And Noah makes 2

This morning Noah finally decided to roll over. And he didn't just do it once but twice! Now they have both officially learned to roll over. However, they are both camera shy and seem to forget how to do it once the camera is rolling. We will be trying to get a video of it for all you faithful followers.

Driving + ice = bad

Our trip to Michigan last week was definitely not what one would call "smooth sailing." We couldn't leave until the 23rd because Eli was getting his RSV vaccine that morning (which technically wasn't due until the 24th but the nurse didn't want to have to come on Christmas Eve). So after she came we packed everything up but unfortunately we didn't get on the road until 3:30 in the afternoon. As all of you probably remember that was the day we had freezing rain here in good ol' Kentucky. It just started to rain as we left the house and the roads were pretty slick by time we got on New Circle Road. After fighting through traffic we finally made it to the I-75 on-ramp only to find it had been closed due to an accident. So we turned around and used our trusty GPS to get us to another on-ramp. About 1 1/2 hours later we finally get on I-75 - hallelujah! Well, not too much later we came to a halt. After sitting - actually it is best described as parking - on the freeway for over 2 hours we learn that the freeway has been closed due to the ice and numerous accidents and we wouldn't be allowed to go until it started to thaw. So we sit and we wait, and we sit and wait, and we sit and wait some more. Finally we see brake lights, engines roar, and we start moving! After 6 1/2 hours we made it approximately 40 miles north of Lexington! Holy cow! Out of sheer exuberance of actually moving we decide to contine our drive and finally we stopped at a rinky dink motel just south of Dayton. We didn't pull into my parents driveway until about 12:30pm the next day. So our 6 1/2 hour drive to Michigan turned into a 21 hour drive to Michigan. Yikes! Luckily our drive home was nothing to write home about - well except the fact that I had a mild fever and felt pretty crappy the whole ride home. All in all, I am not excited to make that trip again anytime soon...would you consider February soon? Stay tuned for pictures from Noah and Eli's Baby Blessing this Sunday. We are super excited to have the entire family here. Aaron's parents haven't seen the babies since they were in the hospital.

Babies' First Christmas

What a good dad - helping Eli open his Christmas presents. I think Noah likes Christmas.

Just for fun

Fun Christmas sleepers.

Eli's hat and mittens. Look at those red cheeks - they are going to look like their Uncle Billy.

Noah loving his bath.

Eli's getting good at holding his head up. In fact, he rolled over for the first time this morning. Even Noah hasn't done that yet.

Car seat covers. Noah is not a happy camper.

Merry Christmas

Time has flown by and Christmas is just around the corner. Aaron and I realized this week that we still haven't sent out Christmas cards to our wonderful family and friends. I could try really hard to get them all printed, addressed and stamped, put in the mail, and then hope they get to you all in time, or I could just post it here on the blog. I decided to do the latter.

This has been a pretty crazy year for our family. We started January out with a bang when we found out I was pregnant. Those next few months were pretty crazy as Aaron and I were finishing up our bachelors degrees at Brigham Young University. We both graduated in April and moved to Lexington, Kentucky for Aaron to attend the University of Kentucky's Clincal Psychology program.

Our beautiful baby boys, Noah and Eli, were born on August 21st. Despite a fairly easy pregnancy, Eli was born with a congential defect that required surgery the day after he was born. After 6 long weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit Eli came home and Aaron and I have been learning the art of parenting.

Both babies are happy and growing well. Noah is a big goof ball and a total mama's boy. Eli is the more serious one but his smile can melt your heart. We are amazed at their progress and are so grateful to have them in our lives.

Despite some hard times this year, Aaron and I are grateful for all of our blessings. We have experienced many trials but we know that Heavenly Father heard our prayers. He has and continues to bless our little family. May you all feel the love of our Heavenly Father during this wonderful Christmas Season.

Exercise

Eli had an appointment today with the NICU Graduate Clinic. This was basically just a follow-up to see how he's been doing since he was discharged and to check his development. After an assessment, the nurse practitioner had the physical therapist come and talk to me. Apparently they feel he is a little weak in his shoulders and hips so Aaron and I have to start doing more exercises with him to help him get stronger. Basically he needs to spend more time on his tummy and lifting up his head and more time in the sitting up position. We also have to help him learn how to roll over. They didn't act like this was a way big deal. They used the words "minimally concerning" and "nitpicky." I was a little big bummed after this appointment because I was hoping everything would just be fine. There is always something more that we have to do. But we've already started getting him on the floor and on his tummy even though he hates it.

This is generally how Eli reacts to being put on his tummy - ANGRY!

But there are also lazy moments.

And spit-up moments. And happy (but blurry) moments.

Disturbing

I just want to say that that picture Aaron posted of Eli's head with blood on the hood of his coat looks a lot like a big, hairy, pregnant belly. Am I right? It is very disturbing.

A Traumatic Day for Eli

Eli had a pretty traumatic day today. He had an appointment with the nephrologist (kidney doctor) and she wanted quite a few blood labs on him. We are getting pretty familiar with the process and so when she requested about seven different tests I knew they would need quite a bit of blood - not so difficult to get on an adult, but with an infant it proposes some challenges. Often they can just do a heel stick. It's very much like the finger prick they do to test your blood prior to donating, except they do it in the babies' heel. With so many labs though that is not really feasible and they have to go in with a needle. Little baby arms are small and their veins are even smaller.

So the nurse puts the needle in Eli's arm and of course he starts screaming. This is not your average baby scream - he turns completely red and tenses up so much that he doesn't breath and no sound comes out for close to 20 seconds. Of course the nurse doesn't find the vein at first, or at all, but tries for well over a minute unsucessfully. Eli continues to scream and worst of all we have to do it all over again.

So ultimately they send me over to the children's hospital (where Eli was in the NICU) which is across the street from the clinic. They have more experience working with small babies there and we've had to go there in the past. I think Eli has had a total of 7 failed blood draws from his arms in the past 2 months.

I suggest a scalp vein because we've had more success with that in the past. On the first go around it takes the nurse about a minute to find the vein. Eli of course repeats his blood curdling scream. She's getting some blood but it's really not flowing fast enough to fill the 4 vial minimum she needs to get the tests done. There are two nurses involved in the process: one holding Eli and the vials while the other guides the needle.

The nurse relaxed her hold on Eli and of course he jerks away (he's flailing wildly at this point) and the needle comes out. Blood starts flowing freely down the side of Eli's head while the nurse tries desperately to scrape it up into an empty vial. I know why Amanda chooses to send me to these appointments instead of going herself - it's pretty hard to watch.

Third time is a charm. The third time on the opposite side of Eli's head provided enough blood to fill the last vial. Suffice it to say that the whole process was quite the ordeal. From the time I got to our appointment to the time I left was about four hours. Poor Eli.

Some blood stains on Eli's jacket.

Meanwhile Noah's at home.

Christmas Outfits

Amanda dressed both the boys in Christmas outfits. I watched them while Amanda went out with her mom. I couldn't help but snap a few pictures.

Noah is getting a lot better about holding his head up. I think he'll be flipping over pretty soon.All tuckered out. Merry Christmas from the Duke Family!

Portraits

We took the boys to the Sear's Portrait Studio on Tuesday. What an experience! I spent all this time shopping for the perfect outfits; they were ruined before we even got there. So they ended up in white onesies. Oh well. By time we got there it was time for their naps. Eli was not a happy camper. All of their smiles were wasted in the first 10 minutes on a stupid pose. We ended up with some good pictures though.

I'll let you figure out which baby is which :)

The Rocking Chair

We have found that the rocking chair is our secret weapon. Anytime one of the babies starts to fuss, all we have to do is rock him and he'll calm down and fall asleep. We've all had our turn at it.

(I know you've already seen the first 2 pictures but they go with my theme.)

Uncle Bill and Aunt Darlene came over for a visit. Darlene was in heaven holding Eli. Apparently Dougie was the worst baby in the world so she was right at home with a tired and fussy Eli. We had to pry Eli out of her arms when it was time for her to leave.

Thanksgiving

We drove to Michigan for Thanksgiving. We left Wednesday night at 8:45pm and got here at 2:45am - and the boys slept the ENTIRE drive. Yes you read that right, they slept for the whole 6 hour drive. Here is Noah and Sonny with Grandpa Thanksgiving morning. Aaron holding the boys while they take a nap before going to Great Grandma's for dinner. Noah woke up as I was taking my last bite of Thanksgiving dinner. Perfect timing.We had a break through with Angie. She offered to hold AND feed Noah so I could eat some pumpkin pie. He is slowly winning her over with his boyish charm :)How could you not love that adorable baby?Cousin Rachaelle feeding Eli. They became fast friends, right Rach?The morning after. They are always full of smiles after a good nights sleep.Grandpa, Eli, and Sonny all sleeping on each other. Isn't that precious?

Happy 3 months!

Noah and Eli are 3 months old today! Some things they can do:

• Smile and coo
• Hold onto objects placed in their hands
• Hold their heads up
• Sit up assisted
• Lift and turn head when laying on their stomachs
• Track objects with their eyes
• Turn head to follow mom and dad
• Stay asleep when we put them down
• Entertain themselves on the floor

Some things they don't like:

• Their vitamins - they taste pretty bad
• Eli won't drink his milk cold
• Eli is very particular about his diaper
• Having their noses suctioned out - they will scream bloody murder
• Being alone
• Being in their carseats if the car isn't moving - stop lights are our worst enemy
• Throwing up

Things we don't like:

• Dirtying a brand new diaper
• Exploding out the sides of a diaper
• Crying for hours on end
• Waking up after only being asleep for 5 minutes
• Giving them their medications and suctioning out their noses - we hate to be the bad guys
• When they take FOREVER to finish a bottle and then spit it all up
• Getting thrown-up on - as you can see, it is pretty disgusting

Things we do like:

• Their beautiful smiles - they just melt out hearts
• Giving them baths - they love them
• When they coo at us
• Cuddling with them when their asleep
• They are finally sleeping better which means Aaron and I get some peace and quiet - they are both napping on their own as I type this
• Dressing them in cute clothes
• Watching them grow
• Eli's strength and ability to overcome whatever challenge he faces
• Their sweet spirits

Just some of our daily chores

Every night we do the dishes and our dishwasher ends up looking something like this. We use the Dr. Brown's bottles because they help reduce gas and Eli really seemed to like them, but each bottle has 5 parts. We have about 18 bottles and usually we have about 12-15 bottles to wash every night. That totals 60-75 bottle parts each night. Luckily Aaron usually ends up doing the dishes since I'm responsible for the laundry. Here is a row of all the medications we use almost every day. From left to right: Iron (Eli), Zantac (Eli), Bicitra (Eli), saline spray for both Eli and Noah, vitamins for both Eli and Noah, gas drops, and Tylenol. Yesterday we used every single one of our syringes. These are just another thing we have to wash every night. You could see how we use them all with the list of medications we have to give Eli everyday. Here are just some pictures for fun. Goofy Eli somehow got his foot out of his sleeper. What cute little monkey toes he has. Eli has quite the expression on his face.

Ped Surg

Eli had his second follow up with Pediatric Surgery (Ped Surg) today. They did a dye study where he had to drink some dye while they took x-rays to see how his surgical site looks. The good news is that there are no obstructions or leaks. He does have poor motility - meaning that the muscles in his esophagus aren't great at getting the food down. Any normal person could drink upside down because the muscles work against gravity but Eli can't do this. We got to see Dr. Joe this time (he's the doctor that actually performed Eli's surgery) and he helped to explain a lot about common symptoms of TEFs. He explained why Eli has a cough that sounds like a bark, why he sounds like he's wheezing (especially after he eats), and why we'll have to keep him on antacids (Zantac) for a year. All of these things are completely normal for him and we shouldn't worry. He doesn't have to go back for another six months unless we notice anything unusual - like excessive spitting up which can be a sign that there is an obstruction. He also warned us about things to be careful about when he starts eating solids. Since the top half of his esophagus developed normally and the bottom is narrower, there is a little ledge where they had to surgically connect it. We need to be careful when he starts eating solids that food doesn't get stuck on this ledge. Foods such as hot dogs and cut up carrots will never be good for him to eat. We asked about when he'll be able to get circumsized and he still wants to wait until things are looking better with his kidneys since he'll have to be put under general anesthesia. But he'll defintely have it done before he is a year old. All in all, he's doing great and weighing in at 10 pounds 9 ounces!

Naps

So Aaron and I finally discovered the key to preventing our babies from freaking out all day long...NAPS. We bought this book, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child," and learned that we have a 1-2 hour window of wakefulness before we need to get the babies to take a nap. This was news to us. We thought they were fine as long as they were awake and not crying. But apparently some babies don't know how to self soothe and therefore won't fall asleep even if they are tired (and in our case overtired). So now we watch the clock pretty close and make sure we soothe the boys asleep when they start showing signs of drowsiness. This has been such a lifesaver and the boys have been doing much more sleeping during the day (they even stay asleep for awhile if we put them down). Apparently, our babies are pretty happy when well rested. If only we would have known all this 2 1/2 months ago...