Sleep, Eat, and Poop :)

First, I am no longer going to type in 3rd person..Michael and I agreed to do the blog in third person in the beginning so it wouldn't matter who updated it, but that takes too much effort so 1st person it is.
 
The Girls:

The girls are getting so big already and we have got to get better about updating the blog so we don't miss anything! These two little angels have turned our world upside down...in a good way...actually in a great way!!
  When we finally came home for good from the hospital we quickly found our place and begin our experiments of what did and didn't work for certain things. After two weeks of having the girls run the show we decided to put them on a schedule based on "Babywise"  (a book I read). The schedule follows an eat, wake, and sleep routine where they eat every 3 hours except at night when we let them wake up on their own. Starting the schedule meant the girls started sleeping in their cribs (they actually both sleep in one crib) all the time. This was harder on us than them, but we are glad we started this as soon as we did because they now know that their cribs are for sleeping so most of the time they go to sleep as soon as they are placed in the crib :)

I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of this monkey see monkey do business (Kai on the left and Jax on the right)

   They have been doing really well with the schedule and are really good babies. They cry when they are hungry or uncomfortable and that's about it. Speaking of uncomfortable, we think they have a bit of reflux so they make these noises that sound like they are clearing their throats a lot and we have had some throwing up issues. We tried different things and it has gotten a little better, but we still haven't decided if it warrants a doctors visit or not since they are already due to go back for their shots at the end of September. They mainly eat, sleep, and poop right now, but we are enjoying it while it lasts because we are often told "they grow up so fast".
    Are they sleeping at night you ask? Well yes and no... They sleep at most 3 hours before they wake up hungry again. It is normal for preemies to do this a bit longer than full term babies. They were not suppose to be here until August 15th so in actuality their adjusted age is 1 week and 4 days old instead of 1 month and 6 days old. Therefore, we can't expect them to reach milestones like a 1 month old that was born full-term and weighing 8 pounds. Michael did weigh them recently (by holding them and standing on our scale and taking the difference ..hehe) and Kairyn was over 6 pounds and Jaxyn was over 7 pounds :-O so they are growing well :) Michael is very helpful and takes one of the night feeds so that I can get a little more sleep (I am pumping and feeding them from bottles. I found this was much easier with two).

This is how feeding two babies by yourself in the middle of the night looks 

 

 

US:

We are loving almost every second of our new lives. I say almost because I am being honest. It is hard juggling two babies and not getting very much sleep even if our babies are "good" babies. We continuously feel very blessed and know that it will all take time to adjust. We are so excited for what God has planned for us!
   Since the girls have been home we have enjoyed lots of company! Family and friends galore!
The Motl's from Dallas (Michael's dad and his family) came to visit starting with Mary on Thursday, Amalie on Saturday and then Alan and Louann driving down in the RV on Sunday. All stayed until the next Thursday. We loved having them here and they were sooo helpful! The girls helped with the babies and Alan helped Michael build a work bench for the garage (he even took over a feeding or two) and mowed and weedeated (thats probably not a word) our lawn :) Thank ya'll sooo much again!

Auntie Am and ? (not sure which girl this is..oops ;)

Grandpa Alan and Kairyn maybe

Aunt Mary and Kairyn again maybe

Grandpa Alan and Kairyn and Grandma Lou and Jaxyn

All of us :)

hard at work

well done guys!

We also enjoyed visits from other family members :)

Aunt Julia and Kai ?

cousin Matt and Kai and Lauren and Jax

Uncle LJ and Kai

Aunt Ronda and Jax

cousin Brady, Uncle Donny and the girls

Other moments we captured with our angels:

makes my heart melt

bath time with Cece

bath time before their umbilical cords fell off

My mom came up last weekend and got me out of the house for a few hours and we had a blast eating, shopping, and even enjoyed a bloody mary :)

She also watched the girls on Sunday so Michael and I could attend church together :) ..its the little things! Thank you mom for kidnapping me for a little bit!
  So I go back to work the end of September :/ I am having some anxiety about this, but at the same time I am eager to see my patients and start providing therapy again :) I will be working afternoons only. While we are both working we will have a close friend of ours that is a student at Texas State, Megan come and watch the girls until one of us gets home. She will do this 3 days a week at least and more if we need her.We are blessed to have flexible schedules and will be able to be with the girls as much as possible.

And last but not least.....

Our family :)

...stayed tuned for more of our breaths of heaven!! God bless!

Kairyn Mae and Jaxyn Nicole have arrived!!!

They finally made their appearance!! Kairyn weighing 4.11 and Jaxyn weighing 4.10, both 17 1/2 inches long. We feel so blessed and are filled with a love we have never known!! Sorry it has taken some time to get on and update everyone on their arrival, but as you can imagine our lives have been a little different now and we are adjusting. The twins have already decided to take some steps off the beaten path starting with day one.

Here is the story of their birth:
   On July 20th Natalie had a regular doctors visit where they discovered high blood pressure and even more fluid retention. The doctor decided to go ahead and induce labor before things got much worse. We checked into the hospital and started calling family members to inform them that our new additions would be arriving today.
   Soon after the nurses started an IV and began the Pitocin to start contractions and the doctor broke Natalie's water. The contractions came on strong and the mood in the room changed quickly. Natalie was having contractions every 60 to 90 seconds and was dilating steadily. Natalie felt as if she was not getting enough rest in between contractions so she asked for an epidural to help with the pain and to slow her fatigue. Life was a lot better for Natalie after having received the epidural and things were still progressing. An hour or two later Natalie was fully dilated and was ready to start pushing. After about an hour of pushing the doctor arrived and we were ready to go to the OR to deliver (with multiple births they always have you deliver in an operating room just in case). Pushing continued in the OR for another 15-20 minutes and Kairyn finally arrived at 8:48 p.m.
   This is where it gets a little tricky..... Natalie stopped having regular contractions after Kairyn was born and the doctor fully expected Jaxyn to fall down into place. This was not the case. Since the doctor couldn't feel her they decided to give Natalie more Pitocin to increase the contractions in hopes that Jaxyn would be moved down. So we played the waiting game except this time Natalie was no longer hooked up to the epideral and was feeling each contraction and even worse was feeling each time the doctor checked to see if he could feel Jaxyn. Since Jaxyn's heart rate was normal the doctor wanted to wait to see if she would move down on her own. 45 minutes later Jaxyn's heart beat started jumping and doctor decided that the best thing would be to deliver Jaxyn via C-section. Come to find out Jaxyn had the umbilical cord wrapped around her head and her shoulder which was not allowing her to move down. She arrived at 10:17 p.m.
    Both babies were healthy and we thanked God there were no further complications. Everything went accordingly the next two days in the hospital and the recovery process for Natalie was definitely a challenge.
    We were released to come home that following Saturday and came home to a clean, beautiful home thanks to Natalie's mom, sister, and Kendl and Brian.
    The next few days continued to be hard for Natalie and the night before her staples were to be removed she woke up feeling as if she had pressure on her chest and was having a hard time breathing. The next day as the nurse took her blood pressure before removing the staples she discovered that Natalie's BP was very high and the fluid on her legs had gotten worse instead of better. She also listened to her lungs and determined that their might have been fluid in her lungs.She asked Natalie to go see an on-call doctor since her doctor was out of town and that doctor re-admitted Natalie into the hospital. Michael and the girls loaded up and moved back into the hospital. After 3 days and two nights and many medicines to help rid Natalie of all the fluid the family headed back home.

We are now back home as a family and Natalie is almost 100%. She lost 38 pounds in 1 week :-0 ...the doctor said he had never seen that much weight loss in that amount of time. We have been blessed with our family being here through all of this and many friends have visited and brought us gifts and food :-) We feel as if we are often surrounded by angels that God sent to help us along this journey and we couldn't have done it without the love and support of our wonderful friends and family. Enjoy some pics of the girls and stay tuned for more adventures with our beautiful miracles!