how to make mama really nervous!

First, lay two very small, very "fragile" babies on the floor:



Then let bigger, older, 18-month-old sister out of her room to come look:



Third, let bigger, older, less careful than mama would like sister KISS said smaller, more fragile baby.



And if you really wanna make Mama nervous, let bigger, older sister TOUCH smaller, more fragile baby in the face, preferably the mouth or nose.



Or you could just stop her before she actually touches baby...which I did!

sisters!

Katey and Julia love the twins! Katey loves to help us with their changings...she gets to button the last button on their onesies! When one of the twins is being held, Julia will run up to us pointing and yelling (seriously, she yells!) "ba-ba" (baby). Then she runs and finds the other one! Guess she's making sure there really are still two!

Last night we let the girls hold the babies for the first time. Oh the excitement! Kate is such a big helper, I think this made her day! Here she is with Ashley:


And here she is with Ainsley:



After we let Kate hold them, I was walking around with Ainsley and Julia followed me and asked (through grunts and hand gestures!) to hold Ainsley too. I told her okay let's go hold the baby and she RAN to the couch, climbed up and sat just like Katey had. She did a great job, see?:




What precious girls we have! I'm so glad they love each other!

the hardest week of our lives

Last week was...hard. Really hard.

So hard that both Jason and I agree it was probably the hardest week of both of our lives.

How do you begin to describe a week like that? Maybe I'll start at the end, where we're at today. We're home with all four of our precious girls. Everyone is healthy (except for Ainsley who refuses to poop...I'm sure she'll love me for that someday!). We're getting set in a new schedule. Jason and I are closer than ever, learning to take care of our much bigger family together! We feel extremely blessed!

God was gracious and we survived the hardest week of our lives!

Here are some of the things that made it so hard:

Our twins were born (that's the good part though!) and Ainsley was put in the NICU (the bad part!). All I have to say about that is *sigh.* Even today I'm pretty confident that that was unnecessary. I'm pretty sure she (and the rest of us) would've done much better at home. But what can you say?! That was the beginning of a lot of trials.

We brought Ashley home by herself, which was heartbreaking for all of us, especially me. It was terrible to have to leave my other baby at the hospital while I got to go home. Terrible. It's the weirdest feeling in the world to have to do that. I hope I never have to live through that again.

On top of all that, I was a wreck. You know those post-partum hormones? The ones that make you cry at the drop of a hat? The ones that make you cry just because someone gives you a hug? The ones that make you into a super-freak, overprotective mom? The ones that make you irritable toward your older, "my life has just been turned upside-down" children? Yeah. THOSE hormones. Well, that was ME last week. And magnified by two (or at least that's what I like to say)! =)

Walking into the NICU was really emotional for me. I would see poor Ains all hooked up to monitors and it would break my heart. At one point during the week they put a feeding tube in her nose because she quit eating (probably because she wasn't at home with her twin!). That was sad. So I would break down when I saw her. Then I would cry while the nurses told me how she was doing, even though most of the time it was good news. Then I would hold her and feed her and cry. Then I would say good-bye and cry some more. Sadness. Extreme sadness.




The girls had a rough time adjusting to the new babies too. Wait. No. "Rough time" is too mellow of a term. Flipped out. Freaked out. Came undone. Yeah. That's more like it. So lets just say it was tough. It was especially tough on Jason who was dealing with them a lot more than me. I was busy feeding babies. He was busy trying to maintain some order and discipline in our home. It was really hard for him.

On top of bringing a new baby home, breastfeeding AND bottle feeding every 3 hours, and very little sleep in between, we were making four trips a day to the hospital to feed Ainsley. The hospital is 20 minutes away and we usually stayed for about an hour. It was really busy. All that coming and going really didn't help things with Kate and Juls either. I think they just didn't know what was happening. Heck, I hardly knew what was happening!

Let's just say I'm pretty glad last week is over. I'm so thankful that Ainsley is home with Ashley now. I'm thankful that they're both healthy (except for Ainsley's lack of poopage!). I'm thankful that Katey and Julia seem to be calming down and getting back to normal. I'm thankful that they both really love the twins! I'm thankful for a super helpful husband. He's amazing! Completely amazing! I'm thankful for the grace that God gave us to survive! I'm thankful for the grace He's given us to survive the lack of sleep! He has been so good to us!

And even though last week was the hardest week of our lives, I wouldn't trade it for anything since it means we have our precious twins! Our little family is such a gift from God!

home at last!

After seven long, excruciating days, we finally got to bring Ainsley home today! The doctor almost made us wait until tomorrow but I started talking fast, trying to convince him that that wasn't necessary, so he let us bring her home!

Two of our precious girls:


The whole fam:


Mom and Dad: "Finally, we're all home, TOGETHER!"
Katey: "Holy cow! What're we in for?!"
Julia: "Oh man, who are THEY?!"

ashley and ainsley are here!

Welcome to the world Ashley and Ainsley!

Ashley Jade--5 lbs 0 oz, 19 inches long, born at 9:17 am
Ainsley Joy--4 lbs 12.5 oz--18 inches long, born at 9:20 am

Their birth story:

On Friday night I started having contractions about 9 minutes apart. I went to bed wondering if maybe, just maybe things were getting started. At about 5 am (5:06 to be exact!) I woke up to go to the bathroom and when I stood up felt a few little trickles. Not sure if it was just my pregnancy lack of bladder control or my water breaking, I sat down in bed and waited a few minutes to see what would happen. A few minutes later Jason woke up and I told him what was happening. Within 20 minutes of that first trickle my contractions started. Immediately they were four minutes apart...consistently.

It was at that point I realized we needed to hurry. Four minutes apart with my third delivery...yeah. We HURRIED! I also regretted the fact that we had planned our "pack the hospital bags" and "clean the house" day for Saturday. Way to procrastinate! So anyway, that left Jason rushing around like crazy trying to pack bags for the two of us, AND Kate and Juls. Lets just say I wasn't much help!

On the way to the hospital contractions got to be three minutes apart. We pretty much threw the girls out the van door at our friends' house and sped away...later we talked about how weird that was! This time actually WAS like the movies!

By the time we got to the hospital and hooked up to the monitors my contractions were 1-3 minutes apart...and hard! Really hard! Within about an hour or so I got an epidural and what a blessing that was!! =) Within two hours of arriving at the hospital I was fully dilated and ready to push!

Since we were unsure of the babies' positions, Dr. T wanted to deliver in the O.R. just in case a C-Section became necessary. So...off we rolled! We got into the O.R. and were all set up within about 10 minutes. I pushed three times during one contraction and out slipped Ashley! Dr. T had done a quick little ultrasound and knew that Ainsley was laying sideways so after Ashley was born she was trying to flip her. Crazy girl flipped the wrong way though and out came her feet. Her little shoulders and head got stuck for a minute and then she finally came out, breech, a whole three minutes after her sister!

I am so thankful that Dr. T worked with me to help me avoid a C-section!

Since Ainsley was breech she was a little bit more traumatized after birth, having swallowed some fluid on the way out. The nurses had to work with her to get her to breathe. Once both girls were in the nursery for their baths, Ainsley was retracting so they decided to admit her to the NICU. Unfortunately that began a week-long trial to get her OUT of the NICU. Once a baby is admitted, they have to prove to the doctors and nurses a lot of stuff...and I mean a LOT of stuff. So even though Ashley and Ainsley both weighed practically the same, Ainsley wound up being stuck in the hospital for a whole week while her sister got to go home!

This is Ashley right after birth:

And Ainsley:

school is fun when you're 3

We started doing some "school" work with Katey last week. And of course...

she LOVES it!

She asks to do school at all hours of the day. We're doing fun things like letters and phonics, coloring, learning to use scissors, practicing writing (with a mechanical pencil and everything!), a children's catechism and Bible stories with cooking projects.

Here's Kate practicing her writing (notice the little tongue sticking out...that's some serious concentration!). I was surprised at how quickly she caught on to using the pencil. And look how she's holding it...we didn't even have to tell her to do that! Little smarty pants!



The Bible stories start in the book of Genesis and work their way through the Bible. This project goes with the story of the Garden of Eden, God providing good food for Adam and Eve to eat. The cooking project? Fruit salad! Kate had a blast cutting up the fruit and splitting it into four cups (one for each of us!). She had more fun making it than eating it, go figure!