2/27/11

Troy got the pleasure of taking Miss Rylee to the doctor on Wednesday to get her synagis vaccination. We will be so glad when she no longer needs to get these shots as it is no fun for anyone. She weighed in at 25 pounds with all of her clothes on so we are thinking she weighs about 24 1/2 pounds. She is out weighing Jordan by 1 1/2 pounds now. She is drinking the pediasure pretty good so that is helping with her weight gain. I think we might start giving Jordan some to help her gain some more weight. The doctor let Troy know that RSV is really bad right now so he was glad he got Rylee in for her vaccination. Jordan woke up Wednesday morning wheezing and the doctor just wants us giving her some breathing treatments for now. She is still wheezing pretty bad and gets pretty bad when she is active. Which is 99 % of the time now. She is our wild child for sure! She wasn't too happy when she had to stay home with the nanny and Ry got to go out with daddy. She was very grumpy all day and our nanny thought maybe something was wrong with her as she is normally very happy. She gave her some motrin and then all was well. We have threatened her a few times this weekend with drugs but so far she is doing much better. I took the girls out in the yucky weather on Saturday to get some pictures with a photographer that we have used a couple times. She gets clothes from etsy sellers and then takes pictures for their on-line sites. We get the pictures so it works out good for us. The girls did pretty good for the pictures. They still don't enjoy being photographed too much but getting better. Tiny K was here on Monday and they did the visit with our nanny and from what I heard they were very pleased with our girls. They are even doing some stuff ahead of their age. They can identify shapes, colors, and have been counting really good. Rylee can count to 13 but leaves out 12 most of the time. I am just so proud of them. Hopefully Jordan gets rid of her wheezing and we can say put for the week. Troy's basketball season ended on Saturday and he had another good season.

2 years and 2 months

The girls and I have enjoyed some days out of the house this weekend. On Friday I took them to a friends so I could meet up with the March of Dimes rep from St.Lukes NICU. I am going to start volunteering for the NICU and I am very excited about giving back to the organization that has done so much for us. We stayed around the house on Saturday and then today we went to Burlington to get our hair done by Aunt Kim and Aunt Kayla. We ended up having Rylee's hair cut like a bob and it looks so cute. The girls have missed their naps both days and did wonderful. Tiny K will be here tomorrow and she will just meet with the girls and our nanny. We are so thankful that Tiny K comes to our house and offers all the support. My mom really noticed how well they are talking on Monday and could even understand what they were saying. When the girls do something I don't approve of I always say "why". The other day Rylee dumped her plate out and after I said Rylee, Jordan said "why". Rylee will get her synagis vaccination on Wednesday morning and of coarse I am not looking forward to that appointment. We got the bill from our insurance company this week and last month's bill was over $12,000 for her January shot. This was before it had been processed yet. It is just amazing that the company can charge that much for one injections. I am hoping she only has one more shot after this week. Please keep the Kansas Department of Corrections Parole staff in your thoughts as we are facing some major lay offs in the upcoming months. The word last week is that 1/3 of our parole staff for the state is being cut. This is going to be a disaster for our department. I am really hoping and praying that I don't lose my job or our office doesn't lose too many officers. I am the one that has the girls on my insurance as Troy's is way too expensive. It has been a very stressful time for me.

Happy Valentine's Day

Troy and I just got home from a dinner and Costco date with another couple. We had a great time at the Cheesecake factory and were glad to get home to our little valentines. Thanks to our nanny we were able to get out of the house. They had their own little Valentine's Day party with balloons, bracelets, candy, pizza and a craft project. Not much going on with us these days. The girls got to spend some quality time with daddy on Wednesday due to another snow day. He has been pretty busy with basketball games so it was nice for him to get some one on one time. Grandma Bitler gets to spend the day with the girls tomorrow as our nanny will be spending time with her new niece. Jordan's new word of the week is heart and what perfect timing with it being Valentine's Day tomorrow. Our little sweethearts continue to melt our hearts everyday. I will post some pictures from their first Valentine's Day to see what a difference two years makes. Oh and on a good note Rylee is still doing very awesome with drinking her pediasure we have even been reducing her tube feeding at night. Go Rylee!

Cabin fever

We are experiencing some major cabin fever here in our house. Our poor girls have only been out of the house two times during this past month. One of those times was to go to the doctor so I am sure they will not count that as a fun outing. We are still just too scared to take them out in public with all the illnesses going around. A friend of mine has a 24 week preemie that is a little over five months older than the girls and he is currently hospitalized with pneumonia right now. This is why we are really trying to be careful with our pride and joy. I actually got two days off work this week with the snow and Troy was off for three days. We had Tiny K here on Friday and she let me know that she could see huge improvements with understanding their words. She noticed that Jordan likes to talk about colors and Rylee likes her numbers. We will continue to receive services through Tiny K (infant and toddlers) until the girls are 3 and then we will transition to the school system. It is really nice having them come into our house and offer support. We have been a little concerned with Rylee's liquid intake as she seems to have slowed down with her drinking. She will only drink a few ounces a day so we are giving her water and pediasure through her g-tube. She still drinks pediasure rather than milk as she needs all the extra calories she can get. We went against the OT advice and quit putting thickener in her pediasure these past couple days and she did a lot better with it. Now we just need to hope and pray she isn't aspirating the liquid. She gets very upset when we break out the syringe and g-tube extension so I know she would rather drink her liquids. We are still enjoying our life without her trach and it is so much easier around our house. The trach life was not a pleasant experience for us to say the least. We still count our blessings everyday. And of course, also with this age comes the fighting and the boundary-testing, and the tantrums and the whining and the seemingly never-ending need to move and to be entertained. Those are the things that still make me feel exhausted after each and every day. But they are still not what I find truly difficult about our current life with Ry and J.