With everything going on, it took a few days to update about Kira sitting by herself for the first time. She was getting tired by the time I got the video, but I thought it was cute that this first was with Chris. Sitting up without assistance for the first time on 9/2/18 and recent pictures today with her in my lap without leaning or holding anything for support.

Update on Sept 7:

Four days after the procedure. I finally called them because the dermabond was making my skin very red. After talking with me over the phone, they had me peel off the dermabond three days ago. The skin underneath was very angry and weeping, but the incision looked good. Yesterday a rash broke out on my stomach and this morning I went to see them and they gave me an antibiotic to be safe and a topical benedryl for the rash. I was cleared surgically though for post-op so yay!

Yesterday was the longest I’ve been away from my babies and the longest Chris and I had been alone together and it was because I had to have hernia surgery. I went in at 530 for a 730 appointment and had a rough recovery because apparently I am sensitive to heavy medications. I woke up shivering and in pain, so they gave me something for those. Then those medications made me keep vomiting, so they gave me something for nausea. All of those combined made me also feel very dizzy, so they gave me one more thing for that and sent me home with codeine. I am not allowed to lift more than 10 pounds, which means I can’t even pick up one baby, much less two.

I also ended up having open hernia surgery instead of laparoscopic, but they put the incision in my belly button mostly, so I think it will heal well. I am just in a lot of pain and even taking codeine and motrin leaves me at a 5 for pain. I miss my girls and am struggling to nurse them through the pain. I also got permission to time my breast feedings around when I take my prescriptions and said I am ok taking the codeine for up to four days while nursing them. Hopefully i won’t need it that many days and I’m also only taking a few a day.

If you want to see pictures, scroll down, but be warned that its knarly looking. Also, pay no attention to all the extra skin and the diastesis recti;)

First, no that wasn’t a typo in the title and is actually setting up a funny story and new nickname for Chris. CVS called and apparently their automated system doesn’t know what to do with her name, so it called her Ceelan. Chris has been calling her that for days now and laughing every time, so we may hang onto it for a while as her new nickname. :):):)

Next, I wanted to give an update on our cutie, because we will be posting pictures in the next few weeks and I didn’t want anyone to panic. Caelyn was our Baby A, which means that she was the lower baby and was head down most of my pregnancy. Because of the extra weight of two babies pushing on her, she ended up with a crooked skull and tightened neck muscle on one side. The terms for these are plagiocephaly and tortocollis and since they happened in utero, we have been working with her since birth with repositioning and now stretches. We have a referral into physical therapy, to see if we can have someone come to our home to work with stengthing exercises. One of the big things with tortocollis is that babies tend to hang their head to one side and this can affect future things like crawling and walking, so since she is more mobile now, we are choosing to address this as seriously as possible.

With that said, we are also opting to get her a DOC band for her head. She will be wearing it 23 hours a day for about two months and it will allow her head shape to even out over those months. This not only will improve her head shape, but also her facial symmetry. In severe cases where this is not corrected, other conditions can pop up later in life, like needing ear tubes for drainage, a cross bite that needs dental work, etc. It is going to be a rough few months, but we have opted to do this to give her her best chance to continue to be healthy in the future. We could also use prayers and thoughts as we do this. As you know, I am currently staying at home and will be returning to an internship. Financially, things are tight and since our insurance considers this cosmetic, despite the known developmental and health risks. and we are having to pay for it ourselves. Please also pray that she will adjust well these next few months and that the helmet will work as fast as possible.

Overall though, we are not worried and know it is completely fixable at this point. Chris even jokes about getting Kira one, so she can feel special too. We are staying lighthearted about it and are hoping our attitude rubs off on our girls as well.

I am convinced that I have little angel cherub children because of how absolutely perfect they are. I am constantly amazed at how smart, sweet, funny and beautiful they are and I can’t believe those genes came from little old me. My hopes and expectations of what they would be like pale in comparison to reality and every day is tiring, but so exciting to see what new things they will do.