IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE!!

Hello! It's Jo Ann. Sorry it has been so long since I've posted! As you can imagine life has changed so much for us in the last few weeks!! Wow! What a blessing!! I want to say how grateful we are to you all....we want to thank you all for your prayers, thoughts, cards, phone calls, visits, gifts and wonderful meals. You guys have really allowed us to just enjoy this time with our new family..the Crim 6 pack! It's so funny to think we went from a family of 2 to 6 in less than 5 minutes!!! Dr. Conrad..we love you and appreciate you beyond words...you took on this high risk pregnancy knowing that God would see us through....I appreciate your prayers and your expertise....you are not only an amazing ob/gyn but an amazing surgeon! THANK YOU FOR HELPING US TO HAVE THESE WONDERFUL BABIES!! (And yes...your Misson Impossible theme music for the surgery was fitting!) The surgical team really went above and beyond the call of duty...you guys are incredible!! I will just say that the birth of our babies was an experience like no other...first of all it was super easy...and then the sounds of our babies crying..WOW .it still brings tears to my eyes now....every mom wants to hear that sound....but when you are told that you may not hear that with your preemies and you do....you just thank God for the sweetest sound ever heard! We also want to thank Huntsville Hospital. We had the best experience there! Our nurses were incredible! Thanks for keeping me partially sane while I was waiting for the birth of our little ones! Debbie and Kristy, we really enjoyed seeing you guys every day! Thanks for bringing a smile and encouraging us daily! Debbie, the babies look adorable in thier outfits you made!! We also want to thank all the NICU staff as well....you not only took care of our babies...but taught us how to as well....THANK YOU FOR HELPING US TO GET OFF TO A GREAT START!

I am loving every minute of being a Mommy! I have already told Benjy that we need more babies...lol! Of course we are sleep deprived...but I can sleep when they no longer want me to hold them and cuddle them...or when they get 50!! I am just overwhelmed at how blessed we are...and that these are actually OUR babies!! I want to remember all the little sounds and the expressions they make! Hopefully we will have more pictures posted soon for you guys! The babies are changing so fast....by the time we get one picture posted they have a new look! Anna Claire is our first born and our little diva....she looks just like her daddy...but we are HOPING she will act like her mommy!! Price came second...he is our sweet patient boy...he looks like his mommy and fortunatly acts just like her too...lol!! Our third born baby is Finn....who is growing way too fast!!!..he was 6 pounds and 4 ounces at his last doctors appointment which as 10 days ago...he is getting heavier and heavier by the day!!...He is my alarm clock...he lets us know when it's getting close to feeding time..and he also has his Nana wrapped around his little finger...she can not stand if he so much as grunts and she runs to him! Our little man is Carter....who was 4 pounds 15 ounces 10 days ago....he eats like a mad man!!...and is our patient little charmer...he is going to be our ladies man! The nurses all wanted to take him home...guess we will have to nail his windows shut like his Dad's had to be nailed shut to keep him from sneaking out with his ladies...haha! It's fun to watch thier personalities develop...we hope we keep our two patient boys and Finn and Anna Claire will learn to be like them...:)! Well speaking of Finn...he is letting me know that it is feeding time....lol...I LOVE IT.....BEING A MOM IS INCREDIBLE!!

Reunited and it feels so.....good? Anna Claire, Price, Finn, Carter

Free Time

Wow! 2 weeks since the last update. If you're still following our progress, I'll try and just hit the high spots since the last post. Last Monday, (Oct. 13), Jo Ann and I 'roomed in' at the NICU with Anna C., Finn and Carter. That means we stayed with them in a hotel-like room at the hospital. We were taking all the babies home with apnea/heart monitors, and this gave us an opportunity to make-believe we were on our own, and at the same time have help readily available should we need it. Price didn't participate because he wasn't quite ready to go. On Tuesday morning we took the three of them home. Kinda hoping for one at a time to get broken in, but it was ok. It was hard to leave Price there alone, but he too was finally discharged the following Friday. As it turns out, Jo Ann's Pilot wasn't as big as it looked when I tried to cram 4 infant seats in it, so we swapped vehicles with her Mom until we can find something bigger. We're temporarily using her Expedition which isn't quite large enough either, so in all our spare time we're either loooking for a vehicle like a Suburban or a (gulp) van, or we're not getting a million other things done either. After the 5 of us picked up Price we went to our first appointment with the pediatrician. Lord, have mercy. (That's a plea, not an exclamation.) Anyways we're all home now, and the babies are on a 4-hour schedule, probably will be for some time. Sleep for me until now has been highly underrated. Maximum sleep time between feedings, diaper changes etc. is two and a half hours. Neither of us has been to work since the babies came home, please pray for us to find a way to make this work. Sorry I have to run, I'm going to try to go to work this morning, and somebody's hungry. We're all ok, just tired. Oh yes, Thanks to all of you who are praying for us, encouraging us and helping us by sending meals. We appreciate you!

Progress Report

Our babies turned 10 days old this morning. They are all still in the NICU, but they're all doing well. So is Jo Ann. Her recovery is going much better than I expected, guess I shouldn't be surprised. She's done remarkably well since the very beginning and she doesn't even complain all the time. Price is just getting over some issues with spitting up, so he's a little behind the curve with the weight gain. He doesn't seem to be 100% in love with the bottle thing just yet. On the other hand Carter is still the smallest, but he's closing fast. He's eating like a hostage; it's so hilarious to watch. His feeding schedule and amount has been bumped up to the same as Finn, who is the biggest. Preemies often have a little trouble with apnea of prematurity, or AOP, and unfortunately Finn is no exception. He had an apnic episode last week so his discharge was delayed for 5 days. He was supposed to come home today, but he had another one yesterday afternoon. So we start counting down all over again. The Dr.'s and nurses assure us this is normal and nothing to worry about, preterm babies usually outgrow it by week 35 or 36. But it's very nerve-racking for a parent. In a nutshell, the preemies' underdeveloped CNS occasionally 'forgets' to tell the lungs to continue breathing. If the breathing cessation lasts for 20 seconds, the respiration monitor sets off an alarm. The nurse then goes to the crib and taps the baby's feet and his breathing is restored. That's what is reported as an 'apnic episode', thereby delaying the baby's discharge. Anna Claire is quietly and steadily improving. Her progress, while not the quickest, seems to be the most consistent of all. It may be too soon to tell what these babies will be like, but it seems that their personalities are already emerging right before our eyes. I don't think Anna Claire is going to be outnumbered at all. In fact, we may need some more boys.