Pioneer Park

This past Wednesday I met up with some friends at Pioneer Park in Puyallup for a playdate/picnic dinner. Quite a few months back I posted about some friends of mine who had twin girls with a rare kidney disease called Cystinosis. These are the girls I was talking. Emma and Gracie continue to have their ups and downs, but it was so fun to see them play and be just like normal 2 year olds. Christy and Ryan are friends from my teaching job at Foothills and I commend them for their strength and commitment through this challenging journey with their girls. Everyone had a great time and it was encouraging for me to see another family adapt to life with special needs children and multiples! Basically, we chased little ones and took bites of our food when possible. Megan did a great job helping to keep all 5 kids close enough to be seen! We took turns chasing and returning children to the blankets. It was so much fun, that we plan to do it again next week :-)

Emma

(I know this is Emma because orange and Emma both start with vowels :-))

Gracie

Molly absolutely loved the big girls and just sat and watched them play.

I don't know why the pictures are small and as you know, I lack the patience to try and fix it. If I figured out at some point how to make them bigger, I'll redo the post!

Please keep Emma and Gracie in your prayers as they continue to battle this condition!

Pike Place

Well, I ventured out with the kids today and my sister Elizabeth (AKA Auntie Biz). We started out with lunch at a mexican grill called Chipotle. Oh my heavens, what a burrito I enjoyed today! My sisters have talked about this place for a while now and everytime they go, I have to hear about it. Well, I finally know what all the fuss is about. I ate the biggest, best tasting chicken burrito I've ever had! It was huge and I ate the whole entire thing. I regretted it for about 10 seconds and quickly pushed it aside. It was way too good to leave any behind :-) After lunch we headed to the Market. Getting there was a breeze, finding parking was challenging, but walking through the market? Hmmm, shall I say tricky? There were tons of people, which wouldn't have been too much of an issue if Hailey had been willing to sit in the stroller. Instead, she wanted to be out and in the mix. I carried her much of the way through the crowd and when we finally got to the end, I wisened up and gave her one of Molly's pretzel rods. That entertained her long enough for me to get a picture of Megan and Auntie Biz and a few of the kids. My main objectives were to spend some time with my sis before she heads back to school and for Megan to see the fish being thrown. Both were accomplished, so I consider the day a success! Andrew and Molly were troopers and made the adventure manageable!

I had to get the obligatory group shot. Someone was nice enough to take the picture for us.

Megan wanted to go up the hill and check out the birds. I'm noticing more and more in pictures how much she has grown this past year!

Andrew and Hailey are enjoying some snacks! Can't leave home without them :-)

Molly is being her usual happy self! She is the easiest baby to take anywhere, aside from her eating challenges.

The girls, just after seeing the fish and what Megan refers to as "humongous" lobster. I think she really enjoyed herself.

It was a long day but worth the energy. You may have noticed in Molly's picture that she is without the NG. We had a vomit episode last night and out came the tube. I decided it was as good a time as any to see what she's willing to take orally. She did pretty good today, so we'll give it another day and see.

Milkshakes and More

Today was Molly's swallow study, and in true Molly fashion was as stubborn as ever when it came to eating. She took a few spoonfuls of yogurt, but that wasn't very helpful because she was moving around so much. They did manage to get a good 3-4 swallows and the radiologist felt she did a beautiful job of swallowing and there wasn't even a speck of aspiration. So, from here where do we go? I'm not sure. I'll be contacting the pediatrician and her pulmonologist and find out what the next step is. It seems to me that she is becoming less interested in bottle feeding the longer we have the NG in, but she needs to get those calories and grow. She did take a 100mL bottle for me this afternoon, but she was very relaxed and there were no distractions. I guess in a house with three other kids, there's always something else to look at or pay attention to than eating!

On a fun note, I've discovered something else Molly likes to eat...Chocolate Milkshake. One theory, founded by Heidi, our NICU Nurse/friend, thinks it is because Molly was always smelling chocolate on her nurses' breath while in the hospital. Could be true :-) Anyway, I was drinking on yesterday and she kept watching me, so I put some on her tray. She didn't really do much with it but was still keeping her eyes on me. I figured out it was the straw she was interested in. So, I capped the end and put the straw to her mouth. She opened right up and let me drip the shake in. Then, she drank it from a bowl! So, naturally, I portioned out what was left and I now have frozen chocolate milk shake in my freezer. Not exactly baby food, but yummy calories for sure!

I'm posting this a day later and want everyone to know that we've hit another important mark. Molly is now 13 lbs. 4.5 oz! We finally broke the 13 lb. barrier!

Go Molly :-)

This picture shows just how determined Hailey can be when she spots a paci. She actually got on the floor and was trying to squeeze her way through the railing and under it in order to get that thing. Needless to say, she did succeed and ended in tears!

Lastly, this coming Sunday we will be having the babies dedicated at our church. It's been a day we have looked forward to for a long time now and are excited to share it with our family and friends! I will be sure to post pictures of the exciting event! It's kind of like their debut :-)

Playdate with Violet

We had a nice visit yesterday with our friends Chrissy and Violet. Violet is just one month younger than the triplets' corrected age, so we definitely look forward to some fun times in the future. Chrissy was one of the nurses from the UW who did an amazing job taking care of our little ones. She was with Molly from the beginning and also had the chance to care for Andrew and I think Hailey as well. Her faith and excellent nursing skills helped our babies during their long NICU journey! We are truly blessed by her friendship :-)

Hailey is showing Violet how to enjoy the outdoors from inside.

Molly and Chrissy sharing a special moment

Divas in the Making

A playdate at the McCann house would not be complete without a visit to the plastic drawer!

Look fast, in a rare moment Hailey is almost sharing her chair!

What a Foursome :-)

These next pictures offer a visual as to how far Molly has come. The hand in these pictures belongs to Chrissy, so we made sure to get some comparison shots!

(This might be someone else's hand, Heidi's I think!)

We really enjoyed our visit and can't wait to do again :-)

Amazing Things

Well, here we go again! The ups and downs never cease! Today was an amazing day. Not only did I get out for a nice long walk, but my little Molly proved once again how strong and determined she is! This past week has been a fairly tough one, with a couple of injuries and feeding issues, so to end it like we did is refreshing. Starting yesterday, Molly was showing signs of interest in the spoon again, so I was thrilled when she took at least ten bites of yogurt! Then, today at breakfast, she finished an entire cube of pureed pears, plus some yogurt, and more later on. On top of that, she was also willing to take part of her feeds from the bottle. Now, for the most amazing thing. I was upstairs with the other three while Tim was feeding Molly downstairs. As is her fashion, she stopped with about an ounce to go. So what we usually do is let her play for bit and offer it after about 5 minutes. Well, as Molly was playing on the floor, she found her bottle and decided to go ahead and feed the rest to herself! Check out these pictures:

From the look on her face here, I'd say she's as proud of herself as we are!

It will be interesting to see if this new skill continues, but for the time being, I am relishing in the joy of another milestone reached! This girl never ceases to amaze me and continues to teach me just how important it is to have faith in our children!

On a side note, Molly will be completing a swallow study this coming Wednesday, so I will let you know the results of that as soon as we get them. And if you are wondering about the Richard Simmons pants? No, she's not riding a bicycle just yet! Those are called Hip Helpers and what they do is help her keep her hips rotated in and her knees from flailing out. In order to crawl conventionally, it will be necessary for her to do this.

Thank you for all your prayers :-)

Molly Update

Well, we got the test results back from the her last labs and chest film. Her bi/carb, which I can only explain as having to do with how well she is ventilating, was 27. 28 is abnormal, so that, combined with a chest film that looked not as clear as the doc wanted, earned us a top spot on the swallow study schedule. However, Children's is booked out over two months so we will be heading to Valley in Renton to complete the test. Fortunately, the gal who administers them at Valley also works part time at Children's and was present at Molly's last test. So, she should have some recollection of her. I mean, who can forget a face like Molly's? We also started her on Pediasure just today to help boost her calories a bit and hopefully result in increased weight gain. She's been struggling a bit to keep her feeds down so I've been reducing the volume and feeding her more frequently. I was also advised to only feed her with a bottle if she is wide awake, so NG only at night. Hopefully, this ugly virus will skadaddle soon and we can start the road back to where she was before. Her weight today was 12 lb. 14 oz, which the doc was happy about since it was up a few ounces from her visit last week. Other than that, nothing else has changed. We have to wait and see what she does weight wise after NG comes back out. I just know that I cannot do that to her anymore. It's heartbreaking to see her look so sad and broken because of the trauma we put her through. When she wasn't as cognitively aware, it was much easier to accept! So, pray for Molly to be strong and grow big!

Thanks everyone :-)

Pantry Play

So, this is what my naughty children do when my back is turned!

Apparently Hailey thinks she is ready for bubble gum! Not likely, as Megan didn't chew gum until she 4, almost 5!
He tries to look innocent!
I definitely have double the trouble here! Wait till Molly gets in the mix! Yikes!