Schwartz Update

Its been a fun couple of weeks at the Schwartz house (/in the NICU).... here is a quick update on us!

We had a wonderful anniversary date at our favorite restaurant in Salt Lake.  This was our incredible dessert:D  (Better than year old wedding cake apparently)

We went to Disneyland for a day to see Garret who just got home from his mission, and Taylor who is soon to be leaving on his.  We spent 16 hours at Disneyland and got all of the wonderful rides in and spent so much fun time with my family!

The nursery got all finished.  It looks wonderful:)  Blue and pink and brown and pink.  Airplanes and hearts.  Thanks to my mom for Addi's beautiful quilt!


The little peanuts are doing great!  They are both just over 3.5 lbs and growing.  We're hoping to get them out of isolettes and into an open crib together soon.  We are starting to try and nurse them once a day and they are being little champs!

As for Weston, he is pulling more and more hilarious faces every day.  We just really love this little man!

Addi is our little princess who has her daddy wrapped around her itty bitty finger:)

Two years...

Two years ago today I married my best friend.  I am so happy for the choices that I made that led to that very special day.  He was, and is the best friend that I could ever ask for.  He knows about all of my crazy... and puts up with it.  My mom told me once that you have to love all of the person's little quirks, because when you get married, they grow exponentially.  After two years of figuring out each others quirks, we are still very much in love and looking forward to the rest of forever.:)

Justin will do anything to make me happy.  When we were dating and engaged, I dragged him to every country swing night and dance that they had at the institute.  When we got married, he could push me around the dance floor with the best of them.  He even learned the perfect dip to sneak a kiss..... cutest.

man. ever.

He has the funniest sense of humor.  I am constantly laughing with him (or at him.... it all depends;)).  I don't think that there has been a day of our life together that he has not had something hilarious to say.... even when I'm stressed and crazy he can still get a smile out of me.

 He is so romantic and thoughtful.  While he won't admit it.... he is always doing things that make me love him more and more. 

Recently I've learned how incredible of a dad he is.  He loves our little ones so much.  He is so protective and so loving.  I am so glad that my little ones get to have a daddy as wonderful as him.

I love you Justy!  Happy Anniversary!  Two years down, eternity to go....:)

Growing....

Well, the little peanuts are growing like crazy.  They are both about 2 1/2 lbs. and eating 8 ml/hour which is about 0.3 oz or 1.5 teaspoons through a tube that goes through their little noses.  I know it doesn't seem like much, but they had to work up to it.  That amount definitely fills up their little tummies... and their little diapers.  They had to move to bigger diapers yesterday from micro-preemie size to normal preemie size.  The preemie size is still very big on them, but they were filling up the micro-preemie size.  (I've never been so excited about full diapers in my life..... I am definitely a mom;))

Beautiful little Addison is doing so well on her breathing.  The way that it works is they push a certain percentage of oxygen at a certain speed up their noses.  She has worked her way down from a 6 liter flow (the speed of the push) at 90% oxygen to a 0.5 liter flow with 25% oxygen.  (Room air is about 21% oxygen.)

She always has her little pinkies up.  It is so cute and dainty, I love it.

After Weston came off the ventilator, he did better on his breathing than he ever did before the pneumonia.  He is down to 2 liters on his flow and 30% oxygen.  While these numbers to fluctuate sometimes, their tiny little lungs are doing so much better than expected.

I love this little guy.  He is so fun to snuggle and he has the cutest little expressions. (His feeding tube is still in his mouth in this picture)

One of the cutest things about them doing so well is they get to wear clothes when they don't have any IVs.  They still have a few cords that need to be attached to them to track their heart rate, oxygen levels and breathing levels, but those ones are easy to move to put on clothes.  Imagine the smallest preemie clothes you've ever seen, shrink them in the wash and they are still a little bit big for my cuties.  But I love being able to get them dressed!:)

A little big, but so darling!

Justin is still trying to tell me her hair isn't curly.  I think this picture shows otherwise:)

Hooray for Weston!

Weston finished his pneumonia antibiotics and has weaned himself off the ventilator.  He is doing so much better, and he is such a happier little man when he doesn't have the vent down his throat.  He was doing so well today that I got to snuggle him for two whole hours.  He just conked out on my chest, it was one of the sweetest moments he and I have had yet.  He's such a darling little boy.  We are so grateful at how much of a trooper he was through this first infection.

Addi is doing well too.  She hit 2 lbs 8 oz. today.  We're so glad for the little cutie, she's been such a stable little thing through her whole first 5 weeks of life.  We sure love them!

Getting Ready.....

Wednesday morning our cribs were delivered, and last night my wonderful husband agreed to put them together for me.  Yes, we still have a while before the babies come home.  Yes, when they get home they  won't use the cribs at first.  But decorating the nursery is important to me.  I feel the need to nest even though the babies were already born.  The bedding sets are ready, now the cribs are put together, and next I'm going to be painting some shelves for the wall and doing block letters with their names on them.

But stage 1 of the nursery is done.  Cribs are up!  Here are a few pictures of our fun filled evening putting them together!:D

My cute husband opening the boxes.  He's such a cute dad!:D

Assembling.....

And done!  Now we just need mattresses:)

Baby Update

The littlest Schwartzes are growing!  Addison is up to 2 lbs. 2 oz and Weston is 2 lbs. 4 oz.  They have had a hard week this past week.  It started with Weston getting an infection in his lungs that turned in to pneumonia.  He had to go back onto the ventilator to help him breathe while he fights the infection.  They started him on antibiotics and he's been a tough little fighter ever since.  His lungs are looking better after the round of antibiotics and a small chest tube.  He's on the upswing and then we look forward to weaning him off the ventilator and seeing his cute little face again.

Addison was not liking all of the attention that brother was getting and tried to get some of her own.  She started getting an infection in her tummy, so they stopped her feeds and started her on antibiotics.  She didn't want to get poked too many times so she kicked her infection after two days and got her feeds started again yesterday.  They've been giving her a little tiny preemie binky to help her work on her sucking reflex too.  Hopefully it won't be too many more months before they can try nursing.

She's always sticking out her cute little pinkies and trying to suck on her fingers:)

So we've finally exited the honeymoon period with the little ones and have had our first roller coaster experiences in the NICU.  We expected infections and hope that they can keep kicking their infections the way that they have so far.  Thanks for everybody's thoughts and prayers!  They are much appreciated!

Diary of a Twin Mom

So I decided this blog was better used for pictures and fun family updates. I've started another blog that is easier to post to from my phone where I can keep my writing skills sharp while out of school and hanging out in the hospital. It will contain more of my random thoughts and feelings. The link is http://twinmomdiary.wordpress.com/ if you want to follow me there too. :)