Long time - no post

As always, it has been a busy week (well almost two) and I wish that I had posted more often. In addition to the usual craziness I have been very busy at work. Unfortunately this means that Amy is left to take care of even more stuff at home. I actually started writing this post almost a week ago but I never finish. Instead, I just modify it and add to it.

When I think back last week was a productive week, especially for Brandon. Early last week Brandon again pulled his NG tube in the middle of the night. It had been hard to fit the tube down his swollen nose on the last couple of times so we decided to leave it out and just do oral feedings. We called the doctor the next day and talked it over. He hasn’t had an NG tube since. We hope that we are done and we won't ever have to shove one in his nose again.I always felt like I was participating in a torture scene from "24" every time I had to stick it down his nose again.

Brandon eats really well most of the time. Every so often he has a bad feeding or two but he nurses really well and while Katelyn won’t touch a bottle, Brandon often does extremely well with a bottle. We give him a bottle a couple of times a day. The biggest problem with Brandon is that he is still very fussy a lot of the time. It’s hard to know exactly what is causing the problem but he does a lot of crying. He has a lot of gas. We found out today that both Brandon and Katelyn are positive for C-Diff still so this could be one contributing factor to Brandon’s crying.

Brandon had an appointment with the pediatric surgeon last week. He evaluated him and decided that he is ready to have his hernia repaired any time. We are a little hesitant to do it right away. The hospitals are overflowing with kids with RSV. It is particularly bad this year. We talked to many nurses and parents who have taken their babies in for a simple procedure and have stayed for weeks because they caught RSV in the hospital. In the ideal situation Brandon would only have to stay overnight, but they will reserve a bed in the Pediatric ICU for him because of his history. Right now we plan on waiting a while for the season to taper off a bit before we have the operation done. The one thing that makes us even consider having the repair done soon is that the surgeon explained that, even thought the standard answer is that the hernia wont effect his crankiness, he said that it is also surprising how many parents with fussy babies report a big change after a hernia repair. However, we think that that it is worth the wait to avoid a potentially life-threatening problem.

Before his appointment with the surgeon we dropped by the perinatologist’s office. These are the doctors that gave Brandon and Katelyn blood transfusions while they where still in the womb. We had grown pretty attached to these doctors during our appointments. We would go several times a week and we spent many hours with them in the operating room during the transfusions. One of these doctors was the one who actually delivered Brandon and Katelyn. Visiting them is a great reminder of how far we have come. It is strange for them ask how things are going and have them expect for us to talk about all of the current problems that Brandon and Katelyn are having. The great thing is that the only thing we can say is that they are doing great and Brandon is wearing glasses. It is very surprising to everyone how we have beaten the odds in so many ways.

Brandon made some great progress recently on his developmental milestones. He has gotten a lot better at reaching for things and interacting with people. When he’s in a good mood he is very fun to play with. He really likes to “talk” and he makes a lot sounds that almost sound like laughs. He is also a big sucker for kisses. A kiss on the check often results in a big smile. An ocupational therapists came in and looked at Brandon yesterday. There are a couple of things we need to help him with but for the most part he is right on track for his adjusted age. They are approaching 7 months, making their adjusted age nearly 4 months.

Both Brandon and Katelyn weight gain has been a concern. They are both gaining some weight and the Doctor doesn’t seem overly concerned but it is something that we watch closely. This means that even though they might sleep through the night without us disturbing them we still wake them up to eat every 3-4 hours and we are always trying to get them to eat as much as possible. We add a special formula to Brandon's bottles to make sure that he gets the max amount of calories possible. We weight them often but we always to do it in grams so I’m never sure of how much the weight in pounds and ounces. If I remember correctly a couple of days ago Brandon was 10 lbs. 5oz. and Katelyn is just a little smaller.

Katelyn is also doing really well. She is incredibly outgoing and often very happy. She likes to test out her voice and lets out loud squeals often. She has also learned how to demand things so when she wants attention she lets out yells that sound a lot like she is clearing her throat. During Brandon’s visit with the surgeon she must have felt left out because she kept interrupting with her squeals. She was loud enough that we had to stop and pay her some attention but as soon as we did, she instantly calmed down and smiled. I think we are in trouble for a long time to come.

For those of you who read this from outside of Utah, we have had a lot of snow in the last month. It appears that we will get a break this week but for a while it seemed like it wouldn’t ever stop. This heavy amount has caused many of the deer to come out of the mountains looking for food. I have taken Blake in Derek around the neighborhood in search of deer several times lately. It has been surprising how easy it is to find them. In fact, we often have a group of deer that hang out in our back yard for hours at a time at night. They like hiding under our trampoline and although I have never seen them actually jumping, they have no problem clearing our six foot chain link fence that is also surrounded by shrubs.

I have picutres and video that I plan on posting really soon.