April 2 (over 3 weeks of life)

Before I do an update, I thought I would share how we choose the boys' names. Aaron Jon Middel was named after two of Cory's dear friends. Aaron Palma (I think the last name is correct) was a childhood friend of Cory's who passed away from cancer when Cory was very young. Aaron Baeder is Cory's best friend from childhood to present. Aaron and his wife Heather are dear to our hearts. Jon is a Middel family name. Cory's dad is Dennis Jon, Cory is Cory Jonathan, and one of Cory's brothers is named Jon. James True Middel is named after our great friend James True Loeblein. Jim and his wife Carol are mentors and great friends to Cory and I. Jim is an identical twin himself. We met Jim and Carol in Washington D.C. We try to see each other at least once a year (it does not hurt that Jim and Carol have always lived in great destination cities). Before we knew the complications of the pregnancy, I choose Aaron to be Aaron based on his prowess to move around quite a bit in the womb. He seemed to be and is a little fighter. James seemed calm and even keel like our friend Jim, so I choose him to be James. Now for the updates.

Aaron had surgery on Monday to install a central line to receive his nutrition and some of his medication. The surgery went very quickly with no complications. The central line was installed because his PICC line (an IV type catheter which was providing the support the central line is now providing) was colonized by staph. He has not had a positive blood culture since March 28. The Neonatologists believe they are on top of the infection. Please pray that his central line has no complications (infection, skin break down near site, etc.). Aaron does NOT have meningitis! Overall he is doing much better than he was 5 days ago. Infection is very common when one has IV's and the longer an IV is in use, the more likely it will become infected. Infection is common and is a preemie's biggest set back. Aaron's team of Physicians (Neonatologists, Pediatric Specialists, Fellows, Residents, and Interns) are trying some new management strategies to stabilize his blood sugars, blood pressure, etc. Please pray they are successful. Sometime in the next few weeks they will try to start feeding via gavage tube (tube that is gravity feed that goes through the mouth into the tummy). Aaron has regularly been receiving blood transfusions (which are less than 2 teaspoons). I assume he will receive another ultrasound from the cardiologist to inspect the hole in his mitral valve, please pray that the hole has not increased in size. Aaron is almost 2 pounds.

James is gaining weight; he is almost 3 pounds. He is not gaining as much as his team would like, but they will wait a few days before changing what the feed him (breast milk with fortifiers). He is still on the nasal cannula. He has gone from 5 liters of O2 to 3 liters and back to 5 liters. Today they will see if he will tolerate being weaned to 4 liters. James has had 3 sponge baths in the last week. He has huge hands and feet. Our good friend Heather flew down from Michigan to help out for a few days. She took some pictures of the boys, so I may have some good ones to post in the next week or so. Both of the boys' thyroids are out of whack. I may have an autoimmune disease that created antibodies that attacked my thyroid and "killed" it (so to speak). The Pediatric Endocrinologist is hoping that my antibodies crossed the placenta and have created a transient form of hypothyroidism. The boys are both being treated with synthroid and we will find out if they have transient hypothyroidism or the real deal later this week. It is pretty minor in the scheme of things and can be treated as mine is with hormone replacement. Hopefully James will continue to feed and grow well so we can bring him home. It will still be some time before we can bring the boys home. If I had to guess James not earlier than mid-June and Aaron August.

Thank you for your prayers. We are blessed with help from all over. Our church brought us meals for two weeks. The meals were all tastey and devoured! Our friend, Heather Baeder, flew down from Michigan to help on Sunday through Wednesday. She watched Hannah, drove me around, made meals, picked up after us, and provided great girl talk. My parents have been bending over backwards to watch Hannah. My mom has been cleaning my house, watching Hannah and carting me around. I am not always the sweetest daughter either and she still shows up the next day or night to help me out. I have had rides from members of my Bible studies and my friends Cindy and Gina. My mother-in-law, Mart, will come in town from Michigan this Saturday for ten days. Everyone has been pouring out help and we could not do it without anyone. It has been a blessing to come home from the NICU and not to have to think about what I have to make for dinner. I still have 5 days until I can officially drive and I will be so glad when the time comes. Thank you so much for e-mails, text messages, and phone calls. I am sorry I don't get back to all of them, but we are touched that we are in your thoughts.

This journey has brought us the blessing of thankfulness. We have been blessed with great friends, parents, brothers, sisters, and churches (past and present). We have new friends that have come alongside us to help out in anyways. It has been wonderful to hear from and see our friends that we have such a history with. Our parents and siblings have been greatly supportive. Members from all of our past churches have been supportive through prayer. Our current church has also been such a blessing even though we have been there a short time.

Overall we are doing remarkably well. Cory's two week conference began last Monday. He is hosting the conference and teaching sections of it. It has been going well. We have peace and trust in what the Lord will do in our lives with these two precious boys and our sweet Hannah. Have a great weekend!