13 weeks old already!

Hello again!

So, another week another set of fun "challenges" were presented :).  This past week Matt went out of town for business for 3 nights, this is the first time he's had to go out of town since the babies were born.  With a little over night help from my mom and my sister (and Josephine) we survived!  Matt came home and we were all in one piece, myself included!  

Then on Monday we had a follow up developmental peds appointment, which let me start by saying I may have spoken a little too soon about Vivian's bottle taking abilities.  She is really enjoying being strictly paced while eating but when we increased her from 2 bottles a day up to 4 or 5 she kinda went back to her "old ways" of not really wanting to eat orally.  So, back to 2 bottle per day we went because that's where she was happy.  At our appointment Monday the doctor decided because she hadn't really improved we needed to move forward with other testing to rule out some other obstacles that might be preventing her from wanting to eat.  So today she had a bronchoscopy done.  This is where they take a tiny wire with a camera and put it down her nose to take pictures of her airway.  Long story short, things looked good, no inflammation, or cysts or abnormal masses.  She does have pharyngomalcia, which is basically means softening of the pharynx which is a part of the throat.   It's my understanding this is due to her prematurity and she will eventually grow out of but it could take up to a year.  This is why she "squeaks" occasionally when she is awake, eating or sleeping.  The pulmonologist basically said we need to give her more time to grow, which could take several months to a year.  He didn't really elude to whether or not this was 100% connected to her eating issue but it's possible.  We just need to give her time and realize there is no quick fix, which is hard for me :) but I'm learning.  We will move forward at Vivian's pace and give her positive experiences with the bottle and build slowly upon them and eventually she'll do it on her own, I know she will.  She's an independent little girl who wants to do things her own way...I wonder where she gets that from? :)  

In one of the blogs I follow I recently read something that struck a cord with me and I'm going to try to stand by.  "Prayer provides peace when there can be no answers and when there can be no understanding", so each day I've decided I am going to pray that God gives me peace.  I don't need answers and I don't need to understand why my little girl has to go through all of this because it's out of my hands and placed in someone else's hands with much more power then myself and I know we'll get through this.  I always say, "hey this could be way worse", I have a happy healthy little girl and big boy and I couldn't be happier that God chose me...ME of all people to raise them and he gave me an awesome  husband who has turned into an unbelievably awesome Daddy!  We get to see them smile, laugh, "talk" and kick their feet with glee and these are the things that make my day.  

Onto other news, Oliver is still sleeping pretty well.  He's getting up just once in the night to eat and maybe a few times for a pacifier "fix".  Both babies go down to bed around 8ish.  Oliver has slowed down on his eating just a bit but he's still about 5 pounds bigger then Vivian, weighing in at around 15 pounds.  Vivian weighed 10 pounds 5 ounces today.  She's working hard to gain weight but hey she's a girl...no need to be a big as her big brother!  Vivian is still sleeping well through the night, but we are still "cheating" and feeding her without waking her (around 2 AM) so she too sleeps through the night and would probably sleep longer but we do wake her around 5 or 6 AM and feed her.  They are just growing and changing every day and it's really going soo fast!  I do not want to rush either of my babies out of any of their stages of life so I will enjoy each day as it comes and try to be more patient with what God has planned for us in regards to Vivian's bottle feeding.  

I haven't said thanks in while, so thanks for all the love, prayers, calls, texts, and comments!  We have wonderful family and friends, so to all of you out there...thank you!

Below are some pictures....enjoy!

Vivian sleeping in Mommy's arms after a feeding.  

Jail birds on the loose.  We've been trying to get out more to feel more "normal", especially before flu and cold season hits.  

Happy, happy babies!

Sleeping girl.

Sleeping boy with his "lovie"  (He does like to hold onto something when he's eating or sleeping in his carseat not swaddled up but usually he prefers a dirty old burp rag...he's a boy...)

Snuggled up, Oliver was moments from a meltdown.  When the boy wants to eat there's really no time for photos, just look at that thigh...)

10 thing I am thankful for this week....

wrist rolls
Vivian smiles
Oliver coos
thigh rolls
fall days and evenings
Matt taking 2 days off work this week
coordinating outfits
5 hours of consecutive sleep
having a beer with Matt while making formula and bottles for the next day
healthy babies

Updates

I have few pieces of good news to update...

1.  I am taking an additional 4 week leave of absence!  With 2 babies, lack of sleep, one baby who is using an NG tube to eat still, a husband who will be traveling to China for a week next month it was just adding up to be too much for me to process and go back to work!  So with the approval of my boss I will have another month off and not got back to work until the week of October 24th.

2.  We spoke with a speech therapist I work with last Thursday and came up with a new plan for our little Miss V for bottle feeding and so far so good...it's been working!  We had to take a few steps back in order to take steps forward but she is taking the bottle again and enjoying it!  We still could have a few bumps in the road and we are taking it very slow but Matt and I are more then please with how she's doing in less then a week!  Praise God!  She's taking 4 or 5 of her 7 bottles a day.  I am still tube feeding her 2 times at night (partially because she's sleeping through them and I'm going to work this NG tube in my favor to get her to sleep through the night!  We just need her to increase her volume in the day and we'll eliminate all night time feedings!)  Slow and steady wins the race.  She's sleeping from about 8 or 9 pm until about 5 or 6 am with a brief diaper change and back to sleep until around 8 am!  She's my good little sleeper!  She's still sleeping with Matt and I in our bedroom because of her reflux and tube feedings.

3.  My big boy FINALLY SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!  He too goes to bed around 8 or 9 pm and last night for the first time EVER slept until 5:45!  That's not exactly "through the night" you say...well, it counts in my book!  Plus, he went right back down after a quick 4 ounces until about 8:15....success!  He may not do it again tonight or tomorrow night or even this week but I know he can and will do it again!  And for the past 10 days he has been sleeping in his crib full time!  Prior to this the most he's ever gone is 5ish hours and sometimes that takes a little work (replacing a paci, patting his tummy).  We've been working a pretty rigorous night time routine with both babies for the past 10 days and it's paying off!

4.  We made it to church for the first time without distracting too many people.

5.  Both babies are very happy, smiley, and coo often...which is more then fun!

Go Colts!

Vivian ready for game time!

Ready for bath time! (Oliver has a little umbilical hernia)

Vivian passed out during play time.

My happy boy!

More pictures

Hi friends!  We are still quite a bit different in size but little sis is trying to get as big as her brother!

Vivian reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear...her new favorite book!

Oliver was listening to reading time.  

A group shot with Noah...this is the best we could do, he actually weighs a little bit more then Vivian, she just has bigger cheeks!  We think he's definitely boyfriend material but Oliver wasn't letting Vivian get too close.  

Hi MOM!

There you are MOM.

My best friend from childhood, Joe, aka my younger brother, brought his son over to meet the babies.  Josephine was here to play too.  This is the best group shot I could get.  Vivian's hang out, Oliver's sleeping, Andrew would like to bounce Oliver a little and Josephine is telling him to "be gentle" because that's what we tell her when she wants to bounce the babies :)

The big kids looking outside.  

Andrew is giving Josephine a little friendly pat on the back.  

Two happy little babies.

The little sister....

Oliver is asleep in the swing with his arms hang out like that...too funny!

11 weeks

Hi friends and family, sorry for the delay in updates but blogger isn't recognizing my photos and then failing to upload them once I do find them in cyber land.  Anyone else out there having these problems?  Anyways...I got a few fun pictures to upload but not everything so I'll make a brief update for now and maybe when Matt gets home we'll figure this out together!

On Monday I weighed the babies on our home scale, weighing myself first and then holding them so these weights are a rough estimate and they were each wearing a onesie.  (Plus, I am happy to report I'm back down to my prebaby weight...pat on the back to me!)  Vivian weighed 9.5 pounds and Oliver weighed in at a whooping 14 pounds!  Normally 14 pounds isn't that big of a deal but when you started at less then 6 it's quite an accomplishment!  Oliver never met a bottle he didn't like!  On the other hand we are still working with our little gal to enjoy her bottles.  We've backed off a bit more and are giving her just a couple bottles a day.  We found that she was resisting a bit more and we are just trying to be proactive, give her a bit more time to grow and hopefully her little light will turn on soon!  Keep the prayers coming!

"Pizza again mom...."

"Now were's talking."   

*Disclaimer: Granny did not want me to post this picture, but how could I resist that cute smile!

"No Vivan we will not puree these to put down your tubie...let's start with more bottles first!"

Oliver and Vivian met their new friend Noah this week!

Noah is trying to beat up on Oliver already.  (Oliver's head looks really big next to Noah, maybe it's just his pouty lip and double chin?!)

Ok I have very cute pictures of Vivian "reading" I'll try to upload later when I figure this out....

10 weeks old already!

Hi friends and family.  Sorry it's been so long since I've updated...go figure we've been busy!  Busy eating, pooping, growing, smiling, holding our heads up, crying, cuddling, cooing, and best of all being spoiled rotten!  

Both babies are doing well.  About a week ago we ended up putting Vivian's feeding tube down.  Each feeding just became a bit more of a struggle for our little lady.  She was hungry and getting frustrated because she couldn't quite coordinate the eating from a bottle thing.  Since Friday we have been tube feeding every feeding to give her a break and hopefully get a fresh start when we start bottle feeding again.  Matt and I will touch base with the doctor again tomorrow to see when we'll start reinitiating bottle feeding.  She was frustrated, Matt and I were frustrated because we felt like we couldn't do anything to help her.  This weekend we got our happy little girl back!  Both babies are smiling now and it's such a reward!  We haven't quite talked the babies into sleeping more then about 4 to 5 hours at a time in the night.  Plus, we've now stopped waking one when the other one wakes in an effort to give them more of a chance to sleep through the night so really the frequent 2 to 3 hour feedings in the night haven't really let up for us :) It's coming, a little more time and we'll get there!  One day we'll look back and reminisce about all this and think...how in the heck did we do that!  

Enjoy our pictures!

Matching jammies!

Bath time!

Bella keeps watch over Oliver who is napping on his tummy :)

Vivian naps on Mommy.

Oliver (and his second chin) sits in the Bumbo, he's still a little bit little but he is so strong!

Mommy and Oliver have a chat about sleeping through the night...Oliver still isn't convinced it's a good idea.  

It's virtually impossible to capture two infants smiling at the same time!

40 takes later...this is the best we could do!

Vivian's serious face.

Vivian's sweet smile.

Swapping sleep sacks!  Oliver has grown out of the newborn size and Vivian hasn't grown into her bigger size so when Mommy needs to do wash, they have to share :)