6-month check-up

Will and Kate went today for their 6 month check and they are doing great!!!! Kate is now weighing in at 13 lbs 7 oz. and is on the lower end of the chart, but on the chart, for children who are 6 months. Will is 12 lbs. 13. oz. And only his head is on the chart at about 50%, but they expect more from boys and their weight, so he is doing fine. He is starting to eat better and less spitting up, so I expect that he will surpass his sister soon.

Kate is going to get to try having some rice cereal. The criteria for trying is good weight gain and being able to hold their head steady while in the seated position. Kate is able to do this; however, we have to wait a little longer for Will, since he is still not as successful with holding up his head, for reasons mentioned previously. We think it will be good not to have to try feeding both at the same time anyway, so it works out just great!

And, as for the oxygen, their illnesses set them back about a month on their progress. So, Will is at .2 liters/min. and Kate is at .3 liters/min. However, last night, we did an oxygen challenge on Will and we think that he will be able to move to .1. He actually held his own with no oxygen for about 20 minutes with the cannula off of his face. That was the furthest either one has gotten on room air, so we were impressed. And I cried, because Will was so cute, I was so proud, and because he looked nothing like himself without the cannula on his face. 20 minutes and everything returned to normal and I breathed a sigh of relief. I have determined that when they are off of oxygen and the apnea monitors, I will have a few sleepless nights. Once Kate is 100% well, we will try to ween her down as well. Hopefully, next week.

They have both been evaluated for PT(physical), OT(occupational), and ST (speech). Appointments with PT and OT have now moved to every other week, because they see no concerns at this time and seem to be developing normally. For their motor skills, they are ranging from 4-6 months - higher than their gestational age (adjusted age) and just a little under their chronological age. And for speech and interaction, they are right on for a 6-month old. I am not surprised since their big brother was speaking in 3 word sentences at 14 months. They will be evaluated by speech again in July.

Keep checking for updates and sorry that it has taken us this long to include all of these big events.

Rolling over already??!!

Kate decided today that she was going to throw her head over and roll from her belly to her back. Gosh, I was sure surprised! And of course, I tried to video it, but kept missing it. I did finally catch one where I had to help a little, but she did all the pushing by herself. I was even trying to put her hand down so she would push off the floor and she pushed off my hand. Good girl!!!! I was so excited and then realized that this leads to more activity and she was already wrapped up in her cords. This should be very interesting, especially if they start crawling and are satill on oxygen. Talk about chaos. Anyway, enjoy the video!!

HAPPY EASTER FROM THE LOVEKAMPS

Well, I didn't get this out in time for Easter, but what can I say: We have been rather busy. Anyway, we had a great Easter as a family. Ben loved hunting for eggs and of course, eating all the candy. We had to do it inside, because it was freezing and had snowed the day before. He kept looking for eggs for 2 days. Will and Kate loved wearing their Easter bunny ears. Adorable!!! It was hard to get them both to smile at the same time though. Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!!!

Girls Night Out

Well, as you could have guessed, Will and Kate picked up some of Ben's congestion and cough and come Monday, Kate was not handling it too well. She was coughing and retracting with her breathing, so I took her to the doctor, where they had to increase her oxygen, from .2 to .5 or so. This meant an overnight in the hospital for observation and testing.

I wasn't even allowed to come home and had to wait at the pediatrician's office until they had a room available for her. Once over there, they did a chest x-ray for pneumonia, testing for RSV and pertussis (sp.?). Everything came back negative -thank goodness!! After some mucous management, they were able to ween her oxygen back down to .3 and we went home Tuesday evening. Since, then she has gotten better, but is still not 100%, but getting there. We have their 6-month check on the 16th, so I will try and update again with weights and what is next for them.

Boys Night Out

Josh and Ben got invited by Todd and Jackson Sleeper to go to Phoenix at Lake Roosevelt to camp out for the night.

Since Mimi was here, I thought it would be ok if they went and left us for the night. It was my first night in my house without Ben here, so it was rather weird, but I got used to it quickly and even had time to paint the majority of the downstairs while Mimi manned the babies. Ben and Josh had a great time, riding four-wheelers, shooting guns and bow and arrows, and of course, sleeping outside, even though Ben was a little cold after a late night trip outside after nature called. It was such a good bonding time for the two of them and I think Ben thinks Daddy is the best!!! Next time, Will is going to need to join them.

More pictures to come when I can get them from the Sleepers camera.

Vacation in Phoenix?

I know, what was I thinking? When Josh was out of town, I packed the kids up to head down to Phoenix to meet Josh for the weekend between trips. Talk about an adventure. We got down there on Friday around 3:00pm, unpacked into the hotel (very organized), and Josh met us at the hotel at 8:00pm. This day was pretty uneventful!! And, then Ben woke up in the middle of the night with a fever. Really makes life fun when you are going down to the warm to swim in the pool, plus being in a closed in space with babies that aren't supposed to get sick. So close that the babies got back to their roots and slept together (if you call this sleeping).

On Saturday, Ben was a trooper and swam for all of 30 minutes and then wanted to be out of the pool, because we think he had too much fruit for breakfast, which meant an afternoon in the bathroom. Yet another sickness. I think the most exciting thing about the afternoon was the ladybug he found.


Will and Kate enjoyed their time in the sun and having their bellies in the sun. Mommy enjoyed taking the pictures of one of their first adventures outside - at least for an extended period - since it is too cold in Flagstaff this time of year. Oh, I also enjoyed the margaritas!

Britney, a friend of ours, came down to help with the kids and Josh and I were able to go out on a date. Then, Josh left early early on Sunday morning for his next business trip.

Since Ben was sick, I decided that we (me and Britney) would take the kids over to the Tempe Art Festival on Sunday. Brilliant decision, since it is hard to push the double stroller on an empty street, but add about million people to a closed street and boy is it fun! We did have a good time and I certainly could not have done it without Britney. Ben got his face-painted, like Batman of course. I think superheros are inate in boys. And being a superhero sure is tiring, he passed out and slept in the bottom of a stroller all the way back to the hotel. Even missed the return trip on the lightrail (transportation new to Phoenix and very cool).

Then, our friends Jason and Helen came down, met us at for lunch at Tempe and spend the night with us at the hotel. It was so nice to have them there. They played with Ben a bunch, broguth me take out and helped me load up the kids and all of their stuff the next morning, just in time to pick my mom up from the airport. Mimi came to visit.

Play Hard - Sleep Hard

We have really been having a good time at home. Thank goodness, since that is where we spend most of our time these days. With Will and Kate's developing personality and Ben's continued craziness/personality, life is pretty fun around here. Enjoy some of the pictures and videos of our play time.

Well, we finally have some news to update with the twins. Will has moved from .2 liters/min. to .1 and Kate from .3 to .2. At least after this oxygen challenge, they went in the right direction. We will hopefully test them again the beginning April and look forward to saying goodbye to all the equipment and live life as "normal" kids.

Also, we had a home visit from the nurse with NICP (Neonatal Intensive Care Program). She follows-up wth us once a month to make sure the kids are doing well. And, she says that they are doing great. Not only have they gained a lot of weight (Will is now 10lbs 14 oz. and Kate (aka Bacon according to our neighbor) is 11lbs. 2 oz.), they are also developmentally above their adjusted age (which is determined from their due date of Jan. 10th). And for other stats, Will and Kate are both 21 3/4 inches long and Kate's head measures 38 cm and Will's measures 42.5 (big noggin for such a little boy - lots of brains). They have both started smiling and interacting a ton, which is awesome and makes it all worth it. They have even discovered each other. Ben even thinks it is pretty cool to get them to smile. And one time, Will lost one sock, so he took his off and gave it to him - it was so thoughtful! Fun to start seeing some interaction between the three of them.

Ben is doing well and seems to be adjusting to having to stay at home. His dad bought him some new batman pjs with cape and all and he does not want to get out of them. Thank goodness TV is so educational!! He's also been spending quite a bit of time playing games online from his favorite cartoons and has recently been trying his hand at typing. So far he can handle "Ben" and "MH" pretty well and is working on "Josh". This will one day be followed by "Mary Hampton" - Mimi and Poppy didn't do him any favors with a name like that!

We have been trying to get out more and my dear friend, Jenny, picks him up once a week so that Ben and one of his best buddies, Ezra, can play together. We have made a trip down to Sedona, where 7 of his friends and their parents met us, and he has begun a gymnastics class on Fridays, which he and I both enjoy. It is nice for him to have some instruction, because he is missing school and it is the first class that he has taken not requiring parent involvement, so allows me to sit with Will and Kate and actually watch and take in everything he is doing. Gosh, he is growing up!!! He has even started writing his name, which I think is pretty good and is reading some words. Amazing!!!

I hope that you all enjoy the slideshow below. To get more pictures, take a look at Mary Hampton's Facebook account. See ya!

Visit to our old Stomping Ground

On the 19th, we had to take Will and Kate to Phoenix for an appointment with the pulmonologist. We are still working to try and get them off of their oxygen. Not definite, but the pulmonologist hopes that our last appointment with him will be in March. Amazing, maybe only a month or 2 more of oxygen. Once that is gone, we will think life with twins will be pretty easy. At the least, we will be able to get out a little more often, which will help to get Ben away from the TV.

Also, when we went to Phoenix we were able to go by St. Joseph's and we saw our primary nurses (well, most of them). Even Edith and Josephine (my nurses in antenatal when I was on bedrest) were working that day. Marina was working and Lisa drove over to meet us at the hospital. We also saw Sarah, who was a primary for another child in Will and Kate's pod, that helped us a lot and ironically her name is Sarah Kate (the two names we were thinking of for Kate). Of course, we were not able to see our night primaries (sorry we missed you, Janeen and Jeannie). We also weren't able to see our neonatalogist, Dr. Fortunov, because she was on leave since she had her first baby - it is a girl!! Congratulations Regine!! Everyone was of course impressed how big they had gotten. Josh and I thought it felt like we had never left there., and Ben wanted to immediately go to the snack machine and the waiting room - his two favorite places there. Enjoy the pictures.

Pictures

If you join Facebook.com, you can see some more pictures of the babies and Ben.  They are under Mary Hampton Lovekamp.  We will probably be putting more pictures on Facebook because of the ease of use.  Keep checking back though, because we will update this blog once in a while.  Thanks to everyone for your support.