Thursday, April 4, 2013
Newborn photo shoot
We are so blessed that one of our life long family friends is an amazing photographer. About 10 days after the babies were home from the hospital, Kelly Stocksen (http://www.kellystocksenphotography.com) came to our house to take newborn pictures. It was so much fun! The babies did so well and I was thankful to be able to have the photos taken since I wasn't able to take any fun maternity pictures being stuck in the hospital on bed rest. We have so many great shots but here are some of my favorites.
5 months at home with TWINS!
Well, life has been very busy for us over the past 5 months since the babies arrived! I think we are finally getting into a nice routine now. The babies are actually sleeping through the night.....well not always with Elijah, but Hannah is a great sleeper, and we have decreased our feedings to about every 4 hours which gives me a little more time to myself. At first, it was all I could do to keep two babies fed, diapered and pump every couple of hours. I have now progressed to making it out of the house on occasion and have even gone by myself several times. Our days currently consist of lots of diaper/clothing changes, 3 naps, 5-6 feedings, and lots of play time.
So what has happened over the past 5 months? Well, because the babies were a bit premature, we ended up hibernating at home through RSV/flu season which ended last month (yippee!). Even though the babies had a couple of RSV shots, I was still a bit paranoid which has paid off because they have not been sick yet. It seemed like we were going to the doctor all of the time at the beginning for weight checks, shots, and now we have completed our first two rounds of immunizations.
In looking back over the past months, I can remember my initial fear of thinking that I would have no idea how to take care of two infants once they came home. Luckily, it wasn't as hard as I thought and we quickly got the hang of it with lots of support from our families as well.
So what else has happened? Well, we have celebrated the babies first Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentine's day, St. Patrick's day, and Easter. The babies have progressed through many milestones of smiling and being more alert, to now giggling, interacting while playing, rolling over, and liking to sit and stand with support. It is fun to see their different personalities already. Elijah is our little ham....always smiling, giggling, talking, yelling, and loving to have attention and be held. Hannah is more quiet and reserved but always moving her arms and legs and liking to have her own space and independent time as well. She talks and giggles much softer but her cute little smile makes your heart melt. Did I also mention that Hannah is very dainty weighing in around 13 pounds where big brother is pushing 17 pounds! They still don't seem to really care much about the other or really notice each other. The babies also went on their first out of state trip before Easter to visit their cousins which I will also have to blog about later!
First baths at home!
Falling asleep with her hand in the air
Trying to get things done around the house
Early smiles
Sleeping in our nap nannies
Falling asleep during tummy time
Someone is jealous!
I don't mind tummy time
I hate it and roll back over!
Covering her eyes while out on a shopping trip
So what has happened over the past 5 months? Well, because the babies were a bit premature, we ended up hibernating at home through RSV/flu season which ended last month (yippee!). Even though the babies had a couple of RSV shots, I was still a bit paranoid which has paid off because they have not been sick yet. It seemed like we were going to the doctor all of the time at the beginning for weight checks, shots, and now we have completed our first two rounds of immunizations.
In looking back over the past months, I can remember my initial fear of thinking that I would have no idea how to take care of two infants once they came home. Luckily, it wasn't as hard as I thought and we quickly got the hang of it with lots of support from our families as well.
So what else has happened? Well, we have celebrated the babies first Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentine's day, St. Patrick's day, and Easter. The babies have progressed through many milestones of smiling and being more alert, to now giggling, interacting while playing, rolling over, and liking to sit and stand with support. It is fun to see their different personalities already. Elijah is our little ham....always smiling, giggling, talking, yelling, and loving to have attention and be held. Hannah is more quiet and reserved but always moving her arms and legs and liking to have her own space and independent time as well. She talks and giggles much softer but her cute little smile makes your heart melt. Did I also mention that Hannah is very dainty weighing in around 13 pounds where big brother is pushing 17 pounds! They still don't seem to really care much about the other or really notice each other. The babies also went on their first out of state trip before Easter to visit their cousins which I will also have to blog about later!
Hannah in her Turkey outfit
Christmas with our cousins
Valentine's Day
Hanging out with mommy on her birthday
Wearing green on St. Patrick's Day
Easter outfits
Elijah trying to eat Hannah's head
Family Easter photo
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
NICU
Well, it has been a LONG time since I sat down to write a blog post. What can I say....we have been a bit busy at the Tomberlin house! I thought I would try to catch up on important events by first blogging about our stay in the NICU at St. Francis Children's hospital. I can't say enough good things about our experience there!
Obviously after 85 days of bed rest because of unexpected pregnancy complications we understood that there was a good chance of our babies being admitted to the NICU, but we chose to pray the entire time that hopefully we would be able to avoid the situation entirely. The night the twins were born, they were taken to NICU because of their prematurity. This was difficult because we were not told much for the first 3-4 hours after the birth because they had teams of nurses and doctors doing full assessments to make sure each baby was stable first. This was definitely not how I imagined my birth experience when I found out I was having twins! Both babies required CPAP overnight on room air. All of the steroids I was given obviously did their job because they never required supplemental oxygen and graduated to strictly room air after about 12 hours. I think being a nurse helped me to manage the stress of being in the NICU but it was still difficult to see my babies stuck numerous times for blood draws and IV's. Looking around at many of the other babies however, we knew that we were so blessed that ours did not have much more serious issues to deal with. They are truly little miracles.
Our entire stay lasted 17 days and we were able to spend the last 1.5 weeks in the big NICU where we had our own private twin room. In order for the babies to be able to go home they had to regulate their body temperature on their own and take all of their feedings in a certain amount of time for 48 hours. We also dealt with jaundice which was expected because they were premature. We were very fortunate that both of our babies cooperated enough that they were able to go home on the same day which is not all that common with twins. And....just in time for their first Thanksgiving!
The nurses that took care of the babies were wonderful! I thought to myself several times that maybe I should have started my career in the NICU and not the adult ICU because who wouldn't want to take care of adorable babies all day long. It was also neat to see familiar faces of several of the parents who were once neighbors of mine while in the hospital for preterm labor that were now also visiting their little ones.
In looking back to last November, I can definitely praise God for His faithfulness in keeping these babies in until just 3 hours shy of the 34 week mark when our specialist told us from early on that we would be lucky to make it to 28 weeks. Praise God that the babies are so healthy and it is hard to believe now that they were once so tiny!!
Here are a few pics from my phone-
Obviously after 85 days of bed rest because of unexpected pregnancy complications we understood that there was a good chance of our babies being admitted to the NICU, but we chose to pray the entire time that hopefully we would be able to avoid the situation entirely. The night the twins were born, they were taken to NICU because of their prematurity. This was difficult because we were not told much for the first 3-4 hours after the birth because they had teams of nurses and doctors doing full assessments to make sure each baby was stable first. This was definitely not how I imagined my birth experience when I found out I was having twins! Both babies required CPAP overnight on room air. All of the steroids I was given obviously did their job because they never required supplemental oxygen and graduated to strictly room air after about 12 hours. I think being a nurse helped me to manage the stress of being in the NICU but it was still difficult to see my babies stuck numerous times for blood draws and IV's. Looking around at many of the other babies however, we knew that we were so blessed that ours did not have much more serious issues to deal with. They are truly little miracles.
Our entire stay lasted 17 days and we were able to spend the last 1.5 weeks in the big NICU where we had our own private twin room. In order for the babies to be able to go home they had to regulate their body temperature on their own and take all of their feedings in a certain amount of time for 48 hours. We also dealt with jaundice which was expected because they were premature. We were very fortunate that both of our babies cooperated enough that they were able to go home on the same day which is not all that common with twins. And....just in time for their first Thanksgiving!
The nurses that took care of the babies were wonderful! I thought to myself several times that maybe I should have started my career in the NICU and not the adult ICU because who wouldn't want to take care of adorable babies all day long. It was also neat to see familiar faces of several of the parents who were once neighbors of mine while in the hospital for preterm labor that were now also visiting their little ones.
In looking back to last November, I can definitely praise God for His faithfulness in keeping these babies in until just 3 hours shy of the 34 week mark when our specialist told us from early on that we would be lucky to make it to 28 weeks. Praise God that the babies are so healthy and it is hard to believe now that they were once so tiny!!
Here are a few pics from my phone-
Picture of Elijah after delivery when the CPAP came off
Picture of Hannah after delivery when the CPAP came off
"G" holding Hannah for the first time
Daddy feeding Hannah a bottle for the first time
Hannah passing her car seat test in order to go home
Elijah passing his car seat test in order to go home
Elijah chillin' in his shades
Hannah in her shades
Getting to hold Hannah (excuse my ghetto hair and Justin's t-shirt :))
Sweet Hannah!
Sweet Elijah!
Justin getting to hold Hannah
Hanging out under the bili lights
Our fancy twin room in the big NICU (excuse me looking all frumpy!)
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