Sitting Like a Big Girl

Look at Holly sitting up playing like a big girl! The girls had their one-year check up with the pediatrician on Friday. Holland weighs 15 pounds 3.5 ounces and is 27 inches long. Eden weighs 13 pounds 7.5 ounces, and is 26 inches long. Their head circumferences are the same at 42cm (if I remember correctly). The pediatrician charts the girls growth on a normal curve based on their actual age of 12 months. Their head circumferences are actually on the chart now, around the 3rd percentile. Their lengths are approaching the curve. We still have quite a ways to go on weight, but they are still showing an accelerated growth pattern which is good. I remember one of the neonatologists at St. Joe's saying that we should give them one year for each month that they were premature before expecting them to "catch up" with their same age peers. This means that around age 4 they should be about the same size as other full term 4-year-olds. Of, course, genetics also plays a huge roll in how big they will be and with John and I as their parents, I doubt they will be very big girls, even if they had been born full term:)

Eden had her MRI today and it went pretty well. She had to be poked 3 times before they got the IV in, which of course I hated. I held up pretty well for the first attempt, but had to sit down to keep from passing out during the next two tries. It's so hard for me to see her in any pain. No matter how much I think I have it together, I always end up in tears. The rest of the procedure wasn't bad. She did better with the sedation and didn't choke on the medicine. Also, she woke up a lot easier and stayed awake playing through the evening. She even finished a couple of bottles before going to sleep.

The MRI was pretty much the last thing we had to finish before getting a surgery date scheduled for Eden's cochlear implant. All that is left now is to get approval from the insurance company and find out how much they are going to pay. We recently learned that our insurance usually pays 80% of the costs, which could leave us responsible for about 20K. If that is the case, we will apply for Children's Special Health Care Services, which will cost just over 7K for the year and will cover whatever the insurance doesn't. The BEST case scenario would be that MY insurance, which will go into effect when I go back to work, will pick up whatever John's insurance doesn't cover and we won't have to pay anything out of pocket. It's all very confusing. Luckily the people at the Cochlear Implant Program have been very helpful in navigating the whole insurace issue with us. Frankly, the whole thing gives me a headache. We're still working on straightening out the 10K worth of hospital/doctor bills that we've accumulated over the past year! Oh well, it's just money, right? And look at what I have to show for it...two beautiful healthy babies!