Auntie Heather, Uncle Phil and Cousin Berkeley come to visit!

My sister, brother-in-law and niece live in Denver and they made a trip down to see all of us a few weeks ago. We had a great time! This was the first time that they had seen Logan and Paige. It was so weird to think that just five years ago I flew up to Denver to meet my niece, Berkeley, for the first time. Time has flown! Logan and Paige had a great time loving on Auntie Heather, Uncle Phil and Berkeley! They are so blessed to have grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins that love them so much!

My mom drove down for the day that Saturday to spend time with all of us. We made a trip to the mall that evening to see Santa. That was quite an experience to say the least! I was really nervous about having the babies at the mall with all the germs going around this time of year, but I also REALLY wanted them to have their picture taken with Santa. It all ended up being just fine and we were able to get a really cute picture. Chris and I each held a baby and sat on either side of Santa for the picture. It turned out pretty cute!

The rest of the visit was spent eating lots of great food and just hanging out together. We gave Berkeley an Easy Bak.e Ov.en for Christmas and she loved getting to bake her cookies! My sister said they weren't too bad! Ha! We were so sad to say goodbye when they had to leave. Berkeley is always sad to go and it just breaks my heart! I wish I could win the lottery and then we could all fly back and forth all the time and see each other. Wouldn't that be nice!? I can't wait until we can all see each other again. I'm definitely hoping that Logan and Paige can have a white Christmas next year!

Here are some pics from their visit!

Berkeley rearranged the nativity scene! So funny!

Auntie Heather & Logan

Uncle Phil & Paige

Auntie Heather & Paige

1st Christmas

We had a wonderful first Christmas with Logan and Paige! I still cannot believe that it has already come and gone. I remember this time last year. We were just recently coming off of our second failed IVF cycle and were so desperate for the new year to start. I remember telling Chris at the end of 2009 that we WOULD be parents in 2010. I didn't know when or how, but I just decided to make up my mind that it would happen. Not that I had any control over it whatsoever, but it helped for me to try to stay focused and positive. We hosted both of our families at our house for a Christmas Eve dinner last year and as we sat down to eat Chris said that we hoped to have another chair around the table at Christmas this year. Little did we know that it would be TWO extra chairs at the table!! We are so incredibly blessed and I cannot believe how wonderful 2010 has been. I was SO ready for 2009 to be a distant memory and now I find myself a little sad that 2010 is almost over. So many wonderful things have happened this year. I know that 2011 will be a wonderful year of many "firsts" for Logan and Paige and I am really excited about that.

We stayed home for Christmas this year. We went to the early Christmas Eve service at our church. It was incredible. My favorite part, as always, is at the end when we all light our candles and sing "Silent Night". This year that part was just a little bit sweeter as Chris and I stood there with our sweet babies. After the service we headed over to Chris' sister's house for dinner. We had a great time hanging out with family and watching Logan and Paige's cousin, Addison, decorate cookies for Santa. When we got home, we put cookies and milk out for Santa and read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" before we went to bed. On Christmas morning we fed the babies and then opened their stockings and gifts. We had a great time letting them see their gifts. They didn't have a clue about what was going on but it was a lot of fun for Chris and me! Later that morning we headed over to Chris' parents house for Christmas dinner and to open more presents. We had a great day!

Here are some pictures from Christmas!

One of daddy's presents!

Christmas Day

Opening stockings Christmas morning

Leaving cookies and milk for Santa

Christmas Eve

Nursery

This post is LONG overdue, but better late than never. Since I use this blog as an archive for our family I wanted to make sure that I had pictures of the nursery. It's still not completely finished, but I think it will always be a work in progress. :-) The color scheme is light blue, white and red. I had the hardest time finding bedding that I liked to coordinate with a shared boy/girl nursery. I finally found this woman on Et.sy who makes custom bedding and she was very reasonable. I emailed her about the colors and designs that I wanted and she was able to create exactly what I wanted. Here are some various pictures of the nursery.

Changing table

Paige's bedding

Paige's bed

Logan's bedding

Logan's bed

Their closets

2 Months Old

Wow, I can't believe Logan and Paige are already two months old! Time is flying by WAY too fast! They are both doing really well and I love getting to see their little personalities come out more and more each day. They are so sweet and I could just cuddle with them all day! I know my cuddle days are limited and I just want to soak up every minute. Here's what Logan and Paige are up to these days.

Logan~

You are such a sweet boy! I love your big, blue eyes and you just melt mommy's heart when you look up at me with that big smile! I could just eat you!! At your two month check-up you weighed 8 lbs 14 oz and measured 21 1/4 inches long. You are such a big boy and growing way too fast! You are eating 4 ounces every 3 1/2 hours and unfortunately you have developed reflux, but we're able to give you Prev.acid to help with that. You are still wearing newborn size diapers and newborn clothes but you are not far from growing out of them. You have really started smiling a lot lately and it's just the most amazing thing to see!! After you eat you really love to just hang out. You usually nap for about 45 minutes to an hour in between feedings. You do so well during tummy time. You have been pushing up and lifting your head for several weeks now. You are going to be such a strong boy! You are our "Little Man" and mommy and daddy love you SO much!!!

Paige~

You are just so precious! Your big cheeks are SO adorable and I could just eat them!! Your eyes are starting to get darker and are now hazel/brown. At your two month check-up you weighed 9 lbs 7 oz and measured 21 1/2 inches long. You are just growing so fast! You are eating 3-4 ounces every 3 1/2 hours. You have also developed reflux and are now taking Prev.acid as well. You are still wearing newborn size diapers and newborn clothes, but you are not far from outgrowing them. You often fall asleep while eating and then you fall asleep during tummy time too. You love your sleep!! You will usually nap for about 2 hours in between feedings. You are doing really well during tummy time and holding your head up more and more. You are so determined and I love that about you! You are our little "Sweetpea" and mommy and daddy love you SO much!!!

Paige and Logan are doing really well with their sleeping at night. We give them their last bottle at 9:30 and put them down for the night between 10:15-10:30. For several weeks they had been sleeping until about 3:45 or 4:00. The last two nights they slept until 5:00!!!!! Way to go babies!!!! They usually sleep another 3 1/2-4 hours after that feeding and then we start our day from there. Life with twin newborns is definitely a rollercoaster but I feel so blessed to have these sweet babies!

So thankful!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This year was extra special for us as we got to celebrate with our two precious babies! We could not be more thankful for these two miracles. We had lots of great food and enjoyed relaxing together as a family. I remember how we felt this time last year. We had just gone through our second failed IVF cycle and we were wondering if we would ever get to celebrate the holidays with a baby. Little did we know the blessings that God had in store for us!

Logan and Paige are both continuing to do really well. They're both growing and doing new things each day. I wish I could just freeze time and keep them at this age. I don't want my babies to grow up! Logan's next appointment with the cardiologist is on Dec. 21st. Please pray that we will get good news at this appointment. He'll have another echocardiogram and we're praying that it still shows his heart to be functioning normally. Thankfully Chris' echo was normal. I have my echo this Tuesday and Paige will also need to have one after we get the final diagnosis on Logan. I'll keep you all updated. Thank you for all the continued prayers! Here are some updated pictures. :-)

Newborn Photos

In all the craziness that has been going on with doctor's appointments I completely forgot to write about our newborn photos. Our awesome photographer, Kristy, came and took the pictures a few weeks ago. As always, she did an amazing job! We absolutely love the pictures of our precious babies!! We had to postpone the photo shoot due to Logan being in the hospital, so the babies weren't as cooperative as I would have liked. BUT, we were still able to get really good photos and I can't wait to put them up in our house!

If you don't mind, please stop by Kristy's photography blog by clicking here and comment on the blog post about our photo session. If we get 10 comments we'll get a free 8x10! You'll also be able to view a few of the photos that she took! Thanks!!

One Month Old!

Logan and Paige were one month old this past Friday!! Where has the time gone? To say that this last month has been a rollercoaster would be an understatement. The important thing, though, is that we have our two precious miracle babies and we just love them to pieces! We've gotten into a pretty good schedule. They're eating about 3-4 oz every 4 hours. I nurse each of them at least once a day, I pump for bottles and we supplement with formula. This is what works best for us right now and the babies are gaining weight like champs. So, I'm pleased with my breastfeeding at the moment. Would I love to exclusively breastfeed both babies? Of course! It's MUCH cheaper and it's the most natural food for them. But, that is just not realistic for us. They're both happy, healthy and Chris and I have our sanity...for the most part. :-) These are the things that are important.

Friday night we stopped waking them to eat in the middle of the night. Our pediatrician had suggested that we start now in hopes that we'll have them sleeping through the night soon. Won't that be awesome! They've done pretty well with it so far I think. We feed them around 9:30 and then put them down for the night between 10:00-10:30, depending on how long it takes for them to eat and get their diapers changed. So far they've gone 5 straight hours between feedings. That means we have one feeding around 2:30 in the morning and then they wake again around 6:30ish to eat again. After this feeding we start our schedule for the day which means that they eat every four hours at that point. Hopefully we'll be able to drop the middle of the night feeding soon. We're not going to deny them that feeding right now, though, if they wake up hungry. They're only a month old and are still little (even though they weigh over 6 and 7 lbs now!). Logan weighed 6 lbs 4 oz at the doctor on Friday and we're guessing that Paige has to be over 7 lbs now. Woohoo!

As for Mr. Logan, we had the follow up appointment with the cardiomyopathy specialist on Friday. They took blood to run genetic testing on him. She wants to rule out something called Barth's Syndrome. This is a very scary disease, but thankfully she and the pediatrician both feel that this is NOT what he has. She just has to rule it out. However, she is pretty certain that he does have left ventricular non-compaction. Thankfully his heart function is completely normal right now. He will need to be monitored closely, though, to make sure that it stays this way and that his heart function doesn't start to deteriorate. The severity of this condition varies greatly. Some people go their whole lives not ever being affected by it and others have severe cases and end up needing heart transplants. The positive thing is that Logan's heart function is normal and we're just praying that God heals his little heart and keeps his function normal. There is medicine that can be given if the heart does start to deteriorate, but we're going to think positively and believe that he won't ever need any sort of intervention.

So, that pretty much sums up what's going on around here. Below are their one month pictures and pictures from bath time. Enjoy!

Logan in his froggy towel

Paige in her ducky towel

What's been going on around here...

We had a great week last week! We took Logan and Paige to the pediatrician last Tuesday for a follow up visit and they both had great weights. Logan weighed 5 lbs 6 oz and Paige weighed 6 lbs 3 oz!!! While we were there, our pediatrician FINALLY received a call back from the cardiologist that we'll be seeing on Friday. She left a really comforting message. Her message said that Logan's heart function is completely normal and for our pediatrician to tell us not to be concerned. She said it looks like it's just something we'll need to follow. Praise God!!!!! I cannot even begin to tell you how happy and relieved we were to hear this. On top of that, I was able to speak to a client from work who happens to be one of the head doctors in the cardiology department at Tex.as Child.rens on Wednesday evening. He had actually been one of the doctors to look at Logan's holter monitoring from when he was in the hospital that week. He also looked at Logan's EKG from two weeks ago. He told me that he agrees that Logan's heart function is completely normal and that he believes there is no reason for us to lose any sleep at night. He said that we'll probably just need to follow up in 3-4 months with another echocardiogram to make sure that things haven't gotten worse, but that he serioulsy doubts that would be the case since Logan's heart function is normal. He knows the specialist that we'll be seeing on Friday and he spoke very highly of her. According to him we'll be in great hands with her. Woohoo!!!!!!

On Thursday I said goodbye to my twenties as I turned the big 3-0. I had a great birthday and I couldn't imagine a better 30th birthday present than the two precious babies that God has given me!!! Chris did such a great job making my birthday special. I have the best husband...and he's a pretty awesome daddy too! :-) My mom also came into town on Thursday to help out for a few days. It was great to have help with the laundry and washing bottles. I already dislike washing bottles! We enjoyed celebrating my birthday that night just the five of us and then we had a great time celebrating with Chris' family on Friday night. My birthday celebration just kept going!

Thank you all again for all the prayers and well wishes for Logan! I'll update everyone as to what the specialist tells us on Friday. I'm so anxious to find out exactly what is going on and where we go from here. Keep the prayers coming!

Here is a pic of Logan and Paige enjoying their boppys!

Update on Logan

As you know, our little Logan got to come home from the hospital last Monday afternoon. We are so happy to have our little man home again! I'm going to ask all of you to keep praying for Logan. We found out on Wednesday that something is wrong with his heart. We had to go back to Tex.as Child.ren's for an EKG and an echocardiogram. The EKG looked good, but the echo showed that something had not formed properly with the heart muscle in his left ventricle. The specialist that we saw specializes in arrhythmias and not cardiomyopathy, so her best guess is that he has something called non-compaction of the left ventricle. This is apparently a very complex condition and very complicated to diagnose. We have been referred to another cardiologist who specializes in cardiomyopathy. Unfortunately, we won't be able to see her for two weeks. We have NO idea how minor or serious the problem is or if this is even what he has. Please pray that if there is something wrong that it is very minor.

I cannot even begin to describe how hard all of this has been. There is nothing more heartbreaking than knowing that something is wrong with your child and not being able to do anything for them. I HATE the waiting game. I want his appointment to be tomorrow. I want them to tell us that they made a mistake and there is absolutely nothing wrong with his heart. I hate that I am now starting to experience some depression from all of this. I just want to enjoy our new little family and not have to feel this way. I wish there was a magic button I could push that would snap me out of it. I want to hold Logan and cry tears of joy instead of tears of sadness at the thoughts of what might be in his future with this heart issue. I am SO incredibly grateful for these precious babies. Is it too much to ask for them to be healthy, though? What parent doesn't want that for their children?

I'll leave you on a happy note. Here is a picture of Logan and Paige on their first Halloween. :-)

Logan & Paige

Here's a pic we took today of Logan & Paige! Until I have time to properly update this will have to do! :-)

Logan is coming home!!!

Thank you again to everyone for all of the thoughts and prayers for our little man. He's coming home today!!!! We're so excited that our little family will be back together again! Logan is doing really well. He looks SO much better than he did last Monday. All of his tests have come back negative, so he either did pick up some sort of virus that wasn't detected or it was just due to him being premature and under 5 lbs. Thankfully if it was a virus of some sort it would have run it's course by now and he was on three different antibiotics last week to knock out anything bacterial that might have been going on.

This past week has absolutely been one of the hardest weeks of my life. On top of Logan being in the hospital, Chris came down with strep throat Friday evening. Superb! He is much better now thanks to the high-powered antibiotics they gave him and it looks as though Paige and I have managed to escape the germs. My emotions were all over the place last week. Many times I found myself wanting to curl up in a ball somewhere and hide until this was all over. All our prayers were answered, though. God pulled Chris and I through and our little guy is better and coming home. I'm going to try my best to keep up with blogging now that our whole family will be home. Hopefully once I get into a routine I'll be able to squeeze in a few minutes to post pics and update everyone. We'll see how that goes!

Update on Logan

Thank you so much for all of your thoughts and prayers! Keep them coming! Thankfully Logan had a much better day yesterday. He was taken off of the CPAP machine yesterday morning and they took him off the warmer yesterday afternoon. He started bottle feeds yesterday and we got to hold him and feed him last night! I can't even tell you how amazing it was to get to hold our little man. He was so sick on Monday and going downhill quickly. It's amazing how much can change in less than 24 hours. When we left last night everything was still going well. They're going to bump his feeding amount up today and we should have the final results back from the blood cultures today. As I was told by several people, no news is good news at TCH. So, we're hoping that this was just an episode of him dropping his temp because he is so little and still premature. It's definitely scary that this can happen, but it could be so much worse too. We're hoping for another encouraging day for him today. I'll keep you updated.

Prayers Please!!!

Please pray for our sweet boy, Logan. He was admitted to the Level III NICU at Texas Chil.dren's Hosp.ital yesterday for hypothermia. He was put under a warmer and also put on a CPAP machine because he was having apnea episodes. He was very lethargic yesterday and did not want to wake up for his early morning feedings. He is stable and they are running every test known to man to try and figure out what's going on. The main thing they are looking at is infection. Thankfully, he is keeping his body temp up while in his heated bed and his heart rate was good overnight. He has not required any oxygen at any time but the CPAP is helping him to not have to work as hard to breathe. He also has a feeding tube now, but they have not started feeding him through it yet. We're hoping they will start feeding him this morning.

Please pray that the doctors are able to determine exactly what is going on with him and that it is just something very minor. Please also pray for Chris and me as we try to split our time with Logan and with our sweet girl, Paige. I'll update as we know more.

Happy Birthday!

They're here!!!! Our precious, miracle babies were born on Tuesday, October 12, 2010 at 35 weeks 6 days. Logan Michael was 4 lbs 13 oz and 17 1/2 inches long. Paige Elise was 5 lbs 1.8 oz and 17 1/2 inches long. They were delivered via c-section at 4:25 pm (Logan) and at 4:26 pm (Paige). We are all doing great and we were released from the hospital this afternoon. I will post a more detailed birth story soon, but for now here are some pictures of our sweet little babies! I could just eat them they are SO cute!!!

Paige on the left, Logan on the right

35 Week Update

I'm 35 weeks today! Woohoo! The crazy thing is...this might be my last weekly pregnancy update. Yikes! Yes, you read that right. Here's what's going on. I went to lunch with a sweet friend yesterday and while we were there I started feeling really crampy and it moved around to my lower back. When I got in my car to leave I started feeling some pressure in my bottom like I needed to go to the bathroom, but I didn't need to go. This concerned me so I decided to call my OB's office since I was literally right around the corner from my OB and the hospital. The nurse told me to come right in and then about 2 minutes later she called me back and said that the doctor on call said to go straight to labor and delivery. This is when I started to get more concerned. I didn't feel like I was going into labor but I just had a feeling that things might be headed in that direction sometime soon. I got to the hospital and was admitted to an antepartum room where they hooked me up to monitors for the babies and my contractions. I was having patterns of contractions and uterine irritability and then contractions again and then more irritability. Thankfully this pattern did not cause my cervix to start dilating more. They called my OB and she did decide to put me on Breth.ine to stop the contractions. Thankfully this worked. They also put in an IV to give me some fluids just in case I was dehydrated and hadn't realized it. I was at the hospital on the monitors for about 6 hours before they let me go home. Thankfully the babies were doing great!

I had my weekly appointment with my OB already scheduled for this afternoon. I had a feeling that she would tell us we wouldn't make it to Oct. 25th, but we had no idea that she would tell us we maybe had a week at this point. What?! We couldn't believe it! I thought Chris was going to pass out! Poor guy. She checked my cervix and I'm about 1/2 cm-1 cm dilated right now, but the babies have dropped and the extra pressure is causing my cervix to really thin out. Dr. M said that she really hopes we can squeeze in another week, but that she feels completely confident with the babies coming now if I do go into labor before next week. I'll still have a c-section to deliver the babies but at this point we no longer have a scheduled date. Dr. M wants to wait until my appointment on Tuesday morning to see if things have progressed and then she'll decide where to go from there.

I honestly don't know how I feel about all of this. Of course I'm super excited to meet these little ones, but at the same time I want them to keep baking a little longer. I told Chris this weekend that I didn't think my body was going to hold out for 3 more weeks and I noticed that the babies had dropped. I just didn't think that they could potentially be here in less than one week. I really feel like we're as ready as we possibly can be. The bags are packed and ready to go, the nursery is ready for them and I think we pretty much have everything we need. I'm sure once they're home we'll find things that we need and hadn't purchased yet or even thought of, but that seems pretty unavoidable to me for first time parents.

I'll try to post an updated picture tomorrow. Please keep these babies in your prayers. Please pray that they continue to put on weight and that their lungs are ready for the outside world. It's all in God's hands. It has been this whole time. We just have to sit back and wait for Him to reveal His perfect timing for meeting our precious miracles and continue to praise Him for all the blessings He's given us. I have LOVED every minute of this pregnancy and I will continue to soak up every minute that I have left.

(Linds- I'm so glad I got to spend my last outing hanging out and catching up with you!)

Last appointment with the specialist

Today we are 33 weeks and 5 days. We had our last appointment with the specialist today and it couldn't have gone any better! Both babies still have great fluid levels and they're still growing well and in accordance with each other. Logan is measuring 4 lbs 7 oz. and Paige is measuring 4 lbs 9 oz. Grow babies grow!!! I'm so happy with their weights and I'll be thrilled if they can each pack on at least another pound over the next four weeks.

Four weeks from today we'll be holding these sweet little ones!!! I can't wait!!

33 Week Update

Today I am 33 weeks! Praise God that we've made it another week and these little ones are still in the oven! I had my weekly appointment with my OB this afternoon. She did th NST monitoring again. Both babies heart rates were good and she's still unconcerned by the braxton-hicks contractions I'm having off and on everyday. It's just to be expected at this point. My uterus is annoyed by these little wiggle worms. :-) Thankfully it's still harmless at this point and I just pray that it stays that way. Yesterday was my last day at work, so being at home now should help to alleviate some of the extra irritability in my uterus. I'm still doing a little bit of work from home until the babies come. It sure was nice to work in my PJs this morning! My OB told me last Thursday that I needed to be done with work now. I think this actually came at a good time because my body is definitely starting to get tired and these babies are getting really heavy to carry around!

Today Chris and I got a surprise at our OB visit...she scheduled our c-section! Unless these babies make an appearance on their own within the next four weeks their birthday will be October 25th at 7:30 AM!!! I can't believe we actually have a date. It still seems so surreal. I can't wait to meet them! I also realize now that I only have a few more precious weeks left to carry them. I'm glad that I'll get to take the next several weeks to finish getting everything ready and to enjoy every last minute I have with them in my belly.

Our next ultrasound with the specialist is on Monday and then we see my OB again next Wednesday. I'm really excited about Monday's appointment. We haven't seen them in four weeks! I can't wait to see how much bigger they've gotten since our last ultrasound.

I hope everyone has a great rest of the week and a great weekend! Here's my 33 week picture.

32 Weeks!!!

Today I am 32 weeks! Woohoo!!! It feels so good to make it to this milestone with babies still safely baking away! I am so grateful and thank God every day for getting us closer and closer to a safe, healthy delivery. We don't have another appointment with the specialist for 2 weeks but I do see my OB tomorrow for the NST test. Hopefully that will go well! I should also find out tomorrow what my bed rest is going to entail now that I'm at 32 weeks.

Since my last post, I went to see a different endocrinologist regarding the gestational diabetes. She and my OB both agreed that I need to be on some insulin now because my blood sugars are still a little high after my meals. I started the insulin tonight. Thankfully Chris will be able to give me my morning shots before he leaves for work and he can give me my evening shot before dinner. I'm skipping the lunch shot because I just cannot give shots to myself. I tried for 30 minutes this morning and just couldn't do it. Yes, I know I'm a wimp. I'm an 8 month pregnant wimp, though, and I'm tired of stressing and feeling overwhelmed by this diabetes situation so I'm just going to do the best I can. I'll just make sure that I'm extra cautious with what I eat at lunch so that I can make sure my blood sugar stays low.

At my last appointment with my OB she told me that she would take the babies via a scheduled c-section sometime between October 20-27. That is 5 weeks away! Whoa! I can't believe they will be here so soon. Thankfully we've almost finished the nursery. Just a few minor touches to complete and then I promise to post pics. :-) Here are a few pictures I took last night for my bossy sister who sent me an email demanding new belly pics. :-) (Just kidding Heather)