Higher Risk

First, some administrivia before I delve into the post. Thanks to everyone for the whopping 9 votes on the van naming contest. America has spoken and "Miller" won the contest. Sadly, "Miller" will not be the name of the van. Though only after my last post did I give some more credence to "Miller" by thinking, I could say "it's Miller time" and that would mean it's time to go in the van. SexyVan seems to be sticking, but thanks to a comment that I have slightly massaged I sometimes call the van "Little Vincent." As in, "look at that little Vincent Van Go(gh)." In other news it's been a long time since I have posted to the blog (surprise!).

So, the truly good news is that the stars seem to be aligning for us to take home Clara tomorrow. I will be happy to post about that when she is actually in our home. We got another round of good news today when we took Evelyn to the eye doctor and found that her eyes are doing well and is no longer considered at risk for ROP (basically this can lead to blindness - details are here: http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/rop/). We talked to the pediatric pulmonologist (lung expert) today on the phone. He was very friendly and talkative. We got a lot of information from him, but also received news that Clara could be on oxygen for a looong time. He gave a conservative estimate that Clara could well be on oxygen through the end of summer (yikes). Long term he said that Clara would be at higher risk for asthma. That "higher risk" phrase was also given by the eye doc today when she said Evelyn was clear of ROP, but was at a "higher risk" for needing glasses early in life.

So this "higher risk" thing seems to apply to just about anything when you are a preemie. Here I was thinking that the kiddos being born at nearly 32 weeks and having no major issues we would have little to worry about. Nope. Not only do we have to worry about the risks involved with a couple of Clara's already diagnosed medical conditions, but apparently everything else too. Higher risk of nose bleeds? Check. Higher risk of bed head? Sure. Higher risk of Tourette syndrome? Shit yeah. The point is the list goes on and on (well maybe not this list). I don't know, maybe it's easier this way. There's no way I can worry about everything, so it's probably easier not to worry much at all. I can say I will be thrilled to get all the family home and hopefully everyone will thrive and I can cross off those higher risks one at a time.

Take care everyone.

The A Plus One Team

So Monday we bought the mini-van. It's not a GMC van, but it is black. I nice little red stripe and red wheels and I'm pretty sure we can become "The A Plus One Team." The "Plus One" is necessary since the original "A Team" consisted of only four members. I will let my family duke out which character they want to be, but I get to be Col. John "Hannibal" Smith, because - I love it when a plan comes together.

Uh-oh, it's The A Plus One Team rolling into town.

So we bought a new '08 Toyota Sienna. We have yet to officially name it, but I think Kristina already thinks she has dubbed it SexyVan. This name has not gone through ratification and I'm not sure Alex should be telling his classmates he is about to go home in the SexyVan. Naming a van is eerily familiar to me as my work had a contest to name two company vans about 3 years ago. I actually won the contest with props to action star Jean Claude and, at my suggestion, the vans were named Van Damme and Damme Van. So clearly those names are off limits. Anyway, here are the current nominations. Please vote using the poll on the right hand side of this page!! Oh look, another chance to use a bulleted list...hooray!

• SexyVan - Kristina nominated.
• Miller - Also Kristina nominated (props to actress Sienna Miller).
• LVB - Short for Ludwig VAN Beethoven.
• Vantastic
• Magnifivan
• Deux Portes de Puissance - Roughly translated as "two doors of power" which signifies the dual power sliding doors package we purchased with the van. This might be my personal favorite.
• I'm Your Biggest Van - Exactly two readers should get this (and possibly my wife)...you know who you are.
  

At any rate, we will be towing kids for a long time with this ride. Just pray that The A Plus One Team does not roll up in front of you.

Chow Babe

Or as they say in Italy "ciao babe." The twins are starting to eat pretty well. Today was the first time that I really saw both of them eat well (and quickly) from the bottle. Evelyn drained 2/3 of her bottle and then turned quickly disinterested. Clara put her whole bottle down in quick order. They are both still gaining weight well with Clara weighing in at 4 lbs. 6 oz. and Evelyn tipping the scales at 5 lbs. 6 oz. (reminder: they were nearly a pound different at birth). I'm sure I'm offending preemie parents and nurses everywhere when I say that Evelyn is starting to look like a "real baby." I suppose the correct terminology is "full term baby," but I say real baby. She is getting the chubby cheeks and just looking bigger. She also is starting to act more like a real baby by squawking and crying more. She also had her baby bird mouth open when I first started feeding her.

That's all for now. The girls are still doing well. Alex, after another day at home seems to be on the mend and doesn't sound so sad when he coughs.

World's Worst Blogger

So it's been another 15 days which makes me a pretty piss poor blogger. I'm guessing people are deleting their bookmarks and their browser history is poised to wipe this site from memory. And now that it's been so long I stupidly think that I must write a brilliant post to appease the ones of people that read this blog (I'm over that thought now). While I usually like to stick to a theme for a blog, I think I will do a random list of bullets (oh how I do love bulleted and numbered lists - but that's for a totally different blog).

• Update on the girls health - Kristina's blog is the #1 reference site for this (another reason I blog infrequently), but I can offer my perspective. The girls are doing well. In a perfect NICU world the girls respiratory system would be developing faster, but given the myriad of really terrible things that have not gone wrong to date I'm very pleased with the progress. Evelyn's scab on her head, courtesy of Nurse Ratchet (she has not taken care of the girls since the first week), has fallen off and it doesn't look like there will be much of a scar. Otherwise, steady as she goes. The girls are responding pretty well to "eating" and they are gaining weight at a good pace.
  
• Projected take home date - This is pretty variable since progress can slow or speed up. If I'm reading the tea leaves correctly from what a couple nurses are saying it sounds like the girls will be ready to come home in another 2-4 weeks. With the likely event that Evelyn will come home some amount of time before Clara. I hope that they come home pretty close together. Not only is it sad that they wouldn't be together, this situation would create a logistical challenge for me since I plan on only taking off from work the vacation time that I have (2-3 weeks). I realize this isn't much of a problem to fret about considering I was worried about our girls livelihood a few months ago. So, I'm not that concerned, I just hadn't thought much of this possibility until recently.
• On the home front - Kristina and I painted the nursery last weekend and put the nursery together this week (well mostly Kristina putting together the nursery). As usual, Kristina's vision has turned out wonderfully and the nursery is adorable. We will be mini-van shopping over the next weekend or two and with the purchase I will be eating my words for statements I made during my high school days about mini-vans. Finally, we are starting to consider our child care options. Preliminarily we don't think it will be feasible to have all 3 kiddos at Alex's current child care center when Kristina returns to work after her "real" leave when the twins come home. So, if you happen to know a more moderately priced center or nanny we would love to know about it.
• On the work front - Work is still going well. To get through the last few months I've had to skimp a bit on work hours. I'm not happy about it and it's part of a greater problem that weighs on me, which is having to compromise in all areas of my life right now. It's tough feeling that I'm not doing anything well.

So that's about all. The most important thing is that the girls are doing pretty well. I get them to myself everyday after work, which is good bonding time for me. They are sweet little buggers.

Oh yeah, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!