We're HOME!

So the rumors were true and the kids were released home Sunday. It was four weeks to the day. Blair met me in Ogden at the hospital that morning and we loaded up all their stuff put them in their car seats and onward home we went. Needless to say they are sooo small for their car seats that they look uncomfortable. I was jumping over the seats about every 15 minutes just to make sure they were both still breathing. We made it home a little after 5:00 that evening and it was so nice to finally be home. Now we have a lot of sleepless nights ahead of us.

Were Breaking Out of Here!!!!!!

These are just some pictures of Cassidy and Statton getting tub baths. Can you guess who is who?! These were taken about 1 1/2 weeks ago.
So we thought the day would never come but it looks like we finally might have proved ourselves worthy to get the heck out of here. The doctors and nurses have been talking to me about releasing the kids on Sunday. Statton is finally meeting his minimal feeding intake requirement. The nurse told me that his little light bulb finally went on but I'm still wondering if it's more of a dim switch. He eats so good for the nurses and then mom comes along and he'll only take about 2/3 of what he needs. Whats up with that?! All in all he's doing well and has really picked up in the past few days. I'm pretty proud of the little guy!
As of right now we have been getting things in the works so that the kids and myself can all finally go home. This includes discharge worksheets, shots (yuck!), and teaching me how to mix up their formula cocktails. I haven't seen my house or even Burley in 2 months. My family and Blair's were super nice and went and cleaned my house this last weekend in anticipation of us coming home. Either they didn't think Blair was the best housekeeper for 2 months or that we have a filthy little dog. Probably both. Anyway I was very grateful and touched by the sweet gesture. So we are keeping our fingers crossed that this all isn't some cruel joke and that Sunday afternoon/evening we will be on our way home to Burley.

Blair's got his hands full

I thought I needed to get a picture of Blair holding both of his children. The top one is of Statton. I just thought it was a super cute picture.

Still hanging out

I'm beginning to think that I've taken up permanent residence at the hospital. I've been contemplating if I should go see if they have any job openings in the Radiology department to help pass my time and help pay for these soon to be outrageous hospital bills. Maybe they would give me an employee discount!? The nurses here keep promising me that they've never kept any babies past kindergarten age. That makes me feel better(roll eyes here.) Thats my little tangent for the day so heres the update.
Cassidy is still eating like a champ. She doesn't care if the food is cold or warm she just wants to eat. She is currently sitting at 4 lbs 7 ounces and 18 inches long. WOW! She started having some specks of blood in her stool again. The doctor thinks that the inflammation she had is still healing but isn't concerning. To be on the safe side they are switching her to yet ANOTHER type of formula that is designed specifically for babies with blood in their poop. We will just have to keep an eye on her.
Statton is the one who might be the death of me. We just can't get the kid to want to take all of his food. He eats a little bit and then passes out and I can't wake him up enough to finish the rest. When he does eat he gets so excited that he puts all the milk he can stand in his mouth before trying to swallow and then forgets to breath. Then we have the monitors going off because he dropped his heart rate and his oxygen levels. ARGH! I've been trying to be the patient mom but it's been hard to watch your child choke on his food and not eat what he needs. At the rate he's going I just might have to take a job here. All joking aside he's actually improved from the previous week. I keep praying that the little light bulb inside his head will flip on and he'll learn to eat overnight. I'll let you know how that goes.
Either way I couldn't ask for two healthier little kids. I'm just so glad to have them here after all these years that I should be able to handle a few weeks of waiting for them to come home. I'll work on that.

Let's try sharing again.

This morning the twins seem to be doing great. Cassidy's taking well to the new alimentum formula and her poops are looking yellow/green. Who would of thought we could get so excited over the color of poop. She's back up to her full feedings and not needing her IV anymore. So once again the nurse has capped it off and she will probably take it completely out later today. Cassidy's out of her isolette AGAIN, and will once more try sharing a crib with her brother.
Statton has been trying to take a bottle for a few days and he's very sporatic in how much he takes each time. This morning the nurse told me that he's been taking all his feedings by bottle through the night and tolerating them well. So I got to feed him this morning with a bottle and he took it great. I didn't even feel like I was drowning the poor child. Hopefully he can keep that up and get his feeding tube out of his nose. Sister pulled hers out last week so the nurses just left it out since she was eating so well.
I'm hoping they can both keep this up for a few more days and possibly get released.
Cassidy weighs 4 lbs 4 ounces
Statton weighs 4 lbs 14 ounces

And up again we go!

So as always things are up and down from day to day. I got back to the NICU after lunch today and Cassidy's xray of her abdomen is looking much better. The doctor is still going to withhold her feeding for another 24 hours and see how her xray and labs are looking in the morning. So good news this afternoon so I hope things stay that way. If things look good in the morning they will start her on a formula called alimentum(i hope i spelled that right) This is suppose to be very broken down formula with little to no cows milk in it. It's suppose to be very gentle on her tummy. The doctor wants her to be on that for atleast 3 weeks before I can reintroduce her to breastmilk or regular formula.
Cassidy is now weighing 4 lbs 1 ounce. We finally exceeded her birthweight. YEAH!
Statton is now weighing 4 lbs 10 ounces. What a chunky baby!ha ha
-It's funny how they've started to not look so little to me anymore.
It's turned out to be a pretty good day so I hope it continues.

Rollercoaster Ride....

Well having two babies in the NICU is certainly a roller coaster ride. Saturday morning we arrived at the hospital only to be told that Cassidy's eating so good and doing so well that she'll be ready to go home as early as monday but Statton was dragging his feet in the eating department so they would probably release her before him. Well talk about panic mode. How do I take care of one baby at home without the other? Who would watch her for a bit while I ran to the hospital to take care of him? So the doctor was having us get things arranged in order to make this new series of events feasible. Blair and I had to make a quick panic run to the Baby store and pick me up the items I would need to take care of a newborn here in Ogden. All my stuffs at home in Burley. This wasn't how this was suppose to go. AAGH! Well then Sunday evening I had come back to the hospital only to find out that Cassidy has started having bloody stools again. So she was taken off the milk, IV was put back in and back in the isolette she went. :( The xray of her abdomen was showing a concerning area where it might just be inflammation. So once again were back to square one. The Dr. is going to try and rest her belly again and see if that spot will clear up on its own. Were hoping thats all it is and nothing serious.
So once again we are on a rollercoaster ride. Good news one moment and within a few hours your whole situation changes and your back to worry and feeling helpless. Statton is slowly taking to his feedings but keeps dropping his heart rate once in awhile. It was scary on Sunday evening when the nurse had to walk over and rub his back a little bit and give him oxygen because he had dropped his oxygen levels and wasn't coming back up on his own. We continue to worry and pray for these little babies. We thought things were going well enough that these babies might be home by this weekend but with all these new turn of events it's looking like it might be longer. Everything changes from day to day so you never know what might happen. We are certainly grateful for the blessings we have received and continually pray to Heavenly Father to help us get through this difficult time and help these babies.

Together at last!

The twins finally graduated out of their isolettes(plastic cages) on wednesday into an open crib together. It was so fun to walk in Wednesday morning to see them both bundled together and sleeping contently with one another. Well the togetherness didn't last too long. Cassidy started having some blood in her stool so they took her off her formula to give her belly a rest and put her on some pedialyte. The doctor thought since she was on antibiotics for her first 10 days that she didn't have a chance to develop the natural bacteria in her colon to digest things well. So she had to have her iv's put back in and given fluids and put back in her isolette. Friday afternoon she was doing much better and letting everyone know that she was starving so she's been taking her milk by a bottle. She was taken out of the isolette and put back in with her brother. Saturday morning we came in and she was being bottle fed again and taking it like a champ. The doctor seems to think if she keeps eating like this for another day or two she'll be ready to go home. Whoa! that was a lot sooner than we had been planning. We just need to get Statton eating good on his own and they'll send them home together. If it looks like he might take longer to grasp on to this eating on his own concept they might just send Cassidy home before Statton. We're crossing our fingers that he'll pick it up soon so they can go home together. They are going to start trying to bottle feed him today. Statton has exceeded his birthweight as of yesterday he weight 4 lbs 6 1/2 ounces. Cassidy is still a few grams short of her original birthweight but shouldn't be much longer. All in all things are looking good and we've been very pleased with it all. There's been a few bumps in the road but can't complain when theres a lot of babies in here with more problems. We definetly feel blessed and glad to finally have our babies here.