From small beginnings: Whitney Clinic Follow Up

So it has been a while since I last updated and that is because life is really busy right now. Travis has duty every 4 days for the entire month and that coupled with the girls constantly on the move makes for an exhausting day. Throw in teething and that makes it even more interesting since the girls get super clingy and want me to hold them all day. I am definitely not complaining about that though since I love to cuddle with my girls! I have also been working on their first birthday party stuff and also redoing their room (a bird theme) and making some decorations for that as well. I have several projects going on right now actually and trying to find time to do them all while not taking away time from the girls. We have also had lots of appointments including big ones like the Whitney Clinic. The Whitney Clinic is a follow up appointment from NICU doctors to see how the lives of former NICU graduates and gathers statistics from the San Francisco area about former micropreemies and their development. Basically, they want their own populations statistics and not those of other hospitals combined. When I was in labor and they told me the girls had a 40% chance of making it at 25 weeks this is where they got that number from. I was a nervous wreck as I knew we had a 50-50 chance of them having cerebral palsy as a result of their brain bleeds (Presley had a grade 1 and Kourtney a grade 2). We saw four doctors: a neurologist, a pediatrician, a developmental therapist, and an occupational therapist. The neurologist explained how the odds were against us when the extremely low birth weight and brain bleeds but was shocked and happy to inform us that the girls had no cerebral palsy or any other kind of neurological consequence of being so premature. Isn't it amazing how the brain of these little ones rewires itself and goes around the damaged part of the brain during the bleed so that there would be no problems later on? Amazing. In fact, that is the word he used to describe the girls. Next was the pediatrician who checked them over and plotted them on the growth chart. I knew I was going to have to explain why Presley was so low on it and why weight gain was such an issue. I was pleasantly suprised that they used an Very Low Birth Weight Chart. This is a different one and only certain doctors use it. Our pediatrician has been using the preemie growth chart. A preemie is considered 4-5 lbs and a micropreemie is a baby weighing under 3 lbs at birth. I am going to ask why we are not using this chart. Presley is in the 5% for both height and weight and Kourtney is in the 20% for weight and 15% for height. She said that these are tiny girls and that the fact that they are proportionate is important as it shows they are healthy. Then I told her that Presley hadn't gained any weight in 3 months and then she got worried. She checked her heart and there is no sign of the murmur that was there when we left the hospital but we now need to look into metabolic tests as to why she will not gain weight despite all the eating that she does. The developmental doctor played with her and that part was my favorite as it was really relaxed and just playing the whole hour which Presley and Kourtney loved! We are right on target there. The occupational therapist basically tried to see how many words they knew and how many they could say, which is zero. All they do is grunt and babble but she told us this part was going to be a huge struggle, regardless if they were micropreemies or not as twins always have speech problems and are slow to learn. The term she used was "twin talk" (look it up for more information) which they have. Twin talk is basically a twins way of communicating with one another and a language only they understand. She assured me that once they get to be around other kids they will lose the twin talk. Other than that, the appointment was a success!

Kourtney has been trying to walk lately and I gave them an early birthday gift of a push walker and they love it! Kourtney is much better at it than Presley. The girls weigh in at 12 lbs 13 oz (Presley) and 14 lbs 9 oz (Kourtney). The girls each have two teeth a piece now and I am trying to get toothy smiles but they aren't fully grown in yet so maybe in the next few weeks. Here are some pictures and videos: