Someone tried his first bottle today! Our little Shawn convinced his nurse that he might like to try nippling so she gave him 5ccs of formula in a bottle. (I soooo wish we had been there for that! You know we would have been all over that with the camera!) Apparently he was surprised at how hard sucking a bottle was and didn't care for it. Not to worry little man...we'll keep practicing!
Weights continue to rise: Shawn is 4 pounds 5 ounces and Jason is 4 pounds 13 ounces. Both of them are continuing to increase their feedings each day. Jason eats 41ccs of formula every three hours, while Shawn eats 37ccs of formula at each feeding.
Unfortunately, Shawn has developed a little eye infection. His little eye is puffy and red. I hope it clears up soon. He is getting eye drops to clear it up.
That is about it for the updates today. We are definitely having a good day!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
So Sweet...
Our first family picture...
The boys together...
More photos from last night posted in the upper right hand corner of the blog.
The boys together...
More photos from last night posted in the upper right hand corner of the blog.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Pictures
I posted some links to pictures in the upper right corner of the blog. You can either look at the pictures individually or click on the slide show. They should be sequential and start with their births and end with pictures taken yesterday.
There are a couple of things you can do with these pictures of our handsome little men:
1)Just enjoy them...hopefully something will bring a smile to your face!
2)From what I understand, if you like any of them, you should be able to right click and copy/paste them to your own computer. You can't copy in the slide show mode, though.
3)You could also go through one of the vendors provided and purchase prints (hmm...you should go with number 4 instead).
4)You can email and we'll send the picture to you. Just tell us which one/s you want.
The pictures we took of Jason yesterday show how much the two of them look alike. I had always thought they were so different! Jason just has a little more meat on his bones! It is kind of hard to tell in these pictures, but trust me when I say they look alike...
Shawn
Jason
There are a couple of things you can do with these pictures of our handsome little men:
1)Just enjoy them...hopefully something will bring a smile to your face!
2)From what I understand, if you like any of them, you should be able to right click and copy/paste them to your own computer. You can't copy in the slide show mode, though.
3)You could also go through one of the vendors provided and purchase prints (hmm...you should go with number 4 instead).
4)You can email and we'll send the picture to you. Just tell us which one/s you want.
The pictures we took of Jason yesterday show how much the two of them look alike. I had always thought they were so different! Jason just has a little more meat on his bones! It is kind of hard to tell in these pictures, but trust me when I say they look alike...
Shawn
Jason
Monday, November 26, 2007
Packing It On
The boys are starting to pack on the poundage--preemie style, of course. Those 22 calorie meals are starting to add up!
In the left corner is Jason, weighing in at a hefty 4 pounds 9 ounces. In the right corner is Shawn, weighing in at a lean and mean 4 pounds 1 ounce. It won't be long before these two meet in the ring! (Hopefully there won't be too many rounds between the two, but I do expect that there will be some! What are brothers for if you can't fight with them?)
In the left corner is Jason, weighing in at a hefty 4 pounds 9 ounces. In the right corner is Shawn, weighing in at a lean and mean 4 pounds 1 ounce. It won't be long before these two meet in the ring! (Hopefully there won't be too many rounds between the two, but I do expect that there will be some! What are brothers for if you can't fight with them?)
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Suck On It- Part Deux
Jason got his own pacifier today! Hopefully Shawn will show him how to use it and help Jason catch up in the sucking arena. Of course, when we left the hospital today, Shawn had his paci up his nose...
Cute Jason pictures to come...
Cute Jason pictures to come...
Just a quick post before we head to the hospital. Both boys are still chugging along.
One new update is that Shawn is off of his cannula and breathing room air on his own! The only tube blocking his cute little face now is his feeding tube. (The one day I forgot the digital camera, of course! I did get pictures on a disposable that we leave at the hospital but haven't got them developed yet.)
Hopefully, Jason will join him in that soon. It will be great to see him without the breathing tube, too.
One new update is that Shawn is off of his cannula and breathing room air on his own! The only tube blocking his cute little face now is his feeding tube. (The one day I forgot the digital camera, of course! I did get pictures on a disposable that we leave at the hospital but haven't got them developed yet.)
Hopefully, Jason will join him in that soon. It will be great to see him without the breathing tube, too.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Suck On It!!!
Here is our baby boy's first attempts at sucking! Work that pacifier, Shawn!
On another note, Jason is finally wearing clothes! He looks so cute. It is just a matter of time now until he gets his own pacifier, too!
On another note, Jason is finally wearing clothes! He looks so cute. It is just a matter of time now until he gets his own pacifier, too!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
2 Calories More...
32 weeks gestation today...if I was still pregnant that is.
Shawn had his feeding tube moved from his mouth to his nose yesterday! This is great news because now he can start practicing his sucking. (Sucking is one of the last milestones before discharge! Most babies start sucking at about 34 weeks gestation, so this is still a little early for him.) They have given Shawn the tiniest of pacifiers to "suck" while they feed him to let him associate getting full with sucking. He's not too interested in it yet, but he is on his way!
Jason is catching up to Shawn on his feedings. Jason is getting 27ml of milk (about an ounce and a half) every three hours, while Shawn gets 30ml. Jason has started to plump up lately, too. Now he is 4 pounds 6 ounces! Shawn is not gaining as fast as Jason, so the doctors have changed his formula and added 2 extra calories per ounce to his feedings. It doesn't seem like approximately 24 extra calories a day would do much, but the nurses have assured us that it will. Shawn now weighs 3 pounds 13 ounces.
Shawn with his new tube! You can see his chin now!
Jason - getting bigger!
One of the new pastimes for us while we are at the hospital is to try and notice all of the differences between the boys. It was hard for us to get the full picture of what they look like with all of the tubes and tape on them. Now that the ventilators are gone, it is easier to see their sweet little faces. Here are some things we noticed so far...
eyes - both boys have light eyes that are either a blue or gray. We realized that they may/will most likely change later. Isaac wants them to have hazel eyes like me.
mouths - Shawn has thin little lips (like me I suppose) while Jason has Isaac's "juicy" lips. The "juicy" term was coined by one of my nieces a long time ago as a way to describe Isaac.
hair - Jason has much lighter hair than Shawn. Jason's seems to be straight. Shawn's hair seems wavy with the beginnings of curls (although with hair so short, it is a little hard to tell!)
faces - Shawn seems to have a longer, skinnier face than Jason. Jason has Isaac's chipmunk cheeks!
ears - Jason has bigger ears (is that from my side) while Shawn has these small, round little ears.
fingers and toes - they both have the longest fingers and toes! Isaac is thinking he has some piano players here...
That is all for now. I'll keep adding to the list as we discover more about them.
Shawn had his feeding tube moved from his mouth to his nose yesterday! This is great news because now he can start practicing his sucking. (Sucking is one of the last milestones before discharge! Most babies start sucking at about 34 weeks gestation, so this is still a little early for him.) They have given Shawn the tiniest of pacifiers to "suck" while they feed him to let him associate getting full with sucking. He's not too interested in it yet, but he is on his way!
Jason is catching up to Shawn on his feedings. Jason is getting 27ml of milk (about an ounce and a half) every three hours, while Shawn gets 30ml. Jason has started to plump up lately, too. Now he is 4 pounds 6 ounces! Shawn is not gaining as fast as Jason, so the doctors have changed his formula and added 2 extra calories per ounce to his feedings. It doesn't seem like approximately 24 extra calories a day would do much, but the nurses have assured us that it will. Shawn now weighs 3 pounds 13 ounces.
Shawn with his new tube! You can see his chin now!
Jason - getting bigger!
One of the new pastimes for us while we are at the hospital is to try and notice all of the differences between the boys. It was hard for us to get the full picture of what they look like with all of the tubes and tape on them. Now that the ventilators are gone, it is easier to see their sweet little faces. Here are some things we noticed so far...
eyes - both boys have light eyes that are either a blue or gray. We realized that they may/will most likely change later. Isaac wants them to have hazel eyes like me.
mouths - Shawn has thin little lips (like me I suppose) while Jason has Isaac's "juicy" lips. The "juicy" term was coined by one of my nieces a long time ago as a way to describe Isaac.
hair - Jason has much lighter hair than Shawn. Jason's seems to be straight. Shawn's hair seems wavy with the beginnings of curls (although with hair so short, it is a little hard to tell!)
faces - Shawn seems to have a longer, skinnier face than Jason. Jason has Isaac's chipmunk cheeks!
ears - Jason has bigger ears (is that from my side) while Shawn has these small, round little ears.
fingers and toes - they both have the longest fingers and toes! Isaac is thinking he has some piano players here...
That is all for now. I'll keep adding to the list as we discover more about them.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Moving on up...
Yesterday was a big day! Jason came off of his vent and moved on to the vapor mist cannula (a device used in the hospital to deliver supplemental oxygen to a patient in need of extra oxygen. This device consists of a plastic tube which fits behind the ears, and a set of two prongs which are placed in the nose or nares. Oxygen flows from these prongs). We are so excited for him. Hopefully he'll stay on his cannula this time and not regress back to his vent. Plus, he was moved into an isolette which will give him the chance to practice regulating his own body temperature. Woohoo. Keep it up, little man!
It was also a great day because I got to hold Jason for the second time while Isaac held Shawn! I must say that it was heavenly. I fought back the urge to take them and run home... :-)
Isaac and Shawn...
Our whole family...
Stacie and Jason...
It was also a great day because I got to hold Jason for the second time while Isaac held Shawn! I must say that it was heavenly. I fought back the urge to take them and run home... :-)
Isaac and Shawn...
Our whole family...
Stacie and Jason...
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
The Birth of the Boys
On Friday the 19th, I went to Dr. Doom's (the high risk doctor) for my appointment. I knew things were not going well when even I could see that baby A had very little fluid around him. The tech doing the u/s called Doom in to check for himself and he said I was off to the hospital for the rest of my pregnancy. I was 27 weeks and 2 pregnant.
My hospital stay was challenging, but the nurses did try to make things as nice as possible for me. I was hooked to fetal monitors 23 1/2 hours a day. I got a half an hour break to shower or visit the little outdoor garden in the hospital courtyard. I chose the half an hour to shower every time and then was plugged up to the monitors again. I didn't mind the monitors so much, but I had a reaction to the ultrasound gel they used with the monitors. (I am still having issues on my belly from that gel and it's been weeks!)
Baby A rarely moved and was easy to keep on the monitor. Of course that was because he had so little fluid that moving was a challenge for him. Baby B, on the other hand, never stayed still. I was constantly either checking for him myself or having a nurse come in to do it. There is nothing like being awakened in the middle of the night to have your fetal monitor moved a fraction of a millimeter to "find" my missing baby.
I continued to leak fluid every time I moved. It was especially bad when I was on my sides. I tried my best to stay on my back as much as possible.
I also had a contraction monitor on me all the time. This monitor had no gel with it, thankfully, but it had a huge knot on it that dug into my skin. It was like having a rock shoved into your belly all the time.
All of it was bearable, though, because it meant that the babies were still in me and still alive.
Their heartbeats stayed strong and consistent. There was no sign of infection indicated in my blood work. We were chugging along.
I was give terbutaline (sp?) many different times during that first week in the hospital. Strangely, I hardly ever felt contractions although at two different points before actual labor, they were around four minutes apart! I would feel a contraction every now and then, but nothing regular. Every time I had a shot, the contractions would go away or drop to only 1-2 an hour.
For those of you who have had terbutaline, isn't it such a lovely drug? I say that in the most sarcastic way of course. This drug did horrible things to me and I dreaded it every time I saw a nurse come in with it. My heart would race, I would get the most terrible shakes, and just felt miserable each and every time. The effects would last for an hour or two before eventually leading to an exhausted and restless sleep. Ugh. I hated that stuff.
Fast forward exactly one week to Friday, Oct. 26. A nurse woke me up at around 7:30 am to give me another shot of terbutaline. I was having four minute apart contractions for almost a hour and a half and completely slept through it. Apparently, that stopped the contractions. My contraction monitor showed little to no activity. I felt pretty good and thought all was well.
At 3:00 pm I got another shot of terbutaline, again for the four minute apart contractions. I had only felt a few of them and was quite surprised when the nurse came in with the shot ready. That didn't stop the contractions. They got stronger and I started to feel them more regularly. They gave me a dose of magnesium. That didn't stop the contractions, but they did slow down some for about hour.
While terbutaline made me all jittery, magnesium did the complete opposite. I felt like I was reduced to a pile of jelly. I felt sluggish, slow, and just plain blah.
I alternated between terb shots and mag. hourly until 2:30 am on the 27th. I was wired up from the terb. and then slowed down from the mag. over and over. I started to throw up and dry heave. I got diarrhea but wasn't allowed up from the bed. (That was so much fun to do while on a bed pan.)
At that point, the doctor on call came in to say that she thought I was in labor (couldn't check for dilation because of the cerclage) and that if they did stop the contractions, it wasn't for long so she recommended delivery. At that point, my contractions had stayed in the every 2-4 minute category for quite some time, so I wasn't totally surprised. I was sad that I couldn't last longer and frightened about what it could mean for the babies, but not surprised.
The babies were delivered at 3:31 and 3:32 am on October 27. It was a little surreal to go through the c-section with a room full of people. Each baby had at least five people ready and waiting for his birth. Plus there were the several nurses and doctors for me. It was strange.
Shawn was delivered first, but I strongly believe that he was Baby B during all of the monitoring. He never cried or made any noise when delivered. I had to ask if he was okay because it was so quiet.
Jason was delivered second. He let out a small little squeak when he was born. That was the only sound I heard my babies make for over two weeks.
Isaac watched the entire thing and gave me an abbreviated play by play. Thank goodness for the abbreviated version. There were definitely things I heard/smelled that I could have done without!
Once the boys were delivered, the doctors let me see Jason for a second before they were whisked away into the NICU. Isaac followed and was able to watch the doctors assess the boys and get them situated while I was finishing my c-section.
The boys had a rocky start. They both had difficulty with their breathing due to infections in their lungs. It took the doctors some time to figure that out, though, becaues their blood screens came out clean (thanks to all of the antibiotics we were on). Once the doctors started them on antibiotics, they started to improve and are getting stronger and stronger each day.
My hospital stay was challenging, but the nurses did try to make things as nice as possible for me. I was hooked to fetal monitors 23 1/2 hours a day. I got a half an hour break to shower or visit the little outdoor garden in the hospital courtyard. I chose the half an hour to shower every time and then was plugged up to the monitors again. I didn't mind the monitors so much, but I had a reaction to the ultrasound gel they used with the monitors. (I am still having issues on my belly from that gel and it's been weeks!)
Baby A rarely moved and was easy to keep on the monitor. Of course that was because he had so little fluid that moving was a challenge for him. Baby B, on the other hand, never stayed still. I was constantly either checking for him myself or having a nurse come in to do it. There is nothing like being awakened in the middle of the night to have your fetal monitor moved a fraction of a millimeter to "find" my missing baby.
I continued to leak fluid every time I moved. It was especially bad when I was on my sides. I tried my best to stay on my back as much as possible.
I also had a contraction monitor on me all the time. This monitor had no gel with it, thankfully, but it had a huge knot on it that dug into my skin. It was like having a rock shoved into your belly all the time.
All of it was bearable, though, because it meant that the babies were still in me and still alive.
Their heartbeats stayed strong and consistent. There was no sign of infection indicated in my blood work. We were chugging along.
I was give terbutaline (sp?) many different times during that first week in the hospital. Strangely, I hardly ever felt contractions although at two different points before actual labor, they were around four minutes apart! I would feel a contraction every now and then, but nothing regular. Every time I had a shot, the contractions would go away or drop to only 1-2 an hour.
For those of you who have had terbutaline, isn't it such a lovely drug? I say that in the most sarcastic way of course. This drug did horrible things to me and I dreaded it every time I saw a nurse come in with it. My heart would race, I would get the most terrible shakes, and just felt miserable each and every time. The effects would last for an hour or two before eventually leading to an exhausted and restless sleep. Ugh. I hated that stuff.
Fast forward exactly one week to Friday, Oct. 26. A nurse woke me up at around 7:30 am to give me another shot of terbutaline. I was having four minute apart contractions for almost a hour and a half and completely slept through it. Apparently, that stopped the contractions. My contraction monitor showed little to no activity. I felt pretty good and thought all was well.
At 3:00 pm I got another shot of terbutaline, again for the four minute apart contractions. I had only felt a few of them and was quite surprised when the nurse came in with the shot ready. That didn't stop the contractions. They got stronger and I started to feel them more regularly. They gave me a dose of magnesium. That didn't stop the contractions, but they did slow down some for about hour.
While terbutaline made me all jittery, magnesium did the complete opposite. I felt like I was reduced to a pile of jelly. I felt sluggish, slow, and just plain blah.
I alternated between terb shots and mag. hourly until 2:30 am on the 27th. I was wired up from the terb. and then slowed down from the mag. over and over. I started to throw up and dry heave. I got diarrhea but wasn't allowed up from the bed. (That was so much fun to do while on a bed pan.)
At that point, the doctor on call came in to say that she thought I was in labor (couldn't check for dilation because of the cerclage) and that if they did stop the contractions, it wasn't for long so she recommended delivery. At that point, my contractions had stayed in the every 2-4 minute category for quite some time, so I wasn't totally surprised. I was sad that I couldn't last longer and frightened about what it could mean for the babies, but not surprised.
The babies were delivered at 3:31 and 3:32 am on October 27. It was a little surreal to go through the c-section with a room full of people. Each baby had at least five people ready and waiting for his birth. Plus there were the several nurses and doctors for me. It was strange.
Shawn was delivered first, but I strongly believe that he was Baby B during all of the monitoring. He never cried or made any noise when delivered. I had to ask if he was okay because it was so quiet.
Jason was delivered second. He let out a small little squeak when he was born. That was the only sound I heard my babies make for over two weeks.
Isaac watched the entire thing and gave me an abbreviated play by play. Thank goodness for the abbreviated version. There were definitely things I heard/smelled that I could have done without!
Once the boys were delivered, the doctors let me see Jason for a second before they were whisked away into the NICU. Isaac followed and was able to watch the doctors assess the boys and get them situated while I was finishing my c-section.
The boys had a rocky start. They both had difficulty with their breathing due to infections in their lungs. It took the doctors some time to figure that out, though, becaues their blood screens came out clean (thanks to all of the antibiotics we were on). Once the doctors started them on antibiotics, they started to improve and are getting stronger and stronger each day.
Monday, November 5, 2007
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