well, another year has gone by so quickly. these last two months have been particularly stressful for my family and i, for one, am particularly looking forward to a new year. fingers crossed, it looks like keegan will get discharged tomorrow!!!! what a way to start the new year. i can hardly believe that tomorrow night i might have a baby sleeping in the basinette bedside.
i think tomorrow will be bittersweet though as i am having a really hard time with the concept of leaving max behind. forget about the logistic nightmare of having one here and one still in the nicu, its an emotional quandry too. how do i divide my time?!?! probably a question i am going to be asking myself often as a mother of multiples. the reality is that i can't be in more than one place at a time. but i am sad that i can't totally be home to enjoy keegan's homecoming and i can't always be in the nicu to get max on a fasttrack to get his walking papers as well. its going to be hard! all this is to say nothing of my sweet fin who is feeling a bit displaced himself these days. i am eagerly awaiting the night that there are five of us sleeping under the very same roof!
i hope the new year is a great one for everyone. here is wishing you happiness and good health!
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
the nicu roller coaster
ok, i can't say that i wasn't warned. i certainly heard from everyone i knew with any nicu experience under their belt to be prepared for the roller coaster, aka the preemie shuffle (two steps forward, one step back). after the initial days of ventilators and IVs the boys had just been coasting along. i naively thought we weren't going to ride the roller coaster. word to the wise - listen to the advice of those that have been there before you.
right before christmas max had a set back. everything was going great, he was basically just eating and growing - then wham he is having bloody diapers. i mean it seemed like it happened just like that. i went to bed one night thinking everything was fine, the next morning i called his nurse like i do every morning. i expected to hear what i usually heard, max had a good night, nothing really to report. instead, she starts with, well, max had a rough night. for an endless 48 hours we were waiting for blood results and expecting the news to be that he had developed NEC, basically a deadening of part of the bowel. pretty serious stuff! thankfully, it looks like max just picked up a virus. he is finishing up the antibiotics they started him on to treat NEC or anything else while we waited on results, and the diapers have cleared up. he even breastfed tonight for about 20 minutes - a huge improvement over all my other attempts to breastfeed him!
and that is just when the other shoe drops. the nurse practicioner walks in and says that keegan might need a blood transfusion. yikes! his red blood count numbers are low, and right now we are just watching out for signs that he is not tolerating this drop. apparantly the transfusions are more of a last resort kind of thing - which doesnt instill much confidence. keegan did get started on some medication to help produce the blood cells, but it takes 2 weeks to kick in! i have learned all too well that anything can happen in two weeks. so i guess we just wait and pray.
right before christmas max had a set back. everything was going great, he was basically just eating and growing - then wham he is having bloody diapers. i mean it seemed like it happened just like that. i went to bed one night thinking everything was fine, the next morning i called his nurse like i do every morning. i expected to hear what i usually heard, max had a good night, nothing really to report. instead, she starts with, well, max had a rough night. for an endless 48 hours we were waiting for blood results and expecting the news to be that he had developed NEC, basically a deadening of part of the bowel. pretty serious stuff! thankfully, it looks like max just picked up a virus. he is finishing up the antibiotics they started him on to treat NEC or anything else while we waited on results, and the diapers have cleared up. he even breastfed tonight for about 20 minutes - a huge improvement over all my other attempts to breastfeed him!
and that is just when the other shoe drops. the nurse practicioner walks in and says that keegan might need a blood transfusion. yikes! his red blood count numbers are low, and right now we are just watching out for signs that he is not tolerating this drop. apparantly the transfusions are more of a last resort kind of thing - which doesnt instill much confidence. keegan did get started on some medication to help produce the blood cells, but it takes 2 weeks to kick in! i have learned all too well that anything can happen in two weeks. so i guess we just wait and pray.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
what happened?!?!
well, its unanimous - everyone's first response was something along the lines of "what happened?!" when they found out that our boys had arrived, ever so early.
it happened something like this...
on saturday, dec 2nd, i was discharged from the hospital. i went home on the terbutaline pump and with a monitor to check for contractions twice a day. a word of caution, being home is great, but there is nothing like the safety of the hospital. home monitoring is not all it is cracked up to be. some of you might remember that i had a problem with the terb pump when it first tried to change the medicine myself. mainly the problem was that the pump was broken and the company didn't believe me that it wasnt working properly. about 7 hours later, i had a new pump, because as it turns out the first one was broken. in the meantime, my bolis of medicine had to be increased from every 4 hours to every 3 hours to stop contractions that started while the pump crisis was worked out. anyway, true to form, the home contraction monitor didnt work properly either. the idea was, hook myself up to it for an hour in the morning and and hour at night. then i was to connect the thing to my phone and send the data to the company once a day. well, each time i tried to send the data only one section would go - either the day or the night. it was very random. finally, the tuesday before the boys were born, i couldn't even get any data to send. the company decided that i should call my doctor if i had any problems and they would send a new monitor in the morning. well - the new monitor came alright, round about the time i was laying on the operating table giving birth to two very premature boys.
basically, i was contracting tuesday, unbeknownst to us because of the faulty machine. by the time i was feeling the contractions and went to the hospital, the contractions were3-4 minutes apart and i was already dialated to 3-4 centimeters. my dr. tried giving me magnesium, but the contractions didnt stop. around 11:45 am on wednesday after increasing the mag i was dialated to about 5-7 cm and the decisions was made to do the c-section. the boys were born at 12:40 and 12:41pm on wednesday dec 6th.
it has been a whirlwind since then. and thank God the boys are doing well. they have been in the NICU for 2 weeks and are growing well. they are performing as expected and will hopefully be home soon. so far the only scary news is that they have what is referred to as A and B episodes. basically, they forget to keep breathing (apnea) and their heart rate goes down (brady cardia). fortunately, they are recovering well after each episode. it is hard to see it happen and hear the monitor dinging away. really hard!! neurologically, they should outgrow these episodes in a few weeks. however, much to our chagrin, if they have an episode within 5 days of being discharged they will be sent home on monitors. obviously our faith in home monitoring has been understandably shaken. we just keep praying that the boys will outgrow these episodes soon!
on the bright side though, i did get to breastfeed for the first time yesterday. keegan did fantastic and max is still learning a bit. it was amazing to finally have this bonding experience with my boys. i cant wait until they are home with us for good!
it happened something like this...
on saturday, dec 2nd, i was discharged from the hospital. i went home on the terbutaline pump and with a monitor to check for contractions twice a day. a word of caution, being home is great, but there is nothing like the safety of the hospital. home monitoring is not all it is cracked up to be. some of you might remember that i had a problem with the terb pump when it first tried to change the medicine myself. mainly the problem was that the pump was broken and the company didn't believe me that it wasnt working properly. about 7 hours later, i had a new pump, because as it turns out the first one was broken. in the meantime, my bolis of medicine had to be increased from every 4 hours to every 3 hours to stop contractions that started while the pump crisis was worked out. anyway, true to form, the home contraction monitor didnt work properly either. the idea was, hook myself up to it for an hour in the morning and and hour at night. then i was to connect the thing to my phone and send the data to the company once a day. well, each time i tried to send the data only one section would go - either the day or the night. it was very random. finally, the tuesday before the boys were born, i couldn't even get any data to send. the company decided that i should call my doctor if i had any problems and they would send a new monitor in the morning. well - the new monitor came alright, round about the time i was laying on the operating table giving birth to two very premature boys.
basically, i was contracting tuesday, unbeknownst to us because of the faulty machine. by the time i was feeling the contractions and went to the hospital, the contractions were3-4 minutes apart and i was already dialated to 3-4 centimeters. my dr. tried giving me magnesium, but the contractions didnt stop. around 11:45 am on wednesday after increasing the mag i was dialated to about 5-7 cm and the decisions was made to do the c-section. the boys were born at 12:40 and 12:41pm on wednesday dec 6th.
it has been a whirlwind since then. and thank God the boys are doing well. they have been in the NICU for 2 weeks and are growing well. they are performing as expected and will hopefully be home soon. so far the only scary news is that they have what is referred to as A and B episodes. basically, they forget to keep breathing (apnea) and their heart rate goes down (brady cardia). fortunately, they are recovering well after each episode. it is hard to see it happen and hear the monitor dinging away. really hard!! neurologically, they should outgrow these episodes in a few weeks. however, much to our chagrin, if they have an episode within 5 days of being discharged they will be sent home on monitors. obviously our faith in home monitoring has been understandably shaken. we just keep praying that the boys will outgrow these episodes soon!
on the bright side though, i did get to breastfeed for the first time yesterday. keegan did fantastic and max is still learning a bit. it was amazing to finally have this bonding experience with my boys. i cant wait until they are home with us for good!
Saturday, December 9, 2006
new arrivals
we are thrilled to announce the arrival of our sons
max collin, born 12:40PM on december 6, 2006, weighing in at 4 lbs 6 oz
&
keegan robert, born 12:41PM, weighing in at 3 lbs 8 oz
nicole, jon and big brother fin
here is max...
here is keegan...
max collin, born 12:40PM on december 6, 2006, weighing in at 4 lbs 6 oz
&
keegan robert, born 12:41PM, weighing in at 3 lbs 8 oz
nicole, jon and big brother fin
here is max...
here is keegan...
Sunday, December 3, 2006
the best wake up call ever
after weeks of being awakened to the sound of either someone knocking on my door and hollaring "dietary", someone fumbling with keys to open the supply closet located outside my hospital room or the deafening sound of the vacuum cleaner which for some reason only happens at 5AM - this morning was a welcome change. for the first time in a month, i slept in my very own bed last night and my son woke me up at 6:30AM screaming "mommy, mommy, mommy!!" i have to say, it was music to my ears. we snuggled in my bed for what felt like forever and just giggled and played and finally woke daddy up to get us some breakfast. then we had breakfast in bed, only dribbling crumbs on daddy's side. it was the best morning i have had in a very, very long time!
yes, i am home! friday evening, my team of doctors agreed that it was time for me to go home. i was discharged from the hospital on saturday morning and have been home ever since. i am continuing under the same bedrest restrictions here - but boy what a difference a change of venue can make! we are just hoping that it will be quite some time before i have to go back to AAMC. with any luck santa will actually come before these babies. otherwise, it is going to take some explaining to fin.
ok, thats all for now, i am off to enjoy my very own bedroom!
yes, i am home! friday evening, my team of doctors agreed that it was time for me to go home. i was discharged from the hospital on saturday morning and have been home ever since. i am continuing under the same bedrest restrictions here - but boy what a difference a change of venue can make! we are just hoping that it will be quite some time before i have to go back to AAMC. with any luck santa will actually come before these babies. otherwise, it is going to take some explaining to fin.
ok, thats all for now, i am off to enjoy my very own bedroom!
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