Happy 30th Birthday, Daddy!

As we honor a landmark birthday for Bryan, I wanted to take a minute and write just a few of my favorite things about him. In no particular order, Bryan...

• is a wonderful husband.
• is an excellent father.
• gets up at 3 am with me to feed the girls.
• always takes the trash out.
• is a Christian.
• plays with our girls, even though they don't play back very well yet.
• takes pride in his job and in all that he does.
• is a good son to his parents and son-in-law to mine.
• is not afraid of dirty diapers.
• loves us as much or more than we love him.

Happy Birthday, Bryan!

Family Visits

Ella and Emma are continuing to grow and do well. At their checkup on Monday, June 16, Ella weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces and Emma weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces. The doctor was very excited about how well they are doing, and so are we. They are sleeping approximately 4 1/2 hours at a stretch at night and have feedings every 3 hours the rest of the day. We are looking forward to that being more like 7 hours at night, but I guess we will just have to be patient a little while longer for that to happen.

Here are some pictures of our most recent visitors.

Aunt Connie

Cousin Aleisha

Mamaw Price

Papaw Price

Grandy while Babysitting

Settling In

I know it has been a while since our last post, but it is amazing how much time and energy it takes to care for 2 newborns. I think we are beginning to find some kind of routine around here. Ella and Emma eat about every 3 hours. We try to get them to play after they eat, but they are still more likely to sleep. We are having a bit more awake time during the day now, just not much. Bryan and I are also beginning to figure out how to function on much less sleep than we are used to. We have managed to have a couple of nights with the girls only waking us up once instead of 2 or 3 times. Emma has been rather attached to her pacifier lately, screaming when it falls out of her mouth and she realizes it is gone. Ella does that occasionally as well. They are still very sweet babies.

"Playing" in our baby gym. (We're actually sleeping)

Taking a nap in the cradle made by Great Granddaddy Wiggains

Ella appears to be holding her pacifier in.

I wonder if she can teach Emma how to do that.

Taking a nap in the crib. Ella's arm made a nice pillow for Emma until she moved it.

Little Noises

Being first time parents is really great, exhausting, but great. One thing I never realized though, babies make weird noises. The first night home was especially long. Even though Ella and Emma are healthy in every way, the little noises they made kept us awake that first night at home. It has become a little easier the more we are around them (Carla and I taking turns napping also helps).

First thing on Wednesday morning we went to see the pediatrician. Both Ella and Emma have grown a lot during their first 16 days of life. Ella now weighs 6 pounds 12 ounces and Emma is 6 pounds 8 ounces. Our Doctor, Dr. Walsh, told us not to continue with some of the things the NICU nurses had insisted on. One was to let the girls sleep as long as they wanted to during the night and only feed them when they woke up: no feedings every three hours during the night (Sweet!). Both continue to eat more everyday, we are about to need bigger bottles! Our next visit to the pediatrician will be in two weeks were we will discuss formula changes.

(Speaking of little noises, as I'm writing this entry, Ella just made a stinky noise.)

Ella and Emma look so CUTE in their Going Home outfits!

The Whole Family! Aren't we Gorgeous!

We're Home!

WOW! At home and in our bed.

Nana and Papa Mullin stopped by to see their newest Great-Granddaughters.

Finally Home

After a long, but successful night in the hospital, we are finally home. We were discharged right at noon Tuesday. All of us are doing well, even if Momma and Daddy are a bit sleep deprived. I will hopefully write more tomorrow and even include some pictures, however, I must go get some sleep. We just wanted to make sure we let everyone know, WE ARE HOME!!!! Thank you all for you prayers for the girls and us.

Reasonably Hopeful

We had quite the surprise when we got to the hospital this morning. Both Ella and Emma's NG tubes had been removed! The nurses said they were going to really push them to finish their bottles at all feedings today. If the girls will eat from their bottles at every feeding for the next 24 hours, we will be able to room in with them on Monday night. Assuming all goes well with that, we will be able to take them home on Tuesday morning!!!!!

The girls also had to pass the "car seat challenge." They had be in their car seats for 2 hours while having their heart rates, breathing, and pulse ox monitored. According to the nurse, they passed with flying colors. It was so neat to see them in the car seats. They are getting more and more ready to come home.

Aren't we cute? All tucked in our car seats with nowhere to go.


Ella and Emma

Between getting a Hep B shot, bath, car seat challenge, and bottle feeding every 3 hours, our girls were all worn out. Ella was particularly exhausted, as you can tell by this picture.

Both girls were able to eat from bottles all throughout the day today. If this continues throughout the night and tomorrow, we will not be able to update the blog tomorrow night. Instead we will be taking care of our girls for one night at the hospital before brining them home. Hopefully our next post will have pictures of Ella and Emma at HOME in their own beds!!!