HOME AT LAST!!!! :)

Hi Everyone,
So I don't have any pics ready to post yet but I just wanted to let you all know that our girls are both at home!!!!!!!! We are THRILLED!!! They are just darling and we are all LOVING having them here, me home, and everyone together again. I will get pics up soon so you can see how absolutely gorgeous and matchy they are. :) Once again, thank you all for everything!! More to come so check back... :)

Still not home...

Hi everyone,
You get to hear from me (Kasey) this time. :) I just wanted to give an update. We are sad to report that our little girls are STILL not home. :( We are baffled, and all the nurses and doctors are baffled as well. For those of you who don't know, the girls are perfectly healthy...they just have to learn to eat and then they can come home. There are a number of feeding "tests" they have to pass before they can be released. So far we just finished our 3rd round of tests and they are close but still not passing. As of today, they are both "resting" and will start "testing" again in 2 days. Hopefully by then they will be strong enough to get through them. Please keep our little girls in your prayers. IF things go well they could be home by this weekend...
I also can't thank you all enough, especially our families, ward, and friends for all the love, babysitting, food, and words of encouragement and support you have given our family throughout this entire ordeal. We love you guys and feel very blessed by all your Christlike service and love. I cannot express enough how grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful, thoughtful people. We are praying for you and your families and have felt your continued prayers for ours. Hopefully we will be out of this soon.
By the way, the girls passed their due date on Monday and Abby is now weighing 7 lbs. 4 oz. and Claire is 6 lbs. 9 oz.

In my last post (October 29th) I said that our twins would be home in a week and a half to two and a half weeks, that was based on what the doctor said about the girls progress. Well here we are almost four weeks later and those stinkers are still at the hospital. However, things are looking good for our girls to come home in the next few days.

The reason that they are not home yet is that they are not eating completely on their own. Abby and Claire did very well with their feedings in the first few weeks but seamed to reach a plateau in the last few weeks. In the last few days however, they have been getting several full feeding on their own.

Tomorrow (Sunday) Kasey will be going to the hospital for a 12 hour test. If the girls eat on their own for the full twelve hours they will go to a 24 hour test. If they pass that then they can come home. They have told us that the girls should be home by Thanksgiving.

Abby and Claire have taken turns with who is doing better than the other. On the day they were born Abby had no issues while Claire needed lots of tests and treatment. Then Claire showed more progress than Abby for a few weeks. In the last few days Abby is eating a little better than Claire. The competition between siblings has already begun.

Last week at church someone said to me that he was surprised that Kasey and I aren't more stressed with this whole thing. I told him that we do have our moments. First off, we would be very stressed if the girl’s health were in question. If that were the case I am sure that we would have a hard time even leaving the hospital. We have been fortunate that Abby and Claire have been healthy since day one. The stressful part of this whole thing has been trying to live regular lives while dedicating several hours a day to taking care of the girls thirty miles from our other children. Kasey gets down sometimes because she can't bring the twins home. I get frustrated not having my wife home. But at the end of the day we are immensely grateful that our girls are healthy and that we live in an age and country where our children can get this kind of care. Plus, having babies in the NICU is a cakewalk compared to seeing Obama get elected and watching the stock market every day:)

Getting Closer...

Right after the girls were born I had several conversations with nurses and doctors about what we could expect for the next few weeks. The explained what the girls progression would ideally look like. They would need to gain weight, breath on their own, maintain body temperature, learn how to eat, and stay free from sickness or infection. Four weeks later they have either accomplished or made significant progress in each of these areas. They also explained that Kasey would need to come once a day at first, then twice a day, three times, and then acctually stay at the hospital for a few days. One nurse practioner said "it will feel like it is never going to end", she was right.

Currently Kasey is in the twice a day time frame. She will only go down three times and then stay at the hospital when the girls are almost ready to come home. Going to the hosptial is a three hour trip. She takes the kids to one of her in-law's some time during the day and then goes again at night after I get home from work. She is handling everything very well. I was expecting a basket-case for a wife during this whole thing. Turns out that I am still the only basket-case around here. Kasey misses her babies but just takes things in stride like she normally does. We have been blessed with a wonderful wife and mother.

The girls are making good progress. As you can see in the pictures, they are both on oxygen. They need it because they were having "apneic episodes" which is where their breathing rates and oxygen saturation levels go down. This is normal for pre-mature babies and the doctors say they will grow out of it just fine. Their eating is improving as well. Right now they are at about 40 cc's per feeding. At first they were only getting 0-5 cc's from Kasey but over the last few days they have been getting anywhere from 5-21 cc's from Kasey. They are also gaining weight. Abby is 5 lbs 4 ozs and Claire is 4 lbs 14 ozs.

They have been vauge about when the babies will come home ever since the beginning. However, yestday that changed a little. The doctor said that they would be coming home in 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 weeks! We are exicited about that. Can't wait to give up a full night's rest.

I am beginning to understand the dynamics between twins. I have brothers who are identical twins. Although they are too manly to admit it, they are closer to each other than anyone else. I also baptized a man named Jim on my mission who had an identical twin that passed away. He frequently talked about his twin and how he missed him. He wrote a song about his twin and played it to us on his guitar a couple of times. I was even able to catch up to Jim a few years later in Denver while he was at a conference for twins who had lost their twin. I remember teaching Jim about how he could be together with his twin again, he paid special attention to that principle.

Even though Abby and Claire are only four weeks old, I can see the closeness between them. At a feeding a week or so ago Claire started getting restless when Abby left to be feed. The nurses said that always happens when they are separated. Once when I was holding them on the same pillow but not touching, they slowed nudged their way until they could feel the other. I think that they will be blessed to have a close relationship and best friend through-out their lives.

The girls love their bath time
Even though Abby (right) is only a few ounces bigger than Claire, she looks huge in comparission

Always snuggling

Good Night!

Girls Pluggin' Along

Little Abby sound asleep.

Abby and Claire are now two and a half weeks old. They seem to be steadily improving day by day (unlike the BYU football team). As of their two week birth day, Abby was 4 lbs 3 oz (3 lbs 8 oz at birth) and Claire was 4 lbs even (3 lbs 5 oz at birth). They have both been tolerating full feedings, which means that they no longer get any of their nutrition through an IV. They started breast feeding a couple of days ago and are doing great at it. They have told us that for the week or two they are pretty much just practicing and to not expect them to actually do much feeding. The quantity of breast milk that they are getting is 37 cc's every three hours. They weigh the girls before feeding to see how much they got from Kasey and how much they still need through their feeding tubes. So far they have got from 2 to 18 cc's per feeding. Abby and Claire have also moved into the less intensive care portion of the NICU. They have also moved to a crib that does not assist them with their body temperature (holding their temperature on their own is a key step in being able to come home).

Here are the criteria that Abby and Claire need to meet in order to come home:

1. Maintain body temperature on their own - check


2. Maintain their oxygen levels and heart rate without assistance - they have had a little bit of trouble with this. They were having several episodes a day (normal for premature babies) but in the last few days they have had only one or two each.


3. Receive all of their nourishment from Kasey for a full 24 hours

Based on their progress, I would guess that they are still two or three weeks from coming home.

Kasey and I have mixed feelings about having them at the hospital. We obviously want the girls to come home but we are incredibly grateful for the advancement in health care that is taking care of them. Accommodating the babies needs is brutal at times. Kasey needs to be at the hospital to feed them twice every day. It takes her an hour of drive time and a couple hours of with the girls each visit. Morgan and Jake are acting up because they are being passed around much more than we would like. My evenings are filled with time taking care of the kids and helping around the house. A nurse mentioned a possibility that would be awful - one of the girls coming home before the other. So far they are pretty much progressing at the same rate, so hopefully that will not be an issue.

We are very grateful for all of the help that we have received from family and friends. So far all of the babysitting has been handled by family. We are trying to keep the number of places that they kids go to a minimum so that they have a little stability. The ward has kept us stocked with dinners, which seem to come at the most optimal times. Thank you for all of your offers of help and encouragement. Please keep Abby and Claire's healthy return home in your prayers.

Claire on the left, Abby on the right. I underestimated how cute it would be to have twins. They are always looking at each other and cuddling. The other night when Abby left to feed, Claire started getting upset that her sister was gone. Very sweet to see them together.

Kasey holding the girls together for the first time

Tomorrow will be one week since our Abby and Claire were born. They are as healthy as we could hope for at this time. They are breathing on their own and are free from infection. We have been able to hold the babies every day.

We are starting to get an idea of what the next few weeks will be like. In short, the reason that the babies will be at the hospital for the next five to seven weeks is that they need to learn how to eat. They started off receiving almost all of their nutrients through an IV and very little of Kasey's milk. At this point they are about 50% IV and 50% Kasey's milk. Next week some time they will be getting all of their nutrients from Kasey's milk and they will take out the IV's. Sounds easy enough right? The only issue is that they are getting Kasey's milk through a feeding tube. Learning how to eat on their own is the next big hurdle. They will start by getting one feeding from Kasey per day. Once they can handle one they will move to two, then three, four, etc. Once they can feed entirly from Kasey for a full day and maintain their temperature without assistance they will be able to come home. Kasey will be more needed at the hospital as the weeks go by and will eventually need to stay there for a few days. We are so grateful that we have a good ward and family that are so willing to help with our needs at this time.

In the meantime we are trying to keep a schedule. Kasey goes to the hospital every day for a few hours. I go and hold them for an hour or so after work. We can take Morgan and Jake on the weekends, but that only lasts a few minutes before Jake starts messing with machines that are tracking the baby's vital health measurments.

Kasey and I agree that this is harder then we anticipated. While at the hospital we thought that we would kind of enjoy having some time to get prepared for the babies to come home. We would be able to get a full-night sleep and let someone else change the poopie diapers - all while knowing that the twins are getting the care they need. We have found, however, that we really want those girls here with us. The best way I can describe it is that our home feels empty without them. You are suppossed to come home with Mom and the babies. Leaving them at the hospital has been tough for us.

We are happy to know that when we are not at the hospital with them, the girls have each other. A couple of days ago they put Abby and Claire in the same crib. They are now kicking and poking each other all over again. I am sure that it is very comforting for them to be together like they are used to.

Thanks for all of your prayers and support.

Daddy and his three girls. I am in trouble.

Day Three

After much deliberation we have decided to name the girls. We took into consideration several suggestions. Morgan wanted to name them Ni hao and Kai-lan, my Dad wanted to name them Cheryl and Barrel. However, we decied to go with names that are a little more traditional. Baby A is named Abigail Nell Lighten and Baby B is named Clarie Eliza Lighten (hopefully I got those spellings correct!)

The girls are now three days old and doing very well. They have already surpassed their Dad in the thickness of their hair. They have had no trouble breathing on their own since a couple of hours after birth. Their next big task is learning how to eat. They started off with miniscul amounts of Mother's milk and have tolerated it just fine. The staff will slowly increase the amount of milk each day. They are being supplemented with an IV of nutriants. It really is amazing to see the medical practice at work. Kasey and I have commented several times on how grateful we are that we live in an age and country with such advancement in health care.



Kasey came home from the hospital today. She was a little emotional as we drove away from the hospital leaving the babies behind. She will probably go up twice a day to hold and eventually feed the babies.



I saw something that really touched me yesterday. Kasey and I went to the NICU to hold the babies. The nurse put baby Claire against Kasey's chest and wrapped them tightly together with a blanket. For the first couple of minutes Claire kept looking up at Kasey making sweet baby sounds. I could tell that the familiarity of Mom came back to her and that Claire loved it. She then nestled her head against Mom and fell asleep. Seeing Kasey with her baby together like that was quite tender.

Below are a couple of videos that give a good size perspective of the girls. Thanks for all of your support and prayers.