new babies and old friends 08/04

Paula Johnson wrote:

"Mary S." wrote in message ...

how is everything going with your
families?


Don't know if anyone here even remembers me from 2002-2003. My twin
daughters were born at 26 weeks last April (due in July), weighing
under 2 lbs each.

They are 16 months now and doing really well, all things considered.
Cassie weighs 19 lbs and is 29.5 inches tall (from 1 lb, 12 oz and
13.5 inches at birth), and Olivia weighs over 21 lbs and is 32.25
inches (from 1 lb, 15 oz and 14 inches). She is above the 90th
percentile for height, which I find amazing!

Cassie is starting to walk and is a happy little girl. She has 8 teeth
and "talks" all the time (she does say a few words we actually
understand ;-). Olivia isn't walking and won't be for some time (she
had a grade IV brain bleed and has PVL, periventricular leukomalacia)
but she gets around very well by crawling and she does pull to stand
and cruise. She's a smart little girl with a good sense of humor
already. She has 6 teeth and babbles a lot.

Pictures are at http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/c/cassieandolivia/.

They are just my little miracle girls and I love being their mom! I
still lurk here sometimes, just lending a bit of advice here and there
and living vicariously (our family is complete, as it took us over 6
years and 4 IVF cycles to have them). Hope everyone is well!

They are soooo sweet! They look so happy! I can tell that you love
them a lot and spoil them like crazy. ;-)

And not-so-new moms, ----

I feel like we are limbo here. My husband is going for an interview in a
few weeks for a job that sounds like it would be a major shock if he doesn't
get it. It would be a substantial increase in income for us and we would be
moving away from our families (which will be awesome to get away from my
mother, she drives me mad!) and I would be leaving my best friend
(heart-sister) behind. I would also have to put my school plans on hold til
I got in-state tuition again. But that would also free me up to really
focus on becoming a doula and starting that business up. It's hard for me
to not act like he already has the job, which he doesn't. It could as
easily be that we stay here anyway. Enough rambling about that...

I have now lost a total of 34 pounds with Weight Watchers. I only have 45
pounds to go:-) Running 5 miles 6 days a week. And I am so close to
finishing my first piece of knitting, a very simple poncho.

Will is now sitting like a pro, figuring out the eating and sippy cup thing.
He gets so mad when he's on his belly and just can't figure out the whole
crawling thing. He wants to get moving so badly! He's such a mama's baby,
which I love but makes it harder on dh. It won't last for long. He sleeps
horribly just like his sister did. But he gives some respite with
occassional 4-5 hour stretches which feel like heaven!

Maggie is on her way to be potty trained. She's just having issues about
actually doing a BM on the potty. But I am sure that will be figured out.
We are only on our second week. Her tantrums have mellowed out. There for
awhile we were all very unhappy. I was very depressed feeling because I
felt inadequate to help her be happy, but I finally was able to let that go.

Anyway, this was alot longer than I intended. Thanks for reading if you
made it all teh way through!

Kat
Mama to Maggie 11/03/01
and Will 02/10/04

We're doing well. Jessica will be starting pre-school in 3 weeks and is very
excited about that. She's become such a little lady, I can't believe how fast
she's growing. She's very strong willed and creative and has become quite the
little artist IMHO.

Christopher is toddling all over the place now after getting a late-ish start
on walking, and is now saying uh-oh, ow, Hi, Bye, Ball, Da-da, Ma-ma, kitty,
doggie, and a few other random words. He's the happiest kid in the world and
always makes me smile. He now goes to bed like a breeze after a couple of
months of torture for me! He's also started sleeping through the night in the
past two weeks. Yippee! Looks like nursing may be nearing the end- I'm a
little sad about that, but it's been almost 16 months, so that makes me very
proud. I've been working so many hours lately that I haven't seen him much, and
he has gone 48 hours a couple of time without nursing. Today I was with him
all day and he didn't ask once. We're still averaging once a day, but it
looks like it's dwindling down.

Eric is out of a job and that's why I'm working so much. I feel really out of
touch with my family and am not liking that. I still don't like the town we
moved to at all, so I think we'll be putting the house on the market. I do like
the general area, so we'll likely move someplace nearby, just not *so* far away
from everything.

That's about all the news that's fit to print!

laurie
mommy to Jessica, 3 years
Christopher, 15.5 months

Oh they're gorgeous! Glad they're doing well. There'll always be a special
place in my heart for premmies, since our son was born still in November
2002 at 29 weeks. We've just had our own little miracle, a daughter, on June
30th. You enjoy them!

"Paula Johnson" wrote in message
om...
"Mary S." wrote in message
...
how is everything going with your
families?

Don't know if anyone here even remembers me from 2002-2003. My twin
daughters were born at 26 weeks last April (due in July), weighing
under 2 lbs each.

They are 16 months now and doing really well, all things considered.
Cassie weighs 19 lbs and is 29.5 inches tall (from 1 lb, 12 oz and
13.5 inches at birth), and Olivia weighs over 21 lbs and is 32.25
inches (from 1 lb, 15 oz and 14 inches). She is above the 90th
percentile for height, which I find amazing!

Cassie is starting to walk and is a happy little girl. She has 8 teeth
and "talks" all the time (she does say a few words we actually
understand ;-). Olivia isn't walking and won't be for some time (she
had a grade IV brain bleed and has PVL, periventricular leukomalacia)
but she gets around very well by crawling and she does pull to stand
and cruise. She's a smart little girl with a good sense of humor
already. She has 6 teeth and babbles a lot.

Pictures are at http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/c/cassieandolivia/.

They are just my little miracle girls and I love being their mom! I
still lurk here sometimes, just lending a bit of advice here and there
and living vicariously (our family is complete, as it took us over 6
years and 4 IVF cycles to have them). Hope everyone is well!

--
Paula
Mom to Olivia and Cassie (b. 4/8/03 @ 26 weeks)
^Grace^ (b. 5/16/02 d. 5/17/02) and ^Adam^ (b/d. 5/17/02)

On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 13:55:36 +1200, "Amy"
wrote:

Oh they're gorgeous! Glad they're doing well. There'll always be a special
place in my heart for premmies, since our son was born still in November
2002 at 29 weeks. We've just had our own little miracle, a daughter, on June
30th. You enjoy them!

I'm so sorry for the loss of your son. I lost twins at 19 weeks in May
2002, and I don't think there's anything harder than losing a baby.

Congratulations on the birth of your daughter! What a wonderful
blessing!

--
Paula
Mom to Olivia and Cassie (b. 4/8/03 @ 26 weeks)
^Grace^ (b. 5/16/02 d. 5/17/02) and ^Adam^ (b/d. 5/17/02)

"Mary S." wrote in message ...
And not-so-new moms, whether you're a beloved member or lurking or
skimming or occasionally checking in, how is everything going with your
families?

Things are fine here. Madeline gives us so much joy. She is a sweet,
smiley girl. She just started babbling a lot, holding her own bottle,
and pulling up. She also has a naughty little sense of humor.
Yesterday I was watching tv and could suddenly "feel" her eyes on me.
She had one of my shoes in her hand and was grinning at me. So we
played a minute and I watched tv again. Soon I could tell she was
looking at me again, and had my shoe again! She is so good-natured
too. She gets hauled around a lot and her nap schedule tends to be
whenever we have time to get to it.

Aaron is coming along nicely.For one thing, he is pretty solidly potty
trained! He began occupational therapy in May for his hypotonia and
sensory integrative dysfunction. He has made a lot of motor skill
progress. He can finally ride a trike, just about dress himself, and
seems a bit more confident and mature in general. Tantrums are fewer
and more brief. He is more capable of holding a brief conversation
with us, which is nice. I took him to the library story time today (a
first) and he was great. Socially he is still immature and we still
have some speech issues to work on. His speech does still have some
autistic characteristics, even though the OT does not think he has
autism or PDD. Soon he will be back in speech therapy through our
school district, preschool starts Sept 8th, and we'll continue his
private occupational therapy through the Fall at least.

There is a chance a day job will come open for dh soon. We hope he
gets it, even though the pay will be less.

Amanda, mom to Aaron 10/00 and
Madeline 11/3/03