Home Sweet Home!!

 

Cookie cake from Kevin, Jennifer, and Kenley Compton! So sweet! :)

I apologize for not having a post for awhile, but we've been super busy because both boys are now home!!!  Jackson came home on Christmas Eve and William quickly followed five days later.  So today marks one full week with both boys home and we've survived!! Juggling two babies is definitely not an easy task, but we absolutely love having them here with us.  I cannot describe to you how amazing it is to NOT have to drive to the hospital on a daily basis!  Also it's so great to be able to just be in our own house and snuggle with our little men.  We are not getting much sleep, despite them being on a great schedule.  One advantage to the boys spending so much time in the hospital was that they were on a three hour feeding schedule.  We have stuck to that and that makes life much easier.  We are learning some tricks to be more effective with our time, such as making all the bottles for the day at once.  Jason has been amazing and helps me with every feeding.  I've only had to do one feeding by myself because Jason had to go to work for a bit, but I managed. The "Boppy" pillow was very helpful for this.  I put each boy in one and held a bottle in each boys' mouth.  This will be how I have to feed them once Jason returns to work, but we'll manage!  They are getting quicker and better at taking their bottles, so it is getting easier.  Jason has two weeks paternity leave that he started Friday, so this will be great to have him home for a couple weeks while we get used to having the boys home. 

Even though the boys were able to come home, they are still not completely "wireless."   Both boys are on sleep apnea monitors that they have to wear ALL day, except when bathing.  While this is pretty annoying to have to carry around a little bag with their monitor in it each time you need to move them, it is a great peace of mind to know that they are not having heart rate drops or apnea events.  The box records everything and we will go to the sleep apnea doctor at the end of the month to see how they did.  Usually most preemies will grow out of the apnea by their 40 week gestational mark.  Right now we are still at 38 weeks gestation, so they are still having some "events."  We can anticipate them being on the monitors for about three months.  While it's annoying, it's very minor.  Jack still has his heart murmur, but like the apnea, it should go away soon.  So we feel amazingly blessed with how healthy our boys are!! 

They are also growing like crazy!! We have a nurse that will come to the house four times to help us transition from the 24 hour care the boys got in the hospital.  She weighs them and checks out their overall health.  Yesterday Jack weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces and Will weighed 5 pounds, 1 ounce!! We have come so far from 3 lbs, 3 ozs, and 2 lbs, 7 ozs!  They are starting to look like babies now!  Jason already calls Jack "Pork chop" since he's getting little baby fat rolls.  I'm sure that won't give him a complex! :)  Oh, and they've outgrown Preemie clothes and are in Newborn- yahoo!!

While it is great to be home, we have not had a lot of time actually to just be here and hang out.  We have had a lot of doctor's appointments! We've already been to the pediatrician twice and the eye doctor once.  The eye doctor's appointment was about an hour away and took about two and half hours (mainly waiting for their eyes to dilate), so that was a full day!  They are going to the eye doctor to rule out an eye disease that a lot of preemies develop.  Right now the boys have no signs of the disease, but their eyes are not fully developed enough to tell yet.  So we get to go back in another two weeks and repeat that appointment.  Hopefully that will be the last appointment like that though.  We shall see!  Luckily our pediatrician's office is about five minutes from the house, so those visits are relatively painless.  All the doctors are great to see both boys at once, so that definitely makes life a lot easier for us.  We will go to the apnea doctor at the end of the month.  Right now doctor's appointments are the only place we are taking the boys.  They still have immature immune systems, so we don't want to risk them catching anything.  They can also develop RSV, which is like the flu for babies.  With the flu being bad this year, we are nervous to take them out.  In a month or so we'll feel much more comfortable showing them off in the "real" world!  

I also had my second follow-up appointment yesterday at my OB.  I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight- woo hoo! Although, my body is not the same- lol.  Plans for the spring include working out and firming up this belly! :) I feel great and have no pain due to the c-section.  It took a few weeks of pain pills though, and there were definitely days I overdid it!  I did lose a lot of muscle while on bed rest for so long, especially in my legs, so I look forward to working out again and getting that muscle back.  I feel very fortunate that my body has mostly returned though.  The boys and I will definitely be rocking the double jogging stroller this spring.  Can't wait to run a race and celebrate all that we overcame! 

We have been overwhelmed by the love and support we have received during this entire pregnancy and birth.  Whenever I get a second to stop and breathe, I get a little emotional with how blessed we have been.  We know we are so fortunate to have our boys home in such a short amount of time with so few issues.  I am "friends" on Facebook with a program called Bee Mighty.  This organization supports families with micro preemies.  While our boys didn't end up being micro preemies, they were super close when my water originally broke at 27 weeks.  I read about all these babies that have been in the NICU for a very long time and their roller coaster journeys that include surgeries and scary diagnoses.  I can't help but cry every time I read these because we have been so blessed to have healthy boys even though they were born early and at such low birth weights.  I had a lot of guilt for not being able to keep them inside me longer, but reading these stories, I know this is a completely normal emotion for moms of preemies.  It's very hard not to blame myself, but I know that I did everything possible I could have. We talk about how much better the boys have done outside the womb, and that's reassuring.  I still look back and wonder a lot what I could have done differently, but then I remember, I have two amazing boys and everything turned out fine by the grace of God.  We truly appreciate all the love that has surrounded us.  The power of prayer was amazing and we know that it helped Will and Jack be healthy baby boys.  I hope that I will be able to pass this love onto others who are going through the same situations in the future.  

During our stay at CMC, we had the most amazing doctors and nurses.  We had people who truly cared for us and our situation.  If you ever have a medical need, I would HIGHLY recommend this hospital.  We went through some really scary stuff, but were so incredibly supported.  We cannot praise them enough and know that our sweet babies would not be in this world without their great care and knowledge. 

Now for the fun part- pictures!!! 

The boys on Christmas Eve before Jack left the hospital.  

 

 Jack's first morning at home!

 Jack's first time being held by Uncle Josh on Christmas.  

 

 Papa Stott changed his "I am the present" shirt to "Jack/Will are the presents."

My daddy and Me! Another one of his Christmas T's- he has an assortment! :) 

 Jack content to be home.

 Big sister, Izzy, watches over her new little brother.  She has done really well with the boys!!  

 Jack's first bath!

Visiting Will in the hospital on Christmas.  It was  hard to do this because Jack couldn't go back in the nursery, so one of us had to stay in the waiting room.  So glad we didn't have to do this long!!

Both boys made it home!!  December 29th

 

 Home from the hospital and all snuggled into our monkeys.  By the way, anyone who is getting ready to have babies needs these cradles- they are great!! Right now it is where the boys sleep.  They LOVE them!

One Month Photo Shoot - 

I took these the day Will joined his brother, so we were a couple days after the one month mark.

 

 

Jack got tired of my picture taking!  We could have a lot of fun adding silly captions to these pictures! :)

Jack waiting for his turn to see the pediatrician.  

Tried to get a similar picture of Will, but he didn't cooperate! 

Tummy time!  Holding hands :)

 Ready to ring in 2013!! (Will on left, Jack on right)

Family picture on New Year's Eve

Jackson

William

Quick realization: getting a good picture of BOTH twins = difficult 
Thank goodness for digital cameras!!

Well, those are the highlights of our recent adventures!! So much more to come!! :)