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Monday, August 29

What a Weekend

We've been busy (so goes the summer)! I can't believe it is the end of August. Saturday we celebrated our 6 year anniversary. So while we were getting the house together for the babies' baptism, we also tried to take some time for ourselves (haha). Which brings us to our big day yesterday - Kelsey and Drew's baptism. The weather was gorgeous; the babies were so even tempered through mass and the baptism, it was truly a 'perfect' day. We were surrounded by good friends and family - a great way to finish the summer! We are starting a new week day routine; our sitter will watch the kids Monday-Wednesday and our "nanny" will come to the house Thursday and Friday, with my mom coming on her available days off. This means the babies will be dropped off early by the sitter by Craig and I will pick them up when I'm done with work around 3. And as usual, we will see how things go!









Wednesday, August 24

Like...

...father like daughter! It must be a dad thing - there is NO WAY I can fall asleep when the babies nap. There are too many things to be done and my head would be buzzing, making it impossible to rest. So while I was busy around the house, Craig hung with the kids in the living room.



He did it! Drew finally got that big melon off the ground while laying on his belly. Usually when he does tummy time, he just lays there face down which makes me a little nervous. He won't pick up his head much and whines throughout our scheduled "tummy time". But now he looks like his sister!




They are both around 13.8lbs and will be 5 months tomorrow. I can't believe how fast the time is going and how *big* our *little* ones are getting. I can't wait for the winter months, for life to slow down, and to have more time with our babies :)

we think Drew has found his tongue!

Saturday, August 20

1 Year Ago...

...Kelsey and Drew were 5 days old and had been living in a petrie dish. And were grade "A" embryos. And were ready to be sucked up into a long pipette to be transferred into my uterus. And we were *hoping*, fingers crossed that one of those embryos wanted to latch on and be our baby.

That's what we were doing 1 year ago today. I had gotten a call 2 days prior to let me know that 4 embryos were still growing and their cell division looked good enough to wait until day 5 to transfer them back. Craig and I made the trek to Illinois early in the morning. The fertility doctor showed us the numbers of all 4 embryos and said, "This is the first we would transfer and if you are going to put in two, this is the other one we would put in today." There was no question - we were putting in two. We had already went through 8 embryos at another clinic without success; why wouldn't we do everything we could to maximize a positive outcome?

The process was simple: we show up, make our decision to put 2 in. The embryologist comes to the half-door in the room that is connected to her "baby-making" lab and has me state my name and birth date (no wrong-embryo-to-the-wrong-patient here). Then we get to watch, on ultrasound, the doc shoot these 2 small air-bubbles into my uterus - which is squashed by my bursting bladder (think 32oz of liquid in about 45min and then HOLDING it for 30min AFTER the transfer!!)

And then we were on our way home. And then the wheels start turning. And you're wondering if the embryos are implanting. And you question every move you make because you don't want to jepordize their tinyness...but you're not even thinking about BOTH of them, just praying for at least one.

Four weeks later we found out we were having a "Kelsey" and a "Drew". The car ride home was a little quiet, trying to figure out how we went from being ready to accept that if it didn't work this time we were moving on, to having 2 babies!

Here we are now; the babies will be 5 months next week. It's still a little surreal that these are our kids and all the surgeries, shots, recurrent disappointment got us to today. Healthy, happy babies - there's nothing more we could have dreamed/prayed/asked for!



Kelsey and Drew's first picture! How many parents have a phot of their babies at 5 days old? :)
I'm not a betting girl but I do love guessing, so I would say the left one is Kelsey and the right one is Drew!

Tuesday, August 16

Busy Summer Days

Kelsey has been talking up a racket lately! She has so much to say to anyone that will listen. Drew either doesn't have much to say or isn't ready to tell us about it, and has been more quiet. But Drew has decided that he needs to eats his bottles faster - we moved the nipple size up for him, where Kelsey is a little more lady-like and takes her time and does not want us to change sizes. So I had to figure out how we can distinguish bottles without unscrewing them each time to look under the nipple - thankfully a friend gave us her extra bottles and since they were an older version of ours they happened to be a different color. Gotta love friends and their hand-me-downs!

Kelsey and I had a nice Saturday, celebrating our soon-to-be sister-in-law - the kids' new Aunt. Besides the random downpours, it was a fun day seeing out-of-town family and eating fabulous food. Then Craig spent Saturday evening/night alone with the babies while I continued the celebrations out on the Edleweiss river cruise downtown. On Sunday Craig went to the Brewer game with his dad and uncle, adding another bobblehead to his collection!


Kelsey and I all dressed up for Cassandra's wedding shower



My sister and I on the river cruise - it was a little windy;)


Thursday, August 11

Next Up For Her Floor Routine...

Kelsey! Even in the NICU the nurses were telling us to watch out for her - she was going to be a gymnast. She would propel herself up out of her "nest" and smoosh into the incubator wall. And we would find her in different positions every time we checked on her, the nurses saying they haven't seen such a wiggly preemie! Of course we took some pics of Kelsey wrangling her way out of car seat and on to the floor - never once did she make a peep for us to help her or signal that she wanted our help. Miss independent already. That is why we just watched her and documented the shenanigans:)







Kelsey and I will be busy Saturday with Auntie Cassandra's bridal shower. We are getting excited for Derek and Cassandra's wedding in September - all we need is for Grandma Linda to make a few alterations to everyone's wedding outfits. Craig and I are going out to dinner tomorrow night with good friends - a new restaurant with a fancy wine list. Yay for a glass of wine! (or two or three...)

Thursday, August 4

No News

Can't really think of anything to report - they've been super smiley, happy, and still sleeping thru the night in their OWN cribs! We've just been enjoying our babies and the summer as much as we can. It's so amazing that it is August already.

There has been some National Geographic action in our backyard the past week. A couple of years ago 2 researchers came to us and asked if they could use our backyard to trap and tag hawks. They migrate to Texas each winter and end up back in our yard in the BIG trees each summer. Yesterday we witnessed them chasing squirrels out our sun room window. It was crazy! Of course we had to take some pics of them:)