Sunday, April 19, 2009

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Welcome Home

What a week since our last update. We had a nice surprise at the hospital on Wednesday when we found out that both were coming home with us that day. We had already been told that Jillian was ready to be discharged earlier in the week but we wanted to give it some more time to be safe. Little did we know Ashlyn needed that extra time to be able to come home with her sister.

Here are some pics of our first 48 hours

Ashlyn celebrating with her Easter friends... she passed the car seat challenge!

Made it home!




The girls have a body guard.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter!


Holding the girls together for the first time!




Our first Easter as a family!!!!




Wednesday, April 8, 2009

YEAH for.........


JILLIAN!!!!! She got her feeding tube removed today. Which means she is taking the bottle each time the nurses and Jeff and I feed her. We are so proud of her. Her heart rate is still dropping, but thats starting to happen less and less. Ashlyn is still getting tired when we feed her with a bottle , but we know she will pick it up anytime now. Ashlyn will begin physical therpay tomorrow. I don't know how many of you know that Ashlyn has club feet and she will need casts and braces. We will begin this treatment when she is out of NICU. Due to my low fluid throughout my pregnancy Ashlyn didn't have much room to stretch out. We are so proud of our girls they have come along way in these 10 days and each day they make us smile. Here is a picture of Jillian without her feeding tube its a little blurry as we didn't want the flash waking her up. Such a huge step to get this tube removed!!!!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

It's really hard....

Now that I am home and out of the hospital having the girls in NICU is very hard on us. At least when I was in the hospital I could call a volunteer to wheel me to go see the girls at any time of the night, but now that I am home its not as easy as that. I know NICU is the next best place for them, but having them away is the hardest thing I think we have gone through. It took us a little over two years to get pregnant and now that they are here we can't be with them all the time. I have heard many times use this time to rest because once they are home you will not be resting. I wish resting was easy, but its not they are constantly on our mind and I want to call the nurses every 5 minutes to see how they are doing (I may not call them every 5 minutes, but I do call a lot). As soon as Jeff and I leave the NICU I just cry and I know the girls won't remember this at all, but as their mom and dad its not easy on us at all. Today we had a quiet day in the NICU we are trying to hold the girls less because we would hold them for like the whole 6 or so hours we were there, but we learned they need to sleep and not be moved around so much and this is so hard not to run up to their cribs and grab them and kiss them. So now we hold them only during the "care time" when we get to feed them. There are only 2 pictures from today the first one is so cute. Its Jeff holding Jillian and she was asleep and he fell asleep holding her. I love it! The next one is me feeding Ashlyn with a mask and gloves because as luck would have it I am getting a cold, but I want to hold my girls too so this is the safest way.





Saturday, April 4, 2009

Boot Camp

I think every new parent should have a day like today. I was able to do "care time" which goes a bit like this... take core temperatures, change diapers while not getting tangled in the wires, swaddle, and feed which is from the bottle or core pack. Every three hours. x 2
Poor Lindsay had a cough so she wore a mask and elected for observation duty.
The thing is the nurses are right there for questions and coaching which is so helpful.

Burp!

In between eating, sleeping, and crapping we watched closely to all the vitals and between them we had only a few scares. It will be up to the twins to determine when they'll get released to us. Taking it day by day...

Here are some pictures from Friday and today.


Thank you Aunt Kimmy for the cool name tags!





Uncle Todd and Ashlyn






Aunt Kachina and Jillian

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Day 4 in NICU

Both are off IV's and taking more food each day. They make us a bit scared when their heart rate drops which is normal in preemies. Each day they seem to be learning more about taking a bottle and learning how to suck. It tires them out and so they need a little help with the feeding tube. We can't stop worrying about them but we know they are in the best care possible. Here are some new pics from today. Need to break out the camera more but here you go...


Ashlyn showing off her new outfit from the nurses

Ashlyn ... is that a wink? I think so!


Proud Mommy with Jillian



Ashlyn burrito

Day 3 in the NICU

Grandma holding Ashlyn after a long day


Jillian changed after throwing up on Dad


Nurse happy with her easy day