The girls were born on November 16th, 2007, 16 weeks early. Mallory Kate – 1 lb 8 oz, Evan Reese – 1 lb 1 oz, and Kelby Grace – 1 lb 5 oz. Upon their delivery, Mallory and Kelby were transferred to St. David’s South and were doing fairly well considering the circumstances. Our little Evan Reese was a fighter, but she had a lot of problems and she was with us for about 5 hours. We love you Evan and we miss you everyday, but we know we’ll see you again one day. Mallory and Kelby both went through a lot in their 105 day stay in the hospital, from heart surgeries, to brain bleeds, to infections. Many prayers were answered and we thank God everyday for everything He has done for them. Today they are perfectly healthy and growing bigger and stronger everyday. We started this blog to keep everybody updated on their progress. You can scroll down to the bottom of the page for a slideshow from the NICU days.

Friday, January 30, 2009

This one will work

I have been working on the girls baby books lately and noticed I needed a "Messy Me" picture. I think this one will work. =)


Just as a note: This whole being messy with your food thing is an adjustment for me. We only do the really messy foods like jello, macaroni, etc every now and then. And right after we are straight to the bath tub and de-gunking the highchairs takes place. Kelby for the most part stays moderately clean while eating unless it is a messy food. Mallory on the other hand is like her Momma- it all ends up in the hair. Cheerios, veggies, cheese, chicken nuggets, turkey, gold fish, fruit etc. I can even spoon feed her in hopes to keep her clean, yet some how her hair will be "glued" together with whatever she ate. She does manage to get some food in the tummy in between dragging it through her hair and dropping it off the side for Heidi. Malloy and Kelby both are roughly 19lbs.

Do your ears hang low?

When Mallory was in the hospital Jeremy took Kelby to pick out something for her. This adorable elephant is what he found.


Thursday, January 29, 2009

What difference a year can make

Babies change so much in their first year and I think it is so much fun to go back and compare pictures from a year ago. So this year I am going to try and post a current picture and one from last year. I am a little late in starting for 2009, so please forgive me. But hey, January is not over yet!

January 2008

























January 2009

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Big Milestone!

Of course the video camera was tucked away in it's case, and the camera was in my purse which is probably in the car when Mallory had one of many "firsts" today. BUT the memory is engraved in our minds for sure. I will try to recreate it for you.

Today Jeremy stood Mallory down and let go. She stood there for a second, dropped to go crawl off, but before she got all the way to the floor. You could see little wheels turning. And slowly she stood right back up,completely unassisted. She grinned from ear to ear as we screamed "Yeah Mallory!!" Held her hands above her head and laughed. The whole thing lasted about 2 minutes. She was so cute and so excited as were we.
My mom (Nana) always says "Don't you wish when you put them to bed they would say 'Momma tomorrow have the camera ready, I think I may________.' " So true Nana! Our baby girls are getting so big.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Just a few Pictures.......

Mallory helping me clean out stuff we don't use.
Lunch time gossip!Got love Chicken Nuggets!!!
Cedar Park play group. 10 mommies- 20 babies! It is a blast!! ages range from 5mths - 14mths (M&K being the oldest) We are set to host the December play date. Can you imagine 20- 15mth - 2 year olds!

More pics to come soon.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Christmas Pics (better late than never... ? )

Christmas Morning

Kelby strumming her guitar and Mallory trying desperately to get into the cereal puffs
Christmas Afternoon at Memaw and Papaw's - playing with all the cousins
Playing house with Nana

Lunch at Nana's
Kelby eating CHEESE! and corn...
Aunt Sara and Nana reading with the girls

The best picture you can get of five kids and a dog!

And finally... the drive home... and Granddaddy had to ship us some stuff. :)

Mallory is Home!!

Mallory came home from the hospital this afternoon. She has been so excited to be home and Kelby is excited to see her sister. They were both exhausted after the weekend and went to bed easily, Mallory was really glad to be back in her bed.


Friday - not feeling well at all... :(



Sunday - Starting to feel a little better.





Sunday night

Monday

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Tradition????

There is something that seems to be coming a tradition at our house, that we would rather not continue if we can help it. Every year that we have been in Austin, in January someone in our household is in the hospital. In January of 2007 Jeremy had a spiral fracture on his ankle and broke his pinky during his second and last ski trip. In January of 2008 our little girls were growing away in the NICU. And now this year our sweet little Mallory is hanging out at Dell Children's Hospital. Don't you know our insurance just loves us! I am sure a standing ovation will take place if Jeremy's company ever changes carriers. haha - "Yeah we are done paying for the Cheatham's! hahah

We went into the ER Thursday night due to a cough and breathing problems along with slight dehydration. (We have fabulous neighbors, we called them at 11pm and they gladly ran over to watch Kelby) Mallory was transferred to PICU on Friday afternoon and then back to a regular room last night. She is feeling a lot better and is even pulling up and jumping in her hospital crib! The PICU doctor's loved that one! Still looks like we will be there a day or two longer. Mallory is still requiring a little oxygen and is on an IV for extra fluids. While filling everyone in on Mallory's medical history - all of the doctor's have commented that she along with her sister should be the poster children for 24wkrs! They were all quite amazed that this was our first trip to the hospital since leaving the NICU and at how great she looked. (PRAISE GOD!! He is so good!)

So far Kelby has remained well (what a blessing!) and is just confused as to where her sister went. But she got extra spoiled by Gran and Grandad who came down to play for the weekend.

Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes. We will update everyone on her progress as we can.

Hope everyone's New Year is a little less eventful than ours has been.