Welcome Home Kadence and Austin

Packed up and ready to leave the hospital.


Going into the house.

Finally home.

Baby News

Kadence and Austin with Mom

Big Stretch for Austin

Austin and Kadence have been progressing well and
gaining a lot of weight in the past week. Today Austin hit 5 1/2 pounds and Kadence hit 4 1/2 pounds. This was a picture of their room at the NICU at the beginning of the day.

That was before they moved Kadence to a bassinet which means she is getting closer to going home.

Yes, there is a baby under all that pink fluff. The hospital has begun preparing for discharge and are getting things lined up. The babies had a hearing test today which they passed with no problem (we're not at all surprised, they're very responsive to sounds). We also had to bring in a car seat so they could do a car seat challenge test with each of the babies. They let the babies sleep in the car seat for a couple of hours to make sure they can breathe well while slouched in a car seat so they can survive the ride home when they're discharged. The earliest they could come home is Tuesday if there are no other complications. Wish us luck!

Happenings in the NICU

Here is the latest update on our little ones. They have made great improvements with one minor setback.

Feedings: On Monday both Austin and Kadence were upgraded to an on demand feeding schedule. This is to replace the every 3 hour feedings they have been on since birth. The nurses won't let them go more then 4 hours without eating, so they have settled into a 4 hour eating schedule and are guzzling down almost twice what they were per feeding on the 3 hour schedule. I have been able to nurse them anytime I am there for a feeding. Austin has taken to nursing longer time periods than Kadence, but it still takes her a lot of energy to nurse, so we'll give her some time.

Also on Monday, Austin changed from an Isolette to a regular nursery bassinet. This means he can hold his own temperature and still gain weight and doesn't need the extra heating of the isolette. They usually go to a bassinet and have a few days left until they go home if they are still gaining weight every day, which he is. Kadence is still in an isolette, but she is almost holding her own temperature, so she will probably soon be moved to a bassinet as well.

Monday was a big day because Austin passed the 5 lb mark and the next day Kadence passed the 4 lb mark. They had about 5 days of weight loss after their birth before they turned the corner and have been gaining every day since.

Kadence has been "talking" a lot for several days, sometimes grunting and squawking away during her whole feeding (while latched on). Austin just started making happy talking noises as well today.

Like I said, Monday was an eventful day, but not all in a good way. Monday evening Kadence had an episode where her heart rate dropped too low for a few seconds and then resolved itself. It's called a bradycardia. This happens commonly in preemies and could be due to reflux or just a premature nervous system. Due to this, though, it bought her another week of monitoring before they will let her go home. The next morning the nurse was expaining it all to me and talking about the possibility of sending Austin home and keeping Kadence for a while longer. Within a half hour of the discussion with the nurse Austin had one, too! I'm not sure if he heard he would have to leave Kadence for a while so he did the same thing or if it's some twin in-synch thing. Everyone was very surprised that he had one. Kadence had another one later that same day, so they will both be in the hospital until next Tuesday for sure, but could be there longer if they have more bradycardias.

For now they are still doing very well and are getting close to meeting all the requirements to go home, as long as they keep their heart rates up. I'll post more pictures soon. I'm also trying to get caught up on some past blogging, so be patient with me.

Gibson Twins Born on Wednesday 9/8/10

by David

Most of the pregnancy was great. We had shock when we learned there were to be twins. Most likely we will never fully recover from that. Chris had essentially no morning sickness, her back wasn't bothering her, and all signs were excellent through the first and second trimester.

In the ultrasounds the babies were progressing very well. This series of 3-D ultrasound pictures at about 30 weeks shows our son being kicked in the face by his sister.

Pic?
There were Braxton-Hicks contractions starting about week 18, which progressed to 2 or 3 every hour, 24 hrs/day. But at about week 30 there were concerns about the increasing intensity and frequency of the contractions, increasing fluid retention, and increasing blood pressure. But the indications were that the babies were doing fine.

Sunday of week 32, because of contractions we were advised to go to the hospital.

Once they identified high blood pressure. Because there was a risk of delivering the babies however, Chris was given an injection to stimulate the babies' lung development. For that to have it's full effect on the babies takes 3 days. She was also given meds to try to decrease the contractions and reduce blood pressure. Chris was released on Tuesday with an office visit scheduled for the following day.

So on Wed, exactly 33 weeks, at the office visit Chris was sent back to the hospital and told she wasn't going home until after the babies were delivered, whether that was in hours or weeks. The battle was to extend the pregnancy to help the babies, at least for 3 days but hopefully longer.

Once there, it was clear from the test results that Chris had preeclampsia/toxemia and it was rapidly getting worse. for example she had gained 12 lbs of water weight in just the last week. The only real cure for preeclampsia is delivering babies. So she was put on meds to make sure she would not have seizures and we were scheduled for a C-section that night.

The C-section went great, our baby boy and girls were born at 9:51 and 9:52 pm on Wed night, 9/8/2010. They were both in great shape for preemies, neither one required any respiratory support. He was 4 Lb 12 oz, 18 1/4 inches; she was 3 lb 10 oz, 18 inches.

Chris and our daughter in the operating room a few minutes after birth.

Our daughter a couple of hours later. She seemed pretty concerned.

Her brother at the same time. Does he look like an alien?

Although it's not necessarily expected for babies born 7 weeks early, by the next day both were drinking out of a bottle. Baby girl in picture with Dad.

Chris has some problems. Pretty extreme shortness of breath requiring high levels of oxygen support was finally diagnosed as fluid in the lungs, a consequence of the toxemia. She is shedding the fluid she had generally, and the fluid in the lungs resolved. High blood pressure was a continuing problem, but as of Saturday was successfully managed with meds. So all are now well with Chris expected to go home Sunday and the babies in another few weeks once they gain weight.

(Boy left, girl right)

Lucky kids to have so many family members. Now if only they had names...

Growing, Growing...

Growing out of everything!

This is me on May 30th at 18 weeks.

And again on June 27th at 22 weeks.

And here I am on Aug 23rd at 30 weeks.

Again on Aug 23rd. David insisted on this picture because the one above doesn't doesn't make me look at freakishly large as I am getting. Freakishly large is my term, not his.

Aug 29th at 31 weeks. Don't worry, Bryson gave birth seconds after this picture to a healthy, bouncing baby soccer ball.

You can see I'm growing out of this dress (which was one of my favorites) as well as more than half my maternity clothes. Shirts are getting too short and pants are getting too tight. Yikes!

Bryson's First Scout Campout

Since Bryson turned 11 in June, he joined the 11-year-old scouts and has been working on getting his tenderfoot rank. In August he got to go on his first campout.

Here's Bryson and his friend setting up their tent.

What a great view off the edge of the Helderberg Escarpment.

Now that's a "scout-sized" fire.

Bryson and his friends helped prepare all the tinfoil dinners for the entire troup (not all pictured here). Bryson is in the white shirt and hat sitting and whittling waiting for dinner.

The next morning they went fishing at a nearby lake. Bryson was walking around the edge of the lake and stepped in some mud. His crocks (sandles) got stuck in the mud, so he had to reach in and pull them out. His crocks are navy blue, not brown.

Dad was goofing off on the fishing outing.

All the fish that were caught were small, but it was worth trying.

What a fun trip!

Happy 20th Anniversary XOS

It actually started much earlier with David's Dad training him from a young age to be technology minded. Walt claimed that he's showing David how to use a slide rule in this picture.

It was 20 years ago today (Aug 18) that X-Ray Optical Systems (XOS) was incorporated and David officially spread his entrepreneurial wings.

David had been approached by his father, who was head of the Physics Dept at University at Albany, and a Russian Scientist with a technology to focus x-rays. After an evaluation of the technology and market, David set to work funding and establishing the beginnings of XOS.

They began their work in an office in the basement of the Physics building at University at Albany. This was the first "incubator" company to come out of U Albany. Much of their time was spend developing the manufacturing for the optics and convincing physicists worldwide that it was possible to focus x-rays.

They soon began to hire a couple of employees and needed to expand, so they rented a small building on Railroad Avenue in Albany. While at this facility, in 1995, they sold their first optic.

After being there several years, they again had a need to expand and moved into part of a building in an industrial area on Corporate Circle, Albany. As the x-ray optics market started to really grow in the area where people were doing analytical material science, the company began to prosper. Optics were now being designed into analysis machines all over the world. But David and his management team saw opportunities in many other areas where x-ray analysis had yet to be employed. Since there was no room available to expand in their current building, they searched for another location and were the first tenants in a new Tech Park in East Greenbush, NY.

Once the building was complete, they moved in and aggressively started developing their new line of products. Without competing directly with current customers, they started a project to take x-ray analysis to Oil Refineries everywhere as the EPA announced that they would be passing laws to regulate the amount of sulfur allowed in diesel fuels. XOS was now committing to branching out beyond making x-ray optics just for other instrument (analyzer) manufacturers and becoming an analyzer manufacturer themselves.

This was a bold move that paid off and since the initial launch of SINDIE (Sulfur IN DIEsel), they have sold more than 500 SINDIE's worldwide. With this success and the lessons learned, they have since launched several more analyzer lines within the petroleum market as well as other markets. They now have their sights set on revolutionizing the analysis of toxins in consumer products (does lead in toys cause you any concern?). With 80+ employees, the company continues to grow stronger despite the tough economic times.

The picture below shows David with his Management Team Jay and Berry (minus David's Dad, Walt, who had joined the company as a full time employee as the Chief Technology Officer and Head of Research).

In celebration of the 20th Anniversary, last Thursday XOS chartered a dinner cruise on the Hudson River for all the employees and their families. Somehow David's Mom, Alice, snuck by without getting her picture taken with us, but here's the rest of our gang. Left to right, Emma (Ben's girl friend, Ben, David, Bryson, Chris (me), McKay, John (Dorothy's husband), Dorothy, and Parker.

As always, when David is handing out a free dinner, there was a price to pay. That price is usually listening to David give a presentation of one form or another. This was no exception, but the subject of the company's early beginnings and growth were especially interesting and David did an exceptional job entertaining as he went through the presentation. In the picture below there is a glimpse of Alice sitting on the upper deck listening to David's presentation.

It's a big milestone for the company and for David as well. We are very proud of what he and his Dad have accomplished with this company.

Getting all the travel in before the babies...

First Bryson and McKay left for Utah to visit family there. They spent time at their Grandpa's in Annabella, Utah where they did all sorts of fun things. Like riding 4-wheelers, fishing, camping, fireworks, a waterpark, bowling, played video games, visited cousins, and went to several movies.

Then David left for China. He usually needs to make this trip at least once a year, so he was due. He went to Beijing first, then to Shenzhen and on to Hong Kong. His shopping assignment for this trip was to find various sizes of squeaky shoes for the babies. We saw these on babies in China and thought they were funny, but when you're having twins, they seem a lot more practical. When one goes running off away from you, they don't get far because their little shoes give them away. Don't worry, we probably won't be driving any of you crazy by having them wear them to your house. They're mainly for the park, mall, or other large places where they could easily pull a disappearing act.

While David was in Hong Kong, he took the opportunity to take the tram up to the large Budda statue that is perched on a hill overlooking Hong Kong.

While McKay and Bryson were on their flight home, David was in-flight from Hong Kong to the Denver X-Ray Conference in Colorado. After a week in Denver, he was home not to travel for quite a while.

False Alarm

The biggest risk with having twins is that they come too early. So the doctors take it very seriously when you start having contractions that are too close together. I had months of Braxton Hicks contractions with Bryson, so no surprise when I started having them at 18 weeks with these guys. They're no big deal until they start coming every 4 min, like last night. So I sat down, guzzled some water, and called the doctor. He said to keep drinking and call back in an hour if they don't stop or go to 20 min between. No luck, they weren't consistent, but still far too frequent.

So we were off to the hospital. Labor and Delivery were expecting us. They put me in a room and the nurses had me gown up and they tried to put fetal monitors on the babies. They had a hard time because the babies were still so small (24 weeks) they can move around a lot. After 2 nurses tried, they just called it good with sporadic readings. It took 5 hours, several tests, and an IV of fluids before everyone was finally convinced we were not having these babies now and they let me go home.

OK, maybe going with David, Bryson, and Bryson's friends to Six Flags on Friday may have been a little much, but I didn't go on any rides! This was a clue that I should be taking it easy. Which I am. For me. Can I help it if the babies like to go to amusement parks, garden, clean, cook, work, shop, etc?

Parker's Graduation Party

What better reason for a party? (Not that I need much of an excuse anyway) A certain Dad, who will remain nameless, accidentally liberated most of the balloon decorations during set up for the party. Oh, well.

Parker didn't invite a big crowd, but kept it to his family and closest friends in the Ward, Stake, and School.

He wanted to have a cook out at Grandma Gibson's, so we had shish kabobs and salads. Yum!

It was a very nice evening and Parker was very appreciative of everyone that came and celebrated this achievement in his life.