The boys are 4!



The boys turned 4 last month. They are so proud to be 4 and were telling everyone who would listen at first. It’s amazing how big they are and to try to remember how tiny they started out is hard. It’s like a distant dream at this point, which makes me sad because I wish I could remember it like it was yesterday – how tiny and vulnerable they were, how they would snuggle up on my chest and sleep for hours during “kangaroo care” in the NICU, how I would pump every 3 hours around the clock, record every session and make sure I was always one step ahead of their needs, how I wrote daily in my dairy their weights, their feed amounts, their milestones and their progress…

A friend recently had a baby at the hospital the boys were delivered. I had some leftover preemie clothes, so I took them with me to the hospital to donate to the NICU. The receptionist was kind, and I said they were just some things I wanted to give since my boys were once in the Special Care Nursery. She was so sweet and thankful that I started to get teary-eyed and had to leave.

Later, a friend who I met through my Mothers of Multiples club and I got together. I had only known her online up until this point, even though we lived in the same town. Circumstance finally brought us together and as we chatted, she told me she knew my boys when they were in the Special Care Nursery! She works at the hospital, and while she’s not a SCN nurse, she does the hearing tests and remembered my boys. She described exactly where they were in the nursery, knew that Calista had assigned their names (“Baby A is Ace!”) and remembered their progress. It was really sweet to hear, as I once went back to the University of Washington NICU were the boys were originally life-flighted and spent their first 11 days, and only 6 months later, none of the nurses seemed to remember or care about them. I was so disappointed as I always read or hear of NICU reunions or going back and how excited the nurses are, and it wasn’t our experience at all. To know that FOUR years later, my boys were remembered brought such a warm feeling that I think I might have to stop by with them sometime and introduce them to the nurses that helped them come home to us.

Now they are big, rambunctious little buddies who love to try to read, they write some words (like their names, “MOM” and “DAD”), they like to color and draw, play with their Leapsters, Hot Wheels, Transformers, super heroes and other fun things, and even sleep in bunk beds like big boys now. They are too cute.

Ace continues to be a challenge sometimes with his “spirited” nature, and both boys continue to go to occupational therapy once a week for Sensory Integration Disorder. We’re trying a listening program that we are currently on a break from, as it overstimulated Ace to the point that we couldn’t handle him – he was an emotional wreck! That’s good because it means it works and was affecting him, but we have to tweak his program so it only affect him positively.

Tomorrow Ace will be having a second visit with the optometrist after showing signs of vision problems at his 4 year well child exam last month. Both boys saw the optometrist and Nate passed, but Ace appears to have an astigmatism in both eyes, and worse in his right eye. Tomorrow we go for a second, ore thorough exam and most likely will be picking out glasses for him. He’s actually excited about it, as he is a huge Momma’s boy and wants to wear glasses just like me. :) I hope they help him – I can’t help but wonder now if his clumsiness and/or moodiness could be related to his poor vision.

Calista is 8 now and in 3rd grade. We attended her parent-teacher conference yesterday and as always, she’s a model student and above average in all of her work. She’s missing a bunch of teeth and we’re gearing up for braces in her future. Poor kid has a tiny mouth (like her mom) and big teeth (like her dad)!

Gosh, and now I realize it’s been so long that I never posted about our newest edition, Ellie. She’s our Pomchi (Pomeranian/Chihuahua) puppy who was born in March and came home in May. She’s a little spitfire and the kids love her!

Other than that, we are just enjoying the fall and getting ready for the holidays. It was good to blog tonight… I have to try to get back into the habit. :)

One Reply to “The boys are 4!”

  1. Hi there! I just stumbled upon your blog while doing some searching for starting fundraising for IVF.
    We have male factor infertility (cancer diagnosis a week after our wedding meant immediate treatment, and sperm surgically removed and then frozen). After paying on all of the medical bills (which just keep adding up, even though he has been cancer free for over two years now), we realized there’s no way we can fund IVF ourselves, at least not any time soon.
    Many friends have offered help with fundraising, but nobody knows how/where to start. Do you have any tips or ideas? Do we have to register as a non-profit organization? Any help/tips would be much appreciated!!
    Thanks!
    Destiny C
    Kansas

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