7 Months

Only a few days late, but Carter and Emma are now 7 months old! That means we are closer to their 1st birthday then we are to their birth, which just seems so crazy to me!

Emma and Carter have really seemed to notice one another and interact, it's so cute!

For the most part they really seem to like one another's company, unless it involves the other scratching their face or stealing their toys, then they scream pretty loud!

Carter is such a ham!

He just loves people and is always all smiles! Carter is now sleeping by himself in his crib for naps and bedtime. He is only waking 1, sometimes, 2 times a night and usually just needs his binkie. Carter now says Mama and Da. When he's sad or mad he just cried Mama, over and over again until I get him. Carter still loves his bottle and prefers it over baby food, he'll eat maybe one serving of baby food a day, if that. I just started putting away both Carter's and Emma's 3-6 month clothes and taking out their 6-9 month clothes. Most of the 6-9 month clothes still are huge, but they can wear them. Carter can roll himself both ways and will sit unassisted for a few second at a time. Carter has managed to get himself up on all fours a couple times, but no crawling yet. Carter has become a happy yeller and yells as high pitch as he can when excited. Carter's bottom tooth has finally poked through, but it hasn't come all the way out yet.

Emma is still pretty snobby and standoffish with other people. She has awful stranger anxiety, which our doctor says is really earlier, so hopeful it gets better and not worse over time. Emma is a great sleeper for the most parts and usually sleeps through the night. Emma can say Mama and Dada as well, but doesn't use them as often as Carter. A few times Emma has said baba when she wanted a bottle. Emma prefers baby food and table over her bottles and now has a nutty when other people are eating around her. I have to force Emma to drink her bottles during the day. Emma rolls both ways as well, but hates trying to sit unassisted, she will usually just throw herself back. Emma knows how to wiggle back and forth to move herself across the room to Grace's toys and is so proud of herself once she gets them. When Emma wakes up in the morning she often is such a goof ball, but otherwise she's pretty serious.

Both Carter and Emma were discharged from Early Intervention today because they no longer qualify. This is great news because it means they are meeting all their milestones and have nothing to be concerned with at the time, yet I'm so nervous they will suddenly fall behind.

Neither Carter or Emma were really into their monthly pictures this month:

Tummy Time

We've been putting the babies on their bellies as much as possible lately to help strengthen their head control. Emma has a lot better control then Carter does, but we're working on it and EI works on it a lot with both babies.

"Well, hello there!"

 We spend most of our belly time drooling...

or playing princesses....

or eating our hands!

Carter

"yoooo Adrianne!"

"Seriously Mom, enough with the pictures!"

 Double tummy time!

 Grace thinks that tummy time means it's time to climb all over Mama!

Early Intervention

If you remember about a month ago we had the babies evaluated for early intervention and they qualified. Last week the Developmental Specialist came and worked with Carter. We all played on the floor together. She had Carter lay on his belly to try to get him to work on his head control. She also shook toys to try to get him to find the noise and follow it. Carter was very vocal and did some babbling when spoken to. He was also able to hold his head up for short periods of time.

Today the specialist came to work with Emma. She did lots of talking to Emma to try to get her to coo. Emma is sort of slacking in the vocal department. After lots of encouragement Emma did manage to let out a few sounds here and there. Emma was all smiles the whole time though and loved looking at her self in the mirror.

The things the specialist wants us to continue to work on is tummy time to improve their head control and singing to encourage vocalizing.

Today we also went ahead and had Grace tested just to make sure that she is where she needs to be development wise. Grace did not qualify, which is good news. Grace is currently 26 months, her scores are as follows:
       fine motor- 30 months
       gross motor- 34 months
       cognition- 33 months
       expressive- 27 months
       receptive- 23 months (they did say there was a glitch in their scoring system and they were missing the score for this, so she scored low because there was missing  parts)        social emotional- 34 months
       self care- 27 months
Grace needed to score at 19 months in order to qualify. It was very reassuring to know that Grace is where she needs to be development wise.

The specialist will be back weekly to work with the babies.

Early Intervention

While the babies were in the Special Care Nursery the physical therapist evaluated them and referred them to Early Intervention because they are preemies and multiples. Early Intervention came out last week to evaluate them to see if they qualify for services. Both babies did qualify.

Emma's scores were:
       fine motor- 1 month
       gross motor- 0 months
       cognition- 1 month
       expressive- 0 months
       receptive- 2 months
       social emotional- 2 months
       self care- 0 months
Emma is eligible for services based on delays in gross motor (lack of head control), expressive language (no cooing), and self care (feeding.) The Developmental Specialist will come every 2 weeks to work with Emma.

We are going to have EI evaluate Grace as well, just to be on the safe side to make sure Grace is where she needs to be developmentally. 

Carter's scores were:
       fine motor- 1 month

       gross motor- 0 months

       cognition- 2 month

       expressive- 2 months

       receptive- 2 months

       social emotional- 2 months

       self care- 0 months
Carter is eligible for services based on delays in gross motor (lack of head control) and self care (feeding.) The Developmental Specialist will come every 2 weeks to work with Carter.