Austin heading home today?

Just a quick update here, mainly for the pictures I haven't uploaded lately.  But we are about to leave for the hospital this afternoon, hopefully to bring Austin home!  He was set to be discharged this morning, but they wanted to do his final eye exam while they still had him there.  Because of the potential for the procedure to disrupt things they may decide to hold him back, but his nurses think it will happen anyway today.  Pretty exciting that a baby born 2.5 months premature is actually coming home on his 2 month birthday!  We'll update the blog later with info and more pics.

Sleeping beauty

My favorite picture of Malia so far

Austin getting lunch

Taking it down like a champ

Taking a break, must be storing acorns in those cheeks

Austin was trialed in his car seat yesterday, in which he had to sit for 90 minutes after a feed.  Aside from a short-lived cry, he fell right asleep and did great for the whole time.  We're so proud of our little man!
He still looks so small in his car seat, but rest assured, he's the big man at the Hoag NICU today!

He didn't mind his car seat challenge at all

Funny how small he looks relative to his car seat

As for Malia, she should have just a little more time left at the hospital, and they will try to move her forward in her bottle feedings.  She's doing great, and on the cusp of the 5 lb. mark.  She's a little slower with the feeding reflex, but she's making great progress and we expect it will be another week or two max.

Stay tuned for more updates later!

36 Week Update

Austin and Malia's steady progress in the last few weeks allowed us to finally get some family in to see the babies and even get some holding time.  Our families loved the experience not only for the bonding, but most of them were pretty far removed from holding such a small baby (if at all).

Malia with Lolo Manny for the first time

Malia with Auntie Marta for the first time

Austin with Uncle Randy for the first time

Here are some pics I forgot to post from last weekend when most of my family was in town for Cheryl's baby shower.

Malia with Grandpa Vlasich for the first time

Austin with Grandma Vlasich for the first time  

Austin with his Great Auntie Marilyn for the first time

It was the July 4th holiday this week, as well as my birthday.  Quite a nice birthday present to see our babies doing so well!

Dr. Wickham's wife knitted caps for all of the NICU babies in celebration of the 4th.

I think Malia wore it better; Austin's cap barely fit on his huge melon!

Cheryl took this amazing self-portrait for my birthday. If you're wondering, the red glow of the pulse oximeter was not staged to give her a glowing E.T. heart, but fits into the composition beautifully.

Austin, 35w3d

Malia, 35w3d

 Austin has been bottle-feeding so well, it could be just days till he comes home.  He's still a little unpredictable, but taking just about all of his feedings on his own.  We have been scrambling all weekend trying to figure out if we're ready for their transition home.  We're not there quite yet, but getting close!

Malia's feedings have been going very well in the last few days also, and it seems the the light bulb has illuminated for her hunger and suck/swallow response.  It once again shows that she's just about a week behind her brother, which will surely be negligible with every successive month.

Malia 35w6d

Malia showing off her bottle skills

Our little blondie, 35w6d

I finally got to tandem hold the babies tonight.  Much harder than I thought, but awesome!

It's starting to sink in that our babies are just guests of the Hoag NICU; soon to be graduates whom we expect will leave the hospital looking plump and healthy as a full-term baby.  I'm quite sure that we weathered the storm through an eventful pregnancy and preemie phase with the twins.  It will sure be an emotional day when we close this chapter and transition into real parenthood.  

35 week update

It was a great weekend for me and Cheryl with the kids, but yesterday we learned that our friends Brian and Jamie lost the second of their preemie twins.  Their pregnancy was so similar to ours; boy/girl twins, mom ordered to bed rest at nearly the same stage as Cheryl, and Kaia and Kole were born sometime in their 25 week of gestation.  Their short lives were both a hard-fought battle, and their families endured horrifying setbacks throughout.  I can only hope that they find some peace in this tragic outcome.  We hug our babies with the utmost appreciation, both in recognition of the NICU parents not as fortunate and with humble gratitude for how far our babies have come.

Austin was transported back to Hoag on Saturday morning, and the nurses were all so excited to see him back after nearly two weeks at CHOC.  Many of the nurses have peeked in to see him, and remark at how big he's gotten.  He really is doing well across the board, and his bottle feeding is going well enough that the nurses say it may not be too much longer until he comes home.  Basically, their readiness for home has less to do with weight and more to do with feeding.  So if he goes 48 hours with no spells and takes all of his feedings by bottle or breast, they will deem him ready to go.  He's not quite there yet because he still expends a lot of energy with each feeding, so if he takes a full bottle one time he likely will peter out on the next one.  But it's all a good sign, we're so proud of him!

Austin, 35w0d, doing his preemie nanny-goat grunting

Malia is also making great progress, and I think is catching up on her brother.  She now weighs 4 lb., 6 oz., only a pound behind Austin at this point.  More importantly, she's gone about 10 consecutive days of no weight loss, and has been tolerating feedings and pooping well throughout.  She is still in her isolet because of her weight, lacking the amount of fat needed to regulate her body temp.  Very soon though, she could be in an open crib like her brother if she keeps gaining weight like the last couple of weeks.

Malia, 34w6d

Malia about to get the bottle

Malia is still figuring out the bottle.  Still needs practice, but she's getting better.

Having Austin back at Hoag, and with both kids off of their nasal cannula, we enjoyed our first side-by-side kangaroo cuddle.  This is perhaps where it starts to sink in that you have two, and it's really cool to have both of your babies so close.

The whole fam together, everyone happy!

Not her first tandem hold, but Cheryl got some quality time in on this turn

There will be better family shots, but the novelty hasn't worn off

Cheryl couldn't wait to accessorize Malia

Our little peanut is sporting some cheeks finally

Austin 35w0d, supple cheeks

Both babies got baths last night, fluffing up their hair

 We had the ladies over on Saturday for Cheryl's baby shower, which turned out great.  For those who could not attend, and everyone else in our incredibly large network of support - Thank you kindly for everything you've done for us throughout this process!

Most importantly, thank you to our families for everything.  You are the reason that Austin and Malia are here, the reason Cheryl and I have our heads on straight, and therefore the reason our babies will be coming home healthy sometime soon.

Lastly, if any of you should find yourself in need of a Level 2 NICU, I can't recommend a better place than Hoag.  The nurses run a tight ship there, and it has made all the difference for me and Cheryl!

6/29: 7 weeks old, Austin to head back to Hoag!

This has been a very good week for both of the babies, and you can see from their weight tickers that they have both been growing steadily with their increased feedings.  Austin especially has grown into the appearance of a near-term baby, with puffed out cheeks and a long body.  Overall, Austin is just astounding the doctors with his progress.  One of our favorite doctors who attends at both hospitals remarked how they never count on a particular outcome with NICU babies, and with the surprises that he sees in his patients it's particularly nice when a suspected serious condition resolves without invasive intervention.  Austin is presently showing no signs of Hirschsprung's, in fact he's been pooping with every diaper.   He is doing so well that none of his doctors believe that there is a need for him to remain at CHOC.  We weren't sure whether the insurance companies would approve his transfer back to Hoag, but we just learned that he has been approved and will be going back soon!  This is fantastic news indeed, no word yet on when the transfer will take place.

We're so lucky that both of our kids are doing well.  Cheryl and I are truly humbled by our good fortune of two very healthy babies getting closer to coming home.

Austin loves to stare at his mommy, and vice versa

He really is looking good here, and this is how he is when he's not sleeping - really mellow!

So both babies have been practicing bottling and nippling, but it's a process that tends to wear them out rather quickly.  For some feedings they both do really well, while others they barely muster the energy to draw a couple of cc's.  The mechanism for sucking proficiently comes about between 34 and 36 gestational weeks, and there's nothing you can do to rush it.  So we'll keep practicing, but so far we have a really good start.

Malia hit a couple of really big milestones this week, most notably tipping the 4 lb. mark yesterday!  She was also moved to one of the peripheral pods in the Hoag NICU, which are reserved for the less serious babies.  This is obviously a good sign for her, and the nurses have even reserved a space next to her for when her brother makes it back to Hoag.  It will be so nice to have them both there, but for now we're ecstatic about how much progress they've made.

Sleeping hard when we arrived last night

She's big enough now that she's been taken off of her Z-flo pillow, and soon she'll ditch the nasal cannula

Such a pretty girl!

Relaxing after her bath last night

Austin and Malia at 34 weeks

We began the weekend nervously waiting to see if Austin was going to respond favorably to his increased feedings, and more importantly whether the resulting stimulation to his gut would make him poop or instead cause more problems.

Austin, 6 weeks old last Friday

We learned on Saturday from his nurse that he had finally pooped, not quite a huge amount, but at least it was something.  It was a slight relief but too hard to tell whether this would be a sign of better things to come.  On our Sunday visit, we found a note taped above his isolet:

Pretty encouraging news indeed!  He looked and acted pretty happy, and before we left the NICU we decided to change his diaper.  Turned out he was in the middle of another big poop!  The nurses were pleased with his new-found regularity also, and the signs are presently not looking very much like Hirschsprung's disease.  So for now, no surgery, he just has to finish his antibiotics and get to 2,500g.  The big biopsy will then tell us whether HD can be ruled out, and hopefully he won't need surgery.  Fingers crossed!

Daddy congratulating Austin on his big day of pooping

He was also placed in a big boy crib, so now we have easy access to him.  Pretty nice!  He's looking much more robust, and finally tipped the 5 lb. mark!

His mom was just as thrilled...

Increased feedings are really showing in his face, and he's now got a double chin

 On Monday morning we had a nice long visit with Malia, and we found her awake and alert.  She napped with her mom for a little while.  She's still doing well, but has a lot of catching up to do on her weight.  She is now at 3 lb., 11 oz.

Malia has very different features in her face compared to her brother

Malia at 34w0d.

Mini smile for the camera

Not much else to report on Malia, as there are no major issues concerning doctors.  She's a favorite among the nurses at Hoag.

Back at CHOC meanwhile, Austin is still doing great today with the eating and pooping.  Now that they're at 34 weeks, they are cleared to try some actual bottle feeding to see how the suck-swallow response is developing.  With just 10 cc's of his 35 cc feeding this afternoon, he sucked down all of it with ease.  Surely a good sign!

Austin's first bottle feed today

And finally, a couple of videos, although my unsteady cinematography may give you a Blair Witch sea-sickness effect.  Sorry!

A small video of Miss Malia this morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed:

And one of Austin, doing great on his first ever bottle feed today:

6/21 Update

The first run of weekday nights at two hospitals is running down, and both Austin and Malia are doing well.  We started our visits with Malia, where she had some kangaroo time with Daddy.  We were happy to see that they took her back off of her CPAP after the infection scare a couple of days ago, and she's much happier without the bulky apparatus on her face.

What a difference a day makes!  This is Malia the day before at 33w2d, w/ CPAP

And this is her without the CPAP the next day, Malia and Daddy had a good nap together

Malia is much happier with just a nasal cannula now

At 3 lb., 10 oz., she's looking good at 33w3d

 Malia has resumed feedings and is slowly being increased every day.  She's taking more than her brother now, which should give her an opportunity to catch up.  She's up in weight quite a bit, but hadn't pooped in 3 days, so we were thrilled to hear she had an "extra large" one tonight... Ahhh, the simple pleasures in parenthood!

Austin is doing very well too in his new abode at CHOC, and they've even taken him off of his nasal cannula altogether, which means they can switch him to an NG feeding tube, which looks a lot better overall.  He still hasn't passed his Barium, despite wincing and wiggling and looking like he was trying to work it out.  Poor little guy!  We're not sure what they plan to do for him, but they will probably irrigate and try to get it out of him, because they can't do the biopsy until he clears it out.  They removed his scalp IV because his PICC line is taking its place, and it looks much better!
We'll see where they go with this bowel thing.  At least his belly isn't as distended, and they're watching him closely to make sure he doesn't walk himself up to an infection like last time.

Austin, 33w2d

Still has a funny face, we love it!

Perhaps our favorite Austin pic yet, smiley boy!

 We bought cribs today for Austin and Malia, and dare I say, the reality is setting in of their imminent arrival at home at some point soon.  It feels good to think all of this is temporary!