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By Janet, on July 18th, 2009 It has been a few weeks since we last posted anything here, and it’s certainly no coincidence that the dry spell coincides with finally getting both girls home from the hospital. The last few weeks have seemed very full indeed, but we’re just loving that the girls are home with us and we’re not still driving out to Walnut Creek every day for visits. I don’t think we ever really have more than about two consecutive free hours these days, and there have been some long nights, but we seem to be getting by OK and still managing to get a bit of sleep.
 Happy family A couple weeks ago we did some calculations about how much time we were spending feeding the girls… When you figure we have 2 girls who are feeding every 3 to 3.5 hours (usually back to back), that works out to about 14 feedings per day. At approximately 35 to 45 minutes per feeding, that works out to somewhere between 9 and 10 hours per day just sitting there holding a bottle. Of course, we are sharing those duties, and we’re a pretty good team. Still, that’s a lot of time!
The girls are now almost 10 weeks old and about 2 weeks past their due date. Great-Grandma Siemens came up last weekend from Shafter, so the girls were finally able to meet her. I love these multi-generational moments. It was really nice to visit with her and watch her hold our children.
 Four generations Now that their due date has passed, the girls are starting to have short stretches when they’re awake and we can interact with them. That’s been fun! And they continue to grow and develop. They’re now more than double their birthweight — Carolyn is 8 lbs. 10 oz. and Elizabeth is 8 lbs. 7 oz. They’ve also learned a new skill — rolling from their tummy to their back. Elizabeth did it for the first time on Monday. Dan was at work and I was home with the girls. After a feeding, they were having some “tummy time” and getting a little tired and fussy. I took the empty bottles into the kitchen to wash. When I returned, Elizabeth was on her back. I did a double take and questioned whether I had indeed left her on her tummy or not — aren’t they too young to roll over? So I put her on her tummy and sat down to watch what would happen. A short time later she did it again! I still thought maybe it was just a fluke, so I rolled her back to her tummy, but she proceeded to roll over again! Then she did it again the next morning to show Dan, showing conclusively that this is a trick she’s got nailed. Not to be outdone, Carolyn rolled from her tummy to her back for the first time on Tuesday for Dan, and she did it again a short time later to show me.
We have also really enjoyed being able to take them out with us, and have had several visits with Grandma and Grandpa Siemens. We took them to the 4th of July picnic at our church and got to show them off to lots of people there. We’ve also been able to go geocaching a couple times with them, and we’re looking forward to being able to do more of that in the months (and years) to come. Here are a few more pictures, just for fun.
 4th of July  Geocaching with Grandma and Grandpa in Sycamore Grove  Carolyn & Elizabeth
By Dan, on June 25th, 2009 Today was a very special day. For starters, Janet and I are celebrating 14 years of marriage today! Janet is a truly amazing woman; I respect her, I admire her, I love her. I am so very thankful for her! Every year when our anniversary comes up, we make a point to sit down and repeat the vows we made to each other on the day we were married.
I Dan, take you Janet, to be my wife. I join with you to share all that is to come. I will be faithful to you as long as God gives me life. All that I am, and all that I ever hope to be, is yours. I accept you without reservation as my wife. I promise to love you and honor you, be true to you always, in sickness and in health, in poverty and in wealth, in my thoughts and in my speaking as long as my life shall last.
We wrote these vows ourselves, drawing from several others we had seen and heard, and we took the time to memorize them so that during the ceremony we could just say them straight, instead of repeating chopped up phrases after the minister. I’m glad we did that, and I’m glad we still do. And now we begin what is sure to be an amazing 15th year!
Today was also special because this evening we finally were able to bring Carolyn home from the hospital, and tonight we are finally ALL home together. It’s been six and a half weeks since the girls were born. Elizabeth came home exactly one week ago, and this week has perhaps seemed like the longest week of all. People kept asking us how it felt to have one of our girls finally home, and I had a difficult time answering that question. Of course, in one sense, it was wonderful — it was like we’d taken a big step and were halfway there! But in another sense, it was kinda rotten — halfway there just underscores the fact that you’re NOT there at all until you’re finally actually really truly THERE. I dunno, it’s a little hard to explain, I guess. It was like being tugged in different directions, whereas before Elizabeth came home our attention was much more focused.
In any case, the difficulties of being separated from our girls for the last month and half are now behind us, and we’re finally all HOME together. Amen!
 Carolyn and Elizabeth, home together Now we can get started tackling all the difficulties yet to come! Woo-hoo!
By Dan, on June 22nd, 2009 Saturday was an extremely full day, with a birthday party appearance, a friend’s wedding, and Janet’s visit to see Carolyn at the hospital. So on Sunday, we very deliberately skipped church in order to get a bit more sleep (although we weren’t really able to sleep in, since we were both up regularly throughout the night to pump and feed Elizabeth). That was nice. Then in the early afternoon, we made our way over to my parent’s house for a nice big family dinner to celebrate Father’s Day. I feel very blessed for the two new reasons the day is significant for me. It was fun being able to take Elizabeth with us, but that simply served to underscore that our family isn’t complete without Carolyn, and we’re really looking forward to getting her home as well. Elizabeth slept most of the afternoon when she wasn’t eating, but we were able to show her off briefly to Cortnie and Audree, at least, who hadn’t yet seen her except in pictures. Later, Grandma and Grandpa got to hold Elizabeth for a while.
 Grandpa and Elizabeth  Grandma and Elizabeth On our way home we stopped to find a new geocache here in Livermore, marking Elizabeth’s first ride in a stroller and first geocaching excursion. We were successful at finding the cache too, so that was a nice bonus, because our cache find rate has certainly taken a serious nose-dive since the girls were born. I’m looking forward to when we can go out and hit some easy trails with the girls in our nice new twin seater all terrain stroller!
Finally, since I hadn’t been out to the hospital to see Carolyn in a whole week thanks to a stupid little cold I caught, I made a point of going out to see her Sunday night for Father’s Day, while Janet stayed home with Elizabeth. It was so nice to see Carolyn again! I had a serious little talk with her about those bradycardia episodes, explaining that it’s really time for her to come home with the rest of the family. I hope she got the message.
 Carolyn
By Dan, on June 19th, 2009 Yesterday evening Elizabeth was unplugged from all the monitors, loaded into a car seat, and taken out of the Intensive Care Nursery for the first time since she was brought in five and a half weeks ago. Strangely, even though Janet was discharged five weeks ago, hospital policy still dictates that Janet had to be pushed out to the car in a wheelchair. So Elizabeth rode on Janet’s lap as she was taken down the elevator and then outside into the open air, where she may have glimpsed the sky for the first time. She slept most of the way home, and then upon arriving at our door she was greeted by a lovely Welcome Home sign that had been prepared by her Aunt Annmarie.
After a brief tour of the house, Elizabeth napped and snuggled contentedly with Janet in the rocking chair for about an hour.
Later, after Janet went to bed, I got to handle Elizabeth’s first feeding and diaper change here at home. Pretty cool, right? Of course, I know all about having the clean diaper in place before removing the old one, because I’ve been doing this every day for the last five weeks in the hospital… But still, somehow, completely inexplicably, she managed to poop sideways onto the crib sheets. So that’s how it’s going to be, eh?
I’m so glad she’s home!
On the other hand, Carolyn has decided to continue hanging out at the hospital for maybe another week or so. Apparently, she’s still having bradycardia episodes most days. Remember, these are not particularly serious or problematic events, in the sense that most of the time her heart rate pops right back up again on its own — but they are enough to make the doctors want to keep her under observation a bit longer, until she makes more progress growing out of them. Hopefully she’ll be ready soon, and the Siemens girls will be together again, keeping each other company and pooping on the crib sheets in stereo.
Or perhaps tomorrow I’ll get our changing table all set up and ready for action. Hmmm…
By Dan, on June 11th, 2009 As a new father with two little baby girls who have now spent just over four weeks in the hospital, I have really begun to appreciate our health insurance for the first time. We just recently got the hospital bill for Janet’s delivery, and it’s around $35,000. Evidently the doctors’ bills will come separately, and we also haven’t seen the bill for the ambulance ride yet. When you add in all of Janet’s pregnancy related doctor visit expenses, it’s something like $60,000.
This got me curious about what the care for the girls is costing. We haven’t seen any bills for the girls yet, so we don’t know for sure. I’ve queried a few of the nurses, and they say they don’t really know either, but they made some educated guesses that it probably started out around $10,000 per day (although it might be higher) and by now maybe it’s around $5,000 per day… EACH. So, a wild estimation is that the girls’ medical expenses have reached around $500,000 so far.
Holy high cost of health care, Batman!
That’s more than our house cost, and we bought it when houses were expensive! It’s a bit staggering, really. Half a million dollars in four weeks — poof! In truth though, I’m not overly concerned about these bills, because we do have health insurance. We’ll be fine. And frankly, the insurance company will be fine too. They’ll make plenty of money off us over the course of our lives.
But all this does make me think quite a bit about where the country is headed in the future if President Obama’s plans come to fruition. I recently read a chilling article titled Death Of U.S. Health Care by political analyst Dick Morris. It’s worth reading in full, but the bottom line is that the only way Obama’s plan to revamp the health care system can work is by severely rationing health care the way Canada has done, and that’s a disaster. For example, the Canadian government will not allow health providers to use the best (most expensive) drugs for cancer treatments, so Canada’s cancer death rate is significantly higher than in the US. They also won’t allow private payments for better treatment, because apparently that would undermine the system (ie, it would highlight the complete inadequacy of the system). This is why so many Canadians flock to the United States and pay out of pocket to take advantage of our health care.
But at Obama’s urging, our own health care system is clearly moving in that same direction. It’s already happening — health providers have already committed to 1) cut the use of MRIs and CAT scans, 2) reduce the use of antibiotics, 3) perform fewer C-sections, and 4) cut care for management of chronic back pain. Do those sound like things that are done frivolously? I suppose cutting back on antibiotics might arguably be a good idea, because I do have some concerns about creating drug resistant bacteria. But I’m pretty certain that if you talk to anyone who has ever had an MRI, CAT scan, C-section, or chronic back bain, they’ll probably tell you that the treatment they received wasn’t frivolous; it was necessary. (Janet thinks maybe there are some unnecessary C-sections, too.) But here’s the main point: who in their right mind wants a government bureaucracy deciding what health care you’re allowed to get? When has any government bureaucracy ever done a really good job? In a more recent article titled Here Comes Health Care Rationing, Morris points out that by making cuts in these four areas, they plan to save about $1.7 trillion over the next 10 years. Unfortunately, the total health care spending in the United States over the next 10 years will probably be about $30 trillion. So although $1.7 trillion sounds like a lot of money, it’s really just a drop in the bucket. They’re going to cut a LOT more, and in Morris’ words, “These decisions will not be medical but financial.” Yikes.
What would happen to our girls under Obama’s plan? Would they get the care they need? I’m not sure, but I suppose their prospects would probably be better than mine would be when I eventually need care. I do know that the girls are not coming home for at least another week or two, so the cost will continue to accumulate. We’ve heard the nurses say that it’s common for babies to go home around the same time as their due date — and that’s still another 4 weeks away! As Janet mentioned in a previous post, they need to go for five consecutive days with no bradycardia episodes. Right now, that’s still happening almost every day, but they’re supposed to just grow out of it eventually. In all other respects, they’re doing just fine.
When we do finally get some solid information about the costs associated with the girls, I’ll probably post an update. In the meantime, it seems to me that our current health care system is working well enough.
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