Grace and Hope

Grace and Hope
Wait for God. Wait with hope. Hope now; hope always! Pslam 131:3

Friday, November 25, 2011

We Have SO Much To Be Thankful For...

This year Jason and I celebrated Thanksgiving as a family of four. We thank God for our precious, beautiful and healthy girls, Avery Grace and Aubrey Hope. Our hearts are full of joy as we were able to hold the answer to our prayers in our arms on this holiday when we are reminded to give thanks. Thank you, thank you, thank you God for all of your blessings, and most especially for our girls this year.

While we wish that we could report that the girls have made a lot of progress in their bottle feeds (now at 38 weeks or 6 weeks old), we are happy to report that the girls are healthy, growing, and making us smile every day! Avery is offered a bottle four times a day and one nursing time, and Aubrey is offered a bottle three times a day and one nursing time. We know that bottle feeding is just a matter of time, and while we might not wait patiently, we know that one day they will come home able to take all their feeds by bottle or nursing. I feel very fortunate to be able to nurse each baby once a day--it most definitely is the most special time of the day for me. Avery now takes over an ounce and Aubrey is just under an ounce for their nursing attempts.

This week, I tried tandem nursing for the first time, or nursing both girls at the same time. Talk about an experience you will never forget. During this first tandem nursing attempt, Aubrey was doing everything she could to try and socialize with Avery. She filled her pants with a stinky poo, she was groaning like a motor and she was batting her beautiful eyes at Avery (talk about a multi-tasker)...and well Avery was very focused and wasn't too much into dividing her attention, but the one thing she was doing (nursing), she did very well...do these personalities remind you of anyone you know?!

In the NICU, we are always very concerned about infection and we wash our hands very well between patient contact, even siblings. This opportunity to have both girls in my arms was most definitely bending the rules, and I think I'm learning that I like to break the rules!!!  Behind the nursing screens my friend, who is a lactation consultant, positioned the girls in my arms after nursing, to give me an opportunity to hold and love on both of the girls for the first time. We captured this special moment in a picture, which is at the end of the blog. What a special time to gaze at God's beautiful and amazing creation (P.S. The girls are definitely fraternal! Haha).

Jay and I enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with special friends Todd and Amanda this year. While we missed being with our families on this holiday, we were thankful to enjoy this day with good friends and be fed some amazingly delicious food! After a very tasty meal, we visited the girls together and we were able to get our very first family photos. In these photos, we were able to bend the rules and not wear ugly yellow gowns (that act as a barrier between your clothes and the babies) to get memorable shots that we will always cherish, as they are our first family photos. Unfortunately, we were not able to both hold the babies, or switch them back and forth, but we were appreciative to be able to sit together as a family of four for the first time. We can't help but marvel at how blessed we truly are. We hope you will enjoy some of our family photos too.

Avery Grace: 5 pounds 14 oz (2 pounds above birthweight) and 18 1/8 inches long


Baby Avery stretching...once again!

Yes, believe it or not, the girls do have more than this outfit and a few others, but it must be a favorite among the nurses because we see the girls in these outfits frequently. Thanks Kelly for keeping us fashionable!


Aubrey Hope: 5 pounds 5 oz (2 pounds above birth weight) and 17 3/4 inches long

If you look close enough, it is almost as if Aubrey is trying to suck her thumb--it is actually positioned in the pacifier like she is going to be a thumb sucker--watch out!!

Dad says I look like I'm in my PJs, but every girl loves a day in her jammies!


Our Family

Avery is in a "I'm thankful for my daddy" Thanksgiving outfit. We didn't have two Thanksgiving outfits (this one was a hand-me-down) so we had to be fair and put Aubrey in a "Mommy loves me" outfit. The girls are also sporting a VT hat in some photos as well--Thank you Nancy!
Avery was wide awake and loving the paparazzi photos while Aubrey had quite a good snooze during the first family photo session!

We have so much, so much, so much to be thankful for this year.













My first time holding both girls together:

1 comment:

  1. Love that huge smile on your face when holding them both for the first time.

    ReplyDelete