A LOT of Formula

Well, as of today Tate has officially caught up with Ellie and is taking 6 ounces.  (They don't always eat a whole 6 oz but about once a day, however, you have to make that much to get what they're eating.)  This means that we are officially going through a box of formula every 3 days!  That's right;  we have to buy three boxes of formula to make it through a complete week. 

Here are Tate and Ellie today on their 10th week of life!  For those who look closely, Tate scratched his own face.  I can't keep his nails short enough, when he is upset he likes to ball his fists up and rub them all over his face.  He is determined to always have a cut.

These are of them sleeping a couple of days ago.  Sorry all the pictures are of them in their bouncy seats, it is just about the only time I have my hands free for pictures.

Ellie

Tate

...because what is sweeter than sleeping babies?

What's In A Name: Elijah Tate

Trey and I had a harder time choosing a boy’s name. I knew I wanted to use my maiden name, Tate, but it sounded weird to both of us because we were so used to it being my family name. Especially after I lost my Dad I felt particularly strong about using it and eventually it felt right. Originally we had thought Tate Austin would be our son’s name because we liked the sound of it. Austin carried some family and geographical significance and we were pretty satisfied. I was about 9 weeks pregnant when we moved from Birmingham to Texas to spend a month with family before moving to London. We had been in Birmingham three years and while we were there attended Shades Mountain Baptist Church. We absolutely adored this church and it really became home to us. Our last Sunday there, the pastor preached a sermon on Elijah. The message was “Following God’s Will When It Doesn’t Make Sense.” It really resonated with us because we were giving up jobs, selling our cars and furniture all in pursuit of what we believe to be the path God has laid out for us.

The message was from I Kings 17. In it, the Lord had provided for Elijah during a famine directing him first to a brook where he could drink and was fed by ravens then to a widow who seemingly only had enough to enjoy one last meal with her son before dying. The Lord, in His faithfulness, multiplied their supply and they were all able to eat. We felt we were going into the unknown but following God’s promise that He would provide where He led us. I felt impressed during that sermon that we should name our son Elijah so that he would serve as a reminder that we are to follow the Lord’s calling on our lives and the Lord will be faithful to provide. Surprisingly, it was difficult for me to do this because Elijah is not a name I naturally was drawn to but the Lord has already been faithful to use it as a comfort in my life. I pray it will be a source of comfort and encouragement for Tate.

13 Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.' "
15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.
I Kings 17: 13-16

What’s In A Name: Eliana Grace

The story of Ellie’s name dates back to mine and Trey’s first year of marriage. We were playing Scattergories at the home of our dear friends Jason and Kellie. The letter was “E” and one of the categories was “girl’s names.” (For those of you unfamiliar with the game, players attempt to match categories with a letter of the alphabet unique from those their opponents come up with.) When we were calling out our answers Trey said the most beautiful name I have ever heard, Eliana (pronounced el-ee-AH-nah.) I pronounced then and there that this would be our daughter’s name. I went home and looked up the meaning of Eliana and was thrilled to find it was Hebrew in origin and means “God has answered.” We began talking about a middle name and Grace seemed so natural because it is through His grace the Lord answers when we call on Him.

"Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).

Easter

So I have to say, other than having the sweetest babies (and thanks to their fashionable grandparents some of the best dressed) on the planet, we had a bit of a disappointing Easter. We got up early, got everyone ready and out the door with even time for pictures and made it in time to catch the bus. The bus, however, was being diverted around our stop and after paying full fare to go less than a stop we were informed we would have to walk the mile to church. Not usually such a big deal but because we weren’t going to walk very far I had decided to start breaking my feet back into my spring shoes. They were not prepared to walk a mile and I ended up with 5 bleeding blisters. The service was very well done, however, we didn’t realize that the service we were attending was one of the family services and we were both really looking forward to a good Easter sermon. There was a skit instead and I would have loved it if the babies were old enough to enjoy it. We did get to talk to most of Trey’s family at the same time on Skype which is always a pleasure and lifts our spirits. Ultimately, I think we are just getting homesick. Neither of us had ever gone 8 months without going home, frankly I don’t think I had gone more than 4 or 5 without being in Houston and we would see family that visited us in the meantime. We know we have at least another 4 months to go but I think on daily basis we say our top things we want to do when we get home.

Mine are:
1. Have all our family in the same room (minus Bill, Beth and Alex who we would have to settle for Skype with.)
2. Go to one of our Southern Baptist Churches with Sunday School and everything.
3. Be reunited with my dog, Anna.
4. Drive a car.
5. Eat some queso and kolatches.
6. Swim in my Mom’s back yard.
7. Live only with people I am related to.
8. Use my very own kitchen appliances and china… oh how I miss my kitchen aid.
9. Live in a house with a toilet I don’t have to pump and sinks that mixes the hot and cold water for me.
10. Pay for everything in dollars.

Tate's First Boo Boo

So Trey and I had an extremely traumatic experience tonight. I don't think it was quite as bad for Tate but it wasn't fun for him either. He has caught my cold and has quite a stuffy nose. Because of this he gets really frustrated when he lies down because it gets harder to breathe so right now he is spending most of his time in our arms and he is sleeping in a bouncy seat so he stays upright. We have been using saline and suctioning but tonight thought we would take him into the shower room with it all steamed up and see if that would open him up some.

I went in and turned the hot water on. I let it run for about 15 minutes then Trey (because he has a cold also) went in with Tate and stood with him. He said he was really enjoying it and getting cleared up. He had been in the middle of an alert period where he was playing with Grandma and Granddad and giving them lots of big smiles.

Well, right before Trey and Tate were about to leave the room the plastic diffuser that covers the light fixture fell off of the ceiling into Trey's lap and a shard from it flew up and cut him right above his eye! The Medleys and I were sitting in the living room and when we heard the bang and Trey yell followed by Tate screaming Nancy and I ran in there. Tate just screamed and screamed and he had a cut about a inch long above his eye. Trey got some peroxide on a q-tip and we cleaned it up. He will be fine but the poor thing was fussy the rest of his alert period. So sad!

Ellie is Getting Big!

Feb. 15, 2009 we took Ellie to be weighed and she was up to 9 lbs! Her 0 to 3 month clothes said she would fit into them at 8.5 and I was so excited she was going to get to start wearing them because most of what I had in the newborn size was unisex. The theory being that the newborn stage would be so crazy I would just want to grab whatever for whoever I was changing and not worry about the color. I'm so excited to bring on the pink!

The Birth

OK, I really tried not to put too much detail in, however, if you are very sensitive to the idea of a birth story, don’t read further.



I went in to be induced Feb. 2, 2009. The plan was to apply a gel, if that didn’t work, break my waters and if that didn’t work, start Pitocin. I was told induction with twins is supposed to be quick and easy because of the lack of space. When we left the house at 9:45 AM that morning we actually thought we would have babies that evening. I felt very relaxed about the whole thing. The induction didn’t actually begin until 2:00 PM even though our appointment was at 10 AM. I was put in a ward with 6 beds where everyone who is being induced or isn’t close enough to “active” labor stays. After the application of the gel I was stuck in bed for a long time because my active babies didn’t want to stay put for the monitor. We literally had to hold them on so we could move them around and try to find them every time they moved away from it. The end result of this was a total of 6 hours of Trey holding one monitor and me holding the other monitor and searching for babies trying to get sufficient consistent reads of their heart beats. The first application of the gel didn’t work and instead of proceeding with the plan my consultant from the pregnancy set up (who wasn’t on duty that day) they reapplied the gel three more times over the next 14 hours, none of which worked. One hard thing was that Trey had to go home when visiting hours were over. It was difficult because I knew I was being induced and could go into labor at any point but my husband wasn’t with me.

After the third application, and a new day, a new consultant was on duty who came in and said I would have a cesarean and asked when I wanted to set it up for. This was at 6 AM before Trey was allowed back. I told him I didn’t want a cesarean and would need to discuss any changes to the plan with my husband before I made a decision. He looked insulted and basically replied that he wasn’t doing anything else to induce labor so I could sit there and hope it started or have a cesarean tomorrow. After having had only a couple hours of sleep between my own contractions and the women screaming in the ward who were further along than I was, I wasn’t sure if I could sit there another day and night then go through labor if the next consultant that came on duty was supportive of my trying natural delivery. Fortunately, a Senior Registrar who I had seen during my pregnancy came by and wanted to assess my progress. He told me he would be back at 1:00 PM and do an exam so I would have a better idea of how I was progressing to help with my decision. I also asked if he knew the consultant who had come by that morning and if that consultant tended to only perform cesareans on twin pregnancies. He said “no comment.”

During that time, Trey got there and I tried to walk around a lot to move things along. The exam actually took place around 2:30 PM Feb. 3rd. The consultant said I was ready to have my waters broken but the labor rooms had several people “in front of me” which kind of made me feel like I was going to get a table at a restaurant.

After the exam I started bleeding a lot. I went to a midwife who wasn’t worried, said it was probably normal and she would be back in a minute to check and see how much. When no one had come in a few minutes… and it was a scary amount of blood… Trey went out to get someone. The midwife came back checked the amount of blood, put her hand on my shoulder, looked right in my eyes and said “everything is going to be fine, I am just going to get you a wheelchair and into the labor room” then she turned and RAN into the hall. She ran into the hall and came back with a chair. They pushed me into the labor ward and someone had just been put into the room they were wheeling me to. She yelled to a nurse and asked who was in the room. The nurse replied it was a woman getting an epidural and she would just be a minute. My midwife then screamed “WELL, I’VE GOT A LADY WITH TWINS HERE BLEEDING SO GET HER OUT OF MY ROOM!” At that point, I started getting worried. I was introduced to my nurse (also Sarah) who was fantastic throughout the whole process. She and Trey left me in the labor room while they moved my things to the recovery room I would go into and I had a minor break down. By that time I was having contractions really hard and fast. The anesthetist came in and placed my epidural. It wasn’t even putting a dent in the contractions then the nurse went in to break my waters. Apparently, some people do not think this is painful... if you are one of those people I think you are out of your mind.

Once my waters were broken the contractions became more intense. I was at 9 cm. when they took me to the operating room (with twins you have to give birth in an OR in case something goes wrong) and the epidural still was not working. The epidural was also not primarily for pain relief (although I wasn’t arguing when the doctor said it was recommended for twin birth) but so I wouldn’t have to be put under general anesthetic if an emergency cesarean needed to be performed. Once they got it working then I started pushing. I was allowed one push and then the doctor got the suction cup for Ellie. I honestly had no idea he was doing it until Trey told me later. I was furious because she came out so quickly he was surprised, I seriously pushed for about 5 minutes. Tate was lying transverse and they couldn’t find him on the ultrasound. I think they were worried and they began turning him by pushing on my stomach. The nurses kept apologizing for it being uncomfortable but at that point I could see Ellie and I honestly could not care less. When it was time to push with Tate they realized they had turned him the wrong way so he was delivered breach with forceps. I only pushed about three times with him. They were born exactly 10 minutes apart. The whole process was so quick after it got started. My waters were broken around 3:30. Ellie was born at 4:47 and Tate was born at 4:57.

After I had Tate, my blood pressure dropped and I was given something to bring it back up. Once that happened there was no keeping me awake. I remember feeling awful because at one point the nurse woke me up and said look at your babies. Trey was holding them beside me and I could hardly even respond. I didn’t even wake up for the final phase of the delivery. At some point after I had been wheeled to the recovery ward I woke up enough to start going through some of the medical stuff and finally to try and feed the babies. Of everything that happened how tired I felt immediately following how I felt after all of the adrenalin of giving birth was the biggest surprise. Well, that and how nice I was to Trey. When they were placing the epidural I had a contraction and was not allowed to move. I was holding Trey’s arms and had this out of body experience where I looked down, realized Trey’s arm was red and that it was red because I was pinching the fire out of it. I thought “that must hurt” mustered up a part my self control that had been wholly allocated abstaining from moving as to avoid paralysis to release my grip and apologized. I didn’t call him any names or yell at him or anything. That was honestly the thing I was probably most proud of. Ultimately I feel the birth happens whether you want it to or not but going in I was certain I was going to physically bring Trey into the pain of the experience with me. Lucky for him, apparently my instinctual self is much kinder than my cognitive self.