April Showers

So the past week or so Seattle has been living up to its reputation and has been giving us some constant drizzle.  And the girls both caught a pretty nasty spring cold last week, but this week we're finally rallying.  Luckily the boys avoided it, and they just keep getting stronger and cuter everyday.

When the sky clears up for even a few minutes we run outside to take advantage of it, but we've been doing a lot of arts and crafts, a lot of tent building, and trips to the gym, coffee shop and children's museum.  It's fun to think though that in just a few weeks the sunshine will start!  Last summer was truly beautiful here, so we're pretty excited that it's just around the corner!
Here are some pics from the past week or so!

Heavyweight Champions of the WORLD!

SO, less than two weeks ago the boys had their 8 week appointment at the pediatrician.  Isaac weighed in at 9 pounds 10 ounces, and Levi at 8 pounds 8 ounces.  Well, today they had an "unofficial" weight check while getting their RSV vaccines, and Ike was up to 10 pounds 14 ounces and Levi at 9 pounds 10 ounces!  HOLY MOLY!  You know what this means?  Double the chubby cheeks to snuggle in this house.  :)

*AND, they just started smiling and cooing this past week.  More than a little amazing.

Happy Birthday! Happy Spring! Happy 8 weeks!

MAN!  It's only been a few weeks and there's almost too much here to post!  We'll start with the biggest - Sproutie's 4th birthday!  Oh me, oh my, the time does fly.  I can't believe my sweet girl is 4 years old - thank goodness she reminds me every morning...  We celebrated with all of her preschool friends by playing in the "Adventure Zone" at our YMCA.  The kids ran amuck in the hamster mazes there and then we all enjoyed some "Princess Purple Flower Cake" and ice cream.  A very successful day!!!
And despite a freak flurry of snow earlier this week, spring has begun to show it's lovely face around here.  We've had a couple days in a row of pure sunshine and have been soaking up every second.  We picked up Erik at work the other day and all had a picnic on the beach, and yesterday the kiddos and I went for a loooooong walk finding new flower buds and all kinds of signs of the new season.  Even Eve's hair has finally started to grow!  :)
And finally, the boys are 8 weeks.  It's truly hard to believe.  They're absolutely thriving and while I don't know their exact weights right now (appointment later this week!) I know Ike is well over the 9 pound mark and that Levi's cheeks are easily catching up.  And the past few nights they've been able to go a 4.5 hour stretch between feedings. YAHOO!!!!
Life is good, and I've got some incredibly precious kids.  Enjoy the zillions of pictures!

Six weeks? Really?? No way...

It can't have already been six weeks.  It can't have only been six weeks.   The boys have just gotten here, but it feels like they've been here forever.  This week is a little weird since they boys are officially 6 weeks old, but have only been home for 3 weeks and we just hit my actual due date.  Of course, this whole experience has been nothing but surreal.

The boys are...awesome.  Amazing.  Enchanting.  And so much fun.  And the girls are handling everything so smoothly it's almost a little scary.  They ADORE their brothers and the biggest problems that we're running into are over affectionate ones.

I think Erik and I are both just kindof expecting the other shoe to drop.  Everyone - friends, family, other parents of multiples and even complete strangers - told us that we'd better have help when they found out we were having twins.  And when they found out we had two young girls already...their jaws more or less always hit the floor.  But it's honestly been so much easier than we expected!  I mean, yes, we're tired.  But any moron would expect that.  And we've not been without a few hiccups along the way, but the only truly difficult part of this whole experience is that it's nonstop.  Like my days are literally, truly nonstop.  But if that's my biggest complaint...then I've really got nothing to complain about.  :)

And did I mention that the boys are awesome?  :)  Ike came home from the NICU 2/13, and Levi followed on 2/15.  They both starting rolling over at 4 weeks - just one week behind their sisters! - and at their one month check they were weighing 7lb 11oz and 6lb 9oz respectively.  Today, we had an "unofficial" weight check and they were up to 8lb 10oz and 7lb 9oz!!!  That's a full pound each in just 13 days!  So yeah...my concerns about all of this "preemie" business are fading away.

I've been a little too busy to post pictures here in the past 3 weeks, so now I'm going to post a ton!!!   Get ready to fall in love.  :)

Introducing...

TWO BOYS!!!  Isaac Alton and Levi Whitacre joined our world on January 27th at 8:25 and 8:38 respectively.  Ike weighed in at a whopping 5 pounds 11 ounces, and Levi followed at 5 pounds 8 ounces. That. Was. A. Lot. Of. Baby.  :)

Still very much to our surprise, my water broke in the wee hours of the 24th and we rushed into the hospital.  Because we were not yet 34 weeks (a big benchmark in twin development) they gave me magnesium sulfate to slow and hopefully stall my labor.  It worked, and we were able to gain some time.  I was given steroids to help develop the maturation of their lungs, which are given in 2 doses 24 hours apart.  After the 48 hours they took me off of the mag sulfate (which has some pretty intense and awful side effects) and within 4 or 5 hours my contractions started up again around midnight.  They gave me a shot of terbutaline to see if we could postpone labor any longer, but all that did was make me incredibly shaky, make my teeth chatter...and basically make me angry.  You can't stop a freight train, and within 8 hours both boys were here, the first morning of their 34th week.

Both boys went up to the NICU, where we still are one week later.  They have both been doing remarkably well overall.  While Levi needed a little help with oxygen the first day, he came off of that within 12 hours and both boys were without IV's within 36 hours.  The only issue we're really dealing with at this point is getting them to take all of their food orally, but we've been working on nursing and Isaac is proving to be a champ.  Levi is taking a little bit longer - it seems he just doesn't have the stamina yet to nurse or bottle feed for long, but I'm confident he'll get there soon.  In the mean time, Erik and I are just trying to take everything day by day and are still adjusting to the fact that we have TWO BOYS.  Talk about the most amazing and sweet surprise of a lifetime!


The girls have been handling everything really well and taking it all in stride.  We're incredibly lucky that my parents were able to get here the night before the birth, and they have basically been keeping our little family chugging along for us.  The girls are soaking up some serious "Gran & Poppy time" and Iris has asked several times if they can "stay forever".  They've made a few trips up to the NICU to meet their brothers, and have been very sweet with "petting" them, kissing them and singing to them.  I've been home a few times, but have been basically living at the NICU, and Erik has been trying to balance work and life and has making lots of trips back and forth and everywhere in between.  This is obviously a tough time for us and we're trying to find our balance, but I just can't wait until we can all be at home together.