A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the For(s)um

Remember reading that Shakespeare play in high school? The last several blogs have been pretty serious. We greatly appreciate all the responses we have gotten so far on the last post. Let's get back to our roots and have a little fun with this one - Chris and Mari style.

Sophia, Finn & Cohen

Cohen, Sophia and Finn are home now and all 3 are on heart monitors. When they sound a long beep (much like a smoke alarm) their leads have come off; these things don't stop beeping until the problem is fixed. If they make short beeps, then they have not been breathing for about 20 seconds and it will continue to beep until they are breathing again. Not funny so far, but you throw this in at 3am when you are sound asleep and it is dark, some funny stuff happens.

Our three little fire alarms all lined up

The other night, the apnea alarm was going off so in a hurry I sprung out of bed got halfway out of the bedroom and realized I didn't have my shorts on. So I grabbed my shorts off the floor, stumbled around in the dark while I tried to pull them on but could only manage to get both legs in.....the same hole! I figured I didn't have time to fix this since one of my babies wasn't breathing and waddled into the nursery to save my baby's life. But, Tim was already there. I still had both legs in the same leg hole and hurried out of the room hoping he didn't notice.

A few nights before that, the alarms had been going off like crazy. I have a tendency to not hear them when I am sleeping; or maybe I act like I'm sleeping so I don't have to get up. Well, Mari hears these things and she is the closest to the door so she usually hops up and takes care of it. After doing this several times in a row and after Tim stubbed his toe racing in there as well, Mari kinda got upset with me. She tried to make me feel guilty about her dad stubbing his toe and me not getting to the nursery before him. So the next time the alarm sounds I get up and head toward the nursery, the alarm stops on its own, I come back to bed. Mari comments that I didn't seem to be in a hurry to get to the nursery - suggesting I run a little faster next time. She asks me how the baby's color was and I told her I didn't know because I didn't have my glasses on. Mari responds, "Well, I sleep in my glasses." (I think she just decided that at the moment because I don't recall seeing her glasses on while sleeping before.) The alarm sounds again. Mari jumps up in superhero fashion and sprints through the bedroom trying to prove a point. THUD! Mari runs into the wall racing around the corner to the nursery! I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time, but now I'm dying laughing just writing this.

You might imagine it is tricky trying to keep all the monitor beeps straight - you never know who is going off- especially in the car or stroller when the monitors are somewhat hidden. It has happened a couple of times now where the monitor is going off and Mari is trying to startle Sophia to wake up only to find that it was Cohen's monitor the whole time. Sophia is rudely awakened and Cohen is still beeping away!

Another funny thing that seems to happen is we all start running after any beep in the house. The microwave is going off and Dawn is running to the nursery. Our old coffee machine would beep three times when it was finished brewing - it would get us every time! Our baby monitor beeps when the battery is low and we all find ourselves in the nursery looking at the monitors and laughing as we realize we were tricked again!

The most amazing thing thus far is that Finn, our little guy who has had so many breathing problems, the one who we recite the infant CPR method in our heads for, has not had a single alarm yet! Cohen and Sophia's apnea alarms are still going off in the night and Finn is calm as can be, breathing strong - proving us wrong! (Update: His Apnea alarm just went off as I was posting this - darn!)

Noah - Look How Strong He Is!

He Says "Send Me Home - Wireless, Please!" :)

Blog 1st

Alright y'all, let's do something totally cool! This may even be a blog first so you'll definitely want to be a part of this.

Here's the deal: I know a lot of you read this blog and I know many of you have said at least one prayer during this journey, from pregnancy til now. I want every single person who has said a prayer (formal or informal) and that prayer has been answered, to post a comment. You do not have to say what you prayed for unless you want to and you do not have to sign your name unless you want to. It will also be cool to see where everybody is from so please put that in there as well. This would be such awesome testimony and would be amazing to look back on in years to come. If you have never posted a comment and are unsure how to do it, give it a whirl, you won't break anything!

On a different note, do not tell Finn this, but he is scheduled to come home Thursday. Yea!

Also, Noah is tolerating and absorbing his feeds well. He is now off TPN and lipids and is solely taking almost 2 oz of formula now; they plan to remove his central line Wednesday. He could be home as soon as next week!!! Maybe these were answers to your prayers.

Yes, we're still alive....

Can you believe the babies will be 2 months old tomorrow? Can you believe Noah and Finn have been in the hospital for 60 days? Despite how frustrated we sometimes get that we don't have all of the boys home yet, we are thankful that there is an end in sight.

Earlier this week, Finn was slated for discharge on Sunday (today) since he was doing so well with his feeds now. Not the D-word! Finn freaked out and decided to hold his breath, dropping his oxygen levels to 30%. Since this is considered a "life threatening event", he has to stay for at least another week. We are pretty certain he is a ladies man and just wants to hang with all the cute nurses. He is still doing well with his demand feedings and is gaining weight. Hopefully, he'll be home soon!

Don't make me go home!

Noah is recovering very well from surgery. He pooped on Wednesday so he was able to start bottle feeds again, but remains on TPN and lipids. He started gulping down 30cc of EleCare formula to aid digestion. According to the GI specialist, he should be able to switch to breast milk or regular formula soon; lets' hope so because EleCare is about $40 for 14 oz (only 4 feeds). As he begins to take full feeds of 50-60cc every 3 hours, he will no longer need to be on TPN and lipids. His incision is healing very well and we hope to have him home within 2 week!

Anesthesia hangover

Cohen and Sophia are doing great! They are becoming much more alert and even playing with some of their toys (we played laser tag yesterday - just joking). We can't tell if their movements are intentional yet but they are pretty much geniuses. Grammie, her friend Sherri, and Busha came over today to visit and love on the babies. They could not believe how big these two have gotten!

Here are the new weights - Cohen 9lbs; Sophia 7lbs; Noah 6lbs 8oz; Finn 6lbs 5oz

We are entering the home stretch now as we close out the NICU chapter; hopefully we never have to return. We thank everyone for their continued prayers, support, and beautiful comments. Keep 'em coming!!

Rejoicing for Noah!

Today has been such a long day. We woke up around 6:30am at the Memorial Hermann Ronald McDonald House (RMH) to make sure we were with Noah when they took him to surgery. At 8:30 I thought I'd go get some coffee but decided not to in case they came to get Noah. At 1030, I grabbed a sandwich from the cafeteria and brought it up to the RMH for a quick bite so we wouldn't miss surgery. At 2:00pm, they finally called to come get Noah. We dubbed this time our "sympathy fast" since Noah could not have anything by mouth since midnight. We decided to head back to RMH for a few zzzzzz. They called us at 5:30pm to let us know Noah's surgery was finished and he was back in the NICU. When we saw him, he was wide awake and just a little fussy - can't blame the little guy after all he's been through. We had been praying - along with hundreds of others - for a quick recovery. Well, let me tell you, his recovery may be quicker than expected because they opted to do an epidural with very light sedation so that Noah would not have to be on a ventilator. This will cut down his recovery time significantly because now he won't have to be on a ventilator for 2-3days and then weaned off with oxygen for another couple of days. Instead he has an epidural pain pump which blocks the pain to his lower torso and body but does not make him so relaxed (ie relax breathing muscles too much) so that he can function normally. In fact, the surgeon said that the part of Noah's intestine that was closest to the stomach had grown back quite a bit so that made surgery less difficult and he should not have any additional problems. The goal now is for him to have a bowel movement and then he can start bottle feeds. It was so amazing to see him without his ostomy bag and we could see it in his eyes as well. The end result of all the waiting today and for the past 8 weeks brings so much joy and relief to us. Praise God for a smooth surgery, hastened recovery, and for holding Noah's hand when we couldn't!

Noah After Surgery - It'll All Be Over Soon

We are trying lots of different techniques to get Finn feeding better. We asked to try feeding him less volume but more frequently but this did not work. The occupational therapist (OT) tried feeding him on his left side to reduce reflux, which didn't help a lot. Finally, OT came up with the idea to feed him on demand. So now, they let him sleep until he wakes showing he is ready to eat, instead of waking him every 3 hours regardless. With this plan in place, Finn woke up after 3.5 hours and scarfed down his 60cc bottle in under 30minutes! We think we are on to something here and hope this continues to work so we can get the little guy home safely, but soon.

Finn About to Get His Drink On

Cohen and Sophia were in good hands with grandma and grandpa last night and all day today. We just continue to give thanks for their energy and abundant love! We are also celebrating grandpa's birthday today, but with circumstances were unable to spend a lot of time with him today. He told us "it was a great birthday being able to spend time with my grandkids." We love you, Tim!

How Can You Not Have A Great Birthday With These Two?

Auntie C and uncle Mark came to visit on Saturday and fed and loved on the babies for us. Now that they have a one year-old, I'm not sure how much they miss the days of feeding a baby every 3 hours. Carli the dog also came to visit and would check on the babies when they started to cry.

Auntie C & Uncle Mark From Austin

We have also been so blessed with all the meals that have been provided by the Community of Faith (COF) meals team - http://www.communityoffaith.tv/. They have been so wonderful helping us out. At church on Sunday, they announced that we needed help with the babies when they are all home, and 38 people have signed up so far. Our friend Susan is spearheading our volunteer schedule which is taking a huge burden off us since we are not ones to ask for help. We will post more info on that soon.

This is the time we have been looking forward to for a while now. It feels like there is an end in sight to the NICU days. In retrospect, this has really been a short time and has flown by. Also, being up there all day puts things in perspective as we remember to realize not only are we not alone in this, but that there are lots of other babies who are much sicker than ours. We need to remember to pray for them as well. God has been so good to us!!

3rd Times A Charm

Well, the day is almost here. Noah will have his third and final surgery tomorrow to reconnect or "take down" his ostomies. This will be almost 7 weeks from his first surgery and just two days after the babies' actual due date which was October 20! Thank you all for your prayer during this. Please continue to pray, especially tomorrow, for a successful surgery and quick recovery. We know that God is at work here and has been from the start. It was a miracle that they found the NEC disease in Noah so early and we continually praise God for that.

Noah Waiting Patiently

Chris and I are planning to stay overnight tonight at the hospital. We were told Noah is the first case of the day, so we are hoping they'll bring him down about 7:30 am. Luckily, Mom and Dad will be at home with Cohen and Sophia so we are able to be there with Noah.

We'll post an update on the surgery as soon as we can tomorrow.

Hook it up!

Cohen & Sophia checking each other out

Wasssuuuuuup!

Disco Dancing (Cohen has daddy's genes - not a good thing)

Today we met with Dr. Tsao, Noah's surgeon. We requested the meeting because we wanted to see what he thought about Noah's condition, his skin breakdown, being on TPN for so long, etc. He told us that the longer they can go without doing the surgery the better the re-connection will work. Basically, he didn't want to do the surgery yet unless there were reasons to do it. However, because of all the factors with Noah, he decided it would be beneficial to do the surgery sooner. As of today, the re-anastamosis (re-connect) surgery will be on Monday, barring any complications such as infection that could arise before then! We are pretty excited about this because it feels like there is an end in sight and Noah won't have to endure the discomfort of having his site changed 4-6 times per day.

Can you believe this? Check out these weights..

Cohen 8lbs
Sophia 6lbs
Finn 5lbs 13oz
Noah 5lbs 11oz

An occupational therapist is working with Finn on his feedings and he seems to be doing better. While we were there today, he finished his full bottle without any breathing issues, but before that he only took about 1/3 of his bottle. We are thinking this might be his break through week as this weekend would be the 40-week mark. All in all he is doing well and we are being more patient to not rush him home before he is ready.

Sophia has such spiky dark hair and big blue eyes, especially when she is feeding. We tried to capture it on video. Some say that hair that stands straight up as a baby will eventually be curly; we'll have to wait and see. We tried to swaddle Sophia and Cohen together in the same blanket but Cohen kept trying to eat Sophia's nose to her dismay - must be the milk breath.

Our first date

Mari's parents watched the little ones on Saturday night so we could go out on a little date after visiting Noah and Finn. It did feel good to put on some real clothes and hit the town. Oh, how dates have changed. We had 8:30pm reservation at Crapitto's (I know, it doesn't sound like a good restaurant) for a nice dinner al fresco. By 7pm we were asking each other why we made such a late reservation and that we should go early and then get one of those hotel rooms by the hour - not for that, to take a nap! Like I said, date night has changed. We had a great time on our date and made it back home for the 12am feeding to relieve the weary grandparents. Mari looks amazing and as stunning as she did when we first met!

We were checking out our friend Suz's blog yesterday (http://thelifeofsuz.blogspot.com/). Mari and her were keeping up with each other during pregnancy. Suz had her babies 1 month before we did. Her little girl has reflux really bad and does what Finn does when he eats. This time, she threw up while sleeping on her back and thankfully, Suz saw this on the video monitor and ran into the room. Her little girl was not breathing and Suz had to do CPR to revive her - a parent's worst nightmare. Praise God she is ok! This could happen to any parent so make sure you take infant CPR class. This incident helped us realize that we do not need to rush Finn to get home and to just let time and God do their thing.