240 photos fill this months 4 albums. We had apple picking, pumpkin decorating, Chris Keiper’s wedding, and general fall fun. Let me tell you, life is good. Exhausting, but good. The girls turned 3 months old just 2 weeks ago and we are enjoying every moment of it. They are both doing alot of smiling and cooing which is the best part of babies if you didn’t know Hampton is doing well in school and is as outgoing as always and Gavin is busy trying to be as much like his big brother as possible.

Carrie and I are constantly blown away by what life brings our way and as ridiculous as life gets sometimes, we are happier than ever. Call it the new house, the new babies, time, age, medication, or wine, we are glad to be in this time and place. Hopefully you too have the chance to enjoy that feeling and with thanksgiving right around the corner, perhaps you can spread some of it around.

Finally I had a few minutes to get some pictures up. These are photos from the second half of August and all of September. There are 200 photos in the album for you to look over. We are getting very familiar with our new additions, having 2 birthdays, and generally enjoying life throughout the series of pictures. There is a whole new set of lighting conditions at the new house and hopefully my balance will change as I get used to shooting there. I have been trying to take more photos and I am getting there, slowly. October should be an interesting month and we are look forward to the adventures of fall. I will let the gallery tell the rest. Til next time…

Wow, been a while huh? Sorry, we have been incredibly busy with life, the house, and the girls. The 23rd and 29th of this month mark Hampton (he is 4) and Gavin’s (he is 2) respective birthdays. There is a kid party this week and a family party next week. Hopefully they go well and I will have some pictures for you

As for what has happened since early August…the girls are doing well and hovering around 7 - 7.5 lbs. It was determined they had a food allergy so we have been doing our best to adjust to that with medicine and prescription formula (a very similar problem to what Gavin had). Until we fixed that the girls were crying any time they were awake which made for a very difficult household

So all is well. We are learning how to be a family of six, getting into the twin baby groove, and enjoying our new home. The fall will be a time for reflection and calm as we enjoy our contempt after surviving the past few months. Other items to note: Carrie will be 30 on 10/6 and Carrie and I will be traveling to PA for Chris Keiper’s wedding (we are really looking forward to that). We scammed Carrie’s sister and her boyfriend into taking care of the team for the weekend

Look forward to some galleries in the next few weeks and happy fall!

So I had a moment this morning and I thought I would throw a complete retrospective together from the past few weeks. The photos are from 7/25 until 8/10 and include just about everything that occurred. For a person that loves photography I just didn’t take as many pictures as I wanted to or should have but my photography funk is still continuing. Hopefully that’s shakes off soon. Anyway enjoy the new perspective (some of the pictures aren’t really enjoyable but you get the point). Just click on the photo above to navigate to the new album.

Because you guys are awesome. The family is doing great however this post is about you, my friends, family, and random readers. We have received an outpouring of support these past few weeks and it is nothing short of amazing. It feels good to be loved and to have people care so much about your little corner of the universe. It was pointed out to me by my best friend Chris that people care not because they have to but because they want to. That people want to be connected through experiences similar or not and that emotions and feelings are common amongst all. So thanks again and perhaps you can pass a bit of that love on to the next person who needs a little boost with a smile, hello, or attaboy. I know I sure will.

We are finally home and I am so glad as you might imagine. The girls were discharged this morning and we have been enjoying their presence all day. I am completely exhausted so you can imagine how Carrie must feel. Anyway I am going to keep this short and sweet because its a shower then bed (then more feeding in a few hours). I have put a few pictures below, but you can expect a full album in the gallery within a few days, hopefully I will have a moment to put that together.

This feeling is a good thing. Both the girls are together, off of O₂, no iv’s or bilibeds, just being babies. They got better fast which we are very happy about. However that means that all of the stuff we would have normally been able to adjust to is crashing in fast. The boys are emotional, we are getting up every 2 hours or so to pump, we are spending long days in the hospital, and doing lots of waiting with pretty healthy girls.

I think we are going to be a bit frightened to bring them home, away from constant observation and machines. I feel we may even revert to our first child fear status. But we will get over it, life will go on, and the craziness of a four child household will set in, in which case the “what the hell were we thinkings” will have time to set in. So now we are completely out of the trouble zone, at least in my mind. Now we just need the OK from the docs to bring them home and start our life.

I am going to keep it short and sweet. Today was good. Lila was transported back to Newton-Welsley at 1:00pm today. She is currently on a very low amount of Oxygen, eating very well, and off of the IV. Her IV is currently stuck in her head because they ran out of places on her limbs (it will be removed soon but babies veins are fragile which is why the IV moves often). Its looks ridiculous but it doesn’t hurt her. Mandi is doing well too, she is about the same as her sister except that her breathing is a little faster. You will notice a blacklight in the pictures below. It is a UV billi-bed which will reduce her billrubin levels. These are high because the girls did not start eating until recently and so toxins have not been expelled, its nothing to worry about and will go away with their excretions. Mandi is being sped up a bit with the UV light. So that’s that, I’m tired and we have another feeding soon. Enjoy the pics below. Carrie and I are going home tomorrow to spend the day with the boys who we miss terribly.

Things are really looking positive as of this morning. Both Lila and Mandi are breast feeding which is awesome. Also yesterday I got to hold Lila for the first time which kicked major butt and she also had her chest tube removed. What does this mean? Well hopefully she will be able to leave MGH and come over to Newton-Welsley to be with her sister and finish out her treatment. I guess the best we can hope for is that they are home by the weekend, but it may take as long as next week.

What and insane experience this has all been. Certainly I feel Carrie and I have held up much better than I would have thought. Carrie has been especially string given the fact her body is raging with post-pregnancy hormone madness. What gets me now is that there is a couple who had twin boys born on the same day, under the same circumstances and they are experiencing the same thing as us. They have one boy here and one at MGH with very similar issues. We run into them all of the time and chat about what is going on, I feel so bad for them for some reason and perhaps I should be feeling that for myself, but I don’t. I guess perspective is the answer to that one.

Now on to medical care, what a pain. I mean obviously the doctors and nurses are doing a good job, because the girls are getting better. However you have to be such an advocate for your child. Most of the staff want to be as clinical as possible, watching the numbers and going by the book. This is understandable but observation and experience goes a long way. I have noticed that the best doctors and nurses are the ones who take observation and experience into account, who bend the rules to accelerate recovery. There is also the parent factor, if we push hard enough, they listen to what we want, but that can be stressful sometimes. Anyway its an annoyance but not necessarily are huge problem. We have always and will always attempt to do what is best for our children.

So if the girls are together this afternoon, I will take some pictures and do another post. Thank you all again for being so wonderful, we really do like the feedback and it makes us feel better that so many of you are pulling for us. i wish i could say I was religious and was praying, but I am not. I have faith in the universe and my childrens’ will to survive. I have faith in my family and friends that they they will be there to support us. Faith in ourselves and positive action and feeling will get us through. Its amazing how far a smile can throw you.

Today was an OK day as days go. I made my way to Newton-Welsley after a good nights sleep to see Carrie and Mandy. Once here Carrie was able to feed Mandi breast milk (only with a bottle though, we fought them on that but they wouldn’t budge). Carrie was able to hold her for a good long time as well. What I find interesting and evolutionarily significant is how much better her vitals are while there is skin to skin contact. Babies are just meant to be with their mommies.

I then headed over to Mass General hoping Lila would have her chest tube removed. What did happen is that it was turned off but left in for safety. There were many philosophical disagreements amongst a few different doctors and nurses on this one. The problem with both the girls is that they have very high respiratory rates (which decreases when they are with mom). The disagreement comes with the doctors/nurses who only rely on data from the machines and the ones who take a more observational/experience approach. Basically they averaged and said lets wait a set amount of time, see if anything happens with her vitals, then do something. That time came and went, an x-ray was done (which showed all is well) and the hope is that they will pull the tube tonight (its not being used or needed right now). Its not major, but sort of a mental milestone to have it removed. She was also able to take breast milk today through a bottle so that was very good. I spent about 7 hours at MGH just being supportive, talking with docs and nurses, and mulling through the silence of her room (which is twice the size of Carries, that still amazes me). Our awesome nurse (the one who admitted Lila) Keri is on tonight so I know she is in good hands. I would say there was a marked improvement in her health today, she was even up and alert a few times which was very nice for daddy to see.

I headed back to NW at 9:15pm, showered, ate some hospital mac and cheese, and then received the good news that Mandi has been moved to the other side of the NICU where the more stable babies are, her Oxygen has been lowered and she no longer requires the heating lamp. Things are looking good on that front.

Carrie is discharged tomorrow, which is sort of sad, because the babies won’t be coming with us and are still at different hospitals. The hope is that Carrie will be able to board here as a mom and not a patient so we won’t have to keep making the 40 - 60 minute drive from home each day (depending on which hospital we go to). She is planning on going home after her discharge to spend some time with the boys who miss her very much, then she will come back to NW to be with Mandi. If all goes well at MGH Lila may be able to come over the NW to be with her sister soon and that would be great. Since they have not been together since they were born 3 days ago. So I am off to sleep on my crappy cot. Enjoy the pictures below and rest assured the girls are improving and hopefully will be able to come home soon.