We're Back!

Ok, I know its been months, and I just haven't had the energy to gather my thoughts and post something. Its 5am here now, and this is my best attempt at getting this blog up to date.

Lets start with the biggest news: THE TWINS ARE ONE! Holy monkey! We have one year old TWINS! It is still amazing to me that we were lucky to get TWO babies. I still have no idea when that will wear off.

The big guy is walking...or should I say RUNNING all day long! The little on, my little pajarito, is still a going at his own pace, but walking is definitely on the horizon. He cruises along anything he can hold on to, but is just hesitant to let go and try on his own. I've been taking his hands and walking with him, slowly releasing my grip so that he's really walking on his own and as long as his hands are touching mine, he is good, but as soon as I let go he goes down! Yesterday he was watching his brother jammin all over the place and he finally let go and took 2 steps on his own, so I know pretty soon we are going to be in big trouble. :)

They are both talking up a storm (in their own language of course) and I'm wondering if they do it on purpose to keep us guessing. In English they say: Mama, Nana, Toot (hahaha), Hi, Bye (or "Ba"), and they do the cookie monster laugh! Which totally cracks us up! The big guy is also saying "wow wow", which is how we refer to our dogs.

On the health front, we made it a whole year without them getting sick and then, not only did they catch something but I ended up in emergency with both of them (while my wife stayed home with the other) within a week apart - so NOT fun. The big guy had croup, which sounds scarier than it is and he was wheezing and uncomfortable, he even woke himself up from a nap struggling to breathe (hence the emergency room visit). They gave him a breathing treatment and steroids to help open up his lungs and within days he was good as new. Of course, I panicked wondering if the little guy was going to catch it, and how badly it would be for him given his lung issues. We tried our best to keep them separated, and disinfected everything, to no avail. Luckily, when he did finally get sick a week later, he didn't get croup, just a cold. I ended up taking him to the ER because he started having retractions again (where his breathing causes big indentations under his rib cage) which he hadn't done since he had been taken off the oxygen. I thought for sure we'd have to put him back on, but again, it looked scarier than it was. His oxygenation levels were in the mid 90's so he was getting all the oxygen he needed, just working harder to get it.

I was a wreck, mostly because we were so close to the official end of RSV season and the boys were doing so well. I had this silly notion that I'd be able to protect them forever, which proved impossible no matter what I did. I am happy that at least they were bigger and stronger, and survived just fine without having to be admitted into the hospital, but I don't want them to be sick again for a long LONG time. It is just too stressful, and I'm still exhausted from their being born! ha!

Now on to the only thing since pregnancy that I have been able to control, Breastfeeding. Yes, the boys are still drinking breastmilk exclusively (in addition to solid foods now) and have not had any cow's milk yet. I can't believe we made it to a year! I calculated that I have spent roughly 2300 hours of my life pumping! and that doesn't include the hours on end of nursing day and night.

I still nurse the big guy when we are together and the little guy gets bottles of expressed breastmilk from my wife. When I am at work they both get bottles from my mom with no problems. Since they are eating 3-4 meals a day, plus snacks, their milk intake has dropped to 20-25 ounces each, which is about half of what they used to drink. It has been so nice to not have the pressure of pumping 80-100 ounces a day!

My ultimate goal was June 12th (the babies' due date) since that is when they "really" turn one. So far, it looks like I'm on my way to achieving that goal, and then some. If I didn't have to pump and could just nurse I'd do it alot longer, but lugging my pumping gear, coolers, bottles, etc. to work everyday is really a pain in the butt, and I just don't know how much longer I can do it. So as of June 12th we will officially be transitioning over to cow's milk. Hopefully their little bodies can handle it and they won't have any adverse reactions to it. If all goes well, I will start decreasing my pumping as they increase their cow's milk intake and I think by August I will be done, for a total of 16 months of breastfeeding twins. Crazy! I never thought I'd make it and as we got closer to a year I started to set goals by the day rather than the week because I was just so exhausted.

Lastly, we took their one year photos with the same photographer from last time so I will be posting those shortly. They have both grown so much in the last 6 months, and are so much fun. We take them with us everywhere now, and they are such good babies. They eat, nap and play pretty much on schedule no matter where we are, so its been much easier to go places. We took them to get their first hair cut shortly after they turned one, which the little guy needed desperately (their photos are pre-haircut) and they didn't like it one bit! I was sad. They no longer look like babies, now they are little boys.

Catching up...

Today we took the boys to our local Children's Hospital so the little guy could be assessed on his developmental progress. Since the big guy wasn't on oxygen and didn't have any issues other then being born early, they only really check on the little guy. I'm fine with it since the big guy is a few steps ahead of his brother anyway, and I can use what I learn in the lil ones assessments to do my own with the big guy if I felt it were necessary.

The funny part is, they brought out this sheet of paper with different activities (crawling, standing, sitting and then crawling, etc.) that demonstrate where the boys should be by 9 months (so in about a month) and we both laughed because the big guy has been doing all these things since he was 7 months! Further demonstrating the fact that he doesn't need any physical or occupational therapy.

As for the little one, he did very well! He played with the two women as he was expected to and he passed all his assessments with good scores. They don't even want to see him for another 6-8 months! Of course we were relieved (and oh so proud of our little baby boy), because with 31 weekers, you are generally told to prepare yourself for delays and they offer lots of assistance both in-home and at the clinic. Luckily, we don't have to worry about scheduling any more appointments and can just enjoy the next few months without stressing over whether or not the little guy is where he should be.

As cheesy as it sounds my wife and I were just so proud of our little baby as we watched him play so good with complete strangers and take his first real test! One of the women even asked if he would cry if she took him from me and I wasn't even sure how to answer. I usually never hand him over to a stranger! But he wasn't phased by it at all, he just sat down and started taking her toys.

On another note, this was the longest we've been out with the boys (the appointment took about 5 hours) without any meltdowns! They didn't even cry or fuss once! They really enjoy going out now, and sit so quietly while in their carseats and stroller. At one point, I looked back as we were driving home and they were both asleep! *bliss* our babies are growing up!

Changes...

We had an appointment with our pediatrican on Friday and he suggested we start mixing rice cereal and breastmilk a few times a day and slowly progress to oatmeal, solids, etc. The boys are 6 months old but again, with the adjustments for their early arrival, we are just getting to the fun parts!

So far so good with the rice cereal. I am pumping extra milk for their two snacks each and that is working out pretty well also. Everyday I thank my lucky stars that we still have enough milk for both babies. I don't think I'd be able to keep up if I had gone back to work as originally planned.

I'm hoping to breastfeed for a year, but I'm not writing that in stone. Since I will be going back to work in January, and the boys will be 9 months old, it will be 3 LONG months of pumping at work. Hopefully we can make it that long at least, longer if possible. I'm thinking they will be eating more food by then so their milk requirement won't be so high, but with their delays, who knows! I may have to pack a few milk gallons to fill up while I'm gone, cause I swear that is how much they eat!

One of the benefits of adding in this twice daily snack, is that it allows the big guy to practice drinking from a bottle again (since its been 3 months of exclusive breastfeeding and he swears the bottle is now some alien object!). He has been pretty good about it though... now if only I can get him to stay asleep without having to keep me within arms distance. That boy has some sort of radar going on!

In other news, the pediatrician also agreed that the boys DO need their full 6-7 RSV doses and that the nurse who told us otherwise was "misinformed". That is a one way of putting it! Whatever, as long as they get them.

Healthwise our pajarito is doing awesome in every way, and is now growing right along with his brother. They weigh approx. 14 lbs and are 23.5 and 24 inches long. Pajarito is getting better at tummy time, has now found his feet and is working on getting them to stay in his mouth. Now I get to look for 4 socks everytime they go down for a nap. =)

As for life with twins, it is finally getting to be more manageable. Its a ton of work, and somedays I'm not sure I'm gonna survive, but we do and at the end of the day, I'm grateful I've been able to stay home with them this long. Aside from the endless loads of laundry, things are definitely looking up!

P.S. I love Halloween jammies!

Good News and Bad News...

The good news is: we don't have any bad news to report.

The bad news is: his appointment is NEXT month and not today. So I AM losing my mind.

Thanks for the well wishes. Hopefully next month we will get better good news.

Heart of Hearts

Today the little one has an appointment with his cardiologist. He is going to have an echocardiogram to see if the holes in his heart have closed. We didn't even find out about these until the day he was discharged from the NICU. The doctor was taking a closer look to see if there was something else keeping him on the oxygen and he happened to see these very very small holes (PDA and PFO are the technical terms). Of course I was immediately worried, but he didn't seem too concerned and said they were very small in comparison to what he usually sees. Still not enough to make me worry any less. *sigh* the poor little guy has really had a tough time.

With his oxygen requirement, blood transfusion (he was very anemic at birth), his heart, and his umbelical hernia, he has been through ALOT. Luckily he has been improving in all these areas. His hernia has completely healed, he is off his oxygen and all his lung medications (with just one breathing treatment), and he hasn't needed any blood since his transfusion. We haven't checked his blood yet, but just from looking at him, he seems to be much much better (in the NICU he was looking really gray). Also, he isn't symptomatic of being anemic (sleepy, not eating, etc.) so we think he is doing well in that dept.

As for his heart, the doctors who have seem him have said they don't "hear" the PDA and PFO anymore. I'm not sure how accurate that can be, so I have taken it with a grain of salt. I need visual proof to believe it. Anyhow, this is the last major milestone of his recovery so I'm hoping today brings more good news.

Shots

Today we had our appointment with the boys pediatrician. So far everything is looking good and the babies are growing and developing accordingly. They also got one shot each. Since we have decided to do their vaccines on a more spread out schedule, they only get one at a time. I can barely handle the one, so I just can't imagine poking them over and over in one visit. Since our pediatrician is up the street (literally) its no big deal to just go up once a week, get a shot, and come home.

So far, we have been pretty lucky in that they don't get fussy after their shots. I don't know if its because we are not overloading them, or that they just tolerate them ok, but either way, I'm happy they don't suffer too much. The only vaccine that actually made them a little fussy was an oral one called "ro.to.viru.s". Lets hope I'm not speaking too soon!

As for stats, the big guy weighed in at 13.5 pounds and the little guy at 12.5 pounds. Their length was 23 and 22 inches, respectively.

Today we also discovered that the babies like paper! You know, that paper they put on the table for you to lay your child on, well we take it off and put receiving blankets down for them (yes I'm crazy). Anyway, as I was taking it off to lay the big guy down, he was having a cow because he was hungry and then all of a sudden was really quite just watching me crumple up the paper! So guess what we used to distract him while the doc was checking his ears? Yup. Paper!

These boys are going to be cheap for Christmas!

On another note, they didn't even make a peep when we put them in their car seats! Usually they hate their car seats but not today! Hopefully they are getting used to them and we can actually take a trip somewhere beyond a 5 mile radius soon.

Jelly Dictator

When the boys were in the NICU my wife and I had to "scrub in" before we could see them. This consisted of washing with antibacterial soap from our hands to our elbows for one minute. I never knew a minute could take so long. I always sang the slow version of the Happy Birthday Song and at the last "...to you" my water was off and I was reaching for my paper towel. At the NICU I averaged about 7 Happy Birthdays per wash.

Now, let me give you a little information on me before I continue, I hate to have dry hands and I lotion up every moment I get to avoid the horrid sand paper feeling. OCD? Maybe. The soap at the NICU seemed to suck out every last natural oil I had in my hands. Even after the washing, it was highly recommend by the NICU nurses that you use antibacterial gel before and after you touch your baby.

Since we had twins I would have to "jelly" myself up between babies. Since we spent a lot of time there, it was a repetitive routine to cleanse my germy hands. I change a diaper, jelly. I touch my keys, jelly. I sneeze (which was often because it was like an icebox in the NICU), jelly. I scratch my nose, jelly. I think of touching something, JELLY! At the end of the day my hands felt 80 years old! BUT....I was always willing to do it because I didn't want the babies to get sick.

I think the doctors and nurses at the NICU scared my wife and I by telling us about all the infections the babies could get, hence we turned into antibacterial whores. Before the babies got discharged from the hospital my wife stocked up on "free" antibacterial gel. Each time we would visit the boys we came home with a few bottles. I would come home and excitedly tell my wife: "I got one!" and she would look at me disappointed and show me the five bottles she came home with. Needless to say my wife had no shame.

Once the boys were home we used that "jelly" like nobody's business. My wife turned into a "Jelly Dictator". Democracy was out the window. If she told you that you needed jelly, you took it with a smile. I jokenly told her I had nightmares about her chasing me with antibacterial gel. She didn't think it was funny.

On one of our first pulmonary appointments for the little guy we were sent to wait for our doctor in an exam room. While we were there my wife saw the antibacterial soap. Her eyes lit up. Why was I prying the soap dispenser off the wall for my wife? Why was I contributing to her jelly fetish? This was the same soap that sucked the life out of my hands at the NICU and now we were taking it home! Sand paper hands here I come. But.....the worst thing about this doctors visit was right after I took the antibacterial soap the doctor came in and of course he went to wash his hands and THEIR WAS NO SOAP! I was mortified and probably bright red. My wife on the other hand.....cool as a cucumber. No shame. I still love her though.

Gratitude

Today we took the little guy to see his pulmonologist (lung doctor) at our local children's hospital. We told him how and why he is no longer on his oxygen and waited for his approval, which he gave us. He said he looked great and lowered his meds even further. The little guy even gained 3 lbs since he last saw him a month ago. Today he weighed 9lbs 14 oz, a long way from my 3lb 4 oz baby he used to be! Great news on both fronts! If nothing changes, we don't have to go back until October. Words cannot express how relieved I am.

Initially we were told he could be on oxygen for six months to a year or even longer, and here we are only a month after coming home from the NICU and he's completely off the oxygen and on less than half of the meds he came home on. Amazing.

The doctor is a really nice man, said all he needed to do was keep on growing and answered all our questions. I really like the hospital and how organized and timely they are but its such an eye opener to see all the sick babies and kids. I am constantly reminded how lucky we are. Even though our son was born with immature lungs, its a condition that with time, will self correct. Not many parents there are so fortunate. Even though we've had a tough time, there are mommies there who have had it worse. Every time I go there I leave with a renewed sense of gratitude, for my babies and our circumstances, no matter how difficult they may be.