Houston Fertility Institute Luau

Once a year our fertility institute has a "baby shower" to celebrate the success of their patients (both past and future).  When we were going through treatments I remember seeing all the flyers about the "baby shower" and I remember feeling bittersweet about the whole thing.  I was so excited for others who had found success, but at the same time, I still had this empty void. 

A few weeks ago we attended our first event with HFI.  It was a Luau theme.  It was such a great time.  There were Hawaiian dancers, food, petting zoo and a bounce house.  We were stressed getting there.  Ashlyn threw up in her car seat right before we left and we debated not going after that.  I am so glad that we did.

This has been a huge journey for us, and it still is.  I am so thankful for every moment of it.  We will probably still face infertility in the future, but being where we are is such a blessing.  These babies have changed our lives forever and we could not have gotten here without our amazing doctor- Doctor Jason Griffith.

It was so great seeing him and having him meet our babies.  

A couple next to us had some grass skirts for their babies and they had a lot extra so, they gave one to Ashlyn :)  She was super cute! Alton slept through the whole thing so we don't have any pictures of him.  We didn't want to disturb!  It was a great time and we had a lot of fun.  

To those facing infertility, please don't give up hope.  The most important thing is to not get down on yourself and know that you haven't done anything wrong.  You aren't broken.  Our bodies just work funny sometimes.  We can find happiness in our lives, even when there is an empty void.  Find an outlet by serving others, exercise or anything that makes you happy.  

4 months

The babies are 4 months old.  I can't believe how time has flown!  We are slowly getting the hang of things around here.  I'm sure all first time moms and dads feel the same way... but there are times where I just feel like I have no clue what I'm doing.  We've managed to keep everyone alive though.  I should get an award for that :)

We have our rough times, but the smiles and coos make up for it.

 

I had mentioned in their 3mo post that Alton was having some feeding problems.  At the time we thought it was gas.  Since then, we have found that he has some reflux issues.  It just decided to rear its ugly head later than Ashlyn's reflux problems.  He is now on prevacid like Ashlyn.  It has been getting better, but he still puts up a huge fuss when it's time to eat.  

We are starting to get them used to not being swaddled.  So, at bed time we put them in these sleep sack things and when we do their "dream feed" at 10pm this is how we find them :)

Ashlyn's eating has gotten better.  She still has her rough feedings where she will spit her food out at you and cry through it, but more often than not, she eats like a champ and sucks it down!  She is also eating so much more and has been throwing up less.  Woohoo!  (knock on wood for the feeding coming up at 10pm tonight...)

 

Alton and Ashlyn have been having a lot of tummy time lately.  We have to do it before they eat now.  Otherwise, all their food just comes out if we do it after a feeding.

Alton used to just love being on his tummy, but the last month, he has been super grumpy about it and not the biggest fan.  He is coming around though. 

Ashlyn is so good at tummy time!  For a while she really struggled and she couldn't lift her head.  Now she is a pro!  I have a feeling that she will crawl before Alton!

 

The babies had their 4 mo appointment on Friday the 26th.  My mother-in-law, Anne was able to come with me to help.  Before we packed up the babies we found Sookie hanging out in Ashlyn's car seat. It was quite comical :)  Poor cat.  She has handled the babies pretty well though.  She is hesitant of them and keeps her distance, but she is always nearby.

 

The doctor appointment was pretty rough.  Alton (our resident grump), started crying at the very start when he was getting weighed.  Poor little guy.  He is just so sensitive!  I had a hard time trying to talk to the doctor because I was just trying to calm him down.  The doctor was really happy with their growth and she didn't have any concerns this time around.  Thank goodness!  The babies got 2 shots and an oral vaccine.  There were a lot of crocodile tears.  It hurt my heart to see them in pain.  Those needles are big!  Bigger than the syringes I had to use when I was going through infertility treatments! Sad!  They've been doing well though.  No fevers or anything.  The only noticeable difference is that Alton has thrown up a few times.  He did this after his 2mo shots too.   

Stats:

Alton:

Weight: 13lbs 11oz   -  27.17%
Head: 16.26"
Length: 24" (19.57%)... I think he was closer to 25"...

He loves:  Smiling and giggling, wearing socks, looking at pictures, sucking on his hands, standing, playing on the activity mat, reaching for toys, sitting in his "buzz chair", splashing in the water at bath time, bicycle legs, being held and talked to and cooing back to you..... and being grumpy haha.  Although, you can't tell by these pictures :)

Ashlyn:

Weight: 11lbs 6oz  -  9%
Head: 15.83"
Length:23.5" (24.21%)

She loves: Smiling, tummy time, holding her ball rattle, sucking on her fingers, standing, making sounds, being on her side, looking at pictures, seeing herself in the mirror, watching everything and tracking things with her eyes.

 
No pictures of them sitting next to each other on the couch.  Ashlyn kept pushing up on her feet and that caused her to slide down every time we were about to take a picture.  Oh well. 

  This was after we finished taking their 4mo pictures haha... They were getting bored :)  I love Ashlyn's face... "Seriously, Alton?"

 Okay, one last one :)  I have a hard time getting good pictures of Alton.  I will work on that.

So, this happened...

Today I needed to do some laundry because burp cloths were running low and Alton had thrown up on me in the morning.  I added some extra items to the load, started the washing machine and left.

When I went to move it to the dryer, this is what I found.

Yep.  A DIAPER! I have no idea how it got in there or why.  Thank goodness it wasn't a dirty diaper!!

Here is a picture comparing the diaper that soaked up tons of water in the wash (left) and a normal wet diaper (right).

Rookie mistake- haha!

3 Months and a visit from Auntie Shannon and Uncle Ron!

Okay- I'm behind!  I'm at least getting their 3 mo update before they hit 4 months on the 27th, right?? 

On March 22-25th my sister, Shannon and her husband, Ron were able to come out for a visit.  I felt bad because their daughters, Madison and Serena weren't able to come, but they'll come out some day :).  For the trip we rented a mini-van.  Can I just say... I can't wait to get a mini-van??? That thing was so nice!! Anyways, on Friday the 22nd we fed the babies in the morning and then we went down to pick up the van so that we could all go and pick up Shannon and Ron at the airport.

When we picked them up at the airport, their gate was E something.  So, we headed to terminal "E".  I knew that E was for international flights... but I wasn't sure where else to go.  They got in and it turned out they came out in terminal C.  It was a little funny.  We sure had an adventure finding them haha.  

Anyways, we had fun hanging out at home that night and then we went out for fro-yo at Menchies.  Other outings we made while they were here was going to the grocery store, looking at model homes, going out to eat, church and things like that.  Nothing super exciting, but it was so good to have them out here to meet the babies.  It was fun to watch them see and feed the babies for the first time.

The babies were still sleeping downstairs when they were here, so they weren't bothered by any crying :)

Thanks for coming out!  We loved having you here!  Next time we can go out and do more fun things :)
 

Alton didn't want them to leave :)

On Tues. the 26th (a day before 3mo) Ashlyn had another doc appt. She looks thrilled, huh?

 The doctor put her on new formula that smells so horrendous.  It's terrible!  It's supposed to be digested more quickly so that she doesn't have the opportunity to throw up later.

 So we will see how that goes.  She has been on it ever since.  She is doing pretty well on it.  She has still thrown up... but I guess that's just normal baby stuff.  At this appointment she was also taken off of Zantac and put on Prevacid.  I was SO thankful.  Zantac was 3x/day by a syringe in the mouth.  She hated it.  Prevacid is a pill that we have to cut in half and then it either dissolves in her mouth by us holding it in her cheek or I dissolve it in a little water and have her take it through a syringe.  She is much happier about taking it.  

She was also weighed at that appointment.  She was 9lbs 7oz!  Alton weighed that much at 2months haha.  Oh well.  The good thing is that she is growing!  She was back up into the 3rd percentile.  

A week after that appointment we were to go back and check up on her.  They weighed her and she was 9lbs 14oz :)  Woohoo!  Almost 1/2lb in a week!  She was even in the 4th percentile!  Slowly but surely... she's getting there :)  We just have to keep going a day at a time and be very patient.  She still takes forever to eat and you never know when she's going to have a formula explosion!

Alton has just been a champ.

 He is such a good little boy.  His head control has gotten really good!  Last week we even got a laugh out of him for the first time ever.  It was so cute!  Jon was tickling him and I looked over and his eyes went wide was like "oh my gosh!! Alton laughed!!".  It was so exciting!  

The past few days for Alton have been a little rough.  I think he's going through some funny gas pains.  He just starts crying while he's eating and gets super fussy.  We are having to take our time with him now.  Two babies who have problems eating... yikes.

At 3 months we made the big move to their nursery upstairs!!  I know... big step!  I wear a pedometer that also counts flights of stairs.  I've had days where I've hit 30-35 flights in one day.  At least I'm getting my exercise!  I need to take pictures of their nursery... but for now, here they are sleeping in their cribs for the first time!  Note: that fuzzy thing they are on top of is now gone.  It was just to help them transition from being super snug in their bassinets to being in a wide open crib! (sorry the pics are so blurry...)

 

Here they are at 3 months!  They are just so dang cute!  My days can be really tiring and frustrating... but when they smile at you- it makes up for all of it.

One of those days...

I just wanted to write this down before I forget... it'll be something to laugh at later :)

So, there are days that seem never ending and like nothing could get any worse.  As parents, we've all been there.  Getting puked on by a baby while the cat is throwing up... and then you have another baby crying at the same time.  You just don't have as many hands as you need!  Well, Sunday night-Monday (April 1st) morning was one of those times.

Sunday night I was feeding Ashlyn at the 10pm feeding.  She was taking her formula like a champ!  She had just finished her bottle and as I was taking it out of her mouth, she started to make a funny face.  Then, out of no where- it all came back up and the poor thing had formula coming out of her nose!  It literally shot out of her nose and hit Jon who was sitting on the floor next to me feeding Alton.  Jon just started laughing because he couldn't believe how much distance she got!  We cleaned everything up and put the babies down for the night.

I got up with Ashlyn at 2:30am and fed her.  While feeding her I heard Jon get up and he was mumbling something.  I didn't hear Alton crying upstairs, so I didn't know what was up.  I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "The cat threw up."  Great.  So, he was in the bedroom cleaning that up.  I couldn't help him because Ashlyn was sucking down her bottle. I was hoping this wouldn't foreshadow the rest of the night. For some reason, she takes her bottle like a champ at the 2:30am feeding.  I don't know what it is, but she sucks it down like Alton! Anyways, she did pretty well and she went back down pretty fast.  Alton started making some noise when I put her down.  I made sure he hadn't slid down in his crib (I have blankets under the mattress to keep them elevated).  I went back downstairs and went to bed.

Between then at about 5:30am I had to get up 2x to calm Alton down.  Then at 5:30am he started wailing!  Jon's alarm was about to go off to get up for the day and Jon was super grumpy (can you blame him? Cat throw up at 2:30am and now this. BTW- I hate waking up before the alarm!).  He got up to help Alton because we were able to see him on the camera monitor that he had rolled to the side and was hitting his head on the side of the crib.  I ended up taking over and Alton ended up going into the swing until just before 7am.  It calmed him down pretty well.

We had a Dr. appt for Ashlyn on Monday morning (8:10am) so we needed to make sure we were ready to go and start the feeding right at 7am so we could make it in time.  The feeding started and Jon was feeding Ashlyn. She was crying, Jon was tired, she wasn't latching or swallowing... so Jon's grumpy level started to go up.  Then... our cat, Sookie, started to dig her food out of her bowl so that the food went all over the floor.  Alton was in my arms just sucking down his bottle and then before I knew it... Jon was burping Ashlyn and then she threw up all over his work shoes and a nearby play mat.  Yikes.  I was half expecting Sookie to join in by throwing up, but thankfully, she didn't.

We got all cleaned up and got everyone ready and headed out.  We even got to the appt. early!  What a morning... it wasn't even 8 am yet :)  Oh the things that happen.  It is frustrating, but when you look back on it, it's something to remember.  We are so very grateful to have these sweet babies.  Even when they spit at us :)