Once Upon a Time

there were two babies that were very predictable. They loved to sleep right after a good belly full of milk. They slept for 3 hours and half of the time we would have to wake them. They rarely cried, fussed or showed signs of irritability. Fast forward to the days of two newborns. Today we are behaving as newborns. Things have become more unpredictable. Bryson tends to have a hole in his stomach. It is not uncommon that we think something is wrong considering he slept for an hour and woke up crying and can't be calmed. The only thing wrong is that we don't have another warm bottle ready for him two hours after the last feeding!!! He doesn't seem to require very much sleep these days. We used to think Addison was going to be the low maintenance baby but lately she's more high maintenance than her brother. Keep in mind high maintenance = parental time consumption + parental confusion. It is no longer advisable for anyone to be left alone and outnumbered 2 to 1. They'll eat your brains!!!! Kim found some new bottles that have really lowered the irritability as the Modela bottles were pushing too much air in their tummies. Supposedly the Dr. Brown bottles put off some chemical / estrogen reaction so that wasn't an option for mommy; nor Addison when she is 12! Both are growing fast and tonight I realized how fast they were growing when I saw Bryson in the tub, on the mat after the bath and on his sleep positioner. His legs are hanging off things now. I even had a feeling that I wanted them to stop growing so that we could enjoy them at this age and size even longer. I think because we've nurtured them as preemies, it makes me like the moments are moving too fast or leaving me behind. Well I should end the update because Bryson is not going to last past midnight without a feeding. Meanwhile Addison could sleep for 5 hours easily. Also I forgot to mention we don't have updates on size because the home health care nurse isn't coming weekly but she'll be back one more time before the year is up for the next round of RSV shots.

One of these days I'll post more pictures but I have not even had time to take that many. It will be in another picasa album so you don't have to scroll past all the preemie era pics.

They are now mature

Since this would have been the 40 week full term day for Kim and the babies, I thought it was befitting to comment that we can now take the "Pre" off and say they are "mature", right?

Bryson weighed 8 lbs 4 ounces, 19.75 inches. Addison is 7 lbs 7 ounces, 19.25 inches. Bryson is no longer a tight ass. Seems the pinkie finger stimulation experience was so humiliating the first time, he decided to figure out how to do this on his own.

I'm back to work for the most part but still try to help out during the day on Tuesday and Thursday which happens to be the day our nanny aka professional babysitter is not working this month. The term 'nanny' reminds me of the old sitcom Nanny with the annoying Bronx/Brooklyn voice. Her name was Fran Drescher. Our nanny is nicknamed Bumper. She'll be starting full time in December. She just finished her last family (sounds mafia style) last month and had triplets on her hands. She also teaches art to children all day on Saturday with ages starting at two. This is great to know because I basically only knew how to trace things using my Disney character tracing lamp. That is not original! I did teach myself how to draw stick figures though.

Update

Addison's laser procedure on her right eye went as planned. We are just giving her eye drops throughout the day. No patch but she has some redness in the eye. We will know how effective the procedure was a couple of Tuesdays from now.

Mercy Home Healthcare came by today and Bryson weighed 6lbs 11 ounces. Addison gained an ounce since the last time she was weighed. She's at 6 lbs 1 ounce. I'm sure Tuesday was a little stressful on her. Later today we received a call from Arlene (our home health nurse) stating we could take BOTH babies off the oxygen. A nurse will come by to check their oxygen saturation level Saturday morning to make sure they are okay on their own. The apnea monitor is sure to tell us before the nurse arrives if there is any regression. We now know that their heart rate will increase if their bodies need the oxygen assistance again.

One other thing. Bryson is now at 20" and Addison is 19.5". I would have never guessed she was only one half inch shorter than her brother.

Also I may create another photo album once they get to November 13. That would have been their 40 week full term date. They are both at the point of being responsive much faster to our voices. Bryson is doing the Ray Charles with his head and neck. It is is cobra imitation. He also just started paying attention to the dogs as I had him on the floor sitting up. Both are more focused at staring at us now. I caught Bryson for the first time staring at the mirror in bed 10 minutes after I laid him down. Usually it is either crying or passing out. Sounds like a sorority trash can punch party. Ba da bump! Addison, being a female, of course, starting staring at the mirror early on. She said something about her hair getting messed up by the bunny hat.

eBay Auction

If you've kept up with this blog, you'll recall a rumor was spreading in OKC that our kids were on eBay. Well I'm positively sure all the money in the world would not convince me to give up this precious girl. Unfortunately she is having a laser procedure on her right eye Tuesday. The good news is that this will ensure she will not have retina problems as that would definitely affect her future eyesight. The small downside is that she will lose ... say ... 10% of her peripheral vision in that eye. For the past two weeks the opthamologist has been concerned about some abnormal blood vessels in her eye. He's afraid they will pull on the retina causing irreversible damage. They haven't yet but we better be safe than sorry. Other news ... I almost posted a blog entry earlier this week after I spent 1.5 hrs looking for preemie diapers Edmond, aka Mayberry, OK. One out of six grocery stores had 5 left. This is not attributed to a mass production of preemies in the Edmond area. This is a side affect of crappy grocery stores in the OKC metro area not stocking preemie diapers. That includes a Super Walmart and a Walmart Neighborhood market. Super Target came through. I grabbed the last 5 packages in Edmond. Those upscale french stores surprise me sometime. I almost called Barbara and Donnie at Thrift Mart to ask for their web address so I could order online. Long story short it would have been more like a rant than a post. Bryson is at an even 6 lbs at his last and unexpected doctor visit. Seems he has anal stenosis which basically (per my wife) means he's a tight ass. My response was that if he is a financial tight ass, I have no problem with that and hope they don't find a cure. I really thought that by the time I found preemie diapers that day, the kids would graduate to newborn diapers by the time I made it home. Meanwhile we survive on glycerine suppositories. Addison was 5 lbs and 7 ounces on Tuesday and is definitely the low maintenance race leader today. We'll probably have a few extra preemie diapers left over once Addison hits 6lbs. I'll make sure I put those extras on eBay. They should bring a premium in Edmond, OK. Click to see NEW PICS.

Grand Opening - Sheppard Oxygen bar

Do you recall the oxyen bottle inventory I published? Kim and I are convinced we need to put that same sign on the front door. Okay, to the kids ... Mr. B was able to spend a couple of days this week without the cannulla but today, Home Healthcare and our Pediatrician factored in our latest new woes about the heart/apnea monitor and decided his spikes in heart rate were likely attributed to the oxygen saturation level. Kim and I were about ready to write the annoying high heart rate alarms off to another faulty monitor considering this was happening 1-2 hours into a deep sleep. This all may sound scary to you guys but he is doing great. It is just a preemie thing and we'll eventually get those lungs in shape for the 40's in football practice and yo-yo's in basketball. He weighed in at 5 lbs and 9 oz. today!!!!! That is 5 ounces in 2 days. Maybe he's going to be a sumo wrestler. Addison is still in the rear but keeping pace with a 4 ounce gain up to exactly 5 pounds. We like our home health care nurse. She stole my heart away today after she ripped Apria a new one for not providing us a new monitor within 24 hrs (just in case) and for delivering enough oxygen to match the annual quantity the Kickapoo Casino requires in a year.

The day they came home together Oct 4

Bryson challenged the photographer and would not open his eyes. Of course he came home and opened his eyes.

What has happened lately?

Both kids are growing and developing considering they would not have been full term until mid November. We haven't hit the 5 pound mark but both are inching closer. Bryson was off oxygen for a day but the next day follow-up indicated he was fine without o2 when alert but needed it when asleep. I'm sure they will make another weaning attempt on Bryson this week. We had our first scare for approximately 24 hrs Thurs-Fri. The apnea monitor was indicating a very low heart rate for Bryson. The alarms were going off frequently (below 50 bpm) but even when he was alert and not crying. His color was fine too. We finally got in to have an EKG done Friday at 3pm and he was consistently at 140 bpm. When we arrived home, the doctor had finally analyzed the data from the monitor download and determined all the data was bad therefore false alarm. We thought it was going to be a false alarm after the Respiratory company (Apria) left us a new monitor and he produced no new alarms afterwards. I should have known it was a dumb computer problem considering it was way too coincidental to see the alarms increase as the memory got closer to 100% capacity. Apria will tell you the monitor will continue to work even after it's memory is full; however, they left out the word "effectively". The replacement we have will not work once the memory is full and it will not give you a threshold warning at, say, 90%. The kids are way easier to maintain than this equipment! Speaking of equipment, Apria keeps bringing us oxygen to our frontdoor. Do you need any? We have 19 "mobile" size bottles, three medium 3 ft tall bottles and one large 5ft tall tank in our house now. Do they think we are running a preemie orphanage? We are thinking about turning them all on for a slow bleed to get that Vegas casino effect. Maybe we'll stay up for 48 hrs straight and get our to-do list cleaned up!

Doctor Visit

Yesterday we executed "Operation Double Duty Doctor Visit". Three adults, two kiddos, two car seats, two oxygen bottles and two monitors. Mission accomplished. Bryson gained almost an ounce / day since Monday and weighed in at 4 - 10 in the blue corner. In the pink corner, Miss Addison weighs in at 4-6. Both checked out just fine. A home healthcare group will be coming by the house weekly to evaluate the oxygen requirement. Considering the oxygen delivery guy didn't turn the tank on Bryson when he left and I discovered it 24 hrs later due to his monitor alert, he should be close to weaning off.

Kim got a bad taste of what it is like to carry a kid in a car seat with the oxygen bottle and monitor so the help of a third adult was required Friday since it was our first doctor trip with both. Thanks Deborah for taking the half day off and the assistance.

Granna Fern is on the road today and will be staying with us for a week. I think I'd rather be on the road today than watch the game. The only thing Texas has going for them is a stupid statistical trend where the team that has won 2 in a row has always gone on to win 3 in a row since 1940. A stupid yet bizarre stat.

A Few New Pics

You can view more pictures on the picasa google site by clicking the picture.

Addison is home

We brought Addison home along with another oxygen tank and monitor today. Both are sleeping well together in Kim's father's baby life bassinet. Pictures were taken of the two together as part of her dismissal by the hospital photographer service. She certainly is not shy and had no problems opening her eyes for the shoot but Bryson could care less about cooperating. We are glad to be home and it is very comforting to know we aren't geographically separated. Things are going fine with the double duty. I look back over the last month and we've had an easier transition in my opinion compared to the young couple taking home their first child after 1-2 days in the hospital. I feel like we've participated in a 3-4 week training camp. We took home one, passed the test and got to bring it all home today. The couple from Ponca City also is going home in a few days and you might recall, they've been there since the first week of August. I'll have more pics out soon.

Addison

Addison is on full time bottle feeding today. We'll see how it goes. They are also trying to move her out of the incubator/isolette and into a crib we'll wait and see how she maintains her body temperature. She is still on oxygen and it the nurses tried to wean her off of it last night without much success. Looks like another oxygen bottle in the house which means another noisy monitor in the house. So far the only time Bryson's has alerted us is when he's going through his maintenance period which requires lot's of moving and the patches slide off his chest slightly. There is nothing between the patches and his body but KY jelly. A belt strap goes around his chest to hold them down.

Bryson took two rides today

Bryson made it home just fine via his first car ride however he previously took a more dangerous ride. He rode the circ train Sat morning before he came home. The circ train line usually forms 2-3x / week with boys only. These trains are dangerous and are not at all for little girls. These boys are so content while waiting in line but as soon as the engineer with sharp instruments gets that train rolling, the boys are so scared they start bawling extremely loud one by one. It usually is the boy riding shotgun with the train engineer that gets upset. They then move him back to the caboose and the next little boy rides shotgun and starts screaming his little head off. Blood curling screams. All I can say is that it is a good thing they don't associate railroad trains to this experience; otherwise, we would not be able to stay with Granna and Granpa Sheppard.

All has gone well the first day. He's kept our minds off the great conference start the Horns and Sooners gave us today. Addison is up to 3 pounds and 14 ounces and a few extra grams. It will not be long before she comes home. Luckily for her, she'll only be taking one ride.

Bryson is coming home

We are rooming in with Bryson tonight (Friday) in a normal room before we get to bring him home Saturday. This is a Mercy Hospital requirement and probably one for many other hospitals. Since they were preemies and went straight to the NICU, there never was any time in Kim’s room. Bryson and Kim also tried nursing today and that went very well. She’ll continue this once a day and a bottle the rest of each day until the pediatrician prescribes differently. Bryson will also come home on oxygen at a very slow flow. We have our first appointment with the pediatrician Monday morning.

 

You all know of course I’m sharing our experiences with you via the internet and well, my in-laws aren’t that internet savy. Well it appears on Thursday my mother in-law was telling people that the kids were on eBay. Yep our kids are for sale via an online auction. God bless them! Maybe Al Gore confused them years ago when he invented the internet.

 

Addison is still taking the bottle like a champ. She also is the belching champ in the NICU.

 

We learned CPU for babies today. We also made it through our discharge session today and Margie, our instructor was adamant about the slow pace of visitors and contact to friends and relatives when they come home. She even informed my in-laws about giving us some time to experience parenthood alone at home before any grandparent invasion. She explained that they are still little preemies and need all the rest and quietness they can get. It is going to be tough - but for the best - for us to not have visitors and show them off so let’s all give the babies the time they need. It is still all about them now.

Wednesday Afternoon Update

Bryson is at 4 pounds and a half ounce and Addison is at 3 pounds 12 ounces. Neither are having trouble taking a bottle. Bryson can't seem to shake the oxygen dependency but Addison was handling the decrease today with a few oxygen saturation alerts this afternoon while I was feeding and holding her. She was probably alert the longest we've experienced. She didn't even get tired after the feeding and it drinking much faster. Last night, she took 32 cc's down in 10 minutes. Then I had scary parental visions of her doing shots in college. The doctor called again this morning and gave a progressive report for both and indicated Bryson was close to coming home. As of this afternoon he was sustaining his body temp in the 98.0-98.9 range. We are assuming that if Bryson doesn't have any setback, he'll be coming home in the next few days. Meanwhile, daddy's girl is about 7-10 days out from any mention of going home. By the way, she has been much more cooperative today when changing her diaper. I almost forgot ... we got to experience a full bath in her tubbie last night. This was a surprise to Kim and me because "complete bath" used to mean from head to toe with wash rag. I didn't have my camera ready when they sat her down in the water but it was a priceless reaction of shock. Two seconds later, she was a happy girl and never cried the whole time.

Quickly ...

Last night, Bryson and Addison were in the same incubator in the interim because he was being transitioned to a hospital crib without a heater. So for a short time they were together again. It makes me wonder what is going on in their mind when they are laying next to each other swaddled and face to face. Bryson's feedings are bottle only now. Addison is up to 3x/day and is a slow drinker. That will make me feel better when she heads off to college. If there actually is a correlation, Bryson is already in trouble.

Today I had unique dirty diaper experience. As I pulled the dirty diaper away, she decided she needed to take care of more business. I had the next diaper in place however the onesy flap was not behind her back. So I'm thinking I need to do this one last time before I change her onesy? Nope. I start changing the diaper again and here comes dessert. Have you ever changed a diaper on a preemie with 4 wires and 2 tubes wearing a onesy inside an incubator with your arms only through the port holes? It sux.

Oh yeah, Bryson reached the 4 pound mark. We'll see if he sustains the weight today. He'll very likely come home before sister.

Another Update

The doctor called this morning and prepared us for the near future. He let Kim know they could be sent home while still on oxygen however I'd be surprised if it was this week because he didn't give a time frame. Bryson is taking the bottle 4x/day now and Addison is 2x/day. No setbacks on the breathing rate this time nor the oxygen saturation (aka ‘sat’). They take mom’s milk via stomach tube all other times. He last weighed in at 3 pounds 14 ounces (rounded). She was at 3-8 as of early Sun morning.
The other twins next to us in the satellite room are finally going home. They were born the first week of August. Those girls are very unique as they both developed in the same sac. We are also fortunate we live just 15-20 miles away from the hospital. They live in Hennessey, OK and the drive is one hour each way. When mom is pumping, their mileage adds up fast. Another couple have a preemie born in one of the first two weeks of August and are their baby is just getting to the point ours are at. They live in Ponca City which is much closer to Kansas than OKC however they have been staying in one of the RV’s Mercy leases to patient families so they don’t have to drive back and forth. Please put those people in your thoughts and prayers.

Update

Well every nurse besides Thursday night's nurse are all telling us Bryson is not ready to move out of the incubator (isolette). I believe I told some of you Thursday night and Friday he was going to a normal hospital crib. Bryson got cold and then hot Friday and missed some weight gain so he's down to 3-12.5. She also got too hot yesterday and is still at 3-9.

Friday, we tried bottle feeding again and this time Addison had her chance and did really well. So far she is winning the burping contest inside the satellite room. Their breathing rate is still good enough to continue bottle feeding as we continued today at 3pm. If all goes well, they'll take the bottle 2-3x/day and slowly take it with more frequency.

Granna and Granpa Sheppard came in today and participated in the holding. My dad and the babies have alot in common. None of them say much to each other but I'm sure that will change as the babies mature. However, my mother had plenty to say. She told Bryson she would take him out and dig worms with him when he gets old enough. I can't wait to see Fern dig for worms. It was a great experience for both of them to hold their first grandbabies and I'll get more pictures out as soon as I can.

Update

After taking the normal weight loss dips, the babies are above their birth weights. Bryson is 3-13 and Addison is 3-9. Both are off the two fluid IV's so no splint on their arm and they are starting to look normal as we lose more tubes. They ran out of options in resetting the IV in Bryson and started setting one on the top front of his head, had trouble, called the doc and he said try him without fluid IV's. So far so good. Thanks to Billy Gamblin for preparing me for that one however all I saw was a little cotton taped to his head where they tried it. Kim definitely was taken aback from the thought of an IV in the head of one of her babies. Addison lost her IV splint a day later on Tuesday, Sep 18. However both got put back on a small input of oxygen. So something comes off and something goes back on. The doctor wants their oxygen saturation to increase and now that is has increased on both, they'll start weaning them off the oxygen again. Basically they set the goals higher on the sat rate and therefore needed more O2 to meet that goal.

Touching times are every three hours for our babies. Each time we visit we change the diaper and take their temperature. I tell you this because I've had some embarrassing moments. Two times I've wrapped the diaper not only around the mid section but I left the wires running up into and out the diaper. One time I left a leg out. It is not fun doing this with three wires and a feeding tube inside an incubator with each arm through a port hole! I didn't feel too stupid when a nurse told me a mother had put on a diaper with the baby's arm inside.

Tonight, Kim came down with a fever so I flew solo on the last visit of the day. Bryson stands a good chance of leaving the incubator on Friday or Saturday if he maintains his body temp at 98+ with pajamas and swaddle wrap with the temp turned down in the incubator.

There are three main criteria for leaving the hospital; 1-4lbs, 2-sustain body temp with only assistance of clothing and swaddle and 3-suck from a bottle every 3 hours for a few days. Bryson is close to two out of three. He actually took his first bottle Monday like a champ but on Tuesday they called off the bottle feeding due to his respiratory rate (breaths/minute) had increased. I never sought an explanation but I do know that sucking, breathing and swallowing is a workout for those babies. Addison is a few days behind Bryson in progression but she actually has gained the most weight since birth.

September 12

Mom went home on Wednesday night. We travel to the hospital a few times a day to hold the babies. They continue to improve every day. Both are out of intensive care and in the Intermediate care unit. They are now off everything except a feeding tube and are being fed mother’s milk only. Their intake increases each day. We get to hold them each time we go if they are awake. Today they were very alert because their ?BILI (something to with liver and jaundice) is improving and they are needing as much photo-light therapy. Lots of eye contact. We can swaddle-hold them (wrapped up in a blanket like a burrito) or hold them kangaroo style (skin to skin on our chest). This is great! Check back Monday for new pics. I should have time to pull off cameras and upload.

http://picasaweb.google.com/shepuurd

Warning Part III - They Arrived - Sep 9

I can’t say things have not changed. Kim and I are the proud parents of two very healthy 31 week old preemies. Nothing out of the ordinary for 31 week old babies. They are actually fat kids compared to all the others in the NICU. Lungs are in good shape. As we progress the neo natal doc will be checking heart, brain, eyes, hearing and so on. I tried to get them to open their eyes multiple times and when I went to NICU with Kim for her first time, Addison opened her eyes for Kim!

Kim experienced slight bleeding last night so we all agreed to not take any more chances under Dr. Stanley’s advice. It could have been her cervix (minor) from the circlauge or it could have been Addison’s placenta (major). I’m surprised that would be considered major but hey, I’m just a computer geek. Make that white trash computer geek. And I’m glad they are now really really in our lives now. They are already telling Kim she will likely go home Wednesday or Thursday but we knew the babies would stay a couple of weeks or so.

Oh yeah, Bryson Thomas is 17” and 3’11”. Addison was 16” (I think) and 3’7”. Bryson has really long feet. ;)

Warning Part II - Sep 7

Nothing has really changed except he isn’t going to wait for her to reach 32 weeks. He just hinted at scheduling a c-section Thursday evening and talked more about it Fri morning so it looks like next week. They are giving her tributylene to suppress contractions too. The doctor also took her off the monitors for contractions and baby heart rates full time. He just wants her on the monitors for an hour in the AM and one in the PM. Don’t work too hard today and enjoy the weekend.

Warning - Part I - Sep 5

I will be a daddy sooner than expected. Kim was admitted today due to a slight water break in the baby levy. Right now she is stricken to the bed at the hospital and we are buying time because she is 1.5 weeks away from the doctor’s preferred 32 weeks for delivery. There is a 75% chance of delivery in the next 3 days. Addison, who is on the bottom is breech so it is the inevitable cesarean. They both are healthy at 3.5 lbs plus each today with great heart rates. The doctor prescribed steroids to Kim to accelerate the development of the kiddo’s lungs. She is also on a couple of antibiotics. If Kim makes it past the three days, she has to stay in the hospital until she is at 32 weeks and be induced which is Tuesday September 18 or until she delivers. Then of course there is recoop time due to the C. Boring! This is first time I wanted to be bored.

I’ve got to finish packing Kim’s things and find a video camera tomorrow!!!!

P.S. the nurse said I could bring the dogs to the room if we are stuck there for awhile. You know you are in Oklahoma when …
Don’t take it personally … I’m still plain ol’ whitetrash from Bangs, TX.