Stuck At Home...

This was the best Christmas we as a family have ever had because it was our very first Christmas as a family! There was no more driving back and forth to the hospital with one preemie at home and one at the NICU. No more spending 4 hours on the road between Chris' trip there and back and then myself doing the same. No more worrying about who was taking care of our precious babies when their primary nurse was gone. No, no more indeed, because we were all home together! Yet all home alone! Don't get us wrong, we love our time as a family, but at the same time being the proud parents we are, we just want to show off our boys to the world, but to keep them safe and healthy is of course our priority. Yet, being at the height of the RSV season, there is no way we can take the risk of exposing them to all the friends and family that we long to share them with. So our next best option is share them with all of you here on this website. It is our goal to put up as many pictures and videos for everyone to see just how amazing Jonas and Canan are. We want to give you sneak peaks into their everyday lives, so although many of you may find these videos extremely boring and overdone, it is our duty as proud parents to show off our boys at every moment we can. So sit back and enjoy...

Oh, It's Good To Be Home For The Holidays!

So the day before Christmas Eve, we FINALLY got to take our firstborn twin, Jonas, home for the holidays!  Just in time for Christmas.  It was a great Christmas this year for us.  We had our whole new family and just enjoyed relaxing together.

Here are some pictures of Jonas and Canan relaxing with each other on their first night home together.

Welcome home Jonas!

It was a great night for daddy!  He was hogging the twins all night long!

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

EDIT: added more pictures of the boys with Santa!

Thanks Trina (the boys primary nurse) for sending us this cute picture of Santa Claus with Jonas and Canan.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Got Milk? ...man that slogan is getting old.

So this is only half of the milk!  The other half is at the hospital with Jonas.  Bethany is trying so hard to keep up with the demands of two growing boys and she is doing a great job of it!  Here's to not ever having to buy formula!  (I hope...)

And Here We Are...

So with this blog, you are now all caught up to date (12/13/2008).

Jonas and Canan were both doing so great in the NICU that they were going to be sent home on Friday, December 12th.  Right before that happened, however, Jonas had a bad experience with an eye exam.  When preemies need oxygen, sometimes too much of it can cause the blood vessels in their eyes to mature improperly, which can sometimes lead to blindness.  Both boys passed the eye exam and their eyes have matured fully.  However, the exam can be very traumatic to babies, which proved to be the case for Jonas.  After the exam he took a couple steps backward.  That night he had trouble maintaining his own temperature and needed to be put back in his incubator.  He also needed to be put on oxygen.  Jonas is now doing great and is off of oxygen and back in his open crib.  However, because of the setback he wasn't able to leave the hospital on Friday with his brother Canan.  We are expecting to be able to take him home on Wednesday... pray we can!

Canan was discharged on Friday and last night was his first night here at home with us.  He's doing great!  They are both so cute and we can't wait to have them both home together.

Here is a photo of Canan in his carseat he went home in.  He barely fits in it!

Reunited... And It Feels So Good!

After almost 5 weeks of being separated at the Phoenix Children's Hospital NICU located at Good Samaritan, the two brothers are able to spend a little time together before Canan is sent home.  They are definitely identical!

Jonas' Bath

Canan (Cannon), Jonas (Joe-Nuhs)

It's pronounced Cannon, not Canaan, with a long 'A'!  I knew that spelling would cause a problem, but that spelling has a good meaning.  Canan is actually Turkish (no, we are not turkish - we just like the meaning) for 'Beloved'.  Jonas means 'dove' or 'Blessing from God'... we prefer the latter.  Just thought I'd clear that up ;)

11-10-2008 -- THEIR BIRTHDAY!

The twins were born on November 10th, 2008.  November 13th I posted this originally on myspace:

So tons of people have been begging me to update on the twins... PATIENCE PEOPLE! We just had twins a couple days ago!
Here it is:
Bethany's water broke on Sunday morning at about 10:30 or so. It was a slow leak (she thought she was just peeing at first!). So we went to the hospital and they told us they were going to try to keep her pregnant for another week or so! They gave her another dose of steroids and wanted her to stay pregnant for at least 48 more hours for the roids to take affect... that didn't happen.
My poor wife didn't sleep even a minute that night. She was up all night having labor pains and nobody at the hospital seemed to think that she was going into labor still! At around 5:45am she started having REALLY bad contractions about 1-3 minutes apart. Someone finally checked her at around 8am and she was dilated to a 6 and the Dr. could feel Jonas' head. About an hour later they gave her an epidurol (spelling?). The Dr. checked her immediately after the epidurol and she was completely dilated, plus one! So the drugs had no time to settle in her body. That's when they took us into the operating room and began delivery. She was pushing for what seemed like forever and finally Jonas Christopher was born at 10:50am on November 10th (same birthday as my brother Jason). Nine minutes later, his brother Canan James (pronounced 'Cannon') was born. Bee didn't have to push very hard with Canan. He literally shot out of her (sorry for the visualization that may have caused) and the Dr. had to catch him! One of the nurses said, "He shot right out like a Cannon!". I guess we named him right.
They both were rushed over to the NICU (Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit) and Jonas needed help breathing. They put a mask on him and were pumping air into him because he wouldn't breathe on his own. Fortunately, that didn't last too long. After that, they were both put on a CPAP to help increase the pressure of their air intake. About 24 hours later they were both taken off of that and are breathing fine on their own now. Jonas was born 3 lbs, 4 oz., 16 inches long and Canan was born 3 lbs, 8 oz., 16.5 inches. They are so tiny, but they're doing well. They will probably be in the NICU for 5-6 weeks and they are in separate rooms. Please continue praying for them, as these next several weeks are very critical.

Well, that's about it. I don't think I left anything out. Thanks to everyone who has been there and has been praying for us.

Chris (Proud father of two baby boys)

Bringing You Up To Speed...

We just created this blog site to keep everyone updated on Jonas and Canan.  In order to get you up to speed, I'm reposting some old blogs that I had up on other sites (myspace, facebook, etc.) so that you can read up on the full epic story of our two boys!  The following was originally posted on September 21, 2008:

Before my wife was put on bedrest, we used to go on walks at 6 in the morning. One morning, around the time my wife and I started trying to have a baby, we were talking about starting a savings for our child's future. Money was tight and the only way to start saving for this, was to put away all of our change. Right after we decided this, I found a dime lying heads up on the sidewalk. This, we decided, would be the start of our firstborn's savings. Less than a minute later my wife looked down and found another dime heads up on the ground, a few yards away. We jokingly said, "Maybe we'll have twins", and never thought about it again...

...Until about 5 months ago.

The day before our fourth anniversary of marriage I decided to buy a pregnancy test for my wife. I had recorded a series of messages for her to listen to on her iPod throughout the next day while I was at work, which would lead her to different gifts I had given her. One of them would be the pregnancy test. That night I hid the test and went to bed praying that the results would be positive. I fell asleep very peaceful and happy after receiving a promise from God that she would be pregnant. Sure enough, the night of our anniversary was the night we found out we were going to be parents.

A couple weeks later, her OBGYN had to do an ultrasound to find out how far along Bethany was in her pregnancy. The very first thing the ultrasound technician said to us was "Uhh...... Have you used any fertility medications?" Of course we hadn't, but we knew what this meant. The technician confirmed it and said there were two heartbeats. The first thought that came to my mind was that I needed a new job! That first day was quite a blow to my mind, but after the shock went away I became very excited. Later we found out that the twins are identical and are both boys.

Now we are about 23 weeks along and almost a week ago my wife was sentenced to bedrest in the hospital until we reach 28 weeks. That's a total of almost 6 weeks in the hospital! She's allowed out of her bed to go to the bathroom and I'm allowed to take her on a wheelchair ride for 30 minutes a day. Her uterus is already contracting which is causing her cervix to open up early. They put her on Nifedipine, which seems to be helping to stop the contractions and movement of the uterus. If she goes into early labor and the boys are born before we reach 24 weeks, there is almost no chance of their survival. If they are born between 24 and 28 weeks, there is a higher chance of survival, along with high chance of complications such as cerebral palsy and other things they can be born with. After 28 weeks, the chance of our babies being born healthy without any complications is much higher. So the goal of the hospital staff is to get us to 28 weeks.

The comforting part is that I don't have to rely on chance. I rely on God. almost a year ago my wife and I received a message that I now believe is from the Lord that we are going to have twins. Since then I have received more promises from God that our boys will both be healthy. It looks like our boys might be here a little sooner than we had planned, but we are both very excited to spend our first Christmas this year with our twins!

Jonas Christopher and Canon James, your mommy and daddy can't wait to see you both!