A Year Ago...

A year ago yesterday at around 8 am, I left for the hospital to have my second ultrasound that pregnancy (after finding out 5 days earlier there was not 1, but 2 babies in me ❤ ) So exciting! I had always wanted twins. :-)
During the ultrasound the tech was fairly quiet. Then the tech left, and came back in with few drs.  They talked about baby 'a' looking very squished, and that he didn't have very much amniotic fluid, and something about baby b's heart. After over an hour (2? I don't know) I was ushered into a room with a whiteboard, and a table and chairs. The Dr. Came in and told me that our twins had something called ttts, he explained what it was and that our babies would likely die. We had one of 4 choices.

1. Have an abortion and try again. (that's what he said...)

2. Try a partial abortion - kill baby 'a' in hopes of saving baby 'b' (baby b (Ryan) at this point had an enlarged heart and didn't look  great because he was getting way too much of everything. Baby a (Ian) looked pretty good, except that he was small, and had dangerously low amniotic fluid.)

3. Don't do anything and see how the boys do (They would likely die, or be born very early. If we didn't do anything, they expected do a c-section soon...I was 20 weeks. We would likely loose one or both after birth)

4. Fly to Toronto for a risky surgery.

I was at this point trying my hardest not to cry (I don't normally cry in public.) I quickly said 'Toronto, I'll go to Toronto!' Then the Dr. left and said he would send the social worker in to explain more to me.
As I was sitting  in the room alone waiting for the social worker, I was thinking about so many things... 'Matthew would have to stay home with the kids and I would go alone. I really didn't want to go alone, but I wasn't sure how we were going to afford one plane ticket to Toronto, two would be too expensive for us.  When I would be leaving?  How long I would be gone? How much it would cost?
My babies will likely die... I really hope this surgery works, I really don't want to loose my babies! ❤'
By then I was crying. The social worker came in with a box of tissues (She was incredibly sweet!) She sat down and then she started tearing up.  She explained that Alberta health paid for 2 tickets to Toronto for me and another person for support,  as well as a taxi to and from the hospital. I would have to pay for accommodations, if we needed them (the support person likely wouldn't be allowed to stay in the hospital). I would be gone 3-4 days.
 Whew! I wouldn't have to be alone! And the flights are paid for, that sure took a load off my shoulders!
The social worker then brought me back to the waiting room, then she left to check which flights were available asap. I texted my sister, who was babysitting my kids to let her know I'd be late. I also called my hubby. He said he would come to the hospital asap.
The social worker came back and gave me a few options for flights. I picked the latest one - the red eye, arriving in Toronto the next morning. This way I would have a little more time to find babysitters for our other 3 kids. At least it would save us on one nights accommodations :-)  I was then ushered to a clinic in the hospital  for the heart echo's on the twins.  During the heart echo's Matthew texted me and said he was going to move our van from where I had parked it (of course I had parked in the 2 hr (or was it 4 hr?) street parking as I has assumed I would be back in time. We didn't even get a ticket!... But the parking patrol guy was a few cars back... Lol Matthew quickly moved the van just in time! (For the many ultrasounds I had later, I only made that parking mistake one more time and then I decided to not risk it, so I just paid for parking).
Matthew then found the clinic I was in for the heart echos and the nurses let him in the room. The tech was great! He let me text and didn't mind that Matthew came in partway through the echos. He also didn't mind that we talked while he was doing the echo.  :-)  The Dr was great as well. She said she had worked with the Dr in Toronto that did the ttts surgeries and assured us he was one of the best :-)  After the echo we went back to meet the social worker who had our flight info and some info on the hospital we were going to in Toronto. Then we went home. It was 4pm. We arranged babysitting for our 3 kids, packed our bags, I wrote a quick blog post and then we were off to the airport.
The flight to Toronto was the most uncomfortable flight I've had, I slept about an hour. Once in Toronto we found a cab and went straight to the hospital. (Whew! That was one crazy cab driver...or maybe they all drive that way? That was my first time in a cab.)
We spent the entire day in a room at the hospital having an ultrasound. I hadn't eaten since midnight because they were possibly going to do the surgery that day. The Dr's decided at 3pm to wait till the next day to do the surgery. We were directed to a social worker who was able to get us one complimentary night at a hotel, then we found a place to eat.

I'll do another post next week - the day the did the laser ablation sugery. :-)

Pete is Ryan, the recipient.  He was the bigger twin that had  70% - 80% of the placenta and he was receiving blood etc. from Ian through the connecting blood vessels in the placenta. Ryan had way more amniotic fluid than he should have, and an enlarged heart.
 Repete is Ian, the donor.  He was smaller and had very little amniotic fluid, but otherwise looked healthy.
Before the surgery the main concern was for Ryan since he was in the most danger. After the surgery the main concern was for Ian since he has such a small portion of the placenta. The portion that Ian did have was 'strange' and the dr's were surprised it supplied him enough nutrients to last 34 weeks.

The pictures below  are not of the twins but they show how the twins looked.
 Ian and Ryan are identical since they shared one placenta, but they did have a thin separating membrane.

Easter Sunday.

Fun with photos.

A few fun photo colleges.
 I've been having a little fun with my pictires lately.

MOMMY IM TUT!  Haha this kid gets stuck in the strangest places.

Coffee with a friend

A friend came over for coffee last week and snapped a few pictures. Thanks! We love them

See them by clicking this link:  https://juliennelapid-slomp.exposure.so/de-boer-twins

January and some of February.

There isn't a whole lot new around here. Matthew has been chipping away at some of the reno's we are working on. He also was recently promoted at work  :-)
I've been trying to get things organized around here in-between diaper changes, feeding kids/babies and keeping up with the cleaning/tidying. Sleep seems to be a big topic with me for the last little while here...  I've always been able to function fairly normally even if I have little sleep, but I guess almost 2 months of 3hr or less increments of sleep, and not being able to take very many naps is really starting to take it's toll on me. I'm trying a few things to help Ian sleep better, so far I've been able to get him to stop waking every hour after 3am, (thanks to all my facebook friends tips and suggestions!) but I'm going to keep trying to get him to sleep longer.
Miriam is doing well in school, and when she is home she loves to read, watch tv, take care of the twins, play outside and does a few household chores. She lost a front tooth this past week and is pretty excited about it! (she has lost a few on the bottom row, but the top is apparently more exciting lol)
 Dylan is growing up so fast! He comes up with the strangest stories that are quite entertaining. He does a few household chores now - more when he was participating in the coin race at school for the mufu home during Manna week at school last week! ;-) He loves reading, and building things at home.
Lydia is becoming a really great helper for me, always willing to help, she puts dirty dishes in the sink, helps me empty the dishwasher, cleans up stray socks her siblings leave around the house. Her vocabulary seems to be growing daily, she has also learned to 'count' to 3. We have tried a little bit of toilet training... but she doesn't seem to get it... she will NOT pee on the potty or the toilet. but fairly soon after she gets off she'll pee all over the floor. She is pretty shocked when she pees and starts yelling to me that there is a MESS!!  haha... I think we'll wait for a bit and try again in a few months lol.
Ian is now a whopping 10lbs 5oz! We have tried a little rice cereal and it made him a little constipated (I think this is good... all the other formulas and my breast milk that we tried earlier just shot through him and he didn't break down or digest it). He was a little gassy for a few days after though, but I'm not sure if that was from the immunizations which he happened to have the same day (duh! I should have tried it a different day... oh well) I'll try some rice cereal again soon and see how he does :-)
Ryan is now 16lbs 9oz! What a porker! lol He reminds me of Miriam when she was a baby. She was (until now) my biggest baby. Ryan has rolled over back to front now, loves to babble and continues to be a very content and happy baby.

Watching baby einstein 

So cute to see such a small baby playing with toys.

Since Mom's nap was unsuccessful Lydia thought she would try...

Little Ryan LOVES the bouncer! 

Fell asleep in the bouncer awww! 

Aww! 

Weigh day! 

Lydia and Dylan wanted to be in the picture too! 

Big helper! Lydia LOVES these little boys SO much! And they love her. 

Some twin time  - no secret language!! 

A TALL tower!

Smiles

Starting to see that they are identical

Giggles!

Cuteness! 

Dylan's evil grin... You see that bruise on his upper arm? Lydia has started defending herself by using her sharp teeth! 

They really DO love each other! 

A fun game. 

Run down the hall, around the coffee table, and then back up the hall and touch the door. Repeat. 

Best. Game. Ever.

Two bouncers!! Ian needed a stool to bounce haha! 

My boys! 

Dad of twins... 'nuff said. 

Ryan is a little too big for this sleeper....Dylan wore it when he learned how to walk... Oh boy! Dylan wasn't big, and was walking all the time at 9 1/2 months. Ryan is almost 6 months (4 1/2 corrected) and far from walking lol. 

A big muddy mess in the house in February...

Follow the trail of dirt

Matthew dug a sump pit recently - we REALLY hope this means we won't have any water in the basement anymore. In the coming weeks he will be working on putting in the pipes to pump the water outside.  

A pretty deep hole (the reason it's all dug out on the left is because he started there and then ran into a drainage pipe...

Miriam do you want to go in?? 

Yup, pretty deep 

Okay, take me out now. 

Lydia helping me clean the fridge.

Cutie

Entertaining the twins.

Some random pictures from late 2013 and early 2014 :-)

So I'll finally post some pictures of us opening presents at the hospital in Ian's room. We opened presents this year the evening of the last day of school - this way the kids have the whole 2 weeks to play with their gifts :-) We opened up presents on Christmas day as well because at the hospital 'Santa' visits and drops off presents for all the children AND their siblings! - those pictures I took on Christmas day were taken with Matthew's cell phone, and I haven't uploaded them to the computer yet... maybe another post lol.

In other news Ian now weighs 8lbs!! We are so excited! He is now officially NOT 1/2 the size of Ryan anymore haha! Ian is on a special amino acid based formula called Neocate, the plan is to leave him on this formula till he is around 6mo (adjusted, so beginning of April) and then if he is at a good size by then we will try a normal formula and see if his body tolerates it. The Neocate formula is very expensive (about $700 a month but I'm sure soon it will be closer to $1000 a month since he is eating more and more). We are trying to get coverage for it, but in the meantime we are SO thankful we have such an amazing church community that has been very helpful in covering this hefty cost! THANK-YOU!

Since Ian has come home we are falling into a bit of a routine, the twins aren't on the same schedule due to the size difference, but at least we have a bit of a routine. The last few days I've only had to get up 1-2x a night (instead of the 5+x Ian was waking when he first came home... *yawn*) Now that I'm able to stay home all day most days, I have started cleaning and organizing. The house has been basically left as it was back in May, besides the bathroom reno that Matthew managed to do this summer. Since May were able to set up the twins crib, take out the baby clothes and things, wash and put them in plastic dresser things, but mostly everything else has just been in a 'get through this' mode around here which results in piles of things that should have been put away long ago, and garbage/unused things in every room. sigh... (Not to mention the water that flooded the basement after getting back from Toronto and having to rip out all the carpet in the basement...So glad that's over! Hoping this year our basement stays dry! ) I'm happy I finally have time to go through things and de-clutter, the house is feeling a little bigger, and it's getting much easier to find things again.

Playing with some of the toys the hospital gave to us. 

The SUPER FANCY swing Ian used while in the hospital. 

Ian's first room in the pediatric ward. (he moved to a different room a few weeks later)

Miriam is pretty great with the twins. 

A gift from one of the teachers... I asked her what she is going to do with all that money - she said 'buy another one of these of course'! haha! Smart girl. 

At the hospital waiting to open presents

Dylan LOVES mario! 

Special moments. 

The sweater Miriam is wearing was a present. 

Ryan loving all the activity around him.

After opening the presents we headed to the playroom to use up some energy.

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We made a Train! The kids (and the adults) REALLY loved this playroom! 

Watching TV while Dad and Mom pack up and say good -bye to Ian for the evening. 

Putting together one of his presents

Lydia wearing her Minnie sweater (the pic of minnie is hiding in this picture)

Opening presents with the DeBoers

These kids were spoiled this year! 

Lydia wouldn't have anything to do with Mickey the night before when she opened him, but in the morning she liked him. Silly girl! 

Ian is strong enough to sit in the bumbo and bouncer... but he's much too small haha! 

Watching the Saturday morning news....

Oops, forgot to rotate this one... Outfits from Uncle Nate and Auntie Lin

My SUPER bit helper! she was holding Ryan, patting and talking to Ian, and giving Lydia leg rides while I made supper.

Just love how helpful she is! And at 6yrs old she's got this down pat! 

Its challenging being small in a big world - we just improvise. 

Ian doesn't really like laying down all the time... so strapping him securely to a chair results in quite a few smiles.   

Always ready to tell a story or sing a song to the twins - a great helper for me, even at 4yrs old! 

8lbs today!! Our little superman!