Boy oh Boy!

I wanted to post a nice message saying that everyone's much better now, but that's just not in the cards. Last Saturday morning I was feeling really sick so I stayed home while Matt took the boys to his parents. It turns out that I got Bryan's stomach flu - yuk! About three hours later, in walks Matt with the boys. I found out that Jonathan also caught Bryan's flu and was throwing up everywhere and Bryan was now into the second stage of that fun bug - let's just say somewhere between #1 and #2, but much closer to #1. You get the picture? The boys had destroyed the outfits that they were wearing and we didn't have any stored over at their Grandparent's, so Jean was kind enough to give them an early Christmas gift of one of their outfits. Poor Matt had to take care of all three of us until it got to be too much. I took Bryan since he was the lesser of two evils and prayed that he would be patient with me. Luckily he was pretty good and we all survived the night.
Sunday Matt got a break and I took the boys over to Jean and Mark's. Jonathan wasn't quite done spitting up, so he got to open another gift(Could this be the beginning of his manipulation?).
Before all the sickness started on Saturday, I got a few cute pics of the boys. Here's Bryan looking pretty darn cute.
Here's Jonathan right AFTER a great big grin - I hate my camera!
Here's the boys on Sunday. They got to sit on a gift while I got to open all their wonderful presents (Courtesy of our friends the Scheuer's, Bork's and Boyer's). This picture is also an example of their excellent drooling skills, as shown on their U. of K. shirts that they wore in honor of Uncle Tony.
Jonathan and Grandpap were pooped, so they took a nice long nap.

To give you an update now that it's Wednesday, (sorry for the delay in this posting!) the boys are doing great, although Jonathan still likes to spit up. Yes, Matt did catch the bug too. It just wouldn't be fair if he didn't! He had it with a fever all day yesterday and recovered overnight. I just found out that both Jean and A.J. got sick yesterday too. I feel terrible!! Hopefully everyone's done with it now and we can have a healthy holiday season. We're now in the process of decontaminating everything and trying to catch up on all the stuff we wanted to do over the weekend. I'm sure a few family members won't mind if their gifts arrive a few days late, right??? Gee wiz. I'm ready for a vacation!

Can you believe it!? (caution: gross topic)

Can you believe it? Now Bryan is sick! On Wednesday night, Matt had to drive up north for a work presentation and I had both boys by myself. Luckily, they were really cooperative and both in good moods. During their 2am feeding, Bryan didn't eat that much and he was a little fussy, so I let him fall asleep on me. At the 5am feeding, he only ate 1/2 ounce then he threw up what seemed like about 3ozs. Yuk! Not a big deal, I changed him again and got them both bundled up for daycare. We headed downstairs and I had them sitting in their car seats and watching me while I washed the bottles. They were both smiling and cooing then Bryan just started to "toss his cookies". The problem there was that it wasn't your normal run of the mill off-white puke; it was yellow and scared the crap out of me. Of course the pediatrician wasn't open for another half hour, so I cleaned him up, finished the bottles and carted them both off to daycare knowing that I'd have to bring Bryan back home until I got the all clear from the Dr. While we were at Daycare, Bryan puked again - same color. Dude! This is getting old and I'm getting even more worried. We make a quick stop to the grocery store for some Pedialyte, formula, tylenol and immune system booster tabs for me(which are really gross by the way). I finally got a hold of the Dr's office while enroute to home from the store. They offered either a call from the Dr at noon or a visit in a half hour. I hear the confirmation in the back seat that a visit to the Dr is needed asap. Three times in less than a hour - four if you count the formula one. Apparently, this throw up thing is going around and Bryan was lucky enough to catch it. He was puking bile. He was puke free thanks to the Pedialite until about 3:30 yesterday then he was back to square one. Matt took him last night and he was a fussy little guy all night, but finally got to sleep around 3:30am. We took him into Day care today. They are giving him 2oz of formula every hour and he's doing great. The funny thing about it all is that he's been almost all smiles the whole time. I love that little bugger!

Bryan and Jonathan visit Santa!

On Saturday, December 8th, Matt, me, Grandma Jean, and the twins all went to Springhill Mall to visit Santa (affectionately nicknamed "Ho-Ho"). Jean had a spot in line already reserved for us, so we didn't have to wait more than about 10 minutes - thanks Grandma! Below, I'm holding Bryan and Jean's holding Jonathan. They were SO good that whole day! Jonathan loved the santa suit (provided by Jean - she always finds the cutest outfits!) and he sucked on the white fur anytime he got a chance. You'll notice that I've given up on make up. I miss not looking like rudolph laying in the snow. Yuk! After their visit with Santa, we all went shopping. No joke, EVERYONE in the mall either pointed and said "look, twins!" or they came up to us to look at or touch the boys. The most common questions were "Boy and Girl? or two Boys?", "Are they identical?", "How old are they?", and my favorite "How do you do it"?. Then there were the comments and stories about how they know any people with twins and how cute they looked in their outfits. It was a lot of fun, but it was getting annoying after the first 15 or so people. When they came up to talk, they would almost always touch them which would make me cringe inside. How could you know if they were sick or not? Needless to say, they had baths that night! I'm such a germ-phobe. We eventually met up with Sandy Scheuer and we ran into Terry _?___ while on our shopping spree. I think that's Jonathan.
Here's Bryan telling Matt all that he wants for Christmas. We told them that good little boys get everything that they want, so that was a long conversation!
It was a long day and everyone slept great. We can't wait till next year's visit!

Jonathan's progress

Well, after a few days of lounging around the house, Jonathan is much better. He's even all smiles these past few days - which really warm's the worried-mom's heart. I've been playing phone-tag with the Pediatrician on the final results of the blood culture, but all the other results were all clear. So after all of that, he just had a bad cold that led to the fever. Bryan never caught what he had thanks to our constant watch on who has what pacifier and bottle. I have a feeling that we should be that way all the time for now on. We were better at that in the beginning, but we started to slack off. No more of that! Now it's constant washing of the hands (really dry/cracked hands) and baths for them every other night. Thanks for everyone's thoughts and concern.

Poor Kid :(

Jonathan had his first fever on Tuesday night. Matt had him that night and he was particularly fussy, so he handed him over to me and Matt took Bryan (Yes, they're still sleeping with us and yes, we know how dangerous this is). One kiss to the forehead let me know that something wasn't right, so I checked his temp. which was 103.4. Yikes for a new mom, but apparently that's considered mid-grade. After about an hour of soothing "shhh's" and rocking in the glider, I got him to calm down and I took his temp again which was 102. The next morning, I took him to the pediatrician and they suggested that we take additional steps to make sure that the fever isn't a result of something more serious. What was I going to say, NO? He didn't have any ear problems and his nose was relatively clear. So we headed straight to the hospital where he had his hernia surgery just three weeks ago.
His first test was an X-ray to make sure he doesn't have pneumonia. I swear, that device they had him in was pure torture. They kept on telling me that it looks worse than it really is, but Jonathan's tears told me otherwise. Picture a wooden board with a hole cut out for the legs and bum, then two clear plastic tall semi-circles are squeezed on either of his sides with his arms stretched above his head. He is stuck in this thing for about five minutes until they can get two x-rays. I was in too much shock to cry at this point.
We were whisked away to the next test - blood work. It's well known in the medical world (not to me) that baby's veins are very small. There was one nurse to hold him down and one to prick his arm about four times until they finally found a vein that would give them enough blood. There were many comments on how nicely developed his lungs were. Duh! After that, she gave him a heel prick and squeezed blood out for a blood culture. He still has a small bruise on his arm, but I suspect that it will go away in a few days. They gave us a few minutes to calm down, then we were whisked away again to the next test.
The next test was to find out if he has a urine infection. To do this and obtain a sterile sample, they needed to catheterize him - without anesthesia. For this, I cried. They brought us up to the pediatric floor and took Jonathan's vitals. I was given the option to let a student from Elgin Community College or a Dr. from the floor do the procedure. I'm an advocate of having Dr's learn hands-on (how else are they going to learn), but I'm not that trusting with my 3 month old baby. Well, after a minute of arguing between the devil on my left shoulder and the angel on my right shoulder, I decided to go ahead and let the student do it with the stipulation that I could say no at any moment of the procedure. I was most worried about this test because I knew ahead of time how painful that it would be for him. I had a catheter when I was in labor, but I had an epidural for the pain. Armed with the knowledge that he wouldn't remember any of it in the future, I gave him lots of kisses and a great big hug then layed him down. There were three Dr's in training and one teacher. She had a shaky hand for a couple of minutes, but she was super-concentrated on remaining sterile and ultimately did a great job. Jonathan was awesome! He cried for the initial insertion of the tube, but he calmed down after that.
That was the final test and I couldn't wait to get out of there! What a nightmare! All in all, the hospital staff was great and everyone was concerned and helpful, but I wouldn't mind it if I never step foot in there again. Preliminary results show that Jonathan is fighting something (his white blood count is elevated), but we don't know what. The x-ray came back clear and so did the initial results on the urine. I'm waiting to hear back from the Pediatrician for the remaining results tonight. I'm guessing it's just viral. Cross your fingers Bryan doesn't get it!

Karaoke Gone Wrong

If you have a DVR box and you're bored out of your mind, or just in one of those moods, you've probably found the karaoke selections On Demand. I happened to find this one day while on bed rest. There's tons of songs and recently, there are holiday songs. One night Matt and I decided it would be fun to sing some Christmas carols to the boys. Wow! I never knew the words to most of those well-played songs that I grew up listening to. I bet you didn't know that Frosty the Snowman is quite the depressing song once you get past the first verse. Oh...I also found out that I just might have the worst pitch known to mankind. Needless to say, we had a lot of laughs. You should try it some time!

Week of November 25th, 2007

This was a pretty uneventful week, but a very busy weekend. Matt talked me out of buying a Christmas tree, but he didn't talk me out of decorating the house with every last holiday decoration that I could find. Even as I type I remember that I still have holiday plates to unpack and trade-out with our current Fiestaware. Christmas time might be just a month-long event (and we won't be home for Christmas Day), but by-golly, I'm going to decorate the crap out of it!
This weekend was a particularly fussy weekend for the boys. They're slowly getting over their colds - we're in the dry boogey phase. They had quite a bit of gas and we're kicking up a storm, so we pulled out the jumpy-seats that Grandma Bryan bought them. We've found only one place downstairs where we can put one of the seats, which is in the doorway of the bathroom. The picture made it look like the perfect size for them, but you'll see by the picture below that it's not the case. Here's Bryan playing "Peek-a-boo". I think we'll have to wait a little while before we can use these. :) I'm thinking of getting a fluffy blanket to wrap around the rim, but I don't want to suffocate the poor little guys!

Some pictures from the drive...

Here are a couple of pictures of the drive in our new van. Matt drove most of the way. When we stopped, Matt would take one of the boys to feed him and I'd take the other. Jonathan was all smiles at one of the stops and I couldn't resist taking a picture.
This was awesome! On our way back home to IL, we passed a sign that said Bryan 15 miles away. You can sort of see the following sign here. How cool is that?

Visiting GreatGrandma and GreatGrandpap

We stayed at the "Miller Manor" (as we affectionately like to call it) for the time we were in Pittsburgh. We wanted a picture of the boys in front of the "Mantle of Honor" and here's what we got. Grandpap is holding Jonathan and Grandma is holding Bryan.

One of Grandma's gabbing sessions with Jonathan. They both talked up a storm when Great Grandma was holding them.
Unfortunately, both boys caught a nasty cold while we were on our trip. It seemed like we were suctioning them all the time! We have a whole house humidifier, we suction and use saline, we put them in the bathroom with us when we're showering, and we try to keep them propped up when they sleep. They still have very stuffy noses - does anyone have any advice? The pediatrician advises against using anything like Vicks, so that's out of the question.

Pictures from Thanksgiving

So we had a great time on Thanksgiving Day introducing the twins to some of their Cousins, Aunts, and Uncles. Here are a few pictures of those special moments...Here's their cousin, Jamie Miller with Jonathan. They had a great time getting to know eachother.
And they shared some laughs...
Here's Aunt Steffani Bryan feeding (I think) Bryan. The onesies they were wearing that day were courtesy of Steff. They said "Thankful for Mommy" - I know, adorable! They also had Baby's first Thanksgiving bibs courtesy of Grandma Bevevino. Thanks guys!
Here's Uncle Charlie Bryan with Bryan taking a nap.
We tried to get a picture of just the kids, but Aunt Steffani just HAD to get in there! As you can tell, they were all on the verge of breakdown, so she calmed them down. We have from left to right: Bryan Bevevino, Steffani Bryan, Carter Mates, Ethan Mates, and Jonathan Bevevino. Ethan (4 1/2 yrs old) and Carter (1 1/2 yrs old) are my sister Lori's children. If you can, get a close up of this picture and look at Jonathan - it's hilarious!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'...

They did it!  Bryan rolled over (from tummy to back) on Tuesday at Day Care and Jonathan did it the very next day at Amy and Shane's.  How exciting!!!  There goes my freedom to leave them on the bed while I run to the bathroom.

Traveling

This Thanksgiving, Matt and I decided it was best to break up the trip to Pgh by first traveling to Michigan to see Aunt Amy & Uncle Shane on Wednesday, then drive to Great Grandma and Great Grandpap Miller's on Thursday.   I was terrified about how the boys were going to handle the long trip.  Sometimes they like to scream in the car, sometimes they're fine.  Their longest trip was to my office in Schaumburg which took about a half hour.  It was a pleasant surprise, after about twenty minutes, they were both sound asleep.  They woke up after three hours to eat and they fell back asleep for the rest of the trip.  The trip to Ferndale took 6hrs and 15min and the trip to Pgh took the same amount of time.  They were angels!!!  I'll have some pics for you in a couple of days.  

"Brotherly Love"

Sorry for the delay in getting last weekend's events blogged.  Matt and I did a lot and I just ended up being too busy to post anything.  So, as some of you might have known, Matt and I were van shopping for quite awhile.  There's so many good models out there - all of them way out of our price range.  Fortunately, a friend at work referred me to a friend of her family and he hooked us up with a 2008 Hyundai Entourage.  It's as bare bones as it gets, but it's all we need with 7-passenger seating, cloth seats (that have been stain treated), a cranberry red exterior, and a pretty powerful engine.  It has much better get-up-and-go than my Tucson ever did and it's much bigger. Now when Matt and I go places with the twins, I can sit in the third row and watch the boys while Matt's driving.  Perfect.  

While Matt and I were car shopping, Grandma and Grandpap Bevevino were watching the boys and they took this picture of Bryan kissing Jonathan.  I can't believe I missed it!

Jonathan's Surgery Results

Ok, so we survived! Jonathan was such a trooper! The morning started with Grandma Bevevino taking Bryan to Day Care and Matt and Kristi took Jonathan to the hospital. He slept the entire way there and was pretty sleepy when we were there for pre-op. The first picture is of Jonathan in his hospital gown (that's right - it was a miniature gown with an open back and everything - adorable! ) and the temp sticker on his head. The remaining pictures are from the post-op waiting area and the recovery room. The hospital was great!
Jonathan only acted up when we needed to change him. Other than that - perfect little angel. Right before surgery, Matt convinced me to have the surgen explore the left side for a hernia there. The reasoning being that the anethstesia wouldn't change, but it could help him in the long run. Thank god we decided to do this! The Dr. came out of surgery and said that he had a large hernia on the right and a small hernia on the left. Both incisions are about an inch long and they have little surgi-strips on them. He didn't have any apnea spells and he's been eating really well. A surprise - when they weighed him he weighed in at 11lbs 2oz! If he keeps it up he's going to be on track with a full-term baby! He was released around 9PM and he was super excited to see his brother Bryan once more. We didn't get much sleep last night - we needed to change diapers often and check temps, but it's all worth the comfort of knowing they're safe and happy. Thank you for all your kind words - we really appreciate it. Lots of love!

Pictures

Matt and I finally made some time to have a professional picture sitting. Here's the info if you just want to check them out or if you want to buy some pictures. As a reminder: to tell them apart (looking at them) Jonathan's hair goes to the left (his right) and Bryan's goes to the right (his left) Enjoy!

www.sylverstudio.com event ID: 2704

Jonathan's Surgery

Jonathan's surgery is set for this Wednesday. I'm a nervous wreck. I know, it's very common and there's nothing to worry about, but that's my baby that's getting cut up! He's been pretty fussy this week. I'm constantly worried that he's in pain, so I'm bending over backwards to make sure he's not crying at all. I can't wait 'till it's done and over with. Please send Jonathan some love, prayers, positive energy on Wednesday! I'll be sure to write a post-op entry by Thursday.

My Morning Gifts

Thursday, November 5th was a crazy busy morning. I know, what morning isn't, but this one was especially busy with Matt having to leave for work at 5:30AM (without me knowing ahead of time) and me having to get ready for work, feed, make 6 bottles of formula, and change diapers and clothes of two crying babies by 6:30AM. A little daunting, but I managed to get us all ready and at day care by 8AM. What made it all worth it was seeing my two little guys smile at me at the same time. I was so excited to see them so happy, that I ran around the house to find the camera or the video camera. I found the video camera and took this picture. Now the big question is how did I manage to go to work when I had such adorable little ones looking up at me? They started to wail about three minutes after this picture. Oh well, it was such a gift to see them so happy together for that short period of time. (*picture note* Jonathan is on the right)

Our big brother, Pepper

As many of you know, we have a male cat named Sgt. Pepper (Pepper for short). It's been really interesting watching him adjust to the boys move into his territory - especially since he's always been fairly dominant. Before the boys were born it was fun listening to Pepper chase after Matt when Matt just wanted to walk up the stairs and go to bed. Pepper would try to nip at his ankles like he was hunting for food. Matt would have to run up the stairs, turn around real quick to stare him down, then a playful hand-to-paw fight would erupt 'till Matt had enough and they would both hop into bed. This was their nightly ritual.

We believe that Pepper has found it in his heart to accept the boys even though they're sometimes loud and take up valuable bed space. However, he hasn't always been so accepting. He's been urinating outside of his litter box off and on. Recently, we found a few spots of urine that had blood in it. Worried for everyone's health, Kristi took Pepper to the vet this weekend to find out what the problem is. It turns out that this is a bladder infection that's fairly common for house cats on a canned food diet. He put him on antibiotics and we're feeding him a special prescription diet for a few weeks to see if it clears up. After some research, I found that the newly renovated living room was the culprit for some of the urinating in there. I guess he lost all "sense" of where he was and needed to get familiar with it the best way he knew how. Yuk! So Matt and I invested in some heavy-duty cleaner and started to pay extra attention to him. It seems to be working so far. Word of advice to pet owners, change one thing in a room at once - not all in the same day!

Over the hill and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go!

On Sunday, we took our weekly trip to Grandma and Grandpap Bevevino's. Mom and Dad take this time to go grocery shopping while we hang out with the Grandrent's. Here's Jonathan with Grandpap.
Here's Bryan with Grandma.
When Mom and Dad got back from shopping, we all watched football and ate lots of yummy food. Here's Dad with Jonathan.
We're in the middle of a growth spurt, so we're eating anywhere between 4 and 8oz of formula at a sitting now. We were sleeping through the night last week, but this weekend we got up about every 4 hrs to eat. Still, not too bad but it was great getting a few extra hours of sleep.

Update on Jonathan

Kristi took Jonathan to the specialist on November 1st. He checked him out and confirmed that he needs surgery on his inguinal-unilateral-hernia. He'll have the surgery on November 14th first thing in the morning at St. Alexius Medical Center. Although it's a very common surgery, there are still risks involved with the anethstesia. He'll be able to eat an ounce of clear pedialite the morning of the surgery, but that's it. Should be interesting. The procedure takes about a half hour then he's allowed to eat as much as he wants, as soon as he wakes up. The Dr. said he'll leave it up to the Anethestesiologist on whether or not he'll stay in the hospital overnight or go home. He'll just want to make sure that Jonathan comes off of the medicine okay. Followup care will involve frequent diaper changes and sponge baths instead of regular bath time.
According to the Dr., there's a 40% chance that there is a hernia on his left side and he gave us the option for him to go ahead and explore that region while he's under, but we decided against any unnecessary surgery since there were no apparent signs of a hernia on that side. I hope we made the right decision!

Halloweenies

For Halloween, the boys were Thing 1 and Thing 2. They went to Grandma and Grandpap Bevevino's for a while to pass out candy then came home to do some more of the same. To our surprise, we found two trick-or-treaters that had on the same costume as the boys! Unfortunately, every time we went to the door to pass out candy, we screamed. Here we are in a better mood... *Bryan is on the left*

Hunting for Pumpkins

On Saturday before the Penn State vs. Ohio State game, the whole family along with Grandma and Grandpap Bevevino went to Randy's Vegetables to pick out pumpkins. We had a great time, but it was freezing!!! Jonathan found that they were selling his apples! Here he is helping mommy pick out a few.
Smile! Bryan is on the right and Jonathan's on the left.
It was really cold, but what's worse is that Jonathan dropped his pacifier and Bryan's was taken away for this picture. That set us off for the rest of the trip. Now, what pumpkin should we get? It was a quick decision. :)
Mom, we want to go home!!!
While Mommy went to pay for our pumpkins, Daddy found some miniature furniture. It fit us perfectly! Here's Bryan in a rocking chair. We should have just stayed here and had some more fun rather than watching Penn State’s disappointing loss.

Here's Bob Scheuer visiting Bryan

A Mother's work is never done...

Thursday the 25th of October was Picture Day at Day Care. This is what the boys wore. Bryan was so nice to model the outfit for us! We hear that the boys were awake and attentive during the photo shoot. We had them take pictures of them individually and together. They even got them to push up while laying on their stomach to get a good close up shot. Put in your requests for pictures now!

I guess it's too much to ask the boys to put their shoes away...

Week of October 22, 2007

This week had a slow start and an eventful end. Kristi's second week back at work went well. There isn't much to do other than think of the boys all day. It won't be much longer till she wishes she had this extra time. The teachers at Kinder Care are very attentive and loving with the boys. So much in fact that they found a hernia on Jonathan. Thankfully, we had an appointment with the pediatrician on Friday to talk about it. We have since scheduled an appointment with a specialist on Thursday the 1st. The good thing is that this is not uncommon and it should be a relatively quick procedure. The boys also got their 2-month shots at the Dr's on Friday. They handled it great with a little bit of a cry but settled down once Matt picked them up. No more shots for another 2-months! (except for Jonathan of course) They're getting so big! Bryan weighed in at 9lbs 12oz and 21 1/2" long while Jonathan is close behind at 9lbs 10oz and 21" long.
Friday the 26th was also Friday Fright Night at Day Care. We all went and met some of the other parents and children while we ate candy and listened to some spooky music. After the party, we visited Grandma and Grandpap Bevevino. Here's Bryan telling Grandpap about his eventful day.

Our Two Month Birthday-October 19, 2007

People often ask how we tell them apart. Well, this weekend, I figured out a sure-fire way to do it. Bryan's (always found on the right-side of pictures) hair is parted on the left side and falls to the right. It's a cowlick, so even if you try and brush the hair to the left it looks wrong. Jonathan's hair is parted on the right and falls to the left. Check out some of the pics to see if you can tell. I'm still going to keep the ribbon on Jonathan's ankle though. (just in case)

They weren't really in the mood for pictures this morning, so this was the best that I got. Doesn't it look like they're saying something with their eyes? Bryan's saying "Jonathan did it." and Jonathan's saying "I did't mean to do it!"
Here they are all ready for school. They're getting so big!

Oh Happy Day

On the morning of October 18th, 2007, we woke up to two happy, smiling boys, so I grabed the camera. Here's what I got... Here's Bryan's first on-camera smile. Holy cow that's cute! Bryan's first smile (to me) was on October 2nd.
Here's Jonathan's first on-camera smile. The camera takes what feels like an hour before it snaps a picture, so he had a really big smile then it faded to this small smile. Jonathan's first smile (to me) was on October 5th.
Then the tears started to well up... Mommy, stop taking my picture!

Our first day of Day Care

Kristi went back to work Full Time on October 15th, 2007. Bryan and Jonathan like it at Kinder Care where they see all their friends. Can't you see how excited we are?!

Jonathan enjoying a visit from Pam Nutt

Our friend Gina makes a visit

Bryan enjoying a visit from Carmen Boyer