That little VTech Puppy has passed through Cooper and Quinn and now to Troy and he loves it.?? Very cool little baby product.?? I love how the puppy follows the bone so when baby has the bone the puppy always comes back to him.

TROY

On January 16th, we noticed the beginning stages of the army crawl.?? Now 10 days later, he has advanced to what we have coined “The Inch Worm”.?? It is the cutest thing.?? He gets up on all fours, rocks a second, and then starts to crawl one little step.?? Then he drops to his belly and pulls a step with his arms in an army crawl.?? Then back up on all fours for one more official crawl.?? This process is quite tedious and he moves at an inchworm pace but it’s pretty adorable AND he is not rolling too much anymore because this method is working for him.?? He turned 7 months this week but based on his Aug 15th due date, he turned 5 months on the 15th of Jan.?? Another early crawler on our hands!

He had his Pulmonology appointment (Apnea Clinic) on the 16th and they discontinued his apnea monitor!?? Woohooo!?? He has been alarm free for over two months.?? Seperating from the monitor is hard for mama but I knew it was time because he was starting to wrap himself up in the chord and that made me nervous too.?? In fact, the morning of the appointment, he had wound it around his neck.???? His weight was 16.9 and length was 26.5 on 1/16.

He also had his MRI last week (1/19) and it was NORMAL!?? Yeah again.?? The Neuro Developmentalist had ordered that due to his swallow issues.???? I almost cancelled the MRI appointment because Troy had to be put under anesthesia and the anesthesiologist didn’t know that he had been born prematurely.?? She explained that for reasons unclear, babies who are born full term learn the breathe reflex just fine but babies born before 36 weeks have a much harder time learning to breathe regularly outside of the womb.?? This puts premature babies at much higher risk of apnea.?? (Think I knew that one hee hee).?? What I found interesting though was that PCH will not put a baby born prematurely under anesthesia without a 23 hour hospital stay until they are 61 weeks gestational age BECAUSE it takes an ADDITIONAL 20 weeks for a premature baby to perfect that breathing reflex if they have to learn it outside the womb.?? Troy was 61.5 weeks.?? Of course he was.?? Sheeesh.?? So they gave us the choice to admit him for 23 hours and run the risk of insurance not paying because he was half a week over the gestational age requirement OR to bring him back in a month or to go ahead.?? Initially I wanted to cancel but then I realized that a month from now he wouldn’t have an apnea monitor at home and that I would feel better getting to monitor him 24 hours myself and since I still had the monitor better to do it now.?? After she mentioned this, I did recall that Ty had to stay 23 hours for his bilateral hernia surgery for exactly this reason and good thing he did because that was a NIGHTMARE with his apnea afterwards (remember Tanner’s sad 3rd birthday and how the Dr. at PCH put Ty in the PICU just so I would go home for Tanner’s birthday for a few hours after having been on my feet for 40 hours many of which were spent giving Ty blow by assistance because the nurses weren’t coming in quick enough??? Not fun days.)?? All that to say – Troy had NO apnea after anesthesia and that made me feel even better about taking him off the monitor now.?? (I seem to be in run on sentence mood today).

Additionally, the clinic referred us to Dermatology because his excema is looking terrible.?? We discussed the possibility of lactose intolerance being the cause of his excema and reflux and decided to give Soy a shot but we have now been using Soy for two weeks and haven’t noticed an improvement with either issue.???? The pediatrician took blood today to run an IGG allergy test so that we can see if he has an allergy that could be to blame (though I hope not).???? An IGE allergy test is one run (skin pricks) that shows an immediate reaction.?? We know he doesn’t have “that” level of an allergy or we would have been in the ER already.?? The IGG allergy test indicates allergies that take a bit longer to have an affect and show up in things like gastro issues and excema.?? I don’t know that either of these are really fool proof but I guess it’s a start.?? I have used Triamcinolone with both Troy and Tori and it works AWESOME but I don’t like to put steroids on either of them often.?? (And Troy is still on Lansoprozole (Prevacid) for his reflux too but it does not completely control it by any means).

Check out those dimples!!!

TORI

Took Tori to the pediatrician this morning for an issue that has been ongoing over the last few months.?? His best guess is that she has a spastic bladder.???? The bad news of that is the meds they use are TERRIBLE for controlling this (which I likely wouldn’t give her).???? So off to a Urologist we go as well as a bladder ultrasound and renal exam.?? Fun never stops.

While processing the shots for this post, I had to take several song breaks.?? Tori heard me tell her Daddy that I wanted “Me” time tonight.?? Jim asked what that “me” time would be and my list included listening to my music.?? The second those words left my mouth, “me” time flew out the window.?? My music lover left her plate half full and took off for my bedroom for “music time”.?? She loves for me to blast our music and then sit on the bed with her and sing as loud (and as dramatic) as we can.?? We sang Baby, and One Less Lonely Girl and Stuck Like Glue (Sugarland) over and over.?? Singing “You and me baby were stuck like glue” to my daughter (and having her sing it back) was much better than “me” time.

TY

January 17th was Ty’s 8th birthday.?? We aren’t celebrating it until next weekend though along with Tori for her 4rth.?? On his actual birthday, he carried the phone around throughout the day “just in case” anyone called to wish him Happy Birthday.?? He LOVES talking on the phone you know.???? For dinner he requested Pita Jungle so we took him there and to Cold Stone.?? On the way home he says “Mommy some people didn’t remember to call me today.?? Can I call them when we get home and tell them they forgot?”?? It was 9:00 PM.?? I giggled thinking that was a wonderful idea and an amazing ending for Ty’s Happy Birthday.

If you don’t know my Ty personally, this may seem odd to you.?? Typically, if a child noticed a missed birthday call, it would be because they were feeling sad about it.?? NOT the case with Ty.?? For Ty, it was a WONDERUL opportunity to GET to use the phone.?? :)?? I limited him to family members only (Erin, Kristi, and Michelle M. – I spared you 10:00 phone calls hee hee – he asked).???? He had Tanner and I laughing so hard because HE was laughing so hard making those phone calls.?? When he talked to Uncle Dusty, he laughed so hard he couldn’t breathe and was doubled over.?? This made Troy start cracking up too.?? Dusty always teases him on the phone saying such things as “Ty the next time I see you I am going to throw you off a high roof and roll you to the dump in a garbage can”.?? Again – I realize this sounds “bad” but if you knew Ty you would recognize this as Ty humor.?? He LOVES to listen to Uncle Dusty’s pretend threats.???? I think he put a smile on every face he called.?? (Oh and he wanted to call Kitty Cat but I wouldn’t let him because Rob and Cat get up too early).?? I loved that he requested calling his Aunt Karen in California early on because he got to talk with cousins over there too.?????? He would say it was a wonderful birthday and thank you to everyone who forgot to call him.?? He appreciated it IMMENSELY.?? Trust me!?? LOL.?? (And I also must mention that he L.O.V.E.D. that Uncle Daniel called and sang Happy Birthday in Spanish hee hee.?? Only Daniel.)

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I have been working on a room redo for Tori.?? I will post pictures when I am finished but not quite there yet.?? The other day my mom came over and I wanted to show her the room so I quickly picked it up and shut the door.?? Ty asked me if he could show her and I agreed.?? He led her to the outside of the door and said “I’ll do the honors.”?? Cracked me up.?? Where did he get that?

He will have me smiling all my days won’t he?

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When I was at Phoenix Children’s Hospital last week, I was pulling into the parking garage and had the following conversation with the lot attendant:

Me:?? Hi!?? May I have a reserved spot for high profile vehicles please?

Attendant:?? I know.?? I know.?? I saw you comin’.?? Recongized you.?? Recognized the car.

At this, I look over at Heidi who was my traveling companion and say “Someday I am going to look at you and say ‘Remember the days when even the PCH parking lot attendant knew who I was?’

Here are my top reasons for encouraging babies to STAY FULL TERM in mama’s womb:

1.?? Neurologists – Ty and Troy

2.?? Cardiologists – Ty and Tori

3.?? Pulminologists – Ty and Troy

4.?? Gastroenterologist – Ty and Troy

5.?? Ophthalmologists – Ty

6.?? Dermatologists – Troy

7.?? Urologists – Tori

8.?? Orthologists – Ty (What is the “ologist” for the ortho doctors??? I don’t think that is it.?? Just guessing)

9.?? Anesthesiologist – Ty and Troy

10. Neonatologist – Ty, Tori, and Troy

11.?? Developmental Psychologist – Ty (Troy – Neuro Developmentalist)

12.?? Pharmacologist 🙂

13.?? Is there such thing as a Craniologist??? (Troy)

(And so I don’t neglect all the “Therapists) – Feeding Therapy (Ty/Troy), Occupational Therapy (Ty), Physical Therapy (Ty), Vision Therapy (Ty), Developmental Therapy (Ty)

Think we have now addressed a hefty amount of the body including the skull.

If any of my kids has to see yet another OLOGIST, I am going to be dog tired and crazy as a loon and will need to be referred to a Zoologist myself because I will probably need to be locked up for a short stay.?? 🙂