Doing Well at Home

Friday March 14
Miles has been home for a week & Jack about 2 weeks. They continue to do well at home & are growing like crazy. Justin's mom Karen has been here since last Wednesday which has been very helpful. She has even been getting up some nights for the 3AM bottles so we can sleep which has been awesome! Jen & her boys got here this week too so we will have continued help from her & my mom for another week. Maybe they'll sleep through the night after that? Yeah right!

The babies had a check up on Monday with our awesome pediatric NP Kris Lischter Lee. It was interesting getting all 3 kids in the car for a 900 appointment! Miles had gained 1/2 lb in the 4 days he has been home and weighs 6 lbs 1 oz. Jack had gained 1 lb in a week and is up to 6 lbs 6 oz. they don't have to go back in for 3 weeks.

We are still able to tell Miles & Jack apart since Miles' hair is thicker & more wild. Jack has a fuller face. We haven't needed to mark one of them yet! Although Justin thought he was holding Miles for several hours yesterday when he had Jack.

This will be my last post on the blog since after our help leaves I just won 't have time! Here are a bunch of pics.

Jack

Playing in Puddles! So fun to do this again with kids!

Aunt Tracy & cousin Maddie

Uncle Kelly

Jack & the Fam

Cousin Grant aka Tator

Fun with the Gjersvigs

Cousin Khanye meeting the boys

auntie Jen

Playing BINGO with Grandma Lu Anne

Miles

Great Grandma Joyce Ekern

Thanks for reading! If anyone would like to stop by to clean my house, cook, give me a massage, or play with kids let me know!

Big Day!

Thursday March 6
Justin asked yesterday if we could just bring Miles home today & the docs said ok! He does have to be on an apnea monitor for about a week. The monitor is pretty awful. If the leads are a little loose the machine screams louder than a fire alarm nonstop and there is no silence button so it continues until the leads are just right. Hopefully it won't be going off much or Miles is pretty much guaranteed to have hearing damage.  He had a good night last night with no spells so will hopefully continue the trend.

Miles home going outfit, he weighs 5 lbs 9 oz today

We are so happy to all be under one roof!  I never imagined that my babies would require a NICU stay for 2 & 2 1/2 weeks. We are so thankful they are doing well. We have had great experiences from the clinic, labor & delivery, postpartum & NICU with very caring knowledgable staff. We are fortunate to have a great healthcare system a few blocks from home. 

Family of 5

Wow identical twins look alike, who knew? Their hair looks super red in this pic. It ranges from red to auburn depending on the light. Miles on left, Jack on right 

Big brother Sam has been very helpful! He is a little fearful to touch them, but did shake their hands tonight. 

Grandma Karen & grandsons 

1st night with 2 babies! Wish us luck!

Snow outside our house. Our dog Petey finally got some exercise yesterday with it being a balmy 25 degrees. 

Good News

The doctor is letting Miles still come home Friday on a monitor! So relieved! I think he just needs Jack by him.

Found my Thumb!

Frustrating Morning

Wednesday March 5

Today I was looking forward to getting to the hospital to see Miles. I brought his car seat for his car seat test in anticipation of him going home Friday. I was even going to try & talk the docs into letting him come home Thursday. As soon as I got to the hospital, the nurse informed me that he had to have 2 stimulations in the last 12 hours. This means he stopped breathing & had to have his chest rubbed to come out of it. This can be from being premature or from acid reflux. They have tilted the bed up for him. But now the count down starts over to 5-7 more days in the hospital. So Monday would be earliest day home. It didn't help that his nurse today is not one of my favorites. I tried to tell myself that they just didn't give him enough time to come out of it but she said he was turning dusky so they didn't have a choice. So frustrating! It gets really old having a 5 foot radius with him & trying to juggle time with the other kids.

Feeding tube is out! He is so much cuter without it. He is eating well & gaining weight. 

It's been another week so bath day today! He enjoyed it a lot more this time but doesn't really look like it in the pic. 

Fuzzy hair after bath time

Sammy J & Jack having tummy time. Sam likes to check on his 'brodder' often. 

2 Weeks Old

Monday March 3
I can't believe it has been 2 weeks already! Jack is adjusting well at home & is eating like a champ. We take him in for his doctors appointment & weight check today. Big brother Sammy has been helpful with holding bottles. I can tell he is trying hard to command our attention.

Daddy got Sam a fire truck train! All the best things in one !

EWearing his favorite shirt

Miles is still enjoying his own room in the hospital. Yesterday he took in 85% of his bottles & today has been about 50%. He is tired! Yesterday we found out that on Saturday the nurse stimulated Miles during a bradycardic episode. He has been having a few per day that we just let him be and he comes out of it on his own. We were irritated that they didn't tell us right when it happened. I think she panicked & if he was left alone he would have came out of it just fine.  Soooooooo 5-7 more days in the hospital. The soonest he'll be home is Friday. He does need a few more days to work on the eating but it is frustrating to keep him here. We are ready to have our little family together! 

View from the 5th floor elevators. I'm usually heading home as the sun sets. 

Twin zygosity 

The most common question I feet is if twins run in my family. There are a lot of twins on my Grandma Ekern's side, but identical twins are not genetic. The egg splits. Because there was one placenta & 2 separate sacs, they are considered monochorionic diamniotic. Twins sharing a placenta are always identical.

Jack Comes Home

Sunday March 2

Miles & Jack continue to do well and are just above their birth weights so they are each about 5 lbs.  Miles continues to take in about 60% of his bottles. He needs to be monitored until Monday or Tuesday so hopefully he is taking all his bottles by then so he can come home. Jack gets to come home today!

They look like they are sleep dancing in this pic. 

Jack had his car seat study today. Even though we live 1/2 mile from the hospital they had to watch him for 1 1/2 hours to make sure his oxygen level stayed ok. He really doesn't fit well in the car seat so we needed to add a bunch of padding. We won't be traveling anywhere except appointments until they are a little bigger. 

We stayed at the hospital until 6 so we could get as much time in as possible with Miles. We will be taking turns visiting the hospital until he comes home. 

My home going outfit

Sam was very excited to meet Jack! He keeps asking about Miles coming home. He was a good helper and wanted to hold Jack's bottle by himself. 

Night 1 at home went well. Except for the diaper leaking twice in the middle of the night. Apparently Jack wanted to try out a bunch of his clothes. Justin takes the early shift until midnight, then I get up for the 3 AM feeding. Not sure if we will be able to continue this with 2, we'll see!  Luckily babies sleep a lot! They also stink. Wow. Gotta buy more air freshener for 3 boys. 

Happy Friday!

Friday February 28

Jack has taken all of his feedings for the last 24 hours! If he can do it again today, he will be able to come home tomorrow. When I got here this AM, his feeding tube was out!

Miles has taken 60% of his feedings but the number keeps going up. He has to be here until at least March 3 for monitoring off the caffeine. I am confident he will get the feedings down by then. 

We passed our hearing screens! Jack (above) & Miles (below)

My cousins Kristina & Jessica stopped by yesterday to meet the boys!

Grandma LuAnne got us these cool new bears!

Grandma & Jack

Once Jack leaves the NICU, he can not come back in. So we can either live here until Miles is ready to come home too or bring them home one by one. We have decided to bring them home one at a time. It will be so sad to leave Miles here but it is only a few days. I think he just doesn't want to go out in the cold quite yet. 

My folks have offered to watch Sam until tomorrow & took him to the Children's museum. He was thrilled to go see the fire truck there. He usually just wants to sit in the fire truck for an hour or 2. 

This pic is a few months old. He takes firefighting seriously!  He is so excited to have his brothers home soon.  I told him it is March tomorrow so he has been marching around the house. 

Justin & I are excited to go out on a date tonight before all the boys are home!  We are going dishwasher shopping which will be so nice to have!  Thanks Ekern's! Then out for a margarita then sushi!  Then probably sleeping by 9 to enjoy our last full night of sleep for a while :)