Easter Weekend

Here are some pictures of our Easter weekend. Saturday we went to church for the big Easter egg hunt. Sunday we went to church and all the family came over for lunch.
How we sleep in the living room

Spin art

Grampa and Olivia "hunting" for eggs

Daddy trying to convience Matthew to pick up eggs

Their twin shirts!


4 generations

Easter Sunday after church

SEVEN POUNDS!

Well, both girls are seven pounds. Abby is 7 lbs 11 oz and Izzy is 7 lbs 1 oz. Still 10 ounces apart, just like at birth. We went to the pulmonologist yesterday. We are going to leave Abby on the monitor until next month, just to make sure. I think the consensus is that there was some sort of infection, probably viral, that we couldn't get a sample of to identify. All is well now. I was looking through pictures of the girls since birth tonight and all we could come up with to say was "God is Good!" That is so true. Looking at how small and helpless they were, hooked up to all the machines and equipment, it is truely a miracle that they are with us today. I thank God every time I look into their beautiful faces. I can't wait to watch them grow up. It really is humbling to stop and look into ALL my kids faces, take a deep breath, and realize how fast everything is going by. How Joshua is about to be 13, then he will be driving and then he will be off to college. Don't close your eyes or it will be gone!

A day at the Doctor

Well, Abigail had her follow up appointment with the pediatrician following her "episode" Saturday. He said all looks good. I had Isabelle seen also, as she started this horrible cough last night. He agreed she sounded rattly, so she got a breathing treatment and a machine to take home. Now we are giving nebulizers every 4 hours for the next few days. He had blood drawn from each girl, and was shocked when their Blood counts were almost identical. Their White Blood Count (showing infection somewhere/some type) were both in the same elevated range, and they were both anemic to the same degree. We have increased the iron to battle the anemia and hopefully should see some results in the next month or so. He was concerned that Isabelle was showing the same signs of infection that Abby was, so she got a shot of antibiotics in her leg. Abby had 48 hours of them in the hospital and he had no way of knowing if Izzy's infection was on the same track or behind Abbys. He did not want to put her on a monitor also. We will just pray for her not to follow in her sister's footprints.

On a lighter note, Abby weighs 7 lbs 3 oz (that's right, SEVEN pounds!) and Izzy is following her at 6 lbs 12 oz. She is gaining on her sister every time we weigh!

We came on home and hosted lunch for the teachers on Rocky's vertical team. The weather was so nice, when I went to pick up the kids, they came home and didn't take too much prodding to go outside. Emily was sketching her siblings (though none of them would sit still for her). Caleb was buliding a fort with Mema holding down the pieces in the wind. Matthew was running between the jeep (which has a dead battery) and tearing up the fort that Matthew as building. Olivia just was happy feeling like she was in the mix. She would go sit in the jeep for a while, then come inside to check on me for a while, falling over the doorstep or the step down to the grass from the patio every time.

Here are some pictures...

We're home...again

Well, as some may know, Abigail had an apnea spell on saturday. She was not breathing, and if I had gotten to checking her pulse, I am sure it was not there. I had just sat down to nurse them both, when I looked down and Abby was blue. She was not breathing. I gave her some breaths, and then she took a big gasp and started to become less purple. She never really did cry, or turn back to pink so we called the ambulance. She grunted all the way to the hospital, and we were not about to let her go to sleep. I was able to hold her in the Amulance and keep her awake. We went to Cooks, and since this was an unexplained episode, and she had had a fever last wednesday night, they did a full septic work-up. This included blood culture, urine culture and a spinal tap. We also had a chest x-ray and a CT scan of her head. Everything was normal. She had an elevated white count - which could show infection (probably viral since all the cultures were negetave) or it could increase in response to the "near death" experience she had. We will probably never know what caused it. At one point the doctor even mentioned SIDS (which we rescued her from) as a cause. At any rate, she is back on the cardiac monitor - which is FINE with us. I was really wanting one for Isabelle, also, but just have to pray that all is ok. I am home today, trying to get things caught up in the house, and caught up on some rest. Here are some pictures from our stay.

How Identical Are They?

People are often asking us how we tell them apart. The truth is, they are getting harder and harder to tell apart as they lose that "preemie" look. I took some pictures last night and here are our hints.
Here are the back of their heads. Note the Hemangioma on the back of Isabelle's head.

Here are their belly buttons. Isabelle has an umbilical hernia. We hope that this will close on it's own, but if not, she will need surgery to correct it.

Here are thier ears. Abby is on the left, Izzy is on the right.

We are really enjoying them, trying as it may be at times. We're up for the challenge. We actually went out for our first outing ALL TOGETHER, (other than to church) Saturday night. Emily had an awards banquet for Cheerleading. It was nice, but as soon as the food was done, Rocky took Caleb, Matthew and Olivia home. Here is Emily with her trophy.

And here are a couple of pictures of Olivia and I holding the twins. She is really taking to them. Sometimes "hitting" them out of love. We're working on "gentle".

All is WELL

I know many of you have been waiting to hear about Isabelle's head sonogram. We had it repeated on friday, and the doctor called yesterday and all is well. No need for follow-up, and the fluid has actually decreased. I am home today and tomorrow, enjoying the nasty cold weather. Hopefully I will have time to get some more pictures taken and up. Also, tomorrow is Emily's 10th birthday! She is excited, but bummed - as the TAKS test is on her birthday.