Quick update

So, we've been busy around here getting ready for the big FIRST birthday and Christmas. We got our tree last weekend and slowly...every so slowly I am getting the house decorated. This really bothers me that it is taking me so long because I used to get the tree up and decorate in one evening. To have my 6 big boxes of decorations still sitting in the living room is torture. But, I've got lots of other stuff to do to...like address holiday cards, make the girls special first birthday gift, start wrapping presents, figure out who else I need to buy for...oh yeah and play with, love, diaper, feed, clothe, and bathe our three gorgeous little girls!

They are growing up so fast. I remember when they were first born, weighing under 2 pounds with legs the size of my pointer finger and I'd walk by the transition nursery with the big term babies and think "will my babies ever be that big?" Now it seems I've blinked and they're not babies anymore, they are in that transition stage where they aren't babies but they aren't quite toddlers yet. Avery is so independent and wants to walk so badly (mind you she only just started to crawl). She pulls up on anything she can get a grip on (thank you Jason for securing our furniture to the walls) and if you give her your hands and she pulls up she wants to walk all around the house. I was in the nursery with Lily who was taking the last 30 minutes of her nap in my lap. I heard this "clomp, clomp, clomp" coming down the hall and here comes Avery and her Daddy walking in the room...she had this look of sheer excitement on her face and she looked at my as if to say "look at me I'm a big girl". Our nurse this weekend noted that Avery moves with an air of confidence and determination. I hope that will last well into her life! Oh, and she no longer needs PT every week, she is on par with her adjusted age peers so she'll just get evaluated once a month to make sure she isn't developing any bad habits.

Zoe is doing great. We weaned her steroids by 30% (a very big wean)a couple of weeks ago. She's been doing pretty well, maintaining her O2 sats and she is getting so strong. She is now eating in her highchair with Avery and Lily for at least one feeding a day. And we've found, much to Richard's enjoyment, that she loves to watch football while she eats. In fact she eats best when there's a game on the TV! Her "eating" has a way to go, but we are just happy that she'll take anything orally at all, even if it is just 10 cc's 3 times per day. She's been rolling side to side and almost getting all the way over to her tummy, she needs just a little bit of support to get there and she does great on her tummy when we put her up on the exercise ball. Zoe just seems like she is really enjoying life, she is so playful and smiley. And if she doesn't get her naps she doesn't get nearly as cranky as her sisters :)

Lily is combat crawling great so now we're working on loosening up her hips to get her up on all fours, she doesn't appreciate this too much. She's always been our little "stiff baby" as our PT says. We're also going to get her an OT evaluation just to check out her sensory issues. She has always had a few little things that her PT and SLP say are kind of sensory disorders, although mild. We just want to make sure we get therapy for it now. She is so cute, when Avery came into the nursery when Lily woke up, I sat her on the floor in front of her sister and she just started babbling to her. I also took her out with me for a second just to run to the post office and when we came back, Avery looked at her like "hey, where'd you go?" I can't wait to see how their interactions change once Zoe can sit up by herself.

I really can't believe they are almost a year old. I'll write more about that later...this time last year I had no idea I was about to deliver these girls, I was just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and the only shoes I could wear were Richard's flip flops! I couldn't stand up to take a shower and could barely even dress myself...a lot has happened needless to say.

I'll write more later...it's 12:30a.m. time to feed Lily and give Zoe a treatment.