Utensils and....a hernia?

I realize these 2 things have nothing to do with the other, but it's what we've got going on over here. First, the utensils.

We're slowly making some progress with the use of spoons, forks & bowls. I think that Ava really does the best with it. She does a pretty good job of scooping the food and actually getting it to her mouth. Andrew does okay, but he quickly realizes that he can get the food in his mouth much faster using his hands so we are constantly reminding him to use his spoon and then he'll try it again. And Mia...well, she gets the idea but I think she gets frustrated and ends up dumping her bowl upside down on her tray. It's definitely a lot more to clean up when they are done, but I'm glad they are starting to get it. Here are some pictures of them eating with their forks.

Andrew looks guilty for some reason

Ava keeping her eye on daddy

Mia got most of it in her mouth

Andrew really enjoyed his dinner!

Thursday morning, I woke up and had my day planned in my head. Get the kids up, breakfast, Astrid was coming over for a playdate, lunch, nap (maybe errands), dinner and then I was going to see SATC2 with Stephanie & Peter. Very excited about the day until Alex was changing Ava's diaper before he left for work and called me to come over and look. She had a huge lump in her groin area. I gently pressed it and Ava cried but I touched it enough to know it was a solid mass and not squishy.

So I called the doctor and explained what it was and they fit me in for an appt a couple hours later. By then, the lump had mysteriously disappeared. What??!! But based on what I described, Dr. Nguyen thinks it might be a hernia. She referred us to a pediatric surgeon to run some tests and see if it is indeed a hernia and that we might have to do surgery. From what I've read, hernias are more common in preemies although it's usually found in boys more than girls. We don't meet with Dr. Bloss for a few weeks so in the meantime, we've been checking her throughout the day and if it pops up again, they will push up our appt with the surgeon to get her in sooner. This definitely threw us for a loop, but for now all we can do is wait....

UPDATE: 30min after I posted this, Ava's hernia popped out again. So looks like I'll be calling Dr. Nguyen in the morning and hopefully we'll get in with the surgeon this week.