Our LITTLE Boys

I know it probably feels like an eternity to some of you that I haven't posted pictures in just the 2 days I've been here. But I finally have a chance tonight to sit and post. It's not quite as easy to do with a little infant in your lap :) Let me start from the time we got here.

Our plane arrived into Norfolk, VA at about 10:00 Monday morning. We were tired after only getting about an hour of sleep during the trip over. My stomach had done flips the whole trip over and all I wanted was to get to the hospital. We were greeted at the airport by our social worker, Alice. She drove us straight to the hospital where Baby A was staying. A little background here on Baby A. We named him Darek Ethan Wood. He was born July 3 at 7:46 in the evening. He weighed in at 2 lbs 1 ounce and was 12 inches long. He was only 25 weeks when born. Now he is a healthier 4 lbs 4 ounces and approx 15 inches long. He did not have many complications after birth other than just being REALLY early. He has done remarkably well and was released yesterday 8/26/08 at about 6:45 pm. We had a rocky first night. He loves being awake at night. But we got through it and had a wonderful day today. He is such a sweet natured baby and hardly ever cries. Here are a few pictures of our little Darek.

After we were done visiting Darek, we went next door to the children's hospital where Baby B was staying. And here is a little background on Baby B. We have named him Ian Jacob Wood. He was also born July 3rd at 8:56 in the evening. He was also (of course) born at 25 weeks. He weighed in at only 1 lb 15 ounces. But he was a little longer at 14 1/2 inches. He now weighs 3 lbs 11 ounces, however I do not have a current height on him. He had a much harder time coming into the world. Where Darek was born vaginally, when Ian was being born he turned and became breech. Not only that, but the cervix clamped down on him making him impossible to deliver. So they took him by c-section. Even with the c-section it took quite a while for them to get Ian out. He had stopped breathing for a short period of time and the stress of the delivery made him bleed on the brain. They caught it quickly and were able to take him into surgery to correct the issue. He is still on a ventilator, but is working every day to get off of it. Today was very special. We went to visit this afternoon. They said because he was doing quite well that we could try taking him out of his incubator for a while and hold him. Because Ryan is leaving tomorrow, he was able to have that special time with Ian. He did amazingly well out of the incubator and Ryan got to hold him for a full 45 minutes!! It was such a relief to see him doing so well. Let me share a few pictures we have of Ian.

So there are our little boys. We found some medical records today which pretty much indicated that these boys are identical! We are not totally positive, but that's what it looked like in the paperwork. They definitely have similarities, but it's hard to compare with all the differences during and after birth. Only time will tell.

Ryan is leaving very early for the airport and will be home tomorrow afternoon. The plan is for me to stay until next Thursday when I will bring Darek home with me. Then when Ian is doing a little better, I will come back to bring him home. It will be a crazy month or two, but hopefully life will get into a "normal" pattern when we finally have both boys home.

Love to all! I will try to post more later!