Tummy Time

Going........

The boys enjoy doing one of our versions of tummy time. They are getting stronger every day! However, sometimes by the time I feed both boys, burp them and then do diapers, one of them poops out faster than the other....it is usually Griffin because I almost always change him first and set him in position to allow Gavin more time to sit up and digest...he is our little spitter.

Going........
Gone.

Gavin's surgery pictures

Ready to go home with his new friend that Auntie Annette bought him.

Night time stories with Daddy.

My 3 handsome boys

Griffin tried to give Gavin some good cuddles.

Gavin's surgery pictures

Gavin resting in his room afterward.

Momma giving him some clear fluids post-op.

The little man right after leaving the recovery room.

Getting to see Gavin right after surgery. A sight for my sore eyes. It was good to know he was awake and looking like this was no big deal. He helped us to remain calm and feel comfortable with everything. We actually did really well as first timers! :) I wasn't sure if I would cry and carry on but, nope, the little fella told me "mom, geez, I am going to be fine!!" so I went with it.

In his hospital gown pre-op. He couldn't eat after midnight and this picture was taken at about 7AM. He did awesome considering he was a hungry little guy.

Gavin's surgery

Gavin had a double hernia repair yesterday, May 21st. The little one did fantastic! We are now home and he is resting. We were glad we only had 1 wk to wait from the time we learned he needed surgery to the time he had it done. We all can relax now knowing it is over.

Pictures to follow this post.

It's Bumbo Time!!

We like to Bumbo! (Griffin-l, Gavin-r)

Griffin

Gavin

The boys are getting so strong and are a little bit more alert for a little bit longer in the day now. They still sleep quite a bit and this week they are wanting to sleep at opposite times. Whew....

We also have Gavin's surgery scheduled for Friday. Please keep him in your thoughts. Thank you!!

We have one more semi-quiet weekend and then next week my Aunt Jenny and cousin Sean from TX are coming for a visit!! They will be speaking at Caringbridge and have asked if my brother and I can join them. My mom will come for Memorial weekend to see them as well.

A brief backstory....my cousin Sean was in a car wreck and was severely injured when the vehicle he was a passenger in crashed into a tree right where he was sitting. He is now in a wheelchair and cannot speak with his voice. He uses a rolltalk computer to "speak" for him. At one point we were told if being compatible with life is a 4, Sean was at a 2. He suffered a traumatic brain injury as well as broke several bones in his body. Remarkably, he has made great strides at his recovery. He is even going to come to my house and show me how he is able to do my stairs!!! This is HUGE for me to see. He has been working really hard to try and walk again. Anyway, throughout his early days including the current day, my Aunt has used Caringbridge as a line of communication to all of us that are remote so we can keep updated on his progress without her needing to call and retell each of us what is going on. It is a great tool that I highly recommend if you have a need for it. Sean's CB site is www.caringbridge.org/tx/seancarter or www.WhenSeanSpeaks.com They now travel around TX and share his story. Tomorrow, they are embarking on a 2mo speaking tour of the midwest, east coast and back to TX.

lil tough guy and lil cowboy

Griffin (r) Gavin (l)
LOVE the buns on these outfits. Just had to share!! :)
(Thanks Teresa!)

Gavin (l) Griffin (r)

2 months old

photo speaks for itself :)
Gavin (l) Griffin (r)

My brother and his kids with Griffin

Max, Mia, Toby, Griffin and Adam in the front row.

Mia and Griffin and Max with Gavin. They babies wore nametags so the Johnson's could tell them apart. Max and Mia were so proud to hold the boys today. It was really special to see them together. I can't wait for my sister's family to get here so we can attempt a picture of all 7 kids together!!

Max and Mia feeding the boys (first day getting to hold G/G)

Mia and Griffin

Max and Gavin

Max and Mia were great with the babies today. When asked what their favorite thing about the babies is they responded with "getting to hold the babies". They have been waiting a long time to do this. More pics to come....

Bumbo time

Gavin and Griffin had a really big day today!! They had lots of love from the Johnson's (my brother's family) AND they sat in the Bumbo chairs for the first time. Both boys have been enjoying tummy time which is helping them to get big and strong and handle this chair. Gavin sat in it for about 5-10mins and Griffin lasted only a few minutes. He got a little sleepy....Also, as you can see from the photo above, the boys have started smiling a bit more today. Gavin's smile was the first that seemed to be more on purpose not just a reflex.

Griffin

1st time out at a restaurant

Very bad lighting but, we took the twins out for their first restaurant meal!! :) After their 2mo check-up most restrictions were lifted from the boys. We can now go to a restaurant AND be around other children as long as they are healthy.


Joining us for our adventure were Holly and Anita. (both former flight attendants with me) Holly and Anita babysat Griffin while Randy and I took Gavin to his consult with the surgeon. Afterwards we took them all out to lunch/dinner. Lots of laughs were had per the usual.

Auntie Holly

A brief background on my friendship with Holly: We met while working at the airline as flight attendants. After meeting in a really odd way, we learned we were both from the same area in ND and knew lots of mutual people. That was 10yrs ago!! Ever since then, we have been thick as thieves. Hence the term: Bonus Aunt Holly. :)

This pic is Holly holding the boys before their first immunizations. They never knew what was coming and they did fantastic. Just a few tears and then they were the sleepy little babies we know. At their 2mo check-up Gavin weighed in at 10.9lbs and Griffin weighed in at 11.2lbs. We did learn that Gavin needs to have surgery soon on a double hernia that he has. It is a common thing amonst preemies. His big cousin Max, born at 29wks, had the same surgery when he was 5mo old so we already know it is a fairly low-key operation. We will learn when it will take place sometime this week.
Holly gave the babies lots of lovin' while she was here. In fact, Griffin got so excited while she was here that he ROLLED OVER!!! We were doing tummy time when got up onto his side. I pulled out the video camera just in case. Holly was going to go to his back so she could encourage him but she wanted me to turn the camera off or else have her tape us. For some reason we started bickering over who wanted to be on camera less and for what reason. In the meantime, HE ROLLED OVER!!! Yep, he was on his back by the time we looked down. Pretty sure it was a fluke thing but, I savored the moment as much as I could. (Gavin is on the left in both pics and Griffin on the right)

Grandpa Witt with the little ones

This is the man that made it happen. After his visit was when the babies started to kick and make the music turn on. :)

Time to Kick

When I put the boys in these positions, I made their legs "kick" the arches to make music turn on. (it is a motion sensor musical thing) I did this a few times and then walked away to do something quick. While I was in the other room, the music started. I got so excited so I went to look and it was Gavin who was kicking away! He kind of looked like he startled himself from it. But, he kept going and going and going.....
Today, they both were doing it. They kicked for about 1/2hr on and off and they look so perplexed at how this works.

For now, we will keep kicking away!

Next visitor on deck, one of my dearest friends is flying in tonight!! Bonus Aunt Holly is on her way. We are so excited to have her visit!! :)

Tummy Time

Gavin

Griffin

Both boys have been enjoying some tummy time recently. Up until now, we would count tummy time as them laying on Randy or myself. I called it "belly to belly". They are really strong and are having great neck/head control so we have started to up it a bit and put them on the little wedge pillow. So far, neither seems to mind it so we go for a few minutes each.

One other new development is that the boys are deciding they should mess with our nighttime sleep a bit more than usual. A few nights it was Gavin, who has reflux. It took a few tries but, Randy concluded that we should have him sleep more upright during the night. So we put him in a vibrating chair and that solved that issue-- for last night anyway. So last night we were excited to have figured this out and get some decent sleep again inbetween feedings. Griffin decided that wasn't gonna happen. He decided he wants to eat at 3 hr intervals during the night instead of the 4hrs we have been doing since they got home from the hospital. Griffin is eating 6oz per feeding and gobbles it all up. It is almost as if we can't feed him fast enough at times. We have backed off of Gavin's feedings to try and help the spit-up/reflux issues, so he is at 4oz. Gavin goes 4hrs on 4oz during the night and Griffin went 3hrs on 6oz last night. (Griffin has consistently eaten 6oz for a couple of weeks now) Yet, somehow Gavin's weight surpassed Griffin as of last week. I weighed myself and then added each boy with me and Gavin was 11lbs and Griffin was 10.4lbs. Griffin had always been the bigger one prior to this. They have their 2mo check-up and shots on Thursday the 13th so we will see what the official change is then.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Today I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day. What a great day it was!! It was almost as if it was my birthday. To start, Randy made us all pancakes and all the yummy side items. Then we opened gifts. The boys bought me a spa day because they know I love to relax. :) After that, Gramma and Grandpa Witt and all of us went for a walk around Lake Nokomis. The boys wore these cute outfits for their walk. As you can see from the picture below, the jeans are a little big! Haha :) In the picture above, Gavin's cheeks weighed him down...
Also, the boys are 8 weeks old today. My how time is flying!

Rockin' with Gramma W

Gramma W has been giving the boys lots of good snuggles. Today they rocked and read stories.

Hello....My name is:....

Grandpa Witt stuck these little name tags on Gavin and Griffin one day.

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson visit

Grandpa and Gavin, Grandma and Griffin.
The boys are pretty lucky that the Grandparents continue to come and shower them with some lovin'. (so are Randy and I) This is Grandpa J's second visit, he came here for a week while the boys were still in the hospital, and this is Grandma J's first time meeting them. I can't say how much fun it is for me to introduce them to our family and friends and see people fall in love with them. :)
The Witt Grandparents get here later in the week.

(For those of you just joining us, Grandma and Grandpa C live near Fargo, ND; Grandma and Grandpa J live in Minot, ND--my hometown; Grandma and Grandpa W live near St. Louis)


P.S. Cousin Tami, please come back for a visit....the picture of you didn't work to put on here...we need to document your visits! :)

Eyes Wide Open

Griffin (l) Gavin (r); The boys have been staying awake longer each day. It is so good to see their little eyes continue to explore things. Yesterday they stayed awake for about 1.5hrs in the afternoon and then Griffin did so again in the evening. Today they both did it in the morning.

Our cute little monkey boys

Gavin (top) and Griffin (bottom) got these cute monkey towels from Randy's longtime friend Lance. We thought they were so darn cute we just had to share.

It's a baby shower!

These are a few of my favorite women! All of these women were clients of mine at Future Concepts in Eden Prairie. They all supported me throughout my journey to start our family and it was wonderful to finally introduce them to our precious little boys.

Stephanie on the far left, is actually from my hometown and graduated highschool with my brother. I remembered her from their junior year when they traveled with a school group to France. She found me through Paula.

Then we have Marcy, Valerie, Louise- who is the mom of Terri-right next to her, and finally Paula.

Paula was the wonderful host for the shower. I didn't accept gratuity at the salon and she would always say she needed/wanted to do something for me. This was way more than I ever deserved! She had every detail thought out and it was perfect! Paula was one of my greatest supporters in my profession and in my struggle with infertility. I was supposed to listen to these women when they came in to see me and I did but, I think it turned out that they listened to me more. I should have probably paid them for the therapy they provided! They are all moms so they got how strong our need and desire was to start our family. What a great group to be surrounded by! Out of this group, the moms here have 10 boys and 3 girls that are all young children and Louise has grown children. I believe God surrounded me with each and every one of them for a reason.

A huge THANK YOU to all of you for making the day so special and thank you for all of your support the past few years!!

This is a hold up

Put 'em up! Gavin lays in some of the funniest positions to us. Time to have a little fun with it. :)

Good night world!

Griffin (l) Gavin (r); they like to be all swaddled for sleep times. Grandpa Witt thinks they look like straight jackets. Some have said burritos. I myself wouldn't want to be swaddled but, they do love being wrapped tight. These sleep sacks come highly recommended from the hospital as well as other moms. We have now joined the group that recommends them.

These are our bottles that are ready for the day. We get the water measured and poured, and then the formula is measured out and in the circular container that has 3 slots. During the night or times when we are in a hurry this system works really well. We just feed them the formula at room temp. We put the notes on the top with their names because we have different nipples depending on the child. If we get them confused, Gavin has some issues. He has reflux and is on meds for it. We need to burp him more often and he doesn't always take the same amount that Griffin eats.

These are fresh from the dishwasher ready to get ready for one day. We do about 7 feedings per child per day. Then we have 2 spare bottles that we mix vitamins into and then an additional bottle for Gavin to receive his reflux medicine. Bottles bottles everywhere!