The Many Faces of Matthew

This morning I tried to take some pictures of Matthew, but our little boy is quite the wiggler!  We have nicknamed him Mr. Wiggles because of this.  He is our mover, especially when he gets excited and the smiles start coming.  When he smiles his arms start going and legs start kicking!  Many of his pictures ended up with goofy Matt faces because he would move before I could quick snap his smiles.  The ones I got with a smile ended up blurry.  I guess you get what you can get when taking babies' pictures.

We love Matt's dimples.

I LOVE to move my arms around!

He has the biggest smiles and his whole face lights up.

Sticking out my tongue!

So excited!

I look like my sister, Kate, in this one!

What a little cutie!

and...now I'm asleep, Mom!

Smiles

Need a Monday pick me up.....

Such a happy little girl in the morning!

This little smile melts my heart!

Funny faces!

I hope Kate's smiles helped to brighten your day as you begin your work week. :)

Seeing Great Faces and Fun Places

Yesterday, the twins, my friend Lindsay, and I had a great day venturing out of the house.  Our first trip was to the hospital unit where I stayed on bed rest.  My home away from home. :)  I wanted to visit with my nurse friends and show them Katherine and Matthew. 

Nurses Julie and Maureen - two awesome ladies I had as my regular nurses.  If they were working they were usually my nurses!  I enjoyed our wonderful talks.  Many times I would ask, "Julie, I'm bored...can you play a game with me?  Oh wait, I forgot, you have to work."  Or I loved it when Maureen would take her break and eat her lunch or supper in my room.  It was so nice to have conversation during a meal.

Connie - she was a blast.  We had a lot of fun laughing while she was trying to monitor Baby A's and B's heartbeats.  Laughing only makes it harder for her to monitor.  For some reason the twins loved to move around when it was her turn to monitor.  Baby boy, or "Flash Special Forces" as we called him, was always hiding or wiggling away. 

Julie, Krista, and Sue - another great group of nurses who helped make my stay a fun one. Krista was in charge of weighing me every week. The dreaded weigh in Monday!

I had so much fun visiting my friends. These ladies are an amazing group of women and nurses. The staff at United really helped to make my long stay as wonderful and positive as possible. Every day I looked forward to our conversations and joking around. We had some great times!! Kevin and I would agree we couldn't have asked for a better group of ladies to care for me and the babies. I miss seeing you ladies everyday, but I definitely don't miss lying in bed. I liked seeing the nurses as visitor in regular clothes who could walk around. :)

Next the four of us went to the Mall of America because I had some items to exchange and shop for.  I decided not to bring my double stroller and rent a cart/stroller at MOA.  Big Mistake!  Caring in the car seats from the parking ramp to guest services and back was quite the haul.  Next time the stroller will be a much easier task. 

Little Miss Kate the shopping Diva!

Mr. Matt shopping with the ladies. What a lucky guy!

Mommy and Lindsay might of had too much fun.

We stopped for lunch at the food court and feed Kate and Matt.  We're getting pretty good feeding babies where ever.

Lindsay and Kate

 Mommy and Matty

Shopping with these ladies wears me out!

Finding good deals can really tire a shopper out!

Literally the twins have "shopped to you drop!"  Such sleeping babies!

Finally back to blogging!

I apologize for my lack of postings on our blog.  Life as a mommy these past three months have been a whirlwind but a fun whirlwind of events.  Kevin and I have learned a lot about how to care for two new babies.  When I think back to how scared I was holding our small, tiny babies in the NICU to where we are now....wow, crazy!  We have learned the art of caring two at once, feeding both at the same time, trying to help calm two crying babies, and the life of eating every 3 hours.  I feel now that Kate and Matt are 3 months old we have started to feel more like we have formed a good routine and schedule.  The twins still eat every 3 hours during the day, but at night they have been great troupers for us - stretching 7 and sometimes 8 hours!  Now I feel like we can at least get a good decent amount of hours of sleep in a row in one night.  Sleep is amazing!  Our first night home with both Kate and Matt we didn't fall asleep until 6:30 a.m. the next morning.  Very long night!  Kevin was suppose to go to work that next day...ummm, that didn't happen! :)  Raising multiplies definitely makes getting a lot of sleep a challenge.  Kevin and I are both having to get up for every feeding through the night since we want to keep Kate and Matt on the same feeding schedule.  Unlike with one baby where you can take turns and let the other spouse get a longer stretch of sleep time.  This was the worst when having to feed every 3 hours throughout the night.  It was a huge milestone for us when the doctor said at their 2 month appointment we could now stretch the babies to 4 hours at night!

We can't complain about our two new additions.  God has given us wonderful babies!  Katherine and Matthew are very happy, easy going, and well tempered kiddos.  They are very patient with their first time parents. :)

Every month it is fun to see the new milestones they are hitting.  I know it's only been three months, but when I look at their newborn/1st month pictures it's hard for me to remember them that small.  When we brought Matt home he was wearing a green, stripped lion sleeper that he was swimming in.  Now, today I packed up his newborn sleepers to make room for 0-3 months clothes.  It was hard to say good-bye to Katherine and Matthew's preemie and newborn clothes because that was all I was use to seeing them in since day one.

To catch you up to current day, I am going to do several different posts of fun events with the twins over the past three months.  I'll start with the day they entered our world - 2/27/11.  I was 33 weeks and 6 days.  The last day on my paper chain I had in my hospital room!

February 27, 2011 - We've arrived!

Sunday, February 27, will definitely be a day to remember. A day that completely changed our lives...for the better! A day we had been praying about for so long. We were so thankful to have delivered two healthy babies for their gestation.

At 12:00 a.m. on Sunday, February 27, 2011 my water broke.  Kevin was at home for the day and had just gotten back to my hospital room 15 minutes before my water broke.  This is me just wheeled into my new Labor and Delivery room.

The new parents-to-be getting ready to leave for the delivery room.  I had to deliver in the operating room just in case I had to have an emergency c-section and because there were so many nurses and doctors that needed to be at the delivery.  Thank goodness both babies cooperated for mommy and I was able to deliver naturally.

Getting to hold Katherine Ilene Willms for the first time.  She was born first at 6:16 p.m.  Such an emotional moment for mommy and daddy!

And then two minutes later Mr. Matthew Edward Willms arrived at 6.18 p.m.  Here's proud dad getting to hold Matt for the first time after he was checked out by all of the nurses.

Hello world...meet Miss Katherine Ilene!  Kate's middle name, Ilene, is named after Kevin's grandma Ilene Bernhardt.  She also happens to be a twin as well. :)

Matthew Edward getting examined by the NICU nurses and doctors right after delivery.  Matthew's middle name, Edward, is after Kevin's grandpa Edward Willms. 

The new Willms family of 4.  We love this first family photo because you can see the time on the clock in the background on the wall. 

 There were a lot of nurses and doctors in the delivery room.  Ones for me and ones for both Katherine and Matthew.  We were very thankful for the awesome staff of doctors and nurses we had - they did such a great job taking care of our babies and helping the delivery go smoothly.

The twins were then taken together in an isolate to the Level Three NICU.  Kevin followed Katherine and Matthew while I stayed and recovered back in Labor and Delivery room.

Matthew in the NICU

Matthew

Katherine getting hooked up to all of the monitors in the NICU.

Poor Kate and Matt - they were poked and proded by so many nurses. 

After 2 hours in recovery I got to stop at the NICU to see the twins while on my way back to my room.  Mommy is getting to hold her new baby son for the first time.  Unfortunately, only Kevin and I were able to hold the babies while they were in their isolates. 

Little Miss Kate in momma's arms

The proud father and his baby boy!

Daddy and his little girl

Matt had to have an IV in his head...no fun little buddy!

I can't believe it has been three months since this amazing day.  I would like to say thanks to my parents, Kevin's parents, Michael (my brother), and Kelly (my sister) for making the trip up on the day Katherine and Matthew were born to share in the joy with us.  You were great troupers for hanging at the hospital from 3 a.m. until 6 in the evening when our two little miracles were finally born. 

Also, we want to thank our family and friends for all of your support and prayers for our babies while I was on bed rest.  God has definitely shown us the power of prayer in times of hardship.  So far the time in the hospital has been the hardest trial for Kevin and me.  But we look at it as just a small bump in the road in the whole scheme of things.  God has has proved to us he doesn't give you more than you can handle.  He has a greater plan for Katherine and Matthew.

First Family Photo

We thought we would share our first family photo, with the babies about 5 minutes old.  Mom is holding Katherine Ilene, and Dad is holding Matthew Edward.

Both babies are still in the NICU but are doing really well.

We will post more pictures eventually... this really isn't Dad's thing.