Emsley Claire

My little Emsley,
You are an angel, plain and simple :)
I will never forget the day at Vanderbilt's NICU when Dr. Pope came to talk to me about your surgery. We left your room to go to a conference room where he could draw out the procedure. He discussed with me all sorts of worst case scenarios that could affect the rest of your life. I was left completely and utterly disheartened.
When I walked back into your room, you were laying swaddled in your crib staring up at that sea creatures mobile with those huge, beautiful eyes and such a happy face. It was the first time I had seen you wide awake and tracking that mobile with those huge eyes.
I was so happy to see that you were so peaceful, but it also broke my heart that I couldn't take you with me. After crying all the way home, I realized just how much I love you.

You are such a patient baby. Your sister will scream and fuss only inches away from you in the crib and you just go on sleeping! You don't cry as much as your sister, but when you do cry, you let it all out like its the end of the world. I think you are a dramatic little baby, and daddy calls you a drama queen.

Nana described you with a perfect word: inquisitive. Yes you are! When you are awake with those huge eyes, everything seems so interesting to you. Thankfully by now you've learned to put yourself to sleep--you used to just lay wide awake looking around at everything and not sleeping.
Emsley, you make the most adorable little "billy goat" noise. It makes us laugh every time. You also have the most dramatic frowny sad face I ever did see. It is literally a smile turned upside down. We love you so much! And more and more every day!

Summer Kate

My sweet Summer,
You are my "little love"! You were born first and cleared the way for your sister to get out so easily. When you were born the nurses warned me that you had bad facial bruises because of the forceps, but when I saw you I was surprised how beautiful you were. You were perfect, even with those little jaundice sunglasses on. You weren't even a week old when one of your doctors told us that you were much more feisty than your sister (apparently you kept screaming when you had a barely wet diaper). I didn't believe she could tell that early, but its true. You are feisty!

I don't want to ever forget the moment that the NICU nurse wheeled you into our "rooming in" room at the hospital and said "Well, good luck. Have a good night!" and walked out. Daddy was at school, so it was just you and me and a silent room. You were finally free from the NICU and it was the most surreal feeling to know that you were mine at last.
Those first few nights were rough. You hated being in the dark and just wanted to be held and snuggled.

You pucker your lips and arch your neck when you first wake up, and it looks like you are posing for toddlers & tiaras. It makes me laugh.
We call you our little "grumbles" because you are very noisy and grumbly. We've only had you for three months, but already you have taught us so much about being patient. Some nights you just cry and cry and cry...and then sleep forever. You don't always have a reason for your crying, but I think you just like to hear your own voice.
Your daddy thinks that you are going to be very smart when you grow up (because you are).
You were the first to smile at me and melt my heart, and you have a very playful personality. Sometimes I put you in your bouncy chair and you play happily with the plastic links that hang down.
I love everything about you!

(emsley, your post is next...don't feel left out)

tummy time

being a baby takes a lot of energy!











sister love.

yikes stripes

Who wants to read a scary story?

On Tuesday night around 8, I went in to wake up the babies to eat. I got Emsley out of the crib and had her down on the changing table. When I finished with her diaper and looked down at her, I saw her lips looking really weird and her tongue sticking out. She started thrashing around uncontrollably and when I picked her up I could tell that she wasn't breathing. She had a very scared look on her face.

I didn't know what to do because it seemed like she was choking, but I knew there wasn't anything in her mouth. I just started pounding on her back and shaking her a little bit as I was calling 911. I was a little hysterical because at first it wasn't helping and she was just looking at me like "help!"
After what seemed like a slow motion eternity, she took a little gasp, then another, then finally started whimpering and breathing again.

The ambulance (and fire truck...and police car) was there within 5 minutes--very impressive, Murfreesboro! She was a little out of it when they got there and so they took me and Emsley and Summer in the ambulance to the hospital for monitoring. She was perfectly normal overnight and yesterday morning, so they let us come home. Dr. Bigham said he thinks it was reflux and she choked herself, so he prescribed something for reflux and suggested having them upright for at least 30 minutes after eating.

Some phone pictures of our brief stay in the hospital:

The nurses kept getting confused which baby was the patient and which was the sister! But they sleep better right next to each other so I didn't want to separate them. :)


The doc also suggested that they sleep upright for the next month.
Introducing our new sleeping arrangements:


They slept fine in them last night thank goodness! Both girls love sleeping in their crib flat on their backs, so I hate that they can't do that for awhile. But at least it gives me peace of mind at night!
I feel so grateful and blessed that I was there to help her when this happened. My heart just sinks when I think about what would have happened if I wasn't there.

Oh, and where was Joel? In night class, of course. He raced to the hospital as soon as I called him from the ambulance. First my water breaks when he is in night class, and now this. Poor guy probably never wants to take another night class ever again!

2 months old :)

2 months ago yesterday/today, our little loves came into the world :)

and with that being said, you should know that those little loves make taking a good picture very difficult.....







our schedule during the day is pretty much eat, awake, sleep every 3 hours.
unfortunately for joel & I, thats also their night schedule.

we've started doing some "tummy time" after they eat. today summer just did a lot of grunting and pushing around, but I could tell that she was trying to get strong enough to lift her head up!
for emsley, tummy time just meant sleepy time.
good times, good times.