Lilly's Swim Team Banquet

The evening after I came home from the hospital was Lilly's swim team banquet at the pool. It was a beautiful night and I took her so she could celebrate her first season on the swim team. She had soooo much fun and partied on into the later half of the 9 o'clock hour! They had a DJ and played games to start off the night (along with dinner).

Lilly won the Pretty Princess Award because she wore princess bathing suits.
*Let's just agree I won't write much more here since I ran home to put Ella to bed and feed the boys and missed this part of the night. The MOST IMPORTANT part of the night. I still haven't recovered and every time I think of it I cry. At least I left my camera and Kristen knew I would die and ran over to take these pictures.*

*Ok, one more thing... I swear I can tell on her face that she felt abandoned. Add in the part where she said, "I was sad because you left me." Ok, I'm done talking about this.
isn't good for my keyboard.*

After dinner and awards she danced the night away!

Lilly had the time of her life! Loud music and dancing? Perfect for this girl of ours. She even slept in the next morning which is unheard of for her little body.

We're so proud of you Lilly! You've become a little fish.

Going Home

I chose to come home from the hospital a couple of days early. There were many reasons for my decision but mostly I missed my girls and Andy and I was having to rely on the nurses a lot since Andy had to be home with the girls. It's very hard sitting in a hospital bed after surgery and having 2 crying babies that you cannot stand up to help soothe. At home we are able to better care for everyone.

Since I came home on day 2, I waited until late afternoon to leave. I had the room cleaned, my bags packed (and some sent home with a friend), and the boys dressed. We were ready to go!

Here they are waiting for Daddy and the girls to arrive.

The lighting was very poor since it was pouring outside but here they are in their 'going home' outfits. They are not orange in real life.

The lady who came to wheel me out of the hospital was insane. Really, she was. I hardly had time to snap a picture so this is all we have to share...

I ended up getting out of the wheelchair and ditching the lady while she called her supervisor to tell him I had abandoned ship. But like I said, she was seriously insane and if I didn't get out and walk the rest of the way I was going to stroke out. It was better for everyone.

I am going through pictures from my camera so I have some more backdated blogs to post! I'm so glad we're home! Today the boys are 6 days old. Woo hoo!

Calm

We're home and life is getting back to normal! I will say it's near impossible to find time to write a blog post and I will keep it short as Lilly is begging me to hold her.

It sure is an adjustment going from 2 to 4 kids but I do see the light! The boys are great and easy at this point. The hardest part is feeding them since I am nursing and right now I am feeding someone every single hour...

The girls love their brothers and give them lots of love and kisses which is a huge relief and so sweet!

We have been blessed by the generosity of so many friends who have brought us meals and I am still so grateful to friends who came and helped me in the hospital. It was much harder recovering from a c section while Andy had to be home with the girls. One of my visitors was my good friend Lisa. She spent several hours with me and while she was there we snapped pictures of the boys. Lisa's pictures turned out much better than mine! She has a Nikon (I was torn between which camera to get!) and she has a gift with natural light! I love this picture that she took:

It is much better than the bright forced light from one of mine:

(Luke on left, Gabe on right)

It has been very difficult for me to tell who is who but I finally have it straight. In fact, we still have their hospital bands on just in case we get confused! They say "Baby A" and "Baby B" so we can double-check. We will cut them off shortly as I think we're sure now who is who.

The New Six Pack

We started our day with a kiss. I'm pretty sure Lilly knows that life is never going to be the same.

And then we were delayed. Many of you were aware thanks to Kristin's Blackberry.

At 10:45 AM it was Kristin's turn. I believe this picture says it all... anxiety. Little does Kristin know that I got all choked up waiting anxiously to see how the spinal went and how the whole procedure was going to turn out.

Kristin was feeling "groovy." Not "loopy." GROOVY!!! This is what the doctor said most women feel (groovy) but I think Kristin would beg to differ.

At 11:42, Gabriel Richard Davis came into the world. He is 20 inches long and weighs 6 pounds 7 ounces. Did I mention that Luke William Davis was born first at 11:39 AM? Luke is 19 and 3/4 inches long and weighs 6 pounds 8 ounces.


The Davis BOYS!!!
"Oh crap! What did we do?" said Kristin as the doctors and nurses were yanking Gabriel and Luke from her belly. I remember her asking, "Andy can we try for a boy? Just one more."

I hope you enjoyed my little post. The six-pack picture will be coming soon :-)

36 Hours

As I sit here tonight all I can think about is how drastically our lives will be changing in just 36 hours. Today was a day of so many emotions. At approximately 10 a.m. on Friday morning we will welcome Luke and Gabriel into our family. I have been overcome with tears most of the day. I am scared, anxious, excited, nervous, and every other emotion under the sun. I do not want to have surgery but I know that's out of my hands. I am torn between relishing in the last "peaceful" 36 hours and frantically trying to squeeze in anything and everything that needs to be done and time with our girls all alone before their lives are disrupted.

I'm overcome with guilt which is my very own issue and one that I've always struggled with. Lilly is showing signs of anxiety over the boys' arrival and Ella will definitely have a hard time with my absence. Their lives are moving along so smoothly and happily and I feel like I'm throwing a dagger right into their calm. I know in time they will love having a large family but for now they're little and this will be a big change.
I wish I could stop obsessing and worrying.

I have never been a fan of the unknown. I don't know anything about having surgery. I don't want to leave my girls. I don't want to stay in the hospital. I don't want to be in pain. I don't know how we'll juggle the weekend or how our girls will handle the events. I'm scared of having two babies and I'm scared of the weeks ahead and how I'll manage it all.

But in 36 hours, whether I'm ready or not, we're having two more babies who I know will bring immense joy and love into our already very happy family.

I also know in the days ahead I will be lifted of the pain I've been experiencing and will start to feel like myself again.

We will keep everyone posted with the arrivals on Friday morning. Any prayers you can spare would be greatly appreciated!

Quality Time

When Ella naps I try to spend special 1 on 1 time with Lilly. Sometimes we watch a movie and cuddle, sometimes we play memory (I have no memory so she always wins), sometimes we eat lunch and talk, and other times we do "homework."
Lilly loves homework.

She knows the alphabet and the sounds the letters make, she knows most numbers, and she's starting to sound words out and make sense of the order of the letters in a word. The other day I said to Andy, "Do you want to take her to the p-o-o-l?" and she said, "Yeah, I want to go to the pool!" It's fun to watch her learn and love to learn.

Mouth

It seems like yesterday that we were visiting our friends Mike and Stephanie on Easter Sunday when Lilly fell up their basement steps and bit through both sides of her tongue. She was 2 year's old.

Today, Ella fell down our kitchen/family room step and bit through 2 spots on her tongue. Thankfully I had prior experience!

She was so brave. The mouth/tongue bleeds A LOT and it's scary to watch all the blood gush out. Lilly was very upset for her baby sister.
Ella chilled out with a few popsicles.

She even showed me her boo-boo when I asked. Sweet girl.

Trix

Ella has a sweet tooth like her daddy. Lilly is more like me and likes carbs and salty treats. Today I gave Ella dry Cheerios for breakfast and she was not happy. She opened the cereal cabinet and helped herself to what she really wanted.

We compromised and mixed the Cheerios and Trix.
Everyone was happy.

Babies

Today I had my final doctor's appointment for this pregnancy. I am officially overdue with the twins and they scheduled me to have a c-section on Friday, July 23. I must have a rubber uterus.

I have to have a c-section since both babies are breech. I am not looking forward to surgery and I wish they'd just knock me out.

I would be blogging and picture-taking more if I wasn't 2,461 pounds.

Lilly learned how to jump off the diving board during her Training Squad practice.
I was a nervous wreck! She was cautious walking to the end of the board.

But of course she did it!

My cell phone camera has a delay so I never could get a mid-air shot.

Yay Lilly!

35 Weeks Pregnant

These will, most likely, be the last photos taken or posted of me pregnant.
This is purely for documentation purposes only.
I want the boys to know what they did to me.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. I am.

I am what you call massive.
Huge. Humongo. Colossal. Enormous. Mammoth. Oversized. Gargantuan.
I could go on for days.
I'm big.
Let's leave it at that.

And there are no signs of impending labor. My uterus is strong; very strong. It keeps babies in until the end. Yay me!

At this time the boys are each approximately 6 lbs according to the latest measurements and they are both breech which means they will have to arrive via c-section which I am not thrilled about. But it's out of my hands.

Say goodbye to my body forever. It will never ever recover.

Happy 4th of July!