The long path home...

CJ and Keagan continue on their path to get home to Palatine but they aren't traveling as quickly as their Mommy and Daddy would like them to! 

There really isn't a whole lot of news to report but it has been a good couple of weeks of growing and CJ is up to 5 pounds already and Keagan is 3 and a half pounds (yes, for those of you paying attention, CJ gained a pound and Keagan gained a half pound in the same amount of time-he is a TANK). They are continuing to learn how to eat from a bottle. CJ can finish two whole bottles a day and most of a third, while Keagan daintily sips about half of her two bottles a day. This is really the only thing that they need to figure out before getting the all clear to go home. If we refer back to the check-list that was discussed in the very beginning of the blog, you can see that we are close:

• Hold own temperature between 97.4-99.0 (doing it)
• No apnea (stop breathing) or bradycardia (severe decrease in heart rate) that requires stimulation 24 hours before they leave (they rarely have "bradys" and don't have apnea-so this we can check this one off the list)
• Pass the car seat test-they have to sit in their car seat or car bed for 90 min. without have the above issues (we won't know until the time we're actually getting ready to leave but normally they figure this one out pretty quickly).
• Eat 100% (8 feedings a day) from a bottle for 2-3 days (we're working on it :)) 

If they were to be competing (which of course they're not-we don't like to compete at things in this family :)) CJ would be winning at eating but Keagan is winning at breathing!! For a kid with "chronic lung disease" she is doing much better than most would expect (and definitely better than her brother).

Last weekend, my wish for Mother's Day was to get my two babies together again and get some photos. Here is a sampling of them for your viewing pleasure! 

A huge thank you to Nurse Kristin who made these adorable coordinating outfits-they looked so cute!

You can see they are both getting a little chub on their cheeks! 

Sooo...holding two preemies at the same time wasn't as easy or as cute as I thought it would be but I promise-they were much more comfortable than they look and it was amazing to get to hold my two nuggets at the same time. 

To end the blog with a fun surprise-Keagan is in her own BIG GIRL BED now. It was my Mother's Day gift from Nurse Laura! It has been a great week of getting to pick her up and cuddle with her much more often. 

Party in Peoria!

Hey everybody!  CJ and Keagan reporting (with Mamaw Hutchinson's help)! Since today is a VERY special day..... it's time to party!!!

My Mommy is how old ?!?!?..... 29 years old!!!

There were decorations to be hung......

Party favors to be bought!!!....

And we HAD to "hang" balloons on our beds!

And what's a birthday without a cake?

Plus, we wore very special outfits for our Mommy!

Love you, Mom, but modeling isn't my thing!

Even the nurses' joined in on the fun!

We hope you have a super fun day, Mommy!  We love you lots and lots!  Thank you for everything you do for us!!     XOXOXO  CJ, Keagan, Daddy, and Mamaw

Happy Birthday Kendra!!

Dear Blog friends and followers,

Today I am NOT writing about CJ and Keagan, but I am writing about their mommy, whose birthday just so happens to be on May 10^th. I just wanted to take a couple of minutes of your time and tell you a few things about Kendra and the way she has handled the circumstances of this past few weeks with such grace and maturity. Many of you know these things, but I just want to restate how proud we are as parents.

When the babies were born unexpectedly, Kendra felt compelled to get into her classroom and get it organized for the teacher that would take her place for the remainder of the year, even though she was still recovering from her own major surgery. She doesn’t walk away from obligations and wanted to finish strong even though everyone would have understood if she had just backed away and left it for someone else to do.

Kendra and Clayton made the decision to get the best possible care for their children by having them remain at St. Francis Hospital in Peoria, even though it meant a more challenging living situation. Kendra has basically lived at the hospital for the past seven weeks, taking occasional breaks at Clayton’s mom’s house to rejuvenate or get a decent night’s sleep. This is just what a mom does when she puts her children’s best interests first.

Being thrown into “extreme” motherhood has suited Kendra well. She has gotten to know the medical terminology, the highs and lows of preemie babies, the day-to-day operations of a NICU and has embraced all of it in order to get her babies home as quickly as possible. 

There are other things, but for now I just want to express our gratitude that so many of you have cared enough to include Kendra, Clayton and the babies in your prayers. We thank you for doing that and today, the request is simple: please join us in wishing a very Happy Birthday to Kendra!

*Baby updates will be coming soon! There are good things happening with CJ and Keagan, but today is Kendra’s day to be in the spotlight!! 

Happy Mother's Day!!

Here is the link to an article that was featured on the front page of the Woodford Times this week.

http://www.woodfordtimes.com/feature_stories/x294381662/A-mother-before-it-was-time

Wishing a very Happy Mother's Day to our friends and blog followers! Stay tuned for more good news on the progress of CJ and Keagan!!

BIG news :)

Literally! We weighed them this morning and each hit big milestones. Not weights we would have ever thought we would have been excited about for our babies before they were born but we are so excited to celebrate them today! 

CJ

The fat boy is weighing in at 4 lb, 2 oz 

 Keagan

And our princess hit the 3 lb mark-what a big girl! 

Fat babies like to EAT

Wishing a Very Happy May Day to our blog friends & followers! 

posted by Grammie Sue 

Tomorrow will be SIX WEEKS since Keagan & CJ's arrival into the world! They have had some more wonderful accomplishments this past week and they continue to amaze everyone with how well they handle the hurdles (must be because Mommy is a track coach and they heard all about hurdles while they were in-utero, during the early part of Mommy's track season) :-)

•Keagan has currently gained over a pound, and is weighing in at a whopping 2 pounds, 10 ounces and CJ is weighing in at 3 pounds, 12 ounces (a gain of a pound and a half since birth)!

•Both CJ and Keagan started on bottle feeding this past week. CJ had a great start.  He was able to "take down" 8 ml the first day (1/3 of a bottle), but most of it ended up on his shirt.  Keagan "got it" her first try and finished her whole bottle.  Day two on the bottle didn't go as smooth, but for "31 week" old children they did fantastic.

•CJ went into an open air crib on Thursday!! No more incubator. It is so much easier to tend to him and so much fun to hear his little noises and realize that he can hear all of us more clearly too! He is maintaining his body temperature just fine. Keagan won't have the opportunity to get out of the incubator until she reaches 1500 grams (3lbs 5 oz.), so she has a little way to go yet.

We continue to be encouraged every day by these babies and also by your prayers, your comments and emails and kind words. Thank you for your continued support and we are keeping our thoughts and prayers moving in the direction of getting these babies back home by the end of the month if all continues to go as well as it has been.

Grampa Ken was able to take some fantastic pictures and video this week:

CJ's first bottle feeding!

Keagan's first bottle.

CJ's new "big boy bed"!

All snuggled into his new crib-warm and toasty!

And finally Miss Keagan looking MUCH bigger these days, don't you think?

Thanks for your love and prayers!

Nothing boring here...

I wanted to write and check-in as I know many of you are wondering about the results of CJ's hand scan that was supposed to be yesterday. We ended up having it done last week (we're not sure why) and the results were fantastic! The ventricles have decreased in size again. In addition to that, they have taken him off "watch" and they won't be doing a head sonogram again until 34 weeks which is when they scan all preemie babies (so Keagan will get one too). That means that he is most likely out of the woods for the having to have a shunt put in-a huge praise! 

With that now taken care of, the only medical concern that is still hanging around is Keagan's PDA but she still isn't having any symptoms, so no treatment is being discussed for now.

More good news:

• Both kids dropped from 3 liters of oxygen (determines the amount of pressure/flow of oxygen into their cannulas) to 2 liters on Friday and then both dropped to 1 liter today!! To put it in perspective, they had been in 3 liters for about two weeks before moving down. 
• When they hit their 31 week mark on Thursday, Keagan and CJ will begin getting a bottle for one of their feedings. Once they can finish a bottle in a feeding, then they'll add another and so on...this is a big step on our way to going home. 
• Speaking of which, we got a new doctor yesterday and she'll be with us for the next 5 weeks. One of our primary nurses, Laura, asked her if we'd be going home while on her watch. Her response was if everything keeps going as it is, that it is a very good possibility!! That is the last week of May :) I'm trying not to get to get my hopes up but it is fun to even be talking about it. 

As you'll see in the pics for this week, we are out and having fun! Mommy and Daddy are allowed to hold us now pretty much when they want, so we get out of our incubators often!

We couldn't go see the real Easter Bunny
so our stuffed bunnies had to do ...

YES-that is a normal sized bunny :)

This is what CJ typically looks like these days-not a care in the world.

BIG yawn for Keagan-she also enjoys hanging out
and just like her brother-
loves being held and snuggled by Mommy and Daddy



Seriously Mom-WHAT are you doing to me?!?
Thanks Grama Ryl for my spiffy outfit!