for all you crafty ladies out there

Source: handmaderyangosling.tumblr.com via Alex on Pinterest

i'm so good at blogging, i'm thinking about going professional

      after many of my readers told me they missed my entries, i thought i would finally grace you all with my internet presence.  by many readers i mean my friend elise and by entries i mean the one every six months that i churn out and seriously, what would i blog about?  my gourmet dinner i ordered from pizza hut?   how about the cute onsies that i pay my friend brooklyn to make?  i promise i would take photos of the delivery man and the money exchange between me and brooklyn so that it's easier for you to see how i do it.
     if you couldn't tell, i'm kidding and i love looking at those kinds of blogs.  i live vicariously through those women and i pretend that i'm going to sew myself a new dress tonight, but i never do.  after the boys go to bed i sit on the couch with the teejer and watch whatever we have recorded on the dvr and i honestly feel completely fulfilled doing so.  but you ladies who blog, keep it coming because it's women like me that are obsessed with you.  i even commented on one of those blogs the other day and the chick wrote me back wanting to meet me at starbucks for a drink.  i almost passed out, i was so excited.  i never wrote her back though.  i don't want my image of her to be shattered.  she is perfect in my eyes.
   
    anyway onto what you really want to see.

      THE CUTEST BABIES EVER!!!

       look at those little buddies.  they are 7 months old now and so much fun!
       on a more important note

             we have four stockings now for christmas!
              i looked over at the fireplace the other night and thought "whoa, we have a real family going on here."  and no i didn't make those stockings, picked them up at good ol' pottery barn but i'll let visitors think that i did.
            well, merry christmas and happy birthday to me this month.  i'll sign off with more photos of my favorite little men.

Nobody likes to get yelled at.

I kind of like it, when its coming from Winston. He doesn't cry. He yells at you. It actually sounds like he is trying to form words. Here is a little example. I brought them into our bed to cuddle with me this morning and when I left the room, sure enough Winston was yelling at me. He gets a little sheepish when he realizes I'm filming. Please notice William displaying his fine thumb sucking skills.

what's it like having twins?

that's a great question.  it's honestly awesome!

this is happiness my friends

 

 

 

 

     while i was pregnant, all i heard was how hard it was going to be and "bless your heart" and  "better you than me".  ya know, that kind of stuff.  i guess i was expecting the worst, so when we brought them home, we were pleasantly surprised. 
     let it be known, our little men are very good boys and that makes it much easier.
     the only thing that kind of bums me out is that i don't feel like i can give them enough one on one time.  i start to feel a little guilty, but what can you do, ya know?
    
     i think my favorite thing about having twins are peoples' reactions to us.  i feel like santa clause.  we are a stroller full of happiness.  everyone smiles at us and comments on how cute they are.  and when i say everyone, i mean everyone right down to the gangsters with the tear drop tats on their face (i have to admit, i was a little scared).  am i bragging?  yeah.  sorry.  today was fun because a cop stopped us while we were walking into the grocery store and talked to me for a good ten minutes about the boys and when the conversation came to a close he said "you guys just made my day happy".  i guess you could say that taking the boys around town is just my way of giving back.  totally kidding.  kind of.

come on, how can they not make you happy

anyway, it's fun being parents of twins.  never a dull moment and always a baby available to cuddle and love on. 

happy, noisy boys

will

winn

                    these babies kill me.  i love their fat little faces and their happy smiles.  i never thought i could love anything or anyone this much.  they are my little buddies.  my noisy little buddies.

 

we're still here!

       hi everyone.  it's alex again.   if you're not friends with us in real life or on facebook, you're probably wondering what happened to us.  did the boys ever leave the hospital?  did we end up moving to seattle?  here is the update.

william the day before he left the hospital

winston the day before he left the hospital

         what seemed like forever finally ended june 28th. the boys finally left the nicu.  what was so cool was that they left the exact same day!  that never happens!  the nurses were telling us the whole time that the boys will probably go home at different times and we were kinda dreading the whole having one boy at the hospital and one at home.  we kept whispering in their ears to wait for each other and they are very obedient little men.

one of the best days ever!

          the boys are both doing great!  they are getting so big and really starting to interact with us.  here is a photo of them that i took last week.

        we are so in love with them.  so, now we live in seattle.  we moved about five weeks after we were able to take the boys home.  it's been kind of a whirlwind, but we love love love it here.  we have a pretty killer guest bedroom and all visitors are welcome anytime! 
       TJ started work at amazon.com and he likes it.  we were spoiled having him around for four months between graduation and starting his job so it was kind of a bummer when he left for work.
       speaking of change:

             i cut my hair off and bleached it.  whenever i held the boys, and especially when i would put them down in the crib, they would have this death grip on my hair and about the 593,748,990 time that it happened, i was done.  i also think that i didn't realize, while i was on bed rest and during the whole stressful nicu experience, that my hair was now down to my waist.  i looked like a polygamist's wife.  so off it went!  it's so nice.
            so that is the readers digest update on how things are going.  i want to thank everyone again for all of the thoughts and prayers that were sent our way for the boys.  they were felt and i know that they are part of the reason that our boys are doing so well. 
            i will be updating more so that our family can see what we are up to and if you would like to see what we are doing, feel free to come back and visit!

The End is Near!!! (We Hope)

I apologize for the lack of updates over the past few weeks.  I made the huge but necessary mistake of putting a sprinkler system in my backyard, which pretty much ate up all my free time.  It is now done and if any of you ever need help putting in your own sprinkler system please feel free to never call me.  I don't want to ever have to do something like that again.  :-).

So on to the boys.  Let's start with William.

I honestly thought that today I would be writing a post about bringing William home.  Last night the homecare team came and brought us a portable oxygen tank to take him home with and we were rushing to get his nursery put together.  It had been 6.5 days since his last apnea episode and they only need to go 7 days without an episode before being discharged.  However this morning we received a call from one of our great Primary Nurses Katie with the news that William had an "episode" last night.  It was nothing serious, but unfortunately that starts his countdown at 7 days again.  While we are sad he isn't coming home yet, we aren't too disappointed because Winston probably has at least a week left here and it would be even harder to have one baby at home and one in the hospital.  Also we would much rather have him go through an episode at the hospital with his nurses than to freak us out at home.  William's episode was caused by his reflux.  He is having a much more difficult time with reflux than Winston, so they have started him on some prevacid, which has made a huge difference for him.  Hopefully he will be home in 7 days!

They also did an ultrasound on William's kidneys this week to see if there are any anatomical concerns related to the Urinary Tract Infection that he had.  The ultrasound is showing some reflux of urine into his kidneys.  They will confirm this at Primary Children's after he is discharged, but if that is positive then William will probably need to have a surgical procedure in 6-9 months to have the issue corrected.  There is a still a small chance that the test at Primary's will come back negative, but if not then I guess William will have to spend a few days in the hospital in Seattle.  There are much worse things to deal with so we will take it.

On to Winston.

Winston is still a champ with his breathing.  He hasn't had an apnea episode for weeks.  We just need to get him eating like his brother and he will be able to come home.  There are 4 stages of eating that premies have to pass before they can come home.  Winston has been stuck at stage 2 for over a week.  It will take him at least 3 days to go through the other stages once he figures it out.  We are hoping that by some miracle they are able to be discharged on the same day.

Winston also has a slight heart murmur that comes and goes.  Multiple doctors have looked at it and they all feel that it is something he will grow out of.

Both boys have now passed their eye and hearing tests.  They are getting huge (at least to us).   Winston is 5 lbs, 11 oz and William is at 5 lbs, 10 oz.  They are now 6 weeks and 3 days old and almost 37 weeks gestational age.

We are so excited to have them home optimistically in a week :-).

Here are a couple of pictures.  Both boys were held by their Grandparents for the first time this past week.

 Winston

 William