Dear Gavin & Lucas | 3 months old!

Dear Gavin & Lucas,

You have grown so much, I can’t believe you are already 3 months old! It still seems like yesterday that we brought you home from the hospital. You are still teaching us how you like things done but are such a sweet and loving boys.

Gavin: Have we told you that it was your idea to be born early? You were ready for the world. And on January 8, 2009 at 11:06 pm you were here (but that is another story) 7 weeks too soon. You arrived with a full head of dark hair, that would soon fall out, and weighed in at 4 pounds 10 ounces and 17.7 inches long. Just perfect and beautiful.

Lucas: You had to be evicted the day brother decided to come into the world. You were so cozy the doctor had to pull your little hands away from your face. You were born just 18 minutes after Gavin, on January 8, 2009 at 11:24 pm. You weighed 4 pounds 2 ounces and came out with no hair. You were the exact same length as your brother 17.7 inches – a beautiful boy.

After you were both born the doctors and Daddy took you up to the NICU, and Mommy had to stay down in her own room for about an hour before they would let me be with you (giving birth is hard work!). When I was able to come up and visit I saw the most beautiful and tiny babies in the whole world. Lucas made a little wheezing sound when he took breaths. It was a little scary but went away in 24 hours exactly like the nurses said, and you didn’t need oxygen – we were so thankful. Because your little lungs were premature it was hard work to breathe in air for the first time.

We had your names picked out before you were born, but didn’t “assign” them until we met you. Both daddy and I agreed right away who was Lucas and who was Gavin – the middle names were easy, first born got daddy’s middle name (since his middle name is his father’s name) and second born got my dad’s name, your papa!

The first three weeks of your lives were spent in the NICU of Evergreen Hospital where you were hooked up to all kinds of monitors, IVs and being fed by a feeding tube. You both had something called apnea, where you would forget to breathe and it set off the alarms. Nurses would come running in to make sure you remembered to take a breath. Because of this you were put on caffeine (yes, like at Starbucks) through an IV that helped your brain tell your lungs to breathe. The IVs only lasted one week. You also had high bilirubin levels and were jaundice (yellowish red colored skin from extra red blood cells) and were put under bili lights for 3 days – your lights made you look blue, but you got to wear some cool ‘sun glasses’.

It was a very scary and emotional time for us all, because it was all new and we didn’t know what to expect next. The doctors always said that you both “didn’t know you were preemies” because you were doing so great. We were so proud when they “graduated” you out of the incubator and into clothes and a crib, together again with your brother. Lucas graduated first, and Gavin shortly followed. You mastered the ‘feeding progression’ easily with bottles and lost the feeding tube after three weeks. Gavin was the first one to be released to go home with mommy and daddy, after one whole day proving you could eat on your own. 3 days later Lucas also mastered eating on his own and we all were able to go home.

Gavin, can you believe that when you were born we thought you would be our fussy baby? In the NICU your alarms would go off because you would start to cry, stop breathing and turn bright red. I guess we quickly learned that you are easy going but when something is wrong, it is REALLY wrong! We will see if this holds true as you grow up, only time will tell!

Lucas, at first you were such a calm and quiet baby who hardly ever cried. Wow how times have changed. You now know how to tell us you are unhappy. You were quite colicky and had reflux which made you unhappy and uncomfortable. Sometimes we still have to hold you to get you to sleep because you can’t quite relax on your own. Gavin is pretty good at sleeping through you crying though.

A lot happened in the world while we were in the NICU; you watched your first superbowl, President Obama took the office (the first African American president), and there was an earthquake.

After we brought you home, life was an adjustment! You slept often and ate even more! At first you ate 2 ounces of formula every 2 hours – and mommy and daddy didn’t get much sleep. But soon you ate 3, 4, 6, and a now eat 8 ounces at one time. We all camped out in our living room; we would feed you, burp you, rock you to sleep and then we would lay on the couch and sleep for 20 minutes at a time – then the whole thing started over again. Mommy and daddy took shifts at night time so we could sleep for a 3 hour stretch (still not much sleep). But it was so worth it, and now those days seem so long ago.

Three weeks after we were home (you were one month and one week old) we had our first family outing; to Alki Beach. We fed and changed you in the car and were so happy to be out of the house! A few weeks later I took you down to visit Grandma and Grandpa Stenstrom in Olympia and you met Great Grandma Stenstrom and mommy’s Aunt Jodie, Uncle Terry and cousin Katie (the Monroes). It was here we had our first walk outside in front carriers with Grandma and you had pedialyte for the first time for an upset tummy/dehydration.

We were so happy when you first smiled at us; and were alert for longer periods of time. This is when things really started to get fun – you were changing and doing new things each and every day. You were about two months old. This is when we started going out much more; and we adventured to Red Robin (your first restaurant), the mall, drives in Seattle and short walks outside. We also took you to meet the Walker twin boys Justin & Ethan – your first play date, though you just slept the whole time. You also had your first visitors at our house; mommy’s cousins Neel and Josie and son Rowan.

It has been so fun with you in our lives. I can’t remember what life was like before you, and love you so much.

Love,

Mommy