6 months

It's incredible how little we've documented the boys life since they entered our world 6 months ago. We have a ton of pictures and I kept a pretty regular journal while visiting the boys in the NICU for close to three months. Sadly those things never made it here. But now I am a stay at home mom so I should have plenty of time to keep up with these sorts of things, right?

Life with twins is unlike any thing I could have imagined or prepared myself for. However, I would gladly do it again. For all the stories I've heard about life with twins these boys have been incredibly good to us. Of course it gets a little crazy when you're feeding and changing babies multiple times in the night and trying to teach a baby to sleep through the night when the other one is screaming. I love it though and it hasn't been as hard as I told myself it would be.

It helps to keep them on a pretty tight schedule. The NICU helped regulate their eating and sleeping times. They eat every four hours and usually take about three naps. They are doing really well putting themselves to sleep and we don't usually have any problems at night or for naps. They usually wake up once at night but for the most part sleep from 8 to about 8 or 8:30. This past week however, they have been waking up almost every two hours. Hopefully they can figure it out again and get back to normal. During the day we keep busy reading, singing, going for walks, occasional visit to Dad downtown for lunch, and just taking care of their everyday needs. It's amazing how quickly the day goes by.

The boys have done exceptionally well catching up in weight. At their six month appointment they were in the 70th percentile for weight but 3rd for height. Grant is now a little over 20 lbs. and Reid is not far behind at 19 lbs 6 oz. They are no longer being measured on the preemie charts which doesn't often happen this soon. Reid and Grant love to eat and we can't believe they have come so far. We remember the feedings in the NICU when we would struggle for half an hour for them to get through 40 ml. Developmentally they are still behind. We've seen a number of specialists since coming home: an optometrist, a pulmonologist every month for RSV shots, a cardiologist to check the PDAs they had at birth, ENT and audiologist to check Grant's hearing, and a developmental specialists. They have been given pretty much a clean bill of health by all the doctors but we will continue to see the developmental specialists until the boys catch up to where they should be.

They are babbling and laughing at us. Grant is especially talkative and is always trying to talk to Reid. Reid doesn't always respond but when he does it is the cutest thing. Watching them talk and smile at each other is the best thing about having twins.

Grant Reid

Grant loves jumping and will often jump himself to sleep.

Home at Last

After....

73 days in the NICU

212 trips to the hospital

292 hours spent at their bedside

168 times scrubbing in for 3 minutes (8 1/2 hrs.)

8 lbs. 7 oz. combined weight gain

11 inches combined growth in length

Countless prayers and well wishes



Our boys are finally home.

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

Magically our boy and girl twins are now twin boys. The idea of two boys has taken some getting used to after the original excitement of having one of each. When we found out about the change at the ultrasound the doctor pointed “it” out several times to make up for the previous failure, and now we have more ultrasound penis pictures than we know what to do with. Luckily, we had not done too much boy/girl purchasing or decorating and are finding it a bit easier to plan for two boys. They are set to arrive around October 21. The babies seem to be doing well and growing on schedule now weighing in at a little over 1 ½ lbs. each. I have largely left the morning sickness behind now although it never really was morning sickness: pretty much any time of the day sickness, including my favorite - driving down the interstate at 70 mph with no bag or shoulder to pull over onto.

I have adjusted to the idea of being outnumbered by boys and think it will be fun to play with cars and trucks, sports, and all the boy stuff they do. It is a debate in the household whether we will have soccer or basketball players. Clay bought the boys some stuffed soccer balls the other day so I better get on it if I want the indoctrination to start early. Everything more or less seems to be falling in to place as we prepare for their arrival. We're both excited and at the same time overwhelmed by the prospect of doing everything double. But we can't wait to bring them home.

The first of many, many pictures...

One of the first ultrasounds at 7 weeks when we found out there were two little beans growing inside me.

In this one the boys seemed to be head butting each other. Can't wait till they're doing that out of the womb.

New Additions

Finally a new post...has it really been 7 months since I've added anything new? I apologize to all those out there who have been dying to hear about the exciting Holland Days. Here's a quick run down of the past months since the last time I posted: Worked every week day for 12 plus hours (and some week ends), took a few days off for Christmas break to host Clay's family for Christmas, turned 29, several doctor's visits a week, took a road trip on Valentine's day in search of the best pie and BBQ in TX, got a new calling as Primary President, more doctor's visits, got pregnant, got really, really sick, more doctor's visits, slept a lot, visit from my parents, and celebrated 7 years of wedded bliss. It doesn't seem like we've done a lot, but everyday life can get pretty busy. We try to keep it fun though and do some exciting things on the weekends. We've been to a few concerts, seen some movies, hung out with friends, and just tried to enjoy the time that we actually get to see each other.



We are now ready for our lives to a get a little bit more exciting. As I said we found out we were pregnant at the end of February. After seven years, and the help of some fertility doctors we are trilled to be expecting a boy and a girl in October! I can't say how excited and thankful we are for this opportunity. I'm now 17 weeks along and comfortable enough to talk about the pregnancy with co-workers, friends, and people at church. Up until about 15 weeks we had only told our parents/siblings and a couple of friends that are very observant. Now, I want every one to know how happy this pregnancy makes me and how grateful I am for the two precious babies we will one day get to hold. Perhaps these new little additions will keep us updating our blog.

The Great Cram of 2009

This is what I was doing over my winter break--stacking up books that I should've been reading. On January 12th and 23rd I had my two "comprehensive exams" to determine whether I can continue on in my phd program, the first on political theory and the second on public law. Each exam was an eight-hour exam consisting of three essay questions. The plan was to study over last summer, but when that didn't work out too well, the plan was to study during the fall semester, and when that didn't work out that well, the plan was to study over winter break, which I finally managed to do. The books shown in the photo are several (not all) of the books contained on my reading lists for the two exams. It was a miserable few weeks. However, I am also the master of distraction/avoidance,/procrastination, and even while studying during the last weeks in December and early January, I managed to read two entirely unrelated books (one of which was The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, which I really liked. I recommend it for any Shakespeare and/or dog fans out there) and beat a video game (Call of Duty: World at War). I learned last week that I passed the political theory portion, and will hopefully find out that I passed the public law portion sometime this week. However, I will add a disclaimer that I think I really botched one of my public law essays. I wouldn't be entirely surprised by an inadequate overall score as a result (okay, a failing score--it is essentially pass/fail). If that is the case, I'd have to take it again in August. Hopefully that is not the case. The exams are graded by all the faculty teaching in those areas, and we can see their grade sheets/comments when they are done. It is an eye-opener seeing the range of grades different graders will give the same exam, some commenting how well you answered the question, others commenting that you didn't answer the question at all. You've got to love academia.

We're #1, We're #1

On Saturday Clay and I attended the UT/Missouri game. We've been in Austin for two years now and decided it was about time we experienced Longhorn football. We got a good deal on season tickets because of Clay's student status. This is our third game this season and I am loving it! The mid afternoon games haven't been too pleasant especially when the sun seems to single you out and direct all it's heat on your seat. This past week's game was especially exciting because of our new status as the #1 team in the country after our stomping of OU. With over 98,000 fans in attendance the atmosphere was intense. There was a lot of shouting, cheering, and high-fiving with total strangers. After attending two other schools with teams that had less than stellar programs it's fun to be at a school that is ranked # 1. Clay will say I'm only there to watch the marching band, and while I do stand up during half time to watch while everyone goes to the bathroom or sits down, I do enjoy the football. I'm already excited for the next game.

Hook 'em Horns!

Our Just Desserts

There are two things that I have learned about the Holland family: One there is always room for dessert, and two they will turn anything into a competition. When faced with the decision to spend our night going to a comedy club, watching the bats on Congress bridge, going to the Drafthouse, or some other touristy thing for Wendy and John's second to last night in Austin, it was decided that we would have a pie making contest.
John called his parents to get Omi's "secret" pecan pie recipe, Wendy and Clay searched the Internet and the many recipe books on our shelves, while I tried to be resourceful and make a pie with ingredients we had on hand. We gave ourselves 30 minutes to come up with a pie and then went grocery shopping. I must admit I thought I would win hands down because I was the only one that had ever made a pie by myself. But the Hollands proved to be quite the competitors.
Each person had a designated cooking spot in the kitchen as to deter sabotage and stealing of ideas. There was a fervor of activity that lead to one almost-disastrous crust, one not-quite-cooked-in-the-middle pie, one is-that-ever-going-to-be-ready pie, and the oops-I-forgot-the-vanilla pie. Thankfully the only causalties were my clean stove and kitchen.

THE COMPETITORS:
Clay: Buttermilk Chocolate Chip
Andrea: Rasberry Peach w/Streusel Topping
Wendy: Key Lime Cheesecake
John: Chocolate Pecan

We needed some neutral judges so we solicited the help of the Harmans. With our pies in tote we arrived at their house ready for them to declare the winner. After some lively discussion, and lots of pie eating, the secret ballots were cast and the results were as follows...

THE CATEGORIES:

Nostalgia Factor: Andrea

Best Overall: Clay's Buttermilk Surprise

Best Aroma: Andrea (Cinnamon and Brown Sugar just smell better)

Aphrodisiac: Clay (it was creamy, gooey, and it felt a little wrong enjoying it so much)

Short Bus Award: Clay (I'm not sure what this really means)

Best Presentation: Wendy

Miss Congeniality: Andrea (friendliest competitor)

Honorable mention goes to John's Chocolate Pecan Pie - it was the first one to go.