Johnson Twin Girls: 11 months and Twins with Double Ear Infections

This month has been all about battling ear infections for both babies. Of course they were a couple of days apart in getting them, so this resulted in multiple trips to the doctor's office. The girls (as I have mentioned before) are as tough as nails because the only sign they gave me that they even had the ear infections was when they were digging in their ears. They did not have a cold, run fevers or even stop eating. They were both put on an antibiotic, but that did not clear it. Ava went back and still had the infection in one ear and Emma has it again in both ears. These poor girls have had a rough month of ear infections and doctor visits ( you will see in a picture below of Emma solidly sleeping in her car seat after a doctor visit holding her ear, she wore herself out screaming when the Dr. was checking her ears).

The girls are crawling around everywhere now. I finally got a gate to keep myself from going nuts. As you will see in the picture it is made for dogs, but works well for the twins :). Emma's favorite place is the kitchen and getting into the cabinets. She has shattered a bowl and a jar of Stage 3 food. This was my fault for not clearing the shelf from where she got it from, but she is fast. Ava seems to be more content with playing with her toys rather than getting into trouble. I am sure this will change soon. Emma has started to pull herself up to stand and Ava is very close to doing this as well. They are starting to fight over toys these days. They consistently play tug o war with toys, but they also are going back to grabbing each other's hands (love this), especially on car rides and when they sit in the high chair.

Ava and Emma partied this month with their very first 4th of July. They went to their great Aunt Pat and Uncle Tom's for a pool party. However, it was very rainy a little chilly for them to go swimming. Although they had fun seeing everybody! They also went to a 4th of July party at my parents' house the very next weekend where my mom had several games and prizes for the kids. While they could not play the games, they had fun crawling in the grass and playing with the decorations. My mom bought them some really cute sunglasses and headbands to wear, but of course they would not wear the headbands I got a few pictures with the sunglasses. They will be ready to participate in the games next year. I am sure they will love finding the cherry in the pie pan filled with whip cream (the older kid's favorite game). My mom works so hard on this party and does such an awesome job. Thanks Mom!!!!

We also had Ava and Emma's 1 year pictures taken at Sawyer Point a couple of days ago. I was not holding out much hope for these pictures because it was about 98 degrees out and both babies had ear infections (how could this possibly work in our favor, right?!?!). I have to say while I prepared for the worst situation, they did quit well with the circumstances. I believe the photographer got some good ones.

It is hard to believe that in a couple of days the twins turn 1. It has been one crazy, yet fun year! Our theme is cupcakes for the girls party. I will definitely have lots of pictures to post from their party next month. At this time last year I was getting so anxious for the birth of the girls and so tired of bed rest. All of that seems so far away, this year has flown by! I recently went back and read a lot of the posts that I wrote while on bed rest and boy was it a roller coaster ride week to week. I will never forget this particular Dr. visit/email (posted below) I sent about one of the Dr. visits. It was one of the hardest to hear when the Dr. talked about the survival rate of Baby A. I am even tearing up as I write this. I remember the exact room we were in, where I was sitting, and the Dr. Baby A proved him wrong and these girls fought together!!! We are so blessed and thankful for these baby girls. They amaze me every single day!!!

P.S. Baby B- Emma is the wild baby and Baby A-Ava is the calm one

April 5, 2011

Well what a roller coaster ride this is....the good news is that the blood flow, cervix, and amniotic fluid are all still measuring normal. The bad news is that the size difference between the babies has gotten bigger from two weeks ago. It went from 16% to 26%. The Dr. explained this to be a result of an abnormal placental share. The smaller baby A has a smaller amount of placenta that she is sharing and Baby B has a much bigger amount. They are both definitely growing from week to week (which is good), but Baby A is just not growing to the size she should be at for 20 weeks. The Dr. indicated when the size difference is over 25%, the survival rate of the smaller baby decreases and there is an increased risk of pre-term labor, preeclampsia, babies born early, and a few other scary scenarios. I am supposed to continue my bed rest as I have been doing. I am still allowed to work, but need to sit as much as possible at work. So, needless to say, it was an emotional appointment and we thank you for your continued support, thoughts, and prayers.

Happy Easter!

Jenifer

P.S. On a happy note, these two baby girls are amazing to watch on the ultrasound. Baby B seems to be the wild baby (much like Lydia) and Baby A (much like Melis) is more calm, but they are always near each other in the womb. They have a whole area in my belly to roam, but they are always together. Baby B was sucking her thumb and turned and gave a peace sign during the scan, the tech caught it in a picture and of course my kids loved it!!!

Here are some pictures from this month:

Ava standing with a little help to get there