Waiting for Rainbows: I Once Had A Dream…

I once had a dream of holding my own child…I once had a dream of raising a family with my husband…I once had a dream of seeing the sweet eyes of my own child staring back at me…I once had a dream of having the unique bond that only exists between a mother and her child…I once had a dream...and now they all have come true.

Today, December 9, 2011 was the original due date for our girls Aubrey Hope and Avery Grace. They are now 40 weeks gestation, but we have known their precious and unique personalities for exactly two months. We brought home our babies 1 week and 7 hours ago (but who is counting!) and it has been the most amazing week of my life. I can’t stop thanking God for all our blessings and how perfect our girls are in every way. God never ceases to amaze me.

It is so neat to look back on this past week and see just how much the girls have matured…literally by leaps and bounds. At the start of the week, feeds were slow and difficult. Now at the end of the week, most feeds are less than 30 minutes and they meet their target volumes. They are both gaining weight steadily…about ½-1 ounce a day…so we must be doing something right! Aubrey now weighs 6lbs 2oz and Avery now weighs 6lb 10oz.

Both girls were discharged to home on a monitor. Thankfully, on our first visit to the pediatrician we were able to discontinue Avery’s monitor and just keep one on Aubrey for two more weeks. One thing is for sure…we will not miss that monitor! It has an ear piercing alarm that doesn’t have a silence button and has literally driven not only us crazy, but my poor dog as well! We have had so many issues with the actual monitor itself (it sounds more frequently for a mechanical issue rather than a baby issue) that we traded in the monitor for a new one, hopefully one that has less disconnections!

Jay has been doing an amazing job not only with their feeds and caring for the babies, but he is like a chemist as he prepares their bottles (at one time we were on 3 different formulations that were given at different times of the day) and draws up their meds for each 12 hour period (the girls are on a special thick formula mixed with breast milk and medications to treat their reflux). It takes some time upfront, but in the long-run makes our life so much easier as we are preparing twice as much during feeding and medication times! Slowly but surely, we are starting to get a system down that actually has some organization involved to make all the processes, that goes on repeat every 3 hours, as smooth as possible.

Both girls have enjoyed their tummy time this week. It is never too early to get those neck muscles developed! They also enjoy looking at a book that has black/yellow sharp contrasting patterns, which other than our faces, is the only thing they can actually “see” at this point in time. We have learned that Aubrey has a love for the vibrating bouncy chair (wow, that didn’t take long!) and Avery loves to sleep. It is so much fun to watch their personalities develop and grow and to see how much they take after Jason and I.

Of course you are all waiting for the cute pictures, so here are a few from this past week. If you have trouble determining who is who…Aubrey has blond hair and has a more petite face and Avery has dark hair and has a fuller face. Both are as precious as can be!