A Wonderful Day

Hi Everyone. Jeremiah and Yonah's Bris was today. It was a wonderful day...though, of course, a bit painful for Yonah and Jeremiah...but they are doing fine now. It was great to be with everyone who came...our families...parents...sisters...brothers...aunts...uncles...cousins...best friends...longtime friends...Ikar friends...chavurah friends...neighbor friends...cubscout friends. I think that a nice time was had by all.

A special thanks to all of you who helped us so much getting set up and then cleaning up. We really appreciate it...it allowed us to get some much needed time to take care of Jeremiah and Yonah...and to take a rest!

Here are some pictures from today...we hope that you enjoy them!

Catching our breath, uploading some pictures

Hi everyone...now that the babies are home, I don't have much time...so I will just upload the pictures and get back to feeding, diapering, cuddling, etc.

Grandma Fran Can!

Who can hold Jeremiah....

...Shower him with love...

...Hold him with great warmth and see that he sleeps tight?

Grandma Fran Can!

Yes, Grandma Fran Can!

Hi Grandma Fran! How do you like hanging out with Yazmin, Yonah and Jeremiah at the hospital? Glad to hear it! Yazmin, Yonah and Jeremiah are enjoying you too!

Thanks a lot, Mom. (And thanks, Dad, for supporting Mom's going with Yazmin to the hospital.) Love, Mac and Yazmin

Hi everyone...just a quick post tonight as we got back from the hospital kind of late.

Medical/Feeding Update:
Yonah and Jeremiah are now on a new feeding schedule. They are now doing two nipple/bottle feedings for every feeding tube feeding. This is good news as one of the criteria for leaving the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) is that they feed exclusively via nipple/bottle and gain weight. So...the higher the percentage of nipple/bottle feedings, the better.

Comments adding should now work for everyone:
Some of you have mentioned that you weren't able to add comments. Well, that's my fault. The reason for this was that the default for the blog is to only allow comments from registered Google users. But, I changed that...so, now, anybody should be able to add comments.

Ok...that's if for now...we hope that you are enjoying the pictures. See you soon.

A Shabbat/Saturday at the nursery

Adam with Yonah (This one really jumped out at me as being the cutest of today's pictures!)

Hi everyone. Sorry I didn't update last night. I observed a blog sabbath!

Yazmin is doing well. Yonah and Jeremiah are doing well. We were with them twice today, once in the morning with Nathan and Adam...and once tonight, just Yazmin and me.

Today the bottle feeding went really well. So well, in fact, that the neonatologist decide to reduce their feeding tube feeding from 2 out of 3 to 1 out of 2. The goal is to get them doing only bottle feeding (or nipple feeding) while gaining weight, so that they can come home. We still don't know when they are coming home...it could be up to two weeks or so, but, today they did really well.

Ok...and now on to the rest of the pictures from today!

Everyone but Jeremiah. He was still sleeping.

Another good one of Adam and Yonah

Mother and babies. (Note: Jeremiah is blurry because he moved. If fact, he moves a lot!)

Adam giving Yonah a hand.

I think that Jeremiah looks a bit like my brother Charlie in this one.

Yonah on the left, Jeremiah on the right. Sometimes, when they are like this, Yonah grabs Jeremiah's ear.

Jeremiah planning his counterattack!

Hmmmm...his plan needs work...I guess he'll sleep on it a bit.

Aaaha! Jeremiah's plan worked...and he's sleeping peacefully!

Uh oh, Nathan and Adam are looking a little bored.

Brotherly love.

Note to self (cont.) : Adam too.

And...to end today's update, a nice one of Mom and Yonah.

Birthday Pictures

Hi everyone. Yazmin came home today...which is really good. But, we were both sad to leave Jeremiah and Yonah at the hospital. We're not yet sure when they are coming home. We'll let you know when we know.

We didn't take a lot of pictures today...so I thought that I might post a few captures from the video that I took in the OR and on the way to the NICU. So, without further ado...here they are.

Yazmin with one of the boys. This is in the OR about 5 minutes after birth. If one could capture love in a picture...this does it.

Jeremiah and Yonah in the incubator on the way to the NICU

Grandma Peebles and Nathan

Grandma Peebles and Nathan again. (I couldn't decide which picture was better!)

Shawna, Adam, and Grandma Peebles

Grandma Peebles

Papa/Grandpa Peebles

Eve and Shawna (Great Friends of Yazmin and Mac's)

That's all for now. I hope that you enjoy them.

Good things come in twos

BIG NEWS OF THE DAY: Yazmin is going home on Thursday! Yahooo!

But, before I give you the rest of the news, here are some fun pictures:

Double fluff!

Double pumped!

Yonah relaxing with Mom.

A nice picture of Yazmin with Yonah.

Just another cute picture.

A wider view of how the babies are set up together in the crib.

Yazmin's dad, Raul, came by before he left for Mexico.

Mac doing "skin to skin" bonding with Jeremiah. It was appropriate to take off my shirt because Yonah had explosively pooped on it!

Mac feeding Jeremiah.

Hi everybody! We're glad to hear that you have been enjoying the pictures. We've been really enjoying hanging out with Yonah and Jeremiah...but we miss being with Nathan and Adam. So, it's great that Yazmin can go home tomorrow. The twins will be here a bit longer...but we don't yet know how much longer.

A couple highlights from today:

1. Yazmin has been able to pump milk from both breasts. Previously, the milk from the breast which had the tumor wasn't producing usable milk.
   
2. Yazmin was able to produce 5 oz. of milk in one sitting. Yonah and Jeremiah are each taking a little more than 1 oz per feeding...so supply is outpacing demand!
3. We met with a lactation consultant today. She said that she didn't expect the babies to actually get any milk because they were probably too small and their sucking reflex hasn't fully kicked in. Whatever the reason, Yonah didn't do any sucking...but Jeremiah "latched on" and proceeded to do quite a bit of sucking. Everyone was pleasantly suprised.
4. The twins literally pulled a one, two combination on me. While I was changing Jeremiah, he peed on me...and while I was changing Yonah, well, you guessed it, that was the number two! It was pretty funny! Update: Tonight, inexperienced dad tried to clean Yonah while he was still pooping. Let's just say that that that is an explosively bad idea. And to top it off, dad got peed on too. Takeaway: Don't make one, two combination jokes about Yonah!
   

About how long the babies will be in the hospital:
The babies will have to stay in the NICU (Neonatal ICU) for at least a couple more days. But, overal, they are doing well. We have been with them quite a lot and they are eating well. But, they still have to be fed through their feeding tubes for a fair number of the feedings. Of course, that will change as they grow larger and stronger. The bottom line is this: Once they can feed for a full day solely from bottles, they can go home.

Ok...more updates tomorrow! Bye for now!