Multi-tasking Mama

I am sitting at the dining room table, eating my lunch, snuggling Cassidy, chatting with my sister, and trying to blog all at the same time. I am watching the snow start to fall outside my window once again, and feeling a bit guilty for sending Melody to co-op in a sundress. Whoops!

Life has been really busy lately. We've been on the go nearly every day, usually with early morning appointment

s for Cassidy (to get seen before the waiting room fills up with germs) or therapy for Liberty, or just run-of-the-mill life things. Sometimes we have appointmets every single weekday. Yipes. But so far things have been going really well. Cassidy is still growing, though at a snail's pace. But any growth is good news. She is now more than 2500g, so she can technically head to surgery at any time. But her cardiologist in town has told us that he would really like to just continue to let her grow until closer to six months as long as all the rest of her vitals are okay. So it looks like we won't be heading back to Children's for surgery until mid-summer.

We've also had our initial visit with the Physical Therapist, Speech Therapist, and Occupational Therapist in town. We will hear their plan for treatment next Monday. We know Cassidy is delayed in her development already, and the goal is to work hard at catching up before surgery so that she doesn't get further delayed at the next hospital stay. It is another benefit to postponing surgery because it gives her time to catch up and get bigger and stronger.

I've been calling all around to find someone to tell us about Cassidy's immune function. It was funny because our ped (who I love) got to experience the running around in circles feelings I get all the time when she was trying to find out about vaccinations for Cassidy. We know for sure that she cannot ever have any "live" vaccines, but as far as the other types go, we just don't have any clue. Immunology told her one thing, genetics told her another, and no one knows for sure. So yesterday I began the process of getting her seen by someone. It only took about 10 phone calls, 2 nurses of doctors who couldn't help me, and one nurse who could to find out that we won't be seen at Children's for immunology at all, but instead we will go to National Jewish. But I am all for seeing the best of the best, particularly because her immunity is the one area that I continue to be most concerned about.

We will also see the pediatric ENT to find out more about Cassidy's palate. There is some concern that she may have a submucosal cleft, but no one has checked to be sure. So hopefully we will get an answer to that as well at the end of next month.

Yesterday, Cassidy weighed in at 5lbs 11.5 oz, 2580 grams! It is such a big deal to finally pass that 2500g mark! She is also getting longer, outgrowing her preemie clothes because her little legs are too long for them now! It is so adorable, she is swimming in her newborn clothes, but the preemie ones are stretched tight.

Our big girls are all doing well. We've been making lots of trips to the neighborhood park, where they ride their bikes around in circles and pretend to be miners looking for gold in the rocks. And then, we have snow today. Crazy Colorado weather.

Also, please be in prayer for my parents and my grandma. If you remember, she was here with my mom, helping to take care of my girls while we were in Denver. A few weeks ago, my grandma had a stroke and has been in a care facility recovering. But they've also discovered that her heart is not functioning as well as it ought. She is heading home today. Please pray for my mom as she takes care of my grandma, and for my grandma to have a wonderful quality of life at home for a long time yet to come.

Specifically, you can pray for Cassidy to keep packing on the ounces :) She has started nursing much more frequently, but she needs to start transerring more milk at each feeding in order to get enough calories to grow. Pray that all of the specialists we will be seeing in the next few weeks will know exactly how to care for Cassidy. Pray for Ainsley, as she will be going to her first sleep-away camp next month. Pray for Liberty, that she will continue to grow in her therapy sessions as well. Pray for Melody, that she will have a positive attitude, and choose to keep her sweet spirit instead of being angry. All of us are under a lot of stress, and we are looking forward to the summer. We really would like to have one camping trip as a family before Cassidy has surgery also. It would mean a lot to Liberty especially. Not sure how well all six of us will fit in our tent, but it will be fun trying :)