Ben's Prayers

Ben has started to say his own prayers, rambling on as is per usual. He rarely get prompted unless he missed saying something... most of the time, its: "dear.... this hot dog, this donald duck..." So, we have to go back and start over.

This was his prayer on lunch:

Ben: "Dear.... this hot dog"
Mom: "Heavenly Father"
Ben: "Fadder... this hot dog"
Mom: "thank you for.."
Ben: "Thank you for.... this hot dog, this day, this animal cracker, this..what this (pointing to the vase of fake flowers) "
Mom: "flowers"
Ben: "this flowers, this mickey mouse fork, this babies AddiePeytieAddie (yes, that is all one word), this face (pointing to his own), this pumpkin, this pumpkin face, this.... (its a calendar that he's pointing at)
Mom: "calendar"
Ben: "..... these numbers, 9, 10, 10, 10. Jesus Christ..... AMEN!


Yes, these prayers are precious, and that was pretty much verbatim. He's adorable when he gets going. Some times he thanks Heavenly Father for all this body parts, and goes through them. Most of the time he lists his toys and shows that he likes. Lately he's thankful for candy, duh.
He's so adorable, and i'm grateful he's so excited about church and Jesus, and prayers, he reminds us every night to say them (sometimes multiple times to get out of going to bed.)

My kids are awesome!

I was doing so well there for a little while, posting regularly. Then, I got lazy. I know, I know, story of my life, right. So, i'm here to tell you, that i'm going to try and do better. As in, i'm going to post more often than once a month. Here is a quick update:

Ben has hit the terrible twos hard!! He's mostly a pain in the butt, with a few sweet moments thrown in. He doesn't listen, does everything that i tell him not to, and whines ALL. THE. TIME! Its drives me nuts, and I feel like a bad parents because i feel like all i do all day is yell and him and scold him. AGH! I hope this stage passes soon!!

The girls are doing amazing!! Last wednesday they had a check-up and Addison weighs 11 lbs. 6 oz. and Peyton weighs 11 lbs. 5 oz. They have gained a little over 10 lbs. since birth! how awesome is that!?!?! They are both able to roll over both ways, no problem. Peyton holds the record for sitting up: 35 seconds. (she kinda got stuck, but we TOTALLY counted it) Addie has a more reasonable record at 3 seconds. They are both smiley and happy girls as long as they have food in their tummies. They are up to 6 oz. bottles, but down to twice a day. But, they have started on rice cereal, so it make up for it.

Proud Mommy Moment: My girls, who were 4 month premature, are STILL nursing! yes, i pumped for 4 months, endured countless tears and frustration to get them to learn how to nurse! I went from pumping to nipple shields to finally getting them to nurse without any problems. They like to pull off many times while they nurse. I've learned to deal with them, and it now seems like the most natural thing. I'm so glad that they are still nursing, and actually getting nutrition out of it. They are the most amazing girls, ever!!

More to come later, I promise!

Dearest Penny,

Dear Penny,
I'm sorry that I can't be with you to say good-bye. You probably don't even really remember me right now, its been about 2 years since you last saw me. I did however, want to write you a letter and mom said she would read it to you before you pass.
I remember the first time I saw you. We drove a few hours to check out these cute little pure-breed Red English Cocker Spaniels. You came into the room and proceeded to find you way into my lap and fall asleep. I was in love. We'd never had a dog before, and you were the cutest little thing. Your ears were a few sizes too big, but they just matched the size of you heart. We took you home, and you were so happy to finally have a home. We were told you were a boy, but it could of gotten lost in translation between the old German lady and her 6 year old interpreter, but we even learned that we got boy papers for you. Unfortunately, it even confused you because the first time we took you out to go potty at home, you lifted you leg, then looked back at us because it seemed to unnatural. Its ok, our neighbor was a Vet and finally set us straight.
When you were little, you used to trip over your ears all the time, it was so cute! You loved to run around outside and chase us all over the place. Not even a chain link fence could stand in you way.. actually it did, but you just went around instead of trying again to go through it, which didn't work in the first place, hahaha.
We used to tease you mercilessly. Whenever it snowed we would hid doggy treats out in the snow and laugh as you would pull out your superest sniffer to find them. I never did understand it, but you would always get these icy balls of snow stuck to your big ears. They would remind me of burrs. It was so cute! I remember the first time it snowed enough to actually play in, you thought you were a frog and would hop around in the snow. It was so cute to watch!
You were such a happy puppy, and so dang cute! You have the most gorgeous coat of fur, and you had really long eye lashes. Even with you good looks, you were a mischievous little devil. You used to climb up on the table and eat all the bacon i just cooked. Or the chocolate chocolate chip cookies i just backed. You even got into the box of milk on the floor. Of course, back then you had an iron stomach. We even once found a little baby doll hand sticking up out of your business in the yard. Its ok i forgave you, for that one. You used to eat my underwear and sometime my clothes if i had food on them and didn't get them into the wash quick enough.

Some of the things I will always remember about you:
-Your big ears
- the way you would always try and ride shot gun, as if
- sometime you would go temporarily insane and just start running around the house for no reason
- You loved rice and tuna.
- When mom gave you away to "teach us a lesson" all the neighborhood kids hated her, and loved her when you came back!
-You were a "Bad Dog" jail bird for Halloween, every year
- You would always shake SSSSOOO badly if you saw a squirrel.
- we used to tease you with a fake squirrel
- you loved playing hide-and-seek with us, you were the best seeker!
- you chewed through every ball imaginable except a raquetball, Penn brand, of course
- You never slept in any of us kids room, you always had to be near your momma
- you loved dark corners, and we'd always find you laying there
- in Darmstadt, you used to sleep on the stairs so you could see out the little side window and wait for us to get home!


there are many more, but i can't list them all. I'm so sad that I won't be there to tell you goodbye, but i know that you are sick and that its easier to let you go now than to watch you suffer any longer. You were always my favorite pet, yes I loved you even more than the tadpoles we used to catch, or Figaro the frog that lived in our yard in Utah and peed on Bryan. You were and are and always will be the best puppy in the world. Have fun in heaven, tell Toby we said hi (the dog), and chase some squirrel, just remember not to bark tooo loud. You're loved! I'm just sorry that I can't be there with you. You have given me so much happiness. I love you, Penny dog, Penelope, Cylla from the Poppy Valley, dirty dog, chicken butt, chicken legs, you crazy pooch.
Samm

8 months old

Addison

Peyton

Sorry, there only a few pictures up here, we are trying to get some family picture taken, so those will be up soon.

September 28, 2010 marked the day that the girls turned 8 months old. This day was very special to me because they spent exactly the same amount of time in the hospital and they had at home with us. The next day, they were more mine than the nurses and drs at the hospital.
Since they've been home, they have thrived. They did extremely well in the hospital, as you know, because they had little to no complications with their prematurity. The complications that they did have we minor complications and weren't too serious, (i.e. PDA ligations, laser eye surgery, Peyton's PIE). Anyways, since they've been home, they came off the oxygen within 3 weeks. That is AMAZING!! Lots of babies who were born a couple of months after the girls had been, were still on oxygen for close to a year, if not more. So, what is the miracle here, why were my babies protected and saved? You know, I don't know, i'm not one to claim to know what they will do in life, or what other babies will do. I do know for a fact that they came at the right time, and they were spared much because they have a mission on this earth and they needed these experiences, as little as they were, to help refine their spirits.
Who knows the impact that their premature births had on any one person? I can tell you that they were some of the most prayed for babies. Friends and Family prayed, let their university classes know, and their class mates had their church congregations pray for the girls, etc,etc. Who know how far their story reached? All I know, is that Prayer works. My girls are LIVING evidence of this.

Today, they are smiley, happy, playful, loving, beautiful little girls with bright eyes and a hunger for learning that is already evident in their eyes. Both are now trying to sit up, Peyton holds the record ofr 4 second. both have started Rice Cereal, which they don't too often because I can't seem to fin the time to nurse, bottle feed AND feed them cereal. I don't know if it will get better with time, maybe they will get more over Christmas vacation. who knows?
The girls have a weird schedule. They wake up about 730 or 8 in the morning to eat, then they go back down for their morning nap that turns into a full out sleep-fest. On most occasions, they will sleep until about 2 or 3. I've tried waking them up to eat, but they won't latch to nurse and they just play with their bottle, whats a girl to do? So, i just let them sleep. Sometimes i take a nap of my own on the couch while Ben plays or watches a movie. Other times, i enjoy the time with my beautiful blue-eyed Ben.

Random thoughts

So, it was a little over a year ago when we found out that we were having twins. I was probably still in shock and a little teeny bit of denial... haha Last Conference, I was still on the drug fenergen, which was supposed to help with the extreme intense nausea that I was experiencing. While this drug was supposed to help with the nausea, it really only made me extremely tired and sleepy. It did not help with the sickness at all. I'm grateful at least that i didn't throw up too much, just whenever I ate something the girls didn't like, just like with Ben. Anyways, getting to the point, I've just been reminising about how hard that time was, and especially how grateful I was for my friends during that time.
Some days I was so sick, that I wouldn't even be able to take care of Ben. All I could do was lay on the couch trying to figure out what to eat that wouldn't make me throw up and that would actually take care of my nausea (which was nothing). Some days, my close friends would take Ben for a few hours so I could get some sleep (thanks meds) and wait for Toby to get home.
Then, when I was put on bed rest in the hospital, and Toby was still in school full-time, our best friends took Ben in pretty much full-time. We are so grateful for Katrina Johnson (and her husband, Seth, when he wasn't in school) for watching Ben when we couldn't. We are eternally grateful for their hospitality and charity to our family.
Second, we want to thank my mom for coming and giving Ben the stability he needed when our family was in crisis. It was invaluable to our family!

Thank you to everyone who prayed for our family, made meals, phoned with concern, took care of us, or gave any of your time for our family! This year has been a hard one, and probably the most rewarding.
Love, Toby, Samm, Ben, Addie, Peyton

Christmas Plans

We had originally decided to stay home for Christmas because my parents ere going to fly us home next 7 weeks break, but that all changed. Now, we are flying home to attend the wedding of:

MY BROTHER, BRYAN!!!

Yes, thats right, my brother is getting married. Her name is Miriam. They met at church while attending VTech! I've never met her in person, but we've talked on the phone and on FB and i really like her!

So, that being said, we are going home for Christmas!! It will be nice to see our family again, we haven't been home since Ben was 6 months old. Toby has finals right up until the wedding so he will miss it, but the kids and I are flying home the beginning of December. The wedding is on the 18th of December with the reception in Blacksburg on the 21st. Here is our intinerary:

Dec. 6: Kids and I fly out to D.C. Stay with the Dossetts for a week

Dec. Dec 11 or 12: Stay in NN for a week with my family.

Dec 18 Wedding in D.C. Temple Stay with Dossetts for weekend

Dec 21: Travel to Blacksburg for reception

Dec. 22: Back to NN until CHristmas Eve

Dec 24: back to Fredericksburg

Dec 31: Back to NN

January 3: Toby flys back to SLC

January 6: I fly back with Kids.

Yes, it will be crazy and a lot of traveling, but this is the only way to get equal time with our families. I'm excited to visit D.C. and go back to the greatest book store in the world. I'm just sad that Carl's won't be open. Oh well, maybe next year.

Random Ben Photos

Oh man, this kid cracks me up. He can make me madder than hell, then the next second he melts my heart. Here are some pictures of Ben and his randomness these past few months!Conference weekend: We had the Crooks over and Ben and Allison decided to try kissing.

They would kiss for a second then laugh for over a minute!

Nana and Poppa Dossett bought Ben a tent!

At our place in West Tisbury, Ben would watch for us coming up the stairs to get him out of his room. I would often play with him under the door, he LOVED it!
Ben loves playing the camera, so we took some pix. This was the only one that i didn't look like a total idiot.

Ben is obsessed with Mickey and Donald. Just like his daddy, Donald is his "best guy"!
Ben really enjoyed Nana Call while she was here taking care of him while I was in the hospital and with the girls in Boise. He was really sad when she left!
Ben got to see a monkey, up close and personal at the Zoo.
Whenever we got to the park, Ben likes to play fetch with the frisbee!
We gave Ben the broken fishing pole and he enjoyed poking the mud with it. He's "fisssing"

Burn, Baby, Burn

This year there have been a few fires. One was about 15 ft. from our trailer. It started across the train tracks and a neighbor saw it and called the fire dept. It was pretty windy that day, and we are lucky that the fire didn't jump the tracks. Here are some pictures from that fire:

The other fire was a hugr brush fire that started in Arco.. about and hour away towards Twin Falls. It lit up the whole sky. We were told it was a dust storm, so don;t judge me in the video!

View of our trailer and the beautiful sky!

My favorite picture of the night!

I love how the sky reflects off the tracks!

Pictures from Dossett's Visit

For the longest time, i couldn't find the pictures that were taken from when Toby's parents came to visit. Now, i finally found them in the girl's blessing folder. I should of though to look there because it all happened the same weekend! here they are:

First full day here, we took them to the Spray Park. Ben found a "box" and decided to throw water on people. Mainly Toby.





Doesn't he have the most innocent face?







Ben warmed up to his Nana, Papa, Uncle Willy and Autie Hannah. Here he is spending some snuggle time with Aunt Hannah during a movie. I think it was Mickey Mouse Musketeers.. but I'm not sure.


Nana and Papa Dossett bought the girls their new bumbo chairs. They are holding their heads up great so we are working on helping them sit up. These chairs were even endorsed by our Occupational Therapist!
Ben was a little jealous, so he had to bring out his chair! BTW, putting his hand on their head is one of his favorite things to do!

Twin Blessings

Toby's family came mainly for the girl's blessings. They were blessed August 1st, 2010. They were 6 months old. funny, i know.
When the girls were first born, we had a hard time deciding whether or not to bless them in the hospital, or to wait. I guess I really freaked out, thinking that if we blessed them, they wouldn't have any need to stick around.. I guess I felt so cheated about other newborn baby milestones that i really wanted them to have a blessing in our ward. I wanted to have all my family there, and pretty little dresses, cute bows, and a big party afterward, and let them have one "normal" thing in their lives. We decided that if we felt they were slipping away, we would bless them in the hospital, but we never did. Thus, their twin blessing:













Toby with his beautiful baby girls!

















Family picture. Ben wanted to help bless them...













Circle: Great-Grandpa Gallegos, Grandpa Dossett, Dad, Seth Johnson, Steve Dunn
Not pictured: Marcus Crook, Bishop Sessions




Addison Avery Dossett













Peyton Noel Dossett (she doesn't actually wave yet)

ummm?

Does anybody actually read this? I"m wondering if i'm doing this just to keep my sanity some days. I'm very curious to know if anyone actually read it. If it weren't me, i proably wouldn't because i know i tend to go of on tangents and its like my mind vomits and spews things out and they aren't necessarily in the right order. Oh well, as long as i can record things and go back to read them, then its worth it. I'm not the most committed blogger, but hey, who's has all the time in the world to do it, cuz whoever does needs to share!

I guess what i'm getting at is.. i went back and read what i wrote about the girls and i started crying because it brought back all the guilty feelings I had when they were born. I'm was so mad that i couldn't keep then any longer, mad that they were struggling, mad cuz i wouldn't hold then, then felt guilty when i didn't want to get out of bed to go see them. I felt horribly guilty (and still kinda to) for leaving Peyton in Boise for so long... even if i was sick and needed to be at the hopsital every day. It was a hard situation, but i've learned so much through out all of this, that i wouldn't trade the girls for anything, i would do this all again if faced with the same thing... isn't that kinda the point of trials?

Anyways, there's your verbal vomit for the night.. if in fact you are reading this..

Fun at the Zoo.. Meleleuca Day

This year we finally made it to the Zoo. It was Melaleuca Day, which means all employees get in free... awesome! We did take the girls as well, but they mostly stayed in the car seats! It was a fun day, and of course, we got our traditional magnet, plus we got Ben a toy boom-a-rang. He loves it. We then went to Texas Roadhouse with our friends Steve and Nykele. Ben calls them Deet, and Kel. They love it.

Everyday LIfe... at first

There are really no word to describe how happy we were to bring the girls home. Finally, they had "made it" and ecstatic didn't even begin to describe it. However, even though we were happy to have them home, it was incredibly hard. They were hooked up to oxygen 24/7 and also monitors to monitor their heart rate and oxygen saturation. They beeped all the time, sometime when their sats were low, mostly when they weren't picking up or reading correctly. I can not even describe to you how stinking annoying they got to be. Sometimes the monitors would tell us that their heart rate was in the 20's (which is VERY bad) but they were fine and pink and breathing. It was a real struggle for us to listen to them every night. It got to the point where we would turn them off, pray for prompting from the spirit to wake us if it was needed and go to sleep; it got that bad. The other think that was really hard was the we HAD to feed them every 3 hours. They needed the constant nutrition to gain weight and maintain their health. On top of that was the 6 medications a day that we had to include in their feedings. (side note: yes, i am still breastfeeding them, but they still need supplements because they get really tired when they nurse so they don't get enough and we need to top them off.) Anyways, their electrolytes were cherry flavored because they really didn't like the taste. We quickly learned that they LOVED the cherry flavor so we would make sue to give them those meds at night because they would down their bottles and we could sleep more! It was a great system.

Ben's Adjustment

Ben never had a hard time adjusting to the fact that there were 2 more babies in the family. He didn't even seen to mind that they definitely took up more of our time. Ben was always very helpful, and was always quick to tell us if the babies were crying... not that it was hard to tell. We did have to put a baby proof knob on our bedroom door because he would go in and poke them til they woke up.
The only problems that we've had with them is when we moved into our new place, Ben got into their room while Addie was sleeping in the pack n' play and he decided that she was cold, so he took all the laundry and threw it on top of her. Then for some strange reason, he decided the put some jars of peanut butter in there as well. We then put a baby proof knob on their door, but somehow he got past that one too. So, we put a lock up high on their door so he can't get in, and we know they are safe.
The only other problem that we have is that he loves them so much. He loves to try and pick them up off the couch or tries to lay next to them, then accidentally rolls on top of them. He's actually a very good big brother, and even throws their diapers away for me!! He's already tried to feed them their bottles but he can't quite get it and they get frustrated.

Cute story: He's always trying to stop them from getting sad. He always finds a Nuk and give it to them when they are crying. Sometimes, however, the absolutely will not take them and he get frustrated and throws it at them and shouts "NO, NO, Baby!" Its too adorable! He get so mad because he's trying so hard to help!

4 months later...

Ok... so I'm FINALLY getting around to updating this thing, then hopefully keeping it updated. I'll start where I left off.

After the torturous night in the hospital, we FINALLY were able to take our baby girls home! It was very very excited and SUPER stressful. We spent the morning getting ready. We made sure that they had all their appt. set and they had their discharge check-up. I got up early, not that i got ANY sleep whatsoever, but i got me and Toby some breakfast sandwiches from Subway and we got ready to get our girls home. BTW, my mom was still here and watching Ben, and getting the house ready. We spend the morning waiting around, really. I went to Rounds and got all their discharge information, and talked with Dr. Anschutz about what to expect with the girls being home, and when to call and bring them back, if necessary. It was very bittersweet, saying good to all the nurses that had become family to us the past 4 months.
We were supposed to have left by 11, but it was 12 by the time we got everything together and said our good-byes. It took us 2 trips to the car to get all the stuff that the hospital sent home with us!!!
Its took us another 2 hours to get home after we left the hospital, even though we only lived about 40 minutes from the hospital. We needed to stop by The Prescription Center to pick up their prescriptions (6 each). Then we noticed that Addison's monitor wasn't reading or picking up anything and we didn't want to chance the drive home and the time it would take for Kraig (our medical supply contact) to get to our house, so we stopped by Norco to get them to fix it. Finally, we made it home. Its was really awesome to get the car seats out of the car and carry them inside, with little ity bity babies inside. They didn't weight much, even with the carseat.. lol Ben was alseep when we got home, so we got the girl's situated and fed. When we woke up, I went upstairs to get him, and tell him that baby sisters were finally home. He wasn't sure quite what to think, but what kid would when they've been in the hospital so long and he's never got to see them. So, he walks into the living room and we point the girls out and he just goes over and looks and them and says "baby" It took him awhile to figure out there were 2 babies, but he's been in love with them ever since. The girls slept in our room until we moved and even a little after that.

This is the girl's coming home announcement that we sent out to family. Aren't they just the sweetest little things you've ever seen?

A Night with the Nurses

The day before the girls came home was very busy! We had to get their medications called into the pharmacy and somehow get medicaid to cover the flavoring of their electrolytes. We had to get their formula (which was covered by medicaid because its was a prescription) and their oxygen and monitors all set up for them. I met Kraig, our contact man at Norco, our medical supply company, at the hospital so he could teach me how to change the oxygen tanks, and learn the monitors and change the probes, and get set up to have the oxygen at home.
I met him there, learned about the O2, then Laura, our discharge nurse, and I set up the girl's in their car seats for their car seat test. This test is designed to test how the girls will do when they are no longer in a crib and secured in a blanket. They have to keep their stats up for 1 1/2 hours to make sure we can make it home without them crashing. They passed that with flying colors. I however, failed because I couldn't figure out how to change the buckles on the car seat. I had to ask multiple nurses and Norco guys to help. (Oh, and they passed their hearing exams with ease.) Toby got off work early and met me at the hospital for our overnight ability test. The nurses had a hard time finding us a room close by because the hospital was pretty full. There were no rooms downstairs in the Women's Center and the courdinator wanted to put us up in the Pediatric Unit. The NICU nurses were pretty adamently against it, because they wouldn't be able to get to us very quickly if something happened. We finally got a room in Day Surgery, which was about 20 seconds down the hall. The nurses on Day Surgery apparently weren't told what was going on.. its was kind of funny. About 9 o'clock we finally wheeled the girl's crib down the hall and into our room.

Addison is at the top
Peyton is on the bottom

Our obsessive night nurse, Dennis, didn't think that the girls were ready to go home. I could see it in his mannerisms and the way he talked to us. He was really surprised when he walked into work and found out the girls were going home the next day. All night long, while WE were supposed to be taking care of the girl, he would call and check on them all the time, and come it at every feeding, offering to take a feeding "so that we could sleep". It was actually very annoying, because he would come in and stay for like 20 minutes so it made it hard to nurse the girls when he was right there. We had to get up and feed them every 3 hours, so it made it hard to sleep when we knew we needed to get up in another 45 minutes. It was really frustrating because the girls were really sleepy and didn't want to nurse. Plus we had to feed them their bottles so it took forever and we didn't get much sleep. The next day was Going Home day, ill tall you about it later!!

He said WHAT??

Addison

So, in my last post i said that the Dr.'s require that the girls eat all their food, and keep up their stats in order to come home. Basically, whenever the girls had an apnea or bradycardia spells (a's and b's), they earned themselves another 7 days in the NICU. However, Wednesday, May 19, I was in Rounds with Dr. Jenkins when he told me that the girls were well enough to go home. His only concern was their spells. Then he turned to me and said, "Do you want to take them home tomorrow?" I was shocked. DUH! He stated that I could wait another 7 days or i could take the girls home the next day but they would have to go home on monitors. I DON'T CARE!! I didn't even have to think about it, those girls were coming HOME!!!
It took all day to get thinks in order for them to come home. We rushed home to get the house ready, cleaned like crazy, i had to run to the store and get some velcro to finish the car seat covers, and get things packed for our overnight stay.
The hospital NICU staff likes to have the parents of the preemies stay the night in the hospital for an overnight visit to take care of their babies with nurse supervision. It helps with the transition so the parents know exactly how to take cares, figure out hiccups, and give the babies their meds. Its not a bad system. Only thing is, I'm gonna miss all the nurses. They've become great role models and friends. Many of them have had preemies themselves.

Look how cute my babies are!!

Addison

Peyton

The last few weeks that the girls were in the hospital were pure torture. The only requirements left for them to complete was to take all their feedings by bottle. First, Peyton would do AMAZINGLY well, then Addie would. They would take turns ALMOST doing 100% on their feedings, then they would have a bad day. It was really hard seeing them get so close to coming home, then squash my dreams.
Another thing was the fact that they were still having bradycardia and apnea spells. They weren't allowed to go home unless they could keep their stats up. Like i said, pure torture!

Turns out...

Both girls ended up needing the Laser eye surgery. Addie had hers about 4 weeks after Peyton. She did very well and was moved back up to be with her sister after a few days because the CCN was too full. Every few weeks, the girls got their eyes checked and all fours eyes were/are progressing well. Here is Peyton:

And here is Addie:

I know, I know

Ok, so i'm really bad about posting and everyone keeps telling me that I have a good excuse, but really I don't. So, here goes the updates, K?

ROP stands for....

Retinopathy of Prematurity
Read about it here:
http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/rop/rop.asp#1

The girls had eye exams and the Dr. was a little concerned about Peyton's eyes. He would check the following week and see how it was progressing. See, in preemies especially, the retina is still growing and sometimes it starts to grow in instead of around. The Dr. then will need to laser those vessel to grow in the correct way. by no means is that a medical definition, but that's what i understand from it. Anyways, the next week, Peyton's ROP progress quickly enough that they decided to do laser eye surgery that very day. She came through it well, despite it being hard to intubate her. She was heavily sedated, too. Because of where the opthomologist had to laser, Peyton now has a little less peripheral vision. If that's all that's wrong, then i'll take it! I'm glad she is on her way to NOT being blind. thing can still happen, they already have: Addison might need laser surgery in one eye.

2nd Level Graduates!!

Peyton and Addison have graduated! They were downstairs in the NICU for about 2 months, but have since been moved up to the Continuing Care Nursery. Visiting Policy is still the same, although we did sneak in some friends on Conference Weekend! The Upstairs Nursery is still technically a NICU but its for the more stable babies!! We are so glad that the girls are doing well, even if they aren't out of the woods yet. The Drs. and nurses talk about them being home more and more!

Addison

Peyton

Reunion of '10

After bath time, the girls were placed in the same incubator!! They loved it so much and their vitals and stats did so much better!! After 5 long weeks apart, they were reunited!! The nurses said that they de-sated a lot less because they were always hitting each other and reminding them to breath! They also loved pulling out each others feeding tubes!

Water and Soap

The girls get sponge baths, and this is the first time that Toby and I got to bathe them! They did so well! They especially loved getting their hair washed!! After baths,we got to hold them!




Mom and Dad soaping up Peyton










Clean baby!!





Dad is holding Peyton while Mom bathes Addy








gotta have a clean back!!







Best part of our night!!