One Week Old!

December 4th, 2012

First of all, we have to tell Nana Stott Happy Birthday!  My mom is absolutely, hands-down, my best friend in the whole world.  Next to Jason, she is the first person I turn to in need or excitement.  I'm so blessed to have her in my life as a friend, mom, and now Nana to my children.  She is in an absolute inspiration in all she does and I hope to one day be half the woman she is.  I know I will be relying in her a ton in the next year as we go through this adventure of raising two baby boys.  I know I can call my mom, no matter the time, and she'll be there in a heartbeat to help. Hope you had a great birthday, Nana! I Love you, mommy!!

The boys were exactly One Week Old today at 7:35 and 7:37 a.m. I can't believe that it's already been an entire week.  They have shown an amazing amount of progress in such a short amount of time!  Both babies are gaining about an ounce a day and are eating more and more each day.  Monday they moved from the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) to the PCN (Progressive Care Nursery).  Jason and I were shocked when we got there Monday for a visit and were told they were moving! The boys' goals in the PCN is to grow, grow, grow!! They will also learn to take all food from a bottle and fully maintain their own body temperature.  They will be changing from the advanced isolette to very simply isolettes or bassinets.  Jackson already had been moved to wearing clothes last week and tonight Will got his first outfit.  This just helps them look like such little babies.  They also keep them swaddled during this time.  They learn to maintain their body temperature with the clothing on.  Both of their IV lines were removed today.  These ran through their bodies, but were no longer necessary- yay!

We were able to finally hold our babies today!  Jason was in charge of Jackson and I took care of William.  We started by doing their "basic" care.  We took their temperatures  (with a thermometer under their arms) and changed their diapers.  Both boys had stinky diapers.  Even though they are wearing "Preemie" diapers, they are still huge on them. We attempted to bottle feed each baby.  Each of them took a little, but we are still working on it.  What they didn't finish was finished in their feeding tube.  Words cannot describe how incredible it was to hold and feed our babies.  It definitely made it feel like they were more "ours" since we were providing them with care.  We will now start doing this feeding and care each night now.  It's amazing how much the babies change each day, so we don't want to miss a thing.  Both boys are filling out and starting to finally look more like babies.  We are so in love with them already!!!

Today (Wed.) we hope to get to "Kangaroo" the babies before feeding them.  This consists of putting them on your chest for "skin-to-skin" contact.  This is supposed to be really great for the babies and increase my milk supply.  Right now they are burning through the breast milk I take each day.  I am making enough to ALMOST feed them solely breast milk all day, but they are having to supplement with just a little formula.  I have been very pleasantly surprised with how my pumping is going.  Of course, I am attached to the pump every two to three hours, but it's totally work it.  I get my best pumping done in the middle of the night.  I know this is the main way I can contribute to their health right now, so I consider it a blessing to be able provide for them.  

The best part- PHOTOS:

 Taking Will's temperature- 98.5- After this, I changed his diaper and the nurse dressed him in a Onesie.  I think you can really start to see how small he is here in relationship to my hand.  He's still a skinny-mini, but is slowly starting to fill out!  He loves to sleep all spread out, which is ALL Jason.  We'll see how he did swaddled to sleep when we go back in today.  

Jason feeding Jackson.  I've never seen Jason so nervous in his entire life.  It was adorable and made my heart swell with pride and love to see my hubby with his child!  Wow, it's still so crazy to say things like that!

 Me with my sweet baby Will.  He did really well at first, but is still working on the bottle thing.  He took more than he had with any of the other nurses though, so that made me feel better!

Our first family picture!! You can tell how nervous Jason is here on his face.  He's adorable! :) 

I'm going to try my best to stay on top of adding pictures and details as often as possible.  This will be how I can keep up with their childhood the best and hopefully they'll be able to one day look at the blog and follow their dramatic childhood!  We continue to praise God for his many blessings and the rapid progress of our children.  We would love to have them home as soon as possible, but know that it is all a work in progress.  We want them to be ready to go home and STAY home and not have to return.  Please continue to pray for these sweet boys.  It is evident that God has an amazing hand on them. We would love for everyone to meet them eventually, but right now we are working on building that immune system.   Love y'all!! :)