Jack & Luke--1 Week Old

Ok, so since my update last Friday that no news was good news, little did I know that in a few hours I would be going into labor. We made it to the 72 hour mark, but apparently the boys had a different idea.

Yup, that's right I said boys! Jackson Liam was born at 7:46 Saturday morning (April 3) and was 3 lbs, 11 oz, and Lukas Henry was born at 8:57 at 3 lbs, 14 oz.

Everything moved really fast--from the start of labor to when I was wheeled to recovery, it all happened in the space of 12 hours! I was especially happy that I didn't need to have a C-section since they were both head down; hence, the large space of time between their births. All I can say is I LOVE the medicine man that gave me an epidural!! :o)

Because they were born at 32 weeks, 5 days, they were taken directly to the NICU. We have been blessed, though, that they never needed oxygen or help with breathing--praise God! They had an IV for a few days to give them antibiotics and fluids, but earlier this week, they were removed b/c the boys both no longer needed them.

Luke, who may be the younger brother, is acutally the larger of the 2, and he hit 4 pounds a couple days ago! He's done a great job regulating his temperature, so he was moved from the warming bed to a regular crib yesterday! Jack, however, is much smaller, and is still struggling t regulate his temperature, so he was moved to an incubator this morning to help with that: he's spending a lot of energy on staying warm, which inhibits his ability to put on weight. So, the goal is to have him in the incubator for a few days to help him put on enough weight that he can stabilize his temp, and then they'll put him in the same crib as Luke--we can't wait until that happens!

Right now, the main thing they still need to work on is feeding: they get almost all of their food through a feeding tube. A couple days ago, they started trying to take 1 bottle a day, and while they're doing a great job for their age, it's a lot of work for them, so they can't finish a whole bottle yet. They'll get there, though. As soon as they can take 8 bottles a day successfully, that will be the point they can probably come home. So, it looks like it may be a few weeks yet.

In the meantime, Alan and I visit them daily as much as we can, and of course, I can't seem to stop taking pictures of them!

Speaking of pictures, I don't really want to post pictures of them here yet since this is a public blog (and there are a lot of creeps out there), so what I plan on doing is setting this blog to "private" in a few days (giving everyone a chance to read this first), and then to give you access to it, I'll simply add your email address to the account, which will keep it open to you. Once I've done that, I'll post pictures here for you to see--because of course, I want to show off our cuties!

I know several of you that follow this because you've left comments or talked to me about it, but if you see you don't have access the next time you read this, simply send me an email or message me on Facebook & I'll give you access.

Love you all & thank you for all your kind words and prayers. It's been a rough couple of weeks & Alan and I so appreciate your support!