18 months

Friday we took the girls to the doctor for their 18 month check up. It was good all around! Payton weighs 24 lbs 3 oz. , Chloe weighs 24lbs 10oz, and little Jillian weighs 23lbs 1 oz. Jillian is still behind in her weight and height. She is the shortest and skinniest. I am sure one day she will appreciate being the skinniest. The good news is that both Chloe and Payton are now in the average column for both height and weight. The doctor says sometime it takes preemies almost 2 years to catch up, so we are still holding out for Jillian. Most normal 18 month old babies are in the beginning stages of speaking and saying about 5 words on their own. Our girls say at least 5 words, but it takes a lot of prompting to get them to say anything. The goal would be to get them to start volunteering words to us. So we will be trying to work on this in the coming months.

Last Monday, we took Jillian to the ENT specialist. As many of you may or may not know, she is what they call tongue tied. It is where the tip of the tongue is tied down to the bottom of the mouth. Sometimes it can cause eating problems which makes babies not gain weight. This was not a problem for her. However, it can cause speech problems as she gets older. The ENT noted that her tongue was a severe enough case that he could almost be certain that she would have speech issues. His advice was for Jillian to have surgery. He thought it was best to get it taken care of now so she doesn't develop "bad" speech habits. We were very hesitant, but in the long run it is something she needs so we have to do it for her. It is an outpatient surgery. She will have to be put under anesthesia for 30-60 seconds . From start to finish the procedure should last 5-10 minutes. They will just snip the piece that is holding the tongue down and put 2 stitches in it. Her surgery is going to be this Tuesday, October 11th. Please pray for our little Jillian.

On a lighter note, we took the girls to get their pictures taken today. Jillian was not into it at all. The photographer somehow got some good ones and then some not so good ones. They are all in there so have a good laugh. I will post on Tuesday to give everyone an update on Jillian and her surgery.