Mother's Day

For my first mother's day I win mother-of-the-year award (insert sarcasm) for giving my 5 pound baby girl the flu. I didn't realize it until after the fact but I started getting sick Saturday night. She was fussy all night because she seemed hungry but without the energy to eat. So Sunday when I had no energy to eat and felt horrible and realized I was sick, I took my temperature and it was 101.7. Took hers and it was 100.2.

So since it had been a whole week since any type of significant medical happening, we spent the evening of mother's day at the kid's urgent care center and then at Mission to get blood drawn from her (this time from her arm - I wasn't there to see it but Ryan said it wasn't fun). Because of the very thin layer of skin over her L4-L5 spinal cord area the risk of infection is higher than a normal baby and they wanted to run blood tests to make sure she didn't have any type of infection. Her white blood cell count was up, but by the time the final results came in the next day we were both better with no fever so nothing ever came of the blood test.

We celebrated Monday instead of Sunday to say the least. My mom was here and she watched JD all night Sunday downstairs to keep him away from the sick girls. Ryan slept in the nursery with Maia and took care of her so I could get uninterrupted sleep. Sleeping it off seemed to do the trick and we all had a much better and less eventful Monday.

This little girl has seen WAY too many doctors in her short little life! I'm hoping that after her surgery in a few months it will be regular checkups ONLY from here on out.

3 week stats

At birth:
JD was 6 lbs 10.5 oz and 18.5 inches
Maia was 5 lbs 4 oz and 18 inches

At 2.5 weeks:
JD was 7 lbs 10 oz and 20.5 inches
Maia was 5 lbs 13 oz and 20 inches

JD & Maia eat about every 3 hours. JD consistently eats 3.5-4 oz. Maia has more highs and lows, she usually eats only 2 oz at afternoon feedings but has a few 3 or 3.5 oz meals in the morning and evening. JD still eats a lot faster than Maia, who still requires a little coaxing to eat. Obviously both are doing well on growth though!

We are all SO SO SO lucky to have Grandma visiting for about a month from Utah to help take care of babies and keep the new mom sane! A lot of other visitors have helped with holding babies, bringing meals and groceries, and giving mom a chance to take a nap. Thank you everyone, we couldn't do it without you, which includes many people in addition to those pictured below!


We've had lots of family visit us! Grandma and Grandpa....
Cousin Audrey...
Uncle Russ & Aunt Taylor...
Grandma...
And still lots of attention from parents! Tired but happy mommy....
Smitten daddy....
And lucky for everyone's health we still sleep a lot....and we are pretty dang cute doing it!

First Bath

I have been kind of flattered by how many people still want to see our babies here so I thought I'd keep going....here are some pictures of their first bath at home a couple of days ago, which will also give you a huge glimpse into their personalities!

I can't believe you just did that to me!!!
Dry, warm, dressed and still distraught over the bath experience....
Ok, finally calming down!
Hmmm...I didn't particularly enjoy that, but whatever.
Ahhhh. :-) Clean, dressed, warm, fed, happy man.
Can I go back to sleep now?

Thanks and Final Pictures

Well, we decided to write this blog to keep so many friends and family in the loop. I actually sat down yesterday and listened to all the messages I received last week on my cell - I hadn't listened to any of them during the week, just left them for when I had energy/time, and it was really touching to hear from so many people just expressing their love & support and offering to do anything they could. Same thing happened when I finally checked my email again this weekend.

This is the last post because now we actually have time to talk to you all and keep in touch better. Yesterday was our first full day at home as a family and even though it was exhausting, we loved every minute! Thank you for all your love, support and prayers, it really carried us through an incredibly difficult week and we are so blessed to have such a happy ending. We have such a heart for people who go through this roller coaster NICU ride, with moments of unsurety as to whether babies are coming home or not, and know there are so many families out there who live in that sustained crisis mode for weeks and even months. Saddleback NICU, CHOC Mission PICU, and Ronald McDonald House were all fantastic and we also couldn't have done it without such loving and caring nurses at both hospitals.

Philippians 4:13 - last week's theme and something we will remember every time we look back on pictures and memories of our babies after they are grown.

Leaving the NICU with Josh - Maia is already waiting at home with Grandma

Thank you to all of our wonderful nurses, neonatologists, lactation consultants, doctors, and CalState Long Beach nursing students at Saddleback!

Finally all four of us together at one place

I think she is deciding how she feels about now having to share the spotlight with her brother

We're trying to hold JD as much as possible since we haven't been able to for a week

Baby girl

Baby boy

This is a pretty accurate show of their personalities!