NICU Reunion

Last Sunday the Medical Center held their first NICU reunion. They have been serving babies in their NICU for over 20 years. But it has been the last year or so that they have been able to take care of babies in more critical conditions. Zane and Zoë had to stay in the NICU for twelve days. Thank goodness they didn't have any serious conditions. They just had to learn to eat and to gain some weight. I was so thankful that they were able to stay in BG instead of having to go to Vandy. Having two older kids at home, it would have made it even harder. We did a lot of running around those few days. I would drop the older kids off at school then go to the hospital. While there I would hold and feed the babies, pump some milk, change their diapers and clothes, and just get used to smaller babies. I would usually come back and forth to the hospital several times during the day. I wanted to spend quality time with the little babies and the big babies. My babies had to have several feeding tubes put in and out. They would eat good and then they wouldn't eat good. Poor Zane had his feeding tube pulled out three times by his sweet little sister. They shared the same incubator. It was so nice to finally bring them home. But we did enjoy the wonderful staff in the NICU. So we went back to visit.
I thought this was funny. They had this fake doll in the incubator at the reunion.
Mitchell with me at the reunion.

We got so attached to Dorcus. She is such a great nurse and friend. She took such good care of our babies. You can tell she loves what she does.

These are the G twins. Their mom works at our doctors office.

I think Cassidy had the most fun at the reunion. They had lots of games and prizes. We had to make her leave.

Danielle with Twins

OK so Angela and I are always teasing our two younger sisters about them having twins. So when Danielle grabbed both babies the other day I had to take her picture.

Babies at 12 Months

As a mom of twins I'm always trying to think of the fastest, easiest, less stressful way of doing things. Like the time I took all of my children to Kroger for a test run. I think the babies were only a couple of months old. I decided it was time for me to take all of them out to the store on my own to see how things would go. I didn't have any major shopping to do, so I figured it would be a good night to test things out. Shopping is always a challenge with young children. That's why it is always good to pray before you go into a store with several young children. And when they do start acting up just ignore everyone staring at you. Well anyway I was able to hold one baby and put the other in the cart that night. Mitchell and Cassidy listened and everything went smoothly. Now that it's several months later it seems silly to me. Because I take the kids out by myself all the time now. Of course it is a lot easier with assistants. The other day I was feeding the twins their dinner and cleaning the kitchen at the same time. Then it finally hit me to just give them a bath in the sink after dinner. Mothers have been doing it for years. It has made this last week a lot smoother. I can keep most of their dinner mess in a small area and still talk to the other baby while bathing the other. I tried putting both babies in our big tub the other night. With about two inches of water and a towel on the bottom of the tub. Not a good idea! Both babies stood up and went sliding down. Do you know how hard it is to grab to wet naked babies? I don't think I'll be trying that again for a while. Zane enjoying his sink bath. Plus he got enough water on the floor that I was just able to get the mop out and clean it.

Zoë loves the sink too!

Zane and Zoë have started sitting in all the little chairs in the house. They are doing so many new things. I love it now that their personalities really start showing and they are starting to figure more things out. But they are also starting to get more adventuress too. I found Zane on the couch yesterday. He climbed up all by himself. All of my children are climbers. Zoë almost climbed out of the port a crib a few days ago. Mitchell and Cassidy both climbed out of their cribs by 18 months.

They are both saying Daa Daa and Maa Maa now. Zane is starting to get clingy when I drop him off in the morning. They will be moving to the one year old room in day care next week. They both are taking several steps, but their not walking yet. But that's OK with me. They are already speed crawlers.

They love it when John grabs their arms and legs and swings them. Who needs an amusement park when you have dad.

Labor Day Weekend

This Labor day weekend we (my sister Angela, her kids, and mine) had planned to go to Holiday World. But then we came to our senses and decided to just go to Beech Bend Park. I'm glad we decided to do that. It was not crowded and we didn't have to drive very far to get there. Plus the kids had lots of fun. Zoë and mommy

Aunt Angela and Zane

My little nephew Austin(who is playing football for Central this year) and Zane

My niece Meriah and Zane

My Cassidy

Mercedes and Mitchell getting off the tilt a whirl.

Mitchell about drove us crazy this day. The moment we walked into the park he said he wanted to go on the tilt a whirl. If you know Mitchell he gets fixated on things and will not stop talking about it until he gets it. I told him we were going in the order of the rides and he would have to wait. I was so happy when we finally got to the tilt a whirl. He did get to ride it several times though. It was nice to be able to go back and fourth between rides and swimming, because it did get very hot that day. It was a nice little break for us all.

On labor day we just stayed around our house and pulled out the big inflatable pool. Cassidy and Mitchell took turns jumping off the diving board (fold out chair). The babies went back and fourth between the baby pool and wagon. They all had lots of fun.

Zoë trying to figure out the seat belts.

Cassidy and Zane in the big baby pool.

Mitchell using the inflatable dog sprinkler as a float.

Babies Turn One

I'm a little behind on my blogging. Last weekend was Zane and Zoë's first birthday. I got the stomach bug right after and have been struggling to get everything back in shape, including my self. I had to work on their Birthday, but I did get done pretty early in the day. We went straight to their friend Samuel's first birthday party. Zane, Zoë and Samuel were all born the same day, at the same hospital, only a few hours apart. Everyone had fun at Samuel's. We missed most of the party, but we did get to swim and socialize for a while. Then we went home to celebrate the twins birthday. We decided to go very simple this year. It was just John, Mitchell, Cassidy, Zane, Zoë, Kirsten(our neighbor girl) and her dad. We sang to the babies and gave them each their own little cake. Zane tore into his cake. Zoë didn't want to mess with it(she does tend to like veggies best). Before all of this I noticed my camera was missing. I looked everywhere. My sister called late that night and said she had found it in her bag. So no first cake pictures, but I think we'll live. We got them a wagon as their gift. They have taken several rides in it already. They just like to hang out in it too. John celebrated his 46th Birthday on Friday. Cassidy made him the cutest little card and she even made him his cake(with just a little help from me). She is becoming and expert at cracking open eggs.

The twins also went to see Dr. Simmons on Friday for their well baby check up. She said everything looked good. Zane is now 22 lbs. 7 oz. and Zoë is 18 lbs. 4oz.. Of course Zane has not been feeling great since he got his immunization shots. I'm hoping he will be back to his happy self soon.

Zoë Zane & Samuel

Birthday Babies