Let the games begin!!!

I promise to do an update soon!!! Everything has fallen in to place so perfectly with Gunner home and now we will be welcoming home Cannon!! Give me a couple days to get used to juggling two and I will post pictures and give updates on everyone!! Just wanted to let everyone know we're all doing well!!
On a seperate note, say special prayers for Avery! She is doing awesome, but some IDIOT was sick and went into her pod over the weekend and has since gone to the doctor and been diagnosed with Tuberculosis!! Like I said IDIOT!! They had to have known they were sick! I mean, geez, even if they had a slight cough they shouldn't have gone in there!! Anyway, as a precaution, she along with everyone else in her pod will have a TB test done tomorrow and a chest x-ray. She will also be put on a medicine that has to be taken daily for three months! Can I say IDIOT again!?! Now, not only do I have four babies that will be on medicines to improve different aspects of their health, I will have to give a preventative medicine every day for three months because someone was an IDIOT!! One more time, folks, say it with me, IDIOT!!!
Almost time for feeding again and then it's off to sleep!!!! Love to you all!!

Update - Someone's Coming Home

Guess what?!? The Gun-Man will make his appearance at the Cochran house one day this week!!! The boys started trying to bottle feed this week and, well, Gunner said he didn't want to try it, he just wanted to do it!!! Within two days of "trying" he was getting a bottle at every feed!! Cannon is getting a bottle for every other feed. The only milestone Gunner had left was to get his canula out and they were going to try that on Wednesday of this week, but Gunner didn't like that idea!! He decided Saturday was the day to try it and just kept taking it out of his nose. The nurse noticed that his stats didn't drop so she just took it off!! It's amazing to see his little face with nothing taped on it!! Oh, I didn't mention that since the last post he broke 4 pounds and was put in a crib! Now he's at 4 pounds, 6 ounces! Can you say oink, oink!! I was giving him his bottle today and I asked the nurse, when do you think he'll come home? She said with no hesitation, when is your CPR class, I said, Wednesday, she said, well, Wednesday!! I was so shocked I couldn't speak!! Well, any of you that know me know that isn't true.. I said, in my best Hannah Noelle voice, Holy Smokes!! He still has to be circumcised and pass his car seat test and then it's full speed ahead for the Gun-Man! Who would have ever thought the one that had to be intubated would be the first home!?!
Cannon is doing well also, but has not hit 4 pounds yet. He will probably do that sometime this week and he'll be in an open crib. Once he does that and starts complete bottle feeds we'll be getting ready to welcome him home!!!
Lauren is doing great as well! We had such a scare with her last week with her PDA, but she has decided that wasn't worth getting all worked up over! She is on canula, will start bottle feeding this week and then, who knows!! Her heart murmur is still there, but it's not bothering her at all. She is over 3 pounds, so she is in clothes now too!!
Avery is also doing amazingly well!! She was on a bump rate of oxygen with her CPAP when Matt and I were there Tuesday and when I got there Wednesday I walked in and starting talking with her nurse before I looked over at her and I said, is she still on a bump rate and she said, I don't know, you look and see. I thought, really, you don't know!!! Well, I turned around and there was no CPAP she was on air canula!! GO Ava-Ave GO!! She hit three pounds the day after her sister so she is now officially borrowing clothes from her! Let the fun begin!!!
Just in case you want an update on all the nicknames they have been given, here they are..... straight from the mouth of a 3 1/2 year old!
Cannon - Can-Man, C-Man, Dude, Cannie, Can-Can
Gunner - Gun-Man, G-Man, Dude, Gunnie, Gun-Gun
Lauren - Laura-Laur, Laurie, Laura-Kate
Avery - Ava-Ave, Avie
And she likes to call them "The Quads" too! It's pretty funny to hear her say that!!

Special thanks to the Tubre's for inviting us to the Cupcakes birthday party! Hannah Noelle opened the invitation last week and went crazy with excitement! Matt and I discussed it and decided we should go not only so we could see the Cakes, but because in two months when all four of ours are on HN's nerves we can say, they'll be big like Abbey, Tyger, Cullen & Emma one day, remember how fun they were!! She slept the whole way to Baton Rouge and we woke her up as we turned off the interstate! She started chanting Hoo-Shoo-Too as we turned on their road!!! We had a blast! I hope I'm as organized as Jac was for the Muffin's birthday!! Oh, and as well dressed I might add!! Jac, you HAVE to post a pic of your shoes! If for no one else, I know Moni will appreciate them!! The Cakes were even more amazing in person!! Thanks for sharing that special day with us Jac and Torrey!!

I will post more when we get more details on Gunner's release from the NICU!! Keep us in your prayers, the real fun is just beginning!!!!!!!! Love to you all!!

Happy Birthday Tubre Quads!!!

Abbey, Tyger, Cullen & Emma,
Y'all are some amazing kiddos!!! I hope my little muffins do as well in their first year as you guys have!! Here's a little something special from Hannah Noelle! Sorry Tygerman, I'm not sure what she was thinking!! She normally spouts the names off in order and perfect everytime! Something about a camera makes kids freeze!!!
Love,
Matt, Sandra, Hannah Noelle,
Cannon, Gunner, Lauren & Avery

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4 Weeks!! Reunited!!!

4 Weeks Old!!!!

Can you believe it? Our precious Angels are already 4 weeks old!! So much has happened in the last 4 weeks, well, 7 months, that we have to be SO thankful for!! Our babies have come a long way from the original little dots we saw on the screen!!!! Here's an update on everyone and then after that, just because I was in a good mood today, some more pictures!!! No, just kidding, not because I was in a good mood, just because we got to REUNITE the boys and I wanted you to see how sweet that was!!

Cannon - Still off of nasal canula!!! Weighs in at 3 pounds, 5 ounces!! BIG BOY!!
Maintaining his own body heat!
Gunner - On Nasal Canula, but will hopefully be without that. Weighs in at a whopping 3 pounds, 15 ounces!! Two more ounces and he gets to try out an open crib!! He is also maintaining his own body heat!
Lauren - Lauren is back on nasal canula giving it another try! She only lasted one day on it before and is on day three now, so we're saying lots of prayers. She is not gaining very well so they are watching that very closely. She also still has her heart murmur and they are making decisions on what to do with that which may include surgery. We are saying lots of prayers that we don't have to have the surgery, but we're putting it in God's hands and know that whatever those brilliant doctors decide is what's best for her.
Avery - Avery is still on CPAP and had to be given a Bump Rate of Oxygen every so often, but they are weaning her off of that daily and should be back to just normal CPAP tomorrow if all goes well. She is doing much better with her feeds and is starting to gain weight. She did meet and exceed her birth weight last week so we're really excited about that. We hope she will be able to wear clothes soon. The nurses have now detected a heart murmur with Avery. Hers has generally been a come and go thing, but now it seems to be here to stay. They are doing an echo this afternoon and we should know more tomorrow. If hers is caused by PDA, they will try her on the same medicine Cannon and Lauren had two weeks ago. In the pictures of Avery you will see her feeding tube is out, she decided she didn't want it anymore and just snatched it out! The nurse let us take some pictures before she replaced it!! She's still being feisty!!

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SAY CHEESE!!!!!

Okay, I finally uploaded some pictures!!! They're not in birth order, I'll figure this whole posting pictures thing by the time they're 12 or 13!!! First time to kangaroo! Lauren was two days old!!
Lauren last week, can't you tell she's gained weight?
Avery last week with her ISF. I tried turning her head for the picture, but she kept putting it back! The light was just WAY too bright!
This is why Avery is not gaining weight as well, she does aerobics all day!!! (She did meet her birth weight finally! They seatbelted her down so she wouldn't expend calories by moving so much and she started packing on the ounces!!)
This is Cannon two weeks ago. The baby next to him was screaming and he kept putting his hand over his ear. I would pull it down and he'd put it right back. His nurse was cracking up!!!
Can-Man smiling while mommy was holding him! Don't you love the haircut they gave him? (They took his nasal canula out today!! Hopefully it will stay out!! Say lots of prayers!!)
Gunner before he started gaining, but it's such a sweet picture!!!
Gunner the first time we got to put clothes on him!! BIG MAN!!
Gunner looking like a Real Dude!!! Bless his heart, he's got his mommy's nappy hair!!

GO AWAY IKE!!

Have you noticed the trend with my Titles?? All part of the great fun of living on the Gulf Coast!!! We wished Gustav away, but it hit our friends the Tubre's! So sorry Jac!!!

My sister has moved in and starts work tomorrow!! I can never ever thank her enough for all the sacrifices she has made for my family!!

And now for the weekly updates!!!

Cannon - Cannon has exceeded his birthweight and is gaining fast! We hope he'll hit three pounds by the end of this week and will get to wear clothes!! His PDA did not close with the medicine, but he is having zero problems from it, so they're going to leave well enough alone!! He has been a HAM the last few times we saw him! I've taken some really great pics of him smiling and will do my best to get them on here tomorrow or Tuesday! The nurses taught me how to get Cannon and Gunner out of their beds without assistance from them, so I actually feel like their mom when I'm there and can just grab them up when I feel like it!!

Gunner - Gunner has moved into Progressive Care with Cannon and they are now back to back isolette buddies!! He continues to gain weight and will try to start bottle feeding this week!! So excited about that!!! Gunner is doing the best by far!! He looks like a little dude with his clothes on!!! I know, I know, I need to post pictures!!! The boys are in a competition! Jenna Walker is pregnant with quads as we speak and is rocking out!!! Go Jenna Go!! She and her husband, Ryan, are expecting one little girl nugget, Jillian, who the boys are fighting over! I told them whoever came home first could be her boyfriend!! Ryan, I promise I'll raise them to treat her with the utmost respect!!!!

Lauren - Lauren has decided she didn't want to be the delicate flower anymore! She still has her PDA, but has decided it's not going to stand in her way! She's up to 18cc's every three hours, has been taken off all IV fluids and will have her PICC line removed tomorrow! She also is off of CPAP and is now on nasal canula! Last time they tried that she wimped out on us and had to go back on CPAP, so we're saying lots of prayers for her to stay strong without CPAP!! We told her she had a boyfriend and he was no wienie so she needed to stop acting up and impress him!! Thanks Moni for letting Pius be our daughter's inspiration to act right!!!!

Avery - Avery has fallen into the delicate flower category! She has had issues with heart rate drops which are "normal" in preemies, but we just don't want to be "normal." They tried her on Lasix to see if that would help and it seemed to do so for a day, but then she started acting up again! They checked her levels and determined she needed more aminophilline and that seems to be doing the trick today! She is off of CPAP and is on IFS (The Infant Flow™ System with its unique, patented generator design delivers stable, non-invasive CPAP therapy in harmony with the infant's own respiratory efforts by using Fluidic Flip technology and the Coanda Effect. Added work of breathing is significantly lower with the Infant Flow System compared to other systems because of an almost instantaneous response to patient effort and reduced system resistance.) The main reason she was put on IFS instead was because it has different prongs for her nose that don't seem to bother her as much. With the CPAP she was ripping it out two to three times a shift. No matter how they had it strapped on, taped on, she just ripped it out! She's still the fiestiest which means she'll get over this heart rate stuff soon and be kicking all their tails!! Avery's boyfriend is Cullen Tubre! (Can you see we're taking the leftover Graf's and Tubre's that didn't already have significant others! We're really copying them is what we're doing, but, hey, it gives our babies incentives!!) He may have to send her an e-mail and tell her to quit acting up!! He sent her a dress for her birthday and I haven't shown it to her yet, maybe I should do that!!!

We're so proud of our Muffins! In more ways than one they have been fighters and have exceeded lots of expectations! Please continue to pray for our family and expecially our girl muffins!! I'll try and post pictures soon!!!!

Oh, and if you read the blog Daddy, Happy Birthday!!! Your five Cochran Grandchildren wish you the happiest year ever!!! Can't wait until you come visit again! Hannah Noelle loves her Me-Mom and Pe-Pop!!!!!