Almost home!

I hope that you all enjoyed your Christmas....ours was very busy but we enjoyed every minute of it! This week has flown by!

Grady was increased to full feeds with a bottle, so no more of that feeding tube! He looks so cute with out all of that stuff on his face. As of today he weighed 6 lbs. 4 oz. :) Grady is expected to be discharged on Monday or Tuesday! We are so excited!

Adalynn has had a bit of a rough week. We were trying to push her to keep up with her brother, but she just wasn't ready. Today she was put back on oxygen to help her out a little. We were wanting her to take 8 bottles a day and finish them, breathe on her own, gain weight and grow, and it was all just a little too much for her. We are going to be patient with her, and let her get ready to come home on her own time. She did get to try out a bouncy seat though...and she loved it! As of today, she weighed 5 lbs. 9 oz.

I mentioned to the doctor on the 25th that I did not want to bring one baby home without the other, but we were told today that they could not make that happen. Insurance will not cover Grady to stay at Texas Children's when he doesn't need to be there. Which of course is understandable. So as of right now, we are not sure when Adalynn will come home, we are hoping in a week or so. It has been a long journey and we are anxiously awaiting the day when both of our babies will be home with us. Right now, all we can do is keep praying and wait! 

Love,

Jessica and Taylor

First Christmas Pics

Here are some pics from our first Christmas as a family of 4! Taylor and I spent all day Christmas Eve at the hospital snuggling and cuddling with our babies. Instead of driving all the way home, we reserved a hotel room for the night so that we wouldn't have to drive to be close to the babies on Christmas morning. It was so nice to wake up and only have to drive 5 minutes instead of an hour. 

The babies were visited by their Aunt Rachel and Uncle George on Christmas Eve.

Big Moma and Pops visited the babies Christmas morning!

Grady and Adalynn in their Christmas stockings handmade by their Aunt Brenda.

(They actually didn't fit in the stockings but we pretended that they did! I guess it's a good thing they were too big for them!)

Our Christmas picture

And for your viewing pleasure....a picture of them together.

Merry Christmas!

Not much to report on this week. The babies are continuing to grow stronger and gain weight each and every day! As of today, Grady weighs 5 lbs. 10 oz. and Adalynn weighs 5 lbs. 1 oz. They are really starting to fill out in their cheeks and their thighs! ;) 

This week Grady has made leaps and bounds. He is starting to realize that every 3 hours he is hungry. He doesn't cry for his food, but he is definitely wide awake when it comes time to eat. He also turns his head and looks toward people when they talk to him. As far as bottle feeding, he is up to 5 bottles a day out of 8 feedings. He completes all of his bottles that he is given. They gave him a hearing test this week and he passed. He is ready to get home!

Adalynn has also been doing a great job. She is up to 4 bottles a day out of 8 feedings. She isn't completing as many bottles as brother, but she is finishing over half of each bottle. She has reflux so it makes completing her bottles a little bit harder. Adalynn is also responding to people when they talk to her, she turns and looks in their direction. She also passed her hearing exam this week! 

I found a tree for each of them to have at their bed side. I had so much fun decorating the trees for my babies today!

Grady's Tree

Adalynn's Tree

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours! We hope you all have a blessed holiday season! Be on the look out for some first Christmas pics next week!

Much Love,

Jessica and Taylor

Whirlwind Week

What an emotional week it has been! This week started off with both Taylor and I feeling so overjoyed. Our babies were making wonderful progress and we knew that by the end of the week, the babies would be in The Woodlands. As you read in my last post, the babies had an eye exam on Wednesday. This particular exam is made for premature babies and it checks the vessels that are connected to the retina. In premature babies, sometimes the vessels do not fully mature and can cause vision problems for them. Well, the good Lord has delivered once again and our babies had a perfect eye exam. They did even better than what the doctors anticipated and showed to be more mature than their gestational age. Taylor and I were so happy and excited that our babies did so well, and we were ready for the doctors to get our transfer together. I was beyond happy, I could not wait for my babies to be closer to home. I don't want any of you to think that I do not appreciate Texas Children's because I do, but it is very tiresome and stressful driving back and forth to Houston everyday. I know that I could stay in the Ronald McDonald House, but there are other families that live farther away with sicker babies that need it more. So....we began asking the doctors when we could transfer. Then, the doctors squashed my spirits. Come to find out, the babies need a follow up eye exam in 2 weeks....and there is not an eye doctor to do that in the Woodlands. :( So what do you think that means?

You guessed it....we are staying in Houston. There will be no transfer to the Woodlands. We aren't mad about it, disappointed yes, but not mad. I was just so ready for them to be near me. If they can't be home with me, I wanted them to be as close to me as possible. With every disappointment, there seems to always be a positive and here it is. Even though our babies have to stay in the hospital for Christmas and we will not get to enjoy our first Christmas together at home, the doctor says that he has no doubt in his mind that our babies will be coming home around the New Year. He can't pin point a day but he is very happy with their progress and can estimate that they will be home around the first of the year. :) 

Now all the babies have to do is start finishing their bottles...they get 3 bottles a day out of their 8 total feedings...if you are a bit confused, the other 5 go in through their feeding tube. The doctors will gradually increase the number of bottles the babies take a day until they are completely taking their feeds from bottles. They are gaining weight very good....we officially have a 5 pounder! Grady is now weighing in at a whopping 5 pounds, 1 ounce. The premie clothes are getting a bit snug on him. Adalynn is now weighing in at 4 pounds, 9 ounces....so she is getting close to 5 pounds too! I also have to say that they get cuter and cuter each day that I go down there! Today, they got to meet their Auntie for the first time and I think that they were as excited as she was!! 

Much love to all,

Jessica and Taylor

Blessing after blessing!

I have to start out by posting this pic....it is so sweet to see how the babies react to each other when they get near one another. Here are Grady and Adalynn giving kisses to one another!

This past weekend, we had a come and go shower at our home and we got a lot of things that we needed for when the babies get home. It was great to see all of our family and close friends! Of course since we had a shower at our home, I felt very motivated to get their room done and Taylor was very eager to help! ;) Here are some pics of their room....we still have to hang their names above their beds, but that will be done this week!

Monday the babies had their follow up echo test and it showed that the babies heart murmur's were indeed SHRINKING!! Thank The Lord! We were so excited to get this news because it meant that they would be able to start transitioning off of the prolacta to the supplement (HMF) that is available at St. Luke's!

Tuesday Grady and Adalynn were taken off of their oxygen and they have been breathing on their own since then.

Since Tuesday they have been transitioning their food to the new supplement and hopefully after their eye exam this Wednesday, they will move to St. Luke's! The doctor told me today that the earliest they could get to The Woodlands would be Wednesday and the latest would be Friday. It feels so good to have somewhat of a definitive date! 

Many thanks to our Grandmama for our Christmas onesies! 

We are beyond blessed!
Jessica and Taylor

3 weeks old and growing!

This week has been a great one for our family. This week started out with Grady and Adalynn getting to meet their Great Aunt Brenda. Monday was a great visit and we welcome any visitors that want to make the drive to Houston. There aren't many restrictions as far as visitors go, other than you cannot be sick. Just let Taylor or I know if you want to come and visit, because one of us has to be there!

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful when it came to the babies health. We keep hearing from the doctors, "Nothing has changed, our plan is still the same." We cannot think of anything better to hear! As long as they are doing good...we shouldn't have much to hear from the doctors. 

As of this Wednesday, the doctors were ready to move our babies to Level 2 NICU. They had 2 bed spaces available for the babies so they could be together, but Grady and Adalynn seemed to have other plans. There was just a little hiccup with their oxygen, so they spent Wednesday night in Level 3. For those wondering, Level 3 NICU is a NICU for babies who are much sicker and need more assistance than babies in Level 2. Level 2 NICU has a higher nurse to baby ratio (1 nurse for every 4 babies) and it is the last step where babies go before they get to go home. 

Thursday proved to be very exciting for us. The doctors decided to have a meeting to decide what the best course of action for our babies would be. Some doctors  were toying around with the idea of sending our babies back to The Woodlands, the other doctors were wanting to keep them at TCH. So, needless to say, our babies spent another night in Level 3 NICU so the doctors could get a better idea of what was best for our babies. I also got to hold both babies together today for the first time. It was so sweet to see them side by side, to see their similarities and differences. 

Grady is on the left, Adalynn is on the right! Look at how chubby their cheeks look! ;)

Today has been the best day thus far, except for the day our babies were born! ;) The doctors made the decision together to keep our babies at TCH for 5-6 days or so to transition them off of this special fortifier that is added to my milk. This specific fortifier is not available at St. Luke's so they are transitioning to a fortifier that is available in The Woodlands. If the babies tolerate the new fortifier, then they will be able to transfer to St. Lukes. They are having another Echo Test done on Monday to check on their murmurs, and hopefully by Wednesday or Thursday our babies will be transferred via Kangaroo Crew back to The Woodlands. As I was leaving today, both Grady and Adalynn were being transferred to Level 2 NICU at TCH. 

Hope that all of you are enjoying the updates, and again we thank you all for the prayers!

Love,
Jessica and Taylor 

Thankful, Thankful, Thankful!

This week has proven to be one with many things for Taylor and I to be thankful for. Since my last update, many things have changed in regards to our babies. Here is a look at how our week went!

Saturday: The doctors discovered a heart murmur in both of our babies. They said that murmurs are very common in premature babies and that we shouldn't worry about it right now. They ordered an Echo test, which is an ultrasound of the heart for Monday to determine how large the murmur was in both babies. The test would indicate the size of the murmur and if it was closing on its own.

Monday: The day of the Echo Test! The babies both did really well during their test, but it did prove to the docs that Adalynn had a moderate to large murmur and Grady had a moderate sized murmur. This of course really started to worry us. The doctors didn't seem too worried about it, because like I said before, they believed that it would close on its own. They did decide to lower the amount of their feedings to restrict fluids and they at this point were still on their CPAP machines. These things would help improve the murmur hopefully!

Tuesday: The babies had some visitors! Aunt Rachel and Big Momma came to visit the babies. It was Rachel's first time to hold the babies since they were born. It was a very special day!They also got to meet Mrs. Kay and Auntie Jessica! They appreciated all of the visitors! Grady also was upgraded to a nasal cannula which is kind of like the oxygen wires you see on older people that require oxygen all the time. He looked so good without all of those wires! Adalynn was still on CPAP today, she wasn't quite ready for the nasal cannula, but the doctors had a feeling she would be off of the CPAP very soon. The nurse told me also that I could bring clothes for the babies and that really made me happy! I never thought that dressing my babies would make me so happy!

Wednesday: Tuesday was such a good day and Taylor and I were ready for Wednesday to be just as good! When we arrived, Grady had his nasal cannula removed and he was breathing on his own. :) Talk about proud parents!! We were so happy for our baby boy! Adalynn also got the upgrade to the nasal cannula and we were so proud of her too! The docs also gave us more good news...that we could start trying to bottle feed each baby once a day and non-nutritive breast feed once a day. The babies did okay for their first day of both, but it will take some practice for them to get the hang of it! Here is a look at our babies all dressed up!!

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving from all of us! Taylor and I are so thankful for all of the prayers, and thoughts that have been coming our way! One reason we are thankful is because our prayers are being answered and a lot faster than we would have ever expected. Today was a good first Thanksgiving for the babies. Taylor and I had Thanksgiving lunch with my parents and then we all headed down south to visit the babies. Grady and Adalynn were so happy to have visitors on their first Thanksgiving. They got to meet Uncle George and their great grandma, Maw-Maw. Grady had to be put back on his nasal cannula because his little body was just working too hard to breathe. He is on the minimum amount of oxygen just to help him out so his little body doesn't get too worn out. The nurse also said that the sound of the murmurs is reducing so that might mean that they are closing but the doctors didn't officially visit that today during rounds. We were told that on Monday they are going to re-evaluate the babies progress to see if they can be transferred to St. Lukes The Woodlands. We are really hoping for this, but if not, we will be content with them staying at TCH. We of course, want the best for our babies, and if TCH has it, then so be it.

Our first family photo!

Friday: Our babies are 2 weeks old today! Today we are going over to Taylor's parents to have Thanksgiving with his family. After lunch, we are all going to head to Houston to see the babies! Hopefully the doctors will have some more wonderful news for us! Again, we are so thankful for all of the thoughts and prayers coming our way!

One Week Today

I couldn't think of a better way to keep all of my friends and family updated on our sweet babies than through blogging. I hope to post weekly updates on our babies letting everyone know how they are growing and getting stronger. 

Just this first week has been so overwhelming and fast paced. The  babies are a week old today, and they have already made such huge leaps and bounds. This week both of them lost quite a bit of weight but as of today, November 16th, Adalynn is less than an ounce away from her birth weight and Grady is just a little behind his. Both of them are breathing very good on the CPAP machine. They are both on the lowest level of CPAP which is a 6, and they are breathing room air oxygen.

This morning they had a head ultrasound which was to check for any bleeding or abnormalities in the brain. They performed this scan at 7 this morning and by lunch time we received the result of NORMAL for both babies. As far as everything else goes, they have good heart rates, their lungs sound good, and they are producing plenty of wet and poopie diapers for mom and dad to change! They have both changed so much already!

We are so thankful for the continued prayers and thoughts! Taylor and I feel so blessed to have such a good support system to lean on. We are very thankful that our babies are healthy and getting bigger and stronger everyday! We are just smitten with our two little ones, and are so blessed to be their mommy and daddy! 

Here are some pictures of Grady and Adalynn without all the wires and tubes on their faces. We think they are so precious, but of course, we are partial! ;)

Grady with his dark hair....he didn't like having his face messed with! 

Here is sweet Adalynn! She says hello world! Look at her hair....we can't tell if it's blonde or strawberry blonde!! :)

Much Love,

Jessica and Taylor