They're Here

Can I pretend that I wrote this blog post a month ago?

Welcome to the world...
Eliana Michelle (3 pounds 7 ounces) and Wesley Alexander (4 pounds 8 ounces)

On Saturday, January 17th around 9pm, these two little ones made their grand entrance.  I was so worried about them going into the c-section because they were only 34 1/2 weeks along and we weren't sure if they would be able to breathe on their own.  Eliana had stopped moving and wasn't getting enough oxygen from the placenta which is why we had to schedule things last minute.  They sent us from La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula to a hospital with a better NICU just in case they needed it.

My eyes filled with tears when I heard Eliana's first cry.  It was a miracle to hear the sound of the new life that God had been growing inside of me, but I also was just filled with relief that she could cry, which meant she could breathe and she was going to be okay.  Three minutes later Wesley followed with cries of his own.  I got a great report from the pediatrician shortly afterwards, although they were still whisked away to the NICU to get feeding tubes and spend the next few days in the incubators.

Eliana quickly figured out how to suck and within a few days was bottle feeding.  Wesley took a little longer, but by Wednesday was also eating and was ready to come home.  We headed back to La Ceiba Wednesday afternoon to meet brothers and sister and experience life out of the hospital for the first time.

The last month has been full of eating and sleeping and burping and swinging and trying to figure out the whole nursing thing.  Mommy and Papi and Nana are tired, but so happy!  Older siblings are in love and want to help as much as they can.  They are gentle and loving and cannot wait until the twins are old enough to play.  Since the twins came so small, we've had to be careful about washing hands and germs and all that, but its amazing how great they are doing since they still haven't even reached their due date of February 25th.  We've been trying to take pictures to show for scale how really little they are.  This is Wesley next to a 12 inch spider man :)


 Our favorite story as we have been introducing them to friends is from our four year old friend Elias.  When I first told Elias that I was going to have twins, the conversation went like this...
Me: Elias, did you know that I have two babies in my belly?
Elias: Why did you eat two babies?
Me: (laughing) I didn't eat them Elias, they are growing in there.  God is making them big and strong so they can come out and play with you.
So when Elias came to meet the babies he kept staring back and forth between me and them...
Me: Elias, these are the babies that were growing in my tummy.
Elias: (confused) Are you going to eat them again?
Gotta love four year old reasoning skills!

We have had lots of visitors from my team and Lesther's family and the PDE family.  It has been fun to see some of the girls come by and hold my little ones and be so excited for me over the new step for our family.  They all want to help and have offered to take care of them or come help clean my house or do whatever we need.  I love seeing the Lord work in them to be so generous and want to give what they can.  We are very blessed by our community here.  My mom is here for awhile and I don't know what I would do without her.  She is the best nana in the world and has made Valentine's Day cake, done homework, done midnight feedings, rocked babies, made dinner, washed clothes, and so much more.  I may never let her leave...  More of my family comes in March and I can't wait for them to get here and meet Eliana and Wesley.

Its amazing to me that they have such different personalities at such a young age.  Isn't God creative?  Eliana is awake more, alert, active, and is going to be a spit-fire.  She is already holding her head up, trying to roll over, interactive, trying to figure out her hands, etc.  She is a little bit of a thing, but watch out world because that is not going to stop her.  She still loves being held and cuddled and has started trying to turn towards my voice when she hears me... I love that!  Welsey is our little lazy bear.  He is a sleepy little guy and has been lazy from the beginning.  He never moved around as much as his sister, even in the womb.  And in the hospital he was content to get his food by a tube, why work for it if they are going to just fill up my tummy anyways?  He has more digestive issues and is just a little more complicated, but he is the sweetest snuggly boy in the world.  And, not to be outdone by his sister he is also trying to hold his head up and intentionally smiled yesterday for the first time.  He had to be first in something, so I guess he figured smiling was something that didn't take too much effort :)  I think he is going to be the sweetest little thing who will help me stay sane while his sister is out taking over the world.

I guess when you wait a month, this is the kind of marathon blog post you get :)

I'll leave you with our only picture as a family of 7, you read that right, 7.  Wow.