Here is Kaitlyn and Quinn at Friday's night party at our Community Center. Kaitlyn (our non-eater) had no interest in looking at the camera (or Santa) as she was too busy devouring her candy cane!Here is my online version of my Christmas Letter this year:
Happy Holidays 2008! Dear Family and Friends,
It’s been a very busy year. We never got the chance to send out an official announcement, but we are very proud to announce that Quinn Edward McCarthy was born on July 21, 2008. He weighed 4 pounds 14 ounces, was born 6 weeks early and spent 3 weeks in the NICU. He was just small at birth and needed to learn to eat on his own before he could come home to his big sister! Mom spent 6 weeks on bedrest, 3 of them in the hospital, but today, at 5 months Quinn is doing great. He is suffering from some likely preemie related Reflux (pain while eating) so feeding him can be a bit trying at times, but all-in-all, he’s doing just great!
Quinn now weighs about 12 pounds, is smiling all the time and is a wonderful baby (when he’s not crying from eating!) He loves to watch his Big Sister, and Big Sister could care less about her Baby Brother.
Kaitlyn turned 3 years old on October 4th! The biggest news for Kaitlyn is that we were able to remove her feeding tube a month ago and she isn't vomiting any more! She hasn’t been fed via feeding tube since May, but sadly she hasn’t gained a lot of weight either. She now weighs just 26 pounds (she weighed 24 pounds Christmas 2007). When she wants to eat, she loves it, but still doesn’t eat very much (or often). Every month her eating improves, and it’s a joy to see her devour cupcakes and french fries! Every moms dream! J
Kaitlyn started mainstream preschool in September, but it was determined that she has a lot of developmental delays in which she could be better served by a “Developmental Preschool.” This is a special education program through our school district. She is now going to special school 5 days a week, but she gets to ride the bus, which of course Kaitlyn just loves. Unfortunately, it looks like Kaitlyn is going to be affected by her prematurity for many years to come. She is doing very well in many areas, but is quite behind in others. We are hoping that this program is going to help her be able to better handle Kindergarten when she turns 6. (We will be keeping her behind a year).
As always, you can keep up with Kaitlyn and Quinn on our blog: www.MicroPreemies.com We will be spending Christmas in Los Angeles with Liz’s family this year. Kaitlyn is very excited to have Santa Claus come visit. Seeing Christmas through her eyes is the most joyous thing and we can’t wait for Santa’s arrival. We went to Disneyland over Thanksgiving and Kaitlyn had a great time! (This year, I’m sorry to say, I just don’t have the time to write little notes on each of your cards in interest of just getting them out!) ~~~~ With lots of love, peace and happiness,
The McCarthys: Brian, Liz, Kaitlyn, Quinn & dearly missed Angel Corinne
3 comments:
As usual, the pictures are just darling. What a great looking family. Hang in there!
Hi Liz,
Just reading the latest entry. You look great and I hope you had a Merry Christmas. May the New Year bring lots of good things to you and your family.
Love as always,
Shannon in Austin
Our daughter was born at 25 weeks and 15oz at birth. She has had her struggle for sure. She is now 4 only 30 pounds, has major texture, eating issues that most preemie moms do. She also has a lot of the key signs for austim but all of the people said that she would be caught up by 3. Not our girl. She is mentality I would say 2 1/2 to 3. We have never been able to get a diagnosis for her and fighting to find out to help her more. When she plays or talks now she somewhere in like the 7 year old age. Her mind blows me away. She has bad hand eye coordination, balance issues, struggling to dress her self, she never once babbled , coo, ca, has bad eye contact, used to love the camera now getting her to sit for a picture is impossible. She is OK with kids but freaks out when there is lots of them, will get over stimulated and have a fit or go play alone and get away.
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