A Happy Home

     Last Thursday our little Gardner came home from the NICU!! As you can imagine things have been very busy, we have gotten little sleep, and I am making less and less sense with each day, but I am in HEAVEN! There is nothing better than waking up to not one, but TWO, little pairs of eyes staring up at me wanting to eat!  It is so incredible to be at home and know that both my girls are with me and i'm not leaving a piece of myself at the hospital every day... Looking back, I just don't know how we did it, and I know the memory will be even more difficult to fathom with time, as I cannot imagine either one of them being anywhere but right here beside us!! This will probably be the last post for a while so we are leaving you with a few sweet pictures from the BEST DAY OF OUR LIVES!...

    Once again, we would have never been able to make it through each and every day of that experience without your continued love and support.  Friends and Family are priceless, God is faithful, and time heals everything. Please keep us in your hearts in the days to come as we will still have bridges to cross, but know that we are blessed to have come as far as we have and are grateful for your prayers.  We are looking forward to all of the blessings 2013 will bring!

Happy New Year to you and yours from our happy home! We love you!

God Bless you friends,
Brandon, Caroline, Gardner, and Julianna

One Month

We were One Month old on December 14th!  

We are still not supposed to even be here... 
Our due date is January 20th!

A Message From The Girls

A word from Julianna:
    I am so happy to be home with my Mama and Daddy! I am eating so much, sleeping good, and making my parents smile and laugh all the time. They are not getting any sleep but they don't care because I am so darn cute!  I sleep in a bassinet at the foot of their bed and make adorable sounds all night long. I went to Dr. Cheek's office Monday morning and she said that I now weigh 4 lb. 14 oz.! Pretty soon I will be a whopping five pounds! Everything else checked out nicely and I will go back in a week for another check-up... something tells me I'm going to be getting some shots soon. :(
    I miss my sister, Gardner, so very much, but Mama and I are trying our best to be patient... Daddy is very practical (as opposed to an emotional driven Mama) and is helping us to be patient and listen to doctor's orders. We all can't wait to have her home!!

This is a face that I like to make at feeding time... "Little Birdie"

A word from Gardner:
    I am eating so well! I am tolerating every bottle and nursing some too!  I am add lib feeding (which means I can take as much milk as I want, and must take at least 33ccs,) with every bottle. The nurses say that I make the cutest faces and keep everyone in the NICU smiling daily... I am wide eyed all the time and paying attention to everything going on around me.  Mama came to visit tonight and cried and cried as she was holding me... Happy Tears! She is so very proud of how far I have come.  I am a real trooper and a fighter!  I weigh 3 lb. 4 oz. now and will soon be going to an open crib!  My biggest news tonight was that I am wearing clothes for the first time!! This means that I am starting to wean heat in my incubator and if I can maintain good temperatures all night, i WILL be in an open crib and start the path toward home!! Mama is dying for me to be home for Christmas and it just may happen! But if not, it will be God's perfect timing and I can be patient, as I have done so well thus far. We're trying not to count our chickens before they hatch.
     I can't wait to see my sister again and be in the crib next to her in our beautiful nursery.  Mama talks to me about Julianna and Daddy all the time and tells me how much they all love me and can't wait to have me home...

My first night weaning heat... such a trooper. Pray for me! 

We received some precious Santa hats from our sweet "Debba" today and Mama had fun setting us up for this photo shoot... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Julianna: top right and bottom left 

Gardner: top left and bottom right

We are moving right along and have both come so far. Everyone is very proud of us and we are lucky girls to be loved by so many.  What a special Christmas this is for our whole family... We are blessed to be here and have already brought so much joy to our parents.  Thank you to all our friends, who we are so excited to someday meet, for all of your prayers and support. Thank you for taking such good care of Mama and Daddy.  You have all prayed for them, brought food, sent sweet cards and emails, and poured your love into the hearts of us all...  We are so thankful for you!!  May God bless your families this Christmas as he has ours. 

WE LOVE YOU!

Julianna and Gardner

...Night, Night...

Together in Spirit

    
     We are just LOVING having little Julianna at home!! She has been such a sweet sweet girl. She hardly ever cries, sleeps well (only to wake up for feedings), and is eating so well! She has her first bath yesterday and did great! It was very short, as Mama was paranoid about her getting cold, but so fun! I smelled her little body all day long... Just can't get enough loving! We both love snuggling with her on the couch, watching her sleep, watching her make sweet faces and noises, and feeding her chubby little cheeks... She misses her sister and can't wait to have her home.

    Gardner is doing so good! She is bottle feeding for every feed now and weighs 3 lb 4 oz! The doctor mentioned weaning her heat today (which is the first step to getting into an open crib), but her nurse seemed to think she was still too small and needed to grow a little more. While this is understandable and we will try our best to be patient, it was still good to hear the doctor even mention it... I guess just knowing that it is the next step is a good feeling. I do want her to go at her own pace though. We are still keeping an eye on her anemia and have not done a blood transfusion as Dr Chen wants to revisit the issue next week... They are giving her iron, and gone up in calories and volume on her feeds. Hopefully, she will correct herself and the transfusion will not be necessary.
   
    With the twins in two different places and stages it is a stressful, yet exciting time! I am so very thankful to have Julianna home, but it almost makes it that much harder to have another child in the NICU. Its hard not to feel guilty about being either at home or at the hospital, because it feels as if I am giving up time with one or the other, although I know that they know no different at this point...  I know that time will heal all of this if we can just hang on for a little while longer.  Please pray that I will continue to have patience and understanding that Gardner is where she needs to be and that we will all be together some day soon. That will be the best day of my life... When our little nest is finally complete! But until that last little bird comes home, we have hope in His master plan and we will keep the faith... and remain "together in spirit."

Julianna

Gardner

May the Peace of the season be with you all!!

With Love,
The Fields

Homecoming Part One!!!

Julianna came home from the hospital today!!! I have been busting at the seams to tell the world this news, as the doctors told us on Monday. We were advised not to discuss it too much as there is always a possibility of things changing. We had to do a little CPR training, get some shots, have 72 hours of maintaining good vitals, pass a car seat test (Julianna had to sit in her car seat for about thirty minutes without dropping heart rate or stop breathing), then we were out of there! I cannot believe it has been ONE MONTH already and that one of my Angels is already HOME!

So as you can imagine, the feelings are bittersweet; it is a somewhat mixed emotion for me. My heart is bursting with joy for the accomplishments of both children and especially for Julianna's homecoming, while my heart aches to think of Gardner still there. While we celebrate this joyous occasion, please keep them both in your prayers but pray especially for sweet Gardner to get on the fast track home as well! We are going to hold off on her blood transfusion for now (maybe next week, maybe not at all, just watching red blood cells) but will keep all updated. 

Here are some pictures from the days events...

While we of course would love visitors later on down the road, please understand that Julianna is still VERY little and her immune system is still delicate... we are trying to not expose her to too much for a good while, so I will continue to update the blog but our family will probably need some time alone to "adjust" and "grow."  I am also going to be pretty tired and trying to sleep while she is sleeping and make occasional runs to hospital to feed Gardner. 

Keep us in your prayers. We are almost there!!! Can't WAIT for Homecoming part 2... Missing Gardner more than ever...

Love,
The Fields

All I Want for Christmas is My TWO little girls...

Dear friends and family,

We have finally reached a personal goal of mine and I like to say Gardner's too... She has reached the 3 pound mark!! She is exactly 3 lb. 1 oz. , and our little "chunky" Julianna is 4 lb. 5 oz.  So so proud of these girls and there progress!!!

Julianna either nurses or bottle feeds every three hours and Gardner bottle feeds twice, then feeding tube, then two bottles, then feeding tube... And so on, with occasional nursing as well.

We did receive news that Gardner's red blood cell count is low and there is a possibility for her having a third blood transfusion so please keep her in your prayers. We hope that isn't the case, but of so it is not a terrible set back because it will help her get back on the right track and could be just why she needs to pick up her eating and regulating her temperature enough to get In the open crib. They are doing some blood work today so we will keep you posted.

With so many things going on here, time seems to be flying and I am slacking on my blogging, but just know that no news is probably good news!

I hope that you all know how much I appreciate your checking in on us, your thoughtfulness, and lifting these girls up in prayer!

In the meantime... The Varner sister "elves" have been extremely busy... Mary Lovett and Anna spent nearly all week preparing this beautiful nursery! I can't WAIT for the baby girls to see their room...

Finally, an Update!

Being new parents of their tiny little girls has consumed every waking minute of

every day for Caroline and Brandon.  As Julianna and Gardner continue to grow,

there are more and more opportunities for lots of hands on interaction from their Mom and Daddy. Caroline asked me to update the blog for her today since she can’t seem to find time to write as often as she would like.

Brandon heads to the hospital early each morning on his way to work to have the first visit of the day with his girls. Caroline follows around mid morning and spends most of the day feeding, diapering, and learning how to care for her little angels. Brandon returns at lunch and then they are both back for the 5:00 feeding. Many nights they make one last nighttime visit to tuck the twins in bed for the last feeding. This exhausting schedule leaves little time for anything else, including much needed rest and rejuvenation. In between all, Caroline and Brandon manage to share their little wonders with a huge, loving family who want to sneak a peak almost daily!

Julianna  now weighs a whopping 4 lbs. 3 ozs, and is taking bottles/nursing every other feeding. She has done really well since graduating to an open crib and the doctors predict she may get to come home before Christmas!! Gardner is now up to almost 3 lbs. and also getting bottles/nursing every other feeding.  We predict she will be in an open crib soon.  Both of the girls are adorable and already have stolen our hearts.  We are so looking forward to the day when both of them are at home and we can give them lots of hugs and love.

  We are all so very grateful to our wonderful friends and family who have showered us with love and prayers (and food!)  that has sustained us through some uncertain days. We ask that you continue to keep Gardner and Julianna in your prayers as they get bigger and stronger. Thank you for reminding us of God’s continual presence through your many kindnesses. 

Mary ("GG")

From today's feeding!