Just breathe

We've had an interesting start to our week. Stokes and I were at the pediatrician's office at 8:30 AM this morning. Poor little Stokie!

Let me start from the beginning...

Late last week, we noticed that Stokes had a little bit of a runny nose. Nothing to be too concerned about, but we were just keeping any eye on it and suctioning him at least twice a day. Over the weekend, we didn't see much improvement and he was sneezing a good bit and had started coughing as well. I was thinking it was probably allergy related since spring is in full bloom here. It also started affecting his sleep so on Saturday and Sunday night he was waking up and crying, which is pretty rare at this stage for him. All he wanted to do was to be held.

Sunday night he began wheezing lightly. Wheezing always gets my attention because the NICU nurses hammered it into my head that wheezing is a bad sign. I held him some throughout the night on Sunday but Monday morning, he was struggling to breathe. I could tell how hard he was working and could see around his rib cage the struggle he was feeling. I immediately called the pediatrician and got the first appointment of the morning.

It appears that Stokes had an asthma attack brought on by a cold. I've been thinking that he may have asthma for a while because I'll notice when he is being very active or going fast up the stairs, he will be breathing heavily. I was planning to bring it up to the allergist since they specialize in allergies and asthma when we have an appointment later this month. I was definitely not expecting to see an attack like we did this morning.

While Stokes and I were at the pediatrician, he got a dose of steroids and a breathing treatment right there in the office. The doctor came back in afterwards to listen to him again to see if the medicines had made a difference. His lungs were still very tight, but were doing better. He's on a strict schedule of breathing treatments every 3 hours while he's awake and 5 days worth of steroids. We will go back to the doctor tomorrow morning and hopefully see some big improvements.

We have a nebulizer and typically have some Albuterol medicine here at home but I usually wait until talking to a nurse before I use it. I know now that if I see any of my boys struggling to breathe like that, I need to go ahead and start the breathing treatments ASAP. I asked the pediatrician whether I should have taken Stokes to the ER, but she said he was fine to just come in to their office this morning. As a worried Mom, I always think back to what I should have done differently, but you can't go back, only forward. This will be used as a learning experience. Seeing Stokes in the condition he was in this morning really scared me. I'm so relieved that we figured out what was going on, have a treatment plan and we can most likely avoid the hospital. 

Sleep boy during a breathing treatment

So we had an appointment this morning, then we'll have a follow-up tomorrow morning and then Wednesday morning is Ryan's MRI. He'll have to be sedated, which makes me nervous(!!), so if you can say a few prayers for all of us, that would be appreciated!

P.S. Over the weekend William and I went to his first birthday party as an attendee! The boys have been invited to a few other parties but we haven't been able to go for one reason or another. This time we were planning to take the whole crew, but yesterday morning were worried that Stokes may be sick (runny nose, sneezing and coughing were all present) and Ryan's nose was running as well, so we decided to play it safe. Thomas stayed home with Stokes and Ryan and I took William on my own. After how strict we've been about getting germs and sick people near our boys, we didn't think we should take the chance to possibly get others sick! The party was great and it was fun to get some one on one time with William as well as see some friends I've known for a long time. Happy birthday to Hayes! Thanks for inviting us to your party!!!

FaceTime

I was traveling for work this week and whenever I travel, I put some major pressure on Thomas to send me pictures of the boys. I miss them so much while I'm gone and my arms ache when I can't wrap them around my babies. Thomas not only sent me pictures, he one upped himself this time and did some FaceTime with me! The boys were so darn cute and although it is a distant second to being with them in person, it's much improved over still pictures. I keep thinking that it must be confusing to the boys to see their mom on the phone, but they were so funny and smiley. William was even trying to kiss the phone. Be still, my heart!

FaceTime with Stokes

FaceTime with Ryan

FaceTime with William

These are the precious pictures Thomas texted to be before the awesome FaceTime convo. :) These pictures of obviously much clearer than my attempts to capture FaceTime moments.

Stokes - poor little guy with his forehead scrape!

Check out those muscles on my man, Ryan!
He's getting stronger and stronger, y'all!

What can I say? this one just cracks me up!

Boys, boys, boys

What is it with boys and trucks?

We have to keep the blinds up on any windows that they might come in contact with during the day or else the little guys are messing with the blinds and getting them out of alignment all day. Of course, while the blinds are open, they have access to see outside.  On a recent morning, they happened to notice something veryyyyyy interesting. The garbage truck was on our street picking up the trash. All of a sudden, everyone was quiet and their attention was being drawn outside, where they were 100% focused. As the truck drove by in front of our house, I could see all three of their heads turning to follow the truck. Too funny!  

I even got Ryan to stand up at the window all by himself. I'm sure he had a little help from his brothers, but this is awesome to me! I can't even handle the cuteness.

Walk this way, part III

You may have guessed by now, but we've got another walker on our hands. William took his first solo step about 3 weeks ago and now he walks. Like, he can actually walk...with many steps in a row. It was a fast progression. Stokes took a long time to build up his walking skills and I feel like William just decided to walk and started walking! He is not quite an expert walker yet, but he can get across the room without falling or needing any help. William's gait is very slow and cautious. He doesn't have the best balance yet, so he takes his time between each step.

You know I always have a story, so here's the story for this one. Ryan's physical therapist, Ashley, asks about his brothers when she's here for Ryan's appointment. She would always ask about whether William was walking yet, and my response was always, "Not yet...I think he's holding out on us. I know he's capable, but he's just not interested yet." A few weeks back, Ashley was asking about William again and I gave my typical response and added that he had taken A step (not multiple steps) but none since then. Then she asked me to remind her how old they were. I told her they were 18 months and I could tell she was thinking something was up. Apparently, kids should be walking by the time they're 15 months, and that's on the later end of the spectrum. Hello! William was 15 months adjusted and 18 months actual, so I, of course, was feeling a little concerned. We don't even really consider adjusted age as much anymore since they're supposed to be caught up by the time they're two (so if you're thinking about adjusted age, you could maybe only give them a month or a month and a half at this point). It's almost like everything is excused because my boys were preemies. I appreciated the grace when they were newborns, but now I don't want to miss addressing issues because they're "allowed" to be behind. I'm not even sure that makes sense, and when it comes to school, I will probably want to wait until as long as possible to get them in their classes, but I did not realize that William had missed the walking boat by 3 months past when you should start being concerned.

While she was here, Ashley took a look at his feet and ankles and saw some pronation. His toes turn out and his foot is not in line with his calf and ankle. You can actually see his toes curling and his ankles rolling inwards. This could cause issues down the line with how his body adjusts to the incorrect alignment. In addition, it makes it harder for him to walk, which would explain the delay. Ashley's suggestion was to get him a physical therapy evaluation so she could take a better look at him and see what needs to be done. Getting an eval involves working with our Early Interventionist and getting an RX from the pediatrician. We will possibly get him some SMO orthotics (ankle braces), like we're getting for Ryan, to properly align his foot and make sure the right areas get stronger. She said he probably wouldn't need many sessions, but it's a good idea to get him help in case he might need it versus taking our chances and realizing down the road that we should have corrected this much earlier.

See that big toe curling to try to gain some traction?

The interesting thing is that we are going down the road to get him set up with a PT eval and considering the AFOs and in the meantime he started walking. It is almost like he heard us talking and realized that we were serious and decided to show us! So although he is actually walking now, we're moving forward with the eval and possibly the AFO to make sure everything is good. Getting PT can only help, not hurt, so I should take advantage of all these opportunities now while I can!

And kudos to William, our 2nd walker, who still actually prefers to crawl 85% of the time. ;)

Video of William playing with my emotions. This was the night after he took his first step. He enjoyed teasing me about whether he was going to walk or not!

Recent video of William walking. Way to go, William!

Jumping into spring with the Nanas

Who's glad that SPRING is here?!?!?! We are! We've been loving this great springtime weather and even better than awesome weather is having our most recent visitors - the Nanas!

Thomas went to the beach with some of his best friends for a long weekend and the Nanas came up to see the boys for the weekend. We hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving so the visit was overdue by about 3 months! We all wish we didn't live quite so far away and could see them more often, but we'll work on that.

The Nanas are so funny about the boys. They will literally fight over who gets to do what - bathing, feeding, changing diapers, holding, etc. They want to do it all and get as much time with each of the little guys as possible. They like to be the first people the boys see when they wake up in the morning and after naps and make sure they walk into the nursery first. They have funny little games they play with the boys and we all just had such a good time with them here. While the Nanas were here, we took walks, played on the deck, and just loved on the boys. 

The Nanas came bearing gifts. They wanted to get something for the boys for Easter. It was funny watching the boys open their presents! They are finally starting to the drift of tearing open the wrapping paper.

Pretty presents with Easter colors

So serious about the task at hand

Having fun with the wrapping paper

Cute t-shirts and khaki shorts

I loved this moment after lunch on Saturday when Aunt Wanda took Ryan and just held him against her. He laid his head on her chest and went right to sleep. It was so sweet. And by the way, when she took him upstairs to change his diaper and put him down for his nap, he didn't wake up at all! She has a way with him.

The Nanas have made friends in Greenville with some of my mom's friends so I try to make a point to get them all together whenever the Nanas come to visit. Saturday night we had Lisa, Terry, MaSha and GranO over to hang out and have dinner with us.

 



Terry brought a few super cute books for the boys
and was reading to them!

Nana, Stokes and MaSha

GranO and Ryan

Lisa and William

Lisa, Ryan and Terry

It was a gorgeous afternoon/evening so we got to spend
a little time outside

Foreshadowing - we had this baby gate up to keep the boys
from going downstairs and keep the dogs in the yard. Yep...

Stokes - mischievous little fella

William sat in his chair backwards
and was having a blast with it!
He was acting like it was a horse. This pic
looks like he's mad but he's actually
cracking up here!

Stokes and me

Ryan and Lisa

It was all fun and games and we were having a great time....UNTIL...Stokes pushed over the flimsy baby gate we had at the top of the stairs of the deck and fell down the wooden stairs...face first. Ouch! My poor baby! I freaked out and ran over to him and scooped him up as soon as possible. The fall looked pretty bad and I was very worried. He was definitely crying like it hurt. I immediately took him upstairs to clean him up and by the time we got upstairs, my tough little man already wasn't crying any longer. Lisa used to be an EMT and came up to check him out. Thankfully he checked out just fine! Whew! He has a nice war wound from his fall, however.

Lisa putting ice on Stokes's head

Poor little guy!

He got his milk and was fine. It actually doesn't look bad
at all. The fall looked horrendous so this
is a good outcome, considering!

Lisa and Mary Nell playing with William and Stokes

Aunt Wanda and Ryan

Wanda, Ryan, Stokes, me, Mary Nell and William

Nana #1 and Stokes (he's holding his medicine dropper that
I used to give him some well deserved Tylenol!)

Nana #2 and Ryan

William LOVES books and had a blast pointing to
animals and making their noises

Reading with Nana

Ryan - the sweetest thing!

After bedtime, the ladies and I had so much fun talking and just hanging out. I'm so thankful to have each of them in my life!

Wanda, Lisa, Terry, Mary Nell and Peggy

Wanda, me, Mary Nell and Peggy

On Sunday, the Nanas helped me get the boys ready for church before they hit the road back home. We tried (without much success) to get one more picture of them before we loaded the boys in the car! Stokes did not want to sit down and William kept messing with the blinds behind the couch. The was probably the best picture I could get!

This one just cracks me up!

They didn't do much better for Mama!