Because…

…because no father’s wedding ring should slide up to his daughter’s shoulder.

Please help us fight against prematurity:

https://www.marchforbabies.org/march/s_team_page.asp?seid=2222840&mfb2015=1

March for Babies – 2015 – We Need YOU!

First we want to thank all of you who placed Younique orders during our awesome fundraiser! Together we were able to put $120 towards our March for Babies fund! Congrats to my fellow quad mama, Courtney Larson, on winning a set of the 3D Fiber Lashes Mascara!

 

We have just ONE more week before we participate in the Dallas March for Babies walk. If you haven’t already, please consider donating in honor of the kids in your lives. Being a family who has personally seen the benefits of the research done by the March of Dimes, I can tell you that your support is so greatly appreciated. Because of people like you who donated and helped raise awareness, OUR babies are here today.

Together we can help save lives.

Together we can offer hope in hopeless situations.

Together we can fight for tiny babies who cannot fight for themselves.

Together we can make a difference.

Although close, we have not yet reached our goal this year. With your help we can go above and beyond like each year in the past. A donation, of ANY amount is appreciated by so many. You can give online, safely and securely by clicking on the March of Dimes icon on the right of your screen or by clicking HERE! Either option will take you straight to our Team Page. Once on our team page, simply enter the amount you wish to donate to the right of your screen.

We are also excited to have many friends and family join us at the Dallas walk. It looks like we will have beautiful (fingers crossed!) weather and would love for you locals to join us! To join our team, click on our Team Page (above) and click “Join This Team” and register!

Lastly, if you are unable to walk with us or donate this year, please pass along either this blog post OR the link to our Team Page so that others may have an opportunity to help this cause that is so close to our hearts.

THANK YOU!

**Those of you who have joined our team this year, I will be contacting you within a few days with event information including shirt orders, times and locations :]

 

Ay Yi Yi… Our Lil’ Eye, Eye, Eyes!

Another Day, Another Diagnosis…. oh wait, did I already title another recent post with that?

I mentioned that Brody & Baxlyn failed their eye screenings at their 6 year check ups. They had their appointment with Dr. Chen yesterday for a thorough examination and to see what was up. Turns out Miss B has astigmatism going on, in her left eye especially. Astigmatism is caused by a difference in the surface curve of the eye. Instead of being a perfect sphere shape, Baxlyn’s eyes are shaped like footballs. She {confidently} got most of her letters wrong when reading the eye chart with her left eye.  Dr. Chen said she likes to avoid glasses with kids at all costs so the plan is to patch her right eye for 4 hours a day for 3 months and do a follow up to see if it helped strengthen that left eye. If you know B, you know she isn’t a complainer. She wasn’t thrilled to wear the patch but did it without a fuss. I’m telling you this girl is the sweetest, most compliant child I have ever met and I am so glad God gave her to me!

Dr. Chen hooked her up with this slightly boyish looking dragon patch for the first day but she’s happy to have a variety of girly patches being mailed to her this week :)

 

Our Broman has quite a bit going on as well and unlike Baxlyn, didn’t escape a MAJOR need for glasses. For a while now, I’ve noticed Brody not being able to look me straight in the eye. It’s as if he were looking just a few centimeters off of my eyes when trying to look at me. We’ve never noticed him squinting and have never seen anything that indicated he couldn’t see clearly but the actual focus of his eyes has been really off. This, along with other “weird” things is one of the reasons we took him in a few weeks ago to be checked for shunt malfunction. Dr. Chen said he has extreme Hyperopia (is far sighted) and also has Strabismus and needs glasses yesterday. She was able to show me during her examination how his eyes crossed inward to focus on a fixed object and how both eyes couldn’t focus on the object at one time.

Strabismus is a fairly common condition affecting nearly 4% of all children in the US. It is especially common in kids born prematurely and who have disorders that affect the brain such a Cerebral Palsy & Hydrocephalus… both of which Brody also has. We always knew he (and Kylee) were at an increased risk for eye problems but being six years in, I hoped we dodged that bullet. Apparently not!

Although the news of glasses didn’t bother Brody, I personally wasn’t too thrilled at the idea. Keeping up with five kids is hard enough and adding a pair of breakable eye wear to the mix doesn’t exactly sound like my cup of tea. Nonetheless I’m glad it’s nothing more serious. It’s just one more thing added to an already full plate, one more doctor to add to our calendar on a regular basis and one more medical condition I’ll be forced to learn more about in more detail. Thankfully, despite the silly-sad face in the picture, Brody is excited about getting glasses. Kylee was livid that she didn’t fail the eye test at their 6 year appointment and isn’t happy at all that Brody “gets” to wear glasses and she doesn’t… “No Fair! MY eyes are bwurry, they are so so bwurry so I need gwasses too!” I can only hope they’re as excited about braces when that time comes around!

Broman will get his glasses ASAP and will follow up with Dr. Chen in 2 months while Miss B will have her follow up in 3 months.