My friend Olesya made that bunny for Tori – isn’t it adorable?

 

 

FINALLY I am back online.?? Sheeshhh!?? Jim was having our host upgrade us to Microsoft Exchange and without warning, everything came down and stayed offline for a week while they were working through the migration.?? Would have been nice to know that up front huh?

 

Household Updates:

The kids are all better including Troy (yeah) but Jim and I are still fighting our illnesses.?? I have been coughing for six weeks now.?? Not sure if it is asthma/allergies plus virus that kicked it into high gear or what.?? That has really demotivated me because I have been too fatigued to get much done so it was a good time for the blog to be down because I wasn’t shooting anyhow.

Troy

Troy had his one month Dr. visit yesterday and weighed in at 8 pounds 12 ounces.?? I have been thinking that he may be neck and neck with Tanner by his due date (8/15) and it looks like they will probably be pretty close.?? Tanner was 9 pounds 11 ounces at birth and Troy will be about the same (especially considering Tanner was 9 days late – I bet Troy will be almost exactly that weight 9 days post due date).???? Several people (including my mother) have commented that Troy looks similar to Tanner as a newborn.?? Here are some newborn pictures of Tanner.?? What do you think??? I think there are some similarities between them too.?? Everyone has been commenting about how little Troy is but he looks HUGE to me at 8 pounds 12 ounces (from 4 pounds 12 ounces he is almost double what he came home at and he looks it).

 

 

He had his upper GI and modified barium swallow study done last Friday (8/5).???? The upper GI looked good.?? No structural issues.?? The swallow study showed lots of deep penetration though and the Dr. later confirmed that test results did indeed show aspiration during feeding.???? Both the Dr. and I agree that this is likely the cause of his apnea event last week so he will be staying on an apnea monitor.???? The risk of aspiration is primarily pneumonia which would be very dangerous for him right now.?? To reduce the aspiration risk, we are thickening his feedings with oatmeal.?? 1 tsp per ounce.?? This adds an additional 3 calories per ounce and he usually eats 2 to 3 ounces a feeding so over 8 feedings in a day his calorie intake has increased by 48 to 72 calories a day (about 1 bottle).?? This will help fatten him up more.?? Once he hits 10 pounds we will take him off the preemie formula which is 22 calories an ounce versus 20 calories and ounce.?? He is also on 1 mil of zantac twice a day.?? I was tempted to take him off it because it didn’t seem to be helping but the Dr. said it was at least keeping his throat from being burned during refluxing.?? Good to know.?? He is still vomiting some even with the thickening but the study showed he was unlikely to aspirate thickened to a nectar consistency (1 tsp per ounce).?? We chose oatmeal over rice because oatmeal is less constipating.?? That does indeed seem to be helping too so glad for that.?? It has been a challenge perfecting the nipple to accommodate for flow and consistency but I think we finally have ONE working.

Heidi has been asking for open eyed pictures but Troy still isn’t awake a whole lot.?? Mostly at night (of course).?? He is eating every 2.5 to 3 hours during the day and then takes his last feeding around 11:30.?? He will sleep then until 3:30 or so then wakes up again about 7:00.???? Last night though he did an unbelievable six hour stretch.?? It was pretty awesome!???? I am sure it was a fluke but I appreciated it.

I giggle at his little legs because you can just feel the solid muscle tone.?? Such a strapping boy.?? He seems to have a temper at this stage too.?? He sets off his high heart rate (2oo) very easily when he gets mad.

He is cute as ever and is loving mama time (and so is mama).?? The kids are ready for him to WAKE UP though.?? :)?? Soon…very soon.

Ty

Ty:?? Troy!?? Your sister Tori didn’t cry like that when she was a baby!

Setting:?? Ty cleaning his room.?? Tanner going in to check it.

Ty:?? I don’t like your senor inspecto!

Me:?? What is “senor inspecto”?

Ty:?? Tanner inspects TOO good!

Setting:?? Tanner did something to Ty’s character on a game that Ty didn’t appreciate.

Ty:?? I am so angry.?? So so angry.

(You would have had to of heard this.?? Ty’s way of emoting is more like putting words he knows to something more than sounding emotional.?? Like he learns to identify anger and understands it but it doesn’t resonate the same.?? When he said he was very angry, that made Tanner and I laugh harder because he didn’t seem as angry as he was projecting. )

Ty came in yesterday and quoted the months of the year to me in order missing only two.?? I was impressed.?? I asked him how he knew the months of the year because I had not taught him that yet.?? He said “Oh there is a calendar on the computer.”

Really??? A seven year old, independently, studies the computer calendar to learn the months of the year??? Of his own motivation??? The kid so doesn’t need a teacher.?? He truly teaches himself.

Tori

“Twinkle twinkle little star how I know you what you are.”

Setting:?? Driving to Papa and Sweeties.

Tori: Stop!?? I need you to go back to Circle K and get me a coke.

Her antics have not stopped if you were wondering.?? In the last few days she has drawn all over my desk with a blue sharpie, poured 1/2 a bottle of baby powder out in her room, soaked her sheets and pillowcase by using so many diaper wipes to change her dolls diapers during nap time….the fun never ends with her.

Pinterest

Are you riding this wave yet??? I was one of the beta testers and have been using www.Pinterest.com for months now (though I limit my time with it because it is a major time sucker).?? Don’t hate me for telling you about this if you are still out of the loop!

Pinterest is best suited to the creative types who love to catalog what they find on the web both for reference and for sharing.???? When you join, it allows you to put a button on your internet tool bar called “Pin It”.?? When you come across something you like, you “Pin It” to one of your boards.?? Why do this????? SO many fun reasons.?? Here are mine:

I have the following boards at the moment:

Baby Clothes (and Baby Products too):?? When I find cute outfits for Troy, I pin them to my baby clothes board.?? When I want to make purchase, I can go to my board, click on the items and go straight to the websites where I found them.?? Easier way to keep track then saving links plus a visual reference.

Bedroom:?? Collecting ideas for Tori’s bedroom.

Photography:?? Duh.

Music:?? You can now pin YouTube videos so when I hear something I like that I want to purchase later I have a reference.

Books:?? Same as above.

Anything you want reference of or as visual inspiration, just pin it to a board.?? There are so many people using Pinterest now that many of my pins are actually repins from other Pinterest users.?? You can follow people (social networking of course) so feel free to find me on there.

Super fun!?? Especially for those who are visually inspired.?? (Is that pretty much everyone?)