The Other Babies

As most you know, we have 2 cats in addition to our 2 babies. Before Hailey and Mason, Piper and Tiggs were our babies. We have a cat door installed on our front door (very classy, I know!), the cats drink chilled, bottled water out of their special glass on the coffee table, the nursery was previously known as Piper's room and they're served canned tuna every night at 9 pm. Oh and tuna is prepared and served while I sing the "Tuna Song". What's the Tuna Song, you ask? Well it goes like this...

Songwriter's note: for best results must be performed in same octave as Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You"

"Fresh tuna for my girls, they don't have any curls....
Fresh tuna for my girls, they don't have any curls....
A plate for Pipey and a plate for Tiggs....
A plate for Pipey and a plage for Tigs...
Goood purr-growls!"

Here are a few pics on the crazy antics of Piper and Tiggs. I must say they adjusted very easily to the babies. Piper thinks they're her babies and Tiggs thinks Hailey and Mason are just really loud, hairless kittens.

Piper waiting for tummy time to begin.

Another shot of Pipey

Tiggs drinking out of the cats' water glass.

A group pic of my other babies.

The other night while running and chasing each other in the house (the usual cat activity after the babies are in bed), Tiggs jumped in the pack-n-play. To her surprise, it wasn't flat on top and she of course fell down into it. I'm not sure who was more surprised: me, Casey, Piper or Tiggs.

Piper didn't let the pack-n-play stand in her way...she batted at Tiggs until Tiggs regrouped and was able to exit the new hide-out.

I can't wait until Hailey and Mason are old enough to watch the craziness these 2 get into!

12 Weeks Old!

While Daddy and I were at work this week, Grammie and Gramps held an impromptu photo shoot. Its not easy getting two, twelve week-olds to do anything at the same time. But when you your subjects are this cute, you can't help but try, try, try again. I was told by an informant that Gramps was doing some pretty outrageous stuff to keep the babies looking at the camera. See for yourself....

Good start, but no smiles.

You want us to do what?


We have better things to do....can't we go swing already?

Mason concentrating on what he's making in his diaper.

Hailey showing her excitement at being photographed, yet again.

Getting closer.....

Success!!!!!

P.S. The "lovies" the babies are holding were the center of the diaper wreath that was on my hospital room door (click here for those pics). Hailey is very fond of hers, Mason is still deciding if boys play with lovies.

The Nursery

The babies will be 3 months old this coming week and I'm just now getting around to posting photos of the nursery...so goes the life of a new mommy. We went with "Alphabet Soup". It has letters, numbers and animals plus its bright and gender neutral.

The changing table, this is where I spend 75% of my time when I'm at home.

The wall with their names and Casey's shirt from the delivery room. I found a lady on the internet that custom made their names and added on animals that matched the nursery theme.
Pictures do not show how fabulous Casey's shirt from the delivery room really is. Each of the babies had their feet stamped on his shirt with their weight and length. There are even a couple drops of blood from when Mason was vacuumed out. Sooo cool!

One more pic, just because I love this shirt and this is my blog, so I can! :)

The crib -for two. Right now the babies share a crib but they have their own mobiles. The really like sleeping together and I'll be sad when we have to separate them.

The closet...no excitement here.

The glider corner. Many nights have spent here by Mommy and Grammie.

Random Pictures

I'm about a month behind on posting pics, so I thought I'd try and catch up quickly. We haven't had too much excitement since we're limited on free time now that I'm back to work and the babies are staying at home with either Daddy, Grammie or Granny Goo (the nanny) during the week.

While washing clothes I found a nice spot for Hailey to hang out while I stated the next load of laundry. I think she liked sitting in the laundry basket on the warm towels.

Casey often has the role of Mr. Mom while I'm at work during the week. To blow off steam he has been known to do some target practice in the backyard with his pellet gun. There's a REALLY MEAN stray cat that's caused Piper to go to the vet twice. I wouldn't be sad if he wondered in front of Casey while he was shooting. I love animals, but this cat is street-rat crazy and unbelievably mean!

We finally have Hailey and Mason's acid reflux under control. It took a lot of tweaking but they're both on different prescriptions to keep things under control. Hailey takes Axid and Prevacid and Mason takes Zantac and Prevacid. Now we don't even need a bib or burp cloth for feedings. This is a pic of Casey's shirt after just one feeding before their reflux was fixed.

My sweet Pinky!

She's the happiest girl. We often have trouble getting her to eat b/c she's too busy smiling!

Big man, Mason! This photo looks like a bad mug shot.

Hailey hamming it up.

Mason chillin' in his bouncy seat. He out grew the shirt he's wearing in one day. I put it on that morning and by the afternoon it had to come off. Such a difference when the babies actually keep down their bottles and Mommy and Daddy aren't wearing the contents of the bottles.

Mason getting his reflux medicine - such a good patient.

Hailey snoozing in the pack-n-play.

This was when he outgrew his shirt. Topless naps are the best!

A One-Legged Man in an Ass Kickin' Contest

I returned to work on Thursday, June 11. The babies did okay at daycare, we had no major concerns and really wanted Todd's to work out. Hailey and Mason were to be in a class made up of only 4 infants, so 50% of the class would be Turners. We figured those were pretty good ratios, and their morning teacher had been with Todd's for 18 years. The big downside was cost...we only need daycare 5-10 days a month, if that. No one offers part time infant care so we were stuck with a $1,000 a month child care bill (regardless of how often the babies went...nice, right).

Mason had started vomiting the following Sunday and we were watching him carefully and treating him with Pedialyte, as needed. He seemed to be doing better later that night was taking his bottles much better and never ran fever. I however noticed around 3 am Monday morning that I had a sore throat, my lower back ached on both sides and I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I figured it was just extreme fatigue and I'd hopefully feel better later.

I took the babies to daycare on Monday and told the teacher that if Mason threw up twice to call us and we'd get him. Of course the teacher I was giving these instructions to was not his regular teacher. They weren't sure where she was or if she was even coming in that day. To top it off they were placing the infants in the classroom the next age level up. There were toddlers racing around the room, and I was concrned the babies would be in there and would not have adequate attention. We had picked the babies up from that same room once or twice before and they were stuck in a bouncy seat placed inside a pack-n-play. Reminded me of baby jail...so sad.

So I finally get to work Monday and feel even worse, I decide to try out the new clinic they opened up at my office. The nurse practitioner said I had blisters on my throat from a virus and it was not strep. She gave me two prescriptions and sent me on my way.

Around noon the daycare called and said Mason was throwing up. I was unable to leave right then, so Daddy had to leave work and go take Mason to the doctor. We decided to leave Hailey at school for the rest of the day so Daddy could focus on Mason and get him settled.

In getting Mason dressed to go the doctor, Casey said Mason had a dirty diaper that had been on him for so long that the poop had actually dried and hardened to my little guy's hiney. Daddy was NOT happy, but did what he needed to do and headed to the doctor's office.

After Dr. Leass saw Mason getting sick in his office he ordered an ultrasound for that day to rule out pyloric stenosis at Texas Childrens Hospital, so Casey called me to let me know the scary news. I immediately left work and went to meet Casey and Mason. By the time I got there Dr. Leass' office was able to pull some strings and get us in at The Woodlands Hospital - fabulous!!! Casey's mom and dad went to pick up Hailey and we waited for Mason's test.

Mason was so good and charmed all the nurses with his flirting. The pediatric radiologist came in to do part of the u/s himself and said he definitely did not have pyloric stenosis. This meant we were just dealing with a horrific virus. Dr. Leass had warned us that if that were the case, more than likely Hailey would wind up with it, too. We were relieved that we only had a virus on our hands!

When Casey's mom and dad went to pick Hailey up at day care she was back in a corner again, all by herself locked away in a pack-n-play. My poor girl had a big cut that went from inside her nostril and down part of her face. It had been bleeding and was partially scabbed over and no one had tended to the cut or even mentioned it to Casey's parents. Of course how could the teachers tell them of something they had no idea about. Maybe if they had checked on her they would have seen the cut. Instead she had clawed her face open because she was so hungry. When my sweet girl is hungry she often pulls at her face rather than cry - NOT the way to get attention in a ridiculous daycare!

Once we heard about Hailey's face and put that together with Mason's dried poopy diaper and the babies not being in an infant class we were done with Todd's. Only problem was we didn't have time to focus on that because now both babies were sick and to top it of Mommy got it, too!

My Casey spent 3 days caring for Hailey, Mason and Mommy. We all had vomiting and diarrhea. I was the only one running a fever so I got quarantined to the bedroom and Casey called in his mom for back-up help. The babies got bad enough one night that they weren't keeping anything down and the doctor on call had us take them to the ER at St. Luke's for dehydration. I had never felt so helpless than I did as Casey and Grammie loaded the babies up at 11 pm and I couldn't go due to being so sick. It was the worst!!! When I asked Casey how he was doing the day after the ER visit he said he "felt like a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest".

I was off work for 3 and half days. Nothing better than coming back from maternity leave for two days and then having to be out again due to being sick and having sick babies. Gotta love parenthood!

The good news is after about 5 days we were all over the dreaded virus. It only took 2 doctors appointments, one ER visit, several bottles of pedialyte and multiple changes of clothes everyday. And even better....we found a nanny!!! Granny Goo has been fantastic and it looks like she loves the babies as much as they love her!

First Round of Vaccinations

Miracle blanket update: They really are a miracle! The first night we had them both babies slept an additional one and half hours longer than before. Hallelujah!!! The babies love them and are quick to fall asleep once swaddled. This is a must have!!!
The babies had their first round of vaccinations on June 9, just 2 days shy of being 8 weeks old. Because the babies were born a bit early, their pediatrician said that he'd like them to a little more than six weeks old when they received their shots. I was a nervous wreck the night before and was so anxious about their poor little legs and the pain they were to have the next day. I was also worried that we'd have 2 really fussy babies on our hands and a sleepless night ahead of us. I was set to return to work on June 11 so that entire week was crazy busy.

The babies were enrolled in Todd's School of Merit for daycare and I decided that we'd do a couple of practice runs before they had to stay all day. They went for 2 half days before I had to return to work. This allowed me to see how our morning routine would work out and how much time I'd need to allow to get the 3 of us out the door. Casey has to leave for work by 5 am, so this was a big area of worry for me. Their first half day went smoothly - I only cried briefly on the way to drop them off, but felt okay when we left. That day we had to go buy another baby swing, pick up baby Tylenol at Krogers, check out the newly opened Station 33, look at lots in The Hills of Montgomery and then pick the babies back up in time for their vaccination appointment...seems simple right? Not when you're part of our family!

As we were pulling into Krogers we saw a cloud of smoke suddenly appear a few cars ahead of us in the entrance to Krogers. There had been a pretty good wreck and of course Casey hopped out to help the lady in car and assess the scene. I dropped him off while I ran into Krogers and of course I snapped a couple of pics of our adventure.

A couple of action shots of my Casey...he never knew I took these.

I had to grab a pic of my babies as they waited in the waiting room for their vaccinations. The poor things had no idea they'd soon come out with multiple band-aids!

Hailey Ann

Mason Adam

The two unsuspecting patients chilling in their "carriage" (as Daddy and Dr. Leass call the stroller).

Hailey awaiting her shots with her Daddy.

Mason and Mommy waiting for the drama to begin.

My big guy after being poked and prodded. He was a trooper, but boy does he have a set of lungs on him. He was MAD!!! Oh and his belly button has been diagnosed as a giant outtie, no hernia - just a bit unsightly and alarming to look at! :)

My sweet girl and her bandages. She put on a pretty good show, too. Mommy didn't cry (big surprise!) because both babies calmed down within seconds of receiving their shots.

Hailey had a massive poop while screaming, here she is after being all cleaned up with her camo band-aids in full effect!

The babies were great that afternoon, no fussiness. They enjoyed the second swing we purchased that morning and spent the afternoon swinging and dreaming away. Such preciousness!

Thirteen Years Ago Today...

Thirteen years ago today, a crazy little 18 year old girl named Erica was working for Corning Revere at the Conroe Outlet Mall. She was so nervous about her semi-blind date that evening that her stomach was upset and she spent most of her day in the restroom at work.

A few days before July 4, 1996, Erica had called her mom's friend and told her she needed a date for the upcoming holiday. Erica thought a boy named Casey Turner (whom she had been hearing about for several years) sounded like a good prospect. Erica had only seen Casey a couple of times and had never spoken to him, their most recent encounter was at a wedding the previous February.

Casey had just graduated from Texas A&M's Fire Academy and was working on his pilot's license. Erica had just graduated from high school was looking forward to starting college in the fall. Their first date was at Hooks Airport where Casey's flight school was holding a big BBQ and concert. After the BBQ they headed over to Dr. Gordon's house with the couple that had just been married in February. They spent the evening getting to know each other and played pool, ate fajitas and started a relationship that would completely change their lives.

Seven years later on October 4, 2003 Casey and Erica tied the knot.

Almost six years after their Fabulous Fall Festival wedding they were blessed with two little firecrackers of their own. Neither would have ever imagined 13 years after their fun-filled Fourth of July date that their lives would look like this....

It doesn't get any better than being a wife to my Casey and a Mommy to my Hailey Ann and Mason Adam!

What a ride its been...I love you, Casey Adam!