Eight Eyes

Weight Check
William - 24lbs 2oz
Aaron - 24lbs 4oz

As expected, William now has glasses to help with his eye occasionally turning inward.  The technical term is intermittent esotropia, a form of strabismus.  His is neurological based and not vision related - his eyesight has actually slightly improved since the last visit, and he is just barely farsighted.  Because of his extreme prematurity and/or the brain bleeds, there are times when his brain isn't quite telling his eyes how to line up correctly. Luckily it's not constant, so his depth perception should be able to develop normally, although he is slightly behind Aaron in that area according to the ophthalmologist.  The glasses should help, but probably not fix, the issue.  At some point down the road we may discuss eye muscle surgery to correct it, which was mentioned previously by our pediatrician.  I waited to post this until the glasses were received, so that I could post adorable pictures of the boys in their glasses together...however, William will not yet wear them.  It took a good two months or so for Aaron to wear his consistently, so I expect it will take at least that long for William.

Other than that, no real news for the boys.  They are making great progress with speech.  William is putting two words together "not nice!" and Aaron is building up his vocabulary.  Our speech therapist believes he'll be caught up to the expectations for their actual age by age 2.  Developmental clinic was cancelled last month due to the late season snow storm and we're waiting to go back again until they're two.  I'll keep everyone posted with their progress...until next time, here are a bunch of pictures :)

William

Aaron

Aaron

Anna

Troublemakers

William...stealing Aaron's glasses

William, Allee, and Aaron

William

Aaron

William 

Aaron

19 Months - with a video!

19 Months

William – 23lbs 10oz

Aaron – 23lbs 2oz

(as of the middle of January)

The boys are growing and thriving.  We moved this month to Hanover, and needless to say, we’ve been busy!  It is quite an undertaking to move with three little kids.  We did finish unpacking the playroom and kids’ bedrooms first, so that they have safe places to go while we finish unpacking the rest.

Everything went well at their 18 month check-up earlier in January.  Our pediatrician is antsy for the boys to go back to the ophthalmologist – specifically William.  While he has the better eyesight, one eye at a time (usually the right, but not always) will occasionally turn in (strabismus).  With his slight farsightedness, this will happen because of difficulty transitioning from looking up close to far away.  I pointed this out to the eye doctor in the fall, but he didn’t notice it and told us to wait until the next appointment and see what happens. Our pediatrician believes he will need surgery to correct it.  From what I’ve researched, this surgery on the eye muscle is one of the most frequently performed eye surgeries and he would recover quickly.  While I, of course, don’t like the need for any surgery or pain inflicted on my kids, he will get it if he needs it. We’ll find out in March.  This really wasn’t a surprise, as you can tell even from some of the pictures I’ve posted on here that his eye will turn in slightly.  The boys have had colds/flu/stomach bugs all in the past month or two (as has the rest of the family) and I am looking forward to nicer weather and at least a week of a healthy house!  I am very thankful that we are still eligible for the Synagis vaccine, as I credit this for keeping them away from RSV.

With our jump into the next county, we have moved out of the service area of the Rural Infant Services Program, the early intervention branch that covers the Northern Neck area.  Hanover County, as with most in the Richmond metro area, has its own EI service, which is one of just two in Virginia that are provided through the school system.  The benefit of this is that the boys could fairly easily move into Hanover’s preschool program after they age out of EI, if services are still needed.  The team from Hanover assessed the boys last week and determined that as of right now… Mr. William has no need for services, but will remain under their observation.  He was a ham for the assessors and is really starting to progress nicely with language.  He will repeat many words and is very, very social.  He’s our rambunctious little wild and musical man J  Starting next week, Aaron will be receiving speech therapy twice a month.  He is starting to say more though, especially “Bye bye,” and school has heard him try to say “push” and “pull” (concepts they are working on there), which are new. He’s definitely behind William in the verbal arena, but he’s getting there.  Aaron is more of the cuddler, who wants to sit in your lap and look at books or play, and is usually the more easy going one. He’s also more sensitive and seems to get his feelings hurt more easily, especially if a toy is taken from him, or someone else is in mommy’s lap J

Are all boys born with an innate ability and desire to wrestle?  William is more of the instigator, but they will head butt each other and roll around each other bumping heads and laughing.  It’s really funny and cute to watch, especially when Aaron is receptive to it instead of whining and pushing him away J I’m so happy that they have each other, and Anna to keep them in line J

We have another developmental clinic in March, and the next eye doctor appointment as well.  I may not update anything until then just because there’s no “news”, so just know that they are (hopefully) happy and healthy until then!

Pictures

Aaron loved the snow!

William did not love the snow :)

William's "Cheese" face

Aaron

Aaron

William

William, Anna, and Aaron (taken in November)

William and Aaron (taken in November)

Video!

Be warned, this is about 6 minutes of craziness that only family and close friends may appreciate, taken right before we moved.  Although it ends with William in tears after falling on his bottom, no babies were harmed during filming of this video!

Developmental Clinic, Hearing test, and Neurologist visit

Weight Check

William – 23lbs 2oz

Aaron – 22lbs 6oz

We've had three fairly significant appointments in the past two weeks, so I thought I’d post about those now rather than waiting until the end of the month.  We will be super busy with Christmas and getting ready to move!

Developmental Clinic

We have been to developmental clinic several times now, but this is the first time we've done the Bayley Scale of Infant development.  The boys were exactly 14 months adjusted the day of the test, so ideally they would score at 14 months for each category.  They were visited by the occupational therapist, speech therapist, and physical therapist, and asked to do a bunch of activities like stacking blocks, point to certain items, and color with a crayon.  Stephen was with Aaron during his testing, so I’m not sure exactly how he reacted.  I was with William, who was being a little stinker the whole time.  First of all, they undress the boys and sit them in a highchair in their diapers, which is completely unnatural for them.  With William, they started by putting a bunch of toys on the highchair tray and asked him to pick up the baby, spoon, cup, ball, or book.  He was first asked to pick up the book, and instead picked up the cup and ball, and was fixated on showing the therapist that he can put the ball in and out of the cup.  Then, when the next therapist came in and showed him a book with pictures, he was asked to point at a picture of a book – he immediately looked at the book they had taken from his highchair and placed on the table, but wouldn't point at the picture of the book she was holding…I’m surprised he scored as high as he did with his lack of cooperation, but almost everything they asked him I KNOW he can do at home.  Because of this, I take the results with a grain (or ten) of salt.  The only score that I completely do not agree with is Aaron’s expressive language – he does say mama and dada, and a few animal sounds (and since the appointment he has been saying bye bye and hi), but he was scored at an age that isn't supposed to be saying any words at all.  So they got that one wrong.  However, we do agree that he could benefit from speech therapy, which we've already discussed with our early intervention program. He’ll be evaluated when we move to Hanover and start in their program.  We will also have Hanover evaluate William for speech and occupational therapy based on these results, as it’s better to be proactive, but I’m not 100% sure they’re needed.  After that test, I’m not completely sold on the value of the developmental clinic since they only see the boys for 15 minutes every few months – they surely can’t know my kids and everything they can do.  The early intervention program seems to be much better for that purpose for us.

Here are the results:

Cognitive: William – 12 months, Aaron - 14 months

Fine Motor:  William – 13 months, Aaron - 15 months

Gross Motor:  William – 14 months, Aaron - 14 months

Receptive Language:  William – 14 months, Aaron - 16 months

Expressive Language:  William – 12 months, Aaron – 8 months

Hearing Test

Because they were born so early and had the brain bleeds, the boys are at risk for progressive hearing loss.  As a result, we were expected to follow up with the audiologist every 6 months or so until they turn 3.  The guidelines have changed, however – they just need to pass one diagnostic test and one follow-up before they are 2.  The boys have now PASSED the diagnostic test and two follow-up visits, so they are good to go.  We will still see the ENT because of Aaron’s tubes, but have crossed the audiologist off of our list.  (Yay)

Neurologist

I am a huge fan of our neurologist.  From day one, he has given the most realistic and grounded insight and advice regarding the boys' brains and potential future delays (or, in our case, probable lack of future delays J ).  It is his job, of course.  Based on the boys' activity and reflexes he saw in his office – standing, walking, playing, talking, he sees no real potential for future disabilities due to the brain bleeds.  He will see them one more time when they turn 2, and then we should be able to remove him from our list as well.  They may still have some issues with more of the fine motor dexterity based on the location of the brain damage – may not be future piano concerto players – but only time will tell. 

William and Aaron continue to be happy, loving, playful little boys who seek attention and affection.   We couldn't ask for anything better this Christmas!

William & Aaron