California Nursery

Since our overall goal is to get back to California, we're setting up the nursery there! Obviously, I'm not there to do the designing so it's all up to dear old daddy.

I made a few things for the nursery, including letters to hang on the wall. I'm going to work on a few other small crafts. Our good friend painted us a turtle picture to go with our decor. So Tom's job was to put the furniture together and hang everything on the wall. He did a great job!

Everything will obviously be coming off of the cribs, but things come in sets and who doesn't buy the entire set when really all you need is a crib sheet? The quilts will be great to toss on the ground for some belly time and play time though.

The last step is adding a glider and putting a night stand from our master bedroom furniture instead of the old brown dresser (which will eventually go to the guest room). I also need to get some baskets for the changing table/dresser to keep things in. Other than that, we're ready for some babies in California!

I hope the twins like it! We were trying to keep it gender neutral but still fun and colorful for them. I think it turned out great. Good job papa bear!

Week 6

I can't believe it's been 6 weeks since my babies were born! It seems like just yesterday. But the monotony of our lives doesn't help I'm sure. We've gotten into quite the rhythm. At least I know the twins will be on a great schedule when they get home! Although I think they're going to want a lot of cuddle time and I don't know if I'll be able to give one of them the full 1-2 hours I give them now of undivided attention when I don't have the nurses helping out with the other one.

Here's the update up until last Thursday. Sorry I'm so late. Anyway, this week...not a lot has changed, except with Jackson's breathing.


Jackson started the week on CPAP and ended the week on NOTHING! No CPAP, no oxygen, NOTHING. I'm so proud :) The doctor decided to start him on steroids last weekend. They help with the inflammation in his lungs from the respiratory distress he had the last time he was weened off of the CPAP. When the inflammation went down from the steroids, the diuretic he's been on for about 2 weeks kicked out all the extra fluid and he started breathing great! The bad part of steroids is that he dropped almost 3oz. He dropped down to about 3lb 5oz at the end of the week. He'll hopefully gain it back quickly. He also gets incredibly hungry and gets very fussy, which probably has accounted for some of the weight loss. Baby boy wants food and wants it every hour or so. Since he only gets food every 3 hours, he spends a good chunk of the in between time crying and fussing for more food. Poor guy. He's done with the steroids on Sunday, then hopefully he won't be as hungry and fussy and he'll still be breathing well. We shall see!

 

Baby boy with only his feeding tube!

Amelia, pretty little stubborn Amelia. All the nurses come over and tell her how pretty she is. It's going to her head haha. She seems so sweet as long as she's happy and you're not making her do something she doesn't want to do. I've never made her do anything until now. Now that I'm trying to nurse her, her true personality comes out. And behind that sweet little girl is a very smart, conniving, stubborn little girl. She knows how to nurse. 100% knows how. She's even been so crazy as to do it sometimes for 15-20 minutes. She gets 1/3-1/2 of her feeding when she does that. She does great. And then, when she realizes what is going on, she stops, and for the rest of the day WILL NOT even consider the idea of nursing. She will just clamp her mouth shut, close her eyes, and put this little grin on her face as if to say "ha ha ha you can't make me!" She forgets that I'm bigger and stronger than her though, and I will win this little battle. It's just going to take some tricks on my part. She has her tricks...the crying and whining and faking asleep. So now I just need to step up my game and figure a way around all of her tricks to just make her nurse. She has to eat somehow. Apparently taking away the feeding tube to force her to eat isn't very nice haha so I just need to be more creative ;) But she's doing great :) She's 3lbs 10oz at the end of the week and getting bigger every day!

Don't be fooled by her sweet face.

Next week we'll keep on nursing, the twins have their first field trip to the eye doctor and we'll see where things go. Hopefully by the end of next week we'll have a better idea of when they'll be discharged. At this point, they just need to eat better! Here's hoping!

Week 5

So I'm a little late for the update on how things have gone this week but I've been very busy and you'll see why :)

The twins hit 32 weeks on Tuesday and at 32 weeks everything changes. If you're going to have a preemie, it seems like after 32 weeks is ideal. Not that anyone plans on having a preemie.

32 means the twins are off caffeine, so they have to stimulate themselves to remember to breathe (they're both doing really well with that...but they do get some caffeine in their breast milk ;) sorry guys but with the lack of sleep, mommy needs a cup a day). They also start getting babies ready to go home at 32 weeks. We still have atleast  3 weeks but with as preemie as my babies were, it takes awhile. So they need to be eating on their own, breathing on their own, sleeping out of the isolette, and doing everything a typical newborn does. The twins are also eligible for the "big kid" room in the nursery. Typically, that's where babies go to be discharged. Every time there's a big group of babies that come in, they move the ones ready to go home over there. So I'm, of course, always incredible jealous of the babies that get to go over there. If they get quite a few new babies who need extra attention, my babies are now considered big enough and doing enough on their own that they could possibly be moved over there! Woohoo! One step closer! Now, I know they probably won't be until they're closer to 35 weeks, but just the fact that they CAN be over there, makes me happy. Baby steps people!

So the big reason I've been so busy is I'm spending most of my day at the hospital to stay there for a few feedings. The babies are now starting to learn to breast feed and get rid of their feeding tube soon! It takes time, things have definitely been far from successful but it's a step in the right direction. The first day or 2 they were both completely uninterested in the process, but they seem to be getting the idea now. They lack the strength and coordination, so we really need to build them up, but they're getting the hang of it! I'll be feeding them more and more over the next week or so and eventually, we'll switch them over to nursing and bottle feeding completely. Since they're still so tiny, they'll probably need to be bottle fed for awhile after they're breast fed. The bottle will drip the food into their mouths more so they don't have to work as hard. It also makes sure that they're getting enough calories and I'll add any extra vitamins they might need to that. By their actual due date, they should be able to handle just being breast fed. 40 weeks also hopefully means no more pumping for me unless I want to ;) No more cleaning and sterilizing all these parts 8+ times a day! woohoo!

Both babies are also over 3 pounds this week! We threw a little 3 pound party for them and I brought in cake for all of the nurses.

I can't seem to figure out how to flip the picture but you get the point...

The twins also are up to new tricks. Mia's tricks involve doing anything possible to get out of breast feeding. Her plans have included crying, whining, spitting, faking being asleep, and faking being asleep while putting her head in any place she can get it so she'll face directly away from the nipple. She's a smart one, I'm telling you. She just forgets that I'm bigger, can move her head against her will, can pinch her when she's being a faker, and will continue making her eat even if she's crying ;) Sorry sweety. Mommy loves you, but you gotta figure this out or you'll never get to come home.

Fake cry. You can tell because she stills looks a little happy ;) Real cries, she looks miserable and her face turns bright red.

Jack likes to breast feed when he's awake. Waking him up just to eat is a challenge, but if he's up, he'll do what he can and not cause a stink like his sister. His fun trick though is trying to lift his head around a lot. Baby boy has a long skinny neck, which is not good for lifting his big ol' head. He struggles with it. When he's kangarooing though, he likes to put his arms under his head and prop them up. Only problem is, if he wants to adjust his head at all, he can't do it, it's too heavy. So I have to lift up his head, he'll turn it where he wants it, then I put it down. It's so funny because he gets to determined, frustrated and then so happy when he gets settled where he wants to be.

You gotta get a little bigger baby boy, then you'll be able to do it ;)

So that's our week in a nutshell. Their weights have been fluctuating around 3lbs 3oz, 3lbs 4oz. They're doing a little gain 10 lose 5 kind of game. So every night they bounce around but it's always going in the up direction so I don't complain. They're burning more calories, doing more for themselves, and building lots of muscles to help them get ready to go home so now that they're doing more work, their weight bounces. We're on the right track though. Hopefully in about 3 weeks, I'll be writing about how they're getting ready to go home! We shall see!

Happy 5 weeks Jack and Mia! :)

A Day In the Life Part II

What do you do when you have your babies 3 months early?

Attempt to decorate their nursery when they're 1 month old. Obviously.

This makes me think of everything I need to do yet to get ready to bring these babies home! And as if getting everything we need isn't enough, we have California things that need to get done and Pennsylvania things, since they're most likely going to be in PA for a few weeks before we take them to Cali. So that's 2 nurseries...or at least 1 legit nursery and 1 makeshift nursery.

We have cribs, a dresser/changer and some basic decorations in their real nursery. Their names will hang there when I finish them. But we still need things like a changing pad, sheets for that, extra crib sheets, a pack and play, sheets for that, maybe a bouncer or swing or both, and many other miscellaneous items.

To bring them home we have to have some basics that the NICU requires like car seats, clothes, and receiving blankets. All of which we have, so as far as the NICU goes, we're good to go home in Pennsylvania.

To keep them in PA, we need somewhere for them to sleep, clothes, diapers, blankets, stroller, and many other little trinkets. We have some clothes, blankets, a few too big diapers (we'll get smaller ones when we see what size they are at go-home time), and a stroller. We're begging, borrowing and stealing the other things we need. Ok, mostly the borrowing, but I would beg if I needed to. Probably not steal, I have 2 babies I need to take care of. Jail would be a bad idea. We have 1 bassinet, but it looks like one baby is sleeping in a dresser drawer for right now.

So one day at a time, but now, a month into their lives, we're slowly getting together everything we need to bring them home to PA and then bring them home to Cali! Hopefully, we'll be using all of these things in a month or so!

1 Month Birthday!

I can't believe it's been 1 month since I gave birth to the most beautiful babies in the world! Ok, maybe I'm just a little bit biased. As much as I would have liked to skip this whole NICU thing and just had 2 healthy full term babies, I would do it all over again to have my wonderful babies.

Here's a quick look at where they started...

 

And today...

Jackson
Length-40cm (15 3/4inches)
Head-27cm
Weight-1308grams (2lb 14oz)

Amelia
Length-39cm (15 1/3inches)
Head-27.5inches...she would get my big head. Sorry baby girl!
Weight-1367 grams (3lb 0oz)

What big babies they're becoming! Slowly but surely :)

A lot of people have asked me how big they have to be to go home. They don't have to be a certain size as much as meet certain criteria. Obviously, they have to be able to breathe on their own with no help at all (so Mr. Jackson needs to get rid of that CPAP). They also have to be eating on their own, either at breast or by bottle, and gaining weight while doing so. The minimum size is around 3 1/2 pounds and gestation is 35 weeks. They also have to be able to keep their body temperature while out of the incubator and keep their heart rate up while sitting in a car seat for over an hour.

When they meet all of these simple little tasks, we can discuss discharge. They meet 0 of them right now. But I'll keep you posted as we check things off the list and get closer to discussing the big "D".  Obviously, we have at minimum, about 3 1/2 weeks to go since they are currently 31 weeks and 4 days...or would have been had they stayed in my belly. Their development is similar to being in my belly though, their sucking skills, alertness, and certain other development areas follow along so that's why the 35 weeks date is still important. Their growth and other development, like their lungs, are slowed or changed because of their early birth though. So they still follow along with my gestation, even though, technically, it's over.

So that's the basic idea...and here are some funny pictures on their 1 month birthday! They might hate me for these when they get older...at least Amelia will. Bahahaha I love being a mom! Wait til I get out the matching outfits! :)

 

"Look what I can do!" He's such a little show off ;)

 

haha she made cuter faces while posing but this one is too funny to pass up on. I love you Amelia darling :)

Week 4

I'm happy to report this week flew by! Thank goodness! Week 3 was rough. Really rough. Week 4 was dealing with a lot of repercussions of week 3...like the possible lung issues Jack might have and the possible medical attention he might need when he's discharged. The big change for the week was pretty much Jack's lungs.

When week 3 ended he had to go back on the CPAP and they were trying to ween him off again. It was incredibly unsuccessful. Like to the point that all of the weening might have done more harm than good. He went back on the CPAP 24/7 and was needing more oxygen than before the first time they weened him off. Not a good sign. He was down to 21% before and now he was needing 30%. They did a chest xray and found fluid in the lungs. They've been treating it with diuretics and so far have had good results. He's back down to 21-23%. But the long end of the deal is that these issues can keep coming up. He might not be off of oxygen completely for a very long time. He might be going home with it. He might have chronic lung issues. Everything is a might for right now, but things aren't looking good. For right now, no plans to take him off of the CPAP again. He finished his lasix treatment and is switching to aldactazide. No plans on when he'll be off of that. We just have to wait and see how baby boy does. Poor baby boy.

Between the diuretics and all of the blood work done, Jack also needed a blood transfusion.  This didn't exactly make me happy, but he pinked up afterwards, got his energy back and was doing much better afterwards. So I'll quit my whining.

Mia and Jack are both doing great. They're eating well, gaining weight, breathing relatively well (Mia atleast), and doing what they're supposed to. We just have to wait and see what happens next. I've learned that every day is a new adventure.

In really exciting news...Mia ended the week at 2lbs 15.8oz...what a tease! And Jack was 2lbs 14oz. I think she's waiting for him so they can have a 3lb party together. What a nice sister :)

I think they are really starting to look like twins. :) What big babies you are! (Obviously my idea of "big" has gotten a bit skewed in the past few weeks.)

Preggo

I noticed when I found out I was pregnant, I was suddenly insanely curious about all my other friend's pregnancies. What did they eat? Where did they get the cute maternity shirt? How do they stay in shape? Are they as tired as I am?

I was even more curious when things went wrong though. If someone got gestational diabetes I would wonder if I was eating too much sugar. When a friend of a friend went into preterm labor at 23 weeks I was curious what caused it. Her baby was barely a pound and survived and I was amazed that that was even possible. But I never thought it would happen to me.

For everyone's curiosity I thought I'd share a little bit about my pregnancy and maybe some things that possibly led up to the my PROM (Premature Rupture of Membranes).

We had just gotten back from traveling to Pennsylvania to visit our families for the holidays. I had no clue that I was pregnant until we got back to Florida and did some calculations to realize just how late I was.

 January 4, 2011 I woke up and took a pregnancy test. I was shocked to see it turn positive! I had Tom read it, just to make sure I wasn't reading it wrong. A blood test later and I was definitely pregnant! By my calculations, I was close to 6 weeks along. The OB clinic at Eglin AFB (where we were stationed at the time) doesn't see patients until at least 10 weeks, so I made an appointment for early February and went about my merry pregnant way. I had very little symptoms at the time and was feeling pretty good. About 2 weeks later though, the nausea and exhaustion hit, and didn't end until I delivered the twins, but you'll have to wait for the delivery story for those lovely details. About the same time I noticed some light spotting. I called my doctor, who said it could be implantation bleeding, but had me come in just in case.

At the appointment, we found out we were having twins! They also found out I had bacterial vaginosis. They gave me some gel to treat the infection with and I was on my way, shocked that there were 2 babies instead of one. I had a follow-up the next week to see how the infection was. It was still not gone so I had another round of the lovely gel, but at that appointment we heard our sweet little babies heartbeats for the first time. They also moved my due date back a week to September 6th based on measurements of the babies.

A few days later I woke up to a lot of blood. Like period blood. It was the end of January, I was only 8-9 weeks pregnant, and I was 100% certain I had lost my babies. We rushed to the ER where we saw 2 beautiful babies and 2 strong heart beats. I was so relieved but still really uncomfortable with the amount of blood. The doctors told me it happened sometimes, that the babies were ok for right now, but they didn't know if I would keep the babies. Luckily, soon after the bleeding stopped. I remember I was almost 10 weeks pregnant, we went to a superbowl party and that was the last time I saw any bleeding. From then on, our pregnancy went great.

Of course, the incidents early on made me incredibly nervous for the rest of the pregnancy. I didn't want to buy any baby things because I didn't want to have them around the house in case anything happened to the babies. But every appointment we had, we were told they looked perfect. We had all kinds of tests and blood work and everything came out normal. One doctor even told me I had a very boring pregnancy.

Baby Boy at 19 weeks.

Baby Girl at 19 weeks.











My main issues for the rest of the pregnancy was nausea and weight gain. I lost about 10lbs my first trimester from being sick so often. There was even an ER visit because I couldn't stop throwing up no matter how hard I tried.I slowly started to gain the weight back. The doctors kept telling me to eat more, but it was hard until about week 18. I was taking zofran daily, but still feeling sick and still vomiting almost every day. Around 18 weeks though the zofran started to actually help and I could finally eat and not vomit daily. If I didn't take the zofran though, things weren't pretty. I started to slowly pack on the pounds and so did the babies.

In February we got orders to move to California and for the hubby to report June 1st. I was a little anxious about the move in the middle of my pregnancy, but I thought it would be early enough that I would have no travel issues and still have a lot of time to get everything ready for the babies. When May rolled around I was cleared by my doctors and told I would be fine to travel, no babies were coming anytime soon, we packed up our lives and it all moved to California. At that time I decided to take a trip up to Pennsylvania to see some family and friends one last time before the babies came. I thought it would work out perfectly because I could stay there and sleep in an actual bed while the hubby got our life situated and got things settled in our house. He slept on the floor for a few days before the moves brought all of our things, and I wouldn't have handled that well at all, so I thought I had the best plan. Obviously, the best plan is made to be ruined.

I never made it to California. The twins didn't make it to California. Here we are, still in Pennsylvania. The hubby is stuck in California. And it's all a big mess, but that's more of the labor and delivery story, which I will tell you all about next.