Now, they really ARE little angels!

Hi everyone. Quick updates for all of you guys, and more pictures. Yesterday was a big day for our little bundles of joy. They all got their "emergency" baptisms done. Nothing is wrong with any of them other than the fact that they were born about 2 1/2 months early, and we just wanted to have it done.


I went to mass at St. Gregory's at 8 a.m. and spoke with the priest afterwards. He sent the deacon (who had helped him say mass) over to the hospital. Deacon Carmen came over and we had it done there at Good Sam in the babies' rooms. Uncle Phil, Aunt Cathy and Becky stood in as proxy godparents. It was very nice, and Monica and I felt a ton better after it was done. All four of them slept through the entire thing, and did a great job. It was not the entire baptism (minus the oils and a mass), but it was a very nice service. We will do the complete thing when we return home.

Uncle Phil, Aunt Cathy, Moni, Deacon Carmen, and me (Becky took the picture).

Laine gettin' holy.

Forrest gettin' holy.

All four of them continue to grow in the NICU...some more quickly than others. Danna is having a hard time with her weight gain, but they say that's pretty common for babies that had IUGR (intrauterine growth restriction). Here are their latest weights and lengths (they re-weigh them every night and check lengths every Sunday evening):

Baby "A" Pius - 3 lbs 15 oz (1790 grams) and 44 cm long (17.3 inches)

Baby "B" Forrest - 4 lbs even (1820 grams) and 43 cm long (16.9 inches)

Baby "C" Danna - 1 lbs 11 oz (760 grams) and 34 cm long (13.4 inches)

Baby "D" Laine - 2 lbs 10 oz (1195 grams) and 39 cm long (15.4 inches)

Yesterday, we got to dress Laine and Pius in big boy clothes! They looked so cute and like real little babies! We couldn't put anything on Forrest because he still had an IV in (which was removed today - the 2nd blood culture came back negative for any growth). Danna is still naked as a J-bird because she has all that CPAP gear on, even though her IV got removed today as well. Also, we don't have anything small enough for her. Her time will come....

PLEASE keep the comments coming - some people are getting a little lax about writing and we still check the site about 20 times a day! We miss all the news from home and hearing about what's going on in everyone's' lives.

Love,
Billy, Moni, Pius, Forrest, Danna and Laine

P.S. Doesn't Pius look like a toddler in the picture from the post below? I (Moni) took that picture just after I got finished giving him a bath. He stretched out and put his hands up by his head all by himself and I thought it qualified as a Kodak moment! He really doesn't look that old in person.

Billy's attempt at posting Danna's crying video

This is our perfect little girl. Hopefully it works this time.

Billy

Can't think of a good title

First off, thank you Janeen, for informing everyone of the need for prayers for little Abbey Tubre. It was a scary ordeal for Jaclyn and Torey and I know they appreciate all the support from the good folks of Wichita. The latest on their baby girl is that they diagnosed her with a strep infection in her blood. They started antibiotics and are hopeful that they were able to catch it early. I guess she went ahead a took matters into her own hands and extubated herself, so they left the breathing tube out and just had her on CPAP for the time being. Then she managed to remove the CPAP gear, so they just have her on a little bit of oxygen. She's doing much better today. They were able to take their biggest boy home, so there was some good news from the day! Keep the prayers a-comin'...

As for the Graf quad squad, all is going well and I keep holding my breath. I know how quickly things can change for the better or the worse, but we just try to always keep a positive attitude - no use worrying about something we can't control. God's in the driver's seat and we are just trying to enjoy the ride (as rollercoaster-esque as it may be). Now for some individual updates... I think we'll start with Danna and go from smallest to biggest baby, just to shake things up a bit!

Danna is still doing very well, especially for her size. She currently is weighing in at 1 lb 11 oz (775 grams which is 40 more than last night), and uses every bit of those 27 ounces to let us know when she is ticked off. Yesterday she halfway pulled out her feeding tube, so the nurse had to replace it with a new one. I caught a little video of her after I changed her diaper and before the new tube was placed. She wasn't a happy camper! Also, the neonatalogist said that if all goes well this weekend, they may consider taking her off CPAP sometime next week. They have also begun feeding her breast milk with the added supplement for extra calories, just like her bigger brothers. She's up to 12 mL every 3 hours. The doctors, nurses and her mom and dad are all very proud and happy with her progress. Keep it up little girl!

Danna being pissed off (see video above)

Laine is also gaining weight like he should. He's up to 2 lbs 9 oz (1160 grams). He's such a sweet little boy and always seems to know when someone is looking in his incubator at him. He'll usually manage to barely open at least one eye to acknowledge his viewer's presence. Mama's voice gets a full head turn, though. It's amazing how they really do recognize their parents' voices. His feeds are at 18 mL every 3 hours and they'll increase it in the morning if he continues to tolerate them well.

Our little man, Laine

Now for the kicker....Pius has lost the heavyweight title. He is weighing in at 3 lbs 13 oz (1760 grams). I got to spend quite a bit of time with my long armed, long fingered baby boy yesterday. He got to try out his big boy pants and give the breastfeeding thing a go. It's not really breast "feeding", but it starts getting them used to the idea of it. They call it non-nutritive breastfeeding and it entails me pumping right before allowing him to start sucking. I don't think he really grasped the concept, though. He would open his mouth and all, but then didn't know what to do after that. Not bad for his first time, though. Also, it must be the way I smell or something, because right after we started, he took the stinkiest poop ever! We had to stop everything and change his pants and start again. Then, not 3 minutes later, he took another big, stinky dump! I find it hard not to take offense. He's my little (or big) squirt, that's for sure. He is at full feeds at 36 mL every 3 hours (1 1/5 ounces).

Pius, just kickin' it

Our wide load, Forrest, is also at 3 lbs 13 oz, but he is 10 grams heavier than Pius at 1770 grams. He was being a little ornery boy yesterday. While he was sleeping, he kept dropping his oxygen saturation level down in the 70's pretty consistently, so they ended up putting him on a little bit of oxygen (0.2LPM by nasal cannula) and he did just fine. They'll probably be able to remove it sometime later, but they also drew blood for labs and blood culture to check for infection just to be on the safe side. Preliminary results came back positive for infection, so they had to draw another blood culture and start an IV to give him IV antibiotics. Yesterday he and mom got to snuggle for awhile. I helped with all his cares and then held him for a long time. Those of you who know me know that I love to do self portraits with the camera. Well, my skill came in handy that day, as no one was around to take our picture (besides the other babies, and I really didn't think they'd take a good picture anyways). So Forrest and I took a few self portraits that evening and they turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself! Forrest also had a go with the non-nutritive breastfeeding today. He had about the same success as Pius. He is also on full feeds at 34 mL every 3 hours.

Forrest with his long fingers

Mama and Forrest doing our self-portrait

Mama and Forrest (oops, I cut my head off in the pic but look at all that hair!)

Forrest sucking his thumb

As for general news, all the head sonos came back a-okay. They won't even recheck Pius or Forrest again, and will only do Laine and Danna just prior to discharge.

Uncle Phil and Aunt Cathy Brady arrived into town on Wednesday while I was still in the hospital. They came to Phoenix to be with Becky while she recovers from her procedure. Becky said it was okay for me to update everyone on her situation, so I'll paraphrase. A couple weeks ago she had an area of skin on her upper thigh evaluated by a dermatologist. They determined that it was melanoma and she had to schedule an appointment with a plastic surgeon to see about having it removed. Her surgery took place on Thursday and they felt good about being able to get all the cancerous cells removed. They didn't have to close the site with a skin graft, which is very good, but the incision is pulled very taut so she isn't allowed to sit. Yes, that's what I said. She can either stand or lay down, which makes going to the bathroom somewhat challenging! She's doing very well and I'm enjoying the chance to baby and bully her now (give her a taste of her own medicine!). Come to find out, she's just as stubborn as her cousin, Monica, when it comes to accepting help from others. I'm sure she would appreciate prayers for her continued healing and rapid full recovery.

Until next time..... Love, Moni, Billy, Pius, Forrest, Danna and Laine

4 New Pics

Laine Ryan...Likes his froggy blankie.


Danna Lynn....Still on CPAP for the time being, but still kicking a** and takin' names! You can't tell it in the picture, but Danna and Laine have the same cute little upturned noses.


Forrest Michael snuggling with his lamb blankie


Pius James snug as a bug... Actually, he was flipping off his nurse who saw Billy's Broncos jersey and taunted him by saying, "Go, Bears!" She was impressed with his dexterity.

A bad day to quit bad habits

Hello everyone. First off, I know that it has been awhile since an update and I completely apologize. I take full blame, but I feel that I have good reason. We had decided that bi-daily updates would suffice. We still feel that bi-daily updates will suffice if we can keep up. However, I now have four children and a wife to keep track of. It will be hard, but I know that once I get my system down pat, I will be able to handle it.

As some of you may have heard, Moni got admitted to the hospital last night. Her swelling hasn't gone down, her pain has gone up, and overall she has a hell of a lot to complain about personally. I called Dr. Elliott two nights ago looking for answers. He hadn't called back yet as of yesterday morning, so I called again. He did call back when we were finishing up lunch yesterday and thought that he had an easy plan for getting her looked at. He was wrong. We went in after lunch at around 1 o'clock Phoenix time. By the time the ER, the Phoenix Perinatal Associates and Moni had figured out the problem, it was 1:45 a.m. this morning. The entire situation was a debacle and extremely trying for me personally, trying to go chew-free all day. For you math majors out there, it was an over 12 hour event to get Moni admitted. Therefore, we apologize for not posting, but we were kind of busy during posting time.

As for sweet Monica...she has a few problems. She has swelling and cellulitis on her lower abdomen. It is extremely uncomfortable and is holding Moni back as far as movement. She also has an outer ear infection. This is causing her the most pain, but they gave her some antibiotic ear drops which, hopefully, will work. The swelling in her legs has gone down some with Lasix (water pills), but as for her ankles, they are still pretty swollen. They admitted her so that they could give her some antibiotics through an IV for the cellulitis. She could have taken pills orally, but the doctors felt that taking it through the IV would improve the medicine's effectiveness. She will probably be discharged tomorrow, and we can't wait to have her back. Also, her pumping is much improved. She now averages 5-6 oz. of milk each session and tries to pump 6-8 times a day.

Now to the chillun:

Pius James: Still gaining weight, still breathing room air, and still pooping very well. Gampy Stubby and Gamma Vicki got to hold him today, and he supposedly had a conversation with them. He told them that he was ready to go home, and wanted to go home with them, but he felt like he needed to stay to keep his eye on his roommate Danna. It seems that his run-in with Mr. Nurse Wratchet did not seem to have any lasting adverse effects. Mamma Bear was assured by the charge nurse that Mr. Nurse Wratchet was done with the Graf kids and she apologized profusely for the bad experience.

Forrest Michael: Still gaining weight, still breathing room air, and still pooping very well. He continues to eat well and feels that he needs to stretch out for everyone to see him. He is quite the poser, and he knows that he is gorgeous. He is even good-looking when he threw up on me and pooped at the same time.

Danna Lynn: She is the only one still on CPAP. She is breathing room air on her own but they want to make sure that she uses her energy on growing, not breathing. She is doing so well. Moni got to hold her yesterday, and she made sure that everyone knew that she was pissed when Momma had to put her down. She is doing wonderfully. All she needs to do now is grow!

Laine Ryan: He is gaining weight, breathing room air (completely on his own now, Thank You), and Daddy knows first hand, pooping very well. He dropped a deuce in his diaper today that I was even impressed by. He still has small bouts with his heart rate, but he always seems to correct it on his own. He seems much happier without the mask, and likes to follow everyone's voices with his eyes when he is awake.

The boys started using the extra calorie additive to the breast milk a couple days ago. This is to help them grow, but also helps them create very ripe diapers, which Jackie Tubre can attest to.

We are having a great time with all the family in town. Becky's mom and dad, Phil and Cathy, made it in today. Phil and Cathy were the first great uncle and aunt to see the munchkins. Championship. We promise pictures tomorrow when we find the picture posting equipment.

Happy 1 Week Birthday!

We'll try to get everyone up to date on the goings on over the last couple of days. Some of our visitors left just this morning. Ryno, Lainie and "Frank the Tank" Brad Goertz arrived on Thanksgiving day and drove out early today. It was good to see them again and introduce them all to their godchildren/niece/nephews, despite Ryno's multiple failed attempts to kill me (i.e. losing control of my wheelchair while going downhill onto a busy street- you'd think he'd let go of his cigarette or soft drink first, but, alas...)

Bucko, Vicki, mom, dad, Mike and Becky made us all an awesome Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, complete with all the trimmings. Billy, Ryan, Lainie and Goertz did a great job of cleaning up. I, on the other hand, did a good job of watching, eating, directing and keeping my feet up. I've had a HUGE amount of swelling since the delivery. Think +3 pitting edema or play-doh/cookie dough in my feet, ankles, calves, thighs, belly, hands, face and arms (pretty much EVERYWHERE). It's made it hard to get around and is pretty uncomfortable. Dr Elliott has me on Lasix to help get some of the fluid off, but it hasn't seemed to help yet. We plan on calling him today to see what else we can do.

My cankles from a couple days ago... Even worse now.


Now, to update you all on the munchkins. We'll just go in order from oldest to youngest.

PIUS JAMES
I got to hold our big bear for the first time on Saturday. His eyes were wide open and looking at me and I just about melted. He is so sweet and doing so well. They took him off of the CPAP Sunday morning to see how he did on room air. He slept so peacefully without all the headgear and he has done wonderfully so far. There's always a chance they may need to put him on oxygen or back on CPAP later if he starts to need some extra help. When we visited them last night, Pius was wide awake and active. My mom was saying that he looked so familiar and reminded her of someone but couldn't think of who it was. I had been thinking the same thing and then all of a sudden it came to me. He kind of looks like the baby pictures I've seen of my older cousin Forrest "Andy" Haag. She agreed immediately that that's exactly who it was. Pius didn't really like his nurse last night and his mama thinks he's a good judge of character, because I didn't like him either. Poor Pius was totally man-handled. I guess his nurse didn't feel that it was important to make a newborn feel safe and secure when holding or moving them. The nurse wasn't gentle at all and wasn't paying attention to all his monitor leads. Finally, when his temperature probe got caught on the scale and ripped the sticky lead off his skin and made Pius start screaming in pain, mama bear came out and took over the situation. It's surprising how vocal you become when you feel your babies are being hurt. That nurse will not put his hands anywhere near my kids again, if I have anything to say about it! Pius's weight on Sat and Sun remained at 3 lbs 9 oz. Still down a little from his birth weight, but he's eating and pooping well. Budda even got to change one of his poopy diapers last night! She was so nervous to handle something so small, but she got the job done and the world was right again.

Ryno meeting his godson, Pius, for the 1st time


Aunt Lainie with Pius


Pius James...CPAP-free!


Pius weighing in on the matter. Verdict: still doesn't like his nurse that night.


Mama Bear holding Pius and trying to calm him down after being manhandled


Pius after having diaper changed by grandma Budda


Another beautiful picture of our big little guy, Pius


FORREST MICHAEL
He's our other big brute. He also currently weighs in at 3 lbs 9 oz (back up to his birth weight). The little porker is now up to eating 27 mL of breastmilk every 3 hours! They took him off CPAP yesterday at the same time as Pius. He is also tolerating room air very well and LOVES being free of the mask. He's a little ornery, though. I was changing his diaper when he decided it'd be funny to pee again right in the middle of it. But the joke was on him, because he only got a little drop on me and the rest went on his tummy and new diaper. Billy got to hold Forrest skin-to-skin on Sat. He really seemed to enjoy burrowing himself and getting lost in the chest hair! He always looks so content and sprawls himself out all over his bed.

Brad Goertz AKA "Frank the Tank" meeting godson, Forrest, for the first time


Blondie Boy taking a nap


Check out my sweet bod....Man, I'm hot!


Forrest getting nestled into Billy's chest


DANNA LYNN
Our little princess must have been taking notes from Forrest, because she also tried to pee on me during a diaper change. I tried to explain to her that she didn't have the same parts and would end up only getting herself wet. Then I told her I'd teach her all about "squatting" when she was a little older. She has so much to learn from her mom and aunties! I talked to the neonatalogist yesterday about her progress. He said that Danna's body has been programmed to using nutrients very efficiently due to the lack of supply while in utero. It will take awhile for her body to stabilize everything, including blood sugar which has been fluctuating quite a bit. They don't want her to grow as big as the boys right away. He said that she should be about caught up with them by age 3 yrs. As of last night, she was still weighing in at 1 lb 10 oz - the same as she was at birth. She and Pius share the same room and nurse, and her big brother is always looking out for her. He always tests the nurses out first and then gives them the okay to see Danna. Mom didn't want little Danna to be handled the same way as Pius was last night, so she stood over the bed and provided most of the nursing care for her. She has been getting nasal suctioning to suck the snot out and she also had some big, green eye boogers that were pretty well fusing her left eye lids together. I hope this isn't an infection. I suppose we'll just keep watching it and hopefully swab it and send it to lab for evaluation. Otherwise, Danna is still just chuggin' right along. They will continue her CPAP for awhile, even though she seems to do pretty well during the times they remove it to weigh and assess her. We don't want her to waste calories and energy trying to breath all on her own right now. She just needs to keep on growing.

Danna Lynn wearing daddy's wedding ring


Danna...just hangin' out. She has headgear hair and red eyes from mama trying to clean the eye boogs - she was mad at me for that!


Danna without all her CPAP headgear..if only she had some meat on her bones!


LAINE RYAN
Laine continues to do well. His weight last night was 2 lbs 8 oz - that's 4 oz over his birth weight! Good job, little man! He continues to take 6 mL of breastmilk every 3 hours. I got to hold him for the second time, skin-to-skin, and he's my little cuddle buddy. He shares a room with Forrest and has received excellent nursing care, day and night. I think the nurses have the hots for my boys (I know uncle Ryno and Goertz have the hots for their nurses!). He's the kid with sensitive skin. All the tape and straps have caused some redness and irritation, but he's tolerating it well. He did have a couple episodes of bradycardia (low heart rate) during the nurse's assessment when he was off CPAP to have his weight checked, diaper changed and bedding changed. His heart rate dipped down to the 60's and 70's for a few seconds and then returned back to normal (160's to 180's) shortly. His oxygen level never dropped, though, which is a good sign. He may have just been a little over stimulated at the time.

Grandma Vicki meeting Laine


Grandpa Stubby and Uncle Ryno meeting Laine Ryan


Laine holding Mama's hand...He's so tiny!


Laine minus the CPAP headgear....He needs to grow some cheeks (and not just on his face!) Also, his poor nose is raw from the CPAP prongs.


In other news, the brain sonograms and 2nd round of PKU blood tests will be done today. We'll update everyone on the results when they become available.

We continue to enjoy and cherish the time we have with the Tubre family. We were visiting Emma and Tyger's room to talk to Jac and Torey and found out that Emma only LOOKS like a little lady! That girl can rip a big one and clear a room! I think she may just be trying to impress Laine from across the hall. After all, she is his future wife and I'm so proud of my future daughter-in-law! Out of the Tubre/Graf quads, Tyger and Danna both weighed the same at birth along with Emma and Laine. They're destined for each other! Cullen and Forrest will probably be jail buddies, which leaves Pius and Abbey to be the voices of reason. It'll be fun to see how their personalities develop. I wonder if we're even close to guessing what they will be like. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

It was a sad, sad weekend for all of our teams. Good job to the Bishop Carroll Golden Eagles for making it to the state championship game! What an accomplishment for the coaches, players and the school. Alabama and the Broncos continue to struggle, but we remain loyal - no bandwagons here. I think we should start cheering for the opposing team just to jinx them. Maybe then our team could get a win.

Enjoy the pictures! We expect a record amount of comments!

G.G. Bucko holding one of the babies' preemie diapers. They look too small for most baby dolls! Amazing.


Love,
Billy, Moni, Pius, Forrest, Danna and Laine

Pictures from 11-23

Our sweet Danna. Sleeping like an angel.
Our little trooper Forrest. Sleeping like an angel.
My main man Laine. Sleeping like an angel.
The gentle giant Pius. Sleeping like an angel. Do you guys see any trends?

Dinner with the Tubres at Baby Kay's. It was a lot of fun.