A Proud Husband and Father...

To say that I am proud of Carrie and our children is an understatement!!!

Carrie has handled the last 6 weeks like a champ. From unexpectedly being put on bed rest and then 2 weeks later being blindsided with a one week hospital stay and the ultimate early delivery of the twins she has been the definition of grace under pressure. She did everything the doctors asked and now supports our children by everyday spending as much time as she is allowed in the NICU. I am blessed to have her as my wife and our children are blessed to have her as their Mommy.

Louisa and Reid are AWESOME!!! Except for Louisa's little hick-up, the twins have improved everyday. Louisa has earned the reputation of having the most attitude of any baby pound-for-pound in nursery 6. Her personality is one of the biggest reasons she has done so well. Reid is our little burrito that stays wrapped up and content all day long. As long as you feed him and change his diaper he doesn't make a peep and the last few days has received the good baby award of the nursery. I am really looking forward to the twins coming home so we can take total care of them and they can play.

All the support we have received from family and friends has been astounding. Carrie and I have felt the prayers and we see God answer them everyday. So please don't stop! Continue to pray that the twins will have infection free days and will continue to obtain the goals the Doctors give them. Also please pray for the other children in the NICU and their families. The NICU is truly a special place but has many very sick babies. So please remember them in your prayers as well.

Carrie and I are going to try and do a much better job of keeping you updated. Please visit often and let us know when you do...

Our 2 Little Miracles...

To make a very long story short, on Friday, November 16th, after a week long stay in the hospital the doctors decided it was best for everyone (me and the babies) for the babies to be delivered at only 33 weeks and 1 day.


So...Kenneth "Reid" was born at 6:55 pm. He weighed 4 lb 15 oz and was 16 3/4" long. Our little Louisa Claire was born at 6:56 weighing only 2 lb 11 oz and 15" long.


Reid needed a little help breathing when he was born. He was on the c-pap, then nasal canula but he is now breathing completely on his own! He progressed really quickly and we are quite proud of him! The doctors said that hopefully he will be home in the next 7-10 days. He still needs to learn to drink his whole bottle (he is currently getting 2 bottles a day and the rest he gets through a feeding tube). We just came from the hospital and Reid finished his whole bottle for the second night in a row (Yeah, Reid!!). He'll have to keep this up for a few days before they increase him to 3 bottles a day. He is quite handsome and for the last few days our nurses have named him the good boy of the nursery!

When Louisa was born, our tiny girl came out breathing completely on her own, not requiring any help at all! This week has been quite rough for Louisa. On Sunday she started acting not like her normal, fiesty self and we could tell something was wrong. By Monday it was determined that she had an infection. She was put on antibiotics and is now acting more like herself again. She is still a little pale and weak, but she is doing much better. She will stay on the antibiotics for another 8 days to make sure the infection is completely gone. It was a very scary couple of days, but with lots of prayer she is getting better. Louisa is up to 2 lb 15 oz now, so she still needs to gain a bit of weight before she can come home. She will also have to maintain her own body temperature and be able to take all of her feedings by bottle (she is now getting 2 bottles a day). She has already proven to be quite strong and the nurses tell us that we are really going to have to watch her because she is so fiesty! We don't really understand what they are talking about because every time we go to see her she is sleeping like a perfect little angel! Of course as her parents we couldn't be biased or anything! We are praying that Louisa will grow quickly so she can be home by Christmas. We are so excited for the day when our babies will both be home with us!

We have been truly blessed with wonderful doctors and nurses. From the decision to deliver when I did, to the care for the babies in the Special Care Nursery since the babies were born, we know that we have had the absolute best medical care possible. We wish so much that our babies were at home with us now, but we know that they are getting wonderful care at University Hospital.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been praying for our family. We have felt those prayers and know that our babies would not be doing as well as they are without those prayers.

The one who REALLY runs our house...

If you know us well, you know that MAGGIE runs our house. She "directs" us as to when she wants to be in or out of the house, and when she wants Belle to be in or out of the house. For such a tiny little dog, she certainly has a lot of attitude in her eyes when she looks at us. We are very interested to see how she reacts when she's not the only baby in the house. I'm sure she'll be jealous when she's not getting all of the attention like she is used to and I think our other problem will be keeping her from taking all of the babies toys and blankets. Maggie came in the den the other night with a baby rattle in her mouth, knowing it wasn't hers because she just dropped it and looked up at us as if to say, "I know it's not mine, but can I pleeeeeeeeease have it??" All I said was "Maggie, that's not yours" and she tucked her head and walked out of the room.

This picture of Belle is from a few years ago. She's often hard to get a picture of because she doesn't like to get far enough away from you so you can actually get a picture...she just wants to be as close as possible to you at all times.

Maggie and Belle are definitely our first 2 children so I thought they should make an appearance on the website too.

31 Weeks!!

It's really hard for us to believe that today is 31 weeks! I have people tell me all the time that it seems like my pregnancy has gone by really fast and I have to agree! The last week has been a bit slow and trying with all of the stress and anxiety of doctor's appointments and bed rest and worrying about the babies, but...we made it through. Craig has done a great job of taking care of me, fixing my meals, making sure that I don't do more than I'm supposed to and making sure I stay calm despite the frustrations of the week.

The babies seem to be doing okay. The doctors won't measure them again for another 2 weeks : ( We are very anxious to see if all of the extra rest and protein drinks are helping our baby girl get bigger. I have definitely been feeling her move more, so hopefully that means she's growing or maybe it means that her brother is actually letting her stretch out a little bit. It's hard to think of him actually letting her have room to move around with all of the moving and stretching that he does. His new thing is to push the inside of my belly button with what I think is his foot...you can see the picture...I don't think my belly button needs any more help sticking out! If I had to guess from the way that these two act inside of me, I would say that he is really going to be a character...definitely the bold and rowdy one. While our precious little princess is going to be dainty and sweet...definitely one to sit back and evaluate things before she engages. Only time will tell if my mother's intuition is right about our babies. Hopefully only another 6-7 weeks!

Change of Perspective

As you can hopefully see from the video clip, our little boy seems to be doing great! However, it looks like when he is born he will need a long lesson in sharing with his sister! At my appointment with Dr. Ware on Thursday, they measured the babies again and according to their measurements, baby boy was 3 lb 10 oz and baby girl was only 2 lbs. Big difference from the week before at Dr. Williams office. The measurements are not precise by any means, so we are thinking that they are both somewhere in between the two measurements. Since he is continuing to get quite a bit larger and she is not growing near as much, Dr. Ware has put me on bed rest until the babies come. She explained that he is actually compressing her cord, so she isn't getting all the nutrients that she needs and the more energy that I exert by walking around, etc. the more blood flow, calories, nutrients that I am requiring for myself which means those are nutrients that the babies (specifically the girl) are not getting. Obvisously this was a HUGE shock to us. We woke up that morning and were getting ready to go to the doctor and I said to Craig, "Today is 30 weeks and we're all doing great!" How quickly our perspective changed! Dr. Ware's biggest concern right now is getting the little girl to pick up weight, so I am now drinking 3 protein drinks a day in addition to my gallon of water and of course my normal meals. I stay pretty full most of the time but...whatever the babies need to keep growing! The good thing is that at this point the doctors don't have any reason for concern that I will deliver early since I am not having any contractions or any other signs of early labor. Hopefully with the extra rest I will be able to wait until 37-38 weeks to deliver. Dr. Ware also wants me to be monitored twice a week, so they will be keeping a very close watch on me and the babies to make sure everybody is doing okay.

Please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers. This recent turn of events means a lot of adjustments for everyone and the way we thought things would go. Clearly God is in control of this situation and He has a perfect plan for how and when our little miracles will arrive!

29 Week Report

The babies are definitely growing! At Friday's appointment (29 weeks, 1 day) Baby Boy measured 3 lbs 1 oz and Baby Girl measured 2 lbs 5 oz. There is still a big difference in their sizes, but they seem to be growing at about the same rate (just over a pound) since the last time they were measured. It's always so neat to see what they are doing inside of me. Baby Boy was holding up his index finger as if to say, "I'm 1st" or "I'm #1" which of course we already knew by his weight! Meanwhile, Sister was folded in half as she often is with her toes touching her forehead...maybe she'll be a gymnist one day. Hopefully next week we'll have more baby pictures to post.

28 weeks

Not too much exciting going on this week...which is a good thing! We like non-exciting weeeks because that means babies are kicking and growing and everything is as it should be. We went to see Dr. Ware (the specialist) yesterday and she was pleased overall. Apparently baby boy is still taking up some of his sister's space. While they both have plenty of fluid, she is only using a small part of her space because big brother keeps taking her space and pushing her in the corner (I think this is usually under the ribs on my right side!). So, doc wants me to add a protein drink to my diet each day to hopefully help little girl pick up some more weight, which means brother will pick up more weight as well, which means Mommy will pick up more weight too! Mommy is more than okay with that as long as the babies are getting what they need. We have appointments (and sonograms) the next 2 Fridays, so we will get measurements on both babies and see if baby girl is catching up in size.

The picture I'm posting was taken at 27 weeks...I'm sure that I've grown even more in the last week!

October...already??

Wow. It's already October 2nd and as each day, week and month passes that means we are closer and closer to meeting our 2 little ones! I am now 26 1/2 weeks pregnant. The doctor has said that he won't let me go past 38 weeks (Dec. 20th) so at most we only have 11 1/2 more weeks until the babies come. I think we get more excited with each week that passes and definitely with each sonogram as we get to see how big they are and what they look like. We had a 4-D ultrasound done at 25 weeks and it was amazing. They estimated that our baby boy weighed 1 lb 13 oz and our baby girl weighed 1 lb 4 oz. A pretty big difference between the two babies, but the boy has always measured bigger than his sister. The doctor thinks everything is fine, but she does want to keep a watch on them to make sure brother is sharing the food with his little sister. The babies are constantly moving...which I love to feel. Each little movement (well, the movements are starting to not feel so little anymore) is reassuring to me that they are doing okay. Sometimes it really feels like they are playing when they both start moving at the same time...we can't wait to see them play and interact when they are born. It will be here before we know it! We have sonograms scheduled again in the next few weeks, so I will try to update with new pictures afterwards. Right now we think baby boy looks more like Momma and baby girl definitely looks like Daddy!