Who do they look like?

Who do you think the twins look like?

Henry 1 month

Nick 3.5 weeks

Hannah

Pam 2 months

Cali 1 month

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One Month Old - Twins

The twins were one month old on Wednesday!  We survived!  Henry and Hannah are doing great.  They are eating, sleeping, peeing and pooping like champs.

Hannah and Henry in their Little Sister/Brother shirts

MONTHLY UPDATE:
Food - 100% breast milk on a 3 hour schedule.  We will wake them up to feed during the day but let them sleep at night until they are hungry. We are nursing and giving them bottles.  This is wonderful because Nick can play a big roll in the feedings and can give me a break at night.
Sleep - They sleep a lot!  Maybe 16-20 hours a day.  They do not always sleep at the same time which decreases my productivity.  They are sleeping better at night.  Nick and I are getting 4 to 6 hours a night.
Clothes - Newborn size onsies and pants.  Henry is just now able to fit into some of his outfits, Hannah is still small so clothes just kind of hang on her.
Weight -  Hannah 5lbs 12oz  Henry we find out 12/19
Height - Hannah 19 inches Henry we find out 12/19
Diapers - Pampers Newborn size (If you are wondering what the twins want for Christmas the answer is diapers!  We go through a pack every 2 days!)
Health - You may notice a red mark just above Hannah's lip.  This is called a Hemangioma or benign blood tumor.  We saw a pediatric dermatologist this week about it.  Due to its location we are going to start a treatment plan.  Hannah will take medicine two times a day for the first year of her life to make the Hemangioma go away and prevent longterm issues.  We think she is beautiful!
Fun Facts - Henry sneezes in fours, Hannah is a very easy, laid back baby - hopefully this won't change :)

Henry

Hannah

Big sister wanted to get in on the photo shoot!  Our THREE kids!

Two weeks in

Our family of five has survived the first 2 weeks!  It has been a fun ride so far.  Sometimes it is hard, sometimes we get peed on, sometimes we cry, sometimes we laugh and sometimes we all nap!

Hannah and Henry napping in their crib.  I love that Henry is smiling - what could he be dreaming about?

Cali has been amazing!  She has been such a big helper and loves her babies!  As she leaves for school in the morning she tells me to "Be careful with my babies, momma!"  I love how she loves them and has accepted them.  She is still the fastest to tell them apart.

Cali feeding Henry his "mommy milk" 

Nick is back working full time at church so I have had helpers here at the house with me.  It is super nice to have an extra set of hands with two babies and a toddler!  Another huge blessing is our wonderful church family has been brining meals.  This is something that really has a huge impact on me!  Trying to plan dinner in the midst of making sure babies are feed, clean, the toddler is happy and the house isn't a disaster is just one thing that I don't have time for.

The twins are back to their birth weights and eating only breast milk.  We are doing a mix of nursing and bottles.  They eat every 3 hours during the day and every 3-4 hours at night (whenever they wake up).  They sleep well but not always when we want them to.  Henry had his nights and days off a few days this week.  It is amazing that Nick and I can function on so little sleep.

Henry sporting a mohawk after a bath

Hannah relaxing in the bouncer

For Thanksgiving we stayed home and had a small meal with just the 5 of us.  Nick's side came over Saturday for lunch.

Cali, Maw Maw, Leigha, and Henry

Hannah, Uncle Andy and Leigha

Friday we even managed to get our Christmas tree up.  Cali did a great job of decorating the bottom half.

Today is my first full day home by myself with the kids.  Luckily Cali is at play school this morning and Nick will be home to help for a little while at lunch.  Off to get some laundry folded before the twins wake up!  Wait - Henry's crying.  I almost got something done!

The Twins are Here!

The twins arrived safely on Monday November 14th via c-section.  Henry Allen was born at 10:39am and Hannah Bailey at 10:40am.  Both babies were 17 inches long.  Henry was 5 lb 9 oz and Hannah was 4 lb 6 oz.  Both babies are healthy and we had no complications.  Even though the babies were so small we were able to keep them in the room with us.  We were even able to take them home on my birthday, Thursday November 17th.

Hannah and Henry

Since home the babies have been eating well and sleeping like champs!  Nick and I have been able to share the feeding responsibility (the twins take bottles great!) and keep the babies on breast milk.  We are blessed with help from the Grandmas and friends bringing food.  We are on a 3 hour feeding schedule so we are pretty tired but try to nap when we can.

Cali holding Hannah

Cali hugging Henry

Big sister Cali is overjoyed with the new arrivals and has been super helpful!  She likes to help hold the babies, feed the babies and change the babies.  It is amazing that she can tell the babies apart better than the rest of us.

Our family of FIVE!

36 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 36 Weeks

Size of baby: Boy is 5 lbs 12 ozs 27%, girl is 4 lbs 12 oz 3%

Maternity Clothes: Maternity clothes and Nick's clothes

Gender: One boy, one girl!

Movement: The babies move a lot.  The little boy gets hiccups at least once a day. 

Sleep: Sleeping is getting uncomfortable and I wake up a lot.  

What I miss: Energy, being comfortable, and the ability not to waddle.

Cravings: Sweets and fried food

Symptoms: I'm big and I itch!
Best Moment this week: I got a pedicure and we finally got the nursery ready for the twins!

I had them paint my toys pink and blue!  And yes that is a tattoo on my toe.  It is the Ichthys or "Jesus Fish". 

Little girl has gained a pound in the last 3 weeks but the doctors are not happy about her size.  Her heart rate is good, her activity is good, and the flow in her umbilical cord is good - the problem is she is just small.  We had a very long Dr. visit today with lots of scans and tests.  Basically they don't think it would be good to wait 2 more weeks to have the babies.   So we have our bags packed and the infant seats in the van ready to go whenever the Dr. decides its time.  

Changes

We have had a big change here in the Jordan family.  Nick started a full time job in November and I went part-time.  This meant a switch in roles for both of us.  Nick has been home with Cali full time for the past 1.5 years and working at church part time.  While I've been working full time.  It was a big and difficult decision for us but we know that we are where we are supposed to be.

Last week's Dr. visit has moved up the arrival of the twins from 3 weeks to 1 or 2.  So we have been scrambling to get all the final details taken care.   The nursery is ready for twins and we only have a few more things to get.

Monday's are my full day to be home.  So Cali and I made the most of what may be our last full day as just the two of us!  After breakfast we headed to meet my sister for some baby shopping and lunch.

Cali was super excited to hang out with Aunt Mary.  They rarely get time to hang out together because there are always cousins and other family members around for distractions.

After nap time we played and hung around the house.

Cali was showing Jack her pluto dog and explaining to Jack that they were both dogs.  You can tell Jack was super excited.

Our afternoon activity was a haircut!  Cali's beautiful curls where getting out of control so we needed to get the hair trimmed.  She doesn't love getting a haircut but she will sit still for it.

The shorter and more controlled curly Cali.

We ended our day together with dinner at home and a frosty run.

Happy Halloween

Princess Cali did GREAT this year at Trick-or-treating!  It is so fun now that she is starting to understand how these holidays work.  She was excited for days about saying "trick-or-treat" and people giving her candy.  She did lots of practicing!

In preparation for Halloween Daddy and Cali made a jack-o-lantern together.  Cali did good scooping the insides out with a spoon but was not a fan of using her hands.  She said it was "gooey".

This year for Halloween Cali was a Princess!

We went to a few homes in our neighborhood to show off the Princess.  I find it strange that this is the one night out of the year where you actually stop and talk to your neighbors.  Normally there is only waving.

After hitting a couple local homes we loaded the Princess in the car and went to a few homes of church friends.  It was fun to see everyone dressed up!

Trying to get Minnie Mouse, a Princess and a Ninja to stand in one stop for a photo was ridiculously difficult!  This is the best we could get.  

Halloween was a success!  Lots of goodies for Cali, Daddy and Mommy to enjoy!

33 Weeks

We are in the home stretch now!   With our c-section scheduled for Nov. 23rd we are only 5 weeks or less from meeting our "super babies" (that is what Cali calls them - thanks Dora!).

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 33 Weeks

Size of baby: Boy is 4 lbs 8 ozs 33%, girl is 3 lbs 13 ozs 7%

Maternity Clothes: Maternity clothes and Nick's clothes

Gender: One boy, one girl!

Movement: The babies move a lot.  The little girl has managed to totally change positions again.  Not sure how she finds the room!

Sleep: Sleeping is getting uncomfortable since I can only lay on my left side.  

What I miss: Energy, being comfortable, and the ability not to waddle.

Cravings: Sweets and fried food

Symptoms: I'm big!

Best Moment this week: Our wonderful church family gave us a Double the Fun baby shower last weekend!  It was so thoughtful of them to get us so many wonderful things for the twins.  

You may notice that our little girl is pretty small, 7% (for none baby people - Doctors use a 100% scale to rate the size of babies with the average baby being 50% in size).   She is gaining weight but is just not as big as the Doctors would like her to be.  What they want us to do is come in twice a week to do a None Stress Test or NST.  Basically they put monitors on the babies to watch their heartbeats.  As long as the lines go up and down a lot we are fine.  They are also monitoring the babies fluid and umbilical cord flow.  At this point their isn't anything to worry about and if anything does come up we are going to the Dr. so much they will find it.  

  

Big Girl

It seems like over night Cali is becoming such a BIG GIRL!  She is doing great with peeing in the potty.  Her imagination is broadening for play time.  She eats lots of different kinds of food.  She talks in paragraphs.  She can get in or on almost anything - she is our little monkey!  She goes to playschool 4 mornings a week and loves it!  She picks up on everything!

Here are some big girl pictures for you.

Ready for school with her big backpack! 

She is fearless!

Playing dress up

The BIG piece of news is that tonight Cali is sleeping in a Big Girl bed for the first time!  We are going to use her crib for the twins so Nick moved her crib out of her room and put together a toddler bed that our wonderful family gave us!

Getting in her big girl bed for the first time.  I love the pure joy on her face!  She is super excited!

Pretending to sleep.

One Year

Today is one year since Dad left this earth to be with our Heavenly Father.  One Year - wow.  It doesn't seem that long.  To say I miss him would be an understatement.  There is just such a special bond between a girl and her daddy.

I long for our talks.  He was always such a good listener and would not tell you what to do but help you work through to the solution.  He always gave such wise counsel.  He was also such an encourager.  No one ever left a conversation with Dad where they didn't feel better about themselves.

I ache for the fact that Cali won't remember him and that the twins will never know a Grandpa.  He was so good with Cali!  From the beginning he took such joy in her and would get on the floor to play.  

But I also rejoice that he is with Christ and feels no pain and is free from cancer.  I take comfort in the fact that I will see him again.  I find peace that he is with family and friends enjoying God's glory for eternity.

It has been a hard year for all of us - mom especially.  But today we will have a gathering to celebrate Dad's life, share stories and find comfort in the fact that he is with the Lord.

Thank you all for your encouragement and love during this time.  I hope that if you knew Dad you can have a smile on your face today as you remember him.

Life and Science Museum

Nick had a youth event today so Cali and I headed to Durham for some fun!

We started at the Durham Farmer's Market.  We picked up some fresh veggies, a Gluten free brownie for me and a cupcake for Cali.

Then we went to the Durham Life and Science Museum.  Super fun!  We were able to see a ton of animals, walk around, climb things, get in things and even play with butterflies.  Cali had a blast and when we got home she said, "I'm sad.  I miss my butterflies."  I told her we would go back to see them!

Cali reviewed the map and decided we needed to go to the butterfly garden

The butterflies were her favorite!  Cali was a little concerned when one decided to land on her shirt though.  After taking a few pics I gently encouraged it to play with another child.

Next came the bear exhibit.  There were 2 black bears for us to watch.  Cali got a kick out of watching them swim in their pond.

Cali "The Bear" Jordan - The sound effect for this face is priceless!

Cali even played on the "bumpy" dinosaur.

The museum was a hit!  I highly recommend it and plan to take Cali back.  We spend almost 3 hours there and didn't get to see everything.