Blessing Day

We took advantage of having my parents in town and were able to bless Kathryn and Olivia on Sunday, December 14th. 

It was a wonderful day and Stephen gave them each such beautiful blessings. It really made me reflect upon their individual personalities and what this mortal life has in store for each of them.

Those who participated in the blessings. My dad, Stephen and my cousin Joseph Dent 

Olivia June Holden 

 We've loved having my cousin and his family who live in the area join us and be apart of this special day. So wonderful to share it with family, we just wish we could have had everyone there. 

They were both so well behaved the whole day. They both slept through the blessings and the entire three hours of church. 

Kathryn Mary Holden

It was hard not to reflect upon when we blessed Andrew and Ethan. What different circumstances we were in.  They were five days old and we got permission from our bishop to give them a name and blessing, while still in the NICU. We were not sure if they would live or not and wanted to bless them before anything happened. As I sat there this time with these girls in my arms, I was very overwhelmed and filled with a spirit of love and gratitude that we are an eternal family.  I also wondered what these girls relationships with their brothers were before they came to earth and what they will grow to be while in this life here on earth. 

Love these two!! 

Photo Shoot

Right around their due date {Nov. 12} we were able to capture some darling shots of these girls and their big brother. If you think trying to get a newborn to cooperate for a photo was tricky, try getting two to cooperate with you...plus a three year old. Anyways, I love how they turned out! In most of the pictures you can tell who is who....Olivia is the smaller one and Kathryn has the dark black hair.

Olivia June

Kathryn Mary 

 These two couldn't be more opposite Kathryn has an innie belly button and Olivia has an outie. Haha!

I just love these black & white ones with Andrew! He is such the sweetest big brother. These girls are pretty lucky to have such a loving brother. 

 Olivia  & Andrew

A not so happy Kathryn & Andrew

These girls were at the end of their rope and we were trying to squeeze in a few more pictures. I love how Andrew was caught kissing and trying to calm down Olivia...so sweet! 

Happy Halloween

We had a pretty calm Halloween this year. But couldn't let it go by without doing a little celebrating.

The day before Halloween I realized we hadn't gotten any pumpkins. Andrew really had fun with carving pumpkins last year and so I wanted to try and carved some again. With Stephen's sister Meghan visiting that week, I was able to take Andrew on afternoon to go and get pumpkins at the store. The only problem was every store we went to was completely out. I didn't realize how hard it would be to find a pumpkin the day before Halloween. After walking around the entire Kroger with Andrew in tow, I finally asked someone. Nope. Trader Joe's was close by so we headed that way. This time I went and found someone right off. Again...no pumpkins. Then across the street was an Aldi. I thought I'd give it one more shot before giving up. Poor Andrew was so confused by this point. So off to Aldi we went for one last try....and sure enough. There were two big bins. But when I looked inside it was slim pickings only about 7-8 to choose from and most all of the were most likely rotten inside. We grabbed two anyways and headed home.  What an adventure!

I guess it was all for nothing, because we ran out of time the next day to carve them. Oh well.


Our complex did a small trick or treating activity with s'mores at the complex's firepit. It was a lot of fun and Andrew had a ball dressing up in his dragon costume and becoming the scary dragon one more time. He got the whole concept this year, but was way too shy to say the actual words "trick or treat" but everyone was super nice and since there aren't many kids in the complex we got handfuls of candy at each doorstep.

After about 4 different homes and 45 minutes...we were done and called it quits. We came inside. Andrew had one or two pieces of candy, but didn't really care much for it. (meaning he didn't constantly ask for his candy) This was dangerous because that meant that Stephen ....or errr I guess...I at most of it.

The girls stayed inside and slept the night away! Thanks to sweet Aunt Meghan who stayed behind to take care of these sleeping princess.

Here's a few of my favorite pictures....After trick or treating Andrew was totally done with pictures...but we couldn't get enough of these girls. Good thing Aunt Meghan was there to dote on them with me, because as much as Stephen loves them...taking pictures is not his thing.

A dragon and his daddy 

Two little princesses

 Princess Kathryn

Princess Olivia

 Lots of little princess toes

 Andrew the Dragon guarding his princesses

Tutu bums

One Month Old

I can't believe these girls are one month old...and their due date was this last week. November 12th. They have filled our home and our hearts. I'm so grateful. We've truly been doubly blessed. 

In the last month, our lives have found a new crazy normal around our house. And honestly I really can't complain much. I've had a great recovery and both these girls are great sleepers.  It feels so wonderful to actually be able to do things for myself and accomplish even the littlest tasks.  I've loved getting back into things. The one thing I think I missed the most being on bed rest for so long, was being a mom to Andrew and doing things for him and with him....and now I'm a mom to three. So crazy!

While on bed rest I felt like I really bonded to this girls. I mean I was laying around for 10 weeks thinking of them. Not to mention the fact that I was monitored 3 times a day and had weekly ultrasounds. I think I calculated having over 25 ultrasounds this pregnancy. That's a lot!! And with each one I got to know these girls and their little personalities. Its so fun to see them now and realize how they become their own little person way before they are born.

Kathryn Mary
We had the name Kathryn chosen way back when we were pregnant with Andrew and Ethan. Both Stephen and I have loved this name and it's meaning of "pure and innocent"/ We also felt that this sweethearts name is a combination of both her grandma's names Kathy and Carolyn (hence the spelling of using a /K/ and the /-ryn/ at the end. Her middle name Mary is a family name on the Dent side. My dad's grandma was a Mary.  

So far miss Kathryn has been exactly like she was before she was born. Calm and content. She is always a happy baby and I rarely hear her cry. Even when she's starving, she'll just look at you with her big eyes and is completely patient.

She is our little cuddle bug. She loves to be swaddled (maybe because she was always so squashed by her sister being on the bottom.) and curls up into the tiniest little ball. Kathryn's little newborn grunts are hilarious and make me smile every time because they sound like a little laugh.

Kathryn is such a good sleeper. She can lay down happy and wide awake then a few short minutes later, I can look over and she is completely out on her own. No rocking, no pacifier, nothing. Where did this sweet baby come from?

Olivia June 

Coming up with a second name was much trickier for us. We debated for a long time what this little ones name should be. We had lots on our list and after lots of discussion, we narrowed it down to Olivia or Leah. As I sat weeks on end at the hospital, I got asked a thousand and one times if we had names for our girls. I would always ask people's opinion of which name they liked better. Nine times out of ten, people would say Olivia. It's always been a favorite of mine and I somehow convinced Stephen to go with it. The name June is also a family name and comes from the Holden side. Stephen's grandma was named June. 

Both Stephen and I can see A LOT of Andrew in Olivia, She has the same shaped face and eyes. As I've looked back at pictures of Andrew, you'd only know who is who because they are either wearing pink or blue. She was super tiny when she first came home, it was so hard to comprehend how small this little four pound baby was.

This little one is a feisty girl. She may be small, but she sure knows how to keep up with her sister. She's my little alarm clock. She cries and is hungry every three hours...almost to the minute and she lets you know it. 

She is a kicker and a mover always finding ways to get out of her swaddle and loves to sleep with her hands above her head and legs stretched out. 

Can you tell that Olivia is on the left and Kathryn is on the right?

At first it was tricky to tell the two girls apart, but we soon learned that Kathryn had a darker completion with darker hair and a rounder face. Olivia has lighter brown hair and a more fair complexion.

Olivia also looks as though she might have blue/grayish eyes, where Kathryn's are a much deeper brown color like Andrew's. They have very different ears too Olivia's are much smaller, like Stephen's ears and Kathryn must have gotten the Dent ears. I guess their size really has been the biggest difference. Kathryn was born weighing a whole pound heavier...but Olivia is catching up. They've changed so much in one month and are starting to really fill out and get chubby cheeks and little rolls on their legs.

These two love to sleep right next to each other and actually sleep so much better that way. Right now, they are sleeping 3 1/2 hours during the day and night Yet, every once in a while we get a 4 or 5 hour stretch in during the night. which is wonderful


At one month old we are finally out of preemie sized diapers and clothes and into newborn sizes. Here are their stats. 

Kathryn is 6lbs 14oz and is 19 1/2 inches long

Olivia is 6lbs 4oz and 18 1/2 inches long. 

We love these two so much and in someways I think that they had such a good chance of being born healthy, because of their brothers and our experience with them.  I am so grateful to have had such wonderful doctors to help us grow our family this past year. Sometimes I forget that these girls are still preemies too, born at 35 weeks. Although small in size, it just doesn't feel like a preemie at all compared to their brothers. 

The Waiting Game

Maybe it was the fact I was on bed rest for 10 weeks. Maybe it was because Stephen and I were overly paranoid to death or it might be the fact that it I made it way farther in this pregnancy then I had ever hoped and dreamed I ever could. What ever it was... my delivery with these girls was 100 times different then with my boys.

My doctor again discharged me from the hospital at 34 weeks because I was still dilated to a four and I hadn't made any progress the last two weeks. He gave me the go ahead to slowly wean myself off of my medication that stops contractions and to slowly start getting up and walking around so I could gain a little strength back before I delivered. He also scheduled a date for a c-section....just incase by some odd chance I made it that far. October 23rd was circled in red on the calendar. 

So once again I went home. I weaned myself off the meds. I started doing more things around the house. Each day went by and nothing happened. We waited and waited. Stephen would even drive me around so I could do some errands, thinking that walking around and being on my feet would do the trick. Still nothing. 

I got so big that the last 2 or 3 weeks I didn't even fit into any of my maternity clothes. 

Then on Monday, October 6th, we weren't able to find anybody to help us get Andrew off the bus. So I attempted to do it myself for the first time.  That must have been it, because later that afternoon I started having contractions once again and they were consistent about 4-8 minutes apart. So Stephen rushed home from work and we quickly found someone to watch Andrew before heading to the hospital another time. After being admitted and going through the same routine I'd been through three other times previously, I was again put on the monitors. They were picking up the same hard contractions that I'd been feeling. Stephen and I were almost positive we'd deliver that evening.  The doctor came by and checked my cervix. After all that, it hadn't progressed one bit.

So I was to spend the night and we'd see how things looked in the morning. Not much happened during the night. In fact, things really settled down and the contractions went away. I figured I'd be sent home too, with the lack of progress. The next day we waited and waited. The doctor finally came by my room just after lunch and after another exam she said I'd dilated to a six and the sack was bulging. We were to deliver that day! We were in shock. 

However since I'd just eaten, I had to wait the 8 hours before receiving anesthesia and we were put on the schedule for a csection at 8 pm that night. I was able to shower and get ready. Stephen went home and worked for a few hours, then got Andrew situated for the night. We were both anxious to meet these girls and we were both so ready to be done being pregnant.

waiting and waiting

It seemed like a forever long day and then finally it was time to be prepped for anaesthesia. Things happened really fast after that. Stephen was able to come in the OR and be by my side which was comforting.  The operating room was full. Each baby had a team of 3-4 nurses and doctors from the NICU. Plus the nurses and doctors working on me. Shortly after they started we soon heard "Its a girl!!" And a loud cry.  Stephen left my side, what seemed like an eternity, to be with the baby. I kept waiting and waiting for another cry. apparently baby "A" who was born first was calm and quiet and baby "B" was the screamer. So both babies had been born and I didn't realize it. After a while both babies needed a little support breathing and they put them both on CPAP. After stabilizing them and before the went upstairs to the NICU, they wheeled them over to me and I got to give each of them a kiss. Stephen went with the girls while THEY finished up with me and took me to recovery. 

A while later, he came back with a whole bunch of pictures and we called and texted our whole family to let them know the good news.

Just a few hours short of being 35 weeks along and after 10 weeks of bed rest (8 of those in the hospital) these girls were finally here!!! Born October 7th, 2014 at 8:59 ( yep both girls were born with in the same minute...no arguing who's older) 

Baby A

Kathryn Mary Holden 

5lbs 9oz 

19" long 

Baby B 

Olivia June Holden

4lbs 7oz 

18" long 

 They both only needed the CPAP assistance for only a few hours, then they were able to go straight to room air.

Heading to the NICU

It was now almost midnight, they then wheeled me up to my room and I crashed for the night. The next morning, they told me I could go see the girls as soon as I could get up and walk around by myself. That was all the motivation I needed. It. Was only a few hours later that I was up walking around. 

 Holding Kathryn for the first time!

Sweet Olivia...It was so wonderful to be able to finally hold these girls

It couldn't have been better timing, my mom was planning on flying out on Oct 8th to help us. We were so excited the girls decided to arrive just in time. 

Within a day both girls were moved from the critical care NICU to the 7th floor where they just needed to work on feedings and gaining weight before they could go home. 

Plus being on the 7th floor they were able to have their beds right next to each other, which meant we could hold and cuddle both girls at the same time. 

Both Stephen and I felt like our NICU experience this time around was not the NICU as we know it. It felt more like a glorified nursery. These girls had ZERO issues. Just basic preemie stuff working on feedings.

Look Olivia only has a NG feeding tube...no others IV's PICC lines or anything....what an awesome feeling that was to see.

Helping with Kathryn's "Cares" (ie. Diaper change and feeding) 

Olivia surprised us and came home from the hospital only two days after I did, at 6 days old. 

Just in time....right before Grandma Lyn had to head home. 

It became very difficult to have one baby at home and the other still in the hospital. Finding time to go back and forth especially since I couldn't drive was difficult and it tore my heart that I couldn't spend much time with Kathryn at the hospital. 

Good thing Grandma Holden was here to help. She was able to watch Olivia and Andrew while I headed in to visit Kathryn for a few hours each day. 

Grandma & Kathryn 

Kathryn took her time coming home. They were mostly trying to gether to take a full feeding and gain back her birth weights he'd lost. After two weeks we were finally able to bring her home. 

It was such a wonderful feeling to finally be altogether as a family. 

We love these girls so much!