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.