I feel like I am always making excuses for my delay in blog updates, but as usually there is never a dull moment around here so needless to say life has been busy and I have been neglecting the blog, so sorry. These past 2 months we were able to bump Preston's speech(feeding) therapy and his occupational therapy up to 2xs a week. So I have been taking him to OCH in Dallas on Mondays and Wednesdays. I have also started working 1/2 day a week at a medical spa in Plano (I know that's not much, but it's sort of all we can handle at this point). A good friend of mine works there and her mother is the director. I have been wanting to work with them for a long time and now it is working out so well. They doctor is also wonderful and very supportive of the medical aesthetic's side of her practice so I feel like it is a perfect fit. They have been very flexible with my schedule, so I am able to still take Preston to therapy 2x a week, have Preston's ECI therapy on Fridays, and take and pick up the boys from school on Tue/Thurs, which has been so awesome. It works well because I go in when the boys go down for a nap on Mondays or Wednesday since Randy works from home. I have missed work so much!! It is such a fun and interesting job and I love the medical aesthetics industry so I am so excited to be working again!! My friend and I gave each other microderms after work on Wednesday and I REALLY missed that perk of the job. If anyone is interested in any medical aesthetic procedures shoot me an email and I can probably help you get a great deal on services.
This is a cute picture of the boys with Grandpa in the backyard!
Even though we were able to go 2x a week this past month for feeding therapy it actually didn't really get us anywhere, sadly. Preston got some kind of little bug at the end of Sept and he threw up really only 3 or 4 times and they were really spaced out over a week or so. It ended up really setting him back with his in eating and chewing. His therapist had worked up to being able to get a gold fish in his mouth, with her holding it, and he would take a few bites down on it and not gag on the pieces in his mouth or spit them out. Now neither his therapist, nor I, can get any "chewable" type of food in his mouth. The last several weeks I couldn't get any of his chewing tubes or therapy brush in his mouth, but this week he is letting me again. So maybe we will get back on track in a few weeks. We are dropping back down to 1x a week for his feeding therapy next week because we will run out of visits on our insurance before the year is over if we don't. Insurance can be so frustrating at times, but I am thankful we have it. I just wish Preston could receive more speech therapy sessions. We only get 30 a year which obviously will not last us all year at 1x a week next year. That was actually one of the reasons we did the inpatient feeding therapy, because the therapy sessions during inpatient would not count towards his outpatient 30 year limit. We are not sure what we are going to do about therapy next year, but we will cross that bridge in 2011.
He was also not eating his pureed food with out a big fight for the past 4 weeks, but he seems to be doing better with his pureed eating this week, too. Not sure what was going on with him, but my best guess was the vomiting just really brought his oral aversions back to a severe level until until he could trust that eating isn't the worst thing in the world again. Today he did try to eat a little chip at a mexican food restaurant and he gagged and vomited. Lovely huh?? Thankful no one was sitting around us, so we didn't ruin any one's meal. Nannie quickly jumped in there and cleaned it up, but Luke was shouting "Presty barfed!" and I was trying to get him to quiet down before everyone heard him. Remember I said never a dull moment. One of them vomiting at a restaurant is just about a weekly occurrence for us - so if you see us eating out somewhere, run the other way ;-). That is actually one of the reason I never take them together by myself to a friend for lunch. Randy actually scooped Luke up last Sunday at bruch and got him out the door before he started. Anyways, I am hoping Preston will want to try something "chewable" again, so I am going to try and work with him with these things called baby mum mums. They are rice disks that dissolve easily that I can break into pieces I can hold and try to get him to bite on. This biggest hurdle is getting him to let you put it on his molars. His feeding issues are a roller coaster of ups and downs. I just have to remind myself it is slowly getting better in the long run, but it really can be trying when you he knocks his food off his spoon and it flies all over me and everywhere. Deep breaths!
I do have some pretty awesome news about Preston. About 3 out of 4 of the past nights he has let me me brush his teeth. This is huge for him! Preston's new occupational therapist is absolutely awesome and her and I decided to seriously work on getting him to let me brush his teeth. She has been working with him and I have been working with him and now we have reached some serious success! Preston's therapist told me that most of the severe oral aversion kids end up having surgery to place silver caps and pull teeth because they won't let you brush. That was enough to freak me out and get me working harder. Preston has the most precious, biggest, wonderful smile and I sure didn't want it full of silver caps! We started with just letting him touch the brush to his lips and slowly but surely he is letting me brush them, even with infant tooth paste on the brush!! So I am really relieved about that. Preston's OT also has been having great progress with him by using a weighted vest to help give him more sensory input to help calm him and help him focus on a task, like block stacking. It has really been helping him so Nannie is working on sewing Preston a weighed therapy vest to use at home when we do at home therapy things and also feeding. It is very evident now that Preston has some sensory issues as well. We are going to be able to stay at 2xs a week with his occupational therapy through November because we had some time off from OT in August before we got his wonderful new therapist. She is so energetic, caring and genuinely gets so excited when Preston does well in his session with her. Finding the right therapist makes such a difference and it feels wonderful to have found her!! She is truly a blessing!
We also welcomed a new member to our family this month. Stephanie ended up having a c-sect on October 15, the day before Ashley's birthday, and baby Caroline made her appearance around noon that day. Stephanie tried everything from inversion tables to wierd chinese smokey stick things to get Caroline to turn head down, but she didn't so they had scheduled the c-sect for that Friday. My parents and I were able to drive to New Mexico for the big event. I was so happy to be able to be there for her birth. Caroline Cruz Ferguson weighed 6lbs 7.5 oz and was 21 inches long. She is beautiful and it was such an amazing thing to see her minutes after her big entrance. She was so perfect!! Obviously, I didn't get to see the boys for several hours after they were born because they had to get them "settled" in the NICU and get all sorts of things hooked up. Stephanie was beaming when MiC brought Caroline in to the recovery room for Stephanie to hold her for the first time. It was such a special moment and I am so, so glad I was able to be there. Caroline is so sweet! In person I thought she looked a lot like Stephanie, but now in seeing pictures I see a lot of MiC, so we will see. Stephanie, MiC and Caroline are coming home for over a week at Thanksgiving so we will get a lot of time to snuggle! Luke loves to say baby Caroline! The boys really loves to look at babies so I can't wait for them to see their new baby cousin!!!
This was Stephanie's first time to hold Caroline. It was the sweetest thing!
Nannie snuggling with Caroline!
Grandpa proud of the new girl in the family!!
Caroline headed home from the hospital in Roswell to Clovis. She slept like an angel most of the way.
Last weekend Aunt Ashy was home and we got to celebrate her birthday. Ashley is 22 and wow I can't believe she is that old! I still vividly remember the day she was born! It's so crazy she will be done at A&M this May. We had been planning to take the boys to the game the weekend Caroline was born, which was Ashley's birthday, so we are now going to take them to the game on the weekend of November 20th. We are so excited to take them to their first Aggie game. But this past Friday we were at TCU representing Randy's undergrad alma mater for Frog Fest. Randy was asked to be on the Marketing Advisory board for TCU's Marketing Department this year. We are very proud of him and then at his meeting a professor asked him to be a guest speaker for a MBA class next month. I teased him that he must be really old to be a guest speaker because I always remember guest speakers seeming soooo old, haha!! This puts him one step closer to his dream of some day possibly teaching at TCU, or another university, and I am proud of him for being so passionate about it!! We went to Frog Fest last year with the boys and my parents and we had a lot of fun so we wanted to go again this year. This time it was tricky because the Ranger's game was on, but Ashley and Grandpa went with us (Nannie was still with Stephanie in New Mexico) and we stayed for a while and then went to Pappas Burgers to watch the end of the Ranger game and see history being made. We all cheered on the Rangers with the rest of the restaurant!! It was so exciting to watch the Rangers beat the yankees!! Here is our picture outside after all the excitement!! GO RANGERS!!!!!
We all went to Joe T's on Sunday night for Ashley's Birthday. We love eating outside at Joe T's and it had been quite a while since we had been there. It was a beautiful night! We had a lot of fun with Aunt Ashy last weekend. She is a great sister, best friend and a loving Aunt. Randy loves Ashley like a sister and she adds so much joy to our lives! Thanks Ashley for always being there for us and making all of us smile! You have been there to help us through so much these past 3 years and we ALL love you so much!!! Sorry, Ash, that I didn't get you a card...did that just count? ;-) Happy Birthday, I love you!!
We have gone a few times to the Hall Johnson pumpkin patch. Both boys love, love the tractor!
We are having a fun Halloween weekend. The boys had a Fall Festival at school Thursday and Randy took the morning off so we could be the parent volunteers to help their class. We ended up mostly just helping Preston, because it was a bit of a chaotic scene and Preston really has a hard time being still and calm in crowded, crazy situations. I am really glad we went so Preston could enjoy the festival with the rest of his class!! My parents went with us last night to take the boys to the Grapevine Halloween on Main Street. It was really crowded, and there were long lines for candy but the boys really liked to just sit in their wagon and look at all the "interesting" people. Grandpa wheeled them up and down main street trying his best to let me take them into the haunted house area. I told him NO WAY!! He's crazy! The boys are dressing up as train conductors or "choo choo costumes" this year. I think they could easily be confused with farmers, because I can't get either of them to wear their hats. But they look cute as farmers, too. We got to meet some distant cousins we had not ever been able to meet before. My Dad's first cousin's son, so my second cousin once removed I think, went to A&M and was there the same time I was. He married a girl that was in my sorority and she had twin girls that were born in April, one month after the boys due date - weird huh? They are super cute and their names are Camden and Grayden. We got to meet Camden and Grayden at their parent's restaurant Lazy Bones just off Main Street last night. Ashley worked at Lazy Bones the summer before last, but we just never managed to meet up with them then. It was a quick little meeting, but it was fun to see both sets of twins together and the girls were the cutest Kangaroo and Koala bear I have ever seen!!
We will go trick-or-treating for the first real time tomorrow night in our new neighborhood. My parents are coming over for homemade pizza and then we will go out and see how the boys like trick-or-treating. We have been watching "Little Bill's" Halloween episode all week to get prepared. Luke has practiced saying "trick-or-treat", but it will probably all depend on his mood and whether he will say it or not. Randy absolutely loves Halloween so he is already thinking that next year we need to come up with a family theme of costumes and all dress up. We'll see! So far I haven't managed to get much of a picture of the boys in their Halloween costumes yet. I will try to get a picture of the boys in their costumes and put it on the next update. I hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween tomorrow night! Thanks again for all who keep Preston and us in their prayers. We haven't had much change medically lately and that truly is a blessing and answered prayer! We have a few rounds of doctors appointments next month and I am praying for continued smooth sailing!!
