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!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Momma and Daddy get to watch Jared get a bath!

Jared looking for Daddy
Anthony holding his binky on his own

Jared getting a warm bath...and enjoying it


Anthony sleeping like a baby

The boys are still going strong these days. They are both eating 30 cc of breast milk every 3 hours now and are still gaining weight nicely. As of last night, Jared weighs 3 lbs. 9 oz. and Anthony weighs 3 lbs. 11 oz. Dr Kamran is happy that they have almost doubled their birth weight.
Both boys had follow up head ultrasounds yesterday to monitor the IVH (brain bleeds). We are still awaiting the results of these, but all we want to hear is that they have not gotten any worse.

They also both had complete blood workup done yesterday and all levels are within normal ranges. Anthony's hematocrit and hemoglobin (red blood cell) levels were low, but were higher than his last blood test, which means that his body is making is own blood at an adequate rate. The doctors have chosen not to give a transfusion at this time because he is not showing any signs that the low blood level is bothering him or his breathing. Dr. Kamran suspects that the same will happen with Jared. Although his hematocrit and hemoglobin levels are not low yet, they will continue to fall before his body will increase it on his own. This does not mean that both boys are out of the woods in regards to another transfusion, it just means that their body is taking over the production.
Their brady and apnic spells have continued to decrease in severity and occurrence. Even when their oxygen levels decrease, they are learning to bring it back on their own. With that said, last night Jared wanted to show Momma and Daddy that he is still capable of scaring us by bradying and needing stimulation and "blow by" oxygen to help him return to normal baby color.

Medical news out of the way, I am happy to say that Jason and I were able to be present for Jared's bath last night. After almost a week of trying to schedule it, nurse Maria was able to help us out. Both boys get bathed every two days or so (more often if there is a diaper blow out...only one so far!) but it never seems to be when we are visiting.

Most parents are able to give their babies their first bath but since we weren't able to do that this was a bigger deal for Momma and Daddy than for Jared. We (well, I) was so anxious to see one of them get a bath that it didn't matter to me if it was their first or their twentieth. And Jared did not disappoint. He was so cute and "nakey" and squirmy and cute that I could hardly stand it. I just wanted to squeeze him! We will get a proper bath demo before they come home, but this was just a quick one that the nurse did.
The boys don't have the same nurses day after day the way that they did when they were on the "more sick" side of the room. They have either nurses from other departments (pediatric or Labor and Delivery) or registry nurses. Registry nurses are from an outside staffing company that hospitals can call when they need additional help. The rotating door of nurses can become (and has) quite frustrating for parents. We feel that there is no communication between the nurses. There is no problem with the care that they give, it is just that we never know what we are going to experience when we walk in the door to visit. Some nurses like us to hold the boys during feedings, others won't allow us to get them out of the isolettes on our own while some leave everything up to us.
I brought our frustrations to the NICU Clinical Coordinator, Nurse Imelda, and she came up with a form that will be used for each shift and will let the next nurse know what we normally do and what we are comfortable doing for each of the boys. This seems to be a good tool and hopefully it will help not only us, but other NICU parents that may encounter the same situation in the future.

Thank you all, again, for your continued support through everything. We deeply appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers throughout our journey.

Fight On! Little Fighters!! - Love Momma

1 comment:

  1. I'm so glad to hear Jared and Anthony are doing so well,these wonderful pictures of them are just amazing it show us how much they have improved,they remind me so much of my twins when they were in the NICU.They are adorable little fighters!
    God bless all of you!

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