Battling Their First Cold Virus

3 weeks ago I took the girls to their first group setting which included other little kids. Our homeschool group was having a co-op class so I stayed with the twins and my 4 year old in the nursery while my older boys wen to class. Wouldn't you know, Brit caught a cold and then generously gave it to Jillian. The girls were doing good fighting off the virus until a few days ago. Yesterday I decided to take them to the pediatrician to make sure they didn't have an ear or sinus infection. Thankfully both girls have clear ears but Brit's lungs were a bit hoarse and Jillian is beyond congested (which I could already tell). It is always so hard watching your little baby struggle with a cold. Hopefully the girls will be on the mend soon, I am ready for them to start sleeping at night without waking up coughing every few minutes.

Getting so big!

Both girls are getting so big. Here are a couple of pics of Britian, her development has taken off the past few weeks. From the looks of it I know that crawling is just around the corner. Sometimes it seems like the days of them fitting in the palm of my hand was just yesterday, now look at my big girl. :)

6 month update

Wow, it has been quite a while since my last post. No real surprise to me though, life has been busy. I will do my best to hit the biggest highlights from the past 2 months.

1. The girls are 6 months old and growing like weeds. Brit is tipping the scales at 12pounds and Jillian is well over 10 pounds now.

2. Jillian's pulmonary stenosis (narrowing of a valve to goes to her lungs) is stable and her cardiologistdoesnt want to see her until her 1st birthday. So long as it stays stable or improves she will live a normal and active life.

3. Jillian's hearing is just fine, she had a ton of ear wax in both ears which was preventing her from hearing the infant screening test tones.

4. Britian should be off of her oxygen next month. She did well at her last exam with the 2 hour no oxygen test but the dr. Wants her to be off for 6hours or more before making the decision to take her off. Jillian's oxygen was decreased at the same appointment to half a liter from three quaters.

5. Jillian is sleeping through the night. Yeah!

6. Smiles and lots of them. The girls have found their beautiful smiles and their voices. It is so much fun to talk and interact with them more.

7. And on a personal family note, we are expecting again. Yep, there is another blessing on the way for our family. I am due March 3rd but will have a c-section before the girls turn one year, on or around February 4th. Because I am pregnant again so soon after an emergency section I am at risk for uterine rupture so I have to deliver at 36 weeks to prevent this serious complication.

I think completes the updates for now. I will upload new pictures of the girls as soon as I get a free minute on my desktop.

Favorite Gear for Multiples (so far)

Caring for twins is a baby gear intensive process. Babies alone require a lot of stuff day-to-day but when you care for multiples the amount and size of the gear can get overwhelming. I've been down the baby road before but I am using and learning about new things everyday in order to make life easier with the twins. When I was pregnant and searching for recommendations and reviews for twin gear I found almost zilch from real life Moms who were also caring for older children. So here is my personal opinion on some must-haves and some "makes life easier" things when you have been blessed with multiples.


Diaper bag: after going through more bags than I care to admit I FINALLY found the most amazing diaper bag. The Petunia Pickle Bottom Wistful Weekender (Moonlit Moments) (other styles available) is hands down the best diaper I have found for multiples so far. Not only is this bag stylish but it is roomy in all the right places. It includes an easy to fold changing pad and brand name plastic wipes holder. This bag is full of pockets and includes a zippered pocket on the inside as well as two smaller pockets on the outside near the handles. I like the outside pockets for stashing my cell phone and keys which I hate having to dig around for when I need them. Day to day I carry 2 of all the essentials in this bag and still have room to spare to stash anything my older kids might need; 2 blankets, 2 outfits, 10-12 diapers, 2 hats, 2 bibs, 2 burp cloths, 4 pacifiers, 2 receiving blankets, lots of hand sanitizer wipes, pacifier wipes, hand lotion, 2-6 bottles in an insulated bottle holder. As I mentioned I carry all of this everyday and still have plenty of space to stash a large camera or anything else I might need for the day's special outing. Best of all when full this bag will not throw out your back like so many other bags I've tried already.

 Diaper pail: for my older children I never saw the need to justify using a diaper pail, I just changed and tossed in the nearest trash. Twice the diapers means twice the smell and mess so the Munchkin Arm and Hammer Diaper Pail, White has been a wise investment. Not only does this diaper pail hold a ton of diapers it securely contains all the stink so you'll never know there are dirty diapers stashed in your nursery.

2 baby swings; I had my doubts whether I'd actually need two swings but man am I happy we ended up with two now. There are some days when for one reason or another I need both arms free to get something accomplished around the house (cooking dinner, making a boo-boo all better, etc) and that is when having two swings have justified the expense. Even if your multiples are your only children there will be times when for one reason or another your babies don't want to be held but need some gentle rocking, this is when the swings are priceless.

Infant stroller: I chose the Baby Trend Double Snap N Go Stroller Frame, Black because I've used the snap n go strollers with my older children and have always loved the ease of just snapping on the infant carseat and quickly moving on to whatever it is we need to accomplish. With 3 older children I am always on the move so quickly getting out of the car and getting all 6 of us moving to our destination safely is crucial. Little did I know how wonderful the roomy cargo area would be when I first purchased it. The cargo area holds 2 oxygen tanks, 2 apnea monitors, and still has room for a small basket worth of groceries. This stroller quickly collapses with one hand and also snaps open with only one hand; very nice when you are juggling a toddler, groceries, or the large diaper bag. My only complaint about this stroller is that it doesn't steer with one hand, you need both hands on the handle bar to get around corners or push straight, but this is to be expected for a stroller that is carrying a heavy load.

There are lots of other smaller things I use on a daily basis that I will review and outline in a future post.

If you are a Mom of multiples or are expecting multiples please do not hesitate to contact me with any baby gear (or other) questions.

4 months and Full of Life

This past week the girls turned 4 months. Looking back over these past 4 months a whole host of emotions comes flooding back. It seems like such a long time ago yet at the same time just like it was yesterday that our life changed forever when the girls were born long before we had planned. Long before we had planned but not before God had planned.

I am happy to report that the girls are growing wonderfully. Britian is a whopping 8lbs and Jillian is 6lbs 8oz. They are both continuing on their respective growth chart lines according to their pediatrician, but for the record I don't give a flying hoot about growth curves for these little peanuts. All that matters to me is that they are growing, developing, and progressing everyday. Britian is over 2 pounds heavier and Jillian is almost 2 pounds heavier than when we came home 5 short weeks ago.

Our next visit with high risk is not until the middle of July so there will be no changes (if any) to their oxygen until that time. I am praying that their lungs will have grown and developed enough by then to at least wean a little bit on their oxygen requirements. We need to make progress in this department if there is any hope of coming off of these tubes anytime soon. Which by the way I've been told they will most likely be on oxygen for their first year.

Long Day of Dr. Appointments

Yesterday was a VERY long day of Dr. appointments. Jillian was the reason for two of the three appointments we had to attend yesterday. Britian was along for the ride and only had to subject herself to the last of the three appointments. First off for the day was a sweat test for Little Ms. Peanut. Her newborn screen tests came back with an elevated marker which can indicated Cystic Fibrosis. Britian's was higher than normal too but not nearly as high as Jillian's. So as a result Jillian had to go through the sweat test which is the standard first step for testing for CF. She is barely over the 5lb requirement for this exam so our hopes were not high that she would sweat enough to get good results. Our suspicions were confirmed when NO sweat absorbed on to the collection discs.

Now let's step back a minute so I can explain some personal history so that the next turn of events makes more sense. Before having children I was a biological researcher. I have worked on numerous projects but the biggest and longest of which was for the company that currently has a CF drug in late stage clinical trials. I was a biologist on the team that developed that drug so I know a little something about Cystic Fibrosis. I know my daughter doesn't have this disease.

Keeping all that in mind we still had to jump through the first hoop because of the newborn screening. The screening sent up a red flag in the state's system so we had to atleast attempt to close this issue. When no sweat appeared on the collection discs I told the nurses that I would not be subjecting her to anymore testing for this disease. The marker that the girls scored high for (immuno reactive trypsin, IRT) can also be elevated because of stressful delivery. Anyone that reads my girls' birth history will know that it is definitely classified as a stressful on. No one knows why IRT is elevated after a stressful birth only that the correlation has been shown. Everyone on Jillian's care team is in agreeance with me that no further tests need to be done to rule out CF.

The second appointment for the day was to test Jillian's hearing. While in the NICU Jillian did not pass hearing tests in both of her ears. Her right ear failed once and passed once while her left ear failed twice. The exam yesterday was to test both ears again to get true results. After the exam she passed in her right ear and failed (as I expected) in her left ear. We have a follow-up appointment in August for a more thorough exam on her left ear. It could be fluid in her ear or nerve issues causing her hearing loss. Ear tubes, hearing aide, or other devices may be necessary to remedy her hearing so that normal language and brain development can occur.

The final and longest appointment of the day was "high risk". High risk appointments are for all preemies that spent a considerable amount of time in the NICU. On the docket for this appointment was normal growth and development checks such as weight, length, head growth, muscle tone, reflexes, and oxygen tolerances. No changes were made to the girls' oxygen requirements, both clearly still need the amount of O2 that they are on. Reflexes and muscle tone look great for their age. Jillian is 5lbs 6oz and below the growth curves for her adjusted age. I know that she will most likely always be little, I am not worried a bit about her being off the curves. She is growing and developing and that is what is most important. It takes all shapes and sizes to make growth curves, some big and some little. Jillian is just in the little population, not every baby is going to be "average". Britian is 6lbs 5oz and is average all around for her adjust age. She is HUGE by all comparisons to what she started at. She is the same size as any normal term baby with huge kissable chubby cheeks.

All in all it was a good day and the girls did great being away from home for so long. Note to self though, I will not be wearing high heeled boots to anymore appointments, my feet were killing me at the end of the day. :)

Thank you for your continued prayers.

No News is Good News

Brit and Jillian in their going home outfits

Can you tell the girls and I are home now? Gee whiz, I haven't had any time to sit down for more than a minute or two and post here. So sorry. But rest assured that no news means good news. The girls and I arrived home safely over 2 weeks ago and life has been on the move ever since.

Two days after being discharged we moved into a newer and larger house. The girls and I came home to the new house and lived in one room temporarily until the rest of our furniture and belongings arrived from the other house. I am so thankful that the girls learned to sleep through every level of noise because we certainly did not come home to a quiet house. Because of their lung issues we had the carpet removed from the main living area and hardwood floors laid in its place. The floor installation was in full force when we arrived home, not a quiet process at all. But God's hand was upon us yet again and the floor was able to be completed despite an unprecedented short timeline for completion.

My husband came down with the flu on the day of moving but our friends rallied around and got us moved in one trip. What a blessing each and every one of them was to us that day. We are slowly settling in to our new house. Taking care of the girls, managing the house, and caring for my older 3 leaves me just a little bit of time each day at the most to unpack, sort, etc. But I know it will come together eventually.

The girls are doing wonderfully at home. Both have broken into new pound categories. As of this past week Britian is now 6lbs 4oz and Jillian is 5lbs 4.5 oz. They are growing and getting stronger everyday. I marvel at them everyday, they are truly little miracles. They might be twins, conceived from the same egg but their personalities couldn't be more different. It has been so much fun watching their little personalities emerge from their shell. Britian is the stronger, louder, and more vocal one. While Jillian is calmer, self-soothing, and laid back. Her voice is starting to emerge though. My oldest asked how I can tell who is crying without seeing them,  I just can. Their cries are very distinct to me.

We are not supplementing their milk here at home. In the NICU they received 27kcal breastmilk with human milk fortifier added. Here at home I was supposed to add Neosure formula to half of their bottles everyday. That lasted maybe 2 days, they were both in so much pain that I stopped as soon as I verified the cause. They continue to gain on just my milk so we are going to stick with that and I couldn't be happier. I love knowing that they are getting my milk naturally as God intended.

I will continue to update on the girls' progress as time allows. Thank you everyone for your prayers and words of support. Please keep us on your  prayer lists. We desperately need these girls to stay healthy and free of viruses.