"Newborn" Photos

So these pics may have been taken when they were almost 12 weeks old ... BUT they were the size of newborns - so I am calling them "Newborn photos".  Here are some of my favorite!

 Ella & Sadie

 Paige & Ella; Ryan & Sadie

 Ella & Sadie

 Ella's feet (and Ryan's hands) on the left. 

 Ella (upside down) & Sadie

 Ella & Sadie 

(I think this is my favorite of the two of them together)

Ella 

Sadie 

 Ella

Sadie

I really have no sarcastic comments to add... these AMAZING photos speak for themselves.  And they are saying, "clearly the most adorable children to grace this planet."  Yes, I am THAT parent.  :)

Also, another shout out to the photographer, Amy Slick: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Slick-Photography/147152275364298.  She is obviously fantastic!

#AnotherFail

Meet Ashley.  

Isn't she stunning?? 

I should also mention the talented photographer, Amy Slick! 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Slick-Photography/147152275364298

Ashley is a close friend who is expecting twin girls (Ella and Sadie are SO excited).  Ella, Sadie and I were so excited to have been invited to celebrate!  So we woke up Saturday morning (yesterday), the girls ate, we picked out some cute clothes, gave the girls a bath, packed the diaper bag, and headed to the car. That may sound simple... but that was easily 2 hours of prep time. 

On our way out to the shower, my GPS said I would be arriving 3 minutes late.  I fought the Starbucks urge and drove straight to the shower.  Unfortunately, my GPS led me to a random neighborhood.  I finally got online and looked up the address and realized I was about 7 miles east of where I needed to be.  So... we headed West.  

When I got to what I believed to be the correct address, I parked my car and as I was about to get out I realized that there were really not very many cars.  I didn't see Ashley's car or any of our other friends' cars.  Eventually the homeowner came to the front door and looked out - it did not appear that there was a baby shower at this house... so I called Ryan and asked him to look it up again. 

By now I am 30 minutes late, had been in the car for about an hour, the girls were starting to get restless, and I was very frustrated.  Ryan says that according to what he looked up, I am in the correct location.  I use some naughty language and leave - I know there is nothing going on at that house...  While stopped at a red light (seems like an insignificant detail - but I feel the need to clarify that I wasn't studying invitations while driving with two babies in the car) I checked the invitation for the 100th time to make sure I really did have the correct address.  I did.  Then I looked and saw where it said "Sunday, September 22nd".  Problem: yesterday was Saturday, September 21st.  #AnotherFail.

I called Ryan to explain.  Then felt the need to call Sarah (the poor hostess whose house I was creeping) and Ashley.  Mortifying.  The good news?  I now know where Sarah lives (so I won't be late TODAY) and the girls looked REALLY cute!

....

You know when you have to do something but life gets busy, so you put it off.  Then enough time has passed that the task seems overwhelming?  Then eventually, you just don't even know where to start.

That is where I am with this blog.  I thought I would stop after the girls came home (which, clearly, I have been successful in); however, I quickly realized this was a much more efficient way of keeping friends and family posted.  Also, when you've produced children as cute as mine, it is kind of fun to write about them and our daily adventures!! :) 

So what has happened since the eye exam on July 20?  A lot.  But we'll just start with our great escape from the Hotel Mercy...

On July 22nd, Ella took the liberty pulling out her feeding tube. Although certainly not the first time she had done this, we decided to leave it out and see if she could eat on her own this time.  Guess what!  She did!!  Five days later, she came home with us.  She has been eating well ever since...

Here is the very first pic of Ella, completely tube-free; this was her first attempt at removing her feeding tube!  It was out long enough for me to snap this photo.

THIS is July 22nd, her first tube-free day.  The first day of the rest of her life.

And here is what our little 3 pound baby looks like now... over 10 pounds!!

There's my little "lady".

Rocking tummy time.

On July 28th we tried a similar approach with Sadie.  Before making this call, Sadie would only eat about half of every meal by mouth.  One of our favorite nurses decided we should just pull the NG tube and see whether she would start to eat on her own, a method she jokingly (or not so much) called the "starvation method".  Guess what! From that point on, Sadie ate every single meal by mouth; she continues to do so.                            

"Yeah, I look REAL good sans tubes!"

 "To all of you naysayers..." 

(Sadie has quite the attitude)

A few days later (July 31st) Sadie joined us at home.   And here is what she looks like now...

Very smiley little girl!

 "Big" Sister Ella isn't the only one who can rock tummy time!

I've been trying to plan how I am going to update all of you on the last two months (since my last post).  I plan to first keep you posted on my recent events and when I can, I will post on events I've missed.  I hope you will continue to enjoy!  

Eye Exam

All premature babies are at increased risk of vision problems and a disease called retinopathy of prematurity ("ROP").  All premature babies born under a certain birth weight receive an eye exam in the hospital at 36 weeks. Ella and Sadie's eye exams were yesterday.  The doctor asked whether I planned to stay and when I said yes, he asked whether I planned to watch.  The latter of the two questions prompted me to follow up with, "What the hell are planning to do to my daughters?!"  I may have caught him a little off guard... he eventually picked up on my sarcasm and went on to explain that the examination may look a little barbaric but assured me that the girls eyes would be numb and that this was the only way to accomplish the exam.  He would use a metal contraption with little prongs that would hold their eyelids open and would then take a small blunt tool to stick in the back of their eyes to move the eyeball around so that he could see what he needed... of course with the aid of a very bright light which he would shine directly into their eyes.  Sounds awesome.

Curiosity got the best of me and so I decided to watch anyway - it definitely doesn't look comfortable, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.  Since I was watching, he took the time to explain to me what he was doing and what he was looking for.  He probably only paused for mere seconds to look up and tell me what was going on - but it sure felt like forever as he held his blunt tool in the back of Ella's eyeball and provided me with an explanation. After that I acted much less interested so as not to tempt him to prolong the exam just to tell me what was going on (especially since I have absolutely no recollection of what he said...).

In hindsight, I kind of wish I would have recorded it. However, I have once again failed you, so instead of seeing my girls' eye exams... I invite you to watch this delightful little video from YouTube of some other poor baby's eye exam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5a1DP30IyM

The girls were pretty wiped out after the exam... either that or they were high.  I choose to believe they were just sleepy.

One Month

One month ago (last Saturday) Ella and Sadie made their grand debut.   They have definitely won our hearts and as stressful as it is to spend a majority of my time in the NICU, walking into the girls' room every morning is my favorite moment of every day.

Sadie Marie

Ella Claire

Oxygen. We have had a pretty busy week - so I apologize fora  delay in this new post!  Last we spoke, Ella and Sadie were both on oxygen.  As of Monday for Ella and this morning for Sadie, both girls are off oxygen! So far, both are doing very well.  We continue to work on bottle feeding and nursing - but are careful to take it slow so as not to overwhelm them with changes (which may cause them to go backwards with their breathing progress.  So that is very exciting!

Blood Sugar.  I've written a few times about Sadie's struggles with maintaining her blood sugar - well despite a few set backs, she is finally making great progress!  Sadie has maintained over the last couple of days as the doctors continue to try to discontinue her PICC line.  I think that they may attempt to discontinue the medicine and just run saline tomorrow.  [For any medical personnel that may be reading this... I am trying my best to recount exactly what I am being told, but please forgive me if my explanations don't make sense.  There is a reason I didn't go to medical school.  For the rest of you, you may continue to blindly trust my explanations.]

There was an extended period of time where I was convinced that Sadie had Addison's disease, would need part of her pancreas removed, or had a growth hormone deficiency.  These diagnoses were based on my extensive online research.  It is possible that the neonatologist laughed at me when I mentioned Addison's disease... because it is rare. Very rare. I suppose I should trust the doctors over the great minds bringing us Wikipedia.

Head Circumference.  To this point, I have not written anything about Sadie's head circumference measurements.  Probably because, once again, I took to the internet and was convinced of the worst possible situation... Now that I know things are probably fine, I am ready to explain.  Generally, the girls had been receiving weekly measurements - including measuring their head circumferences.  Sadie's measurements remained steady until a few weeks ago when the measurements showed that her head circumference increased by 2.5 centimeters in one week.  This is a lot of sudden growth (.5 - 1.0 centimeters/week would be normal for their age).  Well after allowing Google to convince me she had hydrocephalus and would need a shunt and a life full of shunt-related issues, her head ultrasound revealed that, alas, there was no hydrocephalus.

I understand that I should retire "Google", but it seems to be an addiction I just can't let go of!

Baby Got Back

The other day while changing the girls' diapers, I noticed some changes.  There was something different about my cute little premature daughters: butts.  I knew they had been gaining weight... but this was the first time I really noticed where that weight was going - apparently, directly to their asses.  I suppose this is good and cute now, someday they will be so sad that this is the first place of distribution for their bodies.  Ella and Sadie were born without butts; literally not even enough fat for a crack.   All of the sudden, my babies got back (if you were just tempted to correct my grammar... you somehow missed a major landmark of the early 90s...).

So why am I telling you about their butts??  First, why wouldn't I?  Second, this is my witty and charming way of telling you that I've heard your requests: you want weights (I know, I sometimes take the scenic route - but I always get there eventually!).  So I am going to keep this post dedicated to updating you on the girls' weight.  Of course, their weights will also be mentioned on other update posts... but at least here you will be able to see it all at once.  I will only be keeping the last 7 days so that the post doesn't get too long.  * For my communist readers: grams are in parentheses. 'Merica!!

Ella:
July 12, 2013: 4 lb 15.7 oz (2261g)

July 13, 2013: 5 lb 2.4 oz (2336g)

July 14, 2013: 5 lb 4.4 oz (2395g)
July 15, 2013: 5 lb 4.8 oz (2405g)
July 16, 2013: 5 lb 6.2 oz (2445g)
July 17, 2013: 5 lb 7.5 oz (2482g)

July 18, 2013: 5 lb 9.5 oz (2536g)

July 19, 2013: 5 lb 10.5 oz (2567g)

July 20, 2013: 5 lb 12.5 oz (2624g)

Sadie: 

July 12, 2013: 4 lb 1.3 oz (1852g)

July 13, 2013: 3 lb 15.4 oz (1798g)

July 14, 2013: 4 lb 4.7 oz (1949g)

July 15, 2013: 4 lb 5.3 oz (1967g)

July 16, 2013: 4 lb 5.8 oz (1980g)

July 17, 2013: 4 lb 7.0 oz (2014g)

July 18, 2013: 4 lb 7.1 oz (2016g)

July 19, 2013: 4 lb 8.4 oz (2055g)

July 20, 2013: 4 lb 9.9 oz (2096g)

When Ella Met Sadie

In my last post, I said that I would share what kind of awesome "three week birthday celebration" we had with the girls...

Since 3:09 on June 13 when Ella was born, the girls have not been together at all.  While they have been in the same room, they have been always been in separate beds - in fact, we use hand sanitizer each time we move from one of the girls to the other just to make sure that if one is sick, we don't spread the germs.

Blah, blah. Ryan says all you people really want are pictures of the girls.  So... here are pictures of the first time Ella and Sadie met... Enjoy!! :)

They love one another. 

 

 

The nurse wasn't really sure what to think; she had never seen someone attempt to hold twins quite like this...

Sadie is super excited about meeting Ella... Ella is really tired.

Ella is already jealous about having to share her mom with someone... this look is saying, 

"Seriously, Mom?!  What the F?!"

Ella's morning breath all up in Sadie's business.

I could have sat there all day holding the two of them... that is a lie.  While this looks peaceful, at one point both girls started crying and their oxygen levels started to dip down so both alarms started sounding.  I was stuck.  I couldn't stand up and put one down (becuase both are hooked up to either oxygen, IVs, and the monitors).  All I kept thinking was... "this is what it is like to have two kids". I had a minor panic attack... 

So sweet. 

I know this is a terrible picture of me.  But I loved this moment - so I am including the picture.