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Home Sweet Trailer

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The past couple weeks have been a whirlwind. As we were getting word that Elan was almost ready to come home, we were also notified that Quin needed hernia surgery. As you can imagine, this was a lot to digest. Even though surgery on our little baby boy sounds awful and scary, we knew it needed to happen. He was clearly uncomfortable and having a very hard time eating and digesting food because his intestines were in the scrutum. This is a common problem for preemie boys because their muscles are not developed enough. Quin got the hernia in the first couple weeks of life and man was it bad. It was huge and looked incredibly uncomfortable. Before the surgery the doctors were making lots of not so subtle hints about the possibility of Quin needing a G-tube, which is a surgically implanted tube to his stomach because eating the volumes he needed were very challenging for him. So, we decided to go for the surgery in hopes that having all of his organs in the right place would help him eat....
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111 Days - There is a light at the end of the tunnel

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Today is day 111 and there is a bright light at the end of this incredibly long tunnel. At the beginning of last week, we were still preparing for discharge around the end of October, but things have drastically changed. We were warned a long time ago that the feeding pathway would be their hardest challenge, especially since they were born so early. It seems easy to all of us, but suck, swallow, and breath is really tough for little guys, especially for ones that have had such extensive lunge trauma. The eating pathway has 4 phases. Phase 1 is where they have to eat at least 75% of their feeding volume by bottle one time per shift or in a 12 hour period. Once they do that four times in a row, they can start on the next phase. If they have one off shift, they start back at the beginning. Phase 2 is when they need to eat 75% of their feeding volume by bottle two times per shift. Phase 3 is exclusively bottle feeding on their own schedule and phase 4 is very similar, except they take o...
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We are not so little anymore! Three months old!

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Chonkers! These two have been packing on the pounds this past month and the good kind of pounds, not just water weight. They now have double chins and lots of rolls to hide all sorts of crusties. Quin is currently 2,622 grams or 5 pounds 12.4 ounces. Elan is 2,901 or 6 pounds 6.3 ounces. Quin is trying to catch his brother, but Elan is not giving up this battle.  They were moved back to the intermediate care unit a little over a week ago and so far things are going well. This time they were moved into a twin room, which has been lovely. For the first time in 3 months, we get to be alone as a family. We have also found this environment to be positive for them as well. Now that they are a little older, they notice the dings and cries of the babies around them. They both instantly chilled out a little bit once in their quiet and calm space.  A couple weeks ago, one of our favorite nurse practitioners dropped some news that was pretty hard to swallow at first. She tried t...
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Two Months

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I had the following post all typed up and ready to go on Monday. I just wanted to read through it one more time before posting because I hate putting anything out with errors. Then, as promised on our first day in the NICU, the roller coaster changed course and plummeted head first toward the ground... On Monday night, we learned that both boys had been having a lot of events, which means they basically stop breathing or are not breathing efficiently and their heart rate and oxygen saturation plummet. We are used to this happening because it is very common for preemies, but we are not used to them not being able to recover on their own. Since this behavior was not typical for them, they ran a lot of tests and increased their support. This also meant that they needed to go back to the intensive care unit, so the doctors and nurse practitioner could keep a close eye on them. We were happy to have them move because the...
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One Month

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Today is the eve of the boys' one month birthday and they are doing well. To say this past month has been a blur is an understatement. They mentioned at the beginning that the NICU was going to be a roller coaster ride; that wasn't a lie. It's the most terrifying one we've ever been on. A ride where the slow straightaways are as frightening as when you feel a G-pull and you fear flying out of the car. We're slowly adjusting to the constant beeps and incessant pinging alarms that make up the soundtrack of the NICU. The various life support screens with their colorful bouncing wire lines that spike and drop and speed across the screens relay status updates in real time. Maybe it's us looking for some silver lining in the situation, but how often does a new parent have a state of the art heads up display giving you slight edge when a fit is about to be thrown? The only downside is you rely on the nurses to translate the patterns and ultimately take care of the pe...
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PART 2 - What happened?

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Meeting Quin for the first time Meeting Elan for the first time Hand hug with Quin Elan Elan At 1:39 Quin was born and just a minute later Elan was born. As you might be able to tell from the pictures, I was trying very hard to be happy in this moment, but I was completely terrified. I had no idea if my boys would be okay. They were so little. Quin: Weight: 1 lb 9 oz Length: 11 3/4 inches Elan:  Weight: 1 lb 11 oz Length: 12 1/2 inches Quin showed his spirited personality during his first moment of life by peeing all over me. Typically one would not be thrilled by this, but in that moment I was just happy to know that he was alive and functioning. At this early of gestation, they cannot breath on their own, so the NICU doctors and nurses immediately hooked them on life support. Then put the boys in a transport incubator and took them up to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or NICU. It will be their new home for the next s...
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