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Oh wow, an elephant

2010-01-18T12:53:00.003-05:00

Liana does this thing where she will make an elephant sound whenever we see or talk about an elephant. So of course I tried to get in on video forever and like all tricks you say your kids can do they end up never doing it on demand. So I finally got one video where we ask her about a thousand times what sound the elephant makes and she does it! But to make it even more awesome, in the video you hear Adleigh say, "oh wow" super clear. She is becoming quite the little talker.

Christmas Photo Shoot

2010-01-12T15:06:00.006-05:00

This is the last set of pictures that I have been meaning to post. But hopefully I can keep thinking of some stuff to post after this so that I don't have a blog drought for 3 months :)

Pastor Steven Furtick gave our family the gift of a photo shoot for Christmas with the amazing Sean Lyon. We got all decked out in our Christmas clothes and we loved the pictures! The girls look so beautiful in their red dresses. Thank you so much Pastor for the amazing gift! I love the picture of Adleigh pulling off her shoe...definitely a great picture of her crazy personality! And you will see in a lot of these Liana is clapping, that is because the best way to get their attention and to make them smile was to sing "If your happy and you know it, clap your hands." She would always participate!

Liana Walks!!!

2010-01-09T15:17:00.002-05:00

Liana has been taking a few steps for about a month now, but Thursday during her physical therapy she decided to really go for it. She walked back and forth across the room almost the entire therapy time. Her highest number of consecutive steps (with no help) was 18! Obviously I ended up getting the camera after she was getting tired so her best ones were at the beginning of therapy, but this video will show you just how amazing she is!

God has been so good to us and He has used our girls countless times to show us how mighty He is and that He answers our prayers, even the audacious ones! Liana has come a long way from the preemie they wanted to take off life support and it is all because of our might God! Enjoy the video.

Family Pictures with The Schultz's

2010-01-07T14:53:00.000-05:00

I am back for day 2. What up?!??!

I have two sessions of really amazing pictures that our friends did for us and I knew that some people would really want to see. Today I am going to post some pictures done by Cheyenne Shultz. Here is her website. She and her husband Geoff are absolutely amazing and we loved taking our pictures with her. You should definitely check out her site if you are getting married because you would have the most amazing pictures!

Anyway...here are some of the awesome family pics.

Christmas 09

2010-01-06T14:26:00.007-05:00

(Awkward moment for how long it has been since I have blogged)

Glad we are done with that now :)

I just starting getting sad the other day that I had all these thoughts captured from the first year the girls were born and lately it has been so long since I have done anything. I am letting too many memories escape without being captured on my blog!

So I have a whole bunch of pictures I want to upload in case any of my family or friends still read this blog. I'll start with our Christmas pictures since that is the most recent.

The girls loved Christmas! This year you could tell that they knew that they had new things and they seemed in awe as they walked/crawled into their decked out playroom and kept going back and forth to all the things "Santa" had brought them.

Here are just a few pics of opening presents and playing with the new toys in the playroom.

VISIT FROM MY PARENTS

2009-10-29T09:25:00.004-04:00

My parents were able to come see us a couple of weeks ago. They live about 2.5 hours away so it isn't really far but it is enough so that it is a treat when they come! I got some great pictures of the girls with their Mimi and Papa (at least that is what my niece Pressley calls them).

BABY DEDICATION (babies in our case)

2009-10-21T15:36:00.004-04:00

I know that Adleigh and Liana are gifts from God to us, but dedicating them last Saturday showed family, friends, and fellow parents that we want to honor God with how we raise our girls. I don't think I realize sometimes how serious our jobs are as parents. We need to be daily teach our children about their Savior. More than anyone on the planet our children will look to us for answers and maybe more importantly will always observe how we practice our faith.

Our Lord is to be lifted high and His glory to be told to all. Our children need to know of how marvelous our creator is and how he loves them in a personal way. Thank you to everyone who has prayed for our girls and can now see them so healthy and perfect. God has done so many miracles in their life!

Here are some pictures of that special day.

COMING THIS WEEK

2009-10-19T22:13:00.003-04:00

I was fully prepared to write a blog tonight but my brain is frazzled. Instead I will let you know I have a few blogs that are coming your way.

1. Baby Dedication

2. A NICU friend run-in

3. Of course the playroom pics...I have to get it clean first!

Those are the blogs I know are coming. I'll be posting soon!

THE TOY ROOM

2009-10-12T21:59:00.004-04:00

Even though I am a graphic designer I always have such a hard time trying to decorate my house. I know what I like when I look in a magazine. I know what styles my eye tends to gravitate to. But when it comes to implementing it in my home I just can't do it. I realized that I mostly fall short in the details. Our playroom is one of my favorite rooms in our house. But I feel like it is lacking some detail. So when I saw this Flickr pool of Toy Rooms, I have found some ideas that I might could put into our own playroom. Click here to take a look.

I think my favorite has to be this one. It is practical and full of color. I am loving the wall of shelves so the kids can see all their toys. And the two tables are great for trains, coloring, and all kinds of goodness! I am so sad I didn't paint our playroom before we secured everything to the wall!! I'll post pictures of our playroom soon.

Photo Link

OUR DAILY SCHEDULE

2009-10-11T20:18:00.004-04:00

I love looking on websites to find out what schedules other moms have with little ones that are Adleigh and Liana's age. Here is our daily schedule.

7-7:15: Wake up

7:30: Eat breakfast (pancakes, waffles, cereal, have a cup of milk)

8-9:30: Play time w/ lots of reading, On Tues/Wed we have therapy for Liana

9:30-11: Nap time

11:30/12: Lunch

12:30-2:15: Play time, run errands, go outside

2:15-4:Nap

4-5: Snack and hang out

5-6: More play time, stroller walk, hang out with Daddy, on Thurs Liana has therapy

6-7: Dinner, usually baths (sometimes I do baths in the morning)

7: Bedtime

I would love to hear what your schedules are. Do you think I should add anything to our routine? By the way, if you noticed we went back to 2 naps. Liana just couldn't cut it with one nap. Once we went back, our naps went back to being easy again. I guess she was super glad to get the extra sleep that she decided to not fight to stay up!

Adleigh walks...for real

2009-10-10T20:07:00.002-04:00

Adleigh is really walking now. She is so cute as she stumbles around. When Grandma Joye came to visit, Adleigh fell in love with her dog Candy. So here is a video of Adleigh making her way to Candy.

THE HAPPIEST BABIES I KNOW

2009-10-02T21:15:00.005-04:00

My girls love to smile and laugh. Wade and I consistently prayed throughout the pregnancy for our girls to be filled with joy and laughter. I must say that I can see that our prayer was answered. We have so much fun together. I thought you might enjoy some pictures that show just how happy these little ladies are. (First 3 are Adleigh, last 3 Liana)

We also had a fun day today because we had a visit from Grammy, Grandaddy, Grandma Joye (the girls great-grandma), and Candy the dog. It is Grandma Joye's birthday tomorrow. So we want to wish her a very happy birthday. We had so much fun "chillin" with you and Candy today!!! Love you.

HOME A YEAR

2009-09-29T11:01:00.005-04:00

September 23rd and 24th marked the days Adleigh and Liana were able to come home from the hospital last year. It was amazing to have them all to ourselves, all the time. No more trips to the hospital. No more dividing my time between two different nurseries. No more missing important moments. No more separation between the girls. For three months, I knew I was their mom but having them with me all the time finally made me realize it was true! I am so thankful for my girls and remembering their homecoming makes me praise God for bringing two healthy babies home to us.

The first three are of Adleigh and the last three are Liana.

THEY LOVE MUSIC, DANCING, & DADDY

2009-09-27T20:28:00.005-04:00

Whenever Wade brings out the guitar, we have two of the most excited babies ever. Liana especially loves it. This video is adorable because they are dancing, laughing, and we have a guest appearance from Ming Ming the duckling. Our girls love their rock music.

A few things you might not know

2009-09-16T13:01:00.003-04:00

Here are a few things the girls are doing that you might not know about since I am the worst blogger ever!

1. Adleigh has taken about 10-12 steps and then she plops down. She does prefer to stand but then realizes it is way faster for her to get from point A to point B by crawling.

2. Liana is a standing machine. She pulls up to everything. We have had about two times where she has let go and stood on her own for about 5 seconds and then she has to grab on to her support again.

3. We are trying to move down to one nap. We went through a few weeks of Liana being horrible at her morning nap and Adleigh not wanting an afternoon nap. So we met in the middle and are trying to adjust right now. They are exhausted in the mornings but I think they are catching on. We just might make it! :)

4. We are nearing the date when both girls were able to come home with us from the hospital last year. I call it their homecomings. Adleigh came on September 23rd and Liana came home on the 24th. I believe a nice cake might be in order.

Videos and pictures to come!

Where has the summer gone?

2009-08-25T17:30:00.000-04:00

Almost a whole month since my last post...super lame. This summer has flown by and I think I only took the girls to the pool like 4 times. Sad.

We took our last little vacation of the summer a few weeks ago when we visited my family. It was the Ivester family reunion so a lot of my relatives got to see the girls and we also stayed with my sister so that meant tons of time with their cousin Pressley. The highlight of the weekend was going to feed some goats and one of the goats shoved itself through a piece of the wire fence. Adleigh thought it was the best thing ever! We on the other hand were slightly nervous about hanging out with Mr. Goat. Here are some pictures of our adventures in Belton (sorry I didn't get the goat fiasco on camera). You can also check out my Flickr page for a few other Belton pics.

Pressley and Adleigh
Uncle Benjamin with Liana
My mom and Adleigh looking adorable.
Adleigh and my dad

The girls with their cuz

Aunt Sharlie with Pressley

The twins first trip to Columbia

2009-07-28T21:55:00.004-04:00

We took the girls this past Friday to Columbia for the day. They got to see all their cousins on Wade's side of the family. It was so much fun! I know it was really special for Wade's grandmother who had almost all her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren there at the same time! The girls had a blast and loved eating all the home cooked food! Here are some pics of our time there.

Adleigh walks...with help

2009-07-20T15:32:00.003-04:00

This week has been a big week for us. Liana crawling and now Adleigh wanting to walk behind her car/walker. I can't believe Adleigh is getting so big! She looks like a big kid walking behind her little lion. It is so true about how fast their first year flies by!! I thought everyone would like to see Adleigh in action...so here she is!

Liana Crawls!

2009-07-17T15:09:00.003-04:00

Here is the video everyone has been waiting for...Liana crawling!

Liana had been trying to crawl for a few weeks now but would only move about an inch and she would get super frustrated. Then yesterday, I was fixing one of their favorite books (taping things back in that they tore out) in the kitchen. I had layed out some toys and books around Liana in our playroom and once I was finished with taping the book back together I looked over to see Liana on the other side of the room. Now I know that she had to have crawled over there, but part of me was wondering if Adleigh had pulled her across because going from an inch or two to across the room in a day seems crazy!!! Obviously I tried to recreate the situation and tried placing objects away from her so I get the crawl on video, but I guess she was tired because she would decide to play with something else instead.

Then today, with Wade at home, we put one of her favorite toys in the middle of the room and she crawled to it. We finally got to see the answer to so many prayers. I am sure I will get some better videos soon, but we wanted to show you what a big accomplishment Liana made!

Vacation

2009-07-14T10:10:00.005-04:00

The girls had their first trip to the beach and they loved it! The last night there Liana had a fever and didn't sleep very well. But after taking a trip to the doctor and getting some antibiotics, she was able to enjoy the last day. We also went to Barefoot Landing and the girls got to see the alligators, lizards, snakes, and fish. Here are some of our pictures and make sure you check the others on my Flickr page here.

Standing in the ocean for the first time!
Liana determined to get out of her float and into the water.
Adleigh loving that her hat is out of her face.
Swinging sweet Adleigh around on the beach. I love this picture:)
The family picture as we stare out at the ocean.

The 1 year Birthday!

2009-07-13T12:36:00.003-04:00

Well today is actually my birthday so I guess it is fitting that I post the girls' bday pictures today :)

We had a blast. There were so many people celebrating what God had done and is doing in their lives. I must say how amazing it felt to see the girls gobbling up their 1 year birthday cake and to know what all it took to get to this point. We did have an incident where Adleigh's birthday cake got pushed into the floor and yes I picked it up and gave it back to her. Only one side was damaged! So here are the little ladies in all their glory! I have posted just a few and you can check out more on my Flickr page.

Also, a few weeks ago our church showed a video of the story of our girls. It shows how God answered our prayers. You can see it at Pastor Steven Furtick's blog.

Liana is loving some cake.

Adleigh isn't quite sure if she should dig in or not.

Oh the joy of a baby's first taste of something sweet.

My sister with her daughter Pressley!

Liana with the Hubatka girls.

I'm switching things up

2009-07-09T14:31:00.002-04:00

First, I have two posts about the girls' one year birthday and our vacation that are coming.

Second, you are going to see this blog change a little. I think I have been so bad with updating because I still saw this blog as the journal of their life in the NICU and I wasn't sure how to make that fit with our lives now. But obviously we are way past that point and the girls are in another chapter of their life as well as myself. So the blog is going to show you more of what it is like raising twins and how I am trying to be a godly mother to them. Honestly, once we brought the girls home I have just tried to keep up with them and I am now feeling such an intense hunger to really delve into scripture and take my prayer life to a new level. So although most of the content will be about the girls, I also want to encourage other mothers who feel like all their time goes to caring for and chasing their young ones. I hope I can stick with this and having your encouragement really helps :) Looking back through all I have written on this blog makes me want to continue even if it is just for myself!

I'll be posting the posts mentioned above soon.

Can Liana be any cuter?

2009-06-11T15:31:00.003-04:00

Here is Liana talking to the computer. She thought it was so cool that she could see herself as the video was going on. I can just imagine the talking baby insurance commercial now.

Liana's Therapy is in Danger!

2009-06-11T09:17:00.002-04:00

I was told by our physical therapist and occupational therapist this week that there is a proposed budget cut for NC that will look at PT, OT and speech therapy as unnecessary services. They want to cut this from the Medicaid budget which means private insurance companies will follow Medicaid. This affects Liana tremendously! She has had difficulty with her right arm and hand. Since receiving therapy she is able to sit up on her own, fully extend her arms during tummy time, make some attempts at crawling, and grasping objects with her right hand. She already has OT and PT and once she gets a little older is expected to have speech since the left side of her brain (the speech area) was affected by her bleed. She has come so far with having these services and if this is discontinued then it would be difficult for us to afford all of these ourselves. Not to mention a lot of people who get these services can't even afford a car, so having to pay for their child's therapy would mean their child would no longer receive help.

The bill has to pass 3 committees and then Governor Perdue has to make the final sign off. It has already passed through 2 of those committees. I am asking if you have time to please contact your NC representative and either tell them about your personal story or use Liana's story. You can find your rep by going to the site and looking at the lower right corner to "who represents me." I know our rep is Beverly Earle for Mecklenburg County. You can also contact Governor Perdue (governor.office@nc.gov) since she is the last signature required.

I was also given these numbers:

Speaker Hackney 919-733-3451

Majority Leader Holliman 919-715-0873

Minority Leader Stam 919-733-2962

Thank you for any calls you make, any emails you send and any prayers you lift up. This is important for Liana, but it will also affect so many children that need these services to have any quality of life.

Sweet moments

2009-05-29T11:44:00.002-04:00

I love that the girls are getting a little older and are being more expressive. They are going through the stage right now where they just lift their arms up because they want to be held. It gets hard when they are both doing that at the same time though! The other day Wade came home from work and was washing his hands when Adleigh started wanting to get to him. This video only shows half of the distance she goes for him to hold her. She also gets a little sidetracked at the end, but it was a super sweet moment and I love that she is showing how much she loves us!

Not for Granted

2009-05-14T10:03:00.004-04:00

Our friends Aimee and Adam had to say goodbye for now to precious Kayleigh. Kayleigh has been such an inspiration to so many people. Her life has taught us how to fight through our circumstances and how to embrace every second we have. She is truly a miracle baby. Some of my sweetest NICU memories are of us and the Freemans in our little area holding Liana and Kayleigh. Thank you Adam and Aimee for letting us get to know Kayleigh and for allowing her to have such a tremendous impact on our lives.

I had a few moments last night to look through some blogs of other NICU parents. Some were just starting their fight while others just took their preemie out to the "outside world" after months of staying in protecting their child. Wade and I talked about how around this time last year was when our world started to turn upside down. Pretty much every walk we take on as a family, we end up talking about how we felt during certain moments in the NICU and then we are able to look at our girls smiling or babbling at us.

I never want to take for granted that:

I can hold my daughters without anything being attached to them.

I am able to tuck my daughters in at night and then be the first one they see in the morning.

Liana is surpassing any of the doctors expectations.

Adleigh overcame the worst intestinal issue a preemie can have.

My girls love their feet to be touched. (preemies can have feet issues because of how often they got stuck for blood)

That we are able to ride in the car without the heart monitors.

They love food and don't have any oral aversions.

We have a church that supported us and prayed for us.

My God picked me up and carried me through the most difficult season I have faced.

What do you never want to take for granted?

Easter Fun

2009-05-13T10:48:00.004-04:00

I know Easter was forever ago, but I thought that you might want to see these sweet pictures of our family. Mind you that it was about 30 minutes past their nap time so that we could have Wade in the pictures. So they did pretty good...just not too many smiles!

In honor of summer

2009-05-12T12:28:00.004-04:00

We haven't been to the pool yet, but we do have some sweet bathing suits. Here are the girls giving their version of a fashion show!

4 years and Mother's Day

2009-05-11T09:33:00.008-04:00

May 7th (this past Thursday) was Wade's and my 4 year anniversary. We ended up celebrating Friday night with an action packed night. We started at The Gallery Restaurant and had the restaurant almost completely to ourselves since we ate at 5:30. They even did this dessert platter for us that said Happy Anniversary on it. We saw Star Trek after that and finally to finish off the evening we saw Public Radio play at the Visulite Theater. They did a fantastic job!

Wade got me this gorgeous necklace for our anniversary/mother's day of two hearts to symbolize both girls. It is gorgeous! And I got a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

Then this Sunday Holly preached at church for Mother's Day. She did an awesome job! I ended up bringing the girls to our church during the 11:30 service for just a few minutes and some of the band members and a few other people got to see them. The most said statement was "they are actually real!" I guess I have done too good of a job of sheltering them. One of our amazing Elevation photographers caught a few pictures of us with the girls. I am with Liana and Wade is with Adleigh.

We are still here

2009-04-29T15:22:00.003-04:00

I have been trying to switch over to another computer in my spare time since my other one was starting to give out on me. I haven't been able to switch over my pictures yet and don't have my programs set up on this one to upload pictures so bare with me. You will have some Joye twin fixes soon.

The girls are getting so big. Last weight check had Adleigh around 16 lbs and Liana a tiny bit over 15 lbs. So imagine walking around the house carrying those two big ladies! Adleigh, Liana, and myself are all trying to get over a cold or something that we got over the weekend. Somehow Wade managed to escape it.

I can't believe that in a month and a half we are going to celebrate the girls' one year birthday! And I have to cut this blog short because Adleigh just woke up from her nap and is talking to her mobile. Too funny.

Belly Laughing

2009-04-06T15:42:00.002-04:00

You are going to love this video. I don't know why in the world they ended up laughing so much to what I was doing, but I loved every second of it! Before I got the camera out, Liana was actually the one really laughing and then eventually Adleigh felt like she should start too. They sound so adorable doing their little giggles.

Eating prunes

2009-03-22T20:09:00.003-04:00

Wow...how did I used to be so good at blogging and now I am miserable at it? Anyway, we are so close to it gettting warm and being out of RSV and flu season. The girls will get to make a public debut a few weeks from now! Wade and I are so excited to bring our little beauties out.

Right now the girls are talking even more (making a lot of ahhh sounds...Adleigh is starting to do some consonants). They are both rolling over like machines. Liana is still learning how to get from her stomach to her back, but she is doing pretty well.

The girls are almost done with trying stage 1 foods. Liana has become a master at it. We say she looks like a baby bird with how wide she will open her mouth for the food. Right now we are doing squash and she is loving it. Adleigh however isn't quite there yet. She has to hold the spoon in her hands before she will open her mouth so needless to say we don't get much food in her mouth. She is getting better though.

The two videos I am posting are of each girl eating some prunes. I think they are funny because it looks more like chocolate sauce. They are adorable! This way you can witness that Adleigh basically takes the spoon out of my hand to feed herself!

This is a good sign

2009-03-01T19:35:00.004-05:00

Doesn't it make you feel good when you see your kids reading a book?

Joye twins and the box

2009-02-25T17:00:00.002-05:00

This video is way too cute! My girls are getting so big and they love to talk. You are going to love Liana with her favorite toy, a soft shape sorter without any of the shapes in it.

Back from a really long blog drought

2009-02-16T16:55:00.005-05:00

So that blog drought was pretty lame, but I am back better than ever with some sweet twinsies.

So in the almost month that I haven't blogged. Here are some new updates. By the way today the girls turned 8 months old (corrected age is 5 months)!!! I can't believe they are growing up so fast.

The girls ate some rice cereal and didn't seem to ever really like it. We just tried to move on to bananas yesterday and that made for some fun faces. Here are two good ones.

Liana has started talking. She is more of a responsive person instead of long babbling. So it is quite a bit harder to get her on video, but here is the best one so far.

Adleigh now rolls over from her stomach to her back. It still doesn't happen every time but she is getting a lot better.

Liana does this thing where she kinda bunches up in a ball and tries to kick herself over from her back to her stomach. We are getting closer, but she gets kinda stuck on her side.

The girls have become fascinated with anything that lights up. So all of their favorite toys are things they can push that make music and light up.

I entered the girls into the Beautiful Baby Contest and have some awesome pictures of them. The one I entered is the first picture I have of both of them smiling. Here it is.

Hope that was a good one month wrap up! The twins told me to start blogging more so that people can see what they are up to. So I can't disappoint the babies :)

Adleigh Talks

2009-01-22T09:27:00.002-05:00

Adleigh has started to be really vocal these days. I caught some of her conversation to her bug friends. I am holding her and the camera so prepare for some moments where she isn't in the picture. I wish I knew exactly what she was saying. Enjoy!

Going Backwards and the TV

2009-01-21T08:53:00.004-05:00

Well, the day I wrote my last blog the girls decided to spice up my life again, mainly Liana. She started waking up like crazy. I really have no idea what brought it on. My possible list of culprits is bad naps, Liana's reflux, too hot in their room, etc. I have tried to fix all of those and we are waking up less, but Liana is still only sleeping in 2 hour increments. Adleigh really only wakes up for a bottle, but she had been doing only one and now she wants 2 again. Maybe we are going through a growth spurt? Anyway...keep us in your prayers because we are now in month 4 with little sleep.

I just had to post this series of pictures. We don't let the babies sit like this in front of the TV, but they do get really interested if we are watching it. So, we did these pictures to see what they would do and I think it is so funny!

Bear Suits and Updates

2009-01-16T12:18:00.004-05:00

Well, I haven't been posting lately because I was just utterly exhausted. Each night I would be lucky to get 3 hours of sleep and that would be just in 30 minute stretches. I was running on nothing. Through the night the girls would go back and forth crying until I would pick them up. Thankfully, our physical therapist mentioned a mom of triplets who found peace through Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. And it just so happened that my sister gave me the book when I was pregnant so I found it skimmed through it.
Our changes: We went to an earlier bedtime and stopped waking them up for a top-off feeding. It has been about 3 nights now and we have seen vast improvements! Last night Liana slept 9 hours straight! I am praising God for getting me through that stretch cause I think I was about to be a crazy lady. Anyway, I should be back to blogging now.

Since it is freezing outside the girls wore their bear suits to the doctor and of course I took some pictures.

I do have a few updates about the girls medically. Adleigh went to her cardiologist and we found out she still has her ASD which is a medium sized hole in the atrium of her heart. So far it hasn't gotten any smaller since they last checked her which was about 10 lbs ago. She will go to the cardiologist every year until she turns 3 or 4 and they will evaluate then if it is still too large and if they will need to close it.
Both girls were cleared by their eye doctor that their ROP had resolved and they will just need to go back when they are 1 year old.
Liana is pretty much back to her old self. She is getting used to her shunt and is playing more and laughing a lot. Her scars look really good and hopefully as she gets bigger we won't really see them.
I think that is all the updates for now. Thank you for praying for our sweet girls!

My Favorite Things (part 3)

2009-01-09T19:41:00.002-05:00

So, this is installment number 3 of my favorite things in baby world. Sorry it has taken so long. I have been trying to post this for 4 days but I had to give up on blogger video since it is SOOO slow. So you will get youtube uploads instead from now on.

Number 3 isn't really a product it is more of a change that we made in our routine that ended up being really smart for us. When we first brought the girls home, they got baths every other day, it was in a really awkward time and the girls would cry the whole time. So, we decided we needed a bedtime routine and we put their baths into the mix. We give them baths now around 6:30. Then they get toweled off and put in a big blanket. We give them their bottles and after bottles they get a massage with lavender baby lotion and then we dress them for bed. But the best thing is sometime between feeding and their massage Wade pulls out the guitar and plays for our babies and whoever is here joins in. Usually, we get what Elevation played the previous Sunday or what they are going to play that coming Sunday so it is kind of like the babies get their own worship time! The girls love the new routine and it makes them look forward to bath time.

Here is a video of our bedtime routine with the whole family singing to the girls. Adleigh and Liana are making really funny faces in it. Enjoy! (especially you Pressley)

Christmas Cheer Wrap-up

2009-01-02T09:25:00.005-05:00

Happy New Year everyone! I figured since we are so far out from Christmas that I would just wrap-up the last photo shoots into 1 blog post.
Liana having a blast.
ummm...what is Adleigh doing?

Christmas Day...they kinda look like elves.
Wade's parents and his grandmas.
Liana getting a present. (We had to do an outfit switch because Adleigh pooped in hers.)
Adleigh wearing one of her presents.
The girls getting their huge mirror for the play room from Grammy and Grandaddy.Reading the Christmas story to the girls.

Day 2 of Christmas Cheer

2008-12-29T21:48:00.004-05:00

And the models take their positions...

Liana giving you the "sweet eye"

Close-ups!!
Wade's mom got these blankets and had her sister put an "e" on the end of joy. So cute. They each have their own blanket.
I love Adleigh's pouty face. And yes, I purposefully tried to make their hair into mohawks.

Surgery Update and Day 1 of Christmas

2008-12-28T21:02:00.005-05:00

So I tried to post a blog over the holidays, but it had a video in it and things would just not work!

After Liana's surgery it was a little rough. She cried a lot and we just chalked it up to she is recovering from her surgery and not liking a shunt being in her head. Well, it had been about a week since her surgery and she was still acting the same so I decided to call her neurosurgeon's office and told them how she was acting. They said it didn't seem normal and instead of bringing her back in 3 weeks for her scheduled appointment they wanted her to come in that day. We got another CT scan and they said everything looked normal. But her fontanel (soft spot) was still really sunken in and kind of hard so they decreased the rate of the fluid draining through her shunt. I feel like that has helped a ton! She still seems to get a little irritated, but a lot less crying (and by crying I mean the type of cry that makes you think she is horribly miserable and saying, "Mommy, please help me." Heartbreaking!)

One thing we have noticed is that she has taken a few steps back in her tummy time. She used to almost do a full push up and lift her head so high. She had rolled over totally to her surprise a few times too. But now she struggles to even lift her neck up. When I try to put her hands under her so she can push up she just lays her head down. Thankfully her physical therapist comes back on Tuesday (we had off this past week) so we will be drilling her on what we should do.

Finally, the girls had 4 days of Christmas cheer. We put on a new outfit starting Monday and leading up to Christmas and had some awesome photo shoots. Here is Day 1's hits.

Adleigh having fun.
Adleigh with a sweet smile.
Liana with a silent laugh.
My beautiful girls. Adleigh looks kinda weird.
If only you could see me and Grammy behind the camera. We were doing crazy dances, making baby squeals, and shaking toys. And for all that we get these faces.
Hope you enjoyed Day 1!

Hopefully now that crazy Christmas is over I will be able to do a little better on my early new year's resolution!!

The Surgery went well

2008-12-19T11:28:00.004-05:00

We got home from the hospital yesterday. Liana's surgery went well. They had to put in a shunt to drain the cyst and fluid in the ventricle. She ended up having a pretty rough night at the hospital and wouldn't eat anything. She became dehydrated and had to be put on IV fluids. She still seems to be in a little pain. On top of all that, she has her reflux that makes her not feel so good. So overall, little Liana did really well, but just keep praying that she would recover completely and not be so irritated. Also, pray that we won't have any complications with her shunt...like infections or any malfunctions. We go back in January to get another CT scan to make sure everything looks good and is functioning properly.

From our end, I think this was the hardest part for me to go through. It was hard to have our baby home with us for 3 months and get to know her personality and see all her smiles and then go into the recovery room after the surgery and hear her crying and not being able to be consoled.

We are so thankful that everything went so well and we are blessed to have caught everything so early so that she wasn't having any outward signs of anything being wrong. In fact, when we were at the neurosurgeon the day before the surgery, the doctor and many nurses talked about how amazing it was that she was so happy and alert and had no limitations to the right side of her body since the left side had such a large cyst. Our prayer has been that we will never see any negative side effects of Liana having her bleed and I believe God is going to show everyone what a miracle baby she is! We are so thankful for all of the prayers you have lifted up for our Liana.

At The Hospital

2008-12-17T14:14:00.001-05:00

They just took Liana back for surgery. Her CT scan yesterday showed us that her left ventricle had gotten a lot larger and a cyst had developed inside it. There are two ways the surgery could go. The most likely possiblity is that they will put in a shunt to remove the pressure, but they may be able to just put holes in the cyst for it to drain on it's own. We know that whatever way the surgery goes, God is going to completely heal her. We have seen so many miracles with our girls and we believe we are going to see another one. Thank you for all your prayers!

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We need your prayers

2008-12-16T09:01:00.004-05:00

Wade has written about this already, but I wanted to put it on my blog as well.

Yesterday we went for a cranial ultrasound to check Liana's brain. We go to these like every two months or so and yesterday's results there were not good. Liana's left ventricle has been enlarged from the bleed, but when we saw this scan it had gotten substantially bigger. The scariest reason could be that the ventricle has gotten clogged with the blood resolving and the spinal fluid that is made there is swelling the ventricle. The only way to remedy this is to put a shunt in the brain. When she had her bleed, surrounding brain tissue was affected. So another reason is we might be seeing that affected brain tissue dying and in its place is just fluid now.

Either way, we are continuing to pray for a miracle. I am praying that this will just give her a bigger platform so that God can show the doctors something impossible happen in her brain. I am praying that a scan will show that nothing is wrong and they will wonder if they got the right baby's chart. Please rally with us to pray for sweet Liana.

We go today at 1:45 to get the CT scan and then discuss everything with our neurosurgeon afterwards. Please pray for us during that time.

Also, our dear friends the Freemans need your prayers. Please go to their blog to know more about Kayleigh's situation.

Seriously, can babies be any cuter?

2008-12-11T18:41:00.003-05:00

Whenever I take out the camera, the girls turn on the charm. Does this mean that they are going to want to be baby models or something? I think Adleigh might be turning into a comedian with all these amazing facial expressions.

Adleigh staring intently at her toys above her head.

Liana signaling that the photo shoot and play time is over!
A little update for you:
The girls got their RSV shot today and we found out they both weighed 11 lbs 12 ozs. We are trying to figure out now what to do with Liana's reflux. She cries a lot during the day and then wakes up every hour or two during the night crying. She is on Reglan right now and I have been reading about some side effects of that and I want to see if we can experiment with some other ways to help her. We definitely know that she is refluxing because we see her gag/burp and then she will cry. She is also on Axid which makes her food less acidic once it is in her stomach, but that doesn't seem to change much right now. So if anyone has any ideas on things I could mention to her doctor let me know. Keep her in your prayers because I know she has to be miserable spitting up her food all the time. Thank you so much.

My Favorite Things (part 2)

2008-12-10T16:58:00.007-05:00

This is part 2 of an ongoing series of my favorite things we have for the babies. Today I want to show you a toy that the girls really enjoy.

Wade's mom found these awesome baby barbells online and ordered them for the girls. The girls have keys, rattles, and little phones but they would drop them immediately after we put them in their hands. They seemed to be a little too heavy or the handle was a little big for their hands. So enter the barbell...it is the perfect size. They weigh an ounce and rattle and the girls will lift them and hold them in their hands for a long time. They also realized that they can get the lip of the barbell to their mouths and kind of gnaw on it. Not to mention that they look so cute holding them and we make tons of little jokes about them lifting weights.
Here is Adleigh with one of her barbells.
And Liana is the one who loves her barbells the most. She will keep them in her hands the longest and will put both of them in her hands more often than Adleigh. So the video is of Liana working out and loving it.

In the Photo Booth

2008-12-04T22:29:00.003-05:00

When I see these pictures I think of the girls in a photo booth making crazier and crazier faces. The last one of Adleigh cracks me up so much!

Thanksgiving...really late

2008-12-03T16:49:00.005-05:00

I know I should have posted this like 5 days ago, but this video was too cute to keep to myself.

I am so thankful that God blessed us with these two amazing girls. I can't imagine my life without them. Wade mentioned the other day that whenever Liana smiles he immediately thinks about how the doctors said we should take her off life support. I can't even believe that was even a thought in their minds when we see how smart and beautiful she is.

There are so many of you that I am thankful for:
Our amazing church who supported us through so much and the crazy amount of financial help they gave us.
The nurses that were vital in taking care of our babies in the hospital.
The doctors who made the touch decisions on surgeries, medications, breathing assistance and so much more that I don't even know about.
All the people who prayed hard and read the blog each night so that they would know specifically how to pray for them.
Everyone who helped us through almost 6 months with grass cutting, delicious food, gifts for the girls and more.
Wade's family, especially his mom and dad (and Jamie too!), who have given up their time to help us take care of the girls everyday.

So thank you for being amazing and for keeping up with our precious babies. You are gifts from the Lord to us!

My favorite things (part 1)

2008-12-02T13:21:00.009-05:00

Okay so I have decided to make my New Year's resolution early. I promise to blog at least 3 to 4 times a week. I know so many of you prayed really hard for the girls and I updated you everyday and now I am failing miserably to keep you in the loop. So, you will be getting way more posts now.

Anyway, among the many amazing things we have for our girls there have been a few things that have helped me stay sane or that the girls adore. Here is the first one.

The Mobile

The girls love this thing! They will watch this go around the entire 15 minutes that it plays. Which is a long amount of time when it comes to twins. We tried to have two different mobiles but the other one was lame, so we got another one just like it. There is a lot of black and white (high contrast) designs on the bottom of the feet of the animals and under the little triangle things which is very good for babies to look at. Then there are little pieces that move on the top to make noise to keep the girls even more entertained. I can't imagine a cooler mobile.

We have started putting the girls in one crib in the morning and letting them watch their mobile together. It has started to become a really sweet time for them and for me watching it. So of course you know I have a video. So here is the video of the girls watching one of my (and hopefully their) favorite things!

The Backstory

2008-11-23T17:10:00.002-05:00

I wanted to write somewhere everything that led up to the girls birth so that 10 years from now I won't say "I think that might have happened." So, I thought that this blog would be the best place for me to put it, but it may be the longest post ever so I will forgive you if you don't want to read it...it is more for me anyway.

On April 24, I was 19 weeks pregnant and I walked into a room for my very first ultrasound. Once the technician turned on the equipment we oooed and ahhed over an image that I couldn't make anything out of. And then she said it, "How do you feel about 2?" That was the craziest moment of my life. The next 2 hours we checked all the parts, we found out they were both girls, and everything looked great. The only thing left for us to know was if they were identical or not. My doctor made an appointment at 22 weeks for me to go to a specialist since now I was considered high risk with twins. It was there we knew that indeed they were identical and with that brought some more risks. At that appointment, the girls were labeled A (later Liana) and B (Adleigh).

We ended up having a few red flags that made it look like we had the beginning stages of twin to twin transfusion syndrome. Over the next few weeks, Liana wasn't growing as much as she was supposed to. She was 2 weeks behind Adleigh. Adleigh also had what appeared to be fluid on her heart and signs that her heart was getting larger because it was working harder. We were playing the wait and see game of how long they could stay in the womb. So once I got to 26 weeks, our specialist gave us the option of going to Cincinnati, Ohio. In Cincinnati, they had the a hospital that would do a laser surgery to correct twin to twin transfusion. And apparently 26 weeks was the last week that they could do surgery to correct it.

We drove up on June 17 and on June 18 I had a day scheduled of tests. We had an MRI, fetal echo, ultrasound, and then a meeting at the end of the day with our team of doctors. At 5 pm we sat down with them and the good news was that we didn't have twin to twin transfusion and didn't need the surgery. However, Liana did not have enough of the placenta to survive much longer and her heart was beginning to fail. They told us she might could last a week, maybe two or it might not be 24 hours. Somehow Adleigh's heart looked great on her fetal echo despite earlier ultrasounds, but if Liana's heart failed and passed away then soon after Adleigh would have brain damage and wouldn't survive for long. Their advice was to check us into the Cincinnati hospital where I would stay until they were born and ultimately until they would be healthy enough to transport to a Charlotte hospital. The only other option our doctor in Ohio gave us was to book a flight to Charlotte immediately and check ourselves into the hospital, but he strongly discouraged it. We were completely confused as to what to do and we took a minute to think of our options. This was a very hard decision for us, but a peace came over us and Wade and I both knew that we would trust God to keep both girls safe on the journey back to Charlotte.

Wade's parents had went with us so they would be the ones to drive our car back and they took us to the airport. It was almost 6 and our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:30. We were in a race against time because we had no idea how long we had for Liana. Unfortunately it was the worst airport experience of our life. The doctor told me to ride in a wheelchair and we had to wait to get one of those. We had no bags, but for some reason we got tagged for a bomb search. We weren't even sure if we could make it to our flight on time because of this and no one seemed to care about our medical emergency. Then our terminal was across the entire airport and and you had to take a shuttle to get there. Finally, I just had to ditch the wheelchair and the last stretch Wade and I had to run to our loading area. Thankfully, the flight was about 5 minutes late. I had about 3 breakdowns during the time in the airport. It seems like everything was going wrong and I couldn't control any of it. Once on the plane, our flight was delayed twice, once to a technical problem and then again for some runway traffic. On the flight we tried to decide what our names for the girls would be. We had narrowed it down to about 5 names and I said that our little one, baby girl a, had to be named Liana. Liana means in Hebrew "Our God has answered our prayers." And were sure were praying for her and Adleigh.

We landed in Charlotte at 9:30 pm and our good friends Chris and Beth Brown came to pick us up. We got to the hospital at 10:00 and the Ohio people told us that they would let the Charlotte doctors know what was going on. However, when we got to the hospital no one knew what was going on and I had to explain to every person that I needed to be hooked up the fetal heart monitors right then. Finally at 10:45 pm, I was hooked up and they found both heartbeats. About 20 minutes later I got my first steroid shot that is supposed to help with the girls' lungs once they are born. At 11 pm my doctor came in and said that Liana's heartbeat had dipped a few times and he was getting uncomfortable with it. We were told we had to take them out right then. A rush of nurses came in the room and prepared me for surgery. I had never been more scared in my life. I am usually a very laid back, calm person, but at that moment I could not stop shaking. My nurse had to grab my shoulders and hold me because I was having some kind of panic attack.

Liana was born at 11:36 pm and Adleigh was born 20 seconds later at 11:37 pm on June 18, 2008. Only 6 hours after we left Ohio. We had no idea what having a preemie would be like nevermind there being 2! So they we were, 27 weeks into my pregnancy. They were due on September 18th so they were exactly 3 months early. And we had our beautiful but tiny babies: Liana Hope Joye and Adleigh Grace Joye. If you have read the blog you know the rest of the story, but between the two we pretty much covered every general health problem a preemie can face. Each day I am so blown away by how far they have come and how amazing they look. We have been incredibly blessed!

After Eating Dinner

2008-11-17T21:38:00.001-05:00

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The results

2008-11-15T11:25:00.005-05:00

Well our week of doctors appointments went really well. We had the hearing test and both girls passed in both ears! The girls had to be asleep or motionless and Liana completely surprised me. After she ate her bottle she fell asleep really fast and it only took the audiologist 5-10 minutes to check her hearing (they block out a 2 hour time slot for each patient). Adleigh was a little squirmy but it only took about 30 minutes for her hearing test.

I also got news back from Adleigh's pediatrician that all of her test results came back looking good. She is still slightly anemic, but that is going in the right direction. Her liver levels are still elevated, but coming down nicely and her bili is still a little high but it is half of what it used to be. Thank you for all of your prayers for her. Her jaundice is finally showing signs of going away and she doesn't look like a bronze beach baby as much anymore.

Liana went to her neurosurgeon and they just checked her head circumference and soft spot and said everything looked great. She will have another cranial ultrasound in 4 weeks. And then we will finally see the neurosurgeon in January.

Last but not least, we went to the pediatrician and the girls got their second RSV shot and got weighed. Adleigh pushed ahead slightly. She weighed 10 lbs exactly!!! And then Liana was an ounce less at 9 lbs 15 ozs. What am I feeding these girls?

And I leave you with some of the most beautiful eyelashes you have ever seen.

Adleigh:

Liana:

Together time

2008-11-08T22:50:00.006-05:00

This week seemed to fly by. My mom asked me when I was going to post another blog and it feels like just yesterday I had posted one, but it has been like a week! And I know this coming week is going to be just as crazy. We have our hearing screens Monday, Liana at 8 am and Adleigh at 10 am. They are supposed to be calm or asleep and that is usually their most awake time, so we will see how that goes. Then Wednesday we go back to the neurosurgery place for Liana's head check. Thursday we go to the pediatrician for our 2nd shot for RSV and to get their weight checked. I am guessing we are between 9 and 10 lbs now. Such big girls!!

SHORT UPDATES: Liana is doing amazing. She had her physical therapy session and PT lady said she was doing way better than most preemies. She is doing some things that a 4 month old can do and we are corrected at only 2 months. Adleigh is doing just as amazing and we are seriously blown away about how strong and smart they are. God is already showing that a brain bleed has no final say over His plans. By the way, Liana's bleed is still resolving and everything is looking like it should. They will want to continue to watch her until she is about 3 years old.

Adleigh's jaundice is doing a lot better. Her liver levels are going into normal ranges. Her skin is still yellow, but looking a lot more pinky pale to me. All the scans and tests they ran came back normal so it is officially just the TPN made her liver stuff all gunky and it is hard for her to get rid of her bili. So we will be on the meds for a little while longer.

Ok so, we all know what time it is...photo shoot time! Here is a group of the girls having what we call "together time," which usually means shoving a baby into the other baby's face (jk...kinda).

Seriously how did I get both of these shots? Back to back too! Too funny.
I would like to hear your caption for this picture .

Then and Now

2008-11-02T15:58:00.004-05:00

I loved this post from Kayleigh's blog so much that I had to do one for our girls as well.

Liana: Then

Liana: Now
Adleigh: Then
Adleigh: Now

Liana: Then
Liana: Now

Adleigh: Then
Adleigh: Now

The girls with mommy
The girls with daddy

Haven't they grown?
Liana then: 1 lb 14 ozs and Liana now: 8 lbs 13 ozs.
Adleigh then: 2 lbs 5 ozs and Adleigh now: 8 lbs 13 ozs.

The power of praying Scriptures

2008-10-30T16:07:00.006-04:00

I am not sure if I did a short post on this before, but I wanted to let you know how Wade and I made it through the girls being in the hospital for so long. This was the hardest season of our life and the only thing we could rely on was our precious Lord. Wade and I were in a unique situation where we had heard the Lord speak clearly to our hearts 1 week prior to the girls being born that we would go through a trial with the girls but that they would end up being healthy babies. We didn't understand what it meant at the time, but it soon made sense. There are times when that word to us seemed so far away and we wondered if we had heard it right, but we repeated that promise over and over out loud to keep our faith.

Our friend Lisa Shea, who God specifically brought into my life at the perfect moment, was a prayer warrior for us. She is part of a group of people who pray for others and whenever we got news that was scary about the girls we told her and she assembled the group to pray. So many people from Elevation who regularly follow the blog were faithful to lift us up daily in prayer as well. I can't begin to tell you the peace the the Lord can bring over you when people are praying hard for you. Lisa also gave us a book by Dodie Osteen that were the scriptures of healing that Dodie spoke over herself when she had cancer and ultimately the Lord healed her without any chemo or medical treatment. We wrote several of those scriptures on notecards and taped them to Liana and Adleigh's isolettes and spoke those over them everyday. We also read the entire book of scriptures out loud often and then prayed for our girls. Here is a link to those scriptures.

We also just started playing a CD of Scriptures for our girls each day. There is so much power in proclaiming the truth of who Jesus is, and we want our girls to be covered in these truths from their earliest days. I want them to know that Jesus knew them before they were ever born and knew what amazing things they would do for His name. And I want them to know the power of the word of God.

Finally, this may sound a little crazy, but we never spoke doubt out loud. We acknowledged what the doctor's said, but never declared it as true. For example, when we heard of Liana's brain bleed the doctors said she might not make it and we should think about removing life support, but even if we kept her alive she would never be "normal." We never once spoke those doubts aloud and actually rebuked the words of the doctors and told many nurses and doctors that our Jesus was going to heal her. The Lord says all we need is the faith of a mustard seed, and we tried to show that through what we spoke. God is going to do what is best, but we can believe with all that we have that He can choose to heal. We are still praying that there will never be any evidence of Liana's brain bleed and we still rebuke any words from doctors that say she won't be normal.

While the girls were in the hospital and going through what feels like every issue a preemie can face between the two of them, we drew strength from Scripture. This time was super hard for me, but the word of God reminded me that Jesus had the power to do what He promised and that His love surrounded us in our situation. Those scriptures comforted me as the Lord carried me through my weakest moments and gave me His strength to press on.

4 months (a litte late)

2008-10-26T13:05:00.005-04:00

Current update: Liana is recovering from her cold and is doing so much better. She still has a cough that sounds bad and I suction out her nose with every feeding (every 3 hours) and there is still tons of gunk. But other than that she seems happy and is still eating like a champ.

Please pray: Wade linked to this on his blog, but I wanted to tell everyone to please pray for our friends the Freemans. I think most of you know Kayleigh and she is such an amazing little girl. If you haven't read their blog you need to take some time and start at the very beginning to know what a miracle she is. She is having some big complications and we need everyone to get on their knees and pray for her.

The girls turned 4 months old on the 18th (this is 1 month their corrected age) and I have been meaning to post their birthday pictures. They are so adorable and getting so big. I can't begin to tell you how thankful I am to have them home with us. We are actually sleeping in 4 hours stints at night. However, they kind of wake up a different times so I don't get 4 hours. But there is something about having your babies away from you for 3 months that makes you not mind to wake up at 3:30 am. Don't get me wrong it is really hard especially with two, but through it all I don't want this baby stage to end. I feel like I already missed so much of their little lives since I couldn't be at the hospital all the time and I want every second to be one that I cherish. Anyway, look at my beautiful babies.

And here are the girls' separate shots. These babies are gorgeous! Here is Adleigh.
Here is Liana.

The great sleepover of 2008

2008-10-23T09:34:00.006-04:00

We got home from the hospital yesterday afternoon. Liana isn't having any bradys anymore unless it is associated with her reflux. I thought I was cautious before about germs but now I am going to be a crazy lady about it. Thank you for all your prayers because she was able to get out of the hospital quicker than we thought and she is doing much better now.

I had two really cute posts planned before we went into sickville, so here goes the first one.

Jamie (Wade's cousin) and I kept the girls by ourselves for a day and a half last week (Wade was home a little bit but we let him sleep). We had two nights where we had to keep them so we figured the best way for us to get sleep would be to have a good ole fashioned sleepover. We made a pallet downstairs and the girls slept in between us on their special pallet and it actually worked. We made a plan to do this each year around the time that they got to come home. Of course we took pictures so here are a few of the shots.

Back To The Hospital

2008-10-21T19:58:00.003-04:00

Guest Blogger: Wade Joye

Things got a little crazy at the Joye household last night. Liana and Adleigh had been sick the past few days, which is something you don't want with preemies. A minor cold for a regular baby can become very serious for a premature one due to the lung issues they have and the fact that they didn't get a lot of the antibodies other babies get in the womb.

Anyway, Liana was extremely congested yesterday so we took her to the doctor. Our pediatrician told us to watch her to see if it got worse. Well, the gunk quickly moved to her chest. At 11 PM, she began to have a bunch of brady spells where her heart monitor would go off. After about 7 of those, the doctor told us to take her in to the emergency room.

The verdict in the ER was that Liana needed to be readmitted to the hospital until she made it through the worst of whatever she had. As much as I didn't want to come back here, it made me feel good to know that she was going to be closely watched. Thankfully, we got test results back that confirm that she does not have RSV which is what we were really worried about.

This go around, things in the hospital are a lot different. We are actually in our own room, and we take care of her while the nurse comes in for supportive care. Adleigh is at home, so things are a bit more complicated. My mom and cousin Jamie have been lifesavers.

After our hospital slumber party tonight, we are hopeful that Liana can go home tomorrow. Pray that she has a good night, and that Adleigh doesn't follow in her sister's footsteps.

Bath Time

2008-10-13T00:14:00.008-04:00

Thank you to everyone who posted a helpful tip on what to do with a baby who won't sleep in their crib. I decided that since they are on heart monitors right now that it would be okay to roll some blankets up and make my own cozy sleep positioner. This is what they did at the hospital and as soon as I made it last night Liana slept in her crib for 1.5 hours! I couldn't believe it. She is also getting better with her reflux...well she is actually spitting up more, but she isn't having bradys as much anymore.

This Friday we had Adleigh's scans. She did amazing! A lot of you must have been praying because she pretty much slept the whole time and never cried. She had her last bottle at 5:30 am and she didn't eat again until 12:45 pm. She even had to have an IV put in her arm for the HIDA scan so that the nuclear medicine would go quickly through her body and she didn't make a peep. Then they had to strap her to the table (she was laying on a comfy pillow) for an hour to get continuous pictures of what the medicine was doing. We then had to go back at 2:30 and have her lay under the machine for another 30 minutes. We haven't gotten back an official word on the results but our pediatrician said that everything looked pretty good. We should hear something more from her specialist sometime this week.

Today, Adleigh had her first episode of apnea (not taking a breath for 20 seconds). We were so confused! She didn't really even have these in the hospital near the end so needless to say we were a little freaked out. I then had to take her to the hospital to get blood taken to check her bili levels and she had 4 very quick episodes in the car. She hasn't had anything since then so we are guessing maybe she was just in a deep sleep or that the monitor was crazy. Although we did have some blood drawn to check for any infection. So please pray that little Adleigh is completely healthy.

Finally, here is some pictures during the girls' bathtime.
Liana is up first then Adleigh. And if you are wondering, Adleigh's belly button sticks out really far because she has a hernia. In this case it normally fixes itself but it may take months to even a year before it finally resolves.

My mind is crazy jumbled

2008-10-09T20:34:00.004-04:00

Thank you everyone who started praying for Adleigh because we went to the pediatrician and she called to see if we could move her HIDA scan up and they said they would do her two tests back to back instead of having her wait for so long. She will still probably go 6 hours without anything to eat but that is better than 8! Please pray that these scans show that everything is normal and that she is just having issues with jaundice from being on the TPN for so long. Our ultrasound is at 10 and the HIDA scan is right after that.

The girls had a good exam at the pediatrician. They are gaining weight. Adleigh weighed 7 lbs 8 ozs and Liana weighed 7 lbs 1 oz. This is the closest in size they have been. Liana is trying to catch up with her sister.

Has anyone ever had a baby that immediately starts crying once they realize they are in their crib? We try and put Liana in her crib and she usually only lasts for 10 to 15 minutes and then screams. I am having a little more luck with one of our swings. Maybe it has to do with the motion because even if you are holding her she will sometimes cry until you stand up and bounce her.

Also, Wade and a whole lot of people from Elevation went to Catalyst (a conference in Altanta, GA) and our pastor got to speak there today. I heard he was absolutely amazing and I really wish I could have heard him! God has done mind blowing things through our church and I am so excited that Pastor Steven got an opportunity to share that with so many people. I miss all of you guys at the conference!

Finally, our good friends the Freemans had their daughter Kayleigh move to progressive care. In the NICU world, going to progressive care is like a dream come true. You are finally told your child isn't in critical condition and you get to go to a pimped out little suite. So I know that Kayleigh's parents are super excited and now the only step left is going home! We are still praying hard for you guys and just know once Kayleigh gets out we are going to plan some play dates! God has given you a wonderful gift and you have shown so many people that God is your strength during the toughest of times. We love you!

Photo Shoot

2008-10-08T10:14:00.004-04:00

We are off to the pediatrician in about an hour. I will have to post what their new weights are later on. We went to the eye doctor yesterday and the whole trip took 4 hours! Both girls eyes look great. We still have to go back in 2 weeks, but the doctor thinks that they are progressing nicely. Adleigh has to go get an ultrasound Friday at 10 am to look at her liver and then at 12 pm she has a HIDA scan which is a nuclear medicine study to check her liver/gallbladder. The horrible thing is that Adleigh can't eat anything past 6 am that morning. So she is going to go like 8 hours without food! She can't even have sugar water or anything. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to keep a baby calm that can't eat?
The girls had a little photo shoot. And we have a great family shot. So here they are (yes Adleigh is asleep in most of them):

We love our Grandparents...and each other

2008-10-04T22:01:00.011-04:00

We have had the girls home over a week and a half now. For some reason in the hospital we called Adleigh "the bear" and Liana "the mouse." It ended up actually fitting because Adleigh would grunt like a bear and Liana made squeak noises like a mouse. Well, their aunt Jamie has taken their nicknames one step further and we have Adabear and Loulie mouse (mostly just Loulie though).
We had to take Adleigh to the pediatrician because the whites of her eyes turned a greenish color. This was a sign that her jaundice was getting worse so the pediatrician sent us to the hospital to get labs done on her bili levels. It had gone up, but not enough to really do anything about at this point so this week we should hear from her specialist as to what we should do. And just to remind everyone this isn't the typical jaundice that can be fixed with light. She is on a medication and this may take months to go away. Thank you for the continued prayers for her.

Here is the video of the day we brought Liana home and first put the girls together. They had been a little fussy before and as soon as they got next to each other they seemed so peaceful. However, it hasn't been like that much since.

And here are the girls with Wade's parents.

And then with my parents.

First week home

2008-10-03T01:20:00.007-04:00

First I want to apologize that it has been so long since I have posted. My computer power cable completely broke the day after Liana came home and my computer died. So I stole Wade's computer tonight and hopefully I will get another cable tomorrow. When I get my computer back be ready for regular posts again!

The girls are doing amazing! I am loving them being home so much. Even though I have Wade's mom and cousin Jamie helping around the clock we are all still exhausted. Having twins at home is a lot harder than I ever expected, but this is so much better than those awful hospital days. Can I just tell you that we go through diapers like crazy. One day fills up our diaper pail and we have already used up like 4 packs of diapers! Also, I packed up all of our preemie clothes. We are officially in newborn size, but that won't last long either. They are getting so big!

We are already seeing different personalities. Adleigh is so laid back and sleeps really well. She is generally happy and entertains herself. Liana is a little more high maintenance. She never wants to be put down and can be pretty fussy. She does have trouble digesting her formula since it is so much thicker so some of her fussiness is contributed to that. I love that they are already showing differences and keeping me on my toes as to how I have to handle each one.

The upcoming weeks are full of appointments to tons of specialists. I can't believe how many doctors such little girls have. We have already been to the pediatrician. Their weights: Adleigh 6lbs 15 ozs and Liana 6 lbs 2 ozs. But that was about a week ago so they have probably gained a lot of weight since then.

Thank you for all your prayers and love and comments! It means so much that you are still keeping up with our girls. If you could continue to pray for Adleigh's liver. She has the jaundice that was caused from being on TPN fluids for so long and she is still super yellow. Also, thank you so much for those who are doing meals for us. That is so helpful and our family really appreciates it!

Here are some pics from this week of the two of them.

This is Liana looking at Adleigh.

Adleigh is checking out Liana.

Having crib together time. Perfect shot of their personalities as well.

Wade loving on his two girls. I just realized I need to start getting people to take pictures of me with the girls.

Meals for the Joye Family

2008-10-02T10:19:00.004-04:00

We are all so excited that Adleigh and Liana are now at home with their family. I know many people are looking for an opportunity to bless the Joye Family, so what better way than helping provide dinner for the family so they can focus on what truly matters.... the girls!

If you'd like to help by providing a meal, please email me at Lorimblack@gmail.com and I'll send you details on how we are organizing this. Also, if you have any questions on needs of the family, please email me as well and I can help you--needless to say, Ferris and Wade have their hands full right now!

I know I can speak for them when I say, thank you so much for the continued prayers and support.

Lori Black

Together at last

2008-09-25T10:04:00.008-04:00

Sorry it took a while for me to blog. Will it be okay if I use the "I have twins" excuse?

So Liana came home yesterday!! We got her here at 4:30 and then the fun began. We have gone through so many diapers and it only takes 4 feedings for both girls to completely fill up our sink with bottles. It is crazy.

When I woke up this morning, I walked in to see my two beautiful babies in their cribs. I just kept smiling. I have waited so long for this. God has given me the most wonderful gifts. We prayed so hard for these two girls, as many of you did too, and we have seen God fulfill a promise in our lives. We went from the doctors saying that we might want to consider taking Liana off life support to having her in our house eating like a champ, breathing on her own, and completely normal despite what the doctors say about her brain bleed. Then we prayed hard for Adleigh to have her tummy better and just two weeks ago Adleigh had major tummy surgery and we thought it would be forever before she came home. But God once again showed us how much He loves us and let that be the last hurdle she needed to jump over.We are officially out of the hospital with Adleigh being there 97 days and Liana 98. I just want to say thank you to my heavenly father for holding me during those times that I wasn't sure if I could handle it and impressing on my heart that my girls would be completely fine even when their situations looked bad. My God is so amazing.

Now I know you want some pics. So here is Liana coming home:Here is our first family shot.
And a close-up of our precious babies.
I had a video but blogspot is sweating me and not letting it post so I will try again later.

Adleigh comes Home!

2008-09-23T22:40:00.005-04:00

(The video took a little while to upload so this was written last night)

We spent the night with Adleigh last night and she ended up having a brady at 4:30 am. It was really quick so they were still okay with her going home, but they gave us the option of putting her on a heart monitor. We decided to have peace of mind and bring Adleigh home on the monitor. So we have had one feeding so far with her at the house and everything is going great! We have waited over 3 months for this day and the car ride home was mixed with this overwhelming gratefulness to God for bringing her home, an excitement to have our baby with us, and nervousness as we left all that we have known for 3 months and being solely responsible for this little life. Thank you so much for all your prayers and I can't wait to tell our girls what amazing people were going before the throne of God on their behalf.

After we spent the night with Adleigh, Liana's doctor came to talk to us about her and now she is coming home...guess when....TOMORROW! Wade's mom is going to keep Adleigh and I have to go to the hospital and room in with Liana during the day for about 8-10 hours so they know that I am okay with her heart monitor and then we will take her home tomorrow evening. Who would have thought that our girls would go home within a day of each other?!?! I am so excited. God has been so good to us and they are coming home healthy and happy little babies.

Here is Adleigh in her car seat about to go home.

Here we are in the car ready to take Adleigh home!

The day is set

2008-09-21T23:18:00.004-04:00

Looks like Adleigh will come home Tuesday! We are staying at the hospital tomorrow night and will have Adleigh in our room to make sure we can take care of her. I can't believe we finally have a day set. This could be the last night that Wade and I are at our house without a baby. Wow! She is doing great and she has had a few desats (her oxygen saturation dropped) with her feedings so we will just have to make sure that the new doctor for this week is okay with those desats and thinks she is ready to go home. (And just a note, I may or may not be able to blog from the hospital.)

Liana did have another brady today at 4 pm, but she came right back up so I am not sure if they will count that against her or not. I think since she was at rest when it happened it will start the countdown over, but if she has those every now and then but comes back up then we may just go home on a heart monitor.

As promised I have some pictures and a video. The first two are of Liana after bath time and the bottom two are of Adleigh. The video is of Liana loving her swing. She loves it so much that we are looking for this exact one to have at our house.

And to answer someone's comment...I am going to be very cautious about who the girls are around. The last thing I want to happen is to have the girls get sick and have to go back to the hospital. Preemies catch things so easily. Babies get the antibodies they need from the mom the last 3 months of the pregnancy and our girls were born exactly 3 months early! So, I am going to be a crazy person asking if you have been around anyone sick or if you feel slightly sick. I will make sure that you wash your hands thoroughly before touching the babies and probably give you some hand sanitizer too. So don't think I have anything against you, in fact I love that everyone is so excited to meet our little angels, but I just want to protect my babies.

One brady

2008-09-20T22:55:00.002-04:00

Liana went 24 hours without any bradys and then at 11 am today she had one. To her credit it was when we were putting her in a swing and somehow she kind of slumped over and had some reflux. So that is our bad. But the countdown restarted at 11 today and she has to go 7 days. I think now we know that we still have to be very conscious of her reflux and the Enfamil AR has helped her tremendously but it can still come up.

Adleigh had her CVL taken out today. And tonight she will finish the vaccine shots. She is doing great and eating like a champ. She is very messy eating and drools and spits everywhere. We are going to be using tons of bibs, thankfully we have a whole basket full of bibs.

That's all the news I have tonight. I promise I will post some pics tomorrow.

3 months

2008-09-19T22:38:00.003-04:00

I forgot to mention that yesterday our babies turned 3 months old and it just happened to be their due date too! Isn't that crazy. I have been to the hospital every single day for 3 months. It is seriously only by the grace of God that I have been able to do it this long.

Today I have some great news. Liana's nurses got her doctor to give her the Enfamil AR and her first time taking it was at 11 am. Since that attempt she has not had any bradys! I am hoping and praying that this is what she needed to stop having bradys and to make it home soon. We are praying that she is officially finished with her bradys and that she can come home in a week.

Adleigh is now in progressive care right across the hall from Liana. We could actually stand at the edge of each of their rooms and the girls could see each other. This is the closest they have ever been to each other. They are getting Adleigh ready to go home and they have set up all her follow-up appointments. I don't think I mentioned this but after her surgery they said that Adleigh wasn't growing lengthwise like they wanted and they were checking on dwarfism. Wade and I think this is completely ridiculous, but I guess they have to check it out. So today they did some xrays of all of her bones to get a base of her measurements so they can check it against that later on down the road. She also has jaundice from being on the IV fluids for so long so she had to have some blood work down by the GI (gastrointestinal) people to get a baseline for her bili levels and she will also see them again a little later after she is discharged. I think her immunizations will start tomorrow since today was such a crazy day for her. I just can't wait for when they are going to tell me the day that she is going to come home!

Newborn size

2008-09-18T09:43:00.005-04:00

Liana had some more episodes today. It was actually one of her worst days in awhile with how many bradys she had. So all the day nurses agreed that we need to either put her on Enfamil AR or add another teaspoon of rice to each ounce of formula she is getting. We had wanted to do this earlier but the day I talked about it to the doctor she was having an amazing day. But it looks like she is back to some rough days so I am going to ask again.

Adleigh didn't have her CVL removed today. It will be tomorrow when it is taken out and she is going to progressive care as well. She will start her immunizations tomorrow and it still looks like sometime early next week she will come home. I already told Wade to be prepared for me to go into task mode as I try to get our house completely ready for little Adleigh to get here. I am so excited!

Latest weights showed Adleigh being 6 lbs 11 ozs and Liana is 5 lbs 7 ozs. They are both in newborn size diapers and have pretty much outgrown their preemie clothes. My tiny babies are getting so big!

Episodes

2008-09-18T09:43:00.004-04:00

So I have a mix of updates from yesterday and updates from calling this morning.

Liana had about 4 or 5 episodes yesterday where she dropped her heart rate and at least 2 of them she had to have moderate stimulation. I have had a lot of people ask me what these episodes are like so here is my best way to describe what she does: Liana finishes drinking her milk and for some reason (burping, trying to poop, etc) she has milk come back up her throat and it kind of sits there. She stops breathing and basically looks like she is choking but becomes very still and turns blue. She won't take any breaths and I have to stimulate her which is either pat her on the back pretty hard, flick her foot, rub her chest, anything to try and get her to take that first breath. A lot of times I have to do a mix of all those things to get her to breath but finally at some point she kind of gulps in some air. It still takes some time for her to get breathing steady, but afterwards she is completely wiped out and just falls asleep. It is hard having reflux.
So for the good news, Liana dropped her heart rate at 2 am and at 8 am, but both times she recovered on her own (no stimulation needed)! We are making some progress. If she keeps recovering on her own we can take her home soon. It is the ones with stimulation required that are keeping her there. My prayer has been that she will stop having the ones that need stimulation today and by next Thursday (she has to go a week) we can take her home! Please everyone who is praying for our girls pray for that specific prayer.

In Adleigh land everything is looking awesome. She is at 50 ml right now every 3 hours (10 ml away from 2 ounces) and she is being a champ eating it. She will reach full feeds (54 ml) tonight. The nurse told me that they are planning on taking her CVL out today. That is the line they surgically put in her chest that goes to a very large vein. All her IV fluids have been going through that but now she doesn't need it! Once this is taken out they are more than likely going to send her over to progressive care and let them give her the immunizations and she can be discharged from there. It definitely costs less per day for her to go to progressive! They are also checking her bili levels. This is jaundice but she got it because she has been on the hospital nutrients for so long. That IV fluid is harder on her liver. She will more than likely have to take a medicine (the lights don't work for this jaundice) to help her break down her bili and she will be on that for a little while. I think that is all the news. Keep praying, we are nearing the end of the hospital days!

Counting Days

2008-09-16T23:48:00.004-04:00

I talked to Liana's doctor and he said that she is doing so much better. He thinks she just needed time to get a little bigger and have her muscles be a little stronger. He didn't want to put her on the Enfamil AR because she is doing so well now and it doesn't have some of the nutrients she needs since she is a preemie. But we are just counting days now that she doesn't have bradys. She needs to go 7 days without one that requires stimulation and then we can take her home.

Adleigh will more than likely come home Monday or Tuesday. They decided to wait until she was completely on full feeds to give her the immunizations. That way if she gets a fever it won't mess up her feedings. So she will get those over two days which will be Friday and Saturday. She is still doing really well eating and she is at 38 mls tonight. We have to get to 54 mls for her to be at full feeds. She is getting to the point where she always wants to be held. Whenever we lay her back down she starts crying. Liana is the same way. I will just make it worse cause once they get home I am never going to want to put them down!

Little ears

2008-09-15T23:04:00.002-04:00

Not much new news today. Adleigh had her hearing screen today and passed in her right ear but not her left. It just means that she has some fluid in her ear. They weren't very concerned about it and said that with preemies it shows up a lot. So after she is discharged we will just go back to get it checked again. Adleigh is still doing great with her feeds and has passed even more through her system so it looks like we are almost home free! The nurse practitioner said it could be Friday at the earliest that she could come home!!!

Liana had less bradys today. I was going to talk to her doctor for this week but he had already left by the time I got to Liana. So tomorrow I will see what the plan is for her food. She is scheduled for another cranial ultrasound next Monday. I am praying that she could come home sometime next week. How about everyone join us in that prayer!

So much good news

2008-09-15T09:42:00.007-04:00

Yesterday couldn't get any better. Liana was still off her oxygen and not getting so tired during her feedings. She seems to keep her oxygen saturation in the high 90s all the time. She still has some bradys associated with her reflux. When I fed her yesterday, she had two bradys because her food was coming back up and then 3 other spit ups after that but without the heart rate drops. So I am going to talk to the doctor today about trying the Enfamil AR. My thoughts are if she does the same thing then we can go back to breast milk, but if it does wonders for her then that is what she needs to have! So I will keep you updated as to what happens.

Adleigh is still eating great and she had a poop yesterday! This was the big thing we were waiting for because we needed to know if things could pass through her system after the surgery. The nurse practitioner also said that if everything goes according to plan that Adleigh could possibly come home this weekend. What?!?! Yep, we may have one of our babies home in the next week. So they are scheduled her for all the things she needs done before discharge (like the hearing screen and immunizations, etc) so we aren't held up with those. So pray for that to become a reality. I am a little nervous because I have had such qualified people caring for her for 3 months and I just hope I do a good job. Pray for Wade and me that we will be confident in taking care of our daughters. And pray that we figure out the magic combination of food and medicine so that Liana stops having these bradys and we can take her home too.

Here is Liana without her cannula looking uber cute.

And here is Adleigh yesterday zonked out on my lap.

And a sweet video of Liana while she is getting weighed. And just so you know Adleigh weighs 6 lbs 7 ozs and Liana weighs 5 lbs 4 ozs.

Off O2

2008-09-14T07:17:00.003-04:00

What a great day we had yesterday. I walk in to see little Liana's beautiful face...unobstructed. That's right she is off her oxygen! I was so excited. I didn't expect her to be off for awhile, but there she was chilling out, no desats. I was giving her the first feeding after she had had her cannula removed and it took her an hour to try and eat. I guess she was having to work a little harder in order to breathe while she ate. But after all of that they said she was still doing great.

Adleigh is still eating. She is up to 11 ml and goes up 4 mls every 12 hours. So I think by Thursday night she will be up to her full feeds (54 ml) if everything goes really well. Wade was able to feed Adleigh yesterday and he said she did amazing. It was one of the best visits he has had with the girls. Both of them were staring him down and smiling a lot. They love their daddy!

I also had a great shower yesterday and the girls got tons of cute clothes and some very important essentials for the nursery. Thank you so much to everyone who came.

Eating again

2008-09-13T01:10:00.002-04:00

I have got to stop waiting so late to post!
We got Liana a mobile today and it looked super cute. It even turns on if it senses her crying. That is one smart mobile. She was asleep when we put her back in the crib so we don't really know yet if she likes it. She only had two real bradys during the day and they were both totally reflux related. I just want to know what we can do to make this better. I know there is still the option of doing Enfamil AR (the heavy reflux formula) and at this point I just want whatever is going to make her the most comfortable. It can't feel good vomiting up your food at every meal.

Adleigh started eating today. She started out with some water/electrolyte combo just to see if she could keep it down and then at 8 tonight they were going to start giving her breast milk. She will get 7 ml every 3 hours and in the morning we should have a better idea if she is tolerating it or not. So far so good! Just keep praying that she has an easy time with eating this time around and that we don't have any setbacks. It is time to get her home and she has to be at full feeds for that to happen. Thanks so much everyone!

The mobile

2008-09-11T23:40:00.003-04:00

Just a quick update tonight. Liana did better today with her bottles and when I was feeding her she only had one small brady. She did spit up a ton right after she ate, but she didn't actually brady with that. The nurse said she thinks Liana will be in the hospital for at least 2 more weeks. She said Liana probably just needs to get bigger and that way her muscles will mature a little more and it will be easier for her to recover from her reflux.

Adleigh seemed a lot happier today. Before I got there she had pulled out her repogle tube (the tube that drains mucus out of her stomach). So the nurse decided to give her a little break and she loved it. And they are possibly going to start her feeds tomorrow! The developmental people decided to give Adleigh a mobile and Wade got to see her watching it. She stared at it forever and acted fascinated by it. So we are going to make sure Liana gets one now.

Go away bradys

2008-09-10T23:43:00.004-04:00

As I drove home tonight from the hospital I started thinking about ways I can steal my babies from the NICU/NPCN and bring them home. Well...I don't think I will do it, but if they are there much longer I can't make any promises.

Anyway, Liana is over the 5 lb mark now! She weighed 5 lbs 0.4 ozs! What a big girl she has become. She also has a little swing in her room and is put in it during the day to give her more things to do than just lay in her crib all the time. She seemed pretty tired today which made it a little tougher to feed her. She is still having bradys and that is what we really want to go away right now. Wade had a pretty scary moment when he fed her tonight. They are the worst things to go through and it really ruins the sweet time of giving your child a bottle.

During our stay in the NICU and NPCN our girls have usually been so calm and quiet. Maybe they were just too little to make much of a fuss, but Adleigh is making up for lost time right now. She has been really cranky the past two days. I am chalking it up to still having some pain from her intestinal surgery and wanting to eat really bad. But nothing can really console her. She won't take the pacy nor calm down if I tickle her head. She just cries for about 30 secs and then nods off for a minute and repeats the cycle over and over. But the more important news is that her tummy is looking soft and she is having bowel sounds and actually pooped a little yesterday. So maybe Friday they will start her feeds...very slowly. And...get ready for it...Adleigh is off oxygen again! She is breathing on her own and seems to be doing just great with it! I love it!

Squeaks and Grunts

2008-09-09T23:35:00.005-04:00

The girls were having a great day. Adleigh is still off the vent and in her crib. She seemed a little fussy today so we think that she might be showing signs of getting hungry. She slept for most of the day and then would wake up to give a good 15 second cry and then fall asleep again.

Liana had more rice cereal added to her milk. They also increased the amount of her reflux meds to see if we can get rid of some of the bradys that occur because of her reflux. She had some great awake time today with me and here is a video of her making some amazing squeaks and grunts. Not to mention she looks so cute trying to suck on her thumb and hand.

Off the vent

2008-09-08T23:32:00.004-04:00

Adleigh came off the vent today and they were able to stop the fentanyl drip, which was constant pain medication. She stayed awake the entire time I was with her which was like 2 hours! She seemed to be feeling so much better and hopefully in a few more days they might be ready to start some feeds back.

Liana is still doing really well. She had a few bradys this morning (drop in her heart rate) and they had to increase her flow from .5 liters to 1 liter. She can go home if she is on 0.1 liters so we have a little ways to go. I think all of her bradys and desats are still related to her reflux so if she keeps continuing this then they might put more cereal in her milk to make it even thicker.

If you have any questions, whether it is about what a term means or to ask something about our family (etc), please leave a comment and I would love to answer you.

Sunday Morning

2008-09-07T08:39:00.003-04:00

Today is the last day of the Daniel Fast. This also marks the last Sunday of our Gospel series and I am so excited to hear what Pastor Steven has to say to us. I am praying that even more people come to know Christ today. This fast was pretty hard just finding the time to prepare stuff and knowing that we couldn't make a run to Chic-fil-a when we were getting home at 9pm from the hospital, but it was so good to put my desire for food behind my desire for my God and use my time to pray for my church.

Adleigh, like always, is having a rough time recovering from her surgery. She kept looking like she was in pain and was having more bradys so now she is on a fentanyl drip (constant pain medication). So before she can be taken off the ventilator she now has to be weaned off her pain medications. So maybe in a couple of days she will be off. She is retaining A LOT of fluid. She basically gained a lb in 2 days and she looks extremely puffy. But the surgeon came by to look at her and said everything looked great on their end and she is recovering well from the incision.

The doctors went ahead and put Liana on a mixture of rice cereal and breast milk. Even with her reflux meds it just seemed that the breast milk was too light for her to keep down. With every feeding they would possibly have up to 15 ml of breast milk come up which is almost half of her food. So hopefully with this new combination of reflux meds and rice cereal she will be able to keep her food down which will ultimately take away her bradys. I am so glad that we are finally treating her reflux and I just know she is on her way to coming home!!!

Success

2008-09-05T23:56:00.003-04:00

Adleigh's surgery was a complete success! The surgeon was able to take out the damaged portion of the intestines and reattach the ends. We are so thankful for God answering our prayers to not have the ostomy bag. Now she will not have to go back later for another surgery!!! She is still on the vent since they gave her more pain medicine when she came back from surgery, but hopefully she will start to wake up and not need the pain meds tomorrow.

Liana had her oxygen flow turned down to .5 liters and is having a little more oxygen concentration with it. She seems to like this a lot better and this is much closer to the amount we can take her home on. The doctor also witnessed one of her reflux spells and decided to put her on reflux meds. It will take a few days to see if this helps her out a lot, but I think this will be exactly what she needs. Her brain ultrasound is still showing that is is progressing in the normal way and it is looking good enough that they said she won't need another one for about a month.

Today was amazing and thank you so much for everyone who went to God this morning and prayed for our sweet daughters. We definitely felt the power of your prayers today!

Night before surgery

2008-09-04T23:33:00.003-04:00

Adleigh's surgery is set for around 9:30 tomorrow morning. It is going to be a long day. Please pray that her intestines will be the best case scenario and that the surgeon can remove the damaged area and easily put together the ends.

Also, Liana is having another brain ultrasound tomorrow. She is doing so amazing and I can't wait for the scan to show she is healed.

I just read Psalm 104 (my dear friend Lisa Shea told me to read this passage today) and here are my thoughts the night before surgery:
What an amazing God we serve. The God who created all that is around us and controls the order of nature. He is mighty and just and has lavished blessings and love on us that we do not deserve. If just one person has seen this situation and has given their heart to our precious Savior then know that all of heaven rejoices with you! In everything we have been through I have felt strength and love washed over on me. God hasn't left us during this time instead he has shown himself to me in a new way that is much more intimate than my walk with Christ has ever been before. This is a difficult season, but it is one that I will remember back to and know that my God has taken the battle in his hands and in the end we will see victory. He is so good to us!

"I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the LORD." Psalm 104:33-34

Intestines

2008-09-03T23:00:00.002-04:00

Wade explained what is going on with Adleigh on his blog tonight, but I will just give a quick overview here as well. The test of her lower intestines came back and showed that an area in her large intestines has narrowed and is making it very difficult for Adleigh to pass anything through. So the only option the doctors have is to go in and cut out that portion and then they will either try to reattach the intestine or put in a colostomy bag. If she has the bag we would have to go back once she reached 12-15 lbs for them to go in and repair the ends. The surgery is planned for Friday morning at 10 am so please pray for her during that time. We are praying that they will be able to connect the intestine and not have to put on the bag since that would mean another surgery for her down the road.

Liana had a much better day today and only had one brady (too bad it was while I was feeding her). She now weighs a little over 4 lbs 8 ozs. We definitely needed to have a peaceful time with Liana to help us recover from the news about Adleigh today. Thanks for all the prayers...we need them!

Swinging

2008-09-02T23:11:00.003-04:00

Adleigh still didn't get to eat today. Her xrays showed her intestines were still dilated. She really needs to poop and when she tries to go she can't get anything to come out. What is so sad is when she cries while she is pushing because she is in pain. So tonight they were going to give her a suppository to help her move things through and then do a lower GI test tomorrow. That test will just make sure that her rectum and lower intestines do not have any narrowing. Adleigh got to have a swing beside her bassinet for some extra fun time. Here is her first time in the swing. She looks super excited...ummm maybe not.

Liana had a crazy day. She got cold and had to go back into her isolette. And then she ended up having a few more desats and bradys. They did a blood count to see if she has any kind of infection. The initial results looked good so maybe she was just having a rough day since she was cold. We also found out that her eyes have progressed to stage 2 like Adleigh's. Apparently they have to be identical in everything. Liana's next cranial ultrasound is Thursday. We are still praying for the "sun to stand still" and have her brain healed.

Their "due date" is September 18th and we are praying that some miracles will happen to get them home by that date. A lot has to happen but I know that God can do it in a day if he wants. I just miss them so much and it is getting so hard to leave them each night. I need them home.

In da crib

2008-09-01T23:13:00.002-04:00

Liana got moved into a big girl crib. She was keeping her temperature up and it looks like the crib can incline more which will be good for her reflux. She has been having less episodes, but she is up on her oxygen at 4 liters. Hopefully we can go down on that soon.

Adleigh was still NPO today. Her xray showed she wasn't ready to start feeds yet. But since this morning her tummy started feeling softer. Tomorrow they are going to get another xray and then hopefully start her on a pre-digested formula that she should have an easier time passing through. At some point we should be able to transfer her back to breast milk but we have to get her digesting something first.

Posing for pics

2008-08-31T23:02:00.004-04:00

Adleigh went NPO again. Her intestines had gotten dilated again and they didn't want to push her. So tomorrow she will get another xray and they will see if they are able to feed her again. We just want her to eat!

Liana looks like she is doing a lot better with more oxygen. At some point we will have to wean her off that again, but hopefully she will grow out of the bradys and desats soon.

Tomorrow we are going to start getting the nursery together! I can't wait to have it fixed up and ready for them to come home to.

Here are the girls with mom and dad (Wade with Adleigh and me with Liana).

More Oxygen

2008-08-31T08:55:00.003-04:00

The doctors turned up Liana's oxygen to 4 liters. This is a step backward for us, but they think it will help her with her bradys and desats. And we definitely want to help her get rid of those. She had a brady yesterday morning, but the whole day after that she didn't have any episodes. So hopefully this is working for her. She is taking 3 bottles a day and seems to enjoy it a little more. Liana now weighs 4 lbs 5.2 ozs. Here is a picture of her sucking her pacy which looks so big compared to her little face.

Adleigh is doing great. They put her back on feeds and right now it is still breast milk. She gets 5 ml every 6 hours. If she keeps tolerating it then they will probably go to every 3 hours or possibly do 10 ml every 6 hours. I got some great pictures of her yesterday. She is getting so big, we are at 5 lbs 5 ozs now.

Good Intestines

2008-08-29T23:46:00.003-04:00

Adleigh's xrays of her intestines looked great!!!!! She has no obstruction or narrowing of her intestines. God is amazing. He protected Adleigh and allowed everything to be normal. They may have to end up giving her a formula that is more broken down than what breast milk is, but we should find out their game plan tomorrow.

We talked to Liana's NP and mentioned her going on reflux meds. She keeps having episodes around her feeding times and they have tried everything except giving her medicine. We just want her to be able to eat without having her face turn blue.

Thank you so much for your prayers! We are praising God and doing a happy dance right now.

Strength

2008-08-29T08:31:00.003-04:00

We got some crazy news yesterday about Adleigh. Her xray of her tummy came back still looking pretty suspicious. So they decided to consult surgery to get their opinion on Adleigh. Surgery decided to do some xrays concentrating on her upper GI tract, but they couldn't fit her in until today. So sometime this morning they will put some type of dye thing in her stomach and then look at it through a series of xrays. They are mainly looking to see if she has an obstruction or if part of her bowel has narrowed. Then after figuring out what it is then they will make an assessment as to what needs to happen next.

When I heard all this news, I had a really tough time. I told God I was not sure how much more I could take. To be this close to their actual due date and then have the doctors say they are consulting with surgery on a matter really broke me. I talked with my friend Kelly and she was such an encouragement to me. I realized (with some of her wise words) that this is exactly where I need to be—in a place where I can't do it anymore. I was completely trusting God with our girls, but I also used some of my own strength to get through the day to day. Imagine how much glory God gets when there is no more of our strength to push us on. I will forever be able to look at this point and know that the only way I handled all of this is because He carried the burden for me.

To make a day even crazier I found out Liana had two big episodes (bradys and desats) that day. They decided to put her back on caffeine to see if that would help her remember to breathe. But with her episodes she ended up getting too cold and I couldn't get her out yesterday to hold her or feed her. I was so sad! I didn't get to hold my little girl yesterday.

Needless to say, just pray for our little girls to turn a corner and begin making the steps to be able to come home. Please specifically pray that Adleigh does not need any kind of surgery and that God will lay His hand on her stomach and heal it. We know that God spoke to us that the girls will be healthy and when I read this verse today I was encouraged:

"When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, "I will surely bless you and give you many descendants." And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised." Hebrews 6:13-15

Sensitive tummy

2008-08-27T23:44:00.003-04:00

Adleigh went back to being NPO today. She just has a very sensitive stomach! She started spitting up a lot today and it was a brownish color. They did some xrays of her stomach and they decided to give her a rest until tomorrow. In the morning she will get another xray to see if she needs to continue tummy rest or if they can start again. She was getting each feeding through a bottle and she was taking that really well, so that is definitely a plus. They also took her out of her isolette and put her in a bassinet. She has been keeping her temperature really well so far. And she also got to have her sat probe taken off (that was the red light that was attached to her foot). So really the only thing she has holding her back is eating so please pray that she will begin to eat and tolerate it well.

Liana had another crazy brady when I fed her today. I hate those! She just needs to figure out to coordinate eating and breathing and sucking all together. That is a lot for a little preemie to handle. They are weaning down her isolette to try and put her in a bassinet soon. So hopefully she can stay warm like her sister!

I don't have a new picture of Liana tonight but here are two of Adleigh. One is her after she pulled her tube out so she doesn't have anything on her face and the other is from tonight when she woke up for me.

4 lbs

2008-08-27T08:17:00.003-04:00

Liana went over the 4 lb hump last night. She weighs 4 lbs 0.9 ozs! Yay for Liana getting some meat on her bones. She has been doing amazing with her bottles and is taking 3 bottles a day in around 15 minutes. She does have the occasional brady (drop in her heart rate), but that is something she will grow out of.

Adleigh pulled out her feeding tube today and we got to see her pretty little face without a thing on it. I haven't uploaded my pictures onto my computer yet but I have a picture of her looking like a normal baby that I will post soon! We did find out that Adleigh has stage 2 ROP in zone 2 of her eye. The graph that they have looks like it is on the edges of zone 2 so I think that is pretty good, but they are watching her closely. Stage 2 can still clear up on its own so we are praying that Adleigh won't progress into stage 3. Once they go into stage 3 there is a laser surgery they perform. Our friends the Freemans found out that Kayleigh has stage 3 ROP and needs the laser surgery. I think it is scheduled for today so please pray for her. Here is a picture of the different zones of the eye. Zone 1 is where most vision occurs and our girls are normal in that area.

God has been so good to us. When I look at our girls and think back to what they looked like 2 months ago I am overcome with thankfulness. I mean seriously Liana was 1 lb 14 ozs! And now she is over 4 lbs. It has been a really long road and I am so ready for it to be over and get my girls home, but I have learned so much about patience and being thankful for the smallest things. We still have faith that our girls are going to come home as completely normal little girls! God is the supreme doctor and healer. Thank you for all your prayers because there is so much power through it and we have seen the evidence of it.

Pretty Babies

2008-08-25T23:45:00.004-04:00

Liana had a pretty awesome day. She did so much better today with her oxygen. She hardly had any desats or bradys. She is really getting the hang of eating from a bottle and it only took her 15 minutes to go through an entire bottle. She now weighs 3 lbs 15 ozs! We are so close to the 4 lb mark for her.

Adleigh had a great day too. She is still breathing without any oxygen and satting high. She has been having aspirate/residuals and tonight it had a slight green tint to it. If it starts to get really green then that isn't a good sign but right now it just looks like she is a little backed up and needs to maybe have a poop. But her tummy is still really soft and round so hopefully they can start her again tomorrow.

Here are two pictures for you all to swoon over!
Daddy and Liana

Adleigh looking bohemian chic.

Feeding update

2008-08-25T11:34:00.003-04:00

Adleigh got to start feeds yesterday. They started her out with 3 mls and were going to keep her on that for a day or two until they were sure that she could handle eating. But last night she started having more residuals (food left in her tummy) and she would have that after every feed. So they decided to stop for a day and let her belly adjust and then start again tomorrow. Adleigh also had another eye exam yesterday and they want to see her again in a week. The official report hasn't come back but it still seems like it is just stage 1. We aren't really sure as to why they chose to see Adleigh back in a week and Liana back in 2 weeks, but I plan on asking the eye nurse today or tomorrow.

Liana did amazing with her bottle yesterday. We didn't have any bradys and she finished within 20 minutes or so. Also, it looks like her bradys during throughout the day are decreasing. When I called at 9 this morning she hadn't had any since 1 am! I am so proud of her.

In other news, I am starting to try and get our house ready for when they are able to come home. We want to do a really deep clean to get rid of any germs, Scooter hair, mildew, etc. So for this week I plan on getting everything in its place and get ready for disinfecting time. Not to mention we still have to get the nursery ready!

Showing off a pretty face

2008-08-23T23:42:00.005-04:00

Wow, today was amazing to see Adleigh without her nasal cannula! She was satting 100 the whole time which is the best she could possibly do. Her little nose looked so beautiful. I even think she was enjoying not having it in because she kept grabbing her nose like it was brand new to her. The nurse even said that they are most likely going to try feeding her tomorrow with an emphasis on taking it very slow. They want to make sure her tummy is going to be okay.

Liana did amazing with her feeding again today. She drank the whole bottle in less than 30 minutes and satted 100 the whole time and then at the very end she had about 4 ml left. She started to eat that little bit and then she had a brady! I keep trying to tell her not to scare mommy anymore but she doesn't seem to listen. That is Liana's biggest obstacle right now. She has about 4 or so bradys a day and they are usually about 30 minutes after she eats. They should go away with time so continue to pray that her little body will mature quickly and handle the reflux and not have bradys.

Her are some pics from yesterday and today.
This is Adleigh yesterday with our first captured smile.

Here is Liana sleeping peacefully.

And here is little Adleigh showing off her pretty face with no cannula. She does have some marks on her face from removing the tape though.

Off O2

2008-08-23T13:16:00.000-04:00

I promise I will post more tonight, but I just needed to let you know that Adleigh is completely off oxygen!

Fast

2008-08-21T23:48:00.004-04:00

The girls are pretty much the same today as yesterday. Adleigh got to go down on her flow to 3 liters and at room air. And then Liana had 2 bradys when I tried to feed her a bottle so we had to stop and give it to her through the tube. I gave her a little pep talk and told her not to scare her mom anymore so hopefully she will listen!

Since I don't have much news about the girls I thought it would be good to let you know what the Joye household has done for the Daniel Fast. If you haven't heard about the fast yet here is what we are doing (I got this from Holly Furtick's blog) :Our church is doing a special fast for the next 21 days to pray for the work God is going to do in our church this fall. We will be abstaining from all meat and animal products, sugar, caffeine and foods with any additives. The fast comes from Daniel chapters 1 and 10 when Daniel did not eat anything from the king's table. You can read more about the details of the fast here.
One of the things about this fast is you need to really prepare and plan ahead for what you are going to make. Since I am at the hospital most of the day and don't get home until 7 or later it makes it hard to chop up tons of veggies and make something. So I have found a few quick and easy recipes that Wade and I will probably eat a lot for these 21 days.

1. Spaghetti: 100 % whole wheat noodles, tomato sauce, chopped onions, and chopped green bell peppers. This is super fast and tastes yummy.
2. Veggie Wrap: I sauteed a mix of veggies (Trader Joes had fresh cut Chinese Stir Fry veggies that I bought but you can also get a frozen bag) in a little bit of olive oil. And then put it in a Ezekiel tortilla.
3. Brown rice dinner: This one is in the recipe book (you can download from the link above): Mrs. Jones Brown Rice Dinner. I used a green pepper instead of a red pepper and I added fresh cut tomatoes. We ate this with some organic baked white corn chips. (This recipe has taken the longest because I had to wait the 45 minutes for the brown rice to cook)

So those are my super fast dishes I have made so far. Anyone else have something really fast that I can add to our list?

Rocking some pajamas and a faux-hawk

2008-08-20T23:18:00.005-04:00

The girls had a great day today. Liana finished her bottle with me in 30 minutes! I am so thankful that she has shown some improvement in this area. It also looks like she had less desats and bradys than the other day. She now weighs 3 lbs 9 ozs.
Here she is being all cute in her little pajamas.

Adleigh looked great today. She kept smiling at me and I was loving it. We still have a few days left of antibiotics so maybe when those are over we will finally start her feeds back up. We just have to make sure that her belly is ready for all of that. I got a good picture of her eyes open today and one of her little feet (even though you can see the sat probe and a band-aid from where they stuck her). I don't know if you can tell from the picture but she had a little faux-hawk going on there. I joked to her that she was already starting to take after her daddy.

On the road to recovery

2008-08-20T10:28:00.004-04:00

Man, I have been so tired at night that I just can't seem to add in blogging to my nightly routine, but here I am giving you the update in the mid-morning.

Adleigh is still doing great. They say she is being really alert and moving around. She is doing great being on 4 liters of oxygen at room air. I am sure they will be able to wean her down even more soon. Yesterday the central line that she had surgically put in had some blood coming out of the incision. They checked everything and it still looked great it just might have been she pulled a stitch or something. So they changed her dressing and will keep watching it. There is a paste they can put on it to help any bleeding to stop. She weighed 4 lbs 13.4 ozs! Some of that is her retaining fluid so they think once she loses the fluid she might go back down a little. She looks like she is feeling so much better! We still aren't sure when they will start her feeds back. Her tummy still isn't completely normal but with each xray it looks like it might be getting a little better. She still has a few more days on antibiotics so they might just wait until they are finished. And lastly, we got the results back from Adleigh's eye test and she has stage 1 ROP in the second zone. So her and Liana have the same thing. Still isn't of much concern, but they will keep an eye on her.

Liana did a better with her bottle yesterday. She still didn't take all of it but she didn't turn blue. She seems to be going through a little bit of a weird phase. She had been eating her bottles like a champ and now she doesn't really care about eating from it. And she has had a few more bradys and apnea than she did a few days ago. They think it is just all reflux related so they increased the time it takes for her food to go in to 2 hours. I talked to the doctor about her brain ultrasounds and it is still slowly resolving. He showed me all her scans and you can see how it is starting to looking better. He and a nurse practitioner told me that the fact she doesn't need a shunt with a grade 4 bleed is a miracle already. The doctor even prayed with me after we looked at the scans...I love it! I just can't wait until we see all that God is going to continue to do in her life. I have no doubt that Liana's brain is going to be completely healed and that God will receive so much glory for it.