Finally... An update!

Perhaps there's no blog post title more befitting of a long hiatus than, "An update from sleepy parents."  As you can imagine, the last few weeks have been busy, and perhaps the previous post title could still describe our status!  In the time since our last post, Austin and Malia turned 3 months.  They are both doing very well and staging at the pace that the doctors had hoped for.  So let's start with a few pictures of their 3 month milestone.

They weren't really up for pictures that night, but we had to get a shot somehow 

Malia enjoying her camera time

Austin, on the other hand, not enjoying the camera so much

A shot I was able to grab on their true 3 month mark

So health-wise, everything is going pretty smoothly for both of them, but the doctors would like to do surgery on Austin in a few months for his inguinal hernia.  He's not quite old enough for them to clear him for the surgery, and still the problem isn't serious enough to warrant immediate intervention.  So it's not a fun thought, but when he's old enough it should be a simple procedure to correct the issue.

Malia has fallen behind in the growth compared with her brother, but the doctors seem to have little concern for this as an indicator of a problem.  She's always been different from her brother on feeding, and has only increased her feed amounts marginally since coming home.  She still struggles with keeping her feeds down, which is always frustrating.  We've tried to makeup her caloric loss by taking her to a 2 hour feeding interval (instead of 3), but having the babies on different intervals for daily routines is a huge challenge for Cheryl.

I have been working very early mornings to try and free up my availability to help Cheryl for the rest of the day, but we still double on the night shift - meaning neither of us are putting in too much sleep time still.  The babies occasionally spread out their nightly interval, but we still hold them to a pretty strict schedule to ensure they get the daily caloric intake that the doctors recommend.

Pretty face

Seeing if some music could calm him down, apparently I wasn't good enough for his liking

Austin, lucky photo grab by Cheryl, looking like a rock star

One of our favorites of them together

Cheryl had to fend for herself this week because I was out of town for a work conference.  It proved especially challenging to get through the 24-hour rigors of feeding and other routines with half the personnel. Not that there was any doubt, but this is definitely a job that takes at least two people working around the clock.

Seems like there should be a good caption here, you could almost imagine their conversation

Angelic face

This is how they bed down after a feed

So that's it for now, I mainly wanted to share some pictures and let our followers know that everything is going as well as can be expected.  Also, I hate ruthless plugs, but this one is different... I came across the Facebook page of a friend of a friend who's son is fighting pediatric brain cancer and is likely end-stage.  Landan is a courageous fighter, and his family is pretty inspiring in documenting his fight.  Check them out and like their page: http://www.facebook.com/TeamLandan

That is all for now!

An update... from sleepy parents!

Well life trucks on with Austin and Malia at home, and the learning process continues.  I think we both expected to have this little sleep, but I think there was some disconnect as to how hard performing the rest of our daily tasks would become as a result.  Inherent to baby care is a lot of cleaning/hygiene-related tasks, which on top of all the diaper changing and feeding schedules is a whole bunch of laundry and a ridiculous amount of bottle washing and sterilization.  Perhaps if this were our second go-around with the second kid, having been through it all with a first child, we might have a better order for all of this.  But since we have to learn it all in one shot, we're just treading water with the rigors of parenting twins.  Honestly, we're doing just fine with it, but suffice to say, it's a little busy around here!

But the kids are doing great; somehow managing a normal infancy despite our flailing.  Austin is getting so big that he no longer fits in his preemie clothes.  Malia is doing great, but still not quite increasing her appetite at the rate her brother did at this size, so her weight has increased a little slower we think.  She tends to be a bit finicky with the formula feeds; either spitting up because she can't expel a burp, or falling short of completing the feed because she's tired.  We'll have a better idea of where we stand at her checkup with the docs next week.

Cheryl and I decided to hit the road and join the Nodalo family last weekend out in Palm Desert for a couple of days at their timeshare.  It was worth the long-haul, but it was our first overnight roadie with the babies.  We had some good quality time, but nights were crazy trying to get the right formula concoction.  Once we figured out that the babies like Similac a lot better than Enfamil, we had happy babies and parents.

   

Nana Rose with Austin

We got good use of our stroller's bassinet conversion, which served as their travel abode in the desert

Talen, crazy hair, and holding Miss Malia

The twins with Lolo and Nana Nodalo and their cousins Talen and Avery

Naptime side-by-side

On the way home we stopped by my grandmother's house for her first introduction to the babies.  She's waited anxiously for months to meet her youngest (and probably last) great-grandchildren.  We were thrilled to bring them all together.  My parents, brother Kurt, and niece Rylan also stopped by, and it was Rylan's first time meeting the twins as well.

Popo with Malia

Nana Vlasich and Austin

Cousin Rylan with Malia, thrilled for another girl playmate in the family

Popo with Austin

Uncle Kurt with Malia

This week the babies seemed proficient enough at the bottle feedings that we could attempt to tandem feed them occasionally.  Since I'm back at work for a morning field route, she's on her own for a least one, sometimes two of the feeds.  But it actually works pretty well, and it's nice to knock it out in one shot.

Cheryl with the tandem duties

And... my turn

And finally, we took them to the final Long Beach concert in the park of the season.  Cheryl exploited the chance to dress the babies up in some stylish gear, so here are the pics:

"Um, I have a question... Can you get me the heck outta this thing??!!"

Dressed up for the concert in the park

Chillin in his fleece zippie vest

Sleepy eyes

Malia with Mommy

Update from the home front

Just a quick post here to give an update on both kids at home.  The first 3 nights have been quite a bit harder than our nights with just Austin, but it's still quite a reprieve from the hospital commute.  Instead of alternating feeds, we are both getting up to double team the effort and get it over with quickly.  Both Austin and Malia are feeding well at this point, but usually the whole ordeal has us up about a full hour.  This is bad news when  the interval is every 3 hours, so at best we're sleeping about 2 hours at a time.  

Malia once again was waiting until the 11th hour to have a BM, which always preoccupies us as we see her strain and wiggle to move things along by the 3rd day without a stool.  This morning's first diaper change revealed an impressive load, sending her dad into a fit of watery-eyed retching... much to the amusement of mom.  Either way we were glad to see her move things along, but nonetheless this time the backup seemingly had no effect on her feeding.  Her growth is noticeable especially today, which according to our bathroom scale (error notwithstanding), has her weighing in at approximately 6 lb., 4 oz.  Austin is also packing it on, weighing an estimated 7 lb., 5 oz., and is just expanding in all directions.  As usual, he still has a noticeable pound advantage on his sister, but with Malia's appetite lately it might not stay that way for long.

We took the babies out for the first time since being home, braving the nearby Target for some supplies.  We also took them to the Long Beach concert in the park down at Marina Park, and if sleeping was their show of approval, they enjoyed the hell out of it!

Swaddle buddies

Cheryl couldn't wait to customize their car seats... as if people were having trouble distinguishing their gender!
 

Austin was the victim of a vicious cloth diaper experiment by his daddy

Truckin' the double wide down the aisles of Target

Concerts in the park: what the Jimmy Buffet crowd does on weeknight in Long Beach

Fast asleep

Watching the concert from the boat has to be the best seat in the house

...and 4 made a family!

Miss Malia went ahead and decided it was time to finally come home today, 73 days after her birthday.  As we reported previously, she really was knocking her feedings out with ease, so she managed to string together 2 full days of feedings, and passed her car seat challenge, hearing screening, and ROP eye exams with flying colors.  It was quite the hectic day as Austin also had his followup eye exam, so we didn't exactly have everything together for Malia's arrival, but we'll improvise a little until we all get settled in.  It hasn't really sunk in yet, but between the intensity of having two babies at home and the sudden convenience of not making our daily hospital rounds, I'm sure it will all make sense soon enough.

We're so proud of our kids for making it through such a dangerous journey.  It was an eventful prelude to what should be a very normal upbringing of two very well-loved kids.  We're happy to turn the page on this seemingly endless chapter, and will never forget the support we got from so many people along the way. 

More to come in the days ahead... but for now, some pictures.

NICU Grads, Class of 2012

Malia's headband flower must have tasted good

Happy family

Home with LoLo Manny

Am I seeing double?