Home Sweet Home

Sophie Mattie
Sophie Mattie
Mattie Sophie

Mattie Sophie

Mattie

Sophie below and Mattie above

Sophie Mattie

We've got several pictures to post since it has been a while. I could try to make excuses about not having time and all that, but I'll just leave it by telling you that Sunday morning when we woke up at 5 to feed the girls again I got out of bed, unplugged the baby monitor, and started swadling it. Before I finished I quit because I realized that the blanket was too big for the monitor. It wasn't until I was actually feeding Mattie that I realized that a monitor doesn't really need to be swaddled any way.

That pretty much sums up what's been going on since we got home! :) Amber's mom has been staying with us during the week and my mom has been here on the odd days. They have been lifesavers. I'm not sure how anyone eats or keeps their dishes clean without Nanas and Grams's!

Sophie's blood pressure has finally leveled out so we are really excited about that. We are heading back to Vandy tomorrow for their eye exams.

The girls are starting to get more cuddly with each other. Mattie especially will curl up on top of Sophie just about any time they are being held together....their have been a few head-butts and smacks to faces when arms were flailing though! :)

Every time I see Amber holding both of them I have to wonder why in the world God gave me three girls as beautiful as these. I'm pretty sure I'm the most blessed person in the world. For a while anyway, I'm just incredibly blessed and tired.

Burger King Comes through in a pinch!

If you haven't already heard, WE ARE HOME! Sophie got discharged on Wednesday. I think you'll appreciate that we have had our first big adventure and we understand completely why people with babies are always late!

We were surprised when the doctors said we were going home Wednesday. We were expecting Thursday because Sophie's blood pressure stayed up a little too high Tuesday night. Wednesday, they were comfortable enough with it to up her med. just a little and send us home. So...we got to packing. We had it all planned out to leave just after we held them up after their 2:00 feeding. (They both have reflux pretty bad and have to be held upright for 20-30 minutes after they eat.) By 2:00 we were just about ready to go, fed the babies, held them up for a while. I ran to the pharmacy in Children's and took the last load to the car while Amber got the girls ready to go. Unfortunately, that's as far as we got before our brilliant plans for a calm car ride went awry. Sophie's prescription had been faxed to the pharmacy so it would be ready when we got there. Apparently, the handwriting was illegible. They told me it would be about a half hour before it would be ready...and they needed Sophie's social. Being the forward thinker that I am, I asked them to go ahead and fill it while I ran to the car to get her social security card and ran one last errand. They agreed....although I'm not sure what they thought they agreed to, because once I got back and gave them Sophie's social the lady said, "ok, great that's all we need. Now we just have to fill it. Shouldn't be much longer."

So, instead of leaving at 2:30 we left at 4:30. The girls are supposed to eat at 5:00. Rush hour is from 4-6. The girls aren't supposed to be in the car for more than an hour at a time. Needless to say, shortly after we finally go on I24 it was time to stop and stretch at 5:30. Burger King was the first place we found.

Now try to picture a Toyota Matrix (same build as a Pontiac Vibe) that has two infant car seats in the back seat which means my knees are in the dash. Amber is smashed (literally) between the girls in the back so she can watch them. And the back end is full to the brim of diaper bags and our things from living at or near the hospital for 2 months. Somehow we changed both girls' diapers in our laps and thankfully they didn't blow the dash off like they've been known to do. I ran in to get hot water for their bottles. I'm sure I looked half out of my mind asking for a cup of hot water, but they knew what it was for and obliged...in a hurry! We finally got home around 8 and it was time to eat again. I'm sure that's the first of many adventures.

Yesterday was the first check up with the pediatrician here in town...and of course we ran late. We started getting ready as soon as the girls ate and somehow still couldn't get them in the car on time. Sophie blew her diaper open just before we left so their outfits didn't get to match like Amber had planned. We changed their O2 over to the portable canisters and fought wires and monitors all back into the car and somehow got through the appointment without the girls going crazy for not eating for an hour after they were due.

They are finally starting to sleep a little in their cribs, but I'm afraid they've gotten spoiled to being held after they eat and tend to grunt and squirm and finally cry until they are picked up again. I realized this morning that I slept better for the hour and a half with both girls on me than I do when they are in their cribs and we're worried about them breathing, and refluxing, and spitting up, and everything else! (I also realized that I couldn't remember which girl was on which side and had to really sort it out and finally decided based on weight who was whom!) It looks like we'll be sleeping in a recliner and a pull out chair in the nursery for a while! We're tired as all get out and overwhelmed...but loving every minute of it...the daytime minutes are just a little less stressful. :) I'm just glad Amber's mom is here to feed us and pick up our messes. Otherwise DCS might take the girls if they saw the state of our house!

Looking back on our stay at the NICU, it became more and more easy toward the end to complain about stuff going wrong and longing to come home, but we have so much to be grateful for.
1. Neither of the girls ever really got an infection which is pretty uncommon from what we understood at the beginning.
2. Neither of the girls had to have surgery while there. (We've still got checkups on eyes, but aren't that worried about it.)
3. While Mattie got out a few days earlier than Sophie which was difficult, I'm pretty sure a lot of twins go home at very different times. I have no idea how we would have survived with our minds in tact if that had happened.
4. If Sophie hadn't choked last Tuesday and scared us half to death while the nurse was working to get her breathing again, she would have been discharged on Thursday or Friday along with Mattie...in which case, they wouldn't have noticed her high blood pressure. While it wouldn't have caused immediate problems, it could have caused serious damage down the road if left unattended.
5. The girls won the "best dressed award" in the NICU. (I'm not sure if that's a real award but it was the head of the Neonatal department that made that comment, so I figure it bears some weight) The catch is that Amber and I have maybe bought one or two outfits for the girls. Everything else they wear are gifts from you. Between clothes, cards, gift cards, and money to help with gas and expenses, and more than anything else reminders of prayers on our behalf, we have felt more love in the past few months from God's people than we've ever experienced before.

I'll put pics and videos up soon to let you see some more of their fashion. I'm finding that being at home with them leaves even less time for blogging than being at the hospital. For now, from Burger King and a hot cup of water, to Natchez Trace, to friends and family, to people we've never met, thank you for giving us your strength and reminding us of God's strength to get through this. Now we'll need that strength to get through the rest of their lives! :)