Callie and Emma as of noon on 2/16/05

We have twin girls, born around 4:56 AM this morning. Their names are Callie Jewel and Emma Grace.

Kim is doing fine - she had a C-section since Callie was breach and was not going to come out any other way. Dr. Ellen Moffat performed the surgery. Kim and I both appreciate her skill and also her bedside manner.

Callie Jewel is the oldest and weighs 6 lb. 4 oz. and is 19.5" long. She's doing just fine.

Emma Grace weighs in at 4 lb. 14 oz. and is 18" long. She does have a cleft lip and palette that we'll be dealing with over the next year or so. Today's doctors can work miracles with this and will not affect her long-term.

Callie is staying at the hospital with Kim and Emma is going to spend some time at Children's Hospital due to the cleft lip/palette. Emma has always been the more active one - and she has been since they were born 7-8 hours ago.

Big Brother Josh has been enjoying every minute of it. We have already warned the girls about their big brother. Won't be long till they are ganging up on him though. Josh and Dad are officially outnumbered by the women of the house. Both sets of Grandparents have seen the girls and are excited.

Philip and Kim Butler
butler@globeserver.com
kim@globeserver.com

Callie and Emma as of 11 PM on 2/16/05

Both sets of grandparents got to come visit their new granddaughters today. Kim's parents were at the hospital bright and early and helped take care of Josh. My parents came down from Kingsport and arrived around 8 AM. Kim got moved to a regular room and is doing fine - a bit tired and drugged up though.

Kim's parents took Josh back to their house for a little rest. Turns out he watched some movie about reindeer running over Grandma - twice. He got about an hour and a half nap in though.

Due to Emma's cleft lip/palette, she was taken to Children's Hospital around 11 AM. We got to hold her for a while before they took her over.

My parents and I came back to the house so I could get cleaned up, pick up some stuff, etc. We ate a quick lunch and Lenny's and looked at extended stay places on North Peters Rd. They are coming down for a while to help out - probably starting next week. They are welcome to stay at the house - but it seems that they value their sleep... They went back to Kingsport around 2:30-3 or so.

I made it back to Kim's room and she was feeding Callie and we got to hold her a lot. After a while, I went over to Children's Hospital to visit Emma. She was doing well - took right to feeding with the special nipples, etc. I stayed for about 45 minutes bonding with my new daughter. She is on a monitor - but no tubes, IVs, etc.

After a while, Kim's parents brought Josh back and we went down (except for Kim and the girls) for a fabulous Ft. Sander's cafeteria meal. My head was pounding - probably since I had been up since 2 or so.

Josh was really getting into holding Callie (remember Emma is at Children's) - he's going to be a possessive big brother. He's anxious to hold both at once soon. After a while Josh and I came back home and Kim's parents left a little later.

Josh was beat - and so was I. After calling Kim, she was maybe going over to see Emma at Childrens' later on - if she's up for it.

More to follow....

Callie and Emma as of 2/23/05

We're a little slow on updates!

Kim & Callie came home on Saturday. Emma's still at Childrens. Both girls are doing really great. Emma's feedings are going better. She still gets worn out in the middle of her feeding, but she's really doing much better. They did put a tube down her throat to help feed her whatever she was unable to take from the bottle. They removed that tube on 2/23/05 because she was taking almost her whole bottle at every feeding!

Callie went to the dr for her 1 week checkup. The doctor said she was perfect! She has lost a little weight, so we're working on building that back up. She's a little jaundiced, but not enough for any treatment.

Phil's parents are here for a couple of weeks. It's been great to have them here to help with Callie while we go to the hospital to visit Emma.

Josh is still loving the job of big brother. He tries to be very gentle with Callie. He hasn't really seen Emma much yet. He did tell me that he wanted to watch the doctor's fix Emma's boo boo (lip). Josh told us that he would fix Emma's boo boo because he was going to be a doctor.

Callie and Emma as of 2/26/05

Kim went over to feed Emma at 11:30 this morning. She called afterwards to tell us that Emma was going to be coming home !! She came back (she drove herself for the first time - a few days before she was supposed to) so that we could take the van/carseat. After watching a checkout video, taking Emma's picture, and other things, we got Emma home around 3:30 in the afternoon. We spent the rest of the afternoon just chilling and such. Granddaddy, Josh, and I went to Baskin-Robins to get some ice cream. We all enjoyed that. Beverly and Junior also stopped by - but had to leave before Emma made it home.

It's almost bedtime - so we are now wondering what the next 8 hours holds for us. This will be our first night with all 5 of us at home !! I am sure that Josh will fair better than the other 4 of us.