And a Little About JR

I had to post a little about JR since it seems all the talk is about the twins these days. We took JR over to the mall between baby feedings today and he was very proud of himself that he could climb the rock wall...they even gave him a little medal that he wore the rest of the day (and showed to the babies) So here he is finishing up his rock wall climb.

Sunday 1/13

The boys are both off IVs! I was really excited for them to have those out of their arms, and that's one less cord/wire that they have to be hooked up to. They are both eating really well. JR was a great eater when he was a baby, so hopefully they will take after their big brother in that department, let's just hope they aren't as picky as he is now! They still aren't ready to come home; they have both had spells of Bradycardia. Reed has only had one, but Kyle has had about 4. Bradycardia is a significant slowing of the heart below the normal minimum rate for newborns of one hundred beats per minute. The good news is both of them were able to overcome it themselves without stimulation from the nurses, but of course, it still makes me nervous. The nurses keep telling me it is a common condition for preemies, but if they continue to have these episodes they will have to stay longer in the NICU. I'll continue to update, hopefully we will have lots of good news in the days ahead!

Babies Are 5 Days Old

I guess we will be doing a lot of going back and forth from the hospital in the coming week(s). JR's eyes flew open at 6:45 and ran down to inform us it was morning time, so since we were up we got to the hospital before lunch today. It was pretty quiet this morning and the nurse was really sweet and let us just sit and hold the babies and then feed them. I even changed Reed's diaper. We will be making the trip back this afternoon so we can be there for their 5 o'clock feeding. We might get to feed them, but it depends on their nurse. They really don't want you messing with them too much since they are trying to monitor them, and they really just need to be sleeping. They want them to use as few calories as possible so they can just continue to grow. But here are a few much promised pictures....

Jason and Kyle (The Big One) Look at their identical noses!












Granny Sherry and Reed (The Little One) She had him all to herself this morning. Lots of holding and she got to feed him.


Here's Kyle asleep in his incubator


And here's little Reed snoozing

Home For Me

I'm at home now. I can't believe how hard it was to leave the babies! I know they are in the best place they can possibly be, but it really upset me to come home without them. Not much change with the guys. They are still on IVs and they have them in incubators to see if they can maintain their own body temperatures. We still don't have many pictures (it's kinda hard to take them with them in their incubators) but here's some short video for now.

They're Heeerreeee....

I'm officially off bed rest since the boys are here! Hopefully this will be my one and only blog entry from my hospital bed (love wireless internet!) Seems like my mom was right...I guess I was a little more "touch and go" than I thought I was, and the babies were actually "coming any day". Jason and JR came home Sunday night from JR's favorite cousin, Caleb's birthday party and I was unusually hungry. As Jason puts it, I "ate more than he had seen me eat the whole time I was pregnant". I feel asleep about 10:30 and got up at 12:30 with terrible indigestion. I didn't know what it was, but I knew that I couldn't breathe and that I hurt really bad. At 2:30 AM I told Jason we needed to go to the hospital because I was really worried about fluid being on my lungs. We were in the emergency room until about 5:30 AM and that's when my contractions started. They sent me up to labor and delivery and tried to stop the contractions all day (I was on an IV of magnesium), but they never could get them under control. Around 9:30 PM on Monday they took blood and said my magnesium levels were too high. At that point we really had no other choice, and it was time for the babies to come. So, at 10:17 PM January 7th Kyle Garic Ingersoll was born and at 10:18 PM Reed Jason Ingersoll was born. Kyle came in at 5 lbs 4 oz and Reed was 4 lbs 15 oz (for those of you keeping score at home, that's 10 lbs 3 oz of babies I was waddling around with!) Poor Jason was still in his pajama bottoms from the night before and the only camera we had was Granny Sherry's cell phone! We definitely weren't prepared for the big night (Kristi, you can see I tried really hard to have them on Caleb's birthday!) The boys are in the NICU and are doing good. I still call them "The Big One" and "The Little One". The Big One needed a little oxygen at first so he slept under a little oxygen bubble hood, and he had a feeding tube in his nose for awhile, but he has since gotten rid of both of those. The Little One looks just like a mini JR and he has been such a big man, no oxygen or feeding tube for him...and just like JR he loves his pacifier! They still have lots of machines monitoring them and they both have IVs, but the nurse told me today that are going to let them starting sharing a crib as soon as they are ready. I'm sure they miss each other! JR has been excited about his new duty as big brother, and is also doing good. I'm sure we will all have plenty of rough days ahead when we all get home, so I'm just going to enjoy the calm right now. I want to thank all of you for all your prayers and well wishes. I can tell you that we have seen them answered and in action! I don't have any pictures for now, but I'll be sure to get some posted when I get home. Looks like I will be heading home Friday afternoon, and hopefully the babies can follow about a week after. Love to all from all FIVE of us!

1-6-08

I had two China friends call me today to check on me and the babies, so I figured I'd better do an update. Anita told me she had read our blog to see if I had them. Then, our China friend, Katie, called tonight to check in. So....as it is now, no news is good news. I went to the doctor on Friday and told her how their movement had really slowed down. I assumed it was because they are just running out of room, but she had me go over to the hospital and let them monitor me just in case. The nurse at the hospital actually told me she thought I was "small for twins"! Bless her heart, I think she's my new best friend. They hooked me up to all the machines for about 45 minutes and their heart rates and such were fine. They really are just out of space. My mom is back here with us since JR starts school again tomorrow...She thinks the babies are coming any day and tells everybody I'm "touch and go". (If you know my mom I'm sure you are giggling right now.) I really wouldn't call it 'touch and go', more like bored, fat, and uncomfortable ;-)

Happy 2008

We actually had plans for New Years Eve! The Parker Family (Jay and Sheryl and their 3 kids) came over and spent the night with us (Jay and Jason have been friends since high school and Jay introduced me to Jason when we worked at Nalco together). The kids had a blast playing together since they are all close to the same age...2, 4, 5, and 6! JR, still thinking he is half Chinese, refused to say Allison and Abby's names and referred to them as "the big-little girl" and "the little-little girl" Of course since Lance is a boy JR called him "the little boy". The kids did lots of playing on the tree house, riding on the 4-wheeler, and playing the smart cycle. The adults did lots of eating and talking. Jay and Sheryl are living in Grand Junction, Colorado and we haven't all been together since last Christmas, so we had lots of catching up to do. There certainly were lots of laughs!