An extra gratitude filled thanksgiving!

As I'm getting ready to head off to the hospital so I can see the boys for a little bit before we go to Marty's family's thanksgiving lunch I can't help, but think of how much I have to be thankful for this year. My little pumpkins are 1 month old as of yesterday and that is certainly my number one item to be thankful for. Everyday they've been in our life, they've brightened it. (Even the hard ones where mom cried a lot) The amazing growth they've had continues to astound me. When they were first born they slept for 23 1/2 hours a day and now they are so awake and alert and aware of the world around them. It's amazing how connected they are to us when we speak or touch them, their bright little eyes are so very much a part of this world now, it's hard to remember a time when we barely ever saw them (or in the case of Oscar with them being fused shut we really didn't)! With all the changes in how they move and interact with us, sometimes I forget about the actual physical growth which is astounding as well. Victor reached 3 lbs 2 days ago (now 3lbs 2oz) so he's added half his birth weight since in just a month! Oscar and Mylo are 3lbs 12oz and 3lbs 13oz so before we know they'll be over the 4 lb mark! Mylo continues to store all his weight in his super cheeks and is now getting dimples! I'm sure those of you with full term babies would disagree, but I think I'm about to have full fledged chunky monkeys on my hands!

In all of the gratitude that surrounds the boys is the gratitude for all the support that we've had through all of this! Our families and friends are truly amazing and there aren't enough thank you notes in the world to express how grateful we are for meals delivered, rides to appointments, house cleaning, remodeling projects, hand-me-downs and the list goes on. These boys have entered the most loving world! It's truly incredible to imagine what their future holds knowing what an amazing community they will be surrounded by as they grow.

My list of gratitude could go on and on and include each of my boys toes and fingers and tiny little eyelashes, but I'm just about done pumping (and there's a whole lot of gratitude for my body for what it did to grow those boys and what it's doing to feed them now, but that's a whole other post) and will be heading off to the hospital so I'll end this post of gratitude with a HUGE thank you to our medical team at Minnesota Perinatal Group, all of our amazing neonatologists and surgeons, and more than anyone our nurses at Children's! Our primary nurses are truly the most loving and caring hands we could ask to have surrounding our boys when we can't be there. They've also been an amazing support to us when our roller coaster has gotten a little scary. Children's is really a remarkable place because of it's remarkable people and as I've said many times if you have to be somewhere other than home with your children you couldn't ask for a better place to have to be.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all-I'm off to see my little turkeys!