its been a while. lots of new things.

Charlie and Brady are home! Mothers Day was their due date!
Charlie came home on April 22 and Brady came home on April 29. Charlie had his hernia repaired at Medical City last Thurs, May 7. All went well. Charlie & I spent the nite and were on our way home on Friday. We are all getting adjusted to life with two new boys at home. They are getting strong quickly. I have no idea what their weights are at this point. They have a dr appt soon for another follow up. And an eye dr appt tomorrow. Mothers day was amazing! It was wonderful to have all my children with me.
In other news... I did go see Star Trek on Mothers day. My mom offered to watch the boys. It was awesome! If you have ever like Star Trek it is a def must see!! I suppose thats it for movies for us for a while. Other good note worthy movies that we've rented recently are: Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Reader (which I saw in theatre), Snow Angels, Frost Nixon, The Dutchess (I ended up buying it).
Today has been the first day since I got both boys home that I've been able to stay home! between going to my moms and dr appts and the grocery store I havent been able to just stay home. Its been exactly what I needed.
For mothers day we converted our aquarium to saltwater and its coming along nicely. Its a slow process. So far we have live rock, live sand, 2 false percula (Nemo clownfish), snails, hermit crabs, snowflake eel (10-12"), sand sifting sea star, and some coral fragments that are on a trial run before I buy any bigger corals. I will post pics eventually. When it is beautiful or close to it, I will post pics. We still need more live rock and some time for some purple algae to grow.
Our boys
Brady is in Blue & Charlie is in "Chocolate"

good news.

Well. I talked to Dr.T today and he told me Charlie would be coming home Wed!!! I had originally planned for Tues, but they did not inform me until today of an eye appt the boys have Wed morning. So he will stay for that and as soon as thats over we get to go home!! And I am not rooming in. I decided I'd had enough hospital time. Im starting to like going less and less. I'll have to make more of an effort when Charlie is home and Brady is still there.
They took Brady off his canula today, and it stuck. They took him off yest and he had to be put back on again. Dr.T said we would talk more about Brady's discharge on Wed. assuming everything goes well until then.
They are getting their circumsized this week! We will still have to take Charlie to have his hernia repaired but thats down the road 9 mos - 1 yr.
Charlie is weighing 4 lb 8 oz. and Brady is 4 lb. 10 oz (?). Im not 100% on Brady's weight, but its close enough. Anyways. more updates when Charlie's home. Merry Tuesday.

Disappointment.

So Brady is not coming home this week. He ended up desating before they did his car seat test, due to reflux. They started him on prevacid to help with the reflux. He has now had 4 doses (it usually starts working around doses 4 to 6) and the reflux is getting better. When they started the prevacid they had to put him on 25% O2 to keep his level up. Jessica (their fav nurse) said she was going to try to wean him down to 21% today. Hopefully he will do well.
Charlie is great and if he takes all his feeds well today they will possibly do his car seat test tomorrow, which is the final thing we need, before rooming in to go home. I had a meeting with the dr yesterday and he foresaw a maximum of 7-10 days before they would be able to go home. So Im still hoping to have a baby home before Monday if Charlie stays with the program. Im not getting my hopes up this time, like I did with Brady on this past Monday. We are baby ready! And its driving me nuts that I dont have them home!

Quick update.

So Charlie is breastfeeding! Yay! He is nipple-ing (bottle) all his feeds. Tomorrow I will attempt breastfeeding both boys at the same time! My mom did this and was very successful - I hope I have the same luck.

Both are out of the isolette's, that happened on Friday. They are doing well. As of yesterday they told me Brady would be coming home this week. He was supposed to do his car seat test today, but some minor stuff happened so I think they may try for tomorrow. I have a meeting with the neo tomorrow at noon. They said (yesterday - tomorrow may be diff) if they pass their cart seat test they can go home! Discharge class is tomorrow at 6! Hopefully both boys can come home this week! That would be amazing! They are both doing so well. I freaked out and had to run out and buy some little things, like the travel set of baby wash and some bottles, just in case they are home before the shower on Sunday. My next post should have some pics of the boys at home!!

Breast feeding.

Yay! I was able to breastfeed Brady for the 2nd time today! He did great! Brady is bottle feeding 6 times a day, and the nurse said they might up him to all feedings with the bottle tomorrow (he eats 8 times a day). Charlie is up to 3 times a day with the bottle. He was stuck on 1 bottle a day for a while, and has recently been doing very well. Hopfeully he will go up to 4 feedings tomorrow, then on to 6 times and we can start breastfeeding.

Both boys should be coming out of the isolette's shortly. Brady is up to 1806 grams (3 lbs. 15 oz.) and Charlie is 1764 grams (3 lbs. 14 oz.) The limit to come out of the isolette is 1800 grams but they have to be maintaining their temperature, when the isolette is set to 28.0 degress Celcius. Brady's is set to 28.5 Celcius and Charlie is at 28.0. So if Charlie gains weight and Brady's isolette temp goes down they will be able to co-bed. Any day now! They are almost through the NICU!

Bottle feeding.

Today the boys got their first bottle!! They both did very well. They each get 29 ml. of 26 calorie breastmilk (they have to add extra calories to the breastmilk to make it 26). Brady took 21 ml. and Chalrie took 20 ml - on their own! The rest was administered through their feeding tubes. They both had no brady's or desat's! They did so well! We are so proud! The dr. said they are doing very well and the nurse practitioner hinted she thought they would definitely be home before May 10 - their original due date.

Brady was taken off his nasal canula today as well. They had taken him down to .5 liters yesterday and was able to come off today. Charlie is on 1.5 liters and should be off his canula in the next couple days. Charlie weighs 3 lb. 4 oz. and Brady is 3 lbs. 9 oz. They are definitely growing! We've set Sunday, April 19 as our Baby Shower date. It's getting close, soon they will be home!

1 month in the NICU

Happy 1 month Birthday boys! As of yesterday, Sat Mar 14, our boys are 1 month old! It coincides with my cousin Ashley & Cory's Wedding, which was a nice get away for us. The boys are doing very well, still on the nasal canula's but hopefully they will be coming home soon. They both weigh a little under 3 lbs but are doing very well and are gaining weight every day. They have come a long way in such a short amount of time. I cant wait for them to come home!



Jeff and Charlie

Me and Brady


Charlie


Charlie


Jeff and Brady