Baby Update

It's been a long couple of days and we haven't done an update- we stayed at the hospital for 4 days (3 days longer than I have with my other babies) and it's been quite the painful and long recovery. Plus, the hospital's internet was too slow to post any pictures.

But Alexis and I finally got to come home yesterday!

Here are my last pregnant pictures with twins- 2 days shy of 38 weeks. As the lady I ran into in Wal-mart on Monday said, "Wow, you've got one BIG baby in there!" As you can tell, my shirt didn't cover my stomach any more.

Ready for delivery!

Here I am after I got home yesterday, in the same outfit I went to the hospital in, just for comparison sake. I still look pregnant, but not with twins anymore!

And here are some more pics of our precious baby girls. Leah on the left, Lexi on the right, just shortly after they were born. Both tiny (much tiny than we are used to for Andros babies), but Lexi looks so much bigger than Leah (one whole pound worth).

My little Lexi Grace, bright eyed for Grandma.

Me and Lexi

A little update on Leah, for those who don't know. About 8 hours after birth, she started showing signs of difficulty in breathing. Ben and I first noticed it and pointed it out to the nurse Wednesday morning, who noticed as well. Leah had been making noise all night long in her sleep. At first we thought she was just going to be a noisy baby, but something didn't seem right. The nurse thought it wise to take her down to the NICU to get monitored, and sure enough, she was laboring really hard in her breathing and having a difficult time. The hooked her up to oxygen almost immediately and she has been in the NICU ever since.

After many visits from the pediatric specialist, it was determined that her lungs were immature at birth. One of her lung as collapsed multiple times as well. She has been on continued oxygen support since Wednesday and as well as feeding tubes and different IV's and other monitors to monitor her heart rate and respiratory rate. All of the things on her make it look worse than it is- she is not in any life threatening danger. The only thing that will help fully develop her lungs now is time. After she is fully recovered, she will have no lasting side effects or problems from this in the future. We feel very blessed that it is no more serious than it is. Her progress is very slow right now, but just since last night she has made the biggest jumps in her progress, and we have much hope that she will continue to progress more and more each day.

We go in and visit her multiple times each day, especially Ben. He is the most loving and attentive father, especially as he was torn so many different ways at the hospital: trying to take care of my every need (which he did), holding and spending time with Alexis (which he did) and taking time to go and sit with Leah for hours on end. He even found time to come home and play with Chloe and Mitchell. Even though he couldn't hold Leah in the NICU, he would sit by her side and talk to her, touch her and just be with her to let her know we were still there for her. She has one lucky daddy who loves her very much. Ben was amazing at the hospital with all of us.

Mommy and two of her girls. We are just missing Leah in this picture. It is so hard not to be able to hold her when I want.

Lexi and Leah in Leah's NICU bed, getting some brief bonding time.

Leah has been slightly sedated so she can relax and let her oxygen work, and being by us, including Alexis, really makes her calm.

This pic of Leah (above) is for Papa Blakeslee, who also wears a CPAP mask for sleep apnea. He and Leah are twins!

Beautiful Alexis Grace, enjoying a nap on Mommy's hospital bed.

On Friday, they finally let us hold Leah for the first time since Wednesday morning. I was so excited!! Here I am with ALL my girls! Aren't they beautiful?? Leah loved being held this day and snuggled right up to me, content as can be.

I finally put an outfit on Alexis on Friday. I felt bad getting her dressed when Leah couldn't put clothes on, especially since I had brought little matching outfits for them to come home in together. One of the secretaries at the nursing desk has become a good friend of mine and came in and visited me on Thursday and brought the girls some coordinating outfits. I decided to put that on Alexis to wear home on Friday and save the matching outfits for when Leah gets to come home, too. She looks so sweet in clothes after being just bundled for so many days!

Going home Friday afternoon!

She looked like a baby doll in her carseat. This is so unusual for our family- we do NOT have small babies!! We almost don't know what to do with 5 and 6 pound babies. Leah is almost twice as small as Chloe was.

Alexis, all bundled up and ready to come home!

It was so exciting to bring her home, but we left a big piece of our hearts at the hospital, as Leah is still there and will be for a number of days more. We get a boarding room at the hospital, where we can still spend the night if we choose and that we can use anytime we go in to visit Leah. Leah is in very good hands at the hospital and know she will be taken care of when we are not there, but it was heartbreaking to leave with just Alexis.

Alexis discovered her fingers last night- Mitchell will be so excited to have a fellow finger sucker in the family!

Big brother enjoying some time with little sister. He loves the "bebes" as he calls them and loves to hold Lexi's hand.

We are so glad to be home with Alexis and can't wait until the day we get to bring little Leah home, all well. We are so blessed to have these little angels in our family.