The gift of my mother

My mom has been such a huge help.  She came to stay with us on Monday night and stayed through Thursday morning.  She has cooked, cleaned, changed diapers, done laundry, and most importantly took the 6:00 morning feeding so that Forrest and I could sleep.  A thank you is just not enough, but right now it's what I have to give, so Mom.....a thousand thank yous come your way.  I know it's tiring but you have eased our load significantly.

Also, she and I snuck away for a pedicure on Wednesday morning.  That was a nice treat for us both!

Anyways, here's a pic of her with the grandbabies.  They are so lucky to have her and I know they'll love her tremendously (like I did my grandmothers).  One other thing she did while she was here is hold our babies.  That was probably the most important task (wait no, it was still the morning feeding, haha!).

Olivia comes home

Another wonderful day!  Olivia came home today and completed our family of four.  She had to stay a bit longer than Carter because she had an infection which required 10 days of antibiotic treatment, which started on her birth day.  She got her last dose of antibiotics tonight at 8:00pm and we were there waiting to take her home.  Since we did a room in with Carter, we didn't have to do one with her.  We just picked her up from the NICU and took her home. 

Reunited at last!

Room in with Carter

On Saturday morning we went to visit Carter and Olivia at the NICU.  Uncle Bart came with us and we had a wonderful time with the babies.

Of note about the NICU, before you can go to the baby's bedside, you have to scrub in, which consists of handwashing from fingertip to elbow for 3 minutes (or more specifically, 3 minutes and 6 seconds, which is what the timer at the handwashing station is set to).  The water is controlled by two foot pedals, a hot and a cold.  The soap is also controlled by a foot pedal.  The hot water is VERY hot.  Bart made a comment about it while washing up....he said "Wow, this will take you straight from the NICU to the burn unit!"  Not sure that it is funny when retold, but it made me laugh at the time.

Anyways, I fed both babies and Bart and Forrest held them.  While there we were told that Carter was ready to be released and we'd be doing our "Room In" that night.  This was the best news I've heard in so long!  I got so excited that I even shed some tears.

Rooming in occurs in the Labor and Delivery area.  We get to have him all night long and we do everything - feed, change diapers, soothe, etc.  The NICU nurses are there to check in on us and make sure it all goes well.  Most importantly, Carter wasn't hooked up to any machines!  No IV or anything!

Our night went great.  The NICU nurse taught us how to give him a sponge bath and then we had to feed him every three hours.  It was an exhausting night, as we both had to wake up each time we fed, but we learned a lot and Carter was so good the whole night.

We checked out at about 1:30pm on Sunday (it took WAY too long for the nurses to get their acts together, in my opinion) and went home.

Here are some pics of our night with Carter:

Ready to go home:

Gifts by mail

We received four gifts by mail this week.  It's so fun to get a delivery!  I didn't take a picture of two of them, but it's not because they aren't worth mentioning. I got two beautiful flower arrangements - one from Tenaska and another from a customer, South Mississippi Electric.

I got this gift from Todd and Theresa Wesley:

And I got these gifts from a customer, Southern Company Services:

Cool huh?  I've got fantastic friends - thanks guys!

Babies Day 6

Today was another great day at the NICU.  I fed both babies at the same time!  I used the footall hold, which I've heard a lot of people don't like, but it seemed to work well for Carter and Olivia.

Olivia is such a motivated eater.  Carter however can't seem to focus on anything for very long.  He just likes to look around at his surroundings.  He still fed well, but he just had to be reminded a few times what he was doing.  They were both ready to eat when we arrived, which really helped the cause.  It was so nice to have success in nursing both of them at once. 

Last night was also a nice night in the NICU, as I fed both babies individually.  When we arrived they were both crying, so I was nervous about getting them both fed in a timely manner.  However, they instructed me to feed Carter first since woke up first (fair is fair!) and Forrest held and calmed Olivia while she waited. 

Forrest is so good with the babies.  They are totally smitten with him, as he is with them.  It's wonderful to see him as a father.  Carter and Olivia are incredibly blessed.

Meet my MIL Christine

This is Forrest's mom, Christine, shown here holding Olivia on Wednesday October 12.

She has been so good to us this week!  She flew in from California and arrived a couple hours after the delivery (just missed it!) and has been helping us out ever since.  On Tuesday she brought over grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, steamed veggies, bread, and brownies.  On Wednesday she brought us steaks and baked potatoes.  She also brought these beautiful flowers for us yesterday.

Her mother (we all called her "Dunn") loved babies breath and always took that as a gift to new moms.  Christine carried on the tradition and brought us some.  Also, she has chosen to go by "Dunn" to her grandchildren, in honor of her mother.  That made us so happy. 

I know that our babies will love her so much!

Thursday Update from my mom

Both babies are doing very well.  Carter is under the lights for jaundice but has regained his birth weight and is nursing.  He will likely go home before Olivia because Olivia has to have IV antibiotics for an infection, and those will be up on Tuesday.  That would be the earliest she could go home.  Olivia is eating 30cc of milk each time, which is a little over an oz.  Carter is up to 26cc every 3 hours.  She has also regained her birthweight.

Olivia was dressed in a cute little onesie and hat supplied by the hospital.  Carter has only a diaper on due to lights.  Forrest has posted pics of todays visit on fb if you want to look at them.  Carter got fed by me (after Sarah the cow) and Olivia got fed by Liah.  Carter was much more awake - he cried - first sound I have heard either make altho Olivia did kind of mew when I was holding her.

The nurse told Sarah to come back for the late feeding only today - breast feeding is harder for the babies and they needed the rest until tonight.  They will be bottle fed at 3 and 6.  SHe is also very worn out in that she went to the hospital at 8 and did not come home until 12:30.  She will be need the quiet herself for a few hours.

It was wonderful to hold the babies, and I look forward to them being at home when we can cuddle them.

Olivia:

 Carter