Favorite Fridays - Photographers!

David Spence is my favorite photographer around!

He photographed our engagement, wedding and hopefully now will photograph our baby girls.

He featured us on his blog and donated to "Diapers For Divas" and we cannot be more thankful! So sweet of him to think of us!

If you are looking for a great photographer and live in the DC area, he is your man!

Thanks David and we cannot wait for you to photograph our new family!

To visit David's blog, go here or visit him on Facebook here!

Natalee is HOME!!!!

I cannot believe that less than two weeks ago, our sweet little baby was so sick and now she is HOME! Natalee barely weighs 3lbs 15oz but is SO strong that she can come home with no problems! We are so blessed, I can barely believe it! She is such a quiet and sweet baby.

She passed her car seat test yesterday with no problems and is such a big girl! She is sucking down about 30cc's (one ounce) in just a few minutes and she is quite feisty! She knows what she wants and when she wants it! (Gee, she reminds me of someone, I just don't know who...HAHA)

So as bittersweet as it was, we went to the hospital for the LAST time today! Can I get an AMEN!?!?!?!?! After 5 weeks exactly, or 35 days, our family is FINALLY COMPLETE at home! The whole time at the hospital I was like, "this is the last time we will be pulling into this parking lot, this is the last time I will wash my hands here at this sink before going into the NICU, this is the last time I will hold my baby with wires attached, this is the last time I have to come here, I never have to call to check on my baby again, never have to cry as I leave everyday without my baby....we drove away and I did not look back. We brought our last daughter home and I couldn't help but cry tears of joy this time!

It has been a quiet evening in our household. The girls are so happy to be together. When Tim and I were eating dinner, we were looking around us...one baby in a swing, one in a bouncy seat and another in another bouncy seat...we finally have all three of them here! We just looked around and laughed!

Natalee enjoying the swing for the first time!

We gave all the girls baths...they smell so yummy! Nothing like a sweet little baby after a bath. There is no better smell in the world. Three baths took about 45 minutes...I'd say that was pretty good for the first time with all three. And no one pooped in the water...success! :)

Madelynn's bath

I'm not too worried about tonight, I have been doing all the night feedings and diaper changes by myself, so what's one more baby?! Honestly, it's not that Tim won't help, I just want to say I can do it by myself! LOL, I just have a system and it works great! I might wake Tim up tonight, but probably not. We will see how it goes.

And Tim and I FINALLY got to cut off our NICU bracelets! I have hated wearing these things but we did not want to take any of them off until all the girls were home!

Joyous News!

In less than 48 hours, our family will be complete....AT HOME! We are beyond ecstatic! I cannot believe when I arrived at the hospital today that our sweet little string-bean was in an open crib! She is so little still and yet such a big girl!

She is drinking 30cc's in about 8-10 minutes! She sucks it down. She hasn't had a feeding tube in since before she was sick! What a strong girl she is!

She is done with her antibiotics and TPN. She had her picc line out today and is just on her regular heart rate and breathing monitor. Tomorrow she'll have her car seat test too and if all goes well, she will be discharged late Thursday am. Ah, I cannot believe I am saying this!!

Hopefully, the snow will not keep me away from the hospital tomorrow...wait let me rephrase that, the snow will NOT keep me away from the hospital, but it could get a little hectic since the forecast is for 8-10 inches of snow tomorrow. I cannot and will not miss a day of my girls life right now. I'm not too worried, a Chevy Tahoe can get through anything!

So, we will be keeping our fingers crossed that all goes well.

Also, we took Madelynn and Claire to the pediatrician today and they are doing great! Madelynn is weighing 5lbs 8oz and Claire is up to 5lbs 12oz! We absolutely LOVE their doctor! She is just the sweetest lady ever and we are so glad we chose their practice!

The girls were not too happy about being nakey and having their photos taken,k so this was the best we got. maybe on Friday when we go again we will get better photos!

The girls did awesome last night, I basically took care of them all by myself. Not that Tim didn't want to or wasn't able, I just had a system and kept going. They ate and went right back to sleep and slept for 3 hours, would wake up and I would change their diapers, feed them and then everyone was back to sleep within 30 minutes! It was hectic, but very organized! Way better than I thought. Hoping tonight is just as good, and who knows what it will be like when Natalee comes home, but I can't wait!

Madelynn is HOME!!!!

Yesterday I was finally given a discharge date for Madelynn for tomorrrow, Tuesday but when I called this morning to check on the girls as I do every morning, the nurse asked me if I would "be interested in taking Madelynn home today".....UMM, HELLO, YES!!!!!! It was so funny they way she asked me, like I might be burdend at the idea of bringing her home today instead of tomorrow! I wonder, do people actually not want their children to come as soon as they possibly can? Weird, not this Momma! I hung up the phone, called Tim, my mom and his mom and told them the good news!

Basically, the nurse said that Madelynn had been doing great on her bottles, sucking them down in ten minutes, so she didn't know why Madelynn needed to stay any longer! She asked the Nures Practioner and she aked the doctor during rounds and then they called and gave us the ok! We are so excited and Claire is so excited too! She misses her sister so much!!

So after Tim got home, my sister, Christine came over to watch Claire, so that way we could spend some time with Natalee, since Claire is not allowed back in the NICU.

We fed Natalee her bottle and spent some time holding her while they got everything ready for Madelynn's discharge. We talked with the nurse practioner about the plans for Natalee also. Natalee will be off her IV fluids tonight, however her picc line will stay in just incase it's needed once again. She will be going into an open crib on Wednesday and if she continues to drink all her bottles, she could come home as early as Friday!!!!!! I was totally shocked to be honest! Less than two weeks ago, our sweet girl was so sick we didn't what God had in store for her and now we are talking discharge! We are over the moon thrilled.

We made it home!!

But for now, we cannot believe there are TWO of our beautiful daughters home with us!

Check out the matching scratches!

 Getting ready for bed...

Praying for a somewhat calm night...sleep well my little loves!

Natalee - YOU ARE ONE MONTH OLD!

Our little string-bean! You are so amazing and have proven to be stronger than we ever could have imagined. You were the third daughter born to us, Natalee Lynn, at 11:17am on Thursday, December 23rd, 2010! Mommy was 32 weeks and 2 days pregnant. You were known as Baby C from the beginning, our singleton, with the most room to move around and grow, or so they thought.

When you were born you were so strong. You were stuck up in Mommy's left side and you were hard to come out, but you did just fine. Mommy actually got to kiss your sweet head and feel your warm face a few minutes after you were born. You didn't need any oxygen support in the beginning! Daddy got to see you for a second, he didn't want to leave Mommy's side during the delivery and since you and your sisters were born so quickly after one another, there wasn't much time to walk around and take photos right away.

 

At birth you weighed 2lbs. 13oz, the smallest of your sisters. You had dark eyes and super soft dark brown hair, just enough not to be bald, but nothing too wild. Perfect, if you ask Mommy! You were such a cute little peanut.

You did eventually go on CPAP for oxygen support for a day. You are amazing and your lungs were so strong so you didn't need much help breathing!

Mommy finally got to see you on Christmas morning, after a very, very long 48 hours of not being able to see your beautiful face. However, your Daddy was enjoying taking care of you, taking your temperature and changing your diapers. He would come back from visiting you in the NICU and say how cute you were and reassure Mommy that you were fine! Daddy was the first to hold you. Mommy is sorry that she didn't get to know a lot about you in the first few days of your life. Mommy was very sick and not conscious for most of the two days after your birth. Daddy got to hold you a lot in the first few days of your life. He said you were "his baby" and knew just what you liked right from the start. Mommy was a little jealous.

When Mommy finally saw you, you were so beautiful, it took her breath away. There were lots of tears, Mommy couldn't believe how perfect you were, especially for being so teny tiny. Mommy called you her little birdy. You have the softest skin and little fur on your back. But it's nothing to be concerned about, it's jsut so sweet and will fall off before long. Mommy loves it though, you are the sweetest thing she has ever seen. Ten toes and ten fingers; everyone commented on your and your sister's beautiful long and thin fingers. Everyone says that you girls are going to do something with your hands. Maybe an artist, or play the flute, a basketball player...who knows, you all just have the most beautiful fingers.

Your lips are perfectly pink and so sweet to kiss, but so little. A million kisses a day wouldn't be enough! You love to pucker your lips and stick your little tongue out! Your eyes are so big and beautiful. You are always starring at Mommy and Daddy and are just so beautiful. You have this peace on your face, it's hard to describe, you just are such an angel. Mommy could stare at you all day. You have the longest eye lashes of your sisters too.

Once you started eating, after a few days of life, you developed some blood in your stool. Mommy got very worried because your doctors said it could be an infection, but thankfully it was just an anal fissure, probably from a reaction from Mommy's breast milk, so they took you off of it and put you on a special formula. They think that you might be lactose-intolerant. Mommy hated to know that something was causing you pain and she wanted to take it all away from you. The blood cleared up after a week and the fissure seemed to subside but then all of the sudden the blood came back, much stronger and brighter. You didn't want to eat and the nurses said that it was probably from the taste of the special formula you were on. Then you started spitting up a lot and Mommy got worried. You didn't act like yourself and by the next morning, you were very sick. You have had a very hard last 10 days. On Wednesday, January 12th, 2011, you got very sick, very quickly. Your IV went back in to immediately give you antibiotics, protein and fat. You were taken off all food. The doctors weren't quite sure what was wrong with you and it was very scary. You became very, very pale and by Thursday evening, January 13th, you were at your sickest. You had a very bad infection in your bowel, confirmed by blood work. This disease you had is called NEC, Necrotizing Enterocolitis. It is unknown as to how you developed it and why it happened, but it did. Your bowel began to die and we did not know how bad it really was. Mommy and Daddy were very scared. You had many x-rays taken, blood work drawn and were monitored very, very closely. The pediatric surgeon was called incase you needed immediate surgery but thankfully it wasn't needed. You had one and only one "brady" where your heart rate dropped and you had to be stimulated to pick it back up. Your temperature was low, which was not a good thing either and you were put back on oxygen support and then had to have a tube put down your throat all the way to your intestines to let out the air and bile that was causing your tummy to expand. You tummy looked white and grey, and even scared many of your nurses. You were so sick, baby girl. The bile coming out of you was bright green, and very scary looking. Mommy hated to see you so sick. She cried and cried. When Mommy and Daddy had to leave on Thursday night it was one of the hardest things she ever had to do. You were so sick, many were unsure if you would survive and to be honest Mommy and Daddy weren't even sure. It was so unbelieveably hard to leave you that night. Mommy can't even explain how hard it was. She is so sorry for all the pain you have felt. She called every few hours to check on you and to know your progress. Thankfully it seemed that the doctors caught the NEC just in time.

During the time you were sick, you maintained your body weight and actually gained weight. You had a unique case of NEC, the doctors were perplexed. You never had any acid in your blood and you continued to have bowel sounds so they were pretty sure that none of your bowel was blocked. Sometimes, or a lot of the time, scar tissues forms to heal the dying bowel or the dying bowel collapses and creates a narrowing or blockage and the only way to fix it is through surgery. Thankfully you didn't need surgery. The nurses and doctors were also worried that your bowel could perforrate but thankfully it did not either. You could have died right away if that had happened. You had a picc line put in your left arm to help with all of your antibiotics and TPN. You were being stuck every day for new IV's and it was horrible. It took four different tries an four different people to finally get the picc line in your arm. Mommy was there when one of the Neonatalogists finally was able to get it right. She wanted to kiss him, she was so happy. You were so brave. Mommy was so proud of you.

You are one lucky little girl. You will always know how lucky you are. God was so good to you. He protected you, gave you strenght and comforted you when Mommy and Daddy couldn't be right there with you. Your infection slowly subsided and you were feeling much better after a few long and hard days.


You have had some wonderful and very sweet nurses in the days that you are spending in the NICU. Mommy crys every single time that she has to leave you, it breaks her heart in a million pieces, but knowing you have such knowledgeable and sweet people taking such great care of you makes it a little easier. There were also so many people who have come to visit you and your sisters in the NICU. Some of your visitors have been Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Christine, Aunt Megan and Uncle Julian, Nana, your Great-Nana, your Great-Aunt Bonnie, your Great-Grandma and Al, your Great-Aunt Tina and Great-Unlce John, Aunt Kim (she was the first to hold you other than Mommy and Daddy) and Uncle Roger, Uncle Nate, Kristin and Jeff, Lisa, Melissa, Ann and Jack, Chantelle and baby Isla. Your friend, Isla, was born on December 26th and was in the area right next to you. Mommy was so happy you (and she) had a friend in the NICU, but Isla was a full-term baby and luckily didn't need much help, so she got to go home right away with her Mommy and Daddy. You have had so many people praying for you to be strong and to grow healthy, everyone loves you so much!


You are currently still in the NICU. You currently weigh 3lbs. 15oz. and are finally back on food. You started back on food on Wednesday. You are increasing your feed by 2cc's every 12 hours until you get to 26cc's, where you were when you stopped eating. Today you are on 16cc's and are taking it all in your bottle. Way to go little girl! You were so hungry the two days before the doctors decided you could eat again, you wanted to eat everything in sight. You tried eating the nurse's fingers, your Mommy's fingers, your fingers and it looked like you thought if you stucked on your paci hard enough something would come out. Mommy hated not having you eat, but it was for the best. Everyone was so happy when you started getting better. You are so strong Natalee!!!
 Your eyes were checked and are fine, just still immature, you will need to still see the eye doctor in two weeks again to make sure your eyes are fully mature. The doctor believes everything will be fine though, it's completely normal for preemies. You will get your ears checks once you come out of your isolate. You have to hit 4lbs before you can come out of your isolate, but you should be there by the end of the next week.


You are getting a bath every 2-3 days right now and you do pretty well. You love the warm water and Mommy loves giving you your baths. You and your sisters have the cutest outfits, all of the nurses think you all are so cute.

It has been very hard having your sister at home and you and Madelynn in the NICU, but Mommy and Daddy try to spend as much time as we can with you. Mommy comes every evening, she would never miss a day of your life. Never, never, never. Madelynn is watching over you, she is laying right by your side. Do you see her when you are faced that way? She doesn't want to leave you there by yourself so she is pretending not to be good at eating. She loves you so much and Claire misses you so much at home. She loves being the only child right now but she cannot wait until you come home. She misses and loves you so much! Mommy loves to know you and Madelynn are together though.

You have proven to be a fighter and the strongest person your Mommy has ever met. She has no idea where the strenght insde of you comes from. You are going to be one strong woman. You are here for a purpose, Natalee, always remember that. God chose you for our family and you are very important.
 Sweet girl, you are changing daily before our eyes and time is flying by, we don't want to miss anything. We love you so much Natalee, and we are so proud of you! Continue to stay strong little girl, grow, grow, grow...our sweet love. Mommy and Daddy love you forever and ever, to the moon and back.

Here you are at one month old: