almost two weeks old

Well, tomorrow will mark two weeks since we went to the hospital and Saturday morning the babies will be two weeks old. Here is just a quick post of a couple of cute pictures:

Kennedy was practicing her "Blue Steel" modeling pose (for all you Zoolander fans out there).

Cooper found his thumb! (sorry, this picture would not rotate for me).

Family Pictures

So, with all of the hustle and bustle of the last week as of tonight we had yet to get our first family picture! Right after delivery there were things the hospital needed to do with the babies, Andi was feeling weird coming out of all the numbing drugs, and by the time things had somewhat settled down Grandmas and Grandpas had arrived. It was a busy few days. Even this week has been quite busy even when it is just the four of us. Usually if it is slow we take advantage of the time to nap!!! Tonight we finally had the nurse take a picuture of us. I included a couple more because I know that Grandmas and Grandpas and all those official and unofficial uncles and aunts want to see more of them. Enjoy!

Adventures in Parenthood

We have (un)officially moved in to the hospital!!! Okay, we are temporary guests like you might find at a ski resort, however here there is no concierge or turn down service--we do however get some room service. I am kidding of course.

Cooper and Kennedy are still working on getting ready to come home and are making some progress. Kennedy is doing the best. She is eating regularly and even passed her car seat test! (That's where she had to sit in her carseat for 1 1/2 hours while they monitored her vitals to ensure she would be able to ride in it safely without any breathing/overheating complications. Her car seat about drowns her, but she did it!)

Cooper on the other hand started taking a regular bottle and attempts to nurse in place of the tube feeding. He just needs to gain some weight now. Both of them are starting to have some very alert moments and it is fun when their eyes are wide open and they are wondering what is going on in this crazy world they came to. The expressions on their faces are so fun to watch.

Here are a few more pictures.

no SPF required!

Just as a precaution the babies are under the tanning lamps today for their skin. They seem to really enjoy relaxing. It makes me want to go on another cruise! (Though I don't think I would every opt to sip my pinacolada through my nose.) They also look pretty dang cute in their little eye protectors.

Cooper

Kennedy

Family of Five

Well, we are officially a family of five! After a very quite year and a half after Addison we are fairly sure things are about to get a little more exciting (they already have). Everyone is doing great. Cooper and Kennedy are just trying to get their little premie bodies to regulate temperature, blood sugar, and get the hang of feeding regularly. They will most likely be in the hospital for a few more days to make sure some key hurdles are overcome before they come home. The doctors and nurses seem to be very pleased so far with where they are at, and it is expected that being early they might have a few struggles. The good news is that breathing does not seem to be an issue and that is what they were most concerned about while we were in the hospital a few weeks ago, though because their lungs are premature RSV will be a real threat to them. We will be keeping everyone up to date.

The doctor has also instructed us to limit our visitors at home to avoid RSV during these winter months. We would like everyone to know that while we would love to see you and visit that it will be very important to keep these kids healthy! (especially because they are so small) While we are at the hospital anyone is welcome to come see them through the window (just call or text us so we can let you know if it's a good time), when we go home the doctor's orders are that we follow the current hospital guidelines and not have children 0 -14 come in contact with them for at least 6-8 weeks. If anyone, including adults are experiencing cold symptoms (runny noses, coughs, etc.) we hope you won't be offended if we wait to see you until you are feeling much better. We are grateful for everyone's love and support through all of this!!! We are so glad Cooper and Kennedy are here!

Here are a few pictures:

Cooper (left) and Kennedy (right) looking at their mommy about 10 minutes after they were born!

Cooper hanging out with his dad trying to get warm (look at all that hair!) too bad his sister was not so abundantly blessed. She did get some though so there is hope she will not be bald forever

Two peas in a pod.

Twenty Fingers, Twenty Toes!

Cooper and Kennedy were born at 8:19 and 8:20 this morning. 20 fingers and 20 toes!!! Cooper weighed 5lbs 1oz and Kennedy weighed 5lbs 0oz. Both wer 17 inches long! Cooper likes to scream and Kennedy was calm and peaceful the whole time. Andi is doing great and recovering. They were both breech so it had to be done the "non-traditional" way. Everything turned out great. Cooper needed a little oxygen, but he is doing fine.

Cooper

Kennedy

Are you ready to play...Turn That Baby!

Well, babies are still in the tummy. Cooper was still breech yesterday in the ultrasound we are working on getting him to turn. We've tried everything--turning out all the lights and running a flashlight down Andi's belly, drinking orange juice (gives them a sugar high and the babies move a lot), an accupressure point we read about online, and even music (specifically Jay Sean's "Down"---the lyrics fit great "Baby are you [head] down, down, down, down, down"). Someone at work today suggested a little Flo Rida, though the lyrics aren't so appropriate for children we'd have to change it to something like "gotta turn your head right down, right down". Of course Andi has also tried about every inverted position in the book short of standing on her head. Hopefully he will flip before any major labor starts. We are off to the Doc again next Wednesday. Everything else is looking good though. They are both a little over 5lbs now so we probably won't use all the premie clothes as long as we thought. We are just glad they made it to 35 weeks, though I am pretty sure Andi is ready to be done (probably something to do with the 10+ lbs of baby she's carrying around.

just the same

Nothing fun going on here. Babies are still hanging out in their mommy's tummy. Andi gets to go home tomorrow and hopefully our doc will let her do the bedrest at home. She will be 34 weeks along and hopefully the babies will hold out for another few weeks. We'll see...

we'd rather be....

Everything is nice and boring here in St. George. We even got moved to what we decided was the "presidential suite" today. Sarcastic for=an expensive room where you get waited on hand and foot. No changes today. Now on day 4 we are ready to be somewhere else....Bora Bora preferrably, but we are fairly sure that the doctor isn't about to allow Andi to fly to French Polynesia.

The good news is that now after 4 days the hospital relaxes their visitor policy and Andi can have 2 visitors at a time that don't have to be "banded". So if anyone wants to stop by and say HI just give us a call.

We are thinking at this point that we'll probably get to go home next Thursday and the babies will come somewhere around the 10th. We might still get a binary birthday...01/10/10. But honestly who knows at this point.

Thanks to everyone for checking in on us! We'll keep you posted.