8th Birthday Interview: Caleb Sean

Yay, birthday interviews! Our kids look forward to these as much as I do!

 Caleb Sean

Caleb has been doing so well in school lately! He's learning how to be more flexible, and I think he finally realizes that school is a non-negotiable. haha! He takes great pride in being able to help when teachers or staff give him a way to be involved in his school community, and....our biggest news....he has stopped wearing his headphones all the time! He rarely ever wears them at home, church, or when he is out in public with our family now. He does still wear them at school somewhat, but he will leave the house with them in his backpack to start the day. He is adapting to life so well. We couldn't be more proud of the strides he's made in the past year!

How old are you turning? "8"
What makes you happy? "Whenever I watch Phineas and Ferb, be with my mom and dad, go to World's of Fun, when I see Blue (his stuffed doggy), data days with my resource teachers, I like speech (therapy) because it's during math time and that's not my favorite, but don't tell my teacher."
What is your favorite animal? "Lions"
What is your favorite color? "All the colors"
What is your favorite thing to eat? "BBQ Bacon Burgers" 
What is your least favorite thing to eat? "Orange Chicken"
What is your favorite thing to do? "Build with Legos, build Fort Magic structures, hang out with Blue (his stuffed doggy), play Polly Pockets with the sisters, and hang out with all my Ishum Friends which is also known as Elijah, Abby, Ellie and Mom and Dad"
What is your favorite TV show? "Phineas & Ferb and Sonic Boom"
What is your favorite movie? "The Greatest Showman"
What are you really good at? "Making stuff for my Mom and Dad and all my Ishum Friends, building stuff with Fort Magic and Lego bricks"
What is your favorite song? "Under Pressure and anything with jazz"
What do you and your mom do together? "We hang out a bit. We eat, we cook, sometimes we bake a bit and play."
What do you and your dad do together? "We hang out with each other. We talk about stuff, drink pineapple peach kumbucha, and other things but I can't say them all on this thing." 
What is your favorite book? "Kung Pow Chicken and Super Rabbit Boy books"
What is your favorite toy? "Legos and Fort Magic stuff"
What do you want to be when you grow up? "I can't decide if I should be a builder or a preschool teacher. This year, I think a builder...or an ice cream truck driver.

Yay, birthday interviews! Our kids look forward to these as much as I do!

 Caleb Sean

Caleb has been doing so well in school lately! He's learning how to be more flexible, and I think he finally realizes that school is a non-negotiable. haha! He takes great pride in being able to help when teachers or staff give him a way to be involved in his school community, and....our biggest news....he has stopped wearing his headphones all the time! He rarely ever wears them at home, church, or when he is out in public with our family now. He does still wear them at school somewhat, but he will leave the house with them in his backpack to start the day. He is adapting to life so well. We couldn't be more proud of the strides he's made in the past year!

How old are you turning? "8"
What makes you happy? "Whenever I watch Phineas and Ferb, be with my mom and dad, go to World's of Fun, when I see Blue (his stuffed doggy), data days with my resource teachers, I like speech (therapy) because it's during math time and that's not my favorite, but don't tell my teacher."
What is your favorite animal? "Lions"
What is your favorite color? "All the colors"
What is your favorite thing to eat? "BBQ Bacon Burgers" 
What is your least favorite thing to eat? "Orange Chicken"
What is your favorite thing to do? "Build with Legos, build Fort Magic structures, hang out with Blue (his stuffed doggy), play Polly Pockets with the sisters, and hang out with all my Ishum Friends which is also known as Elijah, Abby, Ellie and Mom and Dad"
What is your favorite TV show? "Phineas & Ferb and Sonic Boom"
What is your favorite movie? "The Greatest Showman"
What are you really good at? "Making stuff for my Mom and Dad and all my Ishum Friends, building stuff with Fort Magic and Lego bricks"
What is your favorite song? "Under Pressure and anything with jazz"
What do you and your mom do together? "We hang out a bit. We eat, we cook, sometimes we bake a bit and play."
What do you and your dad do together? "We hang out with each other. We talk about stuff, drink pineapple peach kumbucha, and other things but I can't say them all on this thing." 
What is your favorite book? "Kung Pow Chicken and Super Rabbit Boy books"
What is your favorite toy? "Legos and Fort Magic stuff"
What do you want to be when you grow up? "I can't decide if I should be a builder or a preschool teacher. This year, I think a builder...or an ice cream truck driver.

7th Birthday Interview: Caleb Sean

Time for our birthday interviews! I'm a bit late getting started this year, so I'm going to have to post one every few days to get through all four kids by the time their birthday rolls around!

 Caleb Sean

Caleb is doing so well these days! While he still gets several therapies at school, he has settled into a rhythm and is transitioning from activity to activity much better than at the beginning of the school year. He reads incredibly well, although any written assignments can cause some stress and frustration as it's definitely at the bottom of his preferred activities list. One of his best talents is having a super sharp memory which means that he can recall details, sections of historical speeches, and songs weeks after he hears them. At the same time, he doesn't talk nearly as much as his brother, but when he does, it's usually pretty well thought out and direct. Thankfully he has become good at letting us know what he needs, so there isn't nearly as much guessing now when he starts to struggle (he thrives on schedules, structure, and predictable days!) As a sibling, he most certainly has an ornery streak, and has clearly spent the last few years figuring out exactly which buttons to push when it comes to his brother and sisters. He can be both the most concerned kid for another sibling's welfare and push them to the edge all in the same 5 minutes. Sometimes it's hard to keep a straight face because his sense of humor is hilarious!

How old are you? "Six" (for two more weeks!)
What makes you happy? "My BB8 headphones" (He wears headphones to block extra noise.)
What is your favorite animal? "Lions, foxes, and cats."
What is your favorite color? "All of them."
What is your favorite thing to eat? "Pancakes, waffles, mashed potatoes, tacos, burritos, hash browns, fries, chicken nuggets, and chicken tenders." 
What is your least favorite thing to eat? "Sweet potatoes and hash browns that are not in a fry shape."
What is your favorite thing to do? "Learn some good tricks and get fit."
What is your favorite TV show? "Miles from Tomorrowland and Sonic Boom."
What is your favorite movie? "Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Big Hero 6, Planes: Fire and Rescue, Cars."
What are you really good at? "Fitness tricks like stretch out."
What is your favorite song? "The Trolls Soundtrack....Hair Up."
What do you and your mom do together? "Have some fun and get a goodnight's rest"
What do you and your dad do together? "Rest and wrestle" 
What is your favorite book? "A Fancy Day in Room 1-A. It's Fancy Nancy."
What do you want to be when you grow up? "I don't know what I want to be...I just want to be a hero."
What is your favorite toy? "My puppy named 'Blue' and all my other stuffed animals."


For fun, here is Caleb dancing to the "Hair Up!" song!

Time for our birthday interviews! I'm a bit late getting started this year, so I'm going to have to post one every few days to get through all four kids by the time their birthday rolls around!

 Caleb Sean

Caleb is doing so well these days! While he still gets several therapies at school, he has settled into a rhythm and is transitioning from activity to activity much better than at the beginning of the school year. He reads incredibly well, although any written assignments can cause some stress and frustration as it's definitely at the bottom of his preferred activities list. One of his best talents is having a super sharp memory which means that he can recall details, sections of historical speeches, and songs weeks after he hears them. At the same time, he doesn't talk nearly as much as his brother, but when he does, it's usually pretty well thought out and direct. Thankfully he has become good at letting us know what he needs, so there isn't nearly as much guessing now when he starts to struggle (he thrives on schedules, structure, and predictable days!) As a sibling, he most certainly has an ornery streak, and has clearly spent the last few years figuring out exactly which buttons to push when it comes to his brother and sisters. He can be both the most concerned kid for another sibling's welfare and push them to the edge all in the same 5 minutes. Sometimes it's hard to keep a straight face because his sense of humor is hilarious!

How old are you? "Six" (for two more weeks!)
What makes you happy? "My BB8 headphones" (He wears headphones to block extra noise.)
What is your favorite animal? "Lions, foxes, and cats."
What is your favorite color? "All of them."
What is your favorite thing to eat? "Pancakes, waffles, mashed potatoes, tacos, burritos, hash browns, fries, chicken nuggets, and chicken tenders." 
What is your least favorite thing to eat? "Sweet potatoes and hash browns that are not in a fry shape."
What is your favorite thing to do? "Learn some good tricks and get fit."
What is your favorite TV show? "Miles from Tomorrowland and Sonic Boom."
What is your favorite movie? "Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Big Hero 6, Planes: Fire and Rescue, Cars."
What are you really good at? "Fitness tricks like stretch out."
What is your favorite song? "The Trolls Soundtrack....Hair Up."
What do you and your mom do together? "Have some fun and get a goodnight's rest"
What do you and your dad do together? "Rest and wrestle" 
What is your favorite book? "A Fancy Day in Room 1-A. It's Fancy Nancy."
What do you want to be when you grow up? "I don't know what I want to be...I just want to be a hero."
What is your favorite toy? "My puppy named 'Blue' and all my other stuffed animals."


For fun, here is Caleb dancing to the "Hair Up!" song!

Second Day of 1st Grade

People ask, "Am I enjoying having the kids back in school?" Yes! I love them dearly, but it was a long summer, and the kids function so much better with structure. We've been highly structured and scheduled from day 1 out of necessity, so free time is actually harder for them to manage than a schedule.

But having them back in school didn't start without a few bumps in the road. I'm pretty sure the school nurse has me on speed dial from last year as she called me frequently about the bumps and bruises that are typical for kindergartners on the playground. I assumed that those calls would lessen with each year, but it seems instead, we are just starting 1st grade with more time in the nurse's office.

Halfway through day 2 of the school year, the nurse called to tell me that Caleb needed stitches in his lip for a collision sustained during PE. I guess the PE teacher had a white board and computer out  in order to teach the kids what to do in case of a fire or other emergency (at least, that's what I think happened). Caleb was wearing his new "power shoes" that his Pa (Sean's dad) bought for him the week before school, and he "forgot to put his breaks on" as he was running, and he collided with the computer stand. He split his lip open and it needed to be stitched back together.

Poor kiddo. Any 6-year-old would be in pain and scared of the blood, but a 6-year-old kid with autism? It kind of puts it on another level.

After signing him out of school, and confirming with the nurse that the best place to take him was Children's Mercy Urgent Care, we went to leave the school. As I reached for the door knob, everyone in the office suddenly told me to stop and wait while they radioed for clearance.

Huh?

I've been in and out of that school a bunch of times, and never had to get clearance after signing a kid out. But okay?  It only took them a minute to get me permission to leave, and out we went. I didn't really think much of it beyond that.

But about 10 minutes later, as I was at a stop light on the way to Urgent Care, a robo call came through to inform me that the school was on lockdown with all staff and students inside due to a threat in the area.

I sat back in the driver's seat and said, "Are you kidding me?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! It's the second day of school!!!"

And then I heard a little voice from the backseat, "Mama? What's wrong?"

I looked in the backseat at my bleeding 6-year-old, and said, "....nothing. Nothing's wrong, Caleb."

It's not like turning around and going back to the school was going to help him or the three others who were currently inside the building. So on I went...praying they would catch whatever the threat was, and that update would come through shortly.

At Urgent Care, they got us right back. Thankfully, Caleb wasn't crying anymore at that point. We went through registration, the triage room, vitals, and initial questions with the nurse. Then the doctor came in, looked at it, and said she couldn't stitch it because the wound crossed the lip border. If it wasn't lined back up perfectly, he would have some funny looking lips for the rest of his life.

So off we went to the Children's Mercy Emergency Room. Poor kid. At this point, he just wanted to go home.

Children's Mercy ER got us right back to start the vitals and questions all over again. They sent in a really nice Child Life Specialist (I didn't even know that was a thing?) who walked Caleb through every part of the stitching procedure and promised him he could keep the "squirt gun" that they were going to use to clean up his wound. She was really great with him! (And in the middle of all of this, the school called again to announce the all clear!)

After an unsuccessful attempt to stitch him up with only numbing cream, we finally had to partially sedate him to keep him from moving. It still took two nurses and myself holding him down while the doctor stitched and the Child Life Specialist held the tablet with the movie.

We got it done though!

In the interest of keeping his trauma to a minimum, we opted for two dissolvable stitches with 5-6 knots each vs. one regular stitch that would need to be removed a few days later. The doctor did a great job with that squirming/crying mass of a boy, and his lip was perfectly aligned. Even though he bit out two of the knots before we even left the hospital, the stitches stayed in and he has healed up nicely.

I really hope that's the last of the dramatic school episodes for the year. Stitches and a lockdown all in one day is quite enough for me.

Although, I found out after the fact that when the call went out from the school, two dads in our district went up to the school immediately and stood their ground directly in front of it to make sure nobody got in who didn't need to be there. It's good to know that there are people in our district who will go to bat for our staff and students if we can't be there...or if we are preoccupied with an emergency room run.

And now I *totally* get to look forward to an urgent care and an emergency room bill. Parenting is some kind of expensive.

This post may contain affiliate links. For more info, please see my disclaimer page.

People ask, "Am I enjoying having the kids back in school?" Yes! I love them dearly, but it was a long summer, and the kids function so much better with structure. We've been highly structured and scheduled from day 1 out of necessity, so free time is actually harder for them to manage than a schedule.

But having them back in school didn't start without a few bumps in the road. I'm pretty sure the school nurse has me on speed dial from last year as she called me frequently about the bumps and bruises that are typical for kindergartners on the playground. I assumed that those calls would lessen with each year, but it seems instead, we are just starting 1st grade with more time in the nurse's office.

Halfway through day 2 of the school year, the nurse called to tell me that Caleb needed stitches in his lip for a collision sustained during PE. I guess the PE teacher had a white board and computer out  in order to teach the kids what to do in case of a fire or other emergency (at least, that's what I think happened). Caleb was wearing his new "power shoes" that his Pa (Sean's dad) bought for him the week before school, and he "forgot to put his breaks on" as he was running, and he collided with the computer stand. He split his lip open and it needed to be stitched back together.

Poor kiddo. Any 6-year-old would be in pain and scared of the blood, but a 6-year-old kid with autism? It kind of puts it on another level.

After signing him out of school, and confirming with the nurse that the best place to take him was Children's Mercy Urgent Care, we went to leave the school. As I reached for the door knob, everyone in the office suddenly told me to stop and wait while they radioed for clearance.

Huh?

I've been in and out of that school a bunch of times, and never had to get clearance after signing a kid out. But okay?  It only took them a minute to get me permission to leave, and out we went. I didn't really think much of it beyond that.

But about 10 minutes later, as I was at a stop light on the way to Urgent Care, a robo call came through to inform me that the school was on lockdown with all staff and students inside due to a threat in the area.

I sat back in the driver's seat and said, "Are you kidding me?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! It's the second day of school!!!"

And then I heard a little voice from the backseat, "Mama? What's wrong?"

I looked in the backseat at my bleeding 6-year-old, and said, "....nothing. Nothing's wrong, Caleb."

It's not like turning around and going back to the school was going to help him or the three others who were currently inside the building. So on I went...praying they would catch whatever the threat was, and that update would come through shortly.

At Urgent Care, they got us right back. Thankfully, Caleb wasn't crying anymore at that point. We went through registration, the triage room, vitals, and initial questions with the nurse. Then the doctor came in, looked at it, and said she couldn't stitch it because the wound crossed the lip border. If it wasn't lined back up perfectly, he would have some funny looking lips for the rest of his life.

So off we went to the Children's Mercy Emergency Room. Poor kid. At this point, he just wanted to go home.

Children's Mercy ER got us right back to start the vitals and questions all over again. They sent in a really nice Child Life Specialist (I didn't even know that was a thing?) who walked Caleb through every part of the stitching procedure and promised him he could keep the "squirt gun" that they were going to use to clean up his wound. She was really great with him! (And in the middle of all of this, the school called again to announce the all clear!)

After an unsuccessful attempt to stitch him up with only numbing cream, we finally had to partially sedate him to keep him from moving. It still took two nurses and myself holding him down while the doctor stitched and the Child Life Specialist held the tablet with the movie.

We got it done though!

In the interest of keeping his trauma to a minimum, we opted for two dissolvable stitches with 5-6 knots each vs. one regular stitch that would need to be removed a few days later. The doctor did a great job with that squirming/crying mass of a boy, and his lip was perfectly aligned. Even though he bit out two of the knots before we even left the hospital, the stitches stayed in and he has healed up nicely.

I really hope that's the last of the dramatic school episodes for the year. Stitches and a lockdown all in one day is quite enough for me.

Although, I found out after the fact that when the call went out from the school, two dads in our district went up to the school immediately and stood their ground directly in front of it to make sure nobody got in who didn't need to be there. It's good to know that there are people in our district who will go to bat for our staff and students if we can't be there...or if we are preoccupied with an emergency room run.

And now I *totally* get to look forward to an urgent care and an emergency room bill. Parenting is some kind of expensive.

This post may contain affiliate links. For more info, please see my disclaimer page.

Better Late Than Never!

Guess what I forgot to post? Yep. As I was clicking around on photos on my computer today, I decided...better late than never!

Happy birthday to our kiddos who celebrated their 6th birthdays with 4 dozen cupcakes at school and 4 individual cakes with family and friends! We try to make it as individual as we can even though they all shared the same womb space. 

And even though Ellie looks significantly shorter in this photo, she's actually pretty close to the same height as the others. She's slouching. lol!

It's hard to believe that time has gone by so fast. I remember being a new quad mom and looking at photos of the other quad moms with their 6-year-olds. I used to think, "Wow. They really have it all together. If I can just make it that far." Come to find out that I know no more today than I did about 6-years-ago. It doesn't necessarily get easier. Just different. A different kind of exhaustion. A different kind of stress. However the prayers stay roughly the same, and the love grows only deeper. :)

We are blessed in every way with our "babies" who often remind us that they are now "big kids."

Guess what I forgot to post? Yep. As I was clicking around on photos on my computer today, I decided...better late than never!

Happy birthday to our kiddos who celebrated their 6th birthdays with 4 dozen cupcakes at school and 4 individual cakes with family and friends! We try to make it as individual as we can even though they all shared the same womb space. 

And even though Ellie looks significantly shorter in this photo, she's actually pretty close to the same height as the others. She's slouching. lol!

It's hard to believe that time has gone by so fast. I remember being a new quad mom and looking at photos of the other quad moms with their 6-year-olds. I used to think, "Wow. They really have it all together. If I can just make it that far." Come to find out that I know no more today than I did about 6-years-ago. It doesn't necessarily get easier. Just different. A different kind of exhaustion. A different kind of stress. However the prayers stay roughly the same, and the love grows only deeper. :)

We are blessed in every way with our "babies" who often remind us that they are now "big kids."

6th Birthday Interview: Caleb Sean

It's that time of year again! Time for Birthday Interviews!! Our kids think answering birthday questions is the best game ever, so it wasn't hard to get them to sit still for a few minutes while I wrote down their answers. 

The answers change every year (which makes sense!) but the process of asking them questions always reminds me of how far we have come. Just two years ago, I had to make up all of Caleb's answers for him because he was still non-verbal. This year, he was the first to jump on the couch for his turn. He even went so far as to take off the headphones he wears to reduce sensory input for his annual snapshot. I'm so proud of where he is and how far he has come!

 Caleb Sean

 

Caleb has an ornery little streak, and we often times catch him impishly looking for ways to push his siblings buttons. He is a super funny kid, and incredibly smart! In spite of his autism, he picks up on things fast, and reads very well for being in kindergarten. We struggle to complete written work, but his special needs teacher has put a really good incentive program in place to encourage him to focus and get his work done. We are grateful for both his special needs teacher and his main classroom teacher and how hard they work to help him be successful! Caleb has made huge progress even in the last year! We can't wait to see what age 6 brings!

How old are you? "Five!" (for two more weeks!)
What makes you happy? "When I play toys and costumes or Ipads." (He can earn Ipad time at school for meeting focusing goals each day.)
What is your favorite animal? "All of them! I love all of them!"
What is your favorite color? "Red and brown and all the colors!" Really? Red? "Red!!" (I really expected him to say blue!)
What is your favorite thing to eat? "Cake, ice cream, and cookies!" 
What is your least favorite thing to eat? "Yucky stuff like sweet potatoes." (Guess what we had for dinner tonight? Lol!)
What is your favorite thing to do? "Play toys, costumes, and Ipads!"
What is your favorite TV show? "Star Wars, Avengers, Justice League, and Young Justice."
What is your favorite movie? "I don't like any movies." (He actually doesn't know the difference between TV and movies because we don't have cable. Just Netflix, Amazon Prime, and a DVD player)
What are you really good at? "Flips! But how do I do a flip on the floor?" (haha!! No idea why he went with that answer!)
What is your favorite song? "When I sing Star Wars!" (The theme song. Lol!)
What do you and your mom do together? "Play"
What do you and your dad do together? "Play" 
What is your favorite book? "Star Wars Droid books."
What do you want to be when you grow up? "A tea party guy! A tea party guy is when they make lots of tea parties for everyone!" (He loves to set up all of the play cooking equipment and have us over for tea and snacks)
What is your favorite toy? "Tea Parties!" (a.k.a. the cooking toys and play kitchen)

It's that time of year again! Time for Birthday Interviews!! Our kids think answering birthday questions is the best game ever, so it wasn't hard to get them to sit still for a few minutes while I wrote down their answers. 

The answers change every year (which makes sense!) but the process of asking them questions always reminds me of how far we have come. Just two years ago, I had to make up all of Caleb's answers for him because he was still non-verbal. This year, he was the first to jump on the couch for his turn. He even went so far as to take off the headphones he wears to reduce sensory input for his annual snapshot. I'm so proud of where he is and how far he has come!

 Caleb Sean

 

Caleb has an ornery little streak, and we often times catch him impishly looking for ways to push his siblings buttons. He is a super funny kid, and incredibly smart! In spite of his autism, he picks up on things fast, and reads very well for being in kindergarten. We struggle to complete written work, but his special needs teacher has put a really good incentive program in place to encourage him to focus and get his work done. We are grateful for both his special needs teacher and his main classroom teacher and how hard they work to help him be successful! Caleb has made huge progress even in the last year! We can't wait to see what age 6 brings!

How old are you? "Five!" (for two more weeks!)
What makes you happy? "When I play toys and costumes or Ipads." (He can earn Ipad time at school for meeting focusing goals each day.)
What is your favorite animal? "All of them! I love all of them!"
What is your favorite color? "Red and brown and all the colors!" Really? Red? "Red!!" (I really expected him to say blue!)
What is your favorite thing to eat? "Cake, ice cream, and cookies!" 
What is your least favorite thing to eat? "Yucky stuff like sweet potatoes." (Guess what we had for dinner tonight? Lol!)
What is your favorite thing to do? "Play toys, costumes, and Ipads!"
What is your favorite TV show? "Star Wars, Avengers, Justice League, and Young Justice."
What is your favorite movie? "I don't like any movies." (He actually doesn't know the difference between TV and movies because we don't have cable. Just Netflix, Amazon Prime, and a DVD player)
What are you really good at? "Flips! But how do I do a flip on the floor?" (haha!! No idea why he went with that answer!)
What is your favorite song? "When I sing Star Wars!" (The theme song. Lol!)
What do you and your mom do together? "Play"
What do you and your dad do together? "Play" 
What is your favorite book? "Star Wars Droid books."
What do you want to be when you grow up? "A tea party guy! A tea party guy is when they make lots of tea parties for everyone!" (He loves to set up all of the play cooking equipment and have us over for tea and snacks)
What is your favorite toy? "Tea Parties!" (a.k.a. the cooking toys and play kitchen)

5th Birthday Interview: Caleb Sean

A favorite tradition is conducting birthday interviews with the kids! Their birthday is on February 23rd, but since we have so many of them (hehe!) we have to start interview a couple of weeks early to get through everyone. 

Caleb is our oldest by a whole minute, so he is first up! As I was asking the interview questions this afternoon, I was so grateful again for all of the progress he has made since last summer. When we did his 4th birthday interviews, he couldn't verbalize all of his answers, so I filled in a lot of them. This year, he had no trouble answering all of them, and was actually delighted to be able to participate! Anyone with a kid with special needs knows how important these small, but significant moments are in the journey to helping them succeed in life!

 Caleb Sean

Caleb is so focused and rather obstinate at times. We are still helping him learn to use words over actions to express frustration, and how to cope with sensory overload using tools that he's been given. We are delighted every time we see his brain unlock a little more, and we are convinced that he has picked up on more academics than he lets on! Amazing progress for our little guy with autism!

How old are you? "Five" (Almost buddy. Just a couple more weeks!)
What makes you happy? "Caleb and birthday cake!" (I'm assuming he means Caleb eating birthday cake!)
What is your favorite animal? "Lion!!" (He was very definitely about the lion, but he came back about 10 minutes later and said, "My favorite animal is DOGGY!" His lovey is a doggy, so I'm thinking that swayed his opinion when he saw it.)
What is your favorite color? "Red" (really? Red?) "Red!!"
What is your favorite thing to eat? "Cake! Birthday Cake!" (the kids can't think about anything else right now!)
What is your least favorite thing to eat? "McDonalds" (I phrased the question as, "what do you NOT like to eat? What is yucky?" We've told them that McDonalds is yucky to get out of going there, but he very much likes it actually. I couldn't get him to come up with something he truly disliked at that point though.)
What is your favorite thing to do? "Watch a show and play with some toys."
What is your favorite TV show? "Mario!" (Yep, the 1989 version of Super Mario Bros on Netflix. Sean gets the credit for introducing that show.)
What is your favorite movie? "Hello Kitty and Between the Lions" (He may have been slightly influenced in his first answer by the Hello Kitty coloring book that Ellie left sitting right next to him.)
What are you really good at? "Circus....and good at school" (We've been working on how he expresses himself at school, so he gets high praise for obedience and listening to his teacher. Which translates to that he was good at school. He has been doing really well over the last few weeks, so I think it's working!)
What is your favorite song? "We Will Rock You" (by Queen)
What do you and your mom do together? "We help together"
What do you and your dad do together? "Daddy helps Legos get better" (um....maybe this means that Daddy helps them fix the Legos so that they look like a building again?)
What is your favorite book? "Dinosaur and Friends"
What is your favorite toy? "Transformers"
What do you want to be when you grow up? "CAPTAIN HOOK!!" He is absolutely convinced that he wants to grow up to be Captain Hook! LOL!

This post may contain affiliate links. For more info, please see my disclaimer page.

A favorite tradition is conducting birthday interviews with the kids! Their birthday is on February 23rd, but since we have so many of them (hehe!) we have to start interview a couple of weeks early to get through everyone. 

Caleb is our oldest by a whole minute, so he is first up! As I was asking the interview questions this afternoon, I was so grateful again for all of the progress he has made since last summer. When we did his 4th birthday interviews, he couldn't verbalize all of his answers, so I filled in a lot of them. This year, he had no trouble answering all of them, and was actually delighted to be able to participate! Anyone with a kid with special needs knows how important these small, but significant moments are in the journey to helping them succeed in life!

 Caleb Sean

Caleb is so focused and rather obstinate at times. We are still helping him learn to use words over actions to express frustration, and how to cope with sensory overload using tools that he's been given. We are delighted every time we see his brain unlock a little more, and we are convinced that he has picked up on more academics than he lets on! Amazing progress for our little guy with autism!

How old are you? "Five" (Almost buddy. Just a couple more weeks!)
What makes you happy? "Caleb and birthday cake!" (I'm assuming he means Caleb eating birthday cake!)
What is your favorite animal? "Lion!!" (He was very definitely about the lion, but he came back about 10 minutes later and said, "My favorite animal is DOGGY!" His lovey is a doggy, so I'm thinking that swayed his opinion when he saw it.)
What is your favorite color? "Red" (really? Red?) "Red!!"
What is your favorite thing to eat? "Cake! Birthday Cake!" (the kids can't think about anything else right now!)
What is your least favorite thing to eat? "McDonalds" (I phrased the question as, "what do you NOT like to eat? What is yucky?" We've told them that McDonalds is yucky to get out of going there, but he very much likes it actually. I couldn't get him to come up with something he truly disliked at that point though.)
What is your favorite thing to do? "Watch a show and play with some toys."
What is your favorite TV show? "Mario!" (Yep, the 1989 version of Super Mario Bros on Netflix. Sean gets the credit for introducing that show.)
What is your favorite movie? "Hello Kitty and Between the Lions" (He may have been slightly influenced in his first answer by the Hello Kitty coloring book that Ellie left sitting right next to him.)
What are you really good at? "Circus....and good at school" (We've been working on how he expresses himself at school, so he gets high praise for obedience and listening to his teacher. Which translates to that he was good at school. He has been doing really well over the last few weeks, so I think it's working!)
What is your favorite song? "We Will Rock You" (by Queen)
What do you and your mom do together? "We help together"
What do you and your dad do together? "Daddy helps Legos get better" (um....maybe this means that Daddy helps them fix the Legos so that they look like a building again?)
What is your favorite book? "Dinosaur and Friends"
What is your favorite toy? "Transformers"
What do you want to be when you grow up? "CAPTAIN HOOK!!" He is absolutely convinced that he wants to grow up to be Captain Hook! LOL!

This post may contain affiliate links. For more info, please see my disclaimer page.

Our New Normal: Caleb's Diagnosis

The doctor looked at me, "How far along were you when he was born?"

"27 weeks, 6 days. I carried him as long as I could."

I bit back tears as the doctor confirmed what we thought might be the case. Something was off with Caleb, and it wasn't getting better.

I started going through the what ifs in my head:

• What if I had stayed more horizontal during bedrest?

• What if I had laid on my left side more, even though the TV in my hospital room was on my right side?

• What if I had eaten more protein and gained more weight?

• What if I hadn't had the panic attack that set off my labor again, and ultimately caused me to deliver the kids a few hours later?

I looked at my son, as he went back and forth between playing quietly with therapy toys to spazzing out for no reason. I knew it was coming, but it still hit me in the gut.

Caleb has autism.

It's been about 10 days since we got the diagnosis that Caleb is on the spectrum. A good friend from church referred us to their Developmental Pediatrician for an evaluation, and we were blessed to get him in really quickly. The doctor spent several hours (!!!) with Caleb, Sean, and I in a therapy room, observing Caleb's behavior. I didn't know that doctors were willing to give patients that kind of time anymore! Dr. Hoffman is a fantastic doctor who spent a lot of time working in a NICU Follow-Up Clinic before moving on to private practice and specializing in developmental issues. In other words, he knows his stuff. By the end of the evaluation, he diagnosed Caleb with mild to moderately severe autism with possible apraxia of speech.

We saw this coming, or we wouldn't have pushed for an evaluation. Caleb has much more significant delays than his siblings, particularly in the area of communication. Dr. Hoffman told us that prematurity is directly linked to an increase in autism. *sigh* I realize that it's not obvious just from looking at pictures on our blog, but we really struggle.

Caleb had a rough start to preschool in March, which was understandable, but he improved over the next two months. Then in late April/early May, he started regressing. During summer school, he actually escaped from his classroom without his teachers noticing.

When we try to leave the house for outings, it also is really difficult. Trips to the zoo end up having our family split in two: Sean and Caleb go off so that Caleb can cope, and I have the other three kids. And then we end up leaving wherever we are early because he has a meltdown.

Communication mostly consists of crying, pushing, or pulling us to items. No pointing, and almost all of the language he does have is either rote (like counting to 10) or echoing (like saying, "sorry, sorry, sorry"). He has maybe 2-3 words that he can use independently in a conversation. He gets so frustrated and angry when we can't understand what he wants, and it just breaks my heart.

And taking his lovey to wash it? Two hours of screaming and crying while that doggy goes through the washer and dryer.

There are a myriad of other symptoms that he has as well, but those are probably the most disruptive to our family life.

So what are our next steps? Early intervention is key for kids like Caleb.

• He has been in therapy since he was 6 months old, and has been in speech therapy for the last 18 months. We are continuing his therapy through the school district where he receives occupational, physical, social/emotion, and speech therapy. We requested a one-on-one para from the school at the end of last year, especially since he escaped, but we were denied. We did manage to increase his speech therapy from 60 minutes a week to 90 minutes a week. And we are for sure going to continue to call meetings with the school district if we feel that it is in his best interest.

• We are also looking into additional therapy outside of the school to see what our options are there.

• The doctor has Caleb on a DHA supplement (which he HATES), but it is supposed to help his brain work better. I've only forced it down his throat once, but I need to do it everyday. *sigh* Poor kid!

• I know it's weird, but we are also using some special essential oils to help support his ability to focus. We feel like if we can help him focus, maybe we can make more progress faster? Caleb rarely smiled until we started using these a few weeks ago. Now we get smiles more often AND he seems to be more connected with what is going on around him. The photos in this post? I took those tonight. I have so very few photos where we can even see Caleb's face, that his smiles caught me off guard...and I LOVE them! I'm serious when I say that these are the best photos I have ever taken of him. Period. Something is obviously working here, so we are continuing those as well.

So pretty much, we are hitting it from every side while praying that God helps us find the best way to help him.

As a mom, I'm now readjusting my expectations again. I had expectations for the way we would have a family, but quads dashed that pretty quickly. I had expectations for how much fun we would have running around town doing things when they got to this age, and I'm having to adjust those expectations again. I'm struggling with feeling like this diagnosis isn't fair to our family. Not fair to Caleb who has already gone through more than most kids his age. Not fair to all of our kids to have outings cut short because of the delays. Not fair to us as parents who just wanted a normal family. I mean, we still can't leave the house without people taking pictures of us! And now autism on top of it.

I know that God has a plan and a purpose behind everything, and I'm holding on to that tightly right now. Of course, our love for Caleb is absolutely unchanged, and we certainly wouldn't trade our kids for anything, but I wish I had a better response to this new hurdle instead of feeling like a whiney butt. Right now, I'm just trying to come to terms with our new normal and embrace the way that our family is designed....autism and all.

The doctor looked at me, "How far along were you when he was born?"

"27 weeks, 6 days. I carried him as long as I could."

I bit back tears as the doctor confirmed what we thought might be the case. Something was off with Caleb, and it wasn't getting better.

I started going through the what ifs in my head:

• What if I had stayed more horizontal during bedrest?

• What if I had laid on my left side more, even though the TV in my hospital room was on my right side?

• What if I had eaten more protein and gained more weight?

• What if I hadn't had the panic attack that set off my labor again, and ultimately caused me to deliver the kids a few hours later?

I looked at my son, as he went back and forth between playing quietly with therapy toys to spazzing out for no reason. I knew it was coming, but it still hit me in the gut.

Caleb has autism.

It's been about 10 days since we got the diagnosis that Caleb is on the spectrum. A good friend from church referred us to their Developmental Pediatrician for an evaluation, and we were blessed to get him in really quickly. The doctor spent several hours (!!!) with Caleb, Sean, and I in a therapy room, observing Caleb's behavior. I didn't know that doctors were willing to give patients that kind of time anymore! Dr. Hoffman is a fantastic doctor who spent a lot of time working in a NICU Follow-Up Clinic before moving on to private practice and specializing in developmental issues. In other words, he knows his stuff. By the end of the evaluation, he diagnosed Caleb with mild to moderately severe autism with possible apraxia of speech.

We saw this coming, or we wouldn't have pushed for an evaluation. Caleb has much more significant delays than his siblings, particularly in the area of communication. Dr. Hoffman told us that prematurity is directly linked to an increase in autism. *sigh* I realize that it's not obvious just from looking at pictures on our blog, but we really struggle.

Caleb had a rough start to preschool in March, which was understandable, but he improved over the next two months. Then in late April/early May, he started regressing. During summer school, he actually escaped from his classroom without his teachers noticing.

When we try to leave the house for outings, it also is really difficult. Trips to the zoo end up having our family split in two: Sean and Caleb go off so that Caleb can cope, and I have the other three kids. And then we end up leaving wherever we are early because he has a meltdown.

Communication mostly consists of crying, pushing, or pulling us to items. No pointing, and almost all of the language he does have is either rote (like counting to 10) or echoing (like saying, "sorry, sorry, sorry"). He has maybe 2-3 words that he can use independently in a conversation. He gets so frustrated and angry when we can't understand what he wants, and it just breaks my heart.

And taking his lovey to wash it? Two hours of screaming and crying while that doggy goes through the washer and dryer.

There are a myriad of other symptoms that he has as well, but those are probably the most disruptive to our family life.

So what are our next steps? Early intervention is key for kids like Caleb.

• He has been in therapy since he was 6 months old, and has been in speech therapy for the last 18 months. We are continuing his therapy through the school district where he receives occupational, physical, social/emotion, and speech therapy. We requested a one-on-one para from the school at the end of last year, especially since he escaped, but we were denied. We did manage to increase his speech therapy from 60 minutes a week to 90 minutes a week. And we are for sure going to continue to call meetings with the school district if we feel that it is in his best interest.

• We are also looking into additional therapy outside of the school to see what our options are there.

• The doctor has Caleb on a DHA supplement (which he HATES), but it is supposed to help his brain work better. I've only forced it down his throat once, but I need to do it everyday. *sigh* Poor kid!

• I know it's weird, but we are also using some special essential oils to help support his ability to focus. We feel like if we can help him focus, maybe we can make more progress faster? Caleb rarely smiled until we started using these a few weeks ago. Now we get smiles more often AND he seems to be more connected with what is going on around him. The photos in this post? I took those tonight. I have so very few photos where we can even see Caleb's face, that his smiles caught me off guard...and I LOVE them! I'm serious when I say that these are the best photos I have ever taken of him. Period. Something is obviously working here, so we are continuing those as well.

So pretty much, we are hitting it from every side while praying that God helps us find the best way to help him.

As a mom, I'm now readjusting my expectations again. I had expectations for the way we would have a family, but quads dashed that pretty quickly. I had expectations for how much fun we would have running around town doing things when they got to this age, and I'm having to adjust those expectations again. I'm struggling with feeling like this diagnosis isn't fair to our family. Not fair to Caleb who has already gone through more than most kids his age. Not fair to all of our kids to have outings cut short because of the delays. Not fair to us as parents who just wanted a normal family. I mean, we still can't leave the house without people taking pictures of us! And now autism on top of it.

I know that God has a plan and a purpose behind everything, and I'm holding on to that tightly right now. Of course, our love for Caleb is absolutely unchanged, and we certainly wouldn't trade our kids for anything, but I wish I had a better response to this new hurdle instead of feeling like a whiney butt. Right now, I'm just trying to come to terms with our new normal and embrace the way that our family is designed....autism and all.

Caleb's Heart Surgery on His Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA)

We can cross another surgery off of our preemie list!

On Thursday, we finally had Caleb's heart defect corrected. It's been something we knew was coming, and in spite of how "easy" the surgery was for his doctors, this type of thing is never easy for parents. Like many preemies, Caleb was born with a Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA), but instead of closing as we hoped it would, it had to be surgically corrected.

A perk of being in a children's hospital? Lots of toys to play with in the surgery waiting room!

What Exactly is a Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA)?

A PDA is one of the most common heart defects. All babies have a PDA as they are growing in the womb. It allows blood to flow around the lungs since the lungs aren't being used. For the most part, full-term babies have these close on their own within a couple of days after birth. However, sometimes those PDAs don't close, and they have to be surgically corrected. They are especially common in preemies as those babies haven't fully developed in the womb, and still have a lot of growing to do in their isolettes. The PDA causes the heart to pump poorly-oxygenated blood and have less than optimal blood flow so it can cause issues if left untreated.

What Happens if You Don't Correct a PDA?

Well....nothing at first. Generally speaking, they really don't have a lot of effect on little ones unless they are quite large. The problems come later as they reach their 20's and 30's. An untreated PDA can cause an enlarged heart and heart failure. The hole causes the heart to work extra hard to compensate for the PDA issues and that ends up causing issues later on.

Playing in the surgery waiting room

How Do You Fix a Patent Ductus Arteriosis?

If the PDA is found in a preemie, then doctors often choose to try using medications to close the hole. Our doctors tried Indocin on Caleb and a couple of our other kids. It successfully closed Ellie's PDA (and another kid...I can't remember which one), but Caleb's was ornery and wouldn't budge.

At the time, if the PDA had caused other physical issues, the doctors would have repaired it, but the major problem with that is the size of the child. Preemies have tiny little arteries, so the procedure that they used on Caleb this week would have been impossible. An infant has to have open heart surgery to fix it. No thanks! Whenever possible, doctors push the surgery off until the baby is older.

Thankfully, we were able to hold off on the surgery and wait until now. And with the passing time, Caleb was able to undergo a much less invasive surgery with minimal recovery time.

Mommy and Caleb

Caleb has been followed by a pediatric cardiologist since he left the NICU. It involved yearly echocardiograms and appointments to monitor his heart. When he left the NICU, Caleb actually had TWO heart defects. The PDA, which I explained above, and an ASD. In a nutshell, the Atrial Septal Defect is another hole that is between the top two chambers of the heart that really hampers effective blood flow. At his yearly appointment in December, we found out that his ASD had officially closed and was no longer an issue. Yay!

His PDA, though, was still a problem, and that's why we had surgery last week.

Happily, the procedure is much easier at this age. It involves creating two small punctures in the groin, one in the vein and one in the artery. They use those two holes to insert a camera to take pictures of the heart and a catheter to correct the heart defect. The catheter has a coil on the end of it that is threaded up into the heart and used to block off the hole. In Caleb's case, two coils were used because of the size of the hole. We were told that they used a 3mm and a 5mm coil to plug his 7mm opening. They twisted these together, and they will now be part of his heart structure forever. There is no chance of them coming loose, and eventually the wall of that blood vessel will grow up over them and they will become part of the wall.

Pictures of Caleb's heart that the doctor gave us after surgery (click photo to enlarge)

As a side note, is it incredible or what that they are able to do this???

Waiting to be taken to surgery

So How Did Caleb Do With All of This?

We knew it would be a little rough with the developmental delays and sensory issues that Caleb deals with. Strangers, lights, and noise were the perfect recipe for a very anxious day.

Caleb loved the first part of the day...the part where he got to spend time *just him* with Mommy and Daddy. He was all smiles on the way to the hospital and joyfully played with the toys in the Same Day Surgery Waiting Room. He doesn't give out smiles easily, so I always treasure them.

Then we headed back to an examination room to review his medical records and any changes with the nurse, anesthesiologist, and cardiologist. And that's where his anxiety kicked into gear. He wasn't very happy in the room and kept taking us by the hand to try to drag us to the door (his way of saying, "I'm done! Let's go home!") I think a big part of his frustration (other than the whole lack of communication thing) was that he was hungry and thirsty and couldn't eat anything.

The cardiologist was running a bit late with another procedure, so we were extra happy when the "pink medicine" was brought in. Can I just say, I LOVE that medication! I can't remember what it's called, but it is for patients with anxiety and actually gives them amnesia for a period of time after they take it. Caleb swallowed it about 20 minutes before they took him back, and according to the nurse, he doesn't remember being separated from us. He just remembers being with us...and then being with us. I sure hope that's true! Also, it relaxed him so much that he zonked out for a few minutes, so that was nice!

That pink stuff is AWESOME!!

And then he was put in a wagon and taken back.

We were told that it would take about 2-3 hours for surgery and another 1 hour in the recovery room before we would be able to see him on the observation floor. 

But that didn't happen.

Instead, we got regular updates throughout his surgery and were grateful when we finally got the call that he was out of surgery and in recovery. But then 10 minutes later, they called down to us again (the surgery waiting room is a floor below the operating and recovery rooms). "Please send Caleb's mom up." I figured he must have woken up quickly and they were needing a familiar face for him.

Instead, I walked into the recovery room (a big open room) to find a curtain drawn around his bed. A nurse took me inside the curtain where I saw a very combative Caleb, attempting to kick and flail everything off of him at once. Four nurses were trying to calm him down with no luck. One of the nurses turned to me and said, "We need him to hold still. If he doesn't, that clot in the artery in his groin will come loose, and he could bleed out in a matter of minutes."

Awesome.

For a split second, I felt like crying, but quickly realized that wouldn't be the most helpful move for anyone. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to calm him down either. I asked them to lower the bed rail, and even getting into his face so that I was all he could see, wasn't enough. The nurses asked me to sit down in a chair so that I could hold him (as flatly as possible). That didn't work either.

I finally turned to the nurse closest to me and said, "This is going to sound crazy, and you can laugh if you want, but I need you to go back down to the waiting room. Find my husband, and ask him for my oils. When he asks you which ones I want, tell him that I want all of them."

Oh yeah, I totally got strange look (although she did a really good job trying to hide it), but off she went to get what I needed. It was either ask for that or ask them to give him knock out drugs because he was beyond being calmed. 

She came back and helped me twist the tops off of three different stress oils so that I could rub them on Caleb...and five minutes later he was calm. I still find myself thinking these won't work, but I'm really glad that I threw them in my bag that morning. I actually brought the stress oils for *me,* but they were handy him too.

It took another 30 minutes or so to get him cleared to go to an observation room, and we finally got to meet back up with Sean.

And then we had to keep him still and mostly flat for the next six hours.

Mommy and Caleb: Finally calm and in the observation room!

Have you ever tried to keep a 3-year-old still for six hours while they are awake?!

Poor kid! He really just wanted to get up and walk around, and wasn't too happy when Sean and I insisted that he stay with us. He was pretty thrilled, through, when the nurses ordered him a big tray of food with all of his favorites on it: chicken nuggets, strawberries, raisins, crackers, juice...and he finished all of that off with a watermelon slushy and the french fries from my lunch. He was so pampered by the time we left that floor. His nurses were beyond sweet and so attentive to anything that would make him (and us) more comfortable. I think they would have moved the slushy machine into the room if they thought that he would like that!

Honestly, we were so impressed with everyone that we interacted with at the children's hospital. It takes a special type of person to work in children's healthcare, and the doctors, nurses, techs, radiologists, anesthesiologists...everyone...obviously loves the kids who come through their doors. We were so very blessed to be cared for by people who treated our son as their own.

On the way to radiology to check the coil placement: Caleb, Ashley, and Dana

Speaking of nurses...want to hear a good story?

So we were sitting in that observation room for six hours, keeping a pretty low profile. But it's inevitable that the "quadruplets" part comes out when people read any of our kids' medical paperwork. Okay, okay...and I kind of like getting to talk about what a blessing our kids are to us! Anyway, our nurse, Ashley, and her assistant, Dana, asked about our other kids, and Sean pulled up a photo of them on his tablet. They took the tablet out to the nurses station to show the other staff (with our permission) because it's a pretty unique family situation.

And then this super sweet nurse popped her head into the room. "Hi, my name is Elizabeth! I didn't want to say anything and bother you, but since the photo is being shown around, I thought I would. I've been a blog reader for about a year. I saw Caleb's name on the list this morning, and thought, 'I know these people!' So I hope it's okay that I stuck my head in." Oh my gosh...how FUN is that?! She let me know that she was able to give our nurses more info about our family based on what I've written on our blog (all public info, obviously) so that they were extra ready for us. SO thoughtful and kind of her!

Plus, I LOVE meeting readers in real life! So Elizabeth, if you see this, thanks for sticking your head in! It was so nice to meet you!

How is Caleb's Recovery Going?

Recovery? What recovery? Seriously, this boy has surprised us quite a bit. He was a pickle at the hospital because he didn't want to hold still, but once we said, "let's go home," we got a big smile out of him. We were originally told to be prepared to spend the night there for observation, but he was released the same day instead. We were home by 6pm that night, and he immediately started walking around and playing.

Other than being a little more tired than usual as the anesthesia effects wore off, you would have never known that he had been through heart surgery to correct a defect.

Mommy, Caleb, and Daddy

All I can say, is that God is amazing! We are grateful to have this surgery behind us and grateful that our little boy recovered SO quickly without even needing another dose of Tylenol once he came home. Seriously, amazing!
This post may contain affiliate links. For more info, please see my disclaimer page.

We can cross another surgery off of our preemie list!

On Thursday, we finally had Caleb's heart defect corrected. It's been something we knew was coming, and in spite of how "easy" the surgery was for his doctors, this type of thing is never easy for parents. Like many preemies, Caleb was born with a Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA), but instead of closing as we hoped it would, it had to be surgically corrected.

A perk of being in a children's hospital? Lots of toys to play with in the surgery waiting room!

What Exactly is a Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA)?

A PDA is one of the most common heart defects. All babies have a PDA as they are growing in the womb. It allows blood to flow around the lungs since the lungs aren't being used. For the most part, full-term babies have these close on their own within a couple of days after birth. However, sometimes those PDAs don't close, and they have to be surgically corrected. They are especially common in preemies as those babies haven't fully developed in the womb, and still have a lot of growing to do in their isolettes. The PDA causes the heart to pump poorly-oxygenated blood and have less than optimal blood flow so it can cause issues if left untreated.

What Happens if You Don't Correct a PDA?

Well....nothing at first. Generally speaking, they really don't have a lot of effect on little ones unless they are quite large. The problems come later as they reach their 20's and 30's. An untreated PDA can cause an enlarged heart and heart failure. The hole causes the heart to work extra hard to compensate for the PDA issues and that ends up causing issues later on.

Playing in the surgery waiting room

How Do You Fix a Patent Ductus Arteriosis?

If the PDA is found in a preemie, then doctors often choose to try using medications to close the hole. Our doctors tried Indocin on Caleb and a couple of our other kids. It successfully closed Ellie's PDA (and another kid...I can't remember which one), but Caleb's was ornery and wouldn't budge.

At the time, if the PDA had caused other physical issues, the doctors would have repaired it, but the major problem with that is the size of the child. Preemies have tiny little arteries, so the procedure that they used on Caleb this week would have been impossible. An infant has to have open heart surgery to fix it. No thanks! Whenever possible, doctors push the surgery off until the baby is older.

Thankfully, we were able to hold off on the surgery and wait until now. And with the passing time, Caleb was able to undergo a much less invasive surgery with minimal recovery time.

Mommy and Caleb

Caleb has been followed by a pediatric cardiologist since he left the NICU. It involved yearly echocardiograms and appointments to monitor his heart. When he left the NICU, Caleb actually had TWO heart defects. The PDA, which I explained above, and an ASD. In a nutshell, the Atrial Septal Defect is another hole that is between the top two chambers of the heart that really hampers effective blood flow. At his yearly appointment in December, we found out that his ASD had officially closed and was no longer an issue. Yay!

His PDA, though, was still a problem, and that's why we had surgery last week.

Happily, the procedure is much easier at this age. It involves creating two small punctures in the groin, one in the vein and one in the artery. They use those two holes to insert a camera to take pictures of the heart and a catheter to correct the heart defect. The catheter has a coil on the end of it that is threaded up into the heart and used to block off the hole. In Caleb's case, two coils were used because of the size of the hole. We were told that they used a 3mm and a 5mm coil to plug his 7mm opening. They twisted these together, and they will now be part of his heart structure forever. There is no chance of them coming loose, and eventually the wall of that blood vessel will grow up over them and they will become part of the wall.

Pictures of Caleb's heart that the doctor gave us after surgery (click photo to enlarge)

As a side note, is it incredible or what that they are able to do this???

Waiting to be taken to surgery

So How Did Caleb Do With All of This?

We knew it would be a little rough with the developmental delays and sensory issues that Caleb deals with. Strangers, lights, and noise were the perfect recipe for a very anxious day.

Caleb loved the first part of the day...the part where he got to spend time *just him* with Mommy and Daddy. He was all smiles on the way to the hospital and joyfully played with the toys in the Same Day Surgery Waiting Room. He doesn't give out smiles easily, so I always treasure them.

Then we headed back to an examination room to review his medical records and any changes with the nurse, anesthesiologist, and cardiologist. And that's where his anxiety kicked into gear. He wasn't very happy in the room and kept taking us by the hand to try to drag us to the door (his way of saying, "I'm done! Let's go home!") I think a big part of his frustration (other than the whole lack of communication thing) was that he was hungry and thirsty and couldn't eat anything.

The cardiologist was running a bit late with another procedure, so we were extra happy when the "pink medicine" was brought in. Can I just say, I LOVE that medication! I can't remember what it's called, but it is for patients with anxiety and actually gives them amnesia for a period of time after they take it. Caleb swallowed it about 20 minutes before they took him back, and according to the nurse, he doesn't remember being separated from us. He just remembers being with us...and then being with us. I sure hope that's true! Also, it relaxed him so much that he zonked out for a few minutes, so that was nice!

That pink stuff is AWESOME!!

And then he was put in a wagon and taken back.

We were told that it would take about 2-3 hours for surgery and another 1 hour in the recovery room before we would be able to see him on the observation floor. 

But that didn't happen.

Instead, we got regular updates throughout his surgery and were grateful when we finally got the call that he was out of surgery and in recovery. But then 10 minutes later, they called down to us again (the surgery waiting room is a floor below the operating and recovery rooms). "Please send Caleb's mom up." I figured he must have woken up quickly and they were needing a familiar face for him.

Instead, I walked into the recovery room (a big open room) to find a curtain drawn around his bed. A nurse took me inside the curtain where I saw a very combative Caleb, attempting to kick and flail everything off of him at once. Four nurses were trying to calm him down with no luck. One of the nurses turned to me and said, "We need him to hold still. If he doesn't, that clot in the artery in his groin will come loose, and he could bleed out in a matter of minutes."

Awesome.

For a split second, I felt like crying, but quickly realized that wouldn't be the most helpful move for anyone. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to calm him down either. I asked them to lower the bed rail, and even getting into his face so that I was all he could see, wasn't enough. The nurses asked me to sit down in a chair so that I could hold him (as flatly as possible). That didn't work either.

I finally turned to the nurse closest to me and said, "This is going to sound crazy, and you can laugh if you want, but I need you to go back down to the waiting room. Find my husband, and ask him for my oils. When he asks you which ones I want, tell him that I want all of them."

Oh yeah, I totally got strange look (although she did a really good job trying to hide it), but off she went to get what I needed. It was either ask for that or ask them to give him knock out drugs because he was beyond being calmed. 

She came back and helped me twist the tops off of three different stress oils so that I could rub them on Caleb...and five minutes later he was calm. I still find myself thinking these won't work, but I'm really glad that I threw them in my bag that morning. I actually brought the stress oils for *me,* but they were handy him too.

It took another 30 minutes or so to get him cleared to go to an observation room, and we finally got to meet back up with Sean.

And then we had to keep him still and mostly flat for the next six hours.

Mommy and Caleb: Finally calm and in the observation room!

Have you ever tried to keep a 3-year-old still for six hours while they are awake?!

Poor kid! He really just wanted to get up and walk around, and wasn't too happy when Sean and I insisted that he stay with us. He was pretty thrilled, through, when the nurses ordered him a big tray of food with all of his favorites on it: chicken nuggets, strawberries, raisins, crackers, juice...and he finished all of that off with a watermelon slushy and the french fries from my lunch. He was so pampered by the time we left that floor. His nurses were beyond sweet and so attentive to anything that would make him (and us) more comfortable. I think they would have moved the slushy machine into the room if they thought that he would like that!

Honestly, we were so impressed with everyone that we interacted with at the children's hospital. It takes a special type of person to work in children's healthcare, and the doctors, nurses, techs, radiologists, anesthesiologists...everyone...obviously loves the kids who come through their doors. We were so very blessed to be cared for by people who treated our son as their own.

On the way to radiology to check the coil placement: Caleb, Ashley, and Dana

Speaking of nurses...want to hear a good story?

So we were sitting in that observation room for six hours, keeping a pretty low profile. But it's inevitable that the "quadruplets" part comes out when people read any of our kids' medical paperwork. Okay, okay...and I kind of like getting to talk about what a blessing our kids are to us! Anyway, our nurse, Ashley, and her assistant, Dana, asked about our other kids, and Sean pulled up a photo of them on his tablet. They took the tablet out to the nurses station to show the other staff (with our permission) because it's a pretty unique family situation.

And then this super sweet nurse popped her head into the room. "Hi, my name is Elizabeth! I didn't want to say anything and bother you, but since the photo is being shown around, I thought I would. I've been a blog reader for about a year. I saw Caleb's name on the list this morning, and thought, 'I know these people!' So I hope it's okay that I stuck my head in." Oh my gosh...how FUN is that?! She let me know that she was able to give our nurses more info about our family based on what I've written on our blog (all public info, obviously) so that they were extra ready for us. SO thoughtful and kind of her!

Plus, I LOVE meeting readers in real life! So Elizabeth, if you see this, thanks for sticking your head in! It was so nice to meet you!

How is Caleb's Recovery Going?

Recovery? What recovery? Seriously, this boy has surprised us quite a bit. He was a pickle at the hospital because he didn't want to hold still, but once we said, "let's go home," we got a big smile out of him. We were originally told to be prepared to spend the night there for observation, but he was released the same day instead. We were home by 6pm that night, and he immediately started walking around and playing.

Other than being a little more tired than usual as the anesthesia effects wore off, you would have never known that he had been through heart surgery to correct a defect.

Mommy, Caleb, and Daddy

All I can say, is that God is amazing! We are grateful to have this surgery behind us and grateful that our little boy recovered SO quickly without even needing another dose of Tylenol once he came home. Seriously, amazing!
This post may contain affiliate links. For more info, please see my disclaimer page.

3rd Birthday Interview: Caleb Sean

This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. Thank you for helping support our family!

It's birthday interview time! YAY!

I'm planning on doing this every year until they grow up and leave me sniffling on my door step.

Last year, the kids weren't really talking yet. This year...it's not much different for some of them. Where their language hasn't developed enough for them to answer the questions, I'm going to fill in with what I'm pretty sure they would say if they could. Let's face it: Even mostly non-verbal kids are still pretty good at making their likes and dislikes known.

So today, we will start with our oldest, Caleb! Caleb's language level is 9 months, so I was only able to get him to "answer" the first question.

Caleb Sean

How old are you? "Caleb, how old are you (working up to how old he will be)?" *nothing* "Are you two?" "Three, four, five!"
What makes you happy? I like to hold my lovey while snuggling with mom or dad.
What is your favorite animal? My doggy lovey is my favorite!
What is your favorite color? Blue.
What is your favorite thing to eat? I always eat the veggies and fruit off of my plate first. They are the best!
What is your least favorite thing to eat? Casseroles. I don't like my food mixed together.
What is your favorite thing to do? Snuggle with mom and dad or lay in my big boy bed with my lovey and daydream.
What is your favorite TV show? Lunar Jim
What is your favorite movie? I like any movies!
What are you really good at? I'm really good at not being overly friendly with strangers (that's a good thing, right?). I'm also really good at avoiding new skills for as long as possible (hence the reason my mom is making up all my answers for me).
What is your favorite song? Row, Row, Row Your Boat
What do you and your mom do together? Mommy snuggles with me, wipes my nose, wipes my rumpus, and gives me lots of kisses, which I love!
What do you and your dad do together? We have special Caleb and Daddy time. We snuggle and tell jokes.
What is your favorite book? I love reading books, so any of them make me happy!
What do you want to be when you grow up? Mommy's best guess is an engineer. I like to line things up, analyze situations and people, and sit quietly off by myself attempting to solve world issues. But she says I can be whatever I want to be.

If you want to jump back, you can read Caleb's 2nd Birthday Interview here. Hopefully next year, he will be able to answer a few more questions for himself!

And don't forget to read the rest of the 3rd Birthday Interviews from this year: Abby, Elijah, and Ellie!

This post may contain affiliate links. For more info, please see my disclaimer page.

This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. Thank you for helping support our family!

It's birthday interview time! YAY!

I'm planning on doing this every year until they grow up and leave me sniffling on my door step.

Last year, the kids weren't really talking yet. This year...it's not much different for some of them. Where their language hasn't developed enough for them to answer the questions, I'm going to fill in with what I'm pretty sure they would say if they could. Let's face it: Even mostly non-verbal kids are still pretty good at making their likes and dislikes known.

So today, we will start with our oldest, Caleb! Caleb's language level is 9 months, so I was only able to get him to "answer" the first question.

Caleb Sean

How old are you? "Caleb, how old are you (working up to how old he will be)?" *nothing* "Are you two?" "Three, four, five!"
What makes you happy? I like to hold my lovey while snuggling with mom or dad.
What is your favorite animal? My doggy lovey is my favorite!
What is your favorite color? Blue.
What is your favorite thing to eat? I always eat the veggies and fruit off of my plate first. They are the best!
What is your least favorite thing to eat? Casseroles. I don't like my food mixed together.
What is your favorite thing to do? Snuggle with mom and dad or lay in my big boy bed with my lovey and daydream.
What is your favorite TV show? Lunar Jim
What is your favorite movie? I like any movies!
What are you really good at? I'm really good at not being overly friendly with strangers (that's a good thing, right?). I'm also really good at avoiding new skills for as long as possible (hence the reason my mom is making up all my answers for me).
What is your favorite song? Row, Row, Row Your Boat
What do you and your mom do together? Mommy snuggles with me, wipes my nose, wipes my rumpus, and gives me lots of kisses, which I love!
What do you and your dad do together? We have special Caleb and Daddy time. We snuggle and tell jokes.
What is your favorite book? I love reading books, so any of them make me happy!
What do you want to be when you grow up? Mommy's best guess is an engineer. I like to line things up, analyze situations and people, and sit quietly off by myself attempting to solve world issues. But she says I can be whatever I want to be.

If you want to jump back, you can read Caleb's 2nd Birthday Interview here. Hopefully next year, he will be able to answer a few more questions for himself!

And don't forget to read the rest of the 3rd Birthday Interviews from this year: Abby, Elijah, and Ellie!

This post may contain affiliate links. For more info, please see my disclaimer page.

Quad Update - Winter 2014

It's time for another Quad Update!

When they were little, I could have written an update every week. Everything changed so fast, and they were hitting milestones frequently. Of course, that was also the days of my severe sleep deprivation, so I was lucky to write a post once a month. Now that they are older, I'm only moderately sleep deprived, and have more time to write, they aren't changing as quickly.

Oh well. Next time I have quads, I'll make a point of writing more updates early on. Just kidding.

BUT, they will be THREE next month. What??!! Where did the time go?? With their birthday right around the corner, I thought that it would be a good time to do another quad update (and then next month we will do Birthday Interviews!).

Side note: if you are new to the blog, you can catch up on some of the developmental and physical details in past Quad Updates: Summer 2013 and Winter 2013

Caleb

Socially, he is continuing to be more open to joining into the chaos. Our little boy who once watched from the sidelines, now jumps into the living room ruckus. He is still quite shy in new places and among new people, but we are very pleased that he is willing to give people a chance now.

Developmentally, Caleb is the furthest behind. He currently receives speech, occupational, and physical therapy. He is making progress, but still resists learning new skills and attempting anything that requires energy on his part. He is able to walk up and down stairs now though! That's his newest skill, and I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad about that.

Verbally, Caleb just said his first full sentence about two weeks ago! It was beyond exciting to hear him say that! However, he still has very limited vocabulary, and his speech therapist said he speaks at an 18 month level. That is currently his biggest hurdle. We are anxious for him to communicate with us using words. Right now, he uses a lot of pushing and pulling to get us to a location, and then puts our hands on the item to tell us what he wants. For example, if he wants a drink, he pulls us into the kitchen, and then puts our hand on the refrigerator handle. If he wants a snack, he puts our hand on the pantry rack. He's very adept at communicating without words, but when he is upset or frustrated, all he does is cry instead of telling us what is wrong. It's really frustrating for all of us.

Physically, Caleb had his annual cardiologist appointment in December. We were happy to learn that his ASD has closed! We weren't expecting to hear that. However, his PDA is still open and now needs to be repaired. He is scheduled for heart surgery in May (after cold and flu season). We are hoping that it will be outpatient, but they have told us to prepare to stay overnight just in case. The procedure itself involves putting him under general anesthesia. They will insert a catheter through an artery in his groin, run it up to his heart, and insert a plug in the hole. The worst part for him (and us!) will be that he can't walk at all or move much for 6 hours after the surgery. Yeah, still not sure how I will explain that to my three-year-old....

Abby

Socially, Abby loves people! Just absolutely LOVES people and new places and new things. She still runs up and hugs random strangers which scares this mom just a little bit while still being so funny at the same time! The expression on the home security alarm installer's face was priceless when she latched on to him. She also head butts us all the time. It's not a mean head butt...more like what a cat does when they want to be petted. She's been doing that since she started crawling, so we are hoping to break her of it before she goes on her first date. First impressions and all that jazz.

Developmentally, Abby receives speech, physical, and occupational therapy. She is making progress in each area, and has made some wonderful strides in the eating department. She will now try new foods and will take bites of food she doesn't necessarily love if we help her eat it. It's so nice not to force feed her anymore!

Verbally, she has the second most words of the kids. She talks non-stop, and it is absolutely hilarious! Most of what she says is garbled, but she is obviously saying full sentences and carrying on conversations. We know that she knows the correct words in her head, but there is still a disconnect between her brain and her mouth. We are confident that she will continue to make progress though. The most hilarious thing about that disconnect is that she thinks that Ellie's name is also Abby. She knows she's Ellie but it comes out Abby every time. Lol!

Physically, Abby is working with physical therapy on strengthening her hips. She sits in a 'W' which weakens the hips and will cause problems down the road, especially when she wants to have babies (let's not talk about that). She also flips her legs out to the side as she runs instead of moving her knees up and down. She used to do that when she walked too, but we've been able to help her hips stay more inline. We are also trying to break her of her toe walking habit. We like to avoid surgery or casting if at all possible, so instead, we are constantly telling her to walk on her feet.

Elijah

Socially, Elijah loves people too! He is such a ham and looks for any opportunity to love and be loved on. The hardest part about Elijah is that he has such a sensitive heart. He very easily gets his feelings hurt, and that can prove to be frustrating when he is wailing. For the most part, though, he does well in public situations and with new people.

Developmentally, Elijah sees a speech therapist and an occupational therapist. He spends most of his time with both working on speech though.

Verbally, he is just behind Abby. He seems to have bursts where he picks up a bunch of new words, and then doesn't for several weeks. We are in a dry spell right now, but he's due for another language burst soon. His current favorite words are "motorcycle" and "dolphin." And yet I can't get him to say common, everyday words all the time.

Physically, Elijah has become much more "body aware." Eli is hypo-sensitive, meaning that he needs extra sensory input to process things. We used to have lots of issues with him running into things and people because he just wasn't aware of what was around him until he made contact. Thankfully, he is becoming more in tune with his surroundings, and he doesn't crash into stuff nearly as often. He still stuffs his mouth overly full though. Apparently that is part of his hypo-sensory issues: he doesn't process his mouth is full until it is stuffed.

Ellie

Socially, Ellie is always the first kid to greet a visitor, offer a hug, and say, "Bye-bye! Thanks for coming!" It's adorable, and I love her vivacious personality! She is a little reserved in new situations, but that normally lasts all of 90 seconds, and then she is off playing.

Developmentally, Ellie sees a physical and occupational therapist. Ellie still doesn't fully trust her legs, so her physical therapy time is spent working on walking on boxes, jumping up and down, and things like that. Occupationally, Ellie's time is spent sitting at the lunch table. My little girl who used to love healthy foods, especially her favorite baked chicken with steamed broccoli, has decided that she wants nothing more to do with them. In fact, she is more of a pickle when it comes to eating than Abby is. Dinner time has become extremely frustrating as she cries all of the way through unless it's one of a very few meals she will eat. We are definitely working as much as possible on this with our occupational therapist as the enjoyment factor of family dinners is completely gone.

Verbally, she is rocking it! While her language is still delayed, we can communicate with her and carry on short conversations. It's so nice to just hear what the problem is. "Mom, I have poops!" I can understand that!

Physically, Ellie had the first of two surgeries on her hemangioma a few months ago. It's healing very well, and is much less noticeable than it was before. We are really happy we made the decision to get it taken care of. This year we will have the second surgery to turn it into a straight line scar. Most likely that will happen in late summer/early fall, and then we will be done with that!

One Last Update:

And finally, we are in the process of testing and evaluating the kids with the local school district. We very unfortunately will lose all of our therapists on their third birthday as Missouri First Steps only provides services until then. With our kids still having significant delays, our options are to pay out-of-pocket for additional therapy services (unaffordable) or try to get them qualified for the Special Education program at the Early Childhood Center. If they make it, they will start preschool in late February/early March. It's a four day a week program for three hours each day. They have a full set of therapists on site, and the kids will be able to get all of their therapy services through them. Please pray they get in!! We feel that it will be very beneficial to them...and let's face it, the break would be nice for me too!

As always, we are so grateful for your support, love, and prayers for our family. We are beyond blessed to call each of you, "Friends!"

It's time for another Quad Update!

When they were little, I could have written an update every week. Everything changed so fast, and they were hitting milestones frequently. Of course, that was also the days of my severe sleep deprivation, so I was lucky to write a post once a month. Now that they are older, I'm only moderately sleep deprived, and have more time to write, they aren't changing as quickly.

Oh well. Next time I have quads, I'll make a point of writing more updates early on. Just kidding.

BUT, they will be THREE next month. What??!! Where did the time go?? With their birthday right around the corner, I thought that it would be a good time to do another quad update (and then next month we will do Birthday Interviews!).

Side note: if you are new to the blog, you can catch up on some of the developmental and physical details in past Quad Updates: Summer 2013 and Winter 2013

Caleb

Socially, he is continuing to be more open to joining into the chaos. Our little boy who once watched from the sidelines, now jumps into the living room ruckus. He is still quite shy in new places and among new people, but we are very pleased that he is willing to give people a chance now.

Developmentally, Caleb is the furthest behind. He currently receives speech, occupational, and physical therapy. He is making progress, but still resists learning new skills and attempting anything that requires energy on his part. He is able to walk up and down stairs now though! That's his newest skill, and I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad about that.

Verbally, Caleb just said his first full sentence about two weeks ago! It was beyond exciting to hear him say that! However, he still has very limited vocabulary, and his speech therapist said he speaks at an 18 month level. That is currently his biggest hurdle. We are anxious for him to communicate with us using words. Right now, he uses a lot of pushing and pulling to get us to a location, and then puts our hands on the item to tell us what he wants. For example, if he wants a drink, he pulls us into the kitchen, and then puts our hand on the refrigerator handle. If he wants a snack, he puts our hand on the pantry rack. He's very adept at communicating without words, but when he is upset or frustrated, all he does is cry instead of telling us what is wrong. It's really frustrating for all of us.

Physically, Caleb had his annual cardiologist appointment in December. We were happy to learn that his ASD has closed! We weren't expecting to hear that. However, his PDA is still open and now needs to be repaired. He is scheduled for heart surgery in May (after cold and flu season). We are hoping that it will be outpatient, but they have told us to prepare to stay overnight just in case. The procedure itself involves putting him under general anesthesia. They will insert a catheter through an artery in his groin, run it up to his heart, and insert a plug in the hole. The worst part for him (and us!) will be that he can't walk at all or move much for 6 hours after the surgery. Yeah, still not sure how I will explain that to my three-year-old....

Abby

Socially, Abby loves people! Just absolutely LOVES people and new places and new things. She still runs up and hugs random strangers which scares this mom just a little bit while still being so funny at the same time! The expression on the home security alarm installer's face was priceless when she latched on to him. She also head butts us all the time. It's not a mean head butt...more like what a cat does when they want to be petted. She's been doing that since she started crawling, so we are hoping to break her of it before she goes on her first date. First impressions and all that jazz.

Developmentally, Abby receives speech, physical, and occupational therapy. She is making progress in each area, and has made some wonderful strides in the eating department. She will now try new foods and will take bites of food she doesn't necessarily love if we help her eat it. It's so nice not to force feed her anymore!

Verbally, she has the second most words of the kids. She talks non-stop, and it is absolutely hilarious! Most of what she says is garbled, but she is obviously saying full sentences and carrying on conversations. We know that she knows the correct words in her head, but there is still a disconnect between her brain and her mouth. We are confident that she will continue to make progress though. The most hilarious thing about that disconnect is that she thinks that Ellie's name is also Abby. She knows she's Ellie but it comes out Abby every time. Lol!

Physically, Abby is working with physical therapy on strengthening her hips. She sits in a 'W' which weakens the hips and will cause problems down the road, especially when she wants to have babies (let's not talk about that). She also flips her legs out to the side as she runs instead of moving her knees up and down. She used to do that when she walked too, but we've been able to help her hips stay more inline. We are also trying to break her of her toe walking habit. We like to avoid surgery or casting if at all possible, so instead, we are constantly telling her to walk on her feet.

Elijah

Socially, Elijah loves people too! He is such a ham and looks for any opportunity to love and be loved on. The hardest part about Elijah is that he has such a sensitive heart. He very easily gets his feelings hurt, and that can prove to be frustrating when he is wailing. For the most part, though, he does well in public situations and with new people.

Developmentally, Elijah sees a speech therapist and an occupational therapist. He spends most of his time with both working on speech though.

Verbally, he is just behind Abby. He seems to have bursts where he picks up a bunch of new words, and then doesn't for several weeks. We are in a dry spell right now, but he's due for another language burst soon. His current favorite words are "motorcycle" and "dolphin." And yet I can't get him to say common, everyday words all the time.

Physically, Elijah has become much more "body aware." Eli is hypo-sensitive, meaning that he needs extra sensory input to process things. We used to have lots of issues with him running into things and people because he just wasn't aware of what was around him until he made contact. Thankfully, he is becoming more in tune with his surroundings, and he doesn't crash into stuff nearly as often. He still stuffs his mouth overly full though. Apparently that is part of his hypo-sensory issues: he doesn't process his mouth is full until it is stuffed.

Ellie

Socially, Ellie is always the first kid to greet a visitor, offer a hug, and say, "Bye-bye! Thanks for coming!" It's adorable, and I love her vivacious personality! She is a little reserved in new situations, but that normally lasts all of 90 seconds, and then she is off playing.

Developmentally, Ellie sees a physical and occupational therapist. Ellie still doesn't fully trust her legs, so her physical therapy time is spent working on walking on boxes, jumping up and down, and things like that. Occupationally, Ellie's time is spent sitting at the lunch table. My little girl who used to love healthy foods, especially her favorite baked chicken with steamed broccoli, has decided that she wants nothing more to do with them. In fact, she is more of a pickle when it comes to eating than Abby is. Dinner time has become extremely frustrating as she cries all of the way through unless it's one of a very few meals she will eat. We are definitely working as much as possible on this with our occupational therapist as the enjoyment factor of family dinners is completely gone.

Verbally, she is rocking it! While her language is still delayed, we can communicate with her and carry on short conversations. It's so nice to just hear what the problem is. "Mom, I have poops!" I can understand that!

Physically, Ellie had the first of two surgeries on her hemangioma a few months ago. It's healing very well, and is much less noticeable than it was before. We are really happy we made the decision to get it taken care of. This year we will have the second surgery to turn it into a straight line scar. Most likely that will happen in late summer/early fall, and then we will be done with that!

One Last Update:

And finally, we are in the process of testing and evaluating the kids with the local school district. We very unfortunately will lose all of our therapists on their third birthday as Missouri First Steps only provides services until then. With our kids still having significant delays, our options are to pay out-of-pocket for additional therapy services (unaffordable) or try to get them qualified for the Special Education program at the Early Childhood Center. If they make it, they will start preschool in late February/early March. It's a four day a week program for three hours each day. They have a full set of therapists on site, and the kids will be able to get all of their therapy services through them. Please pray they get in!! We feel that it will be very beneficial to them...and let's face it, the break would be nice for me too!

As always, we are so grateful for your support, love, and prayers for our family. We are beyond blessed to call each of you, "Friends!"

Quad Update - Summer 2013

About four months ago, I wrote a very long, very detailed update on our quadruplets. At the time, I didn't realize how long it had been since I'd done a comprehensive update. So my goal is to try to write a brief update every few months (or when I remember. Ha!).

Caleb:

Socially, Mr. Caleb is really starting to thrive! While he still finds strangers to be "scary," he is warming up to different situations more quickly these days.

Developmentally, Caleb sees a Cardiologist, Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist, and Speech Therapy. We have been able to bring his overall developmental level up to about 20 months old. It's slow going, but the progress is encouraging!

Verbally, we've started making some progress. We started speech therapy in January, and it seems to be helping. Of course, his favorite part of speech therapy is when Miss Tasha brings out the sucker so that he can practice moving his tongue. Mommy doesn't let him have candy otherwise! Right now, he can say, "no, whoa, uh-oh, whee, one, two, three, four, five, six." He is also attempting to talk with us now, even though we haven't the slightest idea what he is saying. Still, that's a huge improvement over the silence that we had to work past. We are getting there...

Physically, now that he has found his feet and is confident walking across the room, he bounces all over the place! He still doesn't see much need in exploring new milestones, but once he figures out how they work, he embraces them.

I won't rehash all of Caleb's heart issues that need to be fixed next year, but if you want a refresher on it, please feel free to click HERE. It will take you back to the last update I wrote. All of the info about his heart is still current.

Abby:

Socially, Abby is still a people person! While she loves new places, and new people, she still enjoys playing by herself. She's funny though, because without warning, she will run up and hug random people. The security system installer was very surprised to suddenly find a 2-year-old little girl wrapped around his legs!

Developmentally, Abby keeps up with her milestones pretty well! She is seeing the Occupational Therapist and Speech Therapist (and unofficially, the Physical Therapist is keeping an eye on her when she is here working with Caleb and Elijah). She's still considered to be delayed by a couple of months, but we should catch up soon. We have added an additional session with her occupational therapist though. Her extra session is scheduled for once a month during lunchtime. At her two year checkup the pediatrician told us that she would most likely be on Boost (nutrition supplemental shakes) for the next year. Our goal over the next few months is to help her learn to eat more foods from categories other than "carbs."

Verbally, we are finally getting some words out of this girl! We originally only had Caleb and Elijah signed up for speech therapy, but we added Abby to the line up when she wasn't speaking. I guess all it took was for me to sign the paperwork. She now says, "hi, bye, see you, oh Toodles (from Mickey Mouse), one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, show, done, socks and shoes." She also knows about 15-20 letters and can say her vowels. Goodness, once they get started, they learn quickly. She adds new words weekly.

Physically, we have been working on her balance. She has, what we like to call, "the drunken baby walk." She kind of...weaves...all over the room. It's hilarious, but a little concerning. She now wears ankle weights a couple of times a week, to help her find her footing. She also occasionally walks on her toes, and we aren't sure why since it's not all the time. Unfortunately, the ligaments in the back of her calves are starting to flatten and become more stiff, meaning that we will have a full-time toe walker if we aren't careful. She also constantly tries to sit in a "W" shape with her legs, which will cause hip issues as she gets older. She now does some exercises to stretch her legs out, along with constantly being reminded to sit with her legs in front of her. Between those and the weights, we are hoping to get on top of it.

Elijah:

Socially, Elijah is a little more reserved than Abby, but really enjoys greeting people. Ellie and Elijah are the first kids to yell, "HI!" when we walk in the door after running errands. Although he is constantly in motion, he does enjoy a good snuggle when he can find a vacant lap. Falling off of a chair won't make him cry, but if he feels like he has disappointed us, he bursts into tears. He is such a sweet, tenderhearted child.

Developmentally, Elijah is doing well! He sees the Occupational and Speech therapists. While he is still a few months behind where a full-term baby would be at this point, he is making great strides toward catching up!

Verbally, Elijah has made some great progress! At my last update, he was babbling and mouthing words. We are now getting some out of him! His words are, "hi, bye, done, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten" along with lots of "talking" in his secret quad language. He is obviously saying sentences. We just aren't sure what they are in English yet.

Physically, Elijah doesn't sit still. Like ever. His motto for life is, "Play hard. Sleep hard." He is working on walking up and down the stairs, but other than that, we are spending more time on the verbal development these days.

Ellie:

Socially, Ellie is still her engaging, personable self. She loves everybody and makes new friends in an instant. We love her outgoing personality!

Developmentally, Ellie is the furthest ahead cognitively. She works with the Occupational and Physical therapists. It's pretty exciting to see so much making sense to her. You can see the little wheels turning in her brain and connecting thoughts and ideas. Like the rest of her siblings, she is a bit behind in her physical development. While her brothers struggle more with the motivation to learn new things, Ellie is the opposite. She can't learn new things fast enough and she can easily get frustrated. For her, it's often times a physical hiccup that stands between her and learning a new skill.

Verbally, Ellie has the most words in her vocabulary, and if I were to list them, I would need to write a separate blog post. She is learning new words daily, and I often feel like we now have a parrot in the house. We have to watch what we say! It's very exciting though! The other day I asked her to get down off of a folding chair, and she responded with, "I'm stuck!" I said, "You're not stuck, Ellie. You need to get down before you get hurt." And she replied again, "I'm stuck!" Two things: First of all, that was my first real conversation with her! She was hearing and responding to what I said. Second, since when did she learn to talk back?!?!

Physically, Ellie is working hard to master the stairs. She doesn't trust her legs or balance to get her safely to the top and back down to the bottom. She obviously wants to learn and is working hard to reach this milestone. Daddy has turned the stairs into a game and she now proudly announces, "step-y!" with every step she takes up or down.

The other thing we are working on with her is weight gain. She is also on Boost, but not because she doesn't eat. She just burns too many calories being the little bundle of awesome that she is. Slow down, girl, and put some weight on!

In summary:
All of the kids are considered to be about 20-22 months developmentally based on the skills they have. We are still behind by several months but making some great progress and will continue to work with our occupational, physical, and speech therapists to reach that point.

We have also just finished our second winter lockdown. We are extremely happy to see summer! Unfortunately, we have all been sick for four out of the five weeks since lockdown ended, but that par for the course when preemie kids start entering the real world. We are hoping to build some immune systems quickly!

Thank you for continuing to pray for and love our family!

About four months ago, I wrote a very long, very detailed update on our quadruplets. At the time, I didn't realize how long it had been since I'd done a comprehensive update. So my goal is to try to write a brief update every few months (or when I remember. Ha!).

Caleb:

Socially, Mr. Caleb is really starting to thrive! While he still finds strangers to be "scary," he is warming up to different situations more quickly these days.

Developmentally, Caleb sees a Cardiologist, Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist, and Speech Therapy. We have been able to bring his overall developmental level up to about 20 months old. It's slow going, but the progress is encouraging!

Verbally, we've started making some progress. We started speech therapy in January, and it seems to be helping. Of course, his favorite part of speech therapy is when Miss Tasha brings out the sucker so that he can practice moving his tongue. Mommy doesn't let him have candy otherwise! Right now, he can say, "no, whoa, uh-oh, whee, one, two, three, four, five, six." He is also attempting to talk with us now, even though we haven't the slightest idea what he is saying. Still, that's a huge improvement over the silence that we had to work past. We are getting there...

Physically, now that he has found his feet and is confident walking across the room, he bounces all over the place! He still doesn't see much need in exploring new milestones, but once he figures out how they work, he embraces them.

I won't rehash all of Caleb's heart issues that need to be fixed next year, but if you want a refresher on it, please feel free to click HERE. It will take you back to the last update I wrote. All of the info about his heart is still current.

Abby:

Socially, Abby is still a people person! While she loves new places, and new people, she still enjoys playing by herself. She's funny though, because without warning, she will run up and hug random people. The security system installer was very surprised to suddenly find a 2-year-old little girl wrapped around his legs!

Developmentally, Abby keeps up with her milestones pretty well! She is seeing the Occupational Therapist and Speech Therapist (and unofficially, the Physical Therapist is keeping an eye on her when she is here working with Caleb and Elijah). She's still considered to be delayed by a couple of months, but we should catch up soon. We have added an additional session with her occupational therapist though. Her extra session is scheduled for once a month during lunchtime. At her two year checkup the pediatrician told us that she would most likely be on Boost (nutrition supplemental shakes) for the next year. Our goal over the next few months is to help her learn to eat more foods from categories other than "carbs."

Verbally, we are finally getting some words out of this girl! We originally only had Caleb and Elijah signed up for speech therapy, but we added Abby to the line up when she wasn't speaking. I guess all it took was for me to sign the paperwork. She now says, "hi, bye, see you, oh Toodles (from Mickey Mouse), one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, show, done, socks and shoes." She also knows about 15-20 letters and can say her vowels. Goodness, once they get started, they learn quickly. She adds new words weekly.

Physically, we have been working on her balance. She has, what we like to call, "the drunken baby walk." She kind of...weaves...all over the room. It's hilarious, but a little concerning. She now wears ankle weights a couple of times a week, to help her find her footing. She also occasionally walks on her toes, and we aren't sure why since it's not all the time. Unfortunately, the ligaments in the back of her calves are starting to flatten and become more stiff, meaning that we will have a full-time toe walker if we aren't careful. She also constantly tries to sit in a "W" shape with her legs, which will cause hip issues as she gets older. She now does some exercises to stretch her legs out, along with constantly being reminded to sit with her legs in front of her. Between those and the weights, we are hoping to get on top of it.

Elijah:

Socially, Elijah is a little more reserved than Abby, but really enjoys greeting people. Ellie and Elijah are the first kids to yell, "HI!" when we walk in the door after running errands. Although he is constantly in motion, he does enjoy a good snuggle when he can find a vacant lap. Falling off of a chair won't make him cry, but if he feels like he has disappointed us, he bursts into tears. He is such a sweet, tenderhearted child.

Developmentally, Elijah is doing well! He sees the Occupational and Speech therapists. While he is still a few months behind where a full-term baby would be at this point, he is making great strides toward catching up!

Verbally, Elijah has made some great progress! At my last update, he was babbling and mouthing words. We are now getting some out of him! His words are, "hi, bye, done, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten" along with lots of "talking" in his secret quad language. He is obviously saying sentences. We just aren't sure what they are in English yet.

Physically, Elijah doesn't sit still. Like ever. His motto for life is, "Play hard. Sleep hard." He is working on walking up and down the stairs, but other than that, we are spending more time on the verbal development these days.

Ellie:

Socially, Ellie is still her engaging, personable self. She loves everybody and makes new friends in an instant. We love her outgoing personality!

Developmentally, Ellie is the furthest ahead cognitively. She works with the Occupational and Physical therapists. It's pretty exciting to see so much making sense to her. You can see the little wheels turning in her brain and connecting thoughts and ideas. Like the rest of her siblings, she is a bit behind in her physical development. While her brothers struggle more with the motivation to learn new things, Ellie is the opposite. She can't learn new things fast enough and she can easily get frustrated. For her, it's often times a physical hiccup that stands between her and learning a new skill.

Verbally, Ellie has the most words in her vocabulary, and if I were to list them, I would need to write a separate blog post. She is learning new words daily, and I often feel like we now have a parrot in the house. We have to watch what we say! It's very exciting though! The other day I asked her to get down off of a folding chair, and she responded with, "I'm stuck!" I said, "You're not stuck, Ellie. You need to get down before you get hurt." And she replied again, "I'm stuck!" Two things: First of all, that was my first real conversation with her! She was hearing and responding to what I said. Second, since when did she learn to talk back?!?!

Physically, Ellie is working hard to master the stairs. She doesn't trust her legs or balance to get her safely to the top and back down to the bottom. She obviously wants to learn and is working hard to reach this milestone. Daddy has turned the stairs into a game and she now proudly announces, "step-y!" with every step she takes up or down.

The other thing we are working on with her is weight gain. She is also on Boost, but not because she doesn't eat. She just burns too many calories being the little bundle of awesome that she is. Slow down, girl, and put some weight on!

In summary:
All of the kids are considered to be about 20-22 months developmentally based on the skills they have. We are still behind by several months but making some great progress and will continue to work with our occupational, physical, and speech therapists to reach that point.

We have also just finished our second winter lockdown. We are extremely happy to see summer! Unfortunately, we have all been sick for four out of the five weeks since lockdown ended, but that par for the course when preemie kids start entering the real world. We are hoping to build some immune systems quickly!

Thank you for continuing to pray for and love our family!