Day 2 of Christmas Cheer

And the models take their positions...

Liana giving you the "sweet eye"

Close-ups!!
Wade's mom got these blankets and had her sister put an "e" on the end of joy. So cute. They each have their own blanket.
I love Adleigh's pouty face. And yes, I purposefully tried to make their hair into mohawks.

Surgery Update and Day 1 of Christmas

So I tried to post a blog over the holidays, but it had a video in it and things would just not work!

After Liana's surgery it was a little rough. She cried a lot and we just chalked it up to she is recovering from her surgery and not liking a shunt being in her head. Well, it had been about a week since her surgery and she was still acting the same so I decided to call her neurosurgeon's office and told them how she was acting. They said it didn't seem normal and instead of bringing her back in 3 weeks for her scheduled appointment they wanted her to come in that day. We got another CT scan and they said everything looked normal. But her fontanel (soft spot) was still really sunken in and kind of hard so they decreased the rate of the fluid draining through her shunt. I feel like that has helped a ton! She still seems to get a little irritated, but a lot less crying (and by crying I mean the type of cry that makes you think she is horribly miserable and saying, "Mommy, please help me." Heartbreaking!)

One thing we have noticed is that she has taken a few steps back in her tummy time. She used to almost do a full push up and lift her head so high. She had rolled over totally to her surprise a few times too. But now she struggles to even lift her neck up. When I try to put her hands under her so she can push up she just lays her head down. Thankfully her physical therapist comes back on Tuesday (we had off this past week) so we will be drilling her on what we should do.

Finally, the girls had 4 days of Christmas cheer. We put on a new outfit starting Monday and leading up to Christmas and had some awesome photo shoots. Here is Day 1's hits.

Adleigh having fun.
Adleigh with a sweet smile.
Liana with a silent laugh.
My beautiful girls. Adleigh looks kinda weird.
If only you could see me and Grammy behind the camera. We were doing crazy dances, making baby squeals, and shaking toys. And for all that we get these faces.
Hope you enjoyed Day 1!

Hopefully now that crazy Christmas is over I will be able to do a little better on my early new year's resolution!!

The Surgery went well

We got home from the hospital yesterday. Liana's surgery went well. They had to put in a shunt to drain the cyst and fluid in the ventricle. She ended up having a pretty rough night at the hospital and wouldn't eat anything. She became dehydrated and had to be put on IV fluids. She still seems to be in a little pain. On top of all that, she has her reflux that makes her not feel so good. So overall, little Liana did really well, but just keep praying that she would recover completely and not be so irritated. Also, pray that we won't have any complications with her shunt...like infections or any malfunctions. We go back in January to get another CT scan to make sure everything looks good and is functioning properly.

From our end, I think this was the hardest part for me to go through. It was hard to have our baby home with us for 3 months and get to know her personality and see all her smiles and then go into the recovery room after the surgery and hear her crying and not being able to be consoled.

We are so thankful that everything went so well and we are blessed to have caught everything so early so that she wasn't having any outward signs of anything being wrong. In fact, when we were at the neurosurgeon the day before the surgery, the doctor and many nurses talked about how amazing it was that she was so happy and alert and had no limitations to the right side of her body since the left side had such a large cyst. Our prayer has been that we will never see any negative side effects of Liana having her bleed and I believe God is going to show everyone what a miracle baby she is! We are so thankful for all of the prayers you have lifted up for our Liana.

At The Hospital

They just took Liana back for surgery. Her CT scan yesterday showed us that her left ventricle had gotten a lot larger and a cyst had developed inside it. There are two ways the surgery could go. The most likely possiblity is that they will put in a shunt to remove the pressure, but they may be able to just put holes in the cyst for it to drain on it's own. We know that whatever way the surgery goes, God is going to completely heal her. We have seen so many miracles with our girls and we believe we are going to see another one. Thank you for all your prayers!

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We need your prayers

Wade has written about this already, but I wanted to put it on my blog as well.

Yesterday we went for a cranial ultrasound to check Liana's brain. We go to these like every two months or so and yesterday's results there were not good. Liana's left ventricle has been enlarged from the bleed, but when we saw this scan it had gotten substantially bigger. The scariest reason could be that the ventricle has gotten clogged with the blood resolving and the spinal fluid that is made there is swelling the ventricle. The only way to remedy this is to put a shunt in the brain. When she had her bleed, surrounding brain tissue was affected. So another reason is we might be seeing that affected brain tissue dying and in its place is just fluid now.

Either way, we are continuing to pray for a miracle. I am praying that this will just give her a bigger platform so that God can show the doctors something impossible happen in her brain. I am praying that a scan will show that nothing is wrong and they will wonder if they got the right baby's chart. Please rally with us to pray for sweet Liana.

We go today at 1:45 to get the CT scan and then discuss everything with our neurosurgeon afterwards. Please pray for us during that time.

Also, our dear friends the Freemans need your prayers. Please go to their blog to know more about Kayleigh's situation.

Seriously, can babies be any cuter?

Whenever I take out the camera, the girls turn on the charm. Does this mean that they are going to want to be baby models or something? I think Adleigh might be turning into a comedian with all these amazing facial expressions.


Adleigh staring intently at her toys above her head.

Liana signaling that the photo shoot and play time is over!
A little update for you:
The girls got their RSV shot today and we found out they both weighed 11 lbs 12 ozs. We are trying to figure out now what to do with Liana's reflux. She cries a lot during the day and then wakes up every hour or two during the night crying. She is on Reglan right now and I have been reading about some side effects of that and I want to see if we can experiment with some other ways to help her. We definitely know that she is refluxing because we see her gag/burp and then she will cry. She is also on Axid which makes her food less acidic once it is in her stomach, but that doesn't seem to change much right now. So if anyone has any ideas on things I could mention to her doctor let me know. Keep her in your prayers because I know she has to be miserable spitting up her food all the time. Thank you so much.

My Favorite Things (part 2)

This is part 2 of an ongoing series of my favorite things we have for the babies. Today I want to show you a toy that the girls really enjoy.

Wade's mom found these awesome baby barbells online and ordered them for the girls. The girls have keys, rattles, and little phones but they would drop them immediately after we put them in their hands. They seemed to be a little too heavy or the handle was a little big for their hands. So enter the barbell...it is the perfect size. They weigh an ounce and rattle and the girls will lift them and hold them in their hands for a long time. They also realized that they can get the lip of the barbell to their mouths and kind of gnaw on it. Not to mention that they look so cute holding them and we make tons of little jokes about them lifting weights.
Here is Adleigh with one of her barbells.
And Liana is the one who loves her barbells the most. She will keep them in her hands the longest and will put both of them in her hands more often than Adleigh. So the video is of Liana working out and loving it.

In the Photo Booth

When I see these pictures I think of the girls in a photo booth making crazier and crazier faces. The last one of Adleigh cracks me up so much!

Thanksgiving...really late

I know I should have posted this like 5 days ago, but this video was too cute to keep to myself.


I am so thankful that God blessed us with these two amazing girls. I can't imagine my life without them. Wade mentioned the other day that whenever Liana smiles he immediately thinks about how the doctors said we should take her off life support. I can't even believe that was even a thought in their minds when we see how smart and beautiful she is.

There are so many of you that I am thankful for:
Our amazing church who supported us through so much and the crazy amount of financial help they gave us.
The nurses that were vital in taking care of our babies in the hospital.
The doctors who made the touch decisions on surgeries, medications, breathing assistance and so much more that I don't even know about.
All the people who prayed hard and read the blog each night so that they would know specifically how to pray for them.
Everyone who helped us through almost 6 months with grass cutting, delicious food, gifts for the girls and more.
Wade's family, especially his mom and dad (and Jamie too!), who have given up their time to help us take care of the girls everyday.

So thank you for being amazing and for keeping up with our precious babies. You are gifts from the Lord to us!

My favorite things (part 1)

Okay so I have decided to make my New Year's resolution early. I promise to blog at least 3 to 4 times a week. I know so many of you prayed really hard for the girls and I updated you everyday and now I am failing miserably to keep you in the loop. So, you will be getting way more posts now.

Anyway, among the many amazing things we have for our girls there have been a few things that have helped me stay sane or that the girls adore. Here is the first one.

The Mobile

The girls love this thing! They will watch this go around the entire 15 minutes that it plays. Which is a long amount of time when it comes to twins. We tried to have two different mobiles but the other one was lame, so we got another one just like it. There is a lot of black and white (high contrast) designs on the bottom of the feet of the animals and under the little triangle things which is very good for babies to look at. Then there are little pieces that move on the top to make noise to keep the girls even more entertained. I can't imagine a cooler mobile.

We have started putting the girls in one crib in the morning and letting them watch their mobile together. It has started to become a really sweet time for them and for me watching it. So of course you know I have a video. So here is the video of the girls watching one of my (and hopefully their) favorite things!