Our Christmas Miracles

Can you tell they love Mickey Mouse?
Jordan trying to get daddy from holding her up.

Rylee standing and cute as ever



I love this picture.













This is how we find Jordan when she wakes up.
Rylee watching Mickey Mouse.
Poor Jordan had to wear just a diaper because she was so hot.


After I posted last week our little Jordan got much worse. She developed a 103.3 temp and her heart rate was over 180. I panicked as I thought I overdosed her with motrin and tylenol so I called the on call nurse. She let me know that her heart rate was so high because of her temp and to give her motrin or tylenol every three hours. We made it through the night and I took her to the doctor on Monday. Her little cold turned into double ear infection. This explains why she hadn't slept in days. She was one miserable little girl and could only sleep an hour or two here an there. She had to have the meds every three hours for four days and she wasn't too pleased with us. She quickly learned how to spit it out and not allow any to enter her mouth. She even turns her head when we give her bottle now. I have to take her back on Thursday to see how everything looks. The PA that was at the doctor's office was amazed that this was the first time she has been to the doctor for an illness and not just a check up. She thought she looked great and was surprised when I told her she was a 25 week old preemie. The girls had their RSV (synagis) vaccines on Wednesday and that was quite a zoo. Our poor nurse and nanny will not want to be here for the next round. Jordan weighed 17 lb 1 oz and Rylee weighed 16 lb 8 oz. Rylee is going to catch up to her sister very soon. Rylee is getting 5 1/2 ounces 6 times a day and Jordan is barely drinking 5 ounces 5 times a day. Jordan does take in more baby food than Rylee so that will keep her gaining too. Two weeks from today these girls will be ONE!!! I am already experiencing some emotions just thinking about it. The tears are already flowing! Hopefully I have it under control before their birthday. We took some Christmas pictures this weekend so enjoy. The girls looked adorable. I wanted to leave the dresses on them all day, but they were too fascinated with them so we took them off.

First Thanksgiving

Rylee and her night nurse



Determined little girl
Our little Turkey





Rylee and her day nurse


Thanksgiving has come and gone, but I still would like to express once again our thanks to all of you who have supported us and loved us through the many challenges that we have gone through this year. Life has handed us many surprises, but the love and support of family and friends is what we have to be thankful for this year. You all have been blessings to our lives. We had a great Thanksgiving day with our family and the girls seemed to enjoy their day. They both started getting sick on Wednesday evening and we are now doctoring up our little girls. They both have some colds. Jordan has had a fever since yesterday afternoon, but after we give her Motrin or Tylenol she seems to get better. It was 102 this morning when I checked it. It did scare me for a bit as I don't want to see her sick. We are very lucky that this is the first cold that she has had since she has been home so I think we can handle it. Rylee hasn't had a fever yet, but she has some pretty nasty secretions. We are having to suction every few minutes and she now has blood coming out of her trach. I will call her doctor in the morning just to let them know what is going on with her. Tiny K was here on Monday afternoon and I think we heard the word amazing a thousand times! They are really happy that our girls have come so far since they first seen them in June. Jordan is pulling up to everything and has started cruising along furniture. She is even climbing if she can get her tiny legs up high enough. Rylee is rolling all over and we have to keep track of her now that she is mobile. I have a feeling that she will be crawling by her 1st birthday. We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and we look forward to seeing everyone over the upcoming holidays.

11 months

Another picture already??
Just chilling under the mirror.
11 month bear pics


Adorable
Gross! huh! Jordan sucking out Rylee's secretions.


Thankful for these miracles.

She is this happy all of the time.
Rylee spending more time on her belly! Yea!
I love to watch them play together.
Feeding twins is alot of work.
Ride em Rylee!
Sleeping beauty!


The girls turned 11 months on Friday. We took Rylee to her routine check up at CMH Special Care Clinic on Wednesday and everyone is pleased with all her progress. She weighed in at 16 lb 4 oz and was 26 inches long. She has now doubled her weight since she has been home. I met with the Clinical Nutrition Specialist and she was amazed with how well she is growing. She could hardly wait to show me the growth chart. Rylee will be on the regular growth chart next month! She did say she was a fatty right when she was released and now she is just where she needs to be. She let us increase her feedings 10 ml and we can only increase 5 ml every other week until we go back in January. They want us to start getting her feedings to go over 30 minutes instead of an hour. I already have her at 45 minutes and she is doing great so far. This will make life alot easier for her as she is hooked up to her feeding pump 6 hours out of the day. I was very excited to hear that Rylee can have some birthday cake. They want us to start giving her some meats along with her other food. She is still just taking a few bites of her baby food and loves her little snacks. She has done a better job with her sippy cup with yogurt juice this weekend. Daddy got her to take 3 oz today. I think he has a new job. I am very frustrated with all of her feeding issues so I might let him take over. We also got the okay to stop all of her medication for her Rickets. She was getting three different medications that we had to give her every three hours. It seems weird not giving her these meds as we have been doing it since she has been home. She is still getting her prilosec and we started her on a vitamin. We are also giving her some of Jordan's formula to get her back on a regular preemie formula instead of her predigested formula. I received a response back from Rylee's ENT doctor after she looked at Rylee's video with her PMV (speaking valve) on. She stated that if we are still hearing noise when she exhales then she still has some narrowing going on in her airway. We need to pray that this is not happening or this could mean she would need surgery to open her airway up. I took Jordan to Lawrence yesterday for her 2nd H1N1 vaccination and she barely let out a cry. She is now done with all of her flu shots. Jordan is really starting to pull herself up to everything and is everywhere. Daddy did a little child proofing today so it may help keep her in-line. I took Jordan to our family Thanksgiving with my mother's side today and she just sat back and took it all in. She was very quiet and didn't quite know what to think of everyone. I had sanitizer in hand and we stayed in the corner to avoid all the other kids. I did get a little nervous when I heard all the other kids coughing. I did start to question my decision to take her with me, but now that we are home I am glad I got to take her with me. This was the first time that several of my family members has gotten to see her. I was very sad that we couldn't take Rylee and I am very much looking forward to the day that we can go out as a family and not have to worry about germs, colds, and the flu. I did have her on my mind alot while we were there. Daddy and her had a great day at home together. On my drive to the dinner I did alot of thinking of how thankful I am that I have two very precious daughters. We are so blessed. I even had horrible thoughts of what it would be like if one of the girls hadn't made it. Some close friends of ours just found out they lost one of their identical twin girls this week so please keep them in your prayers. We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.