The Story of Crankapotamus 1 and 2.

Hi all. How are you? we are not good here. Today has been a rough day. It started at 8:30 this morning. Brady woke up crying and was a little fussy. I brought him downstairs to feed him. He took about half of his bottle and that was it. Then he started crying again. Let's change his diaper. Crying again. Let's try to feed and burp again. Nope, crying. This game went on for about three and a half hours. Finally, we sit down after a serious rocking, and lullaby singing session. I watch him close his eyes, and he falls asleep. Nobody..Freakin.. move. I sat there for another 45 minutes rubbing his head and getting whatever last burps I could get out of him. Then I started to falls asleep. Not good, I better put him down. Into the bassinet we go. I lay down, cover my head with the blankets to make it dark. I grab my pillow and waaaaaaaa. Oh Brady my love, what is wrong? Ahhh, we haven't pooped in two days! There it is. Brady likes to brew his insides for a few days. He was fussy a few days back and this was the same reason. Basically our whole day has been holding playing "bicycle" with his legs, rubbing his belly, and holding him. We even stuck stuff up his tushy to stimulate him. Nothing.  He has been a miserable little man today. The only thing that keeps him from screaming is holding him. Then he falls asleep, and he sleeps well, because he is exhausted. A few days ago we gave him Glycerin to get him to go, but they said not to use it to much, so we are trying to hold off. We might have to use it again though. Craig bought some stuff that goes in his bottle to make him go, but it hasn't worked yet. There fore, I only have one picture of our little man tonight. I think it says it all.

                                                                             I don't feel good, I need to poop :(

Patrick
Oh Patrick, why are you angry tonight? Have you ever heard people say that they know when their twin is upset, or when something is wrong? I think this is the case tonight. Patrick was in a mood tonight, yet doing well. Does that make sense. He was bizzaro Patrick tonight. Here is why.

Normal Patrick Likes: Being held, eating from bottle, being swaddled in blankets, low saturation, high oxygen. He dislikes low oxygen, burping.

Tonight was different. Patrick hated being held, and he did not finish his bottle. Normal Patrick dsats to the 70's when he eats, and they have to turn up the oxygen. Bizzaro Patrick ate tonight, while sating in at 100% oxygen, and they had to turn his oxygen down. What? What the heck is happening today? Here is what I think was wrong. It was so freakin hot in the NICU tonight that I was ready to throw a fit while I was there and had to leave.  When I got there, I didn't notice it at first. Here is how it went down. I was scrubbing in at the sink when I hear my phone go off. It is his Primary saying she doesn't have him today. Level of irritation at a 1. I guess the other nurse in acute extension already was on her third day, so they said it would be unfair to take away her assignments. The way they decide things sometimes is screwy there.  It is confusing to explain, so I won't. Long story short, she didn't have him. I get to section and say hi to his nurse. Wow, it's warm over here. she says he is ready to go and I can get started. I take off his shirt, and was like, wow, you are clammy buddy. I take his temp and it is low. This happened once before. He was so warm he was sweating, which lowered his temp. I tell his nurse, he is really clammy, I think he is hot, that is why he is fussy. We have been through this before. I change his diaper and go to feed him. He is a little fussy during feeding. He doesn't finish the whole thing, which is unlike him. I can tell he is uncomfortable. Every time I put a blanket near him, he starts to squirm. Man, it is hot in here. I try to hold him when he doesn't finish his bottle. No go, he is upset, and his face is sticking to me. I try to move him around, and his cords get tangled. I fix them, and attempt to make him comfortable. Still fussy. I check his diaper, change it to see if that helps. We weigh him. He is 5.2 pounds. It is really hot tonight in here... His nurse asks me how it is going, and I say he is not himself tonight. I take off his blankets to see if that helps.  I tell her he is still annoyed. He is not usually like this, he is hot. I stand and hold him, rocking him. The cords get tangled again. Irritation level at 5. He starts to cry again, holding his breath, and starts to dsat. Patrick, get it together buddy. His nurse comes over to check on us. I place him down on the bed where he starts to cry, and his cords get stuck on the side of the crib.
Nurse: How is he doing?
Emily:  He is not happy. Why is it so freakin hot over here? What is the deal?
Nurse, maybe he would be happy on his belly. Let's wrap him up and see how he does.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Irritation level 9, about to implode!
Emily (In my head) Why the hell would I wrap him up?Why don't I go put him in your dryer while I am at it? I just said he is pissy because he is hot, and sweating. Why would I add blankets to him? You want me to put his heavy hat on too? Your are screwing with me right now right? Seriously, is the heat on? I am sweating through my shirt with this dumb gown on! Cheese and rice! Please move him back to the other side, I'm over this already. (text Craig) Brady hasn't pooped yet..are you kidding me.?Ugghhhhhhh!
I love you Patrick, but mommy has to go.  I untangle his cords one more time, and head out. I stop on the way out to see his primary and tell her the situation. She tells me she will keep an eye on him, and watch his temp. I will call to find out about his blood later.  On a brighter note, his hair looks good, and his eyes aren't as yellow anymore.  Here are the only pics I could get of Patrick tonight. Again, a picture speaks a thousand sweaty words.

                                                                                     I'm hot!

                                                                                  Still hot!

                                                                                 It's like a sauna in here!

                                                                                Finally calm enough to stop crying.

I hope tonight is better for the boys. It has been a bad day for both of them. Everyone pray for air conditioning for Patrick, and poop for Brady!

I pray to be in a better mood tomorrow.
Love to all
Em, Criag, and the unhappy crankapotamus boys.

A fussy day for one, moving day for another

Good morning to all. Hope everyone is having a great morning. We had a little bit of a rough morning yesterday. It wasn't bad, don't get me wrong, but somehow we got off schedule, or "scchedshual" as my friend Daniella would say. The first few nights with Brady were great. He was on time each night with his feeds, and we had a good thing going. Then he started eating more, and sleeping longer, which is fine. Yesterday he slowed down on his feedings a little, and he was wanted wanted to eat every other hour, instead of every three. That was slightly annoying because it left us with little sleep. He gets full, and doesn't want anymore, but 30 minutes later, he is starving again.

I feel like we are in the bassinet, then out, in, then out. Today we have been trying to get him back on track. He was a little fussy today too. He loves to be held, and we are trying not to pick him up every time he cries. I end up doing it when I notice he starts to hold his breath. There's no monitor here, so I don't know if he is getting air or not. When he starts to hold it, then turns dark red, I have to distract him a little or calm him down. Patrick does the same thing when he cries. He cries so hard he holds it for awhile. I had to blow in his face the other day to snap him out of it because he dsated down to like 70. He ate a little bit before Craig left, and I rocked him fora few minutes. It worked til I put him down. I put him in an activity bouncer which worked for about 2 minutes. Then I put him in the vibrating seat for a few. He fell asleep! Thank you to the Scheiblichs!

Oh, spoke to soon, he is up. I finally got him to eat a decent amount around 7, and he fell asleep on my belly. After a few minutes, I rolled him in my sweatshirt, and rolled him over on the couch. He was sleeping so well that I grabbed the computer and had some lazy time. Steiner came up and joined us too. At one point I got up to charge my laptop and left the boys on the couch to nap together.

                                                                                Snuggle friends for life
He manged to sleep for three and a half hours. After he woke up, he ate a little, we changed into our Bert and Ernie diaper, and we read two stories. We read "Goodnight Moon" from Marlene, and "Can you say Moo" from Noah. Thanks for the books you too!

After that, daddy got home, and he is back to sleeping on Craig, haha.

Patrick
Craig said Patrick looked good again tonight. His O2 was at 25%. He only dsated once. Og course it was during rounds, and in front of the head honcho medical director. He always, and only does that in front of him. He was "sat" at 100 % all night, but as soon as they do rounds, and there are like 5 people in front of him, he drops it. I swear, he is to comfortable there. Craig said they he took his whole bottle tonight. He is up to 43 mls.  They said they are going too move him to, what they call "Acute extension." It is basically  the same as progressive, but the nurses only have three babies, instead of 4 or 5.  He will be back where Brady was, but not with the big kids, with the "in between" kids. I'm not going to hold my breath for this, because I've told you all that he was going to go to progressive like 5 times already. It never happened. I guess they need the room because there is a set of twins coming in tonight. We went from being the only twins there, to now, where there are four sets (including this admit tonight) We shall see if he moves.  Besides this, he seemed to have nice color, and he seemed relaxed in his crib tonight.

                                                                                    In my nice snuggle up

                                                                                    I know it's blurry, but I thought it was funny

                                                                                    Yummy in my tummy

                                                                                     I can't move my arms, to tight.

                                                                                       Okay, that's better.

I think that is all from the twins tonight.
Have a great day!
The Connors

We have some stinky, stinky boys....

Good evening all. How's things? Things are good on this end, but a bit smelly. We will get into that later though. Let's get down to the stinky stories, shall we?

Patrick
When I walked in to the NICU tonight,  I ended up in the hallway with "Adam's" parents. We gave each other updates on our boys. She said that I look tired, and I laughed and said I am. I was so tired that when I unwrapped my scrub brush at the sink, I turned to throw away the wrapper, and I threw away the scrub brush instead. They laughed. I tell you, I am a hot mess this week, but no worries, Brady is well taken care of.  After we talked, we went in to our separate sections. As I walked toward little man, I spotted a big white crib next to his bed. Could it be for him? Yes, It was! Whoo hoo, Patrick is in a big boy crib. I love the crib, because it is so much easier to work in. The little crib that he is in now is a tight squeeze, so it is hard to clean him and move things around. This is like the size of a regular crib, and the sides go down. Love. It also has a handle that you turn to make one side go up. It reminds of a ergonomic Temper-pedic bed. She said that is good for his reflux. She said that is his new bed until he leaves there. Sweet. He looked healthy tonight. They had said before that they didn't think that the boys were identical, and we told them for sure they were. Now that he is looking healthier and more filled out, him and Brady look so much alike.  They do a lot of the same things too. They both pull their right eye down with their fingers. They both do this silly neck turn, and face stretch right before they burp. When they do the stretch they look so much like each other that it makes me nervous. I can guarantee trouble with switch ups in the future. He is up to 41 mls of food. They are giving him a bottle 3 times daily. They might increase it since he is doing well. He drank all of his bottle tonight for me, and did well. It stayed in his mouth this time, unlike two nights ago. He dsated a little when I held him, but it wasn't to bad. The lowest it was tonight was 76. He was on 24.5 % oxygen when I arrived. I turned him up to 25.5% during hands on because he started to cry, then held his breath. He turned a little pale on me. Otherwise, he was doing quite well on his oxygen. He gained weight tonight. He was 2305 grams, which I think is 5 pounds. Don't quote me on that, I can't back that up.His nurse said that they are not going to add any supplements for his bones. They said his Calcium is good, and his Alk. Phos is getting much lower which is good. I don't know if they will take a follow up x-ray before he goes home. I imagine they will, or they will send up for a follow up Ortho appointment I'm sure. I was told that two days in a row, Patrick cleared out the pod with his gas. Brady's first primary had to go work on her other baby in another pod to get away from the smell. Oh formula, you stink. Poor kid

                                                                              Undressing for my weight.

                                                                           Oh ho ho, look who else is sexy and they know it

                                                                              In dreamland

                                                                                 Hey baby, want to come to my crib?

Brady
Brady was a bit fussy last night and this morning. I realized that it must have been because he hadn't pooped for two days. This is normal for him, but he seemed extra annoyed about it this time. We knew how to fix that. We went to the store the other night and had picked up some liquid Glycerin for him. We put some in his tushy, and waited for the fun to start. The fun that was promised did not start for like an hour. The dog started sniffing the bassinet, and I thought, oh yeah, something is up. Oh and it was!  When Brady poops, he clears the house, and has always been like that. Craig went to go check on the situation, and saw that the bed, and his clothes had poop all over them. I guess when we checked his diaper, we didn't shut it all the way. What happens when you give Glycerin to a kid with an open diaper. The shit hits the fan, that's what. An hour later, I smell something again. I head to change him on our little changing table. I start to change him, and start cleaning up. Sonic boom! He splashes all over the diaper. Oh man it stinks! Wait, is my hand wet,? "Yes mom, I am urinating all over the changing pad." Thanks Brady! What a mess. After that we were good to go, and he was much less fussy! he is eating like a champ. He takes anywhere from 30 mls to 100 mls. He slept for close to 5 hours last night after his big feeding. Awesome! The books we read last night and tonight were
"I Love You Forever" from Randi and Robert, and "Happy Birthday to you" from Katy. Thank you both!

                                                                                    The boys taking a little time to relax

                                                       This is what I found this morning when I quietly lifted up the blanket on his bassinet to not wake him. Hi Mom! I'm awake! Hahaha

I will try to get some more pics of Brady tomorrow. We get busy doing things around the house, and I forget to take pics. Let's rack it up to mommy brain and lack of sleep.

Good night all!
Em, Craig, and the stinky twins

Looking good today

Hey there every one. How are you. We are good here. Brady has been a little fussy today. I am trying not to pick him up when he cries. I will let him fall back asleep most of the time. When he really starts crying I pick him up to calm him down. Him and Patrick are breath holders. They cry so hard that they stop breathing, so when he starts to cry, I try not to let him self sooth so much. I don't want him to be one of those babies that gets picked up every time he cries, but sometimes I do just to see if he needs a diaper change or what not. Hey, I didn't get to hold him that much for three months, so I am taking advantage! I am not ashamed! 

Patrick
Craig went to go visit Patrick today. He said that he was very happy with the way that he looked. He said that he really looks like Brady now, his face just needs to fill out some more. His nurse texted me some pics of him tonight. She said that his oxygen was low at like 25 %. Craig said they turned it up to around 28% while he was eating, but besides that, he was very low tonight. He took all of his bottles today, and finished his dinner for Craig. He said he didn't have any issues tonight with him drinking from the bottle.  He is up to 41 mls of food. The doctor asked Craig if he was ready for him to go home, and he said yes. The doctor said to ask Patrick if he was ready. When he says he is ready, he can go, haha.  He did get a bath tonight, and some new tape on his face.

                                                                                 Sitting tight

                                                                                 Deep sleep

                                                                                  Brady made me a sign saying he misses me!

Brady
Brady is doing well, but like I said is a little fussy. He has decided that instead of eating around 40-80 mls off food, he wants close to 100 mls. We had to ask the nurses if that was okay. We don't want to over feed him and him get sick. They said if he wants to eat it, to let him go. He is a growing boy.   Not much else is going on here. He is doing well otherwise.

                                                                                       Soo big!

                                                                            Hanging on the couch

                                                                            Sleeping with my lamb

Alright kids, I am very tired so I am going to bed. Talk later!
Em, Craig and the boys.

Naptime is a good time

Why hello there everyone! Hope you all had a good day. We had a busy day today, but thankfully we got to take a break when we got home. As I said early, we had our first two appointments with Brady today. They both went well. He did cry at the eye doctor's, but I would have too. It was like a horror show. Thankfully he slept it off afterwards. He did well at the Pediatricians too. After we got home, we fed Brady, and he fell asleep shortly after. We took advantage of the situation, and we took a nap too. Craig's lasted for a few hours, mine was about 30 minutes. I heard Brady wake up and start to fuss. I gave him a bottle and he fell asleep again. I snuggled up on the couch with him and tucked us in to a blanket. It was a nice little cuddle.  I made some lunch/dinner, then headed off to the hospital to see my little man.

Patrick
 He was having an okay night. He was at 26% oxygen and in the 90's. He was nice and quiet, until the nurse said that he needed a bath. Oh boy, do my little boys hate baths. He cried for most of it. It breaks my heart. Afterwards, I fed him. He is allowed to have three bottles a day. he took the whole bottle, but it was a mess and a half. No matter how much chin and cheek support I gave him, it just drooled out. I should have given him the bath after the feeding. We had about 1 hour and a half of snuggle time. He did well with it, but not as good as he usually does. he did dsat a few times. At one point he went down to 55 while feeding. The lowest he dsated to during the holding was in the 70's.  All the nurses say that he is doing well, but I feel like he going over a hump again. I left a little frustrated tonight. it is killing me that he is going to be there for at least another month. It seems like he has so far to go still. All I can do is keep telling him how proud I am of him, and that he is the toughest baby that I know! I told him tonight that I am glad that we gave him a strong Irish name because he is living up to that toughness. I keep telling him to get better already so that I can take him home to all his cool stuff, and so we can be a be a family. He just sleeps when I talk to him, he has no idea what I am saying. He lost a little weight tonight. He was 2220 grams. He didn't look as puffy tonight, so they think that might be why he lost a little weight. I double checked on the broken arm, and they said that they won't be splinting it. They said that baby bones are so flexible that they heal very quickly. This is good. The orthopedist thinks that it happened about a month ago. He also said it is healing well. They said that they won't be adding extra Calcium to his diet. His Calcium levels are good, and I guess to much can hurt him later. They said that his Alk Phos, which is what shows his bone density, is also getting better, the levels are coming down. They haven't mentioned anything about him going to Progressive anymore. I think he is going to be in acute for awhile longer. Rounds on him were short tonight. The doctor basically just said that they have to keep working with him, and that it is up to his lungs at this point. We are just waiting on them to develop.

                                                                                    Getting ready for my bath

                                                                                      New outfit after my tub time

                                                                                           My cool hat to keep me warm

                                                                                          Warm me up after my bath!

Brady
Brady has been doing well. He has been a good little sleeper today. He is probably exhausted from all of the action. Hopefully we get some sleep tonight, and by that, I mean, hopefully he will be noisy, and I won't have to check on him every 5 minutes, because I'm crazy.  He is eating like a little piggy. He must be growing already! No new pictures of him. I posted them all this morning.

Alright, I will talk to you all tomorrow!
Em, Craig, and the boys

The boys are eating like crazy!

Hi there everyone. I forgot to tell everyone that I wasn't going to blog last night. That was my bad, I'm a jerk. I was going to do it, but by the time we got to bed it was 2am, and we had two doctors appointments today. The first one was at 8 am, which makes me vomit in my mouth a little. We are not morning people, at all. I actually got up at 5:45am today because I realized that by the time I feed him and shower, it would be time to leave. The appointment was about 30 minutes away. I am not a pretty site at that time of morning. The other appointment was at 11:30, which is not as bad, but still sucks. We have to do it all again next week. Okay, more on that later, lets get started.

Patrick
Patrick was doing okay today. He is doing better with the high flow nasal cannula. He was at 22%. After he ate, he was bumped up a little bit higher, but did well. They put him up to three bottles a day. He finished his bottle for Craig last night. He seemed to be okay with his arm last night. They decided at this time not to place a splint on his arm. They are letting it heal on it's own since it has already started to do so. Craig took a picture of the x-rays, and he said there were two breaks. One in the middle of the bone, and one near his little wrist.

                                                                              Dad, is that you?

                                                                              So bright!

                                                                                Quiet time for me.

                                                                                My broken little arm. One is on the bottom in the middle, and one is near my wrist on top. Oh man.

Brady
Brady had a good night, but was a little fussy here and there.  He took almost 90  ml of food last night! This kid is an animal. He is growing I guess! W gave him his first little bath last night. He cried for most of it, haha. he also flooded my shirt with pee from the sink. He slept through most of the night last night. I was so tired that I guess he was crying, and I had no idea. He is 5 inches away from me, and I didn't have a clue. From that point on, I was up all night checking on him. At one point, I swear I didn't hear him breathing, so I touched his shirt to make sure it wasn't by his mouth. He took a deep breath. I think I scared the crap out of him. I didn't sleep from that moment on. That was 4:45am. Our first stop today was the eye doctor. That was an awesome time, said no one ever. I will say the office and nurses were very nice. The nurse asked who our pediatrician was, and she said he was hers too. She had lots of good things to say about him, so I felt better about that. They had to dilate his eyes today before the exam. He had to get three sets of drops every 5-10 minutes. The we went into the room for the exam. I sat in the chair and held him on my lap. His head was at my knees. They raised the chair like 4 feet in the air. I was like, is this a carnival ride? Then we saw why. The doctor came in, and he was very tall! This was the doctor that we have been dealing with from the NICU. Slightly weird,  he didn't even introduce himself. I know that we have speaking weekly, but a hi how are you, nice to meet you would have been nice. We put up with this though, because he is an awesome eye doctor. He takes a look at his eyes. He starts by placing a speculum in to hold his eye open. This can only be described as what looks like a scene from Saw. I expected him to give me a tape recorder, saying that there was a key behind his eye. He then stuck a q-tip into his eye to hold it still, and then did the exam on both eyes. Side note: let dad hold next week.  Good news for Brady. He said that the left eye was showing some signs of improvement. He said it has only been 6 days so he didn't expect to see much, but he did some that it looked better. He also said that the right eye looks better, and that he would say it is back to a grade 1. Awesome! We get to see him next week for a recheck. After that we ran home for 5 seconds, gave a quick feed, and headed off to the pediatrician. Well, Brady is a big 6 lbs and 2 ounces. His exam went well. We are going to head back there in a week also to follow up with his care. He will probably be due for some vaccines again soon. That will not be fun. He didn't even cry for his exam. He looked so little on the table in his little diaper!

                                                                               I hate bath time!

                                                                                      I love my bottle though!

                                                                                Carnival chair at eye doctor

                                                                                    Eyes after exam  :(

                                                                                   Waiting for for our peds exam

                                                                                     First appointment

 

Alright all. Hope every one had a great day today. See you tonight.

Em, Craig and the bottle boys!

oh my sweet little boys...

Hi everyone, how are you all? We are doing well here. I am not going to do as much chit chat tonight because I have a lot to write, and I would like to get on a schedule, and maybe to bed before 1 am. Ha ha, let's see how that goes. Let's get started.

Patrick
Oh my little Patrick. If I had one wish, it would be that you are free of pain, and are healthy, and come home soon. Okay that is three, but whatever. I think at this point he deserves some good luck, don't you agree? Craig calls in today to check on our little man, and to see if his blood work was good  this week. Good news, his platelets are in the 170's and his H&H (which is his hematocrit and his hemoglobin I believe) is also good. Awesome. His Alk Phos. was high. I think it was high.  I guess this test shows bone density. Patrick's nurse last night had made a comment when she was going over his blood work with Patrick's primary today that it was high. She said do you think he he broken bone or something? Sometimes that can be high because of that, and maybe he might be painful, and therefore fussy when we touch him. It might also explain why his saturation lowers while we work on him, and why it is good while he is still. He might be in pain.His Primary said she would mention it to the doctor during his rounds, and see what he says. The doctor agreed, and they took some x-rays of all his extremities. Well, wouldn't you effing know, he has two fractures on his Radius and Ulna. Ugghh! Whyyyy?!?! (fist in the air shaking it with rage!) This kid can't get a break...oh wait, he got two.  Well, this would explain why every time we take off his clothes or start working on him he cries, because we are hurting him. They are going to have an Orthopedist look at it tomorrow and decide  what they want to do. They said they usually don't do anything, they just let it heal, but since he is so little and moving around,  they might want to splint it. We will find out tomorrow. The good news is that they said it is healing. They started him on Tylenol for the pain. They are also going to talk to the pharmacist to see if there is a formula with extra Calcium. If there isn't they are going to start him on Calcium supplements. The bad news is that they said his bones are brittle. This could be because he is just a preemie, or because of the TPN that he was on for so long. So, he has orders to be super careful with him. Besides that, sigh, he was okay tonight. He dsated once while I was holding him. We had to turn him up to 32%. When I got there he was on 24% which is good. They did put him on a higher Liter of oxygen. He was on 2 liters which is less pressure. They wanted to try to put him on 3 Liters, which has a little more pressure. It is a small step backwards but they wanted to try this to give him a chance. It is basically in the middle of the CPAP and the cannula. We will see how it goes. He finished his whole bottle tonight. They put him up to 3 bottles a day. All the nurses who primary haven't been off for a few days. Two of them were there tonight, and they both couldn't believe how much he has changed in the last week. They said his face is filling out, and his eyes look good. His color looks great also. I was talking to his main primary tonight, and we were talking about his progress. We both agreed that he probably has another month there at least which sucks. She did say though, that when he gets to progressive, he will probably fly by because he is already doing well with his nippling, and that is the main part of progressive. Another nurse agreed and said and said that he won't be in progressive for long at all. That is good news. Plus, they said that he will be bigger then, and will be on a good schedule for when he comes home.  I think his weight was 2175 grams. She did say he lost a little weight, he wasn't as puffy which is good. Let's see, what else...No, I think that is it.

                                                                How cute is this hat. His day primary's sister made it for him! So nice!

                                                                            My little left arm is busted!

                                                                                    Tucked in for the night.

Brady
Brady is doing well. he seems to be keeping to his schedule for us which is nice! We feed him every three hours, give or take. If he is sleeping we let him sleep. We are doing every other so we at least get 6 hours of sleep each over night. It seems to be working for us so far. He is eating any where from 35 to almost 85 mls each time. He had a sonic boom poop today that was so loud it made the dog jump, I kid you not. I was hoping to have bath pictures today, but the day got away from us, so I will have them tomorrow. We start appointments with him this week. We got or appointments for his eyes, his pediatric checkup, rehab, a recheck ultrasound of his bladder, his cardiology recheck, and his developmental recheck. I have to make one for allergies/pulmonology  this week too. This is my life folks, and soon this will be times two!  I only have one picture of him tonight, and it is him in his bouncer again. I will have more tomorrow. I was cleaning a little while he was sleeping, so I didn't have the camera ready. I will be better about it, I swear!

                                                                                  Bouncing Brady
Oh wait, I just checked my phone, I do have some more!

                                                                           This picture is funny because I took this morning when I woke up. i thought I would lift his blanket and sneak a pic while he was sleeping. When I lifted the blanket I started to laugh because he was looking right at me, like "I'm awake mommy!"

                                                                             Sleep sack snuggle time!

                                                                                "ooohhhhh"

Alright, that's all I have folks!
Good night!
The Connor fams

We are doing okay here and there.

Top of the morning to you! Hope you are all well. We are doing better than we thought we would be doing. First, let me say that the dog is doing much better today than last night. The whining has almost stopped completely. He is back to sitting quietly on the couch by himself. He has even stopped trying to jump into the bassinet. He is still standing on his back legs to sniff at him, but he stopped barking when we tell him to get down. He slept at my legs, next to the bassinet all night. He would fall asleep, then Brady would make a sound, and up he was wide awake, ready to pounce. The only thing that is slightly annoying today is that when I hold him sometimes, Steinman tries to hump my leg. Ewww.  He never does that, but on occasion, specifically when I wear my all fleece footie pajamas, he will death grip my leg. Dogs can be so gross.

Anyway, here is how the day went.
Patrick
Patrick was doing okay tonight. Craig got yelled at when he got there by one of the nurses. She said "What, Brady goes home and you don't call and check on Patrick during the day?"  OMG, we are the worst parents ever, and my heart sank when he texted me that. We didn't call today, which was funny, because we talked about Patrick a lot today. Craig took care of Brady while I shopped for his vitamins and medicine. Terrible. Craig said that Patrick almost finished his whole bottle. He had a bradycardia episode during his feeding, which he hasn't done in awhile. I hope that we are not going backwards here. They had to turn up his oxygen to like 40 % during this episode. Once he was done eating, Craig held him, and he went back up to 100%. When he left his oxygen was down to 28%, which is good.  Craig said he looked tired tonight, but he had a good color. he weighed 4 pounds 11 ounces yesterday. He is getting so big!

                                                                                      Peek-a-boo!

                                                                              All rolled up in blankies

                                                                                   Daddy and Patrick

                                                                                         I love this elephant outfit

                                                                             Smile little man

Brady
Brady had a good night. He slept well in between his feedings. There was only one time in between feedings that he seemed a bit fussy, but as soon as Craig lifted him, he let out a huge burp. His feedings went well. We were able to get his eye meds in with no big issues. He was all snuggled up in his Halo sleep sack to stay warm. Tonight I put him in his activity bouncer. He liked it for a little bit, but then was hungry, so he started to fuss a little bit. Besides that, we read stories, and watched the Emmys together. One of his nurses offered to babysit tonight so they could have an Emmy party. Since we didn't know how Steiner would do, we opted to not have her babysit. I sent her a picture of Brady watching the show to make up for it.

I sent her a message with what he was wearing and who made it. It said he was ready for the after party. It also said that he would be accepting the award for coolest twins on behalf of his brother who could not be here tonight. She said that she was going to call social services on me for this picture, hahaha. I assured her it was sparkling apple cider, not alcohol. For those of you that don't know me, I pose the dog with things like this too. These kids are going to have a rough life in pictures, lol.

                                                                          Brady in the bouncer

 Tonights story time was "The three bears." I'm not sure who brought this book to the party, there was no name in it. If you bought it, speak up! Last nights story was brought to us by Claire P.

Alright, it's 2 am, and Brady needs a bottle and his eye meds soon. After that we are off to bed. Have a great night.

Em, Craig, and the boys. I guess the dog too.