Look Mom, No tubes!!

Today was a big milestone for Ana Lucia and McKenzie. Overnight the NICU took our the feeding tubes for both of them. Now we can see their beautiful faces without those pesky tubes and tape. This also means that for now, the girls have checked another box on their way to coming home. Without a feeding tube, the nurses will be giving them all of their feedings from a bottle or breast. This had to happen before they could go home.

Over the next few days they will be monitoring the girls to make sure they get enough to eat and continue to grow. Now if only we could get them to stop the Bradycardia's.

Speaking of growing, the girls are now 15 days old and Ana Lucia is about to crest the 5 pound mark. Today she weighed in at 4 pounds 14.8 ozs. McKenzie is trying to keep up with her sister and weighed in at 4 pounds 6.4 ozs today. We are also happy with their growth and hope that it continues at a good pace.

Now that Ana and McKenzie are getting older, both Susana and I believe they are fraternal. Today just added to that because it is getting easier and easier to tell them apart in photos. For those that can't do it, in these pictures today, Ana is on the right and McKenzie is on the left.

Uncle Derek, Dawn, and Lissette come to visit

Today Uncle Derek got up early and met me at the hospital. This was the first time he got the chance to see the girls. When they were born, he was on a fishing trip with Raymond. I told him, that next year, Andy and I may need to join him to get some Men time with all the women that will be running around the house for the next xx years. Here he is pictured with McKenzie. I was feeding Ana at the time.

Later, that day, Lissette and Dawn took Susana to the hospital (Susana still isn't allowed to drive). This was also their first time with the girls. Susana told me that our nurse, mentioned that Irving was very liberal with his co-workers. "He gave his friend one of the babies without blinking an eye." Susana then told her that Derk is our Brother in law. I found that humorous.

The girls are both above their birth weight...

Susana has started to go to the hospital twice a day to try to breastfeed the girls. They are slowly getting the hang of it. However, we don't think they are getting enough, so they still end up getting the full bottle feeding afterwards.

Ana is getting 43 ml of fortified breast milk and McKenzie is getting 37 ml of fortified breast milk every 3 hours. The good news is that McKenzie went past her birth weight today as well. So hopefully they are both on their way to 5 lbs, however, the Doctor confirmed that the min weight for them to come home is 1900 grams so both of them have crossed that threshold.

Unfortunately, McKenzie continues to have Bradycardia episodes. Most recently she dropped to 60 beats per minute while Susana was holding her this morning. So McKenzie won't be coming home any earlier than Sept 1 and most likely longer. Ana is doing better and has not had any repeat episodes of Bradycardia or Apnea. It is possible that Ana may come home before McKenzie, but I still hoping that McKenzie will find her legs and really take off.

All in all the girls are doing well and as always we look forward to bringing them home.

Two steps forward, one step back...

We had some good news today, McKenzie is finally back above four pounds! This was a great milestone that I have been looking forward too. Unfortunately, she also had another case of Bradycardia Sunday afternoon (but none on Monday). That means her seven day clock has reset such that she can't come home any earlier than next Sunday.

Susana was able to make it in to see the kids twice today, spending a good amount of time each time. She also talked to the Neonatologist on duty. This doctor gave us mixed signals. On the one hand he said that both girls are doing very well, but then he went on to say that it may be three weeks before they come home.

Unfortunately, I wasn't there to ask him what he meant by that, because up to this point all the docs have been saying probably around 35 weeks. Needless to say we want the girls home, but we also want them to get the 24/7 care that they need...

Susana also got a chance to sit down with the lactation consultant who helped her out today and both girls actually did pretty well breastfeeding and that is another good sign.

As for the pictures, today. I decided to take some closeups of the girls and put them in a collage, as well as get Susana with each of them.

Bradycardia and Birthday Parties

To start the day off, Susana and I went into to the hospital to meet with an occupational therapist who took us through some information on preemies developmental cycles. She also gave us some helpful stretches and exercises that we can use to help the twins sleep and eat better. Unfortunately we also got some not so great news (not terrible, just not so great). That is, last night both Ana and McKenzie had a spat of Bradycardia. Now for those like me, that don't have a clue what Bradycardia is, it is when a heart rate suddenly drops. For preemies a drop is getting down to below 80 beats a min.

What this means to our twins is that each time the NICU sees a case of Bradycardia, they reset a seven day clock. The twins can't come home before seven days passes without a case of Bradycardia. So for us, this means the twins won't be coming home any sooner than next Saturday Aug 28. Hopefully those issues are over, but I guess that is why they are in the NICU.
On a different note, after we got back from the hospital, I got Andy and Rebecca ready to go to a Birthday Party. My friend Kathy's daughter Ally (pictured above) celebrated her first birthday at a local park. We joined the Schumacher's, Bainotti's, Bishop's and others in enjoying cupcakes, banana splits, and the water features the park had to offer.

Of course, being there by myself with two kids, got me thinking of the challenges I would have going to a similar function with all four kids by myself. Wow, this is going to be a challenge!!

Two is much more fun!

It has been a week since they were born and for the first time, I was able to hold my two littlest daughters simultaneously. I must say that it felt great to do so.

While I was at the NICU I found out that overnight McKenzie was also taken out of her isolette and put into a bassinet. So now both of the girls are regulating their temperature without assistance. This is another important milestone on their road to coming home.

Weight wise, they both continue to gain weight. Ana Lucia now weighs 4 lbs 4.6 ozs and McKenzie Rose weighs 3 lbs 15 ozs.

We are now waiting for them to eat consistently and fully before they will be allowed to come home. Keep up the good work little ladies...

Back to School!

Since everything isn't about our youngest two, I wanted to post about a significant day in the life of our oldest daughter.

Rebecca had her first day of four year old Pre-school today. Tita got her all ready and then Andy and her put their shades on got ready to walk to school.


Across the street, Rebecca met up with the Berner's. Their oldest, Coen, is in Rebecca's class again this year. Aislyn watched on as her big brother and Rebecca got some of their first day of school energy out by running down the sidewalk to school.

Once at school, Rebecca quickly got with some of her old friends and got back into the swing of things. This year, Rebecca is going to school three days a week. M-W-F. As she continues to prepare for Kindergarten.

The school year got off to a good start as one of Rebecca's classmates brought in goodies to help celebrate their birthday. We think this will be a great year for Rebeccca...