Best Friends

Natalie loves when anyone reads to her but she especially loves Amy. Oh, and even though I didn't get a picture of it, she also loves when Brian reads to her. Thanks to Amy and Brian for cutting down on the time that I have to spend reading!

June updates

Wow! So much has been happening with Natalie since I last posted. Here is a recap of June in pictures: She finished her first year of preschool. Here she is with her teacher, Miss Davis, who she LOVED! She got glasses in mid-June and has been so good about keeping them on! She started Hippotherapy (again) and Aquatic Therapy (new therapy for her). She's been spending a lot of time with her cousin Ronan. And Kiernan and Carter too. She's been walking like crazy too!
Which makes her so tired that she sleeps all night (ha ha..let's say half the night if I'm lucky) in her new big girl bed!

Interesting article

Just wanted to post a link to an interesting article that I just read about stem cell therapy:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2010/06/05/ST2010060503456.html?sid=ST2010060503456

A WALKER!

Back in January, during a brief encounter with Natalie's school physical therapist, she said to me "I see Natalie being a walker in the future". A few years ago I would have cried with relief if a therapist had told me this. At that time, however, I just thought "I know". This is because even though I had a hard time picturing her actually walking, I was more confident that she would eventually get there even if it wasn't until she was 5 or 6 or even 10!

Now, 5 months later, she's really getting excited about walking. FINALLY! It's as if something clicked for her and she went from doing just about anything to get out of walking to wanting to walk EVERYWHERE and ALL THE TIME! To make it clear to those who don't see her often, she is not walking independently (yet). She walks with someone holding her hands, as you would with a baby first learning to walk, or she uses a walker. Just this week, I was able to borrow a bigger walker than the one that she was using and she really took off with it. I think she feels more secure in it than she did with the other walker which was really too short for her.

Below is a video of her walking this week! Try to ignore Howard's loud background commentary.

Teddy Bear Picnic

Reading in the car

Combining two of her favorite things right now - Dora and books! This is how Natalie keeps herself occupied lately on our drives to and from Dayton. She will look at one page for a long time and then hand the book to me to turn to the next page for her.

Being a mother

For as long as I can remember I wanted to be a mother. I grew up in a large, close family, always with plenty of people around to play and laugh with. I saw my grandparents several times a week and until I was about 14 years old my cousins lived next door to us! I was the oldest of my siblings and cousins and growing up we had tons of fun adventures together.
I never imagined that the road to becoming a mother would be as long and difficult as it ended up being. However, about 4 years ago this month, I was celebrating my first mother's day as a mother-to-be. I know I was so excited but it all felt so unreal. I'd wanted to be pregnant for so long it was almost as if I did not believe that I really was. On top of that, I was pregnant with twins!
Little did I know then that in a few short months everything would change. I went into preterm labor at 20 weeks and was on bedrest in the hospital until 23 weeks and 5 days into my pregnancy when Natalie and Andrew were born. Being thrust into the world of parenting a micropreemie involved so many terrifying decisions with the very first being did I want to even give my children a chance to survive. They were born so early that they had less than 40% chance of surviving and very high likelihood of having significant disabilities. Most readers know that Andrew survived only 2 days and Natalie spent 110 days in the NICU fighting infections, having surgeries, and learning to eat.
So while the road was not easy in any way, I am thankful that I have the chance to be a mother. Being Natalie's mom is the best! Her wonderful personality makes it easier to put her traumatic beginnings behind and just enjoy her each day.