REAL quick update

Lily and Eve had their shots on Monday, ugh to that. BUT the girls weights are in for this check and boy are they big! Lily weighs 8 pounds 2 ounces, DOUBLE her birth weight. Eve weighs 7 pounds 6 ounces, more than double her birth weight. They both probably weigh more now, because that was a few days ago! In other baby news, the pediatrician said we can take them off the special prematurity/low birth weight formula and put them on regular infant formula because they are gaining weight well. YIPPEEE, costs less and everything.

The shower is definitely on for the 29th, hopefully everyone got their invitations. If now, e-mail me! Note to Jessica: The invitations were SO adorable! Thanks for doing them and for throwing the shower! You're the best. And thanks to Grandma M. for helping with it too...

All right, that's all for now. i HAVE more pictures, but I have a baby in one arm and need to go feed her, so I'm not sure when I'm going to get the pictures onto the computer -- let alone uploaded to the internet...

BIG girls!

The scales tipped at 7 pounds 12.5 ounces for Lily and an even 7 pounds for Eve today. And Lily went and peed on the scale again...can we try for three times, anybody? The girls are doing good, both sleeping right now. They were fussy butts last night, and had "major super poop" and "major poop" according to my mom's notation on the "food/poop/pee" logs we keep. I can't believe that Lily is almost 8 pound! She'll fit into all that newborn stuff and the carrier will be APPROPRIATE for her! Amazing! And Eve is up and coming. But she is obviously no longer a half pound behind Lily, she has lagged behind. We'll see what the doctor says on Monday. we might have to up her feedings or something if he isn't satisfied with her weight gain. This past week she has been gaining exactly according to the textbook, the home health aide said. About half an ounce a day. Lily is an overachiever...and it's funny because they were worried about her weight gain when she was in the hospital that last week...That's about all for now. I'm just taking it easy today...pretending it's a day off of sorts. We all need that once in a while. So i'm off to put Lily in her swing and sit down with a nice movie. Not that I'll be able to finish it, I imagine...

Oh my ears...

For babies who had some lung problems at birth, the girls sure can scream when they want something. Namely food. Lily is by far the louder of the two and she is a frequent screamer. Last night they both actually slept in their carseats because nothing I did got them to settle down and it was approaching 3 a.m. and I hadn't gotten a wink of sleep! Today, Lily did her fair share of screaming too. I finally fed her both times and she guzzled that formula like it was the last thing on earth and she didn't want to miss a drop. She's having some hard to pass stool too, so that must be part of her crying. At least she is passing it though! Eve squirms and becomes "tomato face" all day and usually has a massive poopy later in the day. Yesterday's went up the front of her diaper and onto her outfit. She makes a royal mess, that one! And the other day, Lily peed on the home health aide's scale, and then proceeded to pee MORE when I moved her to the changing pad on the floor and she got her pee all over the floor too. And Eve pooped on her Grandma the other day, and today, PEED on her too. Isn't that nice of her? For some reason, babies seem to like to do their business when their diapers are open, half off, all the way off, or not quite sitting on them right so that the "business" can get out...

In other news: Both girls apparently do quite well with the Avent "natural" bottles. I guess they are supposed to be the closest bottles to breastfeeding, even though neither girl has actually DONE that. Figured they would be good to try, so we are glad Kevin and Colleen bought them! Thanks again guys!

I feel a little guilty because it looks like I'm not going to be pumping breast milk for Eve much longer. I just can't juggle everything. I did it this long, and she got benefits from it, I'm sure, but at this point I'm just about out of extra "umph" and feel this is what has to go. Some people would chide me for that, but it's a decision that I've thought long and hard about and if Lily is doing so well on formula, Eve can too. Something had to give and better this than my sanity! I still have a thread of that left!

For all you moms and dads out there, any suggestions for getting these gals to sleep on their backs in the crib? They seem to scream like mad women when you put them down in there, yet they slept for 6 hours this morning in their carseats?! I'm thinking of using those bed positioners, that give them a slight incline...what do you all think? I'd appreciate any advice!

Up and growing

The home health aide came today to weigh the girls again. On Sunday, Lily was 7 pounds 7 ounces. She is now 7 pounds 9 ounces. Eve was 6 pounds 11 ounces and is now a whopping 6 pounds 14 ounces. So it looks like we are doing quite well feeding the girls, if I do say so myself! Lily and Eve both spent about an hour wide awake after the nurses left and I was "playing" with them. They don't really play just yet, they are still like a week old if you think about it. But they looked happy enough! We are going to try to apply for SSI for the girls, seeing as Eve was diagnosed with bronchopulmonary dysplasia from her longterm oxygen needs, and Lily has orthopaedic/urological defects that might qualify her. (If that doesn't do it, perhaps being 32-33 week preemies who spent 6 and 7 weeks in NICU will...) If we can get that, they will be covered until they are 18 years old and we would get money to help us out each month. Cross your fingers that the girls are eligible. My mother contacted Sen. Hilary Clinton's office about us not qualifying for much of anything and her office is very interested in our case. I am supposed to write up the information and fax it to them. So I am going to work on that tonight, most likely.

A few thankyous are in order again:

Kevin and Colleen and Caroline and new baby currently growing...: Thank you for the loot! We love that little medication pacifier, it is the coolest little thing! Might be needing it at some point...especially since the girls are getting their two month immunizations soon! And the outfits were SO cute. We're going to give the Avent bottles a try this next feeding. We'll see what happens!

Great-Grandma Kirschenheiter: I'll e-mail you personally as soon as I can, but thank you very much for your note and for asking the BEST people possible to help us out...you know who I mean! I do think that we have had loads of Divine intervention, seeing as the girls survived those tangles, then the NICU and Lily, and now we are getting help still with coping with two new babies and not going insane...I think I'm still sane, do I sound sane...And we appreciate the beautiful card you and Great-Grandpa sent us. If you can come up for a shower, I would love it if you could stop in and meet these two beauties! We'll have to see what we can do!

A picture for your collections:

Lily is on the right, Eve on the left. This is the day Lily came home again. I didn't upload the other pictures off the camera yet. BUT I am going to try to put up the pictures of the new grandmas and the new grandpa holding the babies. (Yeah, my Dad actually did hold them both...so I'll get that up as soon as I can!!!)

Oh, and the bunny between the girls has a very special story behind it. I might try to get Mom on here to tell people, if she is willing, but I don' tknow if she will be able to or want to. Just know that a special girl is watching over these two girls...

Shower

I just wanted to put a message up here that we are having a baby shower for the girls on Sunday, July 29. If anyone is interested in coming, post a comment on here or e-mail your address to me at kat2032@verizon.net so i can get it to the proper person! We decided not to bring the girls to the shower, just so everyone knows, because preemies are supposed to stay away from crowds of people for a number of months and we feel it is safest for the girls not to expose them to too many people all at once. But we will have LOTS of pictures, if I can manage to print them all!

The girls are doing fine. They are just eating, sleeping and growing. AND, oh yes, POOPING. Eve is the craziest pooper I've ever met. She will just go, and go, and go and I'll go through two diapers catching it all and a billion wipes! She is so funny to watch. She has this huge smile on her face when she is doing it. LILY, has also been a poop machine today. She's gone like 6 times, which is fine for her. And she decided today to pee all over the floor before I got to her! Fun stuff. I guess because of all Lily's troubles with stooling, we are odd and find these bodily functions exciting...

Together at last!

The title of the post speaks for itself and says all there is to say!



And if you are wondering, Lily is on the right, Eve on the left...

The battle is over...

THIS IS ALL IN CAPS BECAUSE I HAVE EVE IN ONE HAND AND CAN ONLY TYPE WITH ONE! BIGGGGGGGG NEWS. LILY IS HOME. WE PICKED HER UP THIS AFTERNOON. AND GUESS WHO TOOK A 90 ML BOTTLE IN ABOUT 25 MINUTES? I GOT HER TO TAKE T WITH NO PROBLEM. NO SPIT-UPS OR ANYTHING. AND SHE WAS ONE HAPPY KIDDO AT HOME. SHE IS DEFINITELY GOING TO THRIVE HERE.

Okay, had to put her down otherwise this would take forever to write! It's weird because the girls are both wide awake more today than I have ever seen them. Lily ate at 6 p.m. and then stayed awake for all but half an hour and ate again at 10 p.m. Eve slept more, but now both of them are up and it's a quarter to 11. Lily does seem to be more of a "colicy" baby. She will cry if she doesn thave her pacifier, but she isn't that skilled at keeping it in, and definitely can't put it back in if it falls out. But I'm hoping she gets over it. We let her cry on the blanket and she did at some point stop. But then again, she was hungry, so that's not a good test!

Anyway, take a look at how ALIKE the girls look at times!

And this one is cute:

And Lily is quite happy!