Baby statistics/Seth's PT appointment

As requested, at their nearly 18 month visit (15 months adjusted age):

Will was 32 inches long and weighed 24 lb 5 ounces (he was previously 25.5., so lost a pound in the past month probably due to toddler activity level)

David was 31 ¼ inches long and weighed 20 lb 2 oz.

Seth was 30 ½ inches long and weighed 19 lb 14 oz

All three boys have a 19 inch head circumference which surprises Gavin and me. We thought David at least has a smaller head than Will.

Marcie was exactly 30 inches long, weighing 19 lb 2 ozs

Gracie was 29 inches long and 17 lb 9 oz. Tiny little girl! But her head circumference was almost half an inch greater than Marcie's, and only about half an inch less than the boys'. :)

The doctor declared them to be "perfect," even though they are so much smaller than Isaac was as a baby. I guess that's just par for the course when raising preemies. We are so grateful for their good health and vivacity.

Seth's physical therapy checkup today went really well. He may get a small foot brace for that left foot that turns out, but the therapist (who has her doctorate, so is excellent) found that he has symmetrical weakness in both legs. That's better than more pronounced weakness on one side. To help strengthen his legs he needs to be kept on them as much as possible. I asked about a walker, and she says she has one she can loan us. She said it looks just like an adult walker, only it's the perfect size for a toddler and doesn't have a seat. So cute! My concern, of course, it that the other kiddos will steal it - "New toy!!"

In the meantime, Seth used his brother as his "walker" tonight, grabbing David by the shoulders and walking around behind him with the biggest grin on his face! He thought he was so smart - and he was, until David decided he wanted to sit down instead of be used in that way.

Seth also had me lend him my finger(s) to hold onto while he walked around the yard and kicked the soccer ball tonight.

Gracie has started shaking her head when we ask if we can hold her. Little Miss Independent!! She needs to be about the business of her books and her toys, I guess!

Marcie got that funny, yearning, tender look in her eye while watching Gracie walk around the other day and I said, "Gavin, here it come!" Sure enough, Marcie glommed onto her sister with the "Ooooo-weeeee!!" and a big hug. Will was standing there, so she seemed to think, "Why not?" and turned to give him a hug too, but as before he backed out of there quickly. He doesn't think much of Marcie's hugs, I guess!

I need to get to bed. Love and gratitude,
Carrie

Gracie with her new friend from Aunt Katie

Helping me get ready for church. I was laying out their clothes and turned around to find them like this! They nearly emptied the drawer, of course. Thanks to whoever it was that refolded and put the clothes away!

LOVE their books! (Gracie, David on hearth, Seth and Will on floor, Marcie with her daddy in the kitchen out of picture)

Why can't I follow this diet??! (Seth's GI appointment)

I think this is hilarious; actual doctor's orders printed on our take-home sheet after being drilled into us in the office:

"Whenever eating salty[savory] foods add butter, oil, cheese. Sweet foods add chocolate or peanut butter."

And we're now mixing Carnation Instant Breakfast (or rather Breakfast Essentials, they've changed the name since I was a kid) into every cup of milk Seth drinks, as per her orders.

All of this because our poor little boy just isn't gaining weight. In fact, he's lost some weight (probably due to his very active toddler lifestyle) and is back down under 20 pounds. :( The doctor said this is very common in preemies, descriptively called "failure to gain weight." Seth's height and head circumference (brain growth) curves are great, it's just the weight one that isn't coming up like it should. I know Gracie and David are technically underweight, too, but obviously we're not as keen to get them fatter since they haven't been on a feeding tube.

Thankfully, the doctor wasn't at all concerned - she sees this a lot - and she says he'll outgrow it like preemies do. The problem, she said, is that parents get so used to fattening up everything the kids eat that they find it hard to stop and the kids end up too chubby! I would LOVE to have that problem and have to put my kiddos on a lower fat diet. :)

Seth's progress in successfully weaning off medication, successfully discontinuing tube feeds, and coping with 3 colds without needing oxygen, his albuterol inhaler, hospitalization or indeed even acting very sick at all, seemed to really amaze her. He was quite busy in her office, too, and talking, which was fun.

So our big prayer request is that Seth will gain weight and keep it on! When he can gain weight two visits in a row she'll give us the go-ahead to remove the feeding tube tummy button. It's just a matter of deflating and removing it, then placing gauze over the remaining little hole, which should close up quickly. We can do all that on our own. In the meantime his button is a handy way to give him his antacid medication. :)

Seth was happy to practice walking between Gavin and me the other night . . . until he fell. Then he was upset and refused to try again. I guess he just hates falling more than the other kids did. He seems to be walking with his left foot more straight. His favorite thing to play with (other than the slide) is the Fisher Price shopping cart on loan to us from Miss Lynn. He loves to walk it up and down the hall. He also loves to push his siblings on the ride-on cars/trains. Maybe those exercises and the "enforced" standing on left leg only exercises are working; maybe it's people praying for him! We have his reevaluation on Monday at 9:30. I'll update then.

Someone told me one of my recent kid update posts was too long,  so I'll close for now! :)

Gratefully,
Carrie

The kids after they finished eating. They all love my spoon and coffee cup, so I got them all their own metal spoons and mugs. Great fun was had by all! You can't really see Seth or Marcie at all, but Gracie and David and Will sure are cute, I think!

photos from yesterday and today (1/31/14)

Marcie reading with Mommy

Marcie's cute new clothes from Len and Mickey!

David and Marcie reading with Ypie

David with the pony. I took this immediately after I finished the last blog post in which I noted that it was really hard to get photos of David because he's always on the go!

Box wars! David is crushing his big brother Will

Will fought back (he very much believes in survival of the fittest, i.e. himself). David was cracking up with laughter, although you can't see it in this photo

Gracie and her books, Seth and his slide, Will and his balloons, plus little bits of news

Grace received books from a lovely woman whose name I cannot remember as the package was inadvertently discarded before I wrote down the name and address! Please forgive me; I hope you are a blog reader since this is your "thank you." :) Grace continues to be the biggest reader; her favorite spot is on the hearth next to the books, or sitting in someone's lap being read to. She loves the books the NICU (UTSW/St. Paul's) gave the babies. Those seem to be a favorite among all the babies. They all seem to love reading, although David has more need for movement and doesn't sit down to flip through books much.

Seth is kind of obsessed with the slide and wants everyone to see him go down and applaud him. He is SO proud of himself and beams at us when he reaches the bottom.


Seth is walking with one foot (the left) pointing outward instead of straight, so we're restarting therapy to work on strengthening exercises and walking independently.

All of us but Gavin have colds. Seth and Will have bacterial tonsillitis, poor boys! Seth is amazingly perky nonetheless; Will shows his misery more. :( He's had a much higher fever, whereas Seth's has been very low-grade. [I wrote this a day or two ago; both boys are better now.]

The kids had their 18 month check-up today (even though they're not quite 18 months yet and are only 15 months adjusted age). If head circumference is an accurate predictor of future height, Gracie might be two inches taller than Marcie. Hard to imagine right now! She's still a pound-and-a-half below Marcie in weight. She hasn't even hit 18 pounds yet, but the doctor says she looks good. :) It was funny when he asked if she could identify body parts yet. We said we didn't know, so asked her where her eyes were. She immediately pointed to them. Then she pointed to her tiny nose on command, and when we asked her to point to her mouth she laughed and pointed at mine instead. David did the same thing, pointing at Gavin's nose instead of his own. (Gavin's nose is much more of a nose than David's is thus far!) The kids showed off some of their language skills in the office. They were very excited by the dogs on the walls and barked quite a bit. David said "goggie" half the time instead of doggie, which was cute!

The girls wore their new Valentine's outfits from Lynnette. Grace was so taken with the hearts on her skirt that she didn't look at the camera for this picture:

Our cute little neighbor boy asked me today how we know which baby is which, because "there's so much of them!" He was surprised that Isaac knew who Marcie was vs. Gracie (which Isaac did not know for many, many months!). It's such fun to have "twin" girls in our quint set. Today at the doctor's office another parent saw just the girls and said that our twins were beautiful. If only they knew . . .

I took Will shopping a couple of days ago. It was fun to have just one baby along and watch him take in the big wide world of Target and Tom Thumb. Wow, I had forgotten how much work even ONE baby is when you are out and about! My hat is off to all you moms who can only ever shop with one or more kiddos in tow. I normally plan my trips around our helper schedule, so I am spoiled.

Will LOVED the balloons left over from Isaac's party! He plowed into them over and over again, taking them around the living room with him. The other kids were pretty thrilled too, although Seth seemed a bit overwhelmed, he was so tired. (The party was a ton of fun! Lots of friends, balloons, Nerf guns, and running around outside - what could be better?!)

Did I already post these pictures?:

David on the slide. It's hard to get pictures of him, he's SO busy!

"Obi-Will-Kenobi"
He LOVED having the blanket on him like this and kept trying to arrange it just so!

Forgive me if these pics are repeats. I'm pretty sure you don't mind. ;) Love and gratitude to all!
Carrie

Keeping Up With The Joneses - January 2014 Newsletter

This is our latest newsletter with information regarding our ministry with Wycliffe and our hopes and plans for the near future.

If you are having trouble viewing it, click here to download the PDF file.      

Marcie's hug addiction

Grace tolerated it; Will would have nothing to do with it!

This week's happenings

Megan built a couple of forts for the kiddos (here with Gracie)

Gracie in front of the fort

Marcie (Seth and fort behind her)

The whole gang (minus David) enjoying the fort

Uncle Kenneth and Aunt Courtney and Aunt Katie brought a petting zoo to us! There were four dogs in the house at one point. Crazy fun! Will, Marcie, David and Seth with Parker the dog. Grace is visible in the background.

Marcie, Gracie, Will, David, Seth (barely visible) with Parker and Paxton the dogs

Isaac turned 10!! I am so proud of my big boy! Here he's posing with a foam dart gun he bought using gift cards.
Isaac's party is tomorrow, but we had fun celebrating with family on his actual birthday. (My mom realized she was wearing the exact same sweater for his 10th birthday dinner that she wore in the delivery room the day he was born!)

As always, Grandpadad came to visit daily. His boys demand instant attention! David's making a funny face; oh well!