ADDISON IS HOME!!!

We got to bring home Addison today!! We arrived at the hospital around 1:00 today after Dr. Simon called me this morning to tell me that he was going to release her. We fed both girls around 2:00 and then had to wait for our crazy nurse lady to reappear around 3ish. We had a new nurse today that had never taken care of the girls. Unfortunately, she did not share in our excitement to finally have both girls home. See the below picture of Addison sitting in her car seat, getting ready for the ride home. I wish we could have taken more pictures but our nurse didn't want to pose for any pictures.

Addison seems to be doing great with the transition of being home....of course it's only been about 3 hours so we shall see how the evening progresses. As we speak she is sleeping soundly in her bassinet. See below picture.
As of now, both girls are doing great and thankfully they are resting right now so I have a chance to update my blog, make bottles, do a load of laundry and empty the dishwasher. We hope their good behavior keeps up!! See the below pictures of the angels in their bassinets.

Thanks again to all of you for your continued prayers and support for our gals! We are absolutely ecstatic to have them home!!

One handed typing....

I'm finding that it's not very easy to type one handed. Alexis won't let me put her down to update my blog....so this may be short.

Addison had her car seat test today. She did great and pretty much just chilled in her seat the whole time. We are hoping she will be home later this week. Fingers crossed!!! See the below pictures of her hanging out. None of her preemie clothes fit anymore. She's a big girl now & is wearing new born clothes!!

GOD IS GREAT!!

So Addison had an MRI done this morning in preparation for her discharge. I spoke with the doctor via phone about 11:30 this morning and he told me that it looked great. The ventricles in her brain are still enlarged more than he would like because of the bleeding but he doesn't seem concerned. The blood has almost completely diminished and here's the best part......The MRI showed no major damage to her brain. Of course we still are cautious and we will never fully know the long term affects until she is older, but we were ecstatic to hear that there was no visible damage to her brain indicated on the MRI.

I visited Addison today while Terry stayed home with Alexis and napped. She was awake and happy. We are hoping that she will be home in a week or so.

Alexis continues to keep us on our toes but is a great baby! She never really cries she only gets a little fussy when it's getting close to feeding time. We can't wait to have both girls at home and officially be a family of four!!

ONE DOWN......ONE TO GO!!!!

ALEXIS IS HOME!!!

On Thursday Alexis passed her car seat test with flying colors!!! We were hoping that she would come home on Friday but the doctor just wanted to make sure that she was ready. At last check Alexis was weighing in at 5 pounds 4 ounces. See the below picture of her sitting pretty for her car seat test (I'm not quite sure what is in her mouth?) Basically she just had to sit in her car seat for the length of time that it would take us to get home (45 minutes) from the hospital without setting off any alarms. She did great!!

On Saturday afternoon we went to the hospital to pick up our little Alexis. It was very bittersweet and emotional for both Terry and I to take her home. Yes, we both cried tears of happiness and of sadness. We were very excited but also a little sad to be leaving Addison behind. Our favorite day nurse, Liz, had to walk Alexis out and handed her off to us to place in the car. See the below pictures.

Neither one of us really slept much last night. We had decided to take turns with the feedings but quickly realized that neither one of us can function well on 3 hours of sleep. Tonight we are trying a different plan. As I type this Terry is already in bed. I will handle the 9:00pm & midnight feedings and will keep an eye on her until 3:00am. Terry will then take over at 3:00am and handle the 3am and 6am feedings. Then we will both be up and at it again at 9am. We are just trying to adjust to life with a little one and hopefully can figure out what works best before Addison will be joining us.

All in All Terry said that he had a great Father's Day today! The girls made him a huge coffee mug with their foot prints on it. Of course we had some help from our favorite night nurse, Lisa. She has been great with helping us with everything! They also got him some sports apparel that has yet to arrive. But better late than never right? See the below picture of Terry on his first Father's Day with his girls!

Addison is continuing to do well. All that's left for her to do is to master the art of eating from a bottle. She's close! She just happens to be like her Mom and likes to sleep a lot. We are hoping that she won't be too far behind and should be home in a week or so. Fingers crossed!! At last check she was weighing in at 5 pounds 5 1/2 ounces.

We want to thank everyone for all their continued support and prayers for our family! I'm not sure how we would continue to make it through the day without all of our amazing family and friends. We love you all!!

Update...

Above...Addison is on the right with her eyes open and Alexis is on the left.
Above...Alexis is on the left & Addison is on the right.

Above...Addison is on the left and Alexis is on the right.

Above... Addison is on top and Alexis is on the bottom.

Here are a few new pictures of our beauties. I wish I could take credit for taking them but I didn't. I'm not actually sure who did, but they were laying on the counter by the girls bedside this afternoon. They didn't scan too well into my computer but they still are cute. Their outfits are actually a lime green color not yellow. Oh well!

The girls are doing well and still just working on eating from a bottle. Addison is now topping the scales at a whopping 5 pounds even. And Alexis is now at 4 pounds 13 1/2 ounces.

Just some clarification....

I've been debating for awhile about actually posting this... I typed this entry about a month ago but never posted. It was just a therapeutic way for me to vent, but now I have reconsidered posting it. Before you take offense and get angry, I just ask you to place yourself in our shoes.

Many people have been talking and/or making comments about Terry and I allowing the girls to have visitors. First let me begin by saying a NICU is not a social hang out! We don't spend all day playing dress up with the girls or visiting with our friends. The NICU is a very scary, intimidating and heart breaking environment. There is a reason why our girls are still in a critical care area. They need protection from the outside world right now. Their immune systems are still not fully developed. By allowing just any one to enter the NICU would allow germs, bacteria and all kinds of horrible things to potentially corrupt all of the babies, not just ours. This is why there are rules about visitors. The first several weeks while the girls were still on high amounts of oxygen only immediate family was allowed to visit. This was the time when everyone was hounding us to see the girls. Unfortunately, the rules were beyond our control. We would have loved for our girls to experience a normal birth and to have been adored by all but this isn't how things went. Now that the girls are getting older and are generally thriving on their own, the girls can have visitors at our discretion. Most of the time when we have asked people to visit, it has been more for moral support than it has been to see the babies. Obviously this has been a very difficult time for us and every ones support is still appreciated. What is not appreciated is the comments being made about us sheltering our children. For those of you with children... Imagine if your son or daughter was in the hospital, wouldn't you do everything in your power to protect them? Right now the girls are still very delicate and outside distractions and noises really bother them. Our main priority is making sure that our girls know our voices and touch, not to show them off to the world. If this to you means that we are sheltering our babies then, so be it, but we will never apologize for doing what we think is in the best interest of our little girls.

Let me just share with you a story about the little boy who is next to the girls. His name is Noah. Noah was born on January 15th. Five months later he is still in the NICU. Noah got a really bad cold when he was four weeks old from a friend that his mother allowed to visit. Noah's cold turned into serious pneumonia and caused life long damage to his lungs. Noah is going to be finally going home in the next few weeks...but he will need the use of oxygen until he is strong enough to breath without it. Let me just ask you.....If you caused our girls to get sick, or even one of the other babies to get sick, because you brought in germs, could you ever forgive yourself? I know I couldn't. So if you still feel the need to judge Terry and I for trying to protect our precious Addison and Alexis then go right ahead. But we are only doing what any good parent would do.

Babies, Bubble Baths & Birthdays!!

The babies were officially 2 months old yesterday!! Happy Birthday to my little girls!! They both seem to be doing well. They love to cuddle and snuggle up close to you when they are being held. We gave them bubble baths on Friday evening. We tried to pose them together but neither of them really enjoyed it. See the below pictures.

Both girls are hanging in and just trying to master the art of eating out of a bottle. Alexis is the queen of eating and can never get enough nor can she ever wait her turn to be fed. As of yesterday evening Alexis is weighing in at 4 pounds 11 1/2 ounces. It seems that maybe her blood transfusion gave her the boost of energy that she was laking.

Addison on the other hand could care less if she eats. She likes to sleep. She is getting better with the bottle but just poops out sometimes. The big news with Addison is.....she has overtaken Alexis is the weight department. She now weighs 4 pounds 12 1/2 ounces.

In the below pictures of bath time Alexis is on the left and Addison is on the right.

One step forward & two steps back....

So It doesn't look like Alexis is going to make it home this week. I went into the NICU today to find Alexis with another pic line in her arm and she was receiving yet another blood transfusion. The nurse and doctor explained to me that during the night she had several brady's and was dropping her heart rate seriously low. She was choking on her feeds and just generally was not cooperating with anything. They decided to test her blood to see if something was going on. I don't know the technical name for it but they would like her number to be around 28-30. Alexis' was 23, which prompted the transfusion. Everything else aside she is still doing well. She's maintaining her body temperature and still gaining weight. As of yesterday evening she weighed 2050 grams (yes, I still hate the metric system) or 4 pounds 8 1/2 ounces.

Addison is still truckin' along. She's taking the bottle more and more everyday. She's been taking about 70% of her feedings with a bottle and the other 30% through her feeding tube. She also is doing very well in the weight department. We are wondering if she may surpass Alexis soon? As of yesterday evening she weighed 2015 grams or 4 pounds 7 ounces. She really has filled out a lot. She has little chubby cheeks now and just looks like a regular baby.

Thanks again to everyone for their support and prayers. We know they will be home eventually but it feels like I'm leaving a little bit of my heart behind every time I leave them. No one truly knows what the NICU roller coaster hell is actually like unless you have lived through it, and I wouldn't wish this onto my worst enemy!!

BUMMER!!!

Ok, so I knew posting yesterday was a mistake. I knew that I was going to jinx her by saying something. I'm sure you guessed it....Alexis didn't pass her car seat test. Actually she didn't even get a chance to take it. Yesterday evening while taking her bottles she started choking and lowering her heart rate so she had to keep her feeding tube in. Until the feeding tube is out she can't attempt the car seat test. We were hoping that she would be able to do it today, but I'm again reminded of how babies in the NICU do things on their own schedule and not on ours. It's two steps forward and one step back. Of course we would love both girls to be home NOW, but we also want to make sure that they aren't released before they are ready. Both girls had big jumps in their weights. Addison is currently 4 pounds 5 ounces and Alexis is 4 pounds 7 ounces.

This has definitely been the toughest journey that Terry & I have ever taken but in the end, having the girls home and healthy is our main priority. Going through something like this has truly taught us a lot about ourselves, our relationship and who our true friends and family really are. I'm not going to lie, having to leave the NICU everyday and leaving my little girls behind, breaks my heart. But having the support of family and friends makes things a little easier. Just a simple text message, voicemail, email or facebook message can sometimes brighten our day. We will never be able to fully repay everyone for all their support. But the lessens we have learned through all of this will stay with us forever. Those of you who have been by our side whether it has been actually physically or not, we will never forget you!

The latest and GREATEST!!!

The above two photos are Alexis. One is of her pretending to sleep and the other is her wrapped up in her towel after a bath. She loves bath time!!

The above two photos are of Addison. The top photo is Addison showing off her onesie that Aunt Sandy bought her (ignore the red eyes) and the bottom photo is Addison getting ready to be weighed before her bath. She didn't want to let go of her pacifier, nor did she want to open her eyes for a picture.

• I've been delaying posting this news because I don't want to jinx anything but the emails have been coming in non-stop so I figured I should do an update. The girls are eight weeks old today and have really done a lot in the last few weeks!

Alexis is going to have her car seat test tomorrow. If she passes she will be able to come home on Thursday or Friday of this week!!! (FINGERS CROSSED!!) Basically she has to sit in her car seat for 45 minutes (the time it takes to get home from the hospital) without setting off any alarms. We are hoping that she passes!!! She is a little piggy and loves to eat!! She seriously chows down on the bottle almost every time! I know eating from a bottle doesn't sound like a major accomplishment to most....but to know how far they have come in such a short amount of time is really a big deal to us!! She is currently weighing in at 4 pounds 5 1/2 ounces.

Addison on the other hand hasn't quite mastered the bottle yet. They tell us that she is using her energy to sleep and grow. Which is perfectly fine but we also want her to come home soon as well!! Addison is taking about half of her bottles and the other half through her feeding tube. If all goes well, Addison should be home by the end of next week. She is currently topping the scales at 4 pounds 3 1/2 ounces.

We are totally ecstatic at the girls progress and can't wait to get them home. We originally were told to expect them home by their due date (July 7th) so we are very pleased that they are ahead of schedule. We again want to thank each and every one of you for your continued support and prayers!! I'm sure we will be taking everyone up on their offers to drop off food & goodies soon!

Below are just a couple of general photos of the girls bed side in the NICU. As promised, I wanted to take a few pictures of their cribs since they are both in the same area now. The other photos are of the girls and their Proud Daddy!! They both love sleeping on their Daddy and were out like a light. (Alexis has the darker hair.)

The Dynamic Duo!!!

Here are a couple of the latest pictures of the girls!!! Not much new to report....they both seem to be doing great and are just trying to adjust to life on the bottle. Who knew trying to suck, swallow and breath all at the same time could be such hard work. Alexis is weighing in at 4 pounds even and Addison is weighing in at 3 pounds 12 ounces. In the first two pictures, Addison is on the top and Alexis is on the bottom. In the pictures including Terry, Alexis is on top and Addison is on the bottom. I hate to admit it....but it took me a minute to figure out who was whom in the pictures. It's so great to be able to hold them together now!! As you can see from the above picture....Terry is becoming way too comfortable with the girls. The three of them were zonked out! Not to worry, I was close by just in case!