The twins’ weekly ultrasound on August 18 was again positive. Zeke’s bladder was “normal;” heart rates were 135 for Gabriel and 144 for Zeke; there were nice pockets of fluid found in both baby’s sacs; and there is plenty of room for the boys to move about, kicking and karate-chopping one another and me. I also got a steroid shot that day (and then a follow-up dose 24 hours later). This is to help speed along the twins’ lung development, since they are undoubtedly going to be preemies.

 

According to the ultrasound, Zeke’s CCAM also remains small and unchanged. On August 20, we finally we finally had a consult with pediatric surgeon Dr. Petty. He says there are no complicated features to Zeke’s CCAM, and he agrees that the benign tumor seems not to be growing. In fact, he explained that the darn thing could possibly even be a cyst, which could just go away on its own. Therefore, Dr. Petty wants to do more imaging of Zeke’s lungs after he is born (around 3 months old) and, if the spot is a CCAM after all, remove it when Zeke is about 6 months old. He believes that CCAMs are a risk for lung infection and that there is also a cancer link for later adulthood. Stephen and I agree, and we we want to nip this in the bud as soon as possible to avoid any future problems.  

Houston Lee is just the light of our life. His warmth, innocence and radiance helps to lift us up on those inevitable days when we feel like life is beating us down. Some of the things he’s really into these days are: 

• yelling “dada” at full volume;
• squealing when he’s being tickled;
• astounding us daily with his smarts;
• doing old signs (like hat, dog, Daddy, more) and new signs (like shoes and bath);
• playing in the bathtub;
• looking cool while donning a drool scarf to contain his teething juices;
• running like an Olympian;
• and hugging/wrestling anyone and everyone, but especially other children.

Click the photo of Daddy playing with Houston in his new Cincinnati Reds hat to view some of the fun we’ve been having this August.