The Boys were baptized today in the NICU

Christian and Papa and Nana Linn and I after his baptizm.

Christian getting baptized in the NICU.

Christian before his baptizm.

Brock right after his baptizm with Papa and Nana Linn and mom.

Brock getting baptized.

Hello- the boys are under their tanning lamps today to work on jaundice. Christian will be tanning all day and Brock will most likely be on most of the day. Brandon and I got a good report from Christian's doctor last night that the whole in his heart (a whole all babies are born with) is closing at the appropriate speed. Yeah!

Brandon and I decided yesterday that we wanted the babies to be baptized. We had the Chaplin on staff meet with us this morning and preform the baptism at 11am. My parents came as did Sara and Bryan. The boys got their tanning lamps turned off for the short ceremony.

Brandon and I got to change the boys diapers today and I took Brock's temperature. It makes us feel like real parents! I was discharged today and we are back at home. It is so nice to be in my own home again.

Brandon's dad is coming in today to meet the boys so within a week of life they will have meet all their grandparents and spent lots of time with their only aunt and uncle. They are certainly well loved already.

More Pics of the boys- They are 3 days old today!

Kathy and Jenn with Christian.

Brandon and Jenn with Christian

Kathy and Jenn with Brock

Brandon and Jenn with Brock.

Hi- We were able to visit the boys two times already today and they were both looking good. Brandon's mom Karen was in town yesterday and today and got to spend lots of quality time with the boys. My aunt Kathy was able to come by and visit the boys this afternoon in the NICU and meet them. I know they love all their family already even though they are not able to tell us :)

Christian got a blood transfusion this morning to help him out and they hope to start feeding him in the morning. He and Brock both will have a brain scan on Tuesday to look for brain bleeds, this is a typical NICU test for premies. Brock was working on keeping his food down today as he is being feed every 6 hours. They tested him without his breathing tube last night and he didn't tolerate just regular air well so they had to put it back in. As soon as they put it back in he ripped it right back out again so they got to put it back in again! Little stinker.

We found out today that they try to touch the boys about every 4 hours and not in between. The boys don't really like to be touched at this stage since their systems don't understand what it is. So... they touch them at 7a, 11a, 3p and 7p. They have said the best time for Brandon and I to visit is on this schedule as to not over-stimulate them. Personally, I get this since I feel like I get overstimulated pretty easily! This won't be such an issue in a few weeks, but for right now we will try to do the same thing.

I can most likely go home tomorrow which will be nice. I am ready to be home for myself and we feel so lucky that we live to close to the hospital.... so many families in the NICU are far away and can't just drive 5 mins to reach their little ones.

Jenn

Baby Photos

Brock- Day 2- He was on the healthy list today and has been feeding through a tube since yesterday. He is on the healthy list today.

Brock Day 2- Look at that dark hair and he has blue eyes that is is keeping closed right now.

Christian, our little troublemaker, Day 2- Also dark hair that is covered up and blue eyes.

Christian Day 2- He is totally off all blood pressure medication today and looking a little more lively. He has not feed yet, but we think tomorrow. He was placed on the "healthy list" today.

The Boys are Here!!!

Well Monday night did not go as I expected. As I was laying in bed, my water broke. I had no pain with it but I woke up my mom and we rushed to the labor and delivery unit of Presby hospital. As you can imagine, I was extremely distressed since the babies are so early at this point. We got into a room and Dr. Nockelburg came down and did an exam. I was not really dilated and I couldn't feel any contractions. They put me on antibiotics and hoped that no real contractions would come. That way, I could make it a couple more days before they were born.

Christian (Baby A) had other ideas for early Tuesday morning and I started to feel contractions at about 130am. At 3am I asked the nurse for some pain meds and as she was giving them to me she noticed Christian's umbilical cord was prolapsed (meaning exposed). This sent everyone into a running blur to me. The nurse put her hands on me and pushed his cord back up. The nurse, Kristin, rode on my bed to an emergency delivery. They put a catheter in and strapped me down and that is just about the last thing I remember. They put me completely under and delivered both babies at 330am. Their birthday is July 28th! It was an incredibly scary experiance for both me and my mom. Brandon was in MN for work and rushed to catch a flight on Tuesday morning first thing.

At 530a I was woken up by someone in the NICU who needed me to sign a release to put Christian on blood pressure medication. He had a tough day yesterday and was on the max dosage of medication but seems to be looking better today. Right after the delivery my blood pressure shot up as well and they put me on magnesium so I would not seize. My blood pressure came down throughout the day and I was taken off the morphine, magnesium and the catheter out at 10pm last night. Brandon and I were moved to a new room at about midnight last night.

They did LOTS of vital checks, pain management and attempted "pumping" for the boys food last night and this morning. So far Christian has not been able to feed, but Brock is feeding a little bit yesterday and today.

We can't believe they are here already and love them so much!!! It is estimated that they will be in the NICU for 8-12 weeks depending on how they do. They need to eat on their own, keep their temperature on their own and breath on their own before we can take them home.

I should be here until Friday and then I will be moved home.

I hope everyone will PRAY for our little boys! We have a long road ahead of them to first get better in the NICU and then be able to lead normal lives once we all get to go home. They are so wonderful and precious to us already and we will do anything we can to help their journey along.

Thank you to everyone for the emails, texts and calls. We are only having family visit at this time as I am very sore and the boys can't really have many visitors. If I have not returned your email, text or call yet, I will we have just been slammed the last two days.

Love Jenn

Monday has arrived! 28 Weeks, 5 Days

Hi! Brandon and I had a nice weekend here. He was able to bike Sat. morning and then have lunch with friends. He packed me a cooler in the morning and I hung out and nibbled out of my cooler and it worked well! We had more visitors on Sat. The Brazeltons, Cliff and The Fowlers all came by and we were outside a couple of hours. I couldn't go in the pool so everyone would just hose me down with the hose every few minutes.

I like Mondays since it means you are close to Wed. which is the day I move weeks. I can see 29 weeks today! It makes 30 feel that much closer.

Brandon is off training for his new job today in Minneapolis, MN and my mom is coming to stay with me for a few days. It will be nice to have her in town!

Keep everyone posted on my Wed. doctors results! Let's hope for stability and no more changes!!!

Love Jenn

Home Again!

Well today was a great day and I was able to come home!!

We had two tests in the last two days. The FFN test which we found out last night was positive. Unfortunately this is not the result we wanted. The test is an early predictor for labor. A negative result means you will NOT go into labor in the next 7-14 days. A positive result means it is inconclusive. They can not say if you will go into labor or not in the next two weeks. Only 15-25% if women go into labor after a positive result which is not many so this test didn't influence my doctors opinion to much.

Then this morning we had a sonogram to recheck the cervix. We were looking for an improvement here from the 1.5 (or 15 I started at). Well the nurse measured an improvement of 2.2 but our doctor measured 1.6 to 1.7. Not a big improvement but it was enough to convince him that I could venture home. It could be the brownies that Brandon baked the doctor :) I think he was ready to have his wife home.

We got back about three pm. and I am already realizing that bed rest at home is going to be more difficult than in the hospital. I already want to jump up and start taking care of things. I am going to have to relinquish control for a bit and let Brandon take over everything. I hope he doesn't get "over me" to quickly since I am now relying on him for every meal and every glass of water etc.

I can lay on the couch, bed and outside so at least I will have some different options for the next weeks to come.

I have doctor's appointments set up for next week for a recheck and I pray that I stay the same or improve. My next big goal is 30 weeks. My personal goal is 35 weeks and my perintologist goal is 37 weeks.

Thanks to all of you for the prayers and thoughts and visits! Let's get through this next few months!!

Love Jenn

27 Weeks, 6 Days!

Well Thank God we are 27 weeks and 6 days!!! All babies have significant improvements at 28 weeks and we are one day away from that milestone!!

My blood pressure has been down a bit and we did the FFR this morning so I will just wait and see the results tomorrow. All blood work came back good.

Keep you all posted!!

24 Weeks, 5 Days

I can't believe it is Monday! We had such great visitors yesterday and today again this time is going faster than I thought. Sunday we had Jamie and Drew Eckman and their little girl Lexie, Mandy and Rich and then AK and Elizabeth. It keep Brandon and I busy right up until night time which was such a treat!!

Today my friend Shanna stopped by and then my mom and sister came to visit until just a few minutes ago. Brandon should be able to stop by at some point tonight.

First NST (non-stress test) went about the same as the others... some irritability but no contractions which is just fine. I have had some blood pressure problems the last few days so my doctor decided to take blood and do some checking on some of my levels today. The high blood pressure is from the babies and unfortunately there is nothing I can do or eat or change to fix it on my own. The only fix is delivery so I hope it doesn't get to high!

The remedy for the high blood pressure is bed rest and since I am already on it we will see!!

Tomorrow I do a FFR test to see if I will deliver in the next 14 days. I hope that will be in the morning and results should come on Wed. Keep you all posted but we hope for a BIG negative!

Jenn

27 Weeks, 4 days!

Hi All,

We have made it to the end of the weekend. I had so many great visitors yesterday! Thank you to Jamie Eckman and Suzanne and Jenn Gadd for making my day go super fast!

We did two of the Non-stress tests yesterday and they are both good. No contractions and some irritability but apparently that is to be expected.

The doctors have come by each day but we don't really have any news until Wed. I did ask if we would do a FFN, Fetal Fibrobectin Test that will show with some reliability if I will be delivering in the next two weeks. I think Tuesday or Wed. we will do that test.

My doctor said again this morning that I needed to show improvement to be able to do home bedrest and warned both brandon and I that if I were allowed to go home, I get a one chance rule. If I have any shortening from home then I will be right back here until the remainder. She was VERY stern about this! I just hope I get my chance to prove I can do it from home!!!

Dr. Nockelburg said to keep up the good work since each day they are in me is three days in the NICU so I am a much better option!!!

Have a great weekend!

27 Weeks and 2 days

Hi All,

Sorry about the no blog yesterday, I was full up of visitors which made the day go by so fast!! Well yesterday we did two baby stress tests and the morning one was great and then at 12 noon they gave me a steroid shot for the babies lung development. The next stress tests showed a bit more stress in the uterus but not at contraction level. Yeah! So we went all day yesterday without any contractions. The babies heartbeats were great and strong and they are happy as clams in there. They have no idea that they have put mom on bed rest for many weeks!

The steroid shots help their lungs develop more fully in case they are born early and they made me "crazy" and ready to jump out of bed and run a marathon. None of that here though!!! I had Brandon stay the night the first night (Wednesday) and then my mom came yesterday about 12 noon and stayed all day and night with me! My friend Shanna came in the morning for a visit and I got Sara and her hubby for part of the day! What a treat to have so many people to keep me company.

My mom and I had a really fun sleep over last night and she treated me like a princess!

This morning we did another baby stress test (we will have 2 a day the whole time I am here I think) and we passed with flying colors. No more steroid shots today, yeah!! But I am "crashing" a little from them the last two days.

My doctors have been by morning and night and they just tell me to rest and lay down! We won't re-test until Wednesday to see if my cervix has gotten longer and is less funneled. I hope it is both! It needs to be at a MINIMUM of 19 or so with less funneling and no contractions for me to have a chance of going home. I am not holding my breath on this since the babies are SOOOO early right now they don't want them born for SEVERAL weeks.

If I had to estimate I think I will be here for several weeks before I have a chance to see the house again.

I am keeping a positive attitude as best I can and I keep remembering it can always get worse... some women don't have bathroom or shower privileges and one has a feeding tube! Yikes!

We appreciate all the wonderful prayers and emails and I will blog this weekend at some point but we won't have any real news until next Wednesday.

I have had several tips on procedures that people have done to "close the cervix" and here is what I have heard from the docs: I am to far along to sew it up as there is greater risk of breaking my water than the procedure working. Usually 20 weeks is the last week you can do this without these risks... and no.... duck tape will not work :)

Love Jenn

Our Day at Presby

Hi All,

We had an interesting morning and day today. I had some minimal spotting this morning so I came into the doctor and we found my cervix to be to short. It is supposed to measure a least 25 and it was at a 15. So..... I was taken to admitting and moved to the fourth floor high risk for bed rest. They did a stress test on me and the babies, and the babies look good but I was having contractions I didn't even know about every 2-4 minutes. We moved me to my side and they got better. They just re-did the test and I am good for tonight. I will be here in the hospital at least a week and we will re-test next Wednesday. If I look stable with no contractions then I can go home and be on bed rest.

Long story long, I am on bed rest and will be until these little ones arrive. There is no reason to think they are going to come early as long as I stay down. My goal with the babies is still 37 weeks and my goal for me is to bed rest it from home starting next Wednesday.... We will see!

Brandon is staying with me tonight and my family has already been by so I have not been bored yet! I will keep everyone posted but keep us in your prayers to have these babies stay in here until 37 weeks!!!

Love Jenn

26 Weeks today and SOOOO HOT!

Hi All,

Brandon and I are so excited for our friends to come to the twins second and last baby shower this Saturday. We have friends from far and wide coming in and we can't wait to see everyone. It is HOT here in Texas and being 26 weeks pregnant with two big boys is not helping me cool down. I posted some pictures below of our last month or so. We should have more of the twins and the shower in a few weeks.





June 11th 2009. 22 weeks along with the twins.

The ladies at the family baby shower. Lots of pregnant women in this photo! Still 22 weeks along.

More ladies at the family baby shower.

Sara, Grandma Betty and me at the family baby shower.

Still Healthy!

Hi All- I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July weekend this weekend. I am good to go on the sugar with my glucose tolerance test coming back a 'ok! I was WELL under the marker for a re-test so it looks like I am good to go. I attended my first North Dallas Mothers of Multiples/Twins meeting last night and got so many great tips! Some of my favorites were:

1. Even if you didn't intend on hiring a night nanny, you may end up needing one so don't pretend to be super woman.
2. Members Mark formula from Sam's REALLY is the same as the Similac brand.
3. If you have a pain, just deal with it...you are pregnant with multiples and there is nothing else to be done.
4. When you go out with your twin babies people will ask lots of questions and then try to touch them. I am not looking forward to them being manhandled since I don't even like to be touched as a pregnant person.
4. Toddlers are scary..... I am already dreading that time in our life so I hope to get LOTS of good baby time in before the start testing boundaries and acting like crazy people.
5. You need to see the dentist for the kids at age 1. (who knew?)
6. Even though pregnancy with multiples is difficult, it is WAY easier than having children born significantly early. It is going to be a LONG summer, but I am going to try to keep them in until September 28th! (I may need to be reminded of this statement later in the summer with a good pep talk :)

The babies should be about 2 pounds this week and they are still as active as ever! Brandon can't believe how strong they have gotten when he feels them kick. What he feels is not even the half of what they are doing in there!

We have our last baby shower on July 11th with our friends. I can't wait to see everyone and celebrate with them!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Jenn