Home from the hospital...

Just a quick update to let you know that we got home about 8:30 tonight. I just got both girls in bed and they are sleeping soundly. I think Nattie was so thrilled to be in her own bed, she went to sleep in record time! Now I am off to the shower and into my comfy nightgown and I will probably fall asleep as soon as I sit down in front of the TV. Hopefully Nattie will have a good night but at least if she doesn't I can just put her in bed with me.
Thanks for all of your well wishes and thoughts and prayers. I will let you know how she is tomorrow.

Nattie's Progress

The surgery went very well and Nattie is doing great! No fever, the catheter is already out because she keeps peeing around it so much we can't keep her or the bed dry, she is sleeping well and seems to be tolerating the pain. They are keeping her pretty medicated but as needed. Like this morning she had probably been 8 hours or so w/out pain meds before she started getting really irritable. She played for a while and drank a bottle of formula and some apple juice and had a few bites of a biscuit and a waffle(plain and dry both) and then the fussiness set in. So we asked for pain meds and it took her a while but she has finally settled down and is sleeping again. We are waiting for the doc to come and check her out and hopefully tell us that she can go home. The nurse told us that he told her early this morning that he couldn't believe how well she is doing. I am praying that means we can go home this afternoon. She is crying again, I will update more later....

Tomorrow is the day...

Nattie's surgery. Please pray for her and for Chet and me. I will update as soon as I can. Today is a hard day for me. I am trying to stay busy so I don't think so much. Too much thinking is not good.

Nattie's surgery is next Monday

Brianna and her friend Maggie after completing their swim test for camp.

The girls watching sissy take her swim test.

Bri jumping in!

The wagon ride over to the camp area. Look how excited Bri is!

Girls in yellow!

ABOVE: Happy Mags.

BELOW: Mags going from 0 to 100!! TEMPER, TEMPER!!

They are finally holding their bottles and sippy cups!!

Maggie looking so sweet but looks can be deceiving!

Nattie being her mostly sweet little self.

I am trying to gear myself up mentally. It is hard to prepare yourself to have your child taken from you and know that anything could happen. And then to watch her suffer in pain for days while going without sleep for many days. I am exhausted already just thinking of next week. Please keep Natalie and our family in your prayers.

Both girls have had diarhhea so bad the last few days. I am pretty sure that they both have their bottom right tooth coming in. Hopefully that is the cause of it and it will be over once that tooth breaks thru. They aren't sleeping well again either. And we were making such great strides.

Bri left for summer camp on Sunday and Chet is out of town on business and being alone with these two while they are so irritable is very hard work!! I couldn't wait for their bedtime last night!!

Above are some recent pics of the girls and Sunday when we dropped Bri off at camp.

Maggie had a rough week.

Tuesday night I was at home w/the twins by myself during their most irritable time. I had them in their bumbo seats on the kitchen table while I was collecting stuff for their baths. I was right there but Maggie still managed to throw herself out of her seat, off of the table and onto the floor landing on the top of her head. She screamed hysterically for about 2 minutes. I was as upset as her trying to see where she was hurt. She was red all over from crying so I couldn't see anything until she calmed down. The whole top of her head was red but no knots or bruising. Other than her usual evening time before bed irritability she seemed fine. She did take a bottle before bed and slept all night but she woke up before 7. I plugged her paci in and didn't hear anything else from her until 10 a.m.!!!!!!! I am starting to get worried at this point. When I go in her room to get her the stench almost gagged me....she had a major blow-out!!! Change all the bedding and give her a bath kind of blow-out. And air freshener galore for the whole upstairs portion of the house!!! She took about 3 ozs. of formula and then ate rice cereal and bananas. About 1/2 hour later she seemed lethargic and was whiny, just not herself at all. I tried laying her down and she acted like she was going right to sleep but started this moaning humming thing. You know like kids do when they are sick. She was restless and I decided to try and rock her. She was obviously sleepy but couldn't relax. She had her eyes closed but still doing the humming thing. So I was trying to decide whether to call the doc or not when she vomited all over the both of us. I cleaned us up and called the doc and they said they didn't want to take any chances with a possible head injury and that I should bring her in. While they were asking me questions about her she started vomiting LOTS, and LOTS, and the nurse said to just bring her on in. She was so pale that even her lips had no color. O.K. I am getting pretty upset about this time thinking that I have given my kid a concussion. She fell asleep on the way but was still doing the humming thing. When we got into the office she did have more color and as soon as we went in she had smiles for everyone!!! Little turkey!! She seemed fine. The doc checked her out really thoroughly and said that he didn't see enough to warrant a CT scan and suspected that maybe she had a stomach virus or ate something that did not agree with her. The last week or so they have been eating lots more table food because Nattie is refusing baby food, so it could have been something her little tummy just couldn't handle yet. I was praying it wasn't a virus because her and Nattie trade paci's and bottle's all the time. That means she would end up with it too. The doc put her on a lactose free formula and said to feed her bland things for a few days and no dairy products and check back if she gets worse or no better. She is much better thank goodness. I think it may have been something she ate. Nattie didn't get it, again thank goodness. I am still being careful about what I feed her and have started buying the Gerber Graduates instead of so much table food. Nattie will eat those. Man it's tough to know what to feed teethless babies that refuse baby food!!!
I swear I have managed to let these 2 get hurt more times already than I did my other 2 in the first 5 years of their lives and they aren't even crawling yet!!!! I better get them helmets and bodyarmor!!! I don't know if I am losing my touch or it's just because there are two of them and it's harder to keep my eyes on them both constantly!
Whew!! What a week!

Are they ever going to get any teeth??

I am beginning to think that my girls are just going to teeth forever! Maggie had a few days last week that she was so irritable that I was sure it was teething. She got better but didn't get any teeth!
We had a fun and busy 4th of July week. We have been to State Parks and little historic towns w/in an hour of home going in and out of shops and looking at old houses and eating in quaint little restaurants. And speaking of eating Bri and I are truly enjoying ice cream this summer. I can't stick to South Beach because I can't lay off the ice cream! So come fall I will be whining about my jeans still not fitting!!
The girls seem to be growing and changing by leaps and bounds these days. The only thing that doesn't change is how whiny they are. I sure was hoping they would outgrow it by now. Maybe if they would just get some dang teeth! They are sitting well on their own and starting to scoot on their bottoms to get what they want. Finally they are both rolling now and trying to sit up from a laid down position. They won't crawl but they lay on their tummies and push backwards w/their arms.
I have lots of pics that I need to download and some on my 35mm that I will get on CD so I can post them here too. But here are a few until then!