Happy Thanksgiving!

The babies' first Thanksgiving! Here we are (recently stuffed) in Idaho, with Grandma Kaye, Auntie Rachel and Aunt Susan.

This year, I'm thankful for so many things...

For my sweet, beautiful, perfect, healthy babies.

For my husband and our wonderful life together--and for our good dog, Spud.

That I get to be a mom.

For a good job, and a boss that is willing to work with me and is allowing me so much flexibility.

For my sweet family and friends, all who have helped us get through these past three months.

I am so, so grateful for the past three months, and for the coming month--this time that I get to be with my babies.

And now that I'm a parent, I'm even more thankful for my parents.

This year, my heart is so full of gratitude...I have so much for which to be thankful!

Babies' First Snow Storm!

Poor Daniel--one thing he wanted to do while he was here in Idaho was go golfing. He almost got what he wanted--the day before he arrived, there were a few people out walking the course. And you never know--I remember some Thanksgivings covered in snow, but I remember many where we played outside without coats on after we ate. This year, Thanksgiving will be covered in snow (and maybe the coldest weather Daniel has ever experienced)--a huge snow storm moved in right after Daniel got here, and we've had lots of snow since. It's a good thing the babies' are loving the snow and having fun watching their first snow storm!

Babies' Big Day

The babies had their first plane ride this past Monday, and they were great. It was far more stressful and exhausting for their mother and their Nana Candy--but they flew like pros. They ate and slept and charmed everyone sitting around them. We flew from Baltimore into Salt Lake City where my parents picked us up, then we continued on to Pocatello for the babies' first trip to Idaho!

Since we've been here, the babies have had the pleasure of meeting lots of family and friends. Daniel flew into SLC to join us on Saturday (and of course, a huge snow storm came in with him--but this time he was able to get over Malad Pass, thank goodness!). Then this past Sunday, the babies went to Church for the first time. While there, their Grandpa Tom gave them their blessings (similar to a christening, in the Mormon church babies receive blessings). Addison looked so pretty in her dress, and Jackson looked very handsome in his sweater. It was a big day for the babies, and of course they behaved wonderfully.




Addison and Great Grandpa Andersen

Aunt Susan with Addison and Jackson

Great Grandma Rodonna and Grandpa Tom with the babies

Smiley babies

Aunt Rachel, Uncle Andrew, the babies and me

Cousin Kimmy and her hubby Jake, who will be having a baby of their own soon

Mom with her baby girl Addison at the end of the day


We started to take pictures of Jackson and Dad at the end of the day, but we discovered that Jackson had blown out of his diaper, and had gotten poop all over his shirt--so we had a poop emergency and didn't get any pictures of my handsome boys together!

Pictures by Aunt Lauren

Aunt Lauren came to visit and along with doing dishes, making dinner, folding laundry and just generally helping with the babies, she took some fabulous pictures of them. Here are just a few...thanks Lauren for capturing such sweet moments with our babies!














PS Lauren has an awesome camera...I might have to get one...

We're two months old!

And what a two months it has been! Here are some details about the babies from the past two months:


Both babies like their swing, but Jackson loves the swing. He still doesn't like to lay flat on his back, which presents a challenge when he has to be set down for a minute--so he is the king of the swing. Unfortunately, no one likes the bouncy seat any more. Both babies like their pacifiers, but Addison probably more than Jackson.

In a sad moment for her parents, Addison cried her first tear two weeks ago. Not good news for us. And not long after, Jackson cried his first tear too.

Both babies are able to focus their eyes on a lot more, and recognize things and faces. In the past couple of weeks, both have started smiling at us, which is so much fun. Addison is particularly smiley first thing in the morning. Speaking of first thing in the morning, after the babies wake up and have breakfast, we love to stay in bed and be lazy in the sunshine.





Both babies still love their bathes--we've changed our routine and have been having bathtime at night, to help the babies relax and get all of their wiggles out before bed.


Both babies love to eat, but Jackson REALLY loves to eat. Addison's a little bit of a passive eater--it takes her longer, and you have to coerce her along. Jackson, on the other hand, gets right down to business. He puts his hands around the bottle, and good luck trying to get it out of his mouth. He gets so excited when it's his turn to breastfeed--he's smiley and wiggly, and still he folds his hands in front of his chest while he eats, as if to say, "Thank you so much mom--this milk is delicious and is just what I needed." The babies have grown a ton this past month--we have a doctor's appointment next week, so we'll know exactly how much then. But they both are good eaters, and it shows! UPDATE: on Monday, November 8, Jackson weighed 11 lb 8 oz, and Addison weighed 9 lb 14 oz--big babies! They have more than doubled their weight in the past two months. Also at the doctor's appointment, the babies got their first series of shots. Poor babies, poor mom, poor Nana Candy--we all definitely had real tears at that appointment.

The babies have both discovered their mouths and tongues in the past week or two. They spend lots of time sticking their tongues out and making faces. It is pretty adorable.



They also spend lots of time babbling. Addison has more to say than her brother, but they both have been cooing and making different noises and sounds. Turns out, these babies have a lot to say!

In the past week, the babies have dropped one of their nighttime feedings--HALLELUJAH!! If we have their last feeding at 9 (followed by bathtime, so we're probably getting to sleep around 10 or 10:30, depending on the level of the babies' cooperation), instead of waking up at 12, 3, 6 and 9 to eat (as they had been), they are now waking up at 2, 6, and 9, thereby increasing our sleeping time significantly! It still takes an hour to feed, change, and get the two of them back to bed and then pump to get their bottles ready for their next feeding (that's if Daniel or someone helps--it takes me an hour and a half by myself). So, it is fabulous that they're sleeping a little bit more.

It's been a fabulous two months...and there's much more fun to come!

Birth Story Part II: To Recovery, and Beyond!

I won't bore you (or scare you) with too many details from recovery, except to say that they do some pretty mean and terrible things to you in surgery, and it doesn't stop once you move into recovery. It continued to be totally weird to not be able to feel my lower extremities--and it was really weird having just delivered two babies to not be with them. We weren't in the transitional room for long--just long enough for my eyes and nose to start itching like crazy though. So there I was, incapacitated, numb from the chest down, rubbing at my nose and eyes, unable to scratch the itch--turns out, it's a side effect from the morphine they'd given me. So, I had to be on another med to counter the effects of the morphine. I'd never be a very good drug addict.

We finally made it to our room on the labor and delivery floor, and they brought us our sweet baby Addison (you'll recall, I hadn't been able to 100 percent decide on a name, but Daniel went ahead and pulled the trigger once the babies were born--I think it was a good decision, she looks like an Addison to me). She was so alert from the beginning with her big eyes wide open, and she was such a little thing.







Once we were settled in our room, Daniel went up to the NICU to visit our Jackson. And finally that night I was able to go and hold him (which involved me standing up for the first time--ug, gravity was not good to me).



Your mother was still feeling rather drugged and had been pumped plumb full of fluids--but I was so glad to finally be holding my little boy!


We were in the hospital for four days. My doctor asked if I wanted to go home on the third day, and not only did I not feel up to it yet (our house isn't exactly C-section-healing friendly, it being literally impossible to avoid multiple flights of stairs), but we knew at that point that Jackson wasn't going to be able to come home with us--so the doc approved us for an additional night's stay. Poor Daniel, he stayed with us at the hospital the entire time on the smallest, plank-like, most uncomfortable bed ever--but I couldn't have done it without him there.

Oh Jackson, your mom cried so many tears for you. Even though you were getting better every day, it broke my heart to see you so sick, to not be able to have you with us, and to see you hooked up to so many machines and monitors and stuck under the bili lights all alone.

A note on our nurses--they were all amazing. Every one of our nurses was so good and kind and helpful (with maybe one or two slight exceptions)--both those we had on the labor and delivery floor, as well as those up in the NICU. The nurses and nurse techs all did a great job, and had to do some pretty unimaginable things for me that I wouldn't even ask a member of my family to do as I recovered from surgery. It made such a difference in our experience at the hospital to have such good nurses!

One random thing: after the babies were born, my sense of smell was super sensitive. I'd brought some vanilla lotion with me to the hospital, and the one time I put some on it was so overpowering it about made me gag. Not long after that, my nose was filled with the sweetest smell--it was intoxicating, and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I actually asked everyone else in my hospital room whether they could smell it, but no one else could. After sniffing around for a while, I realized that I was smelling my babies. My nose was full of their sweet smell, and it was remarkably strong and literally all I could smell when they were close.

Now the only thing between us and going home was the car seat challenge. You might think that this was to make sure that new parents knew how to safely install a car seat and ensure that the kid is correctly strapped in--and you would be wrong. The car seat challenge was for the babies. It was hospital policy that Addison had to pass because she weighed less than 5 pounds, and it was policy that Jackson had to pass because he had been in the NICU. This meant that before they could go home, both of them had to be able to sit in their car seat for 90 minutes, all strapped in, without any intervention or adjustments, and keep their oxygen levels up. The first time Addison tried the challenge--she failed. Worse, she became known as the baby who failed the challenge! So, we spent an entire morning worried about how we were going to get her home, researching car beds and car seats for infants under 5 pounds (she weighed about 4 lb 4 ounces when we left the hospital). That evening, some wonderful nurses helped Addison pass the challenge, fair and square. They got her in the car seat, and braced her with rolled blankets and towels--she passed with flying colors. Then they were able to show us how to safely get her in the car seat so that we could get her home!

Now that Addison was cleared for travel, we were ready to go home on Tuesday, September 7. Jackson stayed on at the hospital. Here are some pictures of Addison and her daddy as we were packing up and getting ready to head home:




The day after we went home, I sent this email to my friends in my office:

Addison and I came home yesterday afternoon. We are rather tired, but doing very well! Little Jackson is still in the NICU, but is breathing better every day. We're back at the hospital now to visit the little peanut. Addison was a dream baby last night--except for the fact that we have to wake her up every three hours to eat, and that her mom wakes up with every little noise that she makes--there was no crying, no screaming (knock on wood, right)--she's an absolute doll. My heart broke yesterday when we had to leave Jackson here (and it breaks a little bit every time we come and go without him)--I don't think I had a tear left in me by the end of the day, it was awful. But he looks great this morning, he hardly needs any oxygen, and started taking feedings from a bottle yesterday--all good progress!!

Also--my boobs are huge.

And it's true--I was all out of tears, and exhausted. I was absolutely heartbroken to have to leave one of our babies at the hospital. I hadn't planned on going home with only one. Thank goodness that my mom was here. She helped us adjust to having our tiny baby girl home, and then stayed with Addison so that Daniel and I could go to the hospital and visit Jackson every morning and evening. Here's Jackson on subsequent visits:




He was so happy to finally get that stinking tube out of his nose, and that tape off of his face!


Isn't his hat cute? Volunteers knit and crocheted these hats, so every baby got to leave the hospital with one--Addison left with a very fashionable cream beret.

Lots of other babies in the NICU were there for longer stays--itty bitty little babies who were born way before their time, who would likely need to be in the NICU for months. Anyway, their parents had all decorated their bassinets, and the nurses made all of the babies cute name tags. Well, late one night, the nurses decided that even though he wasn't going to be there for a long stay, Jackson needed a cute name tag--and if he was going to get one, clearly his sister needed one too. So, the night-shift NICU nurses decorated cute name cards for our babies--then we decided to personalize Jackson's bed by letting him show his support for the Capitals hockey team.

The other thing that we could do for our little man, besides visit him and talk to him and hold him when we could, was bring him some grub. He received all of his nutrition through an IV at first, then he could have milk through a tube through his nose that went directly into his stomach. Finally, he was able to drink out of a bottle--and for all of this, we brought him his mom's milk. As silly as it sounds, it helped us to have a purpose, something that we could do for Jackson to help him get better. Every other time we went for a visit, we took a cooler with three or four bottles of breast milk for him. So, both he and Addison were exclusively fed breast milk from the beginning.

It was also true that my boobs were huge. My milk had come in, and I tell you what--my boobs were out of control! Addison was so little, we struggled a little bit with the breastfeeding at first--but we quickly got better and better, and by the time Jackson came home, Addison had the breastfeeding down!

It didn't take Jackson too much longer--only six more days, then we were able to bring him home too! What a sweet little reunion...





And so our adventures with Addison and Jackson began in earnest...