Bath time

As you can imagine it is getting tougher & tougher to find time to post. Even if the girls decide to sleep for 3-4 hours - after you feed them, clean bottles, do laundry, eat something yourself, clean up a little bit and sit down for 15 minutes- then its time to do it all over again! Not to mention- if they decide to stay up the majority of the night - the 15 minutes of down time turn into 15 minutes of naptime for the parents! Its easy to see how the days can get away from you. The girls are almost 4 weeks old now and time has flown by!

Sleeping in the "Floor Nanny" during the day of course.

(We have our days & nights confused right now!)

I was joking with Elizabeth the other day about not brushing her teeth until ~ 11 in the morning. I made the comment I can always squeeze in a couple minutes to brush my teeth. Low and behold, it was around noon a couple days ago and there I was with baby and bottle in hand thinking about how I had not had an opportunity to brush my teeth for 2 minutes! Hopefully we will get into more of a schedule once the girls get a little bigger. Right now we are focused on making sure they eat enough and gain the weight they need to. They love their bath time and we just started using their little tub yesterday. Here is a video from "bath time". I had to edit the majority so they can't get mad at me in 15 years when they find out this was on the blog! We also had a little formatting issue going from Mac to PC....click the link below.

"Bath Time"

Merry Christmas from Our Family to Yours!

Tyler & Harper's First Christmas!

We are counting our blessings twice this year!

Harper (L) & Tyler (R)

Happy Holidays!

Love,

The Whites

The first few days as a family

Everyone is home and we are starting to settle into our new life.  There are still a lot of visitors and we are living the good life with our baby nurse helping out, but Elizabeth and I are definitely getting the hang of this parenting thing.  I am getting used to this home cooking...

  

The girls went to the pediatrician on Friday and both are gaining weight.  Harper is back up to her birth weight and Tyler is not too far away.  They are eating well and are still pretty quiet at this point.  Apparently this does not last for too much longer so we are taking advantage of it.

The days are flying by and Christmas will be here before we know it.  Looks like the White family will be staying put at home this year.  Baby steps....   

Here are some more pictures:  link to pictures.

  

Harper gets to come home!

We got some great news on Tuesday.... that Harper was able to come home on Thursday of this week.  I didn't want to jinx anything by putting that in writing on the blog so this is the first post about it.  I guess it worked as the whole family is now home together!  

This has to be one of the best days in my life seeing our two little girls back together again.  We have not seen them together since minutes after their birth and even then it was only for a few minutes.  We can now officially start our new life as a family of 5 (yes that includes Pearce).  

We are having a big dinner tonight (thank you to all my coworkers) and will be popping a little Dom to celebrate.  I will keep an eye on Elizabeth since she has not had a drink in 9 months+.  

Enough talking, I know all everyone really wants to see are the pictures so take look! by clicking the link:   link to pictures.

What a time to get sick!

Well we made it home safely, but it appears I brought home a little more then Elizabeth and Tyler.  I decided to go to urgent care last night after running a temperature of 101.2.  I went ahead and got a shot and a zpack in hopes of knocking this out, but I have been bed-ridden since we got home and will probably remain so for the next day or so.  Fortunately our moms have been there to help Elizabeth since I can't get around her or the girls for 72 hours.  That said, it may be a couple of days before I can get some new pictures up.  

Everyone (except me) is doing great and Pearce is actually adapting to the new family.  Little does he know there is one more on the way!

Pictures 12/6

Started this yesterday, but had internet problems so I could not get it posted.

Getting to the update a little earlier today. We just left Harper and Elizabeth is trying to get some down time before we have visitors. Tyler is doing great. She is eating almost double what she was eating yesterday so we are excited about that. It can be tough to get preemies to eat initially so a normal feeding for most can be a bit of a struggle for a preemie. Her sister is doing well also. She is still in the ICN, but moving from "intensive" to "special" tonight. Harper's feedings have been going well so they anticipate taking her IV out tonight and hopefully she will be able to come home early next week.

**Update from today. Harper's IV is out! She was moved over to "special" and is doing well. Her feedings are up and they will watch her next week to make sure she is strong enough to come home. She will need it to handle her sister and Pearce!

Harper yesterday - IV was still in...."Kangaroo care" is the new thing. Basically they say that skin to skin contact is really good to help regulate the baby's vitals, plus it keeps them really warm - which they love.






Here is Tyler from yesterday. She is all dressed up. It is all downhill for me folks. These girls are going to be spoiled rotten. I am going to attempt to "borrow" that blanket tonight! It is a lot more comfortable then what Elizabeth gave me!

Pictures 12/5

Here is a brief update.  I will continue to post updates and add pictures over the next few days when I can find time.  Hopefully this will get a little easier.  Elizabeth is doing great.  She was able to shower, walk around, and switch to a solid food diet today.  Tyler is doing well also.  She has lost a little weight which is expected for all babies.  She is feeding regularly and stays in the room with us for the most part.  Harper is in the ICN (intensive care nursery). Originally they moved her there to watch her shallow breathing or apnea, a common issue with premature and c-section births.  She had an IV for fluids, a CPAP to help with her breathing and an air tube to help with the air in her stomach caused by the CPAP.    We got great news this morning that her CPAP, basically a breathing tube hooked up to the nose, came out overnight and they left it out as her oxygen levels were up to normal.  That was followed by more great news of Harper's first feeding with mom today.  Unfortunately we found out she would have to stay another 5-7 days, due to a slight drop in her heart rate during a nap today.  A common issue associated with apnea is bradycardia (so much so they have an "a and  b" monitor).  While we were disappointed with the news we are still encouraged by her feeding and the prospect of her IV coming out soon once her feeding is regular.  After the IV removal she won't be "hooked up" to anything, rather just in the ICN for monitoring. 

In other news, the hospital food is pretty stereotypical - consisting initially of broth  and green jello, then transitioning to powdered eggs and bland grits today.  Fortunately we have some great family looking out for us and bringing in food from the outside world.  I must admit - I am a big fan of the ice chips.  My bed is a couch in the room with standard issue hospital sheets and blankets.   By the time I get to lay down, that couch feels like a posh bed in a 5 star hotel!

Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers.  We appreciate the flowers, emails and messages even though we have not had time to return them!  

Here is a link to some pictures.

  

The White twins are here!

'Tyler' Elizabeth
7:40 am
5 lbs 8 oz
18.5 inches 





'Harper' Hutchens
7:42 am
5 lbs 5 oz19 inches