Life

I am not great at writing and my goal for this website is to use my images to tell my stories instead of my words. However I don’t have images to tell this kind of story. I took a pause from posting on my website. If you know me you know I am an open book. On March 18th 2019 my wife and I found out we were expecting twins. I truly couldn’t express how truly happy and blessed we felt. Before finding out about the twins we had a miscarriage. Dealing with that loss was defiantly an emotional rollercoaster. So to find out we were having twins we were so happy but so scared since we just had the miscarriage a few months prior. Every appointment we were on the edge of our seat but the doctors ( who were amazing by the way ) told us everything was looking great. Once we got out of that 1st trimester things started to get scary. Baby B wasn’t gaining a lot of weight. Our bi weekly appointment turned into a weekly appointment which turned into twice a week and by the end of the pregnancy 3 times a week. With having 2 kids in school and being told that we might have to go to John Hopkins for Surgery our stress levels were at an all time high. The doctors thought the twins had twin to twin syndrome Each appointment our goal was to get to the next one to see if things have changed. I don’t remember which week it was but it was determined our twins had selective growth syndrome Our goal was to get to 34 weeks. With the twins having selective growth syndrome Ellamae needed to limit her mobility. The doctors wanted to put her on bedrest in the hospital for 6-8 weeks. September was a big month for me and my job and Alexander was just starting school. We asked the doctor if EllaMae limits moving around can she please stay at home. He allowed her to stay home and we made it to 34 weeks. My amazing wife had a C-section and our boys were in our world. Micah was born 5lb 4oz and Ansel was born 3lb 9oz. Our boys needed to spend some time in the Nicu. With our other kids, we never had to experience the Nicu. So to my wife and I it was a bit taboo and a little scary. Day 1 of the Nicu my wife and I felt and saw all the love towards our babies from the nurses and doctors. My wife got discharged from the maternity ward but we still had our boys in the Nicu. It felt strange leaving the hospital without our twins. Our older kids are 3 and 5 so they aren’t allowed to visit the Nicu so it was challenging with scheduling who is visiting the twins. The routine was my wife would go in the morning/afternoon because she would nurse Micah and Ansel and I would go at night and bring the breastmilk my wife pumped. This worked perfect for me since I am a total night owl. 8 days after Micah’s birth we were able to bring him home. We were so happy but I felt so much guilt leaving Ansel behind. This made visiting Ansel a bit more challenging. Once you take a baby out of the Nicu he cannot return. When I worked we were very fortunate to have friends/family watch our big kids and someone would sit in the waiting room at the hospital with Micah so that way Ellamae can feed Ansel in the Nicu and come out and feed Micah in the waiting. Ansel ended up being in the Nicu for 34 days. When we brought Ansel home it was the greatest feeling to have my family all under one roof.

I am so grateful to all of you for hiring me and allowing me to do the job I love. In 2019, my goal to get a website up and start sharing my work with the world. Once life happen I stopped focusing on my website & social media and focused on my family and my work. I hired Samantha from SLJ Social to help me post content on my social media platforms. I am going to start using my website as a platform again to share my work. This month my twins turn 6 months old. My twins are doing amazing! Alexander and Maebree love love LOVE their brothers!