Life Update

Life is pretty good. We had my parents in town this weekend which was neat to see as they had not visited since very early on in the hospital. Grandma helped Rachel w/ the girls and around the house and Grandpa helped me lay some mulch in the yard. The twins are doing well. The doctors gave us the OK to start letting them stretch one of the night time feedings which is great, but confusing. Ava sleeps for 3.5 hours and then wants fed, so what do you do w/ Ella after that? She is still sleeping, but will most likely wake in less than an hour, but maybe she’ll sleep longer? Then the girls will be on separate schedules, and then what do you do the next mourning? This is all very confusing, and Rachel and I being the planners that we are can easily drive ourselves nutty!

The girls will have been home for 4 weeks already on Tuesday, and will be 3 months old on Saturday…. crazy!

-tinny out

March of Dimes

Before I get to the march of dimes I want to let everyone know that today is my due date. The girls are finally 40 weeks!!! We want to thank you for your thoughts and prayers during the past 11 weeks. We are very blessed!!!

Ava 11 weeks ago-2#12oz
Ava today-7#1oz
Ella 11 weeks ago-2#6ozElla today-6# 9oz
I have been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks, so I apologize for the late notice.

This weekend in Cincinnati is the March of Dimes walk. This organization is dedicated to preventing and a better understanding of prematurity. My friends at work (Children's Hospital) have set up a team in honor of the girls and I thought I would give you an opportunity to join our team. If you would like to donate or walk sign up online at www.marchforbabies.org, select join a team. Our team name is CCHMC- Twinslers. No pressure, just thought I would make you aware of this great cause.

Doctors Appointments

This preemie thing is a full-time job. This was the week of doctors.

Tuesday we had a follow-up with the eye doctor, which is our least favorite thing to do. The devise used to keep their eyes open makes them extremely unhappy. As far as the results, neither one of their eyes have matured completely, but Ava's look better than Ella's. The doctor thinks that Ella may not have peripheral vision in her right eye. The eyes are very confusing to me and hard to explain. We follow-up with them in four weeks.

Wednesday we had to follow-up with the developmental team at Good Sam and the ear doctor for Ava. The developmental team seemed to be very happy with the girls progress. The physical therapist could tell that both of the girls like to spend a lot of time laying on their right ear, so we now have to make sure they lay on their left ear for 20 minutes per day. OPPS!! We are still having some choking issues feeding Ava, so we have to follow-up with them in three weeks. As far as the ear doctor goes, Ava still hasn't passed her hearing screen, so we are following up with her in three weeks as well. The pediatrician is not very concerned about this.

Thursday we had our second appointment with the pediatrician. He was very happy with their weight gain. Ava now weighs 7lbs, 1oz and is 19 inches long. Ella now weighs 6lbs, 9ozs and is 18 inches long. It looks like Ava is going to be tall like her daddy and Ella is going to be short like her mommy.

Here are a few pics from this week:
This is my way of getting Ava to stay on her left ear.
Tummy time with Ella. Usually she does not enjoy tummy time this much.
Hope you all are having a good weekend.

-Rachel

It’s not the size of your stroller that counts...

...Its how you use it.

Don’t act like you are not impressed by the size of this rig. It had to be slightly modified to accept our car seats, but this bad boy is how we cart our girls around. That’s right, 68” from front of the stroller to Rachel's heals.
-tinny out

Happy Easter!

Although a tad belated, the Twins wanted to wish you all a happy Easter!

-tinny out

American Idol 2025?

I got puked on

Yesterday we took the twins to Children’s for a follow up eye exam. Although the exam took a very long time, it was pretty uneventful. It took so long that we needed to feed the girls at the hospital, so I started feeding Ella in the waiting room, and then continued to feed as we walked down to the cafeteria. Once we sat down, the ever content Ella let loose w/ the biggest, most aggressive vomit that I have ever witnessed. So, I went back to work w/ the look and smell of fortified breast milk on my dress shirt and slacks. Mmmmm.

-tinny out

Family

Aunt Reggie and Jocey came to visit the girls on Tuesday. It's hard to believe that Ava and Ella are two weeks older than their cousin.
Ella wasn't very happy to have her cousin that close. Check out the chins on that girl!! -Rachel

2 Month Birthday

Here are a few pictures from the girls' two month birthday this past Wednesday.
-tinny out

Visitors

Rachel and I are obviously really excited to have our girls home. First off, we have a really large dose of "first time parents" going on for sure, both of us have asked the other "is she breathing?" several times (OK, like a hundred times...each). We'd love to throw a huge party to celebrate their coming home, but preemies are very susceptible to germs (way more than normal term babies), so we'll have to wait a while for the party. The NICU staff said that if either of our girls get sick in the first month of going home, they will end up back in the hospital.

So, we are very excited to have visitors, but we just need to limit the twin's stimulation and exposure to germs. So, all we ask is that if you want to visit us, please call first and we'll plan a convenient time. If you are sick, have been sick or anyone around you has been sick, please wait to visit. Once you are here, we'll put you through a rigorous washing protocol that you'll probably laugh at. Please do not take this as a put off, because we do love and desire visitors.

Thanks for all your patience, and we hope to see you soon!

-tinny and Rachel

Several folks suggested that we keep track of how many diapers that we go through w/ having two twins at home. While this was very intriguing, and I would have loved to see how bad our environmental foot print is, I can barely figure out which end of the bottle goes in the mouth in the middle of the night, much less put a tally on a dry erase board. So, here is a picture of the diapers from the first couple days at home.

-tinny out

Pictures from the first week home

Here is a picture of Ava and Ella a few hours before we brought them home. The Twinsler's maiden voyage.
Rachel and the twins in front of our house.
We had Giro on his leash when we brought the girls inside. He was very curious and interested. He has done great, w/ the only anoying thing being that he has gotten very protective of the house, barking at all the evil people that either walk by our house or try and deliver mail.

-tinny out

We're Home

We knew/hoped that it was coming since late last week, but Rachel wouldn't let me blog about it b/c she thought that the blog was the jinx that was keeping the girls in the NICU. On Tuesday, 3/31/2009, we brought both of our girls home, and its been pretty surreal. We have been so used to planning everything around feeds at the hospital, but now it feels like we have a lot more time. More details and pictures to follow, but the first night was not that bad...

-tinny out