birthday fun!

we just had a birthday in the van clan house! or should i say 2 birthdays. monday the twins, levi and benjamin turned 5. for anyone who knew us when they were born, you know what a blessing their lives are!

for those that did not know me, they had a rough start. they were born 5 weeks premature. levi weighed in at 4 pounds 13 ounces and benjamin was 4 pounds 3 ounces. they were born via c section. my first one after 5 natural deliveries. and let me tell you i would rather do it all natural any day compared to that!!! my little guys were not born healthy. they had several breathing issues right off the bat. i was so happy when they were weaned off of all the oxygen and moved into a crib together.

roger and i spent all day everyday at the hospital with them for 3 weeks. we missed our other children so much. we were always home in time to have dinner with them and go to bed. we had breakfast with them and then were off to the hospital. one great blessing from this was all the bonding i got to do with my husband over this. we held our babies, fed our babies, ate all our meals together and took many walks together inbetween feedings.

after 3 weeks they were feeding and gaining weight. they were finally sent home. as soon as they came home we noticed they didnt breath or coordinate their eating right. they would often stop breathing during feeds. the time benjamin turned completely blue and limp, i had to administer cpr and roger called 911. this landed us back into the hospital for a week of observation. they had what was called reflux apnea. this is where the reflux muscles are not developed and the babies airways close during reflux. as if they were drowning.

it was a looooong 6 months before they grew completely out of it. it was a 6 months i will never forget. roger getting laid off was a blessing in disguise. God used so many people in our lives to provide for us and i had someone home to help me take care of our preemies on top of 5 other children. 1 of them only being 11 months older than the twins!

looking back i see God written all over the circumstances. and i now have 2 very healthy rambunctious little boys! i watch them sleep and thank God for them.

so, they have had their birthday dinners at grandpa and grandmas. 1 chose pizza and 1 chose macaroni and cheese. yum! we had our own family dinner at home of pancakes. hopefully this weekend we will be taking them to their birthday movie!!