Summer Fun 6/30/12 - 7/4/12

June 29

The doctors decided that Zeke hadn't had any more seizures so they discontinued one of his seizure meds and will wait for him to grow out of the other. Yay! So happy for progress!!

June 30

My parents came for a visit. It's the first time they each got to hold a baby. :) It was so nice to see them excited to hold them and they took plenty of pictures.

At this point, Caleb was still having trouble eating and digesting. They started him on medication to get his bowels moving and thankfully it worked. He started eating well after that.
Zekers was still spelling at least once a day but he was tolerating his feedings well. We were calling him "Steady Eddy" because he hadn't had any set-backs in quite a while.

 

This is one of my favorite pictures of Caleb in a hat. 

He looks like that guy from Fat Albert.

 

July 1
The big boys came for another visit. Phin was so happy to see Caleb in his big boy bed. ;) Then he could ask for permission to touch him.

I hate to admit it, but the boys did a LOT of this over the summer.
It kept them entertained and quiet while we were in the NICU. 

I don't know how we would've survived without the iTouch. :)

July 2
I have to admit that this was a hard day for me. It was my birthday and no one (in the NICU) knew. It was just another day traveling to the hospital to visit half of my boys. It started out as a rough day, but then my friend Sue came for a visit and brought along some much needed laughter.

July 3 - SEVEN WEEKS!!
Zeke is off of the CPAP and on to Vapo-Therm!! Another amazing step of progress. I'm just glad that the CPAP wasn't the big bulky thing that Caleb had to wear. We knew it was an improvement even though he looked the same. :)


July 4
What a day to celebrate freedom!! I was finally able to hold both boys - at the same time!! What an amazing thing. I just sat and cried tears of joy...and then fear. What were we going to do with these two? How did we make it this far and what does God have planned next?! I had been able to keep a pretty good perspective through the months but holding them both in my arms brought a flood of emotion. That was the first time it really became real (even though some nights Jonathan and I look at each other and say, "We have twins" just to remind ourselves).
On another note, we were really disappointed that we couldn't take the big boys to the Yankee Doodle Pops concert out by the Capitol. They were playing the music of John Williams. I learned that he wrote some of the music from Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurasic Park, and many more! The boys would've LOVED it. But there were a few reasons we didn't attempt this: A) It was a free concert and it was first-come-first-served on the seating; B) It was 100 degrees outside. I didn't think we'd want to sit in the heat to save our spots for the entire afternoon and evening. So we didn't go, but if I ever hear there's another concert playing the music of John Williams, I hope to be there with all five of my guys. :)

This was the first time the boys were back together since they were born.