Pretty girls!

OK, so I'm not doing very good on my weekly updates already and I just started back!!! I'm so sorry! I do want to be better!!! Somehow, I have got to make the time for my blog each week!

Well, over Memorial Day weekend, I took the girls to get their pictures made Friday afternoon(total last minute decision that morning). I barely made it there on time running around like a chicken with my head cut-off since Matt was gone, and then after an hour at Portrait Innovations with VERY LITTLE COOPEARTION from #1, #2 and #3, I left without buying a single picture! It was so defeating! I felt like I would probably be better off to never attempt professional pictures again if this is how it would be! For those of you that done know, when we are speaking in code (usually around Campbell) we refer to the girls as #1, #2 and #3 ... Campbell being #1, Cooper #2 and Conley #3 - no favortism here people, simply the order they were born! #1 was actually very cooperative for her individual shots, but then decided she was not going to be a part of any pictures with her sisters - so sweet. Sadly, none of Campbell's individual shots turned out that cute anyways. #2 cried the entire time, but bless her heart she ended up to have a fever. Seriously, she has a terrible mommy that insisted on dragging her to get her pictures taken when she didn't feel good! #3 was just as content as could be but absolutely insisted on giving the serious stare down to the photographer with no hint of a smile. It was so frustrating! Conley and Cooper both have the biggest smiles usually, and this was just not going to happen that day. I must say that our photographer was as sweet as she could be. She agreed that we did not have enough luck that day and suggested I just come back another time. She didn't make me feel bad at all about leaving having purchased NOTHING. Ugh! I still can't believe that day. I rescheduled to come back Sunday of that same weekend...I'm a brave and determined woman, let me tell ya!

Sunday was off to a better day, so I was very hopeful that we would have more luck. Matt was with me this time, so I was extra hopeful that the girls would cooperate as he doesn't have the same patience and determination as me to get good pictures! Don't get me wrong, the man has a lot of patience to even make the trip with his picture-crazed wife and THREE little girls, but he would certainly throw in the towel and give up much earlier than I would when it comes to a photo shoot! Although #2 and #3 were not nearly as smiley as we are used to seeing them, we still got some very precious pictures! I'd call our second attempt a success! Here you can see for yourself:

These are not the BEST pictures we've ever gotten of the three of them, but we were still very happy with them. It is so hard to get all three girls to put on their best smiles at the same time while sitting appropriately and looking at the camera - whew, I'm just tired thinking about it!!! Campbell has the hardest time trying to process all the many instructions (tilt your head, smile bigger, look at the camera, keep your hands down...), so usually she ends up looking elsewhere.

I love this one of the twins! They are so stinkin' cute if I do say so! It's hard to get a picture of them before they spot each others bows, because then they start ripping headbands off each other. It's so funny!

We got the best one of Cooper laying on her belly. We were lucky to get a shot of her without too much drool - my goodness the girl was drooly that day! She finally cut her first tooth this past weekend.

We got the best one of Conley sitting up. She would NOT give us her normal smile with her cute dimples, but she was still was very sweet and cooperative.

Campbell was very cooperative! This was probably the best picture that was the most natural pose and smile.

I do love this picture of Campbell too - gotta love her laugh!

These close-up profiles are my favorites!! They are so precious of all three girls! I especially love Conley's sassy pose! Campbell looks so genuinely happy and you can see her cute "frinkle" on her nose. This one shows off Cooper's pretty blue eyes so much too!

There's Conley's precious dimples finally!!!

Cooper cut her first tooth this weekend, but you still can't hardly see it. Conley is army crawling ALL over the place!!! Campbell is bravely getting right back to where she left off with swimming last year. The summer is off to a great start!

This past weekend we took a trip to Glen Rose with our Home Team. It was so fun! I will post pictures soon!!!

I'm back!!!!

OK, so I'm sure everyone has given up on my blog by now! This is by far the longest I've been out of commission....6 months!!! Sadly to say, Facebook has become my new "blog". I do miss blogging and checking on all my friends' blogs, so I'm ready to come back to the REAL blogging world! The longer it's been since the last time I blogged, the more overwhelming it feels to catch up. Well, here goes...

Our precious twins, Cooper and Conley, are now 7 months old!!! They are doing GREAT!! They have just recently started sitting up on their own and they have been rolling all over the place for months now. They are not crawling just yet, but we are in NO hurry for them to be mobile!! Here is a recap of their first 7 months...

Cooper has been given the cute nickname (by Mommy) Cooper-loops. I have no idea where it comes from, but I just started saying it one day and now I call her that all the time. I think it's really cute, and I think she likes it just fine :-) ! She has earned the reputation of being the "high maintenance" one. Cooper-loops just needs a little bit of extra attention than Conley Kate. Cooper is definitely the louder of the two. She squeals and screams even when she is not upset. She definitely wants to be held more often and does NOT like to go to sleep in her crib at night. We joke that she is going to make sister fat, because she seems to be the one that jumps the gun wanting to eat a little bit early, so we'll make their food or bottles, but then Conley eats all of hers while Cooper doesn't always finish. You see, the rule with twins at our house is that they both eat at the same time...ALWAYS! It makes our lives easier that way! Although we joke that she is high-maintenance, she is a very happy baby! She lights up when you look at her and talk to her, and she coos right back at you. She is very smiley. She loves to be held and has a precious giggle when you tickle her. She seemed to be the "first" to do things starting off...she rolled over first and she started her baby coos first, both between 3 and 4 months old. However, as soon as Cooper would do something, Conley would be doing it just days later. They really have stayed about the same developmentally.

Conley doesn't have as creative of a nickname, but I seem to always call her Conley Kate. It just flows well. Conley is the laid back one. She is just such a sweet, content (most of the time), happy girl. Now, don't get me wrong, Conley has her moments where she needs attention as well, but between her and Cooper, she usually is more laid back. Conley doesn't squeal and scream nearly as much, she has more of a growl sound that she makes when she "talks". Usually we can tell from their sounds which one is which on the baby monitor. Her most recent new "trick" is to stick out her tongue and blow a spitting sound. She does it when she is very happy and excited. It's pretty cute....except when it's time to eat! Conley goes to bed so easily. She may cry when you first put her in her crib, but usually she can just play until she is tired and then falls asleep just fine on her own. Cooper fights it quite a bit more. Conley has recently started sleeping flat on her face. It scared us at first, but she positions her face so she can still breathe and that just seems to be how she likes to sleep. She is on her tummy, face-down most mornings. Conley has the cutest dimples. Her eyes sparkle when she smiles. Such a pretty girl!

Conley's eye looks amazingly better! We have been so happy to see her response with the medicine that she is on. Her hemangiomas have lightened and cleared up so much! The one on her head is about the same area still, but it's much flatter and softer, MUCH lighter in color and it's cleared up a LOT in the middle of it. It seems to be clearing up from the inside out. The hemangioma on her eye has shrunk quite a bit. It's very soft now and almost completely flat and MUCH lighter in color. She has been able to open her eye completely since starting on her medicine. She has never needed a patch or any assistance with her vision. I guess hemangiomas grow up to a baby's first 12 months, so I can't imagine what it would have looked like on her eye had she not been on the medicine. It was so aggressive with the growth that it made just in her first 3 weeks of life. We are so thankful for Dr. Hunt and his successful experiment of this treatment for hemangiomas in infants! We are keeping her on it until she is 12 months, but we will no longer increase the dosage with her weight. It will be a natural way to wean her off of it.

They both lost most of their hair in the first few months. They started off with quite a bit more than they have now. It's growing back on top already, but the back of their heads are very bald. Their hair looks much darker than Campbell's so I'm guessing they'll be brunettes. Their eyes are still VERY blue just like Campbell's! We can't believe that we have 3 blue-eyed girls! Matt and I both have brown eyes. Conley is about half a pound heavier than Cooper. At 6 months Conley was about 13 lbs 6 oz and Cooper was around 12 lbs 14 oz. I'm guessing they are around 14+ lbs by now. They are barely in the 5th percentile for their age, so they are still on the small side...although their chubby cheeks and thighs can be misleading! They both ended up with RSV around 3 months old, so we made a trip to the ER at Cook Children's in Fort Worth, but we were just sent home with breathing treatments to do. They were over it in about a week. Besides that, they have been very healthy. They are so fun to watch when we put them on the floor to play. They grab toys from each other or grab the other one's bow or headband. They roll around and end up kicking each other in the head. When we put one in her high chair, she'll lean forward and look over at the other high chair to see if sister is there and see what she is doing. It's so cute! I can tell that twins are going to be a lot of fun to watch them grow up together!

Campbell Kay has been a wonderful big sister!! She has always been SO sweet to Cooper and Conley! Although she has her jealous moments, she has never acted out towards them really. She is always proud to show them off to her friends and often calls them "my babies". If we ask Cooper or Conley a question like, "Well, are you already hungry?" Campbell will remind me, "Momma, my babies can't talk!" She is very helpful most of the time, but occasionally when I ask her to do something, she'll reply, "no, you can do it." I guess she doesn't always feel like helping! I can totally relate...LOL! She has been going to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and has done great! Next year we are thinking about enrolling her at a different school that offers 3 days a week. This spring she also tried soccer for the first time. Although she was not exactly MVP, she had a lot of fun and really enjoyed it! She was definitely one of the youngest players and probably one of the least aggressive. She would always run up to the coach as soon as we'd get to practice or the game and make sure he knew she was there. "Coach Matt, Coach Matt, I'm here!!!" It was as if she thought he was waiting to start practice until she got there - too funny! He always got a kick out of her. I think we'll try again in the fall if she wants to. We're hoping to do swim lessons soon and then maybe try gymnastics this summer. She's finally taking after her Momma ... the girl is getting quite a few freckles on her face this year already! Well, as Campbell calls them, "frinkles". She is too cute with her "wild-woman" curly hair! It is crazy how curly her hair is. Everyone comments on it when they see her. It's precious right now, but I'm sure she'll hate it one day. We're hoping that it will get some weight on it soon, because we are NOT trying to set the record for the biggest fro on a 3-year-old. Oh my! Campbell surely keeps us laughing all the time with the funny things she says. She has quite the personality. We just love how fun she is!! I still call her "baby girl". I can't believe she will be 4 this year!!!

Let's see, what else is new??? We moved!! I tend to want to make our lives as crazy as possible, so we decided to move with 4 month old twins! We moved in with my parents for a few weeks while doing some remodel work at our new house. It was nuts and such a mess!! We are glad to be past most of the mess, but we still have a never-ending project list!

I came back to work at the beginning of January. I'm working a modified schedule that allows me to take Campbell to and from school with shorter work days twice a week, and a day to work from home every Friday. It's been nice, but I still end up to be very busy and often work from home at night to maintain my workload. I'm still learning to balance everything. My mom has been a lifesaver to us keeping the girls during the week. She has all three girls Mon and Wed and then just the twins on Tues and Thurs when Campbell is at school. Those are shorter days for her too since I get off early those days. Then Fridays she keeps just Campbell while my grandparents keep the twins. It gives my mom a day to do one-on-one stuff with Campbell and my grandparents really enjoy getting to know the twins better this way. We don't know what we would do without the help of our family!! We are so very blessed with supportive family!!!

Matt recently took on more responsibilities at his job with a promotion to Director in his IT department. He's doing really well at APH and seems to enjoy it a lot. He was able to hire a friend of his to work with him, who actually just started his first day today! I think they will really enjoy working together.

Matt and I have to laugh quite often about our crazy new lives with 3 kiddos. There are so many times that they are all screaming at once and it gets pretty overwhelming. We just handle it as best we can, and then we look back and laugh about it. What else can we do??? LOL! We both have had to step it up with responsibilities at home, so we don't keep up with many shows on DVR anymore. Our evenings are pretty full with dinner, baths, bottles and bedtime. We do love our girls and spending time with them in the evenings, but house projects have kept us very preoccupied. Now that our projects are slowing down, we hope to find a better balance of quality time during the week as a family.

All-in-all, we are doing great! Matt and I are trying to find an area to start volunteering at church again as we are adjusting to our new routine. We're ready to get back to our "pre-twin" activities again ... LOL! Honestly, we really have stayed very busy with our litter-in-tow just fine over 7 months. We pretty much have done all the same things we did before, now we just need a table for 5! I was eager to get back in shape after being on bed rest for so long, so I've run 2 half marathons (March and April) and a couple shorter races. It's been great stress relief, but the training takes a lot of time...time that I don't have! I'm going to take a break from the longer races, but I still hope to do a few every year. Matt and I are registered for a 6.4 mile Mud Run in November. That should be interesting!

OK, I think that gets us pretty much caught up! I guess I'm back on track now! Hopefully I'll keep up with at least weekly updates! Thanks for not giving up on me!!!

Good update for Conley!

Conley's MRI showed that the hemangioma on her head has no inter-cranial activity, which was great news! She did great during the MRI too! We fed her a bottle and then swaddled her up tight with her passy, and she stayed still the entire time. It lasted about 25 minutes, and was really loud. Matt and I were given earplugs so we could stay right by the machine to watch her. If she hadn't already had her hearing test, I would have been worried! She just kept sucking away on her pacifier. I think the constant noise was almost comforting to her. Granted, with Campbell around, the babies are used to constant noise! Also, she checked out fine at the cardiologist, so we were able to start her medicine this past Tuesday! We are excited to see the progress f the hemangioma reduction over the next couple weeks. Thank you for the continued prayers!

We also had a fun Halloween! Pictures to come!!!

Update on Conley's Eye Treatment

We saw Dr. Hunt at Cook's in Hurst. We were very happy with him. The three options that Dr. Hunt discussed with us were 1) steroid injections 2) oral steroids or 3) Propranolol. He said the steroid injections can possibly cause skin discolorations. Also, the injections would only be to treat the hemangioma on her eye, whereas the oral treatments would also reduce the hemangioma on her head. The oral steroids of course have some side effects that would have to be monitored. The third option was the one that he felt best about. They have only actually used it in a handful of patients at this point to treat hemangiomas, but they have had impressive results with all of them. They have found that Propranolol, which I believe is typically prescribed for blood pressure, reduces the appearance of hemangiomas. He said even in the first couple weeks we will see a big difference in the color and intensity even. She would be on the medicine until at least 6 months, and possibly up to 12 months since hemangiomas typically can continue growth up to 12 months. We will see a cardiologist next Wed morning to determine if she is a good candidate for the medication...make sure she has no heart problems that would prevent her from being a good candidate. If she checks out fine, we will begin her on the medication very soon. She is opening that eye less and less now, so I'm very anxious to start the treatment in hopes that it will reduce the size quickly. She also has an MRI scheduled for next Friday to determine if the hemangioma on her head goes deep enough to be threatening to her brain. Of course, we are VERY hopeful that it will determine that there is NO threat there! Big prayers for those results!! Thankfully, we will find out that same day what the MRI says. Our pediatrician's office will call us that afternoon with the results. The treatment for the eye will also reduce the one on her head since it is an oral treatment rather than a local injection, so that is a benefit to the third option as well. It sounds like something that they have only recently used in the last couple years. The opthamologist has worked very closely with a pediatric dermatologist as well as the cardiologist on this treatment in past patients.

We felt good about all the information that he shared with us. I was so glad that he wasn't recommending surgery or laser removal. We are also going to start having chiropractic care for our entire family, and our chiropractor is very hesitant for Conley to be on any medication. It is so important for us to treat this soon so that her eyesight is not affected, since her eyes are being trained so much in these first few months. I'm not sure that the chiropractor is going to have a better alternative option for us, so I think we feel good about moving forward with this medication as treatment.

I'm so thankful that we are making progress with the doctors so quickly on her treatment. We are so anxious for her to be able to open that eye completely as soon as possible. Thank you all for your continued prayers for our precious Conley. We are so so so blessed with our girls!!

Prayers for sweet Conley!

Oh our poor sweet Conley, say prayers for her (and me!)! The "angel kisses" on her head and eye are actually hemangiomas that have started to raise up over the last week. They are much darker and larger than when she was first born. Since we saw Dr. Radimecky last week for their 2 week appointment, they have gotten worse, and the one in her eye started to concern me. Over the last few days, she is unable to completely open her eye. It looks so sad! I took her back in Wednesday for him to look at it again. He was immediately concerned. He said we need to have an opthamologist look at it to see about maybe even removing it, because if it blocks her pupil, it will affect her vision and probably cause her to have a lazy eye. He is also concerned about the one on her head and how deep it may go. We have an appointment with the opthamologist tomorrow at 7:30 am at Cook Children's in Hurst. They are also setting up a CT scan for the one on her head, and they will call me with that appointment time once that is setup. He said that the one on her eye would probably have to be removed with a laser since hemangiomas bleed so much. As much as I hate the way that they look on her sweet face and head, I wish that they were able to just be left alone. I feel bad that she might have to have them removed. I just hope that they can decide with confidence one way or the other, and if they do choose to remove them, I hope that they are very safe procedures. I also read that sometimes they shrink them using steroid injections. Of course, I want them to do whatever is necessary for her well-being in the long-term, but she is just so small right now. It's so sad and scary for me to think about her having to go through any of this, but it's also sad and scary to think about what it is doing to her eye. I'm thankful that we are having it looked at so early. I hope that we find out as much as possible tomorrow, and that with confidence they can decide on a plan of action that we can move forward with soon. I also pray that it is something that will be as least invasive for her and will have an easy recovery.

Here are pictures of her eye at 2 weeks and then again today at 3 weeks. This past week it has gotten so much worse, so quickly.

Beautiful girls at 2 weeks - eyes wide opened

Beautiful Conley at 2 weeks

Sweet, beautiful Conley at 3 weeks

Dear Lord, please protect our sweet and precious Conley Kate and give me strength to be the best Mommy for her right now and to do what is best for her. Thank you God for all of our beautiful girls!

Much too late update!

OK, so I clearly have got to be better about updating the blog! The problem is FACEBOOK!! I update Facebook all the time and forget that not everyone is on FB. Anyways, each day we are doing better on our new "routine"! I'm feeling better and better everyday! I'm still SO counting down the days where I can sleep longer. Right now the pediatrician still wants me setting an alarm to wake up for feedings every 3 hours (which is start of feeding to start of next feeding ... which means really about 1 1/2 hours - 2 hours of sleep in between feedings IF they go to sleep and stay asleep after each feeding) until they are probably about 2 months old. He wants them to be around 7 or 8 lbs before we let them sleep longer without eating. The girls were 3 weeks old yesterday! Only 3 more weeks until I'm officially "back to normal" ... LA Fitness, here I come!!

Campbell is still doing so well with her new sisters. She is VERY sweet with them always. Whenever she isn't sure which baby you are holding, she will ask, "what is that?", which really means "who is that?" She'll talk in a sweet high pitch voice and say, "Hi sweet gull [girl], what are you doing?" It's so cute! She'll also say, "Mommy! I've never seen this baby before! She is so cute!" She often says, "I love her" while touching their heads too. She really is very sweet with them. She does, however, still do a LOT to get attention. She has completely regressed on potty training. She still goes "tee-tee" on the potty just fine, but the other has become a problem ... a DAILY problem. It's so frustrating! I don't want us to punish her, but it's so frustrating since we know that she knows better. We are trying to use positive reinforcement as incentives, but it's not yet working. We have LOTS of goodies on display in the bathroom that she gets to pick from when she goes poo poo on the potty. She talks about them a lot as if she is ready to earn a prize, but then she inevitably has an accident that day. We ask her ALL the time if she wants to try to go, and she says, "not yet Mommy." She is also not listening very well. Everyone asks us how hard it is to have twins, but really they are a breeze ... ha ha! It's the almost 3 year old that is the handful right now!

Here are some pictures over the past couple weeks.

Our Family of FIVE!

OK, so we clearly didn't have a plan for September 30th :-) ... and we didn't communicate too well with all of our friends. Anyways, the girls decided to come last Wednesday ... they decided they wanted to be September babies instead of October! I went in for a sonogram and check-up. The girls looked great at the sonogram. Then we went to see Dr. Wood for my checkup. She decided to go ahead and check my cervix. I was dilated 4 cm!! She sent me back to the hospital to be monitored and rechecked 2 hours later. If I progressed past 4 cm, I would be admitted for delivery. She told me to go ahead and take out my Terbutaline pump, which wasn't planned to come out until Friday (2 days later). Sure enough, the terb pump was doing it's job, because as soon as it came out, the contractions started coming!! Two hours later I was dilated to 5 cm. I was admitted around 2:30. Cooper Marie was born first at 6:47 PM and Conley Kate was born second at 7:03 PM. Cooper weighed 4 lbs 13 oz at 17.5 inches and Conley weighed 5 lbs 4 oz at 17.5 inches. Cooper was a breeze ... delivered with only 2 1/2 pushes! Then we had to have a c-section to deliver Conley because she turned bottom down. Although we had prayed for Conley to turn head-down to avoid a c-section, God had a better plan for us. It was a blessing that she turned that way though, because her placenta had detached/abrupted 70%. Had we been able to deliver her vaginally, it could have cut off her oxygen and caused me to lose even more blood than I had. I ended up losing twice as much blood as a normal c-section already. All that to say, we are thankful that Conley turned the way that she did! Because of the large amount of blood loss, I was VERY "out of it" during the c-section as well as the next couple days to follow. During the c-section and in the recovery room immediately after, I could not keep my eyes open hardly at all. I barely remember talking to anyone. Hence the reason for little communication while we were in the hospital. It's all still a blur really! They monitored me to see if I would need a blood transfusion, but my counts showed that the transfusion was not necessary. I was throwing up all night after the delivery into the next morning, and I could not finish conversations without falling asleep even the day after the surgery. NOT FUN when you have two beautiful babies to start to bond with! I was hooked up to an oxygen monitor the night of my surgery, which went off every time I started to doze because my levels would drop. We couldn't sleep because of the alarm going off, so they put me on oxygen finally just so I could sleep. It was such a crazy blur of a night! We stayed until Sunday because it took me until then to feel well enough to go home.

Although the delivery and recovery for Mommy were tough, the girls have done GREAT from the start! They didn't have to spend even one minute in the NICU ... PRAISE GOD!! They have been breathing just fine on their own, nursing well from the start and are absolutely beautiful (if I do say so!). We have gone for two follow ups for their weight and jaundice. Both girls are already gaining weight since we left the hospital, which is great! Cooper's jaundice has already started to go down, and Conley's did plateau today but we'll go back tomorrow to see if it is starting to go down. They both have a little bit of dark hair and definitely are identical!! We are thankful that Conley has two "angel kisses" (or "stork bites) as they are called by the nurses so that we can tell them apart. Conley has one on her head and one in the corner of her right eye. They will go away eventually, but for now we are glad that they are there so Mommy and Daddy don't feel bad getting them mixed up!

It is so strange having such tiny little babies since Campbell was born almost twice their size! They are just so precious to hold and so so sweet already! We are loving every minute with them! It is so amazing to just watch them and think what miracles they are, all three of them....Campbell, Cooper and Conley! Our ONE embryo with Campbell that was our first miracle....and then our ONE embryo with Cooper and Conley that surprised us...God is SO good! To think that they doctors didn't think our second baby would make it. I look at both of them now and can't imagine either of them not being a part of our family.

Campbell is SO sweet and cute with them and is doing great! She really is loving being a big sister! She is definitely happy to have Mommy and Daddy home with her, since we were both at the hospital from delivery until Sunday. I'm so happy to be home with her finally too ... and on my feet (although it's still a recovery process)!

We are being so careful with them being so tiny and young right now with the flu going around, so we have decided to keep Campbell out of Mother's Day Out until I return to work. We don't want her bringing home anything, and if she were to get sick she couldn't be here in the house with them until she was better. We are avoiding large crowds indoors for the time being or having them around many kiddos. We still welcome visitors to come meet them! We are just being careful not to have little kids around them right now and to sanitize well. The Women's Center at HEB actually went on "lock-down" the weekend that I was discharged only allowing immediate family to visit mommies and babies because of the flu.

Although this has been a long few months for us, it of course is all so so so worth it now having the girls here with us and being able to bring them home from the hospital immediately. We can't thank you all enough for your prayers and support for the last few months!! We are so very blessed with such wonderful friends and family!

Conley

Cooper laying on Mommy

Cooper in pink and Conley in yellow

Cooper on left and Conley on right

Conley on left and Cooper on right