Most of Grace's test results were normal.  Liver, kidney, thyroid functions were all fine.  No celiac disease.  No cystic fibrosis.

However, something odd popped up on her urinalysis.  She has an indicator for some sort of genetic metabolic disorder.  Specifically, it falls under the category of something that means she's unable to process carbohydrates properly.  The indicator rarely shows itself with infants, so I took her in for a repeat testing.  We should find out the results of that by midweek next week. 

If the indicator comes up positive again, then she'll go for further testing in that specific arena.  It's funny how many questions pop in your head after you leave the doctor's office...  I'm bubbling over with them now, but we'll see if it shows up positive again next week.

We're having trouble with her vomitting at least once a day after she eats, which isn't helping anything.  She has a cold, and it seems directly related to all the drainage.  This is, officially, her third week of this cold, and I've always heard colds last two weeks.  Well...two weeks is over and it's still here rotating and mutating within each of us. Yuck!

Please continue to pray for her and for the doctors and nurses who are working with us. 

Daniel went with us today after complaining about his ear again.  I knew his wax build up was probably back.  It was, but he, also, has an infection in his left ear.  Once she got out enough wax, she could see the infection.  The drops he'll be using are actually stool softeners in liquid form.  Nice, eh?

So...that's what we've been up to today.  I'm off to the pharmacy.

Grace had her doctor's appointment yesterday.  We went ahead and had her six-month well check with our new doctor, who is WAY better than her old one!  I am so pleased with this physician.  She sat and talked and talked and addressed my concerns and fears and answered the many questions I had.

Conclusion:  Grace is small.  She needs extra calories.  However, her weight gain was phenomenal!  Twelve ounces in less than two weeks, not counting the ounces her clothing weigh.  My new doctor was appalled that our old office weighs the infants fully clothed because when you're weighing for ounces, the clothing can make a difference.  And when weight gain is the focus of your visit, you need to be completely aware of the true weight.  Grace has slowed down her growth in relation to her length, as well, which isn't good but not necessarily bad either.  We'll go back in a couple weeks to see if she continues to gain with all that we're adding to her diet. 

Hewwo?

She's getting a good bit of formula and cereal mixed with her food.  And she's still nursing five to six times a day.  We can't measure her actual intake of breastmilk, but our physician said it's roughly forty calories per ounce.  And generally, babies take four ounces or so per feeding.  So...when we're calculating her daily calorie intake, we can keep that in mind.  If that is indeed how much she's getting, we're giving her far more than she actually needs.  If she continues to gain well with that, there will be no further testing.

However, if she stalls out or fails to gain adequately again, they'll do some labwork to see if there is possibly some reason, other than calorie-intake, that could be contributing to her weight issues.  Is she failing to absorb the nutrients?  Is there something that is interfering with that process?  She mentioned celiac disease as a possibility, but since she is gaining with all the extra calories, she doesn't want to jump the gun regarding labwork. 

Grace has become very interested in Hannah.  Can you tell?

Developmentally, she's doing fine.  She's not "ahead" by any means, but she's not behind.  She can roll over, and she will almost immediately roll over when you place her on her tummy.  She's getting more and more interested in getting to the toys I place on the floor for her.  She can sit up with some help, and Deron's been able to get her to balance for a bit on the bed.  She babbles and is extremely socially interactive. 

So we'll go back in two weeks to a doctor who seems much more interested in my concerns as a mother!  I'm so thankful we found her!

In other news, Daniel's speech appointment went great yesterday.  We'll only do a few appointments to show him...and me...how to do the exercises at home.  He only has a couple of mild articulation errors that aren't directly related to the fact that he is four years old.

So scary, don't you think?

And our sing Saturday was wonderful!  Completely worth the effort!  We had a wonderful time!  The food and fellowhip was such a breath of fresh air!  (We're still eating the food, actually!  We had waaaay more than we needed, but wow, it was good!) 

...I slipped a video onto my other blog if you need a laugh!  And I'm off to grab a cup of coffee in the quietness before the peanut gallery wakes up!

The appointments went very well yesterday.

Daniel is going to go once a week to speech therapy.  Most of his issues are developmental and will probably correct themselves on their own, but there are a few things I'd like for him to have extra help with, and honestly, those things (which involve spitting on people by accident) are more about carelessness and habit than lack of "know-how."

Since Grace didn't have a fever and was no longer vomitting, they said she could wait until her weight check next week to be seen.

Hannah did really well for her appointment, and they didn't have to papoose her.  Honestly, not papoosing her wasn't any better!  They gave us instructions on scar minimizing which included the phrase, "Don't pull the scabs off.  Let them come off on their own.  She's a long way from being all healed up.  One good bump and it'll pop right open!" (common sense!)  So what has Hannah done by the time we pulled into our driveway? Yes...she's pulled every last scab off.  It was smeared looking blood not active bleeding, so I still called the clinic to make sure we didn't need to turn around and go back!  Nah.  She just needs to go ahead with the Vitamin E treatment and sunscreen for a year.

(Before the accident!)

Today, all we have going on is your "average, every day" type of day plus storytime at the library.  It'll be nice.

Today will be a busy day.  We have two, maybe three, appointments to head off to.  Daniel's speech therapy evaluation is this morning at 10:30 in Athens, and I'll take Hannah this afternoon to have her stitches removed at 3:30 a little over an hour's ride in the opposite direction.  We had a mild version of the virus last week, and Grace got sick Friday.

Now, some of you already know she's having a bit of difficulty gaining weight, and she's even begun to lose a little bit.  I even got the nurse to weigh her again, and she had, indeed, abandoned the growth chart page, entirely.  She's below 0% on the curve.  She's long, though, so it's hard to tell how tiny she is.  I had a complete stranger (who was trying to make polite conversation) ask me how old Grace was.  And when I told her, she exclaimed, "Well, she must've been a preemie!"  I thought I was gonna cry right there in the check-out line. 

She's very alert and healthy in every other way.  She's just tiny!  We'd been working very hard to get her to gain, and then, she started throwing up Friday.  Luckily, it only lasted until Friday evening, but she only weighs eleven pounds and a few little ounces.  She doesn't have much weight to work with when it comes to getting a virus.  I'm going to call the pediatrician this morning and make sure they don't want to take a peek at her.  She's shown no signs of dehydration which is what I've been worried about.

Please say a little prayer for my Grace and Hannah too...She'll have to be papoosed...again...to get the stitches removed!  And Daniel too.  He's a little nervous about his appointment. 

(I tried hard to get a cute picture, but Hannah was too busy hugging everyone to get one that included her face!)

"Mommy, what if money really did grow on trees?"

"Mommy, how many days til my birthday?" Daniel asked me.

"39."

"Two days? Wow!"  A very big smile erupted on his face!

"No, 39 days." I tried to explain again before he ran off to tell Ethan.

"Ethan, my birthday is gonna be in two days!"

Normally, I would try and put a picture of Daniel here, but alas, I have no new ones on the computer.  This is Grace, and yes she sucks her thumb, and yes, I pull her thumb out of her mouth every time she puts it in there!  I do not want to tackle that later on...at all!

"Dear Lord, please bless Hannah to learn how to close her eyes during the blessing."

"Mama, yook at me and 'annah!  We're just chiwwin!"

Daniel: "Daddy, how old will you be when I'm as old as Guy?" (Guy's my 12yo nephew.)

Daddy: "I'll be f-f-f-forty..." He had to choke that out!

Ethan: "I bet you'll have a lot of gray hair by then!"

LOL!!!  I'm so gonna get it when I turn forty...seeing that I'm six years younger than my dear husband...it'll be a while!

"No pictures today, Mom!"

Daniel, affectionately, refers to our girls as "our babies."  Can you believe how much they grow in 16 short months!?

"Mommy, I need to tell you something..."

(Also, on a side note, please say a little prayer for Grace.  We've all had colds with coughing and runny noses...the whole nine yards...and now she's beginning to sound bad.  I worry something terrible when my babies get sick, and she's only ten weeks old.  She just sounds very congested, so please remember her.) 

Tell me this little girl ain't loved!!

Have a great week!

Just a few pictures for the grandparents...

"Do I really need to wash my hands every single time I go to the bathroom?  Couldn't I just blow the germs off with my superhero breath?"

"Exactly how big was Goliath?"

"Can I pleeeeease throw the dead fish into the potty?"

"How big will I grow?  What am I gonna do when I grow up?"

"Did God make the flowers?  I bet He made flowers just for ladies.  Is that true?"

"How much does a crocodile weigh?  Is a giraffe the tallest animal ever to be discovered?"

Again, I can't seem to find my thoughts these days.  I feel like I think nonstop, but when it comes to blogging about them or talking about them...I'd just rather not.  My thoughts aren't coherent enough for that! :-)  But here are a few pictures from the last couple of days...

I'll be 33 weeks along Thursday, and I can't seem to complete one full thought before my brain goes on to something else.  Is it related to the pregnancy or to the fact that there are three little monkeys running around?  Who knows, but I feel like my brain is mush!  It was bad last Wednesday when we got all the way to the library, went in, went to storytime, got almost all the way done with the craft when I realized that Ethan's shirt was inside out.  I'm losing it!

My ultrasound is the 23rd, and I can't wait to "see" Grace again!    My TMJ has returned...on the other side of my jaw, but luckily, I know what it is and am able to intervene before it gets too bad.  Tylenol and Tums have become their own food group to this little mama.

Hannah's room has her "big girl" bed in it, but we've been completely unsuccessful in getting her to actually sleep in it during naptime.  We may end up needing two cribs... :-)

As my family has assured me..."Just put pictures up.  You don't have to write anything..." so there you are...

Ethan asks that question 500 million gazillion times per day.  "What would happen if.....?"  I despise that question, and yet, I answer every time.  I have become very aware of how vague my answers have become because Daniel will ask Ethan things like, "How deep is that water?"  And Ethan will say, "Preeeeetty deep."

Here are some of Ethan's latest "What would happen if...":

-"Somebody put a caterpillar on Daniel's bed and then they couldn't find it?  Do you think it would turn into a butterfly?" (We still haven't found any caterpillars in their room!)

-"Somebody dumped too much fish food in the 'quarium? Will the fish get too big and die?"

-"There was a giant cheetah?  Do you think you could beat him up?"

Last weekend, Ethan was able to spend the night with a bunch of his cousins, and on the way home, we asked him how it went. "Fantastic!" was his very enthusiastic reply.  He had a blast with the other five boys that were old enough to go.  Daniel, however, wasn't happy one little iota!  He cried and cried and asked me why his best friend wanted to leave him.  It was pitiful.  These two boys can fight like cats and dogs, but the second I try to let them have some "alone" time, they act like it's the end of the world!  It's a brother thing, I guess!