Emily Comes Home!

Emily came home on Thursday, January 20th. We were so thrilled to get our family TOGETHER! It was difficult having Katherine home and Emily in the hospital and keeping up with a pumping schedule for the girls on top of that! 17 days in the hospital is just one day shy of Jackson's stay in 2007, so we feel very blessed having twins with such a short stay and no real complications to speak of. Emily is just short of 5 pounds and is drinking just under 2 ounces right now.

Rivers and Jackson were beside themselves meeting a second baby! They were both so precious, wanting to hold Emily but still paying attention to Katherine.

Together at last! I wonder what Emily and Katherine felt being separated from each other for those six days? I guess, though, prior to that, they were in separate beds for six days, together in a crib for five, and then separated again when Katherine came home. Their coming home outfits were a little bit big, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy preemie clothes since I knew they would grow so fast! We are just thanking God for our family and trying to take in all of these special moments that pass so quickly!

Katherine Comes Home!

We brought Katherine home on Friday, January 14th, after an 11 day stay in the NICU. It was bittersweet leaving Emily behind, but she needs a little bit more time to get her feedings under control before coming home. We hope to get Emily home this weekend. Katherine had her first pediatrician appointment on Monday and weighed 4 pounds 14 ounces. Emily now weighs 4 pounds 5 ounces.

Rivers and Jackson were so excited to meet one of their little sisters! They both took turns holding her on a Boppy pillow and giving her tons of kisses. Both Rivers and Jackson have been a huge help. The transition has gone very well, but it will be quite interesting getting another baby home to feed! Regardless, we are ready to have our family under one roof and we look forward to this sweet (...but sleepless) time. The girls are two-and-a-half weeks old, so I'm hoping by 10 weeks, that they will be sleeping through the night!

Holding Our Girls

Emily and Katherine were moved to an open crib together on Sunday during my visit that afternoon. It was so special to move them back together...side by side again!

Daniel and I got to hold the girls at the same time for the first time this afternoon. They have both been off of oxygen for several days, and they are having their IVs removed tonight. Emily is being given 5 bottles a day and Katherine has 6. Daniel fed Katherine a bottle, which she took in 5 minutes flat. I fed Emily, who is a much slower eater, and it took her 25 minutes. We were both in love just holding them, singing to them, and telling them about how much their big sister and brother can't wait to meet them!

Happy Birthday Katherine and Emily!

The girls were born on Monday night, January 3rd! "Baby A," Katherine Hope, was born at 9:46, and "Baby B," Emily Elizabeth, was born at 9:47. I awoke at 4:30 that morning with contractions, and they continued on throughout the morning. By noon, they hadn't subsided and were becoming a bit more uncomfortable. I called the doctor on call, and she said to come in and get my levels checked for preeclampsia again (I was in the hospital Friday night too.) I got settled in with monitors for the girls and a monitor for the contractions, and they ran two bags of IV fluid. The contractions were coming every 2-3 minutes apart. They ran a bag of magnesium, and the contractions started coming every 1-2 minutes. They were trying to decide what to do, and I was about at the end of my tolerance for the pain, so they gave me some medicine which completely knocked me out for two hours. Daniel left to go pick up the kids. When I woke up, the pain was all but unbearable. The doctor was called in, and I said, "This is it! This pregnancy isn't going any further. This is my 10, or I'm afraid something might not go well." Dr. Green immediately got things headed toward surgery, and Mom called Daniel who was picking up the kids from Leigh's house. He dropped them by for my sister to put to bed and sped to the hospital, making it from Lexington to Palmetto Richland in 20 minutes. Thankfully, he arrived as I was getting prepped for surgery, and I was so relieved to hear him behind me as the c-section began. Katherine cried pretty quickly when she was born, but it took a little work for Emily to get that first cry out. Once the girls were stable, the nurses brought them over for us to see and give a quick kiss on the head before they were whisked away to the NICU. I felt such relief that they had arrived safely and that I too was safe and on the road to recovery!