Thursday, August 22, 2013

Family time

           We got to spend the weekend with the family. We were able to see everyone while we were there in la grande, including uncle kent and Julie as well as aunt carol and Marilyn and her family. Marilyn took lots of pictures of everyone. I hope to see them soon. Mom and Dad even came home from the Philippians for a couple weeks. This all happened to help and support Kayla and Thomas in their loss of their Baby Thomas Kyrum Nelson. He was a beautiful perfect little boy and will be in our hearts and minds always. We can't wait to meet him and get to know him on the other side. Kayla and Thomas were able to give him a body and a name and that is all little Thomas needed. Heavenly Father has a greater work for him to do. There was a perfect service and graveside for Thomas with lots of faith in our hearts and tears in our eyes.
             All the cousins loved being together and playing together. They slept out on the trampoline and played and rode horse and Fourwheeler and played in the water all day long. Our little girls did a great job with the traveling and weren't any trouble whatsoever. They loved all the attention and getting held all the time.... now its a little harder to get them to sleep without someone holding onto them. But o well just a challenge to face every night and probably will continue for the remainder of their lives. It was so great to see all the family, especially mom and dad. they are the best parents anyone could ever ask for. We love them so much and wish them luck on their last 6 months out there.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Life now revolves around them!

             We are now the proud parents to two beautiful daughters! We are so happy they are here and feel so very blessed to have them in our lives. They have already brought so much joy into our lives. we just love to hold them and snuggle them whenever we can.
            So I think I will kinds just give a little bit of the Birthday story for my future reference. Feel free to read if you like or just skip over it and look at the pictures at the end :)
            We went into the hospital at 5:30 am on Wednesday 7/31/13. The nurses took all my vitals and prepped me for the surgery. My blood pressure we pretty high for the whole time I was at the hospital, about 150-170 over 90-120. So not very good, they kept a pretty close eye on it pretty much the whole time I was there. They needed to get lots of fluid in me before the surgery so they were trying to get the IV in pretty much right when we got there. They had to stick me 4 times before they finally got one to work. So I had 3 other lovely bruises on my arm and hands, and a short time later another nurse had to come in and take blood to see why my blood pressure was so high, and she poked me two more times so I had a total of six needles in like 20 mins, all the while nurses are running around doing this and that to me and asking me all these questions at the same time. You know standard procedure. Holy cow talk about hectic. I didn't know it would be that crazy in there.
           They wanted me to have 3 whole bags of fluid in me before I went in to surgery so in about an hour they crammed all three in to me. usually when you have an IV they just let it drip... nope it was flowing into me arm at a steady pace making my arm completely cold on the inside and leaving it sore and tingling.... oh well I had my fluids! At which point I said can I get up to pee cause after all that fluid coming in, man did I have to go, but they said no we will put the catheter in before long so I had to hold it until on the surgery table when they put it in like 20 mins later. Then all the nurses were surprised at how much came out of me, saying whoa... you weren't kidding. Haha nope!
            Anyway, moving on! So I have always been kind of scared for when they would do the spinal/epidural. A needle going into my spine never sounded very appealing to me. Sure enough I was right to be a little scared. Man alive did that hurt. curled over so she could put that in... I think she had to poke a few times. Every time she put it in my reflexes came on and I would flinch but I also was told not to move and just relax and bend over as far as possible. YA RIGHT! seemed next to impossible with that kind of pain. Then I hear her say, ya it just keeps bending... it won't go in straight. So everything running through my mind along with the twitches of pain and the fact that I couldn't stop shaking the whole time was then making me cry. I was pretty much freaking out. I didn't know what to do. But eventually it all ended and everything was numb and tingling again, and tyler was aloud to come in and when he see's that I had been crying, of  course almost the first thing he says is... "Why are you crying?" At least I think he said that, or I was just thinking if he says that I am going to be soo mad! lol but I think I laughed and started crying more.
             When Tara was born she came out and didn't make a peep just was bright eyed, looking around. They showed her to me over the curtain for about a half a second it seemed and then they took her to be cleaned up. She was born at 7:52am. When Jenna came out 2 minutes later she was crying and a little bit, and I remember thinking that it was the sweetest sound I had ever heard, because I knew both of them were okay. They showed her to me for a little longer than I saw Tara and I thought ya they both look pretty much the same. They both looked perfect, and when the went and took Jenna to be cleaned up as well I started crying, I was so happy. It was a pretty neat feeling to be a mom  for the first time, know that everything was going to change and they were at the center of it.
            After a couple minutes they brought one of them at a time back to me, Tara first and Jenna second. I got to hold them while I was on the table getting stitched back up. And Tyler and I decided who was going to be who. Basically just put a name to a girl. I don't remember there being any reason for either of them being called what we decided. Once I was done in there they took me back to the recovery room and the babies came in shortly after that. I was able to feed them not long afterward and got to keep them and hold them for as long as I wanted or had strength. Tyler took such good care of them those first couple days in the hospital. He fell in love with them pretty quick. Almost every time we fell asleep over the next couple days we were holding them.
            During the night I asked the nurses to take them out after I fed them so I could get some better sleep. It felt so weird, to have them gone, the room seemed empty, and I was so happy when they brought them back in for me to feed them again. They didn't eat very much the first couple days. When we got home we had to put them on the bilirubin blankets cause they were beginning to get jaundice. Jenna is still on it today a week after they were born. Tara was off of it yesterday which has been nice for her to not have to be attached to the wall all the time.
            They have both been doing so good since we got home, I just feel so entirely blessed to have them home and healthy. They were both born at 6 pounds, 11 ounces and tara was 19and 1/2 and Jenna was 19 inches long. We are very grateful that they never had to go to the NICU or anything like that. they have been with us ever since they were born and it has been a miracle. We love them so much and are grateful for the opportunity we have to raise them. Here are some pictures from the first week of their lives....

The First Week!