Finally Home!

We are home!

On Sunday Addyson and Braden decided it was time to eat! The people taking care of the twins told us that they guessed they would be in family care by Tuesday and home by the end of the week. Even though we had been waiting a long time all of a sudden there were many last minute things to do at home!

We got everything ready for them on Monday and headed to the hospital on Monday evening. Braden got a blood transfusion on Monday because his body doesn't seem to be making new blood cells yet and he was having some symptoms including requiring some oxygen, being pale, and they heard a heart murmur. Ryan and I spent the night in special care. We fed the kids every time that they ate so it was a crazy night without much sleep. Tuesday seemed like a whirlwind! Braden had an echo cardiogram to check on the heart murmur and things looked just fine so no worries there. We talked to the neo-natologist, had monitor, oxygen, and other training and finally got the official ok to head to family care. We moved into our family care room on Tuesday afternoon. In family care we were totally responsible for taking care of the twins and the nurses just checked in on us every once in a while to chart some things but we were able to "practice" parenting using the monitors the kids would take home. Things went well. We were tired but felt so much more prepared to come home by Wednesday evening. We stayed another night and were discharged Thursday morning!

It still doesn't seem true - seems like we need to be making a trip to the hospital this evening. It was fun to walk out the hallway where we had watched so many other families heading home with new babies. And carrying two babies sure draws some attention! It all seemed like we were dreaming but they actually let us leave!

Addyson and Braden both have monitors that go off if their heartbeat gets too high or low or if they don't breathe for a period of time. So far there has only been one alarm and Braden breathed after only 1 beep. So that's good! They will have the monitors for a while - it sort of depends how many events they have but it will be several weeks for sure - possibly several months. Braden came home with oxygen that he uses when he is eating. He gets too busy eating sometimes and forgets to stop long enough to breathe. He can make it without but he gets dusky looking and has to work harder so for now he gets just a tiny bit of oxygen to make life easier for him - and less scary for us!

So we're all home! It will definitely be crazy feeding and taking care of two preemies but we wouldn't have it any other way. God has been faithful and we are so excited to finally have Addyson and Braden home with us. They spent 51 days at the hospital! This sounds crazy to say - but we will miss the hospital and all the people we met there. They have been like a new family for the past 7 1/2 weeks. We want to say a HUGE thank you to all the nurses, nurse practitioners, doctors, and everyone else who had a part in taking care of our babies. We met some super special people there who have been blessed by God with special talents and love for babies and their parents. We will also miss the other parents that we met who we are still in NICU waiting for their day to go home. We pray that God will work a miracle in their lives as he has in ours and that they can soon be home too. Thank you to all of you who made the stress of the last 51 days bearable and even enjoyable at times - thanks for making us laugh when we needed to and being there to hear our concerns and help us out along the way! We really will miss all of you.

Posts to the blog will probably be fewer and farther between as we spend our time keeping us with our precious babies but we'll be sure to show off our cuties every now and then! We will not be allowing many visitors in order to keep Addyson and Braden well so we don't end up back in the hospital. The common cold will be more than they can handle at this point so we have to be careful with germs. Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement. You can continue to pray for our family. Although Addyson and Braden can eat on their own they are still learning so all of us need patience, which is sometimes running low (especially when we're lacking on sleep).

Please check back from time to time to see what God is doing in our lives!

So Big

Braden weighs over 6 pounds now and Addyson weighs over 4! They both reached those milestones on the same day!!! Addyson is now big enough to ride in her car seat.

Both kids are low on their hematocrit which means they are anemic because their bodies haven't started replacing their own blood cells. They don't want to give them a transfusion if they don't have to so they're getting vitamins to get them iron to help make their own blood. Addyson isn't really showing any symptoms of it. But Braden was pretty sleepy and having brady's while he was eating so they tested his levels and found he was too low. So now he gets oxygen while he eats. It definitely helps him but it's another couple cords to work around. I think we're getting better at it though.

They continue to work really hard on their eating. They have good times and bad. It seems like one minute they could be home really soon and after the next feedings we think we're pretty far off yet. So it's definitely an up and down emotional roller coaster!! God is teaching us patience!

Otherwise everything is going well for them. We love spending time with them!

Closer to Going Home!

Addyson and Braden both passed their car seat tests so they're one step closer to coming home!

They also are doing much better on their eating. Addyson has been doing awesome today with her bottles and Braden continues to do great eating on his own also and is getting closer and closer to doing it all on his own!

It really looks like we may be moving to family care next week sometime and coming home soon after - possibly next weekend??? Just depends on how fast they continue to improve on their eating skills. Once they eat all 8 of their feedings on their own in a 24 hour period they are ready for family care!! In family care we spend the night and take care of our babies including feedings in our own hospital type room. So we get a chance to take care of them in a setting as close to home as possible to make sure they're ready to eat and go home - so we stay there a couple days probably. The nurses are available if we need help but it's our chance to make sure we are ready to take care of them and ask questions! Hard to believe we're this close since we've been waiting for so long, but they're getting close to coming home!!! Now it seems like there are a bunch of things we need to do at home to get completely ready for them.

We're excited that God has blessed them with such great improvements lately and no setbacks to speak of at this point. They certainly are miracles!!!

36 weeks

Yesterday Addyson and Braden turned 6 weeks old. That would make them 36 weeks had they not been born yet. April 14 was our "expected" due date even though May 12 was the actual due date. So it was a date we had been thinking of and expecting the babies to be born around then. Crazy how much has already happened by now! So kind of a big milestone! They have been in the hospital for 43 days now - wow, seems like an especially long time when you say it that way.

But they continue to grow and work on their eating skills. Both of them have been taking 4 or 5 full feedings on their own for the last couple of days - and they've taken some of their other feedings partially too. So we see improvement there.

They asked us to bring our car seats in so they can do a test soon to make sure that Addyson and Braden can sit in them for a period of time and keep their breathing and oxygen up. That proves that they're ready to sit in a car seat when they go home! So it's a tiny step and definitely doesn't mean they're super close to going home but it shows they're getting closer!

36 weeks was also a number that was thrown out that they might possibly go home, and also that they could be able to eat by. So neither of those happened magically yesterday but they are making improvements!!

Happy Easter!

Hope that you all had a wonderful Easter. What a great day to celebrate what Jesus did for us on the cross!

We are also celebrating what He's done for us in Addyson and Braden's lives. They both continue to do well. They are working on their eating skills and have made some good improvement. Braden ate two full feedings for me in a row yesterday! He's never done that before and he really acted like he knew what to do; there was no playing around - it was time to eat and burp!

Here is Braden in his own newborn clothes!

Ryan and I took CPR class on Saturday morning and spent some good time with the kids. Then we were able to hang out Saturday evening and relax a little which was nice. But we realized when we aren't working and just relaxing at home we really miss the kids and it seems so strange without them here! We were able to get their car seats in our car - we had a major scare when it didn't seem like they were going to fit, but we managed to make it work!

Sunday we went to church, had Easter lunch with Ryan's family, and then spent the rest of the day at the hospital. It was fun to spend Easter with our babies! Here are Addyson and Braden in their first Easter clothes!

Braden outgrows his clothes!

First of all, Tessia and Jenn you are definitely on the list of awesome nurses. I'm pretty sure that anyone who is interested and cares enough about our family to check our blog is on the good list!!!

We got to hang out with the kids again last night. Check out this super cute picture of them holding hands while having "naked time' with daddy.

We had some great nurses last night which was a huge encouragement after the frustrations of previous days. Plus some sleep and relaxing makes your outlook on life more pleasant!

Braden is officially a big boy - yesterday he decided to outgrow his preemie clothes. So we'll take him some newborn stuff when we go later today!

Both kids are not getting their caffeine daily that they had been to help stop their apneas and bradys. Addyson had a couple last night when we were there so we'll see if they have to go back on it or not. Addyson is still doing well in her crib. Both kids ate pretty well again yesterday so there is continued improvement there.

They just continue to grow and grow and grow!

Goodbye isolette!

Addyson said goodbye to her isolette and is now in a crib just like her big brother! She was doing well keeping her temperature yesterday! She's not the 1800 grams required to move out of the isolette but she's as developed as her brother and she had been keeping herself warm in the isolette so I talked to her doctor and he agreed she was ready for a crib . . and so far she is proving us right!

Addyson and Braden continue to grow and work on their eating skills - both ate really well at times but then were completely worn out and sleepy at the next feeding. But they're trying really hard!

Our biggest challenge seems to be patience these days - we've been at the hospital long enough to get the routines down and start to know our babies pretty well. But each nurse has their own thoughts and ways of doing things - and the ways they think and tell us that we should be doing things. Some nurses are so wonderful and helpful and obviously love babies very much - but some nurses just seem bossy, slow, and set in their way that things must be done. We've started to realize sometimes it's ok to tell the nurse how you expect things to be done. They are our kids after all! But we're trying to be gracious as well. So you can pray that we would not get too fed up with the whole process and would be able to decide what information and suggestions to take and which ones to politely deny.

We love our pacifiers!

Yesterday I spent a lot of time with Addyson and Braden. We all worked hard on our eating skills! They are continuing to learn. I talked with several nurses yesterday and they reminded me of some things. Kids usually walk between 10 and 14 months - that is quite a big time difference. It's the same with learning to eat for preemies - they can start anywhere from 34 to 40 weeks. So our kids are doing fine - we just have to be patient and wait to see when they decide the time is right! So my guess of 2 weeks to come home may be a little hopeful. They think that Addyson especially may take longer to catch on - they've seen it take up to their due date which would be the middle of May for us. So we'll just have to be patient - not sure when they'll get to come home!

Braden moved to newborn diapers yesteray - what a big boy he is getting to be!!

Addyson and Braden were both pretty fussy yesterday - they both love their pacificiers as you can see in their pictures today. Braden gets wrapped up really tight so that his pacifier doesn't fall out because that makes him an unhappy little boy!

Ryan is getting busy with farming stuff but was able to come to the hospital for a little while last night - he is so dedicated!

Both kids are pooping like crazy and their tiny bottoms are pretty sore! The HMF that they get in their milk that gives them extra vitamins and calories seems to make them squirt all the time so you can pray that they would heal up - Braden especially seems pretty miserable! But they continue to grow and we are thankful to the Lord for them!

5 weeks old today!

Not much has changed - Addyson and Braden continue to grow and work on their eating!! They are 5 weeks old today.

They got to hang out some more together last night! They calm down and sleep good when they get to be together; it's pretty amazing to watch!

In case you're wondering - Braden is on the left and Addyson is on the right in this picture!

We got to hang out with Addyson and Braden a bunch yesterday! They are so much fun.

They both ate good yesterday and are continuing to learn.

Addyson should be in a crib any day now. And basically they need to learn how to eat completely on their own without the feeding tube all the time and be able to gain weight that way. So we could be home in a couple weeks if they don't have any setbacks!! We'll just have to wait and see when the eating thing clicks.

We had a great time spending most of Sunday together as a family!!

Still Growing!

Ryan and I have been busy at home trying to catch up on things. I've been cleaning Addyson and Braden's room and all of their stuff which means lots of laundry and sanitizing! But we've still found time to go see our precious babies!!

Braden is officially 5 pounds! His preemie clothes just now are fitting about right - pretty soon he'll be in newborn clothes!!! Hard to believe that he is getting so chubby!!! And Addyson continues to gain weight also! She is starting to get some fat on her arms and cheeks especially.

They have done well with several immunization shots they've received. They continue to improve on their eating - the nurses think they should really start catching on and being more consistent in the next week or so. They are at the age where that starts to kick in. So I'll probably be spending more time there with them starting this week sometime.

Look at our beautiful mustaches!!

Addyson and Braden both got shots yesterday! They seemed to do ok.

They were both pretty ornery for the nurses and both pulled out their NG feeding tubes at least twice! That's why they have the beautiful white tape mustaches all the way across their faces in these pictures!

They both continue to learn how to eat on their own. Braden had a pretty good choking incident but they keep learning little by little what they are supposed to be doing! Hopefully they'll catch on soon so mommy doesn't get so frustrated!! :) They say 35 weeks is kind of the time frame when most kids are supposed to know what's going on and that isn't until next week so I know anything they're doing should be encouraging but my patience isn't lasting very well.

Daddy took a good shot of Braden and himself!

They continue to gain weight and have less A's and B's so good progress there - we're just working on the eating thing!

We passed our eye exams!!

Yesterday Addyson and Braden had eye exams to check for ROP which is a common eye problem that preemies have. They have to dilate their eyes for the test so they got to wear their "shades" all day like they used to wear when they were under the bili light to prevent jaundice. Both of them tested just fine so we're praising the Lord for that!

They got to take their "shades" off around 9:00 p.m. but we still didn't think it would be very good to blind them with the bright camera flash so they got a long distance picture!

Braden did awesome eating without his tube - I think he is starting to catch on better. Addyson didn't seem to care to try too much.

As soon as Addyson can keep herself warm she will be able to move to a crib! She will not be big enough for the 1800 gram weight requirement for the move but since she was an IUGR baby they'll let her move early. So she might be out of her isolette pretty soon! She is such an amazing miracle!!

Ryan and I made a trip to Babies R Us to finish getting some things we need to get ready for the babies to come home. I've been sorting and organizing stuff and so their room and the house are full of big piles - I'm sure it looks like a giant mess but it's actually the beginning of some organization! I'm hoping to start washing clothes, blankets and sanitizing everything else. Who would have thought Ryan and I could turn into such germ freaks!! But we need to for the kids since any virus or sickness will end them right back in the hospital or worse. So it's definitely all worth it - Ryan ordered some of the stuff we scrub in with at the hospital so we'll be able to scrub in at home to make sure we don't give them germs!!

Well I better call that good for yesterday's report and get to my piles! Happy April Fools Day!