Connolly Twins » September 2004 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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Tue, Sep 28, 2004 7:57 PM
Eating Each Other

I put Libby and Henry on their sides facing each other in the crib to see what they would do. It was SO FUNNY!! Libby started grabbing Henry's hands and pinching them. Then she grabbed his nose and put her hands in his mouth -- he was, of course, happy with this and started gumming her hands. He moved his hands as if to push her off and they landed in her mouth and she started gumming his hands...it was like feeding time at the zoo!!

The oral fixation is alive and well in our household. Both babies can't keep their hands out of their mouth..hands, bibs, mommy and daddy's hands and fingers. We go through 10 bibs each (all we own) every day because they get wet from being stuffed in their mouths.

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Sun, Sep 26, 2004 9:29 PM
Henry's First giggles

Henry is definitely giggling now too -- although, they aren't the girly giggles that his sister produces. He's most impressed with his Dad and they have started to share giggles about things. We think that Henry thinks his Dad is funny-looking and this is what causes him to giggle.

It's a definite must-see...Stephen and his mini-me sharing a laugh.

In other child development news: Libby and Henry are both starting to hold their own bottles. We bought them "training" handles today and they're starting to use them. We're still months away from giving them their own bottles, but it's fun to think that they're developing their grasping and holding skills to quickly.

Libby has also discovered our faces - she loves honking our noses and putting her fingers in our mouth. She has highly developed grasping skills and has started pinching between her first finger and thumb.

Henry is starting to grasp but hasn't quite mastered the pinching motions yet. He's much better at kicking and sitting up, though. He's almost able to sit up by himself and he kicks at his activity mat toys with his feet. Henry also stands up while being held and loves to be on his feet. Libby is just now developing the leg muscles to stand up on her feet, while Henry has been doing it for at least 6 weeks.

And they both have mastered holding their head up. Henry's been holding his head up for about 3 weeks, but Libby just rounded the corner on developed neck muscles this week.

Not to brag, but BOTH children are now sleeping through the night (9PM to 7AM). They also go to bed awake and settle themselves to sleep. Libby's been sleeping through the night for over a month now. We never though Henry would give up his 4AM feeding, but as of last week, we're now getting lots and lots of night sleep. We've earned it!

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Wed, Sep 22, 2004 9:00 PM
Henry's Urology appointment

Our news today is that Henry will have to have surgery in February to correct his kidney blockage. We were expecting that news, but had really hoped that the best course of action would have been to wait. But the urologist said that if we waited, we would have to subject Henry to quarterly renal scans (which involves IVs and catheters) until he was 8 or 9 years old -- and it wouldn't be worth it.

We really, really liked the pediatric urologist, Dr.Park, and he would be performing the surgery. The surgery will likely happen in February when he's at least 8 months old (risk of complications with anesthesia are less). So....we're not sad....just hopeful that the surgery will work and that Henry will have perfect kidney function once again. The urologist did say that if we have other children, we probably wouldn't have this problem again.

The report from the renal scan showed that both of Henry's kidney are working well and his left kidney (the problem one) is only loosing approximatley 1% of function. They did say that the right kidney did have some "things" in them that didn't appear to be bothersome, but could be kidney stones.

Dr. Park did reassure us that Henry is probably not in any pain. And the surgery has a very, very high success rate AND that the risk of complications from anethesia is less than the risk of driving on the highway to the hospital.

In other news -- Daddy turned 48 today. He said that "this was the happiest birthday ever" -- isn't it??

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Sun, Sep 12, 2004 9:00 PM
Libby's First Giggle

As I was changing Libby's diaper this morning, she giggled for the first time! I bent down to kiss her cheek and it must have tickled because she let out a big laugh and giggle. Daddy was taking a nap and it was so funny that he woke up and laughed! We were happy that we both heard it at the same time.

Henry's on the verge of giggling. He may be too "cool" to giggle...He does like to gurgle using mmmmmmm sounds. I think he's going to say momma soon. (hahah!) Libby prefers the gggggggg sounds right now.

We also moved Libby to soy formula this weekend. The nurse practitioner had suggested that perhaps she had a tummy ache from cows milk formula -- explaining why she was eating close to 50 oz of formula a day. Libby has been so fussy for the past two weeks and spitting up constantly.

It seems to have worked. She seems much happier and less fussy (although, never try to get in between Libby and a bottle...). She is back to eating 30-35 oz/day and drinks much slower. We also think not having a tummy ache has made her more alert and her skin is clearer.

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Fri, Sep 10, 2004 1:30 PM
Henry's Renal Scan

Today was Henry's renal scan. The procedure wasn't as bad as we were expecting. Stephen went in with him. They catherized him first. We had a good nurse because he barely cried during catherization -- she knew what she was doing! He then received a shot of radioactive tracer and was strapped to a table that took pictures of his body every 2 second -- it followed the tracer through his body to see how quickly his kidneys drained. They also gave him a shot of diuretic so that he'd pass the tracer more quickly.

We could see on the screen that the tracer collected in one of his kidneys and stayed there. Obviously, the blockage caused the tracer to stick around longer on that side. They will read the pictures and determine how much function his blocked kidney has and that will help us determine if he needs surgery or not to remove the blockage.

We'll know more on the 22nd when we visit with the pediatric urologist.

Henry was a real trooper and didn't cry much at all. He did have a reflux episode on the table and he reacted worse to that than he did the catherization or shots. He fell asleep for the last 45 minutes of the test. He's such a good baby....

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Sun, Sep 5, 2004 8:15 PM
Three Months Old!

We can't believe our babies are already three months old. They grew so much in the last month and are such delightful babies now.

This week they started to look at each other. They aren't reacting to each other, but they do look at each other with curiosity -- especially if one if on our lap and the other is in the bouncy seat. It's funny that they only react to adults that talk to them and they still don't react to each other or the cat!!

They are so smiley and happy. They coo and laugh. It seems like they'll be talking next month, although we aren't deluded enough to think that would happen. Today we had them out at a restaurant and they both sat in our laps and cooed while we ate. No crying or fussing!!

And the best part is that they are now sleeping through the night. Libby will sleep between 10:30 and 7AM. Henry will wake up around 4AM, but goes back to sleep until 7 or so. We credit the bedtime routine we've established, which involves bathing them, massage with lavendar baby lotion, and a bottle. Libby is taking around 8 oz each bottle and Henry takes around 6 oz.

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