Hope and Grace's First Night and Day

I am in the process of collecting my thoughts about how I want to phrase the most eventful day in my 30 year life thus far, so, the birth of Hope and Grace story is coming- it just might take a while for Dad here to process. I also am working on getting photos- so if you check back I should hopefully have both of those going next week.

Now for the past 24 hours- talk about a whirlwind of emotions! This picture of the tornado and the rainbow to the right is the best way to summarize my thoughts- something very scary and something very beautiful, but most of all, something very awesome, all at the same time.

First off I cannot believe that two little beings so precious and beautiful are here, just down the hall. Jeni is recovering well. Jeni got up on her own this morning and has been moving about well throughout the day. She is such a strong-willed person and was bound and determined to get rid of the iv and even wheelchair (for the most part) at all costs. Watching and admiring my wife's strength right now makes me take some comfort knowing that these two little girls of ours are fighters.

Grace had a great first day. She came off of the ventilator and even had a pacifier for a brief amount of time. Jeni and I got to hear her cry for the first time, which was pretty special. As for Hope, her day was pretty good, although the doctors have some concerns about PDA (an opening in a heart ductus that helps bring blood to the lungs that usually closes after babies are born, but often times stays open for preemies at this gestational age). That will need to be monitored closely. The good news is that this is not atypical of children of this gestational age, and while no heart and lung problems are ever good, it is nice to know that this situation seems controllable. With these challenges, Hope is still on her ventilator.

We were able to spend time with each girl today and already are seeing personality traits develop. Grace is more of the spitfire of the two. Small and fiesty, she removed her own CPAP (in "non-premie baby terms," the tube thing that they put in her nose) and also took off one of her monitors. While I am enjoying her free spiritedness now, I should remember to re-read this post when she's 14. Hope, on the other hand, is much more docile. I can see her being a very helpful person as she grows. She opens her eyes more and loves to gently grip by pinky finger. She likes it when I talk to her too it seems.

While exhausted (both physically and emotionally after the ups and downs with Hope today in conjunction with trying to spend time with 20+ visitors), my Thermarest mattress on the hospital pull-out chair never looked so good.

God bless Hope and Grace for gracing us with their presence for their first day and God give us hope that these babies will continue to grow and progress and make it to our home soon.