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.