Raleigh's heart update

Raleigh playing outside with his pumpkin bib to catch all the teething drool. Augustus checking out the view outside his window. We are loving their little argyle sweaters from Becca!

For those of you who check out the Care Pages site (http://www.carepages.com/carepages/HamiltonBoys) this is a repeat, but some are not on that site, so here is a recap of the cardiologist appointment yesterday. Raleigh went for his three month checkup and we got great news, he does not have to go back for six months. Raleigh’s ECHO showed stenosis was in the mild range instead of moderate this time. The last visit his measurements were at a peak level of 38 and the mean was 18, and this visit the peak was 20 and a mean of 10. Not that we know exactly what this means…but it was much better according to Dr. McKenna! Raleigh still has a small hole in his heart (normal for newborns) that is closing at the correct rate too. We still have to monitor the valve as a side effect of the original procedure to balloon open the valve. Raleigh also has backflow in his heart that goes out of the chamber through the repaired valve and a small amount of the flow seeps back into the original chamber. The cardiologist is comfortable with the amount of seepage, so his next follow up is for six months this time.

Unfortunately, that same afternoon the boys had to get their Synergis shots to help prevent RSV infection. They were very grouchy & it was a long night of restless sleep for the boys & mommy. The boys weighed in at 20lb 8oz (GUS) and 18lb 8oz (Raleigh). That is a lot of weight to carry around at once!!!

Pictures of the boys enjoying their sweaters now that fall has officially arrived in Florida, at least for this week. It is great that it is cooler for Halloween, it feels more like Halloween that way=)

Love,

Augustus & Raleigh

Guppyween - First trip to the Aquarium

The boys had a nice afternoon visiting the aquarium for Guppyween. They were dressed up as lions and were surrounded by hundreds of other little ones trick-or-treating. We met up with two other couples and their kids and had a really nice time. Unfortunately, it was cooler outside than it was inside...so the lion outfits only lasted about 10 minutes. Next year they will probably have more fun, but it was still good to get them out in a crowd and see how they did. They did awesome. They were fussy in the ride home because it was so close to bedtime, but they were great during their first trip to the aquarium. We look forward to many more!

The Boys are 7 Months Old Today!

Boys as bears.

Raleigh doing the worm.

Raleigh on the swing.

Augustus on the swing.

Gus, our new puppy:)


Gus sleeping on Grandpa Pickles.

Gus with his newest funny face.

Wow - we cannot believe it has been seven months. How time flies when you are having fun & are sleep deprived:)

The weather is still amazing, so the boys went for two walks today and spent time playing all day. They even went shopping today to get yummy fruit & veggies to make baby food with. The pear applesauce is so good we all enjoy eating it! An added bonus was they took three short naps. We'll take any sleep time to sleep too! Tomorrow it is off to Guppyween so we hope they get enough rest before we head out. We don't usually do things right before bedtime since they normally get restless, so we'll see how it goes.

Each day we think the boys are getting closer to being fully mobile. Gus is doing a great job rolling wherever he wants to get to, and still goes backwards when he wants to go forward when he attempts crawling. Raleigh is working on moving his legs, and hopefully in a week he will get his arms going and then in another week put it all together. He too can move where he wants to by inch worming along.

The newest funny things they are doing include Gus sucking his lips in as part of his exploring his new teeth (picture), and holding bibs/blankies/etc. in his mouth and just keeping it there like a puppy. Both boys love to hold their own hands interlocked & raise them up over their heads & then throw them down really fast. Not sure what they are doing, but they have found their hands & are controlling them better & finding new things to do with them all the time.

So much fun!!!

Sorry the film clip is so dark but still worth the audio of the boys laughing at each other!

Boys first big boy bath!

The boys when it was about 60 degrees out...yes, we know, but it is Florida:)

Raleigh, is he the next Vanilla Ice??
The boys after a long walk hanging in our backyard, loving life!!

Tonight the boys took their first big boy bath in our guest bath, which we should now call the boys' bathroom. They enjoyed it quite a bit, especially Augustus, our little "swimmer." The video shows what he normally does in the little tub, but now we have much less to clean up!

We are all thoroughly enjoying the slightly cooler weather. The boys are getting a lot of outdoor time & taken for many walks. Friday the boys are going to a Halloween party hosted by one of the MoM's in Brooke's group. We are very excited for that! Sunday we are meeting a few families at the Florida Aquarium for "Guppyween" so the boys can dress up and check out the aquarium while trick-or-treating. Next week the boys have doctors appointments, one for their Synergis shots, and Raleigh has his three month check up with his cardiologist. All seems to be well, so we are hoping to continue to get good news.

Boys first day at the beach, and Raleigh likes the Jumper-roo too!

Mom & Augustus

Raleigh - loved the water, or was it just the sand in his toes??
Raleigh checking out the sand again!

Augustus with the bay in the background (yes, mom needs to get some more sun, those are her pasty legs!)

The boys went to the beach for the first time today. What fun!

Raleigh took longer to warm up to the Jumper-Roo, but now he loves it. Not to be outdone by Augustus, here is a short clip of Raleigh the wild man jumping away!

Video of the new bouncer!!

Augustus trying out the new bouncer-roo. It even has Kangaroos on it:)

Boys getting in the Halloween Spirit

Yesterday afternoon the boys spent an hour in the front yard getting ready for Halloween. We were taking pictures, and as usual, the boys started a crowd;) Before we knew it, we had many neighbors over with their kids as well. The boys had a ball. They truly enjoyed laying in the yard looking at the trees and the sky above. We had them in their skeleton sweatsuits and a pumpkin to get some pictures before Halloween. This is a very big holiday in the U.S. and we know it is not that popular in Australia, so we are trying to get the boys to experience it fully before we move to Oz. We'll see how they like the costumes when the real deal arrives at the end of the month. We plan on taking the boys to Guppyween at the Florida Aquarium this year with another mom-of-multiples (MoM). Then on Halloween we have a party at another MoM's house. There will be hundreds of multiples running around in costumes, sure to be funny!!

Where we Started

If you can believe it, these were our tiny little monkeys on their birth day, March 25, 2008. Augustus is the fuzzy headed little one up top, and Raleigh is laying on his tummy. You can see how tiny they were compared to mom's hand! This was the day before Raleigh was sent to All Children's Hospital.

It is amazing that Augustus was only 5lb 6oz, and Raleigh was even smaller at 4lbs 14oz. At six months they are nearing 20lbs and 18lbs!! Two healthy boys & you would not even know now they were six weeks premature & had such a crazy start to their lives!

Love, Gus, Raleigh,

Brooke & Matthew

The boys start blogging!

The boys just turned six months a few weeks ago, so we decided it was time for them to start their own blog.


Yesterday was a big milestone for the boys, their first teeth started to appear. This is after two months of misery & lots of drool. They were fine yesterday, but today the teeth are a bit sharper and they seem to be more annoyed by them today. At least they are napping this afternoon:) Although many twins do not teeth at the same time, the boys were in competition and neither wanted to lose the title of "first tooth." The funny thing is that Augustus' tooth appeared on his lower left side, and Raleigh's popped up on his lower right side. They are turning out to be more like mirror image twins. From behind one has a whirl on the left side, and one on the right side. We'll see if one ends up left-handed, and the other right-handed.

Look for more updates as we start the blog out!

Love,
Gus, Raleigh,
Brooke & Matthew