TGIF!

What a crazy week this has been! To start with something exciting, not only is Mady talking but now Annabel is talking too! On Saturday she started in with ma- ma and starting Sunday morning she quickly added da-da, and ba-ba! The other day on the way home the girls were actually jabbering back and forth to each other, it was SO cute!! They are sounding more and more alike. Annabel also started rolling over her right side this week, something she had yet to do!

Wednesday morning was Annabel’s PT appointment and she did well as usual! I was slightly encouraged from the appointment because the PT mentioned that instead of diagnosing her with CP to get in to the CHAMP program that they may be able to just give a hypertonal diagnosis (tight muscles), which she definitely has some tightness. So, we had the neonatal follow-up clinic in the afternoon and we mentioned this to Dr. Carlson, however, after her assessment of Annabel (which unfortunately didn’t go that great since Annabel had only gotten in one brief nap while driving down that day so she was very cranky), the doctor thought the diagnosis for hemiplegia CP, left side, mild, is appropriate for Annabel so we agreed to it. So the good news is that she will now be in the CHAMP program in September (which Dr. Carlson also thinks she’ll be a great candidate for), the bad news is that we now have a label. I hate labels! I think part of me had hoped that somehow we’d avoid it eventhough I know she has the extra muscle tone. Needless to say it has been a bit of a hard couple days. I still feel deep in my heart that Annabel will be okay and that she will live a relatively “normal” life. Now she just needs to knock the socks off that label! Eventhough Annabel was cranky and the doctors didn’t get to assess her much, they were very happy with what they did get to see her do and still believe that any issues will be mild and they were completely amazed with Johnathan and Madelyn for all that they’re doing! We did ask them about the comment made regarding Johnathan’s hearing loss and a possible genetics linkage and they fully agreed with us that due to the medicines he was on (specifically gentamicine) and being on the oscillator, that since we have no family history of genetic hearing loss that it’s almost 100% that those are what caused his loss. And at our 12 month well baby yesterday our pediatrician said the same thing so that reassurance was nice!

Thursday morning was our well baby visit and overall things went pretty well other than that Annabel’s cough got worse overnight and when she was listened to she also has a slight wheeze so now she is on a nebulizer too. Mady is also coughing but so far not wheezing, so please pray she doesn’t start, it’s a lot of work with just the two of them needing the treatments. The good thing was that it had been 5 hours since Johnathan’s last treatment when she listened and she didn’t detect any wheezing in him, I think he’s getting better already. Another awesome thing we noticed yesterday is that after Annabel’s shots, when she was so upset, she didn’t tighten her left hand like she normally does! All three babies are on the charts for their adjusted age and in length Annabel is for their true age of 1 year but none of them are on quite yet for their weight for 1 year, very close but not quite there so Dr. Madison wants them on Neosure still until their 15 month appointment. In the meantime they can start getting whole milk in their sippys and on their cereal and we’ll now be cutting out their noon bottles and giving them solids then instead. So that is exciting! And now we can start giving them more table foods (pancakes, fruit, butter on everything). Dr. Madison did recommend for Johnathan that we get an OT from Early On to start following him regulary. She is not concerned about his not wanting the solids given all he’s been thru but that we need to get him moving forward soon. Thankfully he’s gaining weight well with the formula so that’s not an issue! All three babies are close to getting teeth, Johnathan’s mouth looks like it’s the closest so we will see. Their stats for their 12 month was Annabel – 16lbs 5ozs and 27 and 5/8 inches, Madelyn – 14lbs 3ozs and 26 5/8 inches, and Johnathan 16lbs 2ozs and 27 and 1/8 inches. So yes, Johnathan is the shortest but he’s catching Annabel in weight!

Next week Tuesday I have to take Mady and Johnathan to see Dr. Caird when they will get x-rays to check their bone growth and hips and Mady will have bloodwork done and on Thursday Annabel has outpatient PT in the a.m. and then all three have eyes with Dr. Archer in the p.m. – another crazy day! Please pray that our family gets over this sickness soon (B.J. and I also caught it again, B.J. worse than me this time) and pray for our little Annabel that she will continue to develop strong and amaze everyone with her progress!