New Hats

Check out Blake and Jenna's new hats. It was a bit breezy this morning for our morning walk so I pulled out new hats that I just got from Target. I LOVE the Target Dollar Spot!!!!

Best thing about the walk....Jenna and Blake held hands for part of the time-ADORABLE!!!

Great Developments

Well, I feel as though I have lots to catch up and blog about. So much has been going on in the last month. I mentioned, and Jason posted a bit about the "twinkies" being sick a couple weeks ago. Blake started with a cough, I guess at the beginning of Sept. For a few days it was just a light, "clearing his throat" type thing. He had no fever and acted fine. A few days later his cough started sound different and he was clearly irritated by it. He would do the cutest reaction to his cough. Trailing his cough, he would give out a groan of disgust as if he was being bothered by such a nuisance. It was the cutest darn thing (not so cute that he appeared to be getting a little cold but cute int he dramatic act of it all). Then he started acting really tired and inactive. his cough became congested. Once it became congested, it took a turn pretty quickly for the worse. He began having labored breathing and had wheezing. I had taken him him prior to the wheezing and it was thought to be and was in fact viral at the time. However, after several days he began having fever and started with the wheezing. This was Friday evening at 5:30-the usual double whammy. After hours AND the weekend. Luckily, our pedi was on call. Long story short, we ended up needing to give him nebulizer/breathing treatments. Had a sonogram done. Showed swelling in his lungs. I was very afraid that it had become pneumonia. It later did became an infection so started him on antibiotics. I have to say, the labored breathing and choking with the coughing REALLY scared me. With his history, I was very anxious when I saw him having difficulty breathing. I found that breaking thoughts that something grave was going to come of this was very very hard. This is the first illness either of them had experienced since being discharged from the NICU. Had it been a cold I would've been fine but having wheezing and watching his chest cave in and out brought back some very scary feelings and heightened emotions. This time he had no monitors, no respirator on hand, no nurses and doctors at his bedside. Very scary and unsettling for me. With Jason's help, and focusing on keeping Blake comfortable as possible, it slowly got better. Jenna warded off catching it from her brother for about five days. Then she started having a runny nose and a bit of a cough. She, too, became sick. Thankfully, it didn't get nearly as bad as with Blake. But for two weeks we had two sick babies. IT WAS HHAARRDD!!!! I'm not gonna lie. They slept for about 30 minutes at a time day and night, didn't eat much, coughed, ached with fever, cried in discomfort, needed consoling pretty much 24/7. Jason took off as much as he could from work but he was in the middle of a big project at work. Bless his heart, after working all day he would come home and try to give me a few minutes to shower, eat, prepare bottles and at times take a nap. This was definitely a difficult two weeks for all four of us. We are soooo thankful that they are well now.

We've experiences some hard days and nights trying to get them back on a nap and night schedule. it was as if we had to totally "re train" them. We decided that we would turn over a new leaf and begin "sleep training". We have put into place a nap routine and an "official" target bed time. We've decided to take the "cry it out" approach to sleeping. The "tough love" approach. The "babies will cry it out, mommy will sit on the other side of the door crying too" route-lol. We felt it was time that they learn to self soothe themselves to sleep. We had begun a bad habit of rocking them to sleep and/or laying down with them until they fell asleep. We still rock them at times but not to put them to sleep all the time.

Tonight was the third night. The first night was AWFUL!!!! We set a nighttime routine of bath, feed, lights down, massages, goodnight hugs and kisses and put to bed. Jenna is a pretty good sleeper and has 'put herself to sleep" for quite a while. She does fight sleep but only for a couple minutes. She has transitioned into this new approach rather well. Blake on the other hand did not! He screamed and screamed and screamed. On the first night, after 45 minutes, mommy and daddy caved and went in to console him. Jason went in first and put his hand on him and talked to him. Blake had his eyes closed and didn't realize Jason was even there. He pulled him close and when Blake realized daddy was there, he screamed bloody murder! I was downstairs and ran up thinking something horrible was wrong. We guess he was mad, not sure. Then we brought him down and I rocked him for a couple minutes.....he still cried. I decided to put him in his swing so I wasn't totally going back on the plan and I walked out of the room for a minute. He continued to cry. It got a little louder. I went back in a bit later and he through puffy red eyes, tear soaked cheeks, he gave me THE biggest grin!! I wanted to laugh and cry with frustration all at once! lol After another hour or so, I was too tired to deal. I took him upstairs and snuggled him to sleep. Lastnight, after much thought Jason and I decided he was probably just testing the waters and was fighting sleep. He hadn't had good naps and he was over tired. We decided to NOT cave in lastnight. unfortunately, he didn't nap well yesterday either. When it came to night, we let him cry it out. Again, awful. After 50 minutes or so, he fell asleep.

Today, they both had two two hour naps!! YAY!! They were well rested. We did our nighttime routine and but hem to bed. Jenna was out after a few "protest cries". It took her about five minutes! She is such a great and easy sleeper. Blake did not scream. He "protested" a bit and gave out these half effort cries and after TWELVE minutes, fell fast asleep!!!!!! I am so very happy. A glass of wine and a bubble bath are calling my name!!!

What else....
They are changing every day. They are very active and engaged with their surroundings. Jenna is becoming very good at hand/eye coordination. She manipulates toys very well. Blake is doing well too. Blake is as social as ever. If there is any movement, any light, any noise, he wants to explore the source. He is readily willing to smile at anyone in his sight and loves to laugh. Blake loves the jokes....funny noises, facial expressions, daddy acting silly. Jenna has become much more observant of others. She will watch you, and raise her eyebrows as she tries to get to know you and figure you out. She often times will give you a little smirk....usually a right sided little smirk all the while showing off her adorable blue doe eyes and cute dimple. She likes to bounce on your knee and LOVEs to be called pretty girl and cutie. This almost always elicits a big gummy smile and sparkle in her eyes. They are both paying lots of attention to one another. They are reaching out to one another and to our faces. So many things developing each day. Time is certainly NOT standing still these days. We are really trying to pay as close attention to all the changes, both subtle changes and big changes, each day in hopes we don't wake up one day wondering how we went from sleepless nights to walking and talking and missed everything in between. They are already sooo big.

Well, I have rattled on and on. I am quite tired so better take this opportunity to catch some sleep. I have decided to take lots of time tomorrow to take lots of pictures of the kids. I will try and post them tomorrow.

It's been a looooong time.....

Sorry for the delay in posting. But in the last couple week, and me being absent since the kids got home.

So the kids had a pretty nasty lil upper respatory infection for a couple weeks. Blake came down with it first (and hardest). Jenna caught it from him a coupld days later and the party was ON!
Due to Blakes priory history with lung issues (pulmanory hemmohrage 3 days after birth) it really worried us and the Dr.'s didn't want to take any chances. Soooo we had lots of Dr. visits and watched them both very closely.

All in all, the kids were amazingly good to us while they were sick. Blake had this nasty cough that would cause him to start gagging and sputtering. It really freaked mom out. They didn't cry too too much. They just wanted to be held and comforted the entire time, so they was no break at all. If one was set down or not cuddled, then they would start crying. It also completely destroyed any semblance of a sleep/feed schedule. So it was pretty much 24hr baby for two weeks. As you can imagine it's pretty much impossible to hold and comfort them every min of the day, so it was pretty trying.
Unfortunately I was wrapping up a big project at work, so I wasn't really able to take any time off to help the fam. My boss is super cool, so I was able to work from home several days, which helped tremendously. I don't know how anyone could do this alone, and still maintain their sanity! Impossible I say....

So anyways.... Through the weekend the kids started to feel better. Reduced cough, better sleep, taking full bottles, no more throwing up. On the plus side, the antibiotics they were taking gave them diaria. As crazy as it sounds, it was a welcomed change from constapation. It was really breaking our heart to hear one or both scream bloody murder each night trying to pass a brick. You would not believe the size of these "stones" that they were poopin out. :( Really breaks our heart.
We have tried changing forumla, the cereal, giving them pune juice, milk of magnesia, and every other tip and trick we could find. NADA..... So we are dredding a return to that.

Monday morning brought the sunshine! Both of the kids woke up all smiles and laughes. It was really really a wonderful change and set the mood for the rest of the day. Mom has been having a much easier time during the day, now that one can play independantly and they are taking naps again. I tried to do my part by giving Kim some full nights sleep to try and recharge the batteries.

Another good change was that they can now go on walks again and get out of the house. It's crazy how much they enjoy going on walks. If you put them in their car seat or in the stroller, you had better be ready to get the show on the road, cause they are, and they are NOT afraid to let us know. :) We hit the road and they completely chill out. If they haven't napped in a lil while, they'll kinda look around and then drift off to sleep. Because they like to sleep so much while in motion, we've started taking them on walks as soon as they wake up. Otherwise they think they can nap, and then wake up as soon as we get home. The downside to that is that they sleep, but don't get really good rest. So they are up when we're done with our walk, but not rested, so they can be kinda fussy.

Well, thats all for now. I'll try to post more often.
Take care all.
-Jason

1:34AM Is Sleep Anywhere In Sight????

It's been a week now that Blake has been sick. Jenna has been sick for about three to four days. Sleep deprivation has got to be worse now then it was when they just got home and were "new borns". Now they just aren't sleeping because they are either coughing, have a fever, aren't comfortable and are just out right feeling rotten. Much worse then before.............two sick babies. Jason and I have been taking shifts. I usually take the 11 or midnight to four or five and he takes four or five to about nine. During our "shifts" there really hasn't been any sleeping. Usually one is up coughing or crying and many times both are at the same time. Tonight however, I'm not sure whats going on. Right now they both just want to be up. I"ve had about 20 minutes of sleep between the both of them twitching and coughing and fussing. So, we are sitting on the floor with the lights on low and they are laying with their stuffed animals and listening to night time music. I certainly do not want to engage in playing or entertaining. Just trying to get them to realize it's time to sleep.

Tuesday, Sept 8th

The most exciting new thing to report would have to be that Jenna has started "talking". She is cooing and babbling.....and smiling more than ever. She turned a new leaf last Monday. Jason and I were there to witness this new change, we were so excited then and are loving hearing her "talk". I was really starting to worry. Jason admitted to me that he was beginning to worry too. She is really a different baby in a lot of ways. She just seems comfortable and enjoys looking at peoples faces and smiling back at them where as before she would exchange smiles but would often look in your direction but not directly at you. We are so very excited. I have such a feeling of content when I hear her little coos.

Blake continues to be a highly vocal one. Especially when he is excited or is bored. He is so active and does not like to stay in one place for too long. This is proving to be a challenge-haha. He has been coughing a bit here and there for a week or so. It was more of a "clearing his throat" kind of thing. The last two days though is has changed and is a bit congested at times. I've checked his temp several times but fortunately he has had not fever. It got worse lastnight so I called for an appointment this morning. With his history and chronic lung disease, I am not about to mess around about getting checked. Dr. Fasci says his lungs sound good and that it could be the is showing signs of allergies. We are going to keep a watchful eye and monitor for certain things.

Hallelujah, we are switching from high calorie formula to regular baby formula. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! Jason and I are so happy about this. J and B haven't been "regular" for over tow months. Then when they finally do go they scream so hard, you'd think they were being hurt. That and nothing was helping to regulate them. I can't wait to see how things will be with this change.

A Few New Pics

http://picasaweb.google.com/blakeandjenna/September?feat=directlink

Check them out....
Jenna "Pretty in Petals"
Blake discovered his feet!!!
"Exersaucer Fun"
and more!!!!

Good News September

The "twinadoes" saw the neurologist on Monday. After an assessment of both he said that had he not been told, he'd never guess Blake and Jenna were "24 weekers". That says so much for their growth and development. Blake was checked as a follow up from this prematurity. Jenna was examined as a follow up from her IVH (bilateral Intraventricular Hemorrhage) and PVL (Periventricular leukomalacia). He did not feel it necessary to order a MRI since she is not "symptomatic" and does not exhibit any behaviors that indicate issues at this time. He looked at the MRI that was done back in March right before she was discharged. He said that it shows moderate damage (PVL) but overall he considers the IVH as mild. He does not "see" any muscle tone issues, mobility issues, or cognitive issues. All in all they both look great and we couldn't be happier. As we've experienced and have been told since the beginning, time will tell. We celebrate every day, Blake and Jenna's progress and wonderful growth.

New stats are in......Jenna weighs 14lbs 13ounces and Blake weighs 14lbs 10ounces. Jenna is 24 inches long and Blake is 24.4

We are tickled that Jenna seemed to really turn a corner today....after having a massive "doody". She was cooing and smiling lots! More than we've seen and heard. Jason and I have make the executive decision to change from high calorie preemie formula to a sensitive regular formula. After nearly two months of no regular BMs and painful episodes full of screaming and tears, we can take no more. We can't stand seeing them go through these painful moments anymore. We've tried prune juice, apple juice, milk of magnesia.....nothing is keeping them regular. They have been gaining 2lbs a month for a while now. Dr. Fasci wanted to wait until 9 months. We will talk to her again soon to touch base.

They are both rolling over much better now and are quite active. They enjoy playing in their exersaucers. We've been enjoying our morning walks too.

Kids are calling......