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

The Twins' Arrival Story

Sorry this post is a little long in coming but we have been busy to say the least. So everyone wants to know what happened.....so here is their arrival story.

On September 29th I went to my 33 week perinatology ultrasound. Everything checked out except that baby A had small amounts of amniotic fluid around him. The doctor ordered a non-stress test (NST) to check how the babies were doing. After a 2-hour NST (don't ask why it took so long) we discovered I was having contractions every 7 minutes. The doctor sent me over to Labor and Delivery to check if I was dilating. I was dilated to a 4 and by this time my contractions were about every 4 minutes. They gave me a shot to stop the contractions and they only slowed down a bit. They gave me 2 more shots to see if the contractions would stop with no success. They decided that I better have the steroid shot to develop the babies lungs just in case the contractions didn't stop. At that point, they gave me an oral medication that is a little longer lasting to try to stop the contractions. By now I was dilated to a 4+ and 70% efaced. The doctor decided to transport me to a different hospital "just in case". He kept saying "just in case" over and over again so I didn't realize how close to delivery I actually was. The doctor told me that I would probably get to the next hospital (sorry I don't want to list the specific hospital) and they would stabilize my contractions and I would probably stay there a couple days and then go home on bed rest and try to get another week.

Tyler was a work all this time and kept asking me if he needed to come to the hospital and I kept saying no. By about the time they decided to transport I called Tyler and told him he better come to the hospital. But I told him to pick up Justin from Grandma's and bring him too. Not very good thinking on my part.

I was transported in an ambulance! Hopefully that is my first and last experience in an ambulance. When I got to the next hospital it was about 5:15 pm and my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and I was dilated to a 5 and 90% efaced. The on-call doctor called and talked to me over the phone and told me that he was hoping to get me 10 more hours so that I could get the second part of the lung shot. It is a 2-part shot given 24-hours apart. But he said, "I don't think you are going to make it 10 hours. I believe you will deliver in 4-5 hours." I was shocked. I seriously thought that I was going home in a couple days and we would possibly have babies the next week. So then I remembered that Tyler was coming with Justin. Boy, I wasn't thinking very straight when I told Tyler to bring Justin. That is about when Tyler got to the hospital. It was 5:45 pm when Tyler got there. So he called his mom and told her to come and get Justin. Justin was pretty scared when he saw me crying and hooked up to all these wires.

By 6:15 I had an epidural. After an ultrasound to see the babies positioning the doctor decided that we would do a C-section because baby B was breech. We waited a few minutes for my Dad to get there and Tyler and my Dad gave me a quick blessing and I was off to the OR. It was pretty quick. Baby A was born at 7:21 pm and Baby B at 7:23 pm. So I arrived at the hospital at 5:15 pm, Tyler showed up at 5:45 pm, and we had babies by 7:30 pm. And Justin was at the hospital for all of it. I was a little worried during the C-section about my rambunctious 2-year old running the hallways of the hospital with Grandpa Scott.

It was a whirlwind day. I still am amazed that I was in such denial about having babies that day that I had Tyler bring Justin too! I guess I can blame it on pregnant brain times 2!

All in all, I cant complain how things went. I was officially 32 weeks and 6 days.
Fisher or Baby A: 4 lbs 7 oz and 19 inches long born at 7:21 pm
Hunter or Baby B: 4 lbs 9 oz and 18.5 inches long born at 7:23 pm