one month

Caroline and Emily celebrated their one month birthday yesterday!  It feels so strange to me that they are already a month old, because I feel like time didn't REALLY start until they came home, which was just one week ago.  These girls have been busy!  From the NICU to the Special Care Nursery, and then home...we couldn't have asked for a better first month, considering the circumstances.  We are counting our blessings every day, and enjoying our new crazy, fun life as a family of FIVE!

I decided to take the girls monthly pictures with Mr. Bear, who was in every one of Will's monthly pics.  I wouldn't say that I was extremely successful in getting a great photo of the girls.  In our first set up, Emily was passed out and Caroline was awake and flailing around, and then we moved from the couch to a chair, and Caroline fell asleep while Emily was awake.  Here are our best shots...

This one cracks me up....Emily is slowly getting angry and Caroline is totally pulling a Top Model pose.

And then the wheels came off...

{this pic reminded me of the triple threat photo shoot from when Will was a wee babe}

Although my pictures make it look impossible to take good photos of two babies at once, I have proof that it can, in fact, be done.  We had some newborn pictures taken this morning, and our fabulous photographer posted 2 sneak peeks....eek!  I am loving these and can't wait to see the rest!

{Emily}

love

Matt enjoyed his first "daddy duty" alone with all three kiddos for a few hours yesterday, and this is what I found when I came home.  Does this melt your heart, or what?!!

Definitely my new favorite pictures.  :)

home

7 months of a very scary and stressful pregnancy.

6 weeks living in Presbyterian Hospital away from my family.

116 "non-stress test" monitoring sessions for the girls.

4 steroid shots, 2 rhogam shots, 2 terbutaline shots, magnesium infusion, and who even knows how many blood draws.

9 days in the NICU.

17 days in the Special Care Nursery.

Lots of hospital bracelets and countless Presby parking cards.

SO. WORTH. IT.

We are all under one roof!!  The girls got to come home on Tuesday, and we have absolutely loved having everyone home...finally!  It has been a long and scary road for sure, but the less-than-fun parts are already becoming distant memories as we enjoy our sweet new additions to the family.  {Not to say that it's easy having a 2 year old and preemie twins, but we are figuring things out, and we are SO very lucky to have our family and friends supporting us.} 

 Here are a few pictures from the last two days at home.

Checking out their new crib, even though they're not sleeping there yet.

{although they might move there soon...they grunt SUPER loudly at night}

first dual bottles with daddy

And a few owl hat pics from today...almost 4 weeks old!

And I had to share this one, because it is probably the most accurate picture of our new, crazy life! :)

2 weeks!

Our sweet girls are 2 weeks old today!  After spending their first 9 days in the NICU, we were so happy that they got to move to the Special Care Nursery on Sunday.  It is a much more home-like environment, and we have our own room with space for us to stay overnight, 2 recliner chairs, and plenty of room.  

However, I will say that it has been MUCH harder on me to balance time at the hospital with the girls and time at home with Will than I expected.  I think that while I was on mandatory hospital arrest for my 6 weeks of monitoring and 4 days postpartum, I just knew that it was out of my control to be away from him, and somehow that made it easier.  But once I got to go home, it became almost unbearable for me to leave him every day!  {this may also be related to the crazy hormones of a new mom...let's be honest...}  It's a tough spot to be in, because when I'm home with Will, I miss the babies and feel guilty about not being at the hospital, and when I'm with them, I miss Will and feel guilty about leaving him.  {Anyone figured out a way to clone yourself yet?}   

After being up at the hospital working on nursing around the clock for the first few days the girls were in Special Care, we've settled into a more manageable schedule in the past couple of days.  I've been able to spend a couple of hours at home with Will in the morning, then the rest of the day up at the hospital...then back home for dinner, playtime, bath, and bedtime, and then back up to be with the girls for their late night feedings.  Add in lots of pumping time to store milk for these sweet babies and build up my milk supply while they are learning to nurse, and pretty much all the hours of the day are busy busy!  But as difficult as this time is, the girls are just doing SO well.  At this point, they are pretty much just working on feeding and growing, which is going well.  Both have surpassed their birth weights...Emily is now 4 lbs, 9 oz, and Caroline is 4 lbs. 7.5 oz.  We could not be more thankful and proud of their progress, and I know this will all quickly become a distant memory when they get to come home.  OK ok, enough babbling from me.  Here are some pictures from the last week. 

First time back together since birth!!  {Emily on left, Caroline on right}

Riding from the NICU to the Special Care Nursery in the same crib. 

Here are a few pictures of Caroline:

Caroline and Mimi

And here are some of Emily:

 Love these sweet baby girls!!!

1 week update

Caroline and Emily are 1 week and 1 day old!!  While it seems like the week has gone by quickly, it's amazing to think of everything that has happened and how far the girls have come.

The girls have been doing very well in the NICU so far.  We truly could not be happier with their progress.  Both are breathing completely on their own, and both have graduated to "big girl cribs" with no heat lamps, meaning they are regulating their temperatures with no problems.  Emily has been off of the IV fluids {which were supplementing her feedings} for a couple of days, and Caroline's IV probably came out this evening.  So the next step is to start working on nursing/bottles!  The girls are most likely moving from the NICU to the special care nursery tomorrow.  Special care is a middle step between NICU and going home...yay!  We've heard that it's really nice, and each family has a private room, so it's more like home than the NICU.  We're excited about this next step, and continuing to pray that the girls keep doing as well as they have so far.

Because I've been using 99.9% of my time in the NICU to hold babies, I haven't been very good at taking many pictures.  But here are some from the last few days.

Emily

Caroline

Emily

 Caroline - wide awake!

Emily

holding Caroline

And here's one Matt sent me today when he was holding Emily...wearing her fancy big girl nightgown!  ;)

One of the hardest parts of this week has been splitting my time between being with Will at home and the girls at the hospital.  Oh how I wish I could be in both places at once!  It has been SO great to be back at home with Matt and Will.  And in the last couple of days I've been getting around well enough after the c-section that I have been able to be here with Will all by myself for awhile each day.  It's been great to reconnect with him and get back into our playtime routine.  I still can't pick him up, but we're getting pretty creative with step stools when we need to be!  Here are a few pics of my sweet boy.

Playing with his new block set {thanks Madison and Emma!!}

Will loves to wear "daddy gasses!"

I can't wait to see this sweet boy as a big brother!  {I mean...obviously he is one already...but he hasn't gotten to meet his sisters yet!}

so blessed

They are here!!!!  We can now officially add March 2, 2012 to our list of very best days ever.  Caroline Faith arrived at 1:40pm, weighing 4 pounds, 3 ounces, and Emily Katherine arrived at 1:41pm, weighing 4 pounds, 8 ounces.  They are doing wonderfully so far, just facing the normal preemie issues of learning to breathe, eat, fight jaundice, and stay warm.  They are truly miracles, and I still can't believe they are here.  God is SO GOOD.  

Both girls are on CPAP, which is a machine that doesn't breathe for them, but gives pressure into their lungs to help them remember to breathe on their own.  CPAP is a wonderful thing, but unfortunately it covers most of their sweet little faces, and causes some facial swelling because of the pressure.  So we are excited for the day when they graduate from it and we can really see what they look like!  ;)  {update!  I just took a break from writing this post to walk down and hang out with the girls, and I got to see Emily's CPAP hat get changed out!  Such fun...I got to see her head and face for a few minutes and I took a couple of pictures that I'll include below!}

Both girls are being fed through feeding tubes while they are learning to digest, and while they are too small to have the sucking reflex necessary for nursing or bottles.  Emily is also enjoying some time under a UV light to help with her jaundice, which is very common in preemies.  Caroline hasn't needed the light yet, but it's most likely that she will at some point.  Right now, we are praying for good digestion, continued success with breathing, and growing!

I'm feeling much better today, and I've even been walking over to the NICU all by myself this afternoon.  Such an independent feeling after being wheeled everywhere for the first two days.  I'll be going home tomorrow...kind of a strange feeling to be moving out of the hospital after 6 weeks!  I am so excited to bond with Will at home again, even though I will still be splitting my time between home and the NICU for quite awhile.  OK, time for some pictures!

Babies day belly pic!

Sweet Caroline right after she arrived

Caroline with her CPAP on...I'm thinking I need to develop a prettier CPAP hat for the NICU that doesn't involve safety pins and rubber bands.  ;)

I got to be wheeled through the NICU on my way to my post-partum room after recovery.  I had just very briefly seen the girls in the OR when they arrived, so this was my second chance to check them out. 

Yesterday {March 4} Matt and I got to hold the girls for the first time!!  We actually weren't expecting to get to hold them so soon, but because they were very stable on CPAP and they also got some of the IV lines out of their belly buttons, we got the go-ahead from the doctor for a short hold!  There are so many things I totally took for granted since Will was a full term baby.  We won't take anything for granted this time around for sure!

holding Caroline

 Matt holding Emily

Our awesome nurse even let me sneak in and hold Emily for a second...shhhh, we were only supposed to each hold one!

And here are two pics from Emily's hat change tonight.  Her little nose and eyes are swollen, but at least we got a peek at her sweet face!  {they haven't done baths yet in an effort not to stress them out, so it's hard to tell her hair color...but it seems a bit blondish...maybe a dark blonde?}

What a double blessing to add these girls to our family.  Thank you soooo much to everyone who has been praying for us and for them.  

thirty one!

Wanna see something crazy?

Yep...pretty sure my belly grew exponentially this week!  I'm sooo excited that we reached 31 weeks today.  That means ONE. MORE. WEEK.  Seven more days.  We can do this!  This has definitely been the hardest week yet...more contractions, bigger belly to manage, really really missing my boys {and my life}, plus the complete lack of privacy of hospital life just all started to get to me this week.  BUT...I could not ask for anything more than the blessing of these healthy baby girls.  I can't believe we get to meet them in just a week!  Soooo worth it.

They continue to be very feisty during monitoring sessions, and I'm hoping that will translate to strong girls who are fighters in the NICU.  :)  I can feel their hiccups this week, and once they both had them at the same time.  Such a funny feeling!  When we took their measurements on Thursday, baby A was measuring around 4 lbs, 2 oz, and baby B was around 3 lbs, 12 oz.  The doctor says that the measurements could be off by 15% either way, and I know that Will always measured big.  We thought he was going to be a 10 pound baby, and he was only 7 lbs, 15 oz.  I'm hoping that with one more week to grow, the girls will be around 4 lbs each by next Friday.  

In other news of the week - Will got a big boy haircut yesterday!  He looks so grown up...just like a big brother, don't you think?