Officially graduated from preemie status!

Happy October!

Mattie and Sophie at the wedding...sort of.

Madelyn the Ladybug

Sophia the Watermelon

I think it's been about 2 months since I updated the blog...a fact which has earned me a couple threats lately. So...I guess I should fill you in on the progress made over those two months. Both girls are now speaking in complete sentences. They are quickly gaining their balance and starting to wobble less when they jog and are finally figuring out how to balance their check books.

I'll let you know what's going on next month if I get a chance. Thanks for reading!

Ok. So maybe I exagerate a little. I think that's part of my job, right? :) Truthfully, they got off of O2 last month on a trial run and today were officially graduated from the BPD clinic. That means we can finally send back all 20 O2 canisters that are all over our house! Sophie gets to get off of her blood pressure med. on a trial run (we're about 98% sure that will go without a hitch) and doesn't have to go back to Vandy to check that for 3 months. All that means...we can finally take a break for a while from Vandy visits to monitor preemie complications.

Now for the fun stuff. They talk like crazy now (not complete sentences...or even intelligible words, but you would sure think so by the expressions, change of tones, and laughter), are experimenting with rolling over both directions, and want oh so badly to crawl. That may take a little longer, but you can see them both working hard to figure it out. As far as size goes, unless I misunderstood today, they have caught up to term babies. Mattie clocks in around 15lbs and Sophie almost 14.

Their first outing was my baby sister's wedding at my parents' house last weekend. The wedding was beautiful (as were my sisters) but I was still kind of partial to the beauty of my wife and girls watching from the upstairs window. The girls handled the crowd of my family all together surprisingly well and contrary to all of our paranoia and fears, they came away healthy. That's not to say we weren't exhausted by the end of the weekend from trying to make sure we didn't expose them to unnecessary germs.

Lest we offend anyone, let me explain why we seem paranoid and somewhat rude. Right or wrong, Vandy docs and our pediatrician warn constantly about RSV. Even though they are off O2 now and doing great, their lungs are still fragile since they were so underdeveloped early on. Add to that the fact that the third trimester (which they saw about a week of actually in the womb) is when babies get all of the stuff they need to develop their own immune system. To top it all off, we were also told that the mother's milk quits providing immunity benifits at 6 months...just in time for cold and flu season to get going. Needless to say, we are probably going to seem a little rude trying to ward people off. I even got called out by a nurse today for an attempted body block (shifting the baby from one arm to the other to put my body between Mattie's and the nurses....awkward that she noticed. Need to work on my subtelty apparently) Trust me, it kills us, but we're not backing down. I don't plan on going back to Vandy until scheduled appointments if I can help it at all. So, we're hunkering down till spring time and the end of RSV season. Sophie and Mattie can't wait to meet you. Please pray for them not to get sick this season. We start RSV shots this week and will get them once a month throughout the season. (You may want to pray for our sanity too:) Our friends from the NICU will be going through the same thing so keep them in mind too. Crimson, Brayden, Isaac, and Eli.