December 19, 2009

Hi Everyone! I hope you are having a nice holiday season. We have enjoyed Hanukkah this year. Harry loved the presents he got and the triplets figured out what to do with those wrapped things - rip them open and eat the paper of course! Then play with the stuff inside the box (and the box too).

Great news about Harry - he just earned his yellow belt in karate today! He was very proud of himself and looked adorable showing off all he could do. It was quite an accomplishment for him considering half of what he had to learn was "eyes on Joshu" (his instructor) and "stand still"! Those were the hardest for him and he has come a long way - part of the test in fact was to stand at attention for the count of ten.

He is doing well academically in first grade but we have received a few notes from his teacher that could be summed up as "Harrison was being a pain in the butt today". I am amazed at the restraint she has shown by not actually writing that! The only other problem he has is writing, but we think that is a hold over from his earlier problems with fine motor skills. The teacher has referred him for OT so we hope they will approve it and it will help. Otherwise the lowest he has gotten on his spelling tests was an 85 (and that was because his handwriting was so sloppy she couldn't read what he wrote) and usually gets at least 100. His math tests are also usually around 90, with the errors just sloppy mistakes. I think that once he gets used to drill of test taking those mistakes will get less and less so we aren't too concerned since he does seem to grasp all of the material.

Leah is now a confirmed toddler! She walks everywhere she can and loves to show off - bending down to pick things up in both hands. It's cute though when she starts picking up speed and her upper body gets ahead of her feet and she topples over! Usually she can catch herself and stand back up, but sometimes it's a wipe out.

Micah is very jealous and has starting really working on cruising so he isn't too far behind her, but he is much more cautious so it's more slow going. And since he is a speed crawler he isn't as motivated as Leah was. Micah babbles like crazy and likes to make funny faces at everyone then smiles a huge grin :)

Golda is incredibly annoyed that she cannot move around like Leah and Micah and it's great because it's gotten her moving! First she was scootching like Micah on her tush, then her physical therapist showed her how to crawl and she's really caught on. Tonight I was laying on the love seat and she was across the living room on their little Wiggles couch. She wiggled herself off the couch and proceeded to crawl all the way over to me, grabbed on and pulled herself up!! The grin I got from her was enormous :) She is finally starting to let us feed her, although still not too much, but she will feed herself a decent amount when we give her something she can hold herself. We are waiting for the referral for a nutritionist to come through so we can figure out the best way to go about getting her to eat more by mouth. She has an appointment for the beginning of February for an upper GI series to see if there are any new constrictions forming. Happily, there aren't any signs of constrictions now, but we don't know how she will do so the surgeons want to follow her more closely for now.

Jon is settling down to his role as stay at home dad. He's got a routine established but is quite pooped most of the time. All three babies have been very snuggly and demanding lately and Harry has needed more attention for homework too so he is quite popular around here these days!

I am on vacation until January 4th! I can't say how much I needed this break. The last time I had a vacation that wasn't related to babies was when we took our cruise two years ago. In August I was hired as a Principal Scientist at Roche in the same department I had been working, RNA Therapeutics. The job is great but much more demanding than working as a temp had been so I the plant closing (the reason for my long vacation) couldn't come at a better time.

We are planning to try to really get things organized while I am home and spend some quality time as a family. Harry, and the triplets have been all over us so I guess they are appreciative of this time as well.

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Diwali, Happy Kwanzaa and anything else I might be forgetting! And a happy New Year to everyone! I will try to post more frequently next year ;)

Photos Updated!

Hi Everyone! I don't have time to write a full posting right now, but I did update the photo site last night! Check them out:
http://picasaweb.google.com/WindyNYC/#

Recovery +1 Day

Hi Everyone! After a hellish morning of switching her surgery back and forth from "right now" to "2 or 3 this afternoon", Golda finally went in for her surgery at 2:30 pm. She did great and they were able to connect her esophagus with minimal pulling. When I spoke to the doctor at 6:20 pm after they were done he said they were waking her up and she was off the respirator already! We were expecting her to be sedated for two or three days because she would still be on the respirator but our little Golda, fighter that she is, was breathing on her own with just a little oxygen right after her surgery.

We went in to see her and found her looking stoned - lol. Her eyes were open and glassy and staring into space. She looked at us and sort of smiled and just laid there looking like she was enjoying it! She had a central line in her neck, a drain in her chest, her Mic-key button had been converted into a g-tube for drainage, a urinary catheter and an IV in her right ankle. They were hooking her up to a glucose drip . After about an hour she went upstairs to the PICU's step-down unit. The room has four beds and two nurses with many docs of various levels. She settled in but was crying so they gave her some morphine. Later on she was still upset so they gave her some toradol. Put together they seemed to take care of her pain and she finally settled into sleep. Jon and I headed out around 10 pm. Needless to say, we crashed upon reaching home!

This morning we realized we had Micah's urologist appointment at 9:15. The plan originally was that we were going to leave Leah with Mema and Pepa, take Micah with us and Jon would drop me off at Golda then take Micah himself. We were so pooped that by the time we got out of here it was too late for him to drop me off first. Good thing though because the urologist recommended surgery. It's not an emergency but we shouldn't wait too long either. A lot of his testicular hydrocoele has resolved but there is still some fluid present (you should have seen the look on Micah's face when the doctor squeezed his testicles!!!) which indicated a bilateral hernia. Since his intestines haven't herniated through the holes yet it's not imperative to do it now, but waiting too long could allow enough time for it to happen. We explained about Golda and he suggested scheduling something in August that we could postpone if she wasn't out of the hospital yet. So Micah is scheduled for his procedure on August 11. He will go to the Ambulatory Unit in the morning and be home that afternoon. The doctor said that by the next day we won't even know he had anything done. Let's hope that's the case!

When I went to see Golda today I found her without her oxygen cannula. I asked the nurse if they had taken her off of the oxygen and she said that Golda took herself off of the oxygen - she refused to keep it on and cried when they tried to make her. They trialed her off it and found that she was sat-ing at 100% so she didn't actually need it anymore! And, just before I arrived, the nurse took out her urinary catheter as well. They had also taken off the big packaging around her ankle IV but had to cover the entire thing up with a sock and a diaper - you know Golda and her tubes! I explained that the sock wasn't nearly enough to keep her at bay as she yanked off the diaper and threw it. Within a half a second she had the sock off and was aiming at the IV. We both grabbed her before she got it and I told the nurse that she had to tape the sock on her foot if she wanted that to do anything.

Golda was doing very well. The pneumothorax was somewhat better but still worrisome so the surgical fellow decided to change the connection between the drain and the receptacle because it was a new type and they thought it might be leaking air. She was conked out on my chest finally fast asleep and he decided to try to do it without moving or waking her. Fortunately, he was successful and she slept right through it! She stayed there for a few hours before waking up with a smile. I transferred her back to her bed, stretched to wake up my body parts and went for some lunch. Later that afternoon the surgeon checked her repeat x-ray and said it was much improved - there was only a little spot of air at the top of her lung and maybe a shadow of air at the periphery. They were pleased with the results. Her skin from the front to the back of her right side is puffy like it's swollen but it is actually air under the skin from the surgery. Everyone has been on top of it and deemed it normal for the situation. Also this afternoon she felt very warm and the nurse found she had 101.5F. She ordered Tylenol for her and put an ice pack under her head and under her tush. The ice packs did the job all by themselves and she never needed the Tylenol.

All in all though our little Golda is doing much better than anyone ever expected! Oh and the surgeon keeps telling us that he cannot believe what a trooper she is - he doesn't know many adults that would be moving their arms after a thoracotomy let alone babies. And here is our Golda laying there waving both arms around and kicking her legs and smiling and laughing! Apparently (according to the 3rd year med student) when they were waking her in the OR after the surgery she opened her eyes, smiled at everyone, waved and babbled away!

Leah is doing better these days too. Since the pediatricians started her on the zantac again she is spitting up much much less and not wheezing at all. I think we have finally gotten her on the right treatment! She is even starting to put on weight at a more reasonable rate again.

Harrison is loving camp! He has a nice tan already and comes home filthy and tired. We are loving it too - lol. He lost his first tooth a couple of months ago and it's starting to grow in now. He looks so cute with this big tooth coming in!

Okay. Gotta go and put some kids to bed now. More later!

Day T-1

Hi Everyone! I am writing this from the hospital where I am sitting with Golda!!! The surgeon wanted her admitted the night before the surgery so they can have her fully stabilized before starting so here we are. She is happily playing in her crib (with her stuffed elephant) and talking away. All the staff keep commenting on how happy she is. Her surgery was scheduled for 7:30am but the surgeon wanted to repeat her echocardiogram to ensure that they know the location of her aortic arch before starting so they pushed back the procedure a few hours. But, when I showed them the papers from St. Mary's and pointed out that she had an echo at birth they said they would confer with the surgeon and let us know what time the surgery will be. So, I will try to keep you all informed as it goes, but keep your fingers crossed and think good Golda thoughts!

So much for mobile blogging!!!

Hi Everyone! I didn't realize that the last few entries were all scrambled. I got a new cell phone and added the blogger feature to update the blog from the mobile phone. Well, as you can tell it worked oh so well! Thank you to Loraine for pointing it out to me!

So, since I last successfully updated, Leah has been released from the hospital, gotten better and relapsed. We took her last week to the pediatrician for a really bad wheezing attack. He thinks her reflux is causing it and returned her to the medication prescribed by the pulmonologist in the hospital - albuterol and pulmocort nebulizer treatments, along with Zantac. Thankfully it worked. Now we have to get her a specialist to see whether or not she has asthma or if this is all uncontrolled reflux. She is doing much better though since she re-started the zantac and has even started gaining weight again! She now weighs 17 lbs 4 oz.

Micah is doing well. He is a big baby - 23 lbs. 10 oz! Everyone comments on how heavy he is to hold - they prefer to sit while doing so. Micah loves to be held and thrown around and absolutely loves his food! Both Leah and Micah are eating a lot of different things now, thanks to Daddy. He is once again making baby food and as Leah discovered while in the hospital (they provided Gerber), his food is much yummier than store bought! They've eaten beef, chicken, pork, and salmon along with most veggies and a bunch of different fruit and cereals. They enjoy the baby snacks too - like the wagon wheels and cheerios. They very much want to feed themselves, but there aren't many finger foods that their two little teeth each can handle so they will have to wait for that.

Harry has completed kindergarten and will enter first grade in September. I absolutely cannot believe it. He is an excellent reader and is also very good at math. His main troubles are behavioral - he can't shut his mouth and he hates following directions (he always knows a better way - sound familiar?!?!). We are hoping he calms down before 1st grade since they won't be as lenient. Harry has started camp again and is loving it! He is in the same group again, but there are mostly different kids - although he has Anna Banana for a counselor again (and boy is he happy!).

Now for Golda. She finally "made weight" this month, now weighing in at 15 lbs 6 oz! We had her testing earlier this month and were greatly relieved when the surgeon showed us the x-ray and explained that the gap is now very bridgeable and when did we want to schedule the surgery! I walked down the hall with him then and there and scheduled it! Golda will be admitted to the hospital on the 7th of July and her surgery will be first thing in the morning on the 8th!!! They anticipate it lasting four hours and she will go to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) afterwards. She will remain there 3-5 days where she will receive 1:1 nursing care. She will be on a respirator (and therefore sedated), she will have another broviac central IV line placed as well as a urinary catheter and an arterial line for frequent blood gas checks. After a few days, they will begin trying to get her off the respirator and then the urinary catheter. Once she is off she can move to the regular ward where she will remain for another 7-10 days (about 2 weeks total) if all goes well. After about 7 days they will give her a barium swallow to check the suturing site for leaks. Leaks are the main concern in this type of procedure and a large leak will return her to the OR while small leaks will keep her on the central line feeds longer. Once they are sure the sutures are healed and not leaking she will be offered a bottle! As long as she is stable she will then return to the long-term care facility she has been in. Once we feel we can care for her at home she can come home permanently!!! That will depend on how bad her reflux is and how she handles the attempts at oral feeding. If she can keep her food down most of the time and still gain weight (whether she is receiving it mostly by mouth or by GT is irrelevant) we will bring her home. We are very excited as you can imagine, but also a bit nervous about how she will do both in the surgery itself and in the aftermath. But at least we are at the point of thinking about that now!

Okay, I am exhausted now and must hit the sack. I will try to post more often again and certainly will try to keep you apraised of Golda's condition :) Happy Fourth of July!!!

Leah Update

Hi Everyone. I can't believe she is still here, but she is. After a lot of complaining, a pulmonologist was finally in to see Leah today. Tehe doctor isn't sure exactly what's going on, but Leah is reacting in a way that is consistent with asthma so that is how she will approach the treatment for now. First, her prednisone dose will be given at the same time everyday, and she will receive albuterol treatments every six hours (instead of randomly) and this will be topped off by scheduled chest physical therapy (thumping on her chest with a cupped hand to loosen the mucus in her chest). Next, she is adding a reflux medication to her treatment since reflux can cause coughing and aspiration of stomach contents. That would lead to the same appearance as asthma, but due to a different cause and therefore treated differently. Finally she is going to do some more testing to make sure she doesn't have a secondary bacterial infection and to try to identify the virus more precisely. And, best of all, she completely backed up Jon's insistence today that Leah not be moved to a shared room since we don't know what she is suffering from and therefore whether she is a risk to anyone else nor do we want her subjected to anything additional.

While this means she will likely be here another night at least, we feel much better now that there is an actual plan in place for her treatment. It was most unsettling that no one seemed to know what to try next and so we were running around in circles while Leah was starting to do worse again. At least now she will be treated according to a plan with end points in place so we can evaluate whether it's working or not (I know, I'm such a scientist!). So keep your fingers crossed that this works quickly and she gets better soon! We are getting quite tired of this place!

Update on Leah

Hi Everyone. So Leah is unfortunately still in the hospital. They are now thinking that while this may in fact be bronchiolitis caused by an adenovirus (type of cold), the continuing low oxygen levels may be due to an underlying asthmatic condition. She has started on steroids this morning to see if it helps. They have also switched her to a nasal cannula instead of the oxygen tent. The cannula has brought her blood oxygen levels up to 97% but she realllllly hates it! Jon has it taped to her face and still had to swaddle her last night to keep her from yanking it out. Ahh, my girls and tubes! Jon got the feeling that they were not planning on letting her leave today though so we are stuck another day.

I have got to get back to work though so it's all hands on deck tomorrow. I'll be going to relieve Jon shortly, then will spend the night. Jon will get up early and when he's ready to leave my mom will come up to stay with Micah and Harry. He will come and relieve me at the hospital and I will head home to pick up my mom. By that time Deena should be here to take over Micah-watching and Pepa will take Harry to school as usual. Let's home she is released during the day tomorrow so we don't have to figure anything else out!!

The worst part is that Leah has shared her cold with both Jon and I (Micah and Harry seem to have had a less severe form). That means we both are stuffy, have sore throats and yucky eyes (this wonderful virus has eye goop as its signature). And that means that we are trying not to visit Golda too often since it would be horrible if she got this too. Leah is just on an oxygen cannula. I would hate to think of what it would mean for Golda! So far so good though. She is still symptom free. But I miss her very much! The worst part has been checking on the "babies" at night and seeing two empty cribs. It's bad enough that we usually see one empty crib, this two empty beds is really too much.

Okay, enough complaining! Leah will be back home before we know it. This relative break with only having one baby to take care of (I can't believe how easy that really is in comparison!) will be over and our lives will be back to their normal level of chaos! I can't wait.

Update - Mostly Leah

Hi All,

As some of you have heard our little Leah has been hospitalized since Monday night. She had a cold that really came out over the weekend and spent most of Sunday whining. I stopped on my way home Monday night to get Pedialyte and Tylenol. When I got home I fed her then was sitting and rocking her in the babies' room. I realized how fast she was breathing and how hard she was breathing. I petted the top of her head and realized that her "soft spot" was indented (a sign of dehydration), then I looked at her neck and saw it "pulling" in when she breathed - a sign of respiratory distress. I called to Jon and we put Golda's pulse oximeter on her to see what her blood oxygen level was. It started at 89% and went down to 79%! That was when I grabbed the phone and called the pediatrician. She called back and sent us to the ER.

They gave her two albuterol treatments, took chest x-rays then gave her racemic norephinephrine. That was the only thing that got her oxygen levels up. They decided to admit her and give her some oxygen "blow-by" (a tube blowing oxygen is put near her face so it can blow by her nose since little ones tend not to tolerate the nasal cannula). Her oxygen levels have been falling too low when she is asleep and outside the oxygen tent (89%-90%) and are at the lower limit of what they will consider acceptable (93-94%) when she is awake and outside the tent. We were hoping that she could come home today, but her levels didn't improve enough so they wanted to watch her for another day. Hopefully tomorrow will be our lucky day.

Given all this with Leah we figured we should get Micah's cold looked at so Jon took him to the pediatrician on Tuesday. In light of Leah's outcome they decided to be proactive and put Micah on Albuterol nebulizer treatment at home. He was somewhat wheezy but nowhere near as bad as Leah was. The treatments have done the trick and he seems to be doing better now. Mind you, his appetite hasn't been affected at all!

Golda was home last weekend so they have been watching her very closely. So far so good - no wheezing for her, just some snottiness and a bit of coughing. They say that she is doing okay. It stinks though because we don't want to bring her home this weekend and further expose her. Grr. Oh and she is now 11 pounds 14 ounces.

Okay, that's it here. I have to go switch off with Jon at the hospital. I will let you know how Leah is doing tomorrow.

Quick Update - with Photos!!!

Hi Everyone! I am going to be heading off to bed in a few minutes, but I thought I would post a link to some new photos!

http://picasaweb.google.com/WindyNYC/AssortedPhotosJanuaryThroughApril2009#

There are a bunch of other albums at that site as well, but I can't remember right now which ones I've posted links to already, so feel free to browse!

Golda is doing well - she is now 11 pounds 6 ounces. She gets 120 ml of formula with extra fat every four hours at the rate of 125 ml per hour, and is increasing pretty often. She is incredibly alert and smart. Her babbling is really picking up too. And she sounds so ridiculously cute!

Micah is over 20 pounds already! He is just a ball of pudgy baby these days. He's got an eye tooth that broke the skin in one little spot, but nothing else yet. He is working on it like crazy though. He loves to stand, laugh and to "fly" around.

Leah is about 15 pounds now and loves to smile. She takes little cat naps all day, but once you finally get her down for the night she is a great sleeper. And she is the first of our triplets to learn to roll! She did it the other day then repeated her show at Passover, rolling from her tummy onto her back. A couple of days later she flipped from back to belly and back again (not rolling over and over, but over and back). She gets very proud of herself! Micah just watches her with a look that says, why are you bothering?

Harrison is doing well too. He is such a good big brother, but sometimes doesn't realize how much stronger he is than the babies. He gets in their faces often also. But no matter how annoying we think he is being, they love him. All three follow him around the room with their eyes smiling and wiggling whenever he looks in their direction! And Micah laughs almost uncontrollably when Harry tries to entertain him.

Okay, gotta go hit the sack. Work tomorrow! Enjoy the photos.

March 26, 2009

Hi Everyone! Thought I would take a couple of minutes to type a quick post. Things are crazy around here these days. The new house is coming along, but we still have tons of unpacking and fixing up to do. The babies are demanding more attention as is Harry and we are all exhausted from Golda's weekend visits!

Those have been wonderful! We have had her at home the last two weekends. The first weekend was one night (Saturday) and the second on was both nights (Friday and Saturday). This weekend will also be both nights. The good part is that they have switched her feedings from every three hours to every four hours so that should be a little easier this weekend. Also nice is that she is eating 110 ml with every feeding at the rate of 125 ml an hour instead of 80 ml so we are hoping that she will start packing on the weight quicker. She now weighs 10 pounds 3 ounces! We are still waiting for her to reach 15 pounds so they can do the studies to determine how much growth there has been in her esophagus and when they can do the surgery.

Leah weighs 14 pounds 6 ounces and Micah, the brute, weighs 20 pounds 2 ounces! They are both moving around more these days although none of them have learned how to roll yet. They like to stand and sit (Micah can even do it on his own for a while before toppling over). Leah and Micah are eating solid food - Chicken, Broccoli, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans (they don't like them though), Avocado, Pears, Apple Sauce, Bananas. Micah loves his food and eats as fast as he possibly can. Leah will sometimes eat well and other times you have to pry her lips apart to get her to eat. Golda loves feeding time too and will start to wiggle around and smile when you come near her with the feeding tube. And you had better be attaching it for food and not medicine because if you walk away without hooking her up she will yell at you!

Harry is starting to do better in school with his attitude and following his teacher's directions. He is usually finishing his work now and gets to play afterward and doesn't have such a big mouth. That means that he has been getting his stickers for good behavior and has earned another trip on the train with Daddy! He is going to stop taking gymnastics on Saturdays. The school hasn't been as good as it was and he isn't really progressing so we are going to take a break with it for a while. After the summer he will probably start taking karate classes. We are hoping that the classes will help him with his discipline too!

As for me, as many of you know I fell down the stairs in our new house the day of Harry's 6th birthday party. I finally had to give in and go to the podiatrist today because my left foot and ankle is still hurting more than a month later. Well, I am in a boot to immobilize my foot. Thankfully nothing is broken, but I did badly bruise the bone and Achilles tendon. He doesn't want to do cortisone shots into the heel now and won't do any into the tendon (it's dangerous) so he want to try the boot and anti-inflammatories before anything else. I have to call him again in two weeks to follow up. My back is starting to feel marginally better and doesn't interfere with anything else so I will continue to avoid heavy lifting and see how it does ;)

That's about it for now! Remember, baby-sitting (baby feeding, diapering) is always appreciated so we can get some unpacking done!

Long Overdue, but still brief Update!

Hi Everyone! I apologize profusely for the lack of communication. Things have really been insane and still are! As I am sure most of you already know, we have bought a house with my parents and all moved in. For those of you who don't know, the house is directly between where we both used to live, two blocks for each of us. It is the same setup as we both had before, but reversed. We live upstairs, mom and dad are downstairs and we now have the basement too. Jon, Brent and sometimes, Eric, are hard at work making it nicer for us. We've made great strides in the unpacking, but still have tons to do! (Volunteers, especially for baby-sitting detail, are welcome!)

Updates on the little ones. Harry is loving our new living arrangement. He can go downstairs whenever he wants, and often does. He is driving Pepa crazy! He's been doing well in school and is almost done with the reading curriculum for kindergarten. The teacher is trying to borrow some first grade material for him. He is also excelling in math, which is his favorite. However, the whole following directions, keeping his hands to himself, not having a big mouth thing? That is apparently beyond him! He is always getting time outs for one of those things! He is very lucky that he has such a great teacher and she likes him otherwise it would be much worse.

Micah is huge. I have just found the baby scale but haven't set it up yet, but at last measure he was nearly 16 pounds! He is wearing nine month baby clothes and they fit well. He is a ball of baby fat and loves when you pretend to nibble on him. He just laughs and laughs! That little laugh is adorable too. It comes with a big gummy smile, usually accented with a thumb in his mouth. He is finally learning how to laugh without getting the hiccups. He absolutely loves his food too.

He and Leah have had all the grains (barley, rice, oatmeal and mixed - which has wheat) and handle them just fine. They've had pears, applesauce (with and without cinnamon), banana, peas, green beans (Micah will eat them but gives you dirty looks the whole time and Leah will eat them but yell at you), and yams (yums). And, if you can believe it, Daddy is making their food just like he did for Harry!

Leah was approaching 12.5 pounds at her last weighing and is adorable. She loves to smile and sometimes will laugh, although she still gets hiccups after laughing. She likes her food, but prefers the bottle - she doesn't have the whole tongue action thing down yet so more gets pushed out then down. But if you are patient she will eat the whole serving and she is getting better and better. Poor little thing inherited my eczema and has patches on her pretty little face. The smile you get when you put cream on it is priceless.

Both Leah and Micah love to stand. Any chance they get they will stand and give such a smile of accomplishment! Micah is starting to get the hang of sitting too and can even do it on his own for a few seconds. Leah gets so excited to be sitting she straightens out and fall backwards. Both still hate tummy time.

Little Golda is, as of today, 9 lbs. 5 oz!!! We are quite excited about that! She even has chubby cheeks and thighs! She is so alert and smart it is scary sometimes. She had figured out how to get her repogle (the tube that suctions her saliva) out of her mouth without you even noticing! She will give a gorgeous smile and make serious eye contact while pulling her tube out hand over hand. Then you see it pop out of her mouth and realize what she has done! She can also snuggle against you chest to chest and, while moving up and down, seeming to be snuggling in more comfortably, she pulls the tube out. She gets that thing out so often that she doesn't complain as much anymore when you put it back in.

We took her to the surgeon about a month ago to get her feeding tube changed. It was getting grungy and she was ready for a change. She now has a Mic-key tube. It is a little button like thing - similar to the thing you blow into on a beach ball - that has a tube that detaches when she isn't eating. She loves the freedom of having it off and will wiggle around whenever it is removed. The best part is that it is no longer constantly pulling and irritating her so the granuloma is shrinking and the redness and drainage are significantly less. No more constant antibiotics or dressing changes. The nurses check it with every feed and change the gauze three times a day. Most of the time it's dry with just a little drainage and her skin is looking healthy and pink now. Oh! And amazingly, that big protruding belly button she had is now an inny - her belly has finally fattened up to match it like they told us it would.

All three babies are teething like crazy! Micah even has gotten his left upper fangs! They have just broken through this past week. And the bottom ones are threatening. Leah has many white spots, but none have come through yet. Golda has a few white and red spots but again none have come out.

Oh and before we moved I printed out actual "announcements", thank you cards and moving cards. My goal is to find them and the mailing list and send it out by April. Thank you for understanding!