My two princesses: April 2011

Our oldest preemie, Brianna, is now 5+ and excited about starting Kindergarten and riding the school bus this Fall.  She loves her preschool, but will miss a few current classmates.  She tells me that she wants to be an artist and a singer.   She loves to do crafts and help me plant flowers. At this point she only has a little trouble with her fine motor skills. Holding a pencil or crayon correctly is still hard for her and is something we will be working on a lot over the summer.

Our youngest preemie, Kalyssa, is 3 now, but still struggling with potty-training.  She wants to wear the big girl underwear but has yet to actually go in the potty. Though we’ve made progress in actually sitting on it for spans of time now. For a long time she was afraid of it.  She’s still small for her age, but at this point they just assume she’ll be petite. She still seems a little behind when it comes to language, but keeps making progress so we’re confident that by the time she’s ready for Kindergarten it will no longer be a problem.  She loves puzzles, knows her shapes and colors pretty well and hasn’t even started preschool yet!

She’s starting to play pretend with big sister and LOVES to play dress up.  Brianna doesn’t dress up as much anymore but every once in a while we host a tea party or a fashion show.

This Spring we were blessed by a family member with a trip to Disneyworld – our first vacation since the girls came along.  The girls loved it!  Daddy and I were able to spoil them with a princess makeover at the Bippidy Boppidy Boutique while we were there.  Kalyssa is still wearing her dress almost daily LOL.  The picture I’ve included is from their makeover and is a great example of how close the two have grown over the last year.  I pray that we can keep that going!

Overall we are blessed to have two beautiful, and HEALTHY, little girls.

I went to the visit today, prepared to hear the worst, but so thankful when the doctor stated that the hole was closing, that her heart appears to be naturalizing on its own, and that they no longer feel surgery will be needed!!!!  They do want to see another echo in two years just to make sure that the process continues all the way, but she is to be treated in every way like a normal, healthy little girl.  Hearing that was the answer to so many prayers – from me, and many family and friends as well.  Thank you everyone for praying.  Kalyssa is still a petite little girl.  She’s likely to be even shorter than mommy.  At today’s visit she weighed 25 lbs and was 33 inches tall.

Kalyssa has graduated from her physical therapy needs.  I believe her last sessions of that were in June?  Although we will miss Miss Sandy’s visits we are so thankful that she is now playing and doing things like any other 2 year old little girl.  She is a little behind on language, but seems to learn more new words every day, and I have no doubt that she will soon want to catch up in order to play pretend better with her big sister, Brianna.  Brianna is becoming a better big sister all the time.  Now that she is older I think she appreciates that little sister is becoming a fun playmate and not just a bother, or an attention stealer for her mommy and daddy. Lately, she has begun to want to help me put her to bed, and even gives her hugs. (Kalyssa isn’t used to it yet and pushes her away LOL)  Though Kalyssa willingly throws herself into mommy’s arms for hugs all the time now.

Kalyssa graduated to a toddler bed about a month ago.  She’s starting to get the hang of it now, and I’m so thankful that for the most part she will still take an afternoon nap.  (Brianna’s naps about disappeared once she could get out of bed on her own … as she was a lot more stubborn, and less patient than she is now.)  I’ll try to find pictures soon to add to this post!

Brianna is now over 3 and half now and is achieving her own successes with potty training.  Due to the crazy economy … mommy is now at home with both girls full-time and I am able to keep her in big girl undies all day long now.  For several weeks she had one or two accidents a day, but over the last two weeks there have been several days where she stays dry all day.  She still “forgets” overnight so we have opted to only put pull-ups on her for bedtime and occasionally when we travel.  This is mostly because she often needs to go right “NOW” when she finally tells you and she is mainly successful at home because she knows where the bathroom is.

A big success in the last few weeks is that she will also go into the bathroom herself when she needs to – instead of running to mommy for help every time.  She is so proud of herself when she does this – and mommy is too!

Kalyssa prepares for her first birthday cake

The week before Kalyssa’s birthday she hit not one but two milestones.  She began crawling for short spurts before crying out for mommy to pick her up … (for which I tried not to be a “sucker” and answer every time to make her crawl farther) AND she finally had her first two teeth break through her bottom gums the day before her birthday!

She enjoyed her birthday party, but did not much like the hat pictured here … or her birthday cake.  Apparently, she doesn’t like cold very much – and we had gotten her an ice cream cake from DQ.

Can’t believe it has been a year, but she has sure grown.

Kalyssa on Christmas Day 2008

Brianna prepares to make Snow Angels

Kalyssa has reached some major milestones since I last wrote on here … She has been sitting up on her own for a while, but just this week has begun to transition from sitting up to laying with her belly on the floor (without getting one of her legs stuck beneath her).  She weighs about 16.6 pounds according to my bathroom scale and although she has been saying da da for some time along with other random sounds … this week she sure sounds like she’s working on ma ma.  Of course she only says it when she’s upset!  She’s definitely reached the separation anxiety stage – if I leave the room she will become upset – and when I come back she becomes upset again the moment she spots me.  Brianna went through this too at around 9 months as I recall … and it does last a while. :0)

We are still doing therapy to help her with her developmental delays.  We will soon be adding an Occupational Therapist in addition to her Physcial Therapist in order to work on her fine motor skills a bit more extensively.  For a while she would hold one arm back rather stiffly even when taking a bottle and she remains resistant to holding her bottle during feedings but the arm no longer falls back stiffly.  These are common muscular problems seen in preemies.  She appears to be progressing out of them naturally, but adding the OT to her therapy should help us make sure we are doing all we can for her to develop those skills normally/rapidly.

Mommy is also busy potty training Brianna.  She’s making progress.  We now wear big girl undies most of the time at home and “school” but we do tend to have a lot more accidents than successes.  She gets very upset about the accidents and we hope one day soon it will just “click” to tell us beforehand!  Meanwhile, I have a first birthday party for little sister to get planning!

Other major milestones since her last post are that she still doesn’t seem to like Rice ceral much, with or without apples, but she has taken to stage 1 Sweet Potatoes rather well.  She does attempt to suck it off the spoon at first like a bottle, but by the end of each container she is usually opening her mouth for the next bite like a baby bird.  Not to good at getting off the spoon without my help yet, but is swallowing it instead of blowing raspberries or spitting it out.

Additionally, she has begun reaching for the pulls on her swing to turn the lights and music on as well as for objects on her carrier.  YEAH!  She’s finally figured out her hands are for more than chewing on.  Good going girl!

The one thing she is behind on, though I’m told she will do it in her own time, is potty training.  She will tell you when she has had a BM afterwards, but otherwise she does not seem inclined to use the potty at all.  Though she knows all about it and will sit on it … I’m told it will happen any time that she’ll just “want” to.

She can count to about 20, though sometimes stumbles in the teens, and doesn’t really know what they mean since if there is more than one ball there are two balls (even if there are eight).  She knows her basic colors and shapes really well and is getting better at coloring all the time.  The thing that warms my heart the most has been two-fold though.  She now will tell me she loves me when I put her to bed and sometimes she sings the songs to me that I’ve been singing with her at bed-time for the last two or more years.  She may stumble on a few words now and then, but she’s definitely been paying attention.  She will also initiate names of friends to pray for and family members during “pray time” and it’s oh so cute.

Brianna and daddy check out Tinkerbelle on her cake

Happy Birthday to my big girl.  You are closer to being 40 pounds instead of 4 now, but you’ll always be my little one.

We’re working on getting her to grasp toys as well.  She did begin grabbing the little fishes on her swing over the weekend and she giggled with glee when that turned on the music and lights (though I’m pretty sure she doesn’t know she caused it with the pulling yet).  She’s very close to sitting up but hasn’t developed that reflex to put her arms down when she loses her balance.  Her muscles are very tight in her arms yet which is typical of preemies and part of why she is delayed on things that require her to move her hands far.  It is improving though and I look forward to how different she will be in two weeks when the therapist returns.  It seems there is something new every time she is here.  Yeah!

Kalyssa and Mom on 8/21/08 - Six Months Old!

We had her official pictures taken the following Sunday, but this shot was taken the day she was 6-months old.  Four days later we took her to her well-baby visit and she weighed 12.8 pounds and was 23.25 inches long. She didn’t like her shots (of course!) and unfortunately the pediatrition was again able to hear a heart murmer.  We have since had another echocardiogram and she does still have one of the two holes in her heart.  The good news is that the one in her lower-chambers/ventria has healed, but the bad news is that the one in her upper chambers/atria is still moderate in size.  It does not seem to affect her and the doctor’s are still choosing to watch and see if it grows smaller at this time.  We will have another echocardiogram at Riely in mid December to see if there has been any progress.  I promise I’ll post results!  Between six and seven months she has begun to sit up for longer with assistance and just this week has begun propping herself up with her arms when on her tummy regularly.  You can’t get her to sleep on her back at this point … she’s rolling over and around constantly!

Bonus Photo:  First Attempt to Feed Kalyssa Solids … It’s still not working, but gee she looks so small in that chair!

kalyssa

Kalyssa is doing very well, but we were a little worried when she started eating less and sleeping a lot more last week.  She didn’t seem to be sick, but the clues were there that something wasn’t quite right.  A trip to the doctor on Thursday revealed that she has her first ear infection.  She’s too little to be pulling on her ear and letting you know, but it was definitely why her appetite was down.  Sucking on a bottle definitely causes the pressure in her ear to bother her so she was taking in only a little bit to satisfy her tummy and then wearing out.  She’s been on Amoxacillin for a few days now and we gave her pedialyte for 24 hours to see if that increased her eating.  It did – so then we switched to formula without the thickener to make it easier for her to suck down.  She seems to be doing much better and we are going in for a weight check at the doctor’s office this morning before I take her back to day care.  She was 10.5 lbs last Thursday.  Can’t believe she is 5 months old today!  Well, I’m hearing her crying in the other room so I’ve got to go!

Kalyssa July 2008