Baptism

On Saturday, December 8, the twins were baptised at the Sun Lakes United Methodist Church. It was a great day and the service was held in a private little chapel, so it was experienced by just our close family and friends.

Catching Up

I told myself that once I had children I would update my blog more, so that everyone knew how they were doing and could see daily updates. However, no one told me that I would be so busy that I would barely have time to eat in a day! I must say things are seeming to get a lot easier these days, although the kiddos always seem to find a way to change a routine as soon as one is started, but I can't complain. Things are going really good and the babes are growing like weeds. Of course since they were preemies all I wanted while they were in the hospital and when they first came home is for them to gain weight. It was the only real measurement I had to tell me that they were heading in the right direction. Now that they are home and getting big so fast, all I want is for them to slow down. It's true that time really does seem to speed up when you have kids. I kept thinking that I would eventually sit down and get a moment to write a few different blog posts on things we have done, etc in the time since the babes came home. But, I am now realizing that this is not going to happen, so instead I'm going to do one blog post that covers the past two months and catches everyone up. Let's see...

Jackson is growing like crazy. He is well over 12 lbs! Catching up already to a typical 4 month old. Yes, that's right, the babes will be 4 months. Crazy, I know! Reagan is growing at her own pace and continues to be our fiesty little girl. She is over 9 lbs now and right before Thanksgiving she got the official "all clear" to come off her oxygen. Wahoo! We had actually taken her off of it a few weeks before that, but it was nice to hear her doctor say that everything sounded good with her lungs. She is still on medicine for reflux, but it is getting better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We celebrated the baby's first holidays. We had some friends over for a nice quiet Halloween and just enjoyed passing out candy and hanging out with the kiddos. It was a week night and at this point we were still not getting a lot of sleep, so our Halloween night ended pretty early, but we enjoyed it. For Thanksgiving, my dad's side of the family visited. They drove in from California and all the way from Nebraska to see the babes. It was a great time to have everyone together and the babies loved all of the attention they received. They were hardly ever put down!We ventured out on our first official outing as a family to the Phoenix Zoo's annual Zoo Lights. It was fun to walk around and get in the holiday spirit with everyone and the babies did great! It is so special to see all of the love that surrounds these little ones. They are truly blessed.

 

 

The newest thing that the babies are doing is something that I will cherish forever. They are finally starting to recognize who we are and smile like they are happy to see us. It is the best thing in the entire world!

I think that about sums up what has been going on in our lives since Jackson and Reagan came home. We have just been adjusting and trying to soak in every moment, because they are going so fast. Now that I have caught up, I will try and update a little more often. Don't hold me to it though! ;)

Homecoming, Part 2

Reagan came home on September 26, exactly one week after her brother. The doctors kept her an extra week to see if they could wean her off of the oxygen, so we had one less thing to deal with when she came home. But as always, little miss had her own plans. Reagan decided that she needed the oxygen a little while longer. A medical supplies company came and brought a big oxygen tank and some travel size tanks for when we needed to take her somewhere. She will also remain on her Pulse Oximeter, so we can continue to monitor her oxygen saturation and see how she is doing. Aaron was able to take the day off of work for Jackson's homecoming, but he wasn't able to get off when she came home. Since his mom was in town, I was able to leave Jackson with her and I headed off to the hospital by myself to bring our little girl home. After she was finally released and her portable oxygen was all set up, the nurse walked us out and we loaded her up and headed on our way.

 I was so nervous, because she was in her carseat in the back all by herself and I couldn't see what or how she was doing. Thankfully we live close to the hospital, but halfway home her alarm started going off. Being in the hospital you get used to certain alarms and what they mean. I knew that her oxygen levels were just dropping slightly and often times this is caused by the baby's movement and it isn't anything to worry about. I watched the monitor for a little bit, but the numbers were not bouncing back as quickly as I wanted, so I decided to pull over and check on her. She was sound asleep and doing okay. I decided to just continue home, so we could get settled in and Grandma would be there to help if I needed something. When I got home and unloaded everything, I realized that her oxygen had been hooked up, but hadn't been turned on this entire time. No wonder her alarm kept going off! But we got her home safely and our new lives with twins officially began.

 

She is definitely our fiesty child and has been a tad more difficult then her brother to take care of, but we are loving having her home!

 

Homecoming, Part 1

Jackson was finally able to come home with us on 9/19/2012. The hospital had us nest with him the night before. They set us up in a small room and wheeled his crib into the room and unhooked all the monitors. The nurses came in every 3 hours to take vitals, but the feeds and everything else was up to us. I was so nervous to have him unhooked from the monitor, because I had started to depend on the monitors to tell me if he had shallow breathing or his heart rate dropped. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night, because I was constantly checking him to make sure everything was ok. Dad came along to nest too, but since he thought he was going to work in the morning, he pretty much slept the whole night. The next day we were free, but it was really hard to leave Reagan behind at the hospital. They assured us it wouldn't be too much longer before she would be discharged as well, so that made us feel better.

 

Jackson has done really well at home. He is such a good baby and hardly ever cries. I know this will change once his sister comes home, so I am enjoying my time with one baby for this short time. He is gaining weight like crazy and as of 9/25/2012 he weighs a whopping 7 lbs!! He has come a long way from the 3 lb 6 oz that he weighed at birth. I am so in love with my little man.

Visitors for the babes

A couple weeks ago, my Aunt and Uncle along with my Grandpa came to visit from Florida. Their daughter, Krista, was playing in a college volleyball tournament at ASU over the weekend. I was able to get away from the hospital for a bit and see some of the tournament and hang out with my family, so that was nice. They were able to come and see the babies in the Special Care Nursery while they were here, which I know Jackson and Reagan enjoyed. Also, since my Grandpa stayed a little while longer, he was able to come to the hospital with me one evening and got to hold Reagan for the first time. These are his first Great Grandchildren, so it was a very special moment. We loved having them here and we will hopefully see them again soon.

Special Care Nursery and Reagan Update

Reagan has not been progressing along quite like her brother. She is still on oxygen support and has not even started to try and feed from a bottle. The doctors discovered that she is pretty anemic, so they suggested a blood transfusion. She had been on Lasix (a diuretic) for a couple days, which they were hoping would be enough, but her red blood cell count stayed low. They tell you going into this that having preemies in the NICU is a rollercoaster ride, because they will take two steps forward and then a step back. Aaron and I have been incredibly blessed that the babies haven't needed too many procedures done and they have been progressing steadily, so hearing Reagan needed a blood transfusion was pretty hard to swallow. It sounds like a scary procedure and I was terrified at first, but the doctors and nurses assured me that there was nothing to worry about and the procedure is a pretty normal thing for a premature baby. They also explained what a difference it would make for her energy levels and that it would help get her off of her oxygen, so the decision was made to go forward with the transfusion. The procedure was done overnight and when I went to visit her the next morning, she already looked so much better. She had pulled her feeding tube and nasal prongs out (again), but the nurse noticed that her vitals looked fine with out the oxygen, so they removed her prongs. I couldn't believe that results like that could happen so quickly. She even started bottle feeding and has done extremely well (maybe even better than her big brother). She breathed room air for the majority of the day, but unfortunately had to go back on a little support that night. I am still optimistic, because the amount of oxygen support is less than she needed before and the fact that she is nippling so well is a good sign.

 

 

Some pictures I took of Reagan while her nasal prongs were out



In other news, the babies were moved out of the NICU and into the Special Care Nursery. We knew this was a possibility, because the babies have been doing so well and they were first on the list to move if sicker babies needed their rooms. Moving to the SCN is a step in the right direction, but it will take some getting used to. The NICU consisted of individual rooms, each with it's own bathroom, tv, monitors, etc. It was so nice to have privacy when visiting the babies. The SCN is a giant space with many babies hooked up and no privacy. If a nurse requires the light on for one baby, then the lights go on for all of the babies, which is pretty annoying when your babies are trying to sleep. At least we know they will not be affected by noise when they come home. Overall, we are so thankful that they continue to do well and each day we are closer to having them home with us. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support, it means so much to us!

Our New Home (At least we get to be next to each other now)