Yep....it's all true!

Yes, we're moving to Lubbock and yes Dustin is starting his own firm: The Brooks Firm PLLC. If you really know Dustin's personality then you know it was only a matter of time. Fortunately for him he did have the opportunity to work for a great firm here, had the opportunity to bring in clients and develop those relationships and really got to see after working at two different firms in San Antonio that he wanted to be independent. In my opinion, it was a great way to self-discover. Everyone close to him have encouraged him to do this for some time as Dustin has the gift of the gab and knows a lot of oil and gas people and businesses in both the Lubbock and Midland areas. He has commitment of work and turned in his resignation this morning, effective immediately.

So having twins is very challenging. Everything now comes with a plan. Dinner must be planned around feeding times and we must have bottles prepared in advance just in-case. Nonetheless, caring for a baby is a full-time job and double that then you will understand why I have decided not to return to work. I'm going to focus on what is truly important in life, our family and my health. I'm going to stay at home with the girls once we make our move. I will be finishing out one week at Alamo Heights and have alerted them to our move. I'm very sad to leave as I have been there 5 years and have developed a lot of wonderful friendships. Ultimately, this move back to Lubbock for Dustin and to Lubbock for me (can you believe I have never lived there??!!) is one that is best for OUR family. There Claire and Caroline will have 6 grandparents, 4 great-grandparents, 6 aunts and uncles and 1 baby cousin Emma that was born just last week while we were out there visiting. ; ) It will be a refreshing move to have so many family members so close. We've learned just how important that help is when the unthinkable happens.

Gigi and her girls

Happy Mother's Day 2012!

Great-grandfather, Papaw and Claire

Aunt Macy and Caroline

Great-grandparents: Nana and Papaw....and it was 8:30, feeding time! OOPS

Happy 2 Months... Caroline left and Claire right

"Wake up sister!"

Yeah, this photo shoot wasn't easy....so the binkies were MUSTS

Aunt Amber and Caroline

We outgrew our bassinets and mommy cried!

Papaw and the girls

Our new house

Favorite part! Love the door and LOVE the gas lanterns.

This pictures doesn't exactly give the kitchen justice. It has enough storage for all of my dishes, a full-size wine refrigerator and wolf appliances -- we. are. in. heaven.

You can't have too many....

- Burp Cloths - Swaddles - Diapers - Wipes - Formula - Bottles - Receiving Blankets - WASHERS AND DRYERS! Yes, we're running a full-time assembly line out of 7 Inwood Way. Between boiling baby water, mixing and fortifying formula, changing 15+ diapers a day and 3+ loads of laundry each day...I've been busy to say the least. This is a full time job! So far things are going well for the girls. They continue to grow and show all signs of good health. Last week we went to our first pediatrician appointment and Caroline weighed 6 lbs. and 2 oz. and Claire weighed 6 lbs. even. So basically they each gained 1 lb. in the one week they were home! We have a routine that we stick to and feed the girls every 4 hours. So we feed at 8:30, 9:00, 12:30, 1:00, 4:30, 5:00 and repeat. Lots of bottles, lots of formula! We do mama-roo time -- if you haven't seen this gadget google it...it's a must have -- playmate time and tummy time each day to strengthen our muscles but in between feedings, including the night they sleep! Their personalities are emerging. Caroline is super chill and easy going. If she's hungry she lets you know just by waking up and waits for you to feed her....she doesn't cry when she's hungry. Claire on the other hand, if things aren't just so then she lets us know with a one "waaaah" followed by rest and then another "waaaah." She doesn't like her hands swaddled inside and has to have it at a perfect tightness. She eats at her time on the dot! She's our wiggle worm during playmat time...this is the exact opposite of their personalities in the womb. Baby "B" (Caroline) was every where on the monitors and gave me lots of kicks. They are certainly fun to watch especially their interactions with one another. So I was stubborn and refused to purchase a bigger car while I was pregnant. Nonetheless, my car just will NOT work....(I knew this, but had to see it first hand!)....so today we're getting our suburban. Total kid-hauler, but I guess I am a mom of two now....so I will join all the other moms out there that have bit the bullet and bought the kid-hauler. I anticipate this being a great tail-gating rig too! My health: things have shown improvement. My bell's palsy is almost gone, if you're an average person just looking at me and don't know the situation but if you are looking for it you can see that my right side still struggles. When taking pictures I have to be extra conscious of this to open that eye a little wider and draw back my smile even further. My jaw is still not as strong on that side, but that is to be expected. My pneumonia has been clear and has remained gone. I went to the cardiologist last week and repeated my echocardiogram where they found my ejection fracture to be 70%. That doesn't sound high but it is -- it's a great number to have, especially when I started in the 40 percent range when I was in the ER. I still have some heart palpitations and on occasion my heart rate is still high but after all I am running an assembly line over here?!? I'm still on medication to slow my heart rate, but have been able to drop the blood pressure meds since I've maintained a consistently healthy BP since discharge. I will be released to return to work by the end of this month and should be released, HOPEFULLY, entirely from the cardiologist by the end of the summer. As far if this could happen again if we had additional children, that can't be answered firmly by everyone, but we're not ready to have that conversation, if ever. We feel VERY lucky to have what we have! Overall, I've bounced back quickly -- even my Dr.'s didn't think things would go this well this fast so we're thankful! When we arrived home we had two storks in our yard announcing the girls birth! So cute!

Happy 1 Month C & C!

April 17, 2012 the girls came home! So far things are going well. Two is time consuming, no doubt, but thankfully for us, we know no different. We're scheduled to have lots of help from our moms in the weeks to come!

Pops came to visit us again.

The nursery.

One last picture in the nursery before their arrival. About to leave to get them from NICU.

My first time holding them at the same time. : )

About to go HOME. In as two, out as four!! (Claire left, Caroline right)

Getting ready to drive 20 mph all the way home...

7 miles and an hour and a half later, daddy got us home safely! Kidding...but we did drive really really slow.

Let's play and FINALLY get to touch each other!

So we have heard Claire cry and Caroline has no reaction to it. Caroline cried for the first time and Claire just couldn't handle it and went to town crying too. This is post their meltdowns so to comfort Claire we let her see that Caroline was ok. It was tragic for her prior to this!

Gigi feeding Caroline

Today we are 1 month old!!!! I'm just going to post several pictures from the photoshoot because it is just hilarious. Thanks to Brad Baccus we are now proud owners of two of these bears! Caroline is in the pink headband and Claire is in the purple.

"I'm hungry, no I'm hungrier"

Caroline, Claire (We gave up on the bows)

Pictures....Finally!

Caroline, Claire

with Claire

Dad and Claire

Mom and Claire (Caroline required more support at birth so we don't have pictures with her)

Holding Caroline for the first time.

Claire 2.5 weeks old

Mommy and Claire

Graduating to Bottles - Claire

Dad and Caroline

Mom and Caroline

Claire

Caroline

So fresh after bath time - Caroline

Happy Easter, Sister! Caroline left, Claire right.

Our first Easter. Caroline left, Claire right.

"Pictures wore me out!" (Claire)

"Ha, but they didn't me!" (Caroline)

Happy Birthday Caroline and Claire!

The girls were born March 20th. Claire was born first at 1:05 pm followed by Caroline's arrival at 1:06 pm. Claire was 4 lbs. 2 oz. and 16" long and Caroline was 4 lbs. and 3 oz. and 17.25". All went well with the delivery and their cords had 2 full knots so we're grateful for no complications from that during pregnancy.

The girls currently are still in NICU but are doing great. They are each almost back up to their birth weight and are beginning to take more and more from a bottle and less from tube feeds. The growth and change from birth until now is unimaginable. It's hard to leave them every night but we ultimately know it is what is best for them.

I was discharged the Friday following their delivery and was readmitted 2 days later into ICU. Summed up I couldn't breathe and couldn't be any position other than straight up. I had massive fluid build up in my body, heart and lungs. I had pneumonia, high blood pressure, major fluid retention in my body and legs making walking so very painful and on top of all of this developed Bell's Palsy and have lost the ability to move the right side of my face. I was anemic and required a few units of blood on this trip as well. None of which showed up until after delivery, which is very rare. Throughout my pregnancy I maintained a healthy blood pressure and was swollen some but could usually find my ankles. They think the pneumonia had been there a while causing my shortness of breath, but what pregnant woman with twins isn't short of breath...therefore this wasn't alarming the plethora of Dr.'s I saw while in antepartum for 8 weeks!? As Dustin has said "this was all the perfect storm; a culmination of many things." I lost over 25 lbs. while in the hospital last week, any damage caused to my heart should be able to heal itself with time and I'm regaining sensation in my face, slowly. Though it is mind-blowing that all of this could happen while under 24/7 hospital care, it did, but we're moving on.....we've got 2 beautiful girls in NICU that need us.

iphone pictures: We've been bad about whipping out the iphones for pictures instead of our good camera but hope you can still enjoy them.

Can you tell us apart? (Caroline left and Claire is on the right)

We have some gigglers! Caroline

Gigi & Caroline

Momsey & Claire

Pops & Claire

Dustin & Claire

4-days-to-go

I cannot believe the week has FINALLY come! It has been a busy few weeks preparing. If you've been there you know and well Dustin has to do it all. I have all day to make lists and bless his heart he has to round everything up and make trips to and from the house in what little spare time he has.
I started a new medication a week and a half ago, procardia, that I take every 6 hours to null the contractions and other than one spell it has done just that. Everything else is looking good: blood pressure, swelling, etc. etc. I will say I've gotten bigger and subsequently am frequently more and more out of breath.
Dustin went home today to find that our house is all decked out for Easter thanks to Gigi. She also organized our pantry, bathroom cabinets etc. My mom and her have worked in the nursery and according to Dustin I will be so so surprised when I get home to the goodies and organization. I know this will help with all of my worries as well. THANKS MOMS!!
Thursday at 12:30 we're set for our C-Section. I've been prepped for the basics and have asked to know not much more than that. If I have time to worry about something I will but if faced with it with little time to worry I can handle and deal with most anything. I'm most worried about the spinal but hear that's relatively simple so I'm thinking it will be OK.
I'm very exhausted from my stay here at the hospital. I have meds to take every 3 hours throughout the day and night that I get very little good, deep sleep. So nonetheless I am ready to go home. I should be able to go home next Sunday. No matter what the soonest my Dr. lets me outta here I'm on it!
We've been reading Jesus calling since we've been in the hospital and here it today's devotional. I found it most appropriate!

We've saved all of the cards we've received along with prayer grams and prayer request pages from churches here and afar. Our girls, one day will be able to read these and process this all when they are able to comprehend it. This has also been a great "pick-me up" wall when I've needed it.

Our friends and family that attended the San Antonio shower wrote words of advice to the girls --this has been such a fun thing to read over the weeks. They will know they were loved long before they were even here!

Here are our last sonogram pictures. The pics are of Claire. We weren't able to see Caroline's face as she is face down kissing Claire's booty! Caroline weighed in on Thursday, 3/15, at 4 pounds and 3 ounces and Claire weighed exactly 4 pounds. We couldn't be happier about their weights! Hopefully they will be solid over 4 pounds at birth so when they lose some weight after birth we won't go down in to the 3's.

We feel so blessed to make it this far and have always known God is in control. But it has been through your prayers that we've found peace and have been able to face each day with a positive attitude. We'll do our best to post an update after the birth later in the week. Thank you for reading, sending cards, e-mails, texts, stopping our families out in public to let them know you were thinking of us, dinners, visits and countless prayers. These girls are loved and have had such a wonderful support group. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

30 weeks & 1 day

Today, Thursday marks 30 weeks and 1 day. It's amazing how excited one can get over "1 day." Our C-Section is exactly 2 weeks from today.

So far things are still stable but with contractions becoming more frequent. My body has done well considering I'm carrying two babies and I am expected to contract. At this point we're just praying the contractions don't set anything more off than a little bit of pain here and there. We need prayers specifically for this vesa previa to not rupture between now and March 22nd. That has become the forefront of my worries.

Our girls are doing so great on the monitor. When I do have contractions it does not phase them at all. They are meeting their 15 x 15 required heart races and have never shown a de-acceleration. So as I've always said: the babies are strong and are fighters....their house was just built with mud and water.

On the bright side! Our girls have lots of hair.... haha but we weren't expecting them NOT to. In a 2-d sonogram you can see it sticking up off of the head. Maybe it's curly too?? That is what I can't wait to find out is if their hair is curly like Dustin's or straight like mine...

Things I have learned (or think I've learned) over the last 6 weeks:

-Waiting is SO hard.

-Never take the smell of your own home for granted.

-If you work and have always wondered what you were missing on TV, let me tell you...you're not missing a thing!

-I think Downy is missing a large market in hospitals. Surely they could produce an odorless fabric softner?!? No one likes drying off with sandpaper...

-The San Antonio newscasts that air at 4:30, 5:00. 6:00 and 6:30 are really all the same unless someone has broke jail between 4:30 and 6:30.

-Hospital food is really as bad as you have heard.

-My husband is amazing! He's gone above and beyond and taken the initiative to complete so many open-ended tasks we left abruptly to ensure my stress level remains low.

-The selfless love one has for a child is something I'm still not able to fully able to understand at this point, but have seen it first hand through our parents. Visiting us isn't exactly the most fun right now but they've come, sat, visited and kept our minds distracted. I know this must be extremely hard for them as well...especially my dad who can't stand to sit down for 5 minutes.

-Our friends have gone above and beyond to still let us know we really are friends! ....thank you for all of the visits, food, magazines, blizzards etc.!