Happy One Month Birthday to our little sweethearts! (A couple of days ago...I'm always running a little behind and it will only get worse)
They've come a long ways since those first few days in the nicu. I'm so glad those days are behind us! I know we were really lucky and they did very well and came home sooner than anyone expected them to, but that was still so hard to watch in the beginning, especially with little Liza. At one point she had lots more stuff hooked up to her than this picture shows--but that c-pap (the white cap thing that covered her eyes and squished her poor little face)--I could tell she really hated that and I felt so bad for her!
This is one of my favorite pictures so far--maybe it's just a good picture to me because I know how excited my girls were to finally see one of their sisters through the window. Isaac was there too and it was a special little moment. Kate was so little and I think seeing here then was pretty thought provoking for Madison and Emma. But then they REALLY wanted to see Liza. And they had to wait a lot longer to see her!
Here they are getting ready to have a bath (still in the nicu). I was so nervous to give them baths, dress them, etc--they were both so small. By now they've gotten bigger and I've gotten better at my job.
Here is Madison and "Super Kate". She got her nick name while in the nicu because she was like a little superhero, suprising everyone every day with her talents. The doctor would always say, "Another day or two and she's going to run out of energy..." He would try to prepare us to see her with oxygen and a feeding tube and all the stuff that Liza had. But she just kept plugging away. Just getting her 30 mL down at each feeding was exhausting for her--but she's Super Kate! And she's still out-doing her sister. Liza has all the baby issues (constipation, puking, spitting up, etc) and Kate just sails right through.
I guess while we're talking about Kate and her tricks, I should record for future remembrance her greatest one while in the hospital: The matresses in the isolettes at the nicu are rounded on the corners while the isolettes are square so there are little corners of the isolette where the mattress drops off--plus the babies are surrounded by the soft little tube things and they are tilted uphill....One day the nurse was hearing some pretty loud crying that wasn't normal coming from their room, so she walked in and was so surprised to see that Kate had pushed herself with her scrawny little legs over the tube and then uphill on the mattress until she fell off of it into the little corner and was squacking like crazy. The nurse said she had never seen anyone do that before, let alone such a little teeny one! Go Kate!
Here is Liza's best trick: (She deserves to be recognized for everything she did since she was so picked on up there) She didn't get to eat anything by mouth for the first week--since her stomach couldn't handle anything she'd just get her food through her IV and a feeding tube. But she was pretty determined to eat! I've never seen a baby root around with such a big open mouth trying to find something to suck on! Well she would work so hard on tearing all that tape off her face and pulling that feeding tube out. They finally started putting socks on her hands so that she couldn't pull on it. But one day she finally succeeded! She pulled it all out herself and they let her keep it out and start eating by mouth. She was so happy and so was I! She is the best little nurser out of all five of my babies. She was born to eat and she knew it! (Truly my daughter) Good job little Liza!
I got these two matching baby bouncer seats--of all the baby things that I thought about getting, these were really the only things we purchased besides the extra carseat. And they have saved my life already! I couldn't believe how tiny Kate looked in hers when we first brought her home!
Emma and Madison are both such awesome helpers! Liza still has her oxygen tube but might be getting it out this Monday. While Kate is pretty efficient at her job of being a baby--she just gets the jobs done--Liza is my little snuggler. Some days between the two of them (but especially Liza) I don't leave the recliner in my room because I just feed and snuggle babies all day. What could be more fun, really??! Liza is a little more needy but still doing so good. It is fun to see how different the two of them are.
Future babysitter....we'll have to pay her a lot to keep her around I'm sure!
I've been trying to get a good picture of them sleeping together--this is the best I've got. We've experimented with sleeping together and sleeping apart and although sleep is minimal either way, they definately prefer being together. While separated, they grunt at each other from across the room in their own little grunting language, getting louder and louder until you put them back together. It's cute to put them down for a nap while both of them are awake, and then go in a few minutes later to see them sound asleep, usually with hands intertwined or heads touching.
Can you believe all of these little monsters are ours??? Well, some little, some getting rather big by now. All female minus one, might I remind you. The teenage years will be full of drama. I always knew 5 was a good number for us (as crazy as that sounds)....I never thought I'd be able to bring all 5 of them here as hard as pregnancies were getting, but Heavenly Father knew of a great way to squeeze them all in. Thank goodness He's in charge! What a crazy month it's been, but I have already forgotten what life was like without precious Kate and Liza!
(Hopefully the way Kelly posed the babies is not a sign of the future! We have enough boxing and other negative behavior in our house we don't need to begin training at three weeks. They'll catch on just fine watching their older siblings anyway. "Protect the face, go for the nose and eyes first...."
