Alex's cough if FINALLY gone!

After a month of coughing, 2 rounds of antibiotics and 17 days on steroids Alex is finally better! Yay! Thanks for all the prayers!
I have kept my stethoscope at home instead of work for the past few years. The other day Alex walked in the room and was wearing my stethoscope around his neck....just like his mommy does! It was so funny that I had to take a pic!
I was also going to post a pic from when Alex went to ZooBoo but he refused to put on his costume...so he went as himself...hopefully we'll have more luck this weekend because we have a Halloween event to go to every night!
In further news in the past month I have started working 2 days a week. I go into work only on Tuesdays and Thursdays and spend the rest of the time with Alex. This makes me feel like a stay-at-home mom who gets to go see her friends and use her mind 2 days a week and Alex gets to be with his BFF on those days. I get to spend most of my time with Alex but still get full benefits. Perfect.

It's fun to go camping!

Alex went camping all day on Saturday with his boy cousins and lots of other children! He LOVED being outside for 12 hours straight! There was hiking, riding bikes and lots and lots of leaf throwing! Last year when we put Alex in a leaf pile he cried...he now LOVES it! No sensory issues for us!

2nd Annual Stucky's Farm with boy cousins!

I've blogged over and over again about how much Alex loves his boy cousins. We went to the pumpkin patch for the 2nd year with them and Alex had a blast! Last year we were all freezing and Alex was in a front carrier riding with me...This year we were all in shorts and t-shirts and Alex got to run around like crazy!

P.S. Alex got his haircut today by a *real* barber! His hair was out of control! Alex sat still inthe chair for over 15mins being a very good boy. Pics to follow in the next post!

And Alex is sick again,,,

I figured I'd better update my blog or lose my audience! Alex has been sick again for the past 2 weeks. AT this point he is almost over it with only a snotty nose and a few coughs remain. In the past 2 months he has been on steroids for 17 days. This means there has been very little growth. I'm hoping to get a few good months of him off steroids for him to continue to grow! He still eats very little by mouth. Maybe 50 calories a day. We have started bolus feeding him in the past few weeks . Now, instead of his feeds taking 45mins they take 5! This also means that Alex does not have to sit in his highchair for all that time. All the by wants to do is be on the go! Alex went to his first friend's birthday party last weekend. We went to the mall to "build a bear" but he was WAY more interested in pushing a trash can around the mall! He loves to drag and push things across the floor. I was thinking about getting him a child's size toy stroller but it seems too feminine. None of the boy equivalents are very sturdy (ie lawn mower etc) Prayers needed for Alex to stop getting sick and start GROWING again!

Birthday Pickle!

Happy 2nd Birthday! Alex had a great 2nd birthday! He had a party with some friends and family. He does not like to eat anything sweet so he wasn't very interested in his cake...but his pickle he liked a lot!

I love you the purplest.

I love you the purplest is a children's book my sister always gives moms when they have their second child. It's simply a story about two boys who ask their mom who she loves more. Her response is clever. She states she loves one the purplest and one the bluest.
I wouldn't really understand this story unless I had two children. I love both Lauren and Alex equally and yet very differently.
I was talking with my mother the other day on the phone when she overheard Alex being crabby. She then responded "remember how darn happy Lauren was?". I've blogged about Lauren's happiness over and over but I don't think people really believe it unless they got a chance to experience it. The upcoming week is going to be really hard for me. It's going to be hard to celebrate Alex's birthday when it is also a reminder that Lauren should be there too. Someone is missing. I was thinking of having Alex do a balloon release for Lauren every year on their birthday. Something so commemorate the fact that it is Lauren's birthday too.

I had a dream a few weeks ago that was incredibly vivid. I saw Lauren in heaven. She was perfect. Beautiful and chubby and happy. So happy. Then the thought came into my head "HE makes all things new". I actually looked this up when I woke up and found it in the book of Revelation in the bible. I then preceded to sing to her. Lauren always loved to be sung to. I sang "Puff the magic dragon" which was one my own mother sung to me when I was little and I've sang thousands of times to the twins. I will always love Lauren the purplest.

Caught up by 2?!?!

There is a notion that premature babies should be developmentally "caught up with their peers by 2". In fact, as of the seconds birthday no one adjusts their age any more. In all of the therapies they will see Alex as actually 2 as opposed to 21 months. The pediatrician will use the chart as if Alex was a term baby meant to be born in September and not December. I, however, will continue to adjust his age in my head. I don't know if this will ever change for me. Will he be 18 but I won't think of him as voting until that December. Or 21 and not drinking legally until Almost Christmas?
This idea was put into place in a time when 26 weekers were not surviving. When the viability age was 28 weeks. In fact, in the last 10 years since I've been "in the business" I've seen the viability age drop from 24 to 23 weeks. Now that these "micropreemies" are surviving, most, if not all of them are not caught up by 2. My hope is that Alex is caught up by kindergarden.
This also brings up a point which I've never blogged about. I'm a nurse practitioner. I have A LOT of medical knowledge. I have also learned A LOT over the past 2 years. Never once in all the times either myself or one of the twins has been in the hospital have I ever mentioned this. But each time, yes every single time, all of the staff knew I was an NP. This is both my greatest blessing and my greatest curse. It's a blessing that I do know what's going on. I am an active participant in care. It is a curse I know what comes next. It's a curse I KNEW we would not get out of a 26 week pregnancy with 2 healthy babies. It's a curse that I know what it means when Lauren went back on the vent In Jan of 2010...that she wasn't coming off anytime soon.

Alex is getting assessed by his therapists to see how he does....here's what we have so far:
PT (gross motor)- Alex has caught up to his adjusted age but when he turns 2 he will be behind...we are wotking on jumping from an open floor and going up and down stars standing up.
Speech- What he can say he is at a 12 month level. What he can understand he has caught up to his adjusted age...so obviously when he turns 2 he will again be behind in that category.