Jeff & Suzi Clines Family Blog

2011 Family pictures

2012-01-21T23:42:00.004-06:00

Ok, I'll make 2012 a better year than 2011. Given that I only had two posts in 2011 it shouldn't be too difficult. I'll start off by sharing some family pictures we took back in December. They turned out pretty good - we went to a park near our house, there wasn't a lot of color left in the scenery so Suzi got creative and added a lot of color to us!

Dorothy's 4th Birthday Party

2011-01-25T20:00:00.000-06:00

Dotty turned 4 a couple weeks ago and as such we had her first official birthday party. It was just her and a few friends but she had fun. We (really meaning Suzi) had a "Spa Party" where the girls got avocado facials, got a pedicure and manicure including very girlish paint. I'm not sure if the 4 year old girls really got it all, but at the end of the day they had fun.

Suzi even had special snacks, enough to feed an army, of tea sandwiches, crackers with apple and peanut butter, home-made strawberry lemonade etc.

I'm having fun..... really I am

Pinewood Derby

2011-01-22T20:00:00.001-06:00

Henry participated (and really dominated) in his 2nd pinewood derby this past week. There were 19 cars racing and they had a series of 17 races where everyone got to race every other car on different tracks. Henry's car finished first in all the races except one where he thought it would be fun to race his car backwards! I forgot to take the camera so we didn't get shots of his excited antics during the races.

He really was much happier than this forced smile make him appear - he just loves to pose for pictures this way.

Closeup of his car and medal

Henry's car

Henry and Peter's Cars

Peter's Car

Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T22:29:00.005-06:00

Christmas this year was really fun, I won't try to go into all the details but we did want to share a few pictures.

We did get the pictures of the kids taken - below are some of the best.

I could not resist adding Dotty's smile.

Suzi's tree looks perfect as usual

Suzi also made seven, yes count them seven, dresses this year. Of course the girls had Sunday dresses that were amazing. This is the front of Dotty's dress (of course it's all hand made, including the detail around the neck)

Here's the back of the dress

Scarlett's matching Dotty's

Dotty also made some fun matching dresses for the girls and the cousins.

(She made five dresses but we could not get all the girls to pose at the same time)

Halloween 2010 - costumes

2010-11-03T22:35:00.010-05:00

This year we had some fun with the twins costumes - Garden gnomes! The funniest part was the way the kids loved their hats, and Charlie's walk was hilarious (yes, I know I should have gotten a video of that)

Dorothy's princess costume was really neat - until Henry hit her on the way to the church and her makeup started to run down her cheeks....

Halloween 2010 - pumpkins

2010-11-03T22:20:00.005-05:00

The kids had a blast this year with the pumpkins. We're not too artsy so we got a kit with some templates and the kids were able to choose - and customize each template.

Of course Dotty had the creepy cat type pumpkin

Peter was very proud that he was able to do 90% of his pumpkin by himself

Henry did this one 100% by himself - nuff said

Why I love fall

2010-10-22T14:26:00.004-05:00

Today during lunch I had the chance to go out to the backyard and play with the kids - luckily I remembered the camera and took some fun pictures!

Charlie loves playing with balls and being outside. He typically has a huge smile on his face while were outside, and screams when we drag him inside!

Waiting for the bus to come pick Dotty up for school - I love the color contrast with the stairs!

Dotty can be really cute when she try's

The Chicago Sunday Tribune - November 22, 1914

2010-07-25T00:55:00.002-05:00

Some pictures of the newspaper we found in the attic (see previous post for details)

Our next big project

2010-07-25T00:35:00.005-05:00

We've been working on it for a few weeks now, and we've still only just scratched the surface.

Our next big project is to completely renovate the attic. From what we've found so far it appears that the attic was previously finished off in stages over the past 70 years or so. Under the flooring was a newspaper from November 22, 1914 (will post an image in the next post), in the walls were newspapers and a magazine 1942, in the insulation in the ceiling was a newspaper from 1958. There was also a gallon size wine bottle from the mid 80's but we doubt that had anything to do with the renovation.

Below are some pictures taken from when we bought the house - a good idea of where we are starting from.

The ceiling was about six feet, six inches (or less) and the fan would have easily given me a nice bump on the head if I ever walked close enough.

Nail gun and a bad aim

2010-07-25T00:03:00.005-05:00

Last Saturday (July 17th) Henry and I ran over to Grandpa's to help out 'really quick'. He was framing in a window and was nailing together a header. Henry asked to nail a couple nails and grandpa said 'sure'. Henry went over and picked up the gun and when to nail... instead of going strait down with the nailer it was more of an arc and hit his foot (insert painful grown here)

What was supposed to be a quick trip to help Grandpa out ended up being 8+ hours getting the nail taken out. Suzi ran Henry over to the prompt care and after a few hours there they said that they did not have the tools to get the nail out and sent Suzi over to the ER. Five hours later they were able to come home.

Luckily, after many hours, x-rays etc they determined that the nail just barely missed the bone and thus surgery was not necessary (phew). Just a lovely tetanus shot, a strong antibiotic for a few weeks, and lots of care to keep it clean.

This picture shows the nail a bit closer... the three inch nail went through his foot and hit the pavement and bent - luckily we weren't on wood, I can't imagine what would have happened if his foot stuck on the wood and we weren't able to carry him to the van. We probably would have had to cut the wood out and take it with us to the hospital!

OUCH!!!

Pictures of the twins and Dorothy

2010-06-07T14:56:00.006-05:00

Here are some pictures that Suzi recently had taken at a photo studio - mostly because we haven't had the kids pictures taken in a long time.

You can see the rest of the pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jeff.clines/jcp2010

Scarlett and Charlie

Scarlett

Charlie

Dorothy

The "Girls"

Note, I like this photo but it really bugs me that there is so much white space at the top. I'm not sure what the photographer was thinking, and this isn't the only photo that is this way.

Our weekend project

2010-05-16T17:14:00.007-05:00

This weekend we set out to put together a massive sandbox - it was a long time planning and even though we're only about 80% complete we're pretty happy with the results so far. The actual sandbox is 8 feet long and 6 feet wide. It also has two benches on either end that extend a foot off the end of the sandbox making it all in all ten feet long.

We still need to finish the bench lids where we plan on storing all the toys, and to get and install the cover so it's not used as the neighborhood cat box! Plus we're going to make a tent like cover that will attach to the fence and provide a good amount of shade while the kids are playing in the summer heat.

I know most will be anxious to know that there are 6000 pounds of sand in the sand box... enough to last all summer of kids throwing and spilling sand all over the yard! (and yes, all 3 tons were moved from the driveway to the back of the yard one wheel barrel at a time)
What's not apparent in this photo is that the kids at this point are already on their second set of clothes as the first set got so dirty from playing in the sand in the morning that any hope of brushing the sand off had long been forgotten (we had to get the hose out)!

The Boy's 2010 School pictures

2010-05-05T16:29:00.003-05:00

Birthday's - Dorothy, Charlie & Scarlett

2010-05-05T16:20:00.002-05:00

Birthday Pictures (sorry, this is all I have - none with the mess after-words)

Charlie - he was worried until we put his hand in the cake and made him taste it... after that he devoured it.

Scarlett was anxious from the very beginning to dig in... Suzi had to hold her back so we could get a picture of her and the cake

Dorothy was excited to share her birthday with her little brother and sister... I wonder how long that will last?

Finally - Suzi's handy work with the cakes... they tasted MUCH better than they look. And they look really good (mmmmmmmmmm just thinking about it)

Long overdue update (and photos)

2010-05-05T13:50:00.005-05:00

We took the twins for their 15 month checkup yesterday - it may just be me but time sure does fly when the kids are young!

Charlie is 30 pounds and Scarlett is up to 24 pounds. They are both within the scale of where they should be - Charlie is naturally up near the top, I blame that on the fact that he steals a lot of his sisters food!

They are now walking and babbling a lot but no real words. They do say "ut-oh" but we don't think they know what it means - the just think it's funny to say when they drop their milk cups off their high chairs.

A video of the twins walking around - sorry about the orientation, I didn't have time to reshoot or to edit it.

More Pictures:

Pictures (and a video) of the twins

2009-08-27T16:37:00.016-05:00

I took some pictures this afternoon at lunch time, I'm not quite as good of a photographer as Suzi is but at least you get the idea of things.

What you can't see is Charlie trying to kick his sister in the head... sure they look innocent but really they still are brother and sister.

all I have to say is awwwwwwww

Charlie surprising loves getting is picture taken... must be the side effects of eating carrots then staring into a flash.

She's really a lot happier than she looks... normally she is the one smiling like Charlie is.

I thought you would also enjoy a quick flick of them rolling around... they are on the verge of crawling, or at least Charlie is Scarlett is still content to just sit there any play with toys around her.

New Home & New State

2009-08-22T21:56:00.007-05:00

Wow how time flies - well, our home only lasted about 3 weeks on the market. We sold our house, closed in mid July and moved up to Illinois. That about sums up a whirlwind of activity over the past three months that I have no idea how to explain all that has happened.

I've been asked many times for pictures of our new home, here's a few.

We've listed our home

2009-05-24T21:06:00.002-05:00

It seems like a long time coming but we put our house on the market last week. We just had our first showing today and another scheduled for tomorrow. It's listed on several websites but realtor.com is the best one out there.

Luckily working for a good company like the American Heart Association I'm able to work from pretty much anywhere in the nation so relocating to Illinois so Suzi can be close to her family is not a difficult sale. Because of my position I'll have to travel back to Dallas fairly frequently so I'll be able to stay in touch with my family as well.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The twins continue to do really well. Charlie and Scarlett are sleeping very well at night and Suzi and I are starting to get more sleep. Now that the house is mostly finished we're not up doing projects after the twins fall asleep either.

FINALLY, an update

2009-05-13T11:22:00.002-05:00

Yes, we're still alive.... sort of. We greatly underestimated what it would take once the twins came home and to say the least updating our blog has not been the highest priority. Trying to get our house ready to put on the market has not helipad much either.

On that note I should be cleaning stuff up now since I took the day off of work to do that.

I added a couple photos to the album for you to check out - yes, Charlie has now outgrown Scarlett - they are 12 lbs and 11.8 lbs respectively (or they were a week ago at the Dr.) Charlie gained 4 lbs in a month!!!

Thanks everyone for your support and prayers!

Just pictures

2009-03-01T17:07:00.002-06:00

WE'RE HOME!

2009-02-27T14:36:00.005-06:00

♪♪♪ We're all together again we're here, we're here.... ♪♪♪

Charlie passed his car seat test last night and the final test to be released. We were able to go pick him up this morning and were back at the house about noon. It's been really interesting having them side by side sleeping, for the first time you can really see their similarities. Also changing two diapers, making two bottles, and watching Suzi trying to figure out how to nurse both babies at the same time has been an interesting experience. I can't wait to see what the first night a home will be! (actually I can wait, I'm being really sarcastic because I would rather sleep than get up 3 times a night to feed/change./etc)

Coming Home

2009-02-24T08:44:00.005-06:00

Finally! The twins are coming home. Scarlett is coming home this afternoon and Charles is scheduled to come home on Friday as long as he passes a couple more tests like his car seat test.

Scarlett resting peacefully (Picture taken on 2.23.09)

Charlie right after eating... notice the really content smirk

This is a picture of Scarlett's car seat test... she looks so small in the car seat, I just love how peaceful she looks (probably because we know it won't last)

FIVE Pounds

2009-02-16T14:12:00.005-06:00

It's been quite a while since we've posted an update - that because there's not much new going on! The babies are doing really good, Scarlett is up to four bottles a day as of this morning and Charles is up to three (they can breastfeed 2x's a day now).
The big news is that we've hit the 5 pound mark. (sort of) Scarlett is 5 lbs. 3 oz. Charlie is hesitant and is 4 lbs. 15.3 oz. (close enough, if you weigh him right after feeding he's 5 lbs)

Other than lack of sleep Suzi and I are doing really well, we get to hold the babies as often as we are able to get there for a feeding, and most of the time they will finish their bottles. The nurses are impressed with how quickly the twins are progressing and have made offhand comments that it will only be another couple of weeks until they are home (of course we're not getting our hopes up yet)

Nipple Test

2009-02-09T12:42:00.003-06:00

Today Charlie and Scarlett had their first test with a bottle... and passed with flying colors. Both of them took their full feeding amount on the first try! Scarlett picked it up a little better than Charlie and paced herself pretty well. Charlie had to be paced as he was trying to suck down the entire bottle at once! We're now going to start them on bottle feeds twice a day and try to work in breast feeding as soon as possible!
This is the last big hurdle to teach them before they can come home... they just need to get up to 6-8 bottle/breast feedings a day and go without a 'brady' for 5 consecutive days. (a couple other smaller things but those two are the big ones)

I failed to get pictures of Scarlett with my phone, but we got pictures of both with the disposable camera's that we have in the room, but it will be a while before those pictures are posted.

Jump Rope for Heart!

2009-02-07T08:00:00.004-06:00

Henry is participating in his school's "Jump Rope for Heart" activity again this year. Last year Henry led his school in setting a school record for fund raising, and we would like to beat last years amount as well. With the economy the way it is, this is going to be a challenge but with your help we're sure we can make it. If you are financially able and willing below is the link and blurb from AHA on this years activities. Thanks so much for all your help.

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Did you know Jump Rope For Heart has been around for 30 years? I am so excited to be a part of this special celebration at my school. I am jumping rope and raising money to help the American Heart Association fight heart disease and stroke in Jump Rope For Heart. Can you please help me by making a donation that will help save lives?

The American Heart Association's online fundraising website has a minimum donation amount of $25.00. If you want to donate less, that's ok. You can just send the check right to me and I'll make sure the American Heart Association gets it.

Thanks for your support and helping me save lives!Support research, education, and community programs leading the fight against America’s No. 1 killer, cardiovascular disease by donating to American Heart Association’s Jump Rope For Heart.Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support American Heart Association

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If the above link does not work, copy and paste the following into your browser: http://www.kintera.org/faf/r.asp?t=4&i=284645&u=284645-246747015

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Out of the isolette

2009-02-06T18:23:00.002-06:00

The babies have finally graduated from their isolette's and now are in regular newborn cribs (hospital edition of course). They've learned to regulate their own temperature enough now to not have the protection of the isolette.
Suzi has been able to nuzzle them a little and on Monday they are going to do a 'nipple test' where they will see if they will eat from a bottle. If all goes well we hope that they will start eating from bottles next week.

They are continuing to gain weight, yesterday and now are above their birth weight and continuing to gain weight consistently. Scarlett is eating 38 ML and 22 calories (every three hours) and Charles is sipping on 36 ML and 24 calorie! Scarlett's feeding is over 90 minutes and Charles over 60.

Scarlett

Charles

Scarlett's new Bed

Charlie's new bed

The emotional roller coaster

2009-02-04T09:22:00.004-06:00

I’m sure many out there are anxious for an update, but to be honest I’m not sure what to say. The babies are doing great, they are eating well and are almost back up to their birth weight. Other than that it’s been an emotional roller coaster for Suzi and I as we figure out how to deal with everything right now. We’ve got people wanting to help everywhere we turn and it’s SO appreciated, but we’re not sure how to take advantage of all the offers, nor are we sure what’s appropriate. The difficult things to deal with are not something we would want to let others do, i.e. Dorothy decided to start potty training this week – which is great, but how do you fit that in between trips to the hospital, and pumping times, and work… Ahhhh, the age old dilemma of parenthood, things rarely happen when or where you want them to!

Other than that the only news I can think to report on the twins is that they had a brain ultrasound yesterday that showed no evidence of any bleeding in the brain. Apparently that is common (and fairly serious) in premature babies. They are still on their heart rate and breathing monitors and they alarm every so often when their heart rate drops below 100bpm. It’s not that serious as they usually self recover, but the beeping and flashing lights are enough to drive any parent to stress out! That is something they say will not happen as they grow bigger and bigger, and they won’t do it at all by the time they go home.

Thank you to everyone that has helped out so much with the family to this point, and thank you to everyone that wants to help. Please forgive us if we can’t think of anything for you to do right away – we do want and need the help but most of the time we’re just not sure what everyone can do at this point in time!

Dotty is thrilled with her new potty

Weiging in - Charlie is now 4.05 lbs

Weiging in - Scarlett is now 4.2 lbs

Scarlett's room (I'm standing in front of Charlie taking the picture)

Charles' room (I'm standing in front of Scarlett taking the picture)

Picture Album

2009-01-31T22:51:00.000-06:00

http://picasaweb.google.com/Jeff.Clines/CharlieScarlett

Update as Suzi comes home

2009-01-31T08:23:00.003-06:00

Suzi is coming home today, we're anxious about leaving the babies here (obviously). Suzi's excited to get home and see the other kids and just be at home, but then we know as soon as we get home she's going to be thinking about the twins and want to be back here. Just something we'll have to deal with!!

The twins are doing really well, they are now off their IV's and now all they have on them are their heart and breathing sensors and their feeding tubes.
We're now holding them much more during feedings and afterwards, which is very nice. The only worry we have now is that they get really relaxed from time to time (usually around feedings) and their heart rate drops very low and sets off alarms everywhere. It still freaks me out, but Suzi is used to it and takes it in stride.

Jeff Holding Scarlett while feeding (trying to work in the pacifier)

Suzi holding Charles (Charlie) trying to show the size of his feet

Charles just chillin

..... and the babies names are...

2009-01-28T15:10:00.002-06:00

More Pictures

2009-01-28T15:01:00.004-06:00

The twins are doing great. The doctor is increasing their feeding and hoping to take them off of the IV's later this week.

Suzi was allowed to hold them earlier today and she loved that.

Charlie haning in the crib... notice one eye slightly open because I'm bugging him!

Here's a picture of the babies room - they've now been moved to covered beds (as seen in the picture)

Suzi holding Scarlett

Suzi holding Charles (Charlie)

Great News about the twins

2009-01-27T14:37:00.004-06:00

The babies have been taken off of the NCPAP (Ventilator) and are now breathing on their own!!! They have also taken formula (and a little breast milk that we were able to get to them) Of Course this justifies more pictures!!!

Comparison of Baby Girl's Size to my hand (I'm not supposed to touch them at this point)

Who me, Cute?

Baby Girl's Profile

Baby Boy's Size Comparison

Nice hair

Baby Boy Profile

More Details

2009-01-27T06:58:00.002-06:00

Ok, now that things have quieted down I'll give you the whole story...

Monday Suzi started having a lot of contractions that seemed to be getting stronger and stronger. The shots that the doctors gave her seemed to stop them for a while, but they always came back. The doctors or nurses never expressed much concern about actually delivering last night attributing the contractions to the dramatic change in barometric pressure. So even after she had lost her mucus plug about 10:00 there was not enough concern to have me go down and spend the night at the hospital with Suzi.
As I've been able to tell from when Suzi is somewhat conscious the contractions came back about 1:00 to a point that they woke her up. The Doctor was called and she said to go ahead and start the paperwork for admitting to labor and delivery. She called me about 2:05am to go ahead and head to the hospital and by the time I got here at 2:50 the babies had already been born. (I paced in the hall waiting for them to bring the babies out, but becausee it was an emergency c-section they would not let me into the operating room anyway) It was an emergency C-Section as the babies had somehow turned around and were breach, but all went well and Suzi and the babies are resting now. Suzi is expected to be in the hospital 4 more days to be released on Saturday, the babies are expected to be in NICU for 2 months – generally they stay until they are at the gestational age, which is March 26th

They're HERE!!!

2009-01-27T05:04:00.004-06:00

I was going to title this post HAPPY BIRTHDAY - but since Dotty just celebrated it 2 days ago, I figured that might confuse people that really it's the twins birthday today.

Baby A - Boy born @ 2:47am
17.75" and 4 lbs 2.3 oz

Baby B - Girl born @ 2:48am
18" and 4 lbs 6.1 oz

Baby Boy close up (less than 2 hours old)

Baby Boy - Yes, I think he's looking for food already!

Baby Girl closeup

Baby Girl

Update on Suzi & Dotty turns two!!

2009-01-24T22:16:00.005-06:00

Probably not the best news to mix together, but I'm feeling lazy tonight.
Suzi was moved today to another room on the same floor - we're not sure exactly why, but this room appears to be for extended stay visitors as it has a closet, dresser, and a nice bathroom (for a hospital). She is still doing good and as long as she is on her back she does not have too many contractions. The babies are also still doing well - she has not needed additional shots to keep the contractions at bay yet, so hopefully there is more hope to get to 36 + weeks.

Dorothy officially turns two tomorrow - but with church and all it's going to be late in the day before we can get up to the hospital to see Mommy - so we took some cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday to Dotty in the hospital (just up from where she was born). It was quick, and the kids made a mess, but that's what birthday cake is for right?

Singing Happy Birthday

CHEESE(Y)

Mmmmmmmmm cake

Mommy and Dotty (boys totally zoned out by the cartoon channel)

Staying at the hospital until the twins are born

2009-01-21T17:25:00.002-06:00

We just heard from the Doctor that Suzi will be in the hospital until the twins are born. (Hopefully 3-4 more weeks) Her cervix is thin and showing signs of 'coning' where the fluid is trying to open it more.

From the sonogram we know that the kids are doing great, the heartbeats are up and they are both head down (still).

Not sure what else to write - but I'm sure there's people out there that are anxious for an update.

Twins Update week 31

2009-01-21T09:46:00.002-06:00

So now things are getting interesting. Monday night (January 19th) Suzi started having contractions! They weren't very strong, but they were consistent at 5 minutes apart for about an hour right before she fell asleep. On Tuesday morning she was ok... until she got out of bed! After she got the kids to school we went to the doctor and they did a fetal fibronectin test which came back positive so Suzi was admitted to the hospital.
Once she was admitted the contractions significantly decreased (yeah) and things started looking good to the point where the Doctor said that if that continued there was a possibility that she could go home!!! BUT - this morning the contractions came back with a vengeance and they had to give her a shot to stop the contractions, which worked for a couple hours.

Right now we're waiting for another sonogram to see what's going on with her cervix and the babies etc. but it does not look like she'll be home anytime soon - but hopefully the babies will hang out a couple more weeks before they come.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers, thoughts, and helping hands - they are greatly appreciated.

Twins Update week 30

2009-01-21T09:44:00.003-06:00

I've been getting pretty lazy on the postings... mostly because there's not much going on with the twins.
At our last sonogram they weighed in at 3 lbs 12 oz and 3 lbs and 14 oz (Thursday Jan 15th) and were both head down. This was great news because it means that a natural delivery is still possible, if they were any other position we would be pretty much set for a c-section.

I have not scanned in the sonogram pictures but I'll just say that they look about the same as previous ones!

Catching Up

2009-01-18T15:19:00.007-06:00

It's been too long since I've made a post... so I'm going to try to catch everyone up! First of all we finally got around to downloading the photos from the camera, - here's my favorite from Halloween and Christmas.

Dotty got into Suzi's Makeup

2008-11-23T21:43:00.003-06:00

It was bound to happen... but we never thought that it would happen before Dotty turned two.

You can't really tell in the photo but she got pink lipstick all over, her hands were covered, but she did a pretty good job on her face! She is SUCH a girl, she loves shoes, clothes, dolls.... and everything else girly.

The other day Suzi had gone shopping at Gymboree for some winter clothes for Dotty. During the short visit to the store Dorothy went totally crazy! She found some shoes (not her size) that she had to sit down in the middle of the store, take her shoes off and try to put the new shoes on(Suzi found a pair that fit her and let her wear them home) and to make a long story short while Dotty was undressing in the checkout line a lady asked Suzi if she could help hold things so Suzi could re-dress Dotty and Suz just rolled her eyes and said it would not help as she would just undress herself again so she could put the new clothes on.

I have a feeling I'm in trouble.

Peter's going to a plastic surgeon

2008-11-23T19:58:00.006-06:00

It may sound weird that we're taking a 4 year old to a plastic surgeon, but he needs a face lift....

Actually,it's long overdue but after the neurosurgeon gave us the all clear we went to see the optometrist and they were impressed with Peter's improvement, except there is still a little swelling above his eye that causes me a little worry. His eye still has not returned to its appropriate level so we go early next month to see the plastic surgeon about raising his eye back up to the normal level.

Depending on what we find there will determine the next course of action on his road to a full recovery. All in all we are so blessed that he is doing so well. We love him and are grateful for the experience that this has given us.

Twins Update Week 23

2008-11-23T19:35:00.012-06:00

So the proud papa syndrome is starting to pick up.... the sonograms are starting to show a lot of details so I decided to post all the scans this time - it's a lot but then you have more to look at!

We finally found out who is who.... Baby A is the Girl, and Baby B is the boy!

The twins continue to do great, they are now both facing the same way head up in Suzi's belly. They are now about one and a half pounds each (1 lb and 5 oz and 1 lb and 7 oz respectively) a little ahead of where their weight should be. The heart rates are about 140 bpm, and every other vital sign is right on track.

While we were doing the sonogram the boy got too close to the girl so she kicked him in the bum and he moved back... just a shadow of things to come I'm sure!

Suzi goes into the Doctor tomorrow for a tummy check, our next sonogram is on December 18th so we should get more info then.

Three boys & two girls!

2008-10-24T10:16:00.004-05:00

Three boys & two girls... no, the sonogram did not find 3 more babies, that will be the breakout of children when the twins are born. The Sonogram went really well, the Doctor said that we could not of done better if we tried! He was extremely fast and checked for things that we have no idea how he saw. (even cleft lips) All in all the babies are doing extremely well, they are 10 & 11 ounces now, and extremely active in Suzi's belly. The doctor said that because of the activity the babies would be giving Suzi trouble here soon.... I'm just anxious to see the alien belly with multiple bumps moving in different directions!

We're excited that everything is doing so well, and that we're going to get one boy & one girl. Now the question is, which one is which? is Baby A or Baby B the girl

Peter's Brain

2008-10-06T19:55:00.004-05:00

Peter had his follow up appointment today with the neurosurgeon. We had another CT Scan done so they could review the progress he has made over the past couple of days.

Peter is doing surprisingly well. He has a little blood left in his skull, but the fractures are healing very nicely. Peter does have a nice bruise on his brain... we're not sure if that will affect him at all. The neurosurgeon says that it is normal and will heal in time just like any other bruise.

Here's a picture we took tonight of him while getting ready for bed:

As you can see he's 99% better. A little swelling in his eye still, and we hope that is causing the one worry we have left.

It's hard to see but his left eye is a little lower than his right causing double vision and a couple other problems. We are going back to the Optometrist in early November for what we hope is the last follow up appointment. If his eye does not return to the normal position after the swelling is gone then we'll probably have to have a surgery to raise it back to it's normal position.

Twins Update - Week 15

2008-10-02T13:55:00.002-05:00

Back to the Doctor again today (yes, we've seen enough doctors in the last two weeks to choke a horse) and everything is great with the twins. The Doctor was able to find their heartbeats without problem (one was 170 and the other was 140 BPM). The stress and exhaustion of Peter's accident had no impact on the babies. Per the doctor 'they are parasites that take what they need... it's the [mother] that suffers'

We scheduled another sonogram on October 23 to measure and check both the babies, and yes, find out what the sex will be.

Our next regular checkup will be October 30th.

Peter's Optometrist Appointment

2008-10-02T13:46:00.002-05:00

We got to finally take Peter back to Children's for a full optometrist appointment yesterday. The swelling has gone down enough in his right eye that they were able to do a full exam on him.

The good news.... all the muscles etc seem to be in good condition and there does not seem to be any major injuries to the eye itself.

The bad news.... his right eye is now lower than his left eye causing an in balance in his vision. The doctors said that they wanted to give him another month for the swelling to go down, and his skull fractures to heal more to see if the eye will return to it's normal position. If it doesn't they would want to do a re-constructive surgery to raise the eye back to where it needs to be.

Peter is also a little near sighted, and has astigmatism on his right eye.

Peter's Home

2008-09-26T21:05:00.003-05:00

We finally were able to come home yesterday afternoon..... Wednesday morning we were told that they would send us home that day, so naturally I sent out emails to everyone that I worked with, and told them the good news. I packed up a bunch of the stuff we had at the hospital and made a trip home.

When I went back to pick up Suzi and Peter the neurosurgeon came back in and said that since Peter had a runny nose they wanted to keep him there for another twelve hours for observation. Apparently something that is fairly common with head injuries is that the spinal fluid will leak out the nose or ears. Since the fluid can get out, bacteria can get in. If that happened Peter would develop Spinal Meningitis, a fairly serious and painful illness.

But, with the blessings of the faith and a whole bunch of prayer we were not able to collect enough of it for them to test and they eventually said it must have been just a runny nose since it was not consistent at all.

Peter is excited to be home, although he is restricted from doing most the stuff a four year old does, he has most of his freedoms back and does not have to stay in bed all day hooked up to machines.

Pictures of Peter

2008-09-23T00:35:00.003-05:00

Peter's Pictures

Peter's Accident

2008-09-22T23:19:00.002-05:00

Below is some basic information about Peter's Accident... I put it in a time table format to help me remember what has happened when.....

Saturday Morning

The day started off fairly normal as the family dropped me (Jeff) off at DFW Airport for a business trip to San Francisco, then they went to Suzi's sister house to play and visit. A little bit after arriving the kids were up in the play room above the garage. The thought at this time is that Peter was playing on the back a couch that was by the windows and leaned against the screen in the window and fell out. Luckily there was a ledge a couple feet below the window that we think he hit which slowed him down so he did not get the full impact of a 2 story fall.

After the fall Henry rushed out to tell Suzi what had happened - He was calm and collected and handled the situation perfectly. Suzi ran out the front door where she met Peter who was up and walking toward the front door.

Suzi and her sister grabbed Peter and rushed him to Baylor Hospital of Plano which is fairly close to their house, Peter kept consciousness during this time as Suzi continued to bug him and ask him questions. He was really upset about the blood on his Superman pants.

Saturday Afternoon

Once they arrived at the ER they immediately took him in and started their work. I'm a little fuzzy on this part, but I know they got him into a CT Scan there (#1) and then made a decision to put him on a helicopter to the Children's Hospital. One nurse took Suzi into a family room and told her to "make your calls" to notify Family of the situation. I was in the air and there was not much time so she called our Parents to let them know. Of course at that time information was very vague.

My parents were in Oklahoma City and started home right away, Suzi's dad was in the hospital himself at the time.

After a couple calls we had five brethren from the Church heading to the Children’s hospital to give Peter a blessing. Gordon (my brother) who left a party in Denton to go and help Suzi with his Wife Coren, Stephen Fluckiger (my Uncle from Sunnyvale), Evan (my brother in law) and his Father, and Bishop Mayberry from our ward. Peter got a great blessing (from what I heard) and they offered Suzi great support.

As I touched down in San Francisco I turned my phone on to check for messages... I had none. But my Dad called just a couple seconds later and asked "how’s Peter"? Which, was my introduction to the tragedy. Dad did not know much because everyone that had additional information either did not have a cell phone, or had to turn them off.

I was tormented for a couple minutes as I had very little, but very serious information about Peter. Luckily American Airlines was able to immediately get me back on a flight to Dallas on the same plane I just got off of. I finally did get a hold of Suzi right before boarding the flight home and got a brief story. I then had to endure a 4 hour flight home to Dallas praying and pleading that all would be ok.

While I was flying home they got Peter and Suzi down to Children’s Medical Center and did another CT Scan (#2) to check on his brain. They found he had two fractures, one above the eye and one below, he had bleeding in his head, but outside the brain.

Saturday Evening

As I got off the plane my parents were just getting to the airport from Oklahoma, they picked me up and took me directly to the hospital. After pleading with the hospital staff to let me in (they were in the middle of a staff change and usually did not let people in during then) I finally got to see Suzi and Peter. Suzi was doing good, Peter on the other hand looked horrible. He had several tubes taped to his mouth and running down to his stomach and lungs (the ventilator) and the tape was covered in dried blood. He had an IV in each arm, 6 sensors taped to his chest, a sensor on his right hand thumb, and a couple other wires (some coming out of other holes in his body if you know what I mean). His right eye was swollen shut, his nose was caked with dried blood, his ears had blood in them (I thought it was from his ears, but it turned out that it was from his nose, it just dripped down there). The top of his nose was scraped and purple, and his forehead was really scraped up. It was terrifying seeing him like that.

Saturday Night

We went down to get another CT Scan (#3) about 10:30 which showed continuing improvement in the bleeding, but the Doctors would still not tell us the long term outlook, it was still just a 'wait and see' approach. The next several hours was Suzi trying to sleep in Peters room with a couple blankets right beneath a really cold A/C vent amid alarms going off every couple of minutes and Nurses and Doctors running in to Check on him. Since only one person was allowed to be in the ICU I got to try to sleep in the Family waiting room, which was also freezing cold.

Peters breathing continued to get better, they still had to suction out liquid from his lungs every fifteen minutes or so... which Peter hated as they slid a tube down his throat while he was fully conscious so he could cough while they were doing the suction. Peter could not make any noise because of the tubes in his mouth, but his eyes were screaming so loud. And while he was trying to reach out to be held by Suzi and I his arms were tied down to the sides of the bed to prevent him from pulling out the ventilator tubes.

Sunday Morning

About 2:00 am the feeble attempts to sleep were interrupted as Peter started to wake up as the pain medication wore off the nurses and doctors came in to assess where he was out. A decision was then made to remove the ventilator tubes as soon as we could. About an hour later we got everything ready and they removed him from the ventilator. As they removed the tubes he started screaming… although it was really quiet due to the swelling in the throat (from the tubes) and talking was extremely difficult from the swelling. Peter’s focus then changed from the tubes to his right eye which still was swollen shut.

Sunday Afternoon

It’s all a blur at this point in time – but most of Sunday was just stabilizing Peter… he continued improvement. He still would not eat, and if the pain medicine wore off it he was completely miserable, when that happened he the doctors gave him some morphine which worked really well and allowed him to sleep pretty easy. We got the catheter removed from Peter and he started to use the restroom in a bed-pan / cup type thing.

Sunday Night

About 8:30pm we got another CT Scan (4^th). Continued progress & the head nurse felt good enough about the results to release Peter from ICU. (Being in desperate need of beds in the ICU probably helped as well) He was then moved to the Neurological ward at Dallas Children's Hospital, where he continued to improve rapidly.

Monday Morning

Peter continued to improve, the only major change is that his left eye is now completely swollen shut making him effectively blind which has been the scariest thing for Peter to date. The next step was to get Peter out of bed and to start walking and moving on his own again. The Physical Therapy nurses came to the room about 8:30 and were really pressing for Peter to sit-up on his own, however at this time his pain medication had worn off and he was in a horrible mood, he would not cooperate at all, and we eventually gave up after he threw up from throwing such a fit.

Monday Afternoon / Evening

We took Peter to the Optometrist to check out his eyes…. They were not able to do a full exam due to the swelling but they were able to check the pressure, dilatation, and movement of both eyes and they were happy on the current state, although they had limited testing abilities.

The most significant improvement came when Henry came down after school, Peter perked up, started talking a lot with Henry, he sat up and ate and drank a lot (in comparison with the rest of the weekend) he even got out of bed and stood on his own to play with Henry.

I’m sure I’m missing some details (such as the neck brace, x-rays and their results etc) but we’ll go back and edit/add that later.

Twins Update - Week 11

2008-09-04T21:07:00.005-05:00

We went back for appointment # 2 today, it was run of the mill everything is progressing as expected. The babies are now about the size of a fig (no, not a fig newton) just over 1 1/2 inches long

The Dr had a hard time finding both babies heart beat's so he had us do another sonogram just in case. The sonogramist (who has twins of her own) was thrilled with the pictures as it appears that the babies are in a heart.
The babies heart beats are still around 160 BPM. The theory is that girls have higher heart beats..... so now we are trying to figure out girl's names.

Family/Friends responses to hearing we're having twins

2008-08-12T21:17:00.004-05:00

We thought it would be fun to list out some of the comments we've recieved when telling people we're having twins....

F***
Twins... I can't wait to shoot them
You Mormons know how to get all the deals... two for one babies!
They're gonna be so cute.
Oh my gosh, you are going to be absolutely huge
Ditch those cloth diapers
Better you than me
Congratulations…. and condolences

Obviously not all of the reactions... but our favorite of the bunch!

TWINS

2008-08-11T20:55:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure where, or how to begin... the shock is wearing off and the scary realtiy is starting to come into focus. IT'S TWINS! I'm sure the blog will be full of updates... as for now, this is a good start!

Here is a picture of BABY A

BABY B

And the two together