Tick Tock

Here I go again. Dwelling and dwelling and dwelling on time. Time that seems to be passing way too fast and I can't do anything about it. Not only is it the twins who seems to grow inches every night but Evan is five going on twenty five. And Erin…sweet Erin. I remember rocking her to sleep like it was yesterday, YESTERDAY! Her babydom is so fresh in my mind and Audrey looks (and dresses) a lot like her so it's tough for me to let it go. Let go that she isn't a snuggly little baby anymore. 

I'm trying everyday to live in the moment and even when things get crazy to remember how very very blessed and lucky I am. 

 It isn't hard, really. All I have to do is take a look around. Of course I'm looking past the dirty floor or laundry pile in the corner, or breakfast plate on the table that should've been put in the sink three hours ago.

 Of course I have my moments. Last night for example Todd had to be at work at 4am so he was asleep. At 9pm it was the E's bedtime (catastrophe) and A & W were SCREAMING for some unknown reason. It was a lot. All at once. Erin wouldn't go to bed, and proceeded to meltdown in the hall causing all kinds noise which wasn't helping the babies crying situation. Evan wanted a drink and food. He barely touched his dinner so I knew he was hungry but we've had this discussion a lot recently about eating dinner and not being allowed snacks before bed so I was standing my ground.
Anyway, long story short I ended up feeding the babies and threatened the E's with the holy grail of threats - no iPad for a week. All was well after 20 minutes or so but it was so emotionally draining I went straight to bed after.
It's hard to not have much downtime. I think back to six years ago and I wonder what the hell I did with all my time? Now I get about 30 minutes a night to blog, online shop, pay bills, watch tv or whatever else I might want to do. Yes this 30 minutes includes housework. Pfttt!
But at the end of the day I wouldn't trade it for the world. I knew how time flies and a dirty house can wait, my babies cannot. I'll take rolling around on the floor with them over mopping floors any day.

So a rambling random post for tonight, pretty much how my brain works these days.

Wesley's First Tooth

Not to be outdone by his sister Wes poked through a tooth today. It's funny that they were within a few days of each other. At 7 months 1 week they got their first teeth a little bit sooner than Evan and Erin who both got theirs at 8 months.

We're on 1 week with the helmet and he is tolerating it just fine. He's in it 23/7 now with a 30 minute break in the morning and a 45 minute break in the evening. I think he might be having some trouble sleeping in it because he has been tugging at it when he is fussy. Hopefully he will get used to it soon.

Sisters

Oh my darling darling girls. I sure hope they love each other this much in about 13 years :)

Audrey's First Tooth

Audrey's first tooth popped through on Wednesday. The girl didn't miss a beat, wasn't fussy and has been sleeping through the night with no issues (Wes on the other hand…)
She's going to be adorable with her toothy grin, already is.

I suspect her second tooth will push through in the next couple days, it's right below the surface.

Wes has been fussy at night and I'm guessing his will be getting his first tooth soon as well. As always I'll keep you posted!

Day 1, Helmet Therapy

As I suspected he's still adorable.

We picked the helmet up yesterday. They ordered the wrong color, we requested blue. I considered having them remake it but really it's fine. Todd wants to add some U of L stickers to it anyway and blue wouldn't really do for his color scheme. Plus I wanted to get started and hopefully the sooner we start the sooner we finish. 

So today is day 1 and he's wearing it one hour then off for one hour repeat until bedtime. He won't sleep with it on until a week. We gradually have him wear it more and more each day until next Friday he'll be wearing it 23/7. He'll get a break for 45 minutes at night for us to bathe him and clean the helmet and 30 minutes in the morning for him to air out and let his little head breathe. 

So far today he doesn't seem to notice or mind thank goodness. I'll keep you posted on his progress, here's hoping it's a quick 2-3 months (and not more!). 

Dance

I finally got to see Erin in her dance class this week. I can totally see why parents aren't allowed very often, our girls were pretty distracted.

 She was exactly as adorable as I knew she would be though. I loved every minute of it.

MVI 1972 from Kelly Marsh on Vimeo.

  MVI 1963 from Kelly Marsh on Vimeo.

We got a glimpse at their recital outfits and let's just say there will be many many pictures of that cuteness. I cannot wait until May!!!

Erin's little bestie  Sophie is in her dance class and they were so cute together. 

Erin & Sophie from Kelly Marsh on Vimeo.

A Helmet for Wesley

After all our repositioning efforts it looks like Wesley is still headed for a helmet. His physical therapist for his Torticollis told us a couple weeks ago that at this point his head shape will not change without help. So we called the doctor back that originally told us to wait 3 months and see if we could fix it with repositioning. The doctor agreed that it was time to do helmet therapy. So we made an appointment at the orthotic supply store to have him scanned and fit for a helmet. His initial scan went great and Wes did amazing. It was just a little stocking on his head and his head was scanned with what looked like a hand scanner from the grocery.

We were told that his plagiocephaly was moderate to severe according to the scan. (I found this info online - There are different degrees of plagiocephaly. A perfectly round headshape is 0 mm (zero millimeters of difference) which is probably pretty rare! “Normal” heads measure 0-3 mm of difference. Mild plagiocephaly is considered 4-6 mm and most people don’t start treatment at this level of variance. 7-11 mm is considered moderate plagiocephaly and severe plagiocephaly is 12 mm and up. )

Wes was a 13mm. So after the scan we went to make our next appointment to pick up the helmet and we were told we should wait for a pre-authorization for our insurance before the helmet was ordered. It can be tricky waiting on insurance since the scans are only good for two weeks (since babies heads grow so fast). So we left and we waited. Almost two weeks went by and I got a call and was told insurance would not cover the helmet. Honestly I wasn't surprised. Don't even get me started on how useless insurance seems at times. So instead of us picking up his helmet tomorrow we have to go for a rescan and then wait another two weeks for his helmet to come in. Oh and yea, we have to pay for it all out of pocket. Roughly $1500. There's no question about getting it, it's necessary so we will do what we need to do. Doesn't mean I can't be a little pissed about it though.
We are looking into some other options that could possibly help us pay for it so stay tuned for that. I was THRILLED last month when I applied for assistance through the hospital where I had the twins and they wrote off nearly $5000 in medical bills we had. So I'm all about asking for help when we need it.
Anyway, other than the helmet drama little dude is doing great. He's been doing physical therapy for 3 weeks now and I see signs of improvement. We do some stretches with him at home as well. He's sitting up like a champ!

 I was telling Todd tonight how much I love that he's a snuggle bug. Most of the time Audrey is all go go go and won't stop moving but Mr. Wesley with just snuggle onto your shoulder or into your neck and he just melts into you. And I love love love it. Right now he's just a heap of love and I can't get enough.

A Star Wars Halloween

I took these pictures the night of our local shopping centers trick or treating. We literally got the costumes in the mail that day. I'm glad I got photos that night because Halloween turned out to be rainy, cold, sleety and snowy. We went out with some friends in their neighborhood and the kids and babies were bundled up. I only stayed out a little bit with the babies then went inside, the big kids stayed out with Todd and they cleaned up with candy! The had a great time.
We also went to a trunk or treat at Erin's preschool on the day after Halloween and it was cold and windy as well. But the E's had fun and that's all that matters.
I'm not sure how many years I'll get away with dressing them as a group, this could be my one and only shot and I think it turned out pretty cute.