Molly and Luke's Elf dance

Click below to see Molly and Luke's salute to the beginning of this holiday season.

Click here to see your dance:http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/zuoRXtGCX76uVCzf

Future Promise

The linked article contains some interesting information about Molly's lung condition and some promising research into its prevention and treatment. It is sad to hear that Molly's lungs can be described as "lungs of a 50-year-old smoker", but at least we have almost reached the must needed 2 year birthday. Hopefully then we will be in the clear and when she does get sick it won't go straight to her lungs.


http://www.growingyourbaby.com/2009/11/28/research-suggests-stem-cells-could-help-lung-development-in-preemies/

Background Changes

Sorry for changing my blog background so much, but I am trying to find the perfect Christmas one. So I can't promise you won't see another change. :)

My son the clown

As long as I can remember my kids have been fascinated with shoes. I mean all shoes! Todd and I could never wear our shoes around them because all they wanted to do was touch them and taste them. Gross! So it comes to no surprise that when they got old enough they would begin wanting to wear them around the house. I have already shared Luke in my shoes. Now here he is wearing Todd's. If you are wondering - No, He is not going potty in the the second picture.

I need to post some of Molly, but I haven't taken any pictures of her wearing any. Oh, but she does! Every morning when Mom is getting ready for work she is in my closet trying on every pair I own. Thats always the first mess I get to clean up every morning.

Sweet Sissy and Bubba

I know I mentioned in a previous post Molly and Luke are fighting alot more, but in all reality they love each other. As you see in this picture they crawled up in the chair to sit together. I love my babies. They are too sweet!

Popcorn

Mental note! Giving Luke his own bowl of popcorn was a bad idea. At least I already had the vacuum out (thats why you see the cord down the middle of floor), so it was a fast cleanup. That boy can destroy anything in 30 seconds. He is all boy.

Black Friday

What did you get me Mom? I hope it has something to do with Yo Gabba Gabba! I love them!

Mom get out of my way. I am trying to watch Blue Clues.

I hope everyone had a good day of shopping. Mine started off bad. I went to Wal-Mart to get the $3.00 P.J.'s, but at 7:15 this morning they were already out of them. I really wanted to get some to! Molly and Luke wear out P.J.'s like crazy. Oh well it wasn't meant to be. My Mom went with me, so after the wasted Wal-Mart trip we decided to eat breakfast at Cracker Barrel. There's nothing like blue berry pancakes to make you feel better. Plus I was able to get the kids stocking stuffers there from Santa. Then we went to tackle Kohls. OMG! The line was all the way back of the store. Happy Friday to me! It really went fast. That was a nice surprise. After that we called it a day. Thanks for going with me Mom! It was a fun morning.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Molly and Luke wanted to wish everyone Happy Turkey Day! They hope you hope a safe and good day. Their Daddy is at the fire station, so they are sad he is not here. We love you Daddy!We may take a trip and go see him.

It is so hard to believe December is next week. This year has flown by.

Night Time Buddies

Todd and I let Molly and Luke lay in our bed before they go down for the night. They drink their milk and watch Wonder Pets! Notice Molly's rag. This is her security blanket. She rubs it under her nose until she falls asleep. It is a must have for naps and bed time. Luke has to have a blanket that he rubs on the palm of his hand. Plus the paci is still a must have. I still haven't decided when we will battle that fight. It is definately is their best friend. What Mom wants to take a best friend from their child? Not me! Thats for sure. Daddy will probably be the bad guy in that situation.

The Dew

Molly loves Mtn Dew! At least it is diet. Right?

New puppy

I went to do some Christmas shopping on my lunch hour this past week and picked up this puppy that makes puppy sounds. It is really cute. My kids LOVE animals, so I knew they would love this puppy. As you can tell in the pictures they do. They give it kisses and sleep with it. Also notice I bought them some more house shoes. You can never have enough. Right? Molly is sporting Hello Kitty and Luke has Elmo. Sometimes Molly has to steal Elmo from her Bubba.

So it begins!

My children have discovered climbing. They have started pushing different things up to stuff to climb it. I know.....Crazy things are going to happen! Hopefully no trips to the hospital.

Going golfing in Mom's shoes

Luke decided he would try my shoes for his next game of golf. I think it improved his game.

Friday Night Surprise

Today at work we celebrated my Boss's Birthday, so I brought home the kids a cupcake. They seem to enjoy it.

Fight For Preemies

Do you know a baby that was born too soon, too small, unable to suck, unable to breathe on his own?

Of Course you do. You know Molly and Luke who were born 12 weeks early. Thank God they are doing great now. We just need Molly's lungs to grow bigger and healthier. Please say a prayer for all the NICU babies that are fighting their own fight now.

Dear Amanda, Thank for from the bottom of my heart for taking care of my babies in the NICU. I couldn't have asked for a better nurse. You got me through many nights. I love you more then you will ever know! You were and are my angel. :)

Premature birth is a health crisis that jeopardizes the lives and health of nearly half-million babies each year. It is the #1 killer of newborns and can lead to lifelong disabilities. Worse: the number has increased 31 percent since 1981. It can happen without warning and for no known reason. Until we have more answers, anyone’s baby, could be born too soon. Medical advances give even the tiniest babies a chance of survival, yet for many babies premature birth is still a life or death condition. It’s the #1 cause of death during the first month of life. And babies who survive face serious health challenges and risk lifelong disabilities.The rate of premature birth has never been higher. In half the cases, we simply don’t understand what went wrong. We need to fight for answers. And, ultimately, preventions.November 17 is dedicated to raising awareness of the crisis of premature birth. The March of Dimes invites bloggers like you to get involved. • Learn about premature birth at marchofdimes.com/fightforpreemies

21 Months Old

Today my babies are 21 months old. CRAZY! :) Time seems to have gone so quickly. They are getting so independent. They want to do everything their own way. It seems they are fighting alot more these days. Maybe that is do to them wanting everything to go their way. Their favorite T.V. shows are Yo Gabba Gabba, Blue Clues and Wonder pets. Luke loves the Laurie Berkner Band that comes on inbetween shows. He gets so excited and glued to the T.V.. They love to dance and sing. Everyday I think they are learning a new word. It is such a fun stage in their development. They love learning new things and we love teaching them. I am sure many more fun things are to come.

My Pregnancy Story

As promised in my first post I am sharing my pregnancy story. At the end of my infertility post I said my first 12 weeks were pretty rocky. I spotted at first, but then started bleeding between my 7 & 8 week. I was a emotionally wreck. I remember driving home one day early from work and having a heart to heart with God. I asked him to please not prolong the inevitable. If I was going to miscarry these babies please take them now. I could not take it anymore. My last appointment with Dr. Reshef I told him he needed to put a disclaimer on his pamphlet that said pregnancy was not always fun. I did stop bleeding by the 2nd trimester, but I was so worried every time I went to the restroom I would see blood. That fear never stopped. Everytime I got up in the middle of the night I had to turn on the light to check the bath tissue.

I was nauseous from week 5 through week 24. By the end of December 07 first of January 08 I finally stopped throwing up. Until then I was miserable. It took everything out of me to put in a full day of work. I literally woke up in the morning dry heaving. Then I would drag myself to the kitchen and make a frozen waffle. I would watch the morning news eating my waffle and banana. That was one thing during my pregnancy that I did do good. I only ate healthy foods. Not really because I wanted to, but because everything else made me sick. Greasy food smell quaranteed me a trip to the bathroom. At the end of my pregnancy I did finally crave a food. Raisin Bran cereal. Poor Todd couldn't buy me enough. I remember one day I had it for breakfast,lunch and dinner. I only snacked on fruits. I would eat sometimes 2 to 3 bananas a day. Todd would buy me those pre-sliced apples to take to work. I loved those.

The below was a typical day for me during my pregnancy.

5:30 a.m. Wake up
7:00 a.m. Leave for work
5:00 p.m. Get home from work
5:15 p.m. Get into bed and watch T.V. I recorded the night before
6:30p.m./7:00 p.m. Fall asleep

I spent alot of time in bed. From early on I could not lay on my back. It would make me nauseous and out of breath. My hips would ache so bad at night. I would rotate as much as possible, but it really didn't help. My stomach grew at a alarming rate. Todd would go to the fire station for 24 hours and come home and see a difference. He would look at it and say WOW you have gotten bigger. I would laugh! If never seemed to bother me. I loved knowing my babies were growing.

The end of January 08 (26 weeks) I started not feeling right. My head hurt. I started seeing spots out of the corner of my eyes. My ankles started swelling. I called the doctors office one morning and told the nurse about the swelling of my ankles. She said to come in on my lunch hour and she would check my blood pressure and do a urine test. My blood pressure was higher then normal for me, but not too bad. She took the urine test and said the doctor would be in to speak with me. The doctor came in and said you are going to have to be admitted to the hospital for a 48 hour urine analysis. I was like WHAT? He said I was spilling 4+ protien in my urine. I still was like "Are you kidding me"? It looks like you are developing preeclampsia and you will more then likely be on bedrest for the rest of your pregnancy. He then asked me if I needed to go home and packed a bag. Really? Do you think at 26 weeks I already have an overnight bag packed in my car. Yes, I need to go home. I called Todd on the way out of the doctors office and told him what I knew. He was working at the time, so he left work and picked me up at the house. First thing I did when I got home was I pulled out my pregnancy book and looked up what preeclampsia was. Only 5% to 8% of women develop preeclampsia. All I could think of at that time is why? Why did this have to happen. I got checked into the hospital and they monitored me and the babies. The babies looked good. My blood pressure was still stable and the protein in my urine went down to 2+. The doctor decided to let me go home on bed rest. I was to come back the next Wednesday for him to check me out. I did exactly as he asked I stayed in bed until my appointment the following week, but it didn't help. My blood pressure had gone up and my urine was showing the protein was back up to 4+. He once again asked me if I had brought a bag? He checked me back in to the hospital, but this time he said I would spend the remainder of my pregnancy on hospital bed rest. What sucked the most is that the only cure for preeclampsia is delivery. Of course it was too early for me to deliver, so he wanted to try to get me to 34 weeks gestation. Baby B (Luke) had other plans. I was in the Hospital for 5 days when they did a ultrasound and found out the preeclampsia was affecting Luke's cord blood flow. He was showing signs of stress. Plus my blood pressure was on the rise. The doctor's decided the babies would do better on the outside then the inside. He did not want to have a emergency situation. So on Friday February 15th (28 weeks gestation) at 7:40 a.m. Molly Faith was born and at 7:42 a.m. Luke Paul was born.

I actually got more sick after the babies were born. My blood pressure sky rocketed. At the highest it got to 116/170. I swelled up like a balloon. I know I had at least 40 to 45 pounds of water weight on me. The reason I know is because I lost 50 pounds in one week. I felt horrible. I had never felt that bad in my whole life. Plus I just had major surgery (C-section). The only way I could get out of the hospital was to promise the doctor I would only get out of bed to go see the babies 3 times a day, but I had to do that in a wheelchair. Todd would check my blood pressure and it would still be 100/150. I took medicine to help, but it made me feel even worse. Finally after a month I started feeling better.

Even though my pregnancy was not a picture perfect one. To have Molly and Luke part of my life makes everything I went through worth it. They are my everything. I never knew how much you could love someone until I had them. They are the best! I could not imagine my life without them.

To make it even more interesting I would do it all over again to have another child.

Blessed

Sometimes you need a reminder of how blessed you really are. As I mentioned before Todd and I are still in touch with Molly and Luke's primary care nurse Amanda from their NICU stay. We try and touch base every so often. I sent her an email last week and asked her opinion on a few topics. I knew she would give me her honest thoughts. Anyhow, she made the statement that I should never feel like I am being too overprotective of Molly and Luke. Especially due to Molly's BPD. She told me about one of her favorite blogs she follows. It is about a little girl named Madeline that was born 11 weeks early. Maddie died earlier this year after getting sick from a common cold. If you have the time you should visit this blog. http://thespohrsaremultiplying.com/ Have some tissues handy. What a beautiful family.

Luke's Cat Scan Results

We went for Luke's follow up after his cat scan last week. The doctor said the cat scan didn't exactly tell us what it is. It didn't really look like a hemangioma, but something like that. The bone is hollow in that spot. He said it may be a type of cyst. Whatever it is he said it would be benign. We will need to go back in a year for another follow up cat scan. At this point we are going to just watch it. He said to call if it starts getting bigger. As for now it is just growing with him, so hopefully it will stay that way. Thanks for all your prayers. They worked! God is good!

Apple anyone?

This is Molly and Luke's new favorite snack. Plus I love hearing them say apple. Especially Luke. He says it like he is asking a question. Too cute!

Sneak peek

Look at those legs! Here are some new boots Molly picked out this weekend. I had to post a sneak peek. I just need to find the right dress to match! Then I will reveal the whole picture. :)

Luke and picture taking

I was lucky to get this picture while he was drinking his bedtime milk.

I got this one when his was trying to get away from me.

This is the picture I get from Molly every time.

Todd made me feel guilty because Molly got all the face time in the last 2 posts. It's not because I don't want to show off my handsome boy. It is because he turns and runs every time he see me with the camera. He anticipates the flash and starts blinking and making funny faces. Its kindof funny, but also frustrating when you really want a good picture.

New house shoes for Molly

In a previous post I stated Molly loved shoes. That was probably understated. This girl really loves shoes. She already wore out her first pair of house shoes I bought her a couple of weeks ago. Here are her new house shoes. Hopefully these will last longer.

Diva

Look at my little diva! :) Molly got these sunglasses for her birthday. She just rediscovered them this week and has been wearing them all over the house. It so neat seeing their personalities blossom. They are so different. One neat thing that has started happening just this week is they are calling each other by name. If the other is in a different room they call out to each other either Bubba or Sissy. It's pretty cute.

Update on Luke's Cat Scan

Luke did great this morning. We take the scans to the doctor next Monday to get the results. Please keep him in your prayers until then. I am sure everything is fine, but I will worry until the doctor says so. Thanks! :)

Cat Scan

But why Mom do I have to go? It's too early in the morning. Let's just stay in bed. PLEASE!

It's alright bubba. You will do fine. Plus you get to go on a trip without me. I am so jealous.

Tomorrow morning at 6:30 Todd and I are taking Luke for a Cat Scan of his head. For as long as we remember he has had this bump on his temple. At first we ignored it. We thought it would go away on its own, but it has actually grown with him. At his 18 month check-up we asked the pediatrician about it and she referred us to a specialist. This doctor said to be certain we had to have it cat scanned. He thinks it could be the bone did not come together correctly or it is hemangioma that formed in the bone. As alot of you know Molly has a large hemangioma on her foot, a small one on her stomach and alot of pen point ones various places on her body. So when the doctor mentioned it we weren't surprised.

The following is the definition of what a hemagioma is - A hemangioma of infancy is a benign self-involuting tumour of endothelial cells (the cells that line blood vessels). In most cases it appears during the first days or weeks of life and will have resolved at the latest by age 10. In infancy, it is the most common tumor.