Catching Up

Just what has been going on for the past month...

Well, another Mother's Day came and went. This was my second Mother's Day and it seems to already get a little easier. I don't mean this in a harsh way at all, but Mother's Day is a little difficult. While I rejoice and celebrate getting to be a fabulous mommy to Betsy, I so deeply miss Grace and Olivia and wish that I didn't have to be a "bereaved" mother as well. My heart goes out to all the mommies who were missing a child on their special day. Here is me and my mom with Betsy.



Hard to believe Betsy is already 20 months. In just a few months I will have ((gasp)) a 2-year-old! It's so bizarre that it seems like so recently that I was in the hospital with all three girls. Seems like yesterday. But when I think back to Betsy being 7 months, or 10 months, etc...it seems like it was a really long time ago. Why is that? Is it because I cling to every little tiny memory I have of the triplets and don't want to let that memory fade? But I certainly don't want Betsy's childhood to fade. Maybe because the situation was so traumatic and so emotional that it seems like it wasn't that long ago. But you would think if you survive such a traumatic event that your body would automatically want to store the memory away. I read somewhere once that even if your mind forgets the anniversary of your child's death, your body will always remember. Seems as though my mind and my body want to hold on to the memory forever and ever.

Developmentally Betsy is doing wonderfully. Her eyesight is still perfect. Her hearing is still perfect. She isn't doing a lot of talking but she's working on it. She says "dada" and "uh-oh" and "na-na" and that's about it. She babbles nonstop and you can tell her little mouth is trying to form words but nothing comes out but "dada". She tries and it's so darling to watch. She repeats everything we say, even if it's not what we just said. So funny! She is still seeing Sooner Start for early intervention and we have added a speech pathologist into that mix. Just like with her Sooner Start nurse, they all think she is doing great. We have worked really hard on teaching Betsy sign language which counts as vocabulary. I did not know this. So even though Betsy is not "speaking" words, she is signing so that counts. Therefore, she is not behind in her speech development even though it may seem like it. Amazing, huh?!

The signs she knows are: eat, please, more (these are the easiest to learn and usually the first the child will learn. She learned these about 12 months). She also knows: drink, cracker, toy, play, book, help, ball, car, down, all done, hat, sing, no (although she won't do it very often), number 1, sleep and wash hands.

We are working on learning: thank you (she does it some but not consistently), bed, go, wait, potty, your turn, my turn.

She loves learning new signs and really catches on quickly. Tony taught her to do "number one" in literally 5 minutes. What a smartie!

She is coming along amazingly. She just seems so grown up lately and is really getting big. She was laying down the other day and put her head in Tony's hand and we both looked at each other and laughed. Her whole entire body used to fit in Tony's hand and now just her head does. It's amazing. She is such a good little girl. She never cries and plays so well. She is a busy body and never, never stops! Seriously, this girl is never still!! We have a hard time in church and when we are eating at restaurants because she doesn't like just sitting. But what toddler does, right!?

She has hit the climbing stage but won't climb on just everything. At our house she only will get on the couch and loveseat but hasn't figured out she can climb on just about everything else. Thank goodness. She also hasn't figured out how to climb her bed yet. Matter of fact, she still has her bumper pads in her crib because she likes to sleep up against them and since she hasn't even thought about using them as a stepping mat, we have left them.

She was incredibly easy to wean off the bottle. We did that a few months ago and it was like she never missed it. She never even cried for it. She sleeps like a champ, 12 hours at night and she takes a 2 hour nap during the day. She would sleep longer but I have to wake her up. She's just like me on that because I LOVE to sleep!! I am hoping she is going to be this easy to potty train. Since she loves doing new things I am thinking it will be easy.

She loves going to the park. She loves running and sliding. She has recently figured out how to go behind the slide, climb up the ladder, then slide down. So she really enjoys doing that.



Betsy also had her first dentist appointment. Her baby teeth had been coming in yellow and we couldn't seem to find an explanation of why. First of all, she did wonderful at the dentist. She was being cooperative and still and was very happy. We were anxious that it would be a scary experience but it wasn't and she left with a smile on her face.

Regarding the yellowing of her teeth, of course it is completely prematurity related. The dentist said that when your body is so sick and unhealthy, that it is usually the teeth that suffer since your body is fighting everything off. Well, since Betsy was fighting to basically survive, her teeth became neglected by her body. Also having excessive fevers weakens your enamel as well. Betsy natually had many fevers. She does have enamel, which is good, but the enamel is very weak and that is something that can get better. Structurally everything looks really good so our main focus is just prevention. She gave us some fluroide toothpaste to use and said even though Betsy cannot spit, it is safe to use because what tiny bit of toothpaste we use, any fluroide she injests will absorb in her body and help her permanent teeth. She said we may try to get x-rays next time to make sure the roots are growing normally. Since teeth grow in utero and Betsy did most of her growing out of utero we just have to really watch and make sure they will form normally. As of right now, her teeth are perfectly healthy, just discolored from being so small. Such a small factor as to what could have been...



We are blessed that she is such a happy baby. We wondered if she would be skiddish or afraid since she had such a rough start and was constantly poked and jabbed as a baby. Seems as though her temperment would be a little shy and reserved but she is just always in the best mood. I only hope she continues to do well in all that she does and continues to have such a great attitude. I wish I could "preserve" her like this forever so she would never have to know the stress and hardships of the world. It's hard to watch her grow up but so wonderful all at the same time.