Homeward Bound! (Well, we were several days ago...)

June 19th, getting these girls HOME!















I think they have room to grow...




















































































Riding down to the car!





























First car ride!


















Finally home! Checking out the joint.... well, except not very alertly. And no, we did not position Avery in her chair like that. She's just a little diva, apparently.


















































































The rest of the album can be found here!

The rest of the hospital stay, in photos

There is another album up that can be found here, with pictures from the remaining few days we all spent at The Christ Hospital. As I promised, the volume gets more manageable :) 180 photos or so from Day 1, and the next 2.5 days have about 130 total. Still, I told you that a lot were taken!

If you don't look at any other albums for a while, this one definitely has a ton of my favorite shots. At the risk of making the longest blog entry known to man, I will just add a (few) handful(s). But if you're up to it, flip through the rest even quickly... there are some that might bring a smile to your face, that I just couldn't make enough room for here.

Enjoy! Goodness knows we are ;)

Mommy loves her girls!





















































Smiles, etc -- however involuntary













































































Better examples of their size?
































































Twin bonding - not once did we put them less than several inches apart, and yet they just get themselves together, despite being completely immobile otherwise! (Seeing this will never get old)... and the last picture? They did this in their sleep, both of them. And it wasn't the last time we found them like this!































































Finally, a few more we love that just couldn't go unshared, for those that just read here:



















































































Time for the girls to to meet (most of the) rest of their Med-Peds family! And Daddy is off the next 3 days! Woohoo!

Irony

During my entire pregnancy, I kept waiting for that boost in nail strength and growth that I had heard so much about. Of course, I should have known not to just expect things to happen a certain way, but nevertheless I waited. Alas, at about week 33, I noticed them! Finally, I had "strong, beautiful nails" (per the nail lady even!). Then I got The Itching, and the nails had to go (per Kyle. He's no fun). Now, 10 days post-partum, my old familiar brittle, thin wannabe nails are back. Darn it!

On the flip side, I have regained the ability to brush my teeth without vomiting.

All in all, I'd say "not pregnant" still wins by a mile.

Hospital Photos

Kyle and I practically refused to even get hospital pictures taken because, in my opinion, they usually stink :) The Christ Hospital outsources their photos to another company though, and this photographer did an absolutely phenomenal job getting the girls to look very alert on just their second day of life.

The following link will take you to Avery's picture and birth details. If you will notice, there are several photos below the first shown, some including both girls. From there, there is a drop-down menu towards the middle of the page that says "Viewing: Avery". You can select Elise and look at her pictures as well. Check them out here. You might be prompted to enter a password, which will be kjea2008.

Please let me know if you have any trouble viewing them or navigating the site!

Gifts, too?!

It's really been a wonderful day so far (as evidenced by the 4 new posts!). The girls and I had a lovely morning and early afternoon at home together, things are getting accomplished around the house, I am feeling good, and pictures are even getting uploaded! Then, to make it even more fun, we get these! --














The kicker though, was that Kyle took off a bit early from his afternoon clinic (hooray!) and came home bearing the most beautiful gift -- one that made me cry like a baby (or a mommy who just had two babies).

Months ago, when we first learned we were pregnant (or perhaps even before), I fell in love with a necklace at Hannoush that featured the "Mother and Child" pendant. I told him then, almost entirely joking :), that I expected that as a gift in the hospital when our first child was born. When we found out we were having twins, I told him he was off the hook, since it only showed one child! ;)

The birth of our first child(ren) came and went, and the necklace was absolutely nowhere on my mind. Then today, he comes home with a pretty silver-wrapped box (with 2 beautiful bows, for added sentiment). Inside is a Hannoush jewelry box, with a Pandora charm bracelet. These bracelets have various charms available, including gemstones or "cutesy" charms, precious metal spacers or beads to create whatever look you'd like. Some are covered solidly with charms and colorful beads and look more casual, like this













Other women might choose something simple, like this one:












I had never seen these bracelets before, but they are really cool! The possibilities are absolutely endless.

The second concept is much more my style, so Kyle chose to make a simple, elegant looking bracelet that starts with just 2 charms -- pink pearls, one for each girl, and two placed spacers to keep the pearls centered in clear view. Pearls are their birthstone and, well, what says little girls better than pink pearls anyway?! :) I'm sure my description and the picture won't do it justice, but it is so thoughtful, so beautiful, and I think it's absolutely perfect! The girls have a pretty special Daddy!

Edit: Much better picture!

One Week Old!

First, how unfair is it that on bedrest one week seemed like an eternity, but now that the girls are here I blinked and one has passed?! I knew that would happen, but that warning doesn't make it any more fair.... or make me any more prepared for it!

I swear, the girls change so much every day. They still struggle to eat some (more so now than Day 1.....?), and every third day or so one of them decides not to sleep at all for one of the three-hour blocks at night, but overall they are doing so well! Today is Daddy's first day back at work, and while we're doing wonderfully here (still on track with feedings, pumping, etc.... plus getting pictures uploaded, and laundry and dishes done to boot!), we miss him being home and feel so sad that he has to be there instead of with us. I can't imagine going that long without the babies! :( Thankfully it's an easy month, and he'll be home by dinner time! Aunt Cassi went away for a week too, so we'll miss her a lot until she comes back!

I had thought this morning that we'd get a few highlights from the first week posted on this entry, but I haven't really gotten through them yet. The photos from Day 1 of life are up -- not too bad getting them all online only a week after! That's better than any vacation photo upload I've ever managed, all while having the girls here to distract me! :) When the rest do come, you'll see that our family has gone on walks, read stories, experienced (but did not enjoy!) sponge baths, tried out a few of the girls' "toys", and spent lots of time cuddling. Avery lost her umbilical cord yesterday, so as soon as Elise's comes off we're looking forward to trying a 'real' bath! It's so cliche, but we truly can't imagine our lives without them joining us!



There are quite a few pictures from Day 1 in this album, but if you are in a hurry here are some to tide you over. None are duplicates from last week. I wasn't able to put much thought into which ones were posted because there are just too many (and I, of course, love every one of them!:) ) so this really isn't a great sampling at all. I'll let you know when the following days' photos are up. It shouldn't be quite as long, since the numbers dropped drastically!

Cassi accurately predicted in a comment on this entry that our girls' feet would be "just as cute" as the ones in the photo I used to announce our pregnancy. We think she was right!













Enamored parents






















































For a little perspective, notice that the width of Aunt Kelly's hand is about the same size as each girls torso (and bigger than each of their heads). Kelly has a normal size hand :), they just aren't quite as big as they look in photos!













Sweet sleepers












































Just like sisters