We've Come So Far

Hi everyone. I'm sorry we haven't posted in two weeks, but boy, have we been busy! The holidays came and went without much of our routine changing. We did get to spend some time with family but most of all, we hung out with our boys. Starting on Dec. 15, we were a bit distracted by what the doctors thought was meningitis in Chase, but it turned out to be a false alarm after eight days of a 21-day treatment. This was Chase's third set back with "infection" but he is extremely strong and we couldn't be prouder on his ability to prove he's not going to let these set backs keep him from moving forward. I suppose his tenacity is the first hint of the competition we'll witness between he and his brother for years to come. In the meantime, Austin has continued to eat and grow.

Ok, enough excuses, here is the fun stuff (besides new photos) that I know you're all wondering about...

Today, Austin weighs 5 lbs. 1 oz. and Chase weighs 4 lbs. 9 oz. To us, they are huge! Both are starting to make lots of wonderful baby noises and they even cry. The boys are in open cribs and for the last few days, we've started ad-lib feeding. This means, we've taken the gavage tubes out and they are eating from mom exclusively. Needless to say, I'm starting to finally feel like this mother role is real and I couldn't be happier to be spending such quality time with both babies. To help the boys adjust to this feeding process, Dan and I are sleeping at the hospital tonight and tomorrow night. We'll get a call whenever the boys are hungry and then I go feed them. Austin has already finished his apnea/bradycardia countdown and Chase is in the midst of his. The car seats are installed and once the boys have breastfeeding perfected, we'll introduce a bottle and they say we could be home within a week to ten days. Of course, we'll believe it when we see it, but finally, we are starting to feel like real parents and that our stay in the NICU could be over soon.

Here are some pictures from the past two weeks. The nurses had a photo shoot with the boys on Christmas and I'll post those pictures separately. Enjoy and as always, thank you, everyone, for your continued support, warm gestures, kind messages, care packages and love. We are extremely blessed to have all of you in our lives and to share this amazing experience with.


Austin (left) - mom made me wear this silly hat!
Chase (right) - I'm so concerned!