Poor, little Chicken Wing. :(

Well, since most of you know what happened here is a brief recap:

Ian was changing Jacob's diaper in the Living Room last night around bedtime. Ian realized he forgot to get a diaper and when he walked across the room to get one Jacob saw that as his chance to escape. He flipped over and took off running across the living room floor and slipped on our hardwood floors. His right leg twisted underneath him and Ian heard the crack. Ian immediately picked him up and both of them were in tears. I guess the crack was pretty bad. I came running from the dining room, we scooped Jacob and Grace up, dropped Grace off with my AWESOME neighbor (thanks, Linds!) and rushed Jacob to the ER.

At first, Jordan was telling us this type of injury typically involves bleeding so it would require surgery to fix. Since he is so small, and his injury will require extensive orthopedic care, they had to send him to Boston. They asked if I had a preference and I told them I would send him wherever they thought best. They said the options were Floating Hospital or Children's Hospital and both were more than capable of handling this type of injury. Since he was born at Floating and they did a great job with him there (and we are familiar with the ins and outs of that hospital because of follow-up clinics and Ophthalmologist appointments) we decided to go to Floating.

At Jordan, they gave him an IV (with morphine) and splinted his leg and he was transported via ambulance last night around 10 PM to Tufts Medical Center. Ian rode with him and I went home to relieve my Dad of watching Gracie since he had picked her up at my neighbor's earlier in the evening.

He is on morphine and vicodin currently and was in and out all last night waking up to watch the occasional Elmo episode. Ian said he got a couple/few hours sleep total. They transported him in his car seat and don't want to risk moving him anymore than they have to so he is still in his car seat, but he is a trooper.

As far as things look this morning, nothing appears to have changed overnight with the swelling/bleeding situation. Since he is so little and kids this age are resilient and heal much faster than older kids they are not going to need to operate and will just set his leg in a spica cast this morning. If he was older, he would have needed rods put in his leg for this type of injury so I am happy to report that he will not be in the hospital as long as originally thought!!

I will update again when I have more news, but as of right now it is looking like he'll spend a few days at the hospital and come home towards the middle/end of this week.

They gave him a teddy bear at Jordan last night and through sobs he kept yelling "BEAR!" and hugging onto it for dear life. I took a picture of him when he had calmed down and started to nod off. He has a "Lions, Tigers and Bears...Oh My!" hospital johnny so we kept pointing out the bears to him on his johnny. He also got a sticker for being so brave! He was definitely in good spirits considering the injury. He was attempting to sing songs with me through his heaving sobs and even recited "I Love You As Much" with me by memory. It's his favorite book. :)

ONE!

Today, at 2:53 PM, my beautiful, baby girl turned one year old!!

Where did the past 12 months go?!?! It is so true what they say about the years flying by faster once you have kids. I feel like just yesterday we were lugging her around in her infant seat and waiting for her to sit up on her own! Currently, she is all over the place and into EVERYTHING to the point where I don't even attempt to pick up the play room anymore because as soon as I am done she empties all the bins! It is just a game to her.

Grace's vocabulary has really taken off in the past couple of months. I was shocked at 9 months when she started saying Mama and referring to me when she said it, not just saying the word. As soon as I left the room or if she was upset it was Mama, Mama, Mama! I was wondering if it was a hint at what was to come and it sure was because she already has a handful of words.

She says Mama, Dada, more, all or done, cheese, happy and night night (complete with wave). She also knows the signs for "more", "all done" and "milk".

As soon as I pick her up and start up the stairs she turns around and starts yelling, "night night" and waving frantically at whoever is in the room even if she isn't going down for a nap or for the night.

When I ask who wants to sing songs she starts yelling "HAPPY" (her favorite is "If you're happy and you know it") and as soon as I start singing she claps her hands, kicks her feet and flings her hands over her head and yells "HOO" (that's as close as she gets to Hooray!).

She can do the Itsy Bitsy Spider and loves to clap for all of my performances. When we sing wheels on the bus and I get to "all through the town" she yells out "TOWN!" before I can.

She is always smiling and sticking out her tongue a la Gene Simmons and if I point a camera at her she squints her eyes in anticipation of the flash and grins from ear to ear.

The past year has been awesome for so many reasons. I was able to experience having a baby room in with me at the hospital. She was discharged with me as well 4 days later. I haven't had to adjust her age to measure milestones or track her weight gain. I was able to celebrate her birthday on her actual birthday and not when she should have been turning one or celebrating it 3.5 months premature. On top of all of this, I think having a sibling this close has been great for Jacob. They have a blast playing together and it has been good for Jacob's developing social skills, sharing and taking turns. I have seen him come leaps and bounds ahead of where he was a few months ago.

Tonight, we had Grandpa over for dinner (Eggplant Parm) and celebrated Gracie's birthday with cupcakes from Cupcake Charlie's (she had Red Velvet). I figured since it was bath night and all I would let her smash another one.


Happy birthday, to "the most beautiful girl" Gracie! We love you so much and cannot wait to see all of the great things you do in your life. You are such a blessing and we thank God for you and your health every day!

Grace's "Watermelon Picnic"!

I didn't take enough pictures!

That pretty much sums up how I feel about the whole day, but there is nothing I can do about it now. This always happens so I am not surprised, but overall the party was a huge success! We had hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled chicken, pasta salad, chips, fruit salad and finished it all off with cupcakes made by yours truly. I found them in the book Hello, Cupcake and have decided that I am doing cupcakes for every subsequent birthday party. I had so much fun doing it and it was so nice to feel like the party had that extra special touch because I had created something special for my baby girl:


I also found this great seller on Etsy who does custom favor toppers and stickers. I bought the stickers, baked cookies and handed them out in cello bags tied with red and green ribbon:


Last Summer, I was cruising through the mall with Jacob and Grace and came across this dress on the Gymboree clearance rack:


It was perfect for a Summer birthday party in July! Needless to say, I have been planning the party around this watermelon picnic theme for months. EVERYTHING was red and green and the balloons were red, green and black. Grace wore her dress and had a blast smashing her cupcake all over the place and smearing the frosting in her hair. Here is the proof:



After everyone had eaten the kids had a blast playing in the beach ball sprinkler, the kiddie pool and the water table. Grace got so many nice gifts including more money in gift cards than I currently have in my checking account so I am trying to find something nice to buy her. I am thinking maybe a cozy coupe? It is something she can grow into and get years of use out of it.

After everyone left, both kids slept for over 2 hours so they were exhausted and so was I. It was early to bed that night. I can't believe that tomorrow my baby will be ONE! Where has the past year gone?! I think even more depressing is the fact that the next birthday party I will be planning is Jacob's THIRD birthday in March!

Life with a 24 weeker......

When people hear that my son was born at 24 weeks the first thing they always say is, "you'd never know". Most of the time, I smile and say how remarkably well he has done considering how early he was born, but sometimes I feel like banging my head against a wall! Unfortunately, once a preemie is discharged from the hospital that does not mean they are magically transformed into healthy, full-term children. In fact, most preemies live with side effects of their prematurity for the rest of their lives. Unless you live with a premature baby (or child) every day you don't get to experience the frustrations that come with being the parent of a premature baby.

For example, Jacob has problems with his vision due to ROP, a condition he suffered from when he was a few months old and subsequently had laser eye surgery to fix. He wears glasses or I should say is SUPPOSED to wear glasses, but you try keeping glasses on the face of a two year old. It isn't easy and more often than not he rips them off his face where they hang around his neck or he finds a convenient spot to hide them so I have to spend 20 minutes searching the house high and low for them. Every time we go to his follow up eye appointment, the Ophthalmologist comments on how Jacob's eyes are not getting any better and he can't believe that Jacob will not wear his glasses because "clearly he can see better with them on".

One of our bigger struggles with Jacob has been weight gain. He gained considerably for the first 15-18 months of his life and I figured we would be one of the lucky few who avoided the label of "Failure to Thrive" which happens quite often when a baby is premature.

In September, at Jacob's 18 month appointment, he weighed 21 pounds and 1 ounce. Not bad for an 18 month old former 24 weeker. It would have been nice if we continued this trend of gaining, but sadly when we had him weighed at his Cardiologist appointment in November he had only gained 3 ounces....in almost two months. I felt somewhat prepared for this seeing as most of the preemie moms on my message board had dealt with this at one time or another. I had been paying attention to their blog posts about high calorie foods and pumping calories in their underweight toddlers so I tackled this next chapter of Jacob's life with sheer determination. He WOULD gain weight.

I met with a Nutritionist who weighed Jacob and we discussed a normal day for him calorie wise and his eating habits. The next few weeks were spent trying to sneak in as many calories into his diet as possible. I started pureeing an avocado and adding it to his oatmeal. When he was sick of that I would add half a banana and a tablespoon of peanut butter. I started adding whipping cream to his whole milk, I added an extra meal of a smoothie made with whole milk yogurt, whole milk, pureed fruits and veggies and sometimes even a packet of Carnation Instant Breakfast if his appetite was big enough.

When the Nutritionist came to check on him a month later he was a full pound heavier. I thought to myself, "Could it really be this easy?". She followed up with him six weeks later and though it was only a few ounces he was still gaining weight. As of his 2 year appointment in March, his Pediatrician had recorded his weight at 23 pounds and 9 ounces. Not bad, but it could be better. I told myself, "At least he is gaining weight. We are heading in the right direction."

At Grace's 9 month appointment in April, the Pediatrician asked me to bring Jacob in for Grace's appointment just so we could weigh him and see how he has been doing. He put him on the scale and I was so excited expecting he'd register at least 24 pounds. He had to be! I had noticed his 12-18 month clothes getting tight. His shirts were hardly covering his belly and his pant legs were inches too short. He sat Jacob on the scale and I watched the numbers tick up and stop.....23 pounds 5 ounces. He had lost 4 ounces. The first time since he was born that he actually lost weight. I begged the Pediatrician to weigh him one more time and I willed the scale to climb higher to no avail. My heart sank. I figured it must be because he is taller. Nope. His height had stayed exactly the same.

After discussing all the possibilities with our Pediatrician we decided to start by having some blood work done to make sure there are no underlying conditions causing this weight loss (thyroid, etc.). This just recently came back negative so that is good news. Our next step will probably be consulting with the Cardiologist in Boston again and having them take another look at Jacob's VSD. We discovered this at his 20w ultrasound and so we knew Jacob had this prior to him being born premature. The last time we were in Boston for an EKG they said everything looked okay. He has nice pink cheeks, his breathing is normal and he is very active, but they want to follow up on it in November when Jacob is able to sit still for the 45 minutes they need to get a really good look. The concern now is that if the VSD is any bigger and Jacob's heart is having to work harder to pump the blood through than he could quite possibly be burning up his calories faster than I can feed them to him.

Jacob has been doing pretty good with his eating habits lately. He is actually starting to listen more so when I say, "no more milk until you have another bite" he takes another bite. I'm sure his interest in eating will increase as he watches Grace. They seem to be getting in competition mode so I am hoping to ride that wave for awhile and hope it pushes him a little more to catch up with his baby sister.

In the meantime, please keep Jacob in your prayers. We're hoping his weight gain trend starts up again. His next appointment is on July 26th for a weight check at the same time as Grace's one year well visit. I am assuming at this point she has passed him or is really close because at her last appointment they were only separated by 3 pounds!

I guess in conclusion I can say that the grass is always greener. When Jacob was born, I thanked God every day that passed that we avoided an IVH or NEC which are very serious, life threatening issues for a premature baby. I always counted myself lucky when he didn't require any major surgeries at just days old or come home requiring to be tube-fed or on oxygen. I am definitely thankful for the gift of life because I do realize there are many Moms who are unable to hold their preemie babies who were born a couple of weeks too soon. I pray for those people as often as I pray for my own son because only the Mom of a preemie understands what another preemie Mom is going through.

Jacob's 2-year (adjusted) NICU follow-up clinic

It's late. I'm tired. Basically, this is going to be a very short recap of today's events. If you want to catch up on his previous follow-up from January click here.

This time around, they used the Bayley II test which is different than the Bayley III test that they used in January so they said the results may be a little off or "different" from the results in January. I guess the difference is that the Bayley II test is used for NICU follow-up clinics (like today) and the Bayley III is used for the follow-ups related to the study we enrolled Jacob in (refer to link above from January for info on that).

Basically, Jacob has progressed exactly 6 months (which coincidentally is exactly how long it has been since he was seen for evaluation) and they said most premature infants gain 4-5 months development so he is gaining faster than most.

For his adjusted age of 23 months and 13 days, his cognition and language clocked in around 19 months and his motor skills were 18 months. He had a major meltdown and a monster-sized toddler tantrum so he refused to do half the stuff they required of him. I don't know how much that skewed the results, but I am assuming it did. I was sweating when we walked out of there from trying to wrestle him into his chair, but it is over and done with and I have 6 months to recover until the next follow-up in December which will be study related. At least I think it will be study related.

He weighed in around 24 pounds (again wouldn't sit still), length was 85 cm and head 49.5 cm. That puts him in 10-25th% for weight and length and 75th% for head circumference. Yes, the kid's head is HUGE!

He did, however, sit and finish a 7 piece puzzle and for those of you who know Jacob the fact that he even sat in his chair that long is a feat in and of itself! I was so proud! Maybe there is hope for him after all. :) Everyone who meets Jacob or knows him always comments on how "he never walks, he only runs". Welcome to my life!

SCORE!

Those of you that know me well know that I rarely buy ANYTHING without a coupon. I am always on the hunt for the best bargain and use coupons when making any type of purchase (groceries, clothes, toys, restaurants, etc.). My favorite thing to do lately is my weekly Target run with the kids. I pick up a few essentials like toiletry items and groceries, but usually I comb the aisles looking for end caps stocked with clearance items. Usually I find some discontinued food items that we like for half off or some health and beauty deals, but this week I found the best deal of all:
This is the Safety 1st No-Pinch Table and 4 Chairs. It retails for $49.99, but apparently it has been discontinued and Target is selling them for $12.48!!!!! I was so excited I could hardly contain myself. It comes in a rather large, flat box, but you better believe I picked that sucker up by the packing tape and dragged it all the way to the front registers while trying to maintain control of my double stroller. A few people stared and one person asked me if I wanted a hitch, but at my local Target it was the last one on the shelf and I wanted it. It is perfect for the arts and crafts projects I have been doing with Jacob and will be great for coloring....once Jacob stops eating crayons and uses them to draw.

A few new things I discovered this week at my local TRU is a line of infant toys called Bruin. I had never heard of them before or seen them at my other local BRU/TRU, but they are relatively cheap and after playing with them for a few days alongside Grace they seem to be pretty well constructed. I bought her this and this to replace this which Jacob chewed to bits....literally. I would highly recommend this line to anyone looking for infant toys in the 0-15 month range. The prices are much lower than the similar Melissa and Doug and Fisher Price toys and seem to work just as well, if not better!!

The last thing I discovered this week is the Target up&up brand of Diapers. I have been a Pampers snob since the day Jacob was born. Everyone raved about them and they worked from day 1 so I bought them. As usual, I hunted down coupons left and right to knock $6 off of every box I bought in bulk from BJ's and thought I was scoring a huge deal. Then the Cruisers fiasco happened and although my kids developed severe diaper rashes recently I figured it was probably more heat rash than Cruisers related.

Either way, I decided to start trying out different brands in case I had to make the switch so, off I went to Target where I bought 3 mega packs of Luvs, Huggies and up&up. The first thing I noticed was the price difference. WOW! For roughly 100 diapers (give or take a few) Huggies and Pampers were by far the most expensive choice at $29.99 a box. Luvs was second at $17.99 and up&up was only $13.69 PER BOX. I was in disbelief and couldn't believe I hadn't thought of switching sooner. I assumed they must be pretty low quality being that cheap, but regardless I bought a pack of each to try at home.

I liked the Luvs okay. We didn't have any leaking, but the diapers were very plastic-y feeling (for lack of a better term) and I didn't like that.

The Huggies didn't leak either, but the inside lining of the diaper broke up into chunks when wet which I found disturbing.

Next, I tried the Target brand and I was blown away! They were by far the best out of the three AND the most inexpensive. They were similar in quality to Pampers and I was sold! I am on my second box already and still in love. The only complaint I have is that the diaper size is on the inside of the right side tab so you have to open the tab to find out what size diaper you have and if you have kids in different sizes this might be irritating, but other than that I am a huge fan! I am thinking of trying their wipes out next so I can switch from the Pampers Sensitive. I have also heard great things about BJ's Berkley and Jensen brand of diapers so if anyone has a review on those let me know. I would love to find a diaper I can buy in bulk, but for now I am happy with my Target find!

Sesame Place 2010

Over Memorial Day weekend we took a road trip to Sesame Place in PA.

The Thursday before Memorial Day we headed out for Western PA around 5 PM with the expectation that we would drive as far as possible while the kids slept and then stop for the night somewhere out in PA. We decided the longer portion of the trip they were sleeping the better. We made it to Parsippany, NJ (which was good enough for us) and called it a night.

The next morning we loaded up, stopped for a quick breakfast at DD, drove for a couple of hours, stopped for lunch and then finished up the last few hours of the drive. Overall, it was not a bad trip and we only had to use Elmo and our portable DVD player for the last 45 minutes!

The first part of our vacation we stayed with friends in Boswell, PA over Memorial Day weekend. Jacob enjoyed chasing the chickens around Cal's yard as seen here:

On Monday night, we once again bathed the kids, put them in their PJ's and loaded them up for the short 4.5 hour trip to Langhorne, PA where Sesame Place is located. The first day we were in Langhorne there was a threat of thunderstorms and Grace was feeling a little under the weather so we decided to postpone Sesame for a day and headed into Philly to drive around, take in the sights and crossed the border into Camden, NJ to spend the afternoon at the Adventure Aquarium:


The following morning we woke up bright and early and headed over to Sesame Place. The first hour we spent there was pretty dramatic and we almost ended up leaving. First, we headed over to security with our bags to get searched and then headed to the gate with our tickets which were printed at home on our computer. They were missing a bar code so we had to step out of line and head over to Ticket Sales to get that situation squared away. After that, we waited in line to have our bags searched....AGAIN! We proceeded to the gate and once inside the park started organizing ourselves and realized we forgot something. As I was searching my purse for the keys to the car so Ian could run out to get it we realized the keys were missing! After 20 frantic minutes we found the keys....in the ignition of our parked car in general parking. At least it wasn't running!

We headed over to the carousel and waited in line with Jacob for his first ride of the day. I got my camera out, Ian loaded Jacob and buckled him in and immediately he wanted off. We were starting to think that this was a bad idea, but we swapped Jacob out with Gracie who enjoyed every minute of the carousel. I should mention that the day we decided to go to the park was also 91 degrees and humid. AWESOME! We decided to sit in the cafe, have a snack and cool down in the AC and fortunately from there the day got much better. Jacob rode on the flying fish ride twice (once with Mama and again with Daddy). Daddy and Jacob also rode on the teacups. Jacob was not a big fan of the rides and although he didn't cry he did clutch our arms through all three rides so we figured since it was 90 and disgustingly hot out we would take advantage of the water park.

This is where Jacob ended up spending 99% of his day and had a blast. We stayed on Count's Splash Castle the entire day and Ian and I took turns taking Jacob out. Grace was due for a nap so she slept in the stroller while I laid out in the sun for awhile on a lounge chair. Eventually, we had to get Jacob out because his lips were turning blue, but he would've stayed in there all day if he had it his way. We ended up meeting Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Super Grover and Elmo and Jacob hugged all of them. He kept grabbing Big Bird's beak so we have no pictures of that, but Jacob had so much fun and the trip was definitely worth it. I think the park is ideal for 3-4 year olds and we can't wait to take him back next Summer when Grace is a little older and can enjoy it more. We also learned a few lessons in organization that I will share with those of you who might want to take a trip there:

• DO bring a wagon if you have one. Strollers are a pain in the neck and when you are bouncing back and forth between the water park and the rides you don't want soaking wet kids trying to get in and out of a stroller when they don't want to walk anymore. Also, if your stroller does not have a cup holder or a big basket (like ours) a wagon is more handy to store things.
• DO dress in swim gear and bring a change of clothes. Most people did this and we decided to do the opposite. We wore our clothes and brought swim gear with us which was pointless since we changed into swim gear right away and spent most of the day in it even on rides.
• DO make a list at the hotel of things you need to bring in the park. Otherwise you will spend 1 hr and 45 min at the gate running back and forth to the car for little things like sun block, sunglasses, hats...oh and KEYS! ;)

Overall, we had a good trip and are even thinking about planning another road trip this Fall. Our next mini-vacation is going to be to Story Land at the end of the Summer and I am excited since Grace could *possibly* be walking by then and go on some rides as well!

Here are the rest of our pics from Sesame Place and our road trip in general: