Quotes I want to Remember

This is going to be the start of a series called "Quotes I want to Remember."  Maybe I'll even abbreviate it to QIWtR.  Isn't that the thing to do?

We are getting ready to take the babies on our first trip with all four of us.  Well, the first trip that wasn't hospital or doctor's office.  We were going to our favorite breakfast place.  Carlos woke me up inorder to suggest that we go at 7 am.  Did you hear that? Carlos WOKE ME UP to go there.  It was so nice to sleep until 7 am. Important additional sidenote:  Did not get in bed until 5 am.

Anyway, Carlos loves to talk to the babies and tell them whatever he is thinking.  He read that you don't have to actually tell them any actual story or anything interesting at all, but if you just vary your tone so that it sounds like a story, they will love it.

So, in his really sweet story-telling voice, he says,
"Hombre, it might be time to get you some of those stupid little toys that hang off your carseat."

Now that I read this, it might not be as funny as it was when he said, but I promise it was really funny, because Hombre doesn't know what stupid means, and it's fun that we can acknoledge that a) those toys are stupid and silly (like Uglydoll, hello?  Have you seen that thing?  I bet my kids will LOVE it, though) and b)we gotta get 'em anyway.  and c)we'll be the ones playing with these silly toys as well.

Update on our Sweet Boy

So.. some of this is "old news" but I'm trying to "back blog" in order to get this all documented, now that I

am in a little better routine and can carve out time a little easier. (Note to twin moms - It DOES get easier.. right about 9-11 weeks.. at least for me it is.)
Hello blogosphere..Carlos was not comfortable with my talking about this earlier (he's big on internet privacy), but I asked him if it was okay, becayse I really want to update the blog and let you all know what is going on.  It's also important to me to have a record of all that we are going through and so so therapeutic for me to write.  I want this to be a "baby book" of sorts, since I have not been documenting their milestons anywhere else. 
 
I don't have a lot of time, but am trying to figure out a way to squeeze it all in.  So, I have several blog posts started and I am going to try to update them all over the next few weeks.. And then I'll write some new ones!  (Hopefully! That's the plan, anyway.)
 
Speaking of, I have been trying to email pictuers to the blog and it Does.Not.Work.  Bugs the crap ot of me.  Anyone know a fix for this?  I'm usually pretty savvy wtih that kind of stuff, which is why it's especially frustrating.  I could blog so quickly if I could email straight from iPhoto to blogger.  But my pictures never appear.  Whether I email them straight from iPhoto, or even when I use the regular Mail program on my Mac. 
 
Back to regularly scheduled programming...

So our little son Hombre (I've decided that will be his alias on this site, and she'll be Princess ) was born with a congenital heart defect.  He had an echocardiagram when he was four days old and was diagnosed with a mild to moderate case of aortic stenosis.  Aortic stenosis is the inability of the aortic valve to open completely.  The Children's Hospital of Boston has a wicked cool website that explains the condition in layman's terms.

We were told at that time that there was a 50/50 chance that he would need a surgical procedure before he was three months old.  We have continued to monitor him with outpatient visits to the cardiologist's office and EKGs and echocardiagrams.  For the 5 weeks following his diagnosis, his condition worsened, but only slightly.  This is one of those conditions that does not get better without medical intervention, but could remain stable for a while.

After five weeks of fairly stable readings on his echos, we got a reading when he was six weeks old that showed an increase in the pressure gradient that turned his case from moderate to severe.  It became necessary to repair the valve as soon as possible.  Hombre was scheduled for the balloon dilation procedure three days later.  1:00 pm at the Cardiac Catheterization Lab at our local Children's Hospital. 
The repair procedure they will did is called balloon dilation where they inserted a small, flexible tube (catheter) into a blood vessel in the groin, and guided it to the inside of the heart. The tube has a deflated balloon in the tip. When the tube is placed across the narrowed valve, the balloon is inflated to stretch the area open.

There are certainly many risks to these type of procedures, and any procedure on infants carries a great deal of potential for complications. 
Our baby was so tiny, only six weeks old and seven pounds when he had this procedure.  I'll update next on how it went. 

Two month Weigh In

 

Tuesday, June 23rd was our two-month weigh-in. Our little princess tipped the scales at 8 pounds 4 ounces. She gained 16 ounces in 13 days!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.