December has been very busy at our house. The holiday season started on Dec. 7th with a visit with Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus. They came to our house in a big red truck (not enough snow for the sleigh). Hannah was VERY excited and the girls all enjoyed the visit. We got some really cute pictures. Mr. & Mrs. Claus said they knew it would be hard to get somewhere for a photo so they came to us. Thanks Mr. & Mrs. Claus.
The girls have continued with their in-home physical therapy one time per week and seem to be improving the strength of their neck muscles each week. Brooke is still the one having the most problems and her neck muscles are still the tightest. She received her helmet mid December and has to wear it 23 of 24 hours a day. The first week was really rough but it now seems to just be part of the daily routine. She goes to get the helmet adjusted and fitted every 10 days so we have added that to our "to do list". We took Brynn and Lexi to Dr. Travato at Kennedy Krieger (this was the doctor whom Brooke already saw), she is a specialist in the issues they are having with the tortocollis and flattening of the head. She thought that Lexi was looking good and there was no reason for a helmet for her. Brynn, she wants to monitor for another month or so and then make a decision about a helmet. We are praying no helmet. She had suggested that we stop outpatient physical therapy and start craniosacral therapy one time per week. We start that today in Columbia so we will see how that goes. This type of therapy is going to be a very different approach for the girls. It is more of a touch point therapy which is not what they are used to. Dr. Travato said that they have a very high success rate using this type of therapy on the tortocollis. We will try anything that they think will work for poor Brooke who still only wants to turn her head to the right side. Brooke was baby A and was on the bottom of the pack with her head facing right for a very long time.
The rest of December has been busy but good. We managed to have tree up and decorated which was better than I thought we would do. Christmas was just more laid back this year with not as much stress about the things that needed to be done (there is just no time to get things done). We did what we could do and did not worry about the rest. I think I went to one store the whole holiday season. I did the rest of the shopping on-line mostly in the middle of the night with Lexi (who would prefer to stay up than sleep). So I really did not shop, nothing was baked, the house was minimally decorated and it really did not matter, Christmas was still just as great. Hannah had a great morning and the girls liked the paper and bows. We had lots of visitors before Christmas which was great and we enjoyed seeing everyone! We even made another trip to Frostburg Christmas afternoon and had a great time. It is much work getting somewhere but so worth it when we get there. The girls were so good and loved being out of our house. Lexi did not sleep but she doesn't sleep here either so it was no different. I think Lexi has realized that in the middle of the night she is a only child and has all of my attention which she really likes. She thinks she should be an only child. She did not get the memo that she is one of three with a four year old sister, all of whom share mommy's attention.
The girls turned seven months on the 31st which I can not believe. They are all rolling all over the place. They roll from one end of the room to the other. They are all growing and gaining weight:
Brynn: 15 pounds 15 ounces
Brooke: 15 pounds 11 ounces
Lexi: 14 pounds
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We even got out for a little bit for an early (6-9) New Years Eve party at a friend's house. You know you have good friends when they still invite you to parties with all the craziness we bring. Everyone at the party helped hold, feed, rock, soothe and cuddle babies...thank you so much..Tara, Mark, April, Blake, Michelle and Chad. Good friends are hard to find and we would not make it without all of ours. THANKS!!
I added new photos labeled Christmas and Seven Month...enjoy!
Wishing everyone a healthy, happy 2009 -
