Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Tremendous Cognitive Growth

The last month has been so great for Bailey. She has started doing things that Wyatt has been doing for months. It is those small things that we as parents take for granted when we have an ordinary child. It may be a little boring hearing about what she is doing but posting it helps me keep up with it. I certainly did not have time for a baby book.

On October 2, Lee and I were letting the kids run around in the backyard. Wyatt is like a little monkey. He goes up and down the play set all the time. He goes down the slide on his belly or any way he pleases. This night I glanced at the swing set and guess who was up in it? Bailey Railey the little stinker.... We will have to watch her. Of course for this momentous event we have pictures and videos.

She will now go down the slide. She even goes down on her belly. She is dangerous though because she doesn't realize the boundaries of the set. As you could see at the end of the video she was trying to get down by going through the railing.

Wyatt still loves to swing in a big swing on his belly. It is so cute to see him holding his little feet up.
10/4
Brianne's class had community helper dress-up day. She wanted to be a chef.
10/11
Bailey "played" with a Barbie. She willing took the Barbie and looked and explored it. A month ago she would have threw the thing away from her.
10/12
She pushed a shopping cart.
Wy-man and his playmate Mac

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Conference at the Beach

We went to the beach September 22-25. Lee had a conference he had to attend so we took Tyler and Brianne with us. They only missed school that Friday. We had so much fun! One of the restaurants at the hotel had a breakfast buffet, and Brianne decided that was a must for us. The first morning we went without Lee, but after Brianne told him all about the food he decided to miss the conference the next morning to go with us. The weather was great, not too cold not too hot.



We made memories that we will not forget. I would venture to say we had more fun here than at Disney World.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

The Good, the Bad and the Messy, September 2011

Putting all medical issues aside, what is the hardest part so far about twins? Together they can tear something up in a matter of minutes. Take for instance a roll of toilet paper. Wyatt will sneak into the bathroom and get the roll. He will share his bounty with his sister. A whole roll of paper can make a very big mess. You will find pieces of it for days.
The therapist brought a blow up pool for us to put balls in for therapy. It was a wee bit too small.
Bailey thinks mommy got a bigger, better pool.
I am not a good estimator of size. It was very overwhelming in size at first. After a while it doesn't look as big. LOL The kids have really enjoyed it, and I think it has help with some of Bailey's sensory issues. Bailey's sensory issues (untreated and undiagnosed) affect everything Bailey does. She has very poor finger strength because she has been unwilling to pick things up like a normal toddler. It is also another reason she doesn't eat. I have tried to think up ways to make her get use to touching things she doesn't like. I have been taking play-doh and mashing it between her fingers. I also make her hold my hand when we walk through the house doing some tasks. She has become more willing to hold hands. She even comes and takes my hand to lead me to the door. She loves to go outside.
Wyatt loves to go in Brianne's room when she is not looking. He will dress himself up while he is in there.

Little mischief maker
Oh, the terrible little sneaks... Bailey has decided she wants to go up the stairs now. We will hear rats upstairs and guess who it is. We have a gate, and we would just prop it up on the wall so the big kids could come and go. I had B and W scared of the gate for all these months, but now they double team it and put the gate on the floor and go about their business.
My sweet boy
I really dislike these balls. The big kids sit on them while they watch tv. They constantly roll side to side and off of them. It is VERY annoying. You will tell them to get off of it, and the next thing you know they are on them again. They even have Wyatt doing it. Lee has threatened to use the knife on them (on the balls people not the children). ***even as I type Brianne is holding onto my dresser squeaking around on that ball. Get off Brianne!***
Brianne is bossy and thinks she can tell Wyatt what to do. I caught her spanking Wyatt so I had to discipline her and put her in the corner for time out. Wyatt went over there and started whacking her with a foam bullet. I told him to stop so he put himself in time out also. He was very upset with himself.
The newest way for Wyatt to take a picture is pulling up his shirt. He even tries to do the same for Bailey.

9/7
Bailey has started climbing into the toy bin. Wyatt has been doing this forever. I think the first time she climbed into it was actually on 9/6.
It is usually Mac Mac in the box with Bailey and Wyatt aggravating him, but today Bailey said she would trade places with him.
My bright idea was to put a shower curtain down for us to let them play with their therapy box of beans. Not a good idea on my part. The crinkle of the curtain was too much fun for them. We have since started using a sheet.

He has on Tyler's shirt and somewhere under there is a pair of Brianne's panties.
Sometimes you just gotten hate the camera

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Kisses

Today October 4, 2011 Bailey kissed her glow bug. You may not think that is a big deal but for us it is awesome and a small miracle. She also "fed" MacMac on Sunday by herself for the first time. For months Wyatt has been going into the garage and getting Mac a can of food. He then takes it over to his dish and pretends to shake it over his dish. Bailey has refused to hold the can (sensory issues in her hands) so I would put her hands on the can and walk her over to the dish. I would then shake it over his dish. Sunday she took the can in her own hands and walked over to his dish. Tonight she even hit the can on his dish. Small miracles but steps in the right direction.....

Monday, October 3, 2011

August Appointments

I don't think I said anything about any of our doctor's appointments in August. It was a very busy month. On August 11, we went back for Bailey's 3 month followup appointment in Atlanta for her glasses. The next day Dad and I took them to the newborn followup clinic for their 18 month checkup. At this visit they have a psychologist do an evaluation to check their development. Their actual age was 21 months, 27 days and adjusted age was 18 months, 21 days. Wyatt scored the following:
Cognitively: 19 month old
Language receptive age: 16 month old
Language expressive age: 15 month old
This is suppose to mean Wyatt is at least 25% delayed in language skills and qualifies for speech therapy with early intervention.
Bailey scored the following:
Cognitively: 12 month old
Language receptive age: 7 month old
Language expressive age: 5 month old
We were encouraged to seek out services through early intervention. What a joke that is! Bailey is already receiving 2 hours of service a month with her "special instructor." They had a speech therapist come evaluate her, but she will not be seeing her. Her special instructor who is a vision therapist will work on her speech and all her other issues. She has never had any training in speech. It is the craziest thing I have ever heard or seen. We saw a different doctor this time. She asked if I had any concerns, and I asked about Wyatt chest and rib cage. I assumed that Wyatt might be released this time, and I want to know what we should do when he is older to clear him for any sports he might want to play. Oh that opened a can of worms. She went off on a tangent about how it could be restricting his breathing, and he may be crying when we put him to bed because of sleep apnea. She wanted him to see a pulmonologist and have a sleep study. I don't have to worry though because the social worker from the clinic never called to discuss anything about our visit that day. What a waste of money. If you have never seen his chest wall here is a picture.

I believe that his ribs were broken in the NICU, and they formed back abnormally. He had osteopenia so brittle bones were a problem back then. Who really knows what happened. We do know that it is not causing a problem now so we will not fix it. Another doctor said it would probably not cause any problems, but that he may want it fixed for cosmetic reasons. This is definitely something he will decide for himself. We would not put him through another unnecessary surgery. I think 4 surgeries are enough.

We also went to see the pulmonologist this month. He wants an overnight pulse ox study done to see if Bailey can have the oxygen off. We have not been putting it on her since her sats went back up. She only needs it when she is sick. I hate for it to be removed before we see how she will do when she has another cold. They leave me no choice though and said she can be admitted to the hospital if she has a problem.

Oh, did I mention I got a little R & R in Bolixi when I went to a Respiratory Therapy conference? My parents and Lee spent some quality time with the kids.