MERRY CHRISTMAS

We won't be sending a Christmas card this year so I hope you will accept this.  Merry Christmas from our beautiful family of 7! We love and cherish you!

blood work and prayers

The boys are all doing very well and adjusting to a life of 7! The twins have been having regular (weekly) weight checks because although they are gaining weight it's just not enough.  So we will go back again next week for another weight check.  Here is what you should pray for! Pray that the boys each gain an oz a day at least.  This means Dylan will weigh in at 6lb 3oz and that Logan will be 5lbs 14oz

With that the boys continue to have regular labs drawn.  This is new to me as it's something Justin didn't have to go through.  On Monday we will be going back to the hospital to have some labs done.  Please please pray for good or shall I say normal results.  Right now it looks like Dylan might have a thyroid disorder.  Please pray against that.  His hemoglobin is high too but the doctor says that should work itself out.
Thank you for your prayers.  We feel so blessed right now.  Thankful to have all our boys home, thankful for the roof over our heads, the friends who are renting to us.  Thankful for the love and support of our church family.  Thankful for a wonderful marriage and for the fact that Jake and I continue to stand together to weather the storms this life has given us.  We are blessed.  Maybe not financially but in so many other ways, we are blessed and we are thankful.
Merry Christmas to you all!  Count your blessings from this past year and look forward to the blessings of next year.

PICTURES - The first few days together

Logan is on the left Dylan is on the right. 

Ethan is a very proud and helpful big brother
He's feeding Logan

Caleb is burping his baby as I burp the twins.
He too is a very proud, sweet loving big brother

Logan's homecoming.  The boys were all so excited to have him home.

I surprised Jake when I brought Logan home, he was one very happy daddy.

FAMILY OF 7!!

I just wanted to let you all know that Dylan is home! I went and picked him up this evening and brought him home!  Our family is now complete and we are so excited.  Thank you for walking and sometimes crawling this journey with us.  We are so thankful for your love and support.  Please keep both boys in your prayers as they spend the next however long with tons of follow up doctor appointments.  Both boys will be followed by an ophthalmologist as well as receive PT and possibly OT from the county.  Jake and I are thankful for the timing of the boys arrival.  Jake always takes off the week between Christmas and New Year's so it will be a good time of adjustment for us all.
Right now Dylan weighs 5lbs 8oz and Logan is hanging out at 5lbs on the nose.  We really need Logan to gain some weight, some serious weight!
Please keep us all in your prayers, pray the Lord would grant us some sleep here and there and pray for all of our boys to adjust and love one another.  Right now they do love each other a great deal.  Even Caleb has learned to be gentle and pat babies back.
Again thank you and enjoy a few photos below.  I will continue to try to update you on how the boys are doing but appreciate your grace in my timing.  The one thing I always tend to forget about with newborns is simply that my time management is out the window and I need to readjust.   What use to take 10min to get in the car and ready to go will now take close to 30!  EEK.

Blessings to you all!!

Logan sleeping sweetly in my arms.  

Dylan getting ready to leave the NICU and come home.

A momma knows

On Sunday when I went home with Logan Dylan had a very rough night.  An emergency x-ray was ordered and all of his feeds were stopped!  He had some respiratory issues and they were trying to figure out what was going on.  When I went in on Monday my goal was to learn to nurse both boys at the same time.  The nurses were a little hesitant because Dylan had been refusing all bottles since we left.  Logan and Dylan nursed like champs! Even Logan doesn't nurse as well at home without his brother.  It was crazy!  So I made it my goal to go back 2x a day to nurse them both.  Dylan was nursing so well but refusing bottles.  It got so bad at one point he was coughing and choking on the milk.  I mentioned to the nurse that Logan hated the formula he was sent home on and that he was refluxing, gagging and choking on it.  I then asked if we could just try one feeding from a bottle with just my breast milk to see if it was the bottle or the formula.   Momma knows!! It was the formula! Since the nurse spoke with the hesitant doctors Dylan has taken every single feed for almost 24 hours with no trouble at all!  I am so thankful that the nurse didn't write me off.  She heard me and took my request to the doctors.  I am thankful the doctors heard the nurse out and even more than all that, I am thankful it worked! I am not sure what the plan is going forward.  NICU has a thing about formula... they love it.  But Dylan has showed them that he can eat and does eat, just not nasty smelly formula :-) So for now we will wait and see what the next step is.  Will they wait and see what his weight does on just my milk? Will they try yet another formula? (remember the formula is what gave his kidney problems before) We will see, but for now, YAHOO!! Dylan is a super star and as I have always said, he is my firecracker! He will never let anyone push him around.  He has always let you know what he wants and what he doesn't want in a very loud voice.  Logan is more chill and laid back, Dylan doesn't take it from anybody, not even NICU doctors and nurses :-)
(Please know that I LOVE the NICU nurses and doctors we have encountered.  This is nothing against them at all.  I couldn't be more thankful for them.  They are gifted and they care for my babies when I can't.  I am simply saying that Dylan is not by the book.  It's more against him than them. haha)

life is full of surprises

Today I went to the NICU as I normally do.  I fed the boys, well, I fed Logan.  Dylan was too sleepy to eat.  While feeding Logan the doctor came in and said "surprise! someone is coming home today"  It's always great to hear but also very shocking.  I was totally unprepared!  Ahh, yay but ahh, but okay..... I decided to hold my tongue and not tell Jake and the boys.  I decided to make it a surprise for them too.  It took what felt like forever! Plus we had a pediatric nurse subbing in instead of a nicu nurse so she had no idea how to discharge us.  But we made it!  Logan is home.  Although it was wonderful it was also terrible.  Leaving Dylan was so hard this time.  I said goodbye but didn't want to leave.  I asked Dylan to help me out and be a better eater so he can come  home too because we all missed him.  Thankfully Logan can come with me back to the NICU you daily so that is a gift in itself.  Tomorrow afternoon Logan and I will head back to see Dylan.  Pray for Dylan that he does a better job eating all of his feeds.  Once he does that he can come home too.

Thanksgiving

This year we have so much to be thankful for.  The biggest news as of late is that both boys have healthy brains, past their hearing tests, have no heart problems, no kidney problems... basically they are doing incredibly well!! The only doctor we need to follow up with is an eye doctor.  You have to understand, when we left the hospital with JT we had follow up appointments with the neurologist, cardiologist, PT, OT, physiatrist, and ophthalmologist.  So you can imagine our joy in that we will do PT and OT with ITC (infant and toddler connection in fairfax county) and see an eye doctor and that is it!  A huge huge blessing!
Logan is just on the brink of coming home but I think they two of them are fighting to come home together.  Originally they thought he would come home today (Sunday) but he decided to have a Brady the other night and they want him to go three days without a spell.  Dylan has upped his feeds and is working really hard to get off the feeding tube.  So Logan won't come home until Monday or Tuesday at the earliest and Dylan isn't too far behind.  Once that tube comes out it's just a few days!  Jake and I are a little in shell shock as to what it's going to be like to have twins and 5 boys in this house.  Crazy days for sure.  Plus you add on all of Jt't therapy plus the twins ITC stuff... whew!  I can say I am very thankful I decided to have my surgery when I did.  I wouldn't have time to do it now! \
We are so thankful for the gifts and blessings we have received this year.  Although life is crazy we continue to count our blessings and give thanks to God.  If you don't hear from me for a while it's because the boys are home and I don't have a single minute to call my own.  Let the new normal begin!