The babies meeting Santa

We had our ward party Saturday night were the babies met Santa. My sister called me a dorky mom for taking these pics but they are cute! Our "favorite Aunt" can get over herself :)
Here are the twins very cute Santa outfit pictures. Bradley's hat was too small for him and Kiersten's hat was too big- so I switched their hats- problem solved :)

The Babies blessings

On Sunday the 6th we finally blessed the babies in Church. We were not taking them out in public yet because they were premies and we wanted to wait till they had their first of the RSV vaccines. We also planned it on a time where Adam had a concert so family coming from out of town could hear him perform. It was an amazing performance! The concert ran an hour and a half and was a Christms special that had every ensemble or group from the music department. There wasn't an intermission so it was 90 minutes of fun with maybe 5 secconds inbetween one performace ending and the next begining. This is a picture of Adam with his Dad and stepmom:
So Sunday we had the blessings. Their outfits were made by my Mother-in-Law Donna and we expected Kiersten to be bigger so she was swimming in her tiny dress but the outfits were beautiful. We went to church for the first time with them and then left after Sacrament to have a family lunch for the those that had to leave back to the airport. When two came almost everybody had left by then or shortly after so it made for a crazy weekend with a quiet Sunday night.
This is everyone who came out for the blessings. Again, it was a big group!
And these are the guys who blessed our babies- minus our awesome bishop and Bro Doughman (who we have adopted as family in Chico) They were still at church.
After all the craziness of the lunch, my sister Savannah went to the dumpster to throw something away and found a 5 foot Christmas tree someone had thrown away. It looks like someone got too big of a tree and cut it in half and threw the other part away. The top is an abrupt stop but we put our angel on the top of the stump. Savannah went dumpster diving for me and got it out haha. There is a tree farm not too farm up the hill from us where you can chop your own tree down for $10 so I'm guessing that's what happened.
Anyways, we had a great weekend with My dad and Adam's Dad both flying out a few days early to be there.

3 month pictures

We took he babies to the mall to get their 3 month pictures taken.It was a mess! I have learned my lesson to not get pictures done at Christmas time after 5 in a mall. We waited three hours- I totally expected maybe an hour and a half. But we did get a good price on them! We only had to pay for one sheet with a coupon and the promotions.
Bradley was hungry and fussy and we didn't get too many smiles out of him. This was one of the two smiles.

But Kiersten was laughing and having a great time.

three months

Bradley and Kiersten are now three months old! We had pictures done of the twins with their three other cousins last weekend and as soon as I get copies, I'll post them on here. We are going to take their 3 month pictures hopefully this week sometime but its going to be a busy week!
The twins are finally going to be blessed in church this week. We wanted to wait a while before bringing them to church and also for all the family coming out of town, we wanted it scheduled for a weekend that Adam has a concert. Unfortunatly, this concert is the Glory of Sounds series and he is busy every night Thursday thru Sunday. It is a wonderful concert! A little pricey, but its the main scholarship fundraiser of the year and because Adam is a reciepiant of those scholarships- you should attend!! : ) Anyways, our families from out of state are coming Thursday and Friday with those in state coming up Saturday. Its a busy weekend and I am excited to see my Dad who lives in Maryland!!

So onto the twins! Both of them have started to laugh and smile within the last week or two. The other night I woke up at 2 am to feed Bradley and as soon as I picked him up he got this huge grin and didn't want to eat at all! He just giggled and smiled and was kicking around. It deffinitly makes getting up in the night worth it but listen buddy! It's 2 am so you should eat and then we'll play in the morning! Haha. His favorite bouncer is one that rocks and when you put him on the linoleum in the kitchen he really gets going! He kicks his feet like he's peddling a bike and he rocks like crazy! Every time I try to record it he stops rocking and then when I put the camera down he starts again.
Kiersten is finally out of newborn clothes! She reached 8 pounds this week and Bradley is 12. She constantly smiles and is a daddy's girl. She doesn't develop as fast as Bradley but then again he is 1/3 bigger than her! It is so fun to put her in tons of dresses now that she fits 0-3 so for Thanksgiving and this Sunday when we went to the Doughmans, she was wearing a dress!
We had such a great Thanksgiving with the Doughman family this year! We played flag football in the morning, played games and did crafts and had cinnamon rolls after, and then ate a huge meal later that day. After dinner one of their traditions is to do a family talent show. The oher two families did skits and Adam played his trumpet- I watched : )
After the talent show we gathered around the piano as Stacy played piano and Adam played the trumpet and we all sang Christmas carols. It was such a great night!!

OK, so the picture of day for the blog is this one
I put them into bed with me when Adam gets up for work or school ( he normally gets up at 3 for work but till Christmas its 1:30) So after I do mostly the only feed in the night they come to bed where they sleep longer. However, The last couple of nights Kiersten has slept all night until or 7. Now we just need to get Bradley to do that! Anyways, Bradley is mostly the one who loves to snuggle Kiersten but the other day they both were hungry and I went to get their food ready and when I came back, Kiersten was sucking on the back of his head and he was screaming. It was so cute and I just started laughing.

First shots

We took Bradley and Kiersten to the pediatrician today for their first shots! We took this picture right after they both had their shots.

They screamed during the shots but right to sleep afterwards. Bradley had a very cute outfit on but we had to change everything! What a mess... Then Kiersten had really cute pants and shoes but they couldn't have shots with pants on and she lost a shoe..somewhere- hopefully I'll find it in the car.
So Bradley weighs 11 pounds and is in the 55 percentile and the doctor said she thought she felt that he was cutting two teeth because his gums were swollen. That would explain why he constantly wants to be held and is fussy. That's really early! Ahh!
Our tiny Kiersten weighs 7 1/2 pounds and is in the 5th percentile so we need to beef her up- candy bars and soda- yum! Haha just kidding but we need to add extra calories to her milk.
And while we were there, Adam got the h1n1 vaccine because he comes into contact with sick college students.

Oh and to add to the last blog- Our camera flash isn't working so I couldn't take a picture at the trunk or treat. I took this picture at our house before we left. We were Adam and Kate plus eight. Here is Bradley and Kiersten with their other six "siblings".

Pumpkin carving time!

I don't know how to post pictures in my blog so let's see how this goes! So for Halloween, I thought it wold be really cute since the twins are still so small, that I put them in the hollow pumpkins and take pictures.
As you can tell, Kiersten wasn't very happy and it wasn't a cute Anne Geddes moment.
Bradley kept arching his back because the pumpkin was cold.
and this was the best picture of them together. We had a lot of fun even though they didn't, but they were still so cute!

Long awaited update

As everyone knows, a lot has happened since my last update!
I went to the Doctors the Wednesday before my trip down to Sacramento (where I did get my delicious strawberry slush!) and the doctor said I had pre-eclampsia and put me on bedrest. So the next day I went to Sacramento for my umbilical artery doppler study and the dr said that one of the placentas- he wasn't sure because he couldn't see the membrane walls- had "holes" all over it and whichever baby was getting decreased oxygen and nutrition and the placenta would probably hold out for another week at the most. When they took my blood pressure at the end of the appointment, because I told him I has pre-eclampia, my blood pressure was dangerously high causing more stress to the unstable baby. So the doctor gave me the choice of staying in Sacramento at UC Davis and having the twins today or drive home to Chico and have my family and friends near and deliver that weekend. He said I was stable enough to go home and if I stayed in Sacramento I might have more stress being away from home so he recommended to go back to chico.
Well, my doctor thought I was staying in Sacramento. I drive straight to the hospital in Chico were they have no orders for me. They put me in a hospital room and wait to hear back from the doctor and I might get transported back down to Sacramento because I am only 33 weeks. So my dr decides to keep me in Chico and to deliver the babies Saturday after two days of steroid injections for theirs lungs to develop. Kiersten was too small and fragile to deliver naturally so I had a c-section. Saturday morning was extremely hectic and I was on a medicine that made me feel horrible, extremely hot, and VERY thirsty. They said I couldn't have anything to eat or drink after midnight and I was so thirsty I kept begging my nurse for ice chips it was really funny because I had never been so desperate in my entire life!
My c-section was rough! By this point I didn't care about needles anymore because I had already had two IV catheters, multiple unsuccessful IV sticks, and at least two blood draws. So the surgery sets up and the spinal block was in place and we were jut waiting for it to take affect and me to be numb so they kept asking can you feel this-poke- yep! so about the 4th time I said, umm a little less- OK! Lets start the surgery! So they start and I can feel on my right side and I start freaking out because Adam isn't in there and I can feel what they were doing. They brought Adam in and he did his best to distract me and it just wasn't working so after two additional doses on anesthesia they kicked Adam out and put me under. They had taken the babies out at this point so Adam followed the nurses and went with the babies while my doctor closed me up under general anesthesia.
I woke up two hours later with horrible shakes and a sore throat. I was so afraid to see the babies because I thought if I held them I would drop them because I was shaking so badly. They went and got Adam because I was somewhat coherent. He had two polariod pictures of the babies and he told me about how they were doing and said when they were born they both were not breathing because I had so much anesthesia. They intubated Kiersten and a second later she pulled it out, so they put a CPAP on her nose which is an oxygen device that forces air into the lungs. That lasted maybe five minutes so all she had on her was an IV line in her umbilical stump. Bradley had a cpap still on and an IV line also. So with that information he said- guess which baby is which...and then the nurse said Bradley is this one!! pointing to a picture- she ruined the surprise but it was ok since I was still kinda out of it.
While in surgery and recovering I hemorrhaged and I had to have 2 transfusions. By the point they realized that my hemoglobin was still dropping, they had already taken out my IV. I had three nurses try for over an hour to find a vein on both arms. Someone who specialized putting IV's in gave me the choice of an IV in my neck or a pic-line. Can you guess which one I went for?? There is no way that I would sit still and not freak out for an iv being placed in my neck! So a picline is a two foot catheter that goes in your bicep into your vein and travels to the artery in your lungs. It is usually reserved for long term patients or those in Intensive care but since my hemoglobin was a 6 and for women the normal is in between 12-15, I had to have one put in. I think that was the scariest part of my whole stay!
It was a sterile procedure, so like a surgery in my own hospital room. They taped my arm down, covered me with with drapes, the lady got in a gown, mask, and surgical gloves. I was trying everything I could think of not to burst into tears from the stress of the last 2 hours. After it was put in I had to have chest xrays done to make sure it was placed right. Then they had to adjust it and retake x-rays. After they left I called Adam in the middle of class and said- I don't what class your in or how important it is- Your coming over right now!!
So I left the hospital two days later and during those two days I had to do bloodwork every morning to make sure my hemoglobin didn't drop below an 8. Well, the last day I was there, the lab person screwed up my blood so they had to redraw and run the test, then I had to get dr approval to leave.  Well, they forgot to ask the dr if the picline could be removed or if I should be sent home with it and I told the nurses they couldn't touch it until I was walking out the door just in case because I was not going through that mess again!
 I waited all day and kept asking my nurse if they had heard anything so I could timeline when I needed to leave. She said - well, you dont really want to leave because your babies are still in NICU, so your last on my list. And then she comes walking in to my room at three and says Ok, you can go and I need your room so pack and be out in ten minutes! I'll put your flowers on the balcony and you can take your stuff with you into the nursery with your babies and wait for someone to pick you up. Well, she wasn't my favorite nurse to say the least! I called Adam and he came right down from school and helped me pack up and leave.
That was my story- here are the kids.
They stayed in the NICU for 6 days. Only Bradley was oxygen and that was for just one day. They were moved to the regular nursery because they were only on monitors. They both had developed jaundice so they had fabric that was funny sunglasses on while under lights. The only problems they had was that they would fall asleep during their feeds so we would have to feed them through a nose tube. Kiersten was faster to eat so their pediatrician said that if she gained weight friday night she could go home saturday morning. Problem was, our pediatrician was not on shift the next day, a very reserved doctor was. The next morning Kiersten gained 16 grams. Because she didnt gain 20 grams, the new doctor refused to discharge her but if she gained 20 grams by that night she could go. Well she gained 40 grams. Another problem the new dr had was she wanted Kiersten to be on neosure formula and she had the nurses look online to see if any stores sold them and they couldnt find any so the dr was extremely nervous. Umm since then I have found it at Target, Walmart, and Walgreens so they must not have looked that hard. Anyways, We came into the hospital to meet the new Dr and she said she cant can't find a good enough reason not to discharge Kiersten and she doesn't like it.
The night before Kiersten was discharged Enloe lets the parents "room-in" the last night of the babies stay. Basically, a nurse comes in every three hours to make sure the baby is doing ok and is being fed- very annoying when they wake you up and the baby isn't even ready to eat! So as soon as she left the nursery, Bradley pulled out his nose tube and ate his whole feed. The nurses left it out to see how he would do and he never needed it again! It was labor day weekend so he could have gone home Sunday but my doctor had the weekend off and the reserved doctor did not want the responsibility of releasing a baby without the other dr's consent so Bradley came home tuesday.
And that is my exhausting two weeks at the hospital!
Bradley was 5lb 13 oz when he was born and Kiersten was 3lb 10oz. As of last week he is 8lb 6oz and she is 6lb 8 oz.