The other day we loaded everyone into the car and went back to the hospital from whence the boys came. No, we weren’t trying to return them for a full refund, Jack’s orthopedic surgeon, Dr Chris Reilly, is based out of there, and this is the same guy that did the original operation and has been with us every step of the way.

Of course when you go for that sort of doctors visit you need to get X-rays, so we headed down the hall, had a few more friendly onlookers ask us about the boys, then we were ushered into a room with an x-ray machine over a large table. While we were unstrapping Jack from his stroller (Alex slept through pretty much the whole visit) we were wondering how we would go about this… Then the tech pulled out what looked like an old Russian torture instrument. An octagonal metal ring at the top with foam padding for his head, attached to a 2′ piece of timber which had 4 wide Velcro straps on it. Nat and I looked at each other, but helped to strap him in and he didn’t look too uncomfortable in the end. The tech propped his leg out, lined up the plate, and we all hid behind a glass wall to take the picture. Except that Jack wasn’t too happy about all this and was moving quite a lot, so I ended up putting on a lead waistcoat and stood out there with him, holding his hand and keeping the soother jammed in his mouth.

Off to the doctor next, and it’s always amazing the sense of confidence Dr Reilly instills in us everytime we see him. He had a look at Jack first and was very happy with what he saw, just mentioning that we need to massage his scar on the end of the stump more to soften it. Then he looked at the x-rays and again was happy with what he saw. Bringing them up on a large flatscreen monitor we could see that the bones come to reasonably pointy-points and everything looked all good. He said that there didn’t seem to be any “overgrowth” currently, as when that happens to too much of an extent that is when they have to go in and clip the end of the bones surgically.

To this point I’ve always figured that overgrowth was the bones growing too fast for the skin, but we actually asked him that question and apparently the skin will keep up with any growth that comes from the growth plate at the top of the bone (the bone grows down, out of the plate), but what they worry about is the end of the bone growing where it’s not supposed to – if it grows at the tip, they’ll eventually have to operate. That actually gave Nat and I a lot of clarity, as we thought it was just based on his normal rate of growth and it was almost inevitable that he would have to have extra operations. Now we know that if there is no growth from the tip, he may not have to have an operation at all. Then again, it could start growing at any time.

He’s also going to hook us up with a good prosthesis guy. We’ll meet with him and get a prosthesis made before we head back to Australia in about 6 months time. That will be exciting!

Again, Dr Reilly always makes us feel much more confident coming out tuna going in, and one of our greatest regrets about moving back to Australia is that Jack will no longer be able to receive his regular care from him.

Well… kinda where it all began. This day felt like the start of a crazy adventure down the rabbit burrow.

We got our wedding pictures a couple of weeks ago from the legendary photographer Aidan Ward, and we’ve been meaning to share a few of them with you… Here’s a very select few – it was hard to choose! If you were there and know you had your shot taken, get in touch with us and we’ll send you a copy

(Click on the first picture, then use the arrows on the picture to cycle your way through)

As you can see from the multitudes of posts I’ve been putting on the blog recently (sic), things have been rather busy at home… And that’s a good thing! The boys are doing really well, looking healthy and growing like champions. Alex has started stretching the time between feeds a little and sometimes goes 5 hours or so without needing a feed. Jack isn’t too far behind him, which is good news.

I’ll post up more pics when I get a chance, but here’s a quick happy snap of them from last night, in one of their usual assumed demeanors:

Alex is one the left, Jack is on the right, and the cars are for measuring purposes... They're not quite to the stage of sucking on them yet!

We headed off to the pediatrician last Friday to do he boys regular check up – health, weight etc – and they’re both doing really well!

In the 11 days between visits, they had both been gaining the exact same amount of weight each day, about 35 grams. That is a great amount considering they say that they want them to grow between 15 and 35 grams per day, so well done Jack and Alex! Hopefully their rate keeps up, although we could swear that Alex is just growing longer, and not adding any more baby “chub” to catch up with his chunkier brother!

Jack is now 3.58kg (7lb 14oz in the old money) and Alex is a little way behind at 3.26kg (7lb 3oz), but that’s a far sight bigger than the approximately two pounds they were when they first arrived in this world.

The math of having a couple of babies is starting to work itself out too – we’re spending about $3/day on diapers for both boys, and about $2/day on other associated regular costs. Makes me think of those World Health Organization ads… “for a mere $5 a day, you too can help support the starving bunyons in Vancouver, Canada.”

Life is finding its routines, with the boys floating between 2.5 and 4 hours between feeds, although we were over the moon when one night they went for 5 hours… Just one night though, and it’s not really healthy for babies this size to go any longer than that without a feed. Just gotta keep on fighting the little battles

They’re certainly starting to develop out of the preemy doldrums they were in for a while, as both boys are now starting to hold eye contact and look around with a little more light in their eyes. Jack was entranced for a bit this evening by a rattle one of our house guests, Grant, was shaking. They’re certainly great smilers when they’re done their feed though, and will give you a cheesy grin round their bottle nipple when finished

They’ve also turned into ravenous bugblatters when it comes to feeding… A good sign, but two babies who are hungry all the time don’t make for much else getting done! Having Grant and his partner Gen around at the moment is awesome though, I don’t think we’ve had to cook at all in the last few days… Luxury!

Anyhoo, here’s some recent pics:

Alex at 11.17pm: I'm not ready for bed yet daaaad!

Jack & Nat talking to Aunty Janelle on Skype

Afternoon nap time

Nat & Gen doing feeding time

Jack wore himself out on a couple of awesome rattles our friend Pam gave the boys

Jack: Oh my god, what are you DOING?!

Oh, and happy one month home boys!! Woo hoo!!