Ooooh...11 Weeks!

Addilyn and Ella are 11 weeks old today. Addilyn is up to 9 pounds 11 ounces and Ella is weighing in at 9 pounds 0.5 ounces. They are really starting to grow! Both of them have discovered their hands and work diligently to suck their thumbs. Fortunately, neither of them have discovered how to make their thumb stick out! Instead, they both just suck the top of their thumbs. It's funny to watch!

Ella is finally smiling at us. She has dimples on either side of her top lip. It's weird that it's not her cheeks that have them. Ella ooohs at us. It makes me laugh. Her little voice is so cute! I will post video of her ooohing at me this morning. Addilyn is still smiling up a storm. She coos at us but doesn't mimic any of the noises we make. Addi is still fighting baby acne. She clears up for a few days and then breaks back out for a few days. Her pediatrician said it will resolve by about 4-6 months.

The girls have been consistently sleeping through the night the last week. If we make sure we feed them closer to midnight then they will sleep until about 7:00 a.m. It is wonderful to finally start getting some sleep again!

Silly Gracie!

Recently I've noticed my cat, Grace, has been hanging out in the nursery. She snoozes in the window and bird watches. She siestas on the changing table pad, but her favorite place to sleep is in the crib. She doesn't want to sleep with the babies though. Threaten to put a baby in bed with her and she's gone like a flash of lightening! She's silly!

Sweet Sleep!

Matthew and I fed Ella and Addi last night at midnight. They slept until 7:00 a.m.! Whoo-hoo! I am thrilled that they are finally starting to sleep a little longer! I only hope it continues, especially since I return to work soon.

I was up at 6:00 a.m. checking on them both though. After Addi's scare I'm a little paranoid when the girls sleep too long or seem too quiet. I'm glad to say that her apnea monitor hasn't gone off since we've come home from the hospital.

10 Weeks

Addilyn and Ella are 10 weeks old today. Addilyn now weighs 9 lbs. 1.5 oz. Ella is 8 lbs. 8 oz. They are definitely starting to feel heavier.

Everyday their little personalities elude to the little girls they are going to become. Ella is a mess. She's a cute mess though. She won't smile at me. It's like she thinks she has to play it cool and can't be caught smiling at something silly. It might ruin her image! Ella will stick her tongue out at me and make the "O" face. I think she's going to be stubborn just like her mommy. Ella makes me laugh. Did I mention that she burps like a grown man? (Also a trait she got from mommy!) Addilyn is smiling up a storm. She also "talks" to me in her baby language. It melts my heart every time she smiles. I can't wait until Ella finally starts!

The girls are starting to sleep longer at night. We are usually getting 4-5 hours between feedings at night. Nighttime feedings are the hardest. Usually it's only one baby that's awake and ready to eat. This forces me to wake the other up so we can getting feedings out of the way and not be up with the other baby in an hour. I am so thankful my hubby gets up with me to help me feed the girls. I'll be glad when they can start having some cereal in their bottles to help keep their tummy full. Hopefully then they will start sleeping through the night.

Work is looming right around the corner for me. I'm not exactly looking forward to it. I have to go back on May 6. I am looking forward to resuming a full paycheck though. This month's check was dismal to say the least. The substitute that was originally hired to teach my class while I was on maternity leave was fired two weeks ago. I am so glad. He was not cut out to teach my class and a lot of my parents were lodging complaints in the office about him. I met my new sub about 5 days after she started in my classroom. She seems to be restoring order. I am so thankful and this makes me dread going back to work a lot less.

Matthew plans to keep the girls in the mornings until he goes to work at 1:00. He will drop the girls off at my mom's on his way to work. It is going to be a crazy two and a half weeks trying to get ready for work and feed babies in the morning. I'm probably going to have to get up at 5:00 a.m. to get myself ready and then feed and jet off to work. I only hope it passes quickly. I'm ready for summer!

To Buy? Or Not to Buy?

Those are the questions weighing heavily on our minds these days. Matthew and I are thinking about buying a home. We have been fortunate to live in his family's old home for the last couple of years rent free. I say "rent free" but it hasn't been without its fixer-up projects. We've installed new flooring in the living room, nursery, hallway, and main bathroom. We've painted the kitchen, dining room, living room, living room ceiling/skylights, hallway, nursery, extra bedroom, master bedroom, and main bathroom. We've cut down dead trees. Planted new trees. Dug flowerbeds, and removed giant creepy bushes from the front of the house. We've made this house our own, but we are starting to feel the need to move on.

For starters, we'd both like to be in town. Technically our address is Amarillo, but we don't live inside the city limits. It takes me about 25 minutes to drive to work. Matthew works in downtown Amarillo so it takes him about 45 minutes to drive to work. We'd both like to be closer to work. We'd also like to be in a newer home. Country living has worn out its welcome with both of us. It's quiet out here, but when the wind blows there is nothing to block it and it sounds like we are living on a ship at sea! There is also the problems of snakes in the summer and the tarantula migration in the fall. Country living has toughened me up, that's for sure. I've learned to battle snakes on my own (even if it means tossing them in our pool...which is now the snake pit) and catapulting tarantulas across the dirt road into the neighbor's pasture.

I think I've proven I'm tougher than I look. Green acres is no place for me. We are currently eyeing a home the block behind my parents. It's a few years old and it's on a couple lots. It would give us room to grow in case we decided to expand our family. (Not that we are even thinking about this right now!) The location would also be ideal since my mom is going to watch the girls when I return to work. Anyhow, it's something we are discussing and thinking very seriously about. I'll keep everyone updated on our decisions as we make them.

Another Doctor Visit

I saw my OB on Monday for all of my postpartum "stuff". Yes, I realize it was almost nine weeks later! Trust me, he tried to get all of that "stuff" out of the way a few weeks ago, but didn't clue me in ahead of time. Needless to say I didn't shave my legs the day of the appointment so we rescheduled for later on (I wasn't letting him see the forest that had taken up residence on MY legs!). I probably hadn't shaved my legs in a week or more. Who has time? I have two little girls to take care of!

Anyhow, I finally made it in on Monday. My blood pressure was rechecked. It was 140/84 on Monday. The doctor was glad that it was coming down...FINALLY...and told me to only take my blood pressure medicine once a day and return next week and have my BP checked again.

Wednesday I noticed that I was feeling a little dizzy, but dismissed it. Thursday I still felt dizzy. Thursday night I got a horrible headache and started having vision problems and got really dizzy. This morning I called the office and told them how I was feeling. They told me to come in this afternoon and have my BP rechecked. It checked out at 125/83. My doctor couldn't explain why I was feeling the way I did. Apparently your BP has to be super low (100/50) to feel dizzy and light headed. I don't have to take the medication anymore, but I do have to go back next week to see that it is staying down. I'm so glad to be off the meds! Who knew that it would take almost 10 weeks after the girls arrived for my blood pressure to go down to a safe number. It still has a ways to go. My BP pre-pregnancy was 120/70.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Eight Weeks

Addilyn and Ella hit the 2 month mark this week. We had a very busy week and I am just now getting the opportunity to blog about it. Monday Addi weighed 8 lbs. 4 oz. and Ella was a whopping 7 lbs. 12.5 oz. By today at their 2-month check up Addi weighed 8 lbs. 6 oz. and measured 21 inches long. Ella was up to 8 lbs. even and measured 20.5 inches long. Their pediatrician is very pleased with how the girls are growing.

Addilyn has been really smiling up a storm since her breathing incident. She has the most beautiful smile. It melts my heart every time I see it. I hope I can capture it on camera soon. Ella isn't as focused as Addi. She takes everything in, and smiles, but it's harder to get her to smile back at you like Addi does. She's too busy looking at everything else. Ella on the other hand has learned (by Mommy's example) how to stick her tongue out! I'm such a bad influence, but it's so stinking funny!

We tried to have professional photos made on Wednesday, but the photographer wasn't very helpful and asked us to reschedule. I'm not convinced that I'll be going back. In the short amount of time that I was there, I wasn't too impressed. Anyhow, grandma Carol took pictures of our girls this week, so I will post them.

Addi at the Hospital

Here are pictures of my sweet Addi at the hospital. The contraption at the bottom of the hospital bassinet is her apnea monitor that she has to wear at home when she sleeps. Neither of the girls are taking too kindly to not being swaddled. I've had to compromise a little and swaddle them from the waist down. They seem content with this. Their pediatrician said no more swaddling (she just wants them sleeping in their footies), keep the room cold and the ceiling fan on.

April Fools and the ER

Wednesday morning around midnight, Matthew and I were settling into our nightly routine of taking care of the girls. They were supposed to eat around 11:30 p.m. and hadn't started stirring yet. We decided to go ahead and wake the girls and get them fed so we could go to bed. Matthew set off to the kitchen to get bottles ready and I went into the nursery to wake the girls and get their diapers changed.

I don't normally flip on the overhead light when I go into the girls room as I think that's a very rude way to wake up. I usually turn the lamps on the changing table on as they aren't as bright and unswaddle the girls as I walk in to get them wiggling. For some reason, I flipped the overhead light on as I walked into the girls room that night.

I unswaddled Addilyn first as she is notorious for wanting to potty on you as soon as you change her diaper if she is not awake enough. I noticed when I unwrapped her that she didn't make her usual Pee Wee Herman noise and start stretching. Then I noticed that her lips and eye lids were blue and she wasn't breathing. I immediately dug my fingers into her ribs and began rubbing her very hard. I also stuck my finger in her mouth to check that she wasn't choking on anything. It was when I did this that Addi started breathing again. I didn't stop rubbing her ribs until she was screaming. I wanted to make sure she was good and awake and breathing well.

The shock of seeing her like that hit me very quickly. I sat down in our nursery chair and just held Addilyn and cried. This whole time Matthew was unaware of what was going on. He had made bottles and was sitting down in the living room waiting on me to change a baby and bring one of the girls to him to feed. I told him what happened and he wanted to hold Addi. I told him no in a not so nice way, not intentionally, but more out of the fact that she was my baby and there was no way in hell I was letting go of her, even to let him hold her.

I didn't know what to do then so I called my parents and told them what happened. This news was not something grandma and grandpa wanted to hear in the middle of the night. My mom told me to call the ER and ask what I should do. I called the ER and spoke to a very dumb girl who told me, "if you're calling, then you must think something is wrong and you should bring her in." Well duh something was wrong. It's not normal for anyone to stop breathing.

I called my parents back and told them I was taking Addilyn to the ER. I didn't want to take any chances and for my own piece of mind, I needed to know that she was going to be okay. I left Matthew at home with Ella (we didn't want to expose her to any unnecessary germs or illnesses) and my parents met me at the hospital at 1:00 a.m.

The ER checked Addilyn's blood for RSV and the flu, which were both negative. They also did a chest x-ray of her lungs to make sure they were clear. Her lungs looked good. The ER doctor called the girls pediatrician to let her know what was going on. She wanted to admit Addi for observation. It was just before 8:00 a.m. when we were taken to PICU. Addi was hooked up to an EKG machine that monitored her heart rate and respiratory activity.

I stayed all day with her. It was later that afternoon when her pediatrician came by that I found out we were going to be staying the night and that someone from Brit Care would be by with the apnea machine we would be required to use at home. I was shown how to operate the machine. My mom was with me during this time and left shortly afterwards so we could both try to get some rest. I was going on 34 hours of no sleep.

Addi was an angel last night. I got up about every 4 hours to feed her. When she was done eating I would hold her and talk to her. I told her this was the meanest April Fools joke ever and that she better NEVER do this again. The little toot just grinned at me. Addilyn was discharged this morning around 11:30. We didn't have any episodes last night and I am so thankful for that. I am also so thankful that she had an angel watching over her. I couldn't imagine if she hadn't started breathing again. God is good.

Addi has to wear the apnea machine at bedtime, nap time, riding in the car seat, and any time she is unobserved. I'm not sure how many months she will be required to wear it. We aren't sure what caused her to stop breathing. The doctor thought if she had had excessive spit in her mouth that it might be reflux, but she didn't have any when I found her. She also told me that this could be a one time event. Addi may never stop breathing again. I sure hope that's the case. I love my little girls and would be crushed if anything happened to either of them. A mother should definitely never have to go through finding her child blue and not breathing. We are so thankful for everyone's thoughts and prayers.