In Memorium

Please join us to honor Ron Calvillo's memory.
Friday, Dec 17 10:00 am
Holy Family Catholic Church
Hesperia, CA

Reception to follow at 1:00 pm
Spring Valley Lake Community Center
Victorville, CA

Turkey Time

Goofin’ Off

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Sofia gets to hold Matthew and the antics ensue!

Matthew sings the blues

Matthew spends the afternoon telling a sympathetic Grandpa his troubles.

Any Given Sunday

Matthew's Keeper

Sofia & Matthew

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More swingers photos

Matthew and Nicholas took their first trip to Victorville this past weekend. They behaved amazingly well on the airplane ride following big sister's good example. They were the talk of everywhere they went!

Swingers

Lil’ Simsmania

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Lounging around with the Sims kids –hmm, wonder who they take after…

In daddy we trust

Three's Company

Boppin' in the boppy

Matthew gets his turn in the boppy.

Chillaxin'

Nicholas enjoys some wind down time

Sofia shows the boys the ropes in Lodi

Happy Birthday to Daddy!

Happy Birthday Pops!

Dacien celebrates his 35th birthday with his fam…all the kids get into the action, even Penny the forgotten child!

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We are the champions

Putty in Nana's arms or the other way around?

Either Nana or Matthew has the other one wrapped around their little finger. You be the judge!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Ron!

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Nicholas & Sofia

Nicholas feel right at home snuggled on Sofia's arm!

Rebel without a cause

This was a photo taken while Nicholas was still at the hospital. Apparently, he picked up a few bad habits from the more delinquent type preemies at the nursery.

Misery loves company

Nicholas expresses his discontent to his brother. Matthew proves difficult to persuade, but after resorting to violent tactics, Nicholas effectively rallies Matthew to join his cause.

Update: As of 8/30/10, Nicholas now weighs 7lbs. 6 oz.! And Matthew is up to a whopping 6 lbs. 5 oz.! The pediatrician was quite impressed!

Cuddle Buddies

The boys are doing remarkably well adjusting to their new environment. They seem to have a calming effect on each other. They are getting tons of love from their big sis, doting parents, and surprisingly maternal, nurturing Aunt Andrea. Matthew weighed in yesterday at 5lbs 6 oz, quite the growth spurt! Both are due for a check up tomorrow so hopefully all will be well and they'll never have to spend the night in the NICU again!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG SIS!

Home at last!

Matthew finally joined the whole brood yesterday afternoon. He is doing really well, graduating the NICU at a whopping 5 lbs. 2 oz.!

Nicholas flies the coop!

One down, one to go!

Nicholas preps for his trip home finally!!

Matthew isn't far behind, taking 68% of feeds orally. Hopefully by Sofia's birthday, we'll all be together.

Out with the tube

Nicholas takes it upon himself to pull his feeding tube out so the doctors decided to let him try eating on his own. So far so good, he's doing great! Matthew isn't far behind him either. Also, the latest echocardiograms showed that both boys PDAs have closed so no more open heart ducts!! They have slight "flow" murmurs which apparently aren't a concern to the doctors.

Our boys are famous!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/09/DDP81EQ0LS.DTL

Small setback

Nicholas had a 10 sec drop in his heartrate last night while sleeping. Policy is that he has to remain in the hospital for a mandatory 5 days after this sort of episode. The nurse and I came to the conclusion that he is stalling so that he doesn't leave his little brother behind when discharge time comes.

The boys sporting their new duds:

Matthew catching his Zzzz's

Nicholas checking things out

Update 8/7/10

The boys are making great strides. Both are eating on their own very well and only use their tubes a fraction of the time. Once they can eat everything orally, they will remove the tubes and test them a couple of days before sending them home. We are hoping for 1-2 weeks at this point. It will be a relief to have them home finally.

Big Sister's Visit

One month and counting

The boys have made it one month and two days now! Today, they are 35 weeks gestational age. We are hoping only a couple more weeks in the hospital.

Nicholas is eating really well. He is up to 47 mls per feed. He has nursed up to 12 mls at once and had 2 whole bottles last night so he is definitely homeward bound! Just needs to eat all feeds on his own (without tube). Also, his murmur is practically gone and he has passed the 5 lb mark!

Matthew isn't far behind his brother. His murmur is definitely quieter and they think his PDA is closing. He had a bit of trouble keeping warm so they put a blanket on top of his crib to block the ridiculously cold draft bearing down on him (Mommy was freezing too so how could little Matthew be expected to keep himself warm?!). He is up to 42 mls and had 22 mls out of a bottle this morning. He nursed 10 mls yesterday and today! Hopefully he can catch up so he doesn't have to be left behind when discharge time comes.

Splish Splash!

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Nicholas gives Mommy a refresher course in Bathing Preemies 101

The Emperor's New Clothes

Matthew sports his new duds sponsored by Nana.

Too good to be true

The boys are doing well. They passed their eye exam today and were classified as "mature." Never thought I'd hear that word used to describe our offspring! Both IVs were taken out, yay! All that's left is for them to learn to eat -no pressure Mommy!

7/26/10 Update

Happy Birthday Great Nana!!

Both boys are doing exceptionally well!! Nicholas is almost to full feeds which means no more IV as of tomorrow if all goes well. This means we can dress him and bathe him and he can begin nursing on his own. Matthew isn't far behind his brother, he is up to 21 mls and doing really well with it! He also exceeded the 2000 gram mark and now weighs 4 lbs 7 1/2 oz!

Making strides

Matthew is catching up to Nicholas and both are making leaps and bounds now! Matthew has just been taken out of the isolette and is finally in an open air crib like his brother. Both are increasing regularly on their feeds and should be off the IV within a week, we hope, we hope! Once that happens, all they have to do is learn to eat with their mouths :)

Reunited and it feels so good :)

Matthew has arrived! Due to his excellent progress, he moved out of the NICU and joined his brother yesterday in the IICN!

Way to go boys!

Matthew has increased to 8mls every 3 hrs, yay! And his is queued to move down to the intermediate nursery as soon as there is space available which means he will be joining his brother very soon!! PDA is still open but they expect it to close soon and are no longer considering surgery to be likely. Also, Matthew just broke the 4 pound mark too!

Nicholas has been increased back to 15 mls and will increase 3 mls every 24 hours so he is back on track!  He has also been moved out of his isolette and into an open air crib so we can pick him up anytime we want now!

Today is the first day of the rest of your life

Nicholas has moved up to 9mls and is set to eat 12 mls  tonight at 9:30, so that's progress! His murmur is still there but hoping it will close still. Matthew's echo is tomorrow so we will finally know what course of action to take once the results are in, but he has been eating up every bit of his 3mls. The biggest news is that Nicholas has now passed the 4 pound mark!

Nicholas' echocardiogram showed a "PDA" -the same thing Matthew has that is causing his heart murmur. Fortunately they say it's small and the open duct will hopefully close on its own. We won't know Matthew's status until Monday. Both are tolerating feeds very well though -Matthew still on 3mls until results of echocardiogram are in Mon; Nicholas moved up to 6 mls.

Matthew still on 3mls and tolerating well! They're taking it slow as murmur is still present.
Nicholas back on feeds starting over at 3mls. His X-rays and tests all came back normal. Has small murmur too now so being cautious with him as well.

Deja meets her newest cousins!

Deja and Matthew shoot the breeze

Update 7/15/10 10:20am

Matthew tolerated his 3mls every 3 hrs overnight! Doctors will discuss this morning to decide whether to increase today or tomorrow.
Nicholas, unfortunately, had a set back and has been taken off food. He threw up a few times last night and the doctors are assessing why right now. Should hear soon.

Nicholas checking out his surroundings.

Matthew taking a snooze and then following brother's suit, also takes a gander at his surroundings.

Sleeping Giants

Nicholas

Matthew

Our Boys: The Early Days

Nicholas Martel Sims - 5 days old

Matthew Louis Sims - 5 days old

Grandpa Ron holds Matthew for the first time