Sunday Scenes

Here is a few moments of our life. I hope you enjoy them.

First, the girls dancing to Pooh singalong tape.



Next, Evie has something she wasn't supposed to have...



And lastly. Lily saying "dog" and some other...stuff.

Rebel Lily

The last few nights Lily has decided that sleep is for the dogs and Evie and she has no interest in sleeping in her crib. She sits there, feet stuck through the crib bars and hands playing with them, crying. Just tears falling all over, cry cry cry. She has a little runny nose and is teething, but this has never been a problem before. She was perfectly willing to sleep on me in MY bed this morning, but that's it, no where else. Her bed is taboo or something. I've tried giving her something to drink, a bite to eat, Tylenol for her teeth, Orajel, anything and everything. But she just won't go to sleep. She does it at nap times and at bedtime. She won't sleep for more than a few hours at a time at night, when she used to sleep a good 10 hours. Evie will wake if Lily gets loud enough and THAT is torture!

I'm hoping it's just a little sickness. Evie is on medicine for her cough and runny nose, and I think Lily might have caught whatever her sister has. Lily isn't coughing, but has the runny nose and a lowgrade fever which I've been trying to keep down with medicine and lots of fluids. Maybe this no-sleep thing is just a consequence of her not feeling great. But judging by the girl that crawled and walked all over the baby shower we went to today, I'm not sure she's all that sick...

Hoping to get more sleep tonight, though I promised the readers of my "Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" fanfiction another chapter soon...and I haven't even started it! So much for the update a night trend I had going. Ah well. I wrote 67,000 in two weeks. Spending only about 3-4 hours a day on it. (I say only, but I guess that's quite a bit for many people...)

We may be all right.

I finally got a call back from the pediatrician.

After fretting ALLLLLL damn weekend, not sure what the heck his partner had said on Friday and not getting a call back from him. Worrying over what turns out NOT TO BE THE CASE.

He said he looked at the CT report and the fluid is around the outside, (outside being KEY) and he said that means it should go away on its own. We still have to go see a neurologist for more information and closer monitoring. And we are changing pediatricians since I can't believe they couldn't take one minute out of their day on Friday to make this clear for us. We were beside ourselves all weekend.

We can still use prayers and thoughts, since it still has to GO away on its own, not get worse. Thank you to all of you who kept Evie in your thoughts over the weekend. We appreciate it!

I'm nearly positive we have more CT scans, maybe even an MRI in the future, depending on what the neuro says when we see him or her (I'm hoping for a her for once...) Best case, we go in and they look at the first scan and say, keep an eye of out "this, this or this" and if you don't see anything like that, we'll see you in 6 months. Perhaps measure ourselves in the meantime, whatever, I'm a pro at measuring from NICU.

I think that's all for now. By the end of the week we should have the girls' medical records in hand to deliver to our new pediatricians, who were the ones who my brother and I saw as children. Let's hope they show a little more regard for our feelings and more care for the children.

Not so good news

The CT scan was easy as pie. Thankful for that.

But the results showed there is excess fluid. I'm trying to get a confirmation that it is OUTSIDE or AROUND the brain, not inside, which is the worse of the two. Doctors take forever and a day to call back. If they haven't gone home already. We go back to ped on Tuesday to "talk" and have to go to a neurologist for a consultation. We can expect more CT scans in the future. And the likilhood they'll be as easy as this one? Don't know. There was no contrast for this one.

First momos, then the debacle with Lily in NICU and now this. I thought we were finished and could go on and be happy and normal, but NO, not us. I'm so very ready to get goods news right now. I just want this stupid fluid to GO AWAY on its own. I don't care how, evaporate, drain, whatever, but GO AWAY. If it's around the outside, supposedly it can. But he head has gotten bigger each measurement. So whether that means the fluid has increased or not, I don't nkow. I suppose we'll be needing CT scans on a schedule to determine that. I HATE THIS. Simple as that.

I'm pretty sure the doctor said it was around, so we aren't the worst case scenario. I was so hoping that it was just a big head, like so many of our relatives have. I suppose i was hoping we would have dimo twins to, but that never happened, I shouldn't be that surprised.

Prayers are greatly, greatly appreciated.

Big Head Brigade

Well, it seems Evie has joined the big head brigade. At the girls' 15-month check up, the doctor charted her head size and it is off the charts again so he ordered a CT scan, which is scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday. Then he proceeded to explain the areas that COULD have retained water, if it is a water retention problem, and which one would be left alone and disappear on its own and which one would require surgery.

Decidedly not the type of thing to tell ME.

I understand that they have to, but still...

So we somehow have to get an over-active 15-month-old to remain sleeping in a strange place, this big machine thingy all around her, for 10 minutes. So not possible unless we drug her...

The doctor said to keep her awake for 4 hours before and give her Benedryl. I'll give it a shot, but I don't see Evie, who walks everywhere and never stops moving, being still without help. (I get that they can strap them there, but still, that would mean still but screaming brains out instead...)

Here's crossing our fingers she "just has a big head." More on Friday...I hope. Depends on how fast CMH reads the thing.

Funny story

I knew the girls were being too quiet yesterday, so I went into the kitchen to investigate. I found both of them with a banana in their hand, chowing down on them -- skin and all...

One of them (or both??) had stood on the bottom of their old bouncy activity seat and reached into the bottom cabinet to get the bananas. I pried the skin out of Evie's mouth and moved to take the banana out of Lily's hands.

The little stinker tightened her grip on the banana and next thing I know it's a banana slushy and rips in half. There was squashed banana all over my hands and all over Lily's hands and it was YUCKY. She thought it was hilarious of course.

I did put them in their highchairs and feed them bananas and pears after that. I figure they MUST have been hungry! :-) Now that they know how to climb and Evie can walk everywhere, things are getting interesting!!!

Walking and a little jig.

Evie walks everywhere now, so here is a snippet of her doing so. She can go a lot faster too. Lily does walk, just not a whole lot. She isn't doing much in this video. Evie is the one who walks and dances a bit. Enjoy.