Look What I can Do!

Today Lexyn must have decided that she wasn't going to let her sister leave her way behind. Brittyn started holding her own bottle on Saturday January 31, 2009. Well, today Lexyn started holding her own bottle too. When I began laying her back in my arm to start feeding her, she grabbed the bottle out of my hand. She started drinking so fast as if she had missed several bottles. Just for your info, she had not missed a single one. I am not starving my babies!

Sunday night when we were at Ben's parents house watching the super bowl, Lexyn's Nana thought she would try and give her some water out of a sippy cup. She has never touched a sippy cup before, nor have I even offered her one, but she pulled it straight to her mouth and started drinking like she had done it many times. She could not hold the sippy cup by herself but she was actually sucking the water out, which was surprising. She did pretty good with it too, considering her liquids are suppose to be thickened and the water was not. I guess we may have to start offering water in a sippy cup more often.

8 Months

Yes, today my babies are 8 months old. I can't believe it. It seems just like yesterday that my water broke and they gave me magnesium to stop the contractions 41 hours before doing an emergency c-section. Wow, time sure flies by when you are having such an awesome time raising your miracles! I love my life, my husband and the sweet sweet babies we are enjoying raising together.

Lexyn's 8 month update:

* making all kinds of noises, and cooing

* weighs 12 pounds and 9 ounces

* loves to "bouncy, bouncy, bouncy" in her jumperoo

* takes 4 to 5 ounces of Enfamil Nutramigen with rice cereal to thicken every 4 to 5 hours

* loves to eat her mommy's homemade pureed baby food once a day

* eats about 5 Tablespoons of baby food a day

* takes 2 to 3 naps a day

* takes one 3 to 4 hour nap everyday

* goes to bed for the night at 7:30pm

* sleeps anywhere from 10 to 12 hours through the night

* wakes up takes a bottle then goes back asleep until about 9:30 or 10:00 am

* loves to take a bath with her sister every night in a big girl bathtub

* barrel rolls all over the room to get where she wants

* shakes rattles with both hands

* likes to watch "Praise Baby" DVDs

* still sleeps swaddled every night

* just started scooting on belly by pushing with her feet

* has ears pierced

* gets excited when she sees daddy

* knows her name

* has started to cry at strangers

* would sit and rock all day if you let her

* wears size 1 Pampers Swaddlers diapers

* wears 0-3 months clothes

* gets developmental and speech therapy for 30 minutes twice a week

this is Brittyn's new trick - she may just walk and skip the crawling stuff :)

Brittyn's 8 month update:

* makes all kind of noises cooing

* weighs 13 pounds and 2 ounces

* can get out of her Bumbo chair

* takes 4 to 5 ounces of Enfamil Prosobee formula thickened with rice cereal every 4 to 5 hours

* has just started to like her mommy's homemade pureed baby food

* eats about 3 to 4 tablespoons of baby food once everyday

* takes 2 to 3 naps a day

* takes one 3 to 4 hour nap everyday

* goes to bed for the night at 7:30pm

* sleeps between 10 and 12 hours through the night

* wakes up in the morning and takes a bottle then goes back to sleep until about 9:30 or 10:00

* loves to take a bath with her sister in the big bath tub

* always wants the toy Lexyn is playing with

* rolls and scoots all over the room

* gets up on her knees and rocks, and can move each hand once then falls

* chewing on everything and drooling, but no teeth yet

* likes to watch "Praise Baby" DVDs

* sleeps swaddled every night

* gets speech and developmental therapy

* can sit up on her own

* has her ears pierced

* can hold her own bottle (but I don't let her)

* can walk with someone holding her hands

* always has a smile when you look at her

* cries every time someone talks to her that is wearing a hat

* wears size 1 Pampers Swaddlers diapers

* wears 0-3 month clothes

Therapy

Today the girls had therapy. They are currently being seen by a developmental therapist and a speech therapist. The developmental therapist is working with both girls an hour a week. She comes 2 times a week and works with them for 30 minutes each. She had helped the girls drastically improve in their motor skills. Brittyn is on the verge of crawling thanks due to Missy working with her, and Lexyn's muscle tone is very high so she is helping her by massaging and stretching her muscles. She is also currently working on Lexyn being able to sit up. The speech therapist, Jennifer, currently comes twice a week and works with each one for 30 minutes. She is working up to seeing both girls 2 hours a week but because of their age, they don't cooperate much more than 30 a day right now. She was working with Brittyn being able to eat baby food, but Brittyn has now accomplished that. YEAH! She is working with both girls on making cooing sounds. They are really only making noises that they don't repeat over and over. The girls are now use to seeing their therapist so often that they like them and the attention they get from them. Since today is the girls 8 month birthday, I decided to take some pictures of them during therapy. Enjoy!

The developmental therapist stretching Brittyn's arm muscles.

Brittyn working on reaching in cup to pull out a block.

Brittyn and the developmental therapist, Missy.

Lexyn getting her muscles massage by the developmental therapist.

Brittyn and the speech therapist, Jennifer.

The speech therapist working with Lexyn to "boom, boom, boom" objects together.

The speech therapist working with Lexyn to coo.

First Visit to the Park

Today my mom called to say that her and my sister were taking my niece to the park, and did we want to come along. Are you kidding, the weather was 62 degrees outside, and we have been locked up for so long, of course we did. I figured at the park if there was a crowd we could avoid them and not catch many germs. So we put on our pink overalls, so that we could match our cousin Brinlee, and we headed out.

We started by putting Lexyn in the baby swing while we pushed Brinlee on the big girl swing. She LOVED it! She just kept smiling, of course we didn't swing her high, but the little swinging she did was funny to watch. Every swing she would hit a certain spot and tense up and squeeze her eyes shut. She was probably getting "fifies" (butterflies) in her tummy. Then we sat Brittyn in the swing and she almost fell asleep. We had a fun 30 minutes getting outside and enjoying the weather. Brinlee loved for "her babies" to come, but she showed some jealousy today. That's ok, we will let her by this time!

Lexyn being pushed by her Aunt Chelsey

Brittyn not so sure at first

Brinlee swinging Lexyn

The girls swinging together

Brinlee and Brittyn swinging

Lexyn really enjoying her swing

Brinlee swinging in the baby swing to be like "her babies"

Chelsey and her baby!

Gamma and Lexyn

Today Brittyn also decided to take a next step in growing up. She grabbed the bottle from me as I was taking it away. She can now hold her own bottle!

Big Day... Can you see why?

Today was a big and busy day for the girls and me. I took Brittyn to have her hearing tested. She was tested at birth like all babies. She was actually 4 weeks old when they tested her but she passed. Her developmental therapist has brought our attention to the fact that she is not responding to her name, and she will be 8 months old on Monday. So we started playing around and would clap real loud right beside one of her ears, and she still didn't respond. We got a little concerned. Today we went and they ran a few tests, repeated the test that is done at birth, and put us in a sound proof roof and made a few noises over the speakers. For the most part she still didn't turn to any of the sounds except for one on each side that sounded like pots and pans being banged together. That sound also startled me. The doctor said she actually did pass all the test today, thank you God! She said she didn't turn to the noises, but she could see that her facial expressions changed. Which means, she is delayed in that fine motor skill of knowing which way to turn when she hears a noise. We are suppose to take her back in April to be retested once she is a little more mature. Hopefully, by then she will be responding much better. Ben and I decided she probably just has selective hearing already! After we left the doctor and I let the girls catch a good nap, my mom and I pulled a No, No. We took the girls for a 10 minute trip to Wal-mart.

Can you see why we went to Wal-mart? Do you notice anything different about my sweet babies? Yes, we got their little ears pierced. I couldn't wait any longer. I had finally talked daddy into last Saturday. If I would have waited until April when they are allowed to leave the house, he would have changed his mind again. We went straight into the jewelry department, and got them done and then straight out. They didn't touch a thing; hopefully we didn't catch any germs, especially since we have just now recovered from our first cold and ear infection. I was actually very surprised at how well the girls did. There were 2 sweet ladies there to each do an ear so they were pierced at the same time. They counted out 1-2-3 and then bang, they did it. It took about 30 seconds of crying for each girl and then they stopped. There happened to be a mirror on the counter right where we stood up from the seat of getting them pierced, so they looked in it and once they realized they could see the baby in the mirror, they stopped crying. I was actually very nervous; nervous they would mess up, nervous they would scream forever, and still nervous that we might have caught some bad germs. So far though, everything but the germs showed me up. They did great, and they look so cute. My babies are getting too big too fast!

Here are a few more cute pictures of the girls.

My "Praise Baby" TV watchers

Happy Lexyn

Almost crawling Brittyn

Girly Overalls and weekend update

Yesterday the girls wore their pink and white overalls for the first time. Girls can look cute in overalls too! Their daddy loves girls in overalls. The first time Ben and I met, almost 6 years ago, I was wearing overalls with a pink tank top. He reminds me of that all the time but I am tell him that overalls are not in for grown women now!
We went to my moms house for the day, and then we went to Ben's parents for dinner. We still can't go out anywhere except to grandparents house, so we usually make our rounds to both places on the weekends.
My mom isn't working right now, so lately the girls and I have been making trips to her house almost everyday of the week. She keeps us company and we keep her company!
The girls are still sick. They have raw noses from us wiping it all day long. I will be so glad when we can kick this cold. It has been 2 long weeks for poor little Lexyn.

Daddy and Brittyn

Daddy and Lexyn

Brittyn, still not crawling just rocking and hopping her legs forward together

Lexyn playing

Today my mom came out to our house and watched the girls so that Ben and I could go to church together. Since the girls aren't allowed to go to church right now we have been rotating staying at home on Sunday's with them. But today we went to church together. It was nice. Other than that we have had a pretty relaxing day. It was way to cold to really get motivated to do much.

Please keep praying for all the sick babies. Baby Preston Kings has made a great improvement. His kidney's have started working again. Praise God, but he still has a long way to go saying he was born at 25 weeks gestation. Baby Harper Stamps is down to 39% oxygen, she is taking steps in the right direction. And Baby Brayden is completely off his meds and the vent. Yeah! He is doing better but is still in the NICU. I have been through the NICU visits with my girls, and they aren't fun so please continue to lift up all the babies.

Happy Sick Baby!

This is Brittyn at her usual. She is such a happy baby and smiles at you almost every time you talk to her or look her way. Poor baby has had double ear infections. Monday night we started her on antibiotic and after 4 doses she is almost back to herself. Even though she had both ears infected and running a 101 degree fever, and her nose was pouring like a faucet she still managed to crack a smile every once in a while. I have just started putting real bows in her hair. No more karo syrup holding them in, she has enough hair on top to hold a big baby bow! YEAH!

Please keep the sick babies and their families in your prayers. The Kings Quads parents just got word that their baby Preston is in kidney failure. If his kidney's don't start to work in the next day or so the doctors told the parents he will pass away in the next 2-3 weeks. I can't imagine hearing words like that coming out of a doctor's mouth to me about my baby. Please pray for baby Preston, and remember baby Harper and baby Brayden, and all the sick babies in the NICU's.