Check Up Time

So Kristen and Lauren had their check-ups on Tuesday. Kristen did very good but she did keep asking if she was getting a shot. When Dr. Little came in she looked at her and said "I'm not getting a shot, only sissy is getting a shot." She wanted to establish that right from the start. The only thing she was a little scared of was when they took her blood pressure. She is still in the 25th percentile in height...imagine that. She has gone up from the 25th to the 30th percentile in weight. She was 29 pounds! Her head is big though...she was in the 95th percentile in head circumference. Lauren, however, was the same weight as when we went in to get her Synagis shot a few weeks back. I was not happy to see that she hadn't gained any weight. She has been a lot more active during the day and is now on the move. She isn't crawling or walking, but she is rolling to get to where she wants to go and to get Kristen's toys. I don't know if this has something to do with her lack of weight gain. She seems very uninterested in her Formula, which the GI doctor insists we continue to give her and barely drinks any during the day. Juice gives her really bad heart burn because it is so acidic so that basically leaves regular whole milk or water which neither have as much calories as her formula. She also eats like a bird during the day too. The GI doctor wants me to feed her via the pump what she doesn't eat during the day but I feel as if she will become uninterested in eating completely. When I do feed her during the day on the pump she doesn't eat at all because it has to run for 30 minutes to an hour depending on how much she is getting. I really feel like she doesn't get hungry and I feel if we start feeding her non-stop from the pump she will never feel like eating. She is continuously fed at night for 10 hours. If I had food constantly pumping into my stomach for 10 hours of the day I don't know how much I would want to eat for the other 14. Other than the feeding issues, Dr. Little was very happy with her progress. They don't have a preemie growth chart so she really couldn't tell me if she was still following the 3% mark or not. We do go see her GI doctor on Tuesday, so I am anxious to discuss my concerns with her. She will get her MIC-Key button replaced at this appointment and maybe we can discuss some other options for her for eating during the day. I have to go start her feeding now, but will update after her appointment on Tuesday.

Party Pictures!!!

This is the AWESOME cake that a friend of Paul's wife did for us. She also did a small cake for Kristen as well.






Kristen opening her card that plays music. That was one of her favorite gifts.

Bouncy Girls

Kristen's Birthday Pictures

I thought I would post a few pictures of Kristen's little party we threw for her last night. It was just Paul, Kristen, Lauren and me. She will have a another party on Saturday. Just immediate family because of Lauren. We still have to avoid large crowds for this winter. Anyways, she enjoyed opening a few presents and the cake. She did blow out the candles all on her own.

Happy Birthday Kristen!

Today Kristen turns 3 years old. My little girl is growing up so fast. She has brought so much joy to our lives. It does sadden me because everyday it seems as if she needs me less than the day before. I love her so so much. It is hard to believe that in just 2 1/2 years she will be starting school. This September she will start in the AWANA cubbies at church and I just smile when I think about her carrying her little bag and learning the songs and pledges. While I am enjoying watching her grow, I do miss the little things, like having to cover her up at night. Now when I go in there she is always under the covers because she can do it "All by myself" as she says. Having to hold her hand on the stairs, having to put her shoes on, helping her down the slide, helping her into the chair to eat dinner. Everyday she gets more and more independent and while I know that is good, I still miss my little girl who needs me. She can now say her ABC's, count to 13, knows all of her colors and some of her shapes, knows her full name, knows how to operate every electronic gadget in our house better than me, and is using the potty like a pro! She loves the Disney Princesses, she likes to wear dresses, she likes to play hide-n-seek, she likes to read and is memorizing some of her favorite books, she loves her EET (her blanket), she likes listening to music and dancing, she likes organizing things into lines and helping me do things around the house, she likes to feel important and needed, her favorite food is pizza and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and she likes bossing our dog Degas around. She has grown so much over the past three years and is developing into such a unique little person and I am so proud to be her mother.

3 Year Pictures

We went on Saturday and got Kristen's three year pictures done. I can't believe how much she has grown over the past year. Here are some of my favorites.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!

Good Report

Lauren went to the eye doctor today and we got a good report. He said that since she had stage 2 ROP he usually sees nearsightedness and weak eyes at this point and because of her brain hemorrhage he will usually see other complications. He then looked at me and said "All I am going to say is AMEN"! He was also her eye doctor in the NICU and was very pleased to see how great she was doing and the lack of signs of anything being wrong because of the brain hemorrhaging. He also said her eyes look great. He didn't see any signs of nearsightedness or weak eyes. Now, she could need glasses later on down the road, but right now she is doing good. We follow up with him in 2 years.

God has truely blessed us with such a wonderful little miracle. We thank Him everyday for all the miracles he has performed in Lauren's life and He isn't finished yet. His infinite power is beyond human understanding, but with God, nothing is impossible!



But Jesus looked at them and said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible."

Moments

I thought I would post a couple stories from this week. I have bought a preschool learning activity book for Kristen so we have started doing the activities in them. We are focusing on colors, which she already knows, but is a good review. She is practicing really hard to stay in the lines and is doing very good. I decided to start trying to teach her how to write her name. So we focused on drawing a straight line for the K. She was doodling lines all on the back of the page and then she looked up and said "I'm gonna draw a circle." I said okay, thinking she wouldn't know how. Imagine how impressed I was when she started drawing circles all over the page. I was so proud of her. I still don't know where she learned it. I took a picture of the back of her paper so we can have a picture of her first circle.




On to a funnier story. Today Lauren was in the living room playing in the floor and Kristen was eating her snack on her little couch. I was in the kitchen getting things setup to do our Valentine Day craft. Kristen came into the kitchen to see what I was doing. When she went back into the living room I heard a gasp then "Oh no my snack!" I went in to see what was going on and Lauren had apparently reached over and pulled Kristen's couch to her then gotten Kristen's bowl of potato chips and started eating them. Potato chips were everywhere. Kristen was so upset and Lauren and Degas (our dog) were very happy. I snapped a couple pictures.





This was Lauren after craft time. She didn't enjoy it at all. Kristen loved it!

ENT

Just wanted to post an update. Lauren went to go see the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor on Monday. The good thing is she doesn't have any scar tissue on her vocal chords. The bad news is that one of her vocal chords is paralyzed. While there is nothing they can do to fix it, they can do surgery and move the paralyzed vocal chord over so her other vocal chord can bounce off of it hopefully improving her quality of speech. In order to have the surgery she will need to grow and her airway will need to get bigger. The doctor said we are looking at several years before this can be done and even then they can't guarantee a normal sounding voice. This is something that Paul and I will discuss later on to see if it is something we feel will benefit Lauren or not. She will have a very soft and raspy/hoarse voice. This was Kristen first time out for a long period of time being potty trained and she did awesome!

Lauren went today and got her RSV shot and she weighs 15 lbs 5 ozs. Next week we go for her follow up eye appointment and she also has OT and speech therapy. Yesterday she was on her hands and knees in the crawling position and moved out of that into a sitting position. I was so proud of her. Hopefully she will do it for her therapist next week.