Baby Avery's Bucket List

Update: Baby Avery suddenly passed away...nearly two hours after I posted this. Heartbreaking. Her story touched not only my heart, but many others around the world. In her honor, please continue to raise awareness about SMA. No family deserves to go through this.

I have been crying since six o'clock this morning after seeing this on the news while pumping. This sweet, sweet five month old little girl was recently diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called Spinal Muscular Atrophy, or SMA for short. It is the #1 genetic killer of infants under the age of 2, yet most have never heard of it. There is no cure at this time, and is not included in pre-genetic screening...although most insurance plans allow for the OPTION of testing for it. It is physically debilitating and attacks the muscles eventually causing respiratory failure, leaving cognitive skills intact. She was given eighteen months to live and her awesome parents have chosen to create a bucket list of things for Avery to do before her time is up. Her list includes everything from her first kiss, to visiting a college campus. So sweet...and an unbelievable story!

Please go follow along on her short journey and help to spread the word about SMA! Most of us are so unbelievably lucky...I must go love on my sweet boys and savor every second with them. God bless this sweet baby and her family.

 http://averycan.blogspot.com/

Eight Weeks of Goodness

Our sweet munchkins will be EIGHT weeks on Monday...I can't believe it! They are growing way too fast and it's so hard to absorb it all. That's why they will probably hate cameras in a few years because we do a photo shoot almost every day! Ha!

I am still "breastfeeding" every three hours...however, I have started to pump it into bottles and feed them that way. Anderson never really caught on to latching very well, and I was sick of fighting him for an hour and then having to pump the rest out and give it to him that way. Besides, when I go back to work they will have to take it via bottle anyway! The boobs can't be everywhere at once! 

I'm surprised at how well my supply is keeping up. They are eating about 5-6 ounces each every three hours and I am putting just about that much out. It really is supply and demand if you stick with it. Yes, it can be stressful at times because breastfeeding consumes ALL of your time...especially for twins. It is such a huge commitment! We will probably be supplementing with a little formula when I go back to work, but as long as I'm off I'll be doing everything I can to be their cow. Moo.

They started sleeping through the night (somewhat) last week. We'll throw about 6 ounces in them around midnight and they will let us sleep until about 6 am. But there's a catch. They wake up around 3 am and want to get in the bed with us. All they need is a paci and they are good to go. Oh well. The extra cuddles are well worth it, so we'll worry about that later!

The only other drama around here has been our dog Griswold. He decided to swallow a pacifier and had to undergo emergency surgery a couple of weeks ago! He is fine now, but we had to take a nice chunk out of my maternity disability to cover the cost. Fawesomeballs!

Here are some recent pictures! Andy went back to work last week, so I have been busy busy busy! I am trying to return calls, update the blog, etc, but I really don't have time to do anything until midnight! Thank you all SO much for the sweet comments. I just don't understand how some people facebook and blog all day with children! I just hate missing even a second with them, so I will get back to you all in...18 years!

Family Photo Session!

I want to share the sweet video of our family photo session...turn the volume up and get the Kleenex ready! It's a little cropped to the side because the file is big, but if you double click it will open up into full screen mode. I own a photography business and was going to attempt their newborn pictures, but they wake up crying whenever they smell me! Fail! I ended up getting maybe twenty good pictures on my own. I ended up putting a few of those on their birth announcement. Then I realized...how am I going to take pictures of the four of us? Our friend Carla saved the day! She has taken all of my niece's photos since birth, and has always done a fantabulous job. Thank you Carla for capturing these beautiful photos...we will treasure them forever!

Annndd...here are some of the pictures that I was able to capture! I love my babies!

Here Comes Peter Cottontail!

Best. Easter. Ever! We had so much fun this year. Holidays have always sucked because they are all centered around children. I mean, think about it.

Easter...you get to watch everybody else's children dress up in adorable clothes, dye eggs, and dive into Easter egg hunts.

Mother's and Father's Day...We love and celebrate our parents, but the infertile ultimately dreads these two holidays. I remember laying in bed two years ago crying allllll day...four months after our miscarriage. Ultimate suckage. Thanks Hallmark.

Fourth of July...that one was cool. I just drowned myself in my sorrows all day. Until it was time to pack the kids up and go downtown to watch firewor...oh wait.

Halloween...Answering the door for two hours to adorable little princesses and mutant ninja turtles, along with watching their parents stand on the sidewalk admiring their brood is not my idea of fun. Most of the time we would just plan a getaway and boycott Halloween. Self preservation.

Thanksgiving...Food. Alcohol. Giving thanks for your family. Check! Giving thanks for your childre...oh wait.

Christmas...Celebrating Jesus is pretty awesome, but when it came to that whole watching everyone else's children sit on Santa's lap and open presents Christmas morning...did someone say alcohol?

I'm pretty sure these two little munchkins saved me from alcoholism...lol. All kidding aside, we are truly blessed this Easter and can't wait to celebrate every flippin' holiday like it will be our last. We can't wait to see everything through their eyes...life is so much more fun with children!

Last week's checkup went well...Anderson is up to 7-9 and Baney is 9-14...ouch! They are so alert now and starting to coo when we talk to them. Baney even rolled over during tummy time...hoping that was a fluke or we're in trouble!

Oh, and they fart. Like...a lot.

Visiting the Easter Bunny!

They can't get enough...

Talking to Mmmie K!

The Easter Bunny came to give mommy & daddy some chocolate. Sorry!

Visiting Mmmie K

Easter Sunday

Torturing them

Baney confused by all of the eggs!

Love our new little family:)

Happy 1 Month, Boom Boom & Pow!

I can't believe it's already been a month. Seems like just yesterday! I would love to update more, but spending time with my babies is more important to me than Facebook and Blogger! Sorryyyy! I'm going to try to do a weekly update/pics from here on out.

All is well here at home. We continue to try and settle into a routine and we are getting there slowly but surely. I am exclusively breastfeeding and they tend to feed around every three hours right now. They have their days & nights a little mixed up, so we are trying to get that ironed out...fine tuning their schedule is especially difficult while trying to juggle visitors, but we're doing the best we can. Overall, they are very good babies and I still can't believe they are ours!

We have been visiting a lactation specialist because Anderson isn't gaining as much weight as our pediatrician would like. He has some trouble latching, so we have been practicing some new exercises with him that will hopefully prove effective at his weight check this Wednesday. He weighed 7-1 last week, but he is still not back to his birth weight of 7-2.

Baney, on the other hand, was a whopping 9-8, up from his birth weight of 8-6. Good Lawd. Child don't play!

Our next venture is finding affordable childcare for two babies (yeah right!!!). We are on a waiting list for a local church for full-time care, but I would basically be working to pay for it. If I'm going to give up over half a month's salary to a daycare, I'd rather lose that money by staying at home with them. That's not very cost efficient...nor do I want to throw them in a daycare alllll week for someone else to enjoy their milestones...I've waited too long for them! I would like to go back to work part-time at first if they let me. Keyword: If. We thought we had family lined up to help with them a couple days a week, but that fell through. So, now we are looking into in-home caregivers. Most of my family lives here in town, but everybody works or has something else to do. It's basically Andy and I fending for ourselves! It's okay though. That just means more time with our babies instead of passing them off to babysitters!

Anyway...here are some recent pics of the boys. We love them so much...they are already growing up too fast:( Thank you all so much for your sweet comments!

3 Weeks

Child makes the funniest faces!

 Happy 1 Month!!!