Trio Updates

Annabel was fitted for her new walker last Tuesday and she surprised the equipment person and our therapist by how well she did supporting herself, even taking quite a few steps on her own! We brought the walker home with us today for a week to try it out before deciding if this is the one we'll order. I believe it will be, it's just hard to know what a child will need 6 months down the road. Annabel has been progressing very well lately so I think this will be perfect for her at that time! She has been doing so well sitting on her own with her feet planted on the ground, we are very proud of her! And she is even trying to get in and out of sitting on her own. Her desire and ability to move has greatly increased in the last couple of months! Her vocalization is also improving, she is babbling a lot more and recently she has been making very good eye contact when having "conversations" with us.
OT came today, we are still trying to figure out Annable's sensory needs. We will now be giving her the blanket rides and bouncing (definitely need to take a video of this, she LOVES it!) before each meal, adding in more deep compressions. Hopefully this will help her rocking and allow meal times to be more pleasant. Annabel is having a tough time with teething right now, popping thru a molar. She is at least eating better again and now weighs 19 1/2 lbs.

Madelyn keeps progressing every day with speech. She is now saying pretty, icky, cheese, baby, hi (and waving), and her and Johnathan now like to kiss each other - need to make sure we teach them on the cheek only! Mady and Annabel got their orthotics last week (Annabel's needs some work done next week because her left was causing major irritation)and so far they've helped Mady be a lot more stable, she's standing in place very nicely and is continuing to work on walking. She has mastered getting on and off the couch very well! Mady and Johnathan have both been eating very well, they now prefer to eat things that they can pick up and feed themselves and we've started working on self spoon feeding. Mady is doing very well, Johnathan wants to do it but is still pretty messy. Mady's last weight was 19 lbs 13ozs and Johnathan's was 20 lbs 10ozs.

Johnathan's speech has really come along nicely lately. He's now saying uh-oh and up-up and is babbling a lot! He really loves his sisters and it's so fun watching them play together and learn together, exploring the world. All three are pretty stubborn, which can be frustrating at times but is no different than mommy or daddy so it's not a big surprise. Johnathan has has follow-up pulmonary appointment on Friday, hopefully we'll be told we can go down to the low-dose flovent for the summer to see if he can handle it. We've already been told we can try taking Annabel off for the summer, yeah!

The kids all got new shoes last week, Johnathan is now a 4.5 and the girls needed size 6 1/2 (Annabel) and 7 (Mady) to fit their orthotics. It was quite the scene at Stride Rite, Annabel threw a fit getting her orthotics on and then before you knew it Mady and Johnathan were pulling boxes off the shelves from the stroller. I think everyone in the store was thinking better them than us! Good thing B.J. and I were relaxed and just went with it, not letting it bother us a bit. On the way home we laughed our heads off at how far the kids have come and that they could even cause the ruckus they did!

We went to PM&R this morning and Dr. Hornyak was very pleased with all 3's progress. He will see all 3 again in 6 months but he thinks that will be the last visit for Mady and Johnathan, other than possibly to check in on his speech periodically if needed. The trio definitely went thru a growth spurt recently, all three measured over 31 inches! I've gotten the kids set-up for summer therapies since we will only have minimal Early On services. Annabel will have her aqua therapy on Tuesdays, Johnathan will have speech on Thursdays at the U, Annabel will have OT while Mady has PT at DMC on Thursdays and then after OT Annabel will have PT, and then on Saturdays Annabel will have therapeutic riding. Yes, busy but very worth it when you see how well they are doing from their therapies! Plus, a little hardship now will mean big gains in the future!

What a busy week we had last week. On top of all the appointments we had the March of Dimes fundraiser on Wednesday and our friends the Krohn's came for it so we saw them Wednesday and Thursday nights - it was fun seeing our two families interacting, Saturday we went to an egg hunt (although the kids didn't actually hunt) and spent time with our friends the Shigley's, and Sunday we went to church and had Easter dinner at our house for my family. So it was a busy week but a fun one!