The last of the health-related updates for awhile, I promise!
Last week, I met with a lactation consultant. She weighed IJ before and after nursing. We chatted while the girls ate, and she looked at their latches. She tested a sample my milk with this cool machine that made a lot of noise. Although it was on the lower end of the normal range (20cal/oz), my milk does not seem to be the problem. What a relief. I had been awfully down about the notion that I might have been starving my babies. The lactation consultant did encourage me to nurse the girls separately more often, though. They tend to distract each other when eating together, and their sessions get cut short.
We also had our Early Intervention intake last week. Isaiah Jane qualifies for physical therapy and a special “teacher” through their services, so we’re in the process of getting that set up. Anyone care to share their experience with this? I have no idea what to expect!
Both girls visited the endocrinologist this week, on a “failure to thrive” referral from our primary care doctor. Ames was very slow to gain weight during his first year, and the big boys’ mom has told me about similar issues with one of them. Still, we agreed to rule a few things out before we settled on the simple & likely idea that we just grow small babies. The endocrinologist was very kind, supportive, and respectful. Aside from their tiny stature, the only issues he noticed were the ones we’re already addressing with Isaiah Jane. They had some blood taken, in order to run a few tests. I liked the way he explained it – “Our bodies don’t really care about growth or weight gain. Those are the first things to go on the back burner if something else is going on.”
I missed a call from the neurologist early in the week and couldn’t get ahold of her for another day or two. My stomach was in knots because I specifically remember her telling me I wouldn’t hear from her unless something was up. When we did finally connect, she asked me to get a copy of Isaiah Jane’s MRI on disk for her to read. According to the report, the radiologist referred to “a subtle abnormality in the cerebellum.” This is the area of the brain that affects motor and coordination and whole lot of other things. She assured me we’d read the scan together (like I’ll know what I’m looking at) when we follow up with her later this month. She ordered a few more labs and encouraged me to ask questions. I couldn’t think of any. I still can’t, four days later.
We’re going to keep moving forward, getting answers, and loving our family.
A quick FAQ:
– No, I haven’t seen Teen Mom but I hear there is a set of twins with similar issues. Lemme know if they figure out what’s wrong!
– I’m not really talking about it with people simply because I don’t know what to say. I don’t want sympathy and I don’t want speculation. I just want to take each day, one at a time.
Thank you for sharing in this journey with us! I’ll keep you updated as things develop, but this blog isn’t going to turn into a tiny twin pity party. In fact, I’ve got to sign off to address a few more pressing matters. My breastpump suffered an encounter with my water bottle today, and Lucas just popped into my room to show me some scrapes and bruises… from an ice skating date with an unnamed female middle school love interest. OH MY GOSH.
16 Comments
don’t apologize for too many posts about your darling Isaiah Jane :)
We read your blog because you’re a great writer and have many interesting stories to share, this being one of them!
Praying for your sweet daughter and for you all to play this waiting game with grace,
I understand not wanting to talk about it too much to people. I’m that way too when it comes to things like this.
I’ve got to admit I got totally distracted at the end at the idea of the middle school ice skate date :) Love young love.
Agree with Emily; don’t apologise. We are all keeping you in our thoughts.
Do not apologize, I read this blog because I love your family! I have, embarrassingly enough, seen Teen Mom and the twin you have heard about what having issues with her legs: they were curved and she was not able to stand on them. She also had issues with her eyes. They did several tests on her and she sees a physical therapist for her developmental delays. I think they eventually referred her to a geneticist. Keep the faith and know that your sweet girls are in God’s hands!!
Thanks for the update! :)
Rach – you don’t need to apologize for giving us updated on IJ. We all want to hear them and hear from you. I am totally with you on not wanting to talk about it – people try to be helpful by speculating but it’s annoying to be on the receiving end of it because everything they are saying you have probably already thought, questioned and ruled out.
Hang in there sweet mama. We all love and support you and your family. We’re keeping you and IJ in our prayers. Hugs!
Oh yes, I’ll bet you’ve heard it all!
Rachael–
I am a special education teacher in Texas and my school accepts typically developing babies and babies with developmental delays at 12-18 months. Lots of our little ones receive early intervention services at home and one of our teachers used to be an ECI (it’s called early childhood intervention here) teacher. Basically when the special teacher comes, it just looks like playing and being a good momma (which you obviously already are!) Both the teacher and PT will probably give you suggestions for how to work “exercises” for IJ into your every day routine so you can help her build strength as quickly as her little body is able, and most importantly avoid bad habits (things like favoring one side or sitting/crawling/moving in weird positions that are difficult to fix later.)
Super super super helpful! Thank you so much!
Take care of yourself. You’ll all get through this together.
I like this advice. Heeded, I promise!
Praying for you still
xoxoxo
Do I hear music?
You are such a great mommy, and we all love to hear these updates…keep ’em coming as often as you want so we can continue praying for your sweet family! I totally relate to your stress about nursing. My girls are 10 months and still nursing 5-6 times a day. They’re small too (~15 pounds each) and I worry so much. Fortunately our pediatrician believes and understands me when I say my kids are just small. Can’t fight genetics, you know? I’ve always been curious about my milk. That’s so cool that they can test it and know the calorie content! When I delivered them we had to supplement a little until my milk came in and fortunately the hospital was able to provide us with donor breast milk. I remember one bottle they gave us was 30 cal/oz and they called it super milk! Haha! After reading this I’m making more of an effort to nurse them separately(though it’s hard) because I agree that they distract each other a little too much. It’s harder on me to double the amount of time we spend nursing, but I know it’s best for the girls. Plus it’s nice to have extra one on one snuggle time. :)
Cool story! Glad to hear you’re still nursing successfully! My boy was 16lbs at age one, so I don’t have fat hopes for the girls. I just want to make sure they’re moving forward. And a hospital that gives you donor milk?! Sweet!
I’m glad I found your blog. I’m a twin mom myself and hope for the best for your beautiful family!