This shows you how little Reese and Grady actually are.  In the pictures they look big, but check out the picture where you see our hands.  Their little heads are so tiny!

A sneak peak...

Well, we are all home and one BIG family :o)  Reese and Grady have been home since Monday evening.  It has been so fun all together and finally all back under one roof!  The babies have been doing great, and at their first doctor's appointment last Friday, Reese weighed 5 pounds and Grady weighed 5.3 pounds.  Reese is a little oinker and takes her bottle so well.  Grady is hit or miss-he will do a great job taking his bottle one feeding and then the next, take his time.  He is SO laid back!  They are eating 2 ounces every 4 hours.  I can't believe how much they have already changed since we brought them home.  I want to freeze this moment in time with them being so little and Landon at such a fun age.  We are just so blessed!  I am so in love with my family.  Do you ever stop and think how much you love your children, and how God gave us his Son, Jesus....Wow, God MUST really love us!

Saturday morning!

Yesterday was an exciting day for us.  We had called early Saturday morning to check on Reese and Grady and right before we hung up the nurse asked us to bring their car seats...Well, once they ask that, you know they are about to come home... We were TOTALLY caught off guard.  And on top of all this, they had told us they will probably go home separately.  They are coming home together!!!  If all goes well the rest of today and tomorrow morning, they will be with us tomorrow afternoon!  We are soooooo excited!  Tonight will officially be our last night of sleep ever...yikes!

They have been doing really well, it just takes them some time to eat their bottles.  Sometimes their oxygen level drops because they let milk sit in their mouth and not swallow, so they have taught us how to handle that.  The neonatologist has pretty much ruled out the heart condition she thought Grady had.  We were very ecstatic about that!

So...needles to say, as of yesterday we have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off.  We have so much to do before they come home Monday.  We weren't expecting them that soon, but are thrilled Monday is the day!

Off to church...we have so much to be thankful for!

Hugs-
Melissa

Pics

Reese and Grady are doing pretty well.  The main thing they are working on currently is regulating their own body temps and how to suck from a bottle.  Slowly but surely they are learning and growing. Reese got her IV out!!!! YEAH!  Grady's IV is back in his head :o( but they think they will be able to take him off his IV once this one is no longer good.  Here are some cute pics we took last night.  We weren't able to take Landon because he had a 24 hour bug that was vomiting and 102 fever.  Today is much better for him though.

P.S.  We have the yellow gowns on because we were afraid of giving the babies Landon's germs.  That is the last thing they need.

 I am also posting some pics of this past Saturday.  We took Landon to the Dewberry Farm.  He loved it!

Day 5 of the babies NICU stay

Today is day 5.  That means that is 5 less days of Reese and Grady's NICU stay we have to wait until we get to bring them home!  Jacy and I visited last night and were able to stay for a while.  It was a great visit.  We were both able to hold Grady, and that was my first time to hold him.  I was in Heaven!  We were also able to feed both Reese and Grady.  We were back and forth between the two rooms...it was pretty funny.  I kept thinking to myself, I can't believe there is two of them :o)

As of yesterday, Reese was taken off the Jaundice treatment.  Her levels were back to normal.  They did end up putting a feeding tube in her, because she was having to work too hard to eat.  They are now feeding her some from a bottle, and then they feed the rest of her food through the tube.  Her heart rate started to drop yesterday for some reason.  At one point it dropped into the 80's and they had to document it.  While we were there, it was dropping into the 90's.  That was a little scary, but when Jacy visited this morning, they had said her heart rate was back into the 140's and 150's.  She is weighing 4.3 pounds as of now.  We love you Reese and are already so proud of you!  We can't wait to bring you home and let your big brother smooch all over you!

Grady is doing better.  His blood pressure b/w his upper and lower extremities has a slight difference, but nothing like it was.  His mag levels are starting to go down!  He is weighing 4.9 pounds.  He finally got his lines out of his belly button and that is why were able to hold him.  His IVs have been taking better, so they have been able to place them in his hand and foot versus his head!  This made me so happy.  He also has a feeding tube, and is being fed just like Reese.  Grady, you are so dear to our hearts.  The Lord is watching over you and your sister each and every second!  You are so strong and are such a little fighter.  You did upset big brother when you started crying :o)

The nurse told us last night that hopefully their IVs will be out in a few days.  They are having to drip a liquid called TPN because they aren't able to eat much.  Once they are able to stop that drip, they will come off.  They also promised they will put them in the same room as soon as they can.  We are looking forward to that. 

A very proud daddy!

Reese and Grady are finally here!  It was such an amazing experience and went very smoothly.  Monday morning, 10/3, at 3a.m. my mag was turned off and at 7:30a.m. my doctor was in.  By this time I was dilated 8cm.  Grady was born first at 10:10a.m. and he weighed 4.14.  Reese was born second at 10:19a.m. and she weighed 4.11.  We were very excited the doctors let Jacy hold them long enough for our family to meet them.  This has been very hard for us, because they are not able to come home.  It breaks our hearts like nothing I have ever experienced before.

Reese Nichole Henderson

I love this picture!  It makes my heart smile.  Does she look like her daddy or what?!

I love my new sister!

Reese has definitely been stronger of the two.  The neonatologist told us from the beginning that little girls will do better than little boys.  She is stable, just learning how to do a few things on her own.  The first day she was born, she was running a fever.  That now has subsided.  She also was having to work too hard to breath, but they turned her on her tummy and it helped her alot.    They have started feeding her every three hours and she is doing pretty well with it.  She is having to learn how to suck, swallow and breath all at the same time.  Jacy and I were able to feed her for the first time today and the nurses had to teach us how to do it, so she could breath and eat at the same time.  Also as of this morning the doctor told us she has jaundice.  They started her on the jaundice therapy.  We are able to hold her now, so we are thrilled.  If you are a mom, you know what it's like to be able to just cuddle with your baby!  Her mag level was also high at birth, but is slowly coming down!  

Grady Cabot Henderson

I know this picture looks scary with all the wires, but it isn't as bad as it looks.  Grady is already SO dear to our hearts.  He is such a little fighter.  His new journey in life hasn't started out the way we had hoped for.  The day he was born the doctor and nurses worked with him for literally 6-7 hours.  They had a very hard time finding a good vein for his IV, so they had to put these lines through his belly button.  The lines served for several purposes.  They could give him fluids through them, draw blood from them and they also gave a constant reading for his blood pressure.  His blood pressure is what has been the problem for him.  His upper and lower blood pressure wasn't matching up, which is a sign of a specific heart condition.  What parent wants to hear that??  His overall blood pressure was also in the lower 20's and it needed to be in the upper 30's.  They take his upper and lower blood pressure at 8a.m and 8p.m. daily, so when we called this morning, he had a normal reading last night and again this morning!  PRAISE GOD!  These are great signs.  If he didn't start improving, they would need to transfer him to Texas Children's downtown where there is a cardiologist.  They also found out today that he is slightly anemic, which could be a factor of the differences in blood pressure.  He also has a very high mag level, which could also be affecting the blood pressure.  So, it could be several different things, but only time will tell, and as his mag level lowers, we should see improvement.  That is the goal!  Tomorrow they are going to pull out the lines in his belly button...I'm not sure why.  Two days ago they started an IV on his head.  When I saw it for the first time, I couldn't stop crying...I just feel helpless and I can't make him feel better.  They had to shave his head in a spot that they tried to put it in, but failed, and then shaved it again in the spot it's in. They will continue to shave it as they move it.  The nurse told me they are lucky to get 2 days out of an IV.   I can't handle this part of it.  It really breaks my heart!  His poor little hands and feet are all bruised from where they tried to start IVs.  At this time, we cannot hold Grady.  He has only been fed twice since he was born, because he isn't handling it very well.  He has been spitting up a bunch.  We can't wait to get our hands on that little man!!

Please just pray that they will gain strength not only every day, but every hour.  More than anything we want to be together as a family.  We are so thankful my body at least held off for four weeks.  I can't imagine how that would have been.  

Landon is doing great!  He hasn't missed a beat me being in the hospital.  It sure has been nice to be home with him and love on him.  I have missed being a mommy for 4 weeks!  As you can see, this is his new favorite hobby!