Part 2.... June

Here is the next installment of me catching up on our life on the blog... I'm going to try to do multiple ones so I can catch you all up to today, which happens to be a day of at least 3 firsts for the boys!

The week after Harrison was discharged from the hospital was my first official week on my own with the boys. They were about 5.5 weeks old. Then, as you saw in the previous post, we went to the lake for Memorial Day weekend. The boys' first of many trips to Lake Martin!

On June 1st, I walked into Jack Henry and Harrison's room to find this PRECIOUS sight. You know after weeks of being apart on and off after birth, they were glad to be back together and snuggling :)The first weekend of June (weekend after Memorial Day), I got really brave and drove to the lake with the babies all by myself!!! My mom was already down there and my sisters and Brent (Paige's fiance) came down, too. (Preparing for July 4th a month early....they are just naturally patriotic.)Being at the lake with new babies is a whole different ballgame. I'm glad my mom reminded me about how different my lake experience would be before our first trip with the boys. I stay inside most of the day with them because it is too hot for them out side. We try to take them to the dock early in the AM or later in the evening, when it is cool. Selfishly, this is mostly for my benefit, so I can get out of the house, but the boys seem to enjoy it, too, and I think the fresh air is good for them :)
Harrison and me on the bed swing on the dock.
Aunt Grace and I had a little photo session with the boys down on the dock. The lighting was so good! Grace took the pictures while I entertained them. At this point in their life, it was very easy for everyone to tell them apart. As you'll see in future pictures, as they have chunked up, they resemble each other more and more! Still obviously fraternal, but favoring each other more. Love how H is looking at me in this pic haha....
Jack Henry snuggling with Mimi that evening.
Harrison likes to hold his soothie sometimes and I think it's adorable. :)
Jack Henry sacked out on the dockVERY serious about those animals!
Aunt Podge doing what she does best. Harrison approves :)
Back home playing in the bouncers.Often, this is how I feed the boys when I'm alone. These days they stay awake longer after eating and we sing/chat for a while, but back in June, they'd often sack out just like this--especially after the mid-morning feeding and I'd just let them stay. Hey, sometimes it boils down to this.... a nap is a nap, wherever it is taken.


Jen and Eli West, friend of Josh's from high school, came over to bring dinner, catch up and love on the boys on June 11th. The boys were precious in their "womb mate" onesies and slept most of the evening. Jack Henry's PRECIOUS leg
Jack Henry sacked out on Jen's lap
Snoozin' by momma on the ottoman during dinner.
A little snuggle time with Jack Henry and those precious feet :)On June 13th, we took the boys to meet my Great Uncle Johnnie, my mom's uncle. I love for the boys to meet their family and this was extra special because her daddy (his brother) died when I was in college and this definitely felt like the next best thing to Pop getting to hold these sweet babies. Uncle Johnnie is a wonderful and kind man. I'm so glad the boys got to meet him (even if they wont remember it haha). It was also Aunt Sarah's birthday, which we didn't know when we went over there, but she said that seeing the babies made it extra special. They were so sweet to come visit us at the hospital when the boys were born. It was disappointing that the babies were in NICU and unable to meet them the day they came to visit.
Ok.... I'm going to have to conintue "Part 2 June" in the next post.... these pictures have taken forever to upload and I've gotta go get some stuff done and go to bed! Hope y'all enjoyed the pictures. It was fun for me to take a little trip down memory lane and look at how our baby boys have grown up and developed. Stay tuned for our exciting "firsts"!

Ok... Ok.... Part one.

SOOOOOOOOooooooo... I'm FINALLY posting! I uploaded 700+ pictures the other day. It's well past time to post haha. I'm going to look through the pictures and discuss what we've been doing based on them. This will obviously be a multi-part post. haha. Side note, you will gradually see that the boys used to look very different and are looking more and more alike lately b/c they are both filled out so much with cute, chubby cheeks :)

You'll remember that our precious Harrison had his bout with pyloric stenosis back in May. Side note, you'll definitely notice and will not believe how much Harrison has filled out since the pyloric stenosis.... it's kind of sad actually, b/c it makes me realize just how teeny tiny he got from his weight loss and what a brand new baby he was when he had it. He is doing great now and should not have any more problems from it---yay! This is an extra relief b/c if it was reflux, as originally thought to be, it could have lasted a year or so as many of you have experienced. I feel like I dodged a bullet on that one... especially since I have a another baby to care for at the same time! It would've been daunting, for sure. Well, after discharging from the hospital, we came home and tried to take it easy. We watched Harrison for anymore throwing up, etc. He healed beautifully!

That next weekend was Memorial Day and we took the boys on their first trip to Lake Martin! I was really surprised how long it took me to pack and I even got some help from my mom. Fortunately, I'm a lot better and faster at it now! On this trip is when some of the breastfeeding issues really started. My supply and our breastfeeding "jive" got thrown off when H was in the hospital. The ped rec'd that I supplement with some formula. Then, H was compressing my nipple, causing a sore on one, so I turned to all pumping and supplementing...I tried to go back to full breast a few times, but the boys are eating a TON (5-8 oz per child, per feeding 5-6x a day... it's hard to keep up that kind of supply!) It was also getting hard to do by myself during the day---breastfeeding and then supplementing. So, jumping ahead a little in our time line for these posts, I am fully pumping and supplementing. When I originally had to put them on only bottles, they started eating more than they were getting every 3 hrs breastfeeding and switched themselves to a 4 hr feeding schedule----beautiful! This was a big source of angst for me, because I loved breastfeeding my babies, and it was going fabulously before H's hospital stay, and even pretty well immediately afterward, before the supply became a big issue. On the other hand, it was nice to have help feeding and you couldn't beat the new 4 hr feeding schedule! It just felt like the best choice and like the boys were happy getting so much more at a time. I'll definitely breastfeed our next baby(ies) and hope it will go better and longer. Either way, they are still getting a lot of breast milk, so I'm happy. I digress. Big stretch on the changing table (H)
It is fun looking through all of these pictures... and kind of funny because I didn't realize how much hair the boys had lost until I saw these old ones! LOL. I know it's normal... just funny.
Ok... I've GOT to get into bed... I have 3 month old babies who will be waking us up to eat.... at some point. That's a whole other post. Ha ha. Stay tuned for more lake fun, a visit from Gigi and Papa, 2 month doctor appointment, and more. Love y'all!

OOOOOOOOOOOH and I cannot remember if I posted about this or not---my guess is not, b/c I've been so crappy about it lately, but my precious sister, Paige is ENGAGED and getting married at Lake Martin May 2011! I am her Matron of Honor (my first time to be an "honor"!) and I'm really excited :) Brent is a wonderful and thoughtful guy, who is actually also a fraternal twin--so they'll be playing Russian roulette with that twin gene when they make babies haha. I joke with her that I'll just raise them for her...she plays along (I think she's playing??? haha hmmm...) and says that sounds good to her!
Anyways, it is going to be a GORGEOUS wedding and such a celebration. Josh, the boys and I are very excited---and actually are all in the wedding party, so that's fun!
CONGRATULATIONS PAIGE AND BRENT! We love you!

SWEET DREAMS!