White Christmas!

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year!  We spent Christmas eve with my family at my parent's house.  Jared's mother spent the night with us on Christmas eve, and then we went to his aunt's house to visit with his family.  We started a family tradition of having a birthday party for Jesus on Christmas morning.  We ate cupcakes for breakfast and sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.  We talked so much about Jesus's birthday this year, and I think Emma really got it.  As much as a 2 year old can understand it, anyway.  We would ask her "Who's birthday is it?", and she would raise her hands and say "Baby Jesus!".

Emma was pretty excited when she found out we were having chocolate cupcakes for breakfast!

 Emma's big present was a kitchen!  She has been playing with it nonstop every day.  It took me and Jared hours to put it together the night before.  So worth it!

 Emma got lots of dress-up clothes from my aunt and uncle on Christmas eve.  She squealed when she saw the tutu and wanted to wear everything right then! :)

 "Open, open De-De!"

 "Isa" got Emma a Cinderella book!

 Meme brought Emma a beautiful highchair for her dolls, and lots of other goodies.

Granny with the twins

 Emma was chasing her cousin Colin around the house.

 My boys :)

 These were the snow flurries at our house on Christmas morning.  Not much, but still fun to see some snow!

 When we got into Trussville/Pinson where Jared's aunt lives, there was snow everywhere!  Beautiful!

 These pics are from the day after Christmas.  We got a good dusting that day, and we went out for a little bit, but Emma got wet quickly and had to come inside to change.  She wanted to stay outside and play, though!

 JOY!

 "Childern are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him.  Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are children born in one's youth.  Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them." Psalm 127:5

Ethan and David- 4 months

Ethan and David turned 4 months two days before Christmas.  I CANNOT believe it!  Here are some things going on with them and highlights from the last month or two.

• At 3 months, Ethan weighed 9 lbs 3 oz, and David was 9 lbs 4 oz.  This week E weighed 11 lbs 5 oz, and D was 11 lbs 4 oz.  It still amazes how close they are in weight.
• They have officially outgrown their newborn clothes, and are now wearing 3 month clothing!  Yea!  They just started wearing size 2 diapers (um, we have an obscene amount of dirty diapers around here these days.  So if you come over and our house stinks- I apologize!)
• Their demand for milk is now exceeding my breastmilk supply :(  So, we have started supplementing with a couple of bottles of formula each day.  I would love to be able to breastfeed both of them the enitre first year like I did with Em, but I just can't make any more milk!  When they get a bottle they usually eat 4-5 oz.
• They have been smiling and cooing like crazy the last couple of weeks.  It took them a while to get there- about 3 months, but it has been SO sweet to see those smiles!  They have such contagious smiles and smiley eyes that light up their whole faces.
• They are definitely developing distinct personalities.  Ethan is a little more sensitive and needs more attention than David.  He can be fussy, but I think he is going to grow to be such a determined little boy!  David is mostly laid back, and happy just chilling most of the time.  David LOVES his brother and will try to inch over closer to Ethan when he gets a chance.  Ethan is happy with a little more personal space :)
• We had a little drama in our house a couple of weeks ago when Ethan got one of Emma's hair twisted around THREE of his toes!!!  He had been crying uncontrollably for 2 days before we figured out what was wrong.  His toes looked terrible, but thankfully God guided Jared's hand to get it off without making things worse.  I heard many stories from friends that had to take their baby to the ER to get the hair off, so I am so glad that we didn't have to go down that road.  Poor Mr. E felt much better after that!
• They have just started sleeping in separate cribs.  It makes me a little sad to separate them when they sleep now, but one was waking up the other during naps or at night.

Ethan and David at about 3 months

David and Ethan at 4 months

 David and Emma

 David at 4 months

Emma loves her brothers!  She is such a sweet sister.

• They are taking about 3-4 naps a day, and almost sleeping through the night.  Some nights they have taken a 6 or 7 hour stretch, but at other times it is only 4 hours.  I think they are getting close, though.

Life

Wow, it has taken me forever to update the blog!  I can't believe it has been 2 months since my last post.  Ethan and David are 3 1/2 months old now, and Emma is quickly approaching 2 1/2 years old.  The days are long, but how time has flown by since they were born!

All I really have time for right now is getting pictures up.  Here are some random pictures from the last 2 months.  More coming hopefully in the next few days.  We decided to play it low-key and took Emma treat or treating in our neighborhood this year.  We bundled up the boys in the double stoller and had a great time walking around to see our neighbors.  She loved getting all the candy, and just about walked into everyone's house that we went to.  She was a kitty in a tutu :)  



Emma kissing Ethan :)



Ethan snoozing



My happy girl!



Precious David



Sweet girl

Ethan smiling at mama

Emma eating chocolate peanut butter balls that she made with mommy!  She loved them :)

snuggling

David and Ethan are getting 2- 33 ml bottles of breastmilk a day now, and breastfeeding once a day.  The rest of their feedings are still given through the NG tube.  They are doing really good!  They will take the first 20 ml easily with the bottle, and then the nurse usually has to force down the remaining 10.  They were both 3 lbs 15 oz today!  Almost to 4 lbs!!!  They are both off their O2 sat monitor, and doing a great job regulating their body temp too.  So the main thing we are waiting on is getting them to eat on their own!  David pulled out his NG tube twice today.  I hate that they had to put it in again, but it least we know he is getting stronger and has a little fight in him!  I love these boys so much!

Pictures from the rest of the first week and Update

Ok, I am finally going to catch up!  I may just have to post pictures later, because that can be time-consuming.  Nothing else really changed much the rest of the first week.  The babies both came off of the phototherapy by the end of the week because their bilirubin levels were down.  They were both able to come off oxygen from the nasal cannulas and have been breathing completely on their own ever since!  I've been able to hold them every day, which is pure bliss :)  Here are a few more pictures from the end of last week:

David

Ethan

Ethan when he had the nasal cannula

On Monday they turned 1 week old!  Yea!  They did head ultrasounds on both boys to check for any bleeding in the brain, which is fairly common with premature babies.  Everything came back completely normal- praise God!!!  That was such a relief.  They are going up with their feedings (pumped breastmilk through their feeding tubes) every day, and they are tolerating it wonderfully.  It is so cute to watch them being fed.  Their little eyes get heavy toward the end, and sometimes they will even suck on their thumb or fingers.  They are happy boys with a full belly.  On Tuesday they moved them into the same isolette so they could be together!  It is so precious to see them right next to each other!  Makes me happy that even though I can't be there all the time with them, they have each other!  Also they were able to increase their feedings enough so that they could stop their IV fluids.  Now that they no longer have IVs they can begin to wear premiee clothes :)  Finally, I got to hold both of them together at the same time on Tuesday.  It was incredible to be able to hold both of my precious babies!  Ethan kept stretching his little arms and head, pushing David over.  And David was content as could be, slept the whole time.  Today (Wednesday) their bilirubin levels had gone up again, so they had to separate them again to start the phototherapy again.  But hopefully they will get it out of their system in a couple of days, and then they can be together again.  They have almost come back to their birth weight- Ethan was 3 lbs 7 oz, and David was 3 lbs 5 oz today.  They are adding a human milk fortifier to my breastmilk to add some calories and help them bulk up.  I think that about covers the last few days!  They are doing amazingly well, and we are so thankful to God for all He has done and is going to do!

Ethan and David (Days 2 and 3)

Day 2 was a great day for the boys!  Ethan was taken off of the ventiltor and put on the CPAP because he was doing better.  Then later that day he came off of the CPAP because his lungs looked great and he was doing a good job breathing on his own.  They gave him a little oxygen through a nasal cannula to help him out a little bit.  David came off of the CPAP also that day!  The highlight of the day was holding them both for the very first time.  They were precious moments and they really responded to me talking to them.  David opened his eyes and looked at me when I held him for the first time.  In the morning I held David since he was doing so well, and then when we came back in the evening I was able to do "kangaroo care" with both of them.  They also started phototherapy that day because both babies' bilirubin levels were high.  Here are some photos from Day 2:

The first time we saw David open his eyes

Holding David for the first time!

Ethan under the bili-lites

David under the bili-lites

This sweet girl stopped by that evening to see her baby brothers!  She was so precious!  When she saw me holding David, she said "aww, baby", and reached out her hand toward him.  She was so interested in them!

Day 3 went really well also.  They were still under the lights, and I got to hold them both.  They were both so alert; opening their eyes and looking up at me!  It just melts my heart.  Both of them had nasal cannulas that day to help their breathing just a little bit.

David looking up at Mommy!

David

Ethan looking up at Mommy

Ethan

Ethan

"Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done.  The things you have planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak of them, they would be to many to declare! Psalm 40:5