looong post

sorry that i have been mia since these girls were born.  it's been a little busy, and the blog has been put on the back burner.  things are going surprisingly well, but that may be some denial on my part.  the girls have adjusted to being home really well, and the big kids love them to pieces.  but first let me review our last two months.  sorry for a long post, but this is mostly for me so i won't forget.

after the girls were born they had a good stay at the nicu at TCH.  we were so blessed to be in houston for these two little girls.  if we had lived in utah to have these babies we would have had to either go to san fran or houston for treatment.  nick and i feel very strongly that this is the reason that we are living in houston.  we had the best medical attention that we could have received.  but, lets talk about the girls.  after being born, they were admitted to the level three nicu, where they were monitored very closely.  in the level three nicu, they have one nurse for every two patients.  we were blessed to have amazing nurses in that level.  we loved them all.  we feel like the standard of care there was top notch.  on november 18, piper was moved to the level two nicu, where there is one nurse to every four patients.  they have them in a little pod, and the nurse sits there between the four babes keeping close watch.  eden moved from the level three nicu a few days later because she needed to put on some weight.  from day one these girls only needed  to learn to eat, poop and grow.  they were among the most healthy babies in either nicu.  that was very comforting.  the nurses and doctors were all very reassuring about their progress.  (we were always worried of course.)  there were some really sick babies there.  it was heartbreaking to see some of the other parents in there having to make some very difficult decisions regarding their children, while ours were so healthy and feisty.  so when both of the babies were moved to the level 2, we kind of relaxed a little more.  at this stage they told us that they were feeders and growers.  that was nice.  although, they were both still have some episodes of apnea and bradycardia.  we went everyday, except 2, down to the hospital where we paid an average of $10 a day in parking, meals out, kids babysat, milk delivered, and babies visited.  it was worth every penny to see our sweet little angels grow and develop and be taken care of.  we loved all of our nurses but one.  i had a little fight with her.  i noticed that the longer we were in the nicu, the more cranky i got.  by the end of our stay i had fussed at the lactation nurses, and this one particular nurse.  i don't usually fuss at people, i'm kind of a pushover, but i was getting cranky.  this one lazy nurse who i did not care for, was very very very lazy.  piper had been released, and i had gone down to the hospital with her to see eden.  eden was getting hungry and nurse was no where to be found.  they had a bottle warming for eden, but she was getting upset.  when nurse (i can't even remember her name, don't think i ever learned it) came back she went to attend to one of the other babies in the pod, and i asked if i could feed eden.  she then looks and me and tells me, "i don't care what you do."  i looked at her and rolled my eyes.  i walked over to the bottle warmer and figured out how to get the bottle out.  i then fed eden.  thirty minutes later after eden had been fed, changed, and fell back to sleep, the nurse comes waddling over to the warmer, opens it up and says, "oh, you fed her?"  i looked at her and said, "yeah, somebody had to do it."  we both know she wasn't going to help.  now onto the one nurse who got eden home.  christine was an amazing nurse.  to be released from the hospital the girls had to be on all 8 feeds through a bottle.  they had to have not had an a or b for a week.  they had to be breathing room air (which they had been from day one).  piper was released from the hospital on their one month birthday.  dec 9 was a bittersweet day.  we got some pictures of the girls together because we hadn't had an opportunity to do that yet.  when we left i started crying and christine said that she would get eden home to us before christmas.  i held onto those words so strongly.  christine told me that she would be the nurse for eden most of the time, and that she would work with her.  when piper went home eden was on four bottle feedings a day.  they were trying to introduce one a day, but she had been downgraded from six bottles the day before.  i was a little discouraged.  we took piper home, and when we returned the next day, eden was on all eight bottles.  christine took the time to work with my sweet baby and eden did wonderfully.  so now that we were on all 8 bottles we were on a and b watch.  dr. cox, the neonatologist said that she would let eden go home if she didn't have an a or b for five days.  eden went a day without one, then on sunday she had an episode, so we were back to square one.  so everyday we went i would hold my breath hoping that eden had been without an a or b.  on wednesday, christine told us that we needed to bring a car seat, and get ready to bring eden home.  she was not even four pounds yet, but they said she was doing so well that we could grow her at home.  on friday we ventured down with piper, (first we had to go to cypress to get a car seat that would be safe for a four pounder.)  we got to the hospital and eden was strapped in to the car seat to see if she could keep her sats up while in the car seat.  i was a nervous wreck so i went to the rondald mcdonald house and milled around for a minute.  i also went to the milk bank and picked up 160 four ounce bottles of pumped milk that i had delivered every day.  we had to take a cooler to fit it all!  after an hour we went back to see how eden had done.  christine, said that her sats stayed at 100 the whole time.  so we got her unhooked from all the monitors and loaded in the car seat.  then we were ready to leave.  i gave christine a huge hug and told her that she was the reason that eden was coming home.  i started crying too of course.  we said goodbye to all our pod mates, baby s and baby z and their families.  it was such a wonderful day.  i sat in back with my girls and smiled the whole way.  we were finally all going to be a family now.  it was a long road to get these sweet girls here.  there were a lot of times when i didn't think we were going to make it (literally).  we are grateful everyday for our two little miracles.  i know that sounds so cheesy, but the more we research ttts, the more we know how incredibly blessed we are to have two heathly babies with us.  we are grateful for prayers on our behalf.  we truly know that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers.  we are grateful for a knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  sometimes it still floors me that we have twins, but we can't imagine our lives without piper and eden.  i will say this, the one good thing about the nicu is they train your babies.  they got our girls on a schedule and i have been able to keep them on it.  it's been so nice.  

 

 handing the babies off to the nicu.  nurse laura has the blonde hair.  we loved her.

 piper

 eden

 eden

 piper

 piper

 eden

 eden

 eden

 piper

piper stretching out

 together at last 

our first family photo