Just updating with words

The girls have now slept 10 to 11 hours through the night for a week. How nice! They go down for bed between 7:30 and 8:00pm, then they don't usually wake up until about 7:00am. They take a 5 ounce bottle at that time, yes they have started taking one or two five ounce bottles a day, then they lay back down until 9:30 or so. It has been great.

Brittyn started sitting up by herself for short periods of time on Saturday, December 27th. She is still scooting forwards and backwards on her knees.

Sunday I tried the girls on pureed organic carrots and they loved them. Lexyn actually ate hers and Brittyn's portion I spooned out. They have now eaten pureed bananas, green beans, apple sauce, and carrots. Carrots seem to be their favorite so far.

My girls are just getting so big. They are wearing 0-3 month clothes. They are completely out of their newborn outfits now. It is really just due to their length. They have tiny bodies but are really tall for their weight. But I can't stand for my babies to wear high waters!

Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Lexyn and Brittyn's first Christmas

Our Christmas celebrations started on Christmas Eve, which happened to also be my 25th birthday. We met at my parents to do Christmas with my side of the family. The girls were fun and did more than I expected a 6 month old to do.

They loved the toy Gamma got them. It is the fisher-price lights and sound stage. It lights up all around, plays music and has a mirror in the center. The girls get the biggest smiles when they see their faces in the mirror. They played with that toy for about an hour with cousin Brinlee's help.

Christmas morning we woke up and did Christmas at our house. Ben and I did get the girls a few toys and 3 books. They sat in their bumbo chairs and looked at the toys and books but had lots of fun with the wrapping paper!

Ben got me a dual screens dvd player for my car, which means the girls now have some entertainment when we go for longer drives. That would have been really nice to have last week when we kept going out to look at Christmas lights.

While we were opening gifts we had the Disney Christmas Parade on TV. It was always a tradition for my family when I was growing up to open presents and then watch the parade. I still enjoy watching it. I plan to start the tradition with my girls, in fact they really liked watching it this year while they chewed on wrapping paper!

After we got up and around we headed in town. The girls and I hung out at my mom's house while Ben went to his Nanny's house. The girls weren't allowed to go anywhere except my parents and Ben's parents house so I ended up missing the big Brown family lunch at noon on Christmas Day. At 3:00 we went to Ben's parents house to do Christmas with them. Nana and Papaw also got the girls a fun big gift. It is the Fisher-Price crawl and stand kitchen. They had fun with it too. It was a great day for us, the most exciting gift for me was watching my babies! The Lord has really blessed us this year. Having kids, even though they aren't old enough to fully get into Christmas yet, really changes the way you see Christmas. I really didn't care much about if or what I got, I enjoyed opening gifts with my girls and watching their small reactions to the noises each toy made. Next year will be even more fun in the Brown family!

Brittyn's Growth Chart

I may have a little different growth chart on Brittyn than most mothers have on their baby's, but I have a precious niece that comes up to me with an empty stroller and says "Please put her in here" as she points to her baby doll stroller. Lexyn has nothing to do with it, but Brittyn does ok for a few minutes as long as Brinlee is pushing her easy and slow. If she stops then Brittyn is done. I was looking back at the three times I have taken Brittyn's picture as she is pushed around, and she is really growing, in fact the last picture was just taken December 21st, and she barely fits in the seat. I can't believe how much she has grown in 6 months!

August 2, 2008 (2 months old)

November 21, 2008 (5 1/2 months old)

December 21, 2008 (6 1/2 months old)

First Christmas Gift

Today my friend Kelly came over and was so excited to give the girls their Christmas gifts. We call her Aunt Kelly because she spoils them like an aunt!


Aunt Kelly got the girls 3 outfits each from Old Navy, a Baby Einstein DVD, and a VTech sit and stand toy. It is a little over their head because it is a 9-36 month toy, but right now even 6 month toys are over their heads because they are just starting to hold rattles. They love things that light up and play music and this toy does both of those so they just laid there staring at it. Brittyn actually hit the buttons a few times. It has a bear in the center that dances around and both girls kept trying to grab it. They really like their first Christmas present. I was trying to sit Brittyn down on the couch and put the toy in her lap so she could get to it, but I wasn't quite fast enough. She starting squealing at me and then fussing until I finally put it in her lap and made it sing again, then she was happy.

Thanks Kelly!

The yucky baby food begins

When we were at the doctor last Wednesday he said to begin feeding the girls baby food. I hate baby food; the smell, the look, and I don't really remember, but I am sure it doesn't taste good. So needless to say, I have been dreading those words. I had already made up my mind that when that time came I was going to make my own baby food. It will taste a lot more like the real thing but real bland, and it will be cheaper on us than 39 cents for a tiny jar of baby food.

Last Thursday I started with Brittyn because she was in a good mood. I put her in the highchair and fed her some bananas mixed with rice cereal. She did ok but of course she doesn't know how to swallow the food so she kept spitting it out. Oh, the joys of feeding baby food; you get it spit back at you quite often! Friday I fed Brittyn again, and she pretty much did the same thing. She ate about 3 tablespoons worth of pureed bananas.

I was afraid I was going to have lots of trouble with Lexyn because she seems to be pretty picky about what is in her bottle. After the first few bites she went to town with the pureed bananas. She ate all of her 3 tablespoons worth and actually didn't really have a messy face. Today I started the girls on pureed green beans. They seem to be ok with them too.

6 month check-ups

Last Wednesday the 17th Ben and I took the girls for their 6 month check-ups. They are doing good on their height and head growth. Dr. Stanford was pleased with Brittyn's weight gain but he said Lexyn needs to be eating more.

Brittyn:
weight: 11 pounds and 3.6 ounces
height: 24 and 1/2 inches

Lexyn:
weight: 10 pounds 11 ounces
height: 24 and 3/4 inches

I told him that Lexyn had been having diarrhea for over a week so that was to explain her slow weight gain. She had only gained 4 ounces in a month. Somehow the nurse messed up measuring their heights because Brittyn is well over an inch taller than Lexyn.

The girls got their 6 month shots, but they were not able to get their synagis shot. Since they had that reaction of target lesions last month they are no longer allowed to get their synagis shot. We asked the doctor what exactly that meant we needed to do as precautions and he said stay away from crowds including church until April when RSV season is over. That is not going to be fun but we will do what ever it takes to keep the girls healthy and out of the hospital.

Brittyn is getting up on all fours and rocking. She lunges forward and scoots. It won't be long until she is crawling. I can't believe my babies are about to crawl. Lexyn is a little behind Brittyn but she has started getting up on all fours too. The developemental therapy is really helping them.

Yeah Again!

We have managed to get 2 smiles 2 nights in a row. Who knows how since the evenings are so rough for the girls. This is the picture I have chosen for my Christmas cards. They are wearing their Christmas dress.

Mission Accomplished!

Do you have any idea how hard it is to get two 6 month olds to look and smile at the camera at the same time? Almost impossible, especially when they don't know their name to turn to it when they are being called. We are working on that though during therapy. Last night it took Ban and I both shaking rattles, calling their names, making funny noises, and finally what did it was bouncing them while they laid down. We didn't manage to get them looking directly at the camera, but the most important thing to me was I wanted 2 smiles at once, and we did it. YEAH! The whole purpose in needing this perfect picture was for our Christmas cards, so help me decide. Do you like picture 1, 2, or 3 best? I may even dress them up tonight and try it again to see what we get, but I have to order our Christmas cards by Thursday so I can get them out before Christmas gets here!

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3

That's my toy!

The past few days the girls have really started to realize that each other are there. Brittyn keeps rolling over and reaching out to touch Lexyn. Today I had them both on the floor playing and I walked out to get the camera and came back in to see Brittyn pulling on Lexyn and then she started poking at her face. And then to quickly follow was my 6 month old girls fighting over the toy Lexyn had in her hand. It was funny at first but then I quickly thought "they can't start the toy fighting NOW!"

6 Months Old

December 2, 2008 my babies turned 6 months old. Time is going way to fast. I am really enjoying being their mom, and I love that I get to stay home with them to see each milestone. They are really doing great and with the help of developmental therapy they are moving right along to the next steps.

Lexyn's achievements up to 6 months:

rolling over

reaching up and grabbing toys

cooing

her newest is getting on her knees and scooting backwards

Brittyn's achievements up to 6 months:

rolling over

reaching up and grabbing toys

cooing

getting on her knees and rocking

laying on her tummy and scooting forward

They are both taking almost 4 ounces every 4 hours. They weigh a little over 10 pounds. That is just crazy. 6 months ago when they were born they weighed 2 pounds and 13 ounces and 3 pounds and 3 ounces. Their weights have tripled.




We have our Christmas tree up and the girls love watching the blinking lights.

Brittyn has discovered that her tongue can stick out of her mouth. When I was trying to take her 6 month picture every time she would smile and have her tongue stuck out. We started laughing so hard, and then of course she thinks she is funny and does it more. She is definitely miss personality.


They had their first session of therapy Tuesday, and we quickly realized that we are going to have to break the therapy up into 2 - 30 minutes sessions per child per week. Starting next week the therapist will come on Monday's and Friday's for an hour, working with each of them for 30 minutes both days. The girls just wore out and started doing nothing but cry until we put them in their swings and they were asleep in 2 minutes. The session went really well and I was shown a few things to work on with them during the week. Since they are both rolling over great, we are now working on getting to to sit up by themselves. The therapist is also working on loosening up their tight muscles.

Target Lesion update

When we to the doctor last Thursday we saw the doctor on call, Dr. Irwin, who was pregnant. We went back in Friday morning for the lab tech to draw the girls blood; we were told the results should be in on Monday. On Wednesday this week when I hadn't heard anything I called the office. They informed me that Dr. Irwin went into labor on Sunday therefore they turned the results over to our doctor, Dr. Stanford, who was not in on that day. So today after making some phone calls, I finally talked directly with Dr. Stanford. He told me that the lab ran the wrong test, not the test requested, which means we have to go through the blood drawing process again. He did tell me that most likely we will not be able to find the cause of the lesion rash, meaning that Dr. Stanford has to honor the directions from the infectious disease doctor and not give my girls any more Synagis shots. I asked what precautions that meant since we are already staying in the house except going to my parents, Ben's parents and Sunday morning church. He said pull them from church until the end of RSV season which is the end of March. He also said keep all children away and any adults that are sick in any way. He said the girls are considered very high risk babies and they can not get RSV or it won't be good, which I have already been told by the NICU at Baptist hospital. Dr. Stanford does want to go ahead and have the girls blood drawn again possibly at Childrens Hospital, so that they can run the correct microplasma test to see if there is a chance that caused the rash. Please keep praying that we can find the cause but mostly that my girls will stay healthy through all this. I will keep you updated on what we find out hopefully next week.

First Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving, and it was even more special because we had lots to be thankful for. Our Lord blessed us this year with our precious baby girls. It was Lexyn and Brittyn's first Thanksgiving, and I think they had a good one, that is until Brittyn started running 100.2 degree fever. We had Thanksgiving with my family at our house for lunch. It was nice because that was nap time for the girls, so they hit the bed right as we pulled the turkey out. How convenient! My mom, dad, sister and niece came over. Brinlee took a nap at lunch too. When she got up I had a great time playing with her. She is so cute and funny, I might say she is a little sassy now too. After my family left at 4:00 we headed in to Ben's parents house to be with his parents, sister, and our future brother in-law. We had a good time there. Of course we are still suffering today from eating so much. We had to keep the company small because the girls aren't really suppose to be out and around many people, so we missed the huge Brown family dinner at Ben's Papaw and Nanny's house, but they all understood. I had my camera out all day but of course with 2 little one's I was a little busy and didn't think to take any pictures of the girls with family. I did manage to snap a few shots when we got home that night before their bath. They were wearing a really cute outfit that my mom, Gamma, got the girls. It actually was very suitable for the day. It was pink footed overalls that said "Thank Heaven for Little Girls", then the booty said "Heavenly sent". Very true!

Ben and I were just thinking back to this time last year. What a neat thing to think about. Last year 3 days before Thanksgiving we were doing IVF and the doctors did the egg retrieval; 2 days after Thanksgiving they did the embryo transfer. Man, how much our year has changed, obviously for the better. We are definitely THANKFUL!

Roll-over #2 and Target Lesions

Today was a big day for Lexyn. She rolled over from her back to her tummy for the first time this morning, since then she has done it about 10 times. She also decided to unfold her tight arms and reach for her toy that is attached to her car seat. Not only did she grab it once but she grabbed many times and even pulled hard enough to make it sing. YEAH LEXYN!!!! Today daddy got off work at 12:00 so he was able to see the girls in good moods and catch them both roll over. Since we are on hibernation, we can't get the girls out but we didn't want to stay at home so we loaded up in the car during nap time and drove for 3 hours. We went up to Homnoke, AR where Ben will be duck hunting tomorrow. He wanted to see if there were any ducks. It was actually nice and I really enjoyed being out of the house and being with my family.

This past Tuesday a therapist from Kidsource came to evaluate the girls for developmental therapy. A lot of the time preemies need therapy to catch them up. Both of my girls qualified for the state to pay for an hour a week because their muscle tone is high, which is the reason they are so tight. Lexyn is more so than Brittyn obviously because she very rarely stretches her arms and legs out but the therapist said they both need the help. She showed me some stuff to do with them during the days and it must be working for Lexyn. She is doing so good. The therapist said most likely the girls will fuss and cry while we do the stretches but she said it is just uncomfortable it isn't hurting them. Well, my girls don't fuss in fact they laugh the whole time. It is the funniest thing.

I said earlier this week how we went to get synagis shots on Monday; well Tuesday afternoon I started noticing some red ring rash on Brittyn's legs, then I noticed a few on Lexyn's legs. I called the doctor and was told to just watch them and to rub the rash with a warm wet washcloth for several days and it will go away. Wednesday night Brittyn started running 100.8 degree fever. I gave them both Tylenol and kept watching them through the night. By this time she was covered from head to toe. So Thursday we went to the doctor and had a very stressful visit. The doctor said they were target lesions and informed us that majority of babies have no reaction to the synagis shot. She called NICU at Children's to see if they had seen it with the shot and they ended up referring her to call the infectious disease doctor. In the mean time the nurse came in and drew blood out of Brittyn's arm to run CBC test. After sticking her and digging around for a minute or so she finally got enough blood. The doctor then came in and said that the infectious disease doctor recommended she test for microplasma. He said if that test comes back negative, without running a million other blood tests, we won't know what caused the target lesions; therefore they can't rule out the synagis shot so the girls won't be able to get anymore. I asked if we would be able to try it one more month to see if they react since we had the shots in October and had no reaction. She told me no, because a lot of times the reaction is worse the next time. So the nurse came back in to draw blood on both girls to run the Microplasma test. After sticking each girl in both arms and digging around, she got nothing. I felt a little sorry for her that she couldn't get the vein but I was more mad because my girls were screaming and kicking while she dug around in their arms. I have had a nurse do that to me and I was able to say stop, but my poor babies were helpless. When we finally left the office, after the nurse gave up, at 5:30 I was in tears for the pain my babies went through. Today we went back to the doctor, for lab only, to see the best nurse in the clinic. Thank God she got blood on both girls on the first stick and didn't dig around. We should hear the results on Monday. If they come back positive, the girls will be treated with antibiotics and we can continue to receive the synagis shot, which allows us to get out to go to church. If the test comes back negative we will not be able to receive any more synagis shots which will mean the girls will not be able to leave the house at all except possibly to go to see grandparents. Please pray for us!

Synagis, rolling over, and the big #3 - What a big day!

Today I took the girls to the doctor to get their 2nd month of the synagis shot. The dose is based on their weight so we undressed them to get an accurate weight. With a wet diaper on, I know I am a bad mommy letting them wear wet diapers, Brittyn weighed 10 pounds 5.9 ounces, and Lexyn weighed 10 pounds 2.4 ounces. My girls are 10 pounds now, I can't believe it. While they were laying on the table awaiting their shots, Brittyn rolled over from her back to her belly for the first time. She did it in front of her Nana, me and the nurse. Of course we all screamed and cheered real loud. I, of course, got tears in my eyes. My babies are getting too big. Life does sure fly by when you are having the time of your life! I had been watching her all morning because she was getting up on her side she just couldn't seem to get her arms to cooperate. Who would have ever known she would have done it on a cold uncomfortable little doctor's office table. This afternoon she did it at home on the floor 3 more times, daddy still hasn't been in the room at the right time to catch it.



Today is also my precious niece's 3rd Birthday. She is getting so big. It seems just a few months ago that I was rushing to Fayetteville to be there for her arrival. Now she is talking your ear off and running the show. I got to spend 5 hours today watching her, my girls were napping for most of the time so we played together. She begs for "my prissy" to play. Since I was taking her back to her dad tonight I didn't really care what she did. She didn't want to take a nap so of course the cool aunt didn't make her, she wanted candy so not only did we have 1 piece but we had 10 pieces. At 4:30 she crawled up in my lap with her ducky, blanky, passy ( I know, what is a 3 yr old doing with a passy), and her "dink". She claimed she was cold so we covered up and watched "Spon bob". She quickly fell asleep. Of course we had to leave at 4:50 so it was a cat nap but I enjoyed snuggling with her. She was my first angel!

Catch up!

I haven't posted in a few weeks. Life has been busy but slow if that makes any since. We are still hibernating therefore I have started leaving the girls with family a few times so I can get out. It makes me sad and anxious to leave them but I make it through the time away and love their smiles when I come home and pick them up. They love mommy, and mommy loves them!

On November 7th Lexyn sat in the excersaucer for the first time. She hates tummy time but we still have to do it to strengthen her neck. That day I got tired of hearing her scream while she was on her tummy and decided to try putting her in the excersaucer to see if she would work on holding her head up that way. It worked and it occupied her for about 10 minutes.

On Saturday the 8th Brinlee, my precious niece, was at my mom's house, so I took my girls over there and everyone used hand sanitizer so they wouldn't spread any germs. Brinlee is the only kid that is around my girls right now since we are hibernating but my baby girls are "her babies" so we just couldn't stay away from her for 5 months. She loves her "wexyn, and Brinnyn". She likes to push Brittyn around the house in her baby doll stroller. Brittyn really doesn't mind it as long as she is moving.

Brinlee is a great big cousin and comforts them when they are crying.

On November 5th Brittyn started chewing on her hand and then it led to anything that came within reach. She started drooling on the 9th. We think she is starting to teethe but I am sure it will still be a few months for that first tooth to come. For now, we are chewing our hands off, and wearing spit soaked onsies!