Allie in the South of Spain

I can't believe we are coming up on it being two months since the babies were born. Of course when you consider that they should have been born on April 8th, I like to think we have been lucky to have them in our lives for one extra month.  Napping This is just an FYI for people who haven't had experience with preemies before (like me pre-baby): parents will talk about adjusted ages which means counting from when the baby should have been born. For example, my girls are two months old, but one month adjusted (since they were born at 34 weeks). You make this adjustment to be more realistic for when they will hit different milestones. Vera and Laura very may well reach developmental milestones later than a baby born on time, although in reality it is all relative since there tend to be such big windows for when babies roll over, talk, crawl, walk etc. This last month since Laura came home has been a whirlwind of bottles and diapers. The girls are still eating every three...

I have never really been that into photos but since the arrival of my girls I have been taking a lot more. Ever since the morning after they were born when I still hadn't really seen them for more than a minute in the operating room and I made Jose take a lot of pictures of them in the NICU to bring back up to me where I was still recuperating from my C section, I have been documenting and sharing with my family and friends how they are growing and changing. Since those first days they have gotten so much bigger and look stronger, healthier. I like looking back and seeing how far they have come. They change so much, so quickly. When Fathers' Day arrived here in Spain I decided I wanted to do a professional photo shoot with the babies before they got too big and had thought to surprise Jose with it. However with Laura in the hospital and then my parents' visit our time was limited. I still pursued the idea after my folks had left and we luckily were penciled in for a sess...

My birthday is this Friday, April 8th. I will be turning 30, whaaattt??? Where did the time go? I feel like I just turned 21 yesterday. Some people know this but other may not: I started a list of 30 things I wanted to do before this birthday back in 2013. I have posted below the original list as well as all 6 updates that I wrote about over the last few years. I adjusted my original list a few times in order to keep up with how my life was changing and the goals I wanted to accomplish. I am a bit surprised myself but my last update was over a year ago.  Update 6 Update 5 Update 4 Update 3 Update 2 Update 1 Original list Here is how the 30 before 30 list was left as of my latest update in February of 2015: 1. Go on another cruise. We have been throwing around the idea of going on a cruise with my parents when the girls are a bit older. I think we would have a blast! 2. Learn to cook Indian food . 3. Start a family (read: have a baby).  Trying to accomplish this go...

Our babies turned a month old today! What??!!! It's still hard to believe that they have been with us for that long especially when you consider that they should have been born only last week.  Since our last update with their birth story we had Vera at home by herself for two and a half weeks while her sister stayed in the hospital until she was consistently eating out of her bottle. We were making daily trips to the NICU to visit Laura which was complicated since we also had another newborn at home. Those twoish weeks were some of the most frustrating and stressful of my life.  Laura in the NICU with feeding tube We couldn't bring Laura home until she was able to complete almost all of her bottles consistently. When she didn't she was fed through her feeding tube so she wasn't losing weight or becoming malnourished. It was difficult as a parent to see our little baby hooked up to monitors and with a tube in her nose. The nurses kept reassuring us that one day t...