Developmental Roller Coaster Ride

Well, had the twins 9 month check up today...yep, we are on that roller coaster ride, again. Rosie has stopped babbling (noticed it about a month ago shortly after my most recent emergency surgery). I had hoped that it was as a result of me disappearing for two days into the hospital and the advent of 7 of her teeth, however she doesn't seem to have picked babbling back up. She is also a bit delayed in gross motor skills. She is doing a form of the army crawl using her right arm as her main forward thruster. She doesn't yet pull her self up on things. And to top it all off, she is still acting very "breech"ish with her legs often going out sideways (like she is trying to get them onto a ballet bar). She still has great eye contact and is very inter-active. Her only verbal communication is grunting/crying and giggling. I often find myself in the same place I was with AnnaLisa, as a baby, where I tickle her so that I can hear her voice. She is a very happy baby.

With William he started babbling again two days ago after about a month of non-babbling. It had been several weeks since I had heard him babble, but he too was cutting teeth (3) and then he was sick off and on for about two weeks. When you sit him down, he goes to a "tri-pod" stance with his arms holding up his body as he leans forward on them. He can sit up strait, but doesn't much. He usually slowly sinks down to a laying position. He can move around a little bit via army crawl, but he is content to not move or move via rolling. He is not getting stuck by his right arm getting in the way when he rolls anymore. He is also considered in the 4% which is mostly concerning to me because he continues to drop in that area. He looks fairly healthy although lean for a baby. William too has great eye contact and is a happy, mellow guy.

So the pediatrician wants Rosie to be looked at by our Developmental Pediatrician and is referring both kids to AzEIP for evaluation. I am a bit down because I just don't know that I am ready for all this evaluation again. It takes so much out of me emotionally and energy-wise. I am trying to balance the overwhelmingness that comes with this with the guilt of not spending as much time as I would want with the babies. For the most part right now my kids get a lot of my attention, but it is divided up between all six of them. I did not realize how self-consuming I was being about this until Jeff got home and mentioned that he was emotionally exhausted. I thought to myself, "Great, now I "have" to listen to his work issues". Then he said that this whole drive home he was just thinking about the twins and all that goes with these issues and how it is a lot for him to handle as well as the effect it has had on me in the past. I felt very humbled that I had not stopped to think about him being affected by this. We spent the evening doing our favorite thing, sitting next to each other and talking - sometimes I forget how much strength I receive from that.

Well, as a new day approaches, I realize that there is a lot that I need to do. It always amazes me how a good nights sleep helps to put things in perspective for me...sometime even if it is not a good nights sleep.