Stewart Falls

We've been in Utah for a week and we've tried to do some hiking - but there has been so much snow over the winter that both hikes we've gone on have been cut short. Stewart Falls was accessible only by crossing a pretty big patch of snow; after watching several adults losing their footing and slipping on the snow we decided to take a piture with the falls in the background and head back down. We probably got within a half mile of the falls so it was still a good hike.

I used the moby wrap on this hike but got too hot, so on yesterday's hike I used the baby bjorn for Maia Jean and it was more comfortable for both her and me.

There was a second set of falls to the left of Stewart Falls that usually isn't there - excess snow runoff from such a wet winter.

Horrible Mother Award

I went out to the garage to get something today and somehow the door locked behind me. Of course both babies also started crying at this same moment. I freaked out and called Ryan in full panic mode because my brain shut down and I needed someone to save the day. Luckily I remembered my one criminal skill - breaking and entering with a credit card - and luckily my license was in the car and it did the trick. I was back inside within 5 minutes but felt like the most horrible mother in the world. Everyone was fine though so now it is starting to be a little bit funny. Only a little though!

7 Weeks

I need to start writing stuff down because I am going to forget it. Don't expect anyone to read all my ramblings but at least enjoy the pictures, courtesy of our friend James - thanks!!!

This is our baby girl Maia Jean at 7 weeks....she sits like this naturally, even in her sleep as you can see, we did not pose this in any way. I am unsure how I played a part in the creation of such a girly-girl, she is so delicate in every thing she does; good thing she has an all-boy brother to toughen her up a little! She is really so precious though and we love her to pieces.

Maia Jean seems to do the "normal" developmental things about a week or 10 days behind her brother. She's very content and not in a rush to do anything, but just this week she started regularly tracking toys with her eyes and also just yesterday she grabbed for a toy several times for the first time. She is all smiles for her daddy (I can play with her and try to coax smiles all day long, get nothing, and then he walks in the door and says something to her and she smiles at him right away). She only cries when she is really sad, and she looks so sad when she does it! She loves to sleep curled up on someone's chest and she is starting to get some weight to her, at her last appointment she was 7 lbs 5 oz so I'm guessing by now she is about 8 pounds. She outgrew her first newborn outfit this week and is starting to graduate into 0-3 months.

She LOVES her pacifier and it will almost always make her stop fussing if she gets the slightest bit irritated. She has sucked on her pacifier since day one like a pro. This will probably be a hard habit to break at some point but right now we love it.

I look so much like my mom in this picture its uncanny. We've decided Maia Jean has her dad's face shape and eyes, and my nose and mouth. Her hair is darker than Josh's and her eyes are still blue, but a more grey-blue than his.

This little boy gets BORED and goes from content/interested to this face in 0.2 seconds when he does! He is less content than Maia Jean, he likes to be entertained a lot and always wants to be looking at something new. Or listening to our voice - if he's wailing (he doesn't cry - he's either quiet or wailing, our poor neighbors.....) because he's bored, hearing our voices will sometimes calm him down. He has been focusing on toys/books for close to two weeks and occasionally will grab at something if he really likes it. When he is on his tummy he gets frustrated with the process of turning his head and gets angry, even though he's been able to do it since he was less than one week old and still in the NICU. Maia Jean learned this trick later than he did but she is more patient with it - she doesn't get frustrated even when it takes her a few tries to do it.

He was 9 lbs 4 oz at his last appointment so probably about 10 lbs now. We think he has a little red in his hair, and his eyes are bluer than Maia Jean's, so maybe they'll stay blue. He is a combination of Ryan's brother Russ and my dad, lucky boy he will be very handsome. :-) He is STRONG and when he's on his tummy he tries as hard as he can to push up with his arms. Laying on his back he can already get one leg up and over the other by twisting his torso, if he sets his mind to it he may be rolling over sooner than we'd like! They still share a crib but we'll seperate them when he starts rolling.

Maia Jean studies things every once in a while when she's really alert and interested, Josh studies EVERYTHING.

Then he gets bored and starts to show it, this face means he is going to start his fire siren wail if you don't change things up ASAP.

He is not nearly as good a sleeper as his sister, who will fall asleep in your arms and then not budge when she's set down. He looks like he's sleeping peacefully.....

And he might be, you can never tell....if you think he's deeply sleeping and he's not, you'll find out the second you set him down and he screams to be picked back up without missing a beat!

He eats about 4-5 oz every 3 hours. She eats about 3 oz every 3 hours. We are trying a new schedule today of feeding them every 2.5 hrs even if we have to wake them up, because I am going to be flying solo when they are 11 weeks (after the 4th of July, up until that point I will have more or less had around the clock help, thank you family!) and if I'm going to do it without totally losing it, Josh has got to start sleeping at night. We're hoping that by working harder to keep him awake during the day, and getting in an extra feeding (by feeding him every 2.5 hrs) in during the day, we'll get more sleep. To give you an idea, last night he slept from 11-1, 3:30-5:30 and 8:00-8:30. So you can do the math on how much sleep that gives his parents. :-) The best night we've had with him so far was a 3, 2 and 1 hour stretch - meaning 6 hours of sleep for me, but not uninterrupted by any means. Ryan helps out on the weekends and when he can on weekdays, but he has to go to work in the morning so I try to do as much as I can at night.

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!