McKinley Jane and Grant Alan

Here are some pictures from last week during bath time. They love their baths and just sit there kicking around in the water the entire time. They'll be swimming with the dogs in no time! McKinley getting bath. She has the glove on her hand to protect her IV.... Grant in big boy clothes after his bath Grant getting bath

I apologize in advance for not being able to post any pics. Our home computer has decided to act up so I'm at the hospital library. The past week has been an up and down week, but luckily we're on the upswing again. Last Tuesday McKinley was having trouble breathing and had to go on CPAP, which is a machine that gives her a little reminder to breath. They were thinking she had an infection so they treated her with antibiotics, but all her tests ended up being negative. She was on CPAP for 36 hours and then was back to her usual spunky self. They are thinking it was just a "preemie thing" and can't really account it to anything in particular. I have to admit I was quite scared when she became so lethargic. Her breathing was so bad at one point that she turned blue while I was holding her and they had to bag her....not fun for any of us. With all the blood draws and labs they had to draw it dropped her blood levels so she got a unit of blood which has also h...

McKinley and Grant were able to move out of the NICU on Sunday (9-14) to the Continuing Care Nursery and are now able to share an isolette! Aunt Shanda was really hoping she would be able to see them cobedding before she left and she got her wish. McKinley is now off of any IV fluids and is taking feeds through her feeding tube. She's battling some reflux right now so we're trying to get that under control. Grant has continued to be steadily progressing and is growing like a weed right now. He loves having McKinley in the isolette with him and I think McKinley has flashbacks of their time in the womb where he was always beating up on her...things haven't changed in the outside world! Chad and I are still living at the hospital and either sleep in one of the hospital rooms if it's available or one of us sleeps in the recliner in their room. Their new room is not near as nice as the NICU with the couches/beds, etc but it's progress on the babies end and we're happ...

Now that some of the nerves and hormones are worked out the realization has hit me that I'm officially a mommy of two precious little ones. While I miss the remaining weeks that I would have had with my belly during the pregnancy it's so great to be able to actually hold them in my arms and snuggle! To fill you in quickly on the story leading up to delivery. I went in on Labor Day contracting and was admitted to the hospital to do the magnesium wash I had mentioned in a previous post. Was on magnesium for a couple of days, which is supposed to be the best medication there is for stopping strong labor and it barely held my contractions back. I continued to contract and the plan was to keep me on the magnesium in the hospital until the 32 week mark and then we would reevaluate. During my time there I ended up contracting from Monday to Friday about every 2 minutes with cervical dilation. On the morning of 9-5-08 my water broke for baby A (McKinley) at 9:50 a.m. at which time the ...

McKinley with her IV in her head..bothers me more than her! Daddy holding Grant on first night. Grant loves playing with his chest hair!! McKinley on left, Grant on right in operating room After quite the week we're proud to announce that McKinley Jane Nuttle was born 9-5-08 at 11:47 a.m. weighing 3 lbs. 1 oz and Grant Alan Nuttle was born 9-5-08 at 11:48 a.m. weighing 3 lbs. 12 oz. Both are doing great considering how early they were (31 weeks 4 days). Both gave big cries when they were born via c-section and Grant even mustered enough energy to pee all over me! Neither had to be intubated (tube down throat) which was a big relief to us and Grant was on room air by evening and McKinley is on a tiny bit of oxygen through her nose that she will probably be off of very soon. Very long story as to how the labor progressed and I want to go hold my babies so I'll have to post that later. We'll also be sure to get some more pics out. Thanks to everyone for their prayers. I truly...

We had a check up with the OB this week and nothing has changed at this point except for my medicine not working so well. I've had to start taking it more frequently and even then I'm having some pretty good episodes of contractions. Dr. had warned me that the efficacy would wear off after a couple of weeks of using it and we would have to do a magnesium "wash". What that entails is checking into the hospital for 24-48 hours to be on a magnesium drip. It allows the sensors that terbutaline normally hits to rest and then hopefully we can restart the terbutaline and have it work better. She also says she doesn't see me making it to the 36 week mark. She said she's been proven wrong before though, but she has quite a bit of experience with twins. Her goal is to get us to 32 weeks and then everything after that is bonus to her. We'll see...anyone want to place a bet? Winner can baby-sit the babies when they come! Hope everyone is doing well and doing...

I'm 30 weeks today and I never thought we would make it this far so I'm extremely grateful. We had our checkup with the perinatologist and McKinley has caught right up with Grant, which was a relief b/c they were worried about her growth dropping off. She weighs around 2 lb. 9 oz and he weighs around 2 lb. 13 oz. Dr. was happy with their growth. We found out that Grant already has a full head of hair! Chad and I always joked that our kids would be monkeys if they had his DNA! Went for my twice weekly nonstress test to see how the babies were doing and they did great. Everytime I go they have me lay on my back, which in turn makes me contract so they made me go over to triage to get checked out. Once I was on my side everything calmed down, they checked my cervix which hadn't changed so they let me go home. I'm not counting that as a real triage trip though!! At last appointment with OB my belly is measuring 40 weeks and I'm starting to feel it. I would love to insta...