We started solid foods!

Renna
Reagan

Daddy and the girls getting ready for a ride in little red
Renna, Daddy, and Fancy
Me, Reagan, and Fancy. Doesn't she look excited?

Well we finally broke down and started solid foods...if you consider mushy rice cereal solids!! We talked with our pediatrician and decided together that the girls weren't ready to try foods until they were 7 months. Well last week we started the rice cereal and they still can't decide if they like it very well. Reagan seems more eager to open her mouth than Renna. This surprised us because we are lucky to get Reagan to drink 3.5 oz in a bottle but maybe she just wants real food! Can you blame her? Her momma is a meat and potatoes girl so I can totally sympathize. Anyways they make some really funny faces when we start the feeding. I tried to capture some but that is easier said than done. We are starting slowly and will be increasing the frequency of the feedings this week. We are hoping to not compound the constipation issues with the addition of solid foods...the prune juice daily continues to help us out. One thing I was surprised about is how big and grown up they look in their little high chairs. They are getting so big and it just surprised me how they don't look like little tiny babies anymore! Makes me kind of sad but excited for the adventures that lay ahead. I am going to try and make my baby food with the help of my friend Chandra's advice. If anyone has any great tips for how you all make your baby food let me know! I plan on doing another week of rice and then starting a new food....I will let you know how it goes. We have been doing great. The girls have successfully had two days of only five bottles. This is a huge step for us so I hope we can keep it up. They are sleeping better at night. Reagan really sleeps for 7 hours which is awesome, Renna is another story and still tries to wake up every 3-4 hours. She is getting better though. At the advice of several friends we got a sound machine yesterday to try and drown out the noise of each other since they constantly wake each other up. I hope it helps. The girls are rolling over all the time and trying to push up on their arms. It is so cute. They have also both found their feet and love holding onto them. Reagan has even started sucking on her toe...gross! I will try to get a picture of that soon! We enjoyed a little outdoors time with the nice weather...short trips of course. Papa Ron recently gave us his old golf cart and we love it. Thanks so much Papa Ron! It is so fun to drive around the pasture and up and down our long driveway. I think the girls enjoy it as well. We got a few pictures of them with the horses yesterday. I think I hopefully have a couple of horse lovers. The horses were just as curious about them as the girls were. Hopefully we have a few more nice days...I am aching to get outside. Spring can't get here fast enough for me! My poor daughters have barely seen the actual sunlight due to the quarantine. Hopefully we can make up for it this summer.

Look What Daddy Made!

Late night spent working on crib #2
The begining load of wood for crib #2
My Beautiful cutting board
Renna's Crib
Window cornices
Sisterly love
Every cowgirl needs some pink John Deere clothes!

Those of you who know Adam know he likes doing woodworking. Before we even graduated from vet school he had started building a crib out of maple. It is a pretty involved project and the crib converts to a toddler bed and then a full bed. It was no small undertaking. He was almost done with the first crib when we found out we were pregnant....keep in mind it had been about a year and a half at least. After the shock of finding out we were having twins began to set in Adam immediately stated he of course had to make another crib. I said no don't worry we will just buy the other one. Of course Adam wouldn't have that. So he set to work on starting the second crib while he was commuting and completing his last year of vet school! Well as you can imagine I am very proud of him and his work. Both cribs came out so beautifully and I can't believe I haven't posted pictures sooner. Now since the girls have been born the woodworking has slowed down but Adam did manage to make me, my mom, and his mom beautiful cutting boards! I just love it! As you know he also made me some window cornices for the girls room. So this post is dedicated to all of daddy's hard work making all the beautiful things he made for me and the girls. He is such a wonderful daddy and husband. I am so blessed to have him. I must also of course say thank you to my mother -in-law for making the beautiful bedding and to Jennifer for making the curtains! Thanks I just love their room and know they will appreciate it one day too. We are doing well here. Can't believe the girls turned 7 months yesterday. They are growing up so fast. Renna now weighs 14 lbs. 4oz. and Reagan is a whopping 12lbs. 11oz!! We have just started wearing our 3-6 month clothing. Can't believe how big they are getting. It seems like their first birthday is now just around the corner...maybe they will start sleeping through the night before their birthday!! Lets hope! I am also including a few pictures of the girls. As you can see, Reagan is always moving in Renna's space trying to get attention.

A White Christmas

We had a wonderful first Christmas with the girls. Of course the blizzard conditions altered some of our plans to go visit my parents, but they ended up coming to us on the weekend so all was well. Adam enjoyed several days off from work and the girls and I loved having him home. We got to spend all day Christmas eve and most of Christmas day at home, just our family of four. We did venture out in the snow ten minutes down the road to visit Adam's parents on the evening of Christmas. His parents even bought "twin christmas trees" to now plant in their yard in honor of the girls' first Christmas. Then as I said my parents came to see us on the weekend. Although this years Christmas was unconventional due to the weather and the quarantine, we had a wonderful time with our parents. The girls received way to many gifts and now our house is covered with plastic toys that sing and have flashing lights! It is so fun to see the girls learning to play and watch some of their new toys. They are really starting to enjoy each other a lot more which is wonderful to see as well. We took the girls out in the snow for about 45 seconds to get a picture of their first snow. Of course they did not appreciate it but we at least got a picture for our baby book. Adam made me some window cornices (spelling?) and got some curtains made for the girls room for Christmas. I just love them! Thanks Jennifer for making the curtains, they are beautiful. I will post some pictures of them soon. Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. We sure did and we realized every moment how blessed we were to be getting to spend our first Christmas with our little girls. I never knew Christmas could be so fun until I had little ones to get presents for and open gifts with. Can't wait until next year when maybe they will know a little bit more about what is going on. Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

We had to post a few pictures of Santa's Little Helpers. The girls are pretty excited about Christmas as you can see. I was sad about not being able to take them to see Santa without being exposed to other kids....so our friends Moose, Amber, and Dawn provided us with a germ free santa experience! Thanks guys we really appreciate it! The whole family really enjoyed it! We will be spending time with each of our parents for Christmas but without our sisters and nieces and nephews due to the quarantine. They will all be greatly missed. We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and enjoys getting to spend some time with their families.

We've come a long way Baby!

Renna, 6 months old

Reagan, 6 months old

Reagan at two weeks old

Renna at one week old

In honor of the girls turning 6 months on Dec. 11 I wanted to look back at what huge improvements they have made. Actually that really seems like an understatement...they are our miracle babies and are tougher than me. It is amazing what God has done in their lives and how much he has blessed us by allowing us to be their parents. Renna started out at 2lbs. 15 oz. and is now a whopping 12lbs. 13 oz!! Reagan started out at 2lbs. 10 oz. and is now 11lbs. 7oz!! Can't believe how chubby they are getting. It really makes us smile. When we brought them home at 9 and 10 weeks of age we were making 16 bottles a day and feeding round the clock every three hours. We are now as of this week (hope I am not jinxing us) making 12 bottles a day and have just in the last few days started sleeping seven hours at a time!! Yes, I said seven hours!! What wonderful, blessed sleep. Of course I still wake up about every 1-2 hours to pat bottoms and replace a pacifier....but overall much much better. We still go thru anywhere from 14-18 diapers a day but who is counting! The girls are really starting to notice each other a lot more. It is my favorite thing when I catch them smiling at each other and then they coo back and forth. It melts my heart! I can't wait until they really start interacting with each other. How lucky they are to always have each other around. This six months has been the hardest of our lives but also the most rewarding. The experience with the girls spending over two months in the NICU was something I would never wish for anyone to have to endure. However I do believe as all hard times do, it made us so thankful for what we have. It brought Adam and I closer together and now we feel as if there isn't anything we can't get through together with the help of God. These little ladies can be very challenging at times but they are worth every second of lost sleep and worry. We don't get out at all except for our visits to the doctor which are actually quite frequent. So far we have seen: Neonatologists, Pediatric Cardiologist, surgeons, radiologists, ophthamologist, gastroenterologist, dermatologist, pulmonologist, and of course our pediatrician. I am sure there are a few in between that I left out. We recently ventured out to my parents to spend our first night away from home. It is nice having both sets of parents live within 45 minutes. So anyways Adam had to go out of town for some continuing education for work, so the girls and I went and stayed with my parents. It was so much fun...It was really good to spend time with my parents and my grandma. Plus it was huge for me to actually be out of our house for once and have some change of scenery. I was very worried about how the girls would sleep. Turns out the first night we stayed there the girls slept for about 6 hours!! Yeah!! The next night they slept seven hours!! Wow!! So far this week they have continued that. What an answered prayer. I will keep you posted on how it goes. We had a great time watching movies and just relaxing at my parents. I forgot the camera in all of the junk I packed so I will have to get some pictures from my mom. All in all it was a great weekend and I felt a huge sense of accomplishment at surviving away from our comfort zone. Of course it was also Adam's first time to be away from the girls and I think we missed him as much as he missed us. So to some it up, we now have six month old babies. We can't believe it. Everyday they do something new and fun. I am sure the next six months will prove to be just as exciting.

Thanksgiving with a cold...

Grammy feeding Renna

Our first thanksgiving as a family of four!

Our four generation picture: Me, my mom, my grandma, and the girls

Well we survived our first Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time visiting my parents on Thursday and then Adam's parents on Saturday. It was so nice to get out of the house briefly and relax with our families. We didn't get to see our siblings and our nieces and nephews due to the quarantine this year so they were greatly missed. We look forward to holidays when we can all be together again since we haven't been since the girls were born. Well again the viruses have come to haunt us. Renna began getting a runny nose on Wednesday and of course it turned into a full fledged cold and cough by Thursday. And of course you guessed it, by Friday I was sick and by Saturday Adam and Reagan had it too! Great!! It made for an extra cranky holiday, poor little ladies! Good news is that we are still battling runny noses but the cold doesn't seem to have gotten in their chest like it did last time. So far so good. It continues to baffle us as to why the girls keep getting sick. I mean we don't take them anywhere (except to their many doctor visits) and we practically sterilize ourselves when we come home from a public outing before we even touch the girls. Who knows, I guess they just have a weak immune system and if we were taking them all over the place they would probably be getting really sick all the time. We are just thankful that they are feeling better today. Reagan has her ultrasound of the lump on her head on Thursday so hopefully we will get some good news. Please keep that in your prayers. The girls have started trying to grab at toys and will put some of their stuffed animals up to their mouths. It is so cute. They seem like they are doing new things everyday. We managed to get the Christmas tree up this weekend despite the illnesses. We weren't going to let that stop us from enjoying the tree for a month. The girls really like the tree and the lights. Can't wait to start some holiday traditions with them this year. Hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving. We are so thankful for our wonderful families who continue to help us so much.

Fight for Preemies

Lately I have been overwhelmed with the thoughts of how blessed we are that both of our little girls are doing so well. They arrived so very early at 28 weeks of gestation and had such a tough road. After surviving heart surgery with Renna, rectal biopsies with Reagan, and in general over two months of needles, IVs and machines in the NICU, we count ourselves very very blessed. It reminds you of how life can change in an instant. Our day had started like a regular summer Thursday and before we knew it I was in labor and we were racing to the hospital...four hours later our girls were fighting for their lives. We have, with God's miraculous blessing, survived and triumphed. I now often say to Adam that I feel like "our cup runneth over." I don't know why God chose this journey for our little girls or for us, but I do know that every minute was worth it when I hold my little sweethearts in my arms. Even though I complain about house arrest I must say any and every day at home is better than two seconds in the NICU. I have been thinking alot about the other babies that we met while we were there and of course the ones that we saw who lost their fight. Some babies weren't premature but were born with congenital problems and are facing a lifetime of surgery and illness. It makes me never take one second for granted. I know there are many babies all over the country who are in the NICU now over the holidays. Adam and I were just talking today about how tough it would be to be spending your babies first thanksgiving and Christmas in that awful place while your child/children fight for their lives. So as I have been doing all of this thinking lately, I decided I want to give back and get involved with the March of Dimes. As it turns out this month is Prematurity Awareness month. Over 540,000 babies are born each year in the US as preemies. Only a small one percent are born by week 28 or before. Of course we fell into that one percent. Anyways please visit the March of Dimes website and help in the fight for preemies. I am not exactly sure how I am going to get involved yet but I will be posting more information soon. I did send an email they already have written for you about increasing funding for research into prematurity. If you feel moved please email your congressmen as well. I will try not to turn this post into a political platform, just wanted everyone to know what has been on my heart lately. Please remember all the sick babies and children out there in the hospital who will be spending their holidays in the hospital. Say an extra prayer for them and their families. Makes you want to hug your little ones a little tighter. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!