One-Year Adjusted Stats (by Meghan)

***NOTE***  
Meg began writing this post a month and a half ago and we're finally getting some time to finish it.


November 4th marked a very important day for our little ladies.  As of now, they are one year adjusted. At this point last year, we had 11-week-old preemies who were just passing their due dates. Sophie and Maddy were at home and Izzy still had a tough road ahead in the NICU with 1.5 months out of her 4.5 month stay remaining.

Today, you'd almost never know our girls were preemies, except for some delays in milestones. So, let's get down to the stats!




Sophia:
Weight: 23 lbs., 75th percentile
Height: 30.5 in., 85th percentile

Our little spitfire is getting faster each day. She walks everywhere and climbs on everything. Falling off is no problem her her.  Usually, she just gets up and tries again. She says baba, mama, dada and a whole bunch of other sounds. She's learning to sign.  Currently, she waves hello and goodbye, signs "all done" when she's done eating, shows "so big", and holds up her pointer finger when you ask her how old she is. She is also learning the names of many objects.  She knows who dada and mama are as well as the words ball, piggy, kitty, baba, book, and the phrase "turn the page."  Every day brings new learning!



She already loves shoes.  I think I need to find her a new passion, like cleaning the dishes.




Definitely the most jealous of the three, so far


Has huge smiles!



Madelyn:
Weight:  21 1bs., 50th percentile
Height: 30 in.,  80th percentile

Maddy is growing and learning every day, too. The therapists working with Maddy believe she has sensory processing disorder (SPD).  Because sensory processing issues are part of autism spectrum disorders we've been very worried about her.  The pediatrician was also concerned when we shared our observations of her behavior at home.  He advised that if she didn't start "coming out of her world" a bit more by the time she was 18 months adjusted, then we would start to worry about the autism spectrum.  Although kids with autism spectrum disorders have SPD, kids can also have SPD and not be autistic. Preemies with NICU experiences have increased risk of having a sensory disorder.

The great news is that over the last few months since our one-year check-up at the pediatrician, Maddy seems to be doing a lot better. She's not yet communicating with gestures like waving, but she is starting to communicate her needs and wants to us through crying.  She's also showing a much greater interest in being near us. Earlier, she would play for hours and never notice if we were in the room. She wouldn't look when we called her name.  Now if we're in the room, she sees us, drops her toy immediately, and makes a B-line toward our legs. This is great news and leads us to believe she does not have an autism spectrum disorder just a sensory processing issue.

Maddy had her re-evaluation for developmental therapy last week at which time it was determined she could benefit from adding this to her weekly routine. So now she gets speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and developmental therapy. As you can imagine we're busy, busy, busy!

Another celebration for Maddy is that she's walking! At just 12 months adjusted, two of our little ladies are walking. I still can't believe it sometimes!  Although she's not as stable as Miss Sophie yet, she's practicing all the time and getting better every day. She is so cute.  I often hear her giggling as she's taking steps and trying to keep her balance. :)

Funny, I thought she was going to have blue eyes


Since they're the only ones walking right now, Maddy and Sophie have a blast playing together, especially when they're playing "I get you!" and chasing each other around the room


By the way, we've since moved up to the big bathtub in our bathroom





Isabelle:
Weight: 20 1bs., 35th percentile
Height: 28 in., 15th percentile

Izzy has made leaps and bounds since our last post. She's crawling, pulling to stand, and cruising on the furniture!  Just a few weeks ago, she wasn't crawling yet and look at her today. Every time she pulls herself up she looks to us for celebration, so now we're clapping all the time.

Although physically she's a bit behind, her cognitive development is right on track.  She's waving hello and goodbye and clapping and she's starting to match words to objects like mama, dada, and kitty.

Such a pretty lady








I can't remember what I said, but it sure was funny




Also, we have had lots of small graduations recently and they're definitely worth celebrating!

1. We packed up the bottles and Sophie and Maddy are using bottles.
2. Izzy is off of oxygen! Yahoo!
3. The cranial bands are done as of this week and they made a huge difference for both girls. 
4. Maddy and Sophie are self-feeding regular table foods.
5. We're down to one nap.
6. Did I say two out of the three are walking already? :)
7. Maddy is done with reflux and reflux medicine!

Until next time...

A Well Deserved update to an update (by Meghan)

As many posts go these days, I wrote this one weeks ago.  So, now I'm re-reading and updating our update. Such is life in the DeBauche household these days! :)

They are growing every day! We just went to the doctor's last Friday.  Izzy weighed 8 lb 4 oz, Maddy weighed 10 lb 15 oz, and Sophie weighed 12 lb 2 oz.  They are all making progress on the growth charts for weight and height.  Sophia just crossed the line to get into the bottom section (between 3% and 10%).  Maddy and Izzy are moving closer and closer with each check in, but they're not on the chart yet.

Our biggest obstacle right now is Maddy's reflux.  We started what seemed to be a wonder drug for her: Reglan.  We had a different baby for a few days.  One who wasn't in torture after every feeding.  Unfortunately, it seems we just traded one problem for another because now her constipation is so extreme she cries all the time and spits up over and over again because she's pushing so hard.  We decided to see if maybe she had a milk allergy so we decided to put her on Izzy's formula (hypoallergenic) for a bit.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be much better. We're going to take her to a GI doc soon so maybe we can get that happy baby back sooner than if we just wait for her to grow out of the reflux. Our pediatrician said she could grow out of it as early as six months adjusted (3.5 months from now), or it could last as long as a year.  She is so tortured by it, I'm really hoping it goes away sooner rather than later.  Even that three and a half months seems unbearable.

All of the girls are smiling more and more every day although Sophie's the smiley-est by far. Izzy and Sophia are starting to bat at their toys. And, on Saturday, Sophia surprised us all.  She rolled over!  We were just hanging out like any other day and all of a sudden she was on her back.  We didn't really see it the first time, but we caught most of the second time on video.  The PT told us they need 60 minutes/day of tummy time.  I'm not sure how that's going to happen if she knows how to get out of it as soon as we get her onto the mat!  Maddy doesn't have much alert time that's not crying, but if she did I think she'd be smiling more and doing some of the things the other two are doing.  For now, we just have to hold her and give her lots of love.  Jeremy took some video of them hanging out together on the mat while Maddy was feeling well and somehow I caught her smiling.  Check it out!

Meghan




Maddy, trying the win the "Who can nap the longest competition?"



Sophia, being Sophia


Is this Sophia or Isabelle?


Sophia, being quite the little narcissist.  She thoroughly enjoys looking at herself in the mirror.  She's been doing this a lot lately and just loves the face she sees looking back at her.




Sophia on Christmas morning.  She was exhausted from staying up late to catch a peek at Santa.


Sophie


Sophie


Maddy




We just got about eight inches of snow late last week.  The day before it snowed, it was 55 degrees.  I packed up the girls and took them for a walk.  It was the first time we did it all together and the first time we got to fill up the Peg Perego Triplette SW.  They were all cuddled in with their Wubbanubs and enjoyed getting out of the family room.

Izzy


Maddy


Sophie



Maddy's been fighting severe constipation and reflux, but lately, she's been smiling a ton more!

Twice the Fun

***Note:  Today, Friday, 11/4/11, was the girls' original due date.  I can't stop smiling when I think about the fact that we've been able to spend almost two and a half extra months with them.  Obviously, I hate the fact that Izzy was born so small and needed to have surgery on her belly, but what an amazing experience we've all shared. ***

This post is a few days late, due to Izzy's big surgery earlier in the week, but I didn't want to miss out on sharing Maddy's check-out day from the Edward NICU.  After spending a whopping 70 days in the NICU, it was time for her to come home.  It was time to make room for other babies in the NICU and time for someone to occupy the space in the crib under the name, "Madelyn."

Picking up a baby for the second time from the NICU almost seemed routine.  It was sort of like, "Oh, you're here to pick up another baby?  Here you go.  Here's your baby."  Relatively, ho-hum if you ask me.  Now, that was what it was like on the surface.  On the inside, we were on the verge of exploding with excitement, knowing that we'd soon have two of our girls home together.

Madelyn left the NICU weighing a hefty 5 lbs 10 oz, a far cry from her original weight of 2 lbs 8 oz.  Also coming home with Maddy, will be prescriptions of both Prevacid and Zantac.  She'll be on very small doses, but it kind of stinks that she still needs prescriptions in the post-NICU era.  They really do help her though.  She has horrible reflux and it's extremely difficult to see her in so much pain after each feeding.  The worst is when the grunting comes with spit up through both the mouth and nose.  It doesn't happen every time, but it's always tough to watch when it happens, knowing that there's nothing you can do.  The nurses tried rice cereal, but its effectiveness wasn't conclusive and one of the docs, who we really trust, told us that recent research shows that it may not make any real difference.

During the last several days at home, she's been doing great!  She spits up from time to time, but she takes her medicine.  We try to keep her still after she eats for at least 30 minutes, and she seems to be thriving.

Maddy, right before she started wailing from being put in the carseat


We decided to try out our new Baby Trend "single" Snap 'n Go. It works great with the car seats we have and provided us with the ability to use the seats we needed for our triplet stroller (Peg Perego Triplette SW), without having to buy the expensive version of the PP individual stroller system.  This Snap 'N Go is pretty much just a frame that fits five or six of the major infant car seat manufacturers.  It's lightweight and is perfect when you have just one baby with you.  We did get the "double" version, too, so we could easily move around if Meg and I didn't want to push around the Peg Perego bus, but wanted to get out together.  These should both be pretty easy to resell on CL, so I kind of think about it like we're paying a rental fee during their use :)



Meg, peeking through the hole in the carrier cover




Buh-Bye NICU!


Our angel, lulled to sleep by the stroller




My aunt Kathy, now a great aunt, came to visit over Halloween weekend. Meg took her to the NICU to see Isabelle and Madelyn over the weekend, then she was able to help out and spend some time with Sophia and Madelyn at home.  "Aunt Kathy, come back whenever you want!"



Sisters - Maddy on the left and Sophie on the right


Meg, with two of her girls on Maddy's first night home