Kennedy Brynn
Kamryn Bailey
Today is my due date and we are celebrating it WITH our 11 week 1 day old twins. YAY!!! When I think of all the different ways things could have gone I realize just how truly blessed I am that all turned out well. God is so good !!!! It’s hard to believe I would be carrying around 14 POUNDS of baby had I made it to my due date. Yep, that’s right…the girls are now a whopping 7lbs each! Kennedy has been home for 29 days and Kamryn has been home for 11 days. The grace that God has shown to our family is mind blowing!
I can hardly remember life before we found out we were possibly pregnant with momo twins. It felt like the longest pregnancy in the world but in reality it was kind of a quick whirlwind pregnancy. We had so many doctors appointments, meetings with genetics counselors and specialists, trips to the lab, etc. Then of course there was the LONG inpatient stay. Before I got pregnant with Kai and the twins I had often heard stories about woman who had overcome all these odds to bring a child in to the world. I had heard about long bed rests, inpatient stays, lots of medication, shots, etc, etc, etc. I always thought to myself , “Wow, I could never handle something like that.” Well, I guess God decided to prove me wrong (lol!) because now I am one of those women and I am proud to be one!. I don’t think there is any greater motivation than the health of your children…with a pregnancy like this you really learn what you are made of. Everything I went through to get these girls here was so worth it and of course I would do it 10 times over if that’s what God wanted me to do. Luckily once they are here that’s that and I don’t have to do it 10 more times lol! Of course I did not make it this far alone…without God and the support of all of my family and friends I never would have made it. I truly believe that! If I ever come across anyone who doubts the sheer awesomeness of God I have two things to show them….1) picture of my girls’ umbilical chords tied in 7 knots and 2)a picture of my girls today….enough said!
So now we enter the wonderful world of Adjusted Age. This is the calculation used to assess the girls’ development so today they are officially 1 day old. As I am sure you have figured out you just subtract 11 weeks from their actual age and you get the adjusted age. So, if a full term baby is supposed to master a developmental skill at say 3 months old, we can expect our girls to master it at about 6 months old. Research shows that most preemies catch up to their full term counterparts at age 2 and then we will stop using adjusted age. Since they were so early they will be tracked by the High Risk Neonatal Clinic through Kaiser and we will have lots of follow up visits to track their progress. So far the neonatologists they have seen don’t anticipate any long term negative effects from being born at 29 weeks (hallelujah!). Their actual age will be used for all medical related things like immunizations and medication.
I am eternally grateful to you all for all of your prayers and support through this journey and now that the girls are home I ask you to pray even more. We will need it as we learn to be parents of 3 GIRLS!!!! The nurses in the NICU who had older children all said, “If you think this is hard, just wait until your girls are 16 and you are handing them the keys to the car”. I can’t even bring myself to think about the teenage years quite yet…after all I do teach high school so I see things on a daily basis that I don’t want my daughters to ever do lol!!!!
So…here are the new prayer requests. Thank you so much!
-Please pray that the girls continue to gain weight.
-Please pray that the transition to all formula goes smoothly and the girls are able to tolerate it.
-Please pray that the girls’ H&H levels continue to rise so they can be healed from their anemia.
-Please pray that the girls’ hernia’s self resolve and do not require surgery.
-Please pray for health for our household.
I can hardly remember life before we found out we were possibly pregnant with momo twins. It felt like the longest pregnancy in the world but in reality it was kind of a quick whirlwind pregnancy. We had so many doctors appointments, meetings with genetics counselors and specialists, trips to the lab, etc. Then of course there was the LONG inpatient stay. Before I got pregnant with Kai and the twins I had often heard stories about woman who had overcome all these odds to bring a child in to the world. I had heard about long bed rests, inpatient stays, lots of medication, shots, etc, etc, etc. I always thought to myself , “Wow, I could never handle something like that.” Well, I guess God decided to prove me wrong (lol!) because now I am one of those women and I am proud to be one!. I don’t think there is any greater motivation than the health of your children…with a pregnancy like this you really learn what you are made of. Everything I went through to get these girls here was so worth it and of course I would do it 10 times over if that’s what God wanted me to do. Luckily once they are here that’s that and I don’t have to do it 10 more times lol! Of course I did not make it this far alone…without God and the support of all of my family and friends I never would have made it. I truly believe that! If I ever come across anyone who doubts the sheer awesomeness of God I have two things to show them….1) picture of my girls’ umbilical chords tied in 7 knots and 2)a picture of my girls today….enough said!
So now we enter the wonderful world of Adjusted Age. This is the calculation used to assess the girls’ development so today they are officially 1 day old. As I am sure you have figured out you just subtract 11 weeks from their actual age and you get the adjusted age. So, if a full term baby is supposed to master a developmental skill at say 3 months old, we can expect our girls to master it at about 6 months old. Research shows that most preemies catch up to their full term counterparts at age 2 and then we will stop using adjusted age. Since they were so early they will be tracked by the High Risk Neonatal Clinic through Kaiser and we will have lots of follow up visits to track their progress. So far the neonatologists they have seen don’t anticipate any long term negative effects from being born at 29 weeks (hallelujah!). Their actual age will be used for all medical related things like immunizations and medication.
I am eternally grateful to you all for all of your prayers and support through this journey and now that the girls are home I ask you to pray even more. We will need it as we learn to be parents of 3 GIRLS!!!! The nurses in the NICU who had older children all said, “If you think this is hard, just wait until your girls are 16 and you are handing them the keys to the car”. I can’t even bring myself to think about the teenage years quite yet…after all I do teach high school so I see things on a daily basis that I don’t want my daughters to ever do lol!!!!
So…here are the new prayer requests. Thank you so much!
-Please pray that the girls continue to gain weight.
-Please pray that the transition to all formula goes smoothly and the girls are able to tolerate it.
-Please pray that the girls’ H&H levels continue to rise so they can be healed from their anemia.
-Please pray that the girls’ hernia’s self resolve and do not require surgery.
-Please pray for health for our household.
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