Pride

Since becoming a mother 5 years ago, there have been countless times that I’ve been so overcome with pride for my babies. I remember going in to see them the day after they were born. Hardly able to even stand at their isolettes, I remember gazing at their tiny bodies and truly realizing for the first time that these little beings that laid lifelessly in front me were some of the strongest I’d ever see. True miracles that had already overcome so much since the day they were conceived.

I watched my sweet boy change the doctors words from “he has us backed into a corner and there’s nothing else we can do” to “…we don’t know what happened but he’s turned a corner and is improving by the minute” within a matter of just a few hours. I watched that same little boy start to finally pull himself forward on the floor towards a bottle of baby lotion at 12 months old. I watched him take his first steps at nearly 18months old and finally learn to jump, two feet off the ground, at 4 years old. Moments I’ll never forget.

I’ve witnessed these babies, at risk for well, just about everything, defy the odds and thrive more than we ever imagined they would. Pride is watching your sweet little girl pray over each meal being sure to ask that God keep “evweybuddy in the world safe”. It’s watching your babies sing, dance and rejoice while praising Jesus in church. It’s hearing their little conversations at night when they think nobody is listening. It’s watching their first tee-ball practice and fighting back tears because they’re the slowest and least-coordinated on the team but they try their hardest to keep up with the rest of their teammates…all with huge smiles on their faces. It’s hearing your little girl insist on telling her dog “I love you” each time she leaves the house.

This morning I watched my precious four walk into Kindergarten. I watched their nervous smiles greet their new teacher as they looked back at me for reassurance. This morning, I watched their wings spread a little wider as I was forced to let them go just a little bit more than I ever have before. Pride. Immeasurable Pride.

Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin, I love you so much and am SO incredibly PROUD of each and every one of you. Never forget that, sweet babies. –Love, Mommy

 

Developmental Check Up: Braces Round 2

Brody & Kylee had their 6 month check up with their developmental pediatrician a couple of weeks ago. Both are a bit behind in most areas but are making tremendous progress in getting where they need to be and “catching up” after their rough beginning. I always love these long appointments with our developmental ped. as we get a great, thorough examination and look at exactly where they fall developmentally and best of all, I always walk away with a renewed sense of pride knowing how far they’ve come! They both weighed in at about 31lbs and great news, Kylee’s head circumference is not only staying consistent with her own growth curve, but it’s on the charts!

This appointment Brody was “officially” diagnosed with Diplegia Cerebral Palsy, a form of CP affecting the legs. He’s always been a bit off when it comes to balance, coordination and such but lately he’s getting worse. His case is mild, thank goodness, but affects his daily life nonetheless. He has trouble with motor planning which makes little things like stepping up and down curbs or different surfaces, running & jumping hard to do. Despite stretching his legs on a regular basis he is becoming tighter and tends to tiptoe more than we’d like.

Sweet Kylee still battles her Hemiplegia CP as she continues to grow as well. Unlike Brody, she has started to jump and is able to get both feet off the ground – huge deal!! She’s started to run too! You can really see the way her CP affects her when she does her little run. The left side of her body gets pretty tense, her left arm comes in and fisted towards her side and her left foot turns in quite a bit, as she hops with her right foot over it. I’ll admit I think it’s adorable and I love watching her. The best part is she’s got a HUGE smile on her face any time she’s running and is clearly very proud of herself!

Brody & Kylee both are being fitted for leg braces to try to help them with their CP. This will be round 2 for Kylee and Brody’s first time in them. If you’re a long time follower you might remember Kylee wearing both an AFO & an SMO when she was 17 months old. Although she wasn’t walking at that point, she did well with the braces and they didn’t seem to bother her at all. She and Brody will both be getting AFO’s this time, Brody on both legs helping to hold his feet flat and giving him a good stretch and Kylee just on her left, guiding her foot to a natural position when she walks/runs. 

They were both fitted last week for their braces and did great during their appointment. Although painless, in order to make their braces, they have to have molds made of their little legs . Kylee was NOT A FAN during her last casting, so I was a bit nervous at how they’d do this time. It was nice this time around, being able to explain what would happen before we got there. I had showed Kylee and Brody pictures from when Kylee was little and told them “yay, you get to get braces!”…which of course led Korbin & Miss B wondering why they don’t get to have braces…ugh, can’t win! Anyways, I told them both that Mr. Spencer was going to put mud on their legs and it was going to be SO SILLY!

Once we got in the room, we asked who wanted to go first and Kylee was ready and willing. She plopped up on Daddy’s lap with a smile on her face and was excited about the “silly mud”!

Brody sat close by keeping an eye on everything that was happening and Kylee sat and stole the heart of Spencer as he casted her little leg. She carried on a sweet little conversation with him the entire time…

Here she’s helping him by holding the “noodle” in place…

My sweet girl and I!    Brody was up next and did great as well. He wasn’t stoked about the process but managed his way through it. We were cracking up the entire time over this look on his face…

Again, Kylee right in on the action, helping hold the noodle as Brody’s cast was cut off…

Once all was said and done he was all smiles and told Spencer “I fink I need a sticker now.” LOL!

 

I can only hope they do as well with the actual braces as they did with getting fitted for them. They should be receiving them in another week or so and of course, we’ll update you!

This just happened…

So I’m getting things ready for our fun night out with Daddy tonight. A little dinner, a little school shoe shopping (OMG KINDERGARTEN!!) a nice evening out with our little people. While jamming to my oldies and doing my thing I start hearing a choir of cheering…

“GO BLADE GO! GO BLADE GO! YOU CAN DO IT BLADE! GO BLADE GOOOO! YOU ALMOST GOT IT BABYYY!!!”.

I was a little nervous as to what I would find as I followed the screeches of laughter and excitement. I turn the corner to find Blade being highly encouraged by his entourage of siblings to CLIMB OUT of his crib. Rather than try to stop the action, I ran quickly for my phone.  Let’s face it, Blade KNEW what he was about to do, there was no getting back him being blissfully unaware he could get out his crib if he so desired. I might as well capture the moment on film, right??

Although I am disappointed in the quads I will say I’m glad they at least put down a bean bag chair in the event their lil’ bro took a hard fall. Umm, thanks guys.

Brody & Baxlyn quickly moved out of the way and Blade made his landing safely on the bean bag chair as planned. Victory was theirs and I all of a sudden found myself left in a desperate search of a crib tent. That would be no, I am NOT ready to transition to a toddler bed ;)

I made my entrance into the room of my proud, giddy, over-the-moon excited children and they all shouted at once “Mom, LOOK!… Blade got out of his crib ALL BY HIMSELF!… He is SO big! Look what he did Mom!….He did it, he DID it, HE DID IIITTTT!” Perhaps they don’t remember what happened when each of them escaped (seen here here and here). All I know is Blade was just beaming with pride. Super cute but worries me that this will be an ongoing occurrence since he was so successful the first time! Grr.

Here’s to us embracing toddlerhood and all it’s goodness once again!  Yipeeeeeeee!!!

A few random pics to hold you over...

Rather than leave you with nothing while on vacation, I thought I'd share a few random pictures taken over the past few months. Some may be repeats for all my facebook peeps!

Taking a stroll on a sunny day!

Just this past week, Korbin learned how to climb fell out of his crib. Unlike Baxlyn, when I found him he wasn't beaming with pride. From the look of his right eye it was a tough landing. Needless to say, he hasn't tried it since...

Splish Splash!
Their first swim of the summer!

Kylee LOVES accessories!

The coolest quad on the block, Baxlyn.

This is what happens when a triplet mom and a quad mom go to a children's museum that has the smallest elevator in the world.... babies go down on one trip and the choo choos on the next! Yeah...that didn't cause a scene.

The boys have had many many haircuts and this was Brody's first time to be brave and sit in the chair all by himself! (The lump you see under his cape is, of course, Dudu!)

How sweet is this? 2 brothers and their rolly polly!

Water sprinkler or a quad-friendly water fountain?

Four wheeler fun at Pa-paws! Kylee wanted NOTHING to do with it, poor girl!

Lil' explorers...

It's nice to see a little love among all the fighting these days :]

Working together for a GOOD cause, doesn't happen often!

We took the quads to one of my dad's softball games a couple of weeks ago. I grew up on the ball fields watching him play and it was about time my kids experienced it too! Love this one of Brody & Kylee watching him bat - Go Papa!

After the game we let them out on the field. Rather than roam what do they decide to do?? Clean. Yup, four 2 year olds on a ball field and they chose to clean. Below is Baxlyn using her foot to smear away the "yucky" lines someone put there...

While she's doing that we look over and notice Korbin is trying desperately to sweep the dirt out of the dugout with his lil' hands...

Before we knew it they were all in the dugout picking up and throwing away cups and trash the players had left behind...

This picture is SO Baxlyn, trying to juggle as many cups as she possible can!

Kylee with the Tew boys at the zoo. She talks constantly about Emmett. From the looks of this picture he's got a lil' crush on her too! Looks like he's saying "Back off Bro, this one's mine!" Lunch with their BFF, Levi James.

I'll leave you with one of the latest. This was a trip to Walmart. We passed through this section and in an instant I had a stroller full of toddlers yelling "Hats! Hats! Haaatttsss!!!" No sweeties, those are not hats!

Until next time!!

Caged Monkey

I've heard soo many stories about toddlers and their quest to escape their cribs and have been warned that one day, chances are one, some or ALL of mine would learn to as well. I thought that maybe, just mayyybe I would get lucky and not have to deal with that part of toddlerhood...ha! A few months ago I went to peek into the girls' room during nap time and saw this...

My heart just about jumped up into my throat at the sight of my little barely 20lb baby girl straddling her crib rail and holding on for dear life. I went in, set her back down in her crib, told her "no" and left the room. Five minutes later I hear a loud THUD followed by crying. Sure enough she had done it again, but had fallen and landed on her head. The first thing that came to my mind was crib tent. I've heard some people say "When they climb out of their crib that means they NEED a toddler bed"... I totally disagree. At this point in time, for our family, toddler beds are out of the question. Luckily, my friend and fellow quad mom Casey Gerwer had a crib tent she was ready to get rid of so we made the trip that afternoon to pick it up. We were prepared to install it that night if our little monkey-girl decided to try it again. To our surprise, she didn't. Since then (December) that crib tent has been waiting patiently in the garage until we were forced to use it. Well, that day came this past Wednesday night.

It was about 7pm, the babies were in bed and Bret and I had just sat down to watch a little American Idol when we heard a little voice say "Mom.........Mom..........Mom....." (first of all MOM? where in the world did she learn to call me Mom?!). Bret and I immediately looked at each other knowing she was not in her crib and was standing very close to her almost but not quite closed door. I peeked around the corner and saw Baxlyn's little body standing at the crack of the door and her little face beaming with pride, I have to admit it was kinda cute! We went to her room, set her back in her crib, had a little talk and left. 2 minutes later...you guessed it...she was out again. Not sure how she did it, but she did indeed figure it out without hurting herself. Bret headed to the garage for the crib tent and he and Baxlyn sat in her room putting it together while Kylee watched.

Once it was ready we had to figure out a way to make the new tent seem fun and cool but not soo fun and cool that the others would want one...let me tell you that is a FINE line! I've heard parents say their kids call them "tents" "princess castles" and other cool things. Baxlyn immediately suggested it was her "tunnel". We set her in her new tunnel, gave her a few blocks and she settled right down for the night!

The next morning the boys went in to see the girls with their daily "Goo Mo-nan!" greeting...their jaws dropped at the sight of the new crib tent and Korbin yelled "Bashi Tunnel!" He thought it was the coolest thing and insisted he and Brody try it out too! For now it's the perfect fix for our little climber. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before there's another one, two, or Heaven forbid three in cages as well!

March of Dimes 2011

I walked right into my late 20's bright and early Saturday morning (thanks all for the birthday wishes!) accompanied by some great friends, adorable kiddos, beautiful weather and all for a GREAT cause! The March of Dimes March for Babies walk was a huge success this year and the day was just about as close to perfect as it could get. We spent a lot of time answering questions and posing for pics...as well as many "not posing for pics"... there had to have been hundreds of pictures taken of the babies that went home on other peoples cameras. Sheesh! We met several new faces, friends of friends and blog followers, people who "knew" us via the computer.

A view from the sky (Fox 4 News) showed the thousands of people who came together to walk. People of all ages, many affected by prematurity and other birth defects. People, like us, who walked in honor of their healthy babies and people who walked in memory of their angels who never made it home. Sooo many people all to support the research and funding for healthy babies... simply amazing.

Below: Trysta's awesome Big Brother Hayden with dad Jamie, handsome lil' Will & Trysta all lookin' cute in her matching hair bow!

We had a total of 9 adults and 8 kids with us, 7 of them being ages 2 and under! Between the 6 car choo choo wagon and 3 single strollers, each baby was ridin' in style. Trysta, Levi & Will had a blast riding in the choo choo while the quads took turns livin' the life of a singleton in a "normal" stroller!

We saw many familiar faces along the way, hospital staff and other Medical Center of Plano NICU graduates. I've had several opportunities to go back to our NICU since being discharged and I've talked with and cried with other parents whose tiny babies were just barely holding on. This weekend I got to see some of those same parents walking with their little miracle babies just beaming with pride!

At one point we had all 7 babies in the choo choo, which made for a must-have photo! Unlike last year we didn't have to stop for feedings, we just filled each cup holder in each wagon full of goldfish and cheerios...easy peasy!

Below Kylee & Brody. Will lovin' the view in the choo choo. Kylee saw a "woof woof" so you know we HAD to stop! Sweet Trysta sippin' some H2O! All 7 of the littles Trysta, Baxlyn, Korbin, Kylee, Levi, Will & Brody!

Bret and I sincerely want to thank all of you supported our walk by donating money THANK YOU! Another thanks to those who walked with us, we hope you consider joining us again next year as we strive to make this an annual event and help to raise awareness!

Last but not least we want to especially thank Mike with Prosper Marketing for providing our awesome team shirts! Last year we made our own shirts with iron ons and well, they didn't last long. This year Mike and his company provided us with high quality t-shirts with our logo on them and I have no doubt they'll be around a while! If you are local and are ever in need of custom made shirts (or any other gear for the matter) I highly recommend Prosper Marketing, they've got a HUGE selection and were SO easy to work with! Check out their site here!

Thanks again to EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE who had a hand in supporting the March of Dimes this year!