The Mom Salon - December 7th

Lexie (floater friend) and I are organizing a day of salon services for the patients on the Perinatal Unit at Rose Medical Center. We will provide manicures and pedicures, hair cuts, massages, and gift bags. If you are interested in donating money for the event, please email me for more information - khightshoe@gmail.com. We are accepting donations until November 20th.

Thanks!

Kristina

Celebrity Copycats

Now Charlie Sheen and his wife are having twins. All these celebrities are such copycats.

Moving on...Greg took Clara to her pulmonology appointment today. She looks good. Her pulse oximeter reading was 98% (who-hoo!!) and her weight gain looked good. She's still got this thing happening that I don't really know how to explain. When she inhales the area below her neck draws in pretty deeply. It's a sign that she still struggles a little with her breathing. Not a big deal, but it's still happening.

He said the frequency of her wheezing episodes was kind of borderline. We have a couple choices - we can do nothing or we can start a daily asthma medication administered through an inhaler type thing. The nebulizer is a joke when talking about a baby. You may as well be trying to put pantyhose on a tiger. Anyway, to help us make the decision he wants us to keep a little diary of her wheezing to make sure it really is only occurring a couple times a week. If it's occurring more frequently, we'll likely medicate.

He was also supportive of the decision to keep her out of child care until the end of this cold and flu season.

I think that's it. Like I said, Greg went to the appointment, so I'm not sure of all the details.

Take care,
Kris

6 month review

The babies had their review with their therapy service providers today. They met the whopping two goals we set 6 months ago - not hard to do as the goals weren't particularly lofty. I think one was more neck strength and the other was not overly favoring one side or the other. Check and check for both girls. We set a new set of goals for the next several months for gross motor (cruising), fine motor (more difficult manipulations), play (cause and effect, initiation, movement beyond parallel play), and speech (a few words). Things are looking really good. The girls are progressing nicely and, at this point, there doesn't seem to be much talk about a need for occupational therapy. My service coordinator said speech therapy could be an option if we had concerns, but she didn't think there would be a strong need. Our PT stuck around a little longer than everyone else and chimed in as well. She thinks that once the girls get up and start walking, the need for therapy would just be one of maintenance. She was hopeful we could discontinue therapy prior to age 3.

As a point of reference, we had Alex in therapy until he was three. He received weekly therapy for speech delays and occupational therapy. He had gross and fine motor therapy for a shorter period of time - maybe 2-3 months or so. Alex didn't sit up unsupported until 8 months. He crawled at 10 1/2. Walked at 14. Spoke his first word ("more") at 18 months. He had sensory issues making basic care taking difficult - he hated water, hated having his face and hair washed. He had food texture issues that greatly limited his diet and caused all sorts of fun digestive issues. He screamed bloody murder at the mere thought of a diaper change. The pressure from strapping him into his car seat led to more roadside fights than I care to admit. He's come a loooong way. Meeting him now I think elements of this might still be visible, but he's a tremendous little guy who navigates the world just like any other 4 year old. Greg and I are extremely proud of him and, honestly, of ourselves for forcing issues with him. We committed to the therapies and worked really, really hard to work beyond the problems. He was a tough baby, but who he is now is totally worth all the work. He's a funny little man and so full of energy and excitement. I can't say that I look back at his early temperament fondly, but I love who he has become. And I really can't imagine a better older sibling. That kid loves his sisters so much. He's so eager to help bathe them, change them, and feed them. He's constantly kissing them and he loves to make them laugh. He is a really good older brother and a great kid.

Anyway, we are believers in early intervention. The funny thing is that having a child with developmental delays sets your barometer off a little. I don't really see the girls as delayed because they are at or earlier in pace than Alex. Their gross motor looks pretty similar to his. Their fine motor looks better. Their speech certainly looks better. They imitate more. They are more playful and more social. So when the therapy service coordinator is asking me very earnest questions about where I want them to be in 6 months, it's hard to not laugh. They are so much further than I ever expected and further than my only other experience. My answer is that I want them to keep doing what they are doing.

So, here's a list of all their fabulous accomplishments. Not a single one is taken for granted:

• Clara is crawling. Evelyn is maybe two weeks away from crawling. Probably more like a week.
• Both girls pull themselves into a sit and sit completely unsupported.
• Both girls pincher grasp their food.
• Both girls are full of babbling: da-da-da, ba-ba-ba, ya-ya-ya.
• Both girls are incredibly social - especially loving peek-a-boo, songs being sung to them, and anything Alex does in front of them.
• Both girls bang toys together.
• Both girls can stand for long periods of time either supported in front or back.
• Clara takes a few wild steps at a time if you hold her fingers and hands up above her head.
• Both girls are imitating a few gestures and sounds.
• They don't like having toys taken away.
• They turn at the sound of their names.
• Clara follows me out of the room everytime I leave. I think Evelyn would too if she could crawl. She mostly just looks at me like I've stabbed her in the heart everytime I leave.

We're pretty excited and are hopeful that things will just keep progressing. Greg is taking Clara in tomorrow for a pulmonology appointment. Hopefully all goes well there. She's been wheezing a bit, which I believe is an early asthma symptom. Not surprising given her history.

Take care,

Kris

Election '08

I took the kids on a walk yesterday and we passed a house with a bunch of Obama signs. Here's the conversation that followed:

Me: Can you say Obama?
Alex: Obama
Me: Hopefully Obama will be our next president.
Alex: Oh....Can you say Spiderman?

You really can't beat the thought process of a 4 year old.

Take care,
Kris

What happened to my body?

Having a baby, or two or three, wrecks your body. Carrying twins does all sorts of terrible pulling and stretching and wrinkling things to your body. Having a high risk pregnancy, living in a hospital, and caring for special needs babies sucks the life and color from your skin. You turn gray. Your skin gets dry. You see more wrinkles in 1 year than you have in the previous 31.

I was looking at my ravaged body and assessing the damage. I have thought recently about getting some sort of surgical intervention to repair my stomach. No amount of dieting or exercising can fix what having twins did to my stomach. My weight and pant size will never again align in a normal way. I even talked to my dad about all this. My dad. That's how much it's been bothering me. I made a decision today. To do nothing. Or, rather, to learn to love the changes in my body.

My body has become a passport. It's documented places I've been, things I've felt, and changes in my life. Who am I to try to alter the journey? I've earned every stretch mark, every piece of sagging skin, every wrinkle. Getting rid of them would be denying what has happened. So my decision is to let my body tell its story. Part of getting old is accepting that I have a story and what better way to go back and reread that story than to look at myself and celebrate all I've been through.

I was also thinking about this because Alex has recently started to freckle. As a child and teenager, I hated my freckles. I hated being called "dirty" and I hated looking different than every magazine and movie star I idolized (let's face it...not very many freckle faces out there). I don't want my kids to go through this - or at least I want to try to slow down the self-hatred. So, I've been really talking up his freckles. Having him count them with me. Celebrating them. Telling him every freckle is a kiss from the sun. Because, when you think about it, each freckle means I left my house. I was outside enjoying the world. Each freckle means I ate outside with my friends in high school, went skiing, went on walks with my husband, went to the beach, or went on a hike. They are part of my story and I've learned over the years to really love them.

So, yes, I've decided that my freckles will be joined by sagging, loose skin. And they will be joined by wrinkles. And lackluster skin. They are all coming together to tell my story and they are all part of aging gracefully and accepting where I've been.

Not that I'm about to walk around in a bikini to show off the new body. Not everyone wants to read my story :)

Take care,
Kris