9 months!!!

Well the girls are growing up faster each month! They are now 9 months old and boy have my days been busy! I have one climbing on me now to get to the laptop so this will be a short and simple post to update everyone.

Here's what we can do!

Camryn:

• Crawl very fast!
• Pull up and stand on everything
• Stand up all on her own
• Taking 3-4 steps at a time
• Walk if you hold her hand
• Says mama all the time
• Wave bye bye

Chloe:

• Crawl very fast
• Pull up and stand on everything
• Says mama sometimes
• Wave bye bye

Chloe Update

Well, miss Chloe had a check up with the surgeon yesterday to determine if and when she would need her second heart surgery. After several tests it was determined that her re-coarctation is very mild and will not require surgery at this time!!!! We go back in 6 months to check up and see how she is doing and they took her of the blood pressure medicine since her BP has continued to stay normal! We are very excited with this news and it's exactly what we prayed for. 

8 Months!!!

I can't believe it.....Camryn and Chloe are 8 months old!!!!
Why do they have to grow so fast?!

Here's what Camryn can do:
Crawl really fast
Pull up and stand on everything!
Stand by myself for several seconds
Scream really loud!
Making all kinds of new sounds with my mouth
Wave bye bye
Clap
Walk when pushing my toy
Climb on almost anything

Here's what Chloe can do:
Scoot and almost crawl
Pull up and stand in my crib
Scream really loud
Making all kinds of new sounds and talk to my sister
Wave bye bye
Throw my ball and whatever toy I may not want


The girls are getting to be so much fun! They interact with each other so much more which I love! My favorite is when they both stand in their cribs and "talk" to each other, it melts my heart! They move so much now that changing them has become a wrestling match! Hard to put a diaper on right or button a onesie when they are flipping in all directions or trying to crawl away LOL. They are both teething now which is not so fun for mommy! Hopefully they will hurry up and cut their teeth and we can move on to the next milestone! I am still making their food which I actually enjoy because I love to cook. Next week they will be starting on chicken!

Summer is over....

Well it was a great first summer with our girls! We spent many weekends at the lake and a few trips to see family. I'm disappointed that I have not been documenting more of the special moments (even the not so special ones) so that I can always look back and remember them! So, I am starting now and hope that I can keep up with documenting them even though our life is crazy. 

 "On the pontoon"

 Visiting family in Brenham

 Billy & Sarah's wedding

 Swimming with daddy!

 At the splash pad!

 First mini boat ride (we were still docked so they didn't have their life jackets on yet)

 Hanging out with Uncle Chase!

 Swinging at the park

 New swing at the lake!

It's amazing to me how even though my girls are twins and they are only 7 months old, they have two completely different personalities. Camryn, well she is a drama queen to say the least! That girl knows how to turn the water works on when she is upset or wants something and she puckers that bottom lip out to get extra attention especially if she got hurt LOL. She is very sweet and loves to give hugs and loves to be kissed. She is our clown too. I don't know what it is about her little giggle but it's contagious and never fails to make me laugh! She loves to make sounds and has come up with some pretty interesting ones lately. For example, if you give her some cold water from a straw she makes this really funny sound where she sucks in air and acts like she has a brain freeze. She will do it before you even give her the water now LOL. We have a climber! She is obsessed with climbing on everything and it's scary. Her favorite is to climb on the bouncy seat and then stand up in it and if it's near the couch she will try to climb on the couch from it. She even tries to climb on top of the activity table but can't quite get her leg up on it yet. Needless to say Cole and I have our hands full with her alone! Camryn is a speed racer in her walker, and can navigate around just about anything in her way (even if she has to run it over). She loves to try and run over our dog and my mom's cat. Her favorite is to come in the kitchen (which is tiny) and pull my dish towel off and then leave it on the floor. Her most recent accomplishment at making a mess was pulling the small cooler bag off the bar stool (guess I shouldn't have left the strap hanging) and all of its contents (water, ice, empty baby food container, empty bottle) fell to the floor! My favorite part of all that is the simple joy that she got from stomping her feet in the water puddle LOL. 

 Look mom I can stand up!

 Climbing on top of sister...I see lots of booboos in our future with these two!

 Found the dog bowls!

Hard to see but she is stomping her feet in the water mess. (Presley is in bottom right licking up water)

Chloe is such a little sweet heart (with a little bit of diva) she loves to smile at everyone and I'm pretty sure its the cutest smile ever. The diva comes out when she doesn't get what she wants and she is a girl that know what she wants! She has to have HER wubba nub passy, I tried to replace it with the same one but an elephant instead of the caterpillar (hers was getting really dirty) and she just threw it down and cried knowing it was not hers....guess I will just have to wash hers daily! She prefers to sit back and watch everything especially what sister is doing and then she will try it herself. For example when Camryn started rolling over, Chloe would just lay there and watch her for days doing it and then one day out of nowhere Chloe started rolling over. The same with crawling, but she has difficulty holding herself up for very long because of her heart. Chloe loves animals especially dogs and will laugh and smile every time she sees one (I guess there will be puppies and kittens in our future LOL). 

 Trying to crawl!

 Love that smile!

At the lake with Neenee!

My absolute favorite time of day is the morning with my girls. I love to hear them chatting and playing on the monitor when they wake up (I let them do that for about 20 minutes) I love the big smiles when I do go in their room it makes the late nights so worth it! Camryn is usually sitting or standing in her crib so I see her first and she will usually give a little giggle then Chloe will be on all fours and she gets so excited to see me she falls over LOL. I love those moments! My next favorite would be drinking my coffee because I usually need it LOL. 

Happy Half Birthday!!!

Time is FLYING by!!!! I can not believe our girls are 6 months old now! It's been a very busy, frustrating, exciting, crazy, fun, scary, you name it 6 months.

Camryn Nicole Mulder

13 lbs 5oz

Size 2 diapers

3-6 month clothes

What I can do:

• Roll over from front to back and back to front, I even roll all over the living room!
• Sit all by myself 
• I just learned how to get up on all fours, now if I can just figure out how to crawl!
• Go backwards in her walker.
• Eat my own feet!
• Take my passy out and put it back in

What I am learning:

• Sign language so I can tell my mom and dad what I want! 
• How to sit myself up.
• How to crawl.
• How to move around with purpose in my walker.
• How to drink from a sippy cup.
• How to sleep through the night! (still wakes 1-2 times)

I Love:

• Talking in the morning.
• Being tickled.
• Going for walks in the neighborhood.
• Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
• Books
• My passy
• Putting everything in my mouth including my sisters hands and feet
• Hearing my daddy's voice
• To eat food!
• Bath time

Chloe Ann Mulder

8 lbs 12 oz

Size 1 diapers

Newborn-3 month clothes

What I can do:

• Roll over from front to back and back to front
• Sit up with my boppy pillow 
• Take my passy out and put it back in

What I am learning:

• Sign language
• How to sit up by myself
• How to drink from sippy cup
• Not a big fan of eating solids but we are working on it!
• How to crawl

I Love:

• Being lifted in the air
• Going for walks
• Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
• Books
• Watching my sister
• Being in the exercauser and walker (even though I am short and have to use a pillow to touch)
• Being held
• My passy
• My butterfly night light
• Bath time

Chloe Update

So here is the MUCH needed update! As you can only imagine I have been a bit busy....LOL. Let's start with Chloe's hospital experience.....

After 9 weeks in the NICU at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands we had her transferred to Children's Memorial Hermann Downtown for a second opinion before having a G-tube put in for her lack of eating. We just couldn't go through with that procedure without trying to figure out why she wouldn't eat!

 Chloe is all strapped in and ready for her ambulance ride downtown!

She was very excited to be going outside for the first time! 

She liked the ride so much she passed out!

After an exciting ride downtown and the new doctors evaluated her, we were all in agreement that something was going on with her and they were determined to find out what it was. After a week of evaluations and tests doctors found that she had a coarctation of the aorta. This basically means that she was born with a narrowing of the aorta and the blood was not able to flow correctly. She was having high blood pressure in her upper body and low blood pressure in her lower body which was the first sign. We are very thankful for one nurse in particular who noticed the difference in blood pressure and kept bringing it to the doctor's attention. This lead to her having an ecocardiogram which confirmed the coarctation. They found it on a monday and she was scheduled for surgery on wednesday. Cole and I didn't get any sleep the night before the surgery. The actual procedure only took about 10 minutes but the entire surgery with prep and recovery was about 4 hours. It was the longest 4 hours of my life. I couldn't help but think of all the things that could go wrong and couldn't imagine my life without Chloe. When the doctor came to talk to us and let us know the surgery went well I was so relieved!

 This is a diagram of what they did.

After surgery she went to the PICU (pediatric ICU) for 3 days. This section of the hospital is the saddest place I have seen. So many very sick children in there. It was very scary seeing Chloe after surgery since she was hooked up to so many machines. She had a breathing tube, catheter, drains, and over 15 IVs for fluids and meds. They kept her sedated until they removed the breathing tube. Once that was removed and she was able to breath on her own she looked a little better and much more comfortable.

This is a couple of days after surgery and she looks so much better!

Mulder Family Update

It has been forever since I updated the blog and I am sure many of you are wondering what's going on in our little world! Since I am home sick today and can't go to hospital I figured I would make myself useful and do some blogging! The girls are almost 2 MONTHS old! Man does time fly.

Camryn Update:

She is such a little character! She grunts a lot and is now making lots of new sounds. She is pretty much a good baby and really only cries when she is hungry, tired, or dirty. She is our baby on the go since she has had to travel back and forth to the hospital with me since the day we were released from hospital. She loves to move and ride in the car. Camryn gets very bored fast though so we are constantly moving from swing to bouncy seat to tummy time on mat to rock n play chair or being held. She is great at breastfeeding and has pretty much stuck to the 3 hour schedule! (We are doing the Baby Wise and it seems to work) She has her 2 month doctor visit next week so I will update on her stats then.

2 Days old!

 Leaving hospital (only to return that night to see Chloe)

 Sweet girl

 Easter 2012

Chloe Update:

Chloe is our little sweetheart. She is the most patient little thing, just sits quietly waiting for nurses to start her feedings. She is very alert and will just look at you while talking to her. She loves to look out the window in the NICU and will do so for hours! The nurses there just love her and can't believe how grown up she is for her size. She has much better head control than Camryn and will follow sounds much better. Chloe is battling with severe reflux which causes so much pain and she has developed oral aversion because of it so she now refuses to breastfeed, bottle feed or even take passy. She will be transferred to Children's Memorial Hermann Downtown on Monday for additional tests and evaluation to see what our next step should be. I will update on her status once she is moved.

 First time to hold her!

 Tiny little angel!

They are here!!!

Our sweet baby girls are finally here!

Camryn Nicole Mulder
Born at 12:56 p.m.
5lbs 11 oz
19 inches

Chloe Ann Mulder
Born at 12:57 p.m.
2lbs 15oz
14 inches

The c-section was a little scarier than I had thought or prepared for but I made it through. I could not believe the overwhelming happiness and love I felt for them as soon as I heard their cries and saw them for the first time. I spent 4 hours in recovery and Camryn was there with me but Chloe was in NICU so I was so anxious to go see her. Finally they wheeled me into NICU to see her but I was unable to hold her  until the next day. We had so many wonderful visitors over the next 5 days in the hospital!

Tomorrow is the day!!!!

Well, my blood work and urine came back showing early onset of preeclampsia so doctors have decided to deliver tomorrow at 12:00 p.m.!!! I will be 36 weeks exactly which is an accomplishment for twins! I am very nervous but excited to meet our girls finally! Please pray that surgery goes well and that we have two healthy babies! We will try to keep the blog updated and pictures. 

Still Cooking!

Well, I am very thrilled that we have made it this far with the girls!!! I am almost 36 weeks which is full term for twins. We are hoping to make it to 37 weeks since our doctor is out of town until then and of course that gives them some more time to grow. I have been put on "modified" bed rest until they arrive which has been kind of boring. I can still get out of house and get up to do things but suppose to take it easy and no work. I have been pretty lazy and spent most of the time on the couch with my feet up watching movies and posting on Pinterest :). I am still having contractions but they have actually got better since being on bed rest so I have not had to take the terbutaline as much. My hubby has been amazing and I am thankful he has been able to take care of me! My mom has been such a big help too and I know I will be relying on her for a lot more help once they are here. We are pretty lucky to have family so close. We go back to doctor on Monday and see specialist again on Thursday. Hoping for all good news and these two stay put for a few more weeks!

Birthday & Babies Shower

Our wonderful friends gave us a couples shower to celebrate the babies and Cole's birthday! We had a great time and are so lucky to have such wonderful friends!!!