iPhones and Penguins

First of all...too bad the girls already have halloween costumes (really...darn it)!  Josh's boss printed these iPhone costumes for the girls and he brought them home last night.  I gave them the chance to be the phone instead of what we already have.  They had so much fun playing around in them, but Jenica declined quickly and Kaitlyn thought about it for a second.  Then she said she wanted to be an iPhone Witch.  lol  Here they are posing with my iPhone.  They were pretending it was their baby...and the peace signs...they learned that from our Japanese exchange students.

Today was a fun day.  Slept in until 10:30 (which was actually "early" for me...a typical day is at least 11 or 11:30, gotta take advantage of sleeping babies while they still sleep in like that).  Anyways, got up and hurried to get Kaitlyn ready for pictures and feed the babies.  Then we went to the school to get her picture taken since they allow siblings to do so.  She was pretty excited!  Then we headed up to Jordan Landing to meet my mom so she could sit in the car with the kids while I returned a couple things to some stores!  Fun for her, I'm sure!  Thanks though Mom!  :)  Anyways, I went to Children's Place to return a costume I had picked up for my friend.  They were 50% off now...they had the cutest penguin costume and I got one and took it out to the car to try it on a baby.  I ended up loving it and my mom bought a second one!  Yay!  Here are my cute little penguins!

So after I went to a couple stores while I was there we headed over to Sconecutter and my mom got lunch for us!  I haven't been there forever!  It was delicious!  And on the way home she sat with the kids while I ran into Walmart to grab a few things!  When we got home we watched the new tinkerbell movie with the girls and then she watched all the kiddos while I ran to the grocery store!  It was a great day!  THANKS MOM!  :)

Due Date!

First of all, I tried to do this yesterday...but blogger was being retarded and my pictures were all uploading HUGE.  I just re-uploaded them all and they are still showing up huge, but I edited the size in the html which seems to have worked.  Anyone else having this problem?

Yesterday was my official due date.  I cannot imagine still being pregnant.  Here I sit enjoying my almost 4 week old babies.  *Gasp*  I can't believe they are already that old!  :(  It's going too fast.  So I thought I would just remind you all what I looked like 4 whole weeks (and now +1 day) ago.  

Yikes!  I was huge!  And I'm kinda enjoying my new "skinny" self.  Skinnier anyways.  I am a little over 20 lbs under my pre-pregnancy weight.  Not too bad considering all I have done is had the babies...can't work out for a couple more weeks!  I can't wait!  My favorite comment on this picture (I can't remember who said it) was that it looks like someone parked a torpedo in my stomach.  lol  I thought I would miss being pregnant, I do...but I love having these babies here more!

So I have shown you all how Jenica loves to cuddle with the babies, Kaitlyn does too!  Here is a cute picture of her and Julian chillin' on the couch!

And here are some cute shots I got of the boys yesterday after I fed them.  Jonathan is on the left, Julian on the right.  I love the big yawn and how Jonathan is checking him out!

And Julian's bugged out eyes crack me up!And I love the look on Jonathan's face in this one! Too cute!  I have the cutest kids!  Of course I think that!  :)  I need a treat, so I am off to make snickerdoodles, new recipe.  I'll let you know how they turn out!

(no title)

...my brain doesn't seem to be functioning enough to come up with a title.  So enjoy my title-less blog!  :)  

I don't have anything in particular to blog about, just a bunch of random pictures.  Here are the boys 2 days ago enjoying their little play mat.  I have to tell you about the good deal we got on it.  These suckers are $65 brand new.  Ridiculous and there is No Way I would pay that much!  So I started watching ksl for one and after 2 attempted offers to people that had sold them too fast for me, someone in Brigham City posted one.  Only prob is Brigham City is a little too far to go for a dumb toy.  Then I remembered a week later my parents would be passing through on their way to Bear Lake with my aunt and uncle.  My awesome mom not only stopped to pick it up for me, but paid for it too!  $20!!  What a deal!  Anyways, they seem content to lay and listen to the music but they pretty much just look at eachother instead of the toys or lights.  Silly boys.

I finally took Jeni back to the dr about her month+ long cough.  He gave her some antibiotics and she's finally done hacking away!  Hallelujah!!  Now that she's better she can actually hold the babies and  help me out a lot more.  But now she's obsessed.  When she was holding Jonathan she got her box of books and decided to read to him.  I thought it was soooo cute!

On another note...I have sorta been trying to convince Kaitlyn to cut her hair.  I love it long, but it's thick and wavy and too much work and doesn't look good unless you take the time to make it look good.  Poor girl got stuck with my hair.  She didn't want to cut it because she wanted "ponies and braids" still!  So yesterday we were all sitting at the table helping Jeni with her homework.  I looked and Kaitlyn and her wild hair and asked her again if she wanted to get it cut.  She said Yes.  I was shocked.  So I fed the boys and off we went.  She loves going to Cookie Cutters, I'm ok with that but they are sooo expensive.  But they just opened a store in Lehi and sent me an $8 cut coupon.  Here is her before pic:

And After!  It looks sooo cute and sooo much better!  And she's showing off the motorcycle she got to "ride" while she got her hair cut!  She was talking to her stylist girl about how her Daddy would think that was cool because he loves motorcycles.  lol

And before we left the house Jenica decided she wanted her hair cut too.  So here she is before:and after.  This picture isn't great.  I think it's the turtleneck.  Seriously, it looks way cute today.  I tried to take a picture of her before school, but she was ornery and the picture was no good!And back to Jenica loving the babies.  This is how I find her most of the time when she's holding one...laying in the chair.  It's pretty cute.  When they start to fuss she starts singing...so sweet.  She's a great big sister (and a great big pain when she won't just leave them alone...lol)
I designed my birth announcement.  It is soooo cute!  I will post it later!  I think I should start selling them.  I need to get the kitchen cleaned up, some laundry done, and make dinner.  And look...it's already 5!  Yikes!

Proud Papa!

3 weeks old today!  Holy Cow!  I can't believe it's already been 3 weeks.  Yah, I know it's not that long, but it kinda is...

Tonight my Dad (Papa to the kiddos) got to see both my boys together for the first time.  He met and held Jonathan in the hospital when they were born, and got to see Julian in the NICU.  So this was the first time he got to hold Julian.  

I have been horrible at taking pictures lately...the camera died the other day and I was too lazy to find the charger.  So today I finally did!  

The past few days have been fabulous!  It's Fall Break from school right now.  That means no school Thurs, Fri, and Mon.  On Thursday afternoon I met my sis. in law Haley up at Sugarhouse and she took the girls to see Wall-E with her kids and a couple friends for my nieces birthday.  She offered to have the girls stay the night.  Couldn't say no to that.  On Friday morning my mom went down to their house and took all the kids to a Halloween thing at This is the Place Heritage Park.  They rode a horse, did crafts, went on a hay ride, got to be in a costume parade, and other fun stuff.  Then my Mom took the girls to her house to sleep over.  They were so excited.  Then today (saturday) she took them garage sale-ing (is saling a word?  my spell check says it's not)  They both got to pick something out and I think they were pretty excited about that.  They didn't bring them home until 5:30pm.  

And when they got here they had some papa murphys pizza to feed the kids and they watched ALL the kids (babies included) while me and Josh went to dinner for our anniversary.  We went to Wingers.  Yum!

So THANKS to all that took care of my girls this weekend to give me a break!  It was so nice to enjoy some quiet and get some rest, but I sure did miss my girlies!  I'm glad they're home!

Oh, on Thursday night my brother in law and a new photography partner came and took the boys pictures!  I have only seen a few of them on the camera, I can't wait to get my hands on the real pics!!  What I saw was ADORABLE!  And they were here for over 3 hours!  I can't wait to show them off!!

And today I made the BEST cookies ever!  Wow!  I was needing a treat!  Chocolate is pretty much out because I think the babies don't tolerate it too well.  Every time I have eaten chocolate I have had some ornery babies.  So I am trying not to eat it.  Anyways...I made some delicious Pumpkin Cookies!  They have a maple frosting.  Here's the recipe for anyone interested:

• 
  
• 2 cups shortening
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 cups canned pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 8 tablespoons milk
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup packed brown sugar

1. Cream shortening, white sugar and pumpkin. Add eggs and mix well. Sift together the baking soda, ground cinnamon, salt and flour. Add to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
   
2. Drop from spoon to cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees F 
3. To Make Frosting: Cook butter, milk, and brown sugar until dissolved. Cool and add confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Spread over warm cookies.

I read a bunch of reviews before making these, and people had a lot to say about how these should be frosted.  It makes a runny frosting, I put my cookies on a cooling rack with wax paper under it and then put a spoonful over the hot cookies and it kinda melted and covered the cookie.  It was messy, so make sure you put wax paper under the rack.  And I think I added maybe 1/2 c. extra powdered sugar!  Enjoy!

Indiana Kaitlyn

This girl cracks me up!  Recently we downloaded the Lego Indiana Jones demo on our xbox 360!  Both girls LOVE playing it!  Even though its only a 1 level quick demo they will play it over and over!  Then one day I overheard Kaitlyn playing in her room..."singing" the Indiana Jones theme!  I don't know if its considered singing when there are no words!  I love it...so I recorded her this morning!!

And then she wanted to sing the Halloween song she learned at Preschool this week!!  

Hope you enjoyed!  I am gonna lay down before I have to feed my boys in an hour!!

Bath Time!

Sunday we gave the boys their first baths!  It's still weird having to do every thing twice.  Once one baby was bathed, we had to quickly get the other one done before the water got cold!!

So here is Mr Jonathan.  He wasn't sure what to think, but based on his crying I would say he was leaning towards not enjoying it!!  Not this time anyway!  Here he is before he started freaking out!!

Julian on the other hand LOVED it! He was happy until I took him out!  Then the screaming began!  And this lucky boy got 2 baths that day!  That night he pooped all out of his diaper so I threw him back in the tub!  I love clean baby smell!!  

8 Years!

I can't believe today is our 8th Anniversary!  Time goes by so quickly and now here we are, 8 years later...with FOUR kids!  ;)  I am so happy that Josh is my husband!  He is the best!  I appreciate all that he does for me and our family!  I am grateful for all the hard work he does to support our family so that I can stay home with our kids!  He is a great father!  I love him so much!  Happy Anniversary Josh!  

The Girl Can SPELL!

When Jenica started First Grade this fall I was a little nervous about how she would do!  She had an amazing preschool teacher which totally prepared her for kindergarten, and her kindergarten teaching was great too...but she was put on bedrest half way through the year and in turn Jenica had a substitute for half of the school year!  Anyways, I'm getting off track.  The first week of school this year her teacher sent a newsletter home saying that starting the 2nd week of school they would be having weekly spelling words/tests.  I wasn't sure how she would do.

The 2nd week came and the first spelling list came home!  10 WORDS!  Seriously!?  I was shocked that they would have 10 words every week.  They have a pretest on Thursday and if they get all the words right (spelling and reading them) then they don't have to take the test of Friday.  That thursday Jenica missed 1, and it wasn't spelt wrong, she read it wrong.  Come Friday, she got 100%!  Every week she has gotten 100% on her tests, and a couple times she even got it on the Thursday test and didn't have to take one of Friday!  Except for 1 week, the week I was in the hospital with the babies.  I came home on Wednesday and tried to work with her as much as I could to prepare her for the test of Thursday.  Well, she stayed home sick on thursday so she missed the pretest.  I worked with her on Friday morning before school and she came home with 9/10.  She only missed What (spelled wat).  I am so proud of her and how smart she is!  So yesterday her teacher sent home a paper with next weeks spelling words.  She's doing a review and each kid will only have the words they have missed on their tests.  Jenica's paper had 1 word on it!  How awesome is that?  

I just wanted to let you all know how well she is doing and brag about how smart she is!  :)  So that you know I have more going on in my life than just babies, even though it seems like they're all I blog about lately!  I love my girls!!  

More Sweetness!

Just a few random pictures from the last few days!!  This one cracks me up, I took it the other day right after I got done feeding them!  They were so out!  Jonathan is in the red, Julian in the blue.  

It's come to the point that I have to put something different on them to easily tell them apart.  Even if they are wearing the same outfit I will put a different colored onesie or different socks on each one and that is how I tell them apart for the day, or as long as that outfit lasts.  On Monday Josh took them to the dr alone.  They were wearing different sleepers, one was blue, one was striped.  They were the same that they had slept in.  So I got used to Jonathan being in stripes, Julian being in blue.  I met Josh after the appt to get the boys and give him his car (he had the van).  I got home and was in the bathroom, Josh's mom and aunt came over to see the boys and took them out of their carseats.  When I came back into the family room they were asking who was who.  I told them based on the outfits I had them in.  Then Josh's mom asked "are you sure?"  I looked at them and was so confused.  Josh tried to trick me.  And the sad thing was I thought I could remember the outfits were changed.  I was feeding them and couldn't figure out why Julian was having trouble latching on, Jonathan is the one that is struggling with that.  So after half hour of calling him the wrong name I realized how retarded I was.

I wasn't thinking it would be so cool in late september/early october.  But it has been freezing.  It did warm up quite a bit the other afternoon, so I was able to dress them in short sleeves for the first time.  I figured I may as well get it in while I can, I bought too many short sleeved things.  I will have to get some long sleeved onesies to wear under some of their outfits.  They are also still so tiny that they are swimming in newborn sized clothes.  I don't know what I am going to do about their monkey costumes I bought...they are going to be HUGE!  Oh well...they have a couple more weeks of growing to do!  Here they are cuddling in the same bouncy chair...(Jonathan on the right...in the rest of the pictures too)

...and cuddling with Daddy after work a couple nights ago!

And lastly, showing off their cute new outfits.  Which only lasted a few hours...

...I was getting ready to feed them and was changing their diapers first!  I started with Julian.  Once I got the diaper off he started peeing.  I grabbed a wipe to protect myself.  I took that off and he started peeing again.  I ended up grabbing his pants and throwing them on him.  That diverted the stream and he shot pee all over his face.  And his pants were soaked.  Poor guy.  Then he started pooping, which ended up getting all over the blanket, his onesie and up his back when I was trying to get his clothes off.  So the blanket I was changing them on looked like a war zone.  Then I looked at Jonathan laying there in his cute outfit still.  Sad that they weren't going to match anymore.  Then I picked him up to change him and sure enough, he was wet clear up his back.  Luckily he was done when I changed him and didn't have to worry about too many more messes.  Just lots of dirty clothes to wash!  

So that was my fun for the afternoon yesterday!  I'm going to try and catch a quick nap before they wake up to eat again!  Last night was rough.  I think they don't like when I eat chocolate.  They were both really fussy.  Josh and I both ended up sleeping with one of them on our bellies.  They didn't wake up at 3 to eat, they slept till after 4, which has thrown off the whole schedule today!  So I am going to lay down while I can!  

Happy Friday!  :) 

Funnies

The girls have been saying some hilarious things lately.  I thought I should post them before I forget them, especially since these days it seems that everything is about the babies.  

We were saying family prayer before the girls went to bed.  Kaitlyn was getting in bed, I was holding a baby, Jenica had just woke up (she was sick with a fever and had taken a little nap), and she was finally eating dinner.  So Jenica was sitting in the kitchen, Kaitlyn was in the family room on the floor, and Josh and I were on the couches with the babies.  Anyways, Kaitlyn said the prayer, and when she was done I guess Jenica didn't say Amen.  Kaitlyn said "Jeni doesn't agree with what I said".  We were confused.  We asked what she meant.  She said "She didn't say Amen, so she doesn't agree with what I said".  When they were staying with my parents my mom taught them that saying Amen at the end of a prayer means you agree with what was said.  She sure has a good memory!

Yesterday while my mom was here we were watching the Jungle Book 2.  I don't know what was happening in the movie, but Kaitlyn was trying to say something about the animals hunting their prey.  But to her, they were hunting their prayer.  

And tonight my neighbor came by to see the boys and we were sitting and talking for a bit.  I was saying something about how good they have been and they are eating good, etc.  Then I said that Jonathan has some issues with eating and before I could say anything about it Jenica says "Yah, he is having a hard time latching on".  I laughed out loud and asked if she knew what that even meant.  She said no and giggled.  lol

That's what I have fresh on the brain right now.  Thought I should get it down before I forget.  

In other news, today Jonathan's cord fell off.  The girls were pretty excited running around saying his belly button fell off.  I weighed myself again, down 19 lbs from pre-preg weight.  The pants I wore today were falling off of me!  Which makes me happy, but sad because I don't have pants that fit!  

Anyways, I am going to try and get a few minutes of sleep before babies wake up to eat!!  Have a good night!

Cute Boys

I decided instead of 1 huge post today that I would post a few smaller ones.  So make sure you check out the next couple as well!

It's been a lazy day.  We went to Josh's parents for breakfast this morning (not far, just across the street) and we watched the first session of conference.  When we got back home I suddenly felt exhausted!  Like I could hardly keep myself awake.  So I fed the boys, left them out with Josh and took a nice 2 1/2 hour nap.  I have been having some freezing/burning up moments.  I will go from teeth chattering freezing and a minute later I will be so freaking hot that I am sweating like crazy.  When I woke up from my nap I had a fever of 101.9!  I don't know if I'm getting sick or if it's my hormones just out of whack.  I had a big drink and took an ibuprofin after I got up and now I'm feeling much better.  

Jonathan

Julian

This week will sure be interesting.  Tomorrow morning we are taking the boys back to the dr.  The stupid hospital wouldn't circumcise them so tomorrow we are getting that done.  Poor guys.  Josh is going with me so I don't have to be in there with them!  It will be a sad day!  Then Josh goes back to work tomorrow, and my mom is going to come down for the next few days to help out.  Time to take advantage of taking naps!!  It'll be nice to have her here to help!  And I am really excited because on Wednesday evening we are going to take the boys up to my brother in laws house and he is going to take their pictures!  I'm excited to get their birth announcements made and I loooooove newborn pictures!

1 week old!!

First of all, I got a call from my dr's office to tell me they got the results from the placenta.  And this will also answer the question everyone has been asking me!  They are IDENTICAL!  We can tell them apart right now, because Julian has chubbier cheeks!  But it's getting to the point that we have to have them both together to be able to tell them apart.  It's time to figure out a way to mark one of them so we'll know!!  Here they are in all their cuteness!  :)  

(L-R: Jonathan, Julian, sorry I feel like I need to label them for my own future reference, lol)

I can't believe they are already a week old!  The week has been good, better since we have been home, and each night gets better (we agreed that the worst night we've had to date was the night of the bilibed).  They are really good babies.  I have them both on the same schedule.  I feed them about every 3 hours.  Give or take a little!  They are nursing great and I feed them both at the same time.  I feel like a cow, but it's fun!  :)  Right before I feel them I lay them both down and change them.  We are going through diapers like CRAZY!  They are wearing preemie ones right now because they are still so tiny!  I bought 2 packs at target the other day because smiths doesn't sell preemie ones.  We are averaging 1 pack every 2 days!  I will have to take a picture of the huge stash I have from my baby showers.  But none of them are preemie.  

Here's a picture that Jenica took of us right before I fed them!  I like how skinny my face and arms look!  And good thing I have babies to hold in front of my saggy belly.  lol  Julian in on the left, Jonathan on the right.  

And incase anyone wants to know about my current weight...I've lost about 30 lbs from what I was at when I had them!  I am 12-13 lbs below my pre-preggo weight!  Not too bad...I even pulled out some jeans that were a size too small and I could get them all the way up...just not buttoned.  In 6 weeks I'll have something I can work towards.  Too bad there's no way I'd be able to run to the gym in the mornings.  Maybe when they're a little older.  I will have to pull out the good old turbo jam videos!  

Bili Baby

On thursday we took the boys into the dr for their newborn checkup.  Jonathan was down to 5lb4oz and Julian was about 5lb10oz (not for sure on his, Josh didn't really hear).  Jenica ended up staying home from school because she was sick, so we got her an appt too.  She's had a horrid cough for nearly 2 weeks now!  Not good when you have new babies.  Anyways, Julian's bilirubin was in a higher risk category when we left the hospital, and the dr he saw there wanted him to get it checked again on Thursday.  What a pain.  I thought it would be something they could do there at the office, but I had to take him up to AF hospital.  Poor little boy already had a million prick marks on his heels.  So we went home and Josh stayed home with the girls and Jonathan while I ran up there with Julian.  When we got home Josh said the dr's office had already called and his bilirubin had gone up more.  So they had a bilibed delivered to our house.  We were supposed to keep him in it all night and then go get him blood checked again friday morning.  

We put him in the bed around 7pm.  He did alright.  I just sucked because he could only wear his diaper and then he was put in a little sack like thing that was attached to the bed with an opening for his head to be out.  We were only supposed to take him out to feed him or change his diaper.  When we went to bed we put the bed in the bassinet in our room.  This is when all the fun started.

He HATED it!!  He cried and cried and we had to keep giving him his binkie.  I felt sooo bad.  He was so sad!  :(  Finally at 3:30 am none of us had gotten any sleep...so we decided to take him our for a few hours so we could get some rest.  I fed him for about 5 minutes and he was out!!  He slept for 4 1/2 straight hours.  Poor guy was so exhausted.  We put him back in the bed around 8:30 for a little bit and then I took him back to the hospital to get his blood checked.  He went back in the bed when we got home and then a few minutes later the dr called and said his levels had gone down and to stop using the bed.  But I needed to take him back again on Saturday morning to get checked to make sure the bilirubin was still going down on its own.

So yesterday I took him in and the dr called and it was still going down!  YAY!  No more torturing my poor boys heels!!

We're Home!! (aka longest post ever)

First things first, I know you are all wanting to know what we named these little guys...so let me introduce you to:

Jonathan Alan (baby A) and Julian Lloyd (baby B)

I don't know who is interested in the birth story, but since this is my journal I must write it. I started writing it earlier on the laptop at the hospital, and never finished it! It was getting pretty lengthy, so let's see if I can cut it down at all. lol It's all about the details! :)

Friday afternoon my mom came down and took the girls home with her for the weekend so I could get some good rest and we were hoping I would just go ahead and have the babies! That evening Josh's parents came over with pizza and we hung out and ate. I went to bed around 11. Josh fell asleep on the couch and when he got in bed around 12 I woke up. Boo. I was having a really hard time falling asleep...I was having contractions, but that didn't mean much to me because I had been having them for the last 6+ weeks. I laid there hoping that if I was really in labor I would just know so I could make it to the hospital in time. I had prayed more specifically that my water would break. Never had that happen before, so I wasn't counting on it. Anyways, I laid there until 3:30 am when I finally fell asleep. I woke up at 4 am due to a contraction. I decided maybe it was time to go, I told myself that if they were strong enough to wake me up then it might be time. I woke Josh up and I packed some stuff. He got the video camera and we started watching old home videos while looking for a tape we could record on. I was sitting on the couch and after a bit thought I hadn't really had many contractions since I had been up. I thought for a minute maybe we should just go back to bed and then I had another one. At 4:50 am I said "ok, let's just go, they'll probably send us home" and as soon as I stood up I felt a pop and then a huge GUSH! I told Josh I think my water broke. He didn't seem too convinced until he looked at me and I was soaked. I hurried and changed my pants and got a towel to protect myself and the seat in the car. I'm so glad that the girls were at my moms so we didn't have to worry about them!

We made pretty good time to the hospital (considering Josh was going 100mph on the freeway...typical "my wife is in labor, we gotta get there fast" driving)! I called the hospital to let them know we were on our way. When we got there at 5:30 am they didn't hurry to get me checked or anything until the nurse came out and asked how dilated I was at my last appt. When I told her she rushed me back pretty quick! I got hooked up to everything (and when I say everything, I mean EVERY POSSIBLE THING they could strap to me, they did). They did an internal monitor on Baby A, a belly one on Baby B, one for the contractions, an IV, epidural, and catheter.

I was checked and was still a 4+. Contractions weren't too close together and I wasn't in any pain. They wanted me to get the epidural because we didn't know how quickly it could go. It all seemed pretty fast to me, especially after the epidural was done. That's what I was the most nervous about because I had never had one before. Let me tell you though...it was heavenly! I could feel and move my legs, they just felt very heavy. And I was completely pain free. I'm not sure what time it was, but the nurse checked me and I was a 7. Then the on call dr came in and I was an 8. 3 minutes later I told the nurse I was feeling a LOT of pressure and she said she'd check me because I could be complete. I didn't believe her because it had only been a few minutes. She checked and sure enough, I was complete. So off to the OR we went. Josh got to get all dressed with a gown, face mask, hair net, shoe covers. He looked pretty awesome! I was happy to see my own Dr when we got to the OR even though he wasn't on call. I have never had my own dr deliver my baby. And he knew my pregnancy very well. Anyways, they moved me to the OR table, VERY uncomfortable.

They got everything ready and soon it was time to push. I pushed through 2 contractions, maybe 6 times total and Baby A (Jonathan) was out. He put him up on my belly and Josh said "he's perfect" and I cried. Josh got to cut the cord. The on call dr held baby B in place so he didn't flip, since he was head down. Dr Lloyd broke baby B's water and then the other dr pushed him down into place so I could push! 1 contraction, and 2-3 pushes later and he (Julian) was out. Josh cut the cord and I cried some more. They were both with their own team of nurses while I finished up. I heard both teams yell about the boys peeing on them. It was funny. The placenta was sent off to pathology in a bucket to determine if they were identical twins.

We weren't in the OR for too long, we just had to wait for them to bring me a regular hospital bed. It finally came and they lifted me back into it, I was pretty worthless when it came to moving. Then they wheeled me back to our labor and delivery room. I was bleeding pretty bad and they had to give me a shot in my hip to help stop it. I'm glad I was still numb. We hung out while they got the bleeding under control and enjoyed holding our new babies!! The nurse checked the babies and Julian needed to go to the NICU because he was breathing too fast. They were hoping it was just going to be a quick in and out thing, but that wasn't the case.

Word got around quick and when we got up to our room Josh's mom and Alicia were already there to see us. Followed quickly by the rest of Josh's family. They all went down to the cafeteria to get some lunch and while they were gone my mom brought the girls down. I was so sad that Julian was never with us when we had visitors. So all the pictures we have are on Jonathan. The day was filled with lots of visitors. That evening Josh and I went down to visit Julian. It was so sad seeing him laying there with everything hooked up to him. And it was really hard not to get to hold him.

On Sunday Josh went home for a little bit to shower and while he was gone my brother Adam and his wife Lacey came and visited me. When they left and Josh got back that afternoon we went down to see Julian again. He had been off the oxygen that morning, but by the afternoon he had regressed a little and was back on a low flow. I got to hold him for the first time since he was born. We did a little "skin to skin". It was sweet! Here I am holding him!

And here he is after they put him back down! I was a little upset because before we went down for this visit we got a call from his nurse and she was annoyed that we hadn't been down to see him while she had been there. She told me that he had pneumonia and was going to have to be treated for a week before they would release him. Apparently what she was telling me was something that she overheard the dr and neonatalogist talking about. None of it ended up being the case. Thankfully!
Back up in our room, here is Josh and Jonathan.
On Monday morning Jonathan and I were discharged from the hospital. I was a little panicked because I didn't want to go home without Julian...and we didn't know for sure how long he was going to be there. I checked with the insurance and they would only cover 48 hours. Then the nurses told me to check and see if I could do a hotel stay. That's what we ended up doing, on a day to day basis. It was only $30/night and it seemed much easier doing that than driving back and forth between there and home, especially when they were going to let me nurse him. And I didn't know what I would do with Jonathan because I wouldn't be able to take him with me. So I took a little trip down to visit Julian by myself while Josh stayed in the room with Jonathan. I was so excited to see him completely off the oxygen and going good!! The dr told me that as long as his respirations stayed down that I could try to feed him.
When I went down he wouldn't wake up. So the nurse called me when was awake the next time and I went down. He did awesome. He latched right on and ate for 30 full minutes! Poor guys first meal, he had just been "eating" through his IV. I went back down the next time that he woke up. This time the nurse recommended I feed him with a bottle because they can't decrease his IV without knowing how much he is actually eating. So we fed him some milk I had pumped and he did great with that. Here is Jonathan in one of the outfits I brought to take him home in. I was excited to see him in real clothes!

So Tuesday morning the pediatrician came and told us that Julian was completely off the IV and he was being brought up to the regular nursery and if he did good for the next 24 hours we could go home. That was the best thing to hear ever!! I was so excited to have both my babies together. I bet they missed eachother! So by Tuesday afternoon he was up with us. That night was hard, having 2 babies together for the first time. We didn't get much sleep. Go figure. But when we woke up on wednesday morning the pediatrician came and said he was good to go. We just had to wait for him to have his car seat test since he was so little. That takes an hour and a half. So we eventually got out of there and headed home! It felt sooo nice to leave since we had been cooped up in our room for too long! Here they are, all ready to go home!

We got home a little after noon and we knew the girls would be sooo excited to see the boys. Especially since neither of them had seen Julian yet! They are great big sisters.My friend Aimee stopped by with her kids to see the babies. Here is her little one, Matthew, who has been waiting for his little friends to be born! He was born in June. I thought this picture was really cute!