THE BABIES HAVE ARRIVED!!!!

OK, so I haven't been updating the Blog recently, this is because things have been a bit manic over recent weeks with weekly visits to Bristol or Cardiff Fetal Medicine Units. Things reached a head last Friday (12/05/2006) when we visited the unit in Cardiff. They recommended the babies were born now Helen is 32 weeks and booked her in for an elective C-section on Monday 15/05 as things were still pretty unstable with the TTTS. The result, as you will see below, is two beautiful baby daughters. Their names are Phoebe Grace and Lydia Amy Bodger and they were born in Cardiff on 15/05 at 11:31 and 11:32!! Phoebe was 3lb 12oz and Lydia was 2lb 6oz, which is tiny I can tell you!! They seem OK and are being well cared for by the neonatal unit in Cardiff. We thank God for their safe arrival after months of uncertainty. Mum is doing well and the girls are progressing slowly. Interestingly, Lydia is doing much better than her sister, as she is used to fighting for her share of things!, but Phoebe is coming along slowly too. Anyway, that's enough of the words, have a look at some photos....

This is a photo of Phoebe taken by the Neonatal nurses in the ITU ward when she was about an hour old. The tube in her nose isn't ventillating her, it is just assisting her own breathing to ensure she doesn't get too tired.






This is another photo of Phoebe taken by me when she was about 3 hours old. The wires, drips, monitors and pipes were a bit alarming at first, but we're slowing getting used to them!





And here are similar photos of Lydia. I still can't believe that we have two girls as well as two boys. I keep calling them "he". I'll soon get the hang of it I'm sure. Wow - me, a father of four - that can't be right can it???!!



These photo's don't give you a good idea of scale,







so have a look below for a few others...




This is a better shot for giving you a feel for the size of the girls. This was the first cuddle Helen was able to give Lydia and was taken on 17/05, when Lydia was "allowed out" of her incubator for the first time. It's all a bit tricky with the wires and pipes!






And this is a cracker of Sam and Daniel, the BIG brothers - they don' seem at all phased, and love talking to their sisters through the funny looking "goldfish bowls" as they call them!





This was taken today (on 18/05) and shows another step forward for Lydia - you will notice she hasn' got her hat on, so at least we can see what she really looks like now! I call this the "ET-pose", but don' tell anyone!
Phoebe still isn't well enough to come out of her incubator, but Helen changed her nappy for the first time today, which was very exciting!!





Anyway, hopefully that's given you a little glimpse into our little world over the past few days. I'll try and load up more photos as I get time. Please keep remembering these little ones, as they are so tiny and fragile. Thanks, with all our love, Dave & Helen xxx