Good news and not so good news

The good news... well GREAT news, is that Rachel has gained weight. In fact, she is back up to 39 pounds, which is what she was back in December before she lost so much weight. Her skin is looking amazing. Her eyes are no longer sunk into her face. She doesn't have dark yellow-ish circles under her eyes. She is looking so healthy. It's been really awesome.

The downside to this is that she gained weight faster than her medical team expected. They only expected her to gain a pound or two. Not five pounds in one month. Because of this weight gain, her g-tube is now too small. They expected us to go three months before they would change out her bard button tube to a mic-key button. It's not recommended to replace a g-tube this soon after the original placement and surgery. Her body is still healing from having the tube placed in the first place. Usually the tube can be replaced during an office visit to the GI clinic. Since we're replacing the tube so soon, she has to go under anesthesia again. I'm bummed but I know it has to be done.

Her tube is so tight that it's really bothering both physically and emotionally. She has granulation tissue growing all around it and wakes up with "goopies" every morning. (meaning it's red and crusty and I have to clean it)

It's awful watching her get so upset over it. The last few days, she has been asking me to "take her tubie out" and to "go to the doctor and fix my tubie." It's tough. How do I explain to her that they don't have an opening in the OR until the 22nd. Ugh! She was crying last night and was complaining of pain in her tubie so I tried emailing her GI doctor. Of course she is out the office until Monday. I am really hoping we can get her tube replaced ASAP.

Other than this issue, she has been doing so well adjusting to being tube fed. We're no longer do night feedings. She gets a tube feeding for breakfast, eats normally (you know, the 2 foods she will accept and milk bottles) during the day, and then gets another tube feeding for dinner.

There's other news about therapy and school, but that will have to wait for when I am not a zombie. Now I must sleep!

My little tubie girl

 

We are officially a tubie family. The last week has been pretty difficult, but I am so proud of Rachel and how well she has done with the adjustment. I was so worried about how she was going to react, and she has done much better than I expected. We had to be at the hospital by about 6am the day of the surgery. She was all smiles when we got to the hospital, so of course I felt bad because I'm sure she had no idea what she was about to go through.

 



Here's my smiley sweetie waiting in the kid's playroom at the hospital before her surgery.

 

For kids Rachel's age, they don't start an IV until they are in the operating room. They usually give an oral medication to make the kids loopy while they wheel them away. An oral medication isn't an option for us since she would spit it out and throw up everywhere. They decided it would be best to wheel her back and use the oxygen mask to knock her out. She was fine while being wheeled away. I felt awful though. I knew she'd freak out for at least a minute when she realized she wasn't in the room with me anymore and they were putting something on her face. I was told that she'd be asleep within 10 seconds once the mask was on her and then wouldn't remember any of it. That was slightly comforting.

 

The procedure took about an hour. We were brought back to her side quickly since she tends to wake up from surgery a little sooner than what is usual. Her experience this time was much better than the last time she had surgery. She woke up just as we were walking up to her bed. She let out some wimpers, but was comforted by my voice. She didn't like the IV on her hand and wanted it off but and then she kept grabbing her tummy and wanted her tube off too. It took us at least 15 minutes to get her to accept that we couldn't take these things out. I was really proud of her though. She was certainly a trooper. I think it helped that they had her on morphine.

 

After about an hour in the recovery room, we got moved over to the children's hospital, which is connected to the main hospital. The nurse that was wheeling her to her room told her to say, "beep beep coming through" to anyone we passed in the halls. Rachel loved that and was super cute saying it to everyone. The rooms there are really nice and everyone gets their own room, so we were thankful for the quiet privacy. There was even a pull out chair that I slept in that night.

 

She stayed awake for the whole day after the surgery, which really surprised me. We even had to give her morphine for pain. She was pretty loopy and we watched her favorite movie, "Milo and Otis" probably 4 times until she finally passed out around 6:30. Her OT made her a "social story" about getting a g-tube. That little book was such a blessing for us to have in the hospital.  It really comforted her and helped her understand why she got a feeding tube and why she was feeling pretty icky that night.

 



 

 

The thing about spending the night in the hospital though.... is that they don't really let you sleep much. Well, Rach slept pretty good for most of the night. She was funny when the nurses would come in to take her vitals and adjust the ml's per hour on her feeding pump. She'd say, "yeave me ayone. I syeeping. You go away now, it's bedtime." Or she'd say, "you need to get outta here, I syeeping." I felt the same way and wanted those nurses to let us sleep for more than one hour at a time. Plus, those darn monitor alarms for the pump and her IV were going off at least once per hour. I was like a zombie the next morning, but Rachel was a happy camper.

 

The nurse in pre-op gave Rach a teddy bear and I had bought her a new Doc McStuffins toy set to play with while in bed. She was attached to the bear and the toys during her stay. 

 

Bob and I were taught how to take care of her feeding tube, supplies, and how to use the feeding pump before we were sent home that afternoon. Rachel was an absolute precious little angel in the hospital until the last hour. She decided she wanted to go home...and oh boy... we knew she was feeling a little better and was ready to get outta there. So it was a little hectic as we were leaving but I was glad we were going home.

 

We were sent home with a Kangaroo Joey feeding pump and all the supplies needed to plug her in. We're starting with night feeds, so she is slowly fed two cans of pediasure formula. It takes about 7 hours at 65 mls per hour. Oh the good news.... our insurance is covering 100% of the feeding pump, tube supplies, and formula costs!

 

The first few days home were pretty awful. She was in a lot of pain and cleaning around the button was so hard for both of us. She also had a decompression tube for the first 24 hours. So that tube and a drainage cup was taped to her tummy and she wasn't happy about it. We had a couple of times where the drainage cup would overflow. The most traumatic part for her was when she got up to walk for the first time about 48 hours after her surgery. She walked from the front of the house to the back bedrooms and then her tummy just started draining through the decompression tube and then overflowing the drainage cup. It was like she was throwing up, but it was coming out of her stomach alien style. It got all over her, all over the floor, and really freaked her out.  It freaked me out too, and I didn't know whether or not to hook her up to the feeding pump that night. I called the advice line and they paged our GI doctor. She called us back and said to just stop using the decompression tube, do the night feed, then close the button. She got the Bard Button Gastrostomy tube, so we just close the button when she is not being fed.

 

So after that first 48 hours, things settled down a little bit. I'm not thrilled that her feeding pump alarm goes off every night between 1-2am. I have to get up and flush the tube, give her her medications in the tube, flush it with water again and then disconnect her. She wakes up and screams and kicks me when I disconnect her. I know it hurt her the first several nights, but now I think she just kicks the crap out of me because she doesn't want to be woken up. It's a good thing... it means my baby is feeling better when she starts acting like a stinker.

 

She's handling the tube pretty well. She is more cautious about how she plays. I think that's a combination of still feeling sore and feeling unsure about this new thing attached to her tummy. She was finally able to take a bath tonight and she was so afraid of getting her "tubie" wet. I had to talk her into it and tell her it was okay.

 

The best part about the last week is that I'm no longer stressing over how many calories she's taking in. I'm not stressing over the fact that she didn't get her iron supplement since I put it directly into the tube now. It feels so good to know that she is getting good nutrients. And TMI warning... she is finally pooping normally. She previously had extreme constipation, pain, and her life sometimes revolved around "getting a poop out." She doesn't cry every time she poops anymore, and for her, that is a big deal.

 

It's been a tough week, but we've survived. I have had a lot of emotional ups and downs over this. I've hated the tube. I've loved it. I've wished we never got it. Then I'm glad we have it. Mommy guilt just never stops. I do feel bad that we made the decision to put her through this. I know it was the right choice though. She is finally getting much needed real nutrition and that is a blessing!



The long road to a real diagnosis

I was blown away last week. Rachel was diagnosed with Autism...or the correct way to say it now, I guess is an Autism Spectrum Disorder. She also has SPD and a language delay. I was a little bit surprised with the diagnosis of Autism, but at the same time, I was relieved.

This diagnosis doesn't change who Rachel is. She is still the same precious little girl that she was last week before the diagnosis. It's not that I'm happy she has Autism. I don't think any mother would be. I'm just happy and thankful that after all we have been through, she finally has a diagnosis that will get her services that she needs. I've suspected for years that she was on the spectrum. We had her evaluated two years ago and she wasn't diagnosed. However, in the last year or so, her symptoms have become much more relevant.

I'm so grateful for her therapists suggested that we get Rachel evaluated again. Even though Kaiser had sent the referral months ago, I wasn't going to get her re-evaluated. I just didn't want to go through one more rejection for services from them. I didn't want them to tell me that although they can see that Rachel is special, they can't help her. Now they have to approve ABA services for her. We are also going to get evaluated by a speech therapist and an OT to determine what other services she may qualify for. I've also learned that if Kaiser denies her for any of these services, Alta Regional may provide services for us again. (We received services through Alta Regional from 18 months to 3 years old).

I also have some great news. Morgan is no longer on the spectrum. In fact, I don't think she ever was. I've wondered for almost two years since her last diagnosis, and I've always wanted to get a clear answer. Now that she's older, she doesn't have symptoms of being on the spectrum. I am beyond thrilled and now feel so relieved to have a real answer.

So as you can see, last week was full of emotional ups and downs. It's going to be a few weeks before I learn, for sure, what services Rachel will get. I've already contacted our old service coordinator at Alta Regional and left her a message asking her what, if anything, do I need to do. We are now only a day away from her surgery for her G-tube. I'm not nervous about the procedure, but I am worried about Rachel's reaction to this. Her feeding therapist wrote an awesome social story about Rach going to the hospital and getting the g-tube and such. We've been reading it to her and she seems to be understanding part of what is going to happen. I still can't believe we had to make this decision for her. The last thing I ever wanted to do was get her a feeding tube. We just couldn't continue to let her lose weight and eat and drink next to nothing each day. I'm hoping that with better nutrition, she can make good progress with her therapy.

And speaking of the therapy.... We plan to continue with our current therapists whether Kaiser pays for them or not. We've finally found the best therapists for her in the area and we're not going to change that.

Now... to start packing for our hospital stay. I'm trying to set aside the emotions about her diagnosis and just focus on getting through this week. Then I will take time to let this all sink in.

Please pray for us on Tuesday! Thank you!

The post because Mom can't sleep

Tomorrow Rachel has her autism assessment at Kaiser. Here are my thoughts on how this will go down. We'll go. They will see she is clearly delayed in many areas, that something is clearly "off," but then they won't give her an ASD diagnosis. They will refer us to the committee in Oakland that approves therapies..... then of course.. we shall be denied.

So yeah, not feeling too hopeful that we will get any help.

She gets her G-tube on July 9th.

Morgan has her autism assessment on Wednesday. A couple of years ago, Morgan was diagnosed with PDD-NOS. We were told to have her re-evaluated in two years, so here we are. If she still gets that diagnosis, we will get services for her other than just the school district. Well, at least that is my understanding. Again... can't trust what I "think" I know.

My stomach is in knots. I feel like we have been in survival mode for way too long. My hope is that once we get Rachel settled with her g-tube and she's actually getting nutrition, things will settle down. I won't be so stressed over every calorie that she eats or doesn't eat. I think this would allow both of us to chill out a little and then we can make some progress with feeding therapy.

Her OT/feeding therapist hasn't been doing feeding therapy with her. We're getting her sensory system better regulated before we start feeding therapy again. I think I've already mentioned that though.

Hate that it's almost 1am and I'm awake and stressed. The appointment tomorrow is around 3-4 hours long and at least a 45-60 minute drive from our house. It's also supposed to be 108 degrees here and I'll be driving home in rush hour traffic either happy with the results or crying or maybe just pissed off. Who knows?!

Okay, I'm going to shut up for now. This mama bear is ready to fight tomorrow!

Possible autism and a feeding tube...

I had a progress meeting with Rachel's therapists last week. We've been doing therapy twice a week for about two months now. She is progressing well with the therapy. I was a little bit surprised because I was told she is likely on the autism spectrum. She was evaluted for autism once before almost two years ago, but not diagnosed. However, after talking about it and then reviewing the checklist, she could very well have an autism spectrum disorder. So they want me to get another evaulation done.

She has a referral now at Kaiser to get evaluated. Our first evaluation was done through the county program, so this will be the first time our medical insurance tests her. As usual with Kaiser, I'm not holding my breath that we'll get anywhere to get them to pay for any services. I'm kind of okay with that since we've been dealing with this for so long.

Another thing we discussed during the therapy meeting is getting Rachel on a feeding tube as soon as possible. Her GI doctor was going to wait a couple of months and see if Rach gained any weight back or started eating. Then she stopped accepting her iron supplement in apple juice.... which I was only able to get into her a few times anyway. Her health is quickly declining and has been over the past six months. I never wanted to consider a g-tube,  but she simply cannot keep going the way that she is. The GI doctor and the therapists both think getting her a g-tube now is needed. Usually kids start with an NG tube but since we are also dealing with sensory issues, a tube in her nose wouldn't fly! I'm supposed to hear from the scheduling nurse in the next couple of days and we should be getting the g-tube within 1-3 weeks. I'm thankful that she will be admitted to the hospital for a couple of days so that we can see how she takes it and see how she takes the feedings. I will, of course, be staying with her the whole time. I am really nervous about she's going to react to this, and I'm scared that I have to learn how to do all of her feedings and use the pumps and such. I know they won't discharge us until we know what we're doing though. It's just scary. I never thought she'd go this long without eating. I always thought she'd just start eating at least something. So yeah, a feeding tube isn't the ideal solution but I'm excited to be able to get some actual real nutrition into my little girl. I also can't help but be mad that Kaiser will pay for a g-tube that includes a hospital stay, but they say she doesn't need feeding therapy. It's ridiculous!

After we get settled in with the g-tube and such, we are going to start feeding therapy 4-5 times per week. Still not sure how the financial part of this will all work out, but we're going to make it happen. We're only going to do the daily therapy for about three weeks and then go back to twice per week depending on how things are going. If she gets an autism diagnosis, our insurance would be required to pay for more services. It would be nice but I'm not holding out hope for that. We've already been disappointed too many times.

Just had to get this all out tonight. Oh and I have to write down what Rachel said to me today. The girls and I were dancing around the living room while listening to the Little Mermaid soundtrack. Rach asked me for a milk bottle so I said.. "okay, just a minute." But then I was distracted when Sophia started dancing with me. So then Rachel said, " mommy, you go dance to the kitchen and get my milk." She totally cracked me up!

Returning to blog land

How did I let half of a year go by without at least posting something? I really do want to get back into it, so I am going to just write some random things to catch my blog up to speed.

Where did we leave off?

I had surgery at the end of January. It was rough and included being admitted to the hospital.... but the biopsy came back negative and it was not lymphoma. I did have some partial facial paralysis for a few months but I am happy to say that my smile and my left eye and eyebrow both look normal again. I was really starting to wonder there for a while though. I'm not too thrilled that my incision is still very visible on my neck but I suppose that will get better with more time. I'm just happy I am cancer free!

Rachel has been denied for feeding therapy from Kaiser Permanente three times now. The past 6 months have been the most stressful that we've had. She lost five pounds because her diet became even more limited. She cut out the Costco organic animal crackers and she quickly lost weight from it. We're now seeing a GI doctor and a dietician. Her pediatrician had suggested getting a feeding tube but the GI doctor is having us try an appetite stimulant and some more time instead. I'm so mad at Kaiser that I can't see straight. Every time we see a different doctor or therapist, we're told something different than the time before. I'm so sick of being told that SPD isn't a medical condition so they can't do anything for her. Her health is suffering.  Kaiser Permanente's motto is "thrive." What a load of crap! They will consider paying for a feeding tube but not feeding therapy since she isn't your typical case. It's becoming increasingly frustrating and I'm at my wit's end.

So we were forced to pay for therapy on our own. I have been wanting to take her to the Star Center in Colorado for over a year now. But then I found two therapists locally (well, an hour away) who have gone through the Star Center's mentorship program and they are awesome therapists. So we've been going to sensory based OT and feeding therapy for a couple of months now. Rachel has made some good progress. She even took a bite of a chewy sugar cookie and ate a peice a couple of weeks ago... without throwing up or gagging. So this is progress, and I feel like we have finally found the right therapy and therapists for her. I just couldn't justify paying to take her to the Star Center or being away from Morgan and Sophia for that long. It's not completely off of my radar just yet. I'm just hopeful that the therapists locally can help her. So far, I am so impressed with them. It's frustrating that we have to pay out of pocket for it, but it is what it is, and we're working it out.

School is out for summer. We had the girls' IEP meetings back in February when they turned 4. They will all stay in their current preschool/therapy programs until they start Kindergarten. I am very thankful that Sophia and Morgan's teacher is keeping them in her program. She didn't have to qualify them, but she did. Rachel will be in her current program as well. We are very blessed and all three girls have amazing teachers.

Wow.. how did it get to be midnight already? See... this is why I never blog. Anyway, just wanted to post a small update. I'm hoping to get back into posting more often. We have a busy summer planned and I'd like to document it.

No one should blog this late at night and on cold medicine!

I am so frustrated. I haven't been able to keep up here because....well.... I just haven't had the time..but mostly, I have not had the sanity.

In early November, I attended the national SPD Conference. It was hosted by the SPD experts from the Star Center. I also attended two parent luncheons during the conference where I was able to talk with these experts one on one about Rachel.

So trying to make this story short since I'm about to fall asleep...... I feel like Rachel really needs the Star Center's feeding therapy program. There are a couple of therapists locally that were trained by the Star Center but I kinda know deep down that Rachel needs the master. Her case is seriously a difficult one. At the conference, I met another mother who took her son to the Star Center and it changed that little boy's life. His feeding issues weren't nearly as severe as Rachel's but she got Kaiser to pay for the whole trip to Colorado. So that has been my mission lately. I've been making phone calls, sending emails, and filling out 30 page packets about Rachel's developmental history. Her pediatrician started the process for us to try to get outside therapy covered by Kaiser, but it's a long process and we're just getting started.

I'm just so frustrated because if I can't get some insurance help to cover all or part of this, I really don't know how we're going to come up with the thousands of dollars that it's going to cost. Then I think....oh my gosh... what if we spend thousands and take her to Denver and the therapy doesn't even help her. I don't think that will be the case but there are always the "what if's." But then, we gambled when we spent thousands on IVF.... that may not have worked and it did! It's just that now we have a family to support and don't have that kind of extra cash just laying around. This is our daughter's health we are talking about. I'm willing to do anything to help her so we have to make it work.

I'm just so frustrated. My child isn't eating. She's still drinking from a bottle because she can't drink milk out of cup because she literally freaks out because it's "not the same." And this isn't just a 3 year old normal meltdown. There is actually a real serious underlying issue. She will starve herself or go without the milk if it's not presented in the exact perfect way. That's why I hate when people say that a child will not starve themselves. That not true for these poor kids who suffer from SPD and feeding problems.

I think I'm just letting my stress level get to me. The kids have been sick and now I have the nasty cold bug too. Add that to the sleep deprivation from sick kids and you get an overly dramatic rant on my blog. 

And did I mention my own medical crap?! I have a lump on my parotid gland on my face. Had to have a ct scan for it which they found not only that lump but two nodules on my thyroid. I had a biopsy on the face lump which was benign, but could still possibly be an early sign of lymphoma and the only way to know for sure is by removing it and doing a biopsy on the whole thing. The thyroid nodules turned out to be fluid filled cysts and are fine right now. Just have to get checked by the endocrinologist every six months. But the face lump thing.... I have to undergo surgery at the end of January to have the lump and possibly my parotid gland removed. So I'm not exactly excited about having surgery on my face while I'm trying to get all this therapy stuff set up.

But you know.... I need to remember that these are first world problems. Okay, rant over! I'm going to go to sleep now and pretend I didn't write this.

Moving on... literally!

I would say that I don't know how I let almost three months go by without writing something here, but we have been busy.... oh so busy.

I've been waiting for it to be official before I said anything here. Last April (yes, April) we listed our house for sale. We listed it on a Thursday and had multiple offers by the end of the first weekend. It was crazy, but not as crazy as the last seven months have been while we waited for short sale approval from our bank. Yes, we did a short sale. We've been so frustrated over the past several years watching the value of our home go down, down, and then further down! We were over 50% under water. We had a fixed rate mortgage too, not one of those risky adjustable rate mortgages. Anyway, after pumping thousands into repairs for that house, we decided to let it go. We bought it before we had kids, and who knew that we'd have triplets, let alone triplets who all have special needs of some sort. It just wasn't the right home for the size of our family or the needs of our girls. It makes me sad just to think about it. I had so many hopes and dreams for that house....none that we were able to make a reality. We sure tried though.

So it ended up taking seven months, two denials, and lots of drama from the bank before they finally approved us. I'm very thankful that we were able to get out from under that size of a mortgage. We feel like we simply rented an overpriced home for six years, not to mention the thousands lost on repairs. It's a bit depressing to think about the money lost.....

We moved out a couple of weeks ago and closed escrow on the old house this past week. We found a great 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house that has a living room, family room, plus a den, It's about 600 square feet less than what we had before, but it feels more spacious. It's also a one story. We were so sick of stairs....and sick of the girls falling down the stairs, which happened frequently. We stayed in the same school district so that the girls don't have to change their therapy/preschool programs. For that, we are thankful. Very thankful.

We do hope to buy again in a couple of years. We know the rules..... we need to wait at least two years before we can buy again after doing a short sale. We didn't want to go this route, but it felt like our only option to one day have the right home for our family. It was tough to leave all the memories at that house, but we're glad to know that one day, we can get enough bedrooms for the girls to each have their own. And we will never buy a two story house (and certainly not another tri-level) again!

And bonus... Now that we don't have that high mortgage anymore, we can afford some much needed therapy for the girls. That's going to be another post. (Star Center, Denver, CO...here we come!)

Now if only all of these boxes would unpack themselves. Moving with almost four year old (gasp!!!) triplets is your basic definition of insanity!

Back in the swing of things..

So I didn't mean to neglect the blog. Oh well, it happens. I guess we shall start back with some random thoughts, since all I have these days are well... random thoughts.

The girls are back in school. Rachel has been back for about a month, and Sophia and Morgan started back up a couple of weeks ago. I don't love their new schedule, but it is what it is. Rachel's is the same. She still goes four days a week. Sophia and Morgan go two days a week. Their class is a quick hour and a half though. They actually started in a two hour class with four year olds, but they weren't quite ready for that class yet. Their teacher placed them in it hoping it would work out, but it was too overwhelming. They still need more one on one attention so they are back in a smaller class with kids the same age. We're going to evaluate how they are doing at their next IEP in February.

Speaking of the IEP for them... I think Morgan and Sophia will still qualify for this speech therapy preschool program. It's a good thing, and well, a not so good thing. I really do love their teacher though and I know she has their best interest at heart.

Rachel is enjoying her class. It took her a few days before she would sit at the table and eat her snack while at school. I'm glad she warmed up to it. As far as feeding therapy, we aren't doing anything right now. I still haven't decided if we'll go back, or who we will go to if we decide to start therapy again. Nothing has changed. It's really hard watching your child eat so little. I feel like we've done everything we can to get her to eat. The best thing for her right now is to just let her be a kid. I need her receptive language skills to improve more so that we can talk about why she needs to eat. She just doesn't understand yet. In the meantime, I'm thankful for Pediasure and the Enfamil toddler formula that I've been able to mix into her milk. One day at a time... one day at a time!

It seems like this summer flew by. I can hardly believe it's already September. We did have fun though. We all spent a few weekend days up at Jenkinson Lake. The girls absolutely love nature and had so much fun. We discovered that Morgan is a water baby. She would stay in the water all day long if we let her. I wanted to go to Monterey again like we did last summer, but we just had too many other things going on. Plus, Bob and I were already lucky enough to  have a trip to Monterey last March with just the two of us!

At the beginning of August, I got to fly up to Portland and visit my cousin again. It was so awesome. I almost cried when I had to leave because I didn't realize just how much I missed her until I got to see her again. I just loved spending time with her and her family. I flew up on a Saturday morning and home on Monday morning. Thanks so much to my friend who gives me the free buddy passes. I was sweating bullets at the airport for my flight home though. Since the buddy pass is a stand by ticket, I have to wait to see if there is a seat on the plane. That morning, I got the very last seat on the plane and didn't know I'd get to even board until about five minutes before the flight was scheduled to leave. I can't wait to go up again soon!

And now I'm completely exhausted and it's way too late at night......

4th of July Parade

 The girls were in their first kiddie parade for the 4th of July. We had so much fun. Our family has been a part of this small town and a part of this parade for many years. I even used to roller skate with my sisters in it when I was a little girl. When we got the opportunity to participate this year, I wasn't going to pass it up.

The weekend before the parade, I drove up to my dad's house (he still lives in the town where the parade was taking place) to decorate the girls' choo choo wagon. I bought plastic table cloths and decorations from the dollar store to cover the orange, purple, and green wagon. I didn't know it would be such a project. It was a team effort to get it all dolled up. My dad, step-mom, and I spent over three hours before we were finished. I must say.... if there would have been a contest for the best decorated wagon, we totally would have won!!! I guess you can say I'm really proud of how it turned out.

We certainly attracted a lot of attention. The girls turned into the biggest attraction for sure! During the parade (and even after it), I had people asking me to stop so they could take a picture. Normally, I don't like it when people randomly take the girls' picture, but this time... of course I didn't mind! I think the girls loved all the attention. We got so many nice compliments and made everyone smile.

Check out my cuties!

Here we are hanging out in the park before it was time to line up for the parade.

I was so happy that my Grandma was there to see her great grandchildren. Our family has been a big part of this community for so many years, so I was proud to have my Grandmother get to show off her triplet great grandchildren to her friends.

We were even approached by the local newspaper after the parade. They wanted to take pictures and feature the girls. We made the front page! FRONT PAGE BABY! Oh yeah, this is one proud mommy!

(I got this picture from my friend's facebook page since she took it)

I was bummed that Bob wasn't able to be there with us. He had to work that day. (He started a new job the day before and couldn't take time off yet. - same job, the contract just changed to a new company.) 

We had so much fun being a part of this. Sophia has been wearing her parade dress almost every day since. She loves it!  The girls still talk about the parade, dressing up, and riding in the wagon. They had a blast! We will definitely be back for it next year! 

Feeding Therapy Friday... or um just catching up.

I'm not doing so great with the "Feeding Therapy Friday" updates like I wanted to. The truth is that I really hate feeding therapy. I'm usually mentally drained after each session..... Hmmm....Makes me wonder how Rachel feels.

I'm posting tonight because we actually had some huge progress happen during the June 1st therapy session. She apparently just decided that she was going to eat that day. That's right, I said EAT!

Julie started with the Gerber Yogurt Melts in different colors. She always eats those, so of course she picked each one up and ate them. Then Julie gave her freeze dried bananas. She handed her one and talked about how it's another circle food. To my surprise, she took a bite and ate it. Then she asked for more and ate another one. Then she ate a plain potato chip, baby mum mum crackers, and took a bite of a freeze dried mango. It was so awesome. I shed many happy tears and was practically jumping up and down watching her from the observation room. It was just so great to finally see progress!

Of course this progress happened on the day when I was going to tell Julie that we were going to take a break from feeding therapy for a while. I wasn't going to tell her that I've been really really frustrated and am looking at other options. Instead, I decided not to make that decision just yet.

I was nervous about whether or not Rachel would eat any of the new foods at home. She is refusing the the mango (I dont' blame her, dried mangos don't taste good to me either) and the potato chips. She is eating the freeze dried bananas and the mum mum crackers. I was nervous she might stop eating some of her other "go to" foods, but so thankful that it hasn't happened.

So with all of this said, I don't know what to do now. Yes, I am happy... no make that... thrilled that she is eating two more foods. The last session we did on the 8th pretty much sucked. She was back to not wanting anything to do with any of the foods offered. For now, we're going to keep her in this therapy at least through the end of this month. I have some big decisions to make.

Yesterday, we had the appointment with the BCBA at Kaiser. I'm not sure how I feel about him yet. He was able to get Rachel's attention for longer periods of time than I expected. She has a very short attention span, but he kept her interest. My brain is still processing the information I learned, and I'm going to take some time deciding whether I think he can help us. We've been through several therapists at this point. I'm going to take some time to pray about it and see where God leads us. I'll talk about this new option when my head is in a better place about it all.

For now, I'm going to celebrate the progress that she is starting to make.

Random Thoughts

Morgan and Sophia are out of school for the summer. Rachel still has another week left.

So feeding therapy has been sucking lately. I was planning on quitting Rachel's current therapy, but then she decided to throw me a curve ball last Friday. After not making any progress for a long time, she decided to lick 5-6 new foods and then she took a bite out of string cheese. She promptly spit it out, but she took a BITE... with her TEETH!

Then on Sunday at Costco, she put a pretzel chip up to her mouth several times and talked about eating it. She also licked it. Today, she licked and kissed a strawberry.

I guess this means we will not be $100 per week richer. I've got to keep her in this therapy a little while longer to see if this leads to anything.

She was seen by a developmental pediatrician and behavior analyst (otherwise known as a BCBA) last week. Kaiser is offering a new type of feeding therapy now that we may try. We got the referral last week and I'm waiting for them to call me with more information. I have a lot of questions.

I'm trying not to freak out over her eating now that she's drinking Pediasure. It's still hard not to though. I fail at it most days.

Having a broken toe sucks. I had just gotten comfortable with taking the girls to the park by myself. Now I can't do it for at least another 5 weeks. I'm 3 weeks in to the 8 weeks that I'm supposed to wear this stupid blue shoe thing.

My toe still hurts too. It's really obnoxious that I broke my toe. I don't have time for injuries like this.

I feel so lazy not working out. I think that sometimes...I even actually moo. I've heard myself. Mooooooo... See!

You'd think the lack of working out would stop me from eating mexican food all the time.

Seriously... somebody stop me.

I'm kind of bummed that Rachel is going to a summer program at her school. I was hoping to relax a bit from our busy schedule this summer, but that's just not going to happen. I think we have a whole combined 3 weeks off before and after this summer program.

My broken toe kind of already put a damper on things anyway. I can't do as much on my own with the girls with this bum toe. Looking forward to the first week in July when I'm supposed to be able to start running again.

I got a lovely notice from Rachel's school last week. There was a case of hand foot and mouth disease in her classroom that she was exposed to.

Imagine my panic tonight when I noticed that the girls all have a few bumpy red rashes on their upper legs and behind their knees.

No fever though and the rashes do not look like the pictures online of the hand foot and mouth disease. They seem fine other than these rashes.

I'm not sure what this is yet. I sent them to bed tonight each with a dose of benedryl. Hope they are better tomorrow.

Speaking of bed time... We've had some significant improvement in the teeth brushing department. I have been reading a new (to me) feeding therapy book by an awesome feeding therapist (I wish I could hire her), Melanie Potock. In her book, she suggests singing a quick song while brushing teeth. This is so your child can expect when the activity will end. I started singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" while I brush the girls' teeth. When the song is over, you stop brushing no matter what. This has changed our lives!!! We are now able to do a much better job with getting the girls to cooperate and let us really get in their mouths. Even Rachel is letting the toothbrush in. I wish I would have started this months ago! I've even been able to add a little bit of the toddler practice toothpaste to their brushes. The amazing news... I've been using this toothpaste with Rachel for two nights in a row and she hasn't thrown up at all.

Seriously.. RACHEL is letting us not only brush her teeth now, but we are using a flavored toothpaste. THIS. IS. HUGE!!!!

I'm so proud of my girlies. I have the sweetest little girls and am so blessed to be their mommy!

Bummmmmmmer!

My poor little toe is broken. I tried to deny it for over 24 hours. I woke up on Friday morning and my toe was purple and black and hurting like crazy. I still tried to pretend it wasn't broken. I ended up calling my mom to come over so she could help me with the girls. Plus, I had to get Rachel to her feeding therapy.

She brought some medical tape and helped me buddy tape my toe. Then we wrapped it up in an ace bandage and I somehow managed to keep pretending it wasn't broken. I barely fit my flip flops on over the swelling. After driving the 30 minutes to therapy, my whole foot was throbbing. Of course it's my right foot so driving is difficult. By the time Rachel's appointment was over (where she of course didn't eat anything new and I suffered through watching another hundred bucks slip out of our bank account), I was in so much pain that I just couldn't pretend I had just "bruised" it. So I called my doctor and she was able to get me in for an xray and an appointment last minute.

So turns out, the toe is broken. At first it wasn't clear how bad of a break it was so Dr. K had the nurse wrap my foot and treat it as a fracture. Isn't my big blue shoe just so cute? I get to wear it for 8 weeks. Dr. K called me after she had a podiatrist review my xray. He recommended that I should not even THINK about running for 8 weeks minumum. I also have to follow up in about 3-4 weeks for another xray to make sure this is healing right since the bone was apparently crooked. I am so disappointed that I can't run the half marathon that I literally just signed up and paid for a few days ago. I was so pumped up to do it and was looking forward to increasing my weekly miles.

Plus, it's not going to be easy keeping up with the girls while I'm hobbling around. I'm hoping that I will at least be able to walk better in a couple of weeks. Preschool drop off and pick up just got a lot more complicated.

I guess I should look at the bright side.... At least I got a cute pedicure a few days before this all happened.

Where have we been?

There are so many nights where I crawl into my bed with full intentions of writing something here. But then after I read emails, check Facebook, start chatting with my close friends..... I just run out of steam and end up passing out asleep before I actually post something.  I usually don't even get on the internet or open my laptop until at least 7pm when the girls go to bed. So I'm just going to post a few things about what has been going on.

Rachel's feeding therapy is still about the same. She's still licking new foods and playing with them, but she hasn't eaten anything new lately. The good news is that she is finally drinking Pediasure. I was at Target about a month ago and just happened to notice that Pediasure came out with a new juice drink. I had tried the formula/milky drinks before and she can't stand them. She's loves juice and she's loves drinking out of juice boxes. The Pediasure juice comes in two flavors. She doesn't like the tropical fruit flavor, but she likes the wild berry. I know it's not food, but I'm thankful that she's drinking this now.

We're five months into her feeding therapy and I have mixed feelings about continuing. I got Julie to admit that Rachel's progress is going at a much lower rate than normal. I guess I'm not surprised. She's always been a tough case. On one hand, I see the improvements. She doesn't freak out over a new food being placed in front of her. She will actually pick it up, smell it, and sometimes lick it. But on the other hand, she still isn't eating anything new. We're spending one hundred dollars per week to watch her lick food and not eat it. It's beyond frustrating. We were told that she'd be eating at least four new foods by twelve weeks in. I know that SOS feeding therapy is a very slow process, so I'm trying to keep the faith. Her old feeding therapist is going to a seminar that is being held by the Los Altos clinic in June. She told me she would let me know if she learns anything that may help us. I considered Los Altos clinic back in December, but it's just really expensive and not close enough to home. But if it could help, we might reconsider it (but would have to win the lotto) because.....well.... I'm desperate at this point.

So what else.... Yeah... I think I broke my toe this morning. It's perfect timing too. I just signed up for a non refundable half marathon three days ago. It's July 29th. I have never been in better running shape before. I can comfortably run 4-5 miles each jog and have even done 6 miles a time or two. I just started a twelve week training program this week. I've wanted to run a half marathon for so long but have always been too scared to give it a try. This time, I signed up for it and one of my best friends was going to go and cheer me on since Bob would need to stay home with the kids. So this morning, I banged my toe underneath our recliner rocking chair/loveseat couch. I heard a pop and felt the worse pain I've felt in a long time. I looked down and saw my pinky toe was hanging limply to the side. I couldn't move it. I ended up popping it back into place. It hurts so bad and I've been limping all day. I'm really hoping it's not broken. I've buddy taped it and am hoping for the best. If it's broken, I'm not sure I'll have enough time to work up to my 13.1  ... But I'm certainly not going to give up either.

Well.. I've been working on this pathetic post for over an hour now. I'm fading.... and am half asleep. I guess this means that this is it for tonight. Oh well....

Funnies

The girls have been so cute and funny lately. I just have to share a few things they've been doing or saying around here.

I took Sophia shopping at Target with me a couple of weeks ago.  I don't even remember what she wanted me to buy, but I told her, "No, we aren't going to buy that today. Mommy doesn't have enough money." So she tossed her hands up in the air and said, "You could buy some money at Target." I cracked up laughing.

Every time we run out of something or I say, "Mommy doesn't have any such and such," the girls tell me that I could go to the store and buy it. They usually say, "You could go to Costco and get some." Or, "You could shopping to Target and buy more crayons." It's so cute. They are mostly fixated on Costco and Target since those are the places we do most of the shopping.

For the last few days, Morgan has changed her name to "Pooh Bear." If you call her Morgan, she will correct you and say, "I Pooh Bear." Then she taps her hand on her chest as she says it, showing us who she is. She has named me "Kangaroo." Today, Rachel and Sophia were Eeyore or Tigger." She has also been referring to both Grandmas as Tigger. I guess the girl just loves Winnie The Pooh. Last week, several of us were Little People characters. Her imagination has been really fun lately.

Rachel has a favorite song. It's not a Barney or Wiggles song. It's "Rumor Has It" by Adele. Last week on our way to feeding therapy, the song came on the radio and she started to sing the "rumor has it" chorus. I glanced in the rear view mirror at her and she was rockin out bobbing her head up and down and singing. It wasn't just a fluke either. If we're in the truck and that song comes on, she stops talking and starts singing. I need to figure out how to get this on video. I can't blame her. It's a pretty good song!

Feeding Therapy Friday

I didn't end up posting anything about last week's therapy because it didn't differ from the week before. But this time, she did make a little bit of progress. Rachel didn't take a bite of anything new, but she did lick several new things. I don't even remember what the foods were that she put on her tongue. Well, one was a jelly bean. She also licked a peach yogurt melt. She will usually only eat the pink or purple yogurt melts, so I was glad to see her almost eat the peach ones.

It still amazes me that I get so excited about her just licking a food. The therapy is mostly playing with the foods. She is seated at a table and Julie talks about the food's shape, color, and texture. Then she kisses the food or licks it. Rachel was pretty receptive to the therapy this time, which is a change from the last two sessions. I was glad to see it.

Another good thing that happened over the last week is that Rachel is showing an interest in feeding herself with a spoon. I don't think I've even talked about this before, but she has never spoon fed herself. When I talk about how she will eat strawberry banana baby food, she isn't feeding herself like most three year old's would be. I'm still spoon feeding her. We've given her the spoon before countless times and she has never been interested in feeding herself. She will actually hold a spoon while I feed her, but has always become upset if that spoon gets food on it. Anyway, that all changed in the last couple of days. I was feeding her and she grabbed the spoon and put it in her mouth. Then she wanted to feed herself a couple of bites. I am so excited about this.

I don't remember if I have mentioned that she has needed to have a distraction while being fed too. Her distraction has always been a pencil and paper. She will draw while I get food into her mouth. This has been the only thing that has worked for us for months. Julie has suggested that we take all distractions that are not related to food away. So this past week, we've been giving her carrot or celery sticks to play with. I've also been offering the same foods I'm feeding Sophia and Morgan. Rachel will play with those foods and stab them with a fork. Of course they don't go near her mouth, but this is all progress for the little girl who would gag and practically throw up if you put food in front of her.

She is so interested in food. She almost ate some dried crunchy apple today. I can tell she is wanting to try something new. She will pick a new food up or point to it and say, "eat it" but then puts it down. I'm just glad that she is showing interest. I know her therapy is really helping her. It's just such a slow process that it can be really discouraging, but I do have faith that it is working.

It's still really difficult to watch my skinny minnie daughter only drink milk and hardly eat anything. Her hair is so thin and dry, and she has days where she has those awful dark circles under her eyes. I wonder if it's because she isn't getting the proper nutrition. I'm sure it probably is. She does get a multi vitamin, but I wish I could get her to drink pediasure. It's so frustrating and I worry about her every day.

 So prayer warriors..... I need you again!

When you just know

While the girls were all in school this afternoon, my mom and I went out to lunch. We talked about the recent transition from the girls' therapy program to their preschool programs and how it's been a tough transition for me.

In their therapy program, I got constant feedback about how the girls were doing and felt very supported by everyone in the program. I knew that there was always someone to listen to my concerns and offer up suggestions on how to handle certain situations with the girls. I was there for every toddler class and therapy session and felt very involved in the whole process.

With the preschool program, I don't get as much feedback. Well okay, Sophia and Morgan's teacher always talks about how the class went and how the girls did when I pick them up. Rachel's class has eleven kids in it, so when I pick her up, there isn't time to discuss the details I crave. The teacher and her aide's are quite busy making sure the right kid is getting handed off to the right parent. I completely understand that they aren't going to hold my hand through this process. I know I could ask for more details by phone or email, but I really don't want to be that "annoying" parent who needs to know every little thing.

So at lunch, I was telling my mom about this and how I wished I knew more about how Rachel was doing in class. Then just about two hours after our conversation, we went to pick Rachel up from school. As my mom and I were getting the girls into the truck, her class OT was walking out to her car and stopped to talk to me. She ended up giving me all the details I've ever wanted to know about how Rachel is doing in class. She told me that Rachel is behaving really well, following directions, sitting well for circle time, waits in line for her turn, loves music time, and is just a joy to have in class. She told me about how snack time goes and how happy Rachel is at recess. I seriously almost cried because I was so happy and relieved to know all of this. It made my day!

I just know that God is hearing me. He knows what I need and is blessing me with it. It's moments like this when I realize that I need to stop worrying so much and trust in Him.

Feeding Therapy Friday

I've decided that I need to start posting a recap of Rachel's feeding therapy every week. It's such an emotional roller coaster, and I want to be able to go back and read about what her sessions are like each time. I think this will help me to see her progress more clearly. I tend to get really discouraged by the harder sessions, and I need to be able to see the bigger picture.

I could tell as soon as Rachel got into her chair that the session wasn't going to go well. She just wasn't into it at all. Well, the first indication was when she didn't want me to leave her. She goes into a room with Julie (her therapist)  alone and I go into another room where I can watch behind the two way mirror. She's usually happily goes into that room. This time, they were playing with round foods to start. Julie usually follows a theme with a color or shape of food. They talk about the texture and play with the food.

They started with one of Rachel's preferred foods, which is Gerber yogurt melts. She ate a couple of them and asked for more. Then she got frustrated that instead of getting more, she was offered a freeze dried banana. At first, I thought she might take a bite. She did eat freeze dried bananas briefly last summer. So instead of eating it, she threw it at Julie and said "no." This set the tone of how the rest of the session went. She wouldn't put anything in her mouth, and pretty much didn't even play with the food as usual. When handed any kind of food, she would crush it or tear it and toss it off of the table. Things are kept positive so she's not reprimanded for tossing the food. She is simply told "food stays on the table" and Julie puts it back on the table just out of Rachel's reach. Previously when Rachel would throw food, I would remove her from the situation. She learned that it was her escape. With this type of therapy, there is no escape. So basically, nothing really good came from this session. Julie does an amazing job handing Rachel though. She keeps her interest even when there is no cooperation.

It's okay though. It's hard to watch when she has a bad therapy day, but I've noticed lately that she tends to take two steps forward and then one step back. Last week's session went pretty well.  She ate regular bbq potato chips and has continued to eat them all week. She also licked a pretzel stick.

Here is a list of what she eats right now.

Animal crackers (but they must be the Costco crackers)
Gerber yogurt melts
BBQ Baked Lays
Gerber stage 3 Strawberry Banana baby food
Taco Bell Cinnamon Twists (I'm the crazy lady who goes to the Taco Bell drive thru and orders 5 bags of twists every few days.)

New food: regular BBQ Lays Potato chips
She is also slightly biting in to an apple. It started with red apples with the peelings still on. Now I will peel half of the apple and hand it to her. First she licked it, and now she is putting her teeth into it... not taking a bite, but thinking about it.
She also took a bite out of a Chips-Ahoy crunchy chocolate chip cookie this week. She spit it out, but at least she took a bite.

This is all progress. Sometimes I get really frustrated and feel like we're burning through one hundred dollar bills with this therapy, but she IS making progress. SOS therapy is specifically designed for kids like her. It's a slow process, but we're only about three months in. We were told this will take a year to overcome. For some reason with Rachel, I think it might take longer than that. But I am trying to keep the faith.

Until next week.......

Paro-what-tis???

For about a week, I've been having these weird random pains on my cheek right below my left ear. I stopped at the grocery store on my way home from my workout last weekend (where my trainer kicked my butt as usual) and my cheek was hurting. Without thinking about it too much, I rubbed where it hurt and felt a lump. I figured it was just a swollen gland or something. My stress level has been through the roof lately and I'm just feeling so exhausted. So I figured I just wore myself out. But I'm the type who goes to the doctor if I have any concern, no matter how small. (If you lost a sister at a young age, you would be like me too.)

My doctor told me it is Parotitis, which is a swollen or blocked salivary gland. This kind of random crap seems to happen to me. It's usually caused by a virus or bacterial infection. Well, all the girls were sick and I had a bit of what they had, so maybe that's why. Either that or I am just way too stressed out and my immune system is suffering because of it. Another reason people get parotitis is because of poor oral hygiene, and I simply do NOT have poor oral hygiene. Ever since my dentist told me that almost all of my tooth enamel was destroyed from puking so much during my pregnancy (I sometimes threw up 5 times a day and that lasted almost the whole pregnancy), I am beyond careful when it comes to my teeth. I brush twice a day with prescription toothpaste and floss not once, but sometimes two times a day! So yeah... Let's just be clear that it's not due to that! 

So I'm being treated with antibiotics. Heck, everyone in the house has been on antibiotics so now it's my turn. If it doesn't clear up in two weeks, I will be referred to a head and neck surgeon. When my doctor told me that, I actually started laughing. Like I don't have enough stress to deal with. Let's just throw this in for fun. She did make me feel better by saying that 90% of these cases clear up on their own. But if it doesn't, apparently my face could swell up. Bet that would be sexy......

I sent a text to a friend and told her about my diagnoses. She called me a freak of nature. I am starting to think she might be right! 

Pneumonia or something like it

Right after the girls' first week of preschool, they all got sick. It started with Rachel. She had a runny nose and a cough that got worse on Valentines day night. Then Sophia and Morgan had it the next day. I thought it was just a common cold, but a few days in, they all developed fevers. A few days later on Friday, Rachel wasn't herself at all. She was barely awake laying around. It suddenly dawned on me that this was the same way she acted last year when she was diagnosed with pneumonia. I was lucky to get her an appointment for that afternoon.

Just like last year, Dr. A didn't hear anything suspicious, but sent us for an x ray to be sure. She had some crud in both sides of her lungs. After a lengthy conversation with Dr. A, we decided to go ahead and try oral antibiotics. I was hopeful that we'd be able to slip the medicine into her milk or juice since forcing it in her mouth with a medicine dropper is not an option given her feeding issues. I was really upset when we got home and she immediately detected that her milk was um.... flavored. I should have known better. I tried putting it in juice. FAIL.. So I tried putting it in her strawberry banana baby food. Also a big fat FAIL. I knew that if we couldn't get the meds in her orally, we'd have to opt for several days of injections instead. I even ended up calling the advice line and got another doctor to prescribe a medication that apparently didn't have a flavor. Bob went to the pharmacy at around 10pm so we'd have it for her first thing in the morning. We had a back up plan and made an appointment at the weekend clinic for Saturday morning in case we needed to do the injections. I really just wish they made flavorless antibiotics though! Ugh!

That night, she wasn't doing so well. Her fever went up and she was breathing really fast. I ended up posting something on Facebook about how she was doing, and my awesome friend (who is also an ER doctor) ended up coming over to our house....at 11 at night... to check on Rachel and make sure we could wait until morning to take her in to start medication. I'm so lucky to have such a caring and wonderful friend! I am just thankful that she came over. I was able to calm down and not worry so much knowing that she'd be okay.

So of course we couldn't get the second medication in her either. She is very sensitive to any flavors being added to any of her drinks or food. Having recently spent almost one thousand dollars on her feeding therapy over the past few months (out of pocket), we were not about to force feed her anything. We know from experience that it would just set her back. She's come too far in her therapy and we're very much invested in her progress. I ended up taking her in to the weekend clinic to start injections. The pediatrician who treated her irritated the heck out of me. She tried to talk me out of doing shots and forcing Rachel to take the oral medication. She gave me advice about how to hold a child down and make them swallow medicine. It took me a while to make her understand that we can't do that as it could cause a long term food strike or ruin all of the therapy we've done. I sort of felt like crap for subjecting my child to several days of shots. Surprisingly, Rachel did really well with the shots.

On Sunday morning, Sophia woke up and was just about as out of it as Rachel had been the day before. So off to the weekend clinic we went. Sophia didn't even need an x-ray, the doctor could hear the crud in her lungs and sent us home with antibiotics too. When we got home, Morgan wasn't looking good. I ended up calling the clinic again, but they were then closed. So I spoke with an advice nurse and she sent us to the ER since Morgan's breathing was pretty fast.  Thankfully, my friend was working that day and kept me company during our visit. Morgan's x-ray didn't look too good either. I'm told it could have been pneumonia or just viral crud, so we were going to treat with antibiotics either way. Thankfully, Morgan and Sophia have no issues taking their medicine orally.

We ended up having to go to the doctor's office for 4 days in a row for Rachel's injections. With all three girls so sick, I hardly got any sleep at all. It was a really miserable week. I ended up getting a slight cold myself. I think we had some sort of flu. My mom was around us the whole time, and Morgan even coughed in her face on more than one occasion. She never got sick since she had a flu shot. I'm kicking myself for not doing flu shots this year. I usually always do them. With the girls' developmental delays and all the crap we've been through, I let it get in my head that a stupid flu shot or vaccines could be the cause of our issues. Ugh...  So I kept putting flu shots off. Even Bob got sick, it was just a few days after the girls were better.

I'm happy to say that the girls are all healthy again and went to school all this week. Rachel is doing really well in her class. I'm told she follows directions pretty well and is happy.  I've noticed some pretty good changes with her language over the past week too. She's using more words than she has before and is stringing two and three words together now, which is a very big step for her. Sophia and Morgan love their class too. They are working on taking turns and using words instead of screaming out of frustration. I love the girls' teachers and am comforted by how well things are going for them right now. It was a tough transition out of their therapy program.... well, it was tough for me. I think the girls had an easier time with it than I did. Although, I must admit that it has been nice not having people in and out of my house anymore. I don't have to worry about the house being put together or not.

I know it's just a matter of time before the next virus or cold hits our household. Preschool is a germ infested place....blah.........At least the girls will get some immunities built up before they start kindergarten.

(I'm too tired to proof read this......)