Slacker

Ok Ok, so I'm a slacker with posting...I'm not sure what changed the past few weeks, nothing really has but there simply aren't enough hours in a day...really between feeds, crying kids, housework and 5000 other things that need to be done blog posting just doesn't rank that high these days!

Everyone is doing well, babies are growing like crazy. We have had to retire some preemie sleepers and are now mostly in newborn clothes. Tuesday weigh in had Leah at 6lbs 9.5 oz and Blake closing the gap at 6lbs 7.9oz...

We have had some more visitors which has been great, its been so nice to see some people I haven't seen for awhile. My cousins Jana and Jannelle came from Vancouver to spend the weekend with us. It was so nice to have them here to hang out and help out with the babies. Jana and Blake were little buddies and Jannelle and Leah spent lots of time cuddling. It was SO nice to shower in peace with the door closed!!! It was a too short of a visit but hopefully soon we can have them back out...

Alyssa LOVED the girls being here, she had so much fun..She said they were so beautiful they were almost like Princesses
Jannelle and the babies...

Best buddies...

Jana and the twins

Alyssa and Sophie her "Best cousin". The 2 little girls really really love each other and somehow within minutes they are usually stripping off their clothes into Princess clothes, athough if you were to call this particular "fitout" as Alyssa would call it she would be quick ot correct you that No she is not a princess but a Ballerina. Sophie liked her ensamble so much she made her mom and dad take her out to lunch in it...it was evencompleted with a pair of Alyssa's underwear!

Papa and his girls... My 3 precious monkies...that actually makes me choke a little when I say 3 kids...so strange to go from 1 to 3...a good strange just feels weird to say it out loud, I almost feel like a liar when I say it...Kind of like when you first get married and saying my husband..

These little guys are getting the chubbiest little cheeks, they really look like completely different babies than when we brough them home...

My Aunt Sandie and cousin Lauren came up to see us one night after work. Aunt Sandy like Grandma is a baby lover and will never ever get tired of holding them...Lauren on the other hand claims she is NOT a baby lover but I think by the end she was coming around...Shhhh don't tell but she even held them!!

My friend Mel and her adorable little boy Aiden came to see us as well, but sadly I forgot to take a picture...

Thats it for now, I promise to try harder this week!!!

Visitors

Hello! Wow its almost been a whole week since I posted...These hours and days just all meld together and the only way I know if its a weekend or not is if Kirk is at home or at work. Its good though, we are still maintaining our sanity. We have so much good help that it really has made all the difference of us keeping control on things...plus the babies still sleep a lot so its not too chaotic here yet!! Infact Kirk and I went out Friday night to the Flames game and we were talking about the babies (surprise surprise!) and I asked him what he thought so far about having these babies and how hard were the twins so far...His answer was 2 out 10...not bad!! I'll remember that in a few months when they are into everything! Also when our help slows down!

Babies are growing like crazy, our scale was returned to the nurse so they haven't been weight for a week but guessing by the size of their chubby cheeks I'm sure they've gained weight and are both above the 6 pound mark...January 10th was their official due date so we can start counting their age in weeks instead of gestation, so it makes them about 9 days old based off of that date, and tomorrow they will be 11 weeks old already...how the heck did that happen!?!?!

They are so sweet with each other, they really really love being together and that little Leah just can't get enough of her brother. She manages to wiggle her way over to him no matter how far apart you put them. Yesteday I was so tired I brought them into bed with me and Blake starting crying, I watched her immediately lift her arm up and put it on him...I remember the nurses saying she did this there to but to see it was so precious. They also feed off of each other, if one is crying the other will "fake" cry too. When one is hungry so is the other, when one is awake so is the other..its strange even if one is hungry way off their schedule the other will be too...Its so amazing to see already this bond they have, and mom and I both say they talk back and forth to each other with their little squeeks.

We have started having some visitors which I love!! Keep coming people!!! We are always here so a little warning and we'd be happy to have you!!

This picture is of Leah eating Blakes cheek, she was hungry and he was the closest thing she could find...you can see how impressed he is! One night he was sucking on his soother and then started screaming, I came over to see what was wrong and Leah now had the soother in her mouth...he obviously dropped it out of his mouth and she picked it up...the first of many sharing issues I'm sure!
This is a common sight when they are together, Leah always touching her brother...so precious!

Our little friend Kyla holding Leah

Kyla's mom and my dear friend Shara with Blake

My Grandparents were finally able to meet the babies this weekend. My grandma had been quite sick and was now feeling much better and was able to make her way to our house. My grandma has such a love for babies, she had 5 of her own. She has an arm of steel and will never get tired of holding a baby, she could hold them for hours and insist she was fine. Blake and Leah are their 5th and 6th great grandbabies, #7 will be arriving for my cousin shortly!

Grandma broke her arm a few weeks ago but it wasn't enough to stop her from holding them.

Grandpa and Leah

This is Bishop, my cousin Lindsey's son, they are going to be having a new addition to their family any day so he was practising...he only wanted to hold the boy baby though, he doesn't want a girl baby!

Lindsey and Yemi with the babies...

Big sister with her beloved Leah. Alyssa loves holding Leah and I always catch her talking to Leah telling her about the future. "When you are bigger we will make snow angels, I will take you to school and we can talk. When you are bigger we can share bunkbeds in my room" Note the "my room"...haha I'm sure Alyssa won't let her forget that!

Thats it for now! Have a lovely week!

Pictures!!

We got our pictures back today and Ohmygosh...there are so many beautiful pictures, how does a person so indecisive as me choose just a few! If you are bored, here is the link to the website with the pictures...Warning!! There are LOTS! If you just scroll over the picture # you don't have to go through the whole slideshow, there are 115 pictures!

Password is leahandblake....

http://www.growingexpressionsphoto.com/index2.php#/proofing/

Sleep

Ok I apparently was sleep deprived when I wrote my last post, I said we were getting 'normal' amounts of sleep..hmmm that is definitely not the case. Perhaps I meant to write a decent amount of sleep, but even that word isn't the right one...

Maybe its my perception of what a decent amount of sleep is these days. I think I had in my head before the twins came home that there would be no sleeping at all ever, and that is not the case, nor is it that we are getting an over abundance of sleep.

We do have a good system for sleeping in place. Kirk is sleeping from about 11-5am when he gets up for that feed, and I am sleeping from about 3 or 4 til 10ish as my my comes for the 8:00 feed, my sleep is mixed in with some interruptions so its not a straight strech of sleep. The babies seems to know when its night time now and we have just had the past few nights 4 hour stretches between feeds and inbetween they both mostly sleep, there are a few squeeks and cries but they seem to know the dark room and swaddling means longer stretches of sleep...

Appointments the other day went great, Eyes were good, the shots weren't too bad...we have more shots tomorrow and a follow up for Blakes surgery Wednesday...Leah is 5lbs11oz Blake is 5lbs8oz soon they will be out of their preemie clothes, and before you know it they will be sleeping through the night...Sheesh...these babies just grow to fast...I guess thats why people have more!

Doing great!

So far so good, thing are still going great! Everyone is happy, healthy and getting somewhat of a normal amount of sleep, thanks to the help of our Mama's and Papa's! We had a Dr's appointment today and everything was good. Leah is 5lbs9oz and Blake is 5lbs6oz, you can really see them filling out their little cheeks and legs.

We have 4 appointments tomorrow, yes 4...2 each at the childrens hospital so we will be their all day for eye exams and RSV shots which is basically a cold shot.

Not much else to report right now, well I guess there is lots of small details that I don't have time to type, nor I'm sure do you probably care to read..so instead here are some pictures...

Oh and might I add, VISITORS PLEASE :) Its getting a little lonely over here! This week and next we have some Dr's appointments but feel free to call if you want to come by and we can pick a day...

Blakey all ready to go to the Dr's today, he was looking so cute I had to take his picture

Leah too of course!

The little monkies all decked out in Pink and Blue, our favorite colors :)

Mama Leanna after feeding time..

Papa Murray and his girls...yes that is a soother in Alyssa's mouth...No I don't care to hear about it ;)

Uncle Ricky and Auntie Jen came for some baby snuggles...

Daddy and all 3 babies sleeping on him...

Blakes bath pictures just to be fair since I had some of Leah last time...
His favorite expression...
Mama Joyce, Papa Erv and the cousins...

The Crazy Adventure of 2009

Happy New Year!! 2009 was a year for us mixed with all sorts of extreme highs and lows. Some points so low I am happy to bid farewell to, and some so high I will remember as the best of my life...

We started the New year off by having a miscarriage at 9.5 weeks. We learned at our first ultrasound that the baby's heartrate was low and not a good sign, sadly right before New Years we learned that this very wanted little being was not meant to be. I spent quite a long time grieving our loss and wondering if another child was in our cards at all...having been through this with Alyssa it was a real possibility it wasn't. It was not something that I could just get over and move on from, it has a forever impact on my heart and was a very low point in my life.

March brought the beginning of a new quest for another child. We started our IVF treatments and had 6 long weeks of drugs, daily appointments, self injections and very invasive medical procedures. That in itself was an up and down rollercoaster of good news one day, bad the next..possibly cancelling and ultimately ending in us transferring 2 embryos in April...

May brought the wonderful news that we were not only expecting 1 little miracle but 2!!! Could we be so lucky to have things go smoothly and have BOTH babies come home with us?!?!

June was a scary scary time with a rushed trip to the emergency room where we were told 100% we were going to lose both babies. I had a subchronic hematoma that brought massive bleeding for the next 10 weeks and uncertainty if things would turn out ok, BUT these little fighters stayed put and conintued to thrive. There was a lot of lazy days and help from parents to keep these little ones safe..

August was the great news that we were having 1 girl and 1 boy!!! We also found out that Baby A which was our Leah, had a marginal placenta previa and a velamentous cord insertion, which in easy terms meant possible complications and the potential for growth problems and problems if the baby's water broke and possible fetal demise..ekkk

September and October were smooth sailing!! I felt great!!! Too great I think! I had energy, bleeding was gone, there still was the Baby A issues, but I was feeling like things were going great and I was going to be able to make it right til the end!!

November of course we know the babies had their own agenda..November 4th our Little baby A's water broke at 30 weeks which we were hoping wouldn't happen...but our little Miracles entered the world, ready or not...

November and December was the world of the NICU and the scares that came along with that, Leah's brain scare, Blakes tummy scare and surgery, and the demands of 7 weeks of travelling back and forth every day to the hospital...

December 22, was the day we brought these little angels home...and December 31 we spent holding these precious babies and thinking back to the heartache we felt just 1 year earlier...

I don't think ever in my life will I experience the full range of emotions that this year brought....never will I feel more joy than giving birth to 2 perfect babies, yet I won't ever forget the hurt and pain that came along with the journey to get where we are today...

I am looking so forward to 2010 and think it will be one of the best and crazy years. Even though I'm sure the craziness of having 3 kids under 3 will be hard sometimes, I'm am more than sure its a crazy that we can handle...and I'm so thankful to have Kirk as a partner and my rock to share this crazy ride with...

I hope that 2010 is a wonderful year for all our friends and family, and may all your dreams come true!! It IS possible!!
xoxo