Pip Squeak

Oh, my little Sadies! She is a little pip squeak. We went to their 2 month app at the end of Feb. and I actually thought Mercedez was getting chunky. She's always had good squishy cheeks and her thighs were starting to get rolly. Also, her head grew so much! So I was surprised when she was only in the 3rd percentile for her weight, height and head!!! The doctor called her a pip squeak and the nickname has stuck. I said "Well, yeah, she's probably low because she was premature and we're going off the regular percentile scale." But low and behold, she was the same on the premature percentile scale as well! She's small, but it wasn't low enough to be concerned.
Here she is only a few weeks old.
Here they are 2 months old! I can't believe how fast they grow!!! In 2 months Mercedez went from just under 5 pounds to 9.25 pounds. That's almost double her weight in just 2 months!



Also, she went from fitting premie clothes, (on the left) to newborn within only one month. The newborn size looks huge compared! It's only been 3 months since I've had this little girl and I've already forgotten how teeny she was. So here's to remembering.....

She literally could fit in Justin's hand if she was curled up in a ball.


She looked like a little doll! Again, here's her premie pj's compared to her newborn pj's. They look like doll clothes. I was holding them and couldn't believe she actually fit in them.
....and here's some cute pictures of her since. I sure love this little pip squeak!
Nicknames: Sadie-pie, Sister, Miss Sadies, Sadies, My Sadies, Munchkin face, Pip squeak, Princess, Princess Pei-Pei
-She still has a yell-cry, or really more like a squawk. She squawks a lot.
-She got sleeping down real quick. She's like her mom. Sometimes sleeps 12 hours at night.
-Still can beat her brother in a feeding race.
-Loves patty-cake and started grinning this month.
-Loves to stand
-Still has the cutest little firm squishy cheeks that I love to kiss and cute little bird lips.




Justin loves to give them shoulder rides and they'll grab onto his hair to hold on. It's pretty cute. She really is such a little princess. I think it's crazy how different she is from Sawyer and how her personality traits have been with her since the day she was born. She was a little fighter from the beginning. She was all business when it came to eating and still is. She would shut her little eyes and suck vigorously at her bottle in the NICU, trying to show us she was ready to go home, but it took 5 days for her little body to prove she could hold her own with eating. Up until just recently, that is how she always ate, eyes closed sucking it down. Now she opens her eyes more, but she is still a fast, efficient eater. She also is getting better at burping. It used to be pretty hard to get her to burp. She hardly ever cries, unless it's time for bed. Then she starts squawking and getting fussy and all you have to do is swaddle her real tight, put the binky in, lay her down and she's out! I sure do love this little girl!

Blessing

We blessed the twins this past Sunday. We waited 3 months because we wanted their immune systems to be strong. Although, we started getting nervous because it seems RSV is still rampant. But they have been healthy so far and hope they continue to be. (But I must add that I am becoming quite obsessed with essential oils and I blame their healthy little bodies on an amazing oil called On Guard by Doterra oils. It's supposed to be antibacterial/antiviral and we've put it on them and they've been around snotty nosed coughing kids and they are still healthy)
It was such a perfect day! Justin gave them such amazing blessings. Mercedez wore the dress, shoes and sweater/shawl I wore when I was blessed. My great grandma made the shawl and I love that Mercedez got to wear it. I love sentimental things like that. Her grandma Stevenson bought her a darling bracelet also. I got Sawyer's outfit at Old Navy :) Sorry buddy, your dad didn't have his blessing outfit. I had to put the above picture in because they're holding hands! So precious.

I know, I know....there's more pictures of Mercedez on here than Sawyer. It's just that Sawyer's expression in all the pictures were pretty much the same, whereas Mercedez had a lot of different shots to show all the different angles of her darling little face! Plus, let's face it, frilly dresses and feathery headbands are so much more fun to take pictures of.



Not the best shot of her, but it's the only picture I had that showed her whole outfit with the shawl.
This little guy has the cutest little face. His eyes are always wide and big, whereas it's actually more difficult to get a picture of Mercedez with her eyes wide open and staring. He has always been very aware, ever since the day he was born. And super mellow. He pretty much just hangs out.
What a stud!
Me, Sawyer and Grandma Stevenson. Justin's parents and sister Hannah stayed with us from Wed-Tues. It was so much fun having them here! I get soooo much sleep when they come to stay, it's awesome! We were sad to see them go back to California.
I wish we got a better picture than this of all of us, but it'll have to do. I have like 6 shots, but there's someone not looking their best in each one. Oh well.
Grandma and Grandpa Stevenson.
Grandma and Grandpa Jones. It was a great day with family and friends! Thanks for all your support!

Recap

In all the chaos of pregnancy, bedrest, hospitalizations, having the twins, and the first couple months of having the twins home I failed to recognize some major events that took place. So here's a recap of what's happened since December!
Justin graduated with his Bachelor's in Technical Sales in December. His family came from California to stay with us. I am so proud of him! It's such a big accomplishment. I was on bedrest, so I couldn't go. I was so sad and even thought that maybe I could bend the rules a bit and just go. Yeah right! Look at the picture below of me and him. I was so huge! I could barely stand long enough to take a shower I was so weak and hurting everywhere! There's no way I could have even had the strength to walk across the parking lot I'm sure. So our wonderful friends, Adam and Melody, live streamed the whole thing from the Dee Event Center and I watched it live on my computer at home. It was awesome! I wish I could have been there but it was the second best thing to being there!
Justin with his parents.
Me and my graduate! This was 12 days before I had the twins. Look at my stomach and puffiness!

JANUARY
Justin's family is from California and these babies are the first grandbabies! How fun is that?! But it was so sad because we had them, then it was Christmas and Grandpa Stevenson got Bronchitis!!! So they had to wait till the end of January once he got a good dose of antibiotics in him to be able to come see them. It was sad to have to wait that long to meet, but it was so much fun having them here for 5 days. They will be coming back the end of March for almost a week for their blessing and we can't wait to see them again!

Last but not least, our first born, baby Sky has been having a hard time. When we got her she was puppy pad trained, which was good because the condo we lived in before was on the 3rd level and we weren't even supposed to have dogs, so she couldn't go pee outside anyway. So she'd pee on the pad in the bathroom and it was awesome. When we moved to our new house, we had planned on having her go outside and in our bathroom on a pad at night or when it was too cold. Also, the plan was to have wood floor downstairs so we wouldn't have to worry about pee on carpet. Well, the wood cost too much to install, so we ended up getting carpet and you have to have a leash on your dog to take it outside and Sky FREAKED when we put a leash on. Who knew you had to train your dog to wear a leash? I had no idea. I thought they'd just put it on and let you walk them. Not the case. She thrashed about like she was possessed, running into the couch and coffee table trying to escape the tension that was now pulling on her. I had to let go of the leash cause I was afraid she was going to break every bone in her body. So, peeing outside went out the window. To make a long story short, there were two incidents that I think traumatized her and threw her whole world upside down, which then throws her well-trained peeing techniques off. When I was hospitalized and gone for 8 days she started peeing in the hall. Then when the twins came, started peeing on the carpet AROUND her pads downstairs. Lovely. So, Saturday we called ChemDry. They came in with their black light to do the urine analysis and you could see clearly the spots she'd peed. Then they spray this awesome oxidizer that completely dissolves and gets rid of the pee completely. It was amazing. No more pee!!!! Yay! So Sky is under strict house arrest. She can't roam the house at all by herself for at least the next week. We're retraining her to pee far far away from the carpet and putting dog repellent on the places she used to go. It better work because I am so anal when it comes to carpet. I make people take their shoes off because I don't want any dirt on it whatsoever. So good luck Sky! I know you can do it!