Welcome to Our Blog! Our Story Starts Below...

Welcome to our blog! We set this up as an information hub about the progress of our little twin boys who were born on January 5, 2010. We along with our little boys first thank you so much for your love and support, and hope that this blog will give you an opportunity to follow their progress as they grow in the NICU at St. Jude Hospital in Fullerton.

Our little boys had a harrowing journey to get here. They were born at 25 weeks and 6 days, which is needless to say, very early. Jared William, was born at 10:49 a.m. feet first, and on the bathroom floor of the delivery room. Anthony Michael was born at 11:30 via C-section after he decided that he wanted to come out hands first.

Our story started on Monday, January 4 after a doctor's appointment with Dr. Gray. Danielle had been feeling generally, "crappy" the day before and reported what sounded like some contractions. The doctor decided to send us across the street to the hospital just to make sure everything was okay. After a couple of hours in labor and delivery the staff confirmed a few contractions, but very far apart. Her cervix was not dilated and the babies were fine.

The doctor sent us home and told us to keep track of the contractions, and so long as they weren't less than 7 minutes apart there was no need for concern. The next morning Danielle started feeling contractions again, but this time they were about five minutes apart. She called the doctor who said to wait another hour and see if they went away.

I was just getting ready to walk out the door to work when Danielle had a contraction that just about doubled her over. Deciding something wasn't right, I called the doctor and said we were coming to the hospital.

On our way to the hospital Danielle was having severe pains in her lower back every three minutes. When we arrived at the hospital Danielle was hooked up to the machines which registered no contractions at all. The doctors and nurses did not think her pains were contractions but constipation. After several attempts to alleviate that Danielle went into the bathroom still having severe lower back pain.

After a minute, I heard a scream, and Danielle was screaming that her babies were coming out. The nurses came rushing, as did the doctor, but Jared was too impatient to wait. He was born on the bathroom floor. After Danielle was moved to the bed, Anthony wasn't so cooperative and an emergency C-section was performed.

The NICU unit was quick to respond and help the teenie little babies breathe and fight for life. Jared was 2lbs. 1oz. and was 13 and 1/2 inches long. Anthony was 1lb. 15oz. and was 13 inches long.

The whole thing was totally unexpected, and frankly more traumatic than happy. But we are blessed with two gorgeous little miracle babies!

Our boys came home to us on March 26, 2010, after spending 81 days or about 12 weeks in the NICU at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton. As you may note from our previous posts below, the journey was not without its bumps in the road.

There were highs, and there were lows. We and the boys braved two laser eye surgeries, and countless other obstacles and scares. But, we never lost confidence in the medical team in the NICU, and always kept our faith that God would lead us through this time.

Our steadfastness paid off, because now the boys are happy and healthy at home! This of course brings with it a totally new set of challenges that we are exicted and eager to experience. The task of caring for twin newborns is a daunting one, but a welcome one.

So, just because the boys are now home, don't think the blogging will stop. It may not be as consistent as before, but we will do our best to keep you all updated on their progress, and give you a window into our lives raising twin boys.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Boys Enjoying The New Crib, Hit the 35 Week Mark

In the last post we said that the boys would go on a trial run to see if they could hold their body temperatures outside of the isolette. The night we last posted we went to the NICU to be on hand for the switch over to the crib. Notice I said crib in the singular. That is because the boys are sharing one big crib. To date both boys have been doing great in their new digs. They are holding their temperatures and looking exceptionally cute snuggling with each other.

It is so refreshing to see them out of the isolettes. While at the same time life-sustaining, they were like little plastic prisons for Momma and Daddy. We are happy that they can finally sleep like normal babies in a normal place. We pray that they maintain their temperatures so they can stay right where they are.

On the weight front, both boys are steadily gaining weight. Jared weighs 4lbs. 3oz. Anthony is 4lbs. 3.5oz., just barely edging out his brother who has finally caught up. Both boys are starting to get the chubby cheeks that new babies should get. They also finally have little buns. One of the strangest things I noticed when they were born was how flat their little butts were. Overall it is great to see them finally start to pack on body fat.

Feeding via bottle is going very well too. They started out once a day eating from a bottle. Because they did well they were bumped up to once every twelve hours. We just got word today that now the bottle feeds will be bumped up to once every three feeds. Eventually the boys will be eating from a bottle every time. When this happens it will just be a matter of time that they can come home.

Home. What an amazing thought!

As for coming home, we still don't know exactly when, but anticipate that it will be within the next three weeks or so. Keep in mind too that one will probably come home before the other. All indications at this point suggest Anthony will come home first. He's done better than Jared the whole time. This makes sense given Jared's traumatic entry into the world. Dr. Patel told Danielle last night that he doesn't see why the boys would be in the NICU into April, so that is encouraging.

We still have a couple of hurdles to overcome though: the first is the nipple feeding. The second is the total abatement of apnic/bradycardia spells. Both boys have had a spell or two within the last couple of days. These spells have been very minor and with the exception of one where Jared turned blue on us, have been self-resolving.

One spell can cause discharge from the NICU to be pushed back five days. If either has a spell prior to discharge, he must then go five whole days without one in order to be discharged. So pray that these spells finally quit. They should be going away soon. Doctors normally see them stop between 34 and 36 weeks. As we noted in the title, Wednesday marked the boys hitting 35 weeks gestational age.

The only negative news we've heard lately, if you could even call it that, is news that the boys have Stage 1 retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). This is a disease of the eye in which the retina develops abnormally. Recent science has shown that super high concentrations of oxygen after birth for prolonged periods of time were largely responsible for this disease. With this knowledge doctors have worked to wean babies off oxygen quicker thereby cutting the prevalence of this disease greatly. We were lucky in that our boys were never on any high concentrations of oxygen for long at all.

Essentially the way the disease works is that the blood vessels in the retina grow abnormally causing scar tissue in the retina. As this tissue heals and shrinks, it detaches the retina from the rest of the eye. This can cause severe disability or even worse, blindness. Moderate ROP can be treated with laser eye surgery and usually does not have any lasting affects on vision. At this point, the boys are at Stage 1 out of 5 total stages.

Stage 1 is the lowest grade and essentially just means the eyes are severely premature. A large majority of the time Stage 1 doesn't progress and merely heals itself causing no vision problems in the future. Dr. Grant, their eye doctor, tells us that there really isn't anything to worry about at this point, and in all liklihood there won't be anything to worry about. The only course of treatment at this point is to watch the development. If anything changes for the negative, this is called "threshold." At this point the boys would have laser-eye surgery to stop any progression. Again, this is an unlikely event.

So, the bottom line is that the ROP issue is just like the brain bleeds: very minor and should take care of themselves with no lasting issues.

That's pretty much it. It is pretty amazing for everyone at the NICU to be talking about going home as if it were some imminent thing. At the beginning it seemed like a million years away. At the very beginning it wasn't when they were going home but a question of if they could ever go home.

We are so grateful for their progression. We are so grateful for all of you who read and follow this blog, and who have been praying for our little boys' health. Most of all we are grateful to God for the blessing of two amazing little miracles.

Fight On, Little Fighters!- Love Daddy

2 comments:

  1. Stage 1 ROP probably will resolve on its own. What a blessing that is. Your little guys are tough and are progressing slowly but surely, just what you want.
    Going home... aren't those beautiful words?! Seems like there is light at the end of the tunnel for all of you.

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  2. Thank you Jason & Danielle for sharing all of the boys' triumphs & hurdles! Just think, soon they will be cheering on our Angels & booing the Sox, just like their Daddy! :) We're always thinking good thoughts for you all!

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