Where I was One Year Ago...

One year ago today, I went in for my normal appointment with the perinatologist for my pregnancy with Cooper and Conley. I was 23 weeks and 5 days along in my pregnancy. To my surprise, I was admitted the hospital with absolutely no notice. The doctor sent the nurse to get me a wheelchair, and I was wheeled down the hall to be admitted into Labor and Delivery where I would stay as long as I could avoid delivery. That turned out to be a 72-day stay, which resulted in wonderful friendships that I still have with many of my nurses, and most importantly resulted in two healthy babies that made it until 35 weeks and 5 days not spending even one minute in the NICU. Every day in the hospital was absolutely worth it. When I look at Cooper and Conley today (Conley is trying to crawl in my lap as I type this), I don't even remember the unique journey we took to get them here safely. When anyone asks me about staying in the hospital, I have to remind myself that I was really there for 10 weeks. Wow! It never seemed like 72 days. That was mostly because of my FABULOUS nurses (who really just became my friends that had to wait on me hand and foot...that's not so bad!) and the great program that HEB has for mommies on hospital bed rest. I mean, I had craft time, movie night, free massages and educational classes. HEB Women's Center is definitely the place to be if you have to be on bed rest long-term! It was a very surreal experience to learn....you can't go home for a very long time....you have to sleep away from your husband and daughter for a very long time....you can't even go home to pack a bag or straighten things up...you have to leave work unexpectedly for some unknown time....BUT in hindsight, it was all worth it and I had a lot of fun too!

Here are just a few of my favorite memories...

Time with Campbell EVERY day

Everyone helping me count down the days

Time with Daddy and Campbell who helped me take off a link of my countdown chain every day

Visits from friends

Craft time....Nannie came up to visit with Campbell EVERY weekday while Matt was at work. She even joined in crafts sometimes! I know these fabrics are NOT very girly, I let Campbell pick them out, which of course, she picked the prints with animals on them.

I even got a pedicure from Gigi!

Campbell often fell asleep in my bed during her visits....which I LOVED!

My FABULOUS patio!

The absolute SWEETEST, most GENEROUS nail lady ever....My Hoang! She was so sweet to come to the hospital to do my nails, heaven forbid I had to go without having them done for 10 weeks! That's not even funny to think about!! I had never met My before being in the hospital. I still go to her to this day, and I will forever go to her!!!

BINGO with Julie! I would joke that I was in a nursing home....playing BINGO and learning how to crochet...LOL! I loved it though!

Every Monday, Katie would come watch The Bachelor with me! She would always claim the pink Snuggie!

Daddy and Campbell stayed for a slumber party!

Movie time with Campbell, the girl LOVES her movies! We even had popcorn!!

Wheelchair rides with Campbell Kay

Dr. Peppers for our anniversary! What a treat!

Tracking our growing bellies

Being on TV, not once....

....but twice!

My FABULOUS nurses

HEADING HOME!!!

So, it wasn't so bad!!!

The best part of all....two healthy baby girls born at 35 weeks and 5 days breathing and eating perfectly on their own! Thank you God for keeping Cooper and Conley safe in Mommy's tummy to grow strong for those 10 weeks!

THREE Firecrackers on the 4th of July

We had many outfits to show-off for the 4th of July. I took pictures over the weekend of the many red, white and blue ensembles, but there were others in addition to these....lets just say that our girls are not lacking clothes, thank you Nannie and Gigi mainly! Grandma Barb also bought Campbell an adorable 4th of July dress this year. We had a great weekend with family and friends...Saturday we went to a pool party with friends in the afternoon followed by church and Kinkaid's Hamburgers for dinner. Sunday we went to church AGAIN, lunch at Red Brick Pizza and then poolside at Matt's Aunt Jody's house with lots of family. We then walked to the Bedford Boys Ranch for the awesome show that Bedford puts on year after year.

Ready for church on Sunday

Excited to see Toy Story 3....of course Woody gets to go along with us!

Ready to go swim at Aunt Jody's house before the fireworks!

Hanging out at Aunt Jody's house with the family

Ready to hit the pool!

Ready to go see some fireworks!

Cooper and Conley very excited and anxious to see the fireworks!!

Sweet Campbell watching the fireworks as we walk back to the car. She was such a good sport even though we had to leave early since sisters were sick.

We had a great day, and Cooper and Conley slept perfectly in their strollers while we waited for the 10:00 firework show to start. Right at 10:00, both girls wake up coughing. Conley throws up all over, so we decide to head back. Campbell was such a trooper. She didn't throw a fit when we had to leave, but she did enjoy still watching the show with Daddy while we walked away. Luckily we could see most of it all the way back to our car. On our way back to the car, Cooper threw up and Conley threw up a second time. Once in the car, Cooper threw up again. It was a messy end to our weekend. Poor babies! They slept in their swings in our room that night, because we were so afraid of them throwing up and choking. They both just had an awful cough that they kept getting choked up on. They slept great all night, no coughs. Then they woke up Monday coughing again. I took them to their pediatrician first thing Monday morning. Cooper threw up as I pulled into the parking lot. It turns out they both have bronchitis - ugh! Poor things! The craziest part is that it turned into bronchitis so fast, because they didn't really have any cold symptoms before Sunday. Oh well! Now they are just snotty messes as this is hopefully clearing up.

Really, we had a great weekend, and even though C&C are sick, they still stay their smiley selves. Monday we went with friends to see Toy Story 3 with Campbell. She loved it! She even took her Woody doll to see the movie with us. Nama and Papa were sweet to keep 2 sick babies while we snuck away to the movie. Then Tuesday it was back to work! We enjoyed our 3-day 4th of July weekend with our girls!

Happy 9 Months C&C!

Well, this is a little late, but Cooper and Conley turned 9 months old last week! They are such sweet babies with the prettiest smiles! We have so enjoyed the last 9 months with them!!

Since Cooper is the oldest (by 17 minutes), I'll let her go first. At 9-months old, Cooper is now getting around wherever she wants to go pretty much! She (just like her twin) "army crawls" at the moment. She can move pretty quickly that way. She just pulls herself with her arms and pushes with her toes, but she never gets up on her knees. She has just recently gotten up on her knees to go from her tummy to sitting up on her own though, so it's only a matter of time before she figures out how to crawl on her knees probably. It really is probably easiest though to slide on her tummy on our tile and wood downstairs. She now has her bottom two teeth coming in where we can see them. She is usually pretty serious when she first meets new unfamiliar faces, but once she warms up, Cooper gives such a pretty smile with her big blue eyes. She is usually very content to sit in the floor and play with toys for quite a while. Although we used to joke that she is high maintenance, she seems to have gotten more laid back in recent months. Her hair is perfectly long enough to sport a pretty decent mohawk after bath time. It's pretty darn cute! I should take some mohawk pictures!! Cooper has also recently started to babble. She says it in her sweet and soft voice.....da da da da. I'll have to catch her on video soon! She weighed in at 15 lbs 4 oz this week, putting her in the 5th percentile for weight for her age. This surprises people, because they think Cooper and Conley look pretty big for twins. They are still pretty small for their age although their chubby cheeks can be deceiving!

Conley was the first one to "crawl" by a couple of weeks, so she is the more experienced and faster of the two army crawlers in our house. She seems to have no desire to attempt to get up on her knees at the moment, so she is still not able to sit up on her own from a laying down position. She also has her bottom two teeth. Conley's teeth came in just a couple days after Cooper's first tooth. Just like Cooper, she can be somewhat serious when she first meets a new face, but she quickly turns into her smiley self! She too has such pretty blue eyes and the cutest dimples! I've always thought Conley's eyes sparkle when she smiles. Although she is still a pretty laid back baby, I think she has become more high maintenance in recent months. Conley seems to want to be held more often than Cooper lately. She'll crawl up to your feet and reach up your leg for you to pick her up. Sometimes she'll start to cry as you go to set her down if she would prefer to be held. All in all though, she is still a very good baby and very easy going. Her hair is just slightly shorter than Cooper's, so her mohawk doesn't last as long usually. Conley is not doing much babbling, but she loves to perform her tricks. You'll catch her looking at you and clapping her hands hoping for you to praise her. Usually I'll start clapping and say "Yea Conley!!!" and then she smiles so big! She'll also move her hand over her mouth while making sounds like we have shown her to do. I need to get this on video too! Man, I have a lot to video this week!! I better get to it! She weighed in at 15 lbs 11 oz, still half a pound heavier than Cooper. The funny thing is that when I tell people that "she" is 1/2 pound heavier, they usually reply, "Cooper is, right?" I think it's funny that people think Cooper looks bigger. You can't tell too much until you pick one up right after the other.

They both seem to be doing great developmentally! They have been about one month behind where Campbell was all along...rolling over, sitting up on their own, and crawling. Campbell even started off army crawling. So, I think that they are right on track given that they were born 4 weeks earlier than Campbell. They are just now wearing most 6 month clothes, so they are still behind on some of their summer clothes!! We've got lots of outfits to get through and grow into by the end of the summer! They have been eating 3 meals a day of baby food since they turned 6 months. They are great eaters! They are eating Level 2 Gerber baby foods. They eat 3 tubs between the 2 of them for each meal, one green veggie, one yellow/orange veggie and one fruit. So far, they seem to like all foods just fine. They really enjoy Puffs and Mum Mums right now too. I think they enjoy them because they can play with them and get to feed themselves. I find that this is an excellent activity to keep them happy and busy while I'm in the kitchen....as long as I'm in the mood to clean up their mess when they are done, because they sure do make a mess!!! They are pretty good sleepers, but we still keep their swings in their room in case we have a hard time getting one back to sleep. It's been nice that they are still so small, because we've been able to use their swings still. I think in the next 3 months we'll probably starting phasing out some of the baby gear. We've already stopped using the high chairs since they take up so much room and get to be such a mess to clean. We now just use booster chairs that snap onto our kitchen table chairs. We are going to stop putting them into their bouncy seats for bottles, because they try to reach things on the ground and then get themselves in a sticky situation of hanging off the seat sideways where they can't sit back up. I think that's probably a sign that they are done with the bouncers! They still haven't started pulling themselves up to stand yet, so we still have their pretty mobiles in their cribs, although I think that's probably right around the corner for us. They have started taking "big girl baths" without the baby tubs. They really enjoy this, because they can both be in the bath together and they can play with all the toys too. We have also introduced them to floaties in the pool, which Cooper loved right away. Conley wasn't so sure at first, but this past weekend she really did have fun.

Let the army crawling race begin!!

This was before Conley really started enjoying the water

Although Conley appears to be the "bully" in both of these pictures, they both actually grab each others bows any chance they get

Love bath time!

Overall, Cooper and Conley are doing great! We've had a great first 9 months with them!! Happy 9-month birthday girls!!! We love you soooooooooooooo much!!!