Over the past few months

Wow, time goes by so fast when you are busy! I'm sorry I haven't been great at keeping my blog up-dated. Life is just more & more crazy while working Mon-Fri. I do my best to rest up as much as possible on Saturdays & enjoy my time with the twins. I feel that I never see them during the week. I normally get home around 6pm, nurse the twins, feed the twins some baby food, make something fast for dinner, bathe the twins, have a short play session with them before nursing them before bed. I have talked to many other new moms who say their baby's in bed by 7 or 8 in order for them to have time with their husband. Unfortunately, I would never see the babies if they went to bed that early. I do try to get them to bed by 10 and Nick normally makes it home between 9:30 & 10 so that works out well for us. At this point, they are still getting up 2 times a night to nurse and although it is really hard on me while working, I take pleasure in that one-on-one time with them since I don't see them much during the week.

At their 7 month check-up on Sept. 9, Hadlee weighed in at only 11 lbs even, so their Pediatrician placed her on a 24 calorie diet once again. They were both on this while they were in the NICU, but had been just on breastmilk since then. Her ear infections were better, but the special formula to be added to the breastmilk was extremly expensive.....and rare (only certain pharmacies will order it). Luckily, her doctor thinks only 1-2 months of it will be required.
On September 11- Kooper's first tooth broke through!!! He was a trooper & we didn't really even notice it until it was up & he was biting me with it.

Also during the week of September 13, Kooper began officially crawling. Not fast yet, thankfully, but good enough to get from spot A to spot B with a few belly rests in between. Hadlee watches very closely as he moves around her. I doubt it will be much longer before she joins in on the crawling too!

Before it gets too cold for the twins to be camping, we decided to head back up to a nearby camp ground in North Carolina. We've hiked to a few of the waterfalls in this area before, but never stayed at the campgrounds. So for the Sept. 18-19 weekend, we camped & hiked to High Falls and the waterfalls were beautiful! As we sat on a few enormous rocks & peopled watched, the twins enjoyed looking at the dogs playing in the water as well. Of course our camper sleeps plenty & the twins could have their own bed each, but with it being cold out, we enjoyed sleeping all together! We also took with us a bunch of extra blankets so that they could lay outside & play while we were relaxing, grilling, etc... Kooper's favorite thing was to crawl to the edge of the blankets & grab a handful of leaves, smash them in between his tiny fingers & then try to shove them into his mouth. The pictures from that camping trip are not great, but it was still lots of fun!
Sunday evening after getting home from camping, Kooper sat up all by himself! Of course once he figured this trick out, he was crawling all over the living room & then sitting up....he's a little bit of a show-off! His 2nd tooth also broke through and the twins enjoyed their first taste of baby food! They have been eating oatmeal & rice cereal a few times a day, but Sunday night they also enjoyed a small amount of Sweet Potatoes. They both seemed to really like them, and no signs of any allergies! (On a side note.....Although they are technically 7 months old, when we went to their Nutricianist in October at 8 months old, she quickly reminded me that their adjusted age is just then 6 months & to not over due it with the baby food. I'm kinda glad she mentioned this because so many people are shocked that they are just now starting with food. Thanks to my sister, Tera, she also reminds me what the AAP recommends, and the most important nutrients that they need is my breastmilk....enough said.)

Playing on bed in camper

Hadlee & Mommy taking a nap

Kooper playing ball with Daddy

This picture is dark, but it is of Hadlee babbling to us through the screen window in the pop-out section.

Daddy's making breakfast & the rest of us were staying warm together in bed.

As it seems every Monday, I was sad to leave the twins & return to the work week. I was especially depressed because Nick sent me a picture of Kooper pulling-up all by himself using his carseat! Wow! Wait just a minute....this is all happening way too fast! It was a just a few months ago the twins were fighting for their lives in the NICU & now they are growing & developing so quickly. I don't think I'm ready for it all.

As I predicted, it wasn't no time & Hadlee was following in her brother's footsteps. On Sept 24, Hadlee started sitting up all by herself. This again was one of those things that I learned by text message pictures from Nick. I was at work when she decided to show-off her skills. She isn't fully crawling yet, but she is doing the Kooper-style push-ups trying to. It won't be long & they both will be all over our house!

Hadlee has been going to physical therapy once a week now for several months. Her PT, Diana, is becoming more & more impressed with her development & believes we will be able to cut back the sessions by the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, her physical therapy is not fixing they fluid in her right shoulder & neck area, so in October Hadlee will also begin seeing a Kinetics Therapist (similar to massage therapy). This is to hopefully release the fluid so that Hadlee will tilt her head left & right more easily & also hold her head up straight. Although it is just a slight tilt, you can especially notice it if you see her shoulders from behind. Also, due to Hadlee's lung disease she is at a high risk of catching RSV & they explained to us that if she does catch it this winter, that due to her lung tissue condition, she could end up back in the NICU. October begins the winter months in SC, so she also begins her months shot of Synagis. This is an outrageously expensive shot, but thankfully our insurance covers 80% of it. She will receive 1 shot per month until April. We pray this vaccination does a good job & keeps her healthy through the winter!

Here are a few random pics of Hadlee enjoying the beautiful fall weather at the beginning of October. Kooper was inside taking a nap, as he is so good at doing....and she is so terrible at doing. They both enjoy running their fingers & tongues up & down the netting on the side of their pack-n-play. Crazy babies!
Who needs sleep? Not me, she says!

This is what Nick calls "the migration." By the beginning of October both of them are crawling all over the house & trying to get into everything! Especially the dog food & water bowl--gross!!!

As most of you know, it takes forever to bathe a baby, especially when they want to spend a good 15-20 mintues playing. Up until late October, I've been giving the twins baths separately since I'm usually home alone. However, they both really LOVE bath time & the one that is sitting on the floor outside of the tub waiting his/her turn is usually becomes unhappy. They play very well with each other, one inside the tub & one outside the tub; however, this also adds to them trying to stand-up in the "whale tub" in order to play on the edge with the one outside of the tub. So on an evening that Nick was home to help (October 23) we placed them into the big bath tub together! At first they struggled, sliding their little butts all over the place, but then they figured it out & were in heaven! Now we cannot give them baths any other way! Here are a few snapshots of their 1st bath together. Too cute!

They are not "Irish twins," I promise. Miss Hadlee is just going to be smaller than Koop.

*Note to self: take more pictures! Nick takes lots of pictures on his cell phone, but then we forget to post them. Sorry!

Harper's birthday, eating cereal, Lake Keowee with Olivia, & more Hiking

On August 21, we spent the afternoon/evening at Harper's 1st birthday party. Harper is the daughter of friend's of ours, James & Diana, that we met through Corby & Katie (Corby & Nick were college roommates at USI). Harper's party decorations were amazing!!! I think we were all alittle over stimulated by all the pink stuff, but it sure was super cute! The picture below is the only one I got at the party, but if you want to check out more pics, Diana has lots posted on her webpage: www.thedaysofdiana.com
Hadlee, Kooper, Olivia (Corby & Katie's baby), and birthday girl, Harper!
That same weekend, as I was giving the twins their baths, I just had to take their pictures. I am simply AMAZED at how much they have grown! Yes, I know they are still really small in comparison to their age, but when they first came home from the NICU, their bath tub was huge and now they are filling it up. Before long, they will be sitting up on their own in it. They already really enjoy playing in the water & splashing mommy! Although it is a lot of work, I love giving them baths!

On August 23, the twins had their first experience sitting in their high-chairs. They started eating oatmeal cereal first, but they only did for about 4 days and we had to switch to rice cereal. The oatmeal cereal did not settle well on Hadlee's stomach. Since then, the rice cereal seems to do just fine. One of my high school BFF's (Autumn) bought us the high-chairs and I am so thankful to have 2, plus they are portable so it makes it easy to take camping & to restaurants!

Over Labor Day weekend, we spent Sunday out on the boat at Lake Keowee with Corby, Katie, and sweet Olivia! Olivia was born just 2 months prior to the twins' arrival, so Hadlee already has a best-friend and Kooper already has a girlfriend, ha ha! While we were beached to enjoy some lunch, the babies played. It was funny to watch how different they all responded to the sand. Kooper LOVED running it through his fingers, Hadlee wanted to pick it up & lick it, and Olivia didn't want to touch it at all!

Beautiful Miss Hadlee ;-)

Kooper doing what he enjoyed....running his fingers through the cool sand.
Nick and Kooper enjoying some sun shine.
Hadlee & I loving our boat ride....check out the pretty mountains surrounding the lake!

Corby teaching Olivia how to drive.

Over the past few weeks, Kooper has been showing off his "push-ups!" It is absolutely hilarious to watch him! He gets up, rocks back & forth, and then collapses back to his belly. He also gets up on his knees and army crawls some, but it isn't as cute as his "push-up."
On Monday morning, Hadlee was up first, as usual. So I was in the living room nursing her when I heard Kooper's jungle mobile playing from his crib. When I went to check on him, I found him awake, sucking his thumb, and obviously he had turned it on all by himself! I was shocked, so I had to snap a pic of him.
Although I didn't take a picture of Hadlee throwing her usual evening tantrum, here is Kooper on Tuesday (Sept. 7) after getting their baths, and Hadlee screaming in my arms fighting sleep. I thought he looked like what I wanted to do "just throw my arms out & give up."
On Monday, of Labor Day weekend, we had went for a short drive up to Hendersonville, NC to the Apple Festival. It was extremely busy, so I didn't get any pics on our camera, but on our way home we took a more scenic route and we found a few new spots we couldn't wait to hike to. The next Sunday was beautiful as usual, so we headed back up. We were shocked to realize that these waterfalls were only 20-25 minutes north of our house. They were so pretty, I wished other people were with us to see them too! Here is the first one we hiked to: Hooker Falls. We also hiked up to Triple Falls, which was 3 staggered waterfalls, much larger than Hooker Falls, and oh so very pretty! Unfortunately, our camera's memory was full, so I didn't get any pictures of them. I think Nick took several pictures on his phone, so hopefully I can add those soon. This was a more serious hike & I was of course sore the next day....but so was Nick, so that made me feel better!