First Day of Speech Therapy

This was where Hollyn was moments before the therapist arrived. Silly girl!

Today was our very first speech therapy appointment. I was a little leery about how it would go because Hew and Hollyn usually tense up around strangers. It did go better than I expected though. They played a little bit with her but didn't do much talking. Most of the time was spent doing their evaluation which more involved me answering a million questions times two. :) 

We are only doing monthly visits right now so a good bit of the work lands on me. I'm ok with that seeing as we already are a home"schooling" family. I am racking my brain and searching the Internet for lots of ideas to help us. Those that have done speech therapy...what are some of your favorite activities, apps etc for encouraging vocabulary. We do a lot of narrating and read a good bit but lend me your ideas, please! 

And just because I can't resist sharing this picture...here is Ava reading to the babies. She's such a good big sister. 

Half a Year Later

Hi friends!

A lot has happened since my last post...back in JANUARY. I know, I know. But life has been happening and I have just been enjoying living it. I'm jumping back in with both feet now. 

Here's what we've been up to since January:

Matt and I celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary in May. We didn't do anything big. We actually all ate at Milo's and went to church. We had plans to getaway one weekend but we just haven't managed to make it happen yet. Soon. 

We spent several weekends in Tuscaloosa watching Alabama's softball team. Matt's cousin plays on the team. It was a fun little adventure to pack up and head out on Friday evening. We'd spend the night after Friday nights game and watch Saturdays game, then head home. So much fun!

For Memorial Day we took a little trip to Biloxi, MS and visited some of our favorite nearby places. We even took a day trip to New Orleans. 

Ava's 4th dance recital was the first Saturday in June. She absolutely adores dance. This year her studio did an 80's themed recital. Ava dance to "When I See You Smile" for ballet and "Don't Worry, Be Happy" for tap. Both dances were so cute!  

We visited some of my family in Georgia in early June. We had the best time. It was so good to spend time with them and piddle around and finally get to see their new house. 

Over the course of a few weeks I read Debbie Macomber's "Cedar Cove Series". There are 12 books with an additional 2 short stories. I really, really enjoyed them. And now they're making the books into a television series on Hallmark Channel (premieres this Saturday, July 20th). I'm so excited!!!

The babies semi-graduated from occupational therapy. They had their annual review at 18 months and had pretty much caught up to their peers in all areas except speech. So, we start speech therapy this month. This week actually. I'm anxious to see how it goes because honestly Hew and Hollyn are leery of strangers. Not a terrible thing but it is when they're being evaluated. We shall see.

We had a pretty low-key 4th.  Matt had to work on the 4th but was off on the 5th.  Rather than sit at home, me and the kids went and ate lunch with my mom.  She fixed BBQ porkchops, baked beans and homemade french fries.  Yummy!  That evening we went with our neighbors to watch the fireworks downtown.  We had a great time!

And now we are just gearing up for school to start.

What have y'all been up to?

What's in a Name?

All 4 in one shot

Naming kids is a hard task.  There is a whole realm of things that you have to take in to account.  How can any name be turned in to an unpleasant nickname?  How does it sound for a child AND an adult?  Will I still like it in a couple of years?  It's a lot to consider.  I'm glad that Matt was big on helping me name our kids because I can't imagine having to do it alone.

Here are our kids names and a little about how they came to be. 

Laurie Ava
For us, naming Ava was easy.  We talked about baby names before we were ever pregnant.  We were those type pf planners.  We had a boy name and a girl name already decided on before we ever saw the positive pregnancy test.  We picked Laurie Ava for our first born daughter.  They aren't family names. They are simply names we loved.  And they suit her.


**I have to preface the triplets names by saying we had once again already decided on a girl name and a boy name before learning that we would soon {too soon} welcome 3 babies.

Hazel Frances
Hazel was the name we had picked for our potential next girl.  We loved the name and that it was an old name.  We like old names.  It also happened to be Matt's paternal grandmother's name.  We had such a hard time deciding on a middle name for her but finally decided on Frances, my maternal grandmother's name and the name of the sweet nurse from our fertility office who was always such an encouragement to us. (My grandmother has since passed away and I just know she is taking care of my little Hazel for me.)

David Matthew, Jr. {Hew}
Hew's name was our name for our potential boy.  He is named after his Daddy.  I had a teacher in high school that her son was a third and they called him Hew off of Matthew and I LOVED it.  And it just so happened that I married my very own Matthew and was able to have my very own Hew.  :)

Hollyn RoseAnn
Bless her heart...Hollyn's name was the only name undecided when we got the news that we were having triplets.  And it just so happened that both of the names we had decided on for our potential boy or girl started with the letter H.  We tossed names back and forth for a few weeks when Matt found Hollyn.  We fell in love with it and that it wasn't a common name but it isn't too out there in uniqueness.  Her middle name is a combination of both of our moms (and Matt's maternal grandmother's) names.

We love our kiddos names!

What are your kids names?  Any fun stories to go with them?

Lunch With Daddy

December 21, 2012

Today we went and ate lunch with Daddy.  We wanted to see his new office and such so me made the haul out there.  Seeing him in the middle of the day was such a treat. 

Celebrating!

December 16, 2012

I really struggled with the what to do about the babies' birthday parties.  It's RSV season and I really didn't want to expose them to tons of germs.  We decided to have a low-key family party for now and then in the Summer, for their half birthday, we will have a party for those who didn't get to come celebrate these 2 little lives.

We had our parents and siblings over, and Matt's grandmother was able to come.  I cooked spaghetti and we had cupcakes.  Nothing fancy.

But oh what fun it was to celebrate these two.  A year ago it was so uncertain if they would even survive and here we are...surviving AND thriving.  God is so good!

Here are the Birthday boy and girl eating their cupcakes.

Hew

 Hollyn

They didn't get near as messy as I had hoped.  Oh well.  They took a few bites but were more concerned about going to bed.  :) Poor things.  

Finishing up this post I can see them not feeling well at all.  They started soon after this with the crud.

Well Babies

December 15, 2012

Hew and Hollyn

These 2 had their 1 year well baby checkup yesterday! Hew weighs 18lb 9oz and is 26 1/4in. Hollyn is 18lb 3oz and is 28 1/4in. They both got 4 shots today. We are so grateful that they are doing so well. 

Here is a little bit of what they are up to:

*Both are crawling machines-they are everywhere!

*Hollyn has been pulling up for a few weeks now and just yesterday, Hew pulled up for the first time!

*They both babble all the time.  Hew's favortie sound is "ma, ma, ma, ma" {melt my heart} and Hollyn's is "da, da da".  

*Hew has 7 teeth.  Hollyn has 4 teeth.

*They both are such happy babies.
*We got the ok to switch to solely table food and whole milk!!!

We are so blessed that my childhood pediatrician takes care of our kids too.  We all love him so much!  He is thrilled with how well they are doing.  WOOHOO!!!

I have to add this in...Ava was such a big help today.  I went by myself and she jumped in and helped entertain and comfort.  I am so proud of her and the little lady that she is becoming.  

This evening is the babies birthday dinner.  I can't wait to see how they look after they eat their cupcakes.  Those are some of the cutest pictures to me. 

Last But Not Least :: Hollyn's Birth Story

Things went well after Hew's delivery. I was back on the mag. Still in trendelenburg. I received the second steroid shot on Saturday morning.

It was a normal morning. The dietary lady brought my tray in and left it on the counter. I couldn't get up to get it so I was stuck waiting until someone came in. Boo! A little bit of time passed and one of our favorite nurses came in to check on me. I mentioned a concern (y'all its seriously TMI otherwise I would share).  She checked me and went to call Dr. G. Turns out, at some point Hollyn's sac ruptured and I also was bleeding some. Soon after Dr. G was in my room. She checked me herself and things went crazy. You see, up until this point they never fully prepared for any of the births as far as the babies were concerned. They did this time. People were everywhere. It was chaos until we waited for my contractions. And waited. And waited. They finally upped the pitocin and we finally had ourselves a 3rd baby girl.

Hollyn was rushed to the table to be examined and intubated before heading off to the nicu. I got to see her briefly before they rushed her off. We didn't get to hold Hollyn or Hew for weeks. It was so hard. Our arms ached to hold our babies.

Hollyn was so strong compared to Hew. She was on CPAP her first day. She would be intubated again but she was worlds ahead of Hew already. It was amazing what a few extra days and a full dose of steroids could do.

She looked so much like Ava and Hazel. And she still does. It's crazy!

Hollyn is doing so well today. She is amazing us with everything she is already doing. She is so feisty.  We call her our little diva.  We are positive that God is going to use her in a mighty way!

Happy birthday Hollyn! We love you to pieces!

Halloween 2012

I'm still playing catch up. This year for Halloween we went simple. Ava was a "Fairy Ballerina Princess". She put the entire costume together with dress up toys and old dance costumes. I loved how excited she was to wear what she had put together.

Hew and Hollyn were peanut butter and jelly. I had no intentions of dressing them up since its RSV season and we weren't taking them trick or treating. But the more I thought about it the more I thought they needed to be something for their very first Halloween regardless of whether they trick or treated. Some clothes we already had and 2 logos printed off the Internet and viola! Peanut butter and jelly.

Bad Blogger and Appointments

Yeah, so I dropped the blogging ball.  I’m sorry.  Life has been happening and I’ve been making sure I’m present to soak it all up.  These moments won’t last forever and I want to be in the moment and not just hearing about them.

We’ve has several appointments for the babies.  The main one being Hew’s pulmonology appointment a few weeks back.  They placed the pulse oximeter on him while he was on and off oxygen (he’s only on one quarter liter).  He was able to maintain his sats in the high 90’s with and without oxygen.  We got the go ahead to wean his diuretic and then his oxygen.  When the time came to start with the oxygen wean he was still dealing with his congestion (we’ve been dealing with buckets of snotty here).  We called Dr. L and he gave the go ahead to wait until the cold passes to begin the wean.  He has still been holding his sats good but we don’t want anything to wear his little body out so waiting is best. 

And then, yesterday Hollyn had a follow up liver ultrasound from when she was discharged from the NICU.  We got the dreaded “can you wait and let me see if the Dr. thinks I have everything he needs”, which translates to I saw something fishy so let me go get the doctor.  The doctor came in and asked a bunch of questions and did his own ultrasound.  He didn’t give much insight but finally said everything looked ok and we were free to go.  I’m trusting the good Lord that this is the case and I am prayerful that we will get the same response from our Pediatrician.  Pray with us will you?

And I'm praising God for this healthy blessing.  She is such a big help with the babies and she adores them (and they LOVE her).