No helmet for Charlie!

Today we had our appointment with the craniofacial team at St. Peter's to assess Charlie's head and see if the flattening he has will require a helmet to correct. Joe and I were both a little anxious for the appointment, because we were fairly certain that the doctor was going to recommend a helmet for Charlie. While the helmet is certainly no big deal and we know plenty of babies who wear them, we just really wanted to avoid the whole thing all together. So we were thrilled when Dr. Lucas of the craniofacial team pronouced the flattening of Charlie's head "mild" and said that he saw no reason to intervene to correct it. He was confident that Charlie's head would round out just fine on it's own as he grew. Yay!

And the diagnosis from the craniofacial doctor was not the only good thing about our visit to St. Peter's today. We got to visit with so many of our favorite people there! First, we ran into Dr. Hiatt in the office waiting room. For those who don't already know, Dr. Hiatt is the head neonatologist at St. Peter's and was in charge of our babies' care during their NICU stay. We adore him and are always so thrilled to see him. Aside from being a thoroughly awesome doctor he is a sweet, kind man who still clearly cares very much about Charlie and Lily.

After seeing Dr. Hiatt, we met up with Nurse Sue. Sue was one of Charlie's two nighttime primaries in the NICU and we are still close with her today. We email a lot, but haven't actually seen Sue since the day Charlie left the NICU. She came to the hospital today just to see our boy, and it was wonderful to visit with her.

After our craniofacial appointment, we went over to the NICU to say hello. This week was National Nurses Week, and we had to acknowledge our favorite nurses! We dropped off two big cookie trays for the nursing staff, and got to visit with some of our beloved nurses. Lily got to see her two daytime primaries, Julia and Linda, and even scored a quick snuggle from Julia. Charlie caught up with one of his daytime primaries, Cyd, and both babies got a visit from Rom and Peter, two of the resperatory therapists who Charlie and Lily kept on their toes during their NICU stay ;) It was so nice to see all our old friends. Next weekend is the annual St. Peter's NICU reunion, and we're really looking forward to seeing the rest of our nurses there, as well as catching up with some of the parents and babies we became close to during our stay.

So Charlie's head is all clear! In other news, the babies are finally getting over the colds that plagued them for over a week. We saw the pediatrician again on Monday who told us that both babies' lungs sounded better and we were given the okay to stop the nebulizer. Lily's ears were clearing as well. They've finally started sleeping through the night again (they had been waking up coughing and stuffy during the night) and today Charlie finally began taking his bottles again after a good week and a half of essentially refusing all formula. The only plus to that was that he began eating solids and now chows his oatmeal, veggies and fruit like a champ.

That's all the updates I have for today, but I do have a ton of cute pictures that I found on the camera to share!

Words can not describe how much I love this picture of me and my bug.
Chewbacca! Joe calls Charlie "Chewie" in honor of all the growling noises he makes (Joe says Charlie sounds like Chewbacca). So my mom was thrilled when she found this Chewbacca shirt for Charlie. He seems to like it too.

Charlie and Lily are thisclose to sitting up on their own. Here Lily is practicing her sitting skills while playing with her penguin friend. "Hi, penguin!"

"Oh no! He fell over!"

"I didn't do it, Mommy, I swear! He was like this when I found him!"

"I don't know Mommy. This isn't really as fun as Lily says it is."

On the recommendation of my friend Lauren, I picked up some Baby Mum Mums for Charlie and Lily to try.

"Are you sure this is supposed to go in my mouth, Mommy?"

"Um.....I'm not really sure how I feel about this..." (Please ignore the filthy high chair. Lily went wacky with her sweet potatoes.)

"Okay, we'll try them for you, Mommy!" (Notice my friend Lauren's son, Daniel, eating his Mum like a champ.)

With RSV season over, Charlie and Lily have finally been able to meet some of their friends! Here's me and my very best friend Colleen with our babies. Her son Danny is 8 months old.
Charlie, Lily and Danny getting to know each other.

Charlie and Lily also had a play date with my friend Colleen's (different Colleen!) daughter Abbie. Charlie thought Abbie was very pretty :) Lily was apparently too mesmerized by the red bird to pose for this picture.

And just yesterday, Lauren came by with her son Daniel. Charlie was happy to have some guy time.