Keepin' Up With the Cooleys: Family of 5

Warning...long post & picture overload!

Since my last post it has pretty much been a whirlwind!! We sold our Expedition, bought a minivan, sold our house, moved to a rental house in Clinton, Mississippi (at week 33 of my pregnancy!), and had our twins. Once again, we saw the Lord's faithfulness as He provided throughout all of these situations.

I am so thankful that I was able to make it to 37 weeks and five days with our twins. The whole pregnancy was pretty tough overall (sickness at the beginning, exhaustion, the weight of my stomach, and keeping up with my one year old), but the Lord took care of me. One of our biggest prayers throughout was to make it full-term. As I was getting bigger and bigger I started to question that
prayer (kidding!!). When I look back at how huge my stomach was I can't believe I was able to function. One of the hardest parts (besides the summer heat, standing up, shaving my legs, and rolling over in bed) was not being able to get on the floor and play with Harrison.

NOLA shower hosted by these lovelies! (plus sweet Judah)

Jackson shower hosted by the Medlins

Then it just got ridiculous!!!

Morning of the induction!

My doctor told me from day one that she would not let me go past 38 weeks, so we set the induction for October 17 (the day before Harrison's second birthday!!). Another big prayer that the Lord graciously granted was to not have a C-section. Again, when Asher would not come I questioned that prayer! I had the epidural but it wasn't until after they were born that the anesthesiologist noticed
something had gone wrong. There ended up being a kink in the wire and, let's just say, it was quite traumatizing. At least it worked for the contractions?!?!

Eden was born at 2:24 PM weighing 5 pounds and 13 ounces. A long 20 minutes later, Asher was born at 2:44 PM weighing 6 pounds and 14 ounces. They never once entered the NICU and we went home two days later. Can you say GRATEFUL!

Asher screaming in poor Eden's face!

H's birthday in the hospital

Cousins!!

My sweet tiny Asher

Sweet baby...mittens would just fall off her hands!

8 days old

Photographer, Jennifer Nicholson, came to our house and took photos when the twins were 6 days old. Here is the link to all of them, and here are just a few below...

I love how Asher's holding her...already protecting his sister!

(I took this one)

Our moms helped for the first six weeks! (So, so thankful for them.) I was able to nurse the babies at the same time while I had some help, but thought it would be too hard when I was alone. They ate every three hours in the day and every four at night for a month. Eden started eating every two hours (smaller, more frequent meals). Asher ate about twice as much as Eden for the first two months. She's finally catching up- eating about 4 oz at each feeding (6 times a day), while Asher eats about 5 oz. At their 2 month check up Eden was in the 20th percentile while Asher was in the 80th!!!

After those six weeks with help, it was just me and three kids alllll dayyyy longgg. I was never so excited for Jermaine to come home. The first day, I told Jermaine that I was going to go back to work because it was just too hard...lol. The twins just turned 3 months and I can say that it has gotten better since then. It took a little while to figure out a routine that would work best. I prefer to bottle feed them at the same time (each propped up in a Boppy, me in the middle, and H usually sitting on my lap!) or one right after the other. They are up for about an hour, then nap at the same time. This way I have a little "break" (ha) and can play with Harrison, clean, pump, eat, etc. They eat about every three hours, with a 4-hour stretch in the middle of the day. Lately Harrison's nap has overlapped the twins' long nap...and it's glorious!!!

Daddy & Eden

Harrison & Asher

Harrison & Eden....too sweet!

Harrison has done well considering two infants have joined our family! He loves his siblings, and has had very few bits of jealousy. We have problems if he wants to be held and I'm taking care of a baby at the moment.

Halloween- 2 weeks old

Sleep was quite interesting for a while. The first couple of weeks, one would finally go to sleep, 20 minutes later, the other one would wake up, and it seemed to go on all night long. Many nights were spent "sleeping" in a chair holding one or both. And Harrison started waking up at least once a night as well....what?!?!? When our moms were here they were getting up with me to feed babies in the middle of the night!! Jermaine was up plenty too even though he was back at work a week after they were born. Jermaine still gets up many times throughout the night to get someone back to sleep or feed if needed! I honestly do not hear them as often as he does. They are now going about 8-9 hours at night until they eat.

We have hired a "nanny" who is wonderful. She's a friend from church who comes over two days a week to help with laundry, dishes, cleaning, feeding, changing diapers, whatever is needed. I only wish we could afford her more days ;) Another lady from church has been coming to our house for a couple months now, twice a week, cleaning and doing laundry...just to bless us! We've tried to tell her to come once a week, but she won't listen!

We went from a family of two to a family of five in two years!!! So crazy! We are, of course, so in love, but things are definitely different this time around. The first Sunday we could take them to nursery at church, we went (despite our dead car battery). We happily dropped them off and ran to the service, praying the whole time that our numbers would not pop up on the screen. If someone asks if they can help, I say yes! That is so not me, but I am ok with it right now.

Having two infants is soooo much harder than just one! I am trying to embrace this time, hold my babies as much as possible, and take it all in, because I know they grow up so fast!

Monthly pictures so far......