Brothers

Our boys are starting to realize that the other is there. When they sleep, no matter how we position them, they tend to gravitate towards each other. They face each other and their little hands reach for the other one. They obviously don't realize it yet, but they love each other.

This is a close-up of the (almost) hand-holding.

Tummy time for the boys.

Sleeping again. Moving towards each other - isn't it cute!

Now, the not too cute part is when one starts to fuss or cry, the other is starting to join in. They don't necessarily wake each other up, they just "sleep fuss" to help their brother out. Oh man, what are we in for?!?

Pictures

Dad and the boys, the first night home - before the exhaustion!

Sleeping next to each other (Andrew on left, Lucas on right)

Andrew smiling in his boppy - probably right before he spit up...

Look who thinks this is his new pillow

Luke also in the boppy

I'll keep posting pictures as I get time... We have many pics of the guys - I just have to take the time to post them!

Eat, sleep, change diapers, eat, sleep, change diapers...

Our new life is consumed with feeding the babies... We have it down now (oh I'm sure it will change!) and stuck with the schedule from the NICU. Every 3 hours (12, 3, 6, 9, 12, 3, 6, 9) we change diapers, feed Luke, burp Luke, put him down, change Andrew's diaper, feed him, burp him, hold him for 20 minutes because he spits up a LOT and put him down. Then we get a rest/break/nap which typically includes doing laundry (who knew such little things were so dirty!) and making more bottles. The boys are great though! They are very rarely fussy, and if anything make these grunting/giggling noises. The nurses called them "preemie sounds" and I'm not sure if all babies do that or not. Our lives have been completely taken over, and so has our house. Our poor dog doesn't know what to do with himself. He likes the babies, I think. He wags his tail and sniffs them, but doesn't get too close. Shag really likes the boppy pillows - he likes to pretend he should sleep in them. The one naughty thing he has done is christen the couch downstairs many, many, many times. He would like these 2 guys to get the message that they are not allowed on his couch! What a bad dog! I'll try to keep updating when I get a minute or 2. Tomorrow is my first day alone with them all day - but Adam's only 4 miles away if I need him. Wish me luck!!

Reality Check!!

AHHHHHH!!! We JUST found out that we get to take the boys home TODAY!!! We have been waiting and waiting, and now it's a little too real! What are we going to do?? They are just such little fellas and sure we are great with them in the hospital, but we have hovering nurses, now what if something goes wrong??!!!? Ok, panic attack over. I have a lot of stuff I have to do...
It is wonderful that the boys are doing so well that they get to come home. They passed their hearing screening, carseat test, are breathing fine, have whatever vaccines they needed thus far, are eating out of bottles (Andrew's attempting to nurse also - Luke could care less :) ), and sleep most of the time. So that's all great news!! I already have a doctor's appointment for them on Thursday - not sure why really, they just told me I had to go to their doctor this week...
I'm so excited and so scared at the same time! I'm sure those of you with kids felt the same way - just way earlier than this. By now, you probably had all this down pat, and we're just starting.
Wish us luck, pray for our sanity and ability to keep our kids safe!
Keep checking my blog in case I have any major questions I need answers to!
Holy cow...

Baths, Babies, and Bottles

We get to visit our boys every day, and usually have some jobs to take care of. The nurses save diaper duty for us when we get there (that's both good and bad - good for practice, bad for gross diapers!). We normally get to hold the boys while they get their tube feedings, but last night was a special night. We got to give the boys baths! I started with Luke, and he screamed his head off the entire time - all 4 minutes! After the bath, he got wrapped up nice and toasty and I got to feed him a bottle. He did pretty well until I tried to burp him and ended up cutting off his air flow. The boys are so little that they have a hard time sucking/swallowing/breathing and can be overstimulated when getting burped, and get really worn out with the added excitement of a bath. What a bad mother...
Adam took care of Andrew's bath, and Andrew smiled the entire time. He absolutely LOVED it!! He did not drink his bottle very well, probably having expended most of his energy smiling and looking at his daddy during bath time. Of course Adam gets the easy job!
Today they started getting weaned out of their incubators. We'll have to wait and see if they can regulate their body temperatures enough to be in cribs like regular babies. Every day they just get stronger and stronger and closer and closer to coming home with us!

New Year Pictures

Of course we spent New Year's Eve with our boys. We are officially parents now! The nurse was helpful and took our first family photo:

Here is a good picture of Mom and Luke: And my new favorite picture of Andrew... Adam caught a smile!! For real, how cute is that!!
Happy New Year from our family to all of you!!!

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!!