Holmes Family: Life in Indiana: The 4th of July 2009

This one's for Aunt Dorothy! I'm finally getting around to posting the 4th of July pics of all the girls in their festive red, white, and blue. Charlotte is 20 months old in this picture and is holding Anne-Claire who at 5 weeks old weighed in at 6# 3.4oz--nearly what Charlotte weighed at birth (6# 13oz). Emma is 13 days shy of her 4th birthday and is holding little Elise who finally reached 5 pounds!! Their nurse actually made a sign reporting the milestone (see below). We'd really been hoping to have the babies home by July 4th at just a few days shy of 38 weeks corrected age. We'd been told that many 32 weekers make it home by 38 weeks, so we were disappointed to only be able to visit on the 4th. Don't they look sweet in the little outfits from Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Brian and all their guys?

After our visit we went to celebrate with our friends, Jen Phelps and Brian Kelleher, who threw a party in honor of their twins, Sage and Lucy, being 100 days old. I met Jen and Brian while Sage and Lucy were still itty bitty in the NICU and I was on bedrest at Community North. Their girls had TTTS and were born at 30 weeks. Our doctor, Dr. Lauren Dungy-Poythress, got us connected, and their friendship has been an incredible encouragement to me. Through Dr. D-P, I also met Meghan Adkins whose twin boys, Gavin and Marcus, survived TTTS. Others in attendance at the party were Abby and Jason Barton and their twin girls, Alana and Alexis, who were mono/mono twins born at 28 weeks, and Christa and Matt Mains whose little boy, Sammy, was in the NICU just down the hall from Anne-Claire and Elise.

TTTS survivors: Meghan only brought one of her two boys, Jen has both Sage and Lucy, and my babies were still in the NICU, so Emma & Charlotte posed with me