Growth Specialist and Other Updates

On Thursday we had Linden's appointment with the growth specialist. It was out in OKC at OU children's hospital. Right away when we walked in we were met with excitement and many "awes!". The nurses instantly took to the boys and repeated several times that if we wanted anyone of them to hold the boys for us to not hesitate to ask. One of the nurses even gave Linden  a really nice bear  to keep. They measured and weighed Linden, he weighed 14.5 lbs and I think his height was 24 and 3/4. We then met with the growth specialist. He asked us many questions about our height, sickness in the family and other information. Based on Brad and I's height he said Linden will be around 5'9 as long as he gets on the growth chart. As of right now Linden is not on the height growth chart for his adjusted age (which is 6.5 months old). The doctor said he wasn't worried that he hadn't displayed a lot of catch up growth yet. Linden and Nolan are identical twins, so they shared a placenta and Linden received less of the share of the placenta and therefore less nutrients, this is why he was a pound smaller than Nolan at birth. Interestingly the doctor said that even out of utero that effects his growth outside of the womb, I always expected him to grow at the same rate as Nolan, but a slower growth in utero means a slower growth outside of utero.  The doctor also said that as of right now he isn't concerned about Linden's growth, he said 90% of babies who aren't on their growth chart usually catch up by 2 or 3. For the 10% who don't he said they can give growth hormones to help them out. By 2 they will be able to tell if Linden is behind and needs help and at that time we can choose to give him hormones or wait until he is 3 to start them, but as I said only 10% of kids don't catch up and need those and he doesn't think that will be the case with Linden. He did confirm that Linden doesn't have any dwarfism or any other serious growth problem, just hearing that made Brad and I feel reassured. We rebooked Linden's next follow up appointment for 6 months from now and headed down to get some blood drawn to rule out any thyroid or blood problems. On our way out it was awesome to run into a girl in our youth group named Nicole checking in at the same specialist! What are the odds that out in the city we see her, and at the very time we were coming out!? It was nice to see a familiar face!

Here is a picture that Nicole's mom snapped when we ran into each other! 

Linden was so smiley all day, the nurse taking his blood felt horrible because he was all smiles for her and she didn't want to make him cry. She poked him in the arm and could only get a little blood because his vein burst because it was so small. So they poked him in his hand and the same thing happened. By this point he was hysterical and the nurse felt so badly that she just left and had the male nurse in there do it by himself. The male nurse decided the best route would be to prick his fingers and squeeze out the blood, so I sat a screaming Linden on my lap while he milked his finger for all it was worth. By this point Brad heard him in the waiting room screaming and couldn't take any more of it so he came in and gave Linden some moral support. As his parent it was hard to watch, even though he screamed bloody murderer the entire time he handled it like a little champ!

Here is a picture of the sad little man and his bandages afterwards, my usually smiley boy was a little sad.

We then left the hospital and headed to the outlet mall and to wait my phone call from the BC Cancer agency. A few years ago I had met with the cancer agency about testing for the cancer gene in my family as it seems to run in my family, my mother had passed away from breast cancer when she was 41 years old (I was 11 years old), and my aunt and Grandma on my mother's side had battled with breast cancer as well. When I had met with the genetic counselor the lady had told me that based on my aunts blood we didn't carry the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes for breast cancer but there was a unknown variable or mutation found in the BRCA 1 gene that they didn't know what it meant yet. So I was told to check in every couple of years to see if any more research had been done on the mutation. The genetic counselor gave me good news that there wasn't any bad developments and said that they still didn't know what the gene meant but thanks to me calling she was having the lab do another check into it to see if there was any new research. So another piece of good news about the health of our family! 

Yesterday Linden met with his sooner start therapist, Traci. While she was playing with him she noticed that his and Nolan's top two front teeth are almost ready to pop through. That explains why they have been a bit fussy lately. For Linden that will be 5 teeth and Nolan will have 4. 

Traci was also impressed with Linden and Nolan's ability to use a straw. I was doing a smoothie diet a couple of weeks ago and they kept on seeing mommy and daddy using straws all the time and they wanted to try it so we gave them some and they loved it. Everyone has been really impressed by this, from what I understand this is a skill that tends to take a while to learn, but because it came so natural to the boys I had thought it was just something every baby could do. I guess it's all the time it took them to learn to suck in the NICU, they are now sucking pros!  We have been trying to introduce a Sippy cup with a soft nipple, but all they did was chew on it, so Traci suggested that since they are so eager to use a straw we should just get them some straw Sippy cups and let them use those instead. 

Here is a Picture I snapped of the boys today, they were being super cute.

This weekend I am getting ready to go to the Beautiful Women's Conference at Victory Church in OKC with the other wonderful ladies from my church. I am super excited to go, Lisa Braver is speaking and the Beautiful Women's Conference is always great. But part of me is kind of sad because this will be my first night away from my boys since they came home from the NICU. It's not that I am worried or nervous, I totally trust leaving them with my amazing husband and their wonderful father, it's just that I am really attached to my little men, and I am going to be missing them so much. Brad has already agreed to send me updates and pictures throughout the day to help ease any homesickness for Linden and Nolan that might arise. I am sure I will cry a few tears but it will be good for me in the end, I know I will get a lot out of this weekend.

In the previous years I would go to this convention Brad would stay home and choose a big home improvement project to do on the house while I am gone. Since this is the first year the boys are here you would think it would be enough work for him to just watch the boys by himself and hold down the fort while I am gone, but Brad is Super Dad so this year he is planning on painting our bedroom and staining the trim and closet doors! I am one lucky girl to have a partner like him! His plan is to get a bunch of the youth to come over to help watch the boys and help paint and afterwards there is some talk of movies and pizza. So although this mama is sad to leave her babies for the first time I am excited to go to a wonderful convention with some wonderful ladies and come back to Brad's handiwork when I get back! 

Here is a picture we took this week of all my little men snuggling together! This is one of my favorite pictures of the men in my life, I will defiantly keep it close while I am gone this weekend. 

So all in all the boys are doing great and I am one blessed mama!