Ben's almost ready to come home!

I got a call this morning from the head of the NICU. She told me that Ben has made amazing progress the last couple of days and that they're writing new orders for him (their official way of saying they're changing the plan for him). They were originally considering a 10 day dose of antibiotics, but his infection is cleared up and they're ending his antibiotics tonight! They're even going to take out his IV (a big step forward in my mind). I went and fed him a bottle last night. He's doing so well with bottle feeds that they upped him to a bottle feed every six hours. Now he just needs to gain weight for 48 hours from bottle feeds and get all the way off the oxygen. She said if he keeps progressing this way she hopes he can come home "by the end of the weekend."

Thanks for your prayers and messages of support. It's especially nice to hear from other moms who've had babies in the NICU. I'm getting ready to head down to give him another bottle. I'll post again when we know more.

Lucy is doing well here at home, but giving us the usual newborn tricks at night....She was fussy and wouldn't take a bottle, a plug (my term for binky), or go to sleep for about 2 hours last night--in the MIDDLE of the night, of course! What I finally tried that worked was offering a bottle with the same nipple as the hospital nipples. I guess she just didn't care for the brand of bottles I have here at home--for that feeding anyway! I know she'll come around, but it did make me glad we only had one baby last night. I think the craziness will really start next week!

Babies!

Well, Ben and Lucy have entered the world! The surgery went well on Saturday, and I'm recovering well. Ben was born first at 8:30am. He weighed 6 lbs 7 oz, and was 20 inches long. Lucy was born at 8:32am and weighed 6 lbs 5 oz and was 19.5 inches long.

Ben came out feet first and took a gulp of amniotic fluid on his way out. He is still in the NICU, but doing very well. He just needed some help breathing and getting all the fluid out of his lungs. He has a mild case of pneumonia, but is responding to the antibiotics and is almost breathing all on his own. He'll probably come home early next week.

Lucy came out head first and is doing just wonderfully. She has eating, pooping, and sleeping down pat! So far she seems to have a calm, mild temperament, but then it is only day 4!

It doesn't seem like I have twins, since I haven't been able to hold both at once or take pictures of them side by side. On the plus side, I haven't had to deal with two babies screaming at the same time either! We know Ben is in good hands and making good progress, so we're enjoying this time to bond with Lucy and then will have more energy to bond with Ben next week.

I'll try to post more photos later, but for now I need to get to bed. Thanks for all your prayers and support. And don't worry about Ben--the doctors told us from the beginning that it's never been a fear that he'd not make it or have lasting effects from his experience. He just needs to get all better before he comes home. We do appreciate any prayers for him, and the rest of us though! Have a good night.

Photos of our boys

Lastly, here are photos of Spencer, Thomas, and Hyrum. I think I'm done for at least a few days now, probably a couple of weeks. I'll try to have some photos of the babies posted as soon as possible.

Nursery Photos

Three friends of mine painted the nursery for me, which I consider just about my favorite shower gift! It's a little hard to see, but I chose yellow and blue to go with the Whinnie the Pooh crib bedding. I've never had a decorated nursery before, so I'm very grateful.

How far can one uterus stretch?

Here is my Twins Tummy! Last time we measured around I was 53 inches. According to my fundal height (vertical measurement of the uterus) I'm 49 weeks along! [roughly 1 cm for each week of pregnancy.] Hopefully my tummy will be lots flatter tomorrow! We estimate each baby to be about 6 pounds, and I have lots of amniotic fluid too. I'm thinking I'll "lose" at least 15 pounds in the hospital! Tee hee--we'll see if it will really be that easy, huh?

Family Update

Hello, hello from our family. I haven't sent out an update for a year or more, but now we've gone digital so I aim to get better. You may know that we had two miscarriages in 2007. This pregnancy we've been doubly blessed. Indeed, it appears that twins now run in the family: we're planning to welcome two babies in October. (My sister Regan has identical twin girls.) Benjamin Kevin and Lucy Katherine will arrive on 10/25/08. More on them after that date! For now, let me tell you a little bit of what we've been doing.

Spencer is 6 and loves being the oldest. He's excited to help with the babies. We're homeschooling, and he has just finished KG. He's been learning about saving his money and loves to “window shop” on line so he can then save up and go buy Transformers, HotWheels, etc. He thinks he can add “dot com” to any subject or toy and find a website about it! Luckily we have a very strong filter on our internet! (By the way, if you're looking for a filter, the one we use is free—you can learn more at http://www1.k9webprotection.com/.) Spencer is super fast on his scooter, and has also enjoyed a beginning Karate class. What pleases Mom and Dad the most is that he enjoys reading and is getting better every day. He's getting so much better at trying new foods and new activities, and often can be heard saying, “I think I'm getting the heck of it!” Another cute thing—he calls Saltine Crackers Sardines. He also enjoys constructing various kinds of tracks: Hotwheels tracks, wooden train tracks, marble tracks, etc.

Thomas is just one week shy of 5 and struggles being the middle boy. Luckily, he won't be there for too much longer! He has also enjoyed Karate class. He is a thinker, and often surprises us with what he's “figured out.” Once he said, “I know where butter comes from: butterflies!” He's also a quick thinker. We have an elderly man at church who brings a piece of candy for the kids as they enter the chapel. Thomas got his Tootsie Roll one day and I said, “What do you say?” Thomas looked at the man and said, “I want two!” Thomas likes doing K12 (homeschool) with Mama and is learning his letters and other basics. He's very good at our rule of reading three books before he plays computer. He enjoys playing Transformers as well as Sonic the Hedgehog. He definitely is the best eater of the boys and is usually willing to eat just about anything, anytime. His favorite activity right now is definitely playing computer games, but he also likes playing with his little action figures.

Hyrum is such a cutie. He's 3.5 now, and still has his red hair. I certainly needed a break before having more babies and have really enjoyed watching him grow. For the most part, he's an easy going kid, although he's been imitating more and more of big brother Thomas. This includes folding his arms and stomping his foot when he doesn't like what Mama just said. He has the most adorable pout, especially when he's put out but trying not to cry. I try hard to be firm, but I'm definitely a softy for my (current) baby. He also loves to open a good book, especially if it's about Dora the Explorer. He laughs and laughs when we joke with him by saying, “Hey, quit that reading! That will make you smart!” Right now he spends a lot of time pretending he is some fictional character, including Firefighter, Sonic, or Diego. He'll come and tell me that he's Diego and I'm Diego's mom. Then when I slip up and call him Hyrum I'm promptly corrected. He went with Daddy to Home Depot the other day and as they entered the store he said, “Let's go buy stuff!” Another cute saying he has is, “What duh heck?” Lastly, he wants us to know that he also has two babies in his tummy! He's not always too keen on the idea of giving up his room for the new babies and says he's not a big boy but is a little boy. He's still not interested in potty training, but I haven't had the energy the last 2 months to do it even if he had been. I'm sure that a few months after watching the babies he'll want to be a big kid—I hope!

Well, Kevin and I are also doing well. We spend a lot of time commenting to each other on how cute or great our boys are, except for when we (mostly me) are commenting on how exasperating they are (also a fair amount of the time)! It's not often quiet at our house, but we're all learning and working together, and isn't that what family life is supposed to be? We're so grateful to God for our multitude of blessings. Kevin is still a software engineer at Daifuku America. He likes it well enough and is getting good experience. I've been a director with The Pampered Chef for about a year now and have enjoyed it. I'll be looking for friends and family to do catalog shows during my maternity leave (from October through December) so if that interests you and you're looking for a way to help us when the twins come, let me know! You can always see the specials on my website. I can't post it here, but if you email me I will send it to you in an email. (Silly company rules!)

Genesis

Well, I've started our blog. So far it's raised more questions than answers for me, but I guess that's just part of the learning curve, right? Talk to you later.