 |
| Grandma Susan and Roan circa Christmas 2010 |
LONG NIGHTS JOURNEY INTO DAY /
We had a new night nurse last night. She is about #14 and one of the worst, which was a surprise since all the other nurses from this particular agency have been great.
Sam awoke at about 3:30am to find her sitting next to Lula, completely oblivious that she was SOAKED in sweat and fussing. Sam figured out she had given Lula six times the amount of formula she was supposed to get and didn't even know how much breastmilk she had given her in total. This is a trained LPN (one step down from an RN). Our 20 year old student babysitters are so much better at this. Needless to say she will not be returning.
Luckily Lula is such a trooper that despite her rotten night she was bright eyed and calm when I left her this morning. And Roan slept until 8:30!
I keep vacillating between feeling decidedly cursed and unlucky that Lula has so many problems, and feeling SO lucky that our situation isn't worse. One of this nurses other patients is a 19 year old kid who was in a car accident at 17 and has permanent brain damage. He has a feeding tube and is non-communicative and has no hope of recovering. His father died of a heart attack a year after from stress leaving the mom to take care of the kid by herself.
When I take Lula to Bellevue I see kids who are deformed, listless sacks of malnourished limbs being wheeled from one clinic to the next and I don't know how the parents keep going. What is there to look forward to? How does one survive all the work when there is nothing to look forward to?
INTRODUCING /
Remember this? This was our birth announcement (an email, we never got around to doing printed ones) They are so much bigger now!
introducing our wee man weighing in at 6lbs, 19" long, born June 11th 2010 at 11:37am
Roan Douglas Walker Murray
our little lady weighing in at 5lbs, 3oz, 18.5" long, born June 11th 2010 at 11:39am
Lula Neave Walker Murray
a brief history of their names -
Roan: an island off the north coast of Scotland where Sam's folks have a croft (scottish cottage). the picture attached shows the west side of Roan on the right with the croft in the foreground.
Douglas: Micaelas' grandfather was called Ira Douglas Odgers, Sam's father is Douglas Neil Toler Murray and his grandfather was Thomas Prain Douglas Murray.
Lula: Micaelas' great-grandmother was Tallie Lula Davis (called Lula). She lived on a farm in Mississippi and had 12 children, including triplets...
Neave: also an island near the croft. it's around the headland from Roan, smaller and has a beautiful little beach and remains of a church.
FEET /
FORTUNE COOKIE /
Went to the geneticist today with Lula. He was really happy with her progress and said he had not really been expecting any improvement based on his last exam. He said she was like a different baby, particularly her eye contact and head control.
But he wants to do more tests after she has an MRI at a year old. He suspects it could be a syndrome related to slow brain growth, but he wouldn't even tell me the name of it since it's just a hunch and I am sure he knew I would google it.
Lula sat with us at dinner, which was chinese takeout as chosen by Caity, who is visiting from Prague. Gracie sat next to Lula suddenly seemed to notice the dog for the first time and really stared at her and followed her with her eyes.
My fortune cookie read:
"The important thing is to never stop questioning".
THIS IS MY VERY FIRST POST /
OK, I really should have started this blog ages ago when the tide of requests for photos and videos nearly washed me away, but I have twins so what do you expect?
Anyhow, I am going to backtrack a bit. Let's start waaay back at the very beginning, shall we?
I think these scans are from about 20 weeks or so into the pregnancy. I think you can already tell who is who here.
 | |
| Baby A (later known as Roan) |
 |
| Baby B (aka Lula) |