Ben helping open a present for his sister

Originally uploaded by marshalonis_dave

This was supposed to be a year-in-review but “Are you smarter than a 5th grader” on so that post will have to wait.

I will say that Christmas rocked!!! As Ben gets older it is fun to watch his reaction to the presents (even though EVERYTHING is his). The girls are getting bigger and bigger by the day.

Santa/We made the mistake (twice) of bringing Ben both Lacross AND hockey sticks for Christmas. So far nothing has been broken but I’m going to get out the lacross sticks once Ben goes to bed…

We spent Christmas Day with mine and Suzanne’s Parents at their house. It was a great time and the food was AWESOME.
-dave

It has been awhile since we posted so I thought I would give an update on everyone. The girls are over four months now and doing great. At their four month appt, Kate is 14 lbs 10 oz and Abby is 13 lbs 6 oz. As you can see from the pics, we tried giving Kate rice cereal this week. She eats a ton so we thought we would try solids and see how it went. The first attempt was pretty good so I think we will continue. I don’t think Abby is quite ready yet though so we will hold off with her.

Ben is still going to daycare and loves it. He is also increasingly fascinated with his sisters. He loves to sing to them, dance for them, and sometimes try to “play” with them (which has mixed results). We would love for him to start potty training but he hasn’t shown a ton of interest yet. It would be nice to only have two children in diapers instead of three but we won’t push till he is ready.

Other than that, we are just busy getting ready for Christmas. Hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

Abby and Kate are three months old today! They are still doing great and are both very happy babies. They love to smile and are starting to play more. Here are some pics of are two smiling girls!

Abby

Kate

My mom and I took Ben to Cox Farm yesterday for our annual fall outing. They have lots of slides, animals, a hay ride, and other fun stuff for kids. He had a great time as you can see from the pictures. It was interesting to see how much more he enjoyed it and could participate in stuff this year than last year. He especially loved the big slides and seemed to have no fear at all of them. I am excited that I may have a family member to ride roller coasters and such with me in the future since Dave has always avoided them.

The girls had their two month appointment today and it went very well! Abby is weighing in at 10 lbs, 8 oz (50th percentile) and it 22 inches long (25-50th percentile). Kate is weighing in at 11 lbs, 2 oz (50-75th percentile) and is 22 1/2 inches long (50th percentile). The MD said they both look great and are growing well! The only thing of note was that both breathing patterns are still a bit immature (they breathe fast and have some retractions). The MD said it is just another indication that they were on the premature side even though they were born at 37 weeks. But it is nothing to be too concerned about at this point and should resolve in the next few months.

They also got their shots today and did very well with those. They each cried for a minute or two and then settled right down. They have also both been asleep the whole day due to the shots and we are hoping it does not mean they will now be up all night. Eeek……

Abby and Kate are two months old today! Time is passing quickly and they are getting bigger every day! I was finally able to catch some better smiles on camera today was Abby. We are still working on getting Kate to smile on camera.

Tomorrow is their two month appointment (and shots). I will post their weights and heights when we get back!

ETA: Apparently Dave has changed how the photos are displaying so Abby’s smile pics are not showing up. I will have him fix that when he gets home!

UPDATE: All fixed!

Ever since I found out we were having two girls I have been looking at baby girl shoes. Up until now I have resisted because a) it has been hot and b) newborn shoes really are unnecessary. But I decided today that they will only be this little and cute once and therefore, I should buy some shoes for fall. I bought them both the same pair so no one would be jealous and also because it looked like these would go with multiple outfits. But I think there will be more shoe purchases in the near future.

I am also posting some pics of Abby smiling today (sort of). She is definitely smiling but it is hard to catch the full smile on camera so I did the best I could. Kate smiles too but it is more rare and much harder to capture. We’ll keep working on it.

We had an appointment yesterday with the pulmonologist to evaluate Abby and check the monitor. We haven’t had any alarms so we were hoping for good news which we got. The MD said everything looks great and she definitely doesn’t need it anymore! She also is up to 10 pounds which the MD was shocked by (she was 6 lbs, 13 oz the last time we were there) So she said Abby looks like she is “thriving” and we don’t even have to follow up with her anymore unless something else comes up. She feels our normal pediatrician can handle the whole swallowing issue and that she just needs thickener for a few months and should then outgrow it. Good news all around!

Next week is both girls’ two month checkup so we will get official 2 month weights then. But I feel confident they will both have moved up in percentile since they are getting to be quite chunky!

One thing I believe we have mentioned before is that it seems Abby is still having some issues with swallowing and drinking her bottle. She frequently seems to choke on it and hold her breath. She had this problem in the NICU as well and while it has improved, it never completely went away. So we had a swallowing test yesterday where they put her under xray and watch as she drinks her bottle. As expected, she did not pass the test and is occassionally sucking some of the liquid into her airway. She usually does cough as a protective mechanism but the risk is that she could aspirate the liquid into her lungs and develop pneumonia.

So now we have to thicken all her bottles with a liquid call Simply Thick. It is a gel that comes in a packet that we squeeze in and it turns the milk into a nectar consistency. Of course, now she also needs different nipples than Kate because the thicker liquid does not flow through the slow nipples. So mom spent yesterday driving around Northern Virginia procuring all the supplies for the new feeding method. But I am happy to report there is a BIG difference with her eating now. It is really amazing because she is not choking at all. Also, she used to dribble half the bottle out of her mouth while drinking but now there is no dribble at all. The speech pathologist yesterday told me we would probably need to do this for two months but our ped today said more like three-six months. We don’t want to recheck her too soon and have to put her through any unnecessary radiation so I think it is better to wait longer. It is really not that big of a deal to use the thickener so we’ll see how it goes. We are just happy it seems to have helped her eat better!

Next week is her lung MD appt so hopefully we will be getting rid of the monitor then. Making progress!!!!

At the game…

Originally uploaded by marshalonis_dave

Suzanne and I, along with our friend Beth Anne, took Ben to the Nationals Game on Tuesday night for T-Shirt Tuesday. This wasn’t Ben’s first game. He came with Beth Anne and us to Opening day 2007.

I was a little nervous considering he is pretty quick now and is willing to run away if he sees something he wants to get into. We bought him a ticket to guarantee he didn’t have to sit on our laps the whole time and placed him in between us.

He loved it. He walked around with us and ate french fries. Later in the game him and I went to got ice cream. We left around 9:45PM. He still asks where Teddy is at and also stating that Teddy fell down during the President Race. Hopefully, Ben will be there when Teddy finally wins!!!

Suzanne had a crab cake sandwich and Home Run Ale while I had two hot dogs with Miller Lite. Beth Anne had her usual Fish Tacos and any $10.50 beer she could find… Beth Anne and I used to drink Stella right behind our normal section (222) but that seems to have given us wicked headaches in the past :)