Happy Little Birthday

Their shirts say "LOVED, Protected, Fought For". When our husbands left on the deployment we got these shirts made up for our kids. Our Mommy shirts say "We got this".

2 MONTHS. These amazing little warriors are 2 months old today! I seriously can barely believe that they are that old. We've only had them for 2 weeks and some change, how can they possibly be 2 months?! It's hard to fathom. It's unreal to me. Those 6 long weeks in the hospital seem like forever ago to me now. It seems like our visits to the NICU were compacted into such a short time frame, which at the time seemed to stretch on forever.

Mr J made us this great sign for when we came home. He and Otis also decorated the babies' room and our room with their original artwork.

I am absolutely LOVING having these boys home, having my bigger boys home, and most especially BEING home! We've had a lot of firsts in the last 2 weeks. It's been very exciting for us all.

Seeing double?

-1st road trip...all the way from Grandma's to our house! About a hour drive.
-1st Pediatrician visit....these guys have seen a lot of doctors and nurses, so it wasn't a super big deal, except that this time we went to the doctor instead of the doctor coming in to see the boys.
-1st visit to church with the family...I mostly ended up in the mother's lounge feeding and changing diapers, but sometimes it's just the effort that matters.
-1st outing with mom going solo....I took the boys in for their circumcision all by myself. I looked pretty hard core hauling both babies up to the hospital, one car seat on each arm. I was pretty proud of me.
-1st Volleyball game...I got to go to 3 games this season. Wishing it was more, but I'm not up to traveling with the crew for the away games or tournaments.
-1st mini-melt down from mom...okay, I have 4boys 5years and younger, we are just going to expect melt downs now.
-1st trip into the mountains....That is mom's happy place.

In the car headed to the mountain. Zed let each boy use some binoculars, they were pretty stoked.

Mike

Zed has gone back to work and I've started figuring out how to be a mom again. Right now when people ask how I'm doing my response is the same every time and so very true: "We are in survival mode. As long as me and 4 boys survive each day then it is a win." My house is a complete disaster. It's driving me nuts, but it is not my priority. I've decided that both the babes and myself are more content if they eat from a bottle full time and I take time to pump. They get more to eat since it takes less effort than nursing. I don't have to try to do special tricks for which baby's turn it is to bottle feed. I know that they actually got enough food and didn't just wear out from effort. I just have to take an extra half hour every feeding time to pump. It's working out for us.

Mr. J and Otis have finally started to settle down. Mr. J is 5 and was all sorts of wound up with crazy little boy excitement about us all being home. I could hardly recognize my sweet boy for this hyperactive kid. He has started to come back around as my sweet boy with the expected amount of extra energy I'd expect from a kindergartener. Otis spent the first few days insisting that I drive him to school, or that I be the one to pick him up. We've had to make a few deals about getting on the bus for school some days. He very much just wants to be with us at home, but is starting to feel secure again. Tonight they are having a sleepover at Grandma Bobbie's and Otis volunteered to go. It takes a special effort to make sure that I'm giving these older boys the time and attention that they need. I want to do so much with and for them, but literally don't have time sometimes, because it takes an hour at a time to feed babies/pump. I made sure to have them help me cook/bake, dress the babies, read with me and some other things, but I still feel like they are getting the raw end of the deal some days. They are probably the biggest little warriors of this entire story. They have been through so much this year. I am incredibly proud of them for how they have handled things and continue to be patient with Zed and I as we keep trying to get our feet back under us.

We've had a lot of people asking us what we need. Well, besides a maid, there isn't too much we are in need of. My brother gave us their old crib, so we are up to quota there. Eventually we'll need another high chair, but that is months away still. Mostly the thing we need is just continued support. And diapers. We will always be in need of diapers. The babies take a particular formula that we've just decided to order through Amazon regularly. We will need more bottles I'm sure, but right now I'm just washing what we've got a few times a day. They use the Dr. Brown's bottles and we figure eventually they'll adjust to regular-whatever type- of bottles, but they haven't eaten very well yet the few times we've tried to get them to use the average joe bottle. We are also still styling their room in Dr Seuss and will take any old Dr. Seuss books you find on bookshelves or the DI. But mostly diapers.

And if you come to my house, don't judge me. I use to be a tidy person. Apparently that person is still on bedrest. I'm trying, but having the nice tidy house just isn't a feasible option for me right now. We have clean clothes (even if they aren't folded), clean dishes (even if we have to take them out of the dishwasher because they rarely make it to the cabinets), and everyone of us still bathes regularly. I think based off of those things we are doing pretty well.

Mike and Will are looking more and more individual to us. I took Mike's hospital band off his leg and went ahead and labeled their feet with their initials, just in case. But when we look at them it's seeming more obvious who is who. Both boys are sleeping great at night 4+ hours is normal. During the day they sleep a lot still, but they have their awake moments for the occasional tummy time (I know it's supposed to be everyday, but I forget. It was the same with Mr J and Otis and they are OK).

PS, did I mention that Mr J learned how to ride a bike without training wheels?!?! I'm so super proud of this kid!

We are so grateful to be home, to be going crazy with kids all over. It's pretty much the greatest blessing ever.