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.