The boys are here!!!!

guest writer-Tammy (sis-in-law)

Welcome to the world little Luke Michael and Maxwell Henry Thornton!

Luke Michael
4lbs. 2oz.
17 inches
6:46 am

Maxwell Henry
3 lbs. 1 1/2 oz.
Just over 16 inches long
6:48 am

Elizabeth will be posting the full birth story of her twins, but I just wanted to post a few details. She went into labor early this morning and was able to get an epidural just in time to deliver. She barely pushed and the boys were here! She had Luke Michael at 6:46 and not but two minutes later did Maxwell Henry arrive. We are glad that she and the babies are healthy and doing well.

Because the boys were born early (32 weeks 1 day) they will be spending some time in the NICU. They will probably be there for 3-6 weeks--long enough that they can breathe on their own, eat on their own and gain some weight. Not too uncommon for twins that are born early. Other than being on a CPAP (helps keep the lungs open) they are doing well.

Enjoy the photos!

Had to take photos of the names, so I wouldn't get the two confused! They don't look exactly alike, but they sure are tiny little babies and at first, it's hard to tell them apart.

Elizabeth's Mom and Dad holding little Luke. He is so tiny!!!

Little fingers.

The CPAP machine. He was holding on to it.

Big brother Ryker! He was so excited to see his babies. What a fun household they will have. Love having boys.

Such happy faces! Michelle and Ryker give the best smiles.


Proud Daddy and Ryker standing by Luke

The favorite aunt Tino (I come in a close 2nd), Elizabeth and Luke

Little baby

Tiny toes

Elizabeth sure is looking good for going on 6 weeks hospital bed rest and then giving birth to two babes! She is one tough cookie. Congrats momma!!!

Now onto Maxwell Henry!

He was a little bruised from being poked and also from being jabbed on by his brother.

Ryker and Daddy. Love the smile Ryker!!!

There's a happy face!

Can you believe we're missing two kids?!?! Michelle and Luke. Can't believe Tory and Elizabeth have twins! They just doubled their kids. :)

Such tiny legs and feet. So precious and soft.

Such love already for these two little guys. They sure came to a good family.

Happy and proud parents!

Sleep tight little one!

Congrats Tory, Elizabeth, Michelle and Ryker!!! What a happy ending to 2010. We love you guys and can't wait to hold Luke and Max. They are adorable.

Cute Little name signs. Glad they get to share a room. Just had to throw that one in. :)

I'll be home for Christmas...

If only in my dreams.

Guest writer: Mommy

I didn't get to spend Christmas morning in my home with my loved ones. But they were wonderful to take oodles of pictures so that I can enjoy the moments too.

Presents galore!

What did Santa bring you two? A Radio Flyer tricycle and real fancy schmancy camera.

Checking out the goods.

And Daddy was so good, Santa gave him something to cook with, a Dutch Oven. Notice that it is Daddy, not Mommy, getting the cooking instrument.

And a special gift for Mommy. Two years ago Daddy got Mommy something so amazing that she started to cry. It was a print of painting that they had fallen in love with very early in their relationship. He had found the artist online and had the print shipped to her directly from the artist's gallery. This year, Daddy went had it framed. It is so beautiful!

Well, I might not have been able to wake up with my family at home on Christmas morning, but I woke up with the babies still in my tummy baking so this was a good Christmas after all.

Christmas Eve in Antepartum

Guest Writer: Mommy

Certain traditions must remain, even if I am stuck in a hospital gestating babies. One important one is the traditional Christmas Eve gift.

What could it be?

A surprise?

The anticipation is killing me!

The all important geeky pajamas!

Now, only one more sleep till Christmas Day.

The Day Before Christmas

Once again this year, my nurse out did herself. Remember last year and how absolutely amazing it was. Well this year was even better.

Presents bigger than we are!

 

Scooters!!!

My own moon.

A real MP3 player and super stylin' headphones, just for me.

Some awesome new kits to go with our Potato Heads.

Enjoying our hopscotch set. Now this was good practice for Christmas Morning itself!

updates

Guest writer: Mommy

We have a lot of catching up to do. But first I will start with Michelle was able to go home last Friday, December 3. She had her surgery November 29 to help open her airway so that we can start working with her on using her speaking valve.  Her hospital stay was a roller coaster ride. Never quite sure what the plan was, or what was going to happen next. Healthy one day, sick again the next. And it didn't help that Daddy was having to do double duty since I am out of commission. Luckily we had some major help from Tino and Grandma during her stay that allowed Daddy to stay sane. Thus, Daddy made all the right choices and now our little girl is benefiting from all his work. Michelle now has a new feeding tube that bypasses her stomach and goes straight into her small intestine. She is doing fabulous with it and gaining weight again much quicker than we have ever seen. There were several other technical tests that they did while she was in the hospital that gave us reassurance that she will continue doing well.  And of course, our spunky little Michelle is now doing Marvelous!

Now for those wondering, I am still in the hospital, but that is a good thing. Why? Because it means I am still pregnant. I was hoping to go home on bedrest November 29, but after my doctor did some tests he decided that these two little boys might be in more of a hurry to get here than we thought and it was better to leave me on IV medication in the hospital. Roller coaster ride here too. Not quite sure what is going to happen and when, but things are looking good and the boys are still cooking so we will sit in this lovely bed and wait very patiently. Right now our goal is to keep going one day at a time, but if you ask me my long term goal, I am optimistically holding out for 36 weeks. Hey, I loved the movie Pollyanna when I was a kid, what can I say.

Now before our little family got blown out of our lovely little nest and then had a pile of manure dropped on us, we were doing what any family was doing. And so I want to share some of the pictures of what we were doing the day before our little world went topsy turvy.

First sled ride of the year!

  Sure looks like fun.

The Abominable Snow Ryker

Uh oh, snow ball fight

Watch out Mommy, I am going to get you

Or maybe Daddy will

The beginnings of their Snow Man

Looking so proud of his work

Michelle staying warm with Grandma inside

But Ryker proudly displaying his work after enduring the cold weather.

Now I must undertake the job of going through all the pictures my wonderful family have been taking while I am away that chronicle all their wild adventures.

Gingerbread House

Guest Writer: Mommy

Now that absolutely amazing sister-in-law of mine, who is working very hard so that this Christmas season isn't full of hum-bug for my family, brought us a Gingerbread House making kit.

Getting everything set up on Mommy's bedside table.

Michelle using her new scissor talent to cut some cardboard for the Gingerbread Tree.

It takes all of us to do a major project like this.

 

Helping Grandma with the frosting.

Like I said, serious teamwork here.

Michelle hard at work paying close attention to the detail. And what is Ryker doing?

That's right, testing out the sweetness.

Okay, he will help out again too.

Love this sweet little face.

Hm . . . wonder where she picked up that trait?

Now to the adding candy (sampling candy) step.

Like we said, it is the details that matter.

The most amazing Gingerbread House ever. And let me tell you that even though some of the candies continually go missing each time I get a certain little visitor, everyone else who comes to visit tells me how this is one amazing little house. Thanks to my most amazing sister-in-law for this perfect little Christmas Family activity.