Welcome Emery and Oliver

We are so proud to welcome 2 new additions to the Ring family!! Emery and Oliver arrived on Wednesday, January 23rd making us a family of 5! 

This is the best family portrait we've captured so far!

We were scheduled for a cesarean on Monday the 28th, but Emery and Oliver had different plans.  Tuesday the 22nd was Kirk's first day back in class since December, and we just knew that I was going to go into labor in the middle of one of his classes.  Tuesday was a pretty rough day for me, as I was in a lot of pain and had Kaleb to care for all day long by myself.  When Kirk returned home from work that evening, he could tell that something had changed.  I had contractions all evening and through the night, but they were never consistent in timing enough for me to think I was in true labor.  I had an extremely painful and sleepless night that night and by 8:00 in the morning, I decided it was time to head to the hospital.  With the snap of a finger my contractions went from 6 minutes apart and mild to 2-3 minutes apart and BRUTAL!  We had to wake Kaleb up, load the car, and bring him to our neighbor's house pretty quickly and rushed to the hospital.  We got in a room, got me examined, and determined that we were indeed meeting our babies that day.  We were in the OR in no time and by 10:55 our babies were entering the world.

We welcomed Oliver Joseph at 10:55 a.m. weighing 6 lbs 5 oz.

Emery Frances joined us at 10:57 a.m. weighing 5lbs 8 oz.

The proud daddy and our doctor!

Maw maw and Paw paw meeting them

Pops and Maw maw meeting them.

We were in the hospital for 2 nights and were released on Friday to go home.  We've had a few weight checks and are having to supplement feedings a bit to get them back to their birth weight, but other than that, we are doing great!  We have an appointment in a few weeks in KC to check on Emery's feet.  Thus far, the diagnosis looks good.  The club feet seem to be positional, but we are not sure exactly what this means for treatment at this time. 

Headed home!

Kaleb and Paw paw racing home from the playground to see the babies!

 

Already telling secrets!

Sweet kisses from brother!

Emery has quite an assortment of expressions!

Big brother Kaleb is handling this as well as we can expect.  He is very interested in them and keeps close tabs on them, but doesn't want to have pictures made with them, and he's not so excited about touching them.  He is warming up slowly but surely, and I'm sure they'll be best friends in no time!

He wouldn't let us take his picture... so we waited until he was asleep!

Our sweet friends Brandi and Ria were at the hospital visiting when Kaleb got to meet the babies for the first time.

Kaleb, Oliver, and Emery exchanged gifts at the hospital!

This boy has hands in his face or mouth at all times, even during our prenatal sonos.

Kaleb keeps their seats bouncing and keeps a good eye on them!

Being a big brother is tough!

 

 

One big pile of sweetness all for us... we are in LOVE!

 

 

Goal Reached!!

We made it to 36 weeks!!  I am beyond relieved to make it this far.  However, we had a bit of a disappointment at our appointment today.  The babies are fine, but we discovered today that a C-Section is likely our reality.  Oliver has been head down every time we've done a sono, and Emery has been transverse (laying across by stomach).  All along, we've thought we could at least try for vaginal delivery since the first baby presented head down.  About 2 weeks ago, everything started feeling different as far as the movements I've been feeling from them both.  I thought they were just running out of room, but I called yesterday and asked them to do a sono before our appointment today just to check on them.  Of course, my mommy instincts were correct... there was something very different.  Oliver has totally flipped the other direction and is now breech.  Emery is still laying across my stomach with her belly right on top of her brother's face.  She seems to be the boss.  She is sprawled out and comfy with Oliver having to lay behind her with his face in her tum tum.  Hopefully it at least makes a good pillow for him.  With their new positions, we have had to change our scheduled 38 week induction into a 38 week C Section.  I am disappointed, but ultimately, I just want a safe delivery for all 3 of us, and if a Cesarean is what it takes, that's what we'll do.  We did get estimates on their weights today, and these estimates are really rough.  They are so crammed we couldn't get great measurements on either of them.  Oliver is approximately 6 lbs and Emery 5 lbs 10oz.  I'm pretty happy with those sizes myself!  We couldn't get a look at Emery's feet because her legs are so smashed up against my side.  The tech did say that the one foot we could see did look clubbed still, but it could still be positional.  We won't truly know until we get her out of there.

Some time in the next 11 days, we will FINALLY meet our little ones!  Kaleb is ready for them to come out.  He asks me at least once a day when "Wemmy" and "Wovver" are coming out.  I don't think anyone is quite as ready as I am though!!

Melissa

34 Weeks

We reached 34 weeks on Monday, and we are thrilled!  My original goal was to make it to 2013, and here we are!  Now we just want to get past 36 weeks, as that will give us a pretty good chance of no NICU time for the babies.  I had an appointment on Wednesday, and the doc says I am progressing and to be prepared!  I am pretty miserable these days, but I'm just trying to hang on as long as I can.  As I have been saying... "I am not complaining; I'm just explaining!"  I feel so blessed to be able to carry 2 sweet angels, and although, it has been rough at times, I will look back at this time with pretty special feelings!  I am going to try to enjoy the last few days/weeks of pregnancy... We don't plan on me getting to do this again!! 

I haven't posted one of these in a while!

Big Momma at 34 weeks!

Melissa

Happy New Year!

We didn't get our white Christmas, but we did get a white New Year!  We got a bit of snow on New Year's Eve that melted that afternoon.  We were quite surprised to wake up on New Year's Day to it still snowing!  It snowed several hours that morning and we got just enough for Kaleb to build a small snowman!  When he first saw the snow when he woke up the first morning, he yelled, "Daddy it's snowin'... I get my jacket!!" 

Kaleb has been talking about building a snowman for weeks since we got our first snow of this season.  I put on a scarf one day last week, and he said," Mama, you're a snowman!"  Not the thing a pregnant woman wants to hear, but I was OK with it when I realized it was the scarf he was associating with snowmen, not my size. 

He was so excited New Year's Day when he finally got to go out and build "Snowy."  Thank you Aunt Joy for sending us the snowman building kit!!  He turned out pretty cute!  I think one of Kaleb's tv shows on Disney must have an episode where they build and name a snowman "Snowy."  We didn't even encourage Kaleb to give him a name.  He just immediately started calling him that.  Snowy has since melted for the most part, and Kaleb is quite sad about that.  Maybe we will get a heavier snow next time and his snowman can be a bit bigger!

We wish you all a very Happy New Year!!

Melissa