Nice to Meet You!!

Jimmy and Abby were able to meet their Uncle Jim and cousins, Amber, Avery and Allie this week!  And they got to see Aunt Michelle again too! 

It is always so fun when we are able to introduce the babies to everyone they haven't met yet.  So far, both Abby and Jimmy are very friendly and sociable!  I know that is bound to change one day, but so far they thoroughly enjoy staring at the new faces that come their way.

The Balow family was in town for Christmas and to attend the babies' baptism on the 26th.  They made the long hike up here over the weekend and then stopped by to hang out with us on Monday.

Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from the day!

Uncle Jim spending time with Abby - oh, and Bret Baier too!  And check out that smile from Jimmy!  He loves spending time with those that share his name (Daddy, Grandpa Balow, Grandpa Frybarger, Uncle Jim...whew!  Lots of Jims in the family!)

Allie was such a joy to watch with the babies.  But though you could tell she loved meeting Abby and Jimmy, you could also tell she loved catching up with Amigo and Leo.  And Amigo loved the attention he received from Allie! Here's a shot of Allie and Abby!

Avery and his Uncle Jim hanging out on the couch.  Avery enjoyed meeting his cousins too, but tended to keep on eye on them from afar, while letting the girls oooh and ahhh over them.  I think he enjoyed playing the Cut the Rope game on the iPad!

Amber was a great big cousin!  She played with Abby and Jimmy and would help feed them their bottles too.  She was so helpful and it seems so enjoyed Abs and Jimmy as much as they enjoyed her!



Abby hanging out with Aunt Michelle again!  She sure did miss her Aunt Michelle and was happy to snuggle with her again!

And last but not least, here's one of Uncle Jim cuddling the babies in the rocker he plans to swipe from us one day! 

The babies sure did enjoy spending time with the Balows and look forward to many more fun times to come!  Maybe we will try to make a trip down to Texas to visit everyone later this winter!  I don't know though, traveling with two little ones is going to be interesting, that's for sure!

First Thanksgiving and A Little Hand Holding!

Happy Thanksgiving 2010 - Abby and Jimmy's first Thanksgiving.

Jim and I decided to make the trip over to Muskegon for Thanksgiving this year. I was quite nervous, as this would be our first car ride with the babies that would last longer than 20-30 minutes. The drive normally takes about 2.5-3 hours, so I was nervous about how long it would take to get there with two babies that may or may not sleep during the trip.

But to my surprise, the drive went off without a hitch. I got the babies up when they first started fussing, around 5:30, fed them and got them all bundled up in their car seats hoping they would fall right back to sleep. After loading up the last minute stuff in the Jeep (OMG- travelling with two babies and all their stuff is quite amazing), we were off to pick up Jim at work. We decided it was best to pick him up from work (since he worked the overnight shift of 11pm-7am) since it would save him from driving 45 minutes back home, just to turn around and drive 45 minutes back in that direction later.

When I got to the hospital, Jim was almost ready to go. But not quite yet, so to give him more time to get ready (showered and changed), I decided to drive around Brighton a little bit to help prevent the babies from waking up (it's awesome how well they sleep in the car right now). Well, within the first 3 minutes of my drive on Grand River, I was stopped by a Police Officer. HA! I wasn't actually pulled over, but as I was turning around in a shopping complex, the officer noticed and pulled in behind me. Oh man, I was nervous (weird I know, since I am a LEO myself...but my tabs were expiring at the end of the month and I hadn't replaced the sticker yet! Oops). All the officer wanted (ha!) was to know if I was lost and needed directions (hmmmm...). So I explained that I was picking up Jim and was driving around since I didn't want the babies in the backseat to wake up. She bought it. HAHAHA (j/k).

So after looping back around and waiting for Jim in the parking lot (so not to get stopped by the Police again), we were off within 20 minutes or so. The drive was awesome. Jim napped a little bit in the car and the babies napped ALOT in the car. I snacked on puppy chow (ha - I know it was only 9am, but it was a holiday!) and rocked out to my newly created playlist on my IPOD. So long story short - the trip out there (and back for that matter) was a success!

When we got to Muskegon, we checked in the hotel, unloaded the massive amount of baby stuff we had to bring and fed the babies. And wouldn't you know it, they played a little bit on the bed after eating and then passed out! They certainly have the eat/pass out Thanksgiving thing down already! But when Abby was falling asleep, she did this:

OMG - how precious! Abby grabbed on to Jimmy's hand and held it though part of her nap. Jimmy fell asleep shortly there after too.

Here are a couple more... I just couldn't stop taking pictures of it - it was adorable!

After the babies woke from their naps, we headed on over to Jim's Dad's house for Thanksgiving. It was a great day and so fun introducing the babies to the family they haven't met yet. Abby and Jimmy loved spending time with everyone, so much so that they missed out on most of their naps. Which as I am learning, led to extremely fussy babies. But overall, they were very calm and relaxed and enjoyed all the attention they received.

Spending time with their cousin CJ was probably their favorite part (yes, I know because they told me!). CJ was such a great cousin and would hold them, help change them and bring them toys to play with. He loves his new cousins so much, you can absolutely tell.

So, in true Balow fashion, I busted out the camera to take a ton of pictures. I don't think Jim's family is used to having so many pictures taken of them at one time, but it is something I am sure they are expecting from me! I have to take pictures, it is a horrible habit to take a million of the same shot too (cause really, you never know how it is going to turn out once it is uploaded on the computer!).

Anyway, here are a couple pictures from Thanksgiving day. Please ignore the babies outfits (though their shirts are super cute), I didn't have the motivation to dress them up since they would probably spit up on their outfits within the first few minutes!

Here is Abby hanging out with her cousin CJ (again, ignore the pants):

Grandma holding on to Jimmy (sorry so dark, in the other picture, every one's eyes are closed):

Aunt Jenny cuddling with Abby:

Aunt Lynn, cousin CJ and Jimmy hanging out on the couch:

Since our hosts, Jim's Dad and step mom Carol, were so busy with Thanksgiving preparations, we weren't able to get pictures of them with Abby and Jimmy....on that day! :-) We stopped by on Friday before heading back home to spend some more time with the family. Here are some more pictures!

Grandpa spending time with Jimmy:

Carol hanging out with Abby (the faces on Abby are priceless in these pictures!

CJ and Aunt Lynn enjoying some time with Jimmy (look at CJs face- absolutely adorable! What a great big cousin!)

Uncle Paul and Kelly hanging out with Abby:

The babies first Thanksgiving was a hit! We had such a great time seeing everyone and the babies did great. We are very much looking forward to the next gathering! Miss you all Frybarger clan!

The Hospital Stay

Welcome Abby and Jimmy!



We stayed a total of 5 nights in the hospital; from Monday, August 23 until Saturday, August 28. The babies were able to room in with us in the mother/baby unit since, thankfully, they were completely healthy and didn't need to spend any time in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).

Unfortunately, it was a tough couple days since both babies developed jaundice and the doctors determined that they needed to be under UV lights in order to reduce the bilirubin in their blood. So from Wednesday morning until Friday night, both Abby and Jimmy had to lay in their bassinets under huge UV lights and were only allowed out from the lights for a short time to take a bottle.

I initially was attempting to breastfeed, but it didn't go as planned and since both babies needed to eat as much as possible so that they would be able to poop, which gets rid of the bilirubin quicker. So, we fed the babies formula right from the beginning. I still worked with the lactation consultants thinking that maybe I would do some breastfeeding (or at least pumping) in combination with formula, but after realizing how much work it would be to maintain my supply (which hadn't even arrived yet) and feed both twins by myself, both Jim and I decided to stick with just formula. I didn't have the heart to tell the lactation consultants though. :-(

It was quite sad to not be able to cuddle with Abby and Jimmy throughout the days and I was upset to see them under the UV lights. They were unable to lay in any clothes or be swaddled, so they just laid there, with eye masks on to protect their eyes, in nothing but a diaper. I was heartbroken for them. And both Jimmy and Abby, but mostly Jimmy, had bouts of uncontrollable shaking. The doctors explained that most likely it occurred because of an underdeveloped nervous system and it would get better with time. It was so hard to see. Especially since they both would do so much better when they were swaddled and/or were being held- but we couldn't do either.

I won't post many pictures, since it is so sad to see, but here's one just so you have an idea of what they had to go through.



Luckily, on Friday both Abby and Jimmy were cleared to be only on the Biliblankets so we definitely made up time with cuddling them at that point. See below for proof!





Every night Jim and I decided to send both babies to the nursery so that we were able to get a little uninterrupted sleep. We usually would send them around 1pm after they ate and would go pick them up (or have them brought back) around 6 or 7am. Little did I know at that point, that that would be the longest stretch of sleep I would get for a long time!

My recovery from the c-section went well. I was in a lot of pain off and on, and usually it occurred when I forgot to request pain medication. I had a lot of trouble getting into and out of the bed the first couple days and would need Jim to help pull me up into a sitting position so that I could attempt to get out of the bed. So the first couple days, Jim did most of the diapering and bottle preparations since I was kind of tied to the bed.



While we were in the hospital, we had a lot of visitors stop by to meet Abby and Jimmy and check in on us. Jim's mom and my parents stayed at the hospital for most of the labor process (sorry guys, that was a long time!) so they were there to meet Abby and Jimmy just an hour or so after their arrival. Then thoughout the next couple days, my parents (Grandma and Grandpa Balow), Jim's mom (Grandma Frybarger), Jim's dad and step-mom (Grandpa Frybarger and Bubbe), Jenny and Ed (Aunt Jenny and Uncle Ed), Shannon, Andrea and my uncle Tim (Great Uncle Tim) stopped by to visit. It was so nice to be able to visit with everyone and to introduce them to the babies. Unfortunately, most of the time the babies were under the UV lights and weren't able to be held for too long. But we did sneak in some cuddle time for the babies! Shhh...don't tell!

Here are a couple pics of our company:













The last night we were there (Friday), Jim and I took advantage of the education opportunities the hospital provides and watched the "Happiest Baby on the Block" video on the television in the room. We learned all about the five "S"s and how to put them to good use when the babies were fussy. I can't believe how loud they want you to SSSSHHHH in the babies' ears. Oh my!

And then it happened... the day we were released. OMG - I cannot believe they let us take the babies home. We had no idea what we were doing, didn't they realize this?! We are solely responsible for these two little miracles - OMG it was scary, but oh so exciting to be going home!

Here we are on our way out!



Oh and I should mention that it is shocking all the attention that twins create . On the way out we had a ton of people point and make comments about the "twins" and even had people stop us to chat with us about them. It was only just the beginning, I have learned!