Long Over Due

Okay Okay, it has been FOREVER since I have update the blog, but hey, can you blame me? :) Things have been super crazy, but so worth every single minute. The babies are getting so big and doing well. Can you believe they will be 8 weeks old this Friday??!! Boy time flies. Even though they are almost two months old, they still act like newborns. We wake them up to eat every three hours, and then they usually go right back to sleep until their next feeding. Just recently have they started sometimes staying awake for a short while between feedings. It is nice because it gives me a little break to take care of Ava and give her some attention and try to do some things around the house. I say try because it usually does not work out that way and my house is disasterous most of the time. :/

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We are starting to adjust to life with three small children, but it is very very hard and stressful at times. When all three are crying at the same time needing your attention, you definitely feel outnumbered. But when things are calm we have time to take a breath and appreciate how truly blessed we are.

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Here are some pictures taken over the past several weeks....

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Hunter coming over to see the babies for the first time at home. Ava really wanted to be treated like a little baby too.

LOVE how they sometime are in the exact same sleep position. Hehe.

Since the babies are still too immature to breastfeed, I pump every three hours. I think Ava has seen me do it one too many times. I walked around the corner and this is how I found her. HAHAHA!! (Putting my pump bottles up to her chest.)

Ava holding Owen. She loves them both SO SO much!

Owen-16 days old.

Ella-16 days old. Looks like she is doing a cheerleading jump.

Ava just HAD to have a bottle of her own.

Owen (L) Ella (R) 2 weeks old. They have already changes so much from this picture.

On our way to the doctors office. Ava got booted to the 3rd row. If Hunter was in the car we would be officially out of space...in a Suburban....YIKES!!

First doctors appointment at a little over 2wks old. Owen-5lbs6oz Ella 5lbs9oz both just under 18in long...their length is different than what they told us in the hospital. We are trying to get them RSV shots, but since they are over $1000 a shot they are hard to get approved by the insurance company. They come in a series of 3 or 5, so I can see why. Otherwise, the doctor does not want them to go out in public until after the flu season ends in February. WOW! They will be 6 months old before they see the outside world!! And if anyone comes over to visit they have to scrub down and wear a mask when around the babies. What a crazy life with preemies.

Ella's first bath

Owen's first bath. They both LOVED the water and have continued to enjoy their baths since then.

Lots of sleeping pics over the weeks....

Aunt Dee Dee and Maddy came to stay for a week. It was so nice to have help with Ava and for her to get some special attention while I dealt with the babies. They had a blast playing together. Here is where they played a lot of the time...both in a laundry basket on the floor with toys.

We also got to take them to feed the ducks at the front of our community.

The night that DeeDee and Maddy left, we noticed a spot on Ava's upper right butt cheek while we were giving her a bath. I had an inkling of what it was. I popped it and put her to bed. The next morning the spot was hard as a rock and she had a low grade fever. I was right...it was staph. We took her to the doc on where they drained what they could and sent us home with antibiotics, nose cream and special soap for everyone in the house. That night she woke up with 104 fever that lasted for days. Long story short, she had to have two surgeries to remove the staph, she battled a high fever for days, hardly slept at night, didn't eat for about a week, threw up every time we tried to give her medicine (she had 3 different ones that had to be given several times a day...you can only imagine the stress), and got so weak she could barely walk. It was the hardest most stressful week of my life. Taking care of preemie newborn twins and an extremely sick 2yr old who was in and out of the hospital was beyond hard. Another reason why I haven't updated the blog.

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Hunter was so sweet to lay with her on the couch when she was sick. Such a wonderful big brother!

Her bottom hurt her so bad, one day I found her sleeping standing up in her crib. Didn't even know it was possible. After her second surgery it took a few more days but we eventually got our old Ava back. I NEVER want to go through that again. Ava is now petrified of doctors and the doctors office. Even allowing us to change her diaper was a struggle for several weeks...she thought we were going to hurt her again. :(

Miss Ella Cate-little over a month old. You can see she is starting to get some cheeks!!

Mr. Owen James-he is still a lazy eater and is significantly smaller than Miss Piggy Ella.

Here are some pics of them in their Halloween costumes that I crochet'd. Owen is a bee and Ella is a bouquet of flowers.