Brittani's photos of the twins

My sister in law took these photos of the twins about three weeks ago:

Twin Update: Rinse and Repeat

You would think that since it's been nearly a month with no twin updates, we must have our hands full with the twins and be horribly sleep deprived.
The truth is that no. We're caught in a weird Star Trek TNG plot where time seems to repeat itself daily without noticeable progress. Every morning, Brooke goes to the hospital at 7am and tries to get the twins to eat - and every morning they're too sleepy to make any substantial progress. The doctors scratch their heads, predict that this weekend will be the one where they take off (like the last 3) and assure us that they'll be home in no time. Brooke pumps all day and freezes the excess milk that she doesn't take back to the hospital for the twins' feeding tubes.  Then at 7pm, we find babysitters to watch Lizzie while we go try to feed the sleepy twins again.
We've now been in this time loop for a month. We try to keep our spirits up, and the doctors keep assuring us that at least they're stable, they're not going to die - they're just also not going to survive outside that environment yet.
Well today is different, we're going to try letting them get real hungry for a change.  Let's see if that puts a little motivation into their sleepy heads.
Thanks again to all the family and friends who make this routine possible, and hopefully we'll break free of the loop soon.

Ok, monologue done.  Now cute baby pictures taken from the few times we can get them to wake up:

Pensarías que ya cuando ha sido casi un mes sin noticias en nuestro blog, debemos tener nuestras manos llenas con los gemelos y estar bien cansados.

Pero la verdad es que no. Estamos atrapados en un episodio de Star Trek donde el tiempo parece repetirse todos los idas sin progreso notable. Cada mañana, Brooke va al hospital as las 7 y trata dar a los gemelos ganas de comer - y todas las mañanas están tan cansados que no comen. Los médicos se rascan la cabeza, predicen que este fin de semana será aquel en que se mejoran (como los últimos 3) y nos aseguran que estarán en casa pronto.  Toda la leche que no llevamos al hospital congelamos y regresamos al hospital a las 7 de la tarde para repetir.

Ya hemos estado en este lazo temporal por un mes. Nos esforzamos por mantener el ánimo y los medios nos aseguran que por lo menos están estables: no van a morir, pero tampoco pueden sobrevivir fuera del hospital ahorita.

Pues bien, hoy es diferente: hoy vamos a dejar de alimentarlos tanto - a ver si el hambre les da ánimo por aprender. Gracias otra vez a todos los que nos auydan a mantener este situacion dificil.

Bueno, ahora que he hecho mi monólogo, aquí están algunas fotos de los gemelos en los mementos cuando están despiertos.

Twins' Arrival, Part 2

Again, we could go through weeks of detailed stories, but really what you want to see is the photos. Suffice to say they got over the jaundice in a day, they got off their IV's by the end of the first week and this week they're starting to work on feeding themselves.  As soon as they get that part down, they can come home and be regular babies for a change.

The bilirubin lights illuminated half the nursery.  It was like they were basking in the sunlight of a foreign star.

Tavian, weighing a pound more than his sister, is a little more alert during feedings.

They're both 17" tall, but our best attempts to describe how small that really is never seem to convey reality.

When they got close to their birthweight a few days ago, they got upgraded to a larger crib. Tavian, as you can see, appreciated the elbow room.

Abbie doesn't open her eyes much, but she occasionally gets the cutest grins while dreaming.

And when awake, she just likes looking around.

Tavian now tries to stay up as long as he can at each feeding to see more of the world.

Lizzie can still only look in through the window, but we decided to try and get a family photo.

Twins' Arrival, Part 1

As all of you probably know via email, the twins arrived.  I'd bore you with details but you really just want to see the photos.

Lizzie loved the munchy food Brooke had around the house in those last weeks.  Most of it was healthy, the oreos were not.

Brooke's final size a week before giving birth to twins.

The twins arrived - on the first night when Brooke still wasn't allowed out of bed they wheeled her into the nursery so she could meet the two new additions.

The twins were then moved to the NICU.  It was/is a surreal experience to go visit your kids in hospital during their visiting hours (we can go anytime, the twins are on a 3-hour day so trying to show up when they're awake is the goal).  The staff have been awesome about trying to make us comfortable and it helps that half of them are extended family.

Because of their prematurity and the horrible flu season, Lizzie has only met her siblings through glass.  Only parents and grandparents are allowed in.

These are the sock monkey hats made by my sister-in-law Brittani which fit perfectly. Tavian Anthony is on the left, Abigail Elouise is on the right.