1st Birthday Party - Round 1 - Success!

Today we had Round One of the babies' 1st birthday party! (They are having another one in Missouri on their actual birthday!) We had friends and family over for a cookout and then our church friends joined us for cake and ice cream. Drew and I felt that it was a big hit. Our friends' kids had fun with the pool and slip and slide. Lindy and Will did awesome all day - even with very little sleep! They got to taste their first sweet stuff and seemed to really enjoy it! It was a hot day filled with a lot of love for two precious little babies who have come a long way this past year! Thanks to everyone who came and helped us celebrate. Thanks to our families for helping us out today!

Nana Crozier made the birthday outfits!



We sang individually to each baby.Singing to Will.
Diving into their cakes.

"Daddy, this is so much fun!"
Will's masterpiece.
Lindy's damage.
Our little family.

The Asheboro kids at the party. Will is loving life with all the ladies!

(Mia, Anna, Riley, Berkley, Lindy and Will)

That must have been a funny joke that Riley just told Lindy!
The birthday babes. Still happy after a long hot day! The sugar might have helped out a little at this point!
Both babes went to sleep pretty quickly tonight. What a great 1st birthday party. They can't wait for Round 2. They will be pros at digging into the cake!!

We Survived the Crazy Week

We made it through all 10 appointments this week!

Monday the babies had swallow studies done to see if we could get them off their thickened milk. It was a no go on both babies. Will aspirated thin breast milk and Lindy was actually aspirating nectar consistency breast milk. 3 months ago she did not aspirate nectar consistency. Who knows! We have been giving her something between nectar and honey consistency so we tried that and she was not aspirating that. So we will just continue doing what we have been doing for awhile. We went by the NICU after the swallow study but we really didn't see many nurses. We did see Lindy's primary and the neonatologist that was on call the night the triplets were born.

Monday afternoon we had Lindy's occupational therapist at the house. She is still pleased with Lindy's progress. She reassessed her and she was continually checking off things and saying, yes she does that. She says Lindy does sit unsupported. Lindy starts off well and then ends up almost folding in half. The OT says she just has to build up her endurance.

Tuesday Lindy had both the deaf and hard of hearing teacher and the Governor Morehead vision teacher come to the house. She has continued to do pretty well reacting to our sounds and toys.

Wednesday Lindy and I had a very long day. We started the morning with a neurosurgery appointment to check on her shunt. Her head circumference has gone up to the next percentage but they assume it's just from a growth spurt. They had not seen her since February and she has grown a lot since then. They will check her again in 3 months. We left there and went to the hearing department and got new ear molds made. We left there and went to the ophthalmologist and had her eyes checked. According to him her vision just keeps getting worse. He wants us to continue with the patching of her eye two hours every day. We go back to see him in 2 months. We then went back to the hearing department and picked up her new FM system. They explained how to work it. Those appointments took all morning long. We then ran errands around town. Lindy slept a total of about 25 minutes and was happy as a clam and raring to go. I on the other hand was exhausted!

Thursday we took the babies to their one year appointment with the pediatrician. We expected to get shots, but we couldn't get them. The vaccinations can't be given until they actually turn one year old - which is next week. The doctor did her check up on them, drew blood for a hemoglobin and lead check and put fluoride on their teeth. We will have to go back in two weeks for a quick nurse visit and actually get shots. I wish they would have mentioned this when I made the appointment!

Lindy weighed in at 15 pounds 15.6 ounces and she was 24.5 inches long. Will weighed in at 18 pounds 14.6 ounces and was 27.75 inches long. I thought Will would be bigger than that and I also didn't realize how much of a height difference there is! Looks like Lindy might be taking after her mother.

Besides all of the appointments, Lindy has had a pretty quiet week. She continues to be so happy and smiley! She smiles at Drew and me all day long. It truly does melt your heart! To think that we used to have to work so hard to get a smile and now she won't stop!

The excitement around our house this week has been from Mr. Will. He finally decided to try out crawling on his hands and knees on Tuesday! He still prefers the wounded soldier crawl down on his belly but we are seeing him crawl just a tiny bit. Will has perfected the art of pulling up to his knees. He pulls up on his knees all the time now. On Wednesday Drew walked in the nursery and found Will standing in his bed! So he officially pulled up to his feet! I found him later that day pulled up on his feet at the toy basket. He got his crib lowered that day as well. He's turning into a big boy. He has had a big week!

The excitement continues this weekend. A first birthday party and a very long road trip are to come. Stay tuned!

The sweetest baby girl in the whole wide world! (Don't you love how she hangs her paci out the side of her mouth like a cigar!)

Will in his crawl-through aquarium.

Will's newfound love - pulling up to his knees.

And Mr. Will - pulled up to his feet.

My sweetie pie!

Lindy has really started doing so much better during tummy time! Look at her go!
Working on sitting up. She's starting to get the hang of it!
Will's favorite new position. He pulls up on his knees and then sits back. The physical therapist said this is not a good way for babies to sit. So he chooses to do it ALL the time!
He doesn't need us anymore. He gets his own toys now!

Big stretches from the little girl!

Look How Far They Have Come

With the babies' first birthday fast approaching, we have been looking back at their beginning. I have seen some other blogs that did this and thought it would be fun to show you how far they have come. It's really amazing.

Lindy's first foot print. A little smaller than a double A battery.

Will's first foot print.

Adam's first foot print. His was the size of a triple A battery.

These were the little shades they had to wear under the bilirubin lights.
The first hat Lindy ever wore. It fit on a can of soda.

A progression of clothes. From micro-preemie to preemie to a 6 month outfit Lindy is wearing now. The micro-preemie shirt used to be too big!

Will's first pair of preemie pants and his current 6-9 month sleeping pants.
A progression of diapers. Micro-preemie to preemie to Size 1, to Lindy's current Size 2 and to Will's current Size 3. We also stopped at Newborn diapers, but I didn't keep any of them.
Here is how small the micro-preemie diaper really was. It swallowed them in the beginning!
Here is one of Lindy's old id bracelets. It used to be on her ankle and it always fell off because it was too big!

And look at them now......

Lindy's foot now, compared to her foot print at 42 days of life.

Will's foot now, also compared to a foot print at 42 days of life.

It's hard to believe they started out at 1 pound 9 ounces (Lindy), 1 pound 14 ounces (Will) and 1 pound 13 ounces (Adam).

The Calm Before the Storm

One year ago today (July 18th - I started this post Friday night) I was admitted to the hospital because I was in preterm labor. I went to my weekly appointment that morning, knowing I was having a pretty good amount of contractions, but not really thinking much about it. The ultrasound part went really good - we had been watching Baby C really closely and it had actually looked like he had a little bit more amniotic fluid around him. Then my doctor checked my cervix. It had gone from 29 to 14mm. He told me to get dressed and he'd be back in. I looked at Drew and said, "I'm going to the hospital, I just know it." Dr. Parker came back in said, "So I want you to go the hospital." I said, "So like this afternoon?" I was thinking I could go home and get some of my things. He said, "When you walk out our front door."

I got to the hospital and I was having contractions every 1-2 minutes. They started me on the dreaded magnesium sulfate and I proceeded to have one of the worst nights of my life. I got incredibly sick and spent the whole night throwing up. They were trying to monitor all three babies and they had me laying on my back the whole time. It was so uncomfortable. I hardly remember much of it though because I was so out of it. I know that Drew was awesome that night. He got up every time I got sick and took care of me. I made it through the night and pretty much slept the entire next day. Fortunatly they were able to stop my labor, as I was only 23 weeks and 4 days. It was the beginning of my 2 week hospital bedrest.

Flash forward a year.... We have had a pretty quiet week. But watch out for next week. 10 appointments between the two babies. Yikes!

Monday Lindy and Will had an appointment with the physical therapist. I was brave and I took both the babies, by myself, to the appointment!! Will did great and she said he was doing really good for his adjusted age (a little over 8 months old). She said a couple things were above his adjusted age. Because he is doing so well she felt comfortable not seeing him again! He's been discharged from PT! Lindy was behind her adjusted age, but she didn't feel like it was too terribly far behind. She has really come a long way the last month and a half. We are really working on sitting up and pushing up with her arms at tummy time. She is going back in 2 months for another check.

Monday evening the babies met some new friends, Conner and Tyler. Their parents have just moved to our area and Drew knows them from Divinity School. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture. Conner is 3 and Tyler is 11 months old and a big boy, especially compared to Will and Lindy!

Tuesday I had my favorite professor from grad school at Salem College come pay us a visit! I'm so happy Mrs. Davis got to come out and meet the babies.

Wednesday Lindy had the deaf and hard of hearing teacher come to the house. Even with only one hearing aid, Lindy seemed to be responding well. I'm trying to figure out if something is actually wrong with the hearing aid we have. It was cutting in and out and our audiologist thought she fixed it. Now we can't tell if it is still cutting in and out or we are having battery issues.

Will's first tooth is finally starting to come through. I finally saw a tiny corner of his bottom front left tooth yesterday. He has worked really hard on it! He is really becoming mobile and he is really wearing his mama and daddy out! I'm constantly chasing him back into our little play area in the living room. There are about 4-5 things in the living room he shouldn't touch and he always wants to go straight for them! He's a determined little guy! Normally this wouldn't be so bad but it is annoying when I'm trying to do something with Lindy. Like feed her. I'm having to set her down mid feed to stop Will from doing something he isn't supposed to be doing. I really miss the days when he liked the bouncy seat! I finally had to break out the other pack and play and set it up so that I have someplace to contain him when I need to. Will has started eating whole baby food Puffs. Before this week I'd been breaking them up pretty small but this week I gave them to him whole and he did fine. He still hasn't figured out the fine motor skill of picking it up off the tray and getting it into his mouth though. He tries but he hasn't gotten one in there yet. I still have to put them in there for him. Another pretty big milestone for Will this week is that he is starting to pull up on things. He can get up onto his knees now. It's been fun watching him this week. Of course now we are going to have to really watch him and probably lower his bed down!

That's the news from this week. I hope I'm still alive next week after all our crazy appointments to write a post!

The latest pictures are below.

Now that Lindy rolls, I have found her in some funny places this week too! In fact I couldn't find her one time this week. I lost her! She rolled right up next to a chair and I couldn't see her from where I was. I thought Drew had her and he didn't! I found her, don't worry!

Will pulled up on his knees on the bouncy seat.
This is where the party has been a few times this week. It's come in handy when I'm trying to cook dinner. It's not very big though and the bully Will always steals Lindy's toys and crawls right over her!
This is how Lindy and Will really feel about us. "My Dad Rocks" and "My Mom is Hot." They love us so much! Isn't that right babies?? I think they may even like each other!
A good old Friday in our denim overalls.

Lindy has started smiling when she rips her glasses and hearing aides off. It's her little devilish side! She is so proud of herself when she gets them off.
We went out to dinner tonight and I put the babies in their little crocs. How cute are they?!

Today we got out the Johnny Jumper. They are really bad for preemies. But I had it in the basement and thought I'd just see what the babies did in it. They only got to stay for 5 minutes today. Neither really bounced but both liked turning around in it. It has lights and music which Lindy liked. I started bouncing Will and he did enjoy that. I hope a couple times a week for a few minutes won't be too bad!