Mark is a proud big brother!

Mark has really been a trooper over the last week. On the day the boys came, Mark got to go home with one of his friends. He loved the sleepover and we are thankful the Collins family was ready to have him on such a short notice.

Mark got to see his brothers on Saturday and Sunday. He had a cough, so he has been "kicked out" until he gets better. On Sunday, Brett opened his eyes when Mark spoke to him. Mark was so happy that he could hardly talk about anything else the rest of the day.

Here are a few pictures of Mark over the weekend. I think Jennifer's dad had as much fun playing as Mark did! They took one of the boxes from the cribs and made a racetrack for his Cars toys.

Never know what a day brings.....

This is how Little G looked today - 6 days old. Still wondering what's going on I think!

A lot can happen within a week.  Jennifer and I never knew how long it would take Brett to progress.  Today we went to the hospital just happy that he did not need any help breathing.  When we got there, we found out that they but a bag on his ostomy and he was filling it!!!  I was instantly reminded of Bill Cosby's skit about the poopie.  We were so excited to see it.  This was a big development for him because once he did this, he could be moved to milk.  While we were there they gave him his first meal!  They pump it from a syringe through a tube that goes through the nose and into the stomach.  They do it through the nose because it will help him breast feed in the future if he does not take food through the mouth now.

Since they were going to set this up, the nurse asked if we wanted to hold him.

Well.....DUH!  YES WE WANT TO HOLD HIM!!!  

It was truly amazing because we did not think it would happen so soon.  We took many pictures and a short video. I hope you enjoy them.

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

The picture at the top is of Gantt wanting to see what was going on.  The rest are of Brett and there are two videos.  One shows Jennifer holding Brett and the other one shows what the room looks like.  I scan the room a little bit and you can see Gantt moving around in his isolette.  He has the lights turned on him because his bilirubin levels were too high.  (for those of you that want to know what Jennifer tells me......"Please do not do that again".  I had just previously taken a picture and did not realize the flash was on.  Ooops!  Brett did not like that at all.)

Brett without any assistance breathing for the first time!

Gantt's first outfit

Initial Post

Thank you for visiting our blog. The boys were born at 32 weeks gestation just after 6:00 pm on April 2, 2009. Matthew "Brett" (4lb 6 oz) was born first and David "Gantt" (4lb 5 oz) came along for the ride.

Gantt was named after Jennifer's brother. Her maiden name is Gantt and her brother's first name is David. Brett was named after two of Rob's friends. Matt Harris has been friends with Rob since 1992 when they were in high school together. Matt also has the distinguished honor of being Rob's best man when he married Jennifer in September, 1997. "Stephen" Brett Eccher has been friends with Rob since 2003. Stephen has shown himself to be a true friend over the years and even coming at all hours of the night when Rob would hurt himself and needed to go to the hospital.

Many of you know that Brett was born with intestinal complications and required surgery during the first 12 hours of his life. 20% of his small intestine was removed and he will require a recovery process that may take many months. Brett is the one that began this whole process by pushing Jennifer into pre-term labor at 9:30 AM. When Brett was born he was not given much of a chance to live. The doctors were "worried" about his condition and they did not know what to expect. He was born at Rex Hospital in Raleigh, NC and immediately transferred to UNC Children's Hospital in Chapel Hill, NC. The surgeon came to Rob half way through the operation for permission to proceed. The outlook was not good, but Rob thought proceeding was the best chance for Brett to survive. Brett had lost a lot of blood and the surgeon was not confident Brett would make it. Fortunately for us he did survive and he is on his road to recovery. He does have a stoma and he will require further surgery at some point in the future. The biggest current concern is the section of intestine he lost was primarily responsible for absorbing nutrients and calories. He is currently receiving his nutrition through an IV. The first few days of life he needed a breathing tube and then he graduated to a c-pap machine. On Monday, April 7 he began to breathe unassisted for the first time!!!

As mentioned earlier, Gantt was along for the ride. He is healthy and progressing very well. Gantt has always been able to breathe without assistance and he was even bottle fed at 2 days old. On Monday, April 7 he was able to put on his first outfit and Jennifer got to change his diaper for the first time!! He also graduated to an isolette and his IV should be removed tonight.

Thank you for checking in on our sons and we will update this blog as often as possible.