Josh is coming home!!!

WOO HOO!!!
I am so glad to be finally typing that! Our little boy (ha ha, he has a pound on his brother) is finally coming home! Of course, there is a little caveat...since he is having breathing issues still (apparently his brain is a little immature and is causing immature breathing patterns) he will have to come home on an apnea monitor.

What is an apnea monitor?? Good question, I was wondering exactly myself and did what I do best...search the internet for more info. Turns out this portable monitor will be strapped on when Josh is sleeping and will go off (earsplitting I have heard) if he forgets to breath for a period of time. But from what I have heard, there are more false alarms that actual ones, so it sounds like we will be getting very little sleep until we get used to it. He will need to be on the monitor somewhere between 3-6 months which is not going to be fun, but we gotta do what's gotta be done. And I have a feeling that once he is home, he will do a lot better. I have read that once the twins are back together, the twin that doesn't have the breathing issues will help the one that does. So keep your fingers crossed for that!

So in order to get Josh home, we now have to learn how to use this monitor at the hospital which will take somewhere between 4-6 hours! Holy cow! Plus I have to get trained in baby CPR, which is a little scary, but it is a good thing to know anyway.

All that aside, I am beyond thrilled that our family will be together again. It's been a long 7 weeks to get them both home, and now the real fun begins...how on earth do I take care of two?? Here is the latest picture of Team Gillis, apparently Brody likes the taste of Josh :)

I miss my mommy!

Ok, I know that I sound like a 4 year old when I say that, but I can't help it, it's true. I just dropped off my mom and my aunt at the aiport and almost had a panic attack because there was no one to watch the baby in the back seat while I was driving home. You see, my mom was here for 10 days to help with things, thinking that both boys would be home by now (and as you can see below, they are not). But it was so nice to have her up for such a long time, not only helping me stay up with Brody, but giving me emotional support and the courage to take our first trip to a restaurant with a baby! If it wasn't for her, I don't think we would have tried that for 6 months :)

My point is, that no matter what age we are, we always need our mom and miss her when she is not around. As much as she drove me crazy when I was a teenager and vice versa I am sure...she has been such a great mom. And since my family lives down in PA, I don't get to see her as much as I would like. Plus now, being a new mom I would love for her to just be right down the road when a problems arises since I have no clue what I am doing!

Now that her grandchildren are up here though, they are seriously considering buying a summer place up here and I couldn't be happier! There isn't much to our family (only 8 of us at the Christmas dinner table and that included my husband) so to have them so far really is a bummer, but for 10 glorious days my mom was here, taking care of me and my babies...here are a couple of shots of her with her two grandchildren that she is already spoiling rotten:

And here is a picture of my favorite aunt with her two great-nephews!

As you can see, these two boys are totally not loved...not! I was so spoiled this past week and a half because there was no shortage of people wanting to hold, feed, and change little Brody. Plus they relieved us first thing in the morning so we could get some sleep...I really hope they come back once Josh is home because I will need all the help I can get!

Yet another setback...

Well, we found out today when visiting Josh in the special care nursery that he had yet another sleeping spell, meaning that he can't come home for another 7 days at the earliest. It is such disheartening news to hear that yet again our little boy is not well enough to be home with us :( And now since my due date was April 22, they are going to start conducting tests to determine what is causing his eating/sleeping spells, so hopefully they will get to the bottom of this...

I have to say that I never imagined how difficult it would be to have one boy at home and another still in the hospital. I never thought that I would have my boys so early in the first place, let alone have them stay in the hospital for so long. Brody was in for just over 2 weeks, while his brother has been in for almost 7 weeks. It's so frustrating because I feel that it is a waste of my maternity leave since I am without both my boys and that Josh and I won't get to bond like I have with my little Brody.

With that said, I realize how much worse this could be...Josh could still be in Boston, but we are lucky enough to have him 5 minutes down the road. And the coordinating of schedules is hard enough, it would be downright impossible if he was so far away. We get to see him everyday and watch him grow. But in all honesty, we just want him home.

Will post any updates when we hear, for now I'll leave you with one of my favorite pics of Josh so far...can't wait to take many more :)

Hello!

Well I have decided to start a blog now that we have welcomed twin boys into the world! I figure this will be the best thing to keep everyone updated since we have lots of friends and family that is far away and won't be able to keep track of all the comings and goings of the Gillis clan. Hopefully I will keep up with this and keep everyone updated on the commings and goings of Josh & Brody. So, welcome to my blog and I will leave with 1 month photos of my boys since they are the cutest babies in the world...but again, I am biased :)

Josh on left & Brody on right