Hello all, today is our six week birthday already!  We finally corralled Mama into doing a new post for us.  We have lots to fill you in on that happened in the last couple weeks. 

We had one crazy week, starting on the Thursday after our one month birthday.  We were hanging out with Mama at home while Dad was at work for a couple of hours and our electricity went out!  We had no idea what happened because that has never happened to us before, but thankfully it was daytime so we had sunlight.  So when Daddy came home from work, we went out on a trip with Mom and Dad to a restaurant and wait until our power came back.  As we got home that afternoon, Daddy got stung by a bee!  On the neck!  And he is allergic to them!  So we all turned back around and took Daddy to the emergency room.  Our first trip to the ER and it wasn’t even for us!  Daddy had to get an IV and lots of medicines to help him feel better, but we didn’t get home till late at night… WAY past our bedtime!  Mama even had to have the ER staff borrow a breast pump from the maternity department while we were with Daddy!  Whoa, what a day!

The very next morning we had our one month check up at the doctor’s office.  We are growing FAST!  Emma weighed in at 7 pounds and 15 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.  James was 7 pounds and 11 ounces and was 21 inches long.  That means we have both gained over two pounds and grew 3 inches since we were born!  We even had to have a shot, which was not our favorite part.  Mom and Dad held us and we got our shots at the same time.  They told us we were brave babies though, because we only cried for a minute!

Later that day we left to go on our first road trip!  We went to Toledo for a long weekend to see Grandma and Grandpa.  We travelled really well and hardly fussed at all.  In fact, we slept most of the way.  While we were in Toledo we went to church for the first time and went with Mom and Grandma to her office and met Grandma’s friends.  It was lots of fun!

Then, when we went to go home, we had more drama!  Mom and Dad got us into the car along with all of our stuff and were bringing the dogs outside to get into the other car when our puppy Shadow got loose!  He ran and ran and ran!  Mom and Dad had to get in the car to go look for him.  Eventually he came back to the backyard where Mom and Dad cornered him.  THEN as we finally were driving away, Mom’s car decided to have some issues, so we had to turn around and go back to Grandma and Grandpa’s house until Mom could get her car fixed.  So our long weekend became a week in Toledo.  We weren’t complaining through, because we love Grandma and Grandpa!!

Whew!  So that was a lot of drama for one week!  We will work on getting some more of our pictures uploaded and we will post more soon.  We love you all!

~Emma and James

Well guys, tomorrow we turn one month old!  Can you believe it?  We have been trying to get Mama to write some blogs for us, but in between our feedings all she wants to do is silly stuff like sleep, eat or clean up stuff.  We finally convinced her to upload some pictures and do a mini update, if we promised we wouldn’t be too wordy!

So far in our one month being here in the outside world, we have met lots of new people!  Lots of people came to visit us when Mama and us were in the hospital.  Aunt Cassie was the first one besides Mom and Dad to see us.  Grandma and Grandpa Hornbeck came to see us and of course, our big sister Mackenzie.  Our Aunt Kim came to meet us in the hospital and Mom’s cousins Ashley and Bekah.  Also lots of friends like Shalin, Gary, Susan and Angela.  We are popular babies!!

So far we have also had tons of cool experiences like spending lots of time with Grandma Hornbeck who helped take care of us for our first couple weeks at home.  We have taken car rides, taken baths, gone on walks outside, swung in our baby swing, gone out to eat at a restaurant, and even went with Mom and Dad to vote today!

Until we get Mom to write some more for us, here are some pictures from our 4 days in the hospital.  Check out the rest of the pictures in the gallery!

We love you all!!
~ Emma and James

Today (Sunday) at 11:26 & 11:28 am, the newest members of the Fox family arrived.  The babies were scheduled to be born on October 17, but they decided that the 5th was a good birthday and my water broke some time between 5:00 and 7:00am.  We arrived at Riverside at about 8:00 am to start the party!  They had one heck of a time starting my IV, but finally got one in and wheeled a nervous me to the OR at about 10:30am.  Tim was with me the whole time that he was allowed and stayed firmly behind the curtain as to not witness the gory details. 
 
We had quite a shock, when, as they pulled out Baby A, they announced, “It’s a girl!”  To which I replied, “It’s a whoseewhat’sit?!”  The docs had been wrong, and while we were expecting two boys, we got one of each!  Childbith is never without a suprise or two!  Emma Catherine arrived at 11:26, and James Daniel arrived at 11:28 by c-section.   Both weighed in at 5 pounds & 8 ounces (they are about 200 grams apart).  Emma towers over her brother at 18.25  inches, while James stands at 18 inches even.

The babies are and I are very healthy & resting well, and Dad is looking forward to the first good night’s sleep in months, even if it is on the pull out sofa in the hospital room.  We will probably be in hospital until Wednesday or Thursday.

And now…..(drum roll please) is the moment you’ve all been waiting for; the pictures.  Pictures are as follows: Dad gets to be the first to hold Emma & James in the OR, Emma & James warming up together, and Emma, James, Mom, and Aunt Cassie in our room.

Thanks so much for all your love and support!!  Keep praying for all of us as we recover and start this new journey as a family together.  We love you all so much!!

~Carrie, Tim, Emma, and James

We’re just about 36 weeks old now!  Can you believe it?  We went last week to see our “high risk” doctors for the last time!  They looked at us using that goopy wand for a long time.  Mom and Dad got to see so many of the parts we have been growing.  They saw our hearts, bladders, kidneys, all 3 arm bone, leg bones, heads and bellies.  They even estimated our weights based on their measurements.  Baby A is 6 pounds and 3 ounces and Baby B is 5 pounds and 14 ounces!  That means we will officially be normal birthweight babies! 

Mom is doing pretty good, but she is getting pretty tired nowadays!  We think she is doing pretty dang well, being that she has more than 12 pounds of baby inside.   Mom doesn’t get much sleep anymore, but we think we’re just helping her learn the benefits of naptime!  She is pretty swollen too, she says her hands and feet look like sausages.   But she does tell us everyday that we are worth all of the not so fun parts of pregnancy.  Mom wants to keep us inside as long as possible to make sure we are big and strong when we are born.  Dad reminds mom that we could come any day now, which is true!  He is just so excited to meet us!  Especially because we are now older and bigger than the average twins when they are born.  So keep checking back, because we could be here any day! 

Love you all!
~Fox Twins

Well, folks, we’re getting closer!!  We’re finally weeks along now!  Mom and Dad have been hard at work getting things ready for our arrival.  Grandma and Grandpa Hornbeck and our big sister Mackenzie worked their butts off over Labor Day weekend to get our bedroom ready for us to sleep in and all our baby clothes cleaned.  It was a big weekend and the house looks great (or so our Mama tells us!). 

We see our doctors every single week now and they are still amazed how healthy and strong we are.  We saw the doctors who take very detailed measurements and pictures of us, and guess what!  We are BIG boys!!  We are growing big and strong and especially big for twins.  Baby B was measured at 4 pounds and 7 ounces and Baby A measured at 5 pounds and 1 ounce!!  That puts both of us in the 80 and 90 percentiles for size (even for single babies!).  We still like to line up in funky positions, this time kind of in the shape of a “7″ with our heads together.  All the better to start plotting our mischief early!!  Here is the picture of our heads together.

Our Mama is just starting her time off of work staying at home so that we stay inside as long as possible.  She feels so much better being able to rest at home and keep off of her feet as much as possible.  And the extra time to sleep and nap doesn’t hurt either!  Our regular doctor told Mom and Dad that Mom and us are doing so well that she expects that we will stay inside all the way until our c-section date (woohoo!) which is a big deal for twins!  The longer we stay inside, the less help we will need to be healthy once we are born. 

Speaking of our c-section date, everyone mark your calendars!  October 17, early in the morning will be our big arrival!  We are trying so hard to stay in until then.  Cheer us on!!

We love you all!
~Carrie

Well, we’ll tell you what, it is pretty hard to get Mommy to write for us when we wear her out so much!  We have been growing by leaps and bounds and are 27 weeks along now!  We’ll update you all more this week (we promise to kick Mommy till she does it!) because we get some more pictures taken and see our doctor again this week.  In good news, we (and Mommy) continue to stay very very healthy!  God has blessed us and our stay with Mom!

The big news has been that we had our baby shower in Toledo this past weekend.  Aunt Cassie and Mommy’s great friend Kelly hosted the awesome party!  And along with our Grandma and Grandpa Hornbeck, they did tons of work to prepare for the big day.  So many of our friends came to celebrate our upcoming arrival with Mommy and Daddy.  They had so much fun visiting with everyone and seeing so many friends and family members.  People were very generous giving us gifts for when we finally join the outside world.  Our family is so blessed!  

Make sure you look at our picture gallery to see all of the pictures from the party, but here are a few to check out!

Come back soon for more updates!  We love you all!!!

~Fox Twins

We need to thank Aunt Cassie for letting us know it was okay for us to show our private parts at our doctor’s appointment!  We decided to FINALLY let Mom and Dad see our parts so they would know that…

We are both BOYS!!!

Dad thought that we were both boys, but Mom thought that one of us was a girl.  Dad was right!  We think Mom should have known that we were boys because when they saw us in the ultrasound one of us had our butt up to the other one’s head!  Even our big sister Mackenzie got to go with Mom and Dad to find out what we are!  That was cool!

The doctors said we are getting bigger and bigger right on track.  This week we’re about 12 inches long and weigh a pound and a half each!  Mom and Dad got to see our brains and our hearts and all of that good stuff was all looking nice and healthy. 

Check out photo gallery soon to see our newest photo shoot!

We love you all!
~Fox Twins

Dear Fox babies,

This is your Aunt Cassie. I am very excited to meet you.  We have a very special bond because I knew you were twins even before your Mom and Dad did. 

I bet your Mom has already told you, but I have the best job in the whole world.  I get to be a “kid helper” to kids who have been through bad stuff.  As a kid helper, I talk about private parts all day long.  I am the one who tells kids how special their private parts are and why it’s so important to keep them private.  One day when you are a grown-up you will each get to share those specials parts with someone you love very much.

However, I am giving you permission to let the doctors (and your Mom and Dad) have a little peak when they are taking pictures of you.  No worries, it won’t count as breaking a “touching rule” because you haven’t even been born yet.  We are all so excited to find out if you are boys or girls.  The only way we can tell is if you show us your private parts.  Just one little flash of the “bits” and we would be so happy.

Thanks for your cooperation. Once you are born, you will have all the time in the world not to listen to your mom and dad!

Love you so much.  I can’t wait to meet each of you in person.

Aunt Cassie

We have been bugging and bugging Mom to get us on the computer to write a new post, but she just doesn’t listen to us sometimes!  So here we are now, almost two weeks after we last wrote. 

Since we last spoke, we turned 20 weeks!  That means our stay in Hotel de Mamacita is halfway done!  That makes Mom nervous (she says there’s lots of stuff to do) but we are just plain excited!!  This week we’re both getting closer to a pound each and as long as a large banana.  Which is also one of our favorites.  “How do we know?” you ask.  Because we have already developed taste buds!  And doctors say that the fluid that we swim in (and swallow) everyday tastes different depending on what Mom eats.  Some doctors even think that may help us decide as we get older what foods we do and don’t like. 

It has been super de duper hot here in Ohio recently and Mom says it’s extra hot for her with us on board.  She even calls us “tiny furnaces” somedays!  But the fun thing about the heat is that we got to go to the swimming pool for the first time!  We swim everyday (inside Mom) but when Mom is swimming in a pool, we are DOUBLE swimming.  It was lots of fun and felt good for Mom.  Since we came on board, Mom has had lots of changes.  One was this cool hormones that was released called Relaxin.  We thought it would be something super cool, you know?  Who doesn’t need more Relaxin’ in their life?  Well, come to find out, it makes all of Mom’s ligaments loosen up to make room for us.  That means her hips have been hurting and making it harder and harder to sleep.  But she tells us it is worth it for us! 

Well, we get to go see our doctor again next week for more checkups.  Come back then to see what we’re up to! 

Love you all!
~Fox Twins

We had a special doctor’s appointment this week.  Mom and Dad learned lots of things about us, one of which is we are either very stubborn or very modest!  We BOTH decided we didn’t want anyone to see our private parts, so we both crossed our legs and would NOT uncross them!  So the big secret gets to stay our secret for a while longer.  Twin secrets already!

What Mom and Dad did learn is that we are growing right on target!  We were exactly 19 weeks old at our appointment and we are right where we should be.  They measured our heads (perfectly symmetrical!), our arm bones, leg bones, bellies, and the amount of fluid we are swimming in.  All of those things were really good.  Mom and Dad got to see our hearts beating and our unbilical cords.  They even told Mom and Dad how much we weigh now, 11 ounces and 10 ounces!  We’re getting BIG!

This week in our development we are each about the size of a small cantelope.  And even more sweet!  But not as sweet is what is starting in our bowels… we’re starting to accumulate the contents of what will be our first dirty diaper.  Yuck! 

But make sure you check out of gallery, because Mom and Dad got LOTS of pictures of us this week.  Here are two for a taste…

This is the lower baby (Baby A)’s face.  Top of the head to the left…

And here is the higher baby (Baby B) striking a pose with its hand on it’s head (top of the head to the right)…

Thanks for coming by.  We love you!

~Fox Twins