Loving Being Home

Lennox is home and loving it!  Hooray!

He was discharged on Tuesday and has been enjoying his time at home.  When he was discharged he weighed 5 pounds 6 ounces.  I must say a big thank you to the NICU nurses for getting him on an excellent schedule!  He really is a good baby, for which Brent and I are very thankful!  He is still laid back and doesn't fuss much unless he is hungry or has a dirty diaper.  I've been surprised at how easy going he is -- I thought for sure it would be a big adjustment for him coming from the super calm and quiet environment of the NICU to our not so quiet house (big brother = loud), but he doesn't seem to be bothered by it.

Conley has done great too!  It's definitely going to take him a little while to figure out his new role as big brother, but he's already started checking on Lennox if he starts to fuss.  Conley also likes to help with Lennox's bottles.

Conley and Lennox playing

Enjoying being home

Lennox finally got to meet his cousins yesterday!  Owen, Leighton, and Lily Ryan came for a visit.  Lily Ryan and Leighton just couldn't get enough of this little boy.

Lily Ryan and Lennox

Leighton and Lennox

Relaxing after his first bath at home

Enjoying some snuggle time

We are now just waiting for Paxton to come home.  Paxton is doing good.  He is taking all of his feedings by bottle, but he still drops his heart rate every now and then while eating.  He also hasn't gained weight the last few days -- this isn't anything they are particularly worried about, as it isn't unusual for babies to plateau when they first go to all bottle feedings.  He just needs to start gaining again before he can come home.  He weighs 4 pounds 2 ounces.

We have our first of many follow up appointments tomorrow.   We will see our pediatrician for a weight check.  In a week, we will follow up with the eye doctor -- just to make sure everything still looks good.  Then in a month, we follow up with the pulmonary doctor and physical therapy.  The pulmonary doctor will be the one to take us off the apnea monitor when he feels we are ready.

Thanks again to everyone who has had these sweet boys in your prayers.  They have definitely worked and we are so thankful to have one healthy, happy baby home.  We're just anxiously awaiting when we'll have two healthy, happy babies home!

Miracle Babies

Before writing this post, I went back and was looking at the posts from when they were first born and how tiny they were.  It's so amazing how far we have come in two months.  Brent and I have always said that these boys were miracles and that they truly have a purpose for being here.  This was reaffirmed for us today.  My OB finally got the pathology reports back on their placentas and the nurse who was giving me the report told me that 1) if she hadn't known our boys were doing as well as they were she would have made the doctor call and give me the report because it was that bad and 2) she had been doing this for over 40 years and it took a lot to shake her and when she read my report she had chills and couldn't believe our boys were as healthy as they are.  There wasn't one good thing in the pathology report and it was just down right ugly.  I know that we all had someone looking after us and that these boys are meant to do something truly wonderful!

So we are getting much closer to bringing babies home!  The NICU ordered all of Lennox and Paxton's pre-discharge tests yesterday.  These will take place over the next several days and the NICU staff have told us that Lennox will more than likely be discharged before Paxton.  They have told us that Lennox will probably come home sometime around Tuesday and Paxton will probably be about a week or so behind.  So exciting!!

Lennox has been taking a bottle for every feeding the past few days and has also nursed several times.  Paxton is getting a bottle for every other feeding and has nursed several times.  The boys have both passed their hearing screenings and have had their follow up ultrasounds of their heads, which came back normal.

The boys will both come home on apnea monitors.  This will measure and record their heart rate and breathing, alerting us to any abnormalities.  Although I am glad they are coming home with monitors, we had the training for the monitors today and they are by far the loudest things ever.  There is no volume control and we will literally be able to hear them from any place in our house.  They sound a lot like a smoke detector but a lot louder!  But better safe than sorry!  They have told us they will probably have the monitors anywhere from 3 to 6 months.

Also in very exciting news, Paxton got put in a real crib today!!  This week we also gained the title of NICU veterans, as we have been there longer than any other babies!

Paxton in his real crib

51 days

Today the boys are 51 days old, which makes this our 51st day in the NICU.  I want to start this post by saying how incredibly grateful we are to the NICU for taking care of our babies.  But this Momma is ready for her babies to come home.  I'm so ready for us to have a "normal" life again and for us to figure out what our life with two new babies at home will be.  Today makes 9 weeks that someone in our family has been in the hospital -- it is basically our second home.

Ok, I'm done with the whining and now onto the update.  Both boys are doing very well.  Paxton weighs 3 pounds 14 ounces and Lennox is 5 pounds!  Both are still learning to take a bottle.  They are offered a bottle every other feeding.  At this point, Lennox is doing a little better with the bottle than Paxton.  Occasionally while taking a bottle Paxton will forget to breathe and drop his heart rate.  He will have to quit this before he's allowed to come home.  I was given the 'go ahead' today to try and nurse the boys.  I was able to nurse Lennox this afternoon and he did great!  I will try with Paxton tomorrow.

Paxton in his first outfit

Paxton in his makeshift crib.  I call it his shoebox!
The NICU has so many babies that they are out of cribs, but we're next in line.

Paxton snuggled under the blanket his Gran made.

Lennox alert and awake.

Lennox

Lennox ready for a nap.

Pax Power!

Paxton

Paxton done with pictures.

As the boys gain weight, they are beginning to favor more and more.  I think all three boys are going to look alike and that you will definitely know they are brothers.  However, I cannot believe how much Paxton looks like Conley when he was a baby.  What do you think?

Paxton

Conley

Quick Update

So it's been an exciting few days around the Schwartz room at the NICU so I just wanted to post a quick update.  Both boys are doing excellent.  We have started working on taking a bottle!  Introducing the bottle is somewhat of a slow process because they get tired -- so for now the boys will have to show the cues that they want to try a bottle in order for one to be given.
Lennox got his first bottle Monday night and drank about 10ML the first time.  He was given three bottles yesterday and the last one he took all but 5ML!
Paxton got his first bottle last night and drank about 5ML.  Hopefully, he'll be ready to try again today.
Lennox weighs 4 pounds 5 ounces and Paxton weighs 3 pounds 6 ounces.

Again thank you for all of the continued prayers and thoughts!  I'll post more later -- including some new pictures!

Good News All Around!

Both boys are doing very well!  So here's an update through pictures!


We started the week off with some sweet brother love!  Paxton is on the left and Lennox is on the right.

Before having these boys I hadn't given much thought to the connection between twins, but I'm a definite believer.  These boys are so content when they are next to each other and I'm convinced they already communicate with each other.

And a little more brother love.  Again, Paxton is on the left and Lennox is on the right.

Lennox also hit a major milestone this week ... he started maintaining his own body temperature!  Below is a picture of him swaddled for the first time.  He was still in his isolette, but the heat was turned off!

After a few days of being in the isolette without heat, Lennox got moved to a crib today!  This was one proud Momma when I walked in and saw him in the crib.  Such a big boy!

Both boys have also been showing a lot of cues that they are learning when it's time to eat.  This is the first step towards getting to take a bottle/nurse (which is more than likely still a few weeks away).  They are both beginning to wake up around feedings and are taking a pacifier while being fed (this helps them to associate sucking with getting full).

Lennox sucking away on his paci.  I haven't been able to get a picture of Paxton with his paci.

Sweet Paxton relaxing with Mommy.

Late night kangaroo time with the boys.

Big brother Conley trying to see if he has enough pacis to share with his brothers.  He decided he did NOT!

31 days

It's incredibly hard to believe that these precious little boys are already a month old!  We've been in the NICU 31 days and somehow it just seems like a normal part of our life.  Both boys are doing very well.  The blood that Paxton was given last week has helped a lot -- so far all of his labs have looked great and we're hoping it stays that way.  Lennox's labs have also come back good -- it doesn't look like he will need blood!  Both boys have really been putting on the weight -- Paxton weighs 2 pounds 8.8 ounces and Lennox is 3 pounds 6.5 ounces.   Because we are doing so well, the NICU staff have labeled us "feeders and growers."  I've been waiting to get to this point because I feel like we can finally exhale a little and relax -- the boys basically just need to grow and put on weight.  The nurses have told us that they think in the next week or so, they will begin to see how Lennox does maintaining his own body temperature -- one step closer to coming home.

I was asked by a friend the other day, what "Kangarooing" was, as I had mentioned it on another post.  Kangaroo care has been shown to dramatically help premature babies and it is where the baby is held skin to skin with Mom or Dad -- that's why in most of our pictures of Lennox and Paxton you see us bare chested.  I've realized that I've become immersed in "NICU speak"  and forget that not everyone knows all of the terminology!

Sweet Paxton

Although Paxton looks incredibly sweet and peaceful in this picture, do not let this fool you.  My conversation with one of the nurses the other day:

Nurse: Sweet little Paxton is wild.  And I mean BUCK WILD!  He has been making me look bad all day.

Me:  Yes, he can get a little crazy sometimes.  What's he been doing today?

Nurse:  That boy kicks his bean bag off his legs and somehow gets himself to the end of the bed in the fetal position and makes it look like I threw him in the bed and walked away.  He's been doing this all day long.  I don't think he realizes how little he is -- he's not supposed to move that much. 

I think Paxton is always going to be the one who thinks he is bigger than he is and is going to be ready for anything!

By far my FAVORITE picture of Lennox so far! 

Don't want to leave big brother Conley out -- here's a picture of our newest trick.  I picked this picture because I don't want anyone to have the impression that we've actually mastered this parenting thing (with kids or dogs) and hopefully a few of you will get a good laugh!

Conley showing that he can climb on the table and
Blue showing that he still really rules this roost (at least in his head)! 

A Ripple in the Water

So this week we hit our first ripple in the water.  I think we all (Brent and I and all the staff in the NICU) had been waiting for our first little bump in the road.  Thursday, Paxton was given blood because his blood volume was very low, which was also causing him to have lots of heart rate and oxygen level drops.  The transfusion was given to him in two sessions and after the first session we could already see a big difference -- his color was pinker and he was having a lot fewer drops in heart rate and oxygen.  They re-checked his labs yesterday morning and his levels were back to normal.

Paxton having Kangaroo time with Daddy

Lennox's labs have also shown that his blood volume levels have dropped over the last few days, but they can tell that his body is trying very hard to start producing more red blood cells to increase his volume.  They are going to give him another couple of days to increase and re-check his levels -- if they haven't gone up he probably will be given blood as well.

Lennox having Kangaroo time with Daddy

I'm so thankful that the NICU staff is so wonderful and watch these boys so closely!  The boys are still doing incredibly well for how early they were.  We've been told that most babies born at 27 weeks usually need blood -- so this isn't anything abnormal.  We feel like if this is the worst ripple we hit, then we will be incredibly blessed.

In other news, this momma had a much needed girls night dinner the other night -- Thank you, thank you, Amanda and Lauren -- and Brent too!  I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful group of friends that are so supportive and giving -- I can't even explain how much it means!

We were also lucky to get to spend a few hours playing with Lauren and her family at Shelby Farms yesterday.  Conley had the best time hanging with big kids, Paul Carter and Elle!  We were so glad we got to hang out while they were in town from South Carolina.

Conley and Elle playing

Conley, Elle, Lauren, and Paul Carter

Trying to be big. Paul Carter was playing with this stick,
so as soon as he put it down Conley picked
 it up and tried to play with it.