This and that...

We are going list-style here today folks, as really I just have random stuff to ramble about followed by a cute video of my babies..

- I had my 6 week post op appointment with my OB last week, and besides just a few small residual, lingering things, I am officially "recovered" from delivery and surgery. Well, physically I guess. It's pretty safe to assume I still have some emotional issues to process about how it all went down when I have to change the channel during a rerun of Scrubs because Carla is in labor and things start to go awry and I get so filled with anxiety I start to cry...

...but that is a post for another time.

- I gained 47 pounds while pregnant and learned on Tuesday that I only have 13 pounds left to lose before I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight. Yahoo! Naturally, to celebrate I grabbed a package of Reeses Peanut Butter cups at the pharmacy after my appointment. =) I can tell you where all 13 pounds are too...in my midsection. My stomach is suffering from deflated tire syndrome. And while it's not like I rocked the Gwen Stefani abs before I was pregnant, this is a whole new kind of pooch going on. I don't suppose attempting to work my abs would do any good either until I lose the extra weight...which honestly I am only so motivated to do! It's not like I have spare time galore these days, and my energy level is pretty much non-existent. Also I am hungry ALL. THE. TIME! Nursing requires a lot of calories and I consomme every needed calorie and then some I am sure. But, I only can fit into one pair of pre-pregnancy pants (and they were my fat pants) and even then I have a serious muffin top thing going on. I bought one pair of transitional pants to get me through the times I need to be out and about, because at home I just live in pj's, sweats, and yoga pants. I also have a new BFF in the empire waisted sundress...oh how I love thee! I do get discouraged when I log onto OldNavy.com and see the item of the week is bathing suits (ugh), but then I just remind myself that this body of mine carried twins -two babies- to 38 weeks, and that ended up being over 13 pounds of babies. And you don't bounce back from that quickly...or possibly ever. But that's ok, I would never, even in the most insecure of moments, trade my giant stretch marks or flab for my healthy, full term twins. Ever. What a gift to have been able to carry them for so long, and I am so honored the Lord allowed me to.

- Breastfeeding is going really well and I am so so so grateful for that. We really have come a long way! The two issues we are dealing with now are they have both suddenly decided they are too good to latch easily on my right side. Little snobs =) I have had to really help them there the last 2 days and they get SO frustrated in the process! Hopefully this will be a short lived problem. The other issue is my supply. I am so hopeful when we weigh them tomorrow at Luke's appointment they will have gained enough for us to not have to add any more supplement back in. Last weigh in Luke was just a little under what they wanted to see, so the lactation consultant recommended he get 2.5 ounces a day, and we could leave Abbey at 2, since her growth was adequate.

- I have figured out I can type one handed with the laptop on the arm of the couch while nursing, hence my ability to write this rambling post. It takes FOR.EVER. but at least I can do something besides watch TV, which gets old.

-In the wee hours this morning I seriously offered my son $1000 if he would please, please, puh-lease just settle in and go back to sleep. Lucas, having no concept of money and therefor no idea what a smokin' deal this was, declined my offer.

- I go back to work in exactly 4 weeks. I have mixed feelings about this. I also have no idea what we are going to do about childcare. Our hope is that David's teaching schedule will be mostly mornings, and I will work afternoon's, and we will only need a sitter a few hours a week when our two schedules overlap just a bit. I am not guaranteed our schedules will work out like this, and I don't know where we will find this person, but I am trusting the Lord to work it out for us...

- And lastly, here is a video of my sweet babies playing...

Thanks & pics

Thank you all so much for your insight, suggestions & advice on my last post. Blogging is such a great outlet for advice and encouragement.

Taking a quick break from being the Dairy Queen (the babies have nursed every 2 hours today!) now that Dave's home to post some pictures real quick. I can't believe how fast the babies are growing...it's exciting but sad at the same time. Luke has already outgrown some of his newborn clothes, and is ready for a size 1 diaper. Abbey isn't far behind. It's hard to believe just 7 weeks ago they were both in preemie diapers!! It's happening so fast. But there is fun stuff happening more and more as they grow, both babies have smiled for us now and that just melts our hearts completely.

Two babies, two bouncy seats.
(You can see the beginning of a Luke smile here...)

Two sleepy babies after a nice long nursing session...

Daddy mastered the art of both babies in one sling, Momma has been too chicken to try it.

Our second family walk...

Our bright eyed girl...
Holding on to Daddy's pinky & thumb...

Our little thinker...


Sweet little boy...


And this is how the 3 of us roll when 2 out of 3 of us are fussy...

The post where you comment "It just happens..."

Please note the title before you comment on this post =).

For those of you that have 2 and 3 year olds that still have absolutely no sleeping pattern, or even a glimpse of it, please refrain from telling me so. Thank you kindly.

I know my sweet babies are only 7 weeks old, and please hear me when I say I have NO expectations of them sleeping through the night, or anything close, for weeks or months to come. I get it, they are newborns, and that is their job. No problem. They are totally worth it.

My fear is that we will never fall into any sort of routine for sleep patterns.

I swear I remember friends of mine saying their babies just kind of fell into one, where they were "down for the night" - with a few wake ups in the middle perhaps- by 7pm or something, or always up at 5:30am, etc. That they had patterns.

Even with those babies falling into semi-routines, I am well aware that there will always be "off" nights.

This all is stemming from our night last night, and the last couple of nights...



I nurse about every 3-4 hours throughout the day, or more frequently if the babies are needing it. Around 9:15pm (ish) at night we get the babies changed and turn down all the lights in the living room, and I nurse them for about 45-60min. They usually fall asleep nursing, and we hold upright for a bit and burp gently, then lay down asleep. I head to bed then, which is about 10:45pm.

At 1:00am, David (or my mother in law or Natalie if we have help) gives the babies a 2 ounce bottle (this is per the lacation consultant, so that I can get close to 4 hours of consecutive sleep, which is important to maintain my milk supply). Sometimes they will sleep straight through from the 10:30pm lay down to the 1:00am feed, but often one of them will start to wake around then or before then.

Usually they both go right back down after that, especially if they had to be woken up (but just barely, it's a "sleep feed" a lot of the time). But again, sometimes one or both will just be up for a bit.

Then around 3:30-4:00am, one wakes up to eat. Usually Abbey. So David (or our other wonderful helper if we have one!) will come get me and will wake the other baby, change the babies and I come out to the living room and nurse for about an hour. Luke almost always passes out now after/during this feeding. Abbey on the other hand is then wide awake for about an hour. Not fussy, just awake. I'll admit as much as I would love the sleep, I can't really relent these times. It's kind of nice to just have quiet awake time with my sweet little girl, and to see her big beautiful blue eyes...but, I try not to engage her too much with talking to her, as I want her to sleep since it's nighttime =).

It usually takes me at least an hour to get her sleepy and then tired. Throw in one or two sessions of me laying her down too soon or not slowly enough, and she is awake again so I start over. So that means Luke went back to sleep around 5:00am, and Abbey is going back down around 6:00am, or after. Momma's head hits the pillow right after, and then Luke usually wakes back up between 6:45am-7:30am.

This is not so bad. Really it's not. We have pretty good babies. We are so grateful for them.

But this morning after David and I were comparing notes about our shifts, I learned that Luke had woken back up about 15 minutes after I went to bed, and Abbey was up after the 1:00am feeding too.

They are just up at random intervals sometimes an hour or more at different times during the night.

And I started to get a little nervous...you see right now it's not a problem because I have nothing to do all day but meet the babies needs. If I am drowsy all day from 4 hours of sleep (or less) and I don't get a shower or brush my teeth, no big deal. But in approximately 5 weeks I have to go back to work. Granted it's only part time, but still...I will have things I need to accomplish during the day. Like showering. I mean, my work is understanding and all, but a girl's gotta at least brush her teeth before interacting with physicians and patients all day.

Or at least she should.

When I left for maternity leave, my supervisor pretty much told me I had the freedom to choose how I wanted to schedule the 20 hours a week I will be working. I was hoping to do 2 full days and 1 half day, that way I would still have 4 full days at home with the babies. But now that they are here, I am thinking it might be easier on them if I just worked 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. It would interrupt their days less if I was only gone for the afternoon, as opposed to a FULL day 2 times a week. Plus it would mean a lot less pumping. So I am hopeful my job is on board with this too....


Anyways, I am just polling all you parents again and wondering when about your kid's started showing you signs of sleep patterns. I am hoping our babies will have some sort of a routine for bedtime and nighttime by 12 weeks, when I go back to work.

Again, I know there will always be off nights, even when we have a "routine".

And also again, if your kids are 12 years old and still up crazy hours of the night for hours on end, please refrain from commenting on this post =). Just leave me a comment -even if it's a lie- that says "oh it just happens around 10 weeks..." or something. =) Bless you.





And if you made it through this entire rambling post, you are a real trooper, and here is a picture of our monkey boy to reward your perseverance...

Couldn't you just eat him up????

My first Mothers Day!

I have waited so many years to celebrate Mothers Day, and what a special day it was!!

To those of you out there still waiting to be a Momma, please know I am praying for you today. I know...it's so hard. May God bless you with peace and comfort today, and may He bless you with little miracles soon!!!

My sister Natalie came up for the weekend and it was SO much fun!! She let David and I go out to the movies last night (we saw "Date Night", soooo funny!) and then after Church and a nursing session we went to get pedicures! It has been SUCH a wonderful weekend! I am so blessed!!!





Here are some pictures of the last couple days...



The post double burp baby shuffle...they each slide into the funniest positions when they fall asleep while burping, it's so funny!




You would think it would bother them to always have the others hands in their face, but they don't seem to mind at all =)



Little Lucas-Poocas on the floor...



Little Abbey Mae makes the funniest faces sometimes!




This was my view yesterday morning as I made breakfast & got some chores down. With Natalie here, we had more adults than babies, so I got to do lots of baby wearing, which I love. I so wish I could do it more, but when I am by myself during the day it seems like they either both need me at the same time, or they trade off needing me and I just can't spend quality time wearing one of them. We have a sling that is supposed to fit both babies at once, but with Luke's casts back on it is too difficult to position him in there, but he sure does love the Baby Bjorn, as you can see...


Sweet little Abbey girl loves to grip things so tightly. Here I was calming her down and helping her hold her binkie in, and she just wrapped her hands tightly around my fingers, something she does often. Luckily the camera was within arms reach so I was able to capture it forever...it's a sweet moment for me, and I can't believe already how big her hands are getting...don't grow up too fast sweet girl...


Sleepy little guy...



Auntie Natalie and Abbey...



And this moment made me cry...

...they are getting too big to both be in the bouncy seat together much longer, and that's too bad because they sure do love to be so close. I just love looking at The Mister and his Sister so snuggly together. I love the way she is just turned into him and he is kind of protecting her. I just stared at them and prayed over them...prayed that they would always be close.



Happy Mothers day to all the mom's in my life! Of course my mom! And my mother in law, and my step mom, and my grandma's. Hope you all had a wonderful day!!

And again, to those of you still waiting - "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as just trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit"
Romans 15:13

Sweet babies...=)

A little tummy time...

Two little burritos!

Baby chillin' time...

6 years!

Today is David and I's 6th Wedding Anniversary.

It's a special one, as it's our first as parents =).

Last night a couple from our Church came over to hold the babies and we got to sneak out for a quick dinner between feedings.


Our attempt at a self portrait in the parking lot...


Happy Anniversary baby! I thank God for you, and love you more than words can express.

"My beloved is mine, and I am his"
Song of Songs 2:16