Welcome Cora and Lily

Hello friends and fam,

Joe and I decided a blog would be a useful way for us to give updates on the girls, so here we are!

As many of you now know, Cora Marie and Lily Ann decided to surprise us by coming a few days early. We were scheduled for a C-section on Thursday Jan 23, but they arrived on Monday night, the 20th. It's a long story, but at my doctor's appointment on Monday moring, they decided to admit me for observation at Butterworth. Good thing, because I went into labor a few hours later. They tried a few things to stop or delay labor, but it didn't work. So we quick prepped for a c-section and Cora Marie and Lily Ann were born about 8:30PM Monday night. They are both stable, but in the NICU right now. Cora is A, and Lily is B. Lily is our trouble maker as you know. She had surgery Tuesday to place a feeding tube into her stomach, and they did a procedure to check the type of esophageal atresia she has. Right now, it's looking like the type of esophageal atresia that will require her to be here for a few months of growing before they can do the surgery to repair. Not what we were hoping for, but we're trusting that she's in God's hands. She's in very good hands, it's just hard knowing we will be doing the NICU life for potentially so long. We're not sure yet about her heart issues because we've been getting kind of conflicting opinions from some of the different doctors. She still has the VSD or hole between her two ventricles, but we won't know right away if she will need surgery for that down the road. It's also unclear yet if she will have an issue with narrowing in another part of her heart. So it's a lot of wait and see right now. She was on a ventilator the first couple days. We were able to hold both of them skin to skin Tuesday which was so nice.

Cora, we hope will be able to come home in a week or two. She's doing very well considering being born at 33weeks and 5 days. She will need a little time to figure out eating and gaining weight. Cora weighed 5lbs 1oz at birth and was 18.5 inches. Lily was 4lbs 3oz and 18.3 inches. Everyone tells us that those are great weights for their age. 

The NICU is not a place you want to be obviously,  but everyone here has been so kind to us,  and they do a great job of including us  in care and keeping us updated. 

Thank you so much  for all your love and support!