Henry's home....and now begins preparations for the next phase...

We haven't had time to update in a few days, so there are a few pics to add in from our "homecoming"... three boys under 18 months seems to be a reasonable excuse to be slow on posting, but nonetheless, we'll try to do better. :)


This is what our stroller looked like leaving hospital.. still an adjustment, but such a great one!! It felt like we better run out of the hospital before someone told us we weren't allowed to take Henry and Owen home. It's quite something to realize and physically experience your TWO babies coming home!!  What a wonderful day and so long in coming.

We are all home safe and sound and adjusting well to life with a family of 5!!

 Yes, it is busy, of course...but we are thrilled for that.  We have had a few nights of 2 hours total sleep (not in a row), but we don't think that will be the norm for us.... just need to get our routine with the boys down.  Henry, as we've mentioned previously, has an NG tube.  Because it is extremely important that he gain weight adequately (to set up for his next surgery), he is only 'allowed' to breastfeed 3x per day. We weigh him before and after to know what he's taken and, if he doesn't get enough, we use the NG tube to top him up.  For the other feeds, Henry gets EBM with fortifier (basically formula is added that's loaded with fats).  We try to bottle him, but if he is too tired and isn't interested, again, it goes down the NG.  This is most challenging in the night. At 3 am, we have to give Henry time to wake up, then see if he will get going on bottling... that part can take 20 minutes or so, at which point (if things aren't working out) we go to the NG - check to make sure it is in the stomach, transfer the bottled milk to syringe, attach and feed through the tube at a slow rate (2mls per minute).. On nights like last night, this takes about 45 minutes..Add baby #2 to this scenario and time sure passes in a hurry!!  The good thing with all of this - the stress of it doesn't really compare to the previous weeks leading up to and going through Henry's surgery!! .....not even close....

Having twins remains a huge learning experience. We have two cribs in the boys' room, but we have been sleeping them together. They tend to settle each other.  We put them close together and not necessarily facing one another....but before long, they are always face-to-face...much like below.  And, it is true that when one is screaming to be picked up or fed, the other doesn't necessarily awaken....at least not at the age/stage we are at.

As we mentioned in one of our first posts, Henry's surgery was the first stage of a two-stage surgery. The surgery he had (called the Norwood procedure) is the first phase of the Yasui, which he will hopefully have at the age of 4-6 months, depending on his growth and how his anatomy looks as we approach the surgical date.  The next surgery is also a big surgery, but not as big as what Henry just had. We hope that he will do as well as he did this time (there were 4 other babies who had the Norwood within days of Henry - some before and some after- but Henry was the first baby to be transferred back to his home city due to no ongoing surgical issues... Awesome job Henry!!).  We try not to live day-to-day in fear of Henry's next surgery, but rather enjoying our family time and focusing on Henry's primary goal - to gain weight and grow!! Plus making sure his brothers are doing well... Henry is trucking along.. He remains bigger by about 300 g than Owen...despite all he has gone through.

For those parents reading this as they go through their own journey, we will try to add a video within the next few days to show some of the procedures we have to go through regularly (taking Oxygen saturations, giving meds, changing the NG, weighing, etc).  When they initially teach you to manage your post-op baby, you may feel like running away, like the stress of trying to keep your baby alive is just too much...but day-by-day, the fear is a little less and you get used to looking at your baby (not the scale or the monitor, or the other external things) to see that he or she is doing ok.

Exhausted but Blessed

Hal and Jill