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5.30.2012

Mother's Day

My second mother's day could not have been better!  Last year I celebrated mother's day but seeing my babies in the hospital. They were only a few days old and the nurses gave me a book that had their foot prints in it!  This year was quite a treat to spend the day with my kids.

 The day started off by Clayton lettting me sleep in. Can we say pure bliss? It was nice to relax. Once I got up I had pancakes for breakfast and opened some sweet cards from the kids. Later we went to brunch with the rest of the family at Christinas. Yum! Who doesn't love mexican food.

After brunch my mom, sister and I went to get pedicures! It was my moms first one. It was so much fun!  I enjoyed getting my feet rubbed on and being pampered!  We definailty sold my mom on pedicures! 

After this I went home and took a nap. Yes, you read that right! I got to take a nap! Bless that sweet husband of mine!  After my glorious nap we had dinner and played with the kiddoes!  What a wonderful mother's day! Oh and I forgot to mention the best part, My fantastic hubby made me these cute handprint plaques from the kids! Love him!







5.28.2012

Happy Memorial Day!

We just wanted to take a moment to say how blessed we feel to live in a country where there are men and women who sacrifice their lives so that we can have the life we have.  Thank you to everyone who has served or is serving in our armed forces.  We had a great day and are very thankful to have spent it with family!




Memorial Day 2012

5.25.2012

The Aquarium

So I'm back tracking a little bit on the blog! Bare with me! On the twins first birthday we wanted to do something fun for them. We decided to go to the Dallas World Aquarium. I think that they enjoyed it!




Arriving at the aquarium!



Family Pic


Levi was fascinated by this giant crab until it moved and he freaked out!

Weird looking fish!


Flamingos


Giant Leopard at the aquarium. He was waiting for his "lunch" to be dropped from above!



Emma and Levi's favorite part was going into the gift shop and getting these little rubber Nemo fishes! ha!




I'm glad we got to do something fun on their birthday!

5.23.2012

Party Picture Dump

I know I have already shared pictures from the twins party and actual birthday but those were mostly from my phone. Here are a few pictures that I took with my camera! Enjoy!


We woke up the babies with balloons and singing!

 




Yay for One year olds!


Birthday Cinammon rolls




Getting ready for the party!







We had a great time and I am so sad that its already over! Ofcourse I am already planning for next year!

5.21.2012

For MOMs by MOMs- Baby Gear

Today is another Moms of Mulitples Monday!  I am joining up with Megan, Heather and Jennifer to discuss topics regarding moms of multiples. I am so excited to be hosting our link up this week.  I hope you will find this topic helpful especially if you are a new or expectant mom.  You don't necessarily have to be a mom of multiples to read these or link up and remember these are our personal opinions and experiences. We have in no way been compensated for discussing certain products.  So let's get started!

When I found out I was expecting twins I remember thinking how we will need two of everything. This thought scared me a little. Ok if I'm being honest it downright freaked me out! ha! But along the way I found out that you don't necessarily need two of everything.  Following are some of my favorite products that my babies used.

  1. The Nap Nanny. My babies had horrific reflux and needed to elevated almost constantly. When someone told me about the nap nanny I immediately went on a hunt. Luckily I found one on craigs list and we bought the other one of sale. Yes, they are pricey but they saved us. My babes spent many a nights in those suckers.




2. My next favorite thing had to be a bouncer seat. My twins loved their bouncers, the ones that vibrated! They took lots of naps in the bouncer/vibrating chairs. I don't necessarily think you need two of these but we did end up getting two because they both loved them so much.

3. Another item my kids loved was the swing. I think the swings are so soothing and it was helpful to also keep them elevated enough. We also had two of these!





4. My favorite bottles and the ones that the babes like best were Dr. Browns.  We went through many many bottles trying to find the best one and ultimately they liked these best. Some people complain about the many parts but it really didn't bother me. I also made sure to have lots of bottle so that I wasn't constantly washing them. I think I ended up having 15.

5. For a stroller we decided to use a double snap and go. I was lucky enough to buy one from another twin mom.  It was really easy to snap the car seats in and it is pretty light weight.




6. When the babes got older we decided we needed a different stroller. After a lot of research and getting a lot of opinions we decided to go with the Baby Jogger City Mini Double.  I love love love it. It is light weight for a double stroller and maneuvers easily!



7. Jumperoo/ exasaucers- we ended up getting one exasaucer and one jumperoo. I think you could totally get away with just one or the other. Chances are they aren't going to both want to be in their at the same time and in reality they are only in their for  a short period of time.









8. Bath tubs were another thing I was confused about. We decided to get one with a sling. We ended up using the baby bath tub for a lot longer than most because they were so tiny. As the babies got older we transitioned to bath seats which we are still using. I love the bath seats. It keeps them in place.








9. High chairs- we chose to use the Fisher Price space saver high chairs. They have been great for us except they are a little hard to clean. We don't have a ton of room in our kitchen so we decided this was best for us.

10. Car seats- when they were little we chose a Graco snugride for their infant car seat. I really liked them. Yes, they were heavy but I felt it kept them safe. Once they were older we decided to get a convertible car seat that could keep them backwards longer and that they could grow with since they are now recommending that kids stay facing backwards until the age of two.  We chose the Britax Boulevard 70 CS.



Ok I am sure you are totally overwhelmed by now so I will stop! I could go on for a while. Feel free to leave me a comment if you have any other questions. I am happy to help!

If you are linking up please make sure your post is regarding baby gear! We look forward to reading all of your thoughts and ideas.  Next week our topic will be Bringing Home Multiples!   Hope to see you them too!




5.16.2012

12 months- One year

Emma and Levi are officially one year old. They are 9 1/2 adjusted.  They have come a long way this past month and it has been exciting!

This Month We:
  • Went to the Dallas World Aquarium
  • Went to Hobby Lobby
  • Ate at Mimi's Cafe, Five guys burgers and fries, Cotton Patch, and Christinas
  • Went to Mason's tball game
  • Emma went to the ER
  • had our first real sickness
  • Nonny and Poppy visited
  • went to our NICU reunion
  • Moved Levi to his own room

Emma:

At 12 months you:
  • weigh-17 lbs 4 oz
  • height-28 inches
  • eat lots of foods. Your favorite is fruit
  • You are doing ok sleeping. Your recent sickness set you back and you still loved to be rocked to sleep
  • You are drinking four bottles a day and we are working on switching over to sippy cups and whole milk
  • You like: to spin things, crawl, be chased, mickey mouse, and being rocked
  • Dislikes: sleeping, people making you do things, water
  • Development: crawling!!!!!!
  • Teeth: one finally
  • Diaper- size 3 during the day and size 4 at night
Levi:

At 12 months you:

  • weight-21 lbs 2 oz
  • height-29 inches
  • eat lots of food, your favorite is cheerios
  • You are doing pretty well sleeping.  You like to drink your bottle to go to sleep and we have go to cut that out soon!
  • You are drink four bottles a day and do well with sippy cups.
  • You like: to cuddle with mommy, being tickled by daddy, toys that play music, your cars, crawling and standing, splashing in water, getting into the dog food
  • You dislike: when you have to wait for food,  being moved away from stuff, changing your diaper, getting dresses
  • Development: crawling and pulling up, also cruising
  • Teeth: 4
  • Diaper: size 4 during the day and 5 at night

We love you both so much and will never stop thanking God for the miracle of your life!




5.14.2012

For MOMs by MOMs- A Twin Pregnancy

First off I wanted to say thank you for joining us for another Moms of Multiples link up. Today our host is the fabulous Jennifer from The Vanzant Family.  Jennifer is a new mom who was recently blessed with Boy/ Girl twins. Head on over to Jennifer's blog which you can find here to share your pregnancy story!

If you are a long time reader you know most of my pregnancy story. I've written several posts about it but I'm going to give a brief recap here. Clayton and I started trying to get pregnant very soon after we got married. We knew would have a rough time because I was previously diagnosed with endometriosis.  Due to the severity of my endometriosis we ultimately decided to do an IUI to help us get pregnant.  On our first try it was successful!  We were both so excited and shocked. I thought it would take a couple of tries.  At the beginning of November 2010 we found out we were pregnant.  A few weeks later during a trip to the ER because of excessive vomiting we had a routine ultra sound done.  We were shocked to find out we were expecting twins. 

I have always wanted twins.  My dad is a twin and growing up I always thought it was so cool.  My pregnancy started off pretty well but around six weeks I started getting sick.  I was sick my entire pregnancy.  It was awful but I would do it all over again to have my sweet babies.  Around 12 weeks pregnant I was sent to the ER with tachycardia (which is an extremely fast hear rate).  When i was admitted to the ER my heart rate was 164.  After a two day hospital stay and multiple tests I was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism.  This is explained a lot.  I had been hardly gaining weight while pregnant, was always out of breath and had a fast heart rate.  This was just the first of many ER trips for me during my pregnancy.

My second ER trip was a few weeks later when I started to feel pain.  I wasn't sure what was happening but after being checked out I was not contracting and everything looked good.

Around 15 weeks pregnant during a routine ultra sound with my high risk ob I mentioned that I had been feeling funny. I didn't have any idea what a contraction felt like but I knew deep down that something wasn't right.  After the ultra sound the doctor told us that my cervix was funnelling. I was so confused. Basically I was dilating from the inside out.  I was freaked out. The high risk ob I was seeing did not have the best bed side manner. He was very matter of fact and not very encouraging. He told me that day that it would be unlikely I could carry my babies past 23-24 weeks.  He gave me my options and sent me home.

After discussing our situation with my regular OB we decided to do three things.  We would do progesterone shots which are though to relax the uterus. We would do a cerclage which is stitches put into my cervix to help keep it shut. And lastly we would do bed rest. 

At 16 weeks I had a cerclage put in and was sent home to continue my bed rest. Everything was going pretty well. Clayton is lucky enough to work from home and was there to feed me and take care of me.  AT 22 weeks one night I woke up around 4 in the morning with the weirdest feeling.  I woke Clayton up and told him I was having weird feelings. I already had an appointment that morning with my regular OB.  By the time we got to the OB I knew something was up.  The doctor took one look at me felt my belly and sent us straight to the hospital.  I don't think at that time I knew exactly what was happening.

At the hospital I was told that I was having contractions. They gave me shot to stop the contractions. It was successful but I was told I would more than likely be spending the rest of my pregnancy in the hospital. I was terrified. You can read about one of the conversations we had with the doctor here.  I was transferred via ambulance to another hospital that was better suited to handle my case.  I spent the next several weeks in the hospital until I delivered my sweet miracles at 29 weeks and six days. I feel incredibly lucky and indebted to the doctors and to God that I was able to carry my babies as long as I did.  You can read about their birth story here and here

Thank you so much for reading my pregnancy story. Mine is a very unique one and not typical.  Please hop on over to Jennifer's blog and link up to share you story.  Here are a bunch of pics I've never shared on the blog of my pregnancy.  Warning they are not pretty!








 

Ps. I hope you all had a fantastic Mother's Day! I was spoiled by my family and I feel incredibly blessed!

5.10.2012

Easter

**I totally got behind and never posted this!  I am posting now for posterity sake!  The twins 12 month post will be up soon! 


Easter this year was amazing. It has always been one of my favorite holidays. I heard it described as the super bowl of Christianity. I totally agree!  It is what we base our whole religion on. The fact that Jesus rose from the grave to forgive our sins so that we may have eternal life if we choose to believe.  This Easter was great because I had my two little miracles to celebrate. Last year I was in the hospital on bed rest and this was so much better.  I choose to host Easter at my house and it went off without a hitch!  On Saturday we enjoyed some yummy food an Easter Egg hunt and time with family. Sunday we spent the day just our little family and it was perfect.  Here are tons of pictures from Emma and Levi's first Easter!