HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY ISABELLA GRACE!!

I have so much to update about: NICU reunion, school, March of Dimes walk, but for now I just want to say happy 2nd birthday to my littlest miracle:)

We reached our goal!!

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has donated to our March of Dimes walk!! YOU ARE ALL AMAZING!!! We have far surpassed our goal for this years walk:) Many of you have been with us thru all our ups and downs of raising preemies. That is why we do this walk. To help other babies, and other families. So THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! We are touched by everyone's generosity!!

For anyone out there that knows of anyone who has had more than one premature singleton birth, or who has premature births run in their family, please feel free to leave me a comment or email. I am taking part in a research study that is studying the genetic link in familial premature birth (several premature births and across generations). This is some wonderful research that will hopefully uncover more of the missing puzzle for future generations (and hopefully my girls!).

MARCH FOR BABIES fundraising

Hi everyone! We are once again walking in the March for Babies (formerly WalkAmerica) to raise funds for the March of Dimes. Our walk will take place in Minneapolis on April 27th. Todd, I and all 3 kids will be going. We did the walk for the first time last year (5 miles!) and were able to raise $500 for the March of Dimes. This year we have doubled our fund raising goal to $1000. This money is used by the March of Dimes to fund research and programs dealing with prematurity and birth defects, obviously something the means a lot to us. Please consider donating to our walk, even if it is only $1. Our hope is that other babies and families do not have to go through what we have. Here is the link to our March for Babies donation page- please take a moment to visit the page- THANK YOU!

http://www.marchforbabies.org/451648 copy and paste this in your address bar, or click on link to the right

*The image above is of Savannah 3 years ago today. She had just come home from her long hospital stay a few days prior.

Easter pictures

Kids in their Easter clothes...


Bella excited over the candy...

Isaac finding his basket that the Easter bunny hid in the dryer...


Family picture...

With nana, papa, mom, and uncle Ben...

The three peanuts at nana and papas with their Easter baskets...

Bella rolling around on the floor with her candy. can you say hog heaven?

Isaac and dad taking apart hard drives...

Isaac on the typewriter. Can you tell he's a gadget kid?

Perfect ending to the day...

Sadly, we were not able to make it over to Grandma and Grandpa R's house since grandma had the stomach flu. We will celebrate with them another weekend and add pics:)

Pre-Easter festivities
Dying eggs...

Making cupcakes...

Premature birth - CBS news

Here is a news story from the CBS evening news that highlights the results of a study done on premature birth and long term issues. Be patient, there is a short 30 sec commercial preceding the story. I wanted to bring some awareness to the premature birth epidemic as we are getting ready for our March of Dimes walk in April. I do not have the link to our fundraising site up and running yet, but should by the weekend. Thanks for looking!

We should really play the lotto!

We should. I spent all last week - my spring break- in bed, with a strain of Influenza not covered in the flu shot. WHAT are the CHANCES?? Ha. It doesn't help I am diabetic and it totally messed with my blood sugars. Luckily Todd could take off work some and then the other days the kids went to my parents (THANKS GUYS!). Once I finally emerged I made sure to wear a mask so hopefully the kids won't get it. I am not sure how they'd handle it with their past/present lung issues and I don't care to find out. Anyway, enough complaining on my part.

Occupational therapy is going great for Savannah. We call it her "exercise class." Today I had all 3 kids with since Isaac is on spring break this week. I talked to him beforehand about how he could be the "helper" today and that seemed to help with his behavior. He had a great time and the OT let him help out alot. Bella on the other hand was, well, Bella. HAHA

Soon I will be updating our March of Dimes walk page. This is our 2nd year participating and our walk will take place on APRIL 27. I'll post a refreshed link when I have our donation page up and running. The walk has been renamed this year to MARCH FOR BABIES (used to be called WalkAmerica). We are excited to participate again this year since this cause is so near and dear to our hearts. Our goal is going to be double last years- $1000. I am sure we can reach it with everyones help! Stay tuned...

Back from OT

The occupational therapy appointment went fine this morning. It was a little interesting in there trying to keep Bella entertained while they tested Savannah. The had a lot of boxed puzzles that Bella kept getting into (AGGGHHH!). We have been thru testing like this before with NICU follow-up and the school district. I thought they would only be looking at gross motor (large muscle) stuff, but they tested everything- fine motor, cognitive and a bit of speech. ANYWAY, she does definitely have low tone, especially in her core. This is whats causing all her coordination issues and injuries. It's why we can't go ANYWHERE without her falling etc. SO, we will be going every Monday to the rehab place for them to work with Savannah on OT. She will show me some stuff I can work with her on at home as well.

Off to OT tomorrow AM

Wow, its been so chaotic around here with appointments and school, and life with 3 little ones in general. A friend's blog put it into perspective. She mentioned that they went a whole week without any doctor visits. It made me think, when was the last time we went a week without any appointments? I am not even sure. I thought maybe this week, but now we've loaded up on OT tomorrow for Savannah, ST for Bella Wednesday, and another doctor appointment Friday, on top of my school on Tuesday (BIG TEST) and Thursday + the girl's class on Friday morning. The week after is 2 more doctor appointments I believe.

So, back to Savannah and the OT. Anyone who has been around her for more than an hour or walked with her anywhere has noticed/commented on her motor skills. She constantly falls, runs into things, falls into things, clips things, or has issues going down the steps. We can't walk from the car, through the clinic building, to the pediatricians office without her falling over her own feet and crying at least twice. A few of the neighbors have jokingly referred to her as "kamikaze" because every time she comes running she injures herself. We kind of took the wait and see approach thinking it was maybe just toddler hood. Then the school district did an overall eval when she was in speech therapy, and she scored low on gross motor skills. She was having issues with steps too. I thought it was maybe due to her eyes getting worse b/c she has some astigmatism. I knew she was due to see the pediatric eye doc this last October, so we just kind of sat on it. Turns out her eyes were the same. Fast forward to her 3 yr checkup in Feb. I now decided to raise the concern because she is starting to get injured as a result. She has dead front tooth (which is suspiciously turning back to white:)) as a result and is constantly injuring her face from falls. Her doc thinks it could be weak core muscle issue so she referred us for eval and treatment. I hope it helps her or she may be missing all her teeth by age 4. :0

Heart clinic

The trip to children's heart clinic went great. Savannah had an EKG and an echo of her heart done. The EKG (electrical graph) of her heart looked good. The echo of heart heart showed pretty good news too. Her PFO (opening) between the 2 atria was closed up:) The other concern was her coronary arteries. Originally, they thought that both her coronary arteries came off the left side, instead of one on each. It turns out the left is normal as expected, and the right is still abnormal, but does NOT come off the left side. It actually comes out a completely different place from where they first thought. It has a higher than normal origin. He said it is considered abnormal, but that it should remain insignificant, meaning it should not affect her. He gave us the clear for her to be in activities etc as if she has a normal heart ("with a twist" as he put it:) She did great during all the tests. She got scared when we went in the ultrasound/echo room, but they popped in a Dora movie - she held my hand and did great. So brave:)

Savannah

Tomorrow we head to the heart clinic for Savannah's follow-up. I can't believe it's been almost 2 years since our last appt there. They should be doing an echo (ultrasound) of her heart to get a good look at her coronary arteries. As far as we know they both come off the same side, instead of one off each side. It is hopefully a normal variant but NICU follow-up and cardio want to get a better look. Last time they viewed it was in the NICU and her heart was only the size of a coin. They wanted to wait until age 3 for the next echo so that she is able to lay still. Wish us luck!

We will also be meeting up with one of Savannah's primary nurses from special care. We are excited to see her:)

Home from surgery

Bella's surgery went great! She was a model patient:) She did not cry once, not even after waking from the anesthesia, such a contrast to when Isaac got his. We are home now and she is sleeping. They gave her a narcotic for pain, so she's a little drowsy. We actually haven't heard a peep out of her since she came out of surgery. The 45 minute ride home was nice and quiet (doesn't happen much in our car!).
Ready to head to Children's

Let's get this show on the road. Waiting at Children's

Getting my surgery gear on

Hey! Don't take a picture of me now!

Blowing kisses...

Waking from surgery

Trying a drink

On my way home!

Bella's surgery tomorrow

Bella is having surgery tomorrow (Monday) to have ear tubes put in. She has had 5 infections since October alone, and fluid in her ears since before that. It is definitely affecting her hearing, and her early childhood teacher put her in speech therapy last fall. Hopefully with the tubes she will hear better, start talking, and maybe sleep at night (ok, maybe I'm pushing it). It should be a minor procedure but she will be put under for it- this is always a little scary for the parent of a preemie with respiratory distress a not so distant memory. It is scheduled for 1:30 pm and she cannot eat anything from after dinner tonight until then. Yuck. Poor kid. It will be interesting trying to feed the other two kids tomorrow with her around. She loves to eat. I will be sure to update after we get home tomorrow evening.
(picture above is of her in her converted toddler bed last month- yes she climbed out of the crib!)

February 12 - Happy 3rd birthday Savannah Mae!

Happy 3rd birthday to our big girl! You have come so far and we are so proud of you!

Happy New Year 2008!

WOW, I haven't updated in a LONG time. It has been so nuts here with sicknesses and finals. My fall semester is finally over, and I managed to maintain my 4.0. It nearly killed me though (and drove Todd nuts!). I am hoping to be better at updating this, but Bella has been sick with one thing after another, and it leaves me little time. This morning Isaac actually had a dental emergency on top of it. He woke up with his bottom gums completely swollen, almost covering the back of his teeth. We went in to the dentist, and they will be pulling one of his baby teeth tomorrow. It is one that is already loose, so it shouldn't be major. Between him and his sisters (Savannah recently had a dental emergency/accident too, and now has a black front tooth - but more on that in the next post), we are keeping the doctors and dentists busy. Anyway, I will hopefully have time for a nice long update on everyone tonight- crossing my fingers!