Kicking off 2014!

Wow. Apparently people still read my posts from the little adventure we went on with my boys. Just in December 2013, 26 people viewed this blog. I'm assuming that many are parent's with preemies looking for some answers or comfort perhaps. I think it's time for an update on my little family and my little miracles! Athan is 4.5 years and Dax and Trev are 2.5 years. Athan is probably the sweetest little boy I have ever met. Occasionally we do get little outbursts of attitude from him which are borderline entertaining given that they are so far from his typical demeanor. Matt and I never believed in putting our kids in boxes, gender or otherwise. Over the last year he has done ballet, soccer, swim and gymnastics. He wasn't quite graceful enough for ballet but he loved it (or was it all the little girls that had crushes on him that he loved?). We stopped once we moved away from Seattle but we are hoping to get him started again soon. He's getting better at swimming and we are continuing this especially since a property we are working on has a stream and pond on it. He loved Soccer and this soccer mama was so proud of her little man following in my footsteps. I haven't found soccer for his age group in Olympia but I think he is old enough next year and I can't wait! He started preschool this year, too! I can't believe how much time flies! I look back and remember the moments I started feeling nauseous while working at Enterprise and can't believe that was 5 years ago! He's going to be a big Kindergartner soon! Athan is also the sweetest big brother. He frequently tries to teach his brothers things and loves to try and be daddy and tell his brothers that they should eat their dinner so they can have dessert. He also tries to convince them to use to their manners and gives them a bed time kiss every night. If for some reason he misses their bed time kiss, he gets very upset and won't calm until he can go in and give them kisses. Daxton, Daxton, Daxton... Where to start... He is a full on drama queen, 2 going on 40, knows what he wants and how and when he wants it and won't accept anything else. He is a blanket baby and can't sleep without one. We intentionally switched blankies as he grew up so he didn't get attached to just one. While we thought this would make his blankie addiction easier, it's caused a whole new problem. Now, he's not addicted to one blankie, he wants a different, but very specific, blankie every night. And Heaven forbid we get it wrong or worse, give the blankie he wants to Trevyn! He loves to entertain people and his smile lights a room. Sometimes I look at him and can't believe how close we came to losing him on too many occasions. We started him in swimming this year and he HATED it. He and Trev were the only kids in the class that refused to leave the steps and would scream uncontrollably if we tried to convince them to. I'm happy to say that we've moved past this and they are becoming more comfortable in the water. So far Dax has shown no long term effects from prematurity though Matt and I have some concerns that he may be on the Autism spectrum because of the way he handles situations that stress him out or that he just doesn't like. His spine development is going well and we have seen no curvature so far! However, he does have a new diagnosis of Pectus Caranatum (pectus.org). It likely won't cause any serious health problems but it can be dramatic for his physical appearance. We will likely need to have him in a brace during his preteen years. Sucks because kids can be cruel but I believe that Athan and Trev will tackle anyone who tries to pick on Dax. Though, I'm honestly not sure that Dax will need protection. He's kind of a fireball! Trevyn is the master of disguise! I think he is simultaneously the most evil and the cutest child. He has mastered the pouty lip (or as we call it, the booboo lip). The booboo lip has never gotten me in the past and even with him I am still able to see right through it. But, it is so darn cute I find myself wanting to get it out of him just so it warms my heart. He doesn't talk much still but his sweet demeanor is all the presence he needs in order to fall in love with him. We have him in speech therapy and it is helping a bit though it’s a slow process. We have another audiology appointment coming up in a few months to confirm that his speech delays aren’t due to a hearing problem. It’s difficult because he gets so on edge and panicked anytime we set foot in a Dr. office that we can’t even get headphones on him to check his hearing thoroughly… Same ol’ story with his hypertension. We are getting another renal ultrasound soon and I am hoping that it shows that the kidney is almost gone. Our new nephrologist said that she would recommend keeping him on the Enalipril indefinitely to control the blood pressure as opposed to doing the minor surgery to cut off the blood flow to the bad kidney. This is opposite what our nephrologist at UC Davis told us so now we need to start figuring out what we think is best…. I hate the idea of keeping him on BP meds forever… ugh… As for Matt and I, we are slowly but surely pulling ourselves out of the rut that losing Nature’s Nexus got us into. It was definitely a difficult, albeit not unexpected, blow. I’m slowly building my business consulting and financial management firm and I am starting classes again to move forward towards getting my CPA license. Matt is looking at getting back into the work force again as well after taking a few years to raise the 3 little monsters. Honestly, we are in one of the most difficult times of our lives professionally and financially, but our kids are finally mostly healthy, we are beyond happy in our marriage and life together and despite the fact that we are broke and just lost one of our cars, we couldn’t be happier in so many ways. I suppose that’s a positive result of dealing with all the hardship the past 3 years has brought. We are really able to put things in perspective and I am grateful for that.