Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas! Ok so its a little late, things have been a little busy around here ;) We are 1 week at home and so far everyone is doing great.

Kirk and I are a little short on sleep, but happy to be doing it!! We've split up the night feedings are are each getting about 4-6 hours a night. This is a great set up for me, when Alyssa was born I was exclusively breastfeeding her and did all the night feedings for a year! I am happy to share the duty with Kirk, once he goes back to work next week though we will have to switch things up a bit.
The babies eat every 3 hours, all day and night. It takes 1/2 hour per baby for changing, eating and burping which is 1 hour total...this leaves 2 hours in between for sleeping, that is if both babies don't fuss at all in that time, and of course pumping, bathing, making the next round of bottles,eating etc...Eating take a good chunk of time around here...We are also going through an insane amount of diapers, a diaper change at each feed plus big blowouts in between, we are using about 20-25 diapers per day, hopefully once they stop pooping so much we'll cut that down quite a bit.
Leah is weighing in at 5 pounds 2 oz and Blake is 4 pounds 13 oz

Alyssa is doing wonderful and seems extra cute these days, maybe its because she seems like such a big kid and the things she says sometimes just crack us up...All in all I'd say she's adjusting perfectly!

Christmas was lovely, we spent some time with Kris and Jane on Christmas Eve, Mom and Dad Swinton in the morning opening gifts and Mom brought us breakfast. Joyce and Erv came over with Christmas dinner in the evening...Boxing day was just the 5 of us (and 3 dogs!) at home..duh where else would we be...

Its hard to believe a whole week has flown by already, these hours and days just all blend together. I did get out of the house yesterday to get some diapers that were on sale, and some bottle supplies.

Anyways, we are all doing great..here are some pictures from the last week...I'll try my best to keep posting regularily so don't give up on us yet! I'm sure the updates won't be as often as they were but keep checking back!!

This picture is actually from before Christmas but so cute I had to include it. Kirk took Alyssa to the Flames game, I'm not sure who was more excited!! They had a great time!

Mama and Lissy opening presents!

Oscar even got some presents, not from us though! I forgot...bad mommy

Blake in his big truck from Big cousin Gabe...They are determined already not to be over run by Barbies and Princesses

Our family :)

Alyssa and Blake, she usually asks to hold "The girl", I think because she is quieter!

A bounce house from Mama and Papa Slone, a HUGE hit! Alyssa kept chanting "Set it up, Set it up", here she is in action!

Being a big helper, always putting Blakes soother back in

Leah having a bath. Blake had one too but he went 2nd and there wasn't any spare hands to take a picture...next time he can go first
Little Buddies
Aww so cute!!!
Blake being Blake and Leah being Leah...

5 seconds of fame

We had 5 seconds of fame on the day we were released from the hospital. Just as we were packing up and getting ready to go a lady came in and asked if she could bring the babies a gift and take their picture. Then before I knew it a whole swack of people came in with a TV camera interviewing me, which was just fantastic after maybe 2 hours of sleep..not to mention that I hadn't even brushed my hair or my teeth yet!! Yikes!!

We ended up on the 6:00pm news, Kirk took a video of the TV so excuse the poor quality!! Here is the babies in their television debut!

We're Home!

Merry Christmas to us!! Our twins are home, and we are tired already! It was a loooooong night at the hospital and its only day 1 we managed to get 2 hours of sleep, 1 hour at a time, but we are home and we are happy!!

Alyssa LOVED seeing the babies today, then we had both set of parents and siblings over with our nephews and niece. It was a great celebration!!

7 weeks later!!!!!!

7 weeks later they are coming home!! Yes today I pled my case for Blake to be with his mommy and they agreed, thankfully I was there for rounds otherwise they would have kept him in longer. They are being released tonight from the NICU and we will be moving over to pediatrics for the night...Babies will be home tomorrow :)

Wish us luck!!

Ok tomorrow should be the day that they babies are released from the NICU...I know for sure that Leah will be, infact she could have been a week ago.

Mr.Blake has been a bit fussy the past few days as he is still a little uncomfortable and sore. If he has a rough night they were talking about keeping him in a little longer...What I think he needs is some TLC from his mommy and I think he would do WAY better if he could come home. He is so happy and content when I hold him and I think he just craves some lovin...medically they have said he is fine and they would only keep him so they didn't send him home cranky...Send him home cranky I don't care!!

Anyways, I am going with the plan that tomorrow we are rooming in and home Tuesday...If you don't here from me tomorrow night we are at the hospital getting ready to bring our babies home...If you do, well I'll be sad...

Their room is all ready, I have their clothes picked out and ready to take tomorrow, car seats are installed...Kirks parents are going to drop Alyssa off on Tuesday so she can help bring our babies home, and the 5 of us can come home together as a family...I am so freaking excited its ridiculous...think I'll be able to sleep tonight?!?! My guess is NO!!!

Ok everyone, Wish us luck!!!!!!!!!!

A much better day

Well today was a MUCH MUCH better day with the babies. Blake was leaps and bounds better today. He seemed more comfortable and wasn't screaming like yesterday. I think he was still sore and he's still taking tylenol but overall a completely different boy than yesterday. He even managed to gain 40 grams overnight which is amazing!!! His 2 incision spots are pretty red and sore looking and his poor little man parts looks all black and blue which is quite normal I guess...

Here is the boy on his big day..before we left for Childrens all strapped into his isolette..

Oblivious to the torture he was about to endure. He's got a bad case of baby acne right now and some stork bites forming on his eyelids, Alyssa also had stork bites and actually still has one between her eyes.

The horribly bumpy ambulance van on the way there.

The even more bumpy Neonatal intensive care ambulance for the ride back

Coming back after it was over..The ambulance bays were full so they had to roll him through the snowy parking lot while screaming at the top of his lungs.

Leah our little princess is always good and never asks for attention or fusses over anything...she is such a good girl she's been getting a little over looked the past few days...She eats a 1/2 hour before him so when she is done she gets put down because Blake is always ready for his food...he usually gets a good snuggle in afterwards. Daddy came by today and gave her some extra love...


I don't want to jinx it but we were told that Babies will be discharged on MONDAY!!!!!!!! Can you believe it!!! Now they have this rooming in thing if you want, they will take you to a different part of the hospital and let you have a room to yourself without monitors and 24/7 nurses so that you can take of them yourself yet if you had questions, problems etc they are just around the corner... We can do that or just take them home Monday but I think we are going to room in just to give us one last night of reassurance so really we will be home on Tuesday...Woohoooo and holy smokes all at the same time I can't believe it!!! It will be 7 weeks when they come home, its gone by slow and fast all at the same time.

Both babies have really bad diaper rashes...This is how I was greeted the other day when I walked in..haha they were letting their bums air out! Alyssa has always had aweful diaper rashes and it looks like these 2 will also.

These are some cute pictures of Alyssa over the past 3 Christmas. She loves this snowman, we'll have to keep it for years to see how everyone grows!

1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

My Grandma has been readmitted back to the hospital through the night and could really use some extra prayers today...Thinking of you always Grandma! XOXO

Booo on Today!

First thank you so much for all the nice messages and well wishes that everyone sent us today.

My day started at 1:30am to pump, followed by Alyssa waking up at about 2am with an aweful croupy cough. She spent about and hour crying and trying to get her resettled then up at 5 am to pump and get to the hospital...

All in all today was shit, just plain old no good very bad day :(

I was told over and over that this surgery was no big deal, and Oh thank goodness its not something more major and he'll feel so much better...I was prepared for a simple procedure and that really it would be no big deal.

Well it was a big deal, infact it was a huge deal. We got to childrens after an aweful bumpy ambulance ride, we were a little late getting there so they took him right away for his surgery.

They then said it would be about an hour and a half, which I was surprised at. We waited in a waiting room with a TV monitor similar to an Airport screen, all the kids names and their status; waiting for OR, In OR, In recovery etc.

Finally after close to 2 hours of surgery the surgeon came out to talk to us.

They tried to do a spinal but it didn't really work so they gave him a local anaesethic while he was awake and sucking on his soother...

Turns out he had 2 Massive hernias, one on each side and it was a much bigger thing than they thought and WAY more that we thought. It ended up taking close to 2 hours and they even had to repair his muscle wall on the left side that was the worst. There was no bowel damage and he thinks the testicle will be ok but they wont know for about a year on that.

We went back to see him in recovery and he was just screaming at the top of his lungs...I just cried seeing him in so much pain, Kirk agreed it was aweful. It was so heart breaking I have never heard him cry like that. It was the kind of cry where they start out screaming and end up holding their breath and not making a sound. He hadnt eaten in almost 12 hours so we gave him a tiny bit of milk to calm him down and it did a little.

Then the transport guys came to pick him up and transfer him back to the PLC...The ambulance ride was SO aweful and bumpy, why don't they have better shocks in those things??? The snow on the roads certainly didn' t help matters...He screamed at he top of his lungs the whole way being strapped to the little travel cot incubator. I had my hands in there trying to hold in his soother and rest my hand on his head to calm him...it didn't really help...He is only on tylenol every 4-6 hours...I can sure tell you that he went through WAY more than I did with my C-section and I was given a whole heck of a lot more drugs than tylenol...poor baby.

For the rest of the day he was in a lot of pain, every time he moved he would scream at the top of his lungs. He did seem to calm down when I was holding him, I did hold him most of the day and he did manage to fall asleep for while, but again everytime he moved he just screamed...

I left him tonight after being there for 12 hours in the care of an older nurse who was cuddling him. I am going to call in a bit to see how he is...

All in all that was a horredous horrible experience that we completely under estimated, and I sure as heck hope I don't EVER have to go through that with any of our kids again...

I hope tomorrow he is a little better but I am prepared now for him to be the same.

On a brighter note the have tentively said we can bring them home next Wednesday...I'm too tired to be excited right now maybe once I know he's feeling better I'll start to believe it....

Booooooo for today...Goodnight.........