More pictures

We have been going to the hospital twice a day, and I think we take pictures every time we go.

Tyler finally got to hold them. The hospital's rule is that siblings can only come on the weekends, and only if they are under 12 and have their immunization record. He is an awesome big brother. He got to hold each, and then both together. He sang them each a lullaby and a primary song, told them something about space, and kissed the special spot on their heads.

They are doing great. For a while, they put them together in the same bed. Just yesterday, Carter graduated to an open air bed (he can hold his own temp, yeah!) but Brady has a little less meat on him and is still under the warmer. They are both off their IV's, which means that they are now getting all their nourishment from formula. The one thing we need to work on is bottle feeding. They currently are taking 2 of their 8 feedings by bottle. Neither takes the whole amount, but they are getting better. That is what we will spend the next couple weeks on--feeding and growing.

Here are the pictures:

Tyler holding Brady


Mom feeding Carter through his tube




Our first family picture with five of us


The twinkies co-bedding (doesn't it look like they are wrestling? my what fun times we have ahead)


Dad holding both babies


The moment when I actually realized: wow, I am going to have 2 babies to take care of

The twinkies

Carter

Brady


Feeding time. And actually the first picture we got with both of them in the same frame.

The boys are doing great. They took them off the lights yesterday, but got put back under the lights today. We were told that is normal. The lights bring their numbers down, but take away the lights and the numbers creep back up. With the lights on them today, they can't be swaddled, and I think they sleep a bit better when swaddled. We tried to bottle feed them today, and neither did as well as before. They seemed so tired. I can imagine. They have to work so hard to just breathe let alone eat. Hopefully they slept well today and will do better on their next feeding. They feed every three hours, with one feeding per shift being a bottle feeding. The rest go through their tubes. We are off now to do baths with them again. I loved doing it once, let's see how it goes tonight.

More Twin News

So, I guess this blog is now going to be a twin update blog. At least for awhile.

We went over to the hospital last night, and I got to give the boys their baths. Just my first taste of "do it once, then turn around and do it again." We started with Brady. He seems to be the more feisty of the two. He let us know that he didn't really like the whole bath thing. When it came time to bathe Carter, he was a little more calm about it. The nurse said she had already noticed that--Brady wakes up more, needs a little more attention, while Carter is a bit more chill and relaxed.

We went over again this morning and got to bottle feed them. Yesterday was the first try at bottles, and they are making great progress. Brady, the aggressive one, did take all 12cc by mouth today. Carter is a little slower at learning the coordination of suck-swallow-breathe. A few times he would stop breathing and we would have to pull the bottle away to let him get some air. Carter took 9cc by mouth and we had to give him the other 4 via his tube.

We were there at the same time as the Dr. today, so we were able to speak with her. She says they are doing awesome--healthy and progressing, and we just need to let them keep growing. We also asked her how to tell if they were identical. We checked their blood types (my idea) and they have different types. We thought they looked different, but it was nice to know they are definitely fraternal.

It was so wonderful to actually hold them and care for them. They are adorable. We already love them so much, and can't wait until we can just squeeze and kiss and love on them.

More details

Brady Michael S. (Twin A)
June 20
2:57 a.m.
3 lbs. 12 oz.




Carter David S. (Twin B)
June 20
3:30 a.m.
4 lbs. 1 oz.


Things are going well. I had no real idea what to expect for the whole preemie thing. We still haven't even been able to hold Carter because of a line they have in him. Carter was on a ventilator for a little bit, and both of them were on CPAP (? am I saying that right?), but by the time we saw them neither needed anything for breathing. Yesterday Carter was under lights for jaundice, but today both of them were under the lights. Apparently Brady's billirubin count jumped. I am just looking forward to the time when we can hold them and feed them and really care for them.

Dan asked if it was different than with Tyler. It is. As I look at them, I can already feel so much love for them. I think the difference is that when Tyler was born, I felt like I had known him for months already, whereas with these guys I only met them yesterday. But boy are we sure excited to get to know them better.

The story

Last Friday evening the adoption agency called us. They had a birthmom heading for the hospital, about to deliver twin boys. Could they show our profile? Our answer was, of course.

Saturday morning the agency called back to say the twins had been born and the birthmom was looking at profiles later that afternoon. A couple hours later they called back to ask if we could have a conference call on Sunday.

We spoke with the birthmom Sunday. We did a conference call one other time, and it was just kind of awkward. This call went so smoothly, and we felt so comfortable talking with her. About 20 minutes later she called back and let us know she had chosen us. How fast could we make it to Utah, because she wanted to meet us before she left to go back home. We were able to catch a flight to Vegas, and made it to Utah about 4:30 in the morning.

Yesterday was another crazy day. We were able to go over to the agency and meet the birthmom. It was so nice to talk to her. I think we were lucky to get such a great birthmom. We got all the paperwork completed. We then finally got to go meet our boys. They are little, and sweet, and adorable. We are heading back over to the hospital to see them again. Tyler wasn't able to meet them yesterday, so we are excited for him.

As you can see, this was just so crazy and so quick. We had always been told that it could happen on such short notice, but didn't imagine it would be that fast--from the first time we heard of the birthmom Friday evening, to holding them in our arms Monday afternoon.

As a note: the birthmom went to Utah to deliver, but she hadn't had much prenatal care. When she arrived at the agency, she told them she thought it was a girl. They sent her to get an ultrasound last Wednesday, and discovered it was twin boys! So no one knew it was twins until just last week.

Ok, I will post some more pictures after we get back from the hospital today.

Introducing

Baby A


and Baby B

After years of waiting, we finally have these two sweet little boys. They were born June 20; all paper work is complete as of today. Names and more details to follow soon.

Summer and the television

So we are nearing the end of the third week of summer vacation at our house. The first two were rather chaotic, and we spent more time away from home than at home. But I did notice a disturbing trend the days we were at home--the tv. It was on way too much. I decided that I wanted to change our television viewing habits before summer really got under way. So here is our tv viewing chart.



Tyler and I whipped this up last Monday, and so far this week it has been working great. It's just a sheet of 12x12 patterned paper attached to a piece of cork board. I choose several different activities Tyler could do (and being the nerd that I am, I had to make sure each activity was written as a single verb) to earn his tv time. When he reads, or does his chores, he gets to move a thumb tack over. When he watches a half hour of tv, the thumb tack goes back. I have discovered he is funny, and so far doesn't really like to "spend" his tv time. Sounds good to me!

I do have to give props to my SIL who gave me the idea. She does something similar each summer with her kids. They earn "sticks" that they can redeem with her for screen time. I don't know her time limits, but they can earn sticks for physical activity, reading, or developing a talent. Then they can cash in as many sticks as they want at a time. In her words, if they want to save up enough sticks all week to spend 5 hours on Friday playing video games, ok.

Anyone else have any great tricks for controlling tv time in your home?

Our trip to Florida

From sand,


to surf,

to sightseeing,

to sleep,

we had a blast in Florida.

We couldn't have asked for a more relaxing, enjoyable, fun vacation. A big thanks for letting us tag along!

Food Storage

Ok, I know what you are thinking. I am not even going to read this post because Angela is writing about the most boring topic ever--food storage. But can I just say, I now have a testimony of food storage. I am excited about building my family's food supply. I want to fill half my closet with shelves and rotate food that I know my family will eat.

So, how did this happen? We had a lady come to an Enrichment Activity in our ward. I thought it was going to be about making bread, and decided it might be a good idea to know what to do with all the wheat I have at my house. So I went to make my bread, which was awesome by the way, and along the way Karen told us how she does food storage in her home. Here is her website:

kneadfulthingsnow.com

And this is the simple answer for how to do food storage. Pick a certain number of meals. (Ideally, 30. But start with 7.) Have everything in your house to make this meal 12 times. When you make it once, next time you go to the store, you replace what you used. Here is the example she gave. Her family loves homemade pizza. She has the basic foundation of food storage. (Wheat, grains, beans, baking soda/powder, etc.) She makes the crust from her foundation. Next sauce. She stores 12 cans of her spaghetti sauce, because they use one can for a meal. She stores enough cheese (waxes it so it is shelf stable). She stores shelf stable pepperoni. Cans of olives and mushrooms.

So why is this the way to do your food storage instead of going by just what is on the provident living website? That is the starting point. If you only had what they listed, and had to survive solely on your food supply, you would get one pound of food per day. The bare minimum to merely survive. You and your children will slowly start to starve.

I truly wish I could share with you the spirit of that evening. Because I caught it. Seriously, check out her website. There is so much valuable information.

So, when I get back from Florida next week, I will be enhancing my food supply. (By the way, it shouldn't be food storage; it should be your food supply.) I am going to pick out 7 meals, and get the ingredients to make it 12 times. I will let you know what meals I choose. And I am going to get a wheat grinder and make some more bread, because what I make yesterday is gone.

check this out

Have you seen this you tube video?