those twins o f mine - they're sorta 6 months now!

Um, whoops! I sort of haven't blogged in.. forever.

And now my twins are 6 months old. Ahem.

 

My little blonde-haired, blue-eyed boys are just so big now. Starting to sit up alone, eating some baby food here and there (although I don't give them that much. Just when I remember to - heh heh), and developing their own personalities.Time's flown since birth. For the first 6 months, I can truthfully say that it was easy for me and the transition to 3 kids 2 & under wasn't hard at all!

But then 6 months happened, and these days are a bit more challenging. I often literally sweat while juggling both of them. It can be rough and sometimes I feel myself panic to death and it is hard when they both want me. But.. luckily I have pretty laid back boys, and we survive every day and do have fun along the way ;) 

I honestly have no time for blogging these days. I don't know how people do it. They do nap at the same times each day (4 naps a day -- but they do wake up at 6am...), but during those times, I like to sit quietly. Or play with Ad. Or lay down and catch my breath. Haha! 

Tyson (my baby A), is Mr. Smiley 24/7 and is more vocal, likes food more, and likes to sit up more than Roman. He's pretty laid back and doesn't mind just lounging in a bouncy seat while I take care of Roman. I'd say 70% of the time, he wakes up first in the morning. He wakes up by kicking his legs and breathing heavy and talking out loud. It would be the cutest thing ever if it weren't at 6am. Just kidding. It's still cute!!

I always put Tyson to sleep in the swing for his morning nap, and I've been laying Roman down in his crib and trying to help him fall asleep there. In a dream world, I would rock my babies to sleep and cuddle them to the ends of the earth. But - reality check - I have two, and they both want to sleep at the exact same time. So that isn't possible. Thank heavens for that swing!!!

Roman (baby B!) is my more dominant twin. He knows what he wants and is more assertive, but he's still extremely laid back and all smiles. But if someone is fussing in the car, I can almost bet it would be Roman! He can scoot himself around the floor (mostly going in circles) and enjoys pushing up on his arms while on his belly. Tyson hates that! He loves jumping in his jumperoo and is the cutest little toot!! 

I have the best twins ever. I really do!! They are the smiliest babies I've ever seen. All you have to do is make eye contact with them, and they bust out in the hugest smiles! I feel like they're honestly the same baby. They cry the same, basically have the same personalities (just with Roman being a *bit* more demanding), and like everything the same. We'll be getting their DNA test done for their first birthday - because everyone seems to think they're identical! I can't stand not knowing, and I thought it would be a fun surprise at their first birthday party!

& for a little catch up, here are some of my favorites from the past few months:

I love my sweet boys to death and feel SO lucky to get the chance to be a mom to twins!

the twins' birth story!

I gave birth to our twins 9 days ago, so I think now's about the time that I write out their birth story!


On Tuesday night (Oct. 2nd), I felt pretty darn terrible. I went to bed early, and the next morning I still felt exhausted. Adalyn and I went down for our nap, and at 310 I woke up and felt odd. The next thing I knew, I had water flooding out of me onto our bed! I called Mark immediately -- no answer (no reception - thanks, AT&T) -- so I called his coworker and he told Mark. Adalyn and I just laid in bed for a while, because I knew that the more I moved, the more water would come out (and I was right). So we waited for Mark to come home. I just laid there with my Little Toot and told her to be still. Pretty funny in hindsight.

We got ready and picked up our buddy, Amanda, and headed tot he hospital. When I arrived, I was having some uncomfortable contractions, but I was laughing and having a good time. I was checked and was already 4cm. Adalyn was right there with us with her Elmo and was playing "check-up" and holding my hand, kissing it, and telling me "Good job, Mama!" It was way too cute. Pretty soon, my contractions became pretty terrible. I physically couldn't walk through them because at that point in my pregnancy, I literally couldn't walk anymore! The weight of the twins was so so heavy. So I found a good position on my side in the hospital bed and labored there. I was able to grip on the hand rails and make it through the contractions.

The next time I was checked, I was 7cm. And I was dying. They were so close together and I felt like I needed help. Plus, I knew that if I went medication-free, and ended up in a c-section, I would have to be put to sleep. So Mark called the nurse to tell her that I wanted an epidural. I got one - this one took longer to settle in than my first epidural with Adalyn - but it did ease all my pain away. Literally RIGHT after the anesthesiologist left, my doctor came back in and checked me. I was already 10cm! The second I got my epidural, I was complete.

The nurse went into overdrive and was throwing her OR gear on. It all happened so fast and then she was literally rushing me in to the OR. I wasn't really scared much, and I was able to kiss Adalyn goodbye :) Sweet moment. By the time I got in the operating room, I said "I think I feel his head RIGHT there." And it was - and they could see his hair!  3 pushes later and he came flying out. So much different than Adalyn's long and difficult birth! They held him up and took him to be examined. Since the twins were only 36w3d, they needed to be looked at. Thankfully, his apgar score was 9/9 - totally healthy!

They put the ultrasound machine on my belly and searched for baby B. When we checked into the hospital, he was footling breech - which means that his feet were down by my cervix. Now that baby A had been born, he flipped to completely transverse. My doctor put his entire arm up inside me and tried to grab his feet. For a second, he thought he had feet.. but nope. A foot and a hand. He fiddled up inside me for a while.. which sounds painful, but it was just uncomfortable and weird since my entire abdomen was moving ALL over the place. Then a team of 2 doctors tried to turn him externally.. and failed. My doctor tried and tried until his heart rate got down to the 60's and stayed there. And finally he said that a c-section had to be done. I got pretty scared but I honestly just wanted him out and healthy, so I wasn't too upset over the c-section. The curtain went up and the nurses started pumping more anesthesia and narcotics into my IV. At that point, I seriously felt like I had about 5% of life left in me. My eyes were shut and all I could do was moan, tell the nurse "I think I'm dying" and tell Mark "take pictures." Besides that, I felt absolutely horrible. The c-section seemed to take FOREVER and I felt absolutely awful. Finally he was born and I had no strength to even look at him. His apgar score was 8/9 and was totally healthy. I remember Mark bringing him over and asking "Do you want to see him?" I moaned no and couldn't even open my eyes. It was an awful experience.

While they closed me up, I began to feel even worse and then started throwing up while I was on my back. They had to suck the vomit out of me with a sucky thing. I kept asking the nurse if it was almost over. And eventually it was. I was wheeled into the recovery room and our boys joined us. As soon as we arrived, the nurse rose me up in my bed so slightly, and I immediately began throwing up again - ugh! For a long while I didn't have any strength to hold either baby, but I wanted to so badly. Eventually I was able to tandem nurse them, and both latched on great.

Long story short, here are some bulleted details -

-both boys were born really healthy. Their documents show them as being 39wk twins, even though I am 150% sure of their conception date - which ultrasound has always verified
-they were perfectly healthy until their second day, when they developed jaundice and "lost too much weight."
-on Saturday, they had to remain under bili lights for an entire day, which was literally the worst day of my life. I was so hormonal and upset. I literally cried the ENTIRE day. I can't even type out how upset I was. It was a huge combination of things, most all caused by an awful nurse and NICU doctor. In short, the NICU doctor told me that my body was "failing," that they weren't gaining weight, that they needed formula, that I can't "make my milk come in" and a whole slew of awful things. He was incredibly rude, and my nurse was zero encouragement. She basically wanted me to pump and bottle feed and had no respect for my wishes to have my babies to the breast, even though they were healthy and could latch. The next nurse on the shift was great and obviously let us all nurse, thank heavens. It was just one bad nurse and one bad doctor. Now it's just a bad memory, but at the time it was extremely stressful.
-On Sunday, we all got released to come home!

Without further ado...

Mark, Adalyn, and I proudly announce the two newest editions to our family:

Tyson Reid 6lbs14oz

Roman Pierce 6lbs10oz

a big ol' pregnancy update!

Here I am again. Giving another twin pregnancy update, because that's the only kind of blogging I do these days, really :)

I'm 29.5 weeks now and we're all trucking along just great! I visit the Maternal Fetal Specialist every 4 weeks to do a special ultrasound, and now I'm down to seeing my doctor every 2 weeks. The MFM is pretty much like a regular ultrasound, but they spend more time looking at medical "stuff" instead of having fun like a regular 20wk ultrasound. As in - they spend extra time looking at my cervix, placentas, blood flow, etc. At the last appointment, we didn't get a SINGLE profile/face photo at all. She didn't even attempt it. I don't even have photos to share, because they're all really blurry and are of odd body parts.. like baby A's neck. Ahem.

Speaking of Baby A, he's transverse breech. Odd combo there, I know! But his face is down in my hip bone, and his feet are kicking my cervix. So he's diagonal, basically. Baby B is transverse but his head is pointing down. But we'll just say they're basically both transverse. I'm not worried... yet.. but I do hope they decide to flip on their own!

 (Left: Me with Ad @ 36 wks
Right: Me with twins @ 28wks)

The worst part of this pregnancy? Not being able to stand or walk for very long. I'm sure this sounds dramatic to everyone - but I *literally* can only walk for just a LITTLE bit before my stomach is extremely heavy and I get light headed, dizzy, and just extremely weak and crampy. I can still get out and do things - thank you Jesus - but I literally have to make a bee line in a store, get what we need, and then leave. Otherwise I have to find a spot to sit and rest before I can continue walking. I was NEVER like this with Adalyn! It's a whole different ballgame!

The best part of pregnancy? I guess it would be talking to Adalyn about the babies. She likes to pull my shirt up and put a little blanket over my belly for the babies. I don't know where she got this from, but she does it at least once a day. She also rubs my belly and bends down to kiss it. She never flat out says their names while talking about the babies. She just calls them "baby" .. Pretty sweet!

The "nursery" is kind of set up and ready. We're set to move into a new 4BR home at some point (sigh..) so we didn't want to do too much decorating in this home. So for now, the nursery is just the basics! Besides, the boys will be rooming with us for a long while. So their room is just housing their clothes and toys.

I still have my eye on 38 weeks and pray that my boys make it that far! At 28wks, their estimated weights were 3.4 and 3.1 pounds, which puts them at about the 80th percentile. That makes me a happy mama! I want them big and healthy before they make their grand entrances into the world!

Annnnd let me not forget about my sweet princess girl. She is my whole heart and I LOVE this kid!!! I'm starting to feel a little (okay.. a LOT) sad that our time of "just us" is ticking away. I'm trying to spend every second I can cuddling her and having mommy/daughter time. I need to do another post tomorrow on what's going on in the life of Adalyn. I think I'll definitely do that. It'll be fun! But for now, here are some photos of my little best friend:

two peas in a pod baby shower!

A couple of weeks ago, my sister and friend threw us an amazing baby shower for the boys!! It was so exciting and DEFINITELY needed, because we basically had nothing for baby boys. Ad was born in October, and these babies are due 8 days after their birthday. So, had they been girls, they would have been SET on clothing/toys/everything basically. But.. wouldn't you know.. we're having two boys. So none of her girly items can be reused.

That's always how the cookie crumbles, isn't it!?

Well we tried to decide on a theme. If it had been two girls, I wanted "Tea for Two" -- like a little tea party with little pastries and such. I also liked Thing 1 and Thing 2 for two little boys. But in the end, we decided on Two Peas in a Pod. So many cute ideas on Pinterest and I do love the color green :) So we went with it!



First, my sister had the idea to make these adorable "two peas in a pod" sugar cookies. They were a t.o.n. of work and we really had no idea what we were doing! We had to dye the icing in 3 shades of green, make little baby faces, and it was just.. a lot of work! It ended up giving me huge contractions and cramps - seriously.. that's what happens when you overdo it with twins in your belly! But they turned out MIGHTY cute. I loved them!



We decided to have a brunch -- two kinds of breakfast casserole, little quiches, chocolate covered strawberries, a fruit tray, etc. It was all so so good. My family and friends are the best cooks ever, to be sure!





There were quite a few kids there - which Ad LOVED. She had a blast with her little friends and cousins:

And the gifts.. they were awesome!!! We are soo thankful and SO excited to use all of these little gadgets/clothing/gifts on our two sons. Two sons. What a weird phrase to say or think!!! I still can't get over it. It seems surreal and impossible. I know in my head that I'll be birthing two boys this fall.. but I haven't *really* come to terms with it. I'm wondering when/if it will all sink in... ? Adalyn knows two babies are coming -- she comes and lays her head on my belly, pats my belly, and says "babies!" When we ask her how many babies we're having, she proudly exclaims "TWO!!!" She is obviously so excited :) I'm unsure how much she truly understands, but this kid l.o.v.e.s. infants. Every single time we pass a baby in public, she exclaims BABY!!! -- it always makes their parents smile and laugh. She also likes to point out "Mommy" or "Daddy" depending on who is pushing/carrying the baby. She's gonna be all set when we have two little kiddos coming home with us. I think she's gonna be in total heaven.

I foresee her wanting to hold the babies all the time and especially getting them their blankets, diapers, and pacifiers. And she'll also be pointing out nose/ears/hair/eyes/etc. on them. I can't wait to see her in Big Sister action. Talk about sweetness.

a huge twins update!

Some people (my sister!) have been begging me to blog about the twins. I have to sadly admit that I've been the worst at blogging this pregnancy. It's just horrible of me, I know. I just have this awful writer's block and it just feels weird now to sit down at the laptop and blog about what's going on. But I will kick myself for not blogging this pregnancy, so I need to do this.

So here I am!!

Almost 22 weeks pregnant. Bigger than a house. Feeling great. Things going smoothly.. Life is perfect! Today's blog post will be a general update on the growth of the twins and how I'm feeling. Here we go:

At 16 weeks, we went to a private ultrasound place to find out the genders of our little ba bes! I was so nervous and excited. I was betting on boy/girl twins, and so was Mark. But we both thought they would likely be two girls. Adalyn was sick that day with a fever and ended up sleeping through the whole ultrasound, so she didn't get to see her little siblings on the screen at all!





At 16 weeks, both babies were right on top of one another -- B (on top) was actually sitting on A's head and kicking him right in the noggin through the whole ultrasound! Poor kiddo.They seemed *so* close in the womb - you would almost think they were in the same sac.



It was pretty amazing to see two little squirming babies on the screen and completely surreal. We noticed the genders right away.. and to our surprise:




A and B, respectively. Two little boys! I could not believe it. Shock is an understatement. I thought one would maybe be a boy, but I honestly felt like we'd probably only have little girls. Boy, was I wrong! It looks like Adalyn will forever be our little princess! By the way, those penis shots are from 20 weeks. Yep - definitely boys.

At 20w4d, I went to see the specialist at the hospital to have an in-depth ultrasound. Basically, she seemed to check out me more than a typical 20w ultrasound would. We looked at my placenta, cervix, etc. for a long while and then finally moved to the boys. They're still one on top of the other and are both still transverse (boo!!!), but A (on the bottom) is tipped more head-down. They both weighed 15oz and look absolutely perfect - hooray!

The twins each have their own sac and their own placenta, so they are "di/di" twins.  This means that they are the lowest-risk type of twins. However, they still have a 30% chance of being identical. It's a lot to explain, but basically the timing of when an egg splits determines if they share a placenta/share a sac/or are conjoined twins. The tech explained to me that if they split early - like around day 3 - then they would each develop their own placenta. Or they could be fraternal! Won't know until birth, and I can't wait!






And as for me? Well, I'm doing wonderfully. I do feel extra big and have more pains early on than I did with my singleton pregnancy, but it isn't too bad at all! If I exert myself too much, stand up for too long, or walk too far, I do get contractions. I do have hip pain at night and basically spend each night flopping from side to side to ease the pain. But it's nothing I can't handle. My doctors seem pretty unphased by my twin pregnancy and act like it's no big deal at all. As long as we're all healthy, they don't seem to have any concerns at all! Which I guess is a good thing.



Me @ 19wks

So now? We're just getting all of our baby items in order and getting all set for the boys. I am nesting like crazy  and am a little psycho with it.  I basically want to clean and organize all day long and am itching to buy ALL of their necessities NOW. I definitely never thought I'd have twins - and I definitely never thought we'd be having twin boys.. but here we are! About 16 weeks to go until my "goal" of 38 weeks with the boys. Time is zooming by.. we're just praying that I'm able to carry them for as long as humanly possible and that they come out big, strong, and healthy.

And just for fun, here's me at 19 weeks pregnant with little Adalyn. Um, I think there's quite a difference between these pregnancies :) :)


Tomorrow I'll blog all about our fun Two Peas in a Pod baby shower!

weaning and turning into a big sister.

I haven't mentioned it to many people, but...

Adalyn is in the process of weaning!

Let me first say that I was fine with her nursing to her little heart's content. And we were - at 18mos, she was nursing around 6 times a day (though often for less than 5 minutes. and it was barely sucking - a total comfort thing). But.. I'm pregnant. And while I felt physically fine in the first trimester, the second trimester brought on lots of pain during nursing. It was pretty unbearable.

So I started distracting her when she asked to "nuss" (nurse), and I would tell her that mommy doesn't feel good. ...She hasn't nursed in nearly a week! She still asks once per day and isn't phased at all when I say that mommy has no more milk. She is completely fine with it and goes on playing. I am so proud of her (and me!) through this. No tears, no dramatic forceful weaning. It was just time for us. I'm happy about it in that sense - that it has gone so smoothly.

But I'm going to miss it so bad. Those cuddles with her, those special moments of just the two of us. The fact that I could make the world right for her with nursing and no one could comfort her like me. As she's gotten bigger, she would just like to nurse for the closeness to mommy. I can't even verbalize (or write, in this case), the bond during that time as she would just stare into my eyes. Thinking about it makes me want to cry, because those days are gone. Forever. A huge part of me wants to whisk her up in my lap and nurse her one last time - I feel so not ready for this season of our lives to be over. I'm really not ready. At all.

Since I can't nurse her now, I'm trying to make up for it by grabbing her up as often as I can (a *lot*) and smothering her with kisses and loves. I tell her every day that she will always be my baby, and I'm going to love her forever and ever. And that she is my whole heart and my best little friend. I'm sure this sounds completely dramatic to most people - and I guess you could only understand if you nursed your baby into toddlerhood. Because it becomes so much more than nourishment. It's a precious bond that I'll treasure forever.

 

And these days, she's turning into a little mommy right before my eyes. She helps swaddle her babies, feeds them bottles, nurses them, puts them in their playpen and gives them toys to snuggle with. She says "shhh" as she pats them to sleep and makes little sucking sounds while she feeds them a bottle. It makes me so eager to see her with her siblings this fall. The little baby I was nursing earlier this spring will be my "little mama" come the fall. That's a huge transition. I'm not ready for it. But I hope that over the course of the summer, I'll slowly learn to be ready. She's my big girl now. And I'll always miss and treasure our nursing past. But it was our time.

And in just 5 months, I'll be nursing two new babies. Can't. Even. Fathom. It.

a lot!

Today we took Little Toot to the Disney Store (one of her favorite places on earth).. She ran to the pile of stuffed animals, picked up Cubby (from Jake & the Neverland Pirates) and yelled CUBBY! CUBBY!!!!!!!!!!

How on earth does she memorize characters like that?!?!

She really wanted (REALLY WANTED) the big Peter Pan doll. Note that she's only seen Peter Pan *once* in the Jake and & the NP special on TV. She carried him around the whole time and her lip stuck out and she *almost* cried when we had to put him back at the end. A little heartbreaking. But she ended up getting Rapunzel instead. Way cooler :)

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My belly is getting so big! The babies are definitely growing and I feel movement daily but not too often. It's sporadic just here and there! It feels like little squiggles in my uterus. I can't wait to be kicked hard and tell them apart based on location!

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We decided on the diapers for the twins! Prefolds using Thirsties covers and Bummis covers:

And here's an example of a newborn in a prefold (not wearing a cover) in case you have no idea what I'm talking about:

You just stick the cute colorful cover over it and that's it! I've never used prefolds, so I have no idea what to actually expect. Some people love them and some people absolutely hate them. I'm going to force myself to love them since they'll be saving us lots of money :) Plus they're super cute!

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This little nugget is 18 months old. 22.4lbs and 25% on weight, 75% on height, and 90% for a big head. I love my little munchkin to death. And that concludes this blog post.