9th of September 2002

After Bree's initial take off, following her open heart surgery, she shortly started to do not so well. Her feedings dropped right off and we were very concerned. Her specialist started talking about inserting a feeding tube into Bree's stomach. Dean and I decided to hold off till after Christmas to give her a decent chance of recovering from her open heart surgery.

Thank goodness we did as Bree decided to take off, both eating wise and developmentally. We have learnt with Bree to never write her off, she just likes to do things at her own little pace.

At Bree's heart op in October she was 10 months old and barely sitting, by her 1st birthday 9th December she was just starting to commando crawl. And then by 26 Dec she was not only crawling, she was also pulling up and cruising furniture. The race was on as to whether Finn or Bree would walk first.

Finn won and Bree then started walking a couple of months later in May.

Bree has been discharged by her feeding, speech and language therapist, her dietician, her visiting neuro development therapist, see's her reflux specialist every 6 months (as opposed to 6 weekly) and has been discharged from Greenlane Heart Hospital till the end of 2003.

Wow our little Miss has fully taken off. We are so proud of what Bree has accomplished, she has taught us all a very valuable lesson, that no matter what, you never ever give up without a bloody good fight.

Like Finn's page I'll do monthly updates for Bree as well.

9th of October 2002.

Today is a very special day for us, as it is the one year anniversary of Bree's 2nd heart operation. Her open heart surgery to repair her multiple VSD's (holes) in her heart. Dean and I shared a very special glass of wine and reminisced how very lucky we are to have our beautiful little daughter.

Bree's month has also been huge. She has started at creche 2 half days a week, also started Gymnastics (60 mins once a week) and Bree is also doing swimming lessons (30 mins once a week).

Bree loves creche, so many dolls for her to play with (my little daughter is so girly, so unlike me?!) They have had trouble getting Bree to SIT during mat time so for now she is in a snap and lock low chair so that she can't escape, LOL. Poor Bree she so just wants to get up and GO, she is a real live wire. I noticed some creche members looking at Bree a little sideways, so I let them know Bree's reasons for being so petite and I also told them of Bree's scars so that they didn't FREAK when they change her nappy.

Bree loves Gymnastics, she is a natural, she loves to climb and hang from the high bar and will give anything and everything a go.

Swimming lessons are going really well. Bree, like her twin, loves to jump from the side of the pool into our arms. She is even learning how to kick her legs.

Bree is also pacifier (dummy/binky) free. We made the decision to get rid of it as she would keep hurling it out of her cot and then crying till we came and gave it back to her. Little minx! So for the first night Dean cut half of it off, but Bree still found a way to suck on it. So Dean cut more off and still the minx found a little to suck on, so then we threw it in the bin. We have had a little crying but it's been a week now and and thank god we are in the clear.

Wow our little girl is growing up!!

9th of December 2002.

Bree has had a check up with her reflux specialist at "Starship Childrens Hospital." It went really well :-) Bree's growth has be phenomanal. They are no longer correcting her for her prematurity but are going on actual age, and she's just below the 3rd percentile for weight and on the 5th percentile for height, whooohooooohooo. Her doc is very pleased with her and doesn't want to see her for another 6 months, way to go Bree.

Today is Bree and Finn's 2nd birthday, wow where has this year gone? Bree has a fantastic day and has fun amongst her friends, family and of course her wonderful new presents :-)

9th of January 2003.

Well here's hoping 2003 is as good a year for Bree as 2002 was! Bree has been having a grand old time with her Grandparents who are staying with us from Melbourne. She has been doing lots of walking, swimming and playing in the sand at the beach.

Her favourite thing of all is playing on the jungle gym at the beach, Bree does all the big kid slides, ropes and ladders. I think someone forgot to tell Bree to play on the toddler jungle gym ;-)

Bree's 2nd year molars are also bothering her, though not as badly as Finn's. And Bree's mum is geting very tired of cooking yummy dinners and having her twins screw their faces up at them, sigh. Please can all teeth come through very quickly!!!!!!

Things are pretty quiet at the moment as we wait for swimming, gymnastics and creche to re-start.