Happy New Year's Eve

Mike is playing "Auld Lang Syne" on the guitar to the babies, Matthew is raising a bottle to the New Year (if he gets lucky and his hands are in the right place, he can hold it himself), and we have our themed dessert for the Bowl Game tomorrow.

Best wishes to all of you for a wonderful 2010!

BBQ!

Today was a day of firsts: (1) we went to Sonny's bar-b-q for the first time this holiday, (2) we went out to eat with both boys at the same time, and (3) Matt and James made their first-ever trip to Sonny's. Grandpa and grandma were with us so that we outnumbered the babies. Matthew got a little fussy halfway though the meal so grandma held him. James slept most of the time.
[James is in the first 2 pictures, Matthew is pictured with Melanie.]

Paci Tales

The babies' motor skills are getting better every day. A few days ago, the babies were under their play gyms, and James was lying on his side happily sucking away on his pacifier. Matthew looked over at him, and with one smooth motion, grabbed the handle of the paci and pulled it right out of James's mouth. James was quite surprised and not all amused! (Don't worry, we gave James his paci right back.)

Then today, James was playing on his activity mat, and he grabbed a nearby paci and put it in his mouth. He didn't get it in quite right, and it didn't stay there long, but hey, it's progress!

My mom tells me I was just like James as a baby. I loved my pacifier, but when I got a cold, I couldn't breathe with it in my mouth. "That was a long few days," she said. (And yes, our little guys still have some congestion!)

[Top picture: Yes, Mike's shirt is inside out and backwards; he'd just gotten finished bathing Matthew. Mattie is in yellow and Jamesie is in blue. Bottom picture: Matthew with Grandpa.]

Day After Boxing Day

[The pictures are from previous days; everyone but us is now safely back at their own homes. We wish they all could have stayed longer!]

The cool thing from today is that when Mike was playing with James, Mike made an "A-yo" noise, and James repeated it back! He did it several times in a row -- pretty neat, especially since he was imitating Mike's intonation, and that particular combination and rhythm isn't a usual part of James's babbling. (I tried to get a video of it, but they'd been doing it for a little while by the time I grabbed the camera, so although James was still talking back on the video, it wasn't quite the same imitation.) Ever the scientist, Mike also just made the mouth motions without making the sound, and James didn't make the sound that time either.

I spoke too soon in my previous post about the relative lack of cold symptoms -- both of the boys were congested last night, and in fact little Jamesie slept in the swing because he seemed more comfortable being inclined a little. Matthew took forever to get to sleep. Poor little guys! They are still sniffly today.

Good thing Cousin Daniel is so adorable -- we'll forgive him for being a germ vector. :) In fairness, as his mother pointed out, the germs could also have come from somewhere else!

Daniel no longer refers to the babies as "dog"; instead, he waves at them. It's very cute.

Christmas Elves

I've heard people say that when you have children, you have more elaborate holidays. Apparently those people have children who are somewhat older than ours! This year, we didn't send any Christmas cards (sorry, y'all), didn't get the outside lights up here in Florida, only got the tree decorated thanks to Auntie Erin, and didn't even walk around to see the neighborhood luminaries! Nonetheless, it was a wonderful Christmas. We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner with family friends, and enjoyed having the family together for Christmas morning and the boys' first Christmas. (We are so happy and grateful for the gift of these babies -- we wouldn't have needed anything else!)

What else have we been up to this holiday? Well, the babies managed to catch their first cold -- perhaps inevitable with their toddler cousin walking around with a runny nose and cough. (Toddlers are not known for their excellent hand-washing skills, nor for covering their mouths when they cough.) Matthew had a fever one night (only 99.9 on the ear thermometer, but we're not sure if we believed it) and wasn't sleeping well, which led to a call to the after-hours nurse and a 3 AM run to the pharmacy for children's Tylenol. And the next night James had a runny nose and was very congested, so Mike did a 5 AM run to the pharmacy for a nose syringe. We were kicking ourselves because we have both of those at home, and we're already traveling with a Tupperware container full of medical supplies and a bag of prescription drugs, so it would have been so easy to throw those in (and the diaper cream, too)! Next time we'll know. :) James still has some congestion, but Mattie isn't really showing any symptoms beyond the occasional sniffle. I am so relieved we didn't have to go to the ER for Christmas!

On the more fun side, my parents made an appointment for Mike and I to go get massages while we were here -- ahhh, so wonderful! We also took advantage of the time away to do a bit of Christmas shopping. :)

The Wii has been fun for the whole family, except for the dogs. Unfamiliar as they are with virtual bowling, they are not used to people suddenly lunging forward and swinging their arms down for no apparent reason. At least two of the pups were accidentally bonked on the head in the midst of gameplay!

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas.

[Top picture is James, bottom is Matthew.]

Our happy family on Christmas morning. The boys (James on the left, Matt on the right) are wearing outfits provided by grandma Barr.

BELOW: Some tired babies on Christmas afternoon.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Enjoying the Chaos

The gang's all here -- Uncle Isaac and Aunt Erin arrived today, just in time for dinner. And we assembled the tree (by which I mean Nora and Erin assembled the tree; I helped with the bottom branches and then Matthew woke up and needed holding). Cousin Daniel discovered the joys of chocolate. Some of us got to go to the kiddie secondhand stores, and others of us got to go to the guitar store. So, altogether the holiday is off to a good start. Hope yours is, too!

Seating Arrangement

The second half of the trip to Florida went more smoothly than the first, because I sat in back with the little guys. (Stanley got the front seat.) Much easier to do pacifier duty that way! The babies were pretty good; they slept some, played with their toys some, and drank their bottles in their carseats (although we had to stop to burp them). The weather was miserable, grey and rainy, but we made fairly good time anyhow. (And at least we didn't have to drive in snow!)

We are happy to be at Grandma and Grandpa's house! Matthew fell asleep with Grandma and slept in her arms for a couple of hours -- just like when he first came home from the hospital. And baby James seemed quite interested in his cousin Daniel.

Learning Experience

The short story is that we intended to be in Charleston tonight visiting Uncle Isaac and Aunt Erin, but we were thwarted by a late start and road construction. It took us a bit longer than we expected to pack the van, but we still would have been okay except for the horrible stretch of South Carolina road just past the border. There was an electronic sign that said something about "expect one hour delay", but I wasn't sure as we went by whether the construction was on the main road or the exit. You would think that if it were the main road, they'd have more than one warning sign. But you would be wrong. Oh man. It took us an hour and a half to go the ten miles to the next exit, and the babies were screaming for about 50 minutes of that. This was exactly as much fun as it sounds. (I can't complain about car seats for safety, but oh, life would have been a lot better for those 50 minutes if I'd been able to pick them up. That little Matthew can throw one heck of a fit -- red face, top of his lungs -- and it turns out he has a lot of endurance as well.)

We still would have had a couple of hours to go to get to Charleston, so Auntie Erin found us a pet-friendly hotel just past the construction. As much fun as it would have been to see them tonight, it was definitely the right decision. We were so happy to get off the road that this generic hotel room seemed like heaven!

(Note to the Scott House gang: there is even a Waffle House just across the way! I doubt we'll brave it with the little ones, though.)

The babies had eventually fallen asleep, and once we got inside the hotel, they were in perfectly good spirits again (in Matthew's case, after he'd eaten). So, they did not appear to be scarred by the experience!

The kiddos did make their first stop at South of the Border, but it was too cold for any baby-neon or baby-Pedro photo opportunities.

We also learned some valuable lessons about what to pack where (note: more burp cloths in easily accessible locations.)

Over the River and Through the Woods

We're taking our traveling circus on the road (wish us luck!), so don't be concerned if a couple of days go by without updates. Hope your holiday season is off to a good start!

Woo-hoo!

We're now the proud owners of a minivan (the red one you see behind us). I bet we'll be making full use of all the cargo space!


PS: If you are local and in the market for a Toyota, we'd be happy to recommend our Internet salesman from Fred Anderson -- he was really helpful, and the whole buying process from them was very smooth and easy. Never thought I'd be able to say that about a car purchase!

Some recent video clips

The 1st video from a few days ago at the doctor's office. James was quite happy and more vocal than usual.

The clip at the bottom is from yesterday.

No Appointment Needed

The GI doc called today with James's bloodwork results, and (drumroll, please) his bilirubin is now in the normal range! (It's at .2.) His other liver numbers are also looking good. They're not quite down to normal, but they're close, and much improved over what they had been. So, the doctor doesn't think he needs to see James again, and didn't order any further blood tests, either. Hooray!!

The session with the auditory-verbal therapist went well today, too. Part of the therapy is teaching associations of certain sounds with certain common objects (toys, mostly), like trains and farm animals. She started out today with an airplane and a car, and James clearly reacted to the sounds she was making with those. They were both higher-pitched sounds, and she was just getting to the toy snake which is a lower sound, when James got fussy -- so we don't know if he would have heard that or not. The tricky part about this "Learning to Listen" aspect of the therapy for us is that some of the sounds are not the sounds we'd automatically make with these objects (so, the sound for the car is "brrrrr beep beep!", which makes sense, but isn't what I would have spontaneously done with a toy car). But the sounds are designed to cover a range of different frequencies, etc., so it will be helpful in both making sure he's exposed to all kinds of sounds and (later) in helping determine how well he's hearing each of those types of sounds.

I think Matthew will enjoy this therapy, too -- he seemed quite fascinated by the new toys and the sound effects!

As the therapist was getting ready to leave, Matthew and James were lying on their activity mats, and they were having a little conversation with each other! So cute!!

Seven Months

The boys are seven months old today! Hard to believe that it's been that long. We are so thrilled to have them -- they are more and more fun every day. (In honor of the occasion, James had another great day with his bottles -- over 500 ml today.)

Stanley was the one who got a special celebration today, though. His dogwalker from when we lived in Philly was in town visiting friends, and she came by to see Stanley. He was so thrilled to finally have someone who was actually here to see the dog! And we had a wonderful time catching up with her and hearing the news from the 'hood.

When James was in the hospital, I was occasionally reminded of her, because James and Stanley had something in common -- a social life outside of Mike and me. We knew a lot of people in our old neighborhood, but more than once we'd be out walking and someone who we'd never seen before would come up to us and greet Stanley by name. And similarly, when James was in the NICU, he was seen by some residents, specialists, etc. who we'd never met. It's not bad, but it was a little strange to have our dog and our baby have these independent lives!

We had to go over to the hospital today for some bloodwork for James, and to pick up one of his prescriptions. Our insurance is not great, but given the amount that we've cost them this past year, I have mostly just been grateful for it. But today they really annoyed me. The prescription we were getting refilled is Prilosec -- a very common reflux medicine that's over the counter unless you're a baby and need to have it specially compounded into liquid form. First, the insurance put a hold on the medicine because (heaven forbid!) I was trying to refill it three days before our thirty day supply was going to run out. But then, after the pharmacist called them, it turned out that they'd placed another hold on the medicine because they needed a medical authorization -- basically, for the doctor to call them and explain why this medicine was medically necessary. Seriously? For Prilosec? The fact that my kid is being seen by a pediatric GI specialist isn't good enough for them? Do they think we're dragging him to the hospital and paying these specialist copays for fun? Do they think giving unnecessary medication to our newborn would be our idea of a good time? And do they think this specialist is prescribing medicine just for his own amusement? Does the fact that the kid has a feeding tube not perhaps indicate to them that he might have some GI-related medical needs?

So to be clear about this, BCBS is willing to waste the time of a highly-trained pharmacist, willing to waste the time of a doctor who has had years of medical training and decades of experience, and who is chief of his division, not to mention my time, to justify a medication that is both commonly prescribed and available over the counter in another form. And do you want to know what their share of the cost of that medication would be? Fifteen dollars. That's it. Their piddly little bureaucrats are willing to take a doctor and a pharmacist away from patient care for who knows how long to justify fifteen lousy bucks. I cannot believe this is a cost-effective strategy for anyone. It's ridiculous.

Exercise

Matthew was working hard lifting his head.  At this moment he was getting tired and frustrated.  James, meanwhile, is having fun.  Below is a picture from a few days ago.

Bath Babies

Bathtime seems to be getting a little easier -- for perhaps the first time, Mattie made it through a bath without protesting! And Jamesie (pictured here) enjoyed his bath tonight, too.

The little guys seem very interested in different textures these days. It's neat to see them exploring their toys in new ways.

Matthew has been doing great with tummy time. He's been able to lift his head up well for a while, but he's using his arms more now. James is still not such a big fan of tummy time. He can lift his head some, but he still tends to wave his arms around rather than using them for support.

And here's the Stuff We Think James Heard over the past day or two. When our home nurse came in, she said, "Look at you!" and he looked right over at her. (She did say it in a pretty loud voice.) He's seemed to notice the guitar music a couple more times. He startled to the sound of our CD cabinet door closing from across the room. When I was holding him, Matthew was playing on the floor a couple feet away, and he started fussing. I said, "What's wrong, Mattie?", and James (who had been dozing) opened his eyes. He also opened his eyes a different time when I was holding him and Mattie started crying. (This makes it sound like Mattie is always fussing, which is not at all the case! I don't want the poor little guy to get a bad reputation!)

Four Minutes

James had a rock-star day with his bottles yesterday -- 470 ml (total)!

The last couple of nights, we've had a really hard time getting James to go to bed. He'd be either happy or snoozing, but then when we started his continuous feeds (through the pump), he'd start to squirm and cry. We couldn't figure out if he was hungry, or having reflux, or what, but giving him a bottle didn't solve the problem (though he drank it), picking him up only helped until we put him down, and so we ended up just holding his paci in for him for a loooong time. (I think it took about an hour the first night and longer than that the second.)

Last night, we knew he was tired. He'd been up playing for a long time, and hadn't had much of an evening nap. (Both James and Matthew had just fallen asleep when a potential babysitter arrived for us to interview her, and they both woke up while she was here -- which was great because we got to see her interact with them, but not so good because their nap was only maybe 20 minutes!) He was fussing, but giving him his paci again and again didn't seem to be helping for long. So we decided to see what would happen if we just left him alone. Mike set the timer for four minutes, and before that time even finished, James was asleep!

Earlier in the day, Mike started playing his guitar across the room when James was half asleep, and James opened his eyes and seemed to look toward the sound. (Of course, Mike does play the guitar loud!) And this morning when James was in the crib fussing and I was changing Matthew, he calmed down for a minute or two when I talked to him. It could have been because he saw me, but in this case it seems less likely. We're supposed to keep track of what we think James is hearing, so sorry, dear readers, you're stuck with these updates. :) Mattie is just recently starting to look towards sounds (when Mike was holding him and I was talking, he looked over at me, and then when Mike started talking he looked at him), so it looks like they're getting to a developmental stage where we'll hopefully see more of that.

Another Round

Jamesie had his six-month check-up today. Everything was fine (although they didn't manage to get a blood pressure on him -- oh well!)
The boys got the rest of their shots (H1N1 for both of them and the usual six-month stuff for James). Even though James already had a confirmed case of H1N1, the doctor thought it wouldn't hurt to give him the vaccine to be on the safe side, especially since his case was so mild.

At Mattie's appointment on Monday, the doctor asked if he seemed interested in our food when we were eating. (They're starting to get toward the age where they can start solid foods, although we're not really in a hurry for that.) We couldn't answer the question, because the babies don't usually have a chance to see us eat! I suppose we'll have to change our current "wolf down our food in the kitchen before they wake up from their nap" mealtime strategy.

We got the official report from the physical therapist in the mail today. In addition to being awesome with the babies, she is also extremely efficient! And she won our hearts all over again when her summary began, "James is an adorable baby boy..."

We have discovered an occupational hazard for one of her pieces of advice, though. We've been pulling the babies up from their backs to a sitting position by their arms, to encourage them to use their arm (and neck) muscles. Mattie enjoys this, but twice today he spit up once he got to that sitting position!

We had a new babysitter/nanny in today and yesterday, and it looks like she'll be able to help us out more long-term. She has great references and seems to be a very dependable and caring person. She's older, so she isn't going to be getting down on the floor to play with them, but we think this will probably be okay. As long as things continue to go well, that'll be one less thing to worry about when I go back to work. It's still very hard for me to trust someone else with my children, though. Fortunately, with Mike working at home, it's a little easier to take the leap of faith of letting someone else take care of them. I don't know if I'd be ready to leave them all alone with someone else who isn't family -- or a NICU nurse. :)

Jamesie woke up from his nap today when Mike started playing the guitar -- seemed like he heard it!

Pop Quiz

Guess which baby drank 70 ml from his bottle last night? (Hint: his name starts with J and he's extremely cute.)

Guess who was laughing on the changing table this morning? (Hint: same as above.)

Guess which baby protested being put on the scale at the doctor's office yesterday by sending out a stream of pee so big that it hit the picture on the wall above him? (Hint: his name starts with M and he's also extremely cute.)

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Yesterday when the physical therapist was doing her evaluation, she looked to see whether the babies quieted down from just talking to them, and she also used a rattle and a musical toy to check their eye tracking. (Matthew was fascinated with the musical Ernie toy.) We mentioned James's hearing loss when she was almost done with that (since we didn't want her to mistake it for a vision problem), and she hadn't known about that diagnosis. It was interesting, though, because in watching his responses to her, I don't think an observer would have noticed he had a hearing problem. I'm not sure if that's because he was actually responding to the visual stimuli (seeing the toys, her smiling, etc.), or if he could hear some or all of what she was doing. And I'm almost positive he heard the doorbell this morning; I happened to be taking pictures of him when it rang, and his eyes got very wide!

Tugging and groaning

Matthew sure enjoys his work -- he might be whistling if he knew how. Instead he just sort of grunts and groans. He does that a lot. He is not a quiet boy. James, meanwhile, is doing his best Michael Jordan tongue imitation.

PT

[I was tempted to title this blog entry, "Let's Get Physical", but I just couldn't do it. Sorry, Olivia Newton John!]

Matthew had his six-month pediatrician checkup today, and she said he looks great. Mattie was 13 lbs, 7 oz, and James was 12 lbs, 7 oz, so they're both doing well with their weight gain. Both boys got their Synagis shots and their seasonal flu shots, and Matthew got some of his six-month shots. James goes in for his checkup on Wednesday (I know, I know, we would have been happier if they'd been able to get us in on the same day), and they'll get the rest of their six-month shots then. I learned my lesson from last time and stepped out of the room when they were giving the injections. Just like last time, the babies screamed when they first got the shots, and by five minutes (or less) later, they were fine.

In the afternoon, the physical therapist from Early Intervention came to the house to do their evaluation. (Again, this was not the ideal scheduling, but it was the best we could do with making schedules match up before the new year.) It ended being pretty good timing for James, because he fell asleep in his car seat on the way home from the doctor's office, and slept until just a little while before the PT arrived. She got there just a few minutes after he'd finished a bottle, so he was awake and well-fed.

Matthew, on the other hand, didn't get much of a nap, so he was not at his best during his evaluation -- not too fussy or anything, but clearly a little tired and just not quite his normal self. It didn't really matter, though, since he still did fine. (It was interesting, though, because it was unusual to see him like that. I'm sure this will change as he gets older, but right now, when he's tired, he usually just goes to sleep; he doesn't have to stay up and interact with people.)

She was evaluating them based on their adjusted age, so she was looking for skills that three and a half months olds should be doing. She looked at their eye tracking, head control, what they were doing with their hands, supporting weight on their legs, whether they were favoring one side of their body or the other, and so on. Overall, she said they were doing a lot of good things, their muscle tone was good, and they were generally on track for their adjusted age. The only area that she thought could use improvement (for both of them) is developing strength in their arms with more tummy time. (Oops, we haven't been as good with that as we should be!) She gave us suggestions for other activities to do to help develop some of those skills, such as pulling them up by their arms to a sitting position.

We were very happy to hear that their progress looks good, and it was also really helpful to have suggestions of what else we can do to encourage their development. For instance, when she was assessing Matthew's hearing, she asked if he was more interested in musical or noise-making toys than other toys, and we looked at each other and realized we hadn't really given them many musical or noisy toys yet! I'm sure we have some -- Grandma keeps us well-supplied with baby toys -- but we haven't gone through them recently to see which ones they might have grown into in the past few weeks.

Based on her assessment, Matthew does not qualify for Early Intervention services at this point, which is fine with us, and what we expected to hear. (They can always do another evaluation later on if we start to have concerns about anything.) She also didn't think James needed any physical therapy (yay!), but she'll come back in a month or two to check in and make sure he's continuing to make good progress.

Contrary

Here are the sweet sleeping babies on a lazy Sunday morning.

But apparently I need to be careful about what I say on the blog. After I posted that James was eating more, he started to eat less. And then after yesterday's post about Mattie's false alarms, guess what happened? Yep, this morning he decided that he wanted to get up for real at 6 AM (after a late bedtime, no less), and he let us know in no uncertain terms that he was starving, and didn't understand why his milk wasn't appearing immediately!

So, my plan is that next time we buy a lottery ticket, I'm going to post that we haven't won millions of dollars. :)

Sleeping and Eating

Little Matthew faked me out for two nights in a row. He had a few seconds of fussing, and since he'd been asleep for a long time (seven hours, maybe?), I figured he was waking up, so I went to get a bottle warmed up for him. But no -- he actually slept for another couple hours after that. So I've learned my lesson, and I'll wait to make his breakfast until he's fully awake! (But that experience is maybe going to turn me into one of those people who gets up early because the only time I can get anything done is before the kids are awake. Yikes!)

Apparently I spoke too soon about James's progress with drinking more milk; the last couple of days he hasn't been eating as much during the day (although each individual meal is around 40-50 mls). But today at least he didn't seem bothered by it (yesterday he seemed to be having a little reflux again), so maybe he just has heavier eating days and lighter eating days.

It's been gray and rainy around here. Nice weather for just staying home!

Hearing

I was too late to get it with the camera, but when I went into the nursery yesterday, the boys were holding hands! (It was just for a few seconds, since what they were actually doing was grabbing each other's sleeves. But it was still very sweet!) They seem to like being in the crib together, at least to the extent that they notice. They both smile at each other, occasionally even at the same time. Now that James isn't throwing up during the night, we've been putting them in the same crib to sleep, but separated somewhat so they don't kick each other. Mattie still gets up at least once during the night to eat, but it doesn't seem to disturb James -- and vice versa, if James is fussy it doesn't usually seem to bother Matthew.

We had our second session with the auditory-verbal therapist yesterday, and it went really well. She brought along some toys, and did a little testing to see what sounds James might be reacting to. The same toys will also be used for playing, to teach the association between different sounds and objects. I was holding him, and she made the sounds behind his head at a fairly close distance, about three feet away. He definitely seemed to respond to the toy drum, and when the toys accidentally fell on the ground. He also responded to one of the musical toys. The other musical toy he didn't seem to respond to when it was far away, but seemed to notice it when it was closer. At this age, they aren't turning towards sounds yet, so I was watching for cues like raising his eyebrows, widening his eyes, or moving his eyes in the direction of the sound. He didn't respond at all as far as I could tell to her making shh noises, but I'm not sure if that's because he didn't hear her or because he was starting to fall asleep by that point. (There may have been another toy he didn't respond to as well, but I can't remember for sure at this point.) So, the session seemed consistent with our impressions that he's hearing some things but probably not hearing others.

We asked about the idea of fluctuating hearing, that he might be hearing better at some times than others, and she said that in her experience and with the group at UNC, they haven't really seen that with auditory neuropathy. (Perhaps it's just that infants don't necessarily respond consistently to sounds at this age; we've certainly seen that with Matthew.)

The therapist also emphasized the idea of talking close (which means in a three-foot radius) and quiet to him (rather than yelling), and she mentioned that when or if he gets hearing aids, they have FM technology so that the parent (or whoever) can wear a microphone, and it transmits to the baby's hearing aids. That was really good to hear, because one of the things that worried me about hearing loss was being able to get his attention when he's at a distance (for instance, once he starts walking, if he's heading toward something dangerous). Of course, little kids don't always listen under the best of circumstances, but at least that would give us a chance!

Later that evening, James was napping in his bouncy seat. I was sitting nearby playing with Matthew, and when Matthew started fussing, I said, "Do you want a paci?" It was most likely coincidence (since he was already starting to stir a bit), but James opened his eyes at that sentence!

We had a meeting today with the person from Beginnings, the support organization for families of kids with hearing loss. They do everything from helping to coordinate services to providing emotional support to parents; it seems like a fantastic resource. The person who met with us has a deaf son, so she's been through this kind of journey herself (even more so, since her son had some additional challenges as well). On the one hand, it was good to have the information and she was very warm and supportive, but on the other hand, thinking about a future of constant therapies and accommodations and struggles is depressing and exhausting. I don't do that much because we really have no idea what the future will hold, so one day at a time is enough for now.

One thing that made me a little sad at the meeting was that she had an audiogram chart, which shows the decibel levels for common sounds. A dog barking is in the 70-80 db range, according to these charts, and hearing (only) at that level or above would be classified as severe hearing loss. I've seen James react to Stanley barking several times, and that's always seemed encouraging, but somehow still having that potential label of severe loss came as a surprise. Now, obviously there's no diagnosis yet and it's quite possible he can hear more than that (and even if he does have severe loss there are treatment options with hearing aids or implants), but it was an unhappy thought.

On a brighter note, James has had a great couple days with his bottles; he had several 50 ml bottles yesterday, and a total of about 400 ml during the day. We're off to a slower start today, but that's okay. He's gaining weight; he was about 12 lbs, 4 oz on the home nurse's scale. And he's been giving us the most adorable smiles!

I thought babies were supposed to have short attention spans, but Matthew was playing with a caterpillar on his activity gym for probably a half hour yesterday evening. It was hilarious, because he could pull it almost far enough to get into his mouth, but not quite -- I could tell he really wanted to get it! He also grabbed his foot last night on the changing table -- apparently discovering their feet is one of the four-month milestones.

The Eyes Have It

Matthew went for his opthamology appointment today, and got the all clear -- his eyes are developing normally, they're in the proper alignment, and he has the usual amount of farsightedness for his age. The doctor seemed surprised by this, since preemies are often nearsighted (and sometimes need glasses to help them have normal visual development). We don't have to go back for a follow-up for another two years. (Hooray!)

The doctor tested his tracking with little Big Bird and Ernie flashlights, and then dilated his eyes. With babies, they can tell the degree of near or farsightedness just by looking at their eyes (which seems pretty amazing to me).

And yes, they did give us some little baby paper sunglasses for him, but I didn't put them on because I figured they wouldn't last more than a few seconds before he'd grab them and put them in his mouth.

One Med Down

We have lots of appointments this week and next week, but they're off to a good start. Yesterday's appointment was with the speech therapist, and she was pleased with James's progress. And once again, he drank 60 ml (2 oz) when we were there! Go James! He must be inspired by her presence. :) He weighs just under 12 lbs now, and his average growth is about 17 grams a day. Ideally they'd like to see about 20 grams a day, so he's in the ballpark.

Last week we tried a different formula, Good Start, on her recommendation. It's very similar to the Gentlease but works better for some babies. But surprisingly, it didn't work for James at all -- he was back to being fussy and uncomfortable. No big deal, though -- we just switched back to Gentlease and he seems fine.

The current plan is to try to increase the amount he's getting, which we've already been doing, and hopefully to have him increase the amount he's eating during the day (and do it in larger chunks). He's also moving toward that, although somewhat slowly.

The GI doc told us to call him when we were there, so I was thinking that there was a fair chance we'd end up needing to do lab work and get a prescription refilled, which would have made for a long afternoon at the hospital. But instead, he said that since James's bilirubin had come down so much, he could go off his Actigall. (I was hoping he'd say that!) Yay!! We'll do the labs again in two weeks, so hopefully everything will continue to look okay then. It's great to be able to eliminate a medicine from the daily routine, and of course, even better for James not to need it any more.

We took blood pressures on both boys, and they were both fine, so the increased dose for Matthew seems to be working.

This morning, the Early Intervention coordinator came by to do the intake paperwork for Matthew's physical therapy evaluation. Just from watching him, she thought he probably wouldn't end up qualifying for PT, and I agree. Last time she was here, he was still favoring turning his head to the right, but he's really not doing that much any more; he seems pretty comfortable turning to both sides. But we'll see next week when the formal evaluation happens.

[Top picture is Matthew with Grandma, second is James with Matthew facing away from the camera, then James in his stroller, then Matthew in his stroller.]

Family Resemblance

The top picture is Grandma holding Jamesie, and the next one is Grandma holding baby Melanie. (And then for comparison, there's me holding Jamesie, from Halloween.) I think James takes after his mama!

You'll be sad to hear that we missed out on our Thanksgiving photo opportunity -- we were in such a hurry to get the turkey into the oven in the morning and on to the table in the afternoon that we didn't remember to pose the babies next to the turkey for size comparison. (This year, the turkey wins -- it was around 17 lbs, and James and Mattie are in the 11-13 lb range.) Oh well, I don't think there's going to be any shortage of baby photos of either one of them!

We had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving weekend, and all our company made it home safe and sound. Since Uncle Adrian managed to catch Cousin Daniel's cold, we didn't get to see them. We were disappointed, but fortunately we'll see them for Christmas.

Saturday, James "talking"

James is beginning to "talk" more often than he used to. We try to encourage this by praising him when he makes sounds, but it is hard to know if he connects our hugs and smiles at that moment to his vocalization since he receives so many hugs and smiles anyway no matter what he is doing.

Happy Nov 28th

We have a very happy household today (and the day has just begun). The sun is out and the boys are enjoying the extra staffing over the holiday weekend. We haven't told them that aunt Erin and uncle Isaac are leaving this afternoon.

So Very Thankful

We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. I started to make a list in my head, and it was so long that it would take up an entire blog page! We are thankful to have our two precious boys at home, and thankful to the amazing nurses and doctors who took such wonderful care of them (and saved their lives) in the NICU. We are thankful for all of you -- our friends and family who have been so fantastic in so many ways.

We hope you have having a wonderful holiday! We have been enjoying good food and good company. (In fact, I fell asleep on the couch this afternoon, and when I woke up, the table was set, the potatoes were mashed, and the turkey was coming out of the oven! Best guests ever!)

Getting Ready

We're getting ready for the arrival of family for Thanksgiving. We're so excited to see everyone! (And hopefully the cuteness of the babies will distract people so they don't notice that the house is messier than usual.)

There's been a wrench thrown into our original plans, though. Cousin Daniel has a cold. (This is his first time in daycare, so he's had an illness of one sort or another pretty much constantly all fall, but this one started this weekend.) Our pediatrician did not think it was a good idea to expose the babies to cold germs, so Aunt Nora and family are delaying their arrival to see if they can get past the most contagious and runny-nose stage. Hopefully it will work out -- it won't feel like Thanksgiving without them here! (I think Nora would not approve of my just misting Daniel with Lysol every time he walks by.)

Of course we couldn't escape without some type of medical appointment this week. Matthew's blood pressure was up a little bit, so we had to pop by the pediatrician's office to get it checked again. It's still a bit higher than they'd like, so they've upped his medicine a little bit.

Hope you are all doing well heading into the holiday weekend!

A Tale of Two Mornings

Yesterday morning we woke up to discovered that James had had an ostomy bag "malfunction" -- yuck! It's no more disgusting than a poopy diaper blowout, but it does take longer to deal with!

But this morning we had the boys down under their activity gym, and they were smiling at each other! So cute!! They each seem very happy to have a brother.

Also this morning, Matthew slept until 8 AM! (Of course, he fell asleep later last night than usual, but hey, I'll take those extra hours in the morning.) He usually wakes up at 4 or 5 AM for his first breakfast (and then goes back to sleep for a couple hours before second breakfast), so this was quite a pleasant change.