Has it really been 2 months??

Oh my goodness how time gets away from me now. I cannot believe it has been a little over two months since we have been home and since I have blogged anything on here. The boys were both able to come home on November 16th. What a joyous, overwhelming day that was! I never thought I would see the day we got to leave the NICU. As the time goes it seems to drag on, but once you are done and look back it seems like it went by so fast. It was a bittersweet feeling leaving the NICU. I cried. ALOT. I was so happy to bring the boys home and be a family together at home, but I was also so sad to leave the people that had taken care of us and our babies for 2 and 1/2 months. They became our family. The staff at St. Lukes NICU in Boise Idaho will forever hold a special place in our hearts. I will never be able to thank them enough for what they have done for us.
Well to sum up the last couple months, we went home and it was hard. Taking care of two babies is not a piece of cake haha. I hand't gotten the full dose of taking care of them on my own yet where I had nurses to help me or to take care of them while I was not at the hospital. When we came home the boys were on a strict 3 hour schedule. They ate every 3 hours on the dot. And we were so in-experienced at two babies at one time that it seemed like we would get our routine done and just start right over. I don't think I slept for probably 4 or 5 days straight. After a long stretch of no sleep and about having a mental break down Tyson offered to take the middle of the night feeding. That has saved my sanity. At first it was around 3 AM but the boys now will go about 6 hours at night and wake around 7 AM. (we are very lucky.) They are such good babies! They hardly ever fuss and are pretty content almost all the time. Anyway, things have been going great now that we have the feel of taking care of the two of them together. We somewhat have a routine and wonder what we ever did with our time before them. :)
As far as their white blood cells go, we have been seeing the hematologist once a month since we left. We saw him twice for the first month though. They have been checking their neutrophil levels every time we go. The boys left the NICU with very low neutrophils so we knew we had to keep everything completely sanitized, not go anywhere, and not allow anyone sick around us. Needless to say we don't leave the house besides for Dr. Appointments. Both of their neutrophils had somewhat come up around the first of December and we were very optimistic that maybe they were going to start coming up and continue to go up and stay up. Well, when we went for our appointment on December 18th they did a CBC and both their numbers had gone down, Blair's WAY down. It was a little crushing since they had come up and we were hoping to stay up. Needless to say, that day I was a little down. The Dr. decided at that appointment we needed to take the blood and do genetic testing to see if there is a problem in their genetic makeup. They checked for 3 different diseases. Kostmann's syndrome, Cyclic Neutropenia, and Shwachman-diamond syndrome. They told us it would tai e 8-10 weeks to get our results for those and to come back in 4 weeks to check the numbers again and see where they were. We went to see him today and they did the blood work (poor Jace wouldn't bleed and they poked the poor baby 3 different times) and their Neutrophil counts were NORMAL today!!!!! Hallelujah!!! I have never been so excited. Such good news. They have not ever had normal blood counts yet. They also had Jace's Genetic tests results back and it was normal also! I had a huge weight lifted off my shoulders today. We will still be waiting to see what Blair's genetic tests say, but we are optimistic they will be normal as well. Dr. Camillo said if Blair's genetic tests are normal and both boys have normal neutrophil counts again in 4 weeks we do not have to see him anymore and will chalk this up to a transient neutropenia of prematurity. Lets all hope thats what this is and their numbers stay normal this time. It was a great day.
We have also been seen the nephrologist for their high blood pressure. That has been going very well. We were told by him also that if they boys have good blood pressure again in 4 weeks on half the dose of their medication we can stop the medication and won't have to see him either. If all goes well and the way we hope then in 4 weeks could be our last visit to both specialists. Yay!!!
Other than that, life has been good. Maddie loves her little brothers (sometimes a little too much) and they LOVE to watch her. They are so entertained by her.  They are 4 and 1/2 months old now, almost 5 months. They smile a lot and they like to make noises to get your attention. Blair weighs 9 lbs 15 oz (we almost have a 10 pounder holy moly!!) and Jace is weighing in at 9 lbs 1 oz. They have grown SO MUCH. It is amazing how fast you forget how small they really used to be. We are so grateful for these boys and what they bring to our family. We love them with all our hearts and are so happy they are ours.