cowboys and cannibals

What do cowboys and cannibals have to do with each other you ask? Nothing really, except it seems that's what my boys are. I've included a picture where Eli is not trying to eat Evan's head, just so you know they do actually love each other.

Here they are, loving each other. Eli is showing off his chubbiness, and Evan his almost steady contentedness.
And then, my cowboys. I have full-length pictures of both of them, boots, buckles, and all, but I couldn't resist posting this one with Ronin's face and Davis's smile.
Gotta love the giant pacifier and Eli eating his brother's head.

I love your love

Ronin is adjusting to the new babies in stride, he loves them and shows this by nuzzling them, almost like a puppy would. I called him my "middle son" for the first time not too long ago, which was a big eye-opener for me--we have a middle son now. It has been "our youngest and our oldest" for three years now, so this is quite a change.

It has been my hope that Ronin would not feel slighted or un-loved or un-appreciated. There are so many horrible things said about the middle child; as a result I have felt compelled to be intentional about giving him quality time and affection.

Occasionally I will say to him, "Know what?"

He says, "Uh-huh."

"What?"

"You love me."

But today, I asked, "Guess what, Ronin?" And he applauded and with excitement said, almost shouted, "You LOVE me!"

Too often I feel like the middle child to God, and only because of myself, because He is constantly showering me with affection and lavishing me with love. I hope I can continue to learn from my children, to love His love with the kind of excitement that Ronin displays in knowing that I love him.

boys are on the menu

My wonderful sister-in-law utilized the Care Calendar, an online (free) tool that organizes help for individuals for any number of circumstances. In our case, it has been for meals and it has been so great. Two nights ago, someone brought us taco soup, which was delicious. As he sat in our living room across from Kevin, with Evan in a bouncer, Eli in my arms, Davis showing off his pull-ups (not training pants, for real pull-ups), and Ronin helping our guest take off his coat so he could stay a while, he chuckled and said, "Looks like boys are on the menu!"

Indeed! Our home is full of guys, but my heart is full of love and blessing. Here are three of our five guys.

Davis and Eli

Ronin

sixteen candles

Growing up, my family attended a yearly conference, because of this we were constantly seeing older people who would tell my brothers and me how they remembered us when we were little babies and how they changed our diapers. I thought it was pretty ridiculous, until now. My niece will be sixteen tomorrow, on the 23rd. I was in seventh grade when she was born, she was the smallest baby I had ever held. Now she's an incredibly talented and beautiful young lady. Her brother felt the need to obnoxiously sing happy birthday as close to her face as possible, he succeeded.

And apparently it takes three people to get sixteen candles lit on a cake. My mom always gives the gift of food on your birthday, you choose the full menu, and she makes it. So, we had lasagna rolls, mashed potatoes, green beans, french bread, and Italian cream cake.
The food was delicious, the company was fabulous, it was a great day to celebrate the life of my precious niece! Happy Birthday.

yes, they're identical

These days, if the boys make it out of their room, they can share the bouncer seat because they are still so small. We made our first trip to the doctor and Eli (right) weighs 5lbs, and Evan (left) is 4lbs.7oz. (about the same as his discharge weight). The hospital sent us home with monitors for the boys; so their heart rate and respirations are constantly at our attention in the form of blinking green lights. If their heart rate goes above 220 or below 80, it will alarm to notify us. It seems each day the monitor goes off less and less and this is more and more of an encouragement to us.
I spend a lot of time in this chair, they eat every three hours, so imagine the normal routine you do for a newborn, only right when I lay the first one down, I turn around and do the whole routine again, then go to sleep for hopefully two hours and wake up to do it again. It has not been as stressful as I anticipated and I am very thankful. We continue to be in awe of the miracles God has performed in the lives of these babies!

10.22.10

The day my c-section was scheduled was October 22. So technically, our babies came home a few days early! We brought them home last night (10.22.10) and are thrilled to have them with us finally. I am nursing both the boys and it is going well so far, just not getting much sleep, which is to be expected!

two weeks old

Yesterday our little ones turned two weeks old. They are still growing, but still have some progress to make. Any baby in the NICU has to consistently do three things before they can leave:

1. Maintain healthy breathing

2. Maintain their own body temperature

3. Feed from a bottle at each feeding without tubing any of the milk (right now, both our boys take bottles, they just don't have enough energy to finish the feeding and so the remainder of the bottle is put in a syringe and pumped through a feeding tube)

Evan now weighs 4lbs.2oz. (which is only one ounce more than his birthweight, but he lost quite a bit in his travels from Children's and back), he is off oxygen, he is now in a crib instead of the incubator, and he is now showing significant signs of interest in feeding and takes almost half of his bottles.

Eli now weighs 4lbs.11oz., he came off his oxygen but they have put him back on because he's had some sleep apnea, he is also now in a crib, and he is taking some bottles. On Tuesday the nurse told me he contracted an infection, MRSA, there's no way of telling how he got it or who he got it from, but now anyone who enters his room must "gown and glove." It also means the boys are in separate rooms. This is a common infection in the NICU, so much so that every baby is checked for it weekly.

Please continue to pray, we have seen and felt the coverage of prayer from across the globe and cannot begin to express how grateful we are.