were lucky enough to get Dylan! There we have it! Their story, all spelled out! Someday they might want to know!

Dylan's first night, in all of her glory. (That's my hand, and my pinky, look at your pinky and you will see how tiny she was!)


Duncan, as I saw him for the first time. they couldn't get an IV in so they had to do it in his head. He has tape on his nose for the CPAP too. We didn't really get a good look at his cute face for 6 or 7 days.
>

All better, for the most part...

So the cute little pickle is doing MUCH better. We have now had several Motrin free days in a row and it appears the only remnants of this wicked cold are a runny nose and a bunch of drool (likely because of her nose and not wanting to swallow). So YAY! Glad we got over that. I think it got Duncan down for a day or two, but man she took it hard. Just an example of why she's high risk I guess. Even the common cold hit her hard!

Speaking of not wanting to swallow, we are back at ground zero with the eating thing. Her nose still isn't clear yet so it's hard to even work on it quite yet. I tried a little this morning but it's a wee bit of a battle quite yet. She wins... for now... but we were at two full feeds of solid food a day! We can do it again, I am sure... minor set back is all!

We have another baby coming, my sister-in-law Suzie is expecting a boy in May! We have our babies in gaggles.. herds? Prides? Flocks? So that's the next group, Me, Jill then Suzie. So fun to have cousins together.

There was a time when I had tons of pictures of Duncan because he was doing new things and getting in to stuff constantly but when it came to finding a picture of Dylan it was a challenge. She was just laying around looking adorable, but every picture was kind of the same. Well... the tables have turned. I have TONS of Dylan doing new things and Duncan just has his silly camera face! I guess things even out.

Serious face


Good kisses... so it's an object not a person, whatevs... a kiss is a kiss!


Duncan thinks the high chair is still his, they were sharing. She was totally amused just watching him though. Yummy breakfast!


Daddy and Duncan, a self-portrait. Maybe the new baby will get those blue eyes?


Earlier today, so stinkin' cute!

Dylan is everywhere these days! She crawls in a straight line now, without stopping to sit like she did before. I credit a ball Matthew's mom gave her for her birthday. It makes noises and lights up when you touch it, but it has an edge... so she grabs it, it plays and she tosss it, because she can... and then goes and gets it again. It's hilarious. She now chases balls all over the house and I find her in random places, no longer confined to the living room. So I found her by the table and wanted to get the straight crawling on video. I've mentioned the shoe obsession, I am not kidding, she starts crawling and gets distracted. The great shoe chase:


So I used it to my advantage:

Giggling with daddy (our cute piggies were already out for the evening!)


And because you can never get enough of a giggling baby...

Dylie's eye appointment

Dylan's feeling MUCH better today! She just kind of has an oogy nose but we held off on the middle of the night Motrin and this morning she really seems fine!

Dylan and I headed up to Primary again to see Dr. Larson, the eye doctor. As a reminder, last time we saw him, about 6 months ago, he told us that she probably needed glasses. At the time he said it would be more a precautionary thing, and it was optional, but it was possible that soon enough it would no longer be an option. We opted for no glasses. Honestly... I just didn't really want to deal with them, they are expensive, her head is smaller than most, developmentally she would have a hard time being convinced to keep them on etc. etc. etc. All good excuses I thought!

I was dreading today's appointment...

So we go and Linda, Dylan's Vision Therapist, met us up there. She had a few questions that she wanted to ask Dr. Larson. When he came in he said "Now last time we had talked about glasses... ..." I reminded him that he gave me the option and he laughed, apparently he had forgotten to write that 'option' part down! Dylan was FAR more cooperative during the exam than she ever has been before. She looked at the silly barking dog up on the wall, and at the TV when he turned it on. Before she wouldn't have anything to do with those silly eye doctor tricks. Because she could do that he was able to look at her eyes without having to dilate them. (Yay!)

He looked at me and said "Her eyes are getting better." What? YES! He said there's definitely an improvement over last time! She has some skin kind of covering part of her eye on one side, it's not terribly apparent but he thinks that makes it look like that eye goes inward sometimes when really it's okay. Woot woot!

They tried another test to see if she looks at contrast, basically there's black and white stripes in a box on a long board and they put it up and see if she looks at the box. Then, on subsequent boards, the lines get thinner and thinner. 6 months ago, Dylan didn't even look at them at all. This time she made it through the first two boards and decided that all he was trying to do was play peek-a-boo so she just kept smiling and watching for his face to come back! So, she failed. But she did give them a baseline for 6 months from now and hey, it is an improvement over last time right?

I told him about her Infantile Spasms and how much of an improvement we have seen since treatment concluded and they went away. He mentioned that kids with seizure activity do have a harder time just because there's so much going on in their little brains. We really have seen a huge difference since they stopped... so woo hoo!

Linda asked the doctor if she had CVI, Cortical Visual Impairment. It's basically where the eyes work, but the brain has a hard time processing what they see. I know of other kids with CVI and Dylan never really fit into that category for me at all but Linda seemed to really push to have it charted. Dr. Larson said most kids with HPE have it, and it's far more apparent than hers but he would say that her performance with the black and white stripe test (which I am SURE is it's official name) plus the HPE would indicate CVI and he would be willing to put it down. So, here's me... mama lion, not wanting another diagnosis for her cub and Linda was pushing for something that the doctor kind of seemed reluctant to write? So I asked Linda why we would push for that and she told me that it would just be a good thing to have charted so when she graduates into the school programs at 3 she gets additional vision therapy and treatment. Okay, I guess I can go for that... but I still don't like it. Especially because most kids with CVI have a hard time focusing on an object... which is NOT my little cub. Eh... okay, whatever.

So anyway, YAY no glasses... for now. Though with me as mom and Matthew as dad, she's doomed to have glasses at some point. I don't mind waiting though!

Duncan went to Aunt Ami's again and had a blast! He wouldn't eat lunch but she put it in a paper bowl in the car with him just in case he was too busy to eat. On the way home he ate the WHOLE bowl of food, threw the bowl and went to sleep! So happy.

He is growing up so fast... he loves to crawl around the floor with cars all day long. He gives great loves and SUPER kisses! And he's started to say 'thank you' although what he's really saying is "Thanks dad". Not sure why, but it will do!

I looked for a cute picture for this post and I got nuthin'. Bless his heart Duncan's wicked annoying when I pull the camera out so I am having the hardest time lately! Oh well.

A little piggy scare

So yea... uhmmm... Dylan was sick. She scares me when she gets sick because she is pretty healthy but when she decides that she doesn't feel well, she *really* doesn't feel well!

Sunday morning I almost took Dylan to the emergency room because in the middle of the night she kept shaking. Really the only time she shakes like that is when she's having hard bowel movement and hurts her. It really freaked me out. Now granted... we didn't get a lot of sleep because we were up all night so it's not like I was in the right emotional state. Matthew talked me out of it and we waited until Monday but when she continued with the uncomfortable shaking that was all it took and I called in to her Ped.

She had had a low-grade fever for a couple of days and I know for the flu they were saying a high fever 103-104 but it really didn't dawn on me until later that my kid doesn't fever when she gets an infection, so it's possible that a fever of 100-101 for her *is* high. In the effort of full disclosure I full on admitted to her doctor that if it were Duncan with the same symptoms I would have waited it out. I guess it's a different story with our little high risk child, who, by the way, has a really high pain threshold which is obviously a blessing and a curse!

The doctor came in and felt her belly, said it wasn't poo issues like we suspected. He said that she's probably shaking because whatever she's got is making her sore all over! Her little bones and muscles hurt! So sad! Her lungs sounded great though, which was a good sign, her cough was dry, so that didn't surprise me. He said for any other kid he wouldn't do this and he sent us over to the hospital to have her nose suctioned for a full Viral Panel work-up. They test for like 20 some-odd respiratory viruses. He also started her on Tami-Flu even though if it was indeed the flu we may have missed the window. He told me to follow up with him within a few day or if things get gooey. He also upped her Ibuprofen, she was right on the cusp of the next dose, and told me to keep that going to try and keep her comfy.

She was smiling at him nearly the entire appointment even though I had intentionally withheld the Motrin so he could see her shaking. He said to her "How are you finding a smile in there?!" He told me she looked absolutely miserable but he was loving all he smiles! In fact, he came in again after he left while the nurse was calling in the Tami-flu and said he just wanted to see her again because he was sure she was the only kid that would smile at him all day. He's a great Pediatrician, I don't know that all of them would take into account that her symptoms might manifest themselves in different ways. He took every precaution.

So we got the test results back last and it's the Rhinovirus, which is just a bad cold. The nurse said that a horn from her nose is better than a tail from her bum so hooray for that news. Apparently they had been seeing some really bad cases of it lately and that it will also cause her to be sore and uncomfy. If she is acting this uncomfortable I can't imagine what we would be dealing with if it were Duncan!

Today she does seem a lot better... even yesterday she would play and be fine, then be sad, then play and be fine again. She didn't sleep much though, but there wasn't much that we could do and she's pretty good at soothing herself and getting comfy again so she was just doing it all night will me occasionally going in and rubbing her back and repositioning her.

The baby, who I have now affectionately dubbed 'Melon' (I think we all know why...) is still head down! Hooray! It was confirmed today. It's not very far down, but everything looks good. Meanwhile, I have grown cankles... I never got this water retention with the twins, I never expected sausage toes and missing ankle bones. Jill told me I will be like her and deflate in the hospital, I hope so! The doctor told me to cut down on sodium, drink more water, and get more rest... how's one of three?

Matthew spent some time yesterday building Duncan's big boy bed! We aren't going to put it up in his room until next week though, when Matthew will be off for Thanksgiving and can help manage the ins and outs. It's so cute! I love it! We put a pillow in his crib a few days ago to get him used to sleeping one direction, the first night I went in the pillow was diagonal and he was curled up in what room was left on the other side of the crib! Since then he has totally been using it. What a big boy!

Well - We had some nice young gentleman wash all of the outside windows today and although it made a huge difference, it's made it painfully apparent how dirty the inside of the windows are so I have some chores to do!

Brown eyed boy!


Duncan wanted his picture taken and both him and his dad have a funny 'posed' picture face when they know it's coming. (On the other hand... Helloooo melons!)


Dylie's loving Uncle Michael

He's so funny!

Oh you big baby!

I had another ultrasound yesterday to see if the placenta has finally moved out of the babies exit path. My Dr. also said to call him into the room and he would try and flip my little upside down person.

Well, the Ultrasound went well, she said from what it looked like, the placenta looked well out of the way and then she asked if the Dr. said anything about measuring the baby again. I told her that he didn't mention it, but I wanted to see if the kids head was HUGE before I called him in to flip it! I told her given the size of my husband and son's heads that could possible be a deciding factor for an optional c-section! She laughed... and went on to measure and then laughed some more! She said, "It's big! It's almost off the charts!" That's right kids, another child with Duncan's melon is hanging out in my belly. In fact, according to the measurements of it's head and belly it's in the greater than 98th percentile and the due date should be the 20th... of this month! One week! The guesstimate on size is 7 lbs 13 oz, with one month left to grow! And the final month they are supposed to gain a pound a week? Eeeegads! The babies femur gave me hope because it was showing more around my due date and apparently they can be up to 2 lbs off with the u/s guesstimate. But, basically, it seems it might be short, fat and have a HUGE noggin.

The U/S lady couldn't get in to talk to my Dr. about the size and flipping it so I went back to the waiting room to wait for him to get done with the patients he was in with. When I got back in and he checked me he said the baby was head down and I said 'nope' and he said' uhmmm.. feels like it is!' (So then it's short, fat, has a HUGE head AND a boney bum...) I reminded him about the ultrasound and the flipping idea and he reviewed everything and took me into a different room with a u/s machine to do the flipping.

Mind you, at this point I was a little nervous. I have heard all kind of stories about how terrible this little procedure is. Pulling, pushing, prodding and rubbing. None of it sounded very fun. But still more fun than chasing and caring for a Dylan and a Duncan while trying to recover from surgery so, let's do this. He took another gander at the cord to make sure it wasn't wrapped around any body parts, checked the babies placement, a forward roll works the best... then we got started.

He told me that the part that might hurt the worse was down by my pelvis since that's the most sensitive part. Then, he pushed... not bad actually... not bad at all. What he was trying to do was lift the bum up. He likened it to when a little kid falls in a toilet and gets stuck. Then after doing that for a minute he pushed on the little one's head and rubbed to my right. That hurt more than anything I would say, because it was more like an indian burn. The baby turned right to the side. So he grabbed the u/s again, checked it's heart rate to make sure it wasn't stressed (if so, he tells me, they would just push it right back to where it was). It was turning... easily actually. So then he pushed again and walahh! head down. There was still a lot of fluid low in my pelvis so he pushed it down a we bit more to get it settled in, listened to the heart rate for a few minutes and we were done!

Apparently having a nice round uterus is helpful, some people have long skinny ones and getting the baby to go sideways is the hardest part. Nice and round... now that I definately am. Even more so now than usual. He did warn me that it turned so easily that it might just flip right on back around. He said to try and lay propped up and to walk around a bit to get it settled. Great, so for the last 24 hours I have been a wee bit paranoid. I keep thinking I feel a head... then not, then again! My hips hurt today though, so I think it's getting nestled in but wait... now I feel it again... bah!

He also told me I had a good sized pelvis for birthing a big baby. NICE! I don't think that piece of information is a surprise to anyone, but I still think only an OB would appreciate that kind of compliment!

We tried piggies yesterday for the first time! Boy does she HATE getting piggies in! But look how stinkin' cute!


Seriously! Adorable! She has them in again today too, still hates it.


I missed the moment... again. Duncan sat down accross from Dylan and they were playing. It was adorable. She was just watching him and he was handing her the train. I love it. He's so cute with her!

But then he moved on to being a boy. He's been crawling around on the floor pushing his cars and trucks around all over the place. It's so... little BOY and not toddler. Eeeek!

Ahhh Nutritionists...

This post ended up SO long! And no picture rewards! I better go take some and add them!

So Dylan and I went up to the Neonatal follow-up clinic again. It was specifically to follow-up with the Audiologist and the Speech Pathologist. In neither area did anything eventful happen in the last three months... but whatever. So, I figured while we were there maybe I could talk to the Nutritionist (remind me that I asked to talk to this person later mkay?).

So we finally get in to see the Nutritionist and she jots down Dylan's daily food intake and is completely shocked. She says... "I am amazed that she is gaining weight on this few of calories!" And then goes on and on about how she is not getting enough to eat. She is SHOCKED! And trying to find ways to get in extra calories, brainstorming... talking about an extra feeding, but in the meantime is booting up her PC to see just how many calories Dylan's food adds up to. She can't believe how little she is getting!

So she plugs in everything that I told her and the computer program works it's magic and spits out the number of calories... about 548. Which, for someone Dylan's size (15 lbs 6.5 oz today might I add!) is the PERFECT amount of calories. Well. Then.

So she continues... and this is where I kind of get a little annoyed, "...about this extra feeding that we need to have Dylan start taking in, how can we do this?" I told her I could maybe start feeding her more frequently to get more in and she said "I am just trying to avoid an overnight feeding." What? She's thinking about putting Dylan back on the pump overnight? Wait... and she's getting the amount of calories she should be? (Insert puzzled look here.) Smile and nod, smile and nod.

So her recomendation was to give Dylan a 10-10:30 PM feeding of a Ped formula that's 30 calories an ounce, so... let's do the math... an extra 180 calories a day! An extra 25% of her recommmended calorie intake! Really? Okay granted, it seems as if she's not getting enough fluid, because we are upping the calories in the milk with formula and giving her whole milk and stuff, but that would mean extra water, not extra super power formula that packs in the calories right? On top of that, it could effect her morning feeding...

So MY recommendation is to give Dylan and ounce or two of the high calorie stuff with an ounce or two of water, giving her only an extra 60 calories a day and some extra fluid (that might help her poo...). Matthew was laughing at me as I was talking to him on the way home "So basically, you asked to talk to her and now you're not listening to a word she said?" Oh no... I told him, I listened to every word she said, I am just making my OWN recommendation. Being a mom as it were. Ha! He totally agreed though! Makes perfect sense... crazy food lady.

Back to why I wanted to talk to her in the first place, I wanted to find out if she needed a toddler formula (no, because she's still the *size* of an infant) and see if we could cut down on her Iron for the poo factor (yes, we can give her half). So I got my answers, some bonus info, and I am making a now educated decision on her food. Bwah!

The Audiologist tried the booth again and Dylan was so cute... when she would talk Dylan's eyebrows would go up and she would smile and make a kissy face and noise. She doesn't cooperate by looking, but she could definately hear the woman talking. When the woman came back in she said "Was it just me or was she smiling when I was talking to her?" Nope, wasn't just you, she was being cutesy... and that was at a normal speaking tone. She still wants Dylan to go in and do a sedated test at Primary but she did get a little more information. Apparently in her NICU forms there was nothing about a hearing test, even though it's required, so she actually called. Not only did Dylan pass the normal NICU hearing test, she also passed this sedated one that she wants her to have! We should still repeat it though, I asked a few more questions this time and apparently she can pass the initial one and still have some mild hearing problems so even though she passes in the right... ... Anyway, I am now on board, I just would like an all clear there so it's not effecting her speech.

In the last couple of days I joined an online Holoprosencephaly group, Yahoo groups totally stink and it's hard to read back but I have been looking at people's questions an answers as they come in. I had joined the same group back when Dylan was in the NICU and freaked right out... so I wasn't active but now Dylan's just so super-awesome it wouldn't be fair if I didn't share how cool she is with the other new mom's who, like I did, are getting the diagnosis, finding the group and freaking out! There's also resources like The Carter Center who you can have read and confirm or change the diagnosis for your child, they have more experience specific to HPE and there's no charge (they do a lot of research). I am interested in this because the way they described her brain indicated a more severe form of HPE than they labeled her with, so let's have the specialists read it right? Information is power!

I found another mom's blog who has 8 month old girl twins, one with HPE (It's over there on the right now, as Carly and Jay). and on her blog she had the following information (which she also found on another mom's blog... I love blogs). It basically consolidates a lot of the statistics I, and probably a lot of you, found when Dylan was first diagnosed, but it puts them in an amazing order...

Holoprosencephaly occurs about 1 in 20,000 out of every birth. (0.00005)
1 in 200 make it through full-term pregnancy alive. (0.005)
Less than 2% of those survive through the trauma of birth to their first breath. (0.02)
Less than 1% of those that survive come out without health complications, which will allow them to live during their short hospital stay. (0.01)
Total odds = (0.0000000005) or a 1 : 20,000,000,000 chance.
The chances of another amazing little Dylan person are less than the chances of winning the lottery! More proof that she is special and made JUST for us! I will share her with you too!

She's sick =(

Boo... Dylan has a cold or something. I have no idea where she got it from. She's the most sheltered of any of us... however, she does have an oral fixation that works in the germ's favor. She can really only breath out of her right nostril and when it gets stuffy she has a hard time breathing at all. It's so sad watching her try to sleep but getting frustrated.

This morning she was fussing so I took her in to snuggle up with a sleeping Matthew while I got Duncan going. She got all sort of comfy and went back to bed. After he got up I had to go in and put her on her back to see if that would help, it did, for a little while even though she likes her tummy better. She slept pretty late actually, probably the lack of sleep last night.

We can always tell when she's getting sick because her button gets extra gooey. It's all that post-nasal drip that makes your throat sore... well, it does the same thing to her button. We just have to be extra careful to keep the gauze pad clean and dry or that skin will get sore. We have really been lucky with her button, I know of people who have constant problems with it leaking, and scar tissue build up, and all kinds of gross stuff. Dylie's is just... there. We were told after a couple of months that we didn't have to dress it any more but when I took her in to have it measured the nurse said the site looks great and that she could tell we really take care of it. So we just keep dressing it! It's usually part of her night time routine, but I did it again this morning because she doesn't feel good.

This sick thing might put a damper on her eating too, argh. I just fed her a #1 this morning, which is 2 ounces less. This in the hopes she stays in practice even if it's not quite replacing a meal.

The kids got their first of the two H1N1 vaccines on Saturday. Man... Duncan's face when we walk into the doctor's building is classic. Poor kid, he's traumatized, and slightly more than most with the RSV vax every winter month for two years. Dylan is high risk because of her Thyroid problems, and if we do one kid, we might as well do the other. I am high risk too... but I have been waiting for the preservative free one. However, I heard of someone that passed away from H1N1 and I figured anything is better than nothing. I can't wait too long, it takes a couple weeks for you to build up the immunity and I have a chance to pass it up to the wee one before it's born. So watching the news after knitting night Jess and I saw I could call or go online in the morning. I went online and I get poked on Friday. All 2400 shots were spoken for in 15 minutes again, it was the same way with the last batch a couple weeks ago. Crazy... My friend Lori commented that it was like I won the lottery! Ha!

I did some massive cleaning around here on Monday... crazy cleaning. Walls, trim, dusting, floors... I was a mad woman. It didn't take long for me to regret it though. My hips hurt so bad, I could barely even put weight on my right leg! FREAK! It's that pregnancy hormone that makes all your joints flexible, not doing me any favors at this point. All night I had to weigh my desire to use the restroom with my desire to AVOID anything to do with weight bearing on my lower extremities! I was a little stiff in the morning but then I was fine again. Sheesh... that's it, no more cleaning for me! And no more climbing on the counter to water the high-up plants... I will have to commission Matthew!

Matthew's off for the next week, still trying to whittle down all the vacation that he didn't take throughout the year. We will be spending a lot of time together over the next two months!

Duncan's decided the very first hint of daylight means that it's time to get up. I should kick myself for not moving him to the big boy bed last time Matthew was off work. Or maybe kick Matthew... he's the one that put it off! It's on the list of things to do this next week. If Duncan gets out of bed at 6:15 every morning I will die.

My mom's birthday was Saturday and we went over there for yummy food. At one point in the evening she actually threatened to slap Matthew! Okay, he was teasing her... something about 505, some quilting thing... and she busted out! To which Traci commented "Hey, I have been in this family a long time and she's never threatened to slap me! Just getting that out there!" He loves a reaction and both her threat and Traci's comment made him smile... I think he was proud! Course at the time I was trying to talk her into quilting something for me, so he better watch his step!

Our little eater!


I never said she was a clean eater, just an eater!

Playing together. I heard him laughing at her so I went to take a picture. He thought it was funny that she kept eating the car and taking it out to smile at him!

It's hard to crochet upside down...

I have been propping my toosh up in the air in a weak attempt to turn this baby right side up/upside down and I can't just sit and do nothing for 10-15 minutes! I thought it would be easy to work on my Christmas crocheting, but it's a lot harder than it sounds! I am not sure why either... maybe the finished part hanging in your face, the need to hold your arms up, whatever it is. I just decided I need to do it more than once a week (on knitting night) if I am to get any neighbor gifts done by Christmas!

Dylan's still eating like a pro, twice a day she eats a full baby food. TWO meals! It's crazy how quickly you forget all the guessing that's required with starting solid foods. Like how much, when... how solid. It's like a whole new adventure. She has actually even started opening her mouth when she sees the spoon and is ready as opposed to waiting for me to touch her cheek with it as a cue. She still hates to drink though, she loves the taste of apple juice but then she lets it roll right out of her mouth! One thing at a time!

She's starting to explore a bit with her crawling too, the problem is that she is so easily entertained that she doesn't really see the need to roam around the house. However, she was in her room playing while I was getting Duncan out of the tub and all of a sudden she sounded a lot closer... she had chased a maraca into the hallway! And occasionally she will follow a ball to the other side of the couch or even in the hallway. It's cute... I can't wait until she's all over the place!

Duncan meanwhile has discovered the beauty of the word "moooooom!", he was all about daddy for the last several months, daddy this, daddy that... well, now it's a stretch to get him to say it! Everyone who he needs something from is mom! (Aunt Ami was even mom when he was over there!) We play the "mooooom", "Duuuncan", "moooom", "Duuuuncan" game all day long around these parts!

I have started shopping for Christmas, almost done actually (I hope!) and I have everything in a big box in the living room. There's a present for his cousin Porter's birthday on the top of the box at at some point he escaped through the gate and all I heard was "WOOOOOOOW!" and I went in to find his arms outstretched over the present! It was so cute! Especially for a boy who says so little! (That makes sense to us anyway!)

We had sister's night out on Wednesday, dinner and we went to "This is It" the movie. It was so fun to get out with most of the sisters for a yummy dinner and the movie was fantastic! I am a big MJ fan, so that was no stretch but it exceeded my expectations! I would even go again. He really was an amazing dancer and singer!

The other day Dylan was muching on a sippy full of cereal and apple juice and I was in the other room with the door shut. I heard a bang and Duncan said "Uh oh!" and I hear the pitter patter of his little feet coming to tell me and through the closed door he said "Uh oh!" and I said, "It's okay Duncan, just pick it up for her." I hear him run away again... He picked it up for her, not only that time, but the next three or four times she dropped it too! He was being so helpful, it was so cute! He will share and hand her toys and food when she's just hanging out on the floor or getting her diaper changed too, it's adorable. HE's a good big(ger) brother!

Grandma got us these new big boy jammies for a birthday present! Look how cute he is!


He seemed to know they were something special, and he was that wound up craziness before bed that kids do... so he wouldn't stand still for a picture! I snuck a couple in anyway!


Look at this big girl kneeling and playing!


I did help her up, but she was interested and she stayed up, so cute!


This morning they were playing together... Well, he was playing, she was mostly trying to grab him. She kept smacking him in the face and he was just ignoring her. WHICH I LOVE. He gets pushed by cousins sometimes at grandma LouAnn's because, unlike them.. he never had a big brother to show him the ropes. I am all for him sticking up for himself and pushing back if they push him... but if he did it to Dylan then we would hate it! Ideally no one would push? Ahhh, kids will be kids! I am glad he plays nice with Dylan though! (Unfortunately I only got one shot before he saw the camera and got up to chase me... Boo!)

Dylie's Noggin

We had an appointment this morning with the Plastic Surgeon that did Dylan's Cranioplasty a year ago. The primary concern is the ridge on her right temple but that's not too much of a concern since at this point she bonks it far less than she used to... In fact, it looks a lot better than it did, Matthew's grandpa hasn't asked me recently if 'they were going to fix her head' which is a good sign. He's 94... and along with having a very worn filter, he tends to say the same things over and over. (Like say... "You're eating too much" to pregnant me. I have heard it, oh... maybe 10 times already and we have several weeks left.)

The doctor was pretty insistent that the ridge was because her fore brain didn't put enough pressure on her forehead and that was what created it. It's been there since the swelling went down though, so uhmmm... but I did mention that and later in the conversation he repeated that it was because her brain. Whatever... he's confident, and I think he's the head of surgery so he's good at what he does, we will let it slide! He said the bones will get thicker as she ages and it will become less apparent. I mentioned that she will have an out-patient procedure to fix her ASD when she's between 3.5 and 4 and it seemed like that would be a good time to fix it if it's still needed. It would be in-patient, but not like last time since they just go in and shave that bump down.

The ridge doesn't really bother me and honestly I would hate to have to have her go into another surgery at this point, especially if it's cosmetic. She's just doing so well. She used to knock it a little more but I have been paying attention in the last couple weeks and even that doesn't happen as much as she has gotten more stable and probably more aware of it.

Speaking of doing so well, I don't think Dr. Siddiqui has ever had more of an interest in Dylan and her development than he did today. A year ago, it was an option to have the cranioplasty, he was hesitant. He said it wouldn't do any good if her brain wasn't growing and didn't need the room but we kind of pushed for it... with Dr. Kestle, the neurosurgeon's, help. Dr. Kestle was more along the line of 'we don't know if her brain will need the room to grow, but if it does, we want to make sure it has all the opportunity to do so!" (I think I have a crush on him...) Siddiqui was far less convinced... however today he was very impressed with her development. She was talking and smiling and sitting and showing off. He said that she is doing so good for being diagnosed with Holoprosencephaly, with quite the air of surprise in his voice. We commented that we knew that and she really is an inspiration for parent of kids with the same diagnosis, to which he agreed. I had told him we did the typical thing when she was first diagnosed and went to the terrible Internet and we have been impressed with her ever since! He asked a lot of questions as to what caused it (the whole chromosome thing) and we talked about Duncan being "normal" and her not. It seems like we spent more time talking about how incredible she was, what she's doing and what's next, rather than the ridge on her temple. We didn't mind one bit, we will tell that to anyone who will listen.

When we got back to pick up Duncan he was sticky and had dirt in between his fingers! So... he had a GREAT time at Aunt Ami's! In fact, it actually kind of took some convincing to get him to go home. He woke up on the wrong side of the bed today and was behaving nicely for Ami, so she could have kept him! (For a little while anyway...)

At one point while we were talking I looked down to see Andy Jack staring very intently at my belly and muttering something about a balloon. I asked him if it looked like I swallowed a balloon, it was so cute! He's almost four and we haven't had a baby in the family for almost two years , so I am sure he's curious. Ami said there was a baby in there and I told him that it moves around. He wanted to feel so I put his hand on my belly and said the baby must be sleeping right now and that babies slept a lot. He said "I need to see under." Under my shirt? You got it! I lifted it up and exposed my giant round belly and he said "Nope!" and walked off. Meaning that we must be insane because clearly there was no baby under there!

Happy Halloween!

So yes, last night we did the whole Halloween thing, Duncan was right on the cusp of being to young (falling on the the too young side probably...). Grandma's out of town so we stopped by to see grandpa first where Duncan loaded up on candy, this was his first house and SCORE! However, he became quite anti-social and focused once he had the first (yes, first, of several from grandpa!) peanut butter cup in his hand! Back in the car with a skittles bribe since a peanut butter cup isn't exactly car food. Mean mom!

We have made it a relatively new family tradition of going up to Aunt Ami's every Halloween. All of the cousins go trick or treating together and they have so much fun! Even Ami was a little surprised at the famly turn out, but she loved it! There were a few groups this year, the older boys, the older girls and the pip squeaks. I am thinking the big wimps were the older boys who kept coming back to the house to see if any of the other groups were back yet!

At first, apparently Duncan kept trying to run into people's houses. Like, "thanks for the candy... I will just make myself at home!" Matthew said they kept looking down at him like "What?!" and then Matt ended up climbing over cousins to go retrieve him from these random strange homes. Nice. I am not surprised, whenever I go bring something to my neighbor he just walks right in and goes wandering around her house. It's cute. But then again so does the dog... not so cute.

When he got over that and started to catch on to the candy thing, he would take each new candy and shove it in his mouth for a bite. So now we have a couple dozen little candy bars with Duncan teeth marks in them. We were laughing last night looking at them because feeling the bar through the wrapper you can feel where he bit! He was able to crack into his fair share of candy... wrapper and all. Hopefully there won't be any plastic surprises in his diaper over the next couple of days!

Dylan didn't go out, she stayed in with the lazy/smart moms! She actually has started to realize that snuggling isn't such a bad thing and she snuggled and cuddled with Aunt Kristen and Grandma for a surprisingly long time! She was a cuddly little bug last night!

When we first pulled in to the garage some little 'princess' came running into the garage and said "Do you have candy out?!" I said "No, sorry we just got home" and the little darling growled at me! "Grrrrrrrrr!" and ran off! I was like What?! She was like 5 and her mom was right there! To think I considered digging around the car for Duncan's treat bag to hand her something quickly! I was like 'I just got growled at!' Perhaps mom chose the wrong costume for her?

Steve and Jessica came over after the trick or treaters to play a game or two. they brought a new game over that apparently Steve had read about on some completely dorky game rating web site! BUT, I can't tease too much because it was the 2009 Spiel des Jahres winner... and that's how we have found great games in the past. (That would be 'Game of the Year' in German, big board game players those Germans!) We opened the box and there was a whole slew of cards! Scary... but it was a total winner! Really! And I am not just saying that because I won one game (but it helped!). Last week I gave Jess her birthday present which was the Holiday version of the Worldwide Ward Cookbook. I told her I was very selfishly excited to give her her present (because she likes to cook for other people, no one accused me of being dumb!). Boy, those Mormons really know how to cook, lots of butter, lots of cream cheese... She made some delish chip dip from it last night... so, they brought drinks, this dip, company and entertainment. Stop... I know your jealous, they're OURS! (And I have been acccused of being selfish!)

Dylan and Duncan also got adorable Halloween cards from Grandma Shirley, they each got a dollar of their very own! Halloween was a success! And it will be even more fun next year!

Dylan has been an AMAZING eater over the last couple of days! You got the additional note on the last entry about the two full feedings but she's now at 5 in a row! Twice yesterday she did the full #2 and already once for breakfast. I will try again this afternoon but it's been really encouraging! I sent Pat a note with the good news and she wasn't at all surprised, she said Dylan is smart and was just enjoying the chit-chat time with me too much and now she knows I mean business! She has no interest in feeding herself though, which she used to do with Cheerios and puffs, so maybe we can get some tips on that next time Pat comes? Right now I have been sticking with the fruits and avoiding the veggies... I just can't surprise her with beans or peas just yet!

Daylight savings this morning... and what is it with kids that don't get that they 'GET' an extra hour of sleep? Honestly, this kid's internal clock is amazing, and right on target. Maybe tomorrow?

This is the cel phone picture we sent to friends... It's bad quality, but I love how Dylan's checking Duncan out!


She wasn't all about the hat, but a binki was enough of a distraction to get a few good pictures!

Ham! (Notice the truck grandma!)

Cute picture with Daddy. This was before Duncan started mauling Dylan, he though she was pretty funny as a piggy.

Num num num! That would be a Kit Kat peeps, yes, being dipped in caramel. That's momma's boy!

Dylie loves to look at herself in the TV stand...

And the fireplace. Playing with their reflection is on the developmental check list, this is a GOOD thing. (Besides, look how close she is to kneeling!)

More walrus face, with a bracelet this time (a very drooled on bracelet!).

Duncan has a hard time understanding that he has to be more than 4 inches away from the camera for you to take a good picture. Not only that but he says 'cheese!' and then closes his eyes because he knows the flash is coming. These cute pics are few and far between these days!