Graduation Day and More

After only 5 weeks Andrew graduated from his DOC band with a nice round head.  He received a graduation certificate to make it official and will no longer need to attend weekly appointments. We couldn't be prouder of him.  It was amazing to us how quickly his head changed and began to round out.  At Cranial Technologies they take numerous measurements of his head, 3-D pictures and several photographs and use these to make the DOC band ("helmet" in lay terms).  At graduation time more photos and measurements are taken to compare the before and after.  The original measurements are also used to make a plaster mold of Andrew's head, which is put on a wooden stick.  It's quite hilarious, really, to see this head on a stick carried in to each of his appointments in order to compare it to his "new"head that is forming with the help of the DOC band.  Once I was walking down the hallway at Cranial Tech. and saw to my left this rack full of heads and thought, "These poor beheaded children."  We got to take Andrew's home in the end.  Perhaps when he is a teenager we can use it to hit him over the head to knock some sense into him. Kind of like knocking two heads together.

Before

After - Bald as a cue ball

Two other big changes have happened this last week. First, last Tuesday we started them on rice cereal.  The first few times both Andrew and Aaron had great difficulty knowing how to eat from a spoon. I think more cereal dribbled down their chin than was swallowed.  I have to say Andrew is beginning to take after me quite a bit-- he loves to eat!  He is picking up quite nicely how to eat with a spoon.  Aaron, on the other hand, could care less.  We're lucky if a teaspoon gets down his throat.

Sure beats Similac

Messy but cute

Up until now Aaron and Andrew were both sleeping in the same crib.  Earlier this week we purchased a crib from a friend and had it ready for use on Tuesday.  We had always intended on putting them in separate cribs but it was just a matter of when.  After a couple of times of one baby waking the other up by kicking him, we decided now was as good a time as any.  So far they don't seem to be suffering much from separation anxiety.  They seem to be sleeping on their own really well and have adjusted fine.

The Good, Bad, and the Ugly of an MRI

I can guarantee you that Andrew won't have any good memories of having an MRI. And I won't have any of watching him have one either. Yesterday I took Andrew to the hospital for an MRI. I have had MANY MRI's, too many to count and it usually takes an hour tops. We were there ALL day. For those of you who have never had one of these tests it stands for magnetic blah blah blah and has these loud banging noises that are really annoying and could scare a baby or young child to death. Besides that, they are not cheap- about 15 years ago when I had to have frequent MRI's they cost about $1,000 without insurance. On top of that you have to be completely still. Because it's impossible to get a 5 month old to not move a muscle Andrew had to be given an IV for sedatives and a catheter. He had to have a catheter because one of the medicines they gave him made him pee A LOT, like 8 oz. within an hour.

Andrew is a really hard stick- it took 3 attempts to get the IV in him and over 30 minutes of non-stop screaming. Meanwhile I'm crying in the hallway just outside the room trying to control myself. If only I could've done it instead of Andrew. And to make things worse- he REFUSED to go to sleep. It's not that he wasn't tired; he'd only had an hour of sleep since waking up at 7 am and here it was 1 pm. They gave him more medicine and still more until he was given almost equal to that of an adult. The nurse didn't believe me when I told her he was the more mellow baby of our twins. She described him as a *sedative nightmare*. For all the torture they did to Andrew I'm glad they had a rough time. Way to go Andrew! Finally, about 5 minutes before the MRI was over Andrew crashed hard and had to be sent to Surgery Recovery until he came out of it, which took an hour. What was supposed to be a quick test turned into an all day affair. I am so lucky to have great friends who watched Aaron at our house all day. Thank you Heidi and Tammy- you are the best!

Actually there isn't really much good about an MRI except they take better pictures and give more accurate results than an ultrasound. While the ultrasound just gives a picture of the kidney's outside, an MRI shows outside & inside and how the kidney drains. The good news about Andrew's not-so-fun MRI is the great results we got. Today the urologist's nurse called to let us know that both kidneys are completely open and draining well. He won't need to have a follow up for 3 months! And to think that only 10 months ago we were told Andrew wouldn't live. He is our miracle baby.

Some of Our Favorite Pics

Yuuuck!!! Similac again

Nap time for Aaron

Andrew has discovered how tasty his fingers are

Too cute

Hard day on the couch got to go to bed

Sunset in Lake Tahoe

I'll lick anything to get the Similac taste out of my mouth

Hold me I'm yours

Aaron & Andrew monkeying around and driving us bananas