The VP Babies: Update

Evie and Sophie had their first neurodevelopmental assessment appointment today. We met with a physical therapist who tested the girls' gross motor skills, an occupational therapist who tested their fine motor skills, a speech language pathologist who tested their verbal/communication skills, and a developmental pediatrics specialist. They also had a hearing test (which they passed with flying colors) and had measurements taken.

According to the physical therapist, occupational therapist, and speech therapist, both girls are right on track with their developmental milestones! For this part of the appointment, they basically consider Evie and Sophie to only be 5 months, 12 days old -- this is called their corrected or adjusted age and is based on if they'd been born on their due date. The appointment took place right when they should have been napping, so the girls were pretty sleepy and crabby and the therapists couldn't quite get their assessments done the way they would have liked to, but based on what Nate and I told them the girls were able to do, they are right on track (sometimes even a little bit ahead of their adjusted age!)

Evie weighs 18 lbs, 12 oz. (50th percentile when NOT correcting for prematurity!) and Sophie weighs 15 lbs., 8 oz. (15th percentile when not correcting for prematurity.) The doctor was very pleased with their weight gain and said that they don't often see such great results. Several people commented that it was nearly impossible to tell that they were preemies. The doctor told us that, solely based on their cheeks, she knew they were getting enough to eat. :) Because Sophie has not yet hit the growth chart for her length, we were advised to place her back on the preemie formula, which has more protein, calcium, and phosphorus than regular formula and can help with bone growth. Such a bummer for me, but I'm glad she'll be getting what she needs.

The girls will go back for another developmental assessment in July. We knew they were doing pretty well with their development, but it was so nice to hear it from the experts. We have so much to be thankful for!

Here are some recent pics of the babes...

Having lots of fun playing. You can see that Evie is Little Miss Personality!

"We LOVE fruits and veggies!"

Had to take Evie to the ER because she had a hair wrapped around her toe that I couldn't get off. Poor thing! It cut her toe all the way around. Apparently, this is something that they see in the ER on a fairly regular basis! Here's my PSA: Check your kids' toes, people! (and other things, if you have boys...)

The girls were 30 weeks old in this picture, so they were out as long as they had been in! (Disclaimer -- I was really only 28 weeks in the first picture. I never got a chance to get another bump picture since my water broke and I was admitted to the hospital a few days before they were born).