Our Big Girls and Their Big Day

Our little pumpkins are getting HUGE! We had a pediatric appointment yesterday and Mila is now 8lbs 9oz, and Sophia is 8lbs 6oz. Mila is now on the chart for full term babies her age.

The girls' Grammy Collins is here for the next three weeks helping out while we look for a nanny. The girls absolutely love her and she's being a big help.

Here's Grammy with Miss Mila chilling out on her shoulder. Grammy helped out with bringing the girls to the doctor's while their mom worked at home.

The girls had another two vaccinations - and they both did really well. These vaccinations can cause fevers and make the girls cranky, but they were very well-behaved.

This brings up something very important that bears repeating. We've had several people recently who've wanted to visit with the girls who we've had to refuse because they have been sick. Let me clarify, the rule is that you have to be well for three consecutive weeks in order to visit the kids. You can't have had a cold, or stomach problems, or even a cold sore. This isn't an arbitrary rule, and we aren't being paranoid. This is straight from our medical professionals.

We're sorry when we have to tell people they have to wait. We know that, if you don't have premature children of your own, this may be difficult to understand. A virus that may give you or me a common cold can be life threatening for the girls. Even if you have been well for two weeks, you can still carry a disease which can be serious. For the first year or so, premature babies do not have the immune systems of full-term babies.

Speaking of preemies, we had a visit from our good friends Kirk and Christine today. They brought their son Quinn who was born at just over 23 weeks. He's now over a year old and doing extremely well. You can see just how big he now is here on his dad's lap. Keep in mind he was 1lb 4oz at birth.

Here is Ninong Jason with Mila and Tita Christine with Sophia today

The Girls are Zero!

Yesterday was the girls actual due date so their adjusted age is zero! They're actually 9 weeks old.

We had a pediatric appointment yesterday to get some vaccinations. The shots made the girls cranky all day. They actually had us give the girls Tylenol when we got home to try to ease the pain a bit. They were not happy campers. They have to get two more vaccinations next week - one of which can cause a fever.

I have to say that I believe vaccinations are good, but I think we may be going overboard. The kids will get 15+ vaccinations in their first year. Merk alone is expecting their vaccine sales to top $18 billion a year. I get a little nervous when health decisions are mixed up with that much money. At least the FDA has made them remove mercury from pediatric vaccines. No matter what the FDA or drug companies would have you believe, injecting infants with levels of mercury that would be toxic to eat is a bad idea.

OK - I'll climb back down from my soap-box.

Sophia is now 7 pounds 12 oz and Mila 7 pounds 13 oz. They are catching up to where full-term babies would be at their age, but have a little bit to go.

Here's a photo of Sophia doing her best bodybuilder pose on her boppy. Both girls love the boppy, and it's easy for me to prop them on the couch next to me and kep an eye on them.

Here is Mila in hers.

Our First Week Home - Two Months Old Today

You may have noticed that I haven't updated this blog in a few days. Most new parents will begin to understand how little sleep and free-time I have on my hands these days. Only parents of twins can truly appreciate just how busy Myra and I are.

I am certainly not complaining. We are very happy to have both girls home.

They're doing very, both are now over 7 pounds. They are essentially full-term babies now, even though they were born 2 months ago. The major difference is their immune systems will be immature for their first year. If you want to visit them, you can't have been sick for the past three weeks, and we're going to slather you with hand-sanitizer.

The girls still wake up at odd hours - it seems their days and nights were switched. We're working on that and on getting their schedules in sync.

Here is a cute pic of the girls holding hands. They do this a lot and will actually scoot toward eachother if we put them too far apart in the crib.

Here is Mila kicking back in her bouncy-chair. She seems to enjoy it. The blue thing on her left is a stuffed moon with a ring and some plastic stars attached. She's a little less interested in that then in staring at daddy. I guess I should be flattered.

And this is Miss Sophia in her bouncy-chair. I like to set the girls up in their chairs and sit between them on the floor and read to them.

Sophia Home! Twins Reunited!

Yesterday was a great day... we went to the hospital and picked up Sophia. Our family's now all home! We can't begin to describe how happy Myra and I are now that the girls are home and doing so well.

We brought Mila with us to pick her up and when we were ready to go a page went out to the whole NICU. All thedoctors and nurses came by to say goodbye and congratulate us. They even the give the girls a little diploma for graduating from the NICU.

When we brought them home we put the girls in the same crib, and they immediately grabbed eachother's hand. (No, I didn't get a picture of that - shame on me)

Sophia had a bit of a rough night getting used to the new diggs, and kept us awake pretty much all night. We certainly expected to have some sleepless nights with twins, and we're not complaining.

The Visiting Nurse came today and checked out both girls. They are doing great. Mila is now 7 pounds! Sophia is 6 lbs 12oz. They have their first pediatrician appointment tomorrow..

Here are some pix:

Here's Sophia almost ready to go. Her hat wound up being about 4 sizes too big. As long as it was out of her eyes, she didn't care.

Here she is all strapped in and ready to leave. By the way, her beautiful little sweater was made by Mrs. Grant, a good friend and mom to our friends Jason and Jenniffer (yes there are two 'f's and two 'n's). She also made us some gorgeous buntings and hats for the girls.

Finally, here are the girls reunited at last. I'll let you guess who is who and tell you the answer at the end of this entry. It's getting harder for even us to tell them apart - in profile it's especially difficult. Head on Mila's face is rounder, while Sophia's more oval. Sophia also has comparitively chubbier cheeks.

Last night the girl's Ninong (godfather) Jason and their auntie Christine came by and we ordered Chinese food. Chistine's son Quinn was a preemie too and spent a lot of time in the NICU. He's a little over a year old now, a big boy, off all his meds, and doing really well. Christine held Sophia for a while last night while I held Sophia.

So the answers to who's who in the picture above: Miss Sophia is on the left, and Miss Mila is on the right.

Mila is Home!

We finally got Mila home today and she's doing great. It's taking her a little bit getting used to her new environment, but she's eating very well.

Here she is waving goodbye to the NICU.

And here she is all dressed up and ready to go. All the nurses came out to see her go out the door in her little outfit.

She took her first car ride very well even with the terrible roads and noisy traffic.

She's been a little fussy since coming home. I think it's being away from her sister in a quieter environment. She did spend 52 days (her entire life) basically in the same four walls. The good thing is that we can just pick her up and hold her whenever we want.

This will be our first night having to do all the feedings, so we'll see how sleep-deprived we get.

We have a Visiting Nurse coming by tomorrow to check her out and we'll take her to see Sophia at 5.

Here is her first photo at home.

Sophia Has a Minor Setback

We were all set to bring Sophia home today. We were at the hospital, had filled out all the discharge paperwork, and even dressed her in her outfit to go home. I was feeding her, and she had a heartrate drop. It was low enough to alarm and, just to be cautious, the doctor set her back to 3 days count.

The bradycardia isn't considered that significant because it was short, self resolving, not accompanies by oxygen desaturization, and hapened duing a feeding. It's not concerning, but the hospital is extremely cautious. Some hospitals may have ignored the spell and sent her home anyway.

Sophia is now due to come home on Monday. Mila is still due tomorrow.

We were literally 10 minutes away from walking out the door with her. We were heartbroken. We've gotten to know some of the other NICU parents, and this is very common. it's probably the most frustrating and disappointing part of having preemies in the NICU.

Here are some pix I took of Sophia (meant to capture her before she left the hospital):

Here's an ear-to-ear grin. She was very happy while mommy was holding her. She and her sister both enjoy showing off their tongues.

Here she is hanging out with mommy. Despite her acting up a little, she was wide awake this morning and making all kinds of faces and noises. Both girls are such characters!

This is Sophia in her coming-home outfit, courtesy of Grammy-Jean. We were so sad to take it off her and put her NICU shirt back on.

With luck, Mila will still be home tomorrow, and we'll get Sophia home Monday. We'll bring Mila in to see her sister once a day until she gets home, and Myra and I will take split shifts at the hospital.

GIrls on Target to Come Home This Weekend

The girls are doing great - eating, sleeping, growing, and pooping. They are still on Target to come home Friday (Sophia), and Saturday (Mila).

Sophia is now 6lbs 6oz - which is double her birthweight. Mila is 6lbs 11 oz - 3 pounds more than her birthweight. The girls are eating about twice their minimum at each feeding - which explains why they are growing so much.

Here is Mila engaging in her favorite activity - chowing down. She's very smart and motivated - she'll grab for the bottle when she sees it. In fact, she tried to grab her sister's bottle the other day.

Here's Sophia napping. Compare this picture of her to the one at the top right side of this blog. You can definitely see that she's packed on the pounds. Look at those chubby cheeks!

Good News, Bad News, and Mila's New Year Blessing

Myra and I and the girls wish everyone a happy new year.

The bad news is that Mila had another spell yesterday - resetting her countdown. That means she's now on schedule to come home on Saturday.

The good news is that both girls had their eye exam yesterday and both have mature eyes. One of the big concerns with preemies is that they are born before the blood vessels in their retinas are fully developed. Our girls were pretty well off when they were born, and it looks like their eyes have developed well.

The eye test is a little stressful, because they have to clam the babies eyes open long enough to examine them. Mila had a spell right after the test, so that may have been one of the causes. Both girls were a little

So Mila decide to bless daddy yesterday and got her diaper half-off while I was feeding her. She then proceeded to pee on my lap. I put her down to change her and she peed all over her bed. I know it's part of fatherhood, but the thing to remember is that we were at the hospital and had to finish feeding both girls, and then drive home before I could change.

New Year's Eve their Ninong (godfather) Jason came for a visit - the girls seemed to enjoy his company. They don't see very many men from day to day.

Both girls are getting HUGE (relatively speaking). Mila is now 6 pounds 7.2 oz and Sophia is 6 pounds 4.5 oz. That means that Sophia has almost doubled her weight since birth. They are both getting those chubby little baby cheeks.

Myra and I were fortunate enough to discover that Babies R Us has Nutramigen for just $23 a can. this is a good $5-$7 less per can than anywhere else we have seen. Hopefully they'll be off that formula soon, and it's still expensive.

I'll try to get some more pix up soon.