Friday, May 21, 2010

Faces

These are some of the many faces of Callie.




















Another Run

Wyatt had so much fun with his first run, that he asked if he could race again sometime. This weekend is the Fargo Marathon - complete with a 1/2 mile and 1 mile kid's run. We weren't sure if he would be up to running the full mile, and we didn't want it to be so hard that he got discouraged, so we entered Wyatt in the 1/2 mile. He and his dad ran together and they had a really good time. Wyatt did wonderfully. I think next year it will be the full mile for him.



Miss Sadie had fun waiting with Papa for the race to start.




Monday, May 17, 2010

Easter

We had a great Easter this year. We were able to all go to church, even though we had to take Callie in the service with us. She did surprising well for a talkative toddler. Then we spent the afternoon with grandparents. We don't have any wonderful Easter pictures. Callie was not in the mood for pictures and informed us of this. She frowned for most pictures and shook her head "no" when we asked if we could get a picture. There really wasn't any way to reason with her so we finally gave up. But here are a few pictures of our day and finally some pictures of Callie.




Wednesday, May 12, 2010

First Run





Jason is quite the runner Well, after having surgery the end of March for a torn meniscus he is becoming quite the runner, again. Anyway, now that Wyatt is five and enjoys running with Jason and the dog, we decided to sign Wyatt up for his first kid's run. A couple of weeks ago, Wyatt competed in a fun run and then Wyatt and Callie rode in the stroller while Jason completed his first 5K in a while. Wyatt was on top of the world with his run. He thought he did wonderfully and though he was tired towards the end, the people cheering him on gave him the energy he needed to finish strong. We are proud of him and hope to have him run a few more times this summer. And if you ask Wyatt, he will let you know he ran a "marathon" and he beat his dad! Look how hard he's concentrating in the photo!





Boy's Birthday

Since I have mentioned the girls, I should probably mention Mr. Wyatt. Wyatt turned 5 a few days after Sadie's birth and was thrilled that his birthday was Sadie's first party to attend. Since Sadie had just been born, we decided to have a small, family party. Wyatt didn't seem to mind. He was able to pick out the decorations (Cars plates and napkins) and balloons (pink, teal, red, and yellow) and the cake (lemon). I didn't really know how to make a fun lemon birthday cake, and a few days before his birthday, he decided he wanted a lemon dumptruck cake. The dumptruck theme had been performed before for his second birthday. It was a chocolate cake so it worked well. But a lemon dumptruck? With the help of Granna, we improvised and I was very please with the results. It was a lemon-raspberry cake, complete with a functioning dumptruck! Wyatt had a great day and received some pretty neat gifts.

New Member
















Our most exciting news is our newest member of our family - Sadie Rose Medders. Sadie was born April 14, 2010 weighing 6 pounds 11 ounces and 19 inches long. She was the largest Medders baby to date. She is also the only full-term baby we have had. She was born 2 days before her due date. Callie and Wyatt are doing great with the new baby. Wyatt loves holding Sadie and talking to her and just touching her. He is really excited about when she can play with him. Callie is doing much better than Jason and I thought she would. We have seen no signs of jealously - just pure delight with her little sister. She loves pointing out Sadie's eyes, mouth, nose, hands, and feet. We are constantly reminding her to keep her fingers out of the baby's eyes and mouth. Sadie is very laid back which is such a blessing. She can sleep right through the chaos of our house. She is also very snuggly which is a lot of fun since Callie never was. As far as baby's go, she is a very easy baby. I am just trying to get adjusted to having three kids and balance my time with each of them and still keep up with the daily function of our house. Needless to say, the household part is really suffering these days. It is much more fun to play than to clean!

Our Blogging Start

We originally started blogging in July 2007 right after we found out we were pregnant with naturally conceived, identical quadruplets. I had mixed feelings about blogging but we ultimately decided that through our blog we could keep family and friends updated with correct information and we also hoped that through our experiences, we would bring glory to God as he worked in our lives through the pregnancy.

The pregnancy went well for a while and then around 18 weeks we found out two of the girls were experiencing twin to twin transfusion. In an effort to correct this, we flew to Providence, Rhode Island for a laser ablation surgery. This was the first time the surgery had been performed on identical quadruplets, anywhere in the world. From a medical standpoint, the surgery was a success, but our Baby Girl A was so sick when the surgery was performed, she was not able to recover and died in utero the night of the surgery. Before we left Rhode Island for Minneapolis, Minnesota, Baby Girl D looked to be recovering. I was stable when we arrived in Minnesota so I began bedrest in a hotel adjoining the hospital where I was to deliver. A week and a half into my stay, I experienced complications so I was admitted to the hospital at 23 weeks. I was given the steroid shots to help the lung development of the girls and spent my days lying in bed praying that the girls could stay inside longer and we wouldn't have any more problems. At 24 6/7 weeks, for some unknown reason, I began having contractions that would not stop and the decision was made for the girls to be born. On November 4, 2007 the four sweetest little girls were born. Annika Peace, who died in utero, was born weighing 4 ounces. Daily Providence was born weighing 8 ounces. She was too small to survive but I had the incredible blessing of holding her and singing to her and praying for her as she died. Callie Ranelle weighed 1 pound and Berkley Claire weighed 1 pound 4 ounces. Three days after her birth, Berkley went to join her sisters in heaven.

Callie spent the first 209 days of her life in the NICU. While there, she underwent 8 surgeries and experienced a number of setbacks. She came home on May 30, 2008 dependent on a feeding tube and oxygen and needing occupational, physical and speech therapy two days a week, as well as in-home nurses. Due to her medical fragility, we were not able to expose Callie to germs, so her life has been pretty much secluded to the walls of our house and hospitals and clinics for doctors' appointments. Now that it is May 2010, Callie is finally stable enough to begin experiencing the world, and the germs that come with it. Our goal this summer, as odd as it may sound, is for Callie to experience a cold or two and see how her body is able to handle it. We are also hoping that now that she is able to be around people, her social skills will flourish as she interacts with others (who aren't familiar with Callie-talk).

Callie still has a few medical concerns (e.g. she is fed only by tube and takes nothing by mouth) but she is MUCH improved from where she was. So much so that it will be fun to focus the blog on a few other, more "normal" things for a change.


We are Back

Welcome to our new site!
After taking a break from blogging we have realized that there are still many people who are curious as to how Callie is doing and would really like us to blog more. After two and a half years of mainly blogging about medical issues, I am ready for a change. We thought it would be good to start fresh - thus the new website. (Plus we were having issues with the formatting of the old site and I wasn't smart enough to know how to fix them).
The goal of this new site is to be more fun and upbeat and involve more than just a focus on Callie. I suppose I should start with how our blogging came to be in case there are new readers, so that will probably be mostly about Callie. Our "old stuff" will remain at meddersfamily.googlepages.com, so people can see how far we, especially Callie, have come. But we won't be updating anything there again.
So thank you to everyone who has e-mailed and asked how we are doing and I hope you enjoy our new site.