Melissa Kerkhove was born on July 28, 2004 after what seemed to be a normal labor and delivery. From the get go I questioned if she was OK. She slept from birth 10-12 hours straight without eating. She had very poor head control and she would always try to arch her head back. Continue reading
Year: 2010
May 24, 2010
Swimming all the time-Melissa is having a ball swimming in the pool where we are staying. She is having her ups and downs as normal while we are treating it is most common for us to see the “big” changes when we get home.
I feel like we are seeing even more understanding with her when asking her questions. She is even more consistant with shaking her head “yes” and “no”. We are meeting with a speech therapist while we are here. She is very excited with what she is seeing with Melissa and is going to work on a picture system for Melissa. I am so excited that we are working toward giving Melissa more options to communicate. This picrure system will ultimately give her way more opportunities to communicate with us what she needs.
May 17, 2010
We are doing more hyperbaric oxygen therapy on Melissa in Madison WI. We are doing 30 more when we are done Melissa will have done 136 treatments. We decided to come now while the babies will sleep about anywhere and non-mobile. I’m sure by fall I will not be wanting to be out and about as much with Melissa, Ruben, and Tayla.
My hope with these treatments is that Melissa will sit up on her own. The ability to sit up would open more opportunities for Melissa. I would be thrilled if she could learn to feed herself and a way to communicate without crying and complaining.
Melissa sat up without support for 10 seconds on Sat! It is a huge start consitering a year ago she wasn’t even doing that good of a job supporting her upper body let alone balancing by herself.
Her body is getting long, long, long she has grown over 4 inches in the last 1/2 year.
She continues to shake her head yes and no more often and with more accuracy. She has also improved so much on her ability to choose and item when given a choice. The hard part is trying to figure out what she wants to choose from!
We still continue to try to get her to communicate in other way then crying but there are days that she just scream and yells at us out of frustration when we can’t figure what she wants or needs.
She enjoys Tayla and Ruben I know this not because she smiles and coos when they are around because she doesn’t glare at them like she did when Cade (her nephew) was born. Thanks to Cade she was good with the babies when they came home. FYI she loves Cade now as well.
May 13, 2010
Our babies are five months old already-how did that happen. Life is like a whirl wind most days seem to end before it feels like they have begun. We are certainly enjoying have two new members to our family. We are however conditioned to Melissa and are having to remind ourselves on a regular basis that they are not Melissa and that we need to do things different with them.
Ruben and Tayla have such different personalities and they seem to do different things better then the other. Ruben loves to hold and chew on toys (I’m pretty sure he has started teething as he is drooling like crazy too). He went though a time when he smiled with his tongue sticking out it was so cute! He is much more of a talker then Tayla. He will look you straight in the eye and just talk, talk, talk.
Tayla is more intent on her surroundings she studies and tries to get everything around her. She has strength like I have never seen her huge thighs are all muscle. She prefers to stand and there are times that we can’t even get her into a sitting position. She smiles with her mouth open and it her eyes light up when she does just as Ben’s eyes do too. Tayla’s personality has mellowed while she is still out to grab everything the world has to offer and she still can go from 0-mad in 10 seconds she has discover her thumb and on some days her two fingers boy is she content with them. Ruben on the other hand would rather have someone comforting him.
Feeding is going great they are still on just breastmilk and other then a couple of colds they have been very healthy. Ruben is over 13lbs and Tayla is over 14lbs they are growing at about the same pace since a cople of weeks after being on, on demand feedings.
We are in Madison Wisconsin doing more treatments on Melissa right now and the babies are adjusting good.
March 28, 2010
Well, it seems like it has been forever since I last updated. Melissa is doing amazing. Since the babies have been born-all three of them (Cade(her nephew) Tayla and Ruben(her siblings) Melisaa has gotten a “can do” attitude. Before she was content to just be she had no ambition to push her self or for that matter let anyone else push her so she could improve faster. She just seems more relaxed and happier since Ruben and Tayla have been born.
She is rolling consistantly now when on the floor. We can’t leave her unattened on the floor for more then a few minutes without having to make sure that she has not moved herself off the rug and padding and onto the hard wood floor.
She continues to shake her head yes and no and I would say that about 50% of the time she is accurate. Her choice making when given two things to choose from is also pretty good now. She continues to smack her lips when she want to drink-yea! It is so refreshing to have her be able to communicate by more then just screaming.
Last week she grabbed the spoon out of Tucker’s hand when he was feeding her and held onto it for about 30 seconds-amazing! Yesterday when her therapist were feeding her she stuck her hand into her food and grabbed a whole handful-which I then helped her get to her mouth. Up till now she has had very little success grabbing or holding things.
She seems to be at a crossroads right now. It is hard to believe that she is the same little baby who we wondered if she would make it to her first birthday. We are so blessed and have so many things to be thankful for!
March 26, 2010
March 26, 2010
The babies are doing great. Ruben and Tayla are smiling every day and we are enjoying them alot! Tayla is now 13lbs and Ruben is almost 12lbs. They both do such a good job of holding their heads up even when on their bellies. They are both such good natured babies. They love to hang out and be held.
March 12, 2010
March 12, 2010
Tayla and Ben are looking less and less like a newborns. Their personalities are blossoming. Tayla is the dominant twin and Ben is the laid back twin. We are sure that when they get a little older that Tayla will be the one telling Ben what to do as well as directing him what to get into. Tayla’s Phenylalanine level is good she is in the normal range with the medicine she is on. They are growing so fast. They are really looking around at their surroundings. Tayla loves to stand. There are times when she will get really mad if you don’t let her stand up. She is so muscular I have never met a baby as muscular as she is. They both are able to hole their heads up when on their bellies as well as when they are upright. We are beginning to smile as well. After having Melissa I am just in awe at their abilities and their strengths. Every little mile stone is celebrated in our house!
Feb 13, 2010
The babies are doing great. They have passed their due date and should officially be here now. They are two months old already-where does the time go? Tayla is 8lbs 15oz and Ben is 8lbs 1oz. Tayla is getting all of her food by nursing. She has been doing this for some time. I think we only needed to use bottles for the first couple of weeks we were home. Their strength amazes me. Tayla is stronger the Ruben but they both can support their entire upper bodies including their heads-Amazing! Melissa still doesn’t have that much control of her body. They love to be near each other and even have special sounds for communicating with each other-it is so sweet. We are loving the new additions to our family.
January 10, 2010
January 10, 2010
We are adjusting to being home. I will be trying to play catch up for some time. The kids are in love and fight over who gets to hold the babies. Ruben is nursing like a champ and gaining nicely. Tayla is nursing better but we still need to give her part of her food by bottle as she still is not transfering the milk as well as her brother. We have doctors appointments on Tues and it will be our first outing. I am not looking forward to it as we will be gone most of the day. We also will be going to Children’s Care to finish getting Melissa’s new wheelchair fitted to her.
Jan. 10, 2010
Life has been taking us along for the ride the last six months that I have not updated. Melissa is doing great. She is a big sister to a brother and a sister for those of you who have not seen the siblings update page. She is taking this great and seems to really be adjusting well. She spent the month I was in the hospital at home with her siblings and did very well.
She is growing and growing-she is almost the size of a normal 5 year old. Just since Sep she has grown 3 inches! She is now 39 in long.
Since doing Hyperbaric she is a different girl. She is so much stronger. Every time she is on the floor now she rolls over from her back to her front. She is able to support herself on her tummy and hold her head up nicely. Her ability to sit up is amazing-not quite all on her own but very close.
She is doing a good job when she decides to answer a question. She seems to use yes and no the right way. She is getting into reading books with Josiah. They like to read the “I Spy” books.
Melissa going to Children’s Care did not work out. It has turned out to be a blessing that she is still at home. Melissa is now getting therapy in our home. We are working with the school district and she gets PT, OT, Speech, and Special Ed. We will continue with pool therapy when we get back to normal now that the babies have been born.
We finally figured out what we are getting for a wheelchair for Melissa. She will be getting a bigger Kid Kart. We go next week to finish getting it fitted on her.
Hope for Melissa 