New seat :)

So if you notice from the pictures the boys were not to thrilled with this whole sitting up in a chair business at first... if you look really close you can see a tear running down Jamison's little cheek... yes real tears. It makes me so sad when he break out the real tears, then he is not just "crying" he is REALLY "crying". I am telling you he already knows how to get his momma to cater to his every need :) But... you can tell after the initial shock of "what is this crappy thing??" they are now loving their little chair. Jamison just sits there and coos or blows rasberries (you know that puttering noise with his toungue, like bubbles almost) so cute!! Weston just likes the new view I think :) He just checks everything out.

Please note the last picture... that is from this morning (although it could have been taken ANY morning) Each day they "wake up" somewhere between 6-7 am screaming their little heads off (well Jamison screams, Weston whimpers) and the craziest thing happens..... if I lay them back in my bed (temporary bed, I am sleeping on the guest bed in their room for now so Pat can sleep, once they sleep through the night I will move back in our room) they INSTANTLY are sleeping again. What can I say..... they love being with their momma and I love seeing their chubby little cheeks first thing in the morning but I know I have to kick this little habit in the butt... just not yet :)

We did have a "first" the other day... was it a first tooth... no.......was it a first babble...no........ was it a first -------- (insert anything you can think of that would be exciting)... nope.... it was our very first poop explosion. My little Weston... aka Sir-poops-alot..... exploded.... up his back, through 2 layers of clothes and all over the belt for his monitor!! It was a huge mess, I had to call daddy in for help holding him up so I could take everything off him... you can probably guess... daddy was not much help since he was pretending to gag every 5 seconds :) For as much as he likes to talk about his own poop (or even Maggie's landminds) you would think baby poop would be a walk in the park!!!

Well then there is me... I have 6 pounds left (39 down) to get back to my pre preggo weight... not to bad... except I have been at 6 pounds for a few weeks.... I blame it on Thanksgiving :) so I have now started the official operation body back... also known as O.B.B. Up till now I have not been doing anything to help with weight loss (stress of running to and from hospital was a diet enough) but its time to work it..... Monday I started my new exercise program (Jillian Michaels-I don't like you very much right now I am soooooooo sore) we'll see how it goes. I would love to be able to start 2011 without a New Years ressolution to lose weight. Fingers crossed!!!

My little turkeys... and bears :)

If it wasn't that I think they would sweat to death I would always have them in their bear suits!!! Its like hugging real live teddy bears :)

As you can see from our Turkey Day pictures Weston wasn't super excited to have his picture taken :)

And of course there is Maggie.. just incase you were wondering how she is doing with the babies :) Please note her hair cut... I was not very thrilled about picking Maggie hair out of the babies mouths/pacifiers so she got a new do!!! The only bad thing is we have learned Jamison is allergic to Maggie's kisses. If she licks him he breaks out in a bad rash... poor baby has very sensitive skin.

Thanksgiving 2010

I am sure you all knew a post of this nature was coming :)

Pat and I have alot to be thankful for each year but of course this year we had some extra special blessings. Despite being born 8 weeks early our little boys are healthy and growing stronger each day.. despite all of my health issues and concerns I had no major complications.

We often talk about the kind of crappy timing of our move to D.C. If we had known we were about to become parents to twins, would Pat have put in for this job and leave all of our family and friends??? No he wouldn't have......... however, we got here, and by pure luck we happened to get into one of the most prestigious high risk OB practices. Not sure if I ever mentioned but they are ranked 24 in the entire nation. The "triplet mom" moved here from Hawaii specifically for this practice to care for her and deliver her babies.... another mom who was in the high risk floor with me traveled over an hour and a half for each appointment just for these Dr.'s becuase of the poor care she recieved from another practice with her first pregnancy (she delivered her baby at 24 weeks, who luckily lived but does have some developmental delays)... If we were still in FL I really don't think we would have had the same specialized care.... Would they thought to check my cervix every 2 weeks? Would they have put in a cerclage in time? Would I have gone on bedrest at 15 1/2 weeks? Would I have been hospitalized at 25 weeks?? I don't know but I am glad I had very conservative Dr's who did all of those things.. with all of that our babies still came 8 weeks early, had we skipped any of those steps I have know idea how early they would have come or if our outcome would have been the same. The one thing I do know is I am extremely thankful for my little babies (one is laying asleep on my chest as I type this... love them!!!).

Of course I am also thankful for all we have, a great family, fantastic extended family, friends, our health, roof over our head and enough food to eat....and not to mention how thankful I am for my hubby... we make a great team :)

Overall it was a great holiday. Thanksgiving is my favorite by far. No stress for what to buy for gifts, whether or not they will like it....its all about getting together with people you care about and enjoying good food...usually to much good food... its perfect!! I made my first full Thanksgiving feast... and other then serving it much later then I expected it was a success.... here was our menu-

stuffed mushroom appeitizer
turkey
stuffing
sweet potato casserole (copycat recipe of Boston Market-delicious)
twice baked mashed potatoes
broccoli
corn
cranberry sauce
bread
homemade apple pie (yes I sliced and peeled the apples)
homemade pumpkin pie

Needless to say I was in the kitchen the whole day (minus pit stops to feed and change the babies... daddy doesn't do poopies). Pat had invited a friend from work who is also new to the area so it was a small group. It was a great day........and we are still eating leftovers :)

Updates on babies.... Jamison is doing great.... closing in on 10 lbs and has become quite the mommas boy.... Weston is doing pretty good as well ... still a wee little peanut, my guess is 7.5 lbs or so.. but is filling out his cheeks. My poor neighbor was over last night holding him when he had a low heart rate spell... I tell her from accross the room (feeding Jamison) "pat his back" and she does... he is still alarming... I say "pat him harder" she does, he is still alarming I get there and rub his back nice and hard and he was back to normal... I felt bad... it makes me nervous and I am his mom I know she was a bit upset... I don't think she is going to want to hold him for awhile...........

The only good news is when I went to change him I noticed his lead had slipped pretty low making it hard to pick up his heart beat so it probably was a false alarm..... either way it scared us both.... can't wait for these boys to grow out of these little spells!!!

Yesterday we skipped the crowds for Black Friday (online shopping is sooooooooo much easier) and Pat turned our house into a winter wonderland :) We have a decent amount of Christmas decorations and in our our old house it looked pretty minimal since our house was pretty big.. in our new place it looks like Santas workshop :) I love it... and the only thing I love more then looking at the lights myself is seeing my two newborn babies stare at the lights of their very first Christmas tree..... awe... the wonders of childhood!!!

Shocked!

Each day the babies do their tummy time... typically uneventful since they are still so little... not today!! All of the suddon Weston flipped himself up on his side... and then rolled over!!! I was so shocked, this little baby is barely 7 lbs and two months old (adjusted age only 2 weeks). Pat and I totally thought it was a fluke so we put him back on his belly and a few seconds later he rolled back onto his side giving me just enough time to grab my camera!! Two times the little guy rolled himself over, what a big boy!!!

Not to leave Jamison out, he is "talking" all the time now, its adorable, he has a very sweet little voice... I just need to get a good video of it. I could just sit all day and squeeze them they are so cute :) Just for fun I had to post a few pictures too!

Dr. appointment updates

Busy busy busy. Monday was our big visit to the pulmanary Dr., overall it went pretty well. After printing out the read-outs on the machine the Dr. told me that only 5 of Jamison's alarms had been real, the rest were false alarms where he was breathing so shallow the monitor didn't pick it up.... 5 is still scary but much better then what I was anticipating. Weston had only 2 spells since coming home and they were so mild the machine recorded them but never beeped or alarmed for us so he is doing really fantastic.

This was the first day out for me with both babies by myself.........it was a long trip because the appointment times for each baby were 3 hours apart and I did something so stupid!!!!!!!! The night before I had packed the diaper bag & got everything ready so all I had to do was grab two bottles, babies, monitors & paperwork and go. So I get all loaded up, put the bottles on the counter go to find my keys and.... nope they are gone.... this is where I sigh and get frustrated that for whatever reason when Pat drives my car he can not put the keys back where they belong (or anyplace that would make sense) to save his life.... after searching the house high and low I find my keys in the pocket of his jeans that were in the dirty clothes (MEN!!!) anyways you can probably guess what happens next......... I load back up, hop in the car, go to pull in to the apt & realize the bottles are still on the counter!!! UGH!!! I was so mad at myself (and Pat because I am pretty certain without the sending out a search party to find the keys I wouldn't have put them down in the first place). I figure that since this a pediatric office maybe, just maybe they would have a cheapy or single use bottle (I had the milk with me just not the bottles) nope... so my plan then was to get through the first apt then run to CVS and but some before the next. We get through Jamison's and knowing the situation they did most of Weston's but had to stop when her next apt's came.... so at this point I only had about an hour before his scheduled time. I run two buildings over where they have an in house pharmacy since there was not enough time to load them get to CVS and back... that place had everything but bottles..... long story short... I felt HORRIBLE they had to go so long (their bottles were about 3 hours late) before getting fed :( Not that they noticed, they slept through everything....Mom guilt... it has already begun.

Next up pediatrician.... I LOVE the practice, both Dr's and staff.... bad news is they are on the 3rd floor... not usually a problem I just take the elevator.... unless the ELEVATOR ISN'T WORKING!!! For the record what idiot person designed a 5 story office building with only one elevator is beyond me?!?!?! I am standing in the lobby trying to figure out logistics of carrying everything up 3 flights of stairs when this nice old lady sitting on a bench flags down this young guy (don't I sound old?? but he was young, maybe 18ish) to help me up the stairs with the double stroller..... Note to self don't wear high heels to pediatrician appts........ Awe who am I kidding... I always wear heels (the taller you are the skinnier you look, thats why my hair is so big).

The appointment itself went great. Boys are getting big!!! Jamison 8lbs 5oz, 20 1/4 inches long, Weston 6lbs 15oz, 19 1/2 inches long... funny part is Weston's head is actually a bit bigger even though he is so much smaller :) And are doing everything 2 month old are supposed to except smile on purpose (until tonight when my little Jamison smiled at his momma for the first time- I melted, it was so sweet) which is REALLY good since they were two months early.

Oh... on the way out, thank goodness the elevator had been fixed... instead we were hit with pouring rain, so much fun to load the boys, stroller and monitors into the car when its raining buckets... oh well, at least it wasn't on that great of a hair day :)

Today was Jamison's ultrasound on his hips (in the same hospital they were born in so we made a quick pit stop upstairs to say hello to our favorite nurses) and the best news yet, they were perfect!!! No hip brace for my little man!!!

Overall we have had some great news and good Dr. apts for the boys the last few days. Tomorrow I am taking them to a fellow newborn twin moms house. She is hosting 8 moms all with twins 9 weeks old and under (do the math, she is CRAZY to have everyone over to her house) but I think it will be fun (and loud with that many crying babies) to get together and swap stories... I'll let you know how that goes :)

Everything happens for a reason.......

I say this often when things happen and often I don't know the reason at the time but sometime in the future I say something along the lines of "thank goodness this happened or else this would/wouldn't of happened"....... lately I have really been counting my blessings.

Remember a few weeks back when little Jamison was supposed to come home and he had a spell and wasn't able to? I was sooooo upset. I just wanted to be with him so badly and couldn't believe we weren't going to be able to.

Up until that point Jamison was going to be coming home all by himself, no monitor. I had joked with the Dr asking her to send him home on one just for my own sanity an she was like "it will just make you crazy, you won't need it". After the last spell she changed her mind and decided both boys would be coming home on monitors because "that little one can't be trusted" she joked. She stayed on the side of caution............ I will forever be grateful.

The last few weeks Jamison has been fantastic, no spells, no drop in heart rate, over all perfect... until the last few nights. He has been forgetting to breath while he is sleeping..... and sometimes it takes quite a bit of stimulation to get him to start again. The last two nights and during his nap today have been especially bad where its been 4-5 times within an hour. If he wasn't on the monitor, we could have lost him to SIDS... more then once. Ugh, just thinking about this makes me cry, I am so thankful medicine has come this far and I (and Pat) are able to help him and get to him in time.

When the Dr decided to send him home with the monitor they suggested a follow up with the pulmanary Dr within 2-3 weeks, and she said "usually with babies like him where this is as a precaution they discontinue use at the first appointment after looking at the read outs". They are a specialized practice and pretty hard to get into so I wasn't able to get an appointment until this week which is 4 weeks out... again I am counting my blessings. Had we been able to get an appointment at 2 weeks, he had been perfect, they would have most likely taken him off the monitor and this would be a much different post. Now at four weeks out its very clear he NEEDS this machine and more so ...........I NEED him to be on it. Its so scary and crazy. His problem was his heart, thats what he was being watched for and as it turns out its his lungs and breathing that are giving us trouble. Life is so fragil, him doing this just reminds me how fragil and how quickly we could have lost him.

The funny part of all of this is that my little peanut Weston is who I was so nervous to bring home. He was tiny and frail (not anymore, he is getting nice and plump) and was having spells up to the night before he came home... since he has been here he is just getting stronger each day, like my little super star.

Tomorrow is when we go to to the pulmanary Dr., they will do the read outs and be able to tell me more about whats really going on. They should be able to see if there is a trend in why or when this is happening. I know it can be caused by the reflux, if its hurting sometimes babies hold their breath, maybe he just needs a different medication or maybe its something different all together... but one thing is for sure I will be happy to have some answers.

On another note... Pat and I have a deal where I pick up the night time feedings and he... well.... doesn't (this is why I NEVER pick up dog poop, its also part of that deal) although I probably wouldn't have agreed had I known then we would be having twins :) Although I see it as Maggie will need her poop picked up for years... the boys will be waking up during the night for just a few months, so overall its not a bad deal really :) However the first thing in the morning feedings, like 6-7 am is no longer the night time right??? So the last two days I have been so sweet as to deliver the little ones to him... ok I am not that bad I give him one and I feed the other (well, that and if I gave him both to feed he might have a panic attack). The problem is he always wants to pick the easy one to feed- Weston. That boy can eat (or as Aunt Cookie would say "drink") a bottle with in 10 minutes and burp like a man right after, where his brother who is quite the bruiser, looking like he eats all the time, is a pretty slow eater, 20-30 minutes, likes to play with the bottle, licking it instead of sucking on it and takes alot of work to get to burp.... So this morning it was about 7:00 and I get Pat up and our conversation goes like this...

-so here are your options, both babies need to be feed one has a load in his pants- take your pick.

-no it doesn't work like that, I will feed Weston

-you can have Weston, but you'll have to change his hiny

-nope you can change him after

-sorry, you got to do the whole deal for whichever one you take

-ok I will feed Jamison

Lesson- Pat hates how long it takes Jamison to eat and how he plays with his bottle and lollygags.... however he hates poopy diapers more :) I laugh everytime I here Pat say "UGH!!! He is doing it agian, he is licking it!!!" I really need to get it on video.

Time management...

Its kind of sad my posts have gone from mostly writing with the occassional picture to mostly pictures with the occasional story.... thats ok, the boys are way cuter then most of my stories. Finding time is tough. Mostly because when I do have time I would rather sleep :)

Overall the babies are good sleepers the problem is my grunter... Jamison likes to grunt and whimper while he is totally asleep so I keep checking him (thinking he is awake) while his little brother has been having some pretty serious reflux issues and the poor baby freaks out turns purple throws himself backwards stiff as a board and spits up out his tiny little nose... between that and Jamison making all kinds of noise (along with the occiasional reflux just like Weston) it makes for minimal sleep.............. the other night poor Weston did it 4 times in an hour :( Pats mom left today and she was such a big help with the nightime feedings... I think the next few days I will be trying to find our "grove" but no worries, they are only this little for such a short period of time so I will just keep enjoying every minute.

I still find myself in awe of them. They are so sweet its still hard to believe they are ours... that we made these little people..... I have babysat practically my whole life and its like I am still waiting for their parents to show up and take them home........babies are truly miracles!!!!

Weston had his last home nurse follow up yesterday and she weighed them both, they've gotten so big!!

Jamison 7lbs 13oz

Weston 6lbs 7oz

Weston gained almost a pound in a week!! He is doing so good :) While the nurse was here (don't get me started on the craziness happening with water pouring into our dining room while she was here-thats a whole different story) we told her about the rash Jamison had been battling.

Had I not been slacking in the blogging dept I would have already mentioned it, oops. Well last Friday Jamison had a rash on his face.. redness, little pimply bumps (no its not baby achne) puffiness around his eyes. It looked like an allergic reaction to something I looked it up online, didn't seem to be anything to worry about. I called the ped to see if they recommend anything to put on it and they said not to worry, leave it be and bring him in for his regular visit next Tuesday. Saturday he wakes up and its much worse, his eyes were so swollen, but the rash and everything was just on his face so we changed his sheet (I had a special one one there so I took it off and put a regular cotton one on) put him in a softer sleep sack and I decided to take him off breastmilk to be sure it wasn't something I was eating. Obviously I probably should have done this one at a time so we knew exactly what helped but he looked pitiful and I just wanted to make him feel better. Well it worked, by the next day the swelling went down and the rash was much better.......... fast forward to nurses visit, we told her about this and I showed her a picture (I would post it but it was a pretty rough picture of him)of him from the day it was bad and she kind of insisted we take him in to be seen (even though he was much better) thinking we may need a perscription on hand if this happened again. His face looked great but since both boys were refluxing so bad I really wanted to address that before our next visit anyway so we went in....................

After talking to the dr. about what to avoid eating while nursing and it hit me like a ton of bricks... she said

"you want to avoid anything that may be problematic like milk, soy, nuts..."

Nuts!!!! Ugh!!! I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of that!!! Pat has a peanut allergy (he eats them anyway and gets sick each time). Well I LOVE shelled peanuts and hadn't had them in forever but we picked up some last week and between Pats mom and I we had eaten a big huge bag right around that time. Poor kid. Now knowing this, for him having that bad of a reaction from my milk she said we will need to be very careful when he is bigger and we can re-evaluate everything, I am sure that will be to see if we need to carry an epi-pen or if its a more mild sensitivity like Pat has.

While we were there she gave him a once over and she is concerned about his little hips... so next week we are going to get an ultrasound done. I guess this will determine whether or not he needs to be put in a brace. I am praying he doesn't need it........

The other wonderful news the home nurse gave when I told her I was looking forward to the pulmanary dr taking the boys off their monitors soon (the wires all over the house and not being able to walk around with them is killing me) and she said.........don't get your hopes up with the way they are refluxing :( Oh well I guess we'll know more next week... Monday pulmanary Dr apts (thats who follows the monitors), Tuesday pediatrician apts, Wednesday ultrasound... hmmmm busy busy :)

The good news is the Dr. increase meds for both boys reflux and changed the time they get it and so far it seems to be helping so fingers crossed it means we are on the right track!!!

Brother love...

I LOVE this video of the boys and the other video of Weston but I couldn't help myself and had to add some photos :)

The one with a very red faced Jamison is like his calm before his storm :) He turns red before he screams LOL.

Our home nurse came by yesterday and weighed the babies and I was pretty surprised how big they had gotten. I mean I knew they had gotten bigger but Jamison has gained more then a pound in a week, he is now 7lbs 9oz!! Weston is coming right along as well, it took him so long to pass 5 lbs and a week later he is 5lbs and 13oz!!!

We are finally all together!!!

I think this post will speak for itself. Pat and I (and Grandma too) are so excited to have both babies together. Everytime I look at them I am just in awe that they are ours, they are just so so sweet.

PS The little guy is doing great!! Sleeps well and eats awesome and best yet.......... no spells (for either baby actually).