Apologies to all 6 of our followers for being dead-beat bloggers.  The past few months since we brought the girls home have flown by with little time for what I use to consider to be the essentials – flat ironing my hair and eating three meals a day – let alone the luxuries like blog posting! Apologies also to those whom I owe emails, letters, phone calls, birthday cards, thank you notes, etc…to say Annabelle and Olivia are attention seekers would be the understatement of the year.  I also would like to thank every person who has reached out to our little family over the past five months.  Your encouraging words, dinners, visits, baby gifts, friendship and love has helped us survive what I hope is the hardest thing we have to endure for a good long time.  

I remember saying to my cute husband a few weeks after the girls were born and still in the hospital that we were going to wake up six months from then and realized what happened to us.   And as I sat in my office chair last week for the first time since September 15th, I think my premonition came true.  

As I walked up my office stairs the feelings of rushing down those same stairs as I raced to the hospital came flooding back.  As I sat down in my desk it was like I was opening a time capsule, paint chips for nursery colors not yet selected were in a pile, front and center was the agenda for the “Baby 101″ class we were planning on taking and flip-flops rested under my desk as it was 85 degrees and sunny the last time I was here.  

So much has happened since that day and it has been a journey unlike any I could have  imaged and one that I frequently questioned my ability to handle but we did – and now have two perfect (alright I’m a little biased) daughters happily at home with practically zero health concerns after nearly two months in the hospital.   

I believe we are emerging from our bubble – we actually had a babysitter on saturday night, that wasn’t my parents – and re-enter society.  I hope you will welcome us and our misspelled blog posts back, and we will do our best to keep everyone updated on adventures of Miss A & Miss O.  

It’s good to be back! 

 XOXO

One Month Birthday

10.22.09

Annabelle

Olivia

Sisters refusing to pose

In other more diva like news, the cute husband got back earlier this week from a short buisness trip and like all good dads brought his girls back a little gift. And I do mean little, these may be the worlds smallest tiaras!

Annabelle's First Tiara

Olivia's first tiara

Gone it seems are the nights which began with the all important decision of which black top and jeans combination will be worn, which clutch will fit all my necessary equipment but still look on-trend, which destination will have exactly the right scene and won’t dare make us wait on line…

While a night out with the girls still involves hanging out in Georgetown, thats where the similarities end.  Instead we debate the merits of the which “lovie” should remain and which should go.  Which hat looks better with which onsie and Johnson’s baby lotion or Aquaphor post bath…

I like this version of a Saturday night much better

Girls night out

Cute husband would also like to assure our readers – all 6 of you – that life in the NICU is not just cute hats and smiles, proven by the last picture.  There are occasional tantrums, but given that we are rookie parents, we think it is still kind of cute!

AMB 10.13.09

OKB 10.14.09

Burr Girls 10.14.09

We have to wait for her to email us most of the pictures as we are currently in the market for a new and improved camera – the blackberry camera isn’t quite cutting it for these precious subjects.  But here are a few to tide everyone over.

OKB

And for those following our plumbing saga – it continues. Around 3 am this morning during a milk delivery to the fridge the unmistakable sound of running water was heard once again.  After further consultations and the arrival of some heavy duty drying equipment to our basement we learned that a wall (of course the tiled wall) needs to come down, carpets torn up, and new pipes inserted.  I hope the girls wanted a new bathroom in the basement for their three week birthday!!

Today the girls had their first appointment with an occupational therapist, and no I was not trying to have them trained in the plumbing occupation, this therapist was assigned to work with the girls to ensure all their muscular development was happening in a timely fashion.  And wouldn’t you know it was, and according to the the therapist, both girls are “advanced for their age”.  Well, duh!  Apparently most preemies don’t start displaying feeding clues until weeks 34 or even 35 but not our girls, they are putting their fingers in their mouth, going to town on their pacifiers and doing cute little things with their hands (which I am assured are not gang signs) already. The therapist also showed us how to “exercise” with the girls, which they really seemed to enjoy – if only their mother was equally as excited to get back to the gym!

And in honor of this and other advances, Annabelle and Olivia were moved out of the critical NICU to the step-down NICU today.  This is huge milestone for the girls as babies in the step-down nursery are much more stable, and are that much closer to going home.  Along with the down-graded or in my opinion, up-graded condition, comes new real estate for the ladies.  They moved into a new nursery today one that is a lot more relaxed and doesn’t have all the emergencies that arise in the critical NICU.  It is quieter in the new nursery, there are less frequent alarms,  certainly less chaos, etc., and mom and dad can take the girls out of their isolets on their own and hold them for longer periods of time.

All and all a great day for us and our girls!!

Annabelle and Olivia

The cute husband and I were driving home from the hospital last night ready to meet some friends who were generously coming over with a late dinner to hear the latest on the girls.  As we were pulling up the street we noticed a decent amount of water coming down the sidewalk.  Weird, we thought, “who waters their lawn this late at night at this time of year”.  A few more yards up the street we realized the water was coming from the drain along our the retaining wall in our front lawn.  Odd, we again though, then remembered the landscapers were scheduled to come today so assumed they must have done some watering, the plants were in fact looking a little thirsty.
As we made our way into the house it became apparent that something wasn’t right.  Upon opening the door we hear the unmistakable sound of running water.  We immediately ran to the basement as this isn’t our new home’s first water “episode’”.  What we discovered though was unlike we had seen before.  Water was pouring out of the refrigerator which we then discovered is physically attached to the wet bar.  The water had then traveled through, under, over, I still don’t know, the wall seperating the bar area and the bathroom was about 3 inches deep in the bathroom and had seeped into the carpet – which did I mention is white?!

Ugh, not what you want to come home to, and certainly not after spending the day with two infants in the NICU.  Cute husband and I frantically searched for something mechanical to just make the water stop.  And we finally discovered a panel in the bathroom wall that provided access to three valves (Did I mention that the entire bathroom is tiled so no “easy access” into the wall?).  After a quick game of eenie meenie miney mo we decided on the first valved, turned it and the water stopped.  Phew.

Sadly we had already used the entire box of Sham WOW (which I LOVE) during the last water “episode” so we were forced to use bath towels to absorb the water on the carper (again, both towels and carpet are WHITE).  We arranged some fans, apologized to each other for the frantic yelling and harsh tones that had just ensued (well, maybe it was only one of us that had to apologize) and joined our friends for delicious dinner and great conversation.

Now we wait for the plumber and his estimate and hope that we aren’t forced to decide between pluming and cute new outfits for the girls 3 week birthday!!

XOXO

Annabelle Marie

Olivia Katherine

Annabelle Marie

Olivia Katherine

Annabelle and Dad

Olivia and Mom

Unhappy Annabelle on her 1 week Birthday

Feisty Olivia on her 1 week Birthday

Team Burr 9.26.09

The cute husband spent a good part of today educating his daughters on the merits of the West Coast offense and the cover two.  Both Olivia and Annabelle made insightful points about the shortcomings of each, but as I have quickly learned, there is no point in arguing with the cute husband when it comes to the Washington Redskins.

In addition to learning the intricacies of the NFL the girls also made some medical achievements over the past few days.  Today an IV line that both girls had been using since just after delivery was removed.  This is a big step for them as their doctors are confident that they can sustain feeding on their own and no longer need the extra nutrition that came through their IV lines.

Both girls also have done a great job of increasing their feeding over the past few days.  Right after they were born the girls were taking 3 CCs of milk every 4 hours.  Over the past 10 days they have increased their feeds to 25 CCs every 3 hours.

Needless to say, Annabelle and Olivia are also doing well and putting on the appropriate amount of weight.  (For the record I have made a promise to the girls that after they turn 1 I will no longer discuss their weight in a public forum!)  Their weights have ebbed an flowed over the past few days as their doctors expected but the big winner this week was Olivia who put on 45 grams and, in a close second, Annabelle added 30 grams to her delicate frame.

I have been told that NICU moms often become obsessed with numbers and I can understand why.  Like we learned during the football conversation, numbers are the name of the game, every day every CC of milk consumed, every gram the girls gain, and every day they sustain an healthy temperature the closer we are to bringing them home.   And for cute husband and I, that is the ultimate victory.