They're Here!! - 5/15-19

It's been SO long since I've blogged. At first it was because of morning sickness and exhaustion - I could hardly get off the couch to cook dinner or discipline a child. And then it was because I couldn't get off the couch because of bed rest - although I was feeling better and actually had some energy. :)

So here we are, 8 months or so from my last post and we have added two new boys to our family and a lot more perspective. We haven't posted too many pictures on CaringBridge, but we thought we'd post some here for our close friends and family. Aren't you guys so special?! :) And we'll post some of the big boys too because it's not all about the babies. But we can't wait to have our first family picture with all six of us! Alright, you probably don't care much about the writing and more about the pictures so here you go:

May 15, 2012 - Happy Birthday!!

Before heading to surgery.

I guess this is really happening...

Mom and Dad bands for both Baby A and Baby B

Baby A - Caleb Henry

2 pounds 15 ounces, 15 1/4 inches

(they use the Seran wrap to keep them warm)

Baby B - Ezekiel Thomas

1 pound 8 ounces, 13 1/2 inches

May 17, 2012

We wish we would've gotten some good "perspective" pictures but we were working in survival mode, so this is the best we got. :)

Caleb with my hand

Zeke with Jonathan's hand

May 18, 2012

Here's Zeke's bed. He has all eight pumps working hard to help him grow.

This is me "holding" Zeke for the first time 

so they can weigh him and change his bedding.

SWEET FREEDOM!!
I am finally released from the hospital,

but more importantly from 11 weeks of bed rest. :)

The boys (and Grandma) organized a surprise party for my homecoming!
There were balloons, candy, streamers, cupcakes, presents and a banner.
Oh, and two excited little boys!!

May 19, 2012
On May 17th we "finally" named the babies so the nurses made some cute signs to go on their beds.

Caleb is no longer "Big Ben" (a nickname the nurses gave them).

The nurses gave Caleb the pirate with the telescope

so he can keep an eye on his brother. :) 

Ezekiel is no longer "Tiny Tim."

At the time, Zeke was the "naughty one" 

so the nurses gave him the pirate with the beard, hat, eye-patch and hook. ;)

Thanks to a game Jonathan downloaded to his i-Touch, the boys have been into Zombies.

There's an awesome burger restaurant in downtown Des Moines called "Zombie Burgers."
The boys were pretty excited!! Here's a picture of their best Zombie faces.

It's kind of emotional for me to be going through all these pictures. Seeing how far we've come has been good for my heart. It's hard for me to post pictures of Caleb and Zeke looking so sick and scary. I don't want to present a "freak show" but more of a view of God's grace through this whole process and the power that our Mighty Physician has in knitting our boys together and continuing to heal their little bodies.

Some of you also might be wondering why we didn't talk about our pregnancy on our blog or Facebook. First of all, it's just so scary to talk about being pregnant again after our losses. We were so scared to tell people that we were expecting and then when we found out it was twins...we wanted so bad to share our exciting joy but at the same time this presented another layer of risk to our situation. I was so sick and tired during the first trimester that all I wanted to do was rest (sleep, lay around, not cook or clean, etc). Then we found out that the babies had Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome and I was put on bed rest...right about the time I had energy to start doing stuff again. But now I was resting for another reason. Things just kept getting more complicated so we put off telling people because we were scared. We did tell a core group of family and friends so they could be upholding us in prayer through all the trials we were facing. And then with the added bed rest we began to rely on our church family to keep our household in order. :) What a whirlwind.

Now the babies are here and are doing relatively well. They are mainly working on eating and growing along with daily complications. We have been writing on our CaringBridge site but wanted to post more pictures so we thought this would be the best place to show off all four of our boys. Thanks so much for the love and support and be sure to check back for more picture updates!!

** We want to remind you that this blog was created to keep in touch with our friends and family so please do not pass our blog along to your friends and family. :) I will blog about more details and my thoughts on my personal blog - Who Left the Light On? - and you can feel free to pass that link to your friends and family.