Squash!

Grant tried squash last night. I hope the carseat cover is dry enough for church in the morning!!

Nina with Ethan (sitting) and Grant

Ethan and his tiger blanket, cute as can be!

Grant. Both boys are so expressive! This picture always makes me laugh.

Brothers. Grant is now about 12.5 pounds and Ethan is about 11.5. They had to stop sleeping in the same crib some time ago because one of them was always kicking the other in the head! Boys!!



Isn't that the sweetest?!?

Grant hanging out with his buddy, Lucas. Grant is one happy guy!

When Ethan decided he needed to eat every two hours in the afternoons, Mom decided it was time for cereal! He's not too keen on the idea just yet, though.

Grant has been eating rice cereal for a while and has now started carrots. That boy loves his carrots!!

A Busy Day!

Michael left for choir tour this morning. I missed getting to see him off this year, but yesterday we decided that I should go ahead and take Grant to the pediatrician and since they are "first come, first serve" on Saturdays we wanted to get there pretty early. Grant has had a little bit of cough and a tad bit of wheezing for a little over a week now. The cough wasn't a big deal, but I was worried about the wheezing and the rattling. Anyway, the pediatrician that was in today said he did have a bit of chest congestion and had a little bit of wheezing going on so she sent us with a prescription for an inhaler and a tube to use with it and we are hopeing it clears up within the week. Grant was so cute! I think he grinned at everyone he came across! We had a short wait in the room and we just laughed and played and had a good 'ole time! He goes back in a week and hopefully that will be cleared up. After the doctor we got our prescription, hurried home to pick up Ethan, feed both boys, unload the car (we found a baby food sale while waiting on our prescription!) and head back up the road to White Hall to visit with Michael's family. Somehow, after all that, I still had energy at the end of the day (while I was eating my 10:00 supper).

Now, to follow up on the previous post, Ethan has been released from the care of the ACH GI Clinic. Yay, Ethan!! His last tests showed that he is anemic, but his liver function tests are good enough that they are comfortable with the pediatrician monitoring them now. He is on an iron prescription now, which was a little worrisome at first when he's taking that, the multivitamin with iron, and the formula (which he refuses to take, anyway) has iron. Now he has started cereal, and that, too, is enriched with iron! The worrisome part comes in when you read the labels on the vitamin and the iron talking about the risk of overdose! So I have checked and double-checked that he wasn't getting too much. Now I'm just wondering how to keep the iron from staining his clothes!!

Boy, that energy I had faded quickly and I had to call it quits last night! It is now Sunday night and we've had a pretty good day. I haven't heard Grant wheezing any today, but I did have to pull the swaddle blankets back out so he won't startle himself awake so much on this medicine. I think it's just a cold (and I think he has shared it with Ethan, too!)
This is my brother, Alan, with his youngest, Carson, and with Ethan. This was a few weeks ago when our family was camping at Maumelle. Please be in prayer for Alan and his family. He started radiation Friday and has 4 more treatments scheduled. Monday and Wednesday's treatments are at 11:00 and Friday's is at 8:00 so that, hopefully, he and his wife will be able to go home and see thier kids for the weekend. Then he'll return for a 3:00 treatment the following Monday. We would really appreciate extra prayers for him at those times.
I have more pictures to upload, but it is taking too long tonight... maybe tomorrow.

Four Months Already

Where does the time go? In the past month Grant and Ethan have grown a lot! They had their four month well visit and we learned that preemies should double their birth weight by the time they are six months old. Grant and Ethan passed that mark a while back! Their pediatrician, Dr. Salman, seems pleased with their progress. We have to work a little more with Ethan on some things, but he is doing great. We should get updated liver test results this week and Friday he has a High Risk Newborn doctors appointment at Children's (and I have no idea what that entails).

This is just a picture of Grant being cute. I could also include Grant looking thoughtful, Grant looking funny, Grant looking mad, and on and on...

"Do you know where that hand has been?"

Ethan in his fishing get-up.

We had Ethan & Grant's baby dedication on June 7th. They are very well behaved boys! Ethan locked his focus in on something and kept it there until he finally fell asleep. Not even Bro. Allen could distract him! Grant gave out a few grins and just about started talking, but then he just went back to grinning and then to sleep. I know we won't always have it so easy!

Down time with the crew before daddy got home.

Sleep Deprivation

Life with twins is tiring! Really, I imagine life with just one premature baby would be tiring! I think we are almost out of the stage where we have got to make sure Ethan & Grant eat every 3 to 4 hours, day or night! I just weighed Grant and he is now 10 lbs 4 oz. His pediatrician said that she wanted them to be 10-12 lbs before we took away any night feeds. Michael will be so excited!
Ethan had some more blood work done recently and his liver function is still improving. I think the doctors had anticipated it being normal by now, but we're not there yet, so we'll test again on June 18th. I'm thinking Ethan may keep us on our toes as he gets older. I often catch him with such a mischievous look on his face!

This past weekend we went to visit my great aunt. She is 95 years old. I was really glad that Ethan and Grant got to meet Aunt Fain. We always have to make surprise visits now because if she knows we are coming she wants to cook us a full course meal! She is pretty well blind now and uses a walker, but she is doing great. She said for new recipes these days she has to remember the recipe because she can no longer read them. I couldn't imagine what I would come up with if I were making everything from memory! She has a lady that comes in to help her some during the week. She is 84! Aunt Fain joked that she can't remember for the both of them! (Apparently Aunt Fain's caretaker is starting to be forgetful). Anyway, we had a good visit.


Now, for all of you who have had the pleasure of meeting my dogs and wondering what we did with them after the arrival of the boys... my mom & dad took "the girls" once I was admitted to the hospital. Eventually, the girls were allowed up for a visit to see how they would react to Grant & Ethan. Amazingly, they hardly even took notice! Still, they both went back to my parents house two hours away. The next weekend, Sierra got to come back and is doing great with Grant and Ethan, and even with Lauren, the babysitter. I haven't told Lauren this yet, but after only 3 days Sierra has started crying at the door when Lauren leaves. Spotter is a bit more "bull in a china closet" type dog and has a bit of a chewing problem (blue tooth earpieces, keyless entry for the car, corner of the dresser, corner of the cedar chest, ink cartridge, lots of ink pens, and I could go on...), so she is now an outside dog at my dad's. Pretty amazing for a guy who often says "One dog is one dog too many." Even after I've moved away my dad still has to deal with my adoptees (he currently has two of them and one that he and my mom adopted on their own, ha!). Anyway, I think that gets everyone up to date! Goodnight!

Mother's Day Weekend

First of all, let me say a big "Thank You!" to my mom & Michael's mom for coming up and keeping the boys when I went back to work. Aren't mother's great. We love you both!!
Our exciting news for this weekend is that we can now let the boys sleep up to 4 hours between feeds! What a difference an hour makes. I feel so much more rested. There are still times when it's just three hours between a feeding, but it still is a huge difference. Other exciting news is that, because Michael and I changed our mind about insurance, we were double insured from the boys birth until April 1, 2 days after Ethan was released! This, on top of verifying that the person I talked to in the hospital billing department really couldn't read the info right and we really don't owe them $45,000.00 after insurance paid their part! Ha! I couldn't believe that, so I asked her about five times and then waited until Monday and spoke to insurance folks (who really didn't clear anything up) and then the bill came in. No where near $45,000.00!! Oh, and all of that was for Ethan. I think the've lost Grant's big claim. Who knows?!?
Anyway, it's been a good week and we are all doing great. Michael is off this week to keep the boys until the babysitter (Lauren) starts, so ya'll all say a quick prayer for him. It can be quite tiring!

This picture was taken the day after the boys turned 2 months old. I wrapped Ethan up in a baby burrito and put him on his back. About 10 minutes later, this is what I found!! I can't tell you the number of times we dug the boys out of the bumper pads when we had the mattress raised to help with Ethan's reflux. So much for all of those crib safety rules. We do try, though!
I finally got Ethan's test results from the GI Clinic. His liver is still enlarged and his LFT's (Liver Function Tests) are elevated, but they are improved. We go back again on the 13th of May for more tests. Poor little guy has been poked and prodded so much, but he's a trooper. Thankfully he won't remember all this when he's older! As for the audiologist appointment, after about 2 hours Ethan passed his hearing test (one of them anyway). Basically, he can hear, but he has fluid in one of his ears and we'll have to go back again when he's a year old. Hopefully that too will clear up on its own.
The boys are 8 lbs 5 oz and 7 lbs 5 oz now. Grant weighs twice what he did when he was born! He was laying on the couch with his dad today and they were cooing at each other and making faces. So cute! I feel like I'm already missing so much being back at work now. They do grow so fast.