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!

Passing out candy advice from an allergy mom

Chase is 2.5 years old and this was his first Halloween trick or treating. This was also the first year we knew about his allergy to peanuts. We talked about the rules for trick or treating before we left. You ring the doorbell once. You say trick or treat and thank you. You don't eat any candy. I brought the bendryl and epi pens with me.

Hubby went up to the door with Chase most of the time or he was with one of his aunts. We weren't too worried about what kind of candy he got because we didn't plan on giving him much, if any. Hubby said he mentioned that Chase was allergic to peanuts at one house when they asked what kind of candy Chase wanted. Let's be honest, Hubby and I love us some peanut candy and were totally ok with him getting it so we could eat it.

Most of the stuff Chase got was candy that we don't plan on giving him. There was a variety of suckers and non peanut items. I just don't like giving him sugar. He was so excited about a capri sun that he got at one house. We thought the capri sun was a good idea but it did make the buckets heavy. Besides candy he got fruit snacks, pretzels, and a cool mini coloring book and crayons.

As a mom of a 2.5 year old with peanut allergies I thought this was great. I'm guessing the high school kids probably wouldn't be excited about it. My cousin said some houses saw that Chase and his cousin were younger so they gave them fruit snacks instead of candy. So I guess you could get the little coloring book for younger kids and have candy for older kids.

There was a discussion on twitter today about kids asking for nut free candy. As a mom of a child with a peanut allergy I thought I could give my opinion on the topic. Personally, I don't think it is the job of the people passing out candy to provide nut free or gluten free choices. My plan as a passer outer is to usually get like the 150 pack at Costco and try to hand out the stuff I don't like first. I think as an allergy parent it is your job to educate your child on what they can and can't eat when they are old enough to go up to the door on their own. In the past, I would just grab a candy and put it in a kid's bag because letting them pick sometimes they take more than one or take forever to pick. Maybe now as an allergy parent I would let them pick.

I know a lot of allergy parents have candy or toys at home that their child can trade candy that they can't eat for. I also saw on twitter and heard on Ellen today about the switch witch. I just told Hubby about it and I think that's our plan for when Chase is old enough to care. Have you heard about the switch witch? Of course there is a cool poem on pinterest.

Isn't that a great idea? The kid trades their candy for a toy!

I hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween!

Chase's phrases at 2.5 years old

   It's been about 9 months since I did a Chase's words post. I honestly wouldn't be able to do a post with all the words he can say now. He is such a little parrot and can repeat just about anything. Which is super fun, most of the time.
   My in-laws were visiting this weekend and my mother-in-law and I were laughing about all of Chase's little sayings. Last night I was thinking I really need to write these down because even though I can't imagine forgetting the things he says to me 100 times a day the truth of the matter is I may forget.
   This summer Chase learned the phrase, "What are you doing?". Oh my goodness. He had to know what everyone was doing, even inanimate objects. It made our four hour car ride to Monterey super fun. Remember when you could put the kid in the car and they would fall asleep instantly? Yeah, not any more. This summer he asked us what we were doing every 2 seconds for four hours! If you were in the room with him he would ask you what you were doing. If you moved he asked you what you were doing.
   Shortly after he picked up the phrase, "I miss it!". He now misses a lot of things. His super ball? "I miss it!" This weekend he said, "I want my milk! I miss it!" So dramatic and stinkin' cute!
   Last week he saw his friend and said, "I haven't seen you all day!". Now he'll spend the day with me and still say, "Mama, I haven't seen you all day".
   His latest fun phrase is, "What happened?". So now he says, "What are you doing?" Then after you answer him he says, "What happened?". It was tough coming up with responses to what are you doing. Sometimes I was just sitting. Now I have to come up with what happened. Kid really makes you think!
   He has also picked up the lovely word stupid. Everyone warned me there would be a word he picked up that I would not enjoy hearing come out of his sweet face and yep it happened. I am trying to pretend I think he is saying super. I'm hoping maybe he will just start saying super instead. It is kind of funny but I don't laugh because I want it to go away! It's funny that it comes out when he is playing ball. If he misses the ball he'll say stupid. He even said, "Come on, stupid". To me one time. Oh, toddlers!
   He is pretty into football now. He knows Sunday is football day. He loves to watch football and often asks to watch baseball and the Dodgers. I had to tell him last night that the Dodgers won't be on until next spring! He is so funny when he is watching the games he repeats everything we say and lately has just been yelling, "Come on!" or "Yeah, baby!" at the tv randomly.
   We laugh every day at the things he says. I can't believe how he can have conversations with people now. Especially phone conversations. He used to just listen when people talked to him. He now answers their questions. I was talking to my mom the other day and told Chase to say hi Nana and she couldn't believe it was him he sounded so old. He's growing up so fast!
   I guess I should include some of the funny things he says to the babies. From the very beginning of my pregnancy he has said I love you to the baby (and babies when we found out there were two) and given kisses. He of course also uses his favorite phrases with the babies. "Babies, I haven't seen you all day!" "I miss you babies". One time he asked the babies if they helped Dada. We are working on him calling them by name. If I tell him one of their names he knows the other one. He knows where in my belly each one is and tells them he loves them and gives them kisses. I love that he already has such a strong bond with them.

I really need to get my sh*t together before I have twins!

   Do you want to hear about my morning? I got out of bed around 8:15 because Chase was crying. I brought him in bed with me and we snuggled for a little while. Then I had to check my facebook before I could get up.
   I rolled out of bed and put my robe on and got Chase dressed. We walked downstairs and I made my breakfast. Chase wasn't ready for breakfast yet. Then I sat down to watch Keeping up with the Kardashians while I ate my breakfast.
   This brought me to about 9:40. Chase had a flu shot appointment across town at 10:55 so I didn't have much time for anything but to get ready. By the time I got ready and threw a load of laundry in the washer it was time to go. This means I had no time to do the dishes.
   I got to the doctors and waited for them to call me to their desk so I could check in and she tells me to fill out a form and then she says, "I don't see Chase for today. His appointment is tomorrow." Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!
   I swear my husband said something about Chase has an appointment Monday. He gets the calls for some reason. I think he told me this when I was doing a million other things and distracted by the toddler and I said oh yeah I know. Last night I looked at my app to see what time the appointment was but didn't pay attention to the date. Even this morning my dad mentioned something about do we have something going on Tuesday because it was blocked off on my work calendar.
   I told Chase we were going to the doctor and he might get a lollipop and on the way out and all the way home he was asking about his lollipop. I'm so frustrated! I blame pregnancy brain. I was told it affects my ability to listen to my husband. I also blame the new ios7 calendar. I can't see sh*t on that thing.
   After having a very unproductive Kardashian filled morning I was already feeling like a lazy bum and then going to an appointment on the wrong day just pissed me off. My patience just flew out the window. Luckily Chase was tired and is now napping and I can try to get my patience back. The only thing that I kept thinking was oh my goodness I only have one child and I can't seem to get it together. I really need to get my sh*t together before I have twins!
   I have often fantasized about being a mom that gets up before her children. I tell myself I will be waking up earlier once the twins arrive. But I really think I need to start getting up a few minutes earlier so I can at least get ready for the day before Chase wakes up. The other day we saw some kids that live on our street heading to the park and Chase wanted to go with them. He had to wait for his lazy bum of a mom to get dressed first though. I don't want to be like that.
   Any one else want to join me in getting up 30 minutes earlier? Maybe we can hold each other accountable.