Potty Training

Okay, so you know when your son tells you he pooped in his diaper and exactly where he wants to lay for mommy to change it, don't you think it's time to get out of diapers??  He can even tell me if it's a "big poop" or "little poop"...disgusting!  I mean, seriously!  We tried a few weeks ago to potty train him but it just wasn't working out.  He would cling onto us and cry.  Even scream sometimes.  I told Jacy that potty training was a form of child abuse.  I hated it for the one day we tried.  If you have any suggestions or have been through this before, please help me out.  I'm very frustrated about it.

I think I can, I think I can

I can do this, right?!  WHAT a night we had last night.  Grady was up until about 1 or 2 crying and then once we got him settled down and asleep, Reese started.  Oh my, I officially know the definition of sleep deprivation...HELP!

A busy life...

Everyday I think to myself I need to update the blog, but when I have a free moment, I just want to close my eyes :o)  One day when we find our camera charger, I will be able to upload some recent pics I've taken.  Things have been going pretty smoothly.  I guess as smoothly as having newborn twins and a 2 1/2 year old..ha

Last week Landon fell down the stairs twice...not once, TWICE. I know, mom of the year is what your thinking!  And the sad thing is I was fairly close to him both times.  The first fall was pretty harsh.  He instantly got a huge knot between his eyes and the next few days after that had two black eyes.  The second fall was just a bloody nose thank goodness.  It scared the devil out of me!  :o)

Reese and Grady are doing good.  They both have a little congestion, but nothing out of the ordinary for this time of year I guess.  We visited the doctor yesterday and Reese is weighing 7lbs. 8oz. and Grady is 7lbs. 14oz.  They are gaining weight SO fast.  I'm ready to get them off of this high calorie formula.  During they day goes very smooth and they are always in great moods, but from about 5pm to 10pm is a little crazy.  This is Reese's "time to shine".  Grady is a little more fussy during this time, but Reese over does it!  Hopefully she will get through this phase pretty quickly.  They eat about every 3 hours during the day and then we try to feed them around 9:30, 10 at night.  If we stick to that, they wake up about 2:30, 3:00 and again at 6:30am.  It isn't that bad really.  I can function during the day, so that was my main concern.  I have it down to an art now feeding two at a time.

Well, speaking of Reese, she is gearing up again.  We love you!

Melissa

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!  

   

Wow...

As I woke up this morning I have to admit I didn't have a good attitude.  I knew I had to get my IV changed today, which I hate, and it was going to just be another long day up here.  As the nurse was changing my IV and putting the babies on the monitor, the doctor walked in.  Wow, I wasn't expecting what she had to say.  The doctor I saw this morning and my doctor are kind of working together, and they think they want to take the babies FRIDAY...This Friday.  Boy was I caught off guard.  I know why they are thinking that, because I had a run of a few rough days, so I think they are a little concerned about my body, but at the same time, my goal was 34 weeks.  Jacy and I were talking and yeah Friday would just work out for everyone, but then if I can hold off unil Monday, that is 3 more days they would have to grow.  So, here we are again, being faced with the decision of "when" to have these babies.  We are just going to wait until I talk with my doctor tomorrow morning and see what she has to say, and just start praying God will decide for us, so that we won't have to make this decision!

Please pray for the health of these babies and that they are going to be little fighters.  We want them home soon with us so we can all be a family!  This is becoming ALL so real.  I still can't believe Landon is only days away from becoming a big brother!  So, as I said earlier how I didn't have a good attitude, yeah well that has changed just in the couple of hours I've been up.  I got my last IV!!!!!  I have an adorable son who is about to become a big brother, and because of many factors, I have been able to fight 3 extra, going on 4 weeks so far for these babies! Praise God!! 

We love you all so dearly!
Melissa

Tuesday, September 27th

Last night was a rough one.  I have been having these really intense nightmares and waking up in a sweat.  Not fun.  The nightmares relate to the babies, and things in the hospital.  I think everything is just starting to get in my head.  My contractions started increasing last night and at one point I had 10 or 11 in an hour.  They were more intense so it kept me up and my body just felt off.  I still feel "off" this morning.  I don't know how to explain it other than I feel really different.  When I saw the doctor this morning and told her how I was feeling she checked my cervix.  She called it a loose, loose 3, and also said my bag of water is very intense.  That means it could break at any point.  The babies have also dropped even lower (don't know how much lower they can even go before they are out).  So, now I afraid to even move, because my personnal goal is 34 weeks, and I am only 33 and 1.  Please continue to pray for healthy babies and that once they arrive, they will be able to "shake" the mag.  The neonatologist has mentioned a few times how we need to remember they are going to need some time to get the mag out of their system just like my body will need time.

Afternoon update

So, the goal today was to put a PICC line in my left arm so I didn't have to keep getting a new IV every 3 days.  I have had 5 already, and if I stay 2 more weeks, that is 5 more.  They are worried they are going to run out of veins, and thought a pick line would be good.  We all get ready, I have to sign a bunch of paper work, and am mentally trying to prepare myslef for the pain. Right when they are about to put me on the stretcher bed to move me downstairs to radiology, the nurse gets a phone call.  They told her I didn't quilify for a PICC line because I was "in patient" and they only do PICC lines in patients that go home...so they wanted to do a central line in my jugular vein on my neck...I DON'T THINK SO!  I said absolutely not.  All I'm doing here is trying to have a baby (or 2), not dying.  So after all the drama, I was back in my bed in the same position I was when we began this mess.  I was kind of happy though, b/c neither a PICC line or IV coming out of my neck sounded appealing! 

We got the results from my ultrasound this morning, and the news was great!  The little girl now weighs 4.5 and the little boy is 4 pounds.  I personally think he is bigger, because they could not get a good measurement of his head.  He is literally coming out.  :o)  That is exactly how Landon was.  They always thought he was tiny b/c he was so low they couldn't measure his head either.  Landon ended up being a pound bigger than they expected, so I am hoping that is what happens this time.  All in all, they have gained roughly a pound in 2 weeks, so if I can get two more weeks in, they should be a good size!

32 weeks!

Today is a good day!  I have made it to 32 weeks.  Thank you Lord!  The doctor came in and we discussed EXACTLY what her thoughts were after we turn off the mag when I am 34 weeks.  That will be Monday, October 3rd.  We are thinking my body will take off on its own after the mag is turned off, but if for some reason it doesn't, she will drip pitocin.  As of right now, no C section!  I'm going for it..haha  I will also have an ultrasound this week to see how much the babies are weighing.  Jacy and I are getting very excited to meet them!  It blows my mind that Landon is going to be a big brother in two weeks...wow.  It seems like yesterday when he was born. 

Day 11 and counting...

I know this coming Tuesday will be the 2 week mark that I've been in the hospital.  Today wasn't a good day for me.  I guess you could say I had a pitty party for myself.  I just couldn't get it together.  As hard as I tried, I just couldn't.  Thursday night, my awesome sister came to see me.  We had movie night and she stayed the night with me.  I LOVED it.  Last night, Jacy stayed the night, so I think that is why today was so hard for me.  I am really looking forward to Monday, because I will be 32 weeks!!  We are on countdown after that.  I think next week is going to be challenging for me mentally because it will be the third week I have been here, but if I can get through it, I will only have one week to go and my reward will be to meet my amazing children! 

I think Jacy has settled down also.  Things are moved in at the house and from what I hear, put up where they belong.  Hopefully, things will start to settle down for us now...that is until the twins are born..haha  I keep telling everyone I can't wait for our lives to be back to normal, but then I think...well, what is the definition of normal going to be for us??

We love you and thank you for your prayers! 

I am definitely 2

I meant to post this video a few weeks ago.  I couldn't stop laughing while I was filming him.  He was having a blast.