Punkin & Pickle

The girls are continuing to grow and learn new things everyday. Last week we had a meeting with a child developmental specialist who is now going to come once a month to evaluate the girls and have some special play time. The good news is that the girls are actually beyond where they should be for their gestational age of almost 7 weeks. They of course are not up to the development level of four month olds, but the goal is for them to be caught up developmentally by the time they are two years of age. We are very proud of them and how well they are doing! Of course Adam and I knew they were very smart! So we now have some massages and exercises we are doing everyday to work on motor skills etc...This is part of our "fun-awake" time everyday. It is very exciting because everyday we can see them learning new things and becoming more aware of their surroundings. They have both started smiling in response to Adam and I talking to them. This new development is so rewarding for us. It is actually beginning to seem like they know us. I can't tell you how happy and excited this makes mommy and daddy!! We now spend our evenings acting like complete crazy people trying to get them to laugh and smile at us. What fun! They are both cooing some and Renna has started trying to respond to us with coos when we talk to her. She will likely be our little talker. Who am I kidding anyone who knows me has no doubt that both my girls will be little talkers just like their mommy. Poor Adam will never get a word in once that starts. Last week the girls also got their four month shots (yes they are technically almost 5 months old). Ugh! They were very cranky for a few days but are feeling fine now. As a mom it is so hard to watch them get their shots and usually results in all three of us crying. I could not be the person to hold their arms down and let them look at my face while they were screaming in pain. So poor Adam had to be the bad guy. The good news about the doctor visit is that she was very pleased with how much they had grown. Renna weighed 10lbs. 15oz. and Reagan weighed 9lbs. 13oz! I was shocked at how much they weighed. She said we could start stretching the day feedings out to four hours. We have not tried this so far because every three hours they seem to be starving and I haven't been brave enough to make it thru an hour of crying just to stretch it out. As long as they keep gaining and eating well we may keep doing the three hour schedule. We have officially run out of breast milk for Renna and at the doctor's suggestion switched her to Reagan's whey protein formula. The hope is that this will help her with her constipation problems as well. We will keep you posted on the pooping progress. Reagan will also be going to see a dermatologist in a few weeks for a bump above her eye. We believe it started with a mosquito bite but it isn't going away so the doctor has referred us to yet another specialist, a pediatric dermatologist. Hopefully we get good news about this. I guess I should explain the title of the post. I have always called the girls my little punkins. Well Adam decided they should have different nicknames and just blurted out Renna should be Punkin' and Reagan our little Pickle. So it has kind of started sticking this week. I am sure it will be something we will look back on and laugh about with the girls one day. So we will keep you posted on the many adventures of Punkin' & Pickle.

Weekend of Food, Fun, and Friends!

Moose, Amber, Renna, Reagan, and myself at the Zoo.
Renna, Reagan, and Natalie at the Park.

Twincesses...ess...sss..err, wait how do you spell that?




The beirox in all its glory!



Renna doing her Shiloh Pitt impression (you know..Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's daughter)

Lately, as many of you know, we have been trying to quarantine ourselves from the rest of the world due to this little virus running around called H1N1. Every time I turn on the news I hear about another unfortunate child has either been hospitalized or died due to this dreaded influenza variant. With the history we've had with hospitals and our girls, we are in no hurry to return there anytime soon. Therefore, we've been having less visitors over and have only been taking the girls out to their doctor's appointments, and to Sonic (they never get to leave the car on these trips of course, nor do they get to order off the menu, purely selfish on our part). So after about two months of this we have gone a little stir crazy, and have decided to branch out a little and take the girls out to the park for a little stroll in their carriers. We even got to enjoy some time with our friends Sonya and Darran during this outing, and got a great picture of the their daughter Natalie and our girls together. We really enjoyed our time out of the house and thought "lets try this again!", tempting fate of course. So on Sunday, we made a trip to the Zoo and our first restaurant with our good friends Moose and Amber. So the task in one of these outings is to first and foremost keep all potential H1N1 carriers out of reach, even if this means running and screaming from people as if they have the plague. Outdoor spaces are a must, as "dilution is the solution to pollution". Potential H1N1 carriers include, but are not limited to: young people, old people, everyone in between, and anyone who coughs, sneezes, has watery eyes, runny nose, or looks like they might be thinking of getting sick. So pretty much everyone falls under this category. So if you see us out and want to chat, but we seem very awkward and almost antisocial, now you know why. Secondly, you must at all times keep your hand sanitizer handy, and not be afraid to use it even if you look ridiculous, even if all your friends laugh at you and think you are a "germ-a-phobe". That being said, we feel so much better having been able to get out and enjoy the great weather this weekend though. We did have a "scare" though at the restaurant, when twin girls (no joke what are the odds?) at the table behind us started coughing like 3 times while we were there. If I could only get a picture of Mendy and I after every time they coughed. You would have thought they tried to throw flaming hatchets at our daughters! The audacity of the girls, to cough and possibly spread infection so close to their own kind! But, I digress. One of the other exciting events this weekend was the making of the infamous bierox by my lovely wife. Now I know a lot of you are saying "big deal Mendy made some fancy German dish", but there is a little back story to this that will explain why it's such a monumental event for her to make, and me to eat, bierox. This is apparently a "German hamburger" that Mendy and her college roommate (thanks Michelle) made during their wild and crazy college years. While Mendy and I were dating in undergrad, she would often tell me about this elusive bierox and how great it was with its' warm crispy homemade bread exterior and its zesty hamburger, cheese, and cabbage interior. She would always end one of these tongue titillating tales with "I'll have to make that for you some day". So the days passed, and then the months, and pretty soon we were out of that "we're dating and I'll do anything for you phase", and moving swiftly into the "we're married and I just don't have time to do that right now, but I promise I'll get around to it" stage. Every time Mendy would say "what do you want for dinner?", what was my reply? Bierox please! And she would retort "I don't have time tonight", or "I have to get the ingredients for that first honey". So the years passed, and no sign of the elusive bierox to be found. Then we had the girls, and Mendy's mothering instinct kicked in. So what do I do? I planted the seed of "Sure would love to come home from work one day and try some of that bierox" and BAM! this Friday was the day I had hoped and dreamed of. And let me tell you, those Germans got it right, nothing like it in the world. It sounds like it really shouldn't taste that good; bread exterior filled with a warm mash of hamburger, cheese, and boiled cabbage, but let me tell you I couldn't get enough of them. So I've included a picture of a couple of fine specimens right before I ate 'em. I've got to thank Mendy's mom, Debbie, for coming out every week not only to help with the girls, but also for helping with the bierox undertaking. Good times!

16 weeks old

Reagan sticking out her tongue

Renna blowing bubbles

Well after more than two weeks of illness we are finally feeling better and off of antibiotics. It is amazing how much a little virus can take out of you, especially when you have two sick newborns to care for. The girls turned 16 weeks old this week (4 weeks gestational age) and are continuing to grow by leaps and bounds. Two days ago we moved out of the newborn diaper size. We are still wearing newborn clothes but they are rapidly becoming too small. However, the 0-3 months clothes still seem way too big. I am sure it won't be that way for long. Renna now weighs 9lbs 10oz. and Reagan weighs 8lbs. 6oz.!!!! Such big girls! We have come such a long way. It is so fun to watch them become more aware of each other and of us. They have started looking at lights and will now follow Elmo when you dance him in front of them. Reagan has rolled once from her back to her tummy and once from her tummy to her back. I am pretty sure that she had no idea that she did it. The first time she did it was a 3:30 AM feeding and Adam was changing her diaper and she started screaming and just threw her leg around and flipped over. Adam and I were in disbelief. So far she hasn't repeated this. Reagan has also discovered she has a tongue and likes to stick it out a lot. It is so cute! Renna is getting really strong with her neck and is starting to use her little arms to push herself up a little during tummy time. Her favorite thing to do is blow bubbles with her saliva. It is really strange and as veterinarians we are a little concerned she might have rabies!! Ha! ha! Just this evening Renna rolled for the first time from her tummy to her back. She hates tummy time so that was her motivation. We are starting to get on a schedule as far as the sleeping and waking goes. We have been on it for about a week and so far it is working for us and helping us get a little more sleep at night. Hopefully it will continue. It is so hard to keep two newborns awake by yourself when they want to go to sleep! I wish I could sleep that soundly! We are still basically quarantined from the rest of the world in hopes that we don't get any more viruses or of course the dreaded swine flu. We appreciate everyone that has offered to come help, visit, and bring food. It really means a lot to us and we can't wait to get through flu season so we can start taking the girls out and showing them off! We tried to get some pictures of Reagan with her tongue out and Renna with the bubbles. This was a very difficult task. Hopefully you get the idea.

Here come the viruses!

Renna

Reagan

Since the girls have been home from the hospital we have been very very careful about not taking them in to public places. We really have only been out for doctor appointments. We have been very strict about visitors, hand washing, no children have come over, etc.... This was all under direction of the doctors at the hospital and our pediatrician. All of these efforts have not been easy but we assumed would keep our girls from getting sick. I mean I knew nothing is 100% but I thought at least they wouldn't get sick until winter time. So you guessed it...I was totally wrong...they have their first of many upper respiratory viruses. It started with Reagan being really fussy and having an occasional cough with a lot of nasal congestion. Now it has progressed into full blown coughing and stuffy nose...poor little lady. So far she has not run a fever so we are very thankful of that. She was feeling bad enough on Friday that she started not wanting to eat very much so we took her back to the doctor (second time in a week) and they took a chest x-ray and said her chest is still clear. So that was really good news. Then they of course gave us the dreaded warning that if she didn't start eating by Saturday (at least 10-12 ounces) then she would need to be hospitalized again. You can imagine our reaction to that after what the have already been through, and so we were determined to prevent another hospital stay. All day Friday we did feedings of pedialyte and milk every two hours. Of course it took us almost an hour to get a bottle and her antibiotic down her and then we would start again. Thank goodness my mom was here to help while Adam was at work. Meanwhile Renna started coughing and not feeling well. Welcome to the world of twins, when one gets sick the other is sure to follow! Anyways long story short Reagan finally started eating better on Friday night and is feeling better now. She is still coughing and miserable but is eating better. Our Renna now has a more stuffy nose than Reagan and has started coughing even more today! To top it all off Adam and I both now have sore throats. Great! Maybe everyone should just steer clear of us for awhile! The girls being sick has made us realize how easy we had it when we just were feeding two healthy babies. I need to also rejoice that my mother in law came and stayed last night and helped Adam with the girls so I could get seven hours of sleep in a row!! It was so wonderful. I have the best husband and family. For all those who are on the edge of their seats wondering what I decided to do about the pumping...I have decided to quit gradually. So I went from pumping every three hours at feeding times to pumping at every other feeding. It is quite a relief and I am hoping this will gradually allow my milk to start decreasing so it won't be so painful to just stop. We decided since Reagan can no longer have breast milk and Renna only gets it for half of her bottles we can sustain her with what I have in the freezer for a long time. I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to never seeing that stupid pump again. The hardest part is that I feel like a quitter since I worked so hard to make enough milk for two babies. Oh well, I guess at least I know I could have done it under different circumstances. My congratulations to all moms who strictly breast feed! It is not an easy task.

Pumping, Pooping, and everything in between!

I can honestly say that I've never been so excited about the smell of warm steamy baby poop in my entire life! I mean, I put it right up there with fresh baked rolls on a cold winter morning. The girls have been having the most delightful bowel movement schedule with an average of one stool every 24-48 hours. Dont get me wrong, changing a dirty diaper still has its down-side, but the shear joy of knowing that your babies aren't full of crap anymore is priceless. On a less stinky note, Renna has developed a ravenous appetite. Mendy and I are really quite scared for Reagan, as the two are sharing a crib right now. Just last week we noticed that if Reagans hands or arms got too close to Renna's mouth, Renna would open up wide like a great white shark, and try to chomp down on poor Reagans unfortunate appendage. This week Renna has moved on to trying to eat Reagan head first like some sort of baby python....I see years of therapy for these two in the future. Our GI doctor has put Reagan on a formula exclusive diet, and changed her type of formula as well, which has seemed to help a great deal. Now we have more trouble with Renna in the GI area that we do with Reagan. I'm actually hoping that we can switch Renna over to the new formula as well just in case she has the same problem as Reagan. This would also give Mendy a free pass to stop breast-pumping. Although Mendy is a religious pumper (every 3 hours whether they need it or not) I can attest to the fact that those milk-suckers hurt (insert quote about milking anything with nipples Greg), and would not mind if Mendy quit pumping tommorrow. That being said, she has worked so hard for so long (to the point of third-degree flange burn for those of you familiar with the "milker lingo"), and stopping now almost feels like all of her hard work would be wasted. Nonetheless, going outside and smashing that blasted breast pump and its components on the concrete would be very rewarding for both of us. We also got to bring Laney, our maltese, back home this week. She seems very curious about the girls, but at the same time wants to keep her distance from them. We havent had any biting from either parties yet, so we consider ouselves lucky. Laney did have an accident in the middle of the living room when we got her home, but I like to think that this was just encouragement for the girls. The schedule of feeding every four hours at night is great. Well, that is when you can actually get them to sleep before the three thirty feeding...trust me, many nights they are not. When they do sleep it is a blessing to have an extra hour here and there. We have been so blessed to have our family home, and can't thank everyone who has helped us out enough for all their support. We are posting a few more pictures from our photo shoot at home and one of the cannibal at work. We tried to get some little cowgirl pictures during our photoshoot, but it was harder than it looks!

Full term babies!

Well things went good with the GI doctor. We found out both girls have anal-rectal stenosis, which basically means their little bottom doesn't open up like it should. The opening is too tight! I will let you just imagine the jokes that Adam has made about this. The good news is that with some stretching they should be fine. Renna has already started showing some improvement and has been having more regular bowel movements. Reagan is still struggling quite a bit. The GI doctor suggested possibly trying her on all formula to see if the hormones in the breast milk are the problem. We started trying that this week. We will see if it works. I would love to get our little girl some relief from all the straining and stomach aches. The other news I was very excited about it that he said I could go back on dairy. Yeah! You wouldn't believe the amount of cheese I have consumed to make up for lost time! Things have been going really well. The girls turned 12 weeks old today. We can't believe they are really that old, they also hit another milestone as today was their official due date. We now have full term babies! They are starting to realize they are full term because Renna has decided she cannot consume enough milk to keep her full this week. Reagan is eating good too but is not ravenous like her big sister. We had their two month well check today (we are about a month behind) at the doctor and we were shocked at home much they had gained in just one week. Renna weighs 7lbs. 90z. so all of that eating is paying off. Reagan is growing as well and weighs 6lbs. 12oz. Our little ladies have come a long way from two pounds in just 12 weeks. I wonder how big they will be in 12 more weeks? Can't wait to watch them continue to grow. They also got their first set of shots today, with many more to follow. After everything they have been through the shots didn't seem to bother them too much. So far our schedule has been feeding every three hours even at night. We wake them up regularly to feed them if they are sleeping when the 3 hour mark hits. Today we got the okay to try a four or five hour stretch at night if they will allow it. I am very excited about this but I'm not sure how the girls will tolerate it since they are pretty used to their three hour schedule. They have been on this schedule even at the NICU since they were about two weeks old. My mom is coming to stay tonight so we are going to try the four hour stretch and see how it goes. I will keep you posted. We had the girls newborn pictures taken about two weeks ago and the photographer posted three of them on her blog. If you want to take a look it is http://www.deshazophotography.com/ and then it is under her blog. We think they came out pretty cute. Also Adam did a little photo session with them and those are the pictures I am posting today. He did a great job, I am very proud of him for his first session with them. I think they look very professional. My friend Crystal made the tutus. Aren't they cute? Thanks Crystal! We will post more pictures later because we took a lot of good ones.

Multi-tasking Mommy

Just wanted to type a quick update. We have had a crazy week of adjustments here at our house! We are more tired than we have ever been and the house has never looked worse; however, we are loving every minute of it. My mom got sick last week so we have been on our own a lot. We have had our in-laws and lots of friends come to help so I can sleep which I greatly appreciate. Thanks to everyone who came and helped out. Good news is that I did one entire day by myself while Adam was at work. This may not sound hard but it really was. It is getting easier as we become better at multi-tasking. This may be too much information but I have now mastered feeding a baby a bottle while pumping!! Not as easy as it sounds but it saves me about twenty minutes, which is priceless and means possibly a little more sleep. But at least I now know that I can manage the two babies by myself. The girls are doing okay. We are still having pooping problems with Renna and Reagan. Renna is having some irregularities but seems to get better eventually and doesn't seem uncomfortable with it. Miss Reagan however, gets really uncomfortable and can't sleep and generally just has a meltdown. Poor little lady. I think she may have some colic as well. Anyways we took her to the doctor for her followup from the NICU and her belly as usual was bloated and she hadn't pooped in four and a half days (even with suppositories)! We discussed her problems with the doctor and we decided to pursue a workup with a Pediatric Gastroenterologist. That appointment is next week. Hopefully he will have some ideas or answers on how to make her a little more comfortable. We are also trying to give some Apple Prune juice to the girls. The doctor suggested this in the middle of their every three hour feedings at least twice a day! Are you kidding? It takes me almost an hour to feed both of them and pump so that gives me less than thirty minutes to clean bottles and get them a juice bottle. After all this they eat again in an hour and then aren't hungry to drink their milk bottles. I have been managing to get one juice bottle down them a day. We will see if that helps for now. The pediatrician also suggested I stop eating dairy to see if this helps. Yikes!! For those of you who know me well you know my favorite food is cheese. I would put cheese on everything. So this is proving hard for me but will be worth it if it helps my little Reagan. I will keep you all posted on the progress. In the mean time no one mention cheese around me...it is amazing how many things have dairy in them when you start thinking about it. Well I must go get back on my schedule...I hope it doesn't seem like I am complaining because I am actually loving all of my time spent at home with my little cowgirls.