Welcome

THIS IS THE REAL LIFE DOCUMENTARY OF....

Faith and Fear...

Trust and Doubt...

Ups and Downs...

A God that still performs miracles...

A 1-pound baby girl and 3-pound baby boy...

This is our story; this is our life.

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In the race of life, God our heavenly Father has come alongside us through the person of the Holy Spirit. And

~when we think we can't go one more step,

~when the race becomes painful beyond endurance,

~when our hearts feel heavy,

~when our minds become dull,

~when our spirits are burned out,

we have the comforter who comes alongside us, puts His everlasting arms around us, and gently walks with us.

Monday, August 30, 2010

The Parable of the Lost Sheep...

So we haven't died and we haven't abandoned the blog.  I happened to be sick all weekend after getting a pediatrician-recommended flu shot that made me pretty sick.  With me being sick, my exposure to the babies was limited, so (Super-Mom) Jen had to pretty much do it all herself.  We also had to rely on family and friends to pick up the slack so I would not get anyone else sick.  I hate being sick, but when it interferes with me spending time with the babies, it is even more frustrating...especially when the illness was purposely injected.

As for an update, Dylan is still doing very well.  I think we can say he is completely adjusted and he is in a pretty good routine (well, as good a routine that a newborn baby can be in).  Everyone keeps telling us that you can't spoil a newborn and you can't hold them too much, well, I am pretty sure you can spoil a baby.  Dylan is getting pretty spoiled.  Sweetest baby ever as long as he is in our arms, but set him down, he starts grunting and making all sorts of interesting noises.  Other than that, he is doing awesome.  I weighed him tonight (I actually weighed myself on the bathroom scales and then re-weighed holding Dylan and subtracted the 2 weights) and he was 7lbs 10oz, so his good weight gain seems to continue. 

Little Kaylan is also making good progress.  They lowered her oxygen flow from 2-liters on Thursday, to 1.5 liters on Friday, to 1-liter today.  She still requires a good deal of oxygen support, but the amount of flow is starting to taper, which is a sign of progress.  She also has really started to take off on her bottle feeds.  The combination of Dr. Brown's bottle with a number 2 nipple plus a small amount of nectar thickener has been a recipe for success.  They have even increased her bottle feeds from 2 a day to 3 a day.  She also is weighing 4lbs 9oz! 

In our small group Bible study, we are reading through the book of Luke.  As I was reading the other day, I read about a shepherd, who tended a flock of sheep.  This shepherd had a sheep go missing, so he leaves all the other sheep to go get the one that is separated from the flock.  This particular shepherd knows how important each sheep is, and then, when he finally does find the sheep, he brings it home and calls all his friends and tells them to throw a party because the sheep that was separated, is now back with the flock.  The story goes on to say that there is more celebrating for that one displaced sheep coming home, then for all the other sheep that did what they were supposed to. I had read that story before, but I now relate to it on a whole nother level.  Me and Jen are the good shepherd(s), Dylan is the sheep that is where he should be (and we often leave him at home while we go to the hospital to see Kaylan), and Kaylan... I can't tell you how much I look forward to "rejoicing" when the separated sheep is FINALLY back with the flock and home for good.

Friday, August 27, 2010

TGIF

It's the weekend! YAY! Dylan has officially been home for two weeks today. He's doing awesome and he treated us with 5 straight hours of sleep last night...that's right - FIVE! I know it may not sound like much, but trust me...it is. Landon fed him at 1 a.m. this morning and the next time we heard from him was at 6:20 a.m. this morning. :)

Dylan's eye exam went fantastic yesterday...absolutely no issues with his eyes - everything is normal. Dylan will not have to go back for any future eye visits...I guess the next eye test he'll have will be when they start checking that stuff ihe starts school. He was so great at the doctor's office. The waiting room was swarming with loud toddlers with dialated eyes. He slept through all the madness. Then, when it was time for his exam, he only cried for a minute and behaved fabulously. I wish the nurse hadn't told me that the doctor uses a sterile PAPER CLIP to look at their eyes...crazy! I'm glad he won't need to go back.

As for Kaylan, she had her swallow study yesterday morning. She did great and it was determined that she needs to have thickeners added to her milk for the time being. It makes it go down a little slower so she doesn't get choked. She aspirated a little bit during the study, but it was towards the end when she was tired and lost some coordination. She's taken a couple of bottles since then, but today she struggled again. It's hard to be patient cause we are sooo ready to get her home and she HAS to be taking bottles to come home. She also had her 2  month vaccinations today. I gave in and signed off on the papers reluctantly....but the doctors swear that they vaccinate babies her size all the time. She screamed momentarily but is doing fine with a little bit of Tylenol.

We're looking forward to catching up on some rest this weekend and more visits with Kaylan. The third prayer request I mentioned 2 days ago was for my friend Lainey's little boy's surgery...it went well and he is recovering now. Thank you for the prayers!

I thought I would put some "then" and a "now" pics of Kaylan just so you could see the side-by-side change....God is so good!

Then..... (1 lb)





























NOW! 4 lbs 6 oz.
Dylan waiting patiently at the eye dr office




Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Swallow Study for Kaylan

Kaylan is going to be having a swallow study done tomorrow. That means they will give her some barium in her bottle and watch her via an x-ray to see if she has any reflux or if she's aspirating her milk. Hopefully, it won't be a painful procedure. It should give us some insight into why she's not doing well with the bottles so far. They may add some thickeners to her milk to make it go down a little slower. We're praying it's nothing major and that as she gets stronger, she'll catch on to the bottle feeding thing. She's 4 lbs, 6 oz and growing every day! Praise God! She's doing great on the weight gain...now it's just the feeding thing and the oxygen she needs to master.

Additionally, she'll be having another test later this week or next called a VCUG. I won't pretend like I know what that stands for, but basically it's where they put in a catheder and dye and look to see if her kidneys, bladder and uretha are having any problems. Early on, she had a UTI - which is uncommon for small babies, so they just want to make sure things are working properly. Of course they tell us, it could be something very small - or something that requires surgery...something else to pray about! It's always something I swear!

Dylan has another doctor appt tomorrow morning - this time it's for the eye doc. They'll have to dialate his eyes and look at the blood vessels. So far, all of his tests have been normal....please be praying that's still the case with our little man. He's eating like a champ and growing every day...sleeping in his own crib now and really adjusting well at home. Our friend Mona watched Dylan tonight while Landon and I went to see Kaylan...and what an awesome sitter she was! Not only did she take care of D, she emptied the dishwasher and made our bed!! Wow! I think we'll keep her around ;) Although that doesn't say much about my housekeeping lately now does it? ;)

Tomorrow is my official due date. Wow, I never thought that day would get here.....hard to believe our babies are approaching 3 months of age and one is STILL in the hospital. Sigh. We'll get there eventually. Someone said that we would look back on this experience and it would all be a blur....when exactly does that happen?

Here's some prayer requests before you go to sleep tonight (Sarah).

1) Dylan's eye exam
2) Kaylan's swallow study and VCUG test
3) My friend Lainey's little boy Grayson (2 yrs) is having surgery tomorrow...he's a fellow NICU graduate (born at 1 lb also, and Kaylan's future boyfriend). He's one tough little boy and he's got another tough day ahead tomorrow. PLEASE say extra prayers for the Clark family tonight.

Well, I'm off to start the evening shift with Big D - bath, bottles, sleep, repeat. I got to hold both my babies today so all in all, I can't complain. And, how about this weather today? Let's have some more of that please.

Nighty night.












Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Something missing...

Tuesday night, 8:45 p.m. - Dylan is snoozing, Landon is watching Ranger game, I'm getting bottles ready for the night...but I just can't get my mind off my sweet Kaylan. It is so hard to have one baby at home and one in the hospital. It'd be one thing if they were a little closer together in terms of progress....Unfortuntately, she still has some hurdles to get over. It's amazing how quickly I forget what all she's come through already. When I was at the hospital today, and she still wasn't interested in the bottle, I became very discouraged. The occupational therapists reminded me that she's been laying on her back and hooked up to machines for over 2 months now and she's still weak. It's like I see that she got to 4 pounds and I expect her to do all the things Dylan did at that size. They told us that when she started to bottle feed that she would either act her age, or her size....seems she's acting her size (which is about a 31 weeker at this point). That tells me she's still has at least a few more weeks in the hospital.

I laugh when I hear nurses say "she's sooo big"...ha! It's all relative I guess. She was about the size of a coke can at birth...now she just looks like a little petite peanut. I just love her so much and I'm so sad when I can't spend more time with her. At the same time, I absolutely HATE leaving Dylan. Landon is going back to work tomorrow after being off for 10 days. He's been an AMAZING help at home and I'm going to miss having him home during the days...that also means that our visits to the hospital will now be less often because I will be staying home with Dylan while Landon works...and we don't want to take Dylan to the hospital during the day or night...We do, however, have some awesome friends who will be helping out in the evenings while we go see her at night.

I could use some extra prayers this week for endurance to keep running this race...we're tired and we want Kaylan home...but we want her home, HEALTHY and ready. Because right now, something is missing at home.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Weekend wrap up

Well we've completed our first week home with our sweet Dylan. Although completely exhausted, I couldn't be happier to have him home. We just can't WAIT to get Kaylan home with him. Landon and I went to the hospital tonight to see her. She took about half the bottle (which is good for her right now). They are going to back off on the amount of bottle attempts they are giving her per day, for now. Please continue to pray for this all to "click" with her so she can have her feeding tube removed. On a really exciting note - she's 4 lbs 3 oz!! YAY! I can't tell you what a mountain it seemed like a couple of months ago that FOUR pounds would be....felt like we would NEVER get there.

I had another AWESOME baby shower today with all my sweet, precious girlfriends. I am abundantly blessed with the generosity of others. Our sweet babies are so loved and it touches our heart to see how people care for them.

Dylan has another weight check appointment in the morning. We're excited to see how he has grown since being home! He should be well over 7 pounds now. We're still getting into the groove with him - apparently he has his days and nights mixed up. He sleeps GREAT during the day, but at night...well, you know how that goes. And, he's spitting up quite a bit now and we think he's having some tummy aches. :-(  Everything is just trial and error right now...we're just praying for comfort for him.

Landon is going back to work on Wed. It's been so awesome having him home so we can work with Dylan as a team. I'm going to miss all of his help during the day but I know he'll be anxious to see Dylan in the evenings. We'll be managing a new routine of trying to see Kaylan at night. We're so thankful for willing friends and family who will watch Dylan for a couple of hours each night.

Ready to start another week....




Friday, August 20, 2010

Kaylan Does NOT Suck....

....as well as she is supposed to yet.  She has had some trouble taking her bottle the last couple of days, which is the major prerequisite for getting discharged.  She is having issues with her Suck-Swallow-Breathe coordination; she has only taken 1 bottle in the last 3-days whereas last weekend she was taken 3-bottles a day. 

Yesterday's doctor mentioned a "swallow-study" might be ordered to find out exactly what the cause of her feeding issues are.  Today's doctor said he thought it might be a little early to perform the fairly invasive study.  He wants to give her some more time.  We are praying that she starts taking getting better at taking her bottles so she can move that much closer to coming home. 

She has been through so much, and I am sure this is just another hurdle that she will overcome.  We keep thinking she is going to catch a break and be able to take 3 or 4 steps forward without taking any steps back, but that simply has not happened.  We will just stay in prayer and continue to trust God's timing on this latest issue.

The babies are 10-weeks old today and only 1-week away from their due date.  When I think back over the past 10-weeks and think about what the twins have gone through and then remember they aren't yet to their due-date, I am so grateful for the out-of-the-womb progress that we have been blessed to watch. 

What Kaylan lacks in her ability to suck, she is definitely making up for in the cute department...



















Wednesday, August 18, 2010

99 Bottles...

So they say preemies are susceptible to all sorts of feeding issues - Reflux, colic, gassy, etc. Now we are in the trial and error phase of figuring out which bottles will be best. Everyone has an opinion - from friends, to pediatricians to NICU nurses. In the NICU, they feed the babies with the cheapest of cheap, plastic disposable bottles - nothing fancy (a la "Dr Browns"). So, we're in the phase of figuring out what will be best for our kiddos. Dylan is our guinney pig and hopefully he'll communicate what works best for him.

We each went to see Miss Kaylan today. She's taking more milk now and having more bottle attempts. They've also lowered her oxygen some more and decreased the feed time from 90 minutes to 60 minutes. We're praying she'll be able tolerate these new changes! We expect her to be at 4 lbs by the weekend. Man, I never thought I'd see THAT day! Now she's getting a little double chin and starting to look more like Dylan did at that size. Here's a couple of pictures from today. Her leopard gown is thanks to my friend Susan (who also recently gave birth to boy/girl preemie twins). Her little girl has outgrown preemie sizes and she sent Kaylan lots of cute clothes! Thanks Suz!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Part Time Mom, Full Time Job

Lately I feel like a "part time mom" when it comes to Kaylan. Ever since Dylan has been home, I have to dedicate so much time and energy to him that I feel almost neglectful of my thoughts on Kaylan. She gets about 2 hours of my time a day and Dylan gets 22. This week with Landon being off work, we've been taking shifts at the hospital. Since she's now bottle feeding, one of us goes at 9 a.m. and the other goes at 3 p.m. While one goes, the other stays home with Dylan. I miss her so much during the day. I'm so looking forward to the day she comes home - and I know that day is coming.

She's now 3 lbs 11 oz and growing every day. She's still needing some oxygen support with the nasal canula. There's a chance that she could actually come home on oxygen - which scares me to death. The thing is, if she gets to where she is consistently gaining weight, doesn't have bradys and takes all feeds via a bottle, they will send her home even if she still needs oxygen. Please be in prayer for her lungs to develop and have enough to strength to support her without needing the extra support of a machine when she comes home. Kaylan also had another eye exam this past Sunday. Her previously diagnosed Stage 1 Retinopathy is now between Stage 1 and Stage 2 Retinopathy. While we are sad to hear this, it's still within the realm of being "normal" for preemies (especially ones her size) and they won't start talking about treatment unless it progresses to Stage 3. She'll have another follow up in 3 more weeks. Please be praying for the vessels in her eyes to develop at a normal rate and not cause any further problems.

One thing that helps us get through the days knowing we can't see Kaylan as often or as long as we'd like is knowing she is in the care of some really special nurses and doctors. I have grown to be close friends with one nurse in particular, but many of the others are just so incredibily caring, it gives us comfort when we can't be there. Every time we call the NICU, after they give us a report on Kaylan, they always ask about Dylan and tell us how they miss him. I've had one nurse who is out for 6 weeks email me and tell me to hug the babies for her. We're so blessed to know the NICU staff at Plano Presby. What an incredible calling these people have to nurse these precious babies (not just ours, but a whole unit full of them), back to health.

Meanwhile, we are falling more in love with our sweet Dylan every day. We love having him home. He's so cuddly and loving....and he loves naps with us on our bed....I know, I know...DON'T get in that habit, right?

Here's a couple pics from Dylan's first few days at home.




































Sunday, August 15, 2010

"Finally Home"

I put together a little video compressing the last 3 and 1/2 months into 3 and 1/2 minutes. This is a little snapshot into Dylan's journey.  It is also testimony to what an awesome, powerful, faithful, loving God we serve.  We will NEVER be the same!


You won't see much of Kaylan in this video, as she will have her own "video testimony" when she finally makes it home.

This is Dylan's story...

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Juggling Act...

Well hello there readers....we've made it through our first night with Dylan at home. And so far, so good. I mean, it just gets easier, right? Yeah right. We took shifts for the feeds and that seemed to work out pretty decently. I'm sure it will take a few weeks to get into a groove. We'll probably get into a rhythm just before Kaylan gets home. Landon had to work today but he's off for the next 10 days. We're looking forward to playing, loving, and cuddling with Dylan.

But as happy as we are to have him home, it's still an incomplete feeling knowing our sweet Kaylan is still laying in the hospital and will be for some time longer. When Landon got off work, I went to see her tonight at 6 p.m. and then he went at 9 p.m. I held her and talked to her and I think she understands ;)

Please pray that we can some how get rest in the midst of hospital trips, every three hour feedings and Landon having to work. Monday, Dylan will have his first pediatrician appt. So you can also be in prayer for us as we try to get ourselves and Dylan ready and fed, and get to Plano by 9 a.m. 

Kaylan is up to 3.8 lbs so that's a big praise! Dylan was discharged at 6 lbs and 8.8 oz. :-)

Well that's it for now... I'd say good night, but we won't be going to bed for awhile :)

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Rooming In...

The day has finally come.  Dylan is going home tomorrow.  Friday the 13th no less.  Tonight we are staying at the hospital as a "trial run" with no monitors, no alarms, just us, Dylan, (and the nurses just a phone call away). 

This seems like such a long time coming.  Exactly 2-months and 2-days in the NICU for Dylan.  Looking back, it has gone by so slow.  He has done relatively well for a 29-week baby as he is still going home 13-days prior to his due date.  We are very proud of the little guy. 

Tomorrow starts real parenthood.  We are a little nervous, a little scared, and a lot excited.  We have become so reliant on the wornderful nurses here at the hospital, but tomorrow, we are on our own.  I am sure we are experiencing the same feelings many first time parents face, but we have learned so much in the last 2-months of this journey that we almost know too much.  I guess having a baby in the NICU gives visibility to how much could go wrong. 

So as we leave tomorrow morning, our macro-prayers will be 50% answered.  We will have our sweet Dylan home, but we will be forced to leave little Kaylan here all alone.  We are pleading with God to not let her stay be much longer. So knowing she will be here for a while we are anticipating tomorrow will be bittersweet sweetly-bitter.

Please stay in prayer that the twins will not have to stay separated for very long. Thank you also for all the prayers that have been lifted up on Dylan's behalf.  Tomorrow, when we leave here, we are leaving with one testimony to the power of prayer.  We can't wait until the second testimony is complete. 

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

There's a first time for everything...

Lots of firsts for Miss Kaylan today -- first bottle and first bath. Both went very well. She took almost half the bottle and she quite enjoyed the bath we think. No crying or bradying so that was a relief...and Kaylan did great too....(some of you will get that later).

Anyway, we're on the home stretch with Dylan. He's now completed his third day without any bradys. Keep it up Dylan! We're not sure if they will let us take him home on Thursday or Friday....It will likely be Friday based on what the nurses indicated to us this evening. The night before we take him home, we will "room in" at the hospital. We will be spending the night there and we'll be on full care taking duty. He won't be hooked up to any monitors or anything. He's ours to take care of all night -- with the nurses a few steps away if needed.

I think the panic is starting to set in. You'd think we've had two months to prepare or something! It still seems pretty crazy that he could be here in our home within a few days from now. I wonder if Dylan will comply with our blogging schedule ;-)  We'll have to talk to him about that. Say an extra prayer for Dylan tonight. He had his 2 month immunizations today (FOUR shots!) and he has to pass his car seat study...what's a car seat study you ask? Well...he has to sit in the car seat for 90 minutes while hooked up to the monitors. They check his heart rate, breathing, etc to make sure he can handle sitting at that angle for an extended period of time. Thank God we don't live 90 minutes from the hospital! Let's hope he passes with flying colors. If for some reason, he doesn't pass, they make us take him home in a car bed...which I have no idea what that is. I just know we don't have one. Ha.

I tried to get our house picked up tonight and Landon wants to mow the front yard before Dylan gets home. He doesn't want him to be embarrassed of his front yard and I don't want him thinking he lives in a pig sty. :-)

I put the below picture on Facebook tonight and it generated quite a few hilarious comments. I asked people to come up with a caption for this photo...What do you think Kaylan is thinking?

Here are a few of our favorites:

"Okay, ok, I give up...you caught me red-handed. Yes I did knock him out, but only because of all the stealing. It's pretty clear what's going on here....First all the food which is why his body is twice the size of mine and taking up all the bed, and now he is very obviously a cover stealer. Please mom tell me we have separate beds at home."

"No mommie I swear I didn't feed him anything else...he just got that big, honest."

"Give me all the passy's and no one gets hurt!"

"Don't you go to sleep on me...FOCUS! You told me you would get that paci to me...So exhausting...must have power nap."



















Here's another short little video of K and D. This was taken shortly after the above picture...she was so alert...her expressions are so funny!



First bath pic below...

Monday, August 9, 2010

Not So Fast...

Well today wasn't quite the day we were hoping for.  We have been riding a wave of really good reports lately.  Kaylan has been doing so well that we were given the green-light for breastfeeding and her first bath. She also had her feeds sped up from 90-minutes to 60-minutes.  This may have been a little aggressive to do all in one day.  She had a couple of big Brady's and even had to be masked today with oxygen. 

She was not interested in the breastfeed.  We had to reschedule the bath for another night.  The feeds had to be moved back to 90-minutes. So while we appreciate the aggressiveness of the staff, we also recognize that she made need to take things a bit slower.  While we don't necissarily call today a step backward, we would say it did not move forward quite the way we would have liked to see.

Dylan on the other hand completed 2nd straight Brady-free day.  That means that he is 3 days of no Brady's away from coming home!  That day is coming up fast and it will be so bittersweet. 


Sunday, August 8, 2010

Finally!

Big weekend...HUGE...fantastic all the way around. When I showed up to the hospital on late Saturday afternoon, I was greeted with this image of Kaylan and Dylan...














Notice anything about this photo? I'll give you three...

1) Kaylan is OFF C-PAP and on the Nasal Canula!
2) She's wearing clothes!
3) She's in an open crib...WITH DYLAN!

Hooray! Hooray! and Hooray again!!! I was overwhelmed with excitement as was Landon. We've been giddy all weekend celebrating this HUGE milestone for her. She's like a new baby after getting off CPAP. She's much more calm and I think she's enjoying getting reaquainted with Dylan. We took so many pictures this weekend it's hard for me to know which ones to put here! Nothing, and I  mean, NOTHING (not even an air conditioner going out in our house when it's 110 degrees) was going to rain on this parade we were having with the babies! Side note: And yes...our air conditioner was out for about 24 hours...a circuit was blown or something like that...it doesn't really matter what it was. What matters is that it is back on and I can stand to be back in our house again. Thank God for Landon's brother and wife taking us in for the night so we could have some A/C!

Okay, back on track here...so Kaylan and Dylan will be co-bedding until Dylan goes home. It's so neat to get to see them together. Clearly, she's still a lot smaller but she's showing everyone that she's ready to be treated like brother. We expect to start bottle feeds with her some time this week. We hope you will rejoice in this victory with us. Thank you for continued prayers and support! Enjoy some weekend snippets below :)















Sucking thumb! :)
































Family pic!
Go Cowboys!
Hook 'em?




Saturday, August 7, 2010

Gifts That Money Can't Buy....

Yesterday, I turned 31-yrs old.  It was a wonderful day from start to finish.  My birthday present from Dylan was hitting the 6-pound mark and having NO Brady's. 

Kaylan had been saving her birthday present for me for 9-weeks.  She finally gave it to me yesterday and it was one of the best presents I could get.  For my 31 year birthday, she grew to 3lb 1oz.  She had never hit the 3-pound mark until my birthday and then she stopped holding back.  It was great!
All in all it was a fantastic day.  It was so nice to see the twins progress and the fact that they reached new milestones on my birthday made it perfect. 

We also got the babies a new toy for the house....

Okay, okay...so this is my new toy. Happy  Birthday to me! Burgers anyone?

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Care Conference, birthdays, and the kindness of strangers

Let's see, we have lots to report today so here goes....Today was a rough day for our sweet little Dylan. He was circumcised at 8 a.m. this morning. They tell me he didn't even cry. What a tough guy! He'll need about two weeks to heal but he should be good to go. He's one step closer to being discharged and we're getting anxious to get him home. His ticket out the door is to go 5 days without any bradys....he had a couple today so we'll reset the clock each day until he goes the five days. (NICU vocabulary refresher: A brady is when the heart rate drops really low and they stop breathing).

We also had a "care conference" today with the doctors. When you have a baby (or babies) in the NICU for more than about six weeks, the doctors and team working with your kids will meet with the parents to talk about where we've been, where we're going and what to expect long term with premature babies. The meeting was surprisingly optimistic. As expected, the doctors are very happy with Dylan's progress. He's still working on some of those important little things like BREATHING, but he's doing great for his age. Kaylan is well on her way too. They expect her to maybe go a few more days on CPAP, then on to the nasal canula. She's starting to show some consistent growth and she's also showing readiness signs of nipple feeding. While she's obviously still small, they don't want to hinder her from doing things that a 37 week baby should be doing. Assuming she shows consistent growth, takes all feeds via a bottle, maintains her temp and doesn't have bradys, she'll be headed home too. It sounds like a long list of things for her to accomplish, but she's already maintaining her temperature, not really having any bradys and is starting to gain weight. Basically, the doctor indicated to us that she might come home sooner than we might think. Of course, we will not be getting our hopes up, because as we know all too clearly, we just have to take it day by day and not get ahead of ourselves. They talked to us briefly about long term possible issues with extreme premature babies....one of them being developmental delays. Once they get home, we'll work with Early Childhood Intervention specialists to help us with their development, nutrition, etc. It's a little overwhelming to think about all that right now...so we'll focus on one thing at a time.

On another note, tomorrow is Landon's birthday...the big 3-1. My how things change in one year. Last year, we were getting ready to go on vacation to Cabo. It was one of the greatest vacations we've ever had and I hope we get to go again some day (hey, I said someday, not someday soon....) Now, as I type this blog, Landon is putting together a chest for the nursery. I should also say that this is one of those pieces of furniture that comes with about 10,000 screws, shelves and pieces with no written directions, just pictures. He's having a LOT of fun right now, let me tell you! ;-) The nursery is just about complete - the only thing missing is a couple of babies! Tomorrow, we'll head to the hospital to hang with K and D. I think he'd tell you he wouldn't rather do anything else for his birthday. I'm so thankful for him. He's such a great husband and loving dad. Kaylan, Dylan and I are lucky to have him! 

One final note...the doctor said that the only reason that Kaylan is here today is because she was carried to 29 weeks. She was the size of a 22 week baby at birth and 22 week babies rarely survive. In fact, there's usually less than a 10% chance of survial for babies under 500 grams. Kaylan was 460 grams at birth. We know that Kaylan and Dylan are here because God has a mighty plan for their lives. We are honored to be their parents and see what God will do! We also know that they have been prayed for continuously and continue to be. What a sweet blessing they are. Each time we leave them, I just can't wait to see them again! We expect Dylan to be at 6 pounds tomorrow and Kaylan to be at 3. :)

Today we received a gift from a complete stranger - someone who is following our blog and is a friend of Landon's brother gave us money for meals. We don't even know him! Unbelievable. We are moved beyond words by the generosity and compassion that has been poured out over us as people hear about Kaylan and Dylan.

Well that about sums it up for tonight! Gotta run now...I think Landon might be getting ready to throw the screwdriver at the wall! Eeek! ;-)

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Like Peas and Carrots...

I have a birthday coming up in 3-days. 

No present could make me more happy then seeing Kaylan and Dylan back together again.

Some things are just are better together...



Monday, August 2, 2010

Eye Exams

The babies had their second eye exam today. I was hoping it would have been done during the day today while I was at work, but of course, the doctor showed up at 5 p.m. just as I did. So, I had to listen to both Kaylan and Dylan cry as they had their tiny eyes dialated with drops. Then, the eye doctor spreads their eye lids apart and looks at the blood vessels. It's very stressful for them and they both started having bradys during the exam, which lead to me having a brady. Not really, but I didn't like it either.



Basically, both of them are at risk for Retinopathy of Prematurity where their retinas haven't fully developed. Dylan's blood vessels are still immature, but nothing too concerning. The doctor will check him again in three weeks. Kaylan has Stage 1 Retinopathy. There's some scar tissue on her eyes - it's just another consequence of extreme prematurity. The doctor didn't seem too concerned about it at this point, but will be checking her again in two weeks. There are 4 stages, 1 being the least severe, 4 being basically a detached retina that leads to blindness.


As we're learning, there are a myriad of problems that can arise with premature infants. Our prayer continues to be for complete healing in every area of their bodies. We're asking God to continue the good work He began in them and finish it to completion! We want you to ask Him the same thing on their behalf. :)


Kaylan is still feeling good and we are so thankful for that! She's at 2 lbs 13 oz and on her way to 3 pounds. Dylan is 5 pounds 10 oz. Keep growing babies! We can't wait for you to come home.