Update

The boys are doing pretty well. Jackson is a hungry little guy and is working up his feedings quickly every day. Jaden is having a harder time but still working hard! They anticipate Jaden will be in Everett for at least another week and then probably in the Bellingham Hospital until around April. Jackson will probably come home before Jaden but he still has a while to go! After their initial weight loss they are just beginning to gain again - though they are still so small! Jackson is 4.88 pounds and Jaden is 4.08. When we see just born babies come into the nursery we are sure they are at least 6 months old when comparing them to ours!
It is getting emotionally draining to do this but we are incredibly blessed with friends who have helped us in many ways. We're trying to get to Everett every other day to see Jaden so some of our days are pretty long!
Here is a photo album of Jared holding Jaden...

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Happy 1 Week Birthday, Jackson and Jaden!

Today we drove down to Everett to visit Jaden. He's doing well and we both had the chance to hold him. He needs to tolerate full feedings before he can come back to Bellingham to grow more before coming home. He's still under the blue light and has a picc line (goes from arm to heart to help take test) Jackson is doing really well and we held him quite a bit today. He's very active and connected only to his feeding tube. He still has some weight to put on before he's ready! Preemie clothes are big on him!

To the left is a picture of Jared holding Jackson for the first time. He held Jaden for the first time today too but my hands were full and I wasn't able to take a picture.

Here I am holding Jackson. He likes to grab his face.

Jared, Rachel, and Jackson Bryant

Jaden sleeping today.






Another picture of Jared holding Jackson

Visiting Jaden

Today Jared and I went down to Everett to see Jaden and take him some food. This is the first time I've seen him much. He was taken off the ventilator today which is great news and did much better on my milk than on the formula. He could possibly be in Everett another 2 weeks which will make feeding the two boys quite tricky! I've posted some pictures below as well as a video of me holding him for the first time...

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Early Arrival

The twins have arrived! Jackson William Bryant was delivered on Saturday, February 17 at 4:54 pm weighing in at 4lbs 13oz. Jaden William Bryant was born by C-Section at 5:29pm weighing in at 4lbs 3 oz. They are 8 weeks early. We had no reason to suspect they would be so early as my pregnancy has had no complications or bed rest. My water broke on Friday night and I didn't know that's what it was. My contractions began at around 9am on Saturday and again, I did not know that's what was happening. I went into the hospital at around 3:00pm and they could feel Jackson's head so they rushed me to the operating room (where they always deliver twins), got me medication just in time (praise the Lord!) and I delivered Jackson. They couldn't get Jaden turned around so they delivered him by C-Section. I was in the hospital until Wednesday evening and am home now, but still recovering. Jackson is in the Special Care Nursery under the blue light and connected to several things. Overall he's doing fairly well - just young and under developed. On Sunday night they airlifted Jaden to a NICU in Everett as his lungs were very underdeveloped. Today he is doing well though he is still being given a very small amount of oxygen, under the blue light and breathing over a vent. Jared has visited Jaden several times and today will be my first time. Both babies were put on a feeding tube but will not tolerate the formula - they will only tolerate my milk. So... it's alot of driving back and forth between home, the hospital, and Everett (approx 1 hour away). I will give more details later but wanted to give a quick update and include some pictures. You can click through the album below to view the pictures. Another place to view them is at http://jacksonandjaden.shutterfly.com - at shutterfly you can also order prints for yourself.

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Here is a somewhat long video of me holding Jackson for the first time. We didn't realize it would take so long to get him disconnected!

Valentines Day and Other News

Happy late Valentines Day! Jared and I spent the evening at home - he cooked me a wonderful meal! Then we watched the movie Hitch - we'd seen it before but it was pretty funny.

In other news we found out that our cabinets have been delayed so our house will be delayed a week or so (at least March 22nd I think). Part of me is glad to have more time to sell our current home and the other part is worried because that will be 3 weeks before my due date and we'd really like to at least have our stuff moved before they are born! We'll see what happens!

Baby Shower at Work

My Friends Angel and Kim threw a baby shower for me at work on Tuesday. There were lots of people and lots of yummy food. I again felt very blessed by people's generosity. An idea I thought was wonderful was a raffle - a pedicure was begin raffled off and you could get a "ticket" if you brought in a package of diapers (the first letter of your name determined what size you brought) - what a GREAT way to get TONS of diapers! In one game we played everyone took a turn while we were eating to diaper a doll blindfolded. Whoever had the fastest time won. I went last and had to do TWO dolls. As you can see from the pictures I did NOT do well - I need some serious help!


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Baby Shower in Renton

On Sunday my friend Jenica threw me a shower down in Renton, where we used to live. It was lots of fun and I felt very blessed! Her mom was gracious enough to throw it at her house and there was LOTS of yummy food INCLUDING a chocolate fondue fountain (I ate way too much!) If you click on the right arrow you can view all the pictures in this photo album!




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Our House

Our house is getting closer and closer to being finished! They are laying the flooring and starting the cabinets next week! We had to go in this week and pick new bathroom floors because what we chose was backordered. I think we'll still really like the new one we picked though. Closing is still scheduled for about March 15th so that's coming right up! Please pray our current house sells. We lowered the price slightly and someone is coming to look today. It would be nice to sell it quickly! We were really nervous about the outside paint color we chose. It's so hard to tell what it will be like looking at a small sample - but we are relieved to really like it. Hopefully all the other things we chose we will feel the same way about.

Baby News

I'm 31 weeks now and the babies are healthy and growing! They are currently both head down and we hope they stay that way! They are measuring in the 58th percentile and at around 3.5 pounds. We also find out that their heads are measuring quite large. Not exactly what I wanted to hear but at least they're growing! If they are NOT head down at 36 weeks we will probably schedule a C-Section at around 38 weeks. Otherwise, I will hopefully be able to deliver them but more than likely that will also be somewhere around 38 weeks. Keep praying that the boys stay healthy!

Sigh

Everyone is always asking to see pregnant pictures of
me - which I am not a fan of taking or showing anyone - but I guess someday I can look back on them and laugh! I feel so huge, but we're almost there!

I'm Giving In to Blogging

Here we are when I'm just 5 months pregnant! Now that we're starting a family I wanted to find an easy way to keep family and friends updated with news, pictures, and video. This seems to be much easier than our old website! I hope to update regularly so check back often!