Lots of photos

Just added lots of photos.  Be sure to scroll down, as they were added over several posts.  (It starts with the monkey bathrobes.)  Enjoy!

Mother's Day with the Cathcarts & Porters

We spent M's Day afternoon at Honey & Dude's (the Cathcart GPs).

So this first photo is for the Porter clan - we know the Porter cousins will get a kick out of seeing their dad (Great Uncle Mark) with little Bowen.  (He seemed to enjoy it - no pressure Heather - haha!)  

Next - Great Grammie (Cathcart) feeding Luke.

Then - Great Grandmamma (Porter) feeding Bowen.

Then - Honey with Bowen.

Then - Dude with Luke.

Last - Great Pop (Cathcart) with Luke.

And, some Mother's Day Photos

Photos from brunch at our house.  (For those of you who've been to our house but not recently - yes, we finally got some adult dining room furniture.)

Above: The Bowen family at our house having brunch.  Below: Brayden loves holding his "wittle" cousins.  He is particularly fascinated with tiny little Luke (who is slowly becoming less tiny!).  Brayden eagerly washes up and puts on anti-bacterial hand sanitizer to spend time with them.
Below: Uncle Shane enjoys holding one of the little ones.  He has claimed that he & Beth won't have any more kiddos, for fear of the twins possibility.  (I am the 3rd of our cousins to have a set of twins!)
Below: Aunt Beth helps Brayden hold Luke.  While Brayden likes the little ones, Abel doesn't quite understand the need for carefulness with them yet.  So much of the morning was spent keeping Abel at arm's distance from his new little cousins.
Papa holds Bowen while Nana entertains cousin Abel.

Another Photo

This photo answers a common question we hear: "Can you feed them both at the same time?"  Yes, you can.  This is Chris' favorite way to tackle a dual feed.  We have a couple different methods.  You can also double burp them: one baby over each shoulder, with the patting hand hitting both backs (and the supporting forearm under both rumps).  It works quite well. . . . Though most often when we're both home, we each take a baby.  Or feed the crying baby first, the quiet baby second.  Luke is usually the first baby!

PHOTOS!

So I've finally gotten a good block of sleep (thanks to Daddy being off today!) and felt up to putting some pictures on the site.  In no particular order, just adding them as I find ones I like!  I'll be doing this over a couple of posts (or it won't get done - too many interruptions!).  PS - Happy Memorial Day!  This time next year, we'll probably be beaching it.

The first photos to post are from their first couple baths at home.

You can't tell, but Bowen actually likes his bath time.  He likes having his head rubbed.

And you can't tell that Luke does NOT like bath time.  (This is the post-bath calm.)  But they are both cute in their monkey bathrobes that Aunt Beth got them!

A brief time warp

In recovering from this week's busy-ness, I just realized it's Friday, and I'm just now reporting that Luke did indeed come home Tuesday afternoon after his surgery.  He handled it like a little champ, being just a bit fussy for a couple nights.  His dressing was due to come off last night, and he indeed does have some "redundant skin," though not as redundant as I was prepared for.  I was picturing elephant trunk.  It's more like weird little flap.

Today was their 2-week follow-up with their pedia.  Dr. McLaren was quite impressed with their weight gain: Bowen at a whopping 8#8oz, Luke at 6#14oz.  Had they gone to term, I think I would have had about 15-16 lbs of baby in me!  (There are some blessings in a preemie birth!)  Luke's anemia has resolved.  Meanwhile Bowen's jaundice is on a very SLOW path of resolving, leaving him with a beautiful olive complexion.  In addition to his skin tone, his extra pound and a half and much thicker hair leaves us with what Chris refers to as our "nonidentical identicals."

For the dog lovers:  We haven't allowed the dogs to interact too much with the boys just yet in an attempt to keep germs at bay.  (Although, the pups do like to lick some baby toes when they get the chance.)  So we don't know entirely how fond/un-fond/aware of the babies the dogs are.  But apparently Beau is a little sweet on these kids.  Yesterday both boys were crying in stereo while I was warming bottles.  As I stood tapping my fingers on the counter in front of the bottle warmer (because that makes it go faster), I felt I was being watched.  I looked up to see Beau-dog standing in the doorway between the kitchen & the LR (where the boys were in their bassinette), with a stance that said "Don't you hear them crying?  What are you doing?  Take care of them already!"  Poor thing; he seemed rather distressed, until I headed to the LR with bottles in hand.  (George is more concerned with seeing how many times he can get away with snatching a dirty diaper from the trash.)

Okay, I know I keep promising pictures, but lately naps trump going through photos.  But I really will get to it soon!

Luke's Surgery Went Well

Big weekend for the boys.  They had their first away baby-sitting experience.  Honey & Dude (Cathcart GPs) kept the boys Sun evening so we could go eat dinner with friends.  Nana & Papa kept Bowen overnight Sunday so we could focus on Luke's surgery prep.  Kudos to Nana who did 1 and 4 am feeds!  (She told on you, Papa, for nudging her to get up for your crying grandson in the middle of the night - haha).  They also met Uncle Wayne & Aunt Ellan, and my grad school friends Ellen & Kim.

Luke & I survived his "npo after midnight" status.  I think his being stressed out over hunger bothered me more than the actual surgery.  Maybe it's because I don't do well on hunger:)  Thank God for the person who invented pacifiers - that person's a genius.

Luke's surgery was completed about an hour ago.  We are hanging out at Schumpert now, waiting for him to return from recovery.  The doc called & said he had inguinal hernias on both sides (surprise, surprise).  Also, since his umbilical hernia had begun to grow extensions, he has what the doc refers to as "redundant skin" hanging from his belly button.  But fortunately that should go away as he gets bigger (like age 2).  In the meantime, it will make for oddly entertaining diaper changes for sitters.  And a weird spot to clean during bath time.  And hopefully not something to get caught in future pant zippers. . . .  He & Chris will stay overnight at Schumpert tonight, and Bowen & I will be at the house.  Good thing we only had twins - one adult for every kid.  

So I'll try to put up some new pics later this week.

Mother's Day & Luke's Surgery

Okay, so this blog stuff is kind of fun.  I didn't really think folks would check it out, but apparently a few of you are! (as noted by your "comments" - I enjoy reading them!)  (And PS to Tonya - I don't know if I have your correct email address.  I'll try the one I think is right.  Email me if you don't get it.)

So Luke apparently could not be outdone by his bro.  He is scheduled to have the same exact surgery that Bowen had in LSU: repair left (and possibly right) inguinal hernia and umbilical (belly button) hernia.  Chris and I have asked him why he couldn't have sprung his hernia while he was still in the hospital.  So the fun parts for us: 1) He will not be able to eat after midnight on Sunday, and this kid has the highest pitched shriek I have ever heard from such a tiny little being when he is hungry.  So THAT should allow us basically no sleep Sun night.  2) We have to be to the hospital by 6:30 am.  That might be a good thing; we can let Schumpert's staff deal with our screaming baby.  And 3) - this will mean an overnight hospital stay for Luke.

That's about it.  Our lives have gotten relatively boring.  We are loving boring.

So I meant to post actually on Mother's Day.  But just wanted to share that it was really great.  We did brunch with my family, then a late lunch with Chris'.  Aunt Beth & Uncle Shane were soaking up being able to see/hold babies (since they were not legally allowed in the NICU).  And my first MDay gift: the boys got me a photo book (the kind you make on Shutterfly or Kodak.com) of their NICU time.  It's pretty cute.  Did I mention the boys have a great Daddy?

We'll post something again after the surgery.  

1st Trip to the Pedia

So today was the boys' first pediatrician visit.  Chris was concerned that the staff may not be prepared for all the cuteness.  They seemed to handle it okay.  We are using Dr. Rhett McLaren.  We met him through his working at Sutton Children's as a pediatric hospitalist.  He returned to the world of outpatient peds a while back.  We are extremely pleased with him already.  He is very thorough in his exam & explanations.  He writes down everything we need to do/follow up on in a list (!).

He did confirm a discovery Chris made last night during bath time - that Luke has sprung an inguinal hernia.  We both thought - man, he coudn't do that while he was in LSU?  So he's probably facing a little surgery in the next few weeks.  We'll learn more on Monday when we visit the ped surgeon, Dr. Sorrells.

Bowen continues his legacy from inpatient with good urine aim.  He got Dr. McL today - who said he's only been hit 4 times in 13 years.  Nice job, buddy.

And I almost forgot the most important part - our little piglets are growing leaps & bounds!  Now that their mother controls how much they eat (which means they eat as much as they want) - both have  gained almost a pound in one week.  Luke's up to 5 lb, 12 oz from last Thursday's d/c weight of 4'15".  He is also now 18 inches long (12.5 at birth).  Bowen - our little fatty - is now 7'4" (up from 6'8" at d/c) and is 18.75 inches long (13.5 at birth).  I know I don't know what normal weight gain for a newborn is, but for our little guys a pound seems like a lot in a week!  We'll see how much they gain in their follow up in 2 weeks.

Happy Due Date!

So today was the boys' original due date.  Instead, they are 13 weeks old - adjusted age zero.

They met their cousins, Brayden & Abel for the first time yesterday.  It was so sweet to see Brayden (3 y/o) so enamored with his baby cousins.  He did not even mind washing up so he could hold and touch them.  He first met Luke and said "He's so wittle."  Abel (now ~17 mos old) was not so interested in them.  Aunt Beth was also excited to finally get to hold her baby nephews.  As soon as I get photos from her, I will add a few to the site.  (My camera battery was dead, of course.)

Today the boys went for their first outdoor stroll in the neighborhood in their double stroller.  We stopped & visited Honey & Dude (Cathcart GPs).  We think the boys enjoyed their outing, except Luke was getting VERY hungry and a little ticked off about it.  

1st Post Ever - Settling In

Since everyone has asked how long we would keep the caring bridge site going for the boys, we decided we would start a blog.  So all our friends & family can keep up with our little boys' growth.  We truly loved our CB site, but felt it was time to graduate on to a site that was not for "critical illness."   Unless that covers chronic lack of sleep, where we are no doubt headed.  Welcome to parenthood.

If you are checking out our blog, but don't know our caring bridge story, you can check it out at www.caringbridge.org/visit/cathcarttwins.  It chronicles Luke & Bowen's birth & NICU stay at LSU Hospital in Shreveport.

So we are settling into our new life.  It is strange that we just overnight added two little human beings to this home.  I keep having to remind myself - human beings - little souls, little people who will grow up (& up & up, I'm sure) into their own lives.  It's so bizarre.  I don't think you can ever fully grasp becoming a parent.  Okay, so enough philosophy.  As soon as I figure out how this site works, I'll add some pics.