Monday, August 11, 2014

A Year Of Grace . . . A Year Of Blessings . . . Time to Celebrate the Twins 1st Year!

Baby C and Baby B had their first birthday on July 17th. It seems strange to reach this mark. It really seems so much longer than a year ago. The girls are making great progress in their development. Baby C is all over the place crawling. She is still not cruising but does walk with a baby push toy walker. I have never seen that before that she doesn't cruise but will walk with a walker? At least she is making progress.

Baby B has just progressed by leaps and bounds since her spica cast. I am so pleased at how hard she has worked and where she is at. She also is crawling and starting recently to pull up to her knees (two Sundays ago to her feet). The doctor said she was at about a 9 month level. Not that that matters she has come SOOO far and doing tremendously.

I was remembering before the girls were born I would ask moms of twins for advice and I noticed they were hesitant and really didn't give details. I now know why:-) You just do what works for you and you troop through. The best advice I got was have a camera handy and take pictures because you won't remember it from being tired. I took a lot of pictures and so glad I did because it really is a blur. I do remember setting my phone alarm for every 2 hours at night and feeding them and changing them and pumping.  As the girls birthday rolled around I did look back and remember the night before they were born, etc. but the emotion of it did not take place until I was sorting clothes after moving into the house. As I sorted the teeny tiny clothing I really felt emotional. Seeing the clothes brought it back to me;-) Praise the Lord they are off oxygen and doing well. I also flashed back to earlier this year when "A" got out of her chest surgery and was in EXTREME pain. It has been quite a year to say the least.

I've learned more about myself in this last year than I ever have both the good and the stuff I need to improve on. Intense stress will bring a lot to light! I had more comments on my personality traits more this year than ever before too. In many ways I am a "take life seriously person" but I definitely have a take it as it comes side to me. As one Dr. said I "just roll with it." A lady the other day in a store was EXTREMELY shocked that all the kids were mine. She was surprised I wasn't frantic.  I've learned that that side of me that just rolls with it allows me to get through a lot and handle things. But on the flip side sometimes I let a little bit to much slide and I can drive other people that are planners and schedule people batty and cause them to be uncomfortable. I need to learn to while being myself to give a certain amount of structure when those type of people are around out of kindness. Also, I can learn from the efficient structure of others. My mom keeps me from sliding to much into my laid back side.:-)

I love my two girls sooo much. I can remember laying in bed not knowing if one or both of them would not make it through the pregnancy. I prayed and prayed they would both make it. I also remember early on in the pregnancy but after I found out it was twins that I wished it was the day I was delivering so it could all be done with. I had had an ultrasound and got a picture of one baby but weeks later I started bleeding and thought I was already in the process of miscarrying. I wrote down some verses to take with me to the ER thinking I would find out the baby was gone. The ultrasound technician was a serious lady and said she could not tell us the results of what she saw and that the Dr. was to do that. Babe and I tried to look at the screen and figure it out ourselves but it just looked weird. I had seen a lot of ultrasounds but this one was different but I didn't know why. Finally, the technician said "I want to share this moment with you." Huh? What moment? I thought she wasn't going to tell us anything? Then she told us there were 2 babies! We were SHOCKED. I was crying but Babe just sat there not understanding then I told him and he was SHOCKED. He was soooo shocked. He just kept going over and over it in his mind . . . what about a vehicle, etc. It was very cute.

I was hospitalized the week before the girls were born with preclampsia. I was SOO swollen. I actually lost about 30 or 40 pounds the first 4 or so weeks after delivery I had so much water weight. The girls were born at 30 weeks. Baby C was 2 lbs 11 ozs and Baby B was 2 lbs. 10 ozs. and they spent 7 1/2 weeks in the NICU. When they were delivered Baby C was silent but Baby B made a little kitten noise and the people in the operating room went "AWWW!" It was so sweet. My Dr told me later that the student in there was just thrilled she got to be in there for that delivery. They were at an excellent hospital and the care they received was super. The nurses were like friends. I could go on and on because their story is long but God is good. I adore my girls. I am grateful to God I was able to meet them and love them.

The older kids also have memories of going to the NICU. It is fun to hear their accounts of their memories. I almost always brought one or two of the other kids with me to come see the girls and I would rotate through them. It was a good experience to see how a NICU works and what their sisters were going through.

The picture at the top was taken at the Cheesecake Factory on their birthday. We had a great time there as a family. Even the twins were enjoying themselves! The pictures below were taken the day after their birthday but it is them eating their birthday cupcakes! We had a great celebration both times! Two parties are better than one!!








The second party was outside on our back deck. Great place to get messy!

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