Homeward Bound

Now I am totally singing some Simon & Garfunkle.

On to more important matters: we truly are HOMEWARD BOUND!!!! Mike & Will surprised us this week by meeting all of their requirements to leave the NICU!

Last week and earlier this week the boys' favorite game to play with the nurses was "Look! I pulled out my feeding tube!" The bonus round was when Will tried to take out Mike's feeding tube.

Last week was fairly disheartening for us we thought. On Friday both boys had eye exams. Zed went with the ophthalmologist to learn what it was all about. As they were doing the exams the Dr asked our nurse if the boys were going to be there for a while longer for him to do the follow ups or if they were going home and needing to find a different ophthalmologist. Our nurse replied with a yes, that they'd still be around for a while. Then on Sunday one of our NICU Drs came and was talking about waiting for them to really start doing great with their feedings before he'd be ready to send them home.

On Monday Mike pulled out his feeding tube and the nurse just never put a new one in. On Tuesday when we came to the NICU our nurse asked if we had our car seats for the boys' "car seat challenge". We were completely shocked and caught totally off guard. We ended up having another nurse actually explain how we got to this conclusion so quickly. She said that Mike had been bottle feeding/nursing for 48hours and was looking great. Will was still a little behind that, but they figured that he would complete his 48hours without the feeding tube before we took him home. So our whirlwind week began!

They rocked their car seat challenge!

On Tuesday evening we actually got to go out to dinner with my Brother Brice from California and had him come meet his newest nephews. I don't think I had seen Brice in over 2 years! So it was a nice evening. Wednesday was CRAZY and super busy. First thing we had to do was go to my 6week post-partem appointment. I am officially allowed to exercise. My Dr did not, however, explain where I was going to find time to do such things with 4 boys 5years old and younger. After that we cruised from the Southeast end of the valley to the Southwest corner and bought our car seats. That was an adventure in itself. We had gone a few weeks before and picked out our seats, but waited until Zed had gone home and came back with our old car seats to trade in for a 25%discount. When we went back this week the seat we picked was gone--apparently discontinued and sold out. The next choice only had 1 in stock--and they actually had to scour the truck that had just pulled up to find it. Since I wanted matching seats with certain features, we went to our third choice. So far Zed and I really think we got the best one of our choices.

Almost mirror images

After getting the car seats we went to the hospital for the rest of the day and to stay the night. 

And I thought my days of sleeping in hospital beds was over!

As we entered the Labor & Delivery wing (which leads to the NICU) one of the head nurses from L&D saw us and knew who we were and told us which room we'd be in. You know you've been in the hospital too much when nurses who don't work with you or your children still know who you are by sight. We pretty much right away took our boys with us to our room for the night. Now, when I was admitted lots of people made comments that I must start feeling like the walls were coming in on me after being in for so long. But truly, my room was like a Suite or something! It was the biggest on the floor, had an entire wall of windows, was big enough to comfortably hold 3 chairs, a large couch and still have TONs of room for my older boys to dance around on.

This room was the kind that wouldn't take long to start feeling like the walls were coming in on me! HAHA. So tiny, I really realized how lucky I was at the other hospital and in my room.

They pull the same poses so often

After hanging out for a few hours our boys were rolled back to the NICU for their car seat challenge. They had to sit in their seats without any heart or respiratory issues for 90-120 minutes. Normally they do 90 minutes, but since our kids' first car ride HOME home is about 3hours we had to leave them in there for 2 hours to make sure they can handle it all OK. We went out to eat and came back as they were finishing up. Then we took the boys back to our room for the night to actually PARENT them.

Mike when he was ready to leave the hospital

 We spent the night being in charge of diapers, feedings, and losing sleep. The nurses still came in to get vitals, check up on us, and make sure that we kept on schedule. Will had a tough time feeding a few times in the night, but picked back up in the morning. Mike pretty much eats whatever he is offered.

Will looking sharp before we left

 We spent the ENTIRE next day waiting for the doctor to make his rounds to our hospital to discharge these guys. We just hung out in the room, taking care of our babies, wondering how in the world we ended up with 2 babies at the same time. It's pretty crazy really. And scary, overwhelming, awesome, exciting all at the same time. And so many more feelings too.

The brothers together.

 When we were finally discharged our nurse was pretty generous in setting us up for the weekend before we actually go HOME. We have diapers and wipes for now, but we are getting a pretty fair idea of the fact that we will be going through TONS of diapers, wipes and bottles for quite some time to come.

Ready to Roll

 It was late when everything was finally taken care of for us to go home. My parents are out of town so we had our first night of getting to fly solo with twins. My parents were probably grateful they weren't here last night. These guys were a little loud, we were a little tired, we were up all night it felt like, but it was FANTASTIC to have these guys with us. I am loving it!

All Set up

We've got plans to come home next week. Once we are home we will FINALLY be able to set up their little room. We've got a lot of things since they do have 2 big brothers. We will need another crib when they outgrow their cradles, but they are set for now. We are decorating their room with Thing1 and Thing2 and other Dr. Seuss fun. We've got the beginning of the decor. My friends mom made each boy an adorable Dr. Seuss quilt and my brother Brice brought some blankets, truffula trees, and "MIKE" & "WILL" letters in Cat in the Hat colors. I am so excited to put things up and take pictures for the blog.

PS...This is what shopping with 1/2 of our family looked like today. I'm sure we will figure out an easier system sometime.

Did I ever mention that Mr. J started KINDERGARTEN?! I can hardly believe it. He is loving it so very much. Otis has since then also started at preschool. They get to ride the bus together to school and work on homework together afterwards.

And today was the KHS homecoming parade and Game--Go Cowboys!!

Easton collected his candy in his cowboy hat then proceeded to keep wearing the hat on his head.

Mr. J got to be in the homecoming parade on the Kindergarten Float for the Class of 2028. He makes one good looking cowboy!

5 Weeks - 5 Pounds

So over the weekend we had a few experiences, some awesome and some not so much.

Not So Awesome: I had some issues being sick on Saturday and didn’t get to go visit my boys. I woke up feeling stiff and exhausted and freezing. It wasn’t anything crazy, I slept it off and was fine that night. I think it was just lack of sleep finally catching up to me in full force.

 

Mike was wide awake and wondering what was I was doing with my phone.

Awesome: Zed’s sister Renee, his brother Colton, and our newest sister in-law Kenzie came all the way down to visit us and brought MR J with them!! It made me SSOOO happy to have that amazing, sweet, funny, sensitive, snuggly, 5year old, kindergarten going boy here with me for a small time. They came Saturday night, went to church with us on Sunday and joined us at the hospital before they took off for home with Mr J and Otis.

I've noticed that Will likes to have his hands close to his face a lot: when he is sleeping, sucking on his pacifier, and when eating (although this one makes feeding time harder because his hands get in the way, haha)

Not So Awesome: We found out that Mike and Will’s blood counts have been low. They literally might not have enough blood flowing through their tiny little bodies. This is somewhat common in preemies who have had a lot of blood draws, sometimes they just aren’t able to make enough more blood for themselves in a timely manner. The doctors have avoided getting blood work done to check their blood counts because then they are just taking more blood out of the babes that need so much of their blood. Anyway, they are getting their blood checked this morning and I am hoping that they will have some results in while I’m at the hospital this afternoon. We are just hoping that their blood counts are high enough that they will not be needing a blood transfusion, but it is a possibility.

Mike (L) and Will (R). These guys have had subtle physical differences that were making it easier to tell them apart, but they change so much that those differences come and go. Don't be surprised to find one of them with a sharpie mark on them some time (courtesy of Zed) to tell them apart...he just might do it.

Awesome: Zed and I got to have a date to have some dessert at the Cheesecake Factory! Mostly this is a direct result of Zed loving me unconditionally, and being an amazing, fantastic man. Also, I am pretty much incapable of not eating chocolate all day long. It was delicious.

Me and Mike. Yesterday I spent ALL afternoon with these boys. After playing with me for a long time earlier in the afternoon they both were completely worn out. It worked out well that they are still allowed to be fed from the tube every other feeding, because neither one of these boys was going to wake up to eat after our afternoon of being awake and playing.

Not So Awesome: I sent Zed, Mr J and Otis all home over the weekend. Zed will be coming back later this week, but Mr J and Otis are busy in school now. I miss them soooooo much!!!! I love my boys, every single one of them.

 

See what I mean about Will and those hands? Precious, right? Yeah.

Awesome: Both Mike and Will broke the 5lb barrier! Mike is now 5lb 2oz and Will is now 5lb 4oz!! We took time last week to pick out new infant car seats that are rated down to 4lbs, and now we can go look for ones only rated at 5lbs (because they are a little less expensive) if we want. We might stick with the other ones we already like though. They have both gained more than a pound and a half over their birth weight.

All 4 Boys. All of my kids. One picture.

Awesom-est: All 4 of my boys got to meet each other! This is basically the highlight of, well, EVER! We did not expect this would happen. While Zed’s family was taking turns coming into the NICU and holding Mike and Will, someone was always out in the lobby with Mr J and Otis. Our babies are set up right next to a window, so we asked if we could just open the blinds so that the big boys could see their brothers. They were so excited and so happy to see the babies! The nurse actually then let us bring Mike and Will over to the hallway just outside the NICU door. She brought the babies and I got to walk the older boys in. We all stood in the hallway. My entire family together, for the first time since our new additions! It was wonderful. Otis of course lost interest after not too many minutes, but Mr J was quite a bit more interested in those sweet babies of ours. It makes me so incredibly anxious to bring them home and get to be a family all the time!! Bless that nurse of our though that made that moment possible for us. It was the best thing ever.

Our first family picture! Please excuse the 3year old with hands in his pants. It took quite the effort to get that smile, which only appeared after Zed threatened to take back his EASTON hat, which Otis had confiscated as his own a few days before. I'm pretty sure I'm holding Will and Zed has got Mike, but I'll be honest, we were so excited to get a family photo in that neither of us even took the time to look at who we had.

ONE Whole MONTH!

Mike and Will together. This day of sitting next to each other their monitors showed that these 2 literally were completely in sync with each other

I waited a few days for this week’s post for a few reasons. Mostly it’s because some days are a lot busier than others and this week consisted of a few of those busy days. But my “oh, that sounds good” excuse was because if I waited until today to write my post then it could be all about how my twins are 1 MONTH OLD!! This month has flown by soooooooo much faster than I imagined it would. On one hand I feel like we have been in this routine of visiting our children FOREVER!!! But on the other hand I’m sitting here thinking, “Has it really been a month already?!”

This is a terrible picture of me, but it me holding my sweet babes on their 1 month old day!!!

These 2 boys are amazing to me….and for me. I can be having such a stressful and poor day, but while I’m sitting there, holding my babies, everything else slips away and I have found a taste of Heaven. We have been at the new hospital for a week and a half now and I have learned to love it. We run through the same rotation of nurses, and it’s such a small NICU that all the nurses know what’s going on with all the babies. So when I call to check in it doesn’t matter who I talk to, they have either cared for Mike and Will or they simply know what is going on with them. I get so much time just holding and caring for these 2 that I occasionally am able to feel like I am their mom for reals! It’s my favorite.

Mike in his first onesie as a month old baby

Today Mike weighed in at 4lb 11oz, while Will is still ahead at 4lb 13oz. He is almost to the 5lb mark!!!! I can’t believe how fast it feels like they are gaining weight, but most of the time I also can’t hardly realize that it has been 4+ weeks. There was one day earlier this week that Will was only a half-pound more than Mike, but I think that came as a challenge to Will and he started gaining his weight quickly again. Since then they have been moving along at similar increments.

Will at 1 month in his first onesie

Because the boys are hooked up to so few monitors now, it is easy to pick them up and snuggle with them, so we do it as much as possible. A bonus, we can also now hold the 2 of them together…at the same time. It’s fantastic. This is when I get the biggest understanding of my Savior’s love for me. Being able to look at both of these babies that endured so very much even before birth, is a testament that Heavenly Father knows each of us. He knows what we are capable of handling, even when it is so hard, and we spend some days just crying that it could be over. HE knows that we can endure just a little bit more, and then suddenly HE lets us know that “it is enough”, and it’s time to move onto new experiences.

My boys hanging out together

These new experiences for us are hard too. Some days it absolutely breaks my heart to have my boys all in separate places. It just breaks my heart to have Mike and Will so far from me at this time. I can’t possibly spend as much time with them as I want to with them being in the hospital. But it helps me to absolutely cherish every minute I have with them in the hospital. I know that this is hard for me and Zed to endure while they are in the hospital. I know it is incredibly difficult for Ken and Easton to be without their parents so very much. But I also know that this is the absolute best scenario for Mike and Will to be in. They have constant supervision, I am able to get more rest, and I can ask questions so I feel confident in the progress these boys are making. 

Getting to hold my sweet sleeping boys

I feel like I’m not expressing myself well with this concept today, but to sum it up, this year has been full of experiences that are hard to endure, but I know that Heavenly Father will only have us go through as much as we can handle, then when he removes the hardship from us we are able to move forward a little stronger. I have been able to glimpse the feelings of Heaven by being with my sweet boys after all we’ve gone through so much more than I have felt before.

Zed's first time feeding the boys. He's got Mike here.

This past week the boys’ feedings have been increased so that they are now at about an ounce and half every feeding time. They are taking a bottle several times a day, for 15-30 minutes, then whatever they didn’t get to or couldn’t finish from the bottle (because it takes a lot of energy and effort of eat from a bottle) they receive in their feeding tubes. Before a feeding the nurses always check for “residuals”, which is just checking to see if there is any food left in the boys’ stomachs that they weren’t able to digest since the previous feeding. This is how they know if they are feeding the boys too much. The kink that gets thrown in once a day is when I come in to nurse the boys. For a week we only had doctors’ orders permitting me to try breastfeeding once a day for 15minutes with each baby. Well, with this we don’t know how much they’ve eaten, so it becomes a guessing game of how much to feed them in a bottle or for their tubes. Usually we try me nursing first for 15 minutes, then Zed will feed them a bottle for another 15 minutes, then the nurse will put the rest of the feeding (or half of what’s left if the boys did well breast feeding) through their tubes. We are waiting until the boys can eat every feeding at a full amount from a bottle (or nursing). Right now they often get tired, or even start out tired, and don’t suck very well. Or they quit too early. We’ve still got some time in the NICU for this, but they are coming along so great, just slowly.

Mike and Will are now sharing a crib! So much fun.

Mr J has started kindergarten and is absolutely loving it. We get to chat and skype with him some and he is doing great. Otis starts preschool back up this coming week and I think he is going to really thrive having some more stability in his life again. This whole year has probably hit him the hardest of us all. My mom has been absolutely amazing in playing with Otis and giving him so much extra and much needed love this whole summer. He has needed it so much more that I think anyone could have given him except my dear mother. Zed’s mom has also been a complete saint through all of this. She has set aside pretty much everything she does to take care of our kids. She has taken them with her on trips, to meeting, and everywhere else she has gone. It has been a huge relief to know that they are with someone who is giving them so much of herself who loves them as much as we do. So thank you.

I LOVE it when they are so wide awake. Alert little babies are fantastic.

Zed and our one month old babies!!