First Easter

I get daily emails from the minister at our church with a short scripture included.  Yesterday the main bible verse used in the email was Isaiah 40:13 "Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength"  I thought this was a very appropriate and perfectly timed message for Ryan and I.  We are so ready to take our sweet babies home, but have to wait and stay strong for them and get through this hard time in our lives.

Even though we spent the twins first Easter at the hospital, we still wanted to make it special.  They must have been good this past month because the Easter Bunny came to visit them!

The hospital also made them cute little Easter signs and had bags with some goodies in it for them.

They received Easter bibs from the Harrells, hats from the Lees and the cutest monogrammed bunny gowns from the Yows!  We got to use all of them today!

We spent most of the day feeding them, watching them sleep and hanging out with Mimi and Pop.

Mimi even made us an Easter dinner and left it at our house for us to enjoy when we got home!

Overall we had a great 1st Easter!

Ellie and Graham Week 2-3

Both Ellie and Graham have changed so much over the past two weeks.  We can not believe how much bigger they are...even though they are both still in Preemie clothes.
Week 2:
We supported NC State in the NCAA tournament with our hats!

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day.  We even received green monogrammed outfits so we wouldn't get pinched!

The twins are able to keep up their own body temperatures and were able to move into little cribs.  This makes seeing them and getting them in and out a lot easier.

The twins love sleeping in their new cribs!

Week 3:

We got to hold them at the same time.  One of my favorite moments so far.  It was so neat to see them together and to feel like we truly had twins!

The biggest challenge the past week has been trying to get the babies to take bottles.  In order to get discharged from the NICU they must be able to take all their food via bottle for several days in a row.  As you can see they still have their feeding tubes in and at this point take a little over half their daily food by bottle.  It is a very slow process and we are just trying not to push them and let them learn at their own pace.  We are obviously very eager to take them home and get asked daily by everyone when they will come home....we just don't know.  It could be a week or it could be a few weeks.  

 

The Doctors also heard heart murmurs on both Ellie and Graham.  I had a VSD that required open heart surgery when I was a baby and it can be hereditary so we were all pretty worried that it might be the same thing.  After tests and an echocardiogram on both twins we were able to eliminate that it was a VSD and that was a HUGE relief!!!!  Ellie's is nothing to worry about and Graham's murmur was due to a PDA which usually corrects itself.  We will have a follow up with the cardiologist in a few months to make sure.  Here is Ellie getting her echocardiogram.

Both Ellie and Graham had hearing tests and were seen by lots of specialists this week.  They passed all tests:)

We are hoping week 4 is our lucky week!  Prayers needed that these two continue to grow and take their bottles.

Graham and Ellie's Birth Day!!!!

Exactly one week ago our twin babies made their big arrival.  Although it was a bit earlier than we expected we could not be happier.  I was diagnosed with vasa previa a few weeks ago and was told if I had any signs of labor we would have to go ahead and deliver.  We were hoping to make it to 35 weeks, but God had a different plan in place.  I delivered our twins at 32 weeks via cesarean section.
Although there was craziness going on all around us, the birth of our babies was very peaceful and a pure joy.  Afterwards the Dr's let us in on how serious it all was and how concerned they actually were, but so grateful we didn't feel any of that during the delivery:)

March 6th, 2013 at 3:13 PM Graham Walker Londry 4lbs 5oz, 18 inches long.

March 6th, 2013 at 3:14 PM Elizabeth "Ellie" Mowery Londry 4lbs, 18 inches long.

Both babies were immediately taken to the NICU and we got to see them a few hours later.

Graham's lungs were underdeveloped so he was on a Bubble CPAP ....or what we like to call his scuba gear!

Ellie was having trouble keeping her heart rate up so they put her on a little caffeine and both babies were put in these "high rises" to keep their body temperature up.  Although we were not able to hold Graham for first 2 days we were able to take Ellie out for a few minutes.  She already has such a cute personality.  She opens her eyes alot and we love that!  She made really funny faces and loves sleeping on her tummy.

This is one of my favorite pictures and it really shows how tiny Ellie is compared to her daddy's finger.

We had lots of family waiting to meet these two cuties!  I am also amazed at all of the matching boy/girl and twin stuff people find!

Preemie babies get worn out really easy so they can't be held as much as newborns.  A few people were able to at least hold them long enough for a quick pic and snuggle.  

My dad with my daughter:)

My best friend, Rachel and my daughter.

The staff at the NICU is so sweet, very patient, very understanding and very good at what they do.  When we went to visit our babies on day two they had these cute signs put up.

We also got to hold Graham for the first time and get our first family picture!

Day three we were able to be in the NICU when they changed Grahams scuba gear so we could actually get a glimpse of what he looked like.  This was very emotional, but we could not have imagined a more handsome little boy.

Day 4 was mostly spent letting them rest and starring at them for hours.

By the end of the day Graham got to take the scuba gear off for a few hour trial while I did Kangaroo Care skin to skin.  Holding my baby boy that close to me for the first time was a moment I will never forget.

March 10th was also the day Ryan and I were discharged from the hospital.  Hardest moment so far was leaving the hospital without my babies.  I know they are not ready to go home and they were better off staying, but still words can't explain the pain that caused us.  I was trying really hard to be strong and just about to loose it until we walked in our house.  I felt like a huge weight was lifted when I saw what my friends did to our house.  We had pink and blue balloons, our favorite foods and treats and pictures of the twins everywhere!!  There were even pictures in their nursery and in their cribs.  Made Ryan and I both feel like our house was not as "empty".  I don't think the Lee's and Harrell's will ever know how much that meant to Ryan and I.

Day 5 we were able to put them in "real clothes" and take a good family photo.  Graham is loving being free of his scuba gear....I think this picture says "Man this is the life!"

Day 6 we practiced taking a paci and both the twins got their IV's taken out.  The IV's were suppling most of their nutrients so getting them taken out means that now they are fed through the little tubes in their noses.  This made leaving them that night a lot easier:)

We also had a few visitors today!
Uncle Jared

And Ms. Holly

And their 1 week Birthday!!!!!
We got great snuggle time with dad before he went to work and then used most of our energy today practicing taking a bottle:)

Overall the past week has been the best of our life.  We obviously can't wait to take our little ones home with us, but we know they are just not ready and they need to grow and get a little stronger first.  We have good days and better days and are trying really hard to stay strong for their sake.  We let ourselves laugh when needed and cry when needed.  I can not believe how much I love these two sweet babies and could not imagine our lives without them now.  Ryan and I have grown stronger in our marriage and in our faith through this process and I wouldn't trade that for anything.  We are spending most of our time in the NICU these days, but will try to keep updating the blog so we don't forget a single moment of their lives.