Pretty in Pink

I think the title says it all here.

24

A few years ago, Jeni and I were into watching the Fox drama, "24." We had rented the series on DVD and borrowed some of the discs from Jen's parents. As the show is quite addicting, I remember staying up late at night watching, trying to figure out how Jack Bauer (the main character pictured to the left) would get out of his jam against counter-intelligence agents and terrorists.

I have to admit, while I have never worked as a special agent or spy I would hazard to guess that being the proud new parents of premature twins might be equally, if not more challenging. For the full Jack Baueresque effect, click on this link and you can stream the theme from the Fox TV show "24" while you read the following blog post.
"Life with the Pipers Presents Our Version of '24'":

Jeni and I took a deep breath and sighed as we poured our glasses of water, said our evening prayers and then got ready for bed. A nice calm breeze blew through our bedroom and my head felt like a giant watermelon as it crashed against the pillow. And then, it began...

"Grrrreee," a grunt came through the baby monitor, followed quickly a second shrill shriek. The girls just ate a couple of hours ago... uh, oh. They've gotten themselves on 2-3 hour feedings. We knew we were in for a long night. We decided to document it here for the enjoyment of all :)

12:00-12:35 a.m.- Will bottle feeds Grace, Jeni bottle feeds Hope. Both needed diaper changes. After holding Gracie for a bit to aid with her reflux (and watching part of My Big Fat Greek Wedding on TBS) I put Grace down and went to bed.

3:00-4:30 a.m.- Will has "night duty." Grace gets fed first and is pokey with eating her bottle, causing Hope to wail in her room. After Grace is done, Hope finished off Grace's bottle and then continues to root as if she were saying, "go tell the chef that I want seconds!" Will almost falls asleep feeding Hope and watching a so-so, out-of-season documentary about Biblical times on the National Geographic Channel. Will changes Hope and Grace, both of whom soiled their diapers.

6:00-6:45 a.m.- Jeni awakes for "early bird duty" to find that Hope had pooped out of her outfit, requiring an entire change. Not to be outdone by her sister, Grace peed through her outfit and blanket, also requiring a complete overhaul. Grace and Hope were fed together.

9:10-9:45 a.m.- Jeni discovers that Hope and Grace are hungry again. Hope peed out the side of her diaper and soiled her diaper, outfit, and the crib sheets down to the mattress pad. Grace acted like she was starving during the feeding. Needless to say, we had to abort mission on our plans to attend the 10:00 a.m. service at St. Christopher's and have my parents watch the girls for an hour due to the new (and not-so-improved) feeding schedule.

12:15-1:00 p.m.- Will returned from a brief stop at the grocery store (where he forget an entire aisle worth of dairy groceries, but managed to remember to get Kosher wieners for the possibility of tailgating at the Brewers game a week from now). Will made lunch while Jeni picked things up and put items away. With Campell's new "zesty meatball Azteca" soup on the stove the girls began to grunt and groan for food. Soup was turned off, both were fed and changed, and we had a late lunch.

3:00-3:30 p.m.- The girls were bottle fed again- this time I had Hope and Jeni had Grace. This worked out ok, except for the fact that neither wanted to go to sleep afterwards, and hence needed Jeni to rock them both. Our friend Mike stopped by to drop off a bassinet and I think he got a kick out of seeing the girls cooing for Jeni, who exhaustedly greeted our guest by smiling from behind two cuddled up girls in the glider. We watched the entire Brewers game, most of it with either Hope or Grace on my chest, so that was a highlight of the day (even though the Brewers bats were about as lethargic as I felt).

5:00-5:40 p.m. Jeni is in the midst of her "out-of-the-house" time to go to Target to get laundry detergent (we are flying through that stuff, I'll tell you) and a second (obviously needed) set of crib mattress pads. During her time out, the noise began to creep out of the nursery as soon as I put my feet up. Go figure. I fed Gracie first and then Hope, who, once again, acted like she hadn't eaten all day. Maggie looked on.

7:45-8:15 p.m. Jeni, attempting to become more efficient with the feedings, is able to feed both girls simultaneously, with my help with positioning and burping. Grace had a bit of trouble with reflux, but I was told fed very well- go Gracie!

9:15 p.m. As I am sitting at my computer writing this blog, all of a sudden those familiar noises come from the nursery. It's Hope again, apparently hungry looking for a second dinner. She is eagerly awaiting her feast, as you can see below.


As soon as Hope finished Gracie decided that she was hungry. Jeni ended up feeding them both. They were pokey about eating again too, even though they acted ravenous! This ordeal ended at 10:30 p.m.

11:30 p.m. All is quiet in the Piper household. Time for Mom and Dad to try to get some sleep before feeding time begins again.

Our First Family Walk

Getting everyone together for our first full-family stroll around our neighborhood was a production to say the least, but well worth it. We loaded up with blankets, hand sanitizer, wipes, two apnea monitors, two babies, one "battering ram" stroller, one happy dog (who got pooped during the 45 minute walk) one beaming mom and one camera-happy and joyful dad. This time everyone enjoyed their walk, and despite Dad getting eaten by mosquitoes (they are AWFUL here in Milwaukee due to the rain), we had a lovely time. This was clearly the highlight of our day and something that Jeni and I had dreamed of for months.



Jeni loads Grace into the "battering ram"








Gracie Girl is excited to explore the streets of Fox Point!








Hope snuggles in ready for her stroll. This was her second time in "the battering ram" and she seemed to enjoy it much more that Gracie was with her.






Proud Mom pushing the "battering ram" and holding onto Maggie.

A Visit From The Leprechauns

A piercing shriek permeated through the air and woke me from my slumber at exactly 6:00 a.m. I jumped from the bed and raced to the babies' room to witness a truly chaotic site. Hope had managed to squirm her way out of her swaddle, diaper, and detach her leads. Grace screamed like a banshee on the moors of Scotland with her arm dangling from the crib. The scene looked as if our nursery had been ransacked by a group of leprechauns looking to cause mischief! Panic-stricken, and somewhat dumbfounded, I did the only thing I could, given the circumstances, and yell "JENI!" louder than Forrest Gump. Jeni raced in, dazed, to witness the scene of the crime. Both girls were wide awake and more than a little irritable.

"When was the last time you fed the girls?" I asked.

"Around midnight," my wife replied.

Somehow everyone in the Piper household had managed to sleep through the scheduled late-night feed. These girls had gone over 5 hours without a feed and were not happy about it. I raced to the kitchen to begin to warm up a bottle for Grace while Jeni went to breast feed Hope. While Grace at her meal, Hope did not do well with her feeding, and would neither nurse nor take a bottle.

"We're bad parents," Jeni said as she began to cry. Somehow, despite a baby monitor, a dog and our own usual good sense of getting up in the middle of the night this week, we had overslept their feeding and felt absolutely awful about it. Hope was particularly distressed at the time, and her stubbornness to feed only compounded our disappointment in ourselves for not waking earlier to get them up to eat.

Jeni and I are both people who need our sleep. While we are both night owls more so than early birds, not having at least 7 hours of sleep, coupled with the emotional d'enouement of the week and the physiological fact that adrenaline can only take you so far, had finally caught up with us.

Where was the baby monitor? Where was Maggie? How could we have slept through this? All of these questions and many more raced thought out hearts and minds. Several of Maggie's toys laid scattered between the living room and our bedroom. Perhaps our lovable dog thought that we would be roused from our coma of sleep if she brought us her giant stuffed strawberry, dragon, or her new bff, the six-legged octopus. This, however, did not do the trick.

All day, Jeni and I have bemoaned our poor parenting for not getting up. My good friend Pam at school and I chatted for a bit today, and she reassured me that these things happen to all parents, and are nothing to be worried about. Pam was right. Throughout the afternoon and evening, both girls did incredibly well with their feedings, naps, and somehow or another, despite the odds, managed to get themselves back on a consistent schedule. Hope chowed down full bottles this afternoon and evening and so did Grace. If anything, Grace may have improved her feedings and needed less breaks as she bottle or breast fed.

While Jeni and I view these girls being home as a miraculous event, we need to keep in mind a simple fact- we're human. We are going to make tons of mistakes as parents and today is the first of what will be many days when we will wish we had a "do-over" with our own kids. The magic of these girls, however, is that they are resilient and are able to overcome obstacles like missing a feeding. Sure, they were not happy about it, but by late afternoon, they had managed to get themselves back on track. As humans, too, we realize that we need our sleep. We can't function on adrenaline and love alone and need to build in time for ourselves to recharge so that we can best meet the needs of our growing girls.




Maggie, nestled at the foot of our bed, curls herself into a ball. Even she is beat after this week.










The "snuggle sisters" look cute in their coordinating outfits (note: it took Jeni three "tries" to get me to produce the correct pink hat that matched Grace's pink outfit. Everyone, including Daddy, learns something new every day.)

Hands Full

Alright, I'll admit it, we've got our hands full... quite literally. I've had many friends ask over the past two days, "how we're doing with having the girls home." I must say that it is chaos, plain and simple (but thank God most of this chaos occurs during the daylight hours). Our day right now would give even the best multi-tasker a run for his/her money. Between eating, sleeping, changing diapers, removing soiled sheets, changing spit-up covered baby outfits, and most importantly snuggling, our day goes by pretty fast. I am only working in the mornings from 9:00-12:00 teaching two summer school classes for the next two weeks, so it is a great blessing to be home in the afternoons and able to provide some relief for Jeni. Plus, Dad finds hanging out with his daughters to be the single greatest thing in the whole wide world (holding them while the Brewers are on is just so perfect in so many ways).

Dad did have quite the adventure this afternoon, however. Jeni had taken Maggie to the vet for her annual check up, leaving me with the girls. Everything was going great until all of a sudden an ear piercing yelp came from the other room. One screech was followed by another and when I reached the girls it was a symphony of screams, squeaks and grunts. Jeni had just fed the girls before she took Maggie, so I knew that they weren't hungry. Hmmm, let's assess the situation. A pool of yellow yuck laid near the head of both girls and their cute outfits were smeared with spit. Gotcha, I thought to myself, the girls have a bit of reflux and probably need just to be held. However, with them both squawking more than a baseball manager arguing balls and strikes, I realized quickly that I would need to grab both girls and support them for a bit to calm them down. While not the most dexterous person in the world, I was able to unhook both girls' monitors, scoop up Hope, support her in the crook of my arm, and then grab Grace. Once in Dad's arms, the shrill noises began to subside. I then proceeded to lay down on the couch with both girls propped up on my chest until Jeni came home. Needless to say, rehanging the pictures in the basement family room (which was on my honeydo list for today) was put on hold.

Despite the chaos of raising tiny premature twins, Jeni and I feel a wonderful sense of peace throughout our day. At our church, we end service each week asking for God to grant us the "peace which passes all understanding." We are so grateful just to be here and have these girls, that the petty chaos and stressors of the day seem merely formulaic and nothing to really get worked up about. Just like this afternoon's episode, you assess the situation, problem-solve and deal. At the end of the day, when the symphony of screeches stops for a second and we can take a breath, we can simply rejoice and give thanks for having our family all here.



Gracie Girl enjoys her crib. This picture reminds me of the Dr. Seuss quote that I referenced in an earlier post, "a person's a person no matter how small." Before we know it she'll fill out that crib.





Hope enjoys her crib too.








The "snuggle sisters" enjoy time together in the Pack 'n Play in their cute matching outfits. May I note, that these outfits managed to stay on them for less than an hour after Gracie and Hope decided to spit up part of their breakfast.

And Now Our Story Really Begins!

Miracles happen!




Grace waves goodbye to the NICU.






Jeni, Hope, Nurse Rosie, Gracie and Will. We wouldn't be where we are today if it wasn't for the watchful, loving care of the nurses who worked in the St. Joseph's Family Care NICU. Rosie, in particular was a real God send to our family and will always be remembered fondly.

Grace Is Coming Home Tomorrow!

Hope and Grace are 74 days old today, and they have already taught Jeni and I so much. The lesson that we have been taught, above anything else is that LOVE triumphs over fear. As I mentioned in a previous post, the light of hope always burns and can ignite the other lights in our life. And, the light of hope cannot exist without the grace of God. How fitting, when I reflect, that our daughters at such a young age are already living their names.

For those of you who have been following this blog, we learned that Jeni was carrying monoamniotic twins back on February 2nd . At that time, Jeni was about 18 weeks into her pregnancy, and we were told we that we had a 50/50% chance, at best, of these twins being born. This news crushed us, and the countdown to "the best case scenario" of hospital in-patient stay began. We went through tremendous worry thinking about whether or not these babies would even make it until then. I recall, once the babies started kicking, that I asked Jeni to text message me or email me during the day to let me know that they were ok. This time in our lives tested our faith- are these babies going to be ok? Are we even going to make it to in-patient care? Thanks to love, we did.

On the evening of April 10th, Jeni and I had some tasty soup complements of our friend Lauralee and the Caring Ministry at St. Christopher's Church. Jeni and I set up the hard plastic bed-side table in the antepartum unit at St. Joe's and enjoyed eating our soup and watching the Brewers game (ok, at least Will enjoyed the game, Jeni enjoyed the company and the soup perhaps a bit more than the game :) ). The babies were falling off their monitors a bit more than usual this evening, but our nurses told us not to be too concerned. While the birth story is still in the works (it has just been hard for me to formulate it into words the way I'd like), I will share that on the morning of April 11th, I received news that would push my faith, hope, love and joy to the limits and back... the twins were in distress and Jeni was about to give birth. The nurses and doctors at St. Joe's who were able to detect that Baby B (now known as Hope) had a fluctuating heart rate that would dip way down, then come up a little, and then dip way down again. Jeni's doctors concluded that they needed to perform an emergency c-section in order to save the lives of these babies.

On the morning of April 11th, at precisely 9:37 a.m., our daughters, Grace and Hope, were born unexpectedly at 27 weeks 5 days gestational age. I recall the event like it was a second ago holding Jeni's hand in the operating room, crying, praying, and thanking God for each other and for the opportunity to be parents. We cried and prayed and, above all, loved.

Then came life in the NICU, an experience whose rapid high peaks and swift steep valleys I wouldn't wish on anyone in the world. ET tubes, PDA's, CPAPs, infection, on feedings and off of feedings, tolerating cares, not tolerating cares... you name it, we've been there and done it, and despite the intense burning fear that engulfed our minds, we felt an endearing love in our hearts that began to spread from beyond Jeni and I and our immediate friends and family into our greater community. Thanks in large part to this blog and the monoamniotic.org site, the community that supported us began to span across the United States and Canada, and into places like Australia and Japan, among others. Our story was out there, people were (and are) praying for us and thinking about us, and, guess what... our love began to grow. Love triumphs over fear, and, I truly believe, due to the love of so many people we are able to end our story as NICU parents tomorrow.

Nurse Rosie, in her sweet, optimistic voice, declared that Grace was "ready to go home" and simply needs to await the arrival of her apnea monitor and a few small check ups tomorrow morning. After I get done teaching summer school, we'll have lunch and then fulfill the dream I've had for so long... bringing my family home.

So, in closing, to reference the Okkervil River tune that served as an impetus for Jeni and me writing this blog in the first place, "our life is not a movie, but maybe." To go along with that, we'll reference our wedding song, "Love and Luck" by Jimmy Buffett, "with a little love and luck, you will get by." Granted, those two artists are so different from each other, but hey, that's "Life with the Pipers" for you in a nutshell!

For those of you along on our journey, thank you for your love. It has meant more to us than you will ever know. Please keep the prayers and good thoughts comin'... the next chapter of our life begins tomorrow.






Grace's last evening in the NICU... she seems restless and ready to come home.





Grace stares at her friend Bucky Badger. She can't wait for Badger football games this fall with her UW-alumni parents.

Changes in Schedule

After last evening's post, Jeni reminded me about a cool shower gift she received from our good friend Erika. It is a contraption called the "moby." Basically this thing is this wrap that allows you to carry your baby with you while you do stuff around the house. How Jeni got this contraption on me, I cannot tell you. What I do know is that in less than five minutes she had wrapped this red cloth around my waist, shoulders, and back and conveniently placed Hope in the "basket hold." Now, I am literally looking at my daughter as I type this post. Pretty neat, huh? Hope and I were able to inventory all the junk in Mount Piperstuff and get it ready for the Salvation Army tomorrow. We also took out the trash and recyclables together and did a load of wash. I am enjoying just feeling her cozied up against my stomach and hearing her little grunts and groans while she rests away.


Last night was a bit of a rough one. After a day's worth of activity and a night of chillin' with Mom and Dad, Hope's schedule got all messed up. She ended up waking at times in between her normal 4 hour intervals between feedings and fussed up a storm. This morning at 5:45, I got up to feed her, not knowing that Jeni had just done so less than two hours prior. Hope eagerly rooted and took down her medicine for the morning, then took a slug out of her warm bottle of fortified milk and decided she wanted nothing to do with it. Of course, being the worrisome parent, my first thought was that she must be sick. Oh no. I woke up Jeni and explained the situation to her. We both thought it would be best to put Hope back down and try again in a half hour. At that time I got up and repeated the same routine, with the same result- no eating. Finally, I set her in the pack and play and right around 8 she really started squawking and grunting and she was able to take down her whole bottle (after she had a two-diaper-blow out). Jeni and Maggie stirred around this time, and Hope greeted her friend Mags all bright eyed. Dad, meanwhile, brewed a pot of coffee. Needless to say, Hope seemed perfectly healthy, so we stopped worrying about a possible illness causing her not to eat, and instead came to the realization of the obvious- maybe she was not hungry at 5:45.

It is funny how when you try to control life, even a for something as simple as when your daughter eats and sleeps, you encounter unexpected bumps in the road and sudden changes to your plan.

Speaking of sudden changes to the plan- we learned today from Nurse Rosie that Gracie might be coming home as early as tomorrow! While this is not necessarily the most likely scenario, Rosie explained that everything is in order for an early week discharge for Grace and her doctor might just want to send her home right away, especially as he knows that Jeni is off of school and not teaching any summer school and my summer school classes are only in the mornings. Holy cow! As early as tomorrow and perhaps as late as Wednesday, our family will be all united under one roof in Fox Point, WI. Could it be that our trips back and forth to St. Joe's for the past 74 days could be nearing a close? While it would be premature of me (pardon the pun) to get my hopes up for Grace coming home tomorrow, I have to say that Jeni and I are making sure the place is in good working order for a second baby, just in case. While there are many uncertainties that lie ahead, I can take a deep breath and rejoice in knowing that Family Day will be here soon. For this mom and dad and the literally hundreds of people who have been following this story, I am sure I can speak for us all when I say, I can't hardly wait!






Daddy finishes the blog and reads it out loud to revise while Hope naps peacefully on his stomach.

Mount Piperstuff Shall Wait

Sometimes you just have to live in the moment. This evening Jeni and I had every intention of inventorying Mount Piperstuff which now encompasses our mud room (aside from the area set aside for the recyclables, Maggie's giant dog food canister, our friend, "Uncle" Aaron's oscillating fan, and, of course the "battering ram" stroller). Luckily for us, Mount Piperstuff will rapidly erode into the back of a Salvation Army truck Monday morning. Moreover, we also added lots to the pile in order to make room for necessary forthcoming great plains of "Hope & Gracie Stuff."

We had a long day today chock-full with loving company who were in town from far away and wanted to spend some time with us. Check out the pictures of some of our visitors near and far from today. With all the company, Jeni and I had devoted this evening to getting everything in the giant heap onto our spreadsheet and all ready to be included in a neat document, suitable for next year's taxes. The Brewers game was over early (and the Brewers won), so I didn't even have that to distract me. This plan sounded fantastic, right?

Except we had one little person who really didn't want Mom and Dad to go and work after their dinner. Hope wasn't in the mood to sleep- she was up for some good ol' fun with her 'rents. Sensing arrival of her sister coming soon, Hope wanted to cherish some quality one-on-one time with each of her parents. While Mom went to Target to purchase a second basinette, Hope squealed and grunted whenever her daddy walked past her. While he needed to get some work done, she used her wide eyed power of persuasion to let her dad pick her up, rock her, and sing her funny songs. Looking sleepy after a while, Dad put her pack in her pack 'n play. Jeni had returned at this time and was gung ho on getting that pile inventoried. However, when she past the pack 'n play, she heard some soft squeaks, and the power of the wide eyes entranced her, and sent her on a bee line to the couch to snuggle up with Hope. The two amigas currently reside there as her daddy gets some "writing time."

I remember a quote from Mark Twain that my 9th grade geography teacher, Mr. Bruemmer, taught me many years ago... "Don't let school get in the way of your education." This same principle applies to having babies in the house. Sometimes, like our blogger friend Laurie from Cleveland commented a few days ago, you just need to leave the household tasks and rest. Tonight, it wasn't so much about rest but rather about delighting in the moment. Mount Piperstuff will be there tomorrow. Hope needed to be held tonight.




Our good friend, "Uncle" Jon held Hope for the first time last evening. I was later told that he had only held one other baby previously. He did a good job. Hope and her mom and dad give him a thumbs up!




"Uncle" Jeff and "Aunt" Jill, our good friends from the Twin Cities were in town this weekend and spent the morning enjoying sweet rolls on our patio and visiting with their new friend, Miss Hope. They can't wait to meet Gracie Girl too, hopefully during their next visit to town for "Uncle" Steve's wedding in a couple of months.



Aunt Pat, who is really my aunt by blood relation, and who is now Hope and Gracie's Great Aunt, enjoys a moment smiling at her great niece. It was so great to see her, my Uncle Tom, my Uncle Dennis and Aunt Teri. Tom and Pat were in town from Seattle and Dennis and Teri from Chicago. We had a wonderful visit together. What a blessing to see all of them! This was the first time we were able to all get together since Jeni and my wedding 2+ years ago.


"You want to get work done," smirks Hope peering out of her hooded sea-animal themed towel after she got her first bath at home, "I don't think so :)" C'mon, who could say no to Hope's beautiful wide eyes?

Hope's First Stroll Around Our Neighborhood

Summer arrived in all its glory this week. After a long winter and spring spent traversing the route from Fox Point to St. Joseph's Hospital, a warm evening stroll with our daughter and dog sounded just perfect to wrap up an amazing week for the Piper family. The sun cast some beautiful shadows accentuating the colors of the bushes and petunias that lace our front yard walk way, and we thought this would be the perfect time to do something that we've dreamed of for months, walk our daughter and dog around the neighborhood.

First things first- we needed to get the ol' battering ram ready to go. As parents of twins, Jeni and I do not own a singleton stroller. We do, however, have a front-and-back stroller that the car seats can snap into. This stroller I call, "the battering ram." This is the king-daddy of the tandem stroller options. It is narrow enough to fit through aisles at the supermarket and department stores, yet has a sporty feel that makes you want to snap in the car seats and stroll around the neighborhood in style. Best of all, the thing can fold down with a few clicks and cranks of plastic levers and fit neatly in the back of our new car. While we also have a side-by-side dual stroller that we received as a gift, Jeni and I opted to take out the battering ram as Hope seems to do well in her car seat (which naturally fits in this stroller). This all made good sense. We clicked Hope into the back section of the battering ram so that she faced us, and positioned her apnea monitor in the front seat. Armed with our arsenal of hand sanitizer and wipes, we were ready to go.

"Maggie, do you want to go for a walk?" Jeni beckoned. Maggie the dog, who right now is craving attention of her own, bounded for our mud room and sat pretty, eagerly awaiting the arrival of her broken-in leather leash. Alright, 4/5 of the Piper family were all set for their first summer stroll, what could be better?

And off we went, with wide smiles on our faces and the warm breeze blowing at our backs. Jeni and I held hands and Maggie trotted amiably at our side. That is until we realized that the battering ram does not have shocks comparable to our Toyota Matrix, and therefore whenever we went over the slightest bump in the road, the stroller shook a bit, causing Hope to let out a grunt and a tiny whine. Kaboom, we rolled over a big bump, and our sleepy baby all of a sudden was wide eyed and rearing to go. She began to squawk a bit, and I thought her aggravation clearly had to do with her less-than-smooth ride.

"Oh my gosh!" I heard a familiar voice yell out as our good friend and neighbor Carrie drove by us in her van. She pulled over and hopped out eager to greet our smiley happy family. Hope looked extra cute, but as we chatted with Carrie became increasingly aggravated and continued her symphony of grunts and groans. Carrie was kind enough to snap a picture, and we all agreed that Hope might benefit from the motion of moving, so we carried on our walk.

However, despite the motion (and Dad's best efforts to maneuver the battering ram away from any possible bumps in the road) Hope's squawks and squeaks turned into an all out wail. Jeni did the "sniff test" to see if diaper drama was the culprit, but came up empty-handed. Hmmm, what could be causing this much distress. Then Jeni peered down at her watch. Hope had last dined at 3:00 p.m. while we were visiting Grace in the hospital. It was now 6:00 p.m. Hope's unpleasant demeanor had nothing to do with the bumps, the walk, or sharing attention with Maggie. Our daughter was hungry and wanted to eat right now.

Consoling her verbally did no good, so Jeni did what any loving mother would do- scoop her baby up and carry her. This did solve the immediate problem of Hope fussing. However, Hope, now a rooting machine, tried to eat Jeni's bright pink sleeveless polo in the process. In the meantime, I am left pushing the battering ram, which now housed the apnea monitor, camera, burp cloths, hand sanitizer and wipes, but no baby, at the same time that I had Maggie. Some people who drove by us on the road began to laugh, as we were becoming a sight to behold. At least mom and the baby had matching hot pink tops I thought to myself.

Walking side by side my wife and daughter I trudged on with battering ram in one hand and Maggie in the other. What happened next was inevitable. See picture below.









With some skillful maneuvering between stroller stuff and dog stuff, I was able to get out the yellow bag and take care of Maggie's "business" and hold onto that, the dog, and the battering ram. Jeni had the baby, and everyone who passed must have had a good laugh. We saw out friend Carrie pass us again and wave. Little did she know of the debacle that had transpired since saw her only moments ago. Jeni and I could not stop laughing on our walk home at what a ridiculous sight we must have been. Dad pushing empty stroller with monitor and dog (which I now hooked to the side of the stroller to prevent having to put the yellow bag in the stroller itself), Jeni carrying a small baby, and a dog with its tongue hanging out trotting along, proud to be part of her family.

Like everything in our lives recently, things never really seem to go according to how they were once envisioned in our minds. However, things are going very well and we are so blessed for the curve balls we are thrown each day that provide so many countless smiles.






While we have been talking a lot about Hope's homecoming recently, Gracie too has been making tremendous strides. She is now nippling all of her feedings and is 4 pounds 5 ounces. You go Grace. These days, I'm not sure who's more cheeky, Gracie Girl or her sister. Soon enough Gracie Girl will be in one seat of the stroller and Hope in the other, and with Maggie at our side we will stroll through the Village of Fox Point together with wide smiles on our faces.

Tired Wednesday

Ok... I'll admit it- having a newborn baby around the house is A LOT of work (and we are so blessed that we will soon be having two newborns!). Like any adjustment, however, I am confident that we will get used to it and figure out systems that work for our family.

Hope had a wonderful first night's sleep, however, her mom and dad could not say the same. It seemed like Hope was constantly making little grunts and groans that forced Mom and Dad to get out of their bed and check on her in her basonette. Her toots, gurgles and squeals seemed more reminiscent of a geriatric man than a newborn girl. Hope managed to get up twice to feed during the night- keeping relatively constant with her 3-4 hour feeding schedule.

Tonight there are bottles in the fridge, hence your's truly is on duty. While exhausted, a deep sense of peace is beginning to settle in. This won't fully be the case until Grace comes home, but after 70 days with daughters in the NICU you have to put the three hours of sleep aside and rejoice in your family coming home.

Hope's first day in her new home included a nice visit from Grandma Cris and Grandpa Bob. She also enjoyed listening to (and sleeping through) most of her second Brewer game (incidentally the Crew is 2-0 with Hope at home :) ). In addition, Hope met her new pediatrician, Dr. Boldt, and seemed very pleased to show off her beautiful bright eyes for her doctor. After her appointment, Hope returned to familiar territory as the three of us went to visit Gracie. It felt weird picking up the beige phone to gain access to the NICU and saying, "Will, Jeni and Hope Piper to see Grace." Hopefully we won't have to do that for much longer. Grace continues to progress slowly but surely on her nipple feeds and is still on track to come home sometime next week. Feel free to vote for when you think Gracie will come home in the poll on the right.





Hope is energetic as she meets Grandma Cris and Grandpa Bob.







Grandma Cris enjoys holding her granddaughter for the first time.









Daddy is proud that he was able to dress Hope in a coordinating watermelon sleeper all by himself. I always say, you learn something new every day!




This picture says it all! Jeni rests her eyes for a moment while relaxing with Hope after her feeding.

Hope

Two Easters ago, our pastor, Scott Stoner, preached a sermon that really hit home to me, and that I remember vividly to this day. In his sermon, Scott talked about four lights that often shine in our lives- faith, love, peace and hope. He used a four candle candelabra as his visual aid to illustrate his point. At various times in our lives some of these candles will burn brighter than others, and may even burn themselves out. The light of faith can flicker in and out. Sometimes we may be at peace, and at other times feel restless. Love can be both joyous and painful when hurt by a loved one. However, the light that never goes out and the light that always burns brightly is the light of hope, the idea that God's love can forever provide us with something to hold on to. The light of hope can relight the other candles, even in the darkest of times.

I can say that the light of hope has helped me get through the past 8+ months of Jeni's pregnancy, being diagnosed with monoamniotic twins, a nerve racking in-patient stay in the antepartum unit and a hard-fought battle in the NICU. The light of hope helped us persevere through PDA surgeries, infections and being on and off of feedings and respiratory support. The light of hope beckons us to realize that better days are ahead.

Jeni and I felt the light of hope today when our daughter Hope came home. Grace is on track to be released in a week or so! She started her trend event monitoring today and is hopefully going to do all nipple feeds as early as tomorrow. Hope is having a great night thus far. She watched a great Brewer game and has been enjoying life in her pack 'n play, and even more so in her mommy and daddy's arms.

In both dark times and times of great joy, we thank God for Hope.

Enjoy today's photopalooza of Hope's homecoming day. One down, one to go!
Hope's first time in her car seat.

Mom puts Hope in the "family wagon" for the first time.

Hope Laila Piper's first trip to our house.

Uncle Jon enjoys seeing Hope.

Grandad Don enjoys holding his granddaughter for the first time.






Grandma Barb looks lovingly at granddaughter Hope.



Hope takes her first nap in her pack 'n play.


Maggie the dog welcomes Hope home.