I suspect that pretty soon Children’s Medical Center is going to hang up our picture with a note that says, “If they show up, just call the attending. If you’re a resident, they’ll make you crazy with questions and you’ll end up having to go ask the attending all their questions anyways so just save everyone the hassle and call the attending physician.”

We picked up popcorn at Baylor and left some in the box - closed - up high. Moira found it and brought it down to within 4 feet of the floor which we now know is never safe, and Bennett found and opened and dumped it. We thought we grabbed him before he swallowed anyway but two hours later he started coughing really badly and vomiting a lot so we called his clinic. They didn’t call back for a long time, at which point he had slowed down coughing and fallen asleep (and remember, he’s still congested and fighting a bad cold) and they insisted we needed to bring him in for a chest x-ray to make sure he had no popcorn in his lungs. So Kit has to wake me up to head down to Children’s and I won’t rehash the long, tiring night - we’ll just say it included way too many chest x-rays and an RSV swab (negative, hooray) and a poor attending at her wit’s end trying to deal with Heidi’s questions (it’s 3am and I was beyond tired and getting cranky - but still polite!) because I’m not going to consent to anything without an adequate explanation and she didn’t have one, so she had to call in her attending… And he was completely shocked by us bringing up the RSV possibility and actually said to us, “It’s not RSV season,” and we LAUGHED at him and told him about our little RSV in July thing and he says, “He caught it here? In Dallas?” to which we respond, “Here, at YOUR hospital!” He asked what treatment he got, pulmonologist, etc and I told him which doctors and said Bennett scared them and they used ribavirin and he was even more shocked and said, “Wow, if he scared them (referring to those really great doctors)” plus the use of ribavirin… So I interrogated the attending for a bit and then he says we sound like we’re in the medical field and we just laughed wearily and pointed out Bennett’s gestational age (to which someone else had already commented that Bennett was “pushing the envelope”) so after five people listened to his lungs, saying he didn’t sound like he had popcorn in there OR chronic lung disease and how old was he again at birth? Add to that the nurse bringing in another nurse to see the cute baby, then us walking out for x-rays and hearing as we walk past from the attending to the residents, “He had RSV in JULY! HERE!” and everyone turning to stare at us… we kept hearing them discussing it in the hall outside our room. It just was such a long, crazy night. We were gone 5 hours and exhausted but thankfully his x-rays are clear, he’s doing better breathing, and it’s not RSV. And I saw his chest x-rays and they really do look great.

Moira’s ARD meeting was this morning and it went better than anything we imagined. Not only did we get exactly what we wanted, they offered us even more. We hoped for speech 2x a week and OT 1x a week for May, then enroll her in PPCD for August. In addition to this, they also offered us an adaptive PE assessment to see if there are skills their special OT can help her with on the playground - slides, getting up and down, swings, etc. She gets to attend motor lab every Monday and has speech Tuesdays and Thursdays and horse therapy & ABC club on Fridays (for May.) We feel very, very blessed and we’re really happy with the PPCD teacher and speech therapist.

Then we headed down to Baylor for Bennett’s 15 month well check where we were SHOCKED to hear that he’s the 50th percentile for weight (17 lbs 8ozs) for his adjusted age of 11 months, we can take him off his last medication (flovent for his lungs) BECAUSE, drum roll… HE NO LONGER HAS CHRONIC LUNG DISEASE!! The doctor that discharged him from the NICU listened to his lungs and said, “He’s outgrown the chronic lung.” He’s fine. He’s still susceptible to reactive airway issues (like asthmatics) but he’s never shown any symptoms of asthma so we’re not worried. So we’ll continue to be somewhat cautious and he qualifies for the RSV vaccine for next year but his doctor doesn’t think he’ll need it. HOORAY!! A preemie parent could not ask for better news than this.

Then we had my ultrasound with my specialist also at Baylor and I was told Emiline looks perfect. She’s perfect. My placenta is perfect, my pregnancy is perfect, I’m so boring that he’s not having me in for another SIX WEEKS and then it’s for a growth check just to see how big she looks. She’s 15 ozs today. Boring and perfect! I’m suppose to take reasonable precautions to avoid contractions but no bed rest. I can even keep holding Bennett for a few more weeks because things look so good.

Christopher hates his cast passionately but he’s not in any pain - just mad we won’t let him run around. We’re trying to keep him distracted.

This is one of the happiest, most tiring days of my life. And then Mom bought us one of the big gourmet mix cheesecakes on the way home, so a perfect end to a lovely day.

Kit’s on his way to downtown Fort Worth now to get Christopher’s foot seen by the orthopedic people at Cook Children’s and we like them. Good hospital. It’s just in Fort Worth instead of being Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, where Bennett goes for emergencies. I’m hoping they’ll look at it and say it’s no big deal and will heal quickly and without us having to duct tape Christopher to the couch - which is about where we’re at in the quest to find ways to keep him off the foot.

Bennett has developed one nasty cold, which immediately makes me think RSV but if so, he’s handling it like a trooper. Christopher is also running a temperature and complaining of being stuffed up, so that means Moira is next. If we didn’t have her ARD and Bennett’s 15 month well check and my ultrasound at Baylor tomorrow, this would be a lot less stressful. Thankfully, my sister is willing to give up her time with my Mom to send her up here and help us out in the house of invalids. So Christopher and I are both suppose to be off our feet, Moira can walk but not far (we’re still working on that goal related to the apraxia thing, her little muscles get worn out quickly) and Bennett, of course, can’t walk yet. And I’m not allowed to pick up the older two and in a couple more weeks can’t pick up Bennett. So not quite sure how this will work out.

But we’re laughing still and we know this is just a very, very minor bump in the road and really it’s mostly concern for Christopher and scheduling conflicts causing the stress. We’re all healthy and happy and we’ll survive this well.

Update: Kit’s on his way back now and he says Christopher is in a lovely blue cast up to his knee. The doctor said it’s the best way to immobilize the injury but give Christopher some mobility - for which we are thankful. It appears Christopher broke the ball of his foot just by his big toe, which is why he was walking on the outside of his foot - any pressure on the ball hurts him. And whether he says something or not, we’re going to give him pain medicine now! The cast will be on 3 weeks, off right before the big Moira/Meagan/Bennett birthday party. Not that we’ll be letting him back on the trampoline that day, but I’m thankful it’s just 3 weeks of dealing with the cast.

So Christopher’s tumble off the trampoline? We knew he hurt his toe/foot and he complained about it, then promptly went to bed and fell asleep and woke up ready to play the next day. We took him to the dentist, ran errands, he went to play with his cousins (on the trampoline again) and such. By evening when it hurt we took him into Urgent Care and they said it was just soft tissue damage, from what they could see on the x-ray.

They called this morning (and his regular pediatrician) to check on him but he was doing fine, we sent him to preschool. He ran around, played outside, not a word of complaint. Comes home, plays more while Moira & Bennett have physical therapy. Urgent care just now called back to say the radiologist reviewed the x-ray and SURPRISE! He’s got a broken bone. We called the orthopedic specialist in the morning but we have to take him back in tonight for a wrap and shoe cast to protect his foot from further damage. Thankfully it’s a hairline fracture and seems clean and is just his big toe, so I’m expecting this to heal well.

I’m going to take this, along with me being on restrictions and the thunderstorms in the forecast, as a hint that we are NOT meant to attend Walk America this Saturday. And I’ll try to not feel too bad about letting him go 2 days running around with a broken bone. He hasn’t even had tylenol, nothing. Besides the limping, he’s acted fine. I feel so bad!

We’re reading scriptures tonight and I go over the verse about laying up treasures in heaven instead of on earth. Christopher is exhausted and has had a rough day (more on that later) and he starts WEEPING and says, “My love my toys.” So I stop to try and figure out what’s going on and he’s crying like his little heart is breaking. The summary is that Christopher took that verse to mean when he dies, he must leave all his toys behind. And at 9pm and after his long day, he just could not cope with that. I decide to lie through my teeth and say, “Sweetie, you don’t have to leave your toys. It’s okay.” He’s not to be consoled and informs me, “Long tim ago, Daddy told me I not bring my toys to heaven,” (sob, sob) “Only my FAMILY!” (loud wail, more weeping) and I couldn’t help it, I just started laughing. I asked if he wanted to pray about it and see if that would help him feel better, ask if he can work something out and bring those toys. I tried asking if there was a specific toy he wanted to hold onto and he said, “No, my love all my toys.” We’re not stressing about death tonight, nope, we’re freaking out about leaving those toys behind. But he said a prayer and seemed to feel comforted and passed out.

Rough day - he took a tumble off the trampoline this weekend and we put ice on the sore foot and he continued on his merry way, but today he’s been really babying the foot. It started showing some bruises, too, and he had told us “It feel uncomfortable” but today he said it hurt. However, that was not until this evening - after a long day of being at the dentist (and he has a cavity, and he loves the pediatric dentist right up until the exam, at which point he announces “My feel nervous. My not love this part.”) Then he went to play at the cousins while we ran Bennett to an appointment and it went really fast so we were back sooner than he expected, which launched a melt down and him hiding from us in my sister’s place, screaming, “I want you to leave!!” Then we get home and make the foot discovery so he has to go into Urgent Care (second time this month, he’s getting to know them) and get x-rays to see what’s going on. It appears to be just a bad bruising, and we’re waiting to get the final confirmation from the radiologist that there are not hairline fractures. We’re relieved. Hard day for our Critter. I hope tomorrow and a fun day at preschool will help ease the pain.

I talked a long time with the transition coordinator and now we’re willing to try putting Moira in the preschool program for fall. (NOT for May, though, that’s still too much.) School would start around August 10th, so I should still be pregnant. It will give us a few weeks to see if she feels happy there and see how she’s progressing before Emiline comes, which I know will throw a lot off. Moira may adore school, and especially with a new baby home that may be special to her to have that time each day out on her own. So each morning Kit or I will walk Moira to school (it’s about a 3 minute walk, so she’s our pokey puppy) and stay to settle her in for a bit, then come home and take Christopher to preschool (Tuesdays and Thursdays) then by the time we’re back from dropping him off there’s less than 1 1/2 hours before Moira gets picked back up! So she comes home for lunch at 10:45am and we head out to get Christopher 45 minutes after she comes home! Kit will just be working afternoons in the fall at his office and evenings at home.

It was important to him that we be able to volunteer in Moira’s class or just drop in and see her at any point, or stay for the day if she’s having a hard time. We were told absolutely, we’re welcome as long as we want at any point we want - but they encourage us to leave more as Moira shows independence. Which won’t be the problem, I’m sure! She’ll probably love it. Kit also wanted to verify we can change her IEP and pull her out of the program to switch back to walk in speech & OT if we are uncomfortable with the program at any point. Since as of now, there is literally one other child in her class, we feel okay about giving it a try. There will be more adults than kids. As more kids are added, they will probably be younger than her (children turning 3 years and entering) though some may be older kids that are just moving into the district. We are just worried because the classroom we toured had a lot older, lot physically bigger kids that were really horribly acting out and it was chaos. Even with four adults in the room.

I’m excited by her starting services. I hope it’s everything we could wish for her.

Today was Moira’s testing at the school district because she’s turning 3 and transitioning from ECI (early childhood intervention program, Infant & Toddler Intervention Program of North Texas) into the PPCD (preschool program for children w/disabilities) at our little local primary school. Next year they are moving grades around as they redo schools and the one next to us will have only PPCD and kindergarden, which is cool.

So the options were Moira would have made so much progress she didn’t qualify (wishful thinking) OR she qualifies but only for walk in speech (normally 30 minutes two times a week) OR she’s so delayed she qualifies for the PPCD program (preschool 5 days a week for 3 hours a day.) They were suppose to have 3 people running several different tests on her but there was confusion on their part so the physical testing has not been done yet. We ran a LOT of speech tests on her (receptive, expressive, articulation, and some apraxia motor tests) and her expressive is not good, her articulation is horrendous, but her receptive is fabulous! She understands everything. They run the test until the kids miss five questions in a row and Moira not only was amazingly cooperative (the SLP was shocked at how long Mo sat there and when she would pause to play with Mo, Moira would ask for more test questions) but Moira didn’t miss five in a row until we got to the 6 year old level. She was still getting almost everything at the 5 year old level, which is more than we ever hoped for at this point - since she’s not yet 3!

They are strongly encouraging us to enroll her in the preschool program but after we toured it a couple months ago, we said no. She would only be in 3 or 4 weeks before summer break, then off for months, then a whole other transition to a new teacher and new classmates come fall. We will consider placing her in the fall preschool program because as of now, there is only one child in her class and that was a big concern for us. The class we toured had much older kids with some serious behavioral issues and we’re not going to subject her to that. So maybe, maybe in the fall she’ll be in preschool from 7:45am to 10:45am 5 days a week. She’ll receive speech and OT there and have a day in their motor lab in the gym, which is suppose to be a lot of fun.

We hope to have her in speech for May 2 times a week, 30 minutes each. Ideally she’ll also get occupational therapy once a week in the motor lab - and these would be just her and the therapist. Then in the fall I may feel better about putting her in the preschool. Just not yet.

Once she gets her OT testing and her ARD (admission, review an ddismissal meeting) then we’ll know more. The ARD meeting includes the transition coordinator, OT, SLP, her SLP from ECI has asked to come, us, the principal, the preschool teacher, and probably any random people or stray dogs that wander by. This is when we’ll write up her IEP (individual education plan) which is a legally binding document in which the school states what services they will provide to Mo and with what frequency and they are committed to this - if they cannot provide the services, they must pay for us to get them elsewhere, so it’s a pretty big deal. I was worried, because some parents have to fight tooth and nail to make sure their child is getting adequate services. I’m finding us declining services, so we’re VERY blessed that they are doing so much to help Moira develop as well as she can.

I’m giving Bennett a bottle (and Emiline is violently protesting him pressing against her space by kicking him in the back) and Christopher is asking me questions about bad guys (do they exercise? Because that’s a good choice and bad guys make bad choices, right?) and life and death. He asks me if babies die. Um, I should probably be honest so I say, “Yes, sometimes babies die.” Then he asks if Bennett is going to die and I say no - I’m pretty sure we’re out of the woods on that point. Christopher races across the room and leaps on top of me (and Bennett and Emiline) with huge tears welling up in his eyes and sobs out, “But I want Bennett with us in heaven!!”

It brought tears to my eyes, it was so sad and so sweet. I clarified quickly - yes, someday Bennett will die and will be with us in heaven. I thought he was asking if Bennett was going to die right now, and he just meant eventually. The correct answer was yes, apparently, because Christopher was REALLY upset by the idea of Bennett not dying and therefore not being with the rest of us in heaven. He wipes his eyes and was assured by my answers and then went to go tackle and wrestle with Bennett.

Sometimes my children catch me completely by surprise. It’s almost dinner time and I’m stalling the hungry kids by offering them healthy snacks (they have a list on the fridge they can choose from) and when Critter gets in the fridge to grab a baby carrot, we discover we have leftover broiled salmon and I jokingly say, “Hey, you’ve got salmon left,” and he asks for it! And takes it happily and walks away eating a hunk of cold salmon. Weird. Well, not that weird since we’re eating a lot of salmon lately (midwife’s orders) and when we ate this he was singing to himself, “I love salmon,” as he ate. I’m still surprised.

Saw the midwife today, all is still lovely and perfect and healthy, though by 23 weeks I’ll have a higher level or restrictions and by 28 weeks I’ll be getting close to grounded to the couch. But small price to pay to keep this little girl baking.

Happy day.

Last night Emiline (I just mistyped and wrote Moira - I’m already confusing my daughters’ names) was kicking SO hard and was so wild that I had Kit feel (he was impressed) and then Christopher felt! I didn’t know if he would be patient enough to wait and feel, but she kicked him three times and when she did he would yell, “KICK!” Then Moira tried, but her hands are so tiny I wondered if Emy could hit such a little target - she did! I’ve never seen such an excited expression on Moira’s face, she lit up. And just now Emy was being wild, again, and I was curious if I could see because she’s kicking hard - yep, I saw my stomach move twice, she’s so active. Just like her older siblings, Kit pointed out.

I was talking with a friend and he asked how things are going and I realized, as I told him - this has been my easiest pregnancy, physically. It’s been pretty stressful emotionally, but if I had to rank things I would say physically the hardest was Bennett, then Christopher (that wretched morning sickness and tons of contractions), Moira (migraines), and Emy. Emotionally, hardest was Bennett, then Christopher (bed rest, ER trip at 19 weeks, etc - he was scary) then this one, then Moira. We miscarried six weeks before both boys’ pregnancies so that put us on edge. The girls just go easier on me, now that we know how to deal with the migraines.

LOTS of new pictures up in the gallery, including the start of our Easter weekend album. I realized we have egg hunts every day the next four days! Today was our first, with preschool friends at the Senior Center “Lil’ Chicks & Bunnies” carnival. We have other celebration stuff in April albums - making goodies, dying eggs, decorating the tree, etc. It’s been really fun celebrating Easter this year in ways we couldn’t last year while dealing with Bennett in the NICU. Now he’s home and getting into everything with us!

I called Bennett’s doctor after discovering bruise on his ear and they asked if he’s getting around much. After I stopped laughing and described the places we found him, they said it’s just from his exploration and nothing to worry about. (Though they said that AFTER mentioning doing blood work on him to check for why he’s bruising, so they are still paranoid, too!) I’ve just never seen a child bruise their EAR.

Moira is recovering from whatever virus hit her Weds and we’re thankful to have our happy girl back. She was pretty sad and lethargic for a couple days and Bennett got sick just once, but seems okay now. Just tired. I was on the couch and Kit was making lunch and we both heard this weird slurping noise. We have ceramic tile and Bennett was laying face down on the tile sucking on it!! How weird, right?

I know it is possible to get a bruise on the top of your ear. Especially if you’re a little monkey who won’t stop climbing on everything in sight.

I know the internal temperature for a marshmallow is 78 degrees.

Finally, I know, by popular demand (and a few threats of physical harm), I have added recipes to the dessert list on the right. Just click on a link for way more calories than you need.