Happy New Year!!

We have been very busy this week, so I apologize for not updating sooner. On Monday, our boys were moved from Children's to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids. They are in the Level 2 nursery there, still sleeping a lot, still eating through their noses, and having their temperature monitored. We are still waiting for them to grow, eat, and get closer to their actual due date before we can take them home.
This week they started trying to eat from bottles. They are not good at it at all, but they try a little at a time. It is actually quite scary to witness. I was feeding Luke the other day and he started choking and his lips were turning blue, but the nurse is right there and she took him and then he snapped out of it. That kind of stuff makes me glad that we don't have them home yet - what would I do if he did that here?? Adam is MUCH better at feeding than I am - he's much more relaxed and calm and the babies both ate much more than when I fed them a bottle. Hopefully in the next week or 2 they will be able to eat on their own.
We hit up the hospital 2-3 times a day (it's only 15 min. from our house), which is wonderful because then I get to hold my babies a few times a day. We aren't taking visitors at Mercy right now because the other babies are still pretty sick. Adam witnessed a baby getting CPR about 3 feet from our kids, and that made him nervous. It just confirmed that these are not typical, healthy babies - ours are pretty good, just little and needing help to grow. When we come home, anyone is invited to come and take a peek. We'll see if I can share - I hardly get to hold them now, so I might just be a baby hog when they get here too!
Hope everyone has a great start to 2009!!

They get cuter every day!

This is Andrew (see below). He's taking a nap, which is the norm for these two guys most of the day. Both he and his brother like to sleep on their tummies, and they can right now because they are hooked up to monitors 24/7. They have monitors for respiration, oxygen content of their blood, heart rate and blood pressure. On his arm, you can see his IV which they tend to pad so it looks like he has a broken arm. The boys are getting protein, vitamins, and fat through IVs right now, but as they get bigger, the IV fluids go down and their feedings go up! They get fed through the bright orange thing - that's their NG tube. It goes into their nose and down to their tummies. Adam noticed yesterday that before they feed them, the nurses pull the stomach contents back up the tube into a syringe to make sure everything is digested. It was, but GROSS!! They are taking 15 ml. of milk at every feeding right now, and it keeps going up and up and up! Also, the nurses are putting milk on their pacifiers and letting them taste it a little bit so they get used to the idea. So far they are both VERY interested in their pacifiers prior to feeding. We hope they pick up on the suck/swallow/breathe thing fast so they can COME HOME!!

This is Lucas. He is usually pretty alert, but the past couple of days has been a lazy bum! He would rather sleep when we hold him. At least he's comfortable! He LOVES the camera and usually follows it with his eyes - in every picture!

Andrew again. He's looking up at Adam. The syringe is from his feeding.

Here's Luke again. He's looking at his mom. How cute! I realize I'm quite biased towards my children, but really, they are cute. Notice Luke's lovely orange skin. Due to their jaundice they get regular "suntans" under the phototherapy lights!

I will add more pictures when I have more time. We have been SO busy running back and forth to Minneapolis, and trying to reacclimate to being home (which means we have a TON of stuff to put away and clean!). We also are dealing with trying to get these guys closer to us - hopefully in the next 48 hours their IVs will be able to come out, which is the only thing keeping them in the NICU right now. Once their IVs are gone, they can be transferred (for a LARGE fee :) ) to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids. They have a Level 2 nursery, which mostly deals with feeding/growing - exactly what our boys need. Mercy is only about 15 min. away from our house, so we could see them all day or at least many, many more times during the day.

Keep your fingers crossed!!

Our Little Babies

Finally, I have some pictures of the boys! I have TONS of pictures, I just couldn't figure out how to get them on here. They are rotating funny and I can't get the formatting right. Enough about that, onto the boys!
Here we are on Christmas Eve. Mom and the boys! Lucas Edward Lindgren (aka baby A) is on the right in a blue hat. Andrew Jack (baby B) is on the left.
Right now they are in the NICU at Children's Hospital because they were born so early - at 32 weeks, and they don't know how to eat. When they were born, they had IVs in their tummies and were both on the C-PAP machine to help concentrate oxygen so they could breathe. By 3:00pm they were off of the C-PAP and the IVs were gone from their tummies the next day! Right now, they still have 1 IV that gives them protein, lipids, and vitamins because they aren't eating on their own. That is very common with babies born this early - they can suck, swallow, and breathe, but they can't coordinate the movements and they tire out really easily. Right now, if they get a pacifier, they give it a couple of sucks, then get tired and fall asleep. Same thing with crying. They get all worked up, and by the time they get their faces scrunched up and their mouths open, they let out a little whimper and are so tired they have to fall back asleep. It's really cute, and I know we should count our blessings now, because when they get stronger, they will be very loud I think!
They are starting to get some milk through NG tubes that go into their noses and down to their bellies. They eat about 5 ml. right now per feeding (every 3 hours). This will increase as they get bigger. They do hate the tubes and try to pull them out of their faces! They also hate their "sunglasses" that they have to wear under the phototherapy lights (for their jaundice). Today they get a break from the lights, but they will probably need to be back under them tomorrow - sorry guys!!
Once their IVs come out, we are transferring them to a Level 2 nursery at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids so that they are closer to us. They will spend time there just learning how to eat and getting fatter. We are really hoping this can happen in the next few days, we'll just have to see. It is really awful leaving your kids behind and driving out of the parking ramp every day. We always get really excited on our way down there and then it just gets harder and harder to leave. We do know that they are being well taken care of - all the nurses love them - and the doctor calls us daily with updates. The updates take all of 15 seconds because they are doing very well for NICU babies. They are not as sick as most of the babies around them - another thing we are grateful for!

32 weeks...and they're here!!

Our boys decided that they would like to be around for Chrismas, so they came a couple months early! Lucas Edward and Andrew Jack were born yesterday, Dec. 22, 2008 at 9:45 and 9:57 am. We had quite the surprising day, as the nurses kept telling me I wasn't in labor and really wasn't having contractions. I was thinking "good lord, if this isn't labor I'm not doing this anymore!" But I'm getting ahead of myself... I'll start at the beginning. (Possibility of Too Much Information - TMI - be warned!)
On Sunday, I felt crampy all day long. Not too awful, just not all that hungry, the food looked icky, and at that point it kind of was, and just like it was that time of the month. I made it through the day, although there was NOTHING on t.v. and that night started bleeding again. This had been going on all week, off and on, so nothing really new there, only this bleeding was getting worse and worse. The nurse came in and monitered me at 8:00, then 10:00 and 11:oo. They kept their eye on me, and eventually the doctor on call (Dr. Ney) told them to send me up to Labor and Delivery so that I could be monitered all night.
At 1:30am I was wheeled upstairs with a groggy husband, and got settled into another room. I didn't sleep all night (Adam sure did), and my cramping was not coinciding with the few contractions I was possibly having. Dr. Ney came in and did a bedside ultrasound, but didn't really see anything substantial, and said there was a 50% chance of having the babies tonight, but they would need to be delivered via C-Section due to all the bleeding I was having. The nurse upstairs told me that "no, this is not labor" because my contractions were 2-6 min. apart and not really picking up that well on the moniter. Dr. Ney came in again and told me that she didn't think I was in labor, and that she wasn't ready to take the babies yet. Eventually I fell asleep from 5:30-6:30, then was awakened my my cramps getting worse. By 7:00 I called the nurse and told her that I was in a lot of pain and still bleeding. Turns out my water had broken (gross). By 7:15 I was thinking "Good Lord, if this isn't labor, I'm not doing this anymore". I seriously thought I was dying because I apparently wasn't having contractions (according to the moniters and nurses and doctors). So, at 7:30 Dr. Wolthe came on shift and came into my room. He checked me and sure enough, my water had broken and I was fully dialated and ready to have babies! He wanted to try a vaginal delivery (I was all for anything to get this show on the road) and asked if I wanted an epidural. By this time I was having at least 1 contracti0n every minute and holy crap they hurt! All the breathing exercises in the world were not going to do a thing for me! I gave the doctor a shaky "yes" to the epidural and they said they'd see if there was time.
They gave me a terbutaline shot to slow down the labor (something I was used to) and my contractions did space out a little - enough to wheel me down the hall and get me situated in the O.R. FINALLY the glorious anesthesiologist came into the room and gave me my epidural. Woo-Hoo!! That was a fantastic moment, and I would like to thank all those people that created that wonderful medicine!! So, once I had the epidural, we hurried up and waited for contractions and I started pushing. After 1 hour, Lucas was born. They gave Andrew a little shove and he went right where he was supposed to. 12 min later, Andrew was born.
I got to see them for a couple of seconds, and they whisked them away to the next room where the NICU team was waiting to stabilize them. Lucas was having a little trouble breathing on his own, so they put him on a C-PAP. They put an IV right into his umbilical cord, just in case they needed to give him any meds. When they were taking care of Lucas, I had Andrew and they took him away also to the other room. There were lots of windows, so we could see what they were doing, and Adam could go in and out of the room while the doctors were taking care of me. Andrew needed the C-PAP also, but he didn't so much need it as he got angry when they took it off of him. They took them to Children's and they have been there ever since.
We went twice yesterday to see them. They each have their own nurse that stays with them in 12 hour shifts. They were able to get off of the C-PAP machines yesterday afternoon at around 3:00pm and they took their IV out of their belly buttons at 10:00pm.
We haven't gone to see them yet today, because we're waiting to see the doctor to see if I can get out of this joint today. We're going over there in a little bit, and I'll keep you updated! Have a Merry Christmas!!

Whew! Today was a busy day! It was my first day of blood testing for my GD (gestational diabetes), so first thing vthis morning I was stabbed (ok, pricked) and blood tested. Then after every meal, I get another test, plus I HAVE to eat snacks between every meal which isn't all that bad. For those of you that don't know, I just have to eat 4 servings of carbs at a meal, and 2 servings for every snack. A serving size is equivalent to 15 grams when reading a label. Here, the dietary people tell me what I can and can't have, so it's pretty easy. At home (if I get to go) is another story altogether. I'm not holding my breath - what with my continued contractions and all, we'll just have to see.
I also got to get another ultrasound today to check for growth. These babies are big! I could've told you that. Baby A weighs 4 lbs, 1 oz and B weighs 3 lbs, 15 oz. They are bigger than most of the other 31 week twins around here (according to reports from the other moms from group today). But, they are right on schedule I guess! Everyone's hearts were good, the stomachs were good, blah blah = they're doing well. The next big milestone is 32 weeks, at which time their brains should be as developed as a "term baby's" brain. If born at 32-34 weeks, they would probably need to stay in the NICU for 4-6 weeks still, depending on breathing and feeding issues, so we're not really in the clear yet.
I also had group today, which was fun. I got to talk to the other girls here, which is always nice, and makes me feel that I really don't have it so bad. I'm one of the farther along people, and although I do have my fair share of issues (contractions, bleeding, pains, etc.) there are others much worse off than me. One of the ladies from the group set up a lady to come give us pedicures/manicures on Friday afternoon, so that's another thing to look forward to!!

An educational day

Today had its ups and downs. First off, I woke up and had more bleeding (yuck!) so I called my nurse, and she put me on the moniter at 2:00am - sorry Adam! I was on for a while and had to get another shot of terbutaline, but that stopped my "irratibility". Then at 6:00am I got my blood taken for my 3-hour gestational diabetes test, and got to drink the "sprite"ish drink. Then I fell back asleep and was awakened every hour for more blood draws until 9:00. By 10:00 I found out that I do, in fact, have gestational diabetes. Since then, I've had handouts and books and visits from dieticians and I'm super-smart about diabetes. Tomorrow I start the blood sugar testing, so I'm going crazy tonight and I'm gonna eat whatever I want!! :)
Later this afternoon, my favorite people - integrated medicine - came to visit and I had a wonderful massage. Man I'm gonna miss that when I have to leave!

31 weeks!

We've made it another week! Every week is just better and better. Time really does seem to be going fast, so that's good too. This week I have plans on Wednesday (we have "group" at 2:oo) and Thursday I have an ultrasound to check the boys' growth. I won't officially find out if I get to go home next week or not until Monday (next week). I'll have a "check-up" and maybe I will be able to go home if everything looks good! I think they'll keep me on my nifedipine to stop contractions, but we'll see what happens! I also have to see if I'll be able to go up and down stairs or not to see if I can get out of my bed at all... we'll see. The drs keep saying that the boys look good. They kick like they're crazy, and now Baby B (he's up higher) kicks poor Baby A (down lower), wakes him up and then A gets the hiccups every time! It's a bad cycle to get into, but we do this about 4-5 times a day. Thanks guys. They already are troublemakers!