Brianna's Battle

So at Brianna's 4 month appointment we discussed a number of problems (she's actually almost 5 months).

The first isn't a huge deal - her size percentages have dropped from 10% down to less than 5% but she's still growing, just slowly. I know she gets plenty to eat, she's just a slow grower. At almost 5 months she's only 10lb 10oz and 23.5 inches (she was 9lb 8oz and 22.5 inches 2 months ago).

The second is also not a huge deal, she's got a slight lazy eye, but it corrects itself pretty quickly and we think it might be okay by her next appointment in a month. You can see the eye in the pictures at the bottom.

The third is that she possibly has some developmental delays. Mostly in her physical abilities. The doctor wasn't sure if it was an actual delay, or if she overall just has problems with her muscle tone. Her social development is great though, so that's a big plus. She's just still not able to hold herself very well. But she's been referred to developmental pediatrics to be evaluated.

The fourth is the biggest concern. She's been referred to a neurosurgeon because she possibly has craniosynostoses. It means her skull has fused prematurely. Since birth she's had a very odd head shape. Straight on you can't really tell, except her face is very long, rather than round like most babies. But if you look at the top of her head you can tell something's wrong. Basically it looks like someone took the sides of her head and pushed, so the sides are flat, and the back is bulged out. It could possibly be positional, but since it's always been shaped like that, probably not. And from what I read, if it is craniosynostoses, she will probably have to have some pretty extensive cranial surgery - hence the neurosurgeons.

Here are some close ups - you can see the issue in them. She's a beautiful little girl, but she definately has something going on with her head shape.

The hardest part of this is not having my husband here to go through this with me. And I know once he find out what is going on he's going to be hurting. And if he doesn't make it here if she needs surgery it's going to break his heart.

I just need to trust God and know that he holds our little girl in his hands and he's going to take care of her.

Talking Brianna

Heather was having a little fun at Brianna's expense, so I had to catch it on video because it was so hysterical.

And Garin apparently thinks my feet are hysterical...

Surf Time, Bath Time and Growing Babies

My babies are getting so big, it's hard to believe!

I took them up to the North Shore a couple of weeks ago because the waves are starting to get big - they were around 10-12 feet that morning. I wanted to watch the surfers catch some waves, and we did get to see a little bit of action! The real action is going on right now during the Triple Crown of Surfing. The waves can be up to 30 or 40 feet. I'll have to send some pictures of that once I get down there for the surf competition. Anyways, here are a few pictures of the beach!


Garin acting like he's never seen sand before...



A couple of surfer dudes (the kind in their 50s - what DO these people do for work that they can come out and surf on a Tuesday morning?!) saw me taking pictures and asked if I was taking pictures of the kids' dad. I said no, their dad is in Afganistan, we're just taking some pictures to send him. A few minutes later one of them came down and offered to take a picture that we could send to him, and then told me to tell him thanks for his service! I thought it was awefully nice!





So here are the obligatory bathtime pictures. She wasn't too happy in this picture, but she's getting a lot better with baths - mostly due to her increased ability to hold up her head.





Lookin' cute in her monkey outfit! I think it's my favorite little outfit! Only 2 weeks away from being 3 months old and she's finally grown out of newborn size clothes and into 0-3 month!!


Poor sad Brianna...

That's better! Don't let the smile fool you, it's really just gas. ;)

Because she's a premie, she's a bit behind on her development. She has just started holding her head up at my shoulder and keeping it up for longer periods of time in the last couple of weekends. It's getting steadier and steadier every day. It's hard to believe at this same age Garin was sitting in his Bumbo seat - she's nowhere near ready for that!

I'm looking forward to her first real smiles. She still only makes fleeting eye contact. I feel grateful if she holds my gaze for a few seconds, but that's about the extent of it. She's becoming more and more aware of everything around her, so I'm encouraged that it'll happen soon. It's hard not to get worried when Garin was smiling and laughing at the same age, but I have to remind myself that it will take her time to catch up. She HAS started to coo in the last few days, so that's definately an encouragement!

Well that's all for now! My early Christmas (and Valentine's day, and anniversary, and birthday as Brant tells me) arrived a week ago and it's a new laptop! So now I can upload pictures and videos downstairs and make my posts more often!!!

Halloween Pictures!

I was originally going to take Garin trick-or-treating, but my sister's church was having a halloween-alternative festival out at a ranch, so I loaded up the kiddos and we went there instead. A great choice - I don't give him candy, so he woudn't have been eating it anyways, and I sure don't need the calories. So we had a great time. Here are the pics.


The cousins - and yes, that's my almost-seven-year-old niece. Terrifying. I have a feeling that having a daughter is going to be scarier and scarier the older she gets...


My cute little dragon!


Riding in a power wheels - I'd think a dragon could fly instead!


Taking a break to nurse Brianna


I LOVE my phil and ted stroller - that's Garin riding in the bottom part.


Brianna in her Halloween outfit that says "mommy's under my spell"




My sister, Heather, obviously enjoying herself...

Good Morning

It's an early morning here in Hawaii, as it has been for the last several days. Garin has been having a string of mornings that start between 5 and 5:30. I've been counting myself lucky if he sleeps until six. Alas, this morning he started waking up at 455, and I went to get him at 5:30. So I figured it was as good a time as any to blog. Except Garin thinks that when mommy is sitting on the exercise ball that doubles as a desk chair is time to sit on her lap and bounce, while pounding on the keyboard. So after a few good bounces I distracted him with an old wallet filled with book club memberships and expired gift cards. Here's a video of why he thinks when mommy sits down it's enthusiastic bouncing time:



Meanwhile Brianna is sleeping peacefully on my bed. She usually wakes up to nurse around 4 or 5 and then sleeps for a couple more hours. I wish her brother would do the same! She's been getting much more alert, observing the world around her, and showing the beginnings of social smiles. Since she was a preemie, she's a little behind on her development, so she's more like a one month old than a two month old. But it's been fun watching her wake up to the world.

Garin gets a big kick out of his little sister. I have to watch to keep him from picking her up when she's laying down in the swing or sitting in front of me.



They're the sweetest babies. I've been lucky to have pretty easy babies so far (despite the early mornings). It makes me nervous to think about having more, wondering when I'll get a difficult one!

Yesterday was a rough day for my sister. Her husband has been home on his mid-tour leave for the last 18 days and left yesterday afternoon to go back to Iraq for five more months. It was really rough on the kids to see him leave again, so I anticipate some moody children the next few days! It was especially hard on Austin, who is twelve now, watching his dad leave again. It makes me so grateful that my husband is in the Air Force and we hopefully won't have to do this again. It's hard on us, but not so much on the kids.

Well it's Halloween, so I'm sure I'll be posting pictures of Garin in his dragon costume tomorrow. I think we're going to my sister's church's fall festival this afternoon for a little while to play games and have some fun. Then I'll bring Garin back for a little taste of trick-or-treating for 30 minutes or so. Should be fun!

I'll leave everyone with a few pictures of our growing family, Brianna's waking up, so I've got to go!

Garin Playing

I'm doing one-handed posting today, so I'll let the video speak for itself. One of the neighbor kids was playing with his remote controlled tank (army base), and Garin thought that was pretty cool.

Eight Weeks Old!

Brianna has grown so much in the last eight weeks! I can't say for sure how big she is (that will have to wait until the 2 month checkup next week), but I'm pretty confident she's between 6 & 7 lbs now, and she's definately longer. In fact, she's finally outgrown most of her preemie clothing and is now wearing mostly newborn sizes! At this rate, she might be wearing her 0-3 month clothing at three months!

Garin, however, is ahead of the game. He was 28lb 8oz and 33 1/2 inches at his 18 month appointment - solidly in the 70th percentile for height and weight. Solid is the word that best describes Garin! He's built like a brick! Wonder where he gets that from... Shoes are the items that are killing us. He's been wearing 18 month clothing since he was 12 months, and shouldn't need to size up for a few months, so that's nice, but man, the kid's feet are growing like crazy! I had to buy him size 6 shoes about 3 months ago and just had to buy him size seven shoes because his little toes were hanging over the end of his sandals!

We've been getting some pretty decent sleep at night. Every couple of nights Brianna seems to have about two hours of wakefulness/fussiness, but mostly we go to bed around 10, and she's up once or twice between then and six, when Garin typically wakes up. And she has at least a couple good long naps during the days, so that's nice. She's definately more aware of the world around her and loves to stare at everyone's faces and looks around. And she's growing into her nose, so that's a plus!! =)

Well, that's all for now, I'll post some pictures!