Tuesday, November 26, 2013

From My Point of View

I love looking at these guys, even if it is at 3:30 in the morning.


Henry


Parker

Saturday, November 23, 2013

To the Weekend!

We are enjoying our first weekend at home as a family with the cold fall weather, lots of college football and visits from the grandparents.  Parker and Henry will even get to meet their aunt and uncle, Ryan and Whitney, for the first time!  With all the helping hands at the house, I’m hoping to run some errands while others stay with the boys.  We still have some girl stuff to return and some other items to grab for P and H.  Like a second swing.  That thing is worth its weight in gold around here!

Enjoy your weekend!  I can’t believe Thanksgiving is next week.  So much to celebrate!


Thursday, November 21, 2013

Brothers

Both boys are home!!!


Henry (L) and Parker (R)

This picture was taken just after both boys had their baths.  They were all clean and cozy and happy to be getting ready to eat.  Too bad we didn’t know at this point that they would both have major meltdowns later that night.  Oy!

Parker came home on Tuesday, on his three week birthday.  Yesterday was the first time since October first that neither Mark nor I had to go to the hospital.  That’s 51 days straight of being there or visiting to see the boys.  What a great feeling!  We are all at home together, all our stuff is here at the house, and we don’t have to mess with nurses or doctors or heart monitors or trying to find enough chairs in our NICU room for both Mom and Dad to sit and hold a baby.  What a relief.  I just have to remind myself of these feelings at 4:00 in the morning, when Henry and Parker are both crying and hungry at the exact same time.  Thank goodness they don’t out number Mark and me!  Sleep is overrated, right?

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Homecoming

Henry came home from the hospital on November 11, when he was 13 days old.  Having him at home with us is like a party every day, a party that I was waiting to throw for the two long weeks since he was born.  It is bittersweet though, since Parker is still in the NICU.  Knowing that Henry is with us all day every day, getting snuggles and kisses, while Parker is still in his little bed at the hospital gives me plenty of tears and heartache.  Now that we have Henry at home, I can’t go visit Parker as often, since we can’t take Henry back up to the hospital.  So either Mark and I go one at a time when he is home from work, or we get our parents to come stay at the house with Henry while we go up to the hospital.  This means that we really only get to see P for a few hours each day.  It tugs at my heart for sure.

Well we just got some great news that will hopefully be putting all this behind us for good!  Parker’s nurse practitioner called to let us know that they are taking his feeding tube out today (!!!) and letting him try all eight feedings a day on his own (!!!)  If he can successfully eat on his own for 48 hours, he gets to come home!!  So that would mean Parker will be home with us on Tuesday.  Henry had the same process when he was discharged and passed his 48 hour observation with no problems, so I just know his brother will have the same results.  After a month and a half of being at or going to the hospital daily, the thought of being at home with our whole family all day is like Christmas come early. {Side note: I don’t even want to think about how much we’ve paid the hospital in parking fees alone.  No free parking over almost 50 days of visits, eek.}

So please pray for our sweet Parker, that he has no problems over the next two days, so we can get him out of there for good and at home with us!!  Henry is anxious to show his brother the ropes of living at home.  And these two boys haven’t been side by side since they were in the womb.  Now that they are nearly three weeks old, I can’t wait to get them back snuggled up together.  I think Parker owes Henry some kicks and jabs :)

And now, to celebrate Parker’s upcoming homecoming, here’s some pictures from when Henry came home last week!


Even though I’d been walking in and out of that hospital for the past ten days, they still had to wheel me out in a wheelchair holding Henry when it was finally time to leave.  


3/4 of our family


Dad buckles him in for the ride home!


Mom rides in the backseat, to keep an eye on Henry during his first car ride


Like a champ.  Slept the entire way home.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Henry and Parker’s Nursery

Finally!  I have pictures of the boys’ nursery!  Mark and I both had a lot of fun getting their room ready for them, and we owe the finished product to the help of our moms as well {grandmas who can sew, for the win}.  Before I ended up in the hospital for all of October, we had just started putting together all the details of the room.  So once the twins were here and I was back home, I took advantage of the time while they were in the NICU {a very small silver lining perhaps?} to finish putting it all together.

When we thought we were having a boy and a girl, I came up with a color scheme of mint green, navy blue and coral.  We are now calling those colors mint green, navy blue and orange.  Luckily, I seemed drawn to more navy than coral when I was getting things for the room (plus coral is pretty difficult to find!), so the “orange” is on the minimal side, which makes the room perfect for two little boys.  Henry promised he wouldn’t sleep in his crib until Parker is home too, so for now the room is still ready and waiting for when both boys are home.

So come on in for a little tour!


View of the room when entering


Those perfect stripes on the wall are thanks to Mark, who used his talents of measuring, calculating and painting with a steady hand to get them looking PERFECT.  Hubs for the win!


Here’s Parker’s side of the room.  His bed has the navy bedding, with a beautiful crib skirt made by my mom, Grandma O.  The quilts on the bed are handmade my Mark’s mom, Grandma N, and my sister.  They both had the idea to surprise us with chevron quilts, which are both amazing!  My sister just decided to give quilting a try, and she obviously rocks at it!  Mark’s mom has been quilting for much longer, and has the talent to show for it.  The chair is one of my favorite nursery purchases because it’s so comfy and fun.  Also hanging out is my current BFF, the breast pump.


Another shot of Parker’s bed.  The rug was a steal that I found at Home Goods over the summer.


Another shot of the chair, along with the curtain rods in the corner that are patiently waiting for us to find some curtains to hang on them.


The closet wall, with a small dresser/changing table {IKEA for the win!}


The print above the changing table is from Lucy Darling Prints on Etsy.  A darling shop indeed.


Twirling around, we get to Henry’s side of the room.  He also has a bed with a crib skirt made by my mom (his is “orange”) and quilts made by Grandma N. and Aunt Kelly.  Plus another IKEA dresser.


The TV connects to Amazon streaming and our Hulu account, which means I am re-watching the entire Dawson’s Creek series during middle of the night feedings.  I have been catching Henry up on the Dawson-Joey-Pacey love triangle.  He is Team Pacey.


Details from the dresser.  The black lab is in honor of the boys’ furry sisters.  It was a table number at my friend Christina’s wedding, which I did indeed attend eleven days after the twins were born.  I swiped this one from Table 8. {Sorry CZ}


More details.  Notice the OSU binky.  Not my doing!


Henry’s bed.  The silver frames were from my aunt and uncle, who had them at their house but no longer wanted them.  I put scrapbook paper in them and had instant free artwork!


A good shot of Grandma’s handiwork on the crib skirts.  She went with me to pick out fabric this summer and spent her free time making them.  Love how they turned out!



Quilt details



Friends waiting in the beds for the boys.


And finally, the door that leads into the boys’ bathroom, which is still a work in progress.  So I will save it for another day.  I love how the nursery turned out, and can’t wait until Parker is home so both he and Henry can start being together in their new space.  We are hopeful that Park will be home in a few more days, so say some prayers for him that he can get out of that hospital for good!!

Friday, November 15, 2013

Visitors

I have so many things to add to the blog, like a whole slew of nursery photos, pictures from Henry’s first days at home, more photos of Parker rocking his time at the hospital, and even some pictures from Henry’s first visit to the pediatrician. But! All the photos are stuck on my camera and phone because all of a sudden my laptop will not recognize these devices and let me upload them. {curse you Apple and your software updates}  So this weekend I will use Mark’s computer to hopefully get them off the camera so I can add them here!

In the meantime, here are a few more photos from last week and before, when both boys were still at the hospital.  They had lots of family come meet them when they were brand new!



Grandma and Grandpa O with Henry


Grandma N with Henry {not sure where Grandpa was?}


Grandpa O with Parker {since Henry was in the nursery and Parker was in the NICU at this point, they were never together, so everyone had to see them one at a time}


Uncle Mike

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

The Birthday

When we last left off, we had just found out the babies were going to be born today, October 29.  I got to order a liquid breakfast (chicken broth and jello) and then spent the day waiting for delivery time (and thinking about how incredibly hungry I was!)  Mark left work and came over to the hospital and we focused on not getting too nervous.  My nurse told us we were scheduled to deliver around 4:00 that afternoon.  I showered, we packed up the room and we waited.

Once it was time to start prepping, everything went very fast.  I thought there would be a lot of down time and waiting, but it was pretty much GO TIME once we got going.  I got an IV put in (ouch) and then they wheeled me down to a small prep room in Labor and Delivery.  Our L&D nurse Rachel was very nice and telling me about her four boys at home.  I told her we were having a boy and a girl - Annabelle and Henry.  She monitored the babies’ heart rates and then the anesthesiologist came to give me the epidural (which hurt pretty bad for about ten seconds, and then it felt very, very weird!)  Before I knew it, they were handing Mark his scrubs to change into and wheeling me down to the OR.

The procedure itself wasn’t too bad.  In fact, it was borderline fun, which I think is thanks to the drugs they give you.  Everything made me feel so happy and calm, which is not at all how I would normally handle being operated on while awake.  I felt like it took longer than I thought it would, but in reality it was no more than about twenty minutes long.  My doctor knew we were naming the babies Henry and Annabelle, so when Baby A came out (Baby A was always the boy), she held his little head over the curtain for us to see and said “Here’s Henry!”  Two minutes later, she did the same with Baby B (Baby B was always going to be the girl) and said “And here’s Annabelle!”  I saw their little faces and was just thinking it was all very surreal.  Mark went over by where they were being cleaned off and checked out to see them and take pictures.  I remember laying there and hearing a nurse in the distance say, “Oh, we have a surprise!” and thinking hmm.. I wonder what she means.  And then I hear her say, “We have two boys!”  At this point, I am halfway thinking hmm, she must be talking about someone else (who, I have no idea??) and halfway thinking WHHHHATTTT? Two boys??

So I get all stitched back up and then things get a little hazy.  I’m not sure what order everything happened in, because I was still in that happy place and not caring about anything (thanks drugs!)  But I go off to recovery where I was SO EXCITED to be able to sleep, Mark goes off with Baby B to the NICU because he was having a little trouble breathing, Henry is doing great and goes up to the nursery and my parents and Mark’s parents come into my recovery room to see me.  A nurse had brought Henry by for them to see, so they had seen him but hadn’t heard anything about Baby B.  I told the nurse to not spill the beans about Baby B being a Boy, so I guess when she went to show him to all the grandparents, it went something like this:

The nurse called for our family (the waiting room was apparently packed that day) and showed them Henry.  My parents ask how Annabelle is doing/where she is?  The nurse replies with, “the other one went to the NICU because there was a problem, and that’s all I can say!”  So… our poor parents sit for the next hour in the waiting room, freaking out and praying that everything is okay with baby Annabelle.  When they finally come in to see me (Mark is still in the NICU at this point) they are all asking if everything is okay, etc. etc.  I remember having them all gather around the bed to make sure they could all hear the news at once….. “Guess what?  They are both boys!”

Needless to say, everyone was shocked.  At this point, I was still thinking maybe I was in a dream and that this was not real.  How could Baby B be a boy?  Every sonogram we’d had in the past six months told us he was a girl!  Just goes to show, you can never be too sure and God has a good sense of humor!  So our little Baby B was Parker Alan all along.  And now that he’s here, we can’t imagine not having him.  He tricked us for months and will still smirk every now and then, like he’s remembering the great hoax he pulled.  Or… he just has gas.  I like the think it’s the former!


Brand New Henry 


Sunday, November 10, 2013

And Then There Were Four

Well, turns out having two kids keeps you kind of busy, so this blog has been a little on the quiet side lately.  Henry and Parker are still in the NICU, where they have been since I was discharged from the hospital one week ago.  But we got the very exciting news over the weekend that Henry will be coming home TOMORROW!!  So we took a big chunk of today getting everything ready to bring him home (nothing like waiting to the very last minute) and then went out to dinner with Mark's parents to celebrate his homecoming, as well as our last night as a couple without kids at home.  We went to Kona Grill, where I filled up on all the sushi I had been missing in the last nine months.

I am, of course, thrilled that Henry will be home with us tomorrow.  But my heart breaks when I think of leaving Parker behind at the hospital.  We've pretty much always known that Henry would come home first because he has been making quicker gains than Parker from the get go.  But I can't even imagine the scenario of taking Henry and leaving without Parker, so please say some prayers for me tomorrow.  I feel guilty when we leave town for the weekend and leave my cat at home alone, so just imagine how I'll react when I have to leave my boy behind.  I know he doesn't know what's happening and won't realize that Henry has left, but that doesn't help this mama's heart from hurting.

Now on to some pictures!  Our stay in the NICU has been a positive experience, even if it is not ideal.  I'm not going to lie, it's not easy coming home from the hospital without your babies.  Being at home with all this new baby stuff and a cute nursery that is just sitting empty is very.... lonely.  And going back and forth to the hospital multiple times a day to see them is draining for both Mark and me.  But giving the boys the time to grow and get strong enough to be at home has been worth the trials of having them there.  But we still can't wait to put this time behind us and have both our boys at home with us!


Parker Alan, our little Baby B


Henry's bed and cords that monitor his heart rate and breathing - the boys are hooked up to these constantly, so they can only travel so far away from their beds :)


Parker, snoozing away.  Both boys have feeding tubes to help them eat when they tire out before finishing a bottle feeding (Henry got his tube out on Friday!)


Henry Alan, doing what he does so well... sleep!


Parker with his signature furrowed brow


Feeding Henry


Our family of four on Henry's last night in the NICU.  I can't believe we get to take him home tomorrow!  And I just know his brother won't be too far behind.

Monday, November 4, 2013

Quick, Let's Catch Up!

Here's a quick rundown of what happened in the days leading of the the Twins' Birthday (which wow, still is so weird to write - they had their birthday and they are really HERE!)

- My MRI came back totally normal.  In fact, the nurses and even the other doctors all seemed to think it was ridiculous that I had an MRI at all.  I guess the on-call doc that night kind of jumped the gun after all when she ordered it.  But at least I will forever know that a) my brain it totally fine and b) I am claustrophobic. 

- The rest of that last weekend was just more of the usual.  My platelets, blood pressure and protein counts were all holding steady.  We were pushing towards a week 38 delivery (November 15) and I was silently crying on the inside, knowing I still had over two weeks of waiting in antepartum.  

- Monday morning, my first blood pressure of the day was higher than usual, and it continued to stay on the high side for several other checks throughout the day.  I didn't think very much of it, because no one (nurses, rotating doctor) seemed to think it was that big of a deal either.

- I plugged away at my usual daily routine of watching: The Today Show, Live with Kelly and Michael, Wendy Williams, Bethenny, and then napping/Interneting/working on the stocking/playing Candy Crush/sitting in silence staring at the walls while I waited for the evening to roll around and Mark to come up to the hospital

Tuesday morning seemed like it was going to be later, rinse, repeat.  Again, my blood pressure was high-ish and they decided to run blood work again to check my platelets, yet again.  My actual doctor was actually on-call that day, so she was the one who came to visit me that morning (with five doctors in the practice rotating around, most days I saw someone other than my doctor, so this was good news).  She came in and told me that if my platelets were low, then we were going to deliver TODAY.  We should know soon, so I shouldn't eat breakfast yet, just in case I would be having a c-section later.  When she left, I didn't even call Mark with the update yet, because I was so sure there would be no news.  I just knew this still wasn't "it."

Well, a short time later, my favorite nurse (DeeAnna) came in my room and actually did the Spirit Fingers move and said "Guessss whaaaaatt?!  Are you ready to have these babies today??"  Ahh!  The doctor's verdict was in and  TODAY IS THE DAY.  I couldn't believe it!  Mark actually texted me before I had a chance to tell him, asking if I had any updates yet.  He was in on a conference call when I texted him "Today!!" We were having the babies TODAY!  Cue the nerves.

SURPRISE!!

Friends!  I have not abandoned you!  Even though it has been a week since I've last posted, it has been one of the craziest, BEST weeks of my life.  I have so much to update everyone on, which I will work on doing in a few posts.

Let's start with the best news... the babies are here!!!!  And.. we have one sneaky little trickster on our hands, because Baby Girl was actually a Baby BOY!  Yes.  That was a shock to say the least.  So our little girl name, Annabelle Grace, was not going to work.  So poor little guy was just "Baby B" for the first day of his life while we pondered his new name.  Mark and I knew right away though, but just wanted to sleep on it to make sure.

Introducing....


Henry Alan and Parker Alan
Born October 29, 2013
4:21 and 4:23 p.m.

Henry came in at 5 pounds, 9 ounces (it's his big head), Parker at 5 pounds, 3 ounces

It's been a whirlwind of a week.  I am home now, but both boys are still in the NICU at the hospital.  I have so much to share, so I'll start updating more on the blog today.  But in the meantime, they are doing great, we are in love, and I'm trying to catch up on all that nesting I missed while I was on bed rest and before they come home... hopefully soon!

Thank you to everyone for the prayers, good thoughts, gifts, calls and visits while I was waiting out these little guys' arrival.  I can't believe I missed the entire month of October inside those hospital walls. But it was 100% worth it!