Two months.

Baby girls hit the two month mark today. Since they were four weeks premature their milestones will be measured by their due date, so they are one month adjusted. So we are looking forward to seeing smiles in the next little bit.

It is funny how totally opposite these two are. The only thing they have in common is their birthdate, haha.

Let's start with the oldest... Georgia, aka Georgie, George, Giant, Stinky

*She has been holding her head up pretty steady for the last few weeks. She started trying while we were still in the hospital.
*She is an awesome eater.
*She sleeps usually in 4-5 hour blocks.
*She is content being alone on the floor or in her swing.
*She enjoys tummy time... most of the time:)
*She loves her swing.
*She can self soothe and fall asleep.
*She is now in size one diapers.
*She is wearing newborn size clothes, but some 0-3 months outfits will fit.
*She weighs 9 pounds 8 ounces as of Monday.

Elizabeth, aka Izzy, Iz, Liz the lizard (her arms and legs are splotchy and look like scales, so Ben made that one up... and only he calls her that), Lizzy Lou (Again, only Ben) puke monster ... and some call her Lizzy, which I hate and am totally against, but what can I do?

*She has been eating a lot better the last week. Before that, not so well.
*She sleeps all day, and is up a lot at night.
*She thinks if she is awake she better be held.
*She hates being left alone on the floor.
*She loves music.
*She tries to hold up her head, but fails. She is still pretty floppy:)
*She has to have her binkie to fall asleep at night.
*She pukes A LOT. And by puke I mean projectile vomits. She has GERD and is on Prevacid. A few weeks ago we had to have an ultrasound on her stomach because they thought it might have been pyloric stenosis. Luckily not because that would have meant surgery, and she should eventually grow out of the GERD.
*She is my runt and is still in newborn diapers.
*She wears newborn clothes.
*She weighs 8 pounds 2 ounces as of Monday.

See? Complete opposites. They told us in the NICU at their gestational age they had a 50/50 chance of behaving like a full term/preemie baby, so Georgia is more like a full term, and Elizabeth is more like a preemie. But a few things are the same, they both LOVE their binkies (thank goodness! Neither Abby or Jack would take one), though they both fall asleep at different times at night they both wake up at 4 and 8 to eat, they both like their baths, they both sleep in their own bassinetts, and they both love being swaddled.

Love these girls!

First day of school.

Little miss had her first day of school on Monday. I don't know who was more excited, me or her. She and Jack have been fighting non-stop for weeks.

So she picked out her outfit the night before, got up early, got ready faster than I have ever seen... and waited :) She was ready pretty early.



Where is time going?? She is six and in first grade!! I felt old when I thought about having four kids, but this makes me feel even older!

I snuck in Sunday night and snapped this picture. She has the whole week's clothes folded and shoes to go with them under the pile.

She was so funny. She knew which shirt she was going to wear, but was weighing the pros and cons of her bottoms and shoes. So she layed out two pairs of pants on the floor and put the shirt between them and once she decided the shoes she wanted moved them back and forth between the pants trying to decide which one. Hilarious. Seriously took her at least 30 minutes. She finally decided on her "favorite Old Navy skinny jeans."

Love her. Every detail was planned, she knew how she wanted her hair, and even made sure she was wearing a watch and her CTR ring.

She LOVES Hello Kitty. Last year she had a Paul Frank pink backpack and that thing was always dirty, she had just planned on using that again but I didn't want to deal with it again. So I surprised her with this and she was so excited!

Her teacher is in our ward, so Abby thought it was cool the teacher already knew her name. She said her favorite part of the day was getting three recesses. Nice. She also was excited because they were coloring and she wrote "grasshopper" by herself and only missed one "p", and told the teacher 6+6=12, and she said the teacher thought it was really cool she already knew that. So last night she wrote out a whole page of math problems and answers to show her teacher. And to think, she was so mad this summer when I made her practice math. Little stinker.

De-stashing for a good cause

Three posts in three days? I am on some kind of roll! haha

I recently went through my fabric and realized, "Holy crap! I have A LOT of fabric!!" (perhaps I have a slight obsession) ... And it may have been pointed out to me by a few people:) So when I decided to start making school clothes I just went into my craft/Jack's room (poor kid) and started digging. Here is what I have come up with in the few times I have had the good fortune to be behind my machine again!



This one was pre-twins being born. At the end I wasn't sewing a lot- or at all- but I saw a cute skirt and decided to try my hand at it. Now I need to make her a cream shirt because she doesn't have anything that matches with it!




I usually steer clear of directional prints (aka fabric like the birds that has to be cut and sewn only in that direction or it will look funky) but I got these two fabrics for 75% off, which made them around $2 a yard. Can't beat that! And... they sat on my shelf for a year or two. But now I am glad I am a hoarder and finally cut into them!

I have another slight obsession. Collecting patterns when they are on sale at Joanns. Collecting, not doing anything with them other than looking at the covers. Probably because last time I attempted one I failed. So i got brave and tried this one, and LOVE it on her! The picture doesn't do it justice. I almost started another one right after she tried it on because I loved it that much... but maybe later, I am tackling another Mccalls pattern for now!

This was another one I got for 75% off! As I was cutting the pattern out I was so not loving my fabric choice, but as I slowly got it put together I knew it was perfect! I imagine it with brown cords in the fall. I will have to find a pants pattern:)

Speaking of cord... I have a kids pattern book that the model was wearing a simple corduroy (I can't spell... or can I? I don't know, ha!) skirt and the next week I saw this cute zebra print and scooped some up. And again, it sat on my shelf for forever.

I am on a new kick, I absoloutely love piping!! I want it on all the clothes I make and I usually try to see if I can make it fit in nicely with the pattern. Probably another obsession... I have a drawer full of it! See, I just looked back at the top and decided next time I will put some piping where the bodice meets the bottom panel, and I could have put some on the hem of the bird skirt.

Trust me, Abby DOES NOT need any more clothes:) But I have missed sewing so much and been itching to get started again. Sadly, none of my patterns fit the twins yet since they are still both around 8 pounds. I even sized down my smallest pattern and it was too big! So... someday:) And I have a pattern for myself to try soon... but... I know Abby will look good in what I make her, me? Who knows!

Seriously?

So I took all four kids to the Walmart for the first time today. For the first time ever, no one stopped me or said anything about the twins. Well, take that back, one little girl tried to stop my cart while I was walking past by hanging on to it. Her mom wasn't paying any attention to her and I nearly ran over her toes because she came out of no where.

... I am going to get a little side tracked here, but it will tie in later... I walked to Walmart two days ago with the girls in the double jogging stroller. It was only 100 (only, haha.) and I only needed a few things, so I thought I could get in and out real quick. Wrong. I had a polygamous lady follow me through part of the store until I stopped to get diapers then she told me about how a bunch of her sisters had twins. I know she followed me because I had to stop and pick Izzy up and I saw her watching me and she was headed the other way, then all of a sudden she ended up in the diaper section, she didn't get anything, had to be over sixty and had a teenage boy with her. Not a problem though, I just thought it was funny, and she was super nice. Then I was over getting butter when an old man stops me and tells me about his 8 month old granddaughter and how her father passed away soon after she was born, and his daughter also has a four year old... all while breaking down into tears... what do I say to him?? I was stopped two more times on the way to the check out. Then I am trying to power walk out past the greeter who tried to stop me on the way in to look at them. She chases me down, and when she wasn't quite fast enough she yelled for me to stop. I had put Iz back in the stroller and when I stopped she lost it. The lady tried to tell me they needed a pacifier, no she didn't- trust me, I already tried that!! Then she said they were cold. Nope, but thanks again. So I just told her I walked there and needed to get back before dark... so bye... And I ended up carrying her the entire way home, which is a 15 minute walk.

Anyways, back to my original story. I had a very uneventful trip for the first time ever. It was great, I was thinking, "This wasn't so bad, why have I been putting it off?" Well I got up to the checkout stand and it all went downhill from there. My debit card was expired and my credit card was still in the stroller. Grrr. So she suspends my order and I hurry out to the car to get my checkbook. I wait in line again and write a check. She asks for id. Ugh! Well, it is also in the stroller, I took it just incase I needed it. You just never know when they will ask! So I have to go home and get some money. Poor Jack was so tired he just said over and over "but my legs are so tired" So I went home, got back and was finally able to pay. And Jack fell asleep on the drive home. Told ya he was tired;) So moral of the story? Check my wallet before I leave the house!!

My biggest helper.

Bet you thought I meant Abby. Nope!! My biggest helper is... Jack!! (She tends to whine when I ask her to get me a diaper or binkie, though she has helped me feed them once or twice) He has been so awesome helping me with the girls. If he hears one of them crying he will make sure he finds a binkie and "plug her in". He loves to hold them and give them kisses, play hide and seek, and just stare at them:)




He begs me to hold them;)

He makes sure they have toys to play with...

... No matter how many times I explain they can't play with them yet...

He will get their binkies and plug them in until they stop crying... and take them back out, and put them back in until they stop crying, and take it out, and well... you get the picture:)


George and Izzy are lucky to have such an awesome big brother!

Had to see this one coming;)

Of course I had to take pictures of the babies!! Ben's cousin Mandee came over one day and I let her have free reign to do ANYTHING she wanted (picture wise, of course;)... I have seen some of them and love them! (and when I get copies of them I will post some of them too!) But I had been dreaming of this for months now, too bad I didn't realize I wouldn't have the time or energy to do what I wanted... So I did take some, but I still have some poses I want to try... and they are still pretty sleepy, so I may be able to pull them off even though they are a bit older. So, here are some of my favorites I took so far:



Elizabeth

I love how they are complete opposites in every way! Personality and looks. ( I will make a post about their opposite personalities later )

Again, Elizabeth.

Weird! I have a strawberry blonde haired child! Even Izzy has a red tint to her hair!

Pretty sure this is my favorite ever. This is the only pose I shot the day Mandee was over, so the credit of the set up goes to her! I meant to take more that day, but she seemed to have it under control;)

The girls absolutely love to be touching. Makes sense, they were touching/kicking/punching eachother for nearly nine months, haha. But really, if one is getting upset and I set the other by her, she will calm down almost immediately! And they always roll their heads/bodies towards eachother when they are laying near eachother. I LOVE it!

Our journey.

**Warning, this post will be VERY long... if you get bored easily, don't read;) but I have a lot to catch up on, twins and a week in the nicu will do that to anyone;) **


Please excuse my dirty kitchen, but I had planned to clean it in the morning, and well, I woke up with contractions that were intense and close together... so yeah, that didn't happen.

So I made it to 35 weeks and 4 days. Not bad for twins! Like I said, I woke up Saturday with pretty bad contractions, so I clicked my trusty contraction timer app like I had every day for the previous two weeks and decided to track them just for kicks and giggles. Nothing was going to happen, right? I mean, literally everyday for the last two weeks I had felt them like this and even so much that I had gone into l&d once and contemplated going in another time. But they just got closer and longer. My app started it's alarm "call your doctor, go to the hospital" So I went into the front room and told Ben to get the kids ready and call your mom, it was time to go in.

He waited for his mom out front and I went in, pausing every two minutes to wait out a contraction. I got to the desk and told them how bad they were and they said they would get a room together. Six contractions later I was still at the desk... so like 15 minutes... A doctor walked up and said, "get this poor lady a room! Can't you see she is in pain??" Still no room. He was a funny guy. He stayed and joked with me until I got in a room a few contractions later.

They got me in a room and monitored for less than an hour, they couldn't reach my doctor so they asked the on call doc and she said to admit me. So I changed room and soon after the contractions slowed, but I was a four already. I was able to get an epidural soon after, thank goodness:) I was in the hospital begining at two and didn't progress very quickly. I had one of my waters broke around seven, because my dr was in a movie and told them to wait until he was done. Thanks, doc... my nurse was funny, she told me I needed to ask to push my button to get more epidural medicine, after about the fourth time of asking she let me push whenever I wanted. I made it to a six about 10:30 and was starting to feel the epi wear off. (With Abby the epi only worked half way so I know what that felt like, and there was NO WAY I was pushing out two with a half strength epidural!!) So they called the anesthesiologist and had him fix whatever was wrong. Well, that did it. I went from a six to a ten in about three minutes.

I had to be in the OR just incase I needed an emergency c-section (but I didn't, HOORAY!!). It was a weird feeling in there, so cold and sterile. The doctor showed up and asked if we were waiting on anyone, well we had let the mothers know as soon as we found out and Sherry got there just in time. (my mom made it for the second one) . Little Georgia made her debut with two pushes at 11:15 pm, weighing 6 pounds 4 ounces, and Elizabeth came a little later, with five pushes at 11:22 pm weighing 6 pounds 6 ounces. Georgia had been baby b the entire time, but at my appointment two days earlier had started to push her sister out of the way.

They put Georgia on my chest when she was born, and then whisked her through the window to get her checked out. Izzy was placed on my stomach, and she wasn't breathing. They were rubbing her chest and everything became a blur. I had heard Georgia cry, but not Izzy, I was a little nervous, but I didn't have time to think about it.

I had developed a high fever during labor and they think that is why my contractions were so close in the begining and then died off after I was admitted. Luckily I went in or it could have done something to my babies. This is one of the reasons they both landed in the NICU. Well, Elizabeth would have anyways, but that is why Georgia needed to go there.

I wasn't able to see the girls until the epidural wore off and I could get into a wheelchair, so I decided to get a little sleep, it had been a long day! The first two pictures are how I saw the girls for the first time (minus Ben, he had gone home by the time I saw them). Little Elizabeth was hooked up to cpap. I almost cried the first time I saw her little squished face and her breathing so fast. She also had a feeding tube in her mouth and an iv in her hand.

Georgia had an iv in her hand, and a horribly bruised opposite hand. Later Ben told me how the nurse trying to do the iv must have been new or bad at her job because they poked her so many times and finally let someone else try and she got it done the first try.

This was our life for a while. They both started in isolettes, and Ben would stop by every night after work. My amazing mother-in-law kept the kids the entire time I was in the hospital. I was discharged on Monday. My poor doctor, I had a break down when he told me. He kept saying, "don't cry, please don't cry." Hello! You are telling me I have to leave my babies. So I called Ben and tried to tell him what was going on, but he told me later he couldn't understand anything I was saying:) Well, I went down to the NICU and they told me they let breastfeeding moms "board". Which meant I got a room, free of charge, so long as they didn't need the room. Later I was moved into the NICU boarding room, turns out it only had a flippin fold out couch... Wish I would have just stayed upstairs in the uncomfortable bed, at least I didn't have springs poking me.

This was another part of our daily life. These boards showed us their progress, what their goals were, and who was looking after them daily.

I really should have written down days, but I think she went off cpap on the second or third day. So here she was down to high flow (the tube in her nose) and still a feeding tube. She never had to be on oxygen, but she needed the pressure of the air going in to help her lungs function.

They want you to do as much skin-to-skin time as you can. It was amazing to watch Izzy's monitors when Ben would hold her. Her breathing rate was always much higher than they wanted it to be, but when he would hold her the breathing rate would drop dramatically.

Poor little Georgie, since they had destroyed one of her hands and her iv went bad in her other hand, she had to have an iv put in her scalp. She was able to breastfeed pretty much from the begining, but they put... something... in her iv to help her urine output until my milk came in.

They both went under the billi lights on Thursday. Their levels were both elevated, but in the consider lights category. But had they not put Georgia under she would have been discharged Thursday and I would have had to leave Izzy sooner. Georgia was discharged Friday, and while it was so hard to leave her, it was almost a relief to be out of there. Abby and Jack (well, mostly Abby, Jack still didn't want to come home) needed to be back to normal.

Leaving Elizabeth behind at the hospital was the hardest thing I ever had to do. I bawled the entire way home. I then had to try and split my time between home and the hospital. I would go in once during the day and then after Abby and Jack went to bed. Luckily it was the weekend so Ben was home and I was able to do that.

This was on Friday, about an hour after Georgia was discharged. I didn't find out until I went back late that night that they had taken her off high flow!!! She had problems at times when they would try and wean her so it took longer than they thought to get her off of it. Then she just "needed" a feeding tube. I had a few AMAZING nurses, but the some not so great ones. I know she had a difficult time when she finally started eating, she needed to be burped multiple times a feeding and be encouraged to eat. My amazing nurse took out the feeding tube, but then she took two days off (how dare she;) and the feeding tube was put back in. Then she was back and I told her my frustrations, how I knew she would eat if they would just try! So she talked to the doctor and told the nurse the plan, feed, feed, feed, just make her eat! Work with her and do whatever it took to make her eat. Well, the night nurse fed her at seven and said it took her an hour, then I was in at ten and it had been 45 minutes so she went and talked to the nurse practitioner. Izzy's nurse wanted to put the tube back in! Luckily, the NP said no!!! Every time they put the tube in she would be kept there another 24-48 hours.

So that was Monday. I went in to rounds on Tuesday planning to ask when I could maybe expect her to come home. (I was told saturday/sunday... well that came and went and of course I bawled...) so the giant group of doctors, nurses, dieticians, etc. came in the room and went over her progress. Then the NP looked at my nurse and said, "Well, what is keeping her?" and I had my amaing nurse again, she said with a smile "Nothing". So I was thinking, hooray! Maybe tomorrow! Then the NP said, "Well, let's get her outta here!" I cried.

This is when we got home. It was so cute, Georgia was fussing and I put Elizabeth in with her and she immediately calmed down. I think they missed each other;)

When Georgia was discharged she weighed 5lbs10oz.

Izzy was discharged at 5lbs12oz.

I hope none of you ever have to go through the NICU experience, but just know if you do they are AMAZING. That is the only way I could handle leaving Elizabeth, knowing that she (for the most part;) had nurses that loved on her and kept her best interests in mind. I am so thankful to have them both home and healthy!!

My mother-in-law was so awesome and not only kept my kids, but she and my sister-in-law came and cleaned my entire house and did all our laundry while I was in the hospital. I don't know what I would have done without her... probably gone off the deep end being I would have had to leave the babies in the hospital the entire time by themselves. Georgia was in for 7 days and Izzy was in for 10 days.

Twin pregnancy was absolute hell. I tried so hard not to complain, (in fact, my doctor said that is how he knew I was done, I told him the appt before I had them how hard it was getting) but now that it is over, well... I had to start in maternity clothes at eight weeks, by thirty weeks NOTHING fit anymore. I literally had to have a nap EVERY afternoon, or I couldn't function. I had arthritis for the second and third trimester and couldn't bend my fingers without them hurting. Regular contractions since 29 weeks. The fear of something happening to one or both of them, and worrying everytime I thought one of them hadn't moved that day (their arms and feet were all in the middle so it was hard to tell them apart). I have had so many people tell me how much they want twins because they are so cute. I love my girls, and would have another set, so long as I didn't have to be pregnant with them!!

Wow, did anyone make it through all that? ;) Time to go love on my girls...