Miles apart

Callie and Amanda continue to stay in Kansas City while I'm home in Marshall tonight. It's tough to be separated from them, but work, the high price of gas and a need to make sure the house was still standing demanded that I come home.

We may all soon be making the trip to Marshall before too long though. Ella is on 22cal breastmilk and Saxon is on 24cal breastmilk. I'm not sure what that means in real numbers, but it means they are basically getting 1/2 of their milk from the breast and half from the feeding tubes. The nurses think they will be completely off the tubes in the next week or so.


(The girls hanging out in K.C.)

Ella weighs 4lbs 13oz (2 ounces shy of her birth weight) and Saxon weighs 3 lbs 11 oz. The nurses say they are both growing well.

The babies are wearing clothes now and moved out of their incubator beds into cribs. I haven't seen them yet, but I will when I go to Kansas City Friday night.

Even though the Ronald Mcdonald house is wonderful, Callie says it will be good to go home. She thought about coming home earlier, but decided today to stick it out until the babies are ready.

What do we need?

A lot of people are asking us, "What do you need?"

Here are the top three:
1. Sleep
2. Time
3. An oil well.

In all seriousness, we are very thankful for everything that our family and friends have come up with. But, (there's always a but) there are still a few things we do not have. Callie knows what we need better than I do, so I might update this list after I talk to her again.


(Little Ella dressed in yella shows off some of her wardrobe)

Right off the bat it became apparent that we needed more receiving blankets, sleepers and preemie clothes in general. At not quite 4 pounds, Saxon is gobbled up even by the preemie stuff and the 0-3 months is waaay to big yet.

The list (as I understand it) also includes a changing table, a double stroller and it also looks like we might need another crib or bassinet. We had originally planned to have Saxon and Ella sleep in the same crib, but at St Luke's they feel that co-bedding multiples puts them at greater risk of SIDS. Since we don't want to take any risks, Callie and I don't think that we are going to put them together at home either.

I know these are big ticket items and we don't really expect anyone to run out and buy them. But if you know of someone who maybe has a good deal on one, pass it on.

Doing great!

The babies continue to do very well. I've been shuttling back and forth to Kansas City as often as I can to see them while Callie and Amanda continue to stay in the Ronald McDondald house. This is a great service and I am grateful to the people who make it happen.

For $10 a day the girls are given a room, meals and a clean safe environment to relax a little at the end of some long days at the hospital. Amanda has been a great help to Callie and is earning high marks from the nursing staff for her maturity and discipline. She has taken to the role of big sister with flying colors.


(Amanda went from the baby sister to the babysitter)

Ella has been on phototherapy again, but is off now and doing fine. Both babies are eating well and their central lines have been removed. Their weights are also on the way up. Last night, Ella weighed 4lbs 10 oz and Saxon was 3lbs 9 oz, which means he has actually come up past his birth weight.

I've been getting to do what is called Kangaroo Care, which is very neat. I open my shirt and they put the baby on my bare chest. The skin to skin contact is very different than holding an armful of blanket. It is much more intimate and the bonding factor is incredibly higher. Last night with Ella, I fell asleep in the recliner I was sitting in. Something about holding these babies is astonishingly relaxing.


(Saxon and I get settled for some Kangaroo Care. The only downside is the babies like to pull on my chest hair. YOUCH!)

Healthy Babies

Every nurse I meet tells me how great the babies are doing. They make it seem like Saxon and Ella barely need to be in the NICU at all, but there are a few issues still going on.


(Ella shows off a frilly hat)

Both babies have been given a central IV line to get their IV nourishment until their little bellies can hold more food. Before they got the central lines, they were being stuck in various veins. I guess each vein can only be used for so long. The poor babies even had IV lines stuck in the veins on the heads! OUCH!

The good news is with the central lines there will be no more sticks. This line lasts until they don't need IV nutrition anymore. Also the insertions went without complications and both the babies are doing great with them.

Also, the babies are increasing their intake of milk and might not need the lines for very long. Ella had a bit of set back in eating, but is doing better now. Callie and Amanda are staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Kansas City to be near the babies. The added benefit is the babies are getting the chance to breastfeed.

Callie said Ella did pretty well with feeding today. She latches on and goes for a few sucks but then looses it, and tries again. The lactation consultant said that she will get stronger as time goes on. So far, Saxon is not interested and chose to just sleep by Callie's breast. He was very happy with that and didn't move a muscle for 2 hours.

Both the babies are also done with their photo therapy. I'm not sure what this is for exactly, but they were kept under special blue lights. It had something to do with their color, but I never asked about it. With so much else going on, I guess I just wrote it off as a minor thing because the nurses never seemed very concerned about it.

The names

We've been asked about a thousand times now "Where did you come up with those names?" Usually after an exclamation of "Wow" or "That's different."

And that is where the names came from: a desire for something different without getting too absurd (I wasn't going to go the celebrity route with babies named Apple and Rumor).

But in school I always had a very common name, not that there's anything wrong with Chris, there are just a lot of us out there. Googling around, I've even found other people with the same first and last name as me out there.

So Callie and I kicked around a lot of different names, especially for Saxon. It wasn't until the moment he was born that we finally decided. I should say I finally decided, as Callie left it ultimately in my hands. We liked Saxon because it was strong sounding and chose Ezekiel for his middle name because of its lyrical quality.

Ella Mae is named after my paternal grandmother, but that too was a choice that didn't get made until just a few days before she was born. She was set to be called Emily Elizabeth for a long time, but then Emily topped the list of the most common baby names for the fifth straight year. So then we considered Ava Mae, but our baton teacher's baby is Ava, so that was out. Brainstorming, I threw out Ella Mae and we liked it instantly.

So that's how we came up with the names. Here are some name origins from http://www.thinkbabynames.com/

The boy's name Saxon \sax-xon\ is pronounced SAKS-un. It is of English origin, and its meaning is "from Saxonny". Also possibly "swordsman". This name was originally given to those from Saxonny, a region of Germany. Saxons were among the Germanic tribes that invaded and settled England in the fifth century.



The boy's name Ezekiel \e-ze-kiel\ is pronounced ee-ZEE-k'-yul. It is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is "strength of God". Biblical: Ezekiel was a prophet who was among the captives taken to Babylon at the first fall of Jerusalem; he wrote the Book of Ezekiel while in captivity.

The girl's name Ella \e(l)-la\ is pronounced EL-ah. It is of Old German origin, and its meaning is "other, foreign".



The girl's name Mae \mae\ is a variant of May.

They're Here!!!

At long last, the babies are finally here. It seems like we waited forever, but the babies actually came about 7 weeks early overall and 3 weeks earlier than the planned C-section date.

Saxon Ezekiel was born first, a few minutes after 4 p.m. on Friday, July 18. His sister, Ella Mae followed moments later. Both of them cried and started breathing "room air" right away, although Ella stopped and had to have assistance for the first 12 hours or so. Saxon tipped the scales at 3 pounds 7 ounces and was 16.5 inches long. Ella was the bigger of the two, weighing in at 4 pounds 15 ounces and measuring 18.75 inches long.

Over the last week, Ella has had some digestive problems, but they seem to be clearing up and she is being put back on a feeding schedule. Saxon hasn't had any problems and they are steadily increasing the amount of milk/formula they are giving him.

Callie came home on Tuesday, July 22 and is resting (as much as she rests) now. She goes back to the hospital tomorrow to have her staples removed and we plan to visit the babies again then.


Saxon Ezekial in the delivery room at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City. He came into the world very vocally and never required any breathing assistance.


Ella Mae in the NICU at St. Luke's. She was breathing at first, but needed help breathing for the first 12 hours or so. She was connected to a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) unit that fit over her nose. It is not invasive like a ventilator and she hasn't had any breathing problems since.