NICU Follow-Up

The girls had another NICU follow-up appointment in Chicago, so it was a nice excuse to see cousins and old friends. We loaded up the van yesterday morning bringing along my nieces, Claire and Sarah. Claire came to see the Scudders and Sarah came go with me downtown, along with my other niece, Erin, to the girls' appointment for some extra hands. While we were walking to the clinic downtown, there were quite a few comments from people asking if Erin and Sarah were twins and/or the older sisters to the triplets. The girls were enrolled in a research study when they were born on the social development of preemies, so the clinic called me and asked if I would come back for their last appointment for the study. Once we got downtown, I realized that we were the only ones in the clinic! They did a special time and day just for our visit. The girls were evaluated on their development and they told us they all have a speech delay...which we have known for a while. They recommended increasing their speech therapy visits and I have a meeting with Indiana First Steps in a few weeks so I can talk about that then. The girls are coming along with their speech, and I can tell in the last month they have started to pick up some new words and have been imitating more, they are still behind, however. They looked at Elizabeth's walk and really didn't know why she bends her knees. She is supposed to start physical therapy and they recommended that if I am concerned in six months with her walk, a physical medicine doctor can look at her. The pediatrician wasn't concerned with her knees and said all her muscles are there--not too floppy or tight and that she may just have to gain some more muscle before she stands up totally straight. I should back up and say her bent knees have gotten better since she first started walking and she is doing everything her sisters do for the most part; run, climb, jump in her crib, climb the stairs, etc. So, we'll leave it at that for now. I'm not too concerned either, just thought I would bring it up and get another opinion.

The pediatrician weighed and measured the girls, fully dressed with shoes on and they screamed throughout the process. Elizabeth didn't even sit on the scale, so Sarah had to hold her and be weighed, then weigh herself and subtract the two weights. The doctor isn't at all concerned with their growth and told me that some kids don't completely catch up until they are 3 years old. She plotted them on a regular growth chart without age correction since technically at age two, they are not age adjusted anymore--that is closely approaching in two months! Their lengths and weights are just on the bottom of the curve--1st or 2nd percentile), except Elizabeth, but she told me she was a centimeter from making the chart on her length and a pound on her weight.

Anna
19 lbs.
29 inches

Kate
19 lbs.
30 inches (She was the only one that her length was measured with her shoes on--so I am thinking she is around 29 inches)

Elizabeth
17.5 lbs.
28.5 inches (She screamed and wiggled so much while being measured, I think this is a rough estimate)

Their heads were all in the 25-50% on the regular growth charts (46.5-47cm). That is the most important thing with their growth and the pediatrician said this was good their heads have caught up.

After the appointment, we stopped up on the 14th floor of the hospital (High risk OB) to see if Dr. Nelson or Dr. Peaceman were there, but they weren't. But, we were able to visit with the nurses a few minutes. They were there with me throughout all 33 weeks of my pregnancy and are the greatest. I'll never forget when one of the nurses, Mary, prayed with me in the office the morning the babies were delivered before I was sent over to the hospital. One of the other nurses, Cathy, looked at me and said, "The mouth tumor mama." She was a huge part of getting me an emergency appointment to see the ENT at Northwestern, Dr. Pelzer, who did surgery on my mouth, taking out my Schwannoma at 23 weeks of pregnancy. I credit him for the lives of my girls. I also I can't thank that high risk OB clinic enough for all the love, care and concern they gave me during my pregnancy. I can't believe I am coming up on the two year mark from that whole ordeal!

It was a fast and somewhat hectic appointment, so I got my camera out only to never take any pictures except when I got all the girls loaded in the van after the appointment in the parking garage--I guess proof we were there :)

This morning, I got to visit with some old friends. There were 5 boys between the ages of 3 and 5 (running madly through the house) and 6 infants between 11 months and 21 months...hectic and crazy and it was too hot to be outside, but we managed. It is always nice to catch up with old friends. We miss them dearly.