One Week Later...

It's tough to think that a week has already past since the girls were born. To me the week has gone relatively fast. Of course I've still been pretty busy seeing the girls, trying to help out Kristina, and working (I need to save my time off for when the girls come home). Kristina's Dad and Step-Mom have been in town this week which has been a great help in shuttling Kristina to the hospital to see the girls (Kristina needs to recover for about a week more until she should attempt driving).

The girls continue to make progress and I got to hold Evelyn yesterday and Clara today for the first time. They are very very sweet to hold. It's nice to feel their warmth and look right at their faces so close.

The girls' nurses are hovering over them much less. This is actually a good sign since the nurses feel comfortable enough with the progress and stability of the girls that the twins no longer need so much attention. It's also good for the girls so they can get plenty of sleep, and as the sign by their beds state "sleeping time is growing time." While my last post wondered if the girls are making swift progress I am rethinking my position. When I think it's only been a week, the progress seems quite remarkable.

That's all for now.

Still Doing Well

I know I haven't even posted yet since our daughters were born (Kristina handled that), but if you are silly enough to just read my blog for info and updates...our daughters were born last Thursday (Dec. 13th) morning!

It's been interesting to see the girls progress a little bit each day. It's also been nice to hear less concern about the girls from the nurses and doctors. On day two, one of the NICU nurses that Kristina and I really like said that Clara was doing "ok" and seemed careful to never say she was doing "well." On day 4, she said Clara was doing well. The doctors also seem to be using more positive words and tone when talking about the girls. With that said, I still get the feeling that the girls are a bit behind schedule. We frequently hear that some form of intervention will be necessary just "one more day" and come to find out the next day that it will be "one more day." Maybe it's just optimism by the staff, maybe the staff is eager to reassure us that the girls are making progress, but I think the "one more day" line really means that the staff's expectations are that the girls should be progressing a bit faster.

All that being said I can see progress being made as outside intervention ends or is lessened. The girls are no longer on a ventilator and no longer under bili lights. The amount of IV fluid they are taking on is decreasing as they are fed more and more breast milk through a gavage (feeding tube). The girls are now deemed fit enough to be held by an outsider (i.e. a parent) once a day. And while Kristina and I would really like to see the end of the use of those CPAPs to help them breathe, we can see that the girls are requiring less of a concentration of oxygen and less pressure as well.

Ok, that's all for now. Thanks for everyone's continued well wishes and congrats and gifts. They are much appreciated!

Pink Is The New Blue

So I keep thinking, "oh it's only been a few days since my last post, I guess I should go post soon." And I see it has been 10 days...yikes! As you can tell from Kristina's blog a couple of those days have been very action packed.

Kristina's Mom is in town and staying at our house. She has been a huge help. She also brought with her a couple preemie outfits for the girls that are, of course, pink. It actually struck me as very odd because, for the past three years, I've gotten quite used to dressing my son in very much not pink clothes. I have no problems with dressing the girls in pink, this was just the first concrete realization that I will be dealing with girls and pink for years to come. There was also a realization that even though Kristina and I have been focusing our energy on having those girls "stay in," I haven't thought a ton about what happens when the "come out." Do I have to learn to play with Barbie dolls? Anyway, the outfits are adorable and I can't wait for the day when I teach the girls how fast Barbie can go in her pink Corvette.

Otherwise all is relatively well and it sure sounds like those girls are coming no later than December 17th.

Thanks again for everyone's support!!!

A Post

I figured I should post something again, since it's been a little while. I'm not exactly sure what is says about my life when I can go about a week and not think I have much to report. Truth is Kristina is doing a fabulous job writing about her stay in the hospital and getting out good information with her blog. While I could write a novel about how stupid a prevent defense is, I think I'll save that for my glorious sports blog which I will unveil any century now.

So, minus Thanksgiving night the girls have done pretty well over the last week. They both had sustained high heart rates today, which were certainly unusual, but did not concern the medical staff. The staff is primarily concerned about decelerations. Kristina also found a link that frames heart monitoring results better than anyone has explained to us. Assuming the site is reasonably credible (it’s on the internet so it must be true), then the information on the site actually fairly reassuring because the twins have not registered any “severe” decelerations to date. That site is here: http://www.fpnotebook.com/OB52.htm. I’ve also put in on the Reference Sites for this blog.

On the home front Alex and I are chugging along. I’m finally mostly over my cold, so I no longer feel like sleeping every second of the day. Alex is more moody than normal, probably because he is growing a bit weary of his Mom not being around. This is sad, but maybe it’s also good practice because he will get less attention when the twins come home. On the bright side, Alex is barely fighting going to bed at night as we have established a routine over the past few nights that I lay in his bed with him and sing “Old Lady Song” and “Green Grass” (his words).Ok, that is all I have for now.

Thank you everyone for your continued support!!

Thankful

I meant to post this last night, but things were not well with the twins and I wound up taking a trip to the hospital to spend the night with Kristina (see Kristina's post for details). I am back at home now hoping that monitoring goes smoothly again as it did late this morning.

While this pregnancy has been trying there certainly has been a lot to give thanks for. The biggest thing to give thanks to and be thankful for is Kristina. She certainly has had her ups and downs during all of this, but she has been remarkably strong and pleasant throughout this pregnancy. Her unselfish concern for Alex and me has made life easy. I'm thankful for Alex who has handled all the schedule shifts and running around perfectly. I couldn't ask more from my three year old.

Also I'm grateful for the support of family, friends, and co-workers. Everyone's generosity is actually a bit overwhelming. Our family has been great at helping us out on a moment's notice and adjusting their schedule to help us out. Friends have done the same by giving time and food to us and lending us an ear. My co-workers also have been very nice by asking me how things are going, and on Wednesday gave us a very generous gift of gift cards for nearby restaurants with the promise of home cooked meals coming soon. The list goes on and on of small and big things people are doing for us. I think the nicest thing I can say to everyone is that I get teary eyed every time I think about how much everyone has helped us out.

Finally, I have to give thanks to another day past (even though it was filled with fraught) with the twins "staying in."

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My final thanks go to my parents for cooking Thanksgiving dinner and bringing it to eat at the hospital. It was very delicious and nice to have a family Thanksgiving.

Two Weeks

It's been a while since I've had a post I know. And this probably won't be terribly long. I've been fighting a nasty cold for the last few days so the free time I've had I've wanted to sleep. I did get a fair amount of free time as Kristina's sister, Amanda, and her daughter were just out for a long weekend. Amanda did a fabulous job of watching Alex allowing me to get some things done, and, well, sleep.

Anyway, today marks Kristina being in the hospital for two weeks now. It feels like it has been much longer than that and it feels like eons ago that we first heard the term "momo twins." Assuming Kristina can stay in the hospital another five weeks I sure hope that time feels as if it speeds up. Time really slowed over the weekend and Monday as the monitoring caught a few somewhat significant decelerations in the twins' heart rates. This was nerve racking and also can lead to a bit of a viscous cycle where seeing decelerations during monitoring leads to extended periods of monitoring which means a more likely chance of seeing more decelerations, and so on. Luckily the twins did well enough to break this cycle and Kristina has been back on one hour monitoring sessions and the twins have done quite well over the past couple of days. Our spirits, well at least mine at any rate, have been buoyed a bit by one of the night nurses who is from the U.K. He speculates that any pregnant woman monitored this frequently would also show significant decelerations, but these are never caught because "normal" pregnancies entail basically no monitoring. I hope this theory will settle my nerves in the future so that I will obsess over each blip of the monitoring sessions.

So, two weeks are in the books and a long holiday weekend is ahead. It will be nice to have some good visitation time with Kristina. My parents (well, my Mom really) are making Thanksgiving dinner and then taking it on the road to the hospital tomorrow. Certainly this has been a tough stretch, but I will have plenty of thanks to give tomorrow and I will post many of them tomorrow as well.

Now if I can just get time to speed up...

The Series 50 XM Fetal Monitor

This is the device that Kristina is hooked up to two to three times a day and measures the babies’ heartbeats. Given that we live in the 21st century I find the technical marvelous-ness of it, well, disappointing. I figured the doctor would just shoot some micro gnomes in the uterus and be done with it. The gnomes would have their teeny tiny stethoscopes and their micro laptop computers and they would just do the monitoring and send the results wirelessly. It seems like Starbucks would certainly be sponsoring such micro gnome research since Starbucks could then setup a little micro coffee store in utero, because I’m sure the gnomes would have a tough time staying awake with the nonstop monitoring and all. But nay, such technology is not implemented at our hospital and instead we are stuck with this device.

The device can be seen here (though this looks like a newer model then anything I’ve seen): http://www.medical.philips.com/main/products/patient_monitoring/products/series50xm/index.html. The machine works through ultrasound, not even some fancy laser technology (collect all 6 machines and you can make Ultra-Mega-Mega-Sound). The actual monitors (one for each kiddo) that are placed on Kristina are palm (no not Palm™) sized discs. If not medical micro gnomes, then surely you just plop these discs down on a pregnant woman’s belly and they search around using little mechanical legs and find the heartbeats by themselves, right? No, it’s a manual process for the nurses to try and feel their way around to find the heartbeat. And to my dismay once the heartbeats are found it’s not like the discs suction into place and hone in on the heartbeats. They are strapped down by Velcro straps and if that is not sufficient, I am not kidding, a system of washcloths is used in conjunction with the straps to keep the discs in place. By the way, the device knows it has found a heartbeat when the ultrasound, uh, sounds like a horse galloping. So now the heartbeats are found the discs are strapped in. Just walk away and relax, because the monitor must, I mean absolutely must have a little bit of range to account for small baby movements or small movements from where they are strapped in. It’s not like finding a needle in a haystack. It’s more like finding a heartbeat in a fetus that is surrounded by amniotic fluid. Sadly, no. Any slight movement from the kiddo or the disc and the heartbeat is lost.

And this is why I spent 20 minutes holding a palm sized disc on Kristina’s belly. I’m actually happy to help out Kristina and I suppose I should be grateful that such a device even exists so that the kiddos can be monitored. Still, I will only be around a small fraction of the time when Kristina is monitored, so it would be nice if the tiny gnomes and Starbucks would settle their dispute with the medical community so everyone could get back to work.

BLOG NOTE: I have removed the restriction that you need to be a member of blogspot.com in order to leave a comment. Officially the reason for this change is that I don’t care who leaves a comment. It would be nice if you are not a member to at least mention who you are if you do leave a comment. Unofficially, Kristina is getting a ton more comments than I am and I hope to boost my numbers by taking off this restriction.

Single and Loving It

So the title of this blog, co-momo-tion, is a cheesy play on words. I know. I know. Way out of character for me.

Day two of Kristina's hospital stay is almost in the books. After a bit of a mixup on day one, Kristina has now moved in the Perinatal unit and in her permanent room. Please feel free to read more about her stay in her blog (easily referenced in the Other Blogs I Read section).

So far things are good considering the circumstances. Kristina is obviously disheartened to be in the hospital, but I think she will settle into a routine quickly. Also now that she is in her final room she can unpack and start to give the room some personal touches to make it less sterile. Alex has done really well at the hospital so far. Maybe too well. He already didn't want to leave after our visit tonight. In our two visits he has been very content to just climb on the hospital bed and play with some toys, color, or watch a video. Tonight was a little rough getting him to bed at home, but that's not necessarily out of character for him.

I'm also doing fine. I also hope to settle into a routine quickly. Since Alex's preschool is just a few blocks from the hospital it works well for me to bust out of work a little early, go home and take care of our dog and eat a reasonably quick dinner. Then I pick up Alex and go to the hospital. Alex gets kind of a raw deal for dinner choices, but since he eats about 5 different foods right now I suspect he won't care. Already I can tell that I will be frustrated by not having enough time in the day on weekdays (I'll keep you posted about weekends). I get to work a little later than I want and leave a littler earlier than I want. I pick up Alex a little later than I want and spend less time with Kristina than I want. And Alex goes to bed a little later than I want. I guess I could argue that I shouldn't be taking this time to do a blog, but I figured I should try one out and I would rather not spam everyone with email. We shall see if it lasts.

That's about all. Like I said, read Kristina's post for hospital specifics since I don't feel compelled to repeat all information. Plus, she writes more better than me anyway. I will say that my interaction with the medical staff at Rose has been positive. It doesn't hurt that I have my cute little son in tow when I'm there.

Once again thanks go out to everyone's continued support.

Also, clearly love and thanks go to Kristina who has the much tougher job (unless Alex is scream-crying at me :-) ).

-G