Today SG and I went for her evaluation with Early Intervention of Shelby County.  Owen had training, and we really wanted to get it over with, so we decided not to reschedule.

Early Intervention (EI) is a free program offered to anyone in the county to help your child “catch up” developmentally if need be. 

Every child can be evaluated to see if they meet the criteria to enter the program, but the child must lack at least 25% in one area of development.  Or have an extenuating circumstance…i.e. prematurity…to qualify.

Fortunately and unfortunately, SG does not qualify.  She is performing on a 5 month level in all but 2 areas, and those 2 areas (socialization & hand to hand transfer of toys) she is on an 8 month level. 

This is good news, because it means that developmentally she is right on target!  Which is awesome!  But semi bad news because we want her to get that extra “push” so that she doesn’t have to be held back a grade in school.

BUT!  Since she was born premature, they are going to let her in the program.  Here’s how it works…

Once a month, a therapist will come to our house and “play” with SG.  The therapist will then give us instructions on how we can “play” while they are not there, so that we can help her on a daily basis. 

For her, it’s just little things, like learning to roll over, reach for toys, etc.  But with this extra push from the therapist, she’ll get there faster than if we didn’t push her. 

So we’re excited for this opportunity.  It will be a good way to help me learn what she should me doing, so that I can help her.  And it’ll be a double bonus for Baby #2 (still not named), so that I’ll know the developmental milestones she’s supposed to hit and when, and I’ll know how to help her!

*Don’t forget to click on the link to the right to donate to our March of Dimes walk on April 24th!  Or better yet, sign up to come walk with us!!*

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Most people that are following this blog, started doing so last July when I unexpectedly went into premature labor when pregnant with our daughter Sayla Grace. If you're new, you can catch up on that part of our story by starting here.

As you may know, our doctors are still unsure as to why I delivered early...13 weeks early to be exact. And unfortunately, it happens all too often, and we don't hear about it.

One organization is working to change all of that. You may have heard of the March of Dimes before, but may be unaware of what they do. The mission of March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.

I never thought twice about them as a charity, but now they are my life. It is because of research like theirs that we are now taking a different approach to our second pregnancy. Research like theirs that helped develop the methods used when Sayla Grace was born to help save her tiny life.

Our tiny miracle survived because of their mission. I want to give back to them, so that others can avoid the heartache and struggle we went through.

But I need your help.

I know times are tough right now, but this is an issue that holds such a special place in my heart, that I hope you are able to help too.

You can help in one of two ways, or both! First, you can simply donate. Click on the link to the right, and donate any amount you are able to help fight the fight against premature birth.

Or, you can join us!! Come walk with us on April 24th! Click on the link to the right and sign up to walk with us!! And if you sign up by April 17th, I will provide you with a Team Sayla Grace shirt to wear on our walk!! I haven't designed them yet, but I'll post a design once I do.

Or, get the best of both worlds and do both!! I'm hoping to raise at least $1,000 for this cause. (All donations go directly to March of Dimes to help fund their research in the areas of premature birth, infant mortality and birth defects.) It's really a small amount compared to the cost of having a premature baby. If we did not have insurance, our hospital bills would have been well over half a million dollars!!! And while these donations don't go towards any individual hospital stay, they will help families avoid those bills by avoiding premature birth due to their research.

As I mentioned, this is a very worthwhile charity. Won't you consider helping these tiny hearts?

We thank you for your support.

And most of all, our daughters thank you.

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Here are some slide shows for your amusement. They are random, and some pictures are a bit dated now. Ignore the pictures of the random house...we love to look at houses we might like to buy, but this one had some major issues. I made them "extra-large" so you can see them better. It's probably messing with the layout of the blog, but I figure you care more about the pictures than the layout!! The ones at the bottom are the most recent (taken this month).

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So I guess this is what it’s like for everyone to be sick all at once (minus me…yet).

On Monday afternoon SG and I went to her weekly Physical Therapy appointment at St Vincent’s.  It was a great appointment…in fact, she’s doing so great we don’t have to go back!

But then Monday night she started having tummy issues.  I’ll spare you the gory details, but let’s just say it was bad. 

By Tuesday evening I had changed 14 messy diapers, and she was getting dehydrated.  After a few conversations with the on-call nurse, a few tears shed by me and her, we fixed her up with some Pedialyte and put her to bed.

Wednesday we were at the doctor, seemingly better.  But wouldn’t you know it as soon as we got home, it started all over again.  But not as bad.

And today, she was vastly improved, but decided she no longer wanted to eat.  So we battled that all day, but by bedtime she was back to her old self.  I’m hoping she sleeps until morning and wakes up bright eyed and bushy tailed. 

But one thing she learned while she was sick was how to share!  Her Daddy had to leave work early today because he was so sick.

Straight to bed he went, with a nice little fever.  And Bitty and I were off to the store in the tornados to get some goodies.

Thank goodness Gatorade was BOGO free, and the Chicken Noodle soup was 3 for $5.  So we racked up and headed home.

So now both sick babies are in bed, and I’m finding some time for myself!!  It’s so nice I’m not sure what to do with myself! 

On the other baby front, as you see from the previous post, we’re 98.9% positive it’s another girl!!  I have to leave the 2.1% because we found out at 15 weeks, which is WAY early to find out, so I’m not allowed to paint the room until our next appointment.

Owen is still holding out that it’s a very modest boy, but I can tell you he’s wrong.  We saw her goods…she’s not shy. 

We have NO CLUE what we’re going to name her.  We can’t agree on anything, and are actually going quite the opposite way with our choices. 

I think we sort of backed ourselves into a corner with Sayla Grace’s name…it has so much meaning, and is so unique, that it’s hard to just name the next child something simple with no meaning.  But searching for that perfectly unique, deep meaning name sure is difficult. 

We have boy names out the wazoo, but it’ll be our luck that we never have any.  I told Owen he’s got one more shot at a boy after this, then we’re adopting. 

But that’ll be a ways down the road…hopefully!

As far as bed rest, as of right now I don’t have to be on it.  But that could change at a moment’s notice.  I still take the Procardia to prevent contractions, and starting at week 20 I’ll get the weekly Progesterone shots.  And hopefully between the two I’ll be on my feet for the rest of the 40 weeks, though we’ll take 32 weeks. 

I feel fabulous…much better than I did with SG.  I feel more healthy and smaller…although I’m still quite huge for this early. 

The bad thing is I’m not allowed to exercise, so I really have to watch what I eat.  And if you were at all involved with my last pregnancy, you know I LOVE to eat.  Heck, I love to eat even when I’m not preggers.  So it’s tough.  But I now know the consequences, so I’m being careful.

The girls will share SG’s room.  I’m going to paint one wall pink (finally) and add a few more decorations.  We ordered another crib to match SG’s the other day, so they will match.  They turn into twin size daybeds, so they will be in the same room for a while.

Sorry there are no pictures yet.  Somehow with 3 pc’s in our house, I never seem to find the time to get on the one with the pictures on it.  That, and I take most of them with my phone it seems, and I haven’t figured out how to get them off my phone onto the computer except through Facebook.  So there are tons of pictures there.  Look me up if you haven’t already.  Even if it’s just to see pictures!  I don’t mind. 

I’ll try my hardest to get some pictures on here for you.  I promised a few posts ago, and I haven’t lived up to that…so I’ll try harder!!

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GIRL!!!!!

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