Home Sweet Home

Both babies are now home!  Praise God!  My due date wasn't until August 9th so we're feeling so blessed that they're both home already.  Aryanna came home on July 15th after 52 days in the NICU and Anthony came home on July 18th after 55 days in the NICU.  Aryanna's only follow-up appointments besides the pediatrician are the ophthalmologist and our pediatrician would like both of them to see a pulmonologist (lung doctor) since they came home on oxygen.  We took them to the ophthalmologist today and they are both out of the woods for ROP (Retinopathy of Prematurity - a condition that many preemies develop where the blood vessels in their eyes develop irregularly) so we don't have to follow up with that anymore!  Yay!  Anthony will follow up with the cardiologist in a few weeks to check on his PDA (the condition that caused his heart murmur) but when they checked it before he left the hospital it was much smaller than it had been.  He couldn't take meds for it because of his brain bleed so we're so grateful that it's closing on its own and he hasn't needed surgery to close it!  He will also be seen in a few weeks at Mercy on an outpatient basis for a follow-up head ultrasound to check on the swelling in his brain.  I'm no doctor, but his soft spot sure feels better than it did when they were having to do all of the spinal taps.  We're daily amazed at the ways God has worked in the lives of our sweet babies!  Our last week in the hospital we were telling nurses that we were going home that week and several of them asked, "Both of them?"  I think that they were all shocked that Anthony got to go home so soon after Aryanna.  They're both such miracles!

Aryanna & Anthony on their respective going home days:

Thanks for my cute headband, Shawn!

Our little monkey

 NICU Graduates!!!

 Aren't they so tiny in their car seats?!

Life at home has been WONDERFUL and CRAZY!  We love being able to snuggle them and it's so nice not having to leave them at the hospital at night.  However, life with two infants is extremely busy.  It's rare we even find a moment to sit down.  My mom came down on Wednesday night and stayed with us until Sunday morning and it was such a blessing to have an extra set of hands while we figured out a routine.  I think she probably needed a vacation (or just a couple of days to catch up on sleep) after spending a few days with us.  Not only are we feeding, changing, bathing them, etc but they have so many appointments!  Because they're on oxygen we've had home health here delivering/setting up oxygen 3 times already.  We also have a visiting nurse that comes twice a week and occupational therapy that comes once a week.  Last week we had to go to the pediatrician twice (once for Aryanna, once for Anthony) for their initial appointments with her and we'll see her again this week for their 2 month appointment/immunizations (they're going to be 2 months old on Wednesday - how can that be?!)  Then today, we had their appointment with the ophthalmologist.  Phew!  It's busy, but we're grateful we have so many resources available to us to help our babies grow and develop.

Bath time:

Just chillin' in my bath tub

Check out my faux hawk

Warming up with mommy after my bath

You would not believe the equipment these kiddos have either.  They each have a large oxygen tank with a 25' cannula for around the apartment.

When we have to go out we switch to portable oxygen tanks that last about 5 hours each.  They're both also hooked up to apnea monitors around the clock.  Those alarm if they quit breathing for more than 20 seconds or if their heart rate gets too high or too low.  They also have pulse ox machines that we put on them a couple of times a day to do a spot check of their blood oxygen levels and heart rates.  It's a hassle hauling everything with us when we go out and we're untangling chords all the time, but again, we're so grateful for all of this equipment so they can be home with us and the machines do give us peace of mind knowing that they'll alarm if they quit breathing.  (We had to take infant CPR before they discharged them from the hospital, but we sure hope we'll never have to use it).

Apnea monitors and pulse ox machines 

Here's everything we take with us when we go out:
portable oxygen tank for each, each baby's apnea
monitor, extra tanks, diaper bag and Anthony and Aryanna.
It takes us about 45 minutes to get organized to get
out the door.  Needless to say we don't plan on going
anywhere unless we have to!

We are very excited for Anthony and Aryanna to meet all their prayer warriors and for all of you to meet these two sweet little miracles. However, because they’re preemies and their immune systems are so fragile we would like to hold off on visitors for a little while. Aryanna got some sort of stomach flu last week even without being around anyone else so we just have to very careful, especially with them being on oxygen. We're anxious to show them off (we think they're pretty cute), but also want what's best for them.  We waited so long for them to come home from the hospital and would hate for them to end up back there.  We'll do our best to keep the blog updated and post lots of pictures :)

Reunited after a few days apart:

Baby Power!

Milk coma

Is there anything sweeter than a sleeping baby?

 Our little cuties:

Aryanna says, "Thanks for all the prayers!
I'm praying for all of you, too!"

Thank you for all the prayers!  We're so, so blessed and so grateful that they're home.  We appreciate your prayers for their continued growth and development, that they would continue to eat well and gain weight (Aryanna is 5 lbs 1.5 oz and Anthony is 6 lbs 2 oz now!!!) and that they would be protected from future illness.