What a Year

Whelp, here we are.  12 months ago Joy and I would never have believed we would see two positive pregnancy tests.  Things were not looking good in the ole baby department.  Then on January 3, 2011 Joy humored me with a pregnancy test.  Sure it was an old one that was 2 months out of date, but she tried it anyway and boom positive.  Next thing we knew we were making a late night trip to the Walgreen's.  By about 9:53pm we had two positive tests.  What we didn't know was how symbolic those two positive tests would be.

By February we could finally tell the whole family we were expecting one!  Just one baby.  Two days later we could break the news that we were expecting two babies!  Sadly that was followed with loads of negative statistics because of the precarious nature of Monoamniotic twins.  By the beginning of April we could finally find out what gender was on the way.  Despite the crazy schedule and a week long vacation on the way we still managed to throw a sec party and reveal the fact that we were having two little girls. By the end of April we were finally becoming very confident that things would work out and the girls would make it.  We even made a last minute trip to get cribs, changing tables and dressers for the girls. We even tore apart one of the bedrooms to get a nursery ready.

All of this positive thinking and excitement lead to, two big baby showers.  I don't think we can ever express the gratitude we had for all of our friends, family, and co-workers.  They did a tremendous job helping to plan and organize these parties to help celebrate the little ones on the way.  Joy was so elated to be able to experience a baby shower.  I think it was a great relief and wonderful thing to draw her mind away from the long 6 week stay at Duke.

Memorial day weekend was Joy's last weekend of freedom for 6 weeks.  I drove to Duke everyday she was there.  I was doing my best to keep up with the dogs, the yard, work, and visiting with Joy.  I must admit I enjoyed my trips to see here.  I wish the rooms were a little more comfy, but overall it wasn't so bad.  Joy had other opinions of the whole experience.  The last 7-10 days was the worst with false alarms on labor, IVs and me having to help bath her because of the IV block in her hand.

Then finally, the little ones arrived.  We could not have asked for the girls to be any more cute or cuddly.  I think the worst part was how we couldn't do much more than look at them in their isollettes and rest a hang or finger on them.  It would be a few weeks before we could hold them for long periods of time.  It seemed they wanted out fast and to be held asap, because they were growing like crazy with no health issues at all.

Those days leading up to the hospital stay, during the hospital stay and even the 3am feedings, seem to have already flown by.  The girls have been home for over four months now. and quadrupled in weight.  We still look at each other and say we can't believe we have these two little girls.  You spend several years trying, a few clinics, failed procedures and wham you are now parent's to identical twins, how special is that?  It's incredible, and we couldn't have asked for better girls.

They love bath time, they don't cry for hours on end, they love getting changed into new clothes and diapers.  I swear they act like they have a dirty diaper just so they can play on the changing table.  They like their car seats, travel well, and their grins make you melt.

One of the coolest things is that I now know how much my father loved me.  I never understood when he would say "I love you and you just don't understand how much I love you."  He was right.  I loved him a ton, but I never really knew how much he loved me.   Since these little girls entered my life I have started to understand what he was saying.  I simply don't believe a parent can put a number, value, or quantity on how much they love their children.  I heard my dad tell me time and time again on a daily basis how much he loved me, but it still wasn't enough for me to truly know.   Now I do....

I love my wonderful wife, Joy, and my two gorgeous little girls, Kira and Alana.  I couldn't ask for anything more, feel free to keep your christmas gifts I really do have all I want.

Joy and Alana (3mo.)

Kira (5mo.)

Alana (5mo.)

Guess who? (2mo.)

Merry Christmas,
The Schneiders

Wow busy....

So, it has been a long time in between posts. I just checked and our last post was on 8/21. Since then the girls have continued to be some of the best twins we could have ever dreamed of. They eat, sleep, and when they should probably scream forever they settle down pretty quickly. Both of them seem to have some pretty bad acid reflux/spit up issues, but they just spit up freak out cry and then settle down once you help them out. However, it is one of the saddest little faces. Puffy red eyes, tears, and this face that says "what is happening I feel horrible....please fix it!"

At their check up last week Alana was 7lb. 6oz. and Kira was 8lb. 2oz. The doctor was very impressed that they had put on 10 and 12 ounces since their last weigh in just 8 days before. She also gave us a suggestion to use a little rice cereal to help with the spit up. I explained we had tried that, but it would not go through a normal nipple and with slot nipples the flow was too quick for them causing them to choke. So she said just put a little in a spoon dry and feed it to them. Well, at first we didn't know if this was helping and it was making a huge mess :). So we stopped for a few days because they were still spitting up and the mess was a little crazy. When we stopped we noticed it was coming out of their noses again so we went back to the messy cereal. It does seem to thicken things in their tummy and keep it down just a little better.
We also went to NY and saw our "little" nephew. To be honest he looked large at 7lbs, but he is simply a normal weight. Joy and I are just use to looking at petite little baby dolls for so long that normal babies look huge! The bummer of the visit was we got burglarized over Labor Day weekend while we were out of town. I had flown back to work that week and when I got home all of the bikes I had left home were stolen, as well as our TV and other electronics from the living room. What a mess that has been. It took me a week or two to sort out the paper work.

I've also been spending a lot of time at home with the girls. I had a whole week on my own while Joy went back to work. Thankfully I had some help from Grema. It was so helpful having her come over to help me those couple of days. They really are easy, but much easier when you have an extra set of hands. It also allowed me to get some stuff around the house done.

Now I'm working part time taking half days off from work using my vacation time. Thanks to Aunt Kristen, Grandma, Sandi and Joel we are going to be able to stretch out 2 more weeks before the girls start daycare. We also have an appointment to meet with the daycare and take a tour this week.

I hate to break away now, but I have Kira hiccuping and yawning in my lap. She is like clock work and wakes up with spit up at 10am on the dot everyday lately. So time to entertain her for a while.

<Edit 10/3/2011 @2pm>
We have two lil ROCK STARS....

I forgot to talk about going out in public with these two. You almost can't go anywhere without talking to people. Everyone wants to know how old they are, let you know they seem so small for their age, you have to explain a bit why, they ask are they boys or girls? You think can't you see the pink? Then answer girls, followed by are they identical. Then I'll bet you never sleep? We had four, but not all at once how do you manage? I'll bet it is hard.... Double Trouble etc. Note our plate on the van now reads "TWINTRBL" :)

We have had patrons and waitresses in restaurants come across the establishment just to ogle at our little ones and chat. We've even had people stop to chat while we are trying to load both girls into the van. This in itself is scary, how do you get both seats in safely? You don't want to put one on the ground and it is hard to hold two at a time. You are such a target for criminals or accidents.

Don't get us wrong we love the girls and everyone is very polite and though multiples are becoming more common via IVF they are still rare. We are proud to show off our little ones, but it does get a little overwhelming. Just trying to walk across the farmers market took forever talking to one person after another. Joy at one point had to walk away from a lady who herself had even brought up how many people must hold her up to talk. Joy felt very rude, but needed to keep moving. Eventually I ditched Joy and went to the car because it was taking us so long with all of the conversing.

I hope I don't sound like I'm complaining too much. As they get older I'm sure we will get fewer interruptions when running errands. You only have a few hours to get your stuff done. Stopping every few minutes or so to not be rude as people pass by your table to chat at the restaurant chews up (hehe) your time.

Kira

Alana and I falling asleep.

Kira left Alana right

Mommy and Alana

Third Week

Jim and Kira

Kira on left (eyes open) and Alana on right with Gma

Kira and Gma

Alana reaching out to Jim and Kira sleeping

Kira on left and Alana on right for the rest of the pictures

Time sure flies - the twins have been home over two weeks. As you can imagine we are up a lot in the night. They have improved at eating and they now take 1/2 hr. to 3/4 hr. to eat instead of an entire hour. Kira has been having some problems sleeping though mainly due to spit up and gas. We spoke to the doctor about it and it is normal and there is not a lot they can do to help her. She will eventually grow out of it and until then the doctor's advice was to let her scream it out at night until she falls asleep. I wish the doctor was here last night to listen to her scream for almost 3 hours straight without stopping. My Mom, Jim and I left her alone but we were all awake listening to the "night sounds".

Both girls gained weight and Friday Kira weighted 5lbs. 4 oz and Alana weighted 4lbs 10 oz. They both also received their Hep B shot and both screamed for that. The doctor said they looked great so we do not have to go back for another month.

We had our first "photo shoot" yesterday. Jim took a bunch of pictures for me and we will attempt again today. It is hard to keep their eyes open without them screaming.

My Mom was staying for two weeks but realized how much help we still need so she is staying for another week. A big thank you to everyone who has been bringing food - it is so helpful!!! My Mom and I barely have time to keep up with the dishes and laundry on top of feeding the girls in the day.

Enjoy the pictures.

Twins are Home

Alana with her bottle

This is Kira but both twins love to put their head in this crazy position

Benz checking out Kira in her chair

Kira's first bath

Alana's first bath

Getting ready to come home from Rex. Kira on left and Alana on right

Kira (on left) reaching out to touch Alana (on right)

Jim and I apologize that we are behind on the blog. The twins came home this past Friday so things have been a little crazy around here. We have never been so tired in our life but we are enjoying every minute of it!

The challenge with them is that they take around an hour each to feed as they are so small. We have to keep waking them up and coaxing them to eat so feeding time is very challenging. If we can get enough food in them they will sleep for around 3 hrs. without waking up. If not then as soon as they wake up they demand food. Because we have two Jim and I then have to keep them busy until the next feeding time as we can not start demand feeding them or we will never have a break. So far it is working pretty well to feed them every 4 hrs.

Jim is an expert and getting them to eat. He loves to pick at them so he is good at keeping them awake. He has also been amazing with them - I have never seen him so patient in my life! He has not complained once about getting woken up at all times of the night even at the 3:30 am feeding. I have the best husband ever.

We had to go to the pediatrician on Saturday just to make sure they did not lose weight on their first night with us. They both "gained" 3 oz but some of that must have been the change in scale. Jim and I were very proud of ourselves as we arrived at the office about 15 minutes early. However they then said to change the girl's diapers, take off their clothes and wrap them in a blanket. Jim looked at me and said did we bring a blanket? I laughed of course not it is 100 degrees! So we wrapped them in their spit up cloths - you can only get away with that with premies! :-) Jim just said "we are such newbies". We went again today and I am happy to say that Alana is now over 4 lbs! She is now 4 lbs. and 2 oz and Kira is 4 lbs. 11 oz. Kira gained 4 oz and Alana 5! They are both starting to have pudgy cheeks and the doctor was so happy to see that.

Benz (German Shep/Husky mix) is really not sure what to think of them. When they start making any noise he starts pacing. When they are eating he licks their heads. When they start screaming he gets very upset and barks at them. Jim and I are not sure if he is telling them to be silent or if he is calling for us. The poor guy now does not sleep at all every day. He goes into his crate at night and snores away as he is so tired.

I guess that is all for now - enjoy the pictures.

Fun Times!

So I have learned that if you want your girls to come home from the hospital then just send Gma Stryker back to NY. Gma & Gpa Stryker left this morning for NY and Gma was coming back in a few weeks once the girls left the hospital. When I went to the hospital this morning Kira was sitting in her car seat taking her test. She passed with flying colors. Then it was Alana's turn who also passed without a problem. Then when the nurse came in she said did you notice that their feeding tubes are out? I said what - no way!!! Kira decided last night she was done with it and pulled it out herself. The nurses decided she was eating well enough to leave it out. Alana must have heard the conversation as she chowed down 60 ml from the bottle (she normally eats around 34 ml) and they had to cut her off!! Because of that they decided Alana did not need her tube anymore either. Go Alana - Jim and I were not dealing well with the fact that we would be bringing home Kira and leaving Alana longer. Now it is looking like they will come home together. They did the hearing test as well today and Kira passed on the first try. Alana they had to test several times as she kept moving. In the end she passed but she made them work for it. They will get their Hep B shots tomorrow and then providing they continue to do as well as they have been doing they should be home by the weekend. I am so excited and nervous about taking care of two SMALL kids. Let the fun times begin.

Over 21 and hitting the bottle....

Okay, so they are just 22 days old and the bottle is full of milk, but still.....  The girls are doing great.  We thought for sure Kira would break 4lbs, but she was 3lb 15.5 oz.  Just a hair short of 4 lbs.  Alana was still around 3lb 5oz.  Both girls have started to take 1-2 feeds a day from the bottle and they have each finished a whole feed from the bottle at some point.  Kira seems to be doing a little better than Alana with the bottle.  These little ones keep flip flopping with who's ahead.

At one point it seemed Kira was going to be behind Alana when it came to feeds, because Kira seemed to sleep more and not care.  Alana would stay wide awake and search like crazy.  When she'd get on the pacifier she would sound like little Maggy Simpson.  Now Alana seems to doze off quickly and not have as much interest as before.

The word on the street is that they need to take all of their feeds by mouth for 24 hours.  If they do that they will loose the feeding tube.  Then if they keep it up for 3 more days or so they will be ready to come home.  The nurse last night said they will probably try the car seat test soon with them and thought it is possible that Kira may come home in a week or so.  This of course is a nurse talking and not the doctor, but I'm sure they see enough little babies to give an educated guess.  The doctors seem to play their hands closer to their chest and not give any estimates.

So in the next week or two we could begin our sleepless night stage of this whole parenting adventure.  Oh boy!

I'd also like to share a poem our birthing class teacher wrote for us.  She has been following our blog and was inspired to write this for us after our little girls were born.  I had meant to post it out long ago and after we ran into her last night I thought "Oh man I was going to post out her poem."  So here it is.  It is really quite touching.

---

Soar 

by Monica McNamara

              Beating all odds, strength defines you

              Incredible life inside her, each breath she takes is for her two

              Girls who know how to embrace hope and each other

              Spunk and love tug the vast affections of their father and their mother

              Amazing miracle, living on the edge before birth

              Unimaginable wonder what your lives will bring now that you're here on earth

              Every heart beat and every smile

              Your eyes, your laugh, your very style

              Inspire us all to know that anything can be done

              Because both girls are thriving on what was meant for only one

              Advocating for each other from their lives very start

              First breath, side by side, spreading love to each unique heart

              Support built on a foundation of love defines this family of four

              The strength they bring to each other are the very wings that make them soar!

Big Girl Bed!

Alana

Kira

Gma & Kira

Kira & Alana

So I am finally feeling much better and I have managed to stay out of the hospital for over a week. I do feel like I am attached 24/7 to the pump and I can not get enough sleep but other then that I am doing well.

The girls continue to impress us. Alana hit 3 lbs. Friday night (July 22nd) so that was a great milestone for her. The breast feeding every day is hit or miss. Alana usually does a little better then Kira but both girls struggle to stay awake for long periods of time. They both latch on well but they do not have the rest of it down on a consistent basis. If we can keep Kira awake for more then 2 minutes we are doing well. I told Jim it was his fault because she sleeps like him. You can dangle her, move her, raise your voice and all she does is sleep on..... She even sleeps through her diaper changes.

Yesterday when we went to visit the girls in the morning I forgot their milk. So on our way to dinner and a movie (Harry Potter at the IMAX) I quickly ran the milk into the hospital. When I was walking by the girls room I glanced in but kept on walking as we were running late. I had to back up though as something was just not right about the room. I quickly realized that there was a crib in the room! I thought great Kira is finally out of the isolette and in a normal crib. We figured it was coming soon as she was maintaining her body temperature very well. I asked the nurse and she told me to step into the room and check it out. I was shocked when both girls were in the crib together!! They were side by side and each girl had their hands on the others head. It was so sweet and unexpected it brought tears to my eyes. Of course because I was just running in I did not have a camera with me. Hopefully we can catch that pose again.

As of last night (7/24) Alana weighted 3lbs. 2oz. and Kira is up to 3lbs. 12oz. In talking to the doctor today he told me to prepare for Kira to come home before her sister. We of course still do not know when that will be but at this point they mainly have to learn to bottle feed and they have to be able to sit in a car seat for 45 minutes. The week they come home they have to get a few shots and they will have a hearing test. Hopefully they will be home by mid to late August.

Almost 2 Weeks Old

When I was so sick last week my girls (aka nurse Bonnie) sent me a get well card. It was so cute we wanted to post it out for everyone one to see.

Gma Stryker & Alana
Daddy & Kira
Gma Stryker & Alana
Gma Stryker & Alana (Hmmmm....)
Jim & Kira

Jim and I can not believe that our little ones will be 2 weeks old tomorrow! They continue to exceed everyone's expectations. They are both gaining weight and they are close to their birth weights. They are no longer on caffeine to keep their heart rates up. They are also starting to hold their body temperature and they should be out of their "boxes" soon. They have been turning the heat down everyday and when I was chatting with the doctor today she thought that they would be able to come out in the next week or so (once they get above their birth weights). That just leaves the feeding tube. They have both reached their maximum feedings and they are holding them pretty well. Kira does spit up some so they are watching that - she has some acid reflux. They will hold them at their amounts and possibly start increasing them again next week. We also started breast feeding. Normally they do not start this until a baby is at least 34 weeks old but since both girls love their pacifiers they wanted to start them early. I thought they were crazy!! However I should have known better as the girls both latched right on! It was surprisingly a piece of cake. Alana is really good at it and Kira is learning. They both get tired quickly (as expected) but they both understand the concept. Because this went so well they are considering trying to bottle feed them next week (again a few weeks before they normally start).

Alana's umbilical cord fell off on Monday and Kira's fell off yesterday (Tuesday). That is nice to get rid of. The nurse found Alana's cord and offered it to us but we passed on that souvenir.

Gma Stryker arrived on Sunday and was able to meet her grandchildren. She drives me each day to the hospital so that we can hang out and hold them. They can now come out for an hour at a time since they are maintaining their body heat. Then at night Jim and I visit them so that "Daddy" gets to see them as well. Jim is so cute with his girls. He just stares at them with awe and love. I told him the other night I was not sure who was more fun to watch the girl he was holding or him? I love the expressions on his face!
Alana is going to be a handful. The nurse mentioned today that she never sleeps and I believe her. Gma Stryker held her for at least a half hour and she was awake and I then held her for another hour or so (feeding and cuddling) and she was wide awake the entire time. We are in some serious trouble with this one. Kira is much more calm and cuddly. She spent the hour sleeping in Gma Stryker's arms after her feeding. Both are so adorable you want to spend the entire day with them.

The girls received their first Fed Ex box yesterday. It actually confused me for a minute as I am use to seeing Jim or Joy on all of our packages. My VP sent them personalized blankets and outfits with their names on them. They were so cute!

I guess that is all for now lets hope the girls are home soon.

11 Days in

I can't believe it.  We have 11 day old girls who are doing unbelievable!  Little Alana and Kira are doing great at Rex.  I don't recall if I mentioned it in the last blog, but they are now at Rex and they don't have any IVs or bililights.  The nurses have been bumping their feeds by 2ml every 12 hours and so far so good.

Little Alana is quite the spitfire.  She starts to wake up just before her 3 hour feeding and stays pretty lively and alert during her feeding.  Kira was actually pretty alert last night too when they were doing the feeding.  They look around and make silly faces while we hold them.  It is pretty awesome.  Saturday night we held them while the nurse did her assessments, changed diapers, took temps ect.  Alana thought it was be funny to do a number 1 on Daddy's lap while she wasn't wearing a diaper.  Then about 10 minutes later had a number 2 that was felt through the pillow she was laying on.  Oh boy.....

While we were at Rex on Saturday a few nurses who specialize in physical therapy came  by to look at the girls muscle tone.  There is a big concern with preemies that they wont have good muscle tone.  They tend to be sort of floppy since they miss out on being tucked in and snug for the full term.  Well, when they got done they said the girls were way ahead of where they expected them.  The only thing they noted was that Kira has a little bit of a smack when working her pacifier.  Other than they they wouldn't bother doing anything until they were ready to come home.  At that point they would give us exercises to do with them.

I figured they would do well.  We still hear about how far they move in their isolettes.  For a 10 day old preemie to scoot themselves 6-8 inches out a place they'd have to have good muscle tone and strength right?  

The neonatal also wants Joy to meet with lactation and start to attempt breastfeeding.  Joy is pretty intimidated and we are all impressed.  Typically a baby doesn't have the strength or coordination to do this until 34 weeks.  Our little ones are just 33 weeks adjusted today.  So they are starting them about a week early.   However, they love their pacifiers and seek them out whenever they are awake.  Then they absolutly go to town on them.  I joke with Joy, "You thought the pump hurt?"  :-D mean huh?

Mommy and Kira..."Boy mom, my tummy is too full to keep my eyes open"

Mommy and Alana..."Look mom no IV!"

The first family photo! Welcome the Schneider Gang of Four..

 

Blah....

It's been a long couple of weeks.  Wednesday night when we got home from filling out paper work at Rex, Joy had a fever and her digestive system decided to explode in all directions.  The poor thing was an awful wreck.  We stayed up until about 0130 waiting for her to settle down.  Like a trooper she continued to pump and tried to take in fluids.  By morning her fever was lower and things seemed settled.

Joy called the Perinatal Clinic and they weren't worried.  The nurses remembered her and chit chatted.  It didn't sound like it was related to the C-section since there wasn't any abdominal pain.  They recommended some food items and said if the fever doesn't go away to go to an urgent care or hospital.  I was able to get some pieces of toast and jelly into her during the day and more ginger ale.  She also ate a few popsicles.  Then 1700 hit.

All of the sudden she started feeling very chilled and had an even higher temp of 101.7.  Then her digestive system blew up again!  It was like she had swallowed TNT.  That left us with, do we go to urgent care or straight to the emergency room?  I was still convinced she just had food poisoning or something, but we didn't want to risk having to rush in at midnight.  We both felt like we might get sent to the emergency room since she just had a C-section and was probably pretty dehydrated.

We got to Rex around 1815.  They triaged her and I ran the girls' dinner up to them while I was there.  We didn't leave until about 0100, stopped by the store for some light foods and headed home. The doctors did some lab work, pumped her with 1.5L of fluid and made sure she could hold liquids and crackers down.  What a brave soul too, she went right for the bright colored, acidic cranberry juice.  I would have picked something clear that might stain less.

Nothing definitive came out of the lab work.  Joy has one more lab we need to drop off because she was out of samples by the time we got to Rex.  She seems to be doing so-so now and is resting.  She's managed to keep fluids, teddy grahams, and jell-o in.  The ER Doctor recommended that she stay away from the gils for at least 24-48 hours after her fever breaks.  We just aren't sure when that is.  When we got to the ER her temp was normal.  At home it is reading about 100 give or take and mine 96.  The doctor also told me I should stay away just to be safe even though I don't have any symptoms.

I called the nursery to let them know what was going on.  The nurse today had heard Joy wasn't feeling well.  I had let them know briefly yesterday when I dropped of the milk, but they were on a shift change so I couldn't explain.  The nurse said she would let the doctors and others know to not expect us for a few days and told mom to rest up and take care of herself.

The girls sound like they are doing good.  They are taking their feeds and sleeping well.  She said "Boy those two are feisty! Especially that little Alana!"  I just keep thinking, "Oh boy what am I going to be in for now?"  We have two premies born at 31w3d who seemed to have been feisty little fighters since conception.  How will we ever keep up with them...... :)

Rex Time

Whelp we got a call today that Duke needed more room and our girls were doing so well they wanted to move them to Rex.  So we gave them the ok/ they said they had to go.  Maybe these little ones were just too rowdy for them to handle :).

They were suppose to be transported at 8pm, but when we got there at around 9:20p they had not left Duke.  I'm not sure what the hold up is.  Most likely there is some other child that is more sick that they need to deal with.

During the transport the girls will be in the same isolette.  It will probably be the first time since birth that they have touched each other.

Joy and I did do the paper work for them while we were there, but we didn't stay to wait for them.  Joy was not feeling so good after having an upset tummy for the past two days.  Now she is in pretty ruff shape and has a fever.  So thank goodness we didn't stay.  I guess we will both have to stay away from them until we are sure our health is in order.  A stomach bug at their age would be devastating.

While there we did got a quick run down on how things work.  They are way more locked down than Duke was.

• The first 3 days or so after transport we have to wear gowns and gloves.  This is to quarantine them in case some nasty bug like Mursa got transported in.  I guess we may now miss that in order to make sure we are both healthy.  
• We must also wear wrist bands for each child for the duration of the girls' stay.  While at Duke they said we could take these off.  Not so with Rex. 
• They don't allow any visitors between 6:30-7:45 morning and night.  Duke didn't have this limit, but only parents were allowed and we could not talk to the nurses during this time.
• We are only able to designate a total of 4 visitors, period. Once picking these 4 visitors we can not change the list and we can not take any other people in expect those listed in the 4 slots. Joy and I don't know what to do about this.  We may not fill all four because we don't know who to cut when you have such a close knit family.  Although, several people have already visited we were a little apprehensive.  We want to share our girls, but we also knew the more visitors the more germs.   
• It is a little sad to not see the same faces we have been seeing everyday for the past 6 weeks at Duke.

On the plus side, 

• The girls don't have any complications to keep them in a higher level NICU.
• They will be in the same room!  In fact for now, they are the only two in the room because there is only room for 2 in their room! Privacy! 
• At some point they will get moved into sharing a crib which is shocking since it is not recommended when coming home. 
• Rex doesn't have a hard fast weight that they must achieve, but they must meet similar bench marks to go home.  It sounds like if they can start gaining weight they may still be home at around a 36-38 week gestational age and of course the safe bet is to not expect them home before their 40 week gestational age.  In short we really have no idea of when they will come home.
• They plan to get them on a closer schedule for feeds.  This way we can change diapers, feed, maybe hold one then the other back to back.  At Duke we seemed to only catch one baby then miss the other.  Which meant we lost the opportunity to participate in their care.
• The staff seems just as nice.
• The drive is shorter
• No paying for parking

Move'in on up

So we went to see our girls today and little Alana has been moved out into the TCN (Transitional Care Nursery) already! Kira, poor thing, is still struggling with her feeds and rolled over onto her IV. This caused fluid to be pumped not in a vein but into her scalp. So, they had to give her some injections to help dissipate the fluid etc. They were able to move the IV to her foot. Ouch again. Kira is doing so-so on her feeds, but she still has a ways to go.

Both girls are under the bili lights again. It seems that the bili lights will be an on again off again sort of thing. It also sounded like the IVs would not be coming out anytime soon after talking to the nurse tonight. It seems there is a magic number for Calories they try to achieve and they can't always bump the milk intake enough, so they make up for it with the IV. For example, Kira needs X Calories a day, but she is only able to handle 10ml of food in her tummy at a time. So they have to make up the difference with the IV. Say Kira gets to 13ml and that gives her the X Calories she needs. In a few days she may need X Calories plus 200. She may not be able to handle those extra 200 in her tummy so they will suppliment them with the IV.

In short, it sounds like they may not come off of the IV until about 2 weeks prior to coming home. At this rate we aren't sure how far away that will be. Alana for example only put on 14g today and weighed 2lb 9oz. (5oz less than birth). She needs to put on almost 1000g more before being heavy enough to come home. They did say however, that Alana is about to the point where they will need to use a pump to feed her. This is because her feeds are starting to get so big that letting gravity put it in will cause it to fill her tummy too quickly. So they will need to use a small pump to slowly moving the feed into her tummy and not overwhelm her all at once.

All of this stuff is so crazy and amazing. I hope Kira can get her system straight and move into TCN with her. If she can move into the TCN they will try to get the beds next to each other. So we can see them both.

Ugh, the one hard part is that you want to be there with them, but you can't hold them much yet. They need to be under the bili lights to get their bilirubin down. They can't stay warm enough to be out of the isolette for long. In addition, their little nervous systems are very sensitive at this point so you can't rub them. Even gentle touches can cause them to stir preventing them from a deep sleep. They need to sleep and be as still as possible to grow. In the end you can only sit there and stare at your little ones for so long. You feel guilty for get bored, but there isn't much you can really do. You can't interact much and you can only talk to them about gibberish for so long too. Maybe in two weeks they will be more stable and we will be able to interact with them a little more. Until then I guess our visits will stay rather short milk deliveries and be made up of mostly starring in aw at these cute little girls whom you can't play with yet...

I'm glad they're safe, healthy, and doing so well.

PJs already?

Today was a restday.  Joy and I caught up on some rest and spent a nice quiet day together.  I also bought a new toy with all of my birthday money.  I picked up a nikkor 35mm 1.8 lens.  It is awesome.  I was having a hard time with my zoom lens because the light in the NICU is so dim.  They like to keep the lights down so the babies can sleep better and not be stimulated.  I was having to crank up the ISO on my camera in order to get a decent picture with out shooting a flash all the time.  As you can see this lens does a pretty good job.  I love it!

Joy and I then headed out to Duke this afternoon to see the girls and was given great news before we even got there.  The doctors decided to pass on the upper gi study.  They had already done an x-ray or something the other day and didn't want to expose Kira to more radiation if they could help it.  So they backed off on Kira's feeds.  We happened to be there during her 9pm assessment which meant another diaper change for Daddy to do and there was hardly any residual from her last feed which was awesome!    If they can get her back to full feeds that IV can come out.

In addition, someone put her in a cute little outfit  I guess they were trying to draw the attention from her IV or "party hat" as I called it.

Mommy looks on at Kira don't touch she's sleeping and needs to so she can grow ...sigh....

Kira's cute outfit.

Give me a hand why is the nurse stripping me?

I got lucky no poo..

Alana was sound asleep and we didn't want to wake her.  She had a great day.  She came off of the bililight and is up to full feeds with out issue (13ml) every three hours.  She did have 2 brady's.  Also, I must correct myself.  Bradycardia is not when they stop breathing and slow their heart rate, but simply that their heart rate slows.  Typically our girls don't go below the 90's so it isn't a huge scare, but alarms go nuts and some times you have to reach in and touch them a little.

Alana sleeping peacefully 

Alana still sleeping

This is Alana and I from a few days ago.

Flowers Joy's work sent to her. Gorgeous! Loving the lens