Prayer Request

We will be traveling to St. Paul tomorrow to meet with a behavioral sleep specialist and to have a sleep study done on Callie. Please pray that we 1. have a safe trip and 2. find out either what is keeping Callie from sleeping or be given some resources to help her with her headbutting and grunting.

Jason will be staying in town with Sadie and I will be at the hospital with Callie. For once I am hoping she has a really crummy night of sleep so they can observe it is she does all night long besides sleeping.

Plan for the Day

Callie: "Mom, what are we going to do today?"

Me: "Well, we are going to wash some clothes, clean your room, blend you some food and eat lunch."

Callie: "Then what are we going to do? Adopt a baby?"

Well, sweet girl, it is not quite that easy. We are not able to adopt a baby today. For now we wait.

Surgery for Callie (again)

Callie will be admitted to the hospital at 6:15 tomorrow morning (December 15) to have her tonsils and adenoids removed. She will stay overnight for observation and hopefully we will be back home Thursday.

This is, by far, Callie's easiest surgery from a medical standpoint, but this is the first surgery where she has some realization of what is going on. Childlife specialists will be working with her and we have prepared her as well as we know how. She can tell you she is going to the hospital to have the doctor take out her tonsils (which she will then show you) and then she is going to watch movies. I think she is actually pretty excited about it. We will have to see what she thinks tomorrow.

We were in Minneapolis today for her NICU follow-up visit. It went really well. Callie was given some OT/PT tests and she worked really hard. She scored at her age level or a little above in every category. The doctor was thrilled with how great she is doing. We talked a little about the need of taking Callie to a feeding clinic in the next year. For now, we are going to keep working with her and see what difference, if any, this surgery makes.

Thanks for checking on us and if you could remember to pray for Callie tomorrow and for the next few days, that would be fantastic.

Callie Medical Update

Callie had her three year appointment last month and it went well. Callie is still tiny but is growing and is proportional. The doctor was quite supportive of our new plan to try Callie on blenderized food as her formula. I plan to blog on that later. While she was examining Callie, I asked her to look at Callie's tonsils because I thought they were quite large. The doctor was quite surprised with how large they are and referred us to an ENT to see what he thought. He too, thought Callie's tonsils are quite large and in her case, too large. He didn't even need a tongue depresser to see them clearly. And when she gags, they actually touch. The doctor asked if Callie sleeps well (never), if she snores (very loudly, all the time), and he already knew about her gagging issues when she cries and coughs. He thought it would make sense for Callie to have her tonsils removed. So, next week, that is what we will be doing.

On Monday evening we will head to Minneapolis for Callie's annual NICU followup appointment. She will have some OT/PT evaluations and then we will meet with one of her NICU doctors. I figure our topic of the day will be Callie's lack of eating and the possibility of doing an intensive feeding program with her. Then Tuesday we will head back home and surgery will be here in Fargo on Wednesday. This will be her first, and hopefully last, surgery in Fargo but I feel very comfortable with the doctor performing the procedure. He know's Callie's history and is going to take every precaution necessary. We will actually be spending the night in the hospital so they can watch her carefully to make sure she does well after surgery.

This is Callie's first surgery where she actually understands some of what is going on. We have watched a pre-op DVD multiple times to try to help get her ready and we talk about what is going to happen. I still figure there might be some freaking out on surgery day. Three is a difficult age to reason with.

Though we aren't excited about yet another surgery, we are hopeful that this procedure will help Callie. She is a horrible sleeper and hardly ever sleeps soundly. We are hoping that once her tonsils are removed, an unobstructed airway will help her fall into a deeper, more peaceful snore-free sleep. When Callie gets upset and cries, she often gags and depending on when she last ate, will throw up. It would be absolutely wonderful if the gagging was a result of the large tonsils and this behavior would cease after surgery. That would really help me in my daily struggle of trying to keep massive amounts of food in Callie's body.

One of the good things we have in our favor for this surgery is Callie's Mic-Key button. Kids often don't want to eat and drink after surgery so dehydration can be an issue. Luckily, we will be able to feed Callie and keep her well hydrated.

Play Clothes

Today after Callie was dressed for the day, she sat down to play. Then she looked up at me and said, "Shoes off." I told her it was fine, she could take her shoes off. After she accomplished that, she said, "Socks off." She proceeded to remove her socks and leg warmers. Then she stood up and said "Dress off" and immediately started unsnapping her dress. There was no point in stopping her, but I was curious as to why she needed to now remove her dress, so I asked. Her response? "I play better." Well, there you have it, folks. The correct way to play for the day is in a diaper and t-shirt.

**Should I also mention the sky was dropping 11.5" of snow while she was happily undressing?

Prayer

Callie decided to bless our food for us tonight.

She closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands and said "God, boo" while uncovering her face.

It was priceless!

The Boy, the Girl and the Babe

The Boy.

Yesterday he decided it would be a great idea to make a pair of headphones. He proceeded to make said pair of headphones, except he called them "earmuffs." He even proceeded to make up a song including the lyrics "I am listening to earmuffs, listening to earmuffs, listening to earmuffs." We informed him that it made no sense that he was listening to earmuffs but he really didn't care what we thought and continued with his song. Well, during the time he was making his headphones and singing his song, I refused to be amused. His sisters thought it was perfectly delightful and both were squealing but I played the serious mom role. You see, my son made his lovely earmuff/headphones with Crazy Aaron's Thinking Putty. It is similar to silly putty but is much stickier and becomes even more sticky as you play with it because your body heat warms it and makes it very pliable. Well, the boy decided to stick a blob to his left ear, string it across the top of his head and then stick the remaining blob in his right ear. Well, because I was serious mom, I did not take a picture of th headphones intact, but I did take a picture of the aftermath. Wyatt had a lovely time with his earmuffs and his song but when it was time to remove his creation, there was a slight problem. His body heat had melted the goo to his ears and hair. Jason tried first to help the boy out, but to no avail. When he came to get my help, I had to get a couple of pictures before helping him out. And yes, he is completely Thinking Putty free, now.

The Girl.

It all started with an "Uh-oh. Mom, Callie is chewing on something that she shouldn't be but I don't know what it is." What is it you ask?

A Sharpie lid. Lovely. Considering the pen part of the Sharpie was not attached. So we started questioning the little girl. "Callie, where is the marker?" silence. "Callie, the marker. What did you do with it?" silence. "Callie what else did you write on?" With this, she looks down at her body, and lets out an "Uh-oh."

Yep. There was a tell-tale black mark on her hand. "Callie, besides your hand, what else did you color on?" silence. Well, Wyatt and I decided we were not making any progress with the girl so we decided to search the immediate area for the marker and anything else Callie might have colored on. A few seconds later we found this.

A Sadie diaper with now a lovely sharpie drawing on it. After about five more minutes of searching we came up empty handed. No more drawings (a good thing) and no sharpie (a not-so good thing). I am happy to report a few days later I found a dried out sharpie under the breakfast nook in our kitchen. What could have been quite disasterous ended up being relatively funny, al beit, nervewracking at the time.

The Babe.

Sadie is not doing anything particulary funny these days but we are stil completely smitten with her. She is the happiest, most joyful baby I have ever met. She is a lot of fun to be around.

Minneapolis

We started out our week with a family trip to Minneapolis for a pulmonology visit for Callie. We arrived in town a little early so we could catch up with our NICU friends. Sunday afternoon we were able to spend a few hours with a precious family whose son was born a few days before Callie at 23 weeks. He is doing wonderfully now and we had a wonderful time watching the kids interact while the grownups did 6 months worth of catching up. Wyatt's observation for the visit was "Mom, that was pretty neat that Samuel could talk. How did he know how to do that?" So we got to explain that technically his sister should be talking like that and one day she will. Sunday evening we had a lovely dinner with one of Callie's primary nurses. Callie showed off her new skills and just showed off in general.

Monday we met with Callie's pulmonologist. He was genuinely thrilled with how well Callie is doing. He told us that Callie has had one of the rougher courses he has seen in his 15 years but that she is doing remarkable. It was really neat to see a doctor's face light up with pleasure over how Callie is doing. Since Callie has not been sick since coming off oxygen, we still don't know how her lungs will handle a respiratory sickness but we are hopeful she will get through it just fine. Since she is doing well, we don't have to see the pulmonologist again for a year! That sure beats the days when we were making monthly trips to Minneapolis.

It seems this summer Callie has hit a growth spurt. If you take a "normal child" growth chart, Callie is now on it for length. But when I say on it, I mean barely and I think only if you make your circle large enough when charting. Due to her increased tallness, we now have to catch up with weight. She has been around the 25% for weight to length ratio but that has fallen off and is no longer on the charts. Callie is still around 20 pounds even though she is getting massive amounts of calories each day. The doctor isn't worried about it, but wants us to keep an eye on it. Callie can still frustrate us with her feedings. It has been a chore to get 200 mL in her at one time, and as I wrote this, 3 1/2 month old Sadie just downed 270 mL right before bedtime. So it remains a challenge to feed Callie all the calories and volume she needs. So we will keep pushing and see how she does and try to get some more fat on the girl.

She's Two

Callie is UNDENIABLY two years old. That's about all I can say about her fashion sense during our shopping trip the other day.

It was the first time she has ever kept glasses on for more than two seconds. And she wore them the entire outing. Lovely.

Girl with the Green Thumb

I wish I had a green thumb. I really do. Especially since most of the homeowners on our block have been blessed with the ability to have immaculate lawns and landscaped flower beds. I, however, do not have either of the above. But I also have three children who are pretty time consuming, so that is my excuse for now. Instead of pulling weeds and picking flowers and tending to my yard, I referee children who are pulling ears (seriously, not sure why they do this) and picking on each other. But this weekend, I finally decided that something needed to be done to our front yard to make it a little more appealing. So I purchased about every shade-loving plant I could find and attempted to make some kind of appealing flower planting arrangement. But wouldn't you know, as I was working hard to figure out what to do, I realized that Callie might be my child with the green thumb, as long as it involves wearing planters for hats, relocating dirt to various and sundry places and playing with any worms you might come across in the process.

Trying on the hat.

Hat fits, now we work. Move dirt from one location to another.

Move more dirt.

Find a worm to play with, and life is good!

Faces

These are some of the many faces of Callie.

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.