No news is good news...

Okay so, it's been a bit since I've updated you all on the blog.

The twins turned one month old yesterday! I can't believe it's been a month. In some ways it feels like it flew by, and in other ways it feels like it's been forever since they were born.

Ryan is doing great at home, he is now 5lbs 12oz so gaining lots :-)

Ian is also doing great. He is off all his medication except for some nystatin. He is still on fats and nutrients from an IV, but started tube feeding some of my milk early last week, then late last week they started bottling most of his feeds, and he is eating like a pro :-) He was almost a month old before having his first bottle. He is getting close to full feeds now :-) Can't wait till they can take the ng tube out, and get rid of the IV :-)
His incision isn't healing as well as we'd like - the ostomy bag is really close to his incision (couldn't be helped - he is so small) and the bag doesn't stick well to his skin, so the contents in the bag - poop- has often leaked into his incision, which is now a little infected and still not closed.
Some positive news - he is being transferred out of the stollery childrens hospital, to a different hospital  because things are going so well :-) Yay! Hopefully in a few weeks he can come home, if he gains well, and passes the car seat test, and has no other complications etc.

Here are a few sweet pictures of our boys during their daily naps together. (heart)

First day of school :-) And Ryan comes home!

Miriam's first day of grade one :-D

Dylan's first day of Kindergarten!!

Ryan's first bottle at home :-)

An update on Ian

Sorry this has taken so long to write, I had updated my facebook status after the surgery, but it takes much more time to think about and write a blog post.

Ian holding onto Nana's hand (heart)

Little Ian by one of the teddy bears Matthew and I bought for the twins in Toronto. 

Night before Ian's second surgery.

Ian second surgery (Sunday) went well.
We were so relieved when the Dr. came to talk to us after the surgery and said the part of the intestine they weren't sure about, looked good!! :-) The dr. took a little more small intestine out (around 9cm total) and attached an Ostomy bag. Ian will have the bag for 6+ weeks, and then Ian will have another surgery to re-attach everything and then he won't need the bag anymore :-)
Ian is recovering well, he is slowly coming off of his blood pressure medication/steroids, morphine and a whole bunch of stuff. The dr removed Ian's dressings, so now he just has the staples. He also has a little 'poop' in his ostomy bag, which means things are working :-) So thankful! God is good! Our little boy looks so much better already! When we come and talk to Ian he opens his little eyes once in a while, and has even smiled a little :-) Hopefully soon we can hold him again! Ryan has been doing well, and is now discharged!! We are so excited to have one of our twins home! He's still tiny though, but back to birth weight 4lbs 6oz (yesterday) We can now bring Ryan to visit his big/little brother :-) We can't put Ryan in Ian's bed yet because Ian is so full of tubes and IV's etc. there is no room in the bed for another baby, but we hold Ryan right by Ian and let them hold hands :-)
I only have time for a short post, because now I have to feed Ryan :-)

THANK - YOU to everyone for all the cards, money, flowers, prayers and support!



Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:12

Update on Ian's first surgery

It's pretty hard to write this, but I want to update you all on what is going on.
 Most of you know that Ian hasn't been doing well that past 2 days, yesterday he was transferred to a level 3 NICU, and there if needed, he would be able to have surgery.  Today we found out that part of his bowel is dead, so he needed surgery this afternoon to remove the dead part. The dr. wasn't sure how much of it was viable until he was doing the surgery. Little Ian was in surgery for about 1 1/2 hrs.  Ian is doing ok after surgery so we decided to go home, have some supper, see the other kids, and head back to the hospital after the kids go to bed.
After Ian was out of the OR the dr. explained that he did have to take out some of Ian's bowel. There is also a larger part that the Dr. isn't sure what it's going to do - he said it was grey, and may possibly die as well. So on Sunday Ian will have another surgery to see if that part is dead, or if it is looking better. If that larger part is doing better then they will attach a ostomy bag, he can then recover and hopefully get better. Later when Ian is older, they will do another surgery to re-attach everything and get rid of the ostomy bag :-)  If the larger part of the bowel is dead then the dr's can't do anything for our little Ian. If they removed the part we are concerned about, the only viable part that is left wouldn't be big enough to absorb the amount of nutrients he would need to survive. So in that case he would die.
We hope and pray that the the part of the bowel we are concerned about looks much better on Sunday when they do the operation. Please remember us in your prayers and we thank you so much for the love, prayers and support so far!

We know that little Ian is in our Heavenly Father's hands. In Him do we find our our comfort and strength.
  We are thankful that we have access to such great health care, and that God has equipped these dr's and nurses to be able to help.


And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28

An update about the boys and a little about my C-Section recovery.

How are the boys doing?
This seems to be the question most asked in the past week :-)
They are both doing great. Neither of them need an IV anymore - one less tube, yay! Ian is still in an incubator but being 11 days old he will hopefully start gaining more consistently and be in an open air bed soon and co-bed with Ryan. :-)

The boys were transferred to a different hospital on Monday (not farther or closer from/to our house, we live in between both hospitals) Thankfully they lost minimal weight, and didn't seem very stressed - they did miss a feed though, because the hospital doesn't like to feed the babies right before transporting them - usually it just makes them throw up. Ian lost 2 grams and Ryan lost 10 grams (the loss could be scale differences too...) Now Ian weighs... 2lbs 8oz (birth weight is 2/11)  and Ryan weighs... 4lbs 1oz (birth weight is 4/6)  so neither of them is back to birth weight, but hopefully soon :-)
We are not super happy about the transfer because the other hospital had more family friendly rooms and programs available, but after looking around the hospital the twins are now at, it hopefully won't be as difficult to go see the boys as a family as we originally thought, so that's good :-)  The nursery they are now in is much smaller than the one at the other hospital, so we will likely get to know most of the nurses pretty quickly, that's kinda nice :-)
We have been trying to bottle feed Ryan once in a while now, the first two tries he didn't drink much (doesn't help he didn't wake up before eating lol) but today I tried twice, in the morning he drank about 2/3rds of his feed from his bottle, and then this evening he drank about 1/2 from a bottle :-) Yay! A little closer to coming home :-) We find out later this morning if the boys lost or gained yesterday :-)
Although neither of them is back to birth weight yet, they are both looking older than they did last week :-)


How did your C-Section go?
I was very nervous about having a C/S. But I'm happy that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be :-) The surgery went well, (I didn't like getting the needle in my back for the spinal block though) It was neat having no feeling in my legs for a bit...lol and when the spinal started wearing off I was quite amused at how I could kinda move my legs but then they would randomly flop over haha.
 I was able to walk around 8 hrs after the surgery (4am)- I walked around our ward with Matthew, got some water, a house coat, and then walked back, pumped (moo...) and then slept for a bit more. I was up again 12 hrs post surgery - Matthew pushed me in a wheelchair to the NICU to see our twins :-)
 Later that day I walked to the NICU and Matthew pushed me in a wheelchair back to my room. By Sunday morning I was able to walk back and forth slowly on my own to the NICU. (36hrs post surgery). Sunday at around noon my dr. came to check on me and asked if I wanted to go home Sunday or Monday? (I thought I was going to have to convince her to let me go home Monday morning... lol) So of course I chose to be discharged right away :-) My dr. discharged me 40hrs post surgery. Yay! So happy I could go home so quickly! I really didn't want any more blood thinners/monitoring - I was walking around and didn't really need all that stuff anymore anyway...(and for those of you that have had a baby/nurses/dr's - yes, I had already 'passed gas, pooped and peed, and was eating normally :-) ) Matthew picked me up right after the second service, we stopped at home for a minute and then we went to the church (where Matthew left the other 3 kids with family) for a birthday supper for Opa H (we were a little late though) Other than having to walk slow, I was feeling really good :-) but it was extremely hard to roll over in bed - OW! One of my biggest fears was that I would accidentally rip my stitches open if I sneezed... I didn't sneeze till 10 days post surgery, so no ripped stitches :-)
 I stopped using my painkillers 5 days after the C/S because I am pretty sure they were effecting my milk supply... I had accidentally forgotten to take one, and the next time I pumped I got way more.. so I experimented a little and wrote all the amounts out when I was on pain killers and when I wasn't - I also tried this at different times of the day, and yup - I produced more milk when not on the pain killers - by that time it was better for me to feel a little pain, cuz otherwise I couldn't feel when I was doing too much. (yes, I write down every time I pump (moooo...) - exact amounts, times, what comes out of each side, also if I drank red raspberry leaf tea that day, or if it was hot, or if I was stressed/busy etc.  lol In regards to milk supply things have been great! I'm now able to keep up with the twins feeds, and even pump more - some of it had to be frozen because I had too much :-) I suppose keeping up with what the twins need to eat is easier when they are only just over 2lbs and just over 4lbs :-P )

Now, I feel great! I can lift Lydia on to the change table, or into bed etc. I'm trying not to carry her around though. (and yes, my dr. is fine with it.. she said to me 'WHEN you lift your 18mo old daughter, just be careful' lol she knows me quite well haha! I can walk normally, and roll over in bed without pain - still a weird feeling in my muscles though, so I'll still hold off on vacuuming for a few days yet. but sweeping and most other housework seems to be fine. Nicole and Matthew -seem to- follow me around and keep saying "Oh here let me do that" "Are you allowed to do that yet?" "Oh I can do that for you" haha - It's so nice to have them around!  -   The whole 6 week recovery thing REALLY scared me! (Yes, I know I am still recovering) So I'm happy that at 11 days post surgery things have gone so well :-) Answered prayers for sure! :-)

God has blessed us with such great family, friends and church community! The help, meals and baking have been great! Thank-you!

Psalm 34:1
I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall be continually in my mouth.