Updates and Ramblings

Josh had his second soccer practice last night. He did much better...he immediately went out on the field and "practiced" with one of his friends. He seems to be enjoying it, but he does get easily distracted. :) He doesn't always pay attention and he doesn't quite have that assertive instinct he needs, but that will come...he's having fun and that's the important part.

Callie is officially sitting up on her own (can't remember if I posted that already or not). She's been sitting on her own for about a week now. Emma's not far behind. She can sit up for just a little bit at a time, but she still falls over. She'll get it, though!

Emma's lip is healing quite nicely - we're starting to massage it more so it won't start pulling up as it heals more. The sore under her nose (where the stint rubbed it raw) is looking better. She's been in a much better mood lately - except when her ear is bothering her. She is still taking her antibiotic for an ear infection. Hopefully, it will clear up before we go to the beach.

Emma is sleeping much better now...rarely waking up in the middle of the night. That makes Phil and I very happy. LOL We're starting to get caught up on the lost sleep.

We're leaving for the beach in less than 2 weeks! I can't wait. I just hope another hurricane isn't brewing out there. :(

6 Month Appointment and such

I swear, these doctor's appointments are killing me!

Emma had an appt with the pastic surgeon yesterday - got her nose stint out and seems to be feeling much better.

The girls had their 6 month appt this morning. Let me see if I can remember everything - HA!

Callie - 17 lbs 3 oz (or close to that), 27 1/2" long (75% for weight, 95% for height).
Emma - 13 lbs 6 oz, 25 1/2" long (10% for weight, 25% for height).

Emma has an ear infection! :( I was so hoping she would avoid any ear infections for awhile. The dr almost thought she might have picked something up from the hospital...I guess there's no way of knowing that unless she gets a 2nd ear infection. Of course, we have to be extra careful with the ear infections because of the cleft. :( There's no doubt she'll need tubes, but they were hoping to wait until her next cleft surgery (which will be in about 4-6 months).
Callie is good health - however, when we pulled her diaper off her today, she had this huge rash right at the diaper line! It wasn't there when we left the house this morning. The dr said to get some hydracortisone...use that and then put Auqaphor on top of that. We're using Auqaphor on Emma's lip right now, so we have plenty of that.

Emma needs some antibiotic cream on her lip because the stint rubbed her raw and it looks a little infected. Ugh!

The doctor was pleased with their progress, but still is recommending them to a therapist (mainly for Emma who is a little behind Callie) to have them evaluated. Emma isn't babbling or sitting up like Callie is...again, she's not necessarily behind, in general, just behind Callie...he thinks she could use some strengthening exercises, though.

The dr we saw today is fairly young and very pro-active about preventing any serious illnesses. Because of that, he has also recommended that the girls get the synegis (sp??) shot to help prevent RSV. They're right on the borderline of qualifying, so we're waiting to hear back to see if they do qualify and if insurance will pay for these shots. Callie doesn't need them, but he wants her to get them, too, just so she won't get sick and spread it to Emma.

All in all, it was a good appointment, but alot is getting ready to happen and I'm tired just thinking about it.

Oh - they did get 2 shots today. Phew!

Where did the weekend go?

Whew, what a weekend! LOL

Friday night, my friend came over to see the girls. She wound up playing with Josh all night. Josh couldn't get enough of her! Kim picked up one of the girls and Josh told her to give her to me so she could play with him. LOL

We were suppose to have a nice, quiet, relaxing weekend - after we went shopping. We got up Saturday morning and headed for Sam's. $200 later we came out and ran by the house to drop stuff off. We ran to lunch and then off to Walmart for more groceries and Josh's soccer stuff (along with diapers and formulas)...another $200 later we were on our way home! Yikes!! It was 3:00 before we got home - what happened to the day?!!

We all fell sound asleep when we got home. I'm glad the girls were ready for a nap, too. LOL

Josh is really excited about soccer practice. He has practice on Monday's at 5:30-6:30.

I can't believe Sunday is almost over...where did the weekend go?

Sleep & Soccer

No, the 2 aren't connected. :)

Emma's still waking up at night - she woke up around midnight last night and 6:00 this morning. We gave her a drink of water last night and she surpisingly went back down. She woke up at 6:00 and luckily, was content to just lean up against me in bed and just look around. The girls normally get up around 6:30, so this wasn't a huge deal this time.

Josh starts soccer next week! We're off this weekend to find cleats (I think I've already posted this).

I tell ya, I'm not sure the girls are going to survive Josh. :) Callie was on the floor yesterday evening while I changed Emma's diaper (mind you, I was in the same room as Josh and Callie). She was a little fussy because she was having some tummy time. Well, Josh was sitting with her. The next thing I knew, he was dragging her across the blanket by her leg! LOL I, of course, told him to stop. I think he thought he was going to get a spanking over this one, but he didn't...just a talking to. Poor kiddo - he just doesn't get it.

When Josh said his prayers last night, he said, "Dear Jesus, please help me to not hurt my sisters". :)

On another note, I'm afraid of what Josh is going to repeat in "public". Callie was actually sitting up on her own last night (she did have her hand on Emma's bouncy seat). She sat there for a good long time and then fell over. Josh immediately went over to her and said, "It's okay, Callie, Mommy didn't mean to punch you!". Hello!! I didn't touch her! I asked him what he said and he just laughed and said, "I'm tricking you!". His "tricks" are going to get us into serious trouble if he says something like that to someone. He was sitting right there with me, so he knows I didn't even touch Callie (she didn't even cry when she fell over, by the way).

It's scary when Josh says things like that. I was a little stern with him the other night (only raised my voice just a little), and he said, "Quit screaming at me!". I just looked at him and said, "I wasn't screaming" - he then said, "Okay" and went on doing his thing. I'm not quite sure how to handle this if he keeps making statements like this. Yikes!

Sleep, Emma, Sleep!

Emma's still waking up 1-2 times per night wanting to eat!! Yikes!! This girl is eating like a horse all of a sudden. :) She only woke up once last night. Whew!

Emma's doing great - really starting to be more like her old self.

We go back next week to get the stint out of her nose if it lasts that long. Phil said this morning that it looks like it's moved. She's been a little fussy, so we're not sure if it's blocking her airway or not. Phil's going to call the dr this morning and talk to them about it. I don't think he's in the office today, so I'm not sure what we'll do.

Josh starts soccer practice next week, I think. We haven't received a call from his coach yet, so we don't know what day his practice will be. We're going to go out this weekend to get him some cleats and shin guards. He's going to be just too cute!!

We went to church last night for the first time since the surgery, so everyone got to see Emma. :) I guess this is Emma's time to shine...Josh and Callie will have their chance later. :)

Emma Update

It's been a long weekend. Emma's been very clingy. She's getting better, though.

She's starting to eat a little better. We took her back to the dr yesterday to have her checked out. He said there could be 1 of 3 reasons she's not eating well.

1. She can't breathe well because of the stints in her nose (they're there to help keep the shape of her nose).
2. She's getting the formula too quickly - she has a better suck now and is eating much quicker
3. She's still in pain

We basically have to just wait it out.
She did eat much better last night than she has since the surgery. I can't wait until she and Callie are back on the same schedule. It's too hard to remember who needs to eat and when. :)

We go back next Wednesday to have the stints taken out (yay).

Emma is starting to feel better - she's giving us smiles and she actually laughed out loud yesterday.

She's been waking up 1-2 times per night. Last night, we rocked her back to sleep the first time and fed her the 2nd. I will be glad when she's back to sleeping through the night again.

I'll try to post some pictures this evening. We've been taking quite a few pictures of her. We just haven't had time to get them off of the camera.

Emma's surgery

Emma had her surgery on Thursday, August 11. We had to be at the hospital at 5:30 in the morning.

We took Josh and Callie to my parents Wednesday evening. By the time we got home, packed, fed Emma, etc., it was sometime between 11:30 and 12:00 - which meant we only had 4 short hours of sleep. Ugh!

We got to the hospital and checked in. Of course, Emma was wide awake! Luckily, she did fall back sleep until it was time to go up. We rode up the elevator and then the nurse just took her off to surgery - no big fanfare. We kissed Emma and off she went. We spent a little while in the waiting room and then went down and got some breakfast.

The nurse called periodically with updates telling us Emma was fine...the surgery lasted about 3-3 1/2 hours...it was 12:30 before we got to see her. She looked awesome.

The surgeon came out and talked to us and told us she was a bit more of a challenge than he was expecting. He told us he was glad she wasn't his first cleft lip!! Ouch!

We spent the day in the PICU just holding Emma...she slept quite a bit.

Phil went on home that night and it's a good thing he did. The A/C was out again (we had a leak). To make a long A/C story short, we finally got it fixed on Friday, but the house stayed too hot to take Emma home.

Emma had trouble going to sleep Thursday night (despite being extremely tired). We finally got her to sleep around 10:00 and she and I both slept until midnight. She woke up, I tried to feed her a little bit more. She finally went back to sleep around 12:30 or so. Around 1:00 AM, the nurse came in and said they were going to have to move Emma to the floor because they were short staffed. So, by 3:00, we were finally moved, vitals taken, etc. I finally got Emma back to sleep around 3:00 and she slept until 4:00 (ugh). I fed her, back asleep by 4:30 and we slept until 6:00.

Needless to say, I was exhausted! We were told she could go home anytime on Friday. Well, Phil was waiting on the A/C guy to come by. He finally gave up and brought the van to the hospital. A friend of ours (Richard) took him back home. I finally got us checked out around 2:00 and headed to my parents.

When I walked in, I handed them Emma and I took a 2 hour nap.

We went home after supper to a fairly warm house (but tolerable).

Will post more updates in another post...

Tomorrow's the big day!

Tomorrow is Emma's first surgery.

Today will be a day full of preparations. I still need to pack for everyone. I have to pack 3 separate times. :) Josh and Callie will be going to Mom and Dad's, so they will need their own suitcase. We will need to pack a day bag for the hospital tomorrow AND a night bag. We don't want to have to carry around everything all day. :) I'm feeling a little unorganized right now.

Our A/C went out yesterday. We are fortunate enough to have a friend in the A/C business. He came and refilled our freon (we have a slow leak) and didn't charge us anything! We sure didn't call him expecting a freebie! He's far too busy for that. We will do something special for them, though.

Unfortunately, he didn't get there until 4:00 yesterday, so Mom and the girls were a little hot by the time we got home. :( If we had known the timing was going to be so off, Phil would have given them the van so mom could take them home with her. Hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it?

After we got the girls cooled off, they were happy. Emma just giggled and giggled. I love to hear them both laugh!

Emma's rolling both ways now - from tummy to back and back to tummy. Callie can roll both ways, too...she just chooses not to very often. :)

The girls are starting to notice when we're not there. I had them in their seats last night and I had to leave the room for a minute. When I left, they were both happy. After about 15 seconds, they were both crying. As soon as I walked back into the room, they were both happy again!

Callie is starting to show signs of stranger anxiety. She has started crying twice when she was around someone she wasn't familiar with. Callie NEVER cries (well, rarely).

My girls are growing up!!

Josh does love his sisters! I love to watch him talk to them. He talks to them like they understand every single word he says. :) Including the times he "fusses" at them. If they accidentally scratch him, he gets on to them...he told Emma the other night that she made a BAD choice by scratching him and she needed to be in time out! HA!! We haven't quite convinced Josh the girls don't know any better yet. :)

Another nice weekend

We had a relatively lazy weekend. I love those weekends!

We did go to another birthday party Saturday evening. It was alot of fun. It was a family affair this time, so we all went! It was Nathan, a friend of Josh's from church.

Even though there were a ton of people there (mostly their family), Josh jumped right in there and played with them. He had such a blast!! We were the last to leave, so Josh and Nathan spent a good while playing with all of his new toys.

Of course, everyone enjoyed holding the girls! Callie actually cried when we first got there and saw all of the "strangers". That's twice now that she's done that...Is the stranger anxiety already starting to set in?? It started with Josh around 8 months (and is still going on!).

Thursday is getting incredibly close! I can't believe Emma's first surgery is Thursday!!

Does he really love his sisters?

Last night, we weren't sure what Josh was thinking. I ran upstairs to change clothes and Phil was on his way out to pick up a quick supper. I was upstairs about 2 minutes.

I heard the girls starting to fuss (just waking from naps). By the time I got to the stairs, they were screaming - unlike any cry/scream I had heard before).

When I got downstairs, I saw that each one of them had pillows on their heads!! I immediately got them off and tried to calm the girls down. I asked Josh how the pillows got there and he just said he didn't know. After a little more talking, he finally told the truth - he had put them over their heads because they were crying!

Needless to say, the tv went off, a spanking was given (after much talking about how dangerous his little act was, etc.) and he went to be early (which he needed to do anyway).

Thank goodness I didn't put that load of laundry in the washer like I had planned!

Luckily, everyone was okay and Josh realizes that he made a bad choice (they talk alot about choices at school). He apologized to everyone and promised to tell us if the girls were crying ever again.

Another Birthday Party, etc.

Josh had another birthday party to go to this weekend. It was at a place called Pump It Up. They have the inflatable slides, obstacles courses, etc. Needless to say, Josh had a BLAST! He didn't want to leave, even though he was so tired he could barely walk. :) This is a great place to do a party - a little pricey, but worth it. The kids have so much fun. You can rent a room with 4-5 items in it for the kids to play in and they have it all to themselves.

The girls are trying to sit up on their own. We got a couple of pictures of them this weekend sitting for a few seconds.

They're also becoming very much aware of each other. Callie likes to touch Emma when they're close. We've found them holding hands several times. I hope they stay close!!

Emma was in the exersaucer this weekend and when she saw Callie sitting in the bouncy seat, she just started grinning from ear to ear.

Emma has also really started rolling over alot! She rolled over twice on Saturday morning, but by the time I got the video camera, she wasn't interested in rolling again. :) Callie's getting really close to rolling. I've started putting her toys a little bit out of her reach to encourage her to roll. Actually, I need to put Emma a little out of her reach so she'll roll to her. :)