27 weeks

Feeling so blessed to have made it to 27 weeks with twins pretty easily.

I have my glucose test Monday and I'm hoping it goes well. I don't feel like I have gestational diabetes but I am at a higher risk since I'm having twins. Dr.'s appointment Friday and ultrasound on the 17th! The 17th will be 6 weeks since we've seen the boys. The longest stretch since seeing them at 6 weeks. I can't wait to see how they are growing. Just yesterday at the grocery store the woman giving Chase a cookie said, "you are so tiny! I would have never guessed it was twins."

My big boy wanted to get in on the pictures this week. Was hoping to capture a precious pinterest worthy moment where you could see the belly underneath my big boy but his legs are too long!

Christmas!

My pal, Shannon, over at www.lifeafteridew.com posted about Christmas traditions today and instead of leaving her a long comment about what we do I decided to write a post about it!

When I was little I don't remember too many traditions. One of my favorites was driving around looking at lights. I'm an only child so Santa didn't wrap his presents. I would wake my parents up not too early like 6 ish and I would have to wait for them to put their robes on and brush their teeth before I could go look at my presents. The stocking stuffers were just candy, hot coco, undies, and these little figurines I collected. I would get to look at all my unwrapped gifts from Santa and we would go around taking turns opening gifts.

2011 was the first year we started traditions in our little family. It was our first Christmas in our house and Chase's first Christmas. Hubby's family gets new Christmas pjs on Christmas eve so we started doing that with Chase. In Hubby's family Santa wraps the presents in special Santa wrapping paper. So, we did that too.

We've never taken Chase to the mall Santa. My dad got a Santa suit in 2011 to surprise all the little boys at my aunt's house. It was so adorable. I think my nephew is getting to old for that and we suspected at 6 months old Chase knew it was his Papa and I really think he would know now. This year we did a mini session with a local photographer and a Santa. I loved it because Chase had time to warm up to Santa instead of the wait in line get plopped on his lap at the mall thing. I can't wait to see the pictures! This may be a new tradition for us.

This year we started Elf on the Shelf. Chase couldn't come up with a name for his elf. Hubby suggested Mickey and Chase didn't like that. I suggested Buddy and it seems to have stuck. I haven't gotten too creative with him yet. Chase some how has figured out how to get whatever toy Buddy is playing with back without touching Buddy. Kid is like a ninja! His cousin was over yesterday and picked Buddy up (they don't do Elf on the Shelf) and Chase fuhreaked out! He wouldn't touch him and he said, "Don't touch! Magic!" I love it!

This is a little fake prelit tree my parents got for me at some point growing up. It is now Chase's wittle tree which I'm totally fine with.

 

I think our first Christmas I bought a bunch of white lights at Hobby Lobby and Hubby made me return them. He is a colored lights guy. Now that I'm on a mission to take the perfect picture of Chase in front of the Christmas tree I realize how much prettier white lights are to photograph!

As a kid, we would go up the hill and cut down a tree from a tree farm and drink hot apple cider. I really want to start this tradition with Chase but those tree farm trees are expensive! Maybe when the twins are older. We get a real tree every year but just from Lowe's or a tree lot in town. This year we were at the photo shoot with Santa and didn't even help Hubby pick it out.

Outside we do colored basic lights. I don't like icicles or mismatched lights. We have a palm tree and Hubby has talked about wrapping the tree with lights. No.

Our stocking stuffers have been pretty basic like they were when I was a kid. Hubby one time put my bare essentials foundation in mine. That was my favorite so far!

My parents gave me an ornament every year and now we have them all for our tree. Hubby calls it a Meagan tree. I bought silver and red generic ornaments to make the tree pretty. We have a few ornaments as a family. Several baby's first Christmas or just married ornaments. My parents also bought an ornament every year when we were on vacation to put on the tree. I think we will try to add an ornament every year.

This amazing blessing has not come easy

   This is the last picture taken of me pregnant with Chase. I am two days past my due date. Earlier that day Hubby called me on his lunch break and I was crying hysterically. At 38 weeks I was dilated 1-2 cms and everyone thought Chase would come early. At 2 days past my due date I was done. I was convinced Chase was never going to get out of my belly.
   I've always regretted being miserable the last 2-3 weeks of my pregnancy with Chase. Any calls or texts or facebook messages asking "no baby yet?" pissed me off. I often wouldn't respond.
   I think our society has made it seem like we are supposed to be miserable at the end of our pregnancy. I think I've talked about it before that it seems like people expect us to be miserable our entire pregnancy but especially at the end. Oh you poor thing you must be miserable! When are you due? Etc. etc.
   Now looking back at this picture not only do I regret being grumpy I kind of want to laugh. I'm telling you I think I'm the same size or bigger now! I'm 27 weeks pregnant with twins and even though I am so excited to have twins I want to smack myself upside the head and tell myself how lucky I was.
   Yesterday, I was telling a twitter friend that I am getting to the point where making dinner is painful. My back and my hips really hurt. She asked if I had any of the same aches and pains when I was pregnant with Chase and I honestly don't think I did. I had a boring pregnancy with Chase. It was easy. I just got my hopes up at 38 weeks and I'm not a very patient person.
   I want to talk about the differences between having a singleton and having twins. I realize that singleton pregnancies have their complications. I know all of you at the end of your pregnancies probably want to punch me and say this is not easy! I am uncomfortable and huge. I'm just comparing my experiences.
   I've often said from the moment the ultrasound tech said there were two sacs I worried. You hear a lot of horror stories. I've always said I was naïve when pregnant with Chase. I didn't have an ultrasound until 13 weeks with him and just thought everything was fine and it was. I remember after I started feeling Chase kick thinking to myself I haven't felt him kick in awhile or doing kick counts. With a singleton you feel a kick you know who it is. I've got two in here to worry about now! I'm constantly trying to make sure I've felt both of them kick.
   I never thought for one second about pre term labor when I was pregnant with Chase. When they told me I was 1-2 cms at 38 weeks I hadn't felt one contraction. With twins I worry that every ache and pain is pre term labor.
   That hip pain I was talking about earlier? I know I have a high tolerance for pain. I was 6-7 cms when I got to the hospital. My hip feels like it is going to shatter. I know if it is bad enough to make me want to cry that it would have some women calling their doctor. I lay on my right side to give my left hip a break and then the whole time worry because you are supposed to lay on your left side.
   I'm a substitute teacher. With Chase I went on maternity leave at 38 weeks when I started having contractions. If my water broke while I was teaching I'm not sure what I would have done. At 21 weeks with the twins I was teaching one day and my legs were KILLING me. Again, I have a high tolerance for pain and I was in so much pain I wanted to cry. I tried putting my feet up which didn't really help. Plus it wouldn't look good if someone came in and the sub had their feet up so I made the decision to go on maternity leave. I saw no way for me to be able to be on my feet and come home and take care of Chase without being in excruciating pain.
   I'm not sure if I can explain it well enough for everyone to understand. It might be one of those things unless you experience it you can't understand. It is so important for us all to appreciate how lucky we are which I hope everyone thinks I do. To take a minute and to think about how someone else might be feeling. When I hear Britney Spears say she wants twins it just irks me. Again, they are the biggest blessing I have ever received but they don't come easy.

Plans for round 2

   The lovely, Shelley, helped inspire today's blog post so I must first give her a shout out.
   I've already talked about how I'm not decorating a nursery this time around. Like I mentioned in that post I'm waiting for big brother to be ready to move to a new room and bed. My plan now that I know we are having more boys is to keep the décor in the nursery pretty much the same and have a crib and things ready to go and make the big switch in one weekend.
   As most moms quickly figure out we can make a lot of plans but they rarely go the way we want them to. It's crazy how little I've talked about this pregnancy on the blog! So let's talk labor first. With twins baby A has to be head down for you to even talk about a natural delivery. If baby A is breech c section time. I read a few chapters of a twin book and my mantra this pregnancy I got from that book. It is turn worries into goals. So I don't have plans, I have goals. My goal is to delivery both babies naturally with an epidural of course. If baby A is head down and baby B is breech I could face a painful turning or delivery of a breech baby but I talked to another twin mom and I won't give you the lovely phrase they shared with me but she made it sound like no biggie.
   Since a twin pregnancy has a higher risk for preterm labor I also have the goal of making it to 37 weeks or beyond. Also have the goal of avoiding gestational diabetes which I am at a higher risk for and preeclampsia.
   Another goal is to nurse them both until they are 1. I nursed Chase for 15 months and while it had its challenges I am mostly a fan of how much money we saved. I've got the ginormous twin brest friend already. I plan to get a pump from the hospital, need to talk to insurance about how all that works. Oh and the hands free pump bra. I know that its best to nurse them at the same time so you aren't constantly nursing. I've looked in to positions. I don't know when you are supposed to pump, gotta ask my twin mom friends that one. Is it still just after the first morning feeding or is it more often? I also need to do research on getting my milk to come in faster. I'll be turning to my love Nancy Holtzman and Isis parenting and breast feeding webinars for those questions. Chase got dehydrated waiting for my milk to come in and he had to drink a bottle of formula. My friend that nurses her 6 month old twins had to supplement with formula at first in the hospital.
   I remember around 6 months when Chase started to crawl and notice things around him I had to start nursing him when he was sleepy and in his room in the dark. I know that might not be an option since I now have a toddler so nursing until one is a goal but we understand there are a lot more challenges this time around.
   Like I said in the nursery post, the plan is to have the twins in a pack and play in our room at first. I think I will just swaddle for bedtime. Chase was swaddled all the live long day it seemed like because we thought it made it easier for people to hold him or something. I am hoping I can be relaxed about the twins nap schedule and just let them sleep when they sleep and not stress like I did with Chase. They will probably sleep in our room longer than the 3 weeks Chase did because we are waiting for big brother to be ready to move.
   We plan to keep their names secret. We are pretty sure the names are set. We've let them slip to a lot more people this time around but we would like some people to be surprised when they arrive. I think some people want to be surprised too.
   Since we are having two more boys I don't think anyone is throwing us a shower. No one has said anything to me about it at least.
   I think that's everything. Let me know if you have any more questions. You guys know I'll tell ya anything you want to know!

23 weeks!

Twin gender reveal party details

Check out yesterday's blog if you want to see our reaction to finding out we were having two more boys. Today I'm posting pictures of the details. I have to say again that my cousin and her friend took care of all the details. They get all the credit. Seriously, every single detail was color coordinated. Pink symbolized is we were having two girls, blue for two boys, and yellow for one of each.

Here is my cousin's staircase banner decorated pink, blue, and yellow.

Guests were asked to sign a onesie with their guess.

Blankets were wrapped for each baby to reveal the sex.

Even the drinks and straws were color coordinated! Pink lemonade, lemonade, and blue koolaid and mason jars with yarns in a bow.

Adorable hand made pink, blue, and yellow wreath on the front door.

The invitation and color coordinated flowers

The candles were wrapped in pink, blue, and yellow chevron.

Gender Reveal

Ok, I don't want to bombard you with too many pictures so today I will share pictures of us finding out we were having two boys and then tomorrow I will post pictures with details of the party.

I guess I need to explain the reveal first. So, in my family, my aunt makes all the babies blankets. So my cousin decided for the reveal we would open gifts that had blue or pink blankets inside.

I should also mention that I've thought all along we were having two boys and kind of wanted to wear blue to the party but thought I would wear pink to make the pics better. I think my ig friends picked the shirt too.

Ok, here we go. Opening the gift that would reveal the sex of baby A.

Blue!

Opening the gift to reveal the sex of baby B.

Baby B's blanket is blue and green. All I saw was green and I was confused what that meant.

Oh, it's blue!!!

I'm having two more boys!!!

Proud parents with both blue blankets.

Big brother wasn't so sure about two more boys.

Until he heard he could have a cupcake then he was fine.

My cousin and her friend planned the whole party and took care of all details. I literally showed up so they get all credit!