Christmas

Justin had so much fun Christmas morning. He loved his Construction truck book that we got him. He wouldn't stop looking at it. It was so much fun!
Fisher and Hunter slept so good in the been bag. They were even holding hands. It was so precious.

We made chocolate peanut clusters and chocolate preztels for Family Night the week of Christmas. Justin had so much fun helping. It was a lot of fun to do as a family. Tyler and Justin are the ones who love to cook around here.

Blessing Day

On Sunday we blessed the boys at home. It was such a sweet experience.

SNOW DAYS

Justin loves playing in the snow. Tyler taught Justin to scoop the snow with his skid steer. Hopefully, I can upload a cute video of him running the skid steer around.

Last week, I snuk out of the house while my mom watched the twins and me and Justin played in the snow. I had more fun than I was expecting.

Justin loved helping me shovel the drive way. I gave him the dust pan and he went to work! It was so much fun!

The snow on this day wasnt much for packing. This was the best snowman we could muster up. Justin was proud of it though. He set it on the porch step to "save it for Dad."

2 Month Check Up

We took Fisher and Hunter in for their two month check up this week. Fisher is 21 1/2 inches long and weighted 10 lbs 2 ozs, and Hunter is 21 1/2 inches and weighted 8 lbs 12 ozs. Both were tough for their shots.

Justin also went to the doctor to get an X-ray on his foot. He jumped off the couch and has been limping on it. The good news is that it is not broken, just a deep bruise.

A Reunion In Heaven

Grandma Helen passed away on Sunday, November 29th. Click here for the obituary.

What a reunion in heaven it must have been. It has been 52 years since her sweetheart (my mom's dad) tragically passed away, 52 years since her son (my mom's twin), Erik, died; and 6 years since her son, John, died. Oh what a happy day it must have been for sweet Grandma Helen!

I love you Grandma!

A few pictures

Who needs pie when you can just eat the cream?

Hunter and Fisher on Thanksgiving Day. They are 8 weeks old.

This is our best attempt at a picture with all 3 boys. Hunter, Justin, and Fisher.

Our first family outing. Its a tight squeeze in my car. We will be shopping for a new vehicle soon.

Grandma Helen

When I told Grandma Helen that I was having twins she was so happy and very excited. She also had twins. My mom has a twin brother, Eric. Eric died after a few short days because his lungs weren't fully developed. Grandma has always talked about someone in the family having twins and was so excited that they were finally coming.

The last little while Grandma has had a hard time remembering things but the other day when I went to see her she surprised me. I walked in the room and our conversation went like this:

Hill: "Hi Grandma."

Grandma: "Did you bring babies?"

Hill: "Yes."

Grandma: "Are they going to let you bring them in here to see me?"

Hill: "Yes, I can bring them in to see you."

Grandma: "Well, bring them to me."

Grandma hasn't had the chance to see the twins yet so it was exciting for me to take them to see her. I was surprised when she recognized who I was and all she was concerned about were the babies! She was so cute. I let her hold both of them together and she was so happy.

Grandma Helen is very close to Heaven. She is 86-years-old. She has always been such an example of strength to me. She has persevered through many many trials in her life.

I love you Grandma!

UPJ Blockage

UPJ stands for ureteropelvis junction. Hunter has a a ureteropelvis junction blockage. So what that means to us.... we have to go back to Primary Childrens Hospital in 6 months and do some testing. Most children with this problem grow out of it by 18-24 months of age. So we will watch it and re-test every 6 months. If he grows out of it then we do nothing but if he doesn't grow out of it then he will have a surgery that relocates the uretur tube in the kidney.

This is good news. And the even better news is that this problem doesn't cause him any pain. So all of his crying is not from his kidney but from his tummy. Yeah, he cries alot but we still love him!

The happenings

Everyone keeps telling me its time to post some more pictures. So here are some random snap shots.


Fisher: I figure he is close to 9 1/2 lbs now. He is putting on the chubbies everywhere! You should see his legs. He is my low maintenance baby. He eats well (fast) and sleeps pretty good. He is drinking 5 oz, wearing 0-3 months clothes, and size 1 diapers.


Hunter: This is the high-maintenance babe. He likes to be held ALOT; which isn't so bad except I feel bad that I have to split holding time amongst 2 babies and a toddler. Hunter drinks 4 oz, wears newborn clothes, and newborn diapers. He is about 8 1/2 lbs now. Someone asked if his hair just stands up like that on its own and yes, it does it on its own. There is nothing that keeps it down! We love our "Hunter Baby"

One morning I checked on them to find that they had wiggled some in the night. Usually their heads are by their binkies.

Justin loves to play on the blanket with them. This night he got a truck for each one of them. Justin is so excited for the time that they can actually play with him. Oh, check out the Big Brother pj's that Justin is so proud of.

Justin loves Tummy Time. He especially loves when we go "down dares" (downstairs) when Dad gets home for tummy time. We turn on the fire place and just relax as a family.

Justin periodically asks to hold one of the brothers. It never last very long but we always try to give him the chance. Here he is with Hunter right before bedtime snacks.

I took Hunter to Primary Children's Hospital on Thursday for some testing on his kidney. It still has extra fluid in it. We meet with the doctor on Monday to see what we need to have done to fix it. In this picture they are putting some radioactive medicine in through an IV to determine the function of his kidneys. The left kidney appears to be draining and functioning properly but the right kidney does not drain the fluid. They call this hydronephrosis. Hunter was a champ and did so good for all of his testing!

Back when they were drinking 2 1/2 oz we pre-made all their bottles for the day. This is what our fridge looked like. We labeld the tops with F1, F2, F3..... (for Fisher) and H1, H2, H3.... (for Hunter) so we kept things in order. At this point in the game they were both taking different formulas and we were mixing different amounts of breast milk in for each one. Now we are on the same formula and zero breastmilk!! No more pumping!!!
We love our Justin. He has been so patient with the changes in our family! He has been an AWESOME big brother.

6 weeks

Yesterday the twins hit 6 weeks old. I can hardly believe it. We got a weight on them on monday. Fisher surpassed Hunter and now weighs 8 lbs! Hunter weighed in at 7-10!
Fisher started at 4-7 and Hunter started at 4-9. They are getting close to double their original size!

They are growing!

Dads a pee-on

Yesterday Tyler had quite the day. Everyone one of the boys peed on him! Fisher and Hunter managed to pee on Dad at least once. The best one of all though was Justin. Tyler and Justin got in the big jetted tub together. Justin stood up, took the stance and peed all over Tyler's legs. He laughed and said "Pee on Dad!" The way I figure it is that Justin must have thought it was funny when I told him that the brothers peed on Dad and he wanted to be just like them.

oh, and I just have to mention that last night Justin started doing darndest cutest thing ever. When one of the twins cries he pats their arm or tummy and says, "Don't cry baby brother. Don't cry."

The good and the bad

There are the good nights and then there are the bad nights. Last night was a good night. I woke up at 1:00 am, had both babies fed and back in bead by 2:15 am and then was up at 5:00 am to feed again. Tyler helped on the 5:00 feeding so I got back in bed at 5:30 and slept till 8:00 am. That was the best night yet.

Then there are the bad nights. The night before last was the worst. I went to bed at 11:30 pm and got up at 12:30 am for feeding #1. I didn't crawl back into bed until 5:30 am. Yes, that is 5 hours that we were up in one stretch. All 3 kids were up at the same time. 4 of us were crying - Justin, Fisher, Hunter and mom. And once I got to bed at 5:30 I was back up to feed again at 7:00 am. I remember doing 2 feedings without any sleep in between. I am not quite sure what happened other than it was complete madness.

It is a good thing that we had a good night last night. I am hoping for a similar good night tonight. We will find out soon enough as it is 9:00 pm and I am going to try to get Justin down!

Night times are definitely the hardest thing with the twins.

By the way, Fisher weighs 7-3 and Hunter 7-4! They are growing!

Life with the 3 boys

Justin is starting to adjust to being a big brother. He wants to wear his "Big Brother" shirt everyday and he is starting to get protective of who holds his brothers. Today when Grandma Sing came to help he told her "My Hunter" when she went to pick him up.

This picture was on Saturday just before me and Justin went Trick-o-Treating. Dad stayed home with the twins. Thanks Dad!

Hunter, Justin and Fisher:

Hunter & Fisher in their new favorite spot...the bean bag! They snuggle right down and look so content in the bean bag. Fisher is putting on the pudge. I would dare say that he is going to surpase Hunter very soon. Their last weights were 6-10 and 6-11. Their next weight is tomorrow.

Life with 3 kids is getting a little easier. We are starting to figure out a few tricks to help with the schedule. If you can call it a schedule. Today was Tyler's first day back to work since the twins came home and I survived it ok (Thanks to help from Grandma Sing).

Q. How is it going?

A. We are in survival mode to say the least.

Everyone wants to know how we are doing since the twins came home. So here it goes...

• 2 feedings each night times 2 babies plus pumping = very little sleep
• one poop machine (Hunter) = a 24 pack of diapers in less than 24 hours
• 2 babies spitting-up, pooping and peeing = laundry, laundry and more laundry
• flu season = dry cracked hands that sting like crazy with hand sanitizer. We need to get the good expensive stuff with moisturizer in it that the hospital had
• a 2-year-old who is starving for attention = 3 hours to get him to stay in his bed each night
• a 2-year-old who is starving for attention = "No." has become his favorite word.

How is Justin doing? Well, for the first few days he wanted to hold the babies, help with the bottles, diapers, binkies, etc. Now he doesn't want to "help" and the first thing he does when we sit down to feed the babies is get on the kitchen counter and get anything out of the cabinet that is on the top shelf. I think the hardest thing about adjusting to having the twins home is trying to keep Justin happy. It seems like all I ever do is cry because I don't know how to give Justin the attention he wants/needs. Its a good thing Tyler is so great because he encourages me to hang in there and reminds me that I can only do the best that I can and that we will survive this crazyness.

But all in all, we are doing well and enjoying the babies at home. It is great to have all 5 of us in the same place. We are tired but it is a better tired than going back and forth from the hospital.

Thanks for the phone calls! I am sorry if I haven't gotten back to you.....I will someday, I promise!

We're Home!

We finally made it home. We now have all five of us in the same place. It is definitely CRAZY but we are loving it.

We got home Friday night. They didn't tell me that the babies would be coming home on Friday until Thursday morning. It was a busy day on Thursday getting all the loose ends tied at the hospital.

On Friday we had to "room in" meaning we stayed in this little room for 8 hours with the babies. This was because Fisher had to come home on an Apnea monitor and oxygen so the "rooming in" was to make sure we understood and felt comfortable with the monitor and oxygen. I guess we passed cause they let us come home!

So why the oxygen and monitor on Fisher? Fisher's oxygen saturation levels have been low and he has had some apnea moments (meaning his brain forgets to tell his body to breathe). This is something that he will grow out of. The apnea monitor is the same thing that Justin was on when he came home from the hospital. So I hate to say it but we are old pros at the Apnea monitor. Anyway, Fisher has a few cords and Hunter is our "free" baby cause he isn't attached to anything.

Justin loved meeting his brothers for the first time. He was very excited. He has been a big "Helper". He likes to help hold bottles, give binkies, take diapers to the garbage, and lets not forget that he like to wash the bottles!! We love our Justin and hope he will have patience with one tired Mom and Dad.

Putting on the chubbies

Fisher and Hunter turned 3 weeks old yesterday! Wow, how the time flies. They are still in the hosptial but they are doing really well. Fisher is on the left, Hunter on the right.

They are eating well and putting on the chubbies. Hunter now weighs 6 lbs 2 oz and Fisher weighs 5 lbs 13 oz. That puts them both gainning about 1 1/2 pounds each, give or take an ounce.

Fisher:

Hunter:

I have been sick and wasnt able to visit them for 2 days. I cant believe how they have changed just in those 2 days. I saw them today and could not believe how much they had changed!

The benefits of all the road construction

Benefits? Are there any? Well, one good thing about all the road construction around our house is that Justin has learned the names of all the equipment. His favorite seems to be the trackhoe.

And it just so happens that Justin's Grandpa Scott has a "baby trackhoe" of his own. Justin loves doing anything with Grandpa Scott.


Look at all that concentration on Justin's face. Grandpa let Justin walk the trackhoe back and forth and use the bucket. They even used the trackhoe to fill a 5-gallon bucket full of dirt and then lifted it in the air and dumped it out. Of course, Grandpa had to show Justin how to crush the 5-gallon bucket when they were finished!!

A few pictures

This is what I get to see every morning when I get to the hospital. Hunter always has his arms out of his blanket. Fisher is on the left and Hunter on the right. So snug together.
This is the first time that Tyler was able to hold both babies together. This was the first time he held Fisher. He was able to hold Hunter for a moment the day they were born.

Fisher on the left and Hunter on the right. Aren't they so cute! They are both above 5 lbs now!!

Milestones

We have hit a few milestones with the twins.

1. Co-bedding. That means they are finally sharing a bed. They are so cute all cuddled up together. They sleep really well this way. (sorry, no picture now but it will be coming.)

2. Bottle Feedings. We started the first bottle feedings yesterday. Up until this point they have been receiving everything thru a feeding tube. They say that babies don't get the suck, swallow, and breathe until about 35 weeks gestation age (that would be tomorrow). We start with using a bottle 2 times a day. Once they have mastered two bottle feedings then they add one more until they are taking all feedings by mouth. They both took about 1/2 of their feeding by mouth and the rest went in the feeding tube. That is a pretty good start.

3. Tyler was able to hold both babies last night for the first time. Tyler got sick and hasn't been able to visit the babies for the last 6 days but last night he finally got to hold them.

4. Last night they were moved from the NICU Nursery A to NICU Nursery B. That means they are in the 'feed & grow' stage.

All of these milestones mean they are growing and getting stronger!!

First Side-by-Side Photo

This was taken today. It was so much fun looking at the two of them next to each other. Fisher is on the left and Hunter is on the right. Fisher has already eaten and Hunter is waiting to eat. He was a little fussy that we wanted a photo moment!!

How Are the Twins?

Well, now that the twins are 1 week and 1 day old I am finally getting to the post that everyone has been asking for.....How are the babies??

Both Fisher and Hunter are doing great with their breathing. They were on ventilators the first night only. They haven't been on oxygen since day one which is awesome. They have just been working on their eating. At this age they don't know how to suck, swallow and breathe all at once so they get all of their milk thru a feeding tube in their nose. They also receive TPN (total parental nutrition) thru an IV. Fisher is now off his IV because he is taking enough milk. Hunter is still on his IV (a pic-line in his leg) and will be still for several days. Fisher is doing great with his eating and tolerates whatever they give him. Hunter is having a little harder time digesting his milk so he is still working on increasing his milk intake. Hunter doesn't tolerate the formula very well so he gets breast milk only. I wish I could keep up with two babies but since I can't Fisher gets 1/2 breast milk and 1/2 formula and Hunter gets 100% breast milk.

Fisher is a little below his birth weight but Hunter is above his. I don't quite understand how the baby with the digestion issues is gaining weight..... Fisher is our little chicken leg. He is quite skinny. Hunter is our "stocky" little guy. I guess you could say our chubby baby but I don't know if you can call 4 lbs chubby.

Hunter is the baby that had the water on his kidney. We are waiting until he is about 2 months old to take him to Primary Children's to do additional testing. At this point he is on a preventative antibiotic that will hopefully help the issue to resolve itself by 2 months of age.

Yes, we can tell them apart. I don't think we will have a problem with that. It has been so fun getting to know them and spending time with them. We do not know when to expect them home but we do know that we want them to come when they are ready.

Justin has not seen them so that has been a little tough on him. There is not a window to look thru to see them so only me, Tyler, and the Grandmas and Grandpas have seen them in person.
We have taken a few videos of them to show Justin.

Please keep our babies in your prayers! And pray that me, Tyler and Justin stay healthy.




This is Hunter today. We just took his bili-light eye mask off so he is a little squinty eyed.

This is Fisher today. He was trying to pull out his feeding tube so I wrapped his arms up.

This is me with Fisher yesterday. You can see how little he is with his little skinny face poking out.

Hunter's Pictures

Fisher's Pictures