Purcell Family Visit

We had a wonderful time this holiday weekend with a full house of people who were excited to meet the boys!  We had a full weekend with lots of fun and family time!  Joel arrived on Thursday night, and stayed all the way through Tuesday.  Drew, Keri and Jack came in on Friday afternoon and left early Monday morning.  It was such a joy to see them meet the boys for the first time!

Aunt Keri holds Landon for the first time!

Uncle Drew took on Jordan at first

Jack with his baby cousins

Cousin Jack loved the cupcakes Grandma made

Jack was so sweet to his baby cousins.  He figured out quickly who was who by the hat colors and enjoyed rubbing the boy's bellies.  He was very gentle, and I can tell he will be an awesome big cousin to them!  Jack also enjoyed spending time with Aspen, and I think Aspen finally got a lot of attention (like he was used to before the boys came home!)

The boys got to go for lots of walks in the stroller, and enjoyed being loved and held by everyone here.  The big boys went to the USA/Turkey game on Saturday, and they had a great time tailgating and cheering on the USA team to a victory!

Silly men

Ready to go to the game

On Sunday, the girls went for pedicures, then Grandmom and Grandpa Schmidt came over to babysit while the crew all went out to dinner in Doylestown.  Then we took some fun family pics that we'll treasure forever!  Jack did a great job holding his cousins! 

Landon Jack and Jordan

The whole crew!

After, we walked over to Adam and Lyndsay's for some icecream!  Needless to say, it was a busy, fun filled weekend!

Mom and Dad Purcell leave tomorrow morning to go home to Kentucky.  We are so sad to see them go, and are more than grateful for all the help they have been these past couple weeks!  The boys will miss being held and loved by them, and I'm sure Grandma and Pop-Pop will be back back very soon!

First Pediatrician Appointment

We went to PPA today for our first appointment.  The boys did an amazing job and the Dr. was extremely happy with their progress and growth.  Jordan weighed in at 4 lbs 14 oz, and Landon tipped the scales at 5 lbs 1 oz.  I am told that they would like to see babies back to birth weight by 2 weeks of age, so at 11 days, they are way ahead of the game!

This also means that we can soon get rid of the car beds that they had to ride home from the hospital in.  We are excited to have the boys in 'regular' car seats where we can look in the back seat and see their little faces!! 

I feel so blessed that they are growing so well and are so healthy.  It's hard being a first time mom knowing whether or not they are eating enough and if I am doing the right things.  Today was a huge relief and it makes me so happy and proud!

Eric is working 2nd shift this week so he can be home at night with us.  He is so sacrificing as he is missing the Flyers game tonight (it's the Stanley cup qualifier, and he is the biggest Flyers fan I know).  What an awesome daddy!  I'm amazed with how well he is doing with them, and love to watch him just look at them and love them!  I can already tell that they light up when he walks in the room... so fun to see!

We are so excited to have the Purcell side of the family coming to visit this weekend.  Uncle Drew, Aunt Keri, cousin Jack and Uncle Joel will be around, and we are so looking forward to it!  The boys are headed down to the USA/Turkey soccer game on Saturday, and the girls might have a spa day on Sunday!  We can't wait to have everyone here to meet the boys!!

Anniversary and Visitors

We had a wonderful anniversary yesterday.  We were able to get out and go to dinner, then meet Adam and Lyndsay for ice cream after.  It was nice having babysitters, and Grandma and Pop-Pop Purcell did an excellent job with the boys!  They were fed and clean when we got home, so what else could we ask for??

When we got home, we took a couple of pictures with the boys.  It's nice to have a picture of everyone!  Teva also got us some pretty nice gifts, so we had to take a picture of the boys with the TEVA sign.

Eric Mangin also came to visit.  Even though he has 4 kids of his own, he was still pretty tense holding the tiny boys :)

Then today Monica came to visit, and as you can see Kira and Callen got to see the boys through the window!  We are waiting a couple more weeks to have kids around since the boys haven't had shots and are just so little.  We can't risk having germs around quite yet!

Our First Bath!

Well, the boys have been home for a couple days, and we felt it was time for the first bath!  They have both lost the umbilical cords already, but we still opted for the sponge bath for the first experience.  We decided to have Eric do Landon first, then I took on Jordan.  It was a good decision since Eric 'didn't know' the water needed to be warm.  He washed poor little Landon with what he called 'room temp' water, which I thought was WAYY too cold!  I guess he's a first timer, so we can't get too upset!  Landon decided to spray in the middle, and we weren't ready for that either!!  Needless to say, Landon screamed the whole time, but after getting dressed and bundled, he was as happy as can be!

Daddy and Landon

Landon getting all soapy

Daddy.. it's cold!!!

All dry and happy with Pop-Pop

Mommy cleaning up Jordan

He's so little!!

Jordan getting nice and dry

What a sweet boy!

Now we can lay with daddy... it's all over!

Today is our 6 year wedding anniversary.  Eric and I are going to go out to dinner and celebrate while Grandma Purcell and Pop-Pop get to spend some quality time with the boys!  We'll see how it goes with our first hours away from the boys together!  We're hoping to get some family pics too since we don't have any pictures with the four of us yet!

Welcome Home Precious Angels - Happy One Week Birthday!

Jordan was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday, so we all finally got to come home!  Grandma and Grandpa Purcell were there to help us all get home!  The boys had to ride in car beds instead of regular car seats since they are below 5 lbs.  Then we had an exciting 24 hours.  See some pictures below! 

The boys had a great night, and even slept for some pretty long stretches.  Eric arrived back from his trip to Denver at 2:30 AM, just in time for the first feeding.  Then they slept until 6:15!  What little angels.  It was so nice to be home and sleep in my own bed.  We are hoping for many more nights like this.

Jordan Mommy Landon

Aspen Greeting the boys!

After that, it was time to try out some of the new toys. We really liked the bouncy seats! (Landon and Jordan)

Then Aunt Lyndsay and Uncle Adam came as our first visitors. We really love them and spending time as the center of attention! Uncle Adam liked holding us together, and we liked it too!

Aspen, Uncle Adam and Jordan

Uncle Adam and Jordan

Aunt Lyndsay and Landon

Landon Uncle Adam and Jordan

Landon and Jordan - Time for a break!

Grandma bought us snuggly halo sacks to help us with our temperature control.

The nurse weighed us - Landon 4 lbs 9 oz (same as birth weight a 1 week old)

Jordan weighed 4 lbs 8 oz

Daddy bought us these cool chairs - and the hats were a gift.  They will become hankercheifs for our weddings some day!  (Very cool idea!)

Jordan so cute in his hat!

Landon hanging out on the chair

Jordan was awake, Landon chose to sleep

We went for our first walk as a family!  (don't worry, it was very short since we are only a week old, and Mommy is still healing)

After the walk, it was time for another break!

Heat Lamps and Hospitals

Well, Jordan has still had difficulty with his temperature, so he's spending the day under the heat lamp.  He will be there until Tuesday morning, then he has to maintain his body heat for 24 hours.  This means the earliest we can all go home is Wednesday morning.  Daddy had a business trip to Denver for some training, and since we are stuck at Grandview and we have Grandma and Grandpa Purcell around to help, it made sense for him to go.  He just left today and we already can't wait for him to get back and see how big the boys are!!

Jordan hanging out in the warmer (all day today)

He looks pretty cute, and they let him lay on the fleece blanket I made him!

Landon is chilling while he waits for his brother to come for a visit

And he has some pretty sweet moves for a 5 day old!

Aunt Monica came to visit today and brought us dinner.  Other than that we had a nice relaxing day which even included a nap!  Hoping for another good day tomorrow where Jordan can maintain his temperature, and we can prepare for our venture home!  We can't wait to see how Aspen welcomes the boys to our home!

Homeward Bound??

Well, we thought we were going home today, but unfortunently, Jordan was not able to keep his temp up.  It's a common problem for smaller babies, so not anything to be too worried about, but the CHOP doctors wanted to keep an eye on him for 24 more hours to make sure he can maintain a temp of at least 97.7.  They were nice enough to let us stay with Jordan, so Landon and I are technically 'discharged', but squatting in our private room in the corner of the community hospital (I'm kinda worried about the bill with all my experience with insurance companies.. I kinda feel an appeal coming on :) We are hoping to go home tomorrow, as long as Jordan can keep up his temp.  I'll let you know and share some pics when we do go home!

The last 5 days have been the most incredible days of my life.  There have been so many amazing experiences and realizations we have had, and meeting the boys has been beyond description.  I didn't know a love this deep was possible, and the more I get to know them, the deeper it goes.  They are doing so well, and I can't get enough of them.

Overall they have lost weight, which is totally normal for newborns, but with them being under 5 lbs, it does seem a little more scary.  Landon got down to 4 lbs 3 oz, and Jordan's low was 4 lbs 5 oz, but incredibly, they have both gained weight in the past 24 hours.  They are nursing incredibly well, and I'm so impressed that babies this small know exactly what to do.

We are more excited than we've ever been to take them home and start our lives together.  The introduction of the boys to Aspen will be so fun, and seeing how they do once we don't have an army of nurses will be interesting :) 

I am healing well, and came through the C-Section with flying colors.  I am feeling strong, and don't even feel like I had major surgery just a couple days ago.

Thanks to Monica who took all the incredible pictures and posted them so quickly to the blog so everyone could meet the boys!  Please don't expect the same quality from me as I have no idea how she did half the stuff that is on there now :)  She will be doing more photo shoots for us, I'm sure though, so expect to see some really good pics at some point, and know they aren't from us!

We did finally buy a new camera, and there are over 300 pics on there that I need to figure out how to share (and figure out how to even pick the best ones), but until then, here are some pics from today and yesteray :)  They are changing everyday, and I honestly usually think that newborns look more like aliens, but somehow my boys don't :)  That's obviously a mother's perspective, but I hope you enjoy the pics!! 

Landon on the left, Jordan on the right all bundled up to keep up his temp!

Landon on the left, Jordan all bundled on the right!

Aunt Lyndsay graduated today with her Masters!!!  Way to go Aunt Lynds... we love you!

Snuggling in the crib together (Landon left, Jordan right)

Snuggle bunnies.. they love staring at each other!

Landon is 'discharged'.. he loves wearing his own clothes!

Thanks so much for all the prayers and support through this pregnancy and delivery!  We are excited to continue to share our joy and updates with all of you!