Welcome to RSV Season....

It started today and as prepared as I thought I was, I wasn't prepared for what our pediatrician had to say about it yesterday.

Basically it's a look don't touch policy. No visitors but immediate family ONLY. NO family gatherings (we're going to have to recheck on that for the holidays). If you've been by someone who has a cold/flu in the last 7-10 days do NOT come over. There have already been 2 confirmed cases of RSV in STL.

While RSV is dangerous for ANY baby and toddler, it is important to note that it can KILL our premature babies who both have CLD (Chronic Lung Disease due to their premature birth).

So, what is RSV you ask? WEll, here goes (this information comes from Children's Hospital):

Respiratory Syncytial Virus:
-RSV is a virus that causes infection of the lungs and breathing passages. RSV is often mistaken for a cold but it can cause pnemonia and other serious lung problems.
-Symptoms of RSV include: coughing, sneezing, runny nose, congestion, sore throat, low fever, wheezing, and tiredness.
-RSV occurs most often in infants and children under 3. OTher children of higher risk for RSV include: premature babies or children that were born prematurely, children born in a multiple birth (twins, triplets, etc), children with chronic lung or heart conditions, and people with weakened immune symptoms. If your child falls into one of these categories, he/she may get a medicine called Synagis which CAN help prevent RSV. Yes, the girls qualify for these shots that are $1500 a piece in a series of 5 or 7, depending on how long RSV season ends up lasting.
-Your child may continue to cough, sneeze, and have a stuffy nose for a few weeks after going home. Your child may also get RSV more than once but the symptoms are usually not as bad as the first time.
-The best treatment for your child with RSV is rest and fluids. Antibiodics won't work against RSV since it is a virus.
- It is easily spread from person to person through coughs and sneezes, and can also be spread by touching someone with the virus. THe virus can LIVE for many hours on objects and surfaces such as toys, towels, blankets, tissues, doorknobs, and sinks. A person can get the virus just by touching an object that has germs on it.
-Your child may spit up after eating because they have more mucous production.
-RSV is most common in the fall, winter, and early spring.
-RSV is most contagious during the first 2-4 days of the infection, however, it can be spread up to 3 weeks after the start of symptoms.
-Handwashing is the most important way to protect the entire family from RSV and other infections.
-Keep your child away from people with a cold.
-If your child has RSV keep them away from other children.
-A smoke free environment is best for children, as it will make their coughing/breathing worse.
-Your child may need more rest than normal. YOu may need to feed them more often because they will tire easily during feedings. Your child may sleep more comfortably sitting up in his or her carseat.


SOunds like fun. Well, it's not and it's scary and I am SURE we are going to offend TONS of people because they cannot hold/touch/visit with our children like they can normal babies. It sucks, trust me.

BUT you know your DR means business when they give YOU, the parents flu shots and a tetnus shot with whooping cough prevention shots...yes, you heard right, I visited MY children's pediatrician and I received shots. How odd. Convenient though. ALL of our parents need to get flu shots as well, as will the girl's daycare provider. God I wish I could keep them out of daycare this winter, but we're just not that lucky. Just pray they don't get RSV. :(

Yesterday was a rough day...Matt traveled and was gone on business all day (well, after the pediatrician's appointment), so Matt's mom and then my mom came over the help feed the girls in shifts, since I cannot do both girls at once as they aren't far enough apart on their feedings that I can do it by myself. Needless to say I was TIRED at the end of the day, not that Matt wasn't after all his traveling, but the stress of pumping all the time and exhaustion got to me, so Matt was fabulous enough to let me sleep from 10-12 and then 1-4. It was heaven! I felt like a million bucks today!

Today our housekeeper came. God my house looks nice! She's so so sweet! WE ran out to lunch (no we didn't take the girls in, that's against the rules...we ate in the car), THEN we ran to Babies R Us...well, I went in, Matt stayed in the car with the babies.

This afternoon, little Miss Fussy Pants, also known as Sydney was awake from 5-8:30. CRAZINESS. As planned, I gave the girls their baths this evening before dinner time. WE're attempting to start a routine with them...bath, bottle, book, bed. WELL, everything but the book happened, right now that's replaced by the swing so that they are elevated after eating...and so that Mom and Dad could eat their dinner before Dad went off to sleep and mom had mommy duty and baby duty for the evening. :)

I hope all is well...tomorrow morning I"ll download and post our pictures from today...they are CUTE CUTE CUTE I tell you!

J


DISCLAIMER: Last night I posted this and we were having internet issues so I was unable to edit the post. I apoligize, I really am not illiterate. :) I have since fixed and edited my post!

First Pictures from home!

So instead of posting pictures on Jeni's previous entry, I decided to just post the new pictures here.

I don't have much to add since Jeni's message since not much has changed. We are attempting to work out our schedule (or the girls' schedule to be accurate) so that we can both get at least 4 hours of sleep at a time... unfortunately, not at the SAME time...

Oh well, we'll get this adjusted and figured out soon enough.

So, here are some pictures of the girls' arrival home.

First, we strapped the girls in to their carseats for their trip...

Upon arriving home, it was time to introduce the girls to the Boxers. Sugar and Cassius were very interested in them. Lots of sniffing went on. Sugar snuck in some licks here and there. Don't worry, dogs mouths are actually cleaner than humans' mouths...

As Jeni said, the girls love their Pack 'n Play.

They also enjoy their swing!

Finally, there have been a few requests for pictures of the nursery... So, here they are. Jeni took shots from just about every possible angle except possibly hanging from the ceiling fan...

More updates to come in the next few days... In between naps, we'll try and be a little more regular with info and pictures!

M

Shopping has been successful!!!!!!!

I cannot believe that I do not have to haul my tush to Children's Hospital today. Instead I can stay in my tank top and shorts all day if I want too!

And amazingly, FINALLY we have a full house! :)

It's so amazing to finally have them home. Not that Matt, Cassius and Mama Sugar (as we've come to call her), or I got much sleep, nor really did Miss Sydney. Olivia slept like a champ, but Sydney is I think having some issues with how quiet our house is. She's sleeping right now like a champion through dogs barking and some football tv show. The NICU was noisy, esp. compared to what it's like here.

Mama Sugar gets VERY concerned whenever the babies cry. It's cute. She'll come and 'tell' us that they are crying and will lay outside their pack n' play, which ROCKS by the way. I ADORE our soothe and sway pack n' play...so do the girls, it vibrates and plays music, all around a great product. Thanks Aunt Nancy and Uncle Drew, the girls love love love one of your many gifts to them! NOt to be outdone, Mr. Clay slept in the nursery last night when the girls were actually sleeping. Too bad the room doesn't have enough free floor space for a dog bed, but he didn't seem to mind. Right now he's sleeping in front of their pack n' play and keeping an eye on them for us!

There were some challenges in getting the babies home:

1- Our used stroller that was such a great deal doesn't fit our carseats. WHY we didn't figure that out before yesterday I'm not so sure, it's probably my fault, but I'm cool with that. Matt went and bought us a new one today.

2-Apparently infant pepcid is HARD to find, but we found an awesome pharmacy clerk at the Shop n' Save we stopped at (we can only get perscriptions for Matt's insurance through Shop n' Save or Dierbergs), who called around to all the other stores and found one that had their meds for us. Talk about customer service.

3-Our car is EXTREMELY cramped with the babies carseats in it. Meaning, Matt cannot put the seat back as far as he needs to so that he can drive. That stunk. I so just want to pay it off and not have a car payment for a long time, and it's ALMOST there, I think we only owe $5000 on it. :(

4-Our house is a disaster AGAIN. Oh well. Poor Juanita (our house keeper that Sharon found for us and I love). Probably the greatest thing to happen to our home in a long time! :)

5-We don't have enough bottles, but that's being solved right now. Thank GOD we live close to Babies R Us!

6- We need a nightlight.

Other than being tired, all is well. Our babies are adorable and we're VERY happy.

We'll post pictures of the Meet and greet with the dogs later, the nursery, etc.

Hope all is well for you!
J

PS...Laura and Angela...I loved your sign. It will go in one of the babies memory books. :) WE were however slackers and didn't take any pictures of your sign when it was up or the signs that Matt's mom and stepdad Rick put up. :( WHen Matt came in with all of them I said, didn't you take pictures of them...poor guy. He forgot and feels bad. Hopefully Rick and Sharon took pictures and knowing the scrap bookin' Queen, she probably did! :)
J

They Have No Idea What They Are In For...

And when I say they, I mean our loveable, spoiled, pampered boxers.

Jeni and I have discussed many times what will happen when the girls come home and our 2 oldest "kids", Cassius & Sugar, are no longer getting all of the attention. We've been trying to ease them into the girls coming home by bringing blankets and clothes home so that they can sniff and smell them to get used to it. However, I have a feeling it is going to be shock to their world when two loud, needy, and sometimes stinky girls come into this house that they used to rule. I am actually really looking forward to how both dogs will react. I'm not worried at all at how they will react, just mainly curious. I know they will be great with the girls as I have seen them around other kids (who they love). And honestly, the nature of the boxer breed around small children is one of the reasons I was attracted to getting one long ago.

Your Peaceful Days of Laziness are numbered...

And from the news today out of the NICU, the boxers could be meeting the girls as early as Saturday! :)

So, because of my trip to Florida for work, I wasn't able to see the girls on Tuesday. I did stop by the hospital in the morning on Monday to see them on my way into the office before my trip later that day. So, this afternoon after work was my first time seeing them and getting to feed them since Sunday morning.

Since the girls are on an ad lib schedule, its harder to predict when they will eat and thus when I get to feed them. However, I made it down to see them about an hour earlier than usual. I hung out and visited with Jeni while she fed Olivia.

Olivia taking her bottle from Mom

Then when Sydney woke up and announced she was hungry, I changed her diaper and fed her. About 1/2 way through her feed, Sydney proceeded to dirty her diaper. She took her entire bottle (yay!) and then I changed her again. Jeni returned from pumping and came in just as I finished changing the 2nd diaper. Since I hadn't had a chance to burp Sydney at the end of her bottle, Jeni volunteered. During this, Sydney then dirtied a THIRD diaper... The girl was full of it!

Sydney is our Paci girl.

Sydney was quite entertained by her new Tiger that Dad brought home from his trip to Mizzou.

We tucked the girls in and headed home a little earlier than we had in a long time. Since our days of free evenings are about to end, we decided to go out for some Mexican food tonight. It was nice not to have to cook...

We relaxed most of the rest of the evening in between loads of laundry and pumping sessions.

Well, looks like 2 more nights of good sleep left!

Take care.

M

The Rollercoaster Ride.....

AKA the NICU is back!

Going shopping or not this weekend? It's an ever changing story.

So yesterday, was a super busy day for me with Matt out of town. I stayed at the NICU until 7:15pm, so I didn't get home until pretty late (b/c I picked up our Chinese) and was tired. So, I ate, pumped, talked with Matt, pumped, napped on the couch, pumped, went to bed, pumped...I'm sure you get the picture.

One of the things we talked about was WHEN the girls were officially coming home. You see, Olivia still hadn't pooped and wasn't eating the best in the world yesterday. So, I was basically told, Sydney and Olivia MAY not be coming home together this weekend. :( Which made me pretty unhappy. Dr. Saunders and NP Michelle told me that if Olivia didn't pick up her feeds, that she'd have to get her NG tube back in because they were worried about her getting dehydrated. SO, we were put on urine watch. So, Olivia and I had a couple 'conversations' about how she had to go shopping with her sister this weekend and pickup her feeds so that she could do that AND that she needs to poop so that she is hungry.

First off, we have 3.5 hour babies. That's how often they are hungry. So, when Olivia started barking (she lets out little shouts when she's hungry) versuses Sydney's screams of hunger, at 5:45, I got her ready (changed her, no poop) and warmed her milk. She ate ALL of the 50 mils I offered her (Okay already more than she'd eaten at one time all day), and she continued to act hungry, SO we warmed another 15 mils and she ate all that. YAY. You go girl. Sydney of course screamed at 6:05 and demanded that our awesome nurse Michelle (not to be confused with NP Michelle) feed her, and like a champ she ate all of her 60 mils.

Overnight, Olivia (threatened with the NG tube), ate really well, she continued to wake up every 3.5 hours and took 75, 75, 65. AND even more importantly after 6 LONG days she finally pooped. THANK God. I was super worried about that. Sydney of course pooped and ate like normal..which means all of her bottles all night long!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO it still sounds like they may be shopping this weekend, but who knows, on the rollercoaster ride of the NICU things could change in an instant. However, I guess I'd better finish up around here and make sure I'm organized for this weekend! YAY. WE.CAN'T.FREAKIN'.WAIT. Give me my babies people and we are outta here...I cannot wait to say that! :)

Daddy's home, I slept MUCH better last night for probably one of the last nights in a LONG time (not that 4 hours of sleep in a row is great, but it's good).

Here are photo shoot pics from today....

Mommy holding the girls.....

Mommy with Sydney (holding BOTH girls)...

Mommy with Olivia (holding BOTH girls)....

Olivia....




Sydney....


Hope all is well,
J

Rumor Has it...

That my letter to Hazelwood's sick leave bank committee was APPROVED.

I'm seriously so excited. I cried. Of course I don't have the official word, but I have heard from a VERY reliable source...my friend Rhonda. You see Rhonda, her darling daughter Josey, and I went to lunch today (which was awesome, it was great to see her!) and she said to me, "I hear great news for you, your leave request was approved!" I was shocked, she thought I knew, so she was shocked as well! Apparently her husband John works with one of the 4 people on the committee who was telling John that they had a meeting and approved my leave. I'm so excited, I cannot believe it. So, I am out of work until December 8. This is HUGE for the girls in terms of health!

I hope that committee knows how fabulous they are, this is so great. When I go back to work the girls will have had 3 of the 5 RSV shots that they will get, and that is HUGE for them. Every day they are kept home during the winter, out of day care, and away from germs is better for them. I must admit that the NICU has me SUPER Freaked out about RSV season. The pure fact that a simple cold could kill my girls is horrifying, much less the fact that they could catch it from ANYONE, even adults who feel okay breaks my heart.

I know that being premature will continue to be a challenge that we will need to combat for the girls, but everything I read tells me that by age 4 (at the latest, usually it is 2) they will have caught up developmentally with their peers. The really sad thing is that RSV will continue to be a concern for us next year. I wonder how other people deal with RSV if they cannot take off work, etc. Craziness.

So, another rumor is still that the girls are GOING SHOPPING THIS WEEKEND. We still don't have an official day, just sometime this weekend. It really all depends on when Olivia poops. Poor baby. She hasn't pooped in 5 whole days as of tonight. She can toot like no adult, but she cannot poop. AND because she isn't pooping so much she's not as hungry (there isn't room, who blames her)!? I mean seriously, we don't eat and think about pooping or poop and think about eating at the same time, so it's no wonder that she's having issues eating ALL of her bottle. BUT she's doing most of it.

Both of the girls have passed their hearing tests as well, which is one of the last things they do before they leave the NICU too. YAY!

Let's see...other great news...they are still as adorable as ever! As of today they are eating ad lib. Which means they are no longer on their set eating schedule. Instead, they HAVE to eat by every 4 hours but THEY determine when in that 4 hour time period they want to eat. WELL, my formerly quiet babies are NOW noisy babies. You should hear the racket they toss up when they want to eat. Sydney screams and Olivia kind of talks. She hasn't screamed yet, but it was cute to see her talk.

Oh, a friend of mine, a very nice girl that I "know" from a website that I am on, who lives in STL and is a photographer has offered to take some pictures of the girls for us. She too has a baby who was born prematurely (Eli, he's so cute) and she completely understands the complications caused by the restrictions placed on premature babies (like no public places, including photographic studios) until after RSV season (so late April/early May). I'm so excited. She takes awesome pictures (her website is http://www.stephaniecordle.com/), and I know that the girls will be great subjects for her. Thanks Stephanie, that was a super generous offer of you to make and Matt and I really appreciate it. She also offered to take maternity pictures for our friend Amy and baby pictures for our friend Stacey. Who knew that one could make such good friends online, but these women have been there for me countless times, they mean a lot to me and I hope they know it!

WEll, here are some pictures from today. Photo shoot time was cut a little short due to the fact that out of the 7 hours I was at the NICU today the girls only ate 1 time, whereas before they would have eaten at least 2 times. You've gotta love the 4 hour schedule!

Sydney....


Olivia....


Well, that's all for tonight. Matt's in Florida and I'm on my own. I promised him that I'd clean up around here, so I'd best be going to do some of that! We should be posting pics of the nursery in the next day or so!

Hope all is well!

J

The H Word

Welcome to our blog for the weekend of Sept 19 - 21.

These are photos from a 'photo shoot' Jeni did with the girls on Friday afternoon...

Olivia

Olivia is on the left and Sydney is on the right!

So in the world of the neonatal intensive care unit, there are a few rules that are strictly enforced by the nurses:
1. Everyone must wash their hands!
2. Only 2 visitors per baby!
3. Don't use the H word around the babies.

If you haven't guessed, the H word is "Home." As patients progress towards being released from the NICU, the nurses don't say anything about 'going home.' They refer to their release as 'going shopping' or 'going to a football game'.

So, why am I pointing this out? Well, we were told that if the girls continue to progress as they have the past few days, then they could be 'going shopping' by the weekend!

That's right, they have made some big moves towards leaving the NICU. On Friday night, the nurses and doctor decided to remove the girls' feeding tubes. They did this for a couple of reasons. One, they wanted to challenge the girls to eat on their own instead of depending on getting their feeds through the tubes. Two, upon removal of the tube (on accident when one of the girls yanked it out) they saw that the thrush had colonized around the outside of the tube. This is part of the reason why the thrush has been so hard to kick. The medicine for it had been going down the tube, thus not killing it where it was growing... So as of Saturday morning, the girls were officially all on their own when it comes to eating. They have minimums they need to eat at each feeding but so far we've been encouraged that several times they've taken all of their bottles...

Olivia

Sydney....

After their tubes were removed on Saturday, our nurse on decided to attempt to cross another milestone/test for the girls: They both had their carseat tests. This test required the girls to sit in their carseat for an hour without having any heartrate or breathing issues. Both Sydney & Olivia did great and passed!


Sydney...

Olivia...


Jeni and I spent alot of Saturday with the girls making sure they had plenty of time eating from the bottle and getting pictures without tubes on their faces! I went home a little before Jeni and did some yard work. I grilled some bratwurst for dinner and we had a nice evening at home. After dinner I hung a couple more decorations in the nursery to get it completely ready for its new residents.

Sydney...

Olivia...

Sydney....
On Sunday, I got up early and visited the girls for their 8 & 9 AM feedings. I stayed until Jeni arrived around noon and then headed home. Jeni stayed most of the afternoon and then came home before we quickly left again. We went to the wake for Jeni's great uncle Kenny and then swung by her mom's to pick up dinner that she made for us.

Tonight has been a quiet evening at home, but many of our conversations have been about what's to come in this next week. I think the reality of the girls being here hasn't hit us yet, but we are MORE than ready. We've been ready for a couple of month. Now we'll see how crazy our lives are about to get...

Well, that's all for me. I'm off to bed. I'll be flying off to Florida for work tomorrow afternoon and will return Tuesday night. Jeni will be in charge of keeping all of you up to date.

Take care!

M