Justin and Julie; Jacob, Joel and Jeremy

11 months

2012-01-25T10:51:00.003-06:00

Our little guys are getting to be so big!

Boy, do these boys need haircuts

Joel

Jeremy

But Jeremy definitely still has the weight advantage between the two. I'm not sure of their weights since they didn't have check-ups this month. Jeremy did have to go to the doctor twice in the past month - once for a bug bite that turned into staph infection and another time for a scratch on his eye ball - and he weighed in at 19 pounds, 13 ounces both times (they were only a week apart). Jacob was a pound less than that at 1 year old, so Jeremy is definitely our heavyweight boy even though he is smaller than most babies his age.

Over the past month, Jeremy has started waking up almost every night. It isn't fun. I think it is the worst when a baby goes from consistently sleeping through the night to waking up so much. And most mornings one of the babies wakes up by 6am. It makes for sleepy parents.

Joel just got his fourth tooth! And Jeremy finally got his first! Jeremy got his first tooth right about 2 weeks ago, and although his gum looks swollen - no sign of the second which usually accompanies the first.

Joel has started clapping his hands and Jeremy seems intrigued when he sees someone clapping their hands.

Joel acts like he wants to stand on his own and has even balanced for a second or two. He also is a lot better about pushing a little walker around. Jeremy seems to have a little trouble with the walkers - he leans against them and they move, but his feet don't move so he falls.

The babies love to play peek-a-boo at the door to the half-bath. Jeremy mastered it first by pulling the door open and closed whenever someone went in. Unless they latched the door closed when they went in, then he just laid on the floor and cried that he couldn't play with the person trying to use the potty. Joel had to practice a little more - he kept accidently pushing the door all the way closed (causing Jeremy to lay on the floor and cry) or push the door all the way open so it wasn't right there to pull closed. He got the hang of it though.

Joel is so excited to have found someone in the bathroom

Jeremy realized it was peek-a-boo time

Jeremy says "Open the door more so I can see"

Joel came into the bathroom so they can play peek-a-boo with each other

Joel is a little more willing to try finger foods, but neither baby are big fans. But boy do they love their baby snacks. They eat waffles and pancakes and sometimes muffins, but most of the time I find tons of food on Jeremy's bib after he is done eating so who knows how much he is actually eating.

Jeremy with a stash of food on his bib

Joel loves waffles

First time playing on the brown grass outside

Making some lunch

These two boys certainly are characters. Joel will scream if something isn't going exactly his way. So, let me tell you how fun that is. Jeremy is more of a whiner if he isn't getting his way. We love our little boys (who won't be babies for much longer)!

Jeremy's pretty excited to have his picture taken

Joel's not so sure about having his picture taken

Giving birth to twins

2012-01-19T21:46:00.000-06:00

So - I wrote that the twins were born back almost a year ago, but I want to remember more than just that my water broke and the twins were born the next day. If you aren't interested, don't read. :)

First I have to say that I am jealous. I have seen pictures of people, after giving birth, holding their new bundle of joy looking beautiful and radiant. I personally know ladies who this describes. I do not fit in this category. When Jacob was born I had just spent the past 9 days in a row laying in bed at the hospital with the energy seeping out of my body. In fact, someone even commented to my mom after seeing pictures of me holding Jacob (fresh from the womb) that I didn't look very good. Being on bed rest is exhausting, if you didn't know. Being exhausted makes it difficult to look good.

So when the twins were born and I had been on light bed rest for 4 weeks, I was not looking good. In fact - the last belly picture that was taken a week before the twins were born is a great representation of me looking terrible at the end of the pregnancy. And even though there are no pictures of me the day before they were born or the day they were born, I know I looked terrible.

I had a doctor's appointment on Monday, February 21st and going to the doctor completely wiped me out (going somewhere and then being completely wiped out the next day was not uncommon during the pregnancy). So the next day I could hardly function. I slept on the couch on and off all day long. Jacob would bring me books and I would force my eyes open to read them to him. And even though I was out of consciousness off and on all day, it wasn't restful. So I was completely exhausted when I headed upstairs for bed that night. And then while getting ready for bed, my water broke.

This was a lot different than when my water broke with Jacob. With Jacob I kept trickling amniotic fluid, with the twins I kept experiencing gushes of water. I hoped that this meant they would take the babies when I got to the hospital, but no such luck. Instead I was put into a bed and monitors were strapped on and basically told we would see how things went through the night and I would have the babies the next day. The nurse even told me to try to sleep.

Ok. Are you kidding me? Even laying in bed, I kept leaking amniotic fluid so I was laying in a pool of yuck. And every time I asked the nurse if I could have a towel or dry bedding she told me it was pointless because I would keep leaking fluid and that it couldn't be too bad. Not only that, but she had me in the bed like normal - on my back with it slightly inclined and the monitors strapped to me. After an hour or so my lower back started really hurting. At first I could feel little contractions starting, but the longer I lay in that position the more my back hurt. I asked if I could lay on my side instead and was told no because of the monitors. I asked if I could sit up a little more to take the pressure off my lower back and was told no.

After a few hours I finally asked to go to the bathroom, not because I needed to, but I needed to get out of the position she had me in. I could tell she was a little annoyed because me getting up and moving around meant the monitors would need to be adjusted when I came back. And when she helped me up she was shocked at the amount of fluid I was laying in bed with. "Yeah - that's why I have been asking you to change my bedding or give me a towel lady." When I came back to bed I asked to lay on my side instead and was again told no. But she did change the sheet on the bed and got me a towel out of the cupboard. But she told me it was the only clean towel on the floor and I could see she had pulled it from a stack of towels.

The nurse would come into my room throughout the night and ask how my contractions were. But the pain in my back was getting so intense that I could no longer feel any contractions. Instead I could only feel this intense pain in my back. And so I told her that my back hurt too badly to be able to feel contractions. No response from her. It seriously got so bad that I was almost crying from pain. And unlike contractions, the pain did not come and go - it was constant, intense pain.

When I first got to the hospital I liked my nurse, but as the night wore on and my pain was getting intense she was really starting to bug me. Luckily once we hit 6am I got another nurse and she was awesome!!! She kept helping me move into different positions so I wouldn't get too uncomfortable and to also move my labor along (seriously - positions I never would have thought to get myself into, as strange as that sounds). It also helped that around 8am I got my epidural.

Just before getting the epidural we made the decision that we would try to not have a C-section. This was a big decision because the last thing I wanted was to give birth to Baby A (who ended up being Joel) and then have to have an emergency C-section to get Baby B out (Jeremy). We almost just went with a C-section overall. With the epidural and a pitocin drip, I was sure I would have a mega fast labor like I did with Jacob. You know 40 minutes from first contraction until they were saying I was ready and they started prepping the room (which by the way took them 40 minutes).

Sadly, it was not that fast. But finally about around 12:30pm I was dilated to 10 and ready to go. Here is where things get a lot different having twins. Justin and I were taken into the operating room - even though we had decided to try not to have a C-section you still give birth to twins in an operating room in case an emergency C-section is needed.

Not only was I to give birth in the OR, but we had quite a group in there. I seem to remember when Jacob was born we had a doctor and 2 nurses in the room. However for twins we had 2 doctors, 4 nurses, an ultrasound tech and an anesthesiologist. The U/S tech was keeping an eye on Jeremy while Joel was being born to make sure he wasn't going into distress.

After Joel was born everything happened so fast - they had Justin lean forward and cut Joel's cord. Then I remember them commenting on how Jeremy's water never broke - it was only Joel's. Wow - that was A LOT of fluid to only be for one baby. Then I could feel my doctor reach in and grab Jeremy's feet. In the meantime a nurse was pushing on my belly with all her weight. Whatever was going on - they were getting Jeremy out fast. They pulled him out and called the time - only 3 minutes after Joel was born. Justin leaned forward to cut the cord, but they had already cut it and taken him over to the isolette.

I remember them saying something about getting my bleeding under control. And then I remember everyone pretty much congratulating everyone - me for having the babies, Justin for being the dad, the doctors for delivering vaginally. It was crazy. Only at this point did everyone start making a big deal about the fact that there was no C-section. When we were trying to decide, the doctors and nurses acted like vaginally birthing twins was no big deal. Afterward we heard things like, "I think you are the first to give birth to twins in this hospital without a C-section." I have to admit - this probably would have swayed my decision. We were not trying to make history here.

I have to admit, if I had it to do over again, I'm not sure if I would do things the same - or just go for the C-section to start with. First of all, I was told once we were out of the OR that I had a 4th degree episiotomy. I didn't know then what that really meant - but I tell you it was horrible. One of the nurses described it as a mini-C-section. I was sore walking after Jacob was born - after the twins I was in so much pain I would cry. And it took about 6 months to fully heal.

And months after the babies were born we got a bill in the mail and on it was a charge for newborn resuscitation for Jeremy. After making some calls I learned that Jeremy had to be have an oxygen mask put on him for about 30 seconds to get him to breathe after he was born. We're assuming that the rush to get him out was because they saw on the ultrasound that he was in distress and they didn't want to alarm us because it seemed like in the end he was ok. I have wondered if things would have been different if we had gone with the C-section to start with.

Just in case anyone was wondering what it was really like when the twins were born, but really this is just for my own memories.

Jacob goes to school

2012-01-18T10:55:00.001-06:00

First Day of school with backpack and school supplies

As I expected, the first few days of school were super rough for our little Jacob. He really didn't understand what was going on the first day at all, but quickly caught on that I was sending him off when the bus pulled up in front of our house.

Luckily, the crying and resisting only lasted for 3 days. Now for the past week, he runs out to the bus. What a relief! Sadly I don't really know how he is handling it while he is there, but he is excited to go and that makes us happy.

Eagerly waiting for the bus last Friday

The other things that makes me super happy is that for 4 hours a day: I don't have to worry about him hurting his brothers (which he does anytime they get too close to him). And I don't have to worry about him getting upset and banging his head (ok, actually I do still worry about it, but at least I'm not the one trying to deal with it).

He runs right to the bus helper

And she carries him up the stairs which are a little tall for short little legs

And after only 2 weeks he is talking lots more. Sadly, what he says is pretty much incoherent so we aren't understanding more but we hope that changes soon.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-17T22:29:00.000-06:00

Christmas for us actually started over Thanksgiving weekend. We spent Thanksgiving with my family and celebrated Christmas the next day. We were given tons of great stuff and someone went above and beyond by giving us the most awesome stroller that I have been wanting. I don't have a picture with the extra toddler seat attached to it, but it is truly the most awesome triple stroller ever and I'm not sure when we ever would have been able to buy it for ourselves.

We had planned to take the kids to see Santa at the mall, but after the fiasco of taking them to see Santa at our church Christmas party we decided not to bother with the mall.

Jacob terrified of Santa

The twins not so happy (can't tell in the picture, but Jeremy is crying)

See me pushing Jacob into the picture?

I took a picture of the new ornaments for our tree this year. Well - looks like I missed mine and Justin's, but I got each of the boys' as well as Jacob's first Christmas ornament. Since Jacob wasn't supposed to be here for Christmas 2008 we never had a chance to get him a special ornament for that year. The ones I got for the twins this year could have any year put on them and not just the current year so all the boys have the same ornament as their first ornament now.

Jacob was so excited when he saw this Elmo ornament

Christmas Eve was spent at Justin's grandparents' house. We got the boys all ready for bed up there so that they would just fall asleep on the way home and we carried them in and put them in bed. Luckily they slept all night long (we had our doubts it would work). Then "Santa" got to work. We asked him to keep things low key and we're glad he listened.

Everything all ready for Christmas morning

Santa brought Jacob a Thomas set

The twins got a joint gift from Santa since they are little and he could get away with it

Not going to lie. Christmas morning was not that fun here.

We knew that the babies wouldn't have a clue what was going on, but had hoped that Jacob would. We had been counting down with our advent calendar and telling him about how Santa was coming, but he really just doesn't understand a lot of things.

Jacob loved to see what Santa brought him, but he couldn't stand the babies trying to touch it.

And the babies didn't care about what Santa brought them - they just wanted to play with Jacob's Thomas train set.

And none of the kids cared about their stockings or any other presents. It was hard to juggle doing Christmas with feeding all the kids since none of them wanted to eat at the same time.

Jacob did love the play kitchen that Gramma Jan and Grampa Mark got for the boys

Other random pictures of the babies from the morning

10 month old twins!!!

2012-01-16T21:00:00.000-06:00

2 uncooperative 10 month olds

Joel at 10 months

Jeremy at 10 months (and this kid would not stay still!!)

We have seen some drastic improvement in the spit-up!!! It hasn't stopped, but it has decreased. By a lot. In fact, I have noticed that most days we only have a little spit-up from each baby - probably the amount that most people are used to when they hear of a baby "spitting up". So glad that it seems like we are past the days of massive spit-up and sometimes projectile vomiting. It has only taken 10 months so far.

Joel has had one of his top teeth playing peek-a-boo with us - with his 2 bottom teeth this makes 3. He fell and smacked his face on the coffee table, his gum started bleeding and when it stopped we saw that his little tooth had broken through - probably due to the fall. However a couple days later I noticed the tooth was gone. Then it showed up again, then disappeared again. Right now it is just barely through the gum. I can also see about 3 other places on his gums where they are swollen and look like a tooth will pop up at any time. Which means that we still have months of agony ahead of us. Why do teeth torture my kids? It was this way with Jacob for ALL of his teeth and this seems to be the way it will be for these 2 boys as well.

Joel's two little teeth

Jeremy still has no teeth.

Both babies act like they are getting tired of baby food, but when I have tried to give them fresh banana neither liked it (although they would eat the baby food banana). I also tried to give them apple in those little mesh feeders and they both refused to eat it (even though they eat applesauce). I am dreaming of a day when I can just put food on their tray and let them feed themselves for the most part instead of me having to feed them - let me tell you, with twins that can not come soon enough.

Joel and Jeremy are starting to interact with each other more, and love to laugh together. Either that or cry together. As it seems, both misery and happiness love company. Jacob still does not like to play with them, or interact with them, or touch them, or have them touch him, or have them get too close to him or something he is playing with. Hoping that changes soon - 10 months of it has been way too much.

First time swinging outside

Not sure what to think about it

Poor sick babies - I have a similar picture of Jacob around the same age when he was sick

Our new twin stroller (before we got the Joey toddler seat attachment)

And if you can't tell from the pictures - Jeremy REALLY needs a haircut. But I don't like my babies to look like little boys until they are 1 year old and we still have a couple months to go.

Jacob is 3!!!

2011-12-29T10:30:00.000-06:00

Has it really been 3 years since we met this little guy?

Jacob at 1 month old

3 years old - oh yeah, still rocking the pictures with the elephant

The day before Jacob's birthday was when we found out that he was being admitted into the preschool program. That was the best birthday present, even though we are pretty sure Jacob has no idea what we are saying when we tell him that he will be starting school.

I started telling Jacob a couple weeks before his birthday that his birthday was coming up. I wasn't sure if he had any idea what I was saying to him. But even though I wasn't sure if he understood what day it was, I wanted to make it special for him.

Lately he has really liked seeing things with Elmo on them, so when I saw some Elmo cupcakes on Pinterest I knew that I would be making them for him. I have to say that I was pretty impressed with myself - I think they actually turned out super cute and not just a poor attempt to copy someone else.

I threw in some Cookie Monster cupcakes too that I saw the same person had done

Elmo close-up

I bought a couple packages of balloons so that I could blow them up and put them all over the floor in his room after he had gone to bed the night before. I also bought some streamers that I cut strips about the length of his door and taped them to the top of the door frame so he would walk through them as he came out of his room. I actually saw on Pinterest where you tape the streamers across the door and they "break" out of room but we thought that Jacob may be confused by that.

Playing with the balloons after we brought them downstairs

Gathering his balloons all in one place

I think he did understand that his birthday was a special day, which would be why he woke up EXTRA early and went downstairs. I was hoping to see him come out of his room that morning, but when I woke at 5:15am he was laying on the bottom stair, looking at his Elmo "Happy Birthday" banner and laughing.

A game he started playing later that day of throw the balloons over the banner

We had some friends over in the afternoon to enjoy cupcakes with us, but although Jacob liked to see his cupcakes and wanted, not only an Elmo cupcake, but a Cookie Monster one as well - he didn't eat either and only played with them a little. I knew that our oldest child doesn't like frosting, but had thought the Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes could get him to at least try it. No dice.

Investigating this Elmo cupcake

We waited to open presents until Daddy got home from work, which was super late for a 3 year who had woken up before 5:15am and hadn't taken a nap. He got some Mater pajamas, an alphabet puzzle and a bowling set from Mommy and Daddy and seemed to like them all.

Actually doing some of the work to open presents

Mater Pajamas

Alphabet puzzle

Bowling Set

Must break open the bowling set NOW!!

Actually, it isn't enough to just open it he must also use it

We also gave him another cupcake with a candle and although he understands the concept of blowing out a candle, all he wanted to do with his candle is touch it, which means he had a little burnt finger.

Notice the bowling pin had to come to the table as well

Needed Daddy to help blow out the candle

Showing Grandma Mac his little burnt finger

Reading a birthday card while bowling

At 3 years old Jacob can:

Count to 10 and recognize the numbers when he sees them

Recognize different words if he sees them somewhere but mainly body parts and various animals

Say "please" for anything he wants (and he says it so cute)

Be a basketball pro and as long as the hoop isn't too high, he rarely misses a shot

Play with cars and trains as intended (before he used to just throw them)

Tell us when he doesn't want something instead of just throwing a fit (this is a BIG deal)

Unbolt the backdoor (oh no!!!)

Scale the kitchen counters to get whatever he wants (yeah, I now have a gate to keep children out of my kitchen)

Get out of bed and out of his room on his own

Jacob likes:

Helping in the kitchen, especially adding salt to mashed potatoes

Having lights turned on

Elmo, Thomas the Train and Cars (Lightening McQueen and Mater mostly)

Little dogs - both live and plush

Getting water from the door of the fridge and just playing with water in general

Playing with spice containers

Playing Angry Birds

Going for walks with the stroller

Jacob doesn't like:

Not being able to play Angry Birds

Fruits and vegetables of all varieties

Anything of a creamy texture except yogurt

His brothers to get too close to him, or touch him, or touch something he has

When a show he is watching ends

Not being able to "help" in the kitchen

Julie's family's pictures

2011-12-28T06:34:00.001-06:00

After Jacob was born we started doing family pictures every year and I have posted some of the best ones here on our blog. But it had been many, many years since my family had done family pictures so when we all got together for Thanksgiving we also had family pictures. I don't see how bigger families do it - we had 5 kids aged 3 and younger and it was crazy trying to keep them from running away or crying. Anyway - here are some of the better ones:

Some closed eyes, but almost everyone's faces are toward the camera

My parents with our kids

Our little family

The original 6 of us

The 4 kids

3 sisters

School

2011-12-22T22:36:00.000-06:00

Let me tell you - I had hoped that Jacob's evaluation to get into school would go a lot like some of his ECI visits. That is, Jacob getting frustrated that they wanted him to sit in a chair and do different tasks, resulting in him throwing fits and trying to bang his head on the table. Is that terrible? But this is the Jacob that we are used to at home, and I knew if they saw this he would get into school no problem.

This was not how the evaluation went though. Instead he was pretty good about sitting in his little chair and doing the things that they asked him to do. When he didn't want to do something and started getting up they totally catered to him and helped him find something else to entertain him so that he would keep sitting.

The scary part (to me) during the evaluation was how impressed they acted with him. They acted impressed that he looked at the clock on the wall and counted to 10. They acted impressed that he could identify pictures of animals. They acted impressed that he could identify the stuffed bear's body parts.

To be honest, it was frustrating to me as his mom. These are things that a child a year younger than Jacob should be able to do. That, and these abilities are all recent - that is, within the last couple months.

And so I was nervous that they would say that he didn't need to be in the school program and that they may just offer us a couple speech sessions a week. Because I live with Jacob and spend a lot of time with him and I know that he needs more than that.

So when I went back for the meeting with the 2 ladies that evaluated him, the teacher for the preschool program and a kindergarten teacher, I didn't know what to expect. It had been almost an entire month since his evaluation, so we had had a month to worry about it. They started out by going over the results of the evaluation. In which they said that they rated his speech and language skills to be about 3rd percentile for kids his age.

3rd percentile.

Wow.

I know that he is really far behind where he should be, but to hear that his language skills are only better than 3% of other kids his age is really bad. Those are the kids who aren't talking at all. That is where Jacob was just a couple months ago.

After hearing that I knew that they would have to let Jacob into the PPCD program (not that I remember what PPCD stands for). And so starting on January 4th, every school day a bus will pick him up at our house and take him to school where he will be in class for 3 hours a day and then a bus will bring him back home.

I know that he needed this and that we needed this. Seriously, when your kid is 3 and doesn't just tell you he wants to eat, but instead whines and throws a fit until you figure out that is what he wants, you need some time away from him everyday.

And even though this is what we prayed for, I'm worried for him. The first couple weeks I anticipate will be very rough on him. After all, it took a year before we were able to leave him in the nursery at church without him throwing complete fits. I know that he will be confused and scared. I hope that he adjusts quickly - at least, a lot more quickly than he adjusts to other things.

9 month old outtakes

2011-12-17T22:17:00.000-06:00

Just thought these were humorous. After I snapped a couple pictures of the babies, I hoped to get a better one where they were each giving me a big smile, looking right at me, etc. Instead, this is what happened:

Jeremy says "Hey Joel - what are you doing over there?"

Joel says "I'm out of here!"

Jeremy says "I guess I'll just tackle you then."

"Hey Mom, here is my Popeye look!"

Trip to Florida

2011-12-16T23:49:00.001-06:00

I am determined to blog about things that I want to remember one day, even though they seem like so long ago and not that important.

Justin knew about a year ago that in October of this year he would be attending a conference in Orlando. When the twins were a few months old, he asked me if I wanted to go with him. Um, YEAH!!! But what about our kids? So Justin called his dad and step-mom and they were willing to come and fill in so we could get away.

We left on Friday, September 30th and came back on Wednesday night, October 5th. I have to admit, for about a month before we left the thought of this trip was the only thing keeping me sane. So much of my day was spent trying to keep the kids from crying that I really felt like I would lose it if I didn't get away.

People told me that after a day or two I would really miss my kids. Confession - I never felt like I missed them. Everyday we were gone I thought about how glad I was to be away from them and to actually have time to myself. Seriously - every stay-at-home mom should be able to have a getaway from their kids. A stay-at-home mom with 3 kids under 3 and the oldest with development and behavior problems NEEDS a getaway.

But, back to our trip. When we arrived in Orlando we decided to visit the Orlando LDS temple, since it had been over 5 years since we had been there.

We didn't stay long because we were tired, it was late, we needed to check in at our resort, get some dinner, run to the store; but we were glad we went.

On Saturday we had breakfast with Justin's brother and his family before we headed to Universal's Islands of Adventure. We enjoyed going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and drinking some butterbeer (although it wasn't as good as I had imagined it would taste).

After we were tired of walking around the park, we headed back to our resort to soak in the hot tub (necessary after walking around all day) before meeting up with Justin's brother and his wife for dinner, dessert and talking.

Sunday morning we left the resort and met up with some of our friends from Tallahassee and then Tampa to have breakfast with them and their kids.

After breakfast, we headed to Epcot to enjoy the Food and Wine Festival (however, for us it should have just been called the Food Festival). Again we met up with Justin's brother and sister-in-law as well as her dad and sister. We tried some great food and again walked around until our feet ached. After Epcot, we headed over to the hotel we were staying in for the conference.

Once the conference began, Justin was busy with conference stuff pretty much the whole time, however I had my days free to do whatever. I slept in until whenever I decided to get up. I went to the gym a couple times (oh gym, how I have missed you! Did you know that unless Jacob or I were sick I went to the gym 5 days a week from the time Jacob was 3 months old until the embryo transfer for the twins?).

On Monday I was able to meet up with a good friend from BYU who recently moved to the Orlando area for a couple hours, then I met up with my sister-in-law for pedicures and chatting. I made it back to the hotel just in time to meet up with Justin and everyone at the conference and their guests headed to Universal Studios where a portion of the park was blocked off just for us (nice!).

On Tuesday I drove to Tampa and met up with a handful of my co-workers from USF. We chatted for a while and I stayed a bit longer than I thought I would which put me rushing back so that Justin and I could meet up with his brother and sister-in-law for a visit at our hotel.

On Wednesday we had a chance to meet up with Justin's step-sister and her kids just before we returned our rental car and checked in at the airport.

There were only 2 negatives from our trip - the amount of money we spent (it costs a lot to go to amusement parks - good thing we didn't have to pay for a place to stay or Justin's airfare). And I got a little cold that had me almost totally hoarse for a day or so. Justin said the money we spent was a small price to pay for me to get some sanity back!

We are really grateful we got to see so many friends and family members while we were vacationing. We are also super-super grateful that family was willing to watch our kids, they were really ready for us to come home when we did!

8 months old...9 months old

2011-12-16T21:50:00.000-06:00

Joel at 8 months

Jeremy at 8 months

8 months old!!!

Playing "I see you!"

A weird game Jeremy started playing

So excited to have his picture taken

Joel, 9 months old

Jeremy, 9 months old

9 months old!!!

Since we are almost to the 10 month mark, I decided that I just needed to combine these posts and get it done. Now to remember what I want to keep a record of for these boys.

First off - the stats! Jeremy has become our "big" boy weighing in at 17 lbs 12 oz (11th %-tile), 28 in tall (48th %-tile) and head circumference of 44 cm (23rd %-tile). Joel, who used to be our bigger baby, is now our light one weighing 16 lbs 2 oz (6th %-tile), 28 in tall (48th %-tile) and head circumference of 43 cm (5th %-tile).

About 2 weeks before hitting 9 months old Joel got his 2 little bottom teeth. As of 9 months old, no sign of teeth of Jeremy.

Joel started pulling himself up just days after hitting the 7 month mark - so a full 2 months before Jacob ever did. At first he would just pull himself up very slowly and we had lots of falling over, but by 8 months old he was becoming a pro. Once he hit the 9 month mark he started doing a little cruising and acts like he would like to try to to walk to something, but hasn't been brave enough to try to stand on his own.

Jeremy start pulling himself up right around 8 months old and what a little stinker he was about it. This little guy would pull himself up just as soon as we would put him in his crib but then he couldn't figure out how to get back down. He would cry and cry. One of us would go lay him back down and he would immediately get back up again. He would be super, super tired but his want (which I guess he felt was a need) to stand up and practice his new skill was too great and he simply would not just lay down and sleep. It lasted for only a couple days when we finally gave up on getting him to sleep in his crib and put him into a pack and play to sleep (since there were no slats, he had nothing to grab to pull himself up). So glad we bought a second crib when it hasn't been used for so long now.

The babies synced up their schedules and started napping at the same time!! Yay!!! We had to put them into separate rooms to get them to take good naps though - they just seemed to want to cry and fuss when they were put in the same room. But something else amazing happened - they started going to sleep for naps on their own when I would lie them down in their crib or pack and play. Jacob was so difficult to get to take naps - I ALWAYS had to rock him to sleep with a bottle. Then I had to be super careful when I lay him down because if he woke up there would be no napping. I can't tell you how fan-tab-ulous it is to have babies who, when it is nap time and I know they are or should be tired, I can just lay down and leave them. Sometimes they whine and even get up for a bit, but they almost always just lay back down and go to sleep.

They have both turned into pretty good eaters. It took a while to get Jeremy to eat fruit and then there were only 2 varieties that he would go for, but now he is a good little eater and I can get him to eat anything that Joel will eat. They are not such fans of baby foods with meat in them, but they do seem to be ok with the stage 2 food apples and chicken (sounds gross to me). We tried to move on to a stage 3 food that was chunky and that did not go over well - both babies gagged and threw up a little. Not sure if it was the flavor or the chunks of food that they were disagreeable with. They do like Cheerios and some of those Gerber Graduates snacks, but to be honest I am in all new territory and don't know what I am doing. I couldn't get Jacob to eat any type of food until he was just past 15 months old and had lots of teeth. So I find myself unsure of what I can feed them, what I shouldn't feed them, etc.

The babies have started playing with things, being super entertained by Colby and they love to see what their big brother is doing - too bad he doesn't like to have anything to do with them.

It is hard to believe that we are getting so close to 1 year old!!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-29T20:19:00.001-06:00

Halloween this year was not a whole heck of a lot of fun, but hopefully as our kids get older things will greatly improve.

I didn't get a single picture taken of the kids on Halloween. Justin left work about a half hour early so we could take the kids to our neighbors before it went too far past the twins' bedtime. Sadly, traffic was horrible, so instead of getting home a half hour earlier than normal he got home a half hour later than normal. I had all the kids in costumes and was trying to keep the peace while we waited for Daddy to make it home. Pretty much as soon as he made it home we walked back out the door and since we had no one here to take the picture of us holding the babies to keep them from crying, no pictures from that night. Luckily, I took pictures of the kids before Halloween.

Joel is in the Pooh outfit - Jeremy is in the Tigger outfit. (How did we decide who would be what? I decided based on how many letters are in their names).

Jacob was Scooby Doo, thanks to our good friends who lent us a costume for him.

Jacob and I at our ward Trunk or Treat - too bad they didn't even start it until 7pm so he was super tired while we were there.

We did get Halloween pajamas for each of the boys.

I really wanted to find another skeleton outfit for the babies. I really thought it would be easy to find one really similar, if not completely identical, to the one I had for Jacob 2 years ago. No such luck. So the babies had to take turns being a skeleton.

Joel

Jeremy

Our Jacob

2011-11-15T14:55:00.001-06:00

I started a very detailed post about Jacob, but I think I will never publish it. I am chronicling what the past year has been like with him and it is therefore super detailed, I think more detailed than anyone but I need. But I think I do need it. However, I have decided to publish a cliff notes version because I think it is also important for others to have some type of idea of the challenges that we have faced with our oldest son.

We started working with ECI right at the beginning of the year, but nothing really happened for 6 months. When Jacob was 2.5 we took him in with us to the babies' 4 month check-up and floored our doctor with Jacob's lack of speech or even communication in general as well as his strange behavior (for his age at least). She said that she would contact ECI and "light a fire" but she also recommended we contact a private speech therapist as well as developmental specialist.

Upon taking him to the speech therapist, I was brought to reality on how bad things are with Jacob. Since he is my oldest child I really had nothing to compare him to. I knew he should be talking, but it was everything else that I didn't realize was so wrong. I'm sure that other people have seen with their children that even before they could talk, they were communicating. Pointing to things they wanted, going to the fridge if they wanted milk, etc. Jacob didn't do ANY of that. If he wanted something he whined. If he didn't get it soon enough, he would bang his head. It was (many times, still is) a guessing game to know what he wants/needs - is he hungry, thirsty, tired? Pretty much anyone else's guess is as good as mine. It was also pointed out to me that he didn't play with toys the way kids his age should, or interact with people the way he should.

I was told that Jacob needed ABA Therapy (which turns out is SUPER expensive and isn't covered by our insurance). That he needed at least 3-4 speech sessions a week and better yet, he should be enrolled in a special school for kids with speech problems (again - SUPER expensive). Words like "AUTISM" started being spoken for the first time ever, and other words we had heard before like "SENSORY ISSUES".

Talk about overwhelming. And upsetting. And stressful.

Things with ECI really turned around at this point though. Maybe our pediatrician was able to talk to someone about how they weren't doing anything for Jacob. I'm not sure. But we suddenly went from 1 visit a week from a developmental specialist, to 3-4 visits a week. One from our developmental specialist, another with her and a behavioral specialist, one from a speech therapist and a visit every other week from an occupational therapist.

And we went from Jacob making no progress to seeing some results. First and foremost - Jacob started talking!!! His language skills are still about a year or so behind, but considering only 4 months ago he was 2 years behind, we are making real progress. The head banging is still a problem, but it is nothing compared to what it was when he had a permanent goose egg and bruise on his forehead.

We still have a lot to work on with his speech and his overall behavior. There are things that we wonder - does he not understand us, or does he act like he doesn't understand? And we really need him to get to the point where he asks for things he wants instead of just throwing a fit.

This Friday I am taking Jacob to the school (public school) so they can evaluate him to see if he qualifies to be in the preschool program for kids with developmental delays. We REALLY NEED him to be in this program. He needs to be immersed in a program. And he needs to be around other kids more (since when he is around other kids he doesn't play with them). And because Jacob is such a high needs kid, I need him to be in this program. I need to have some time away from him everyday, so I can appreciate the time that I do have with him.

Family pictures

2011-10-21T21:12:00.000-05:00

Our awesome friend Laura took our family pictures about 2 weeks ago. It was super windy and it rained on us a little bit. Add in the fact that Jacob doesn't like to be too close to his brothers and he definitely doesn't like them to touch him, taking our family pictures was certainly not easy. All I can say is that Laura is amazing. If you ever need a photographer in the Katy area, Gilgen Photography is the place to go.

7 month old babies

2011-10-20T22:17:00.000-05:00

Twins at 7 months old

**I am super late posting about the babies being 7 months old. Justin and I spent the week after they hit the 7 month mark getting ready to go out of town and then when we got back the laptop crashed AND I was super busy getting ready to host my bunco group. Now I'm going to have a really hard time remembering what happened between 6 and 7 months vs what has happened since. **

Joel with the elephant

Jeremy with the elephant

About a week or so after they were 6 months old, Joel finally figured it out and started crawling! He started out slow at first, but he can sneak up on you super fast now. Right after Joel figured out the whole crawling thing, Jeremy realized he didn't want to be left behind and he started army crawling. It really takes me back to Jacob army crawling around the house when he was a baby.

We have had ups and downs with eating. First Joel seemed like he was a great eater, Jeremy not so much. Then Jeremy was the rock-star eater for about a week while Joel mainly cried when I tried to feed them. Then neither would eat very well. Trying to feed babies is definitely my least favorite times of the day. And since the babies don't eat well at all when one person tries to feed them both at the same time, I spend a lot of time trying to feed babies.

Happy babies

Daddy's helping Jeremy tackle Joel

Watching TV with Daddy

All the boys like the same toys

First injury to one of the babies, luckily no stitches needed

All 3 kids were originally playing with this xylophone, but Jacob moved as soon as I got the camera out

Lots to blog about, where is the time?

2011-10-17T21:57:00.001-05:00

I'm sad that I haven't been blogging, but with 3 kids under 3 my life is usually crazy. I do have things to blog about. I hope to do a write up about the twins being 7 months old, especially since they will be 8 months old on Sunday. I have been wanting to do an update on Jacob. Justin and I went on a trip - all things blog worthy. Now that my laptop is working again, hopefully posts will start magically appearing on the blog in the next week. Now to get back to filling out these forms that have to be filled out by 9am tomorrow.

6 month stats for twins

2011-09-18T13:58:00.000-05:00

I was scheduled to take the babies in for their 6 month check-up the day they turned 6 months old. But Jeremy had a nasty little stomach bug so I had to call and reschedule. Poor little guy had so much trouble getting over the bug that I had to do a second reschedule and they didn't get in for their appointments until 2 weeks later than originally planned.

I figured that since they will 7 months old this Friday, I should put their stats up here before I lose the paper they are written on (because I lose a lot of things these days - I only somewhat still have my mind).

Summary is - we have little boys. I always thought that Jacob was little because he was 6 weeks early. He wasn't on the growth chart until 2 months old and then he stayed between 5th and 15th percentile up until he was about 18 months old. I'm not sure where he is now. I thought that since the twins were bigger when they were born, they would be bigger boys. Wrong!

I went back to here to check Jacob's 6 month stats and these little guys are just about the size that he was. I guess we grow them little around here.

Joel weighed in at 15 lbs 1oz (11th %-tile), was 26.75 inches long (53th %-tile) and had a head circumference of 42 cm (10th %-tile). Jeremy weighed in at 15 lbs 9 oz (which they told me was also 11th %-tile), was 26.5 inches long (50th %-tile) and had a head circumference of 42.5 cm (24th %-tile).

I had to get these up here because this is currently serving as my kids' baby books. One day when they are in school, I can get real baby books and transfer all the info but in the meantime this is where it goes! More about the babies when I do their 7 month update.

6 months old

2011-08-28T20:36:00.007-05:00

Jeremy

Joel

We have had a lot of improvements over the last month.

First - the babies have realized that they can take naps in their cribs!!! This is amazing! The bad news is that they typically don't nap at the same time or a lot of times they only overlap by a little. Only a couple of rare occasions have they put themselves to sleep for their naps. But normally they are super tired and I hold them for about 5 minutes to get them mainly asleep and they fall further into slumber as I carry them upstairs to lay them down. This is way better than having to rock them to sleep for 30 minutes with a bottle (like I had to do with Jacob for every nap) because let's be honest, that would not be happening with 2 babies when I also have a toddler running around.

Both babies are on the move! We aren't crawling yet, but if you put one of these little guys down chances are they will wiggle and roll themselves to where they want to go (sometimes getting frustrated at the effort it takes though). Joel is especially making an effort to crawl. Starting about a week before they hit 6 months, he has been able to get himself up on all fours and rock back and forth. I know that any day he will be able to figure it out and then there will no stopping him.

Both Joel and Jeremy have the ability to sit up, but neither of them seem to like to sit up. In fact, many times when I go to sit Joel down he will develop extremely stiff legs so that he can stand while I balance him. Silly kid.

Joel

Neither baby is eating "solids" yet. (Why are they called solids when they are pureed baby mush?) I think that Joel would do pretty well, whereas like I said in the last post Jeremy didn't do well with his rice cereal. The problem that I have now is that there is never a good time to try to feed them. You know - feed them when they are happy; not really hungry, but not full. I know the best time to feed them "solids" would be halfway between 2 bottle feedings when you are trying to teach them how to eat. Neither baby is happy at the half-way point between bottles. Pretty much when we get to the halfway point, they are both starting to get pretty grouchy - but not quite ready for a nap.

Jeremy

Both Joel and Jeremy have become super determined when they want something. They will twist all around and reach (when we are holding them and they do this it is super hard to hold on to them). And as with all men in our family - they are extremely drawn to electronics. They see a remote control, a phone or a laptop and they just gravitate toward it.

We are still trying to figure out the best schedule for these babies and us. Since Justin doesn't get home from work until after 6pm every evening (except those half days on Fridays) our evenings are pretty crazy and hectic. Let's be honest - every night is pretty hectic, but when we are waiting for Justin to get home from work is almost insanity. We have tired babies who need to eat another time before they can go to sleep, but they probably shouldn't eat for at least another hour (based on when they last ate). We have a toddler who needs to eat dinner (because usually it is too crazy for me to feed him his dinner before his daddy comes home) and then get a bath and go to bed. And work into there bathing the babies every other night and it is hard to get it all worked out. One day...

A little comparison

2011-08-10T14:10:00.004-05:00

Just before Jacob was 5 months old I took these pictures of him.

Then I decided to take similar pictures with Joel and Jeremy.

Wow. Joel and Jacob look a lot alike.
And wow, the twins have way more hair than Jacob did.

5 months old! (well, 2 weeks ago at least)

2011-08-06T16:05:00.009-05:00

I think the past 5 months have very well been the most chaotic 5 months of my life.

Jeremy

Couldn't get Joel to keep his hands out of his mouth

The spit up has not stopped, or even lessened. Sadness. Some days I have my hopes up that it is letting up, then we have really bad days again where everyone and everything is getting drenched. I get a lot of people telling me spit up is normal, then they see how my boys spit up and are surprised. But to me, spitting up 3 hours after they have eaten and are about to eat again just isn't right.

One morning both babies started crying and when I went in there Jeremy had made his way to Joel's side and was upset that he couldn't get over Joel. Joel was upset that Jeremy was bumping into him. So within the next couple days they were in their own separate cribs.

The babies are on a pretty set feeding schedule and even though they sometimes wake up during the night, we don't feed them and they don't even act like they want to eat. Instead they just need to be comforted back to sleep. This is very different from Jacob who wasn't really on a schedule and would wake up screaming in the middle of the night that he was starving pretty regularly until he was a year old.

Although the feeding schedule is set, the napping schedule is not. As of now, neither baby can make it without some type of snooze in between each feeding. And both babies really want to be held to take their little naps. Fun times all around with that one. I will be glad when the nap schedule is set to 2 naps a day - and hopefully (unlike how it was with Jacob) these boys will be able to put themselves to sleep for naps.

Both babies also act like they are hard-core teething still - way worse than it ever was with Jacob, but no teeth yet. Sometimes the teeth look like they are right there about to pop through, then the next day they are gone. Why are teeth so cruel to babies?

Both the babies are addicted to TV. If it is on they crane their necks to be able to watch. They also already love the computer and my cell phone.

2 of my 3 kids being entranced by modern technology

Although both babies are getting better at rolling over but sometimes when they are on either their backs or bellies they get upset because it seems like they can't figure out what to do.

We also gave each baby their first taste of rice cereal.

Joel seemed to enjoy it, although he got really annoyed really fast that his tongue kept pushing the cereal out of his mouth. He kept acting like he wanted more, but was screaming and crying that he wasn't really getting any (I think this kid has a temper problem). Jeremy was not such a fan. He gagged and acted like he was going to throw up. Pretty much the way Jacob reacted any time we tried to feed him baby food. Jacob was watching everything unfold and he gagged and did throw up. We decided to give the babies a little more time before trying to feed them again.

Jeremy isn't such a fan

Joel looks like he is surprised by something

Hard to believe that almost half a year has passed since these boys joined our family!

4 months old

2011-06-28T15:00:00.000-05:00

Wow - our twins are 4 months old!

Joel

Jeremy

Probably due to all the spit up, our boys aren't as big as I thought they would be at 4 months. Joel measured in at 12 lbs 14 oz (15th %-tile), was 24 in long (20th %-tile) and had a head circumference of 40 cm (7th %-tile). Jeremy weighed in at 13 lbs (also 15th %-tile), was 23 in long (less than 5th %-tile) and had a circumference of 40.5 cm (15th %-tile). Jacob was 12 lbs 12 oz at 4 months old, so they are right about the size he was, although at their 2 month appointment they were each over a pound bigger than Jacob was at 2 months.

Even though our boys are still spitting up like crazy, we think we have the pain of their reflux under control. Too bad they are both already teething!!! We noticed that they were both chewing on their hands a lot and I really thought I was imagining it when I thought I saw 2 little spots on each of their lower gums where their first teeth would come through. But the nurse confirmed it on Thursday - those little teeth are fighting to come through.

These babies are nice and fussy while they are teething (oh joy!!). Lately they love for us to rub their gums and infant Tylenol is like a good friend right now. When I first thought they were teething I didn't want the teeth to come through yet - babies just look so much different once they start getting teeth and lose their gummy smiles. But now I just want those teeth to make an appearance so these babies can be happier. It must be no fun to be a baby. Jacob didn't get his first teeth until 9 months, so I can't believe those little teeth look like they could pop through any day.

We have started putting the babies to bed a little earlier some nights (early as in between 8:30 and 9 instead of between 10:30 and 11). We haven't fed them in the middle of the night for well over a month now. Sometimes when we put them down early, one or both of them get a little restless around 5am, but they still don't eat until about 6:30am or 7am. I am super grateful for babies who sleep pretty well at night. I have to admit though - I am really looking forward to a 7pm bedtime for the twins, but I have no plans of doing that until I feel pretty certain that they will still make it until after 6am before needing to eat again.

As far as other developmental milestones that the babies have hit - they are learning to laugh, but haven't really started belly laughing yet. Each baby has rolled over from tummy to back, but it isn't something either has mastered yet so sometimes they don't stay on their tummies for long while other times they get all upset and can't figure out how to move into a more comfortable position. To be honest, we don't put them on their tummies or lay them on their backs as much as we would if they didn't spit up so much.

Tummy Time X 2

The babies are still pretty random when they sleep during the day and when they are awake, but if they stay awake the whole time between feedings we know that they will struggle to stay awake to finish the bottle. I know that one thing that will make them a little easier is when they have a more predictable awake/sleep pattern for the day with a couple good naps.

After church Sunday naps on the couch

2 smiles

Watching us eat dinner

Surviving

2011-06-05T14:30:00.015-05:00

Things are a little rough at our house most days.

Jacob

At 2 and a half years old, Jacob still isn't talking. I can get him to say "Mama" and "Dada", but he doesn't call me or Justin anything. If he wants us he just whines. I think when I tell some people that Jacob doesn't talk they think I mean he doesn't speak in sentences like kids his age should because that is usually followed up with them asking me what words he says. He has 1 word: "sit". He says it usually when he sees a dog, even though we always tell him that it is a dog or a doggie.

We had him evaluated and his hearing is fine, but he is super sensitive to sounds and covers his ears a lot. Because he can't talk (and I'm pretty sure that he knows he should be able to) he gets frustrated very easily and he bangs his head on the floor or the wall when something isn't going his way - something that is really hard to see when it is the tile floor. :( I posted a few months ago with pictures of what he had done to his head when he was mad here.

We have been working with Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) pretty much since the beginning of the year and he has been making progress, but of course it feels like he isn't making nearly enough progress to get him to where he needs to be. They told us initially that he had sensory issues, but they didn't really explain what that meant. After doing some of our own research we learned that this is a big deal. You can learn about Sensory Processing Disorder here and here. Of course Jacob doesn't have all the different sensory problems, but it was nice to finally know why he wouldn't eat food (as opposed to drinking his meals) until he was 15 months old and why he is such a picky eater as well as some of the other problems that Jacob has.

The babies

Our babies are not "easy" babies. They have problems with reflux, they spit-up LOTS (and sometimes they even have projectile vomiting, I am taking Jeremy to a pediatric gastroenterologist in a couple weeks), and they have painful gas. As I mentioned to the pediatrician - when babies come in twos like this, aren't they supposed to be a little easier on mommy? They have limited time during the day when they are happy and willing to be put down on a playmat or put in a swing. And since there are 2 of them and they have an older brother who has a myriad of developmental problems, life is pretty difficult around our house.

The babies love to be held, so anytime people come over they want to hold babies and it is heaven for our little guys. As long as they aren't spitting up or having bad gas, this makes it seem like they are easy babies when other people are here.

When it is just me here with all 3 kids, Jacob gets almost completely ignored. Poor kid. Luckily there have only been a couple times when I have had to be here by myself all day. I have a helper who comes everyday to help me with the babies until the afternoon. Once she leaves I have about 3-4 hours before Justin is home from work which sometimes goes pretty well, but sometimes I am pulling out my hair by the time he finally walks in the door. Having a helper has actually done wonders for Jacob since he is able to get a little attention while the helper is here. It is also the only reason the house isn't a complete and total wreck - only a partial wreck.

I know quite a few people with twins and everyone has told me that the first 6 months is definitely the hardest. I honestly feel like things would be WAY easier to handle if Jacob were either older, or if we had had twins first. Even if Jacob didn't have all the developmental problems that he has and just was a regular 2 yr old with regular tantrums, this would be lots better. Or if the babies didn't have whatever digestive problems they seem to have. But seriously the combination of it all I sometimes feel will be sending me to the loony bin soon.

One day at a time, right? I bet you're all wishing you lived at our house.

Not so little anymore

2011-06-03T14:55:00.003-05:00

**I plan to have a few posts in the next few days (if babies and toddler cooperate), so if you haven't checked out the blog for a little while keep scrolling down. :) **

The babies are growing!!! I know they are still a lot smaller than other babies their age, but check out how big they are next to the outfits they wore home from the hospital.

Jeremy's foot next to the little bitty sock

Jeremy next to the little bitty outfit

Joel's foot next to the little bitty sock

Joel next to the little bitty outfit

Jacob on the hour

2011-06-03T11:09:00.019-05:00

**I plan to have a few posts in the next few days (if babies and toddler cooperate), so if you haven't checked out the blog for a little while keep scrolling down. :) **

Here's a little documentation on a day in the life of Jacob. Someone that Justin and I know from Tallahassee has done this with her son and I thought it was neat and finally got around to doing it with Jacob.

8am - wake up (yeah, he slept a little late this day)

9am - breakfast (not such a fan of the homemade blueberry muffins)

10am - watching some tv while we feed babies

11am - reading a book

noon - helping mommy do some shopping

1pm - lunch time

2pm - time for a nap (nap time is rapidly becoming just quiet time)

3pm - Quiet time over (Jacob is pretty happy about that)

4pm - Playtime (while I feed babies)

5pm - Playtime outside (this didn't last long since it got up to 100 yesterday)

6pm - Dinner (Yum - hotdog)

7pm - Bath time

Jacob was sound asleep before 8pm, but here is he at 7:20pm telling Daddy and his brothers goodnight

3 months old

2011-06-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

Joel on the left, Jeremy on the right

I'm pretty sure I said this a month ago, but if so I'll say again. In some ways the time is flying by and I can't believe the twins are already 3 months old. In other ways, this has been the longest 3 months of my life.

Jeremy

Joel

The boys are getting so big. Although they didn't have check-ups this month, each of them has more than doubled their birth weight, but Joel is definitely still bigger than Jeremy. I guess we'll have to wait until next month to find out just how much bigger.

In the last month these boys are really starting to develop their personalities. For instance, they both love attention. In fact sometimes all you have to do to make Joel happy is to sit down next to him and talk to him. Jeremy usually needs to be picked up to show him that you really are paying attention to him.

Joel hates it when his diaper gets too wet and neither can really stand it when they are messy. They both give great smiles and the way they smile is totally different from each other. When Jeremy starts to smile, it seems like the sides of his mouth start to curl up first before his whole face catches on to it. For Joel, he has a hard time just smiling. When he smiles he likes to either talk or laugh at the same time.

Both babies are really on the move, even though they don't go anywhere yet. Sometimes they make it really difficult to feed them because they don't want to just stay still and eat. They both really like bath time, but Jeremy makes it very difficult to bathe him the way he tries to move around in the tub.

Jeremy all smiles after his bath

Joel's deer in the headlights look after his bath

At night they both eat sometime between 6pm and 7pm and I think that they would actually prefer to usually go to bed after this feeding, but neither Justin nor I want to have to wake up in the middle of the night so instead we keep them up and maybe just let them doze a little and feed them one last time between 9pm and 10pm. We have been doing this for a few weeks now and they typically sleep really well until after 5am. They start moving around anytime between 5am and 6am, but sometimes they just want to be held and sleep a little longer. They typically have their first feeding sometime between 6:30am and 7am.

We had Jacob sleep in our room until he was 6 months old, but we have already moved the twins out of our room and into the nursery. They seem to have become really light sleepers and it was so hard to tip-toe around the room as we got ready for bed and for the next day when they were sleeping. I think we all sleep better with them in their own room. And I'm not paranoid about something happening to them in their sleep because they still aren't sleeping alone like Jacob did.

Last month I told about how fussy our babies were. After a week on Zantac without much improvement, they were moved to Prevacid. They are doing a lot better on Prevacid, but it causes A LOT of spit-up. So much so that I have about 30 burp cloths for the babies and enough clothes to last them about 10 days before I would need to do their laundry. But I end up having to do their laundry about every 3-4 days because I run out of clean burp cloths. In fact, about once a day Jeremy will have a massive spit up that would actually be categorized as throw up instead. Poor kid. This last week (so after they were 3 months since I am behind on their update) they started displaying some of the same symptoms they had before and we upped their dosage of the Prevacid just in the last couple days. Hopefully we will see another reversal on those symptoms soon.

There's actually quite a bit more that I could say about how life is around our house these days, but I think I will save that for another post. Another post that I will hopefully write in the next few days.

Joel's amused, Jacob not so much, Jeremy's just mad

Our hair is out of control!

Jeremy was giving me some great smiles

Joel didn't feel like smiling

Just chilling in Jacob's chair

Easter 2011

2011-04-30T23:24:00.004-05:00

The best picture we got of all 3 boys Easter Sunday.

The Easter Bunny came to our house!

Jacob seemed excited about getting a VeggieTales movie in his Easter basket.

This year Jacob participated in his first Easter egg hunt, and then 2 more!

The first Easter egg hunt was with friends and Jacob had not a clue what he was doing. After A LOT of coaxing he finally picked up an egg, but when it opened up and he found candy inside that was all he cared about. I got him to pick up 1 more egg but he was done at that point. Then we realized that we needed to teach him how to "hunt" for eggs. It took a few practices, but we finally got him to pick up eggs and put them in a basket we carried around for him.

The second egg hunt was a community hunt at a local church. Jacob actually did pretty well and got 6 or 7 eggs. His third egg hunt was with Justin's cousin's kids on Easter. I think he was done with egg hunts at this point. He kept wanting to play with leaves instead.

Leaves in the basket, egg outside on the grass

We're glad we were able to spend Easter with family (especially since that means more people to hold babies).

Blessing Day

2011-04-27T14:45:00.004-05:00

On April 10th, Justin gave each of the babies a name and blessing at church. If you aren't LDS, you can read about what that is here. Here are some pictures that we took that day.

Jeremy in his blessing outfit

Joel in his blessing outfit

Two months old

2011-04-26T14:56:00.005-05:00

The twins hit 2 months on Saturday!

Joel at 2 months:

Jeremy at 2 months:

In my last post I wrote about what good babies we had. We have learned that they were just tricking us into thinking that twins were easier than people had led us to believe. To say the last month has been hard would be an understatement. More on that in a minute.

Yesterday the twins were all measured:
Joel weighed in at 10 pounds 9 oz (26th %-tile), measured to be 22 in long (15th %-tile) and had a head circumference of 37 cm (5th %-tile).
Jeremy weighed in at 10 pounds even (15th %-tile), measured to be 21.5 in long (6th %-tile) and had a head circumference of 37.5 cm (10th %-tile).

The big milestone for the last month is that both the babies have started smiling. We really thought that Joel would be the first because he was the first to start following objects with his eyes and was the most alert. But Jeremy beat him to the punch. Jeremy gave me a great smile on April 14th. Joel gave me a smile on April 19th. However, I do have to say on Joel's behalf, I think he has thought he was smiling long before that. He has long been giving us the funniest faces with his eyes wide and his mouth forming on "O". I think he thought he was smiling all that time.

So, what changed in the last month to make us realize just how hard it is to have twins? They got super fussy. And sometimes it wasn't just fussy, it was all out screaming. According to the doctor yesterday, they aren't colicky because a colicky baby is happy in the morning and sometime in the afternoon/evening they start screaming uncontrollably until sometime that night when they pass out from exhaustion. This is not what our babies do, therefore they are not colicky.

It is hard to find a time when our babies are happy. They spend a lot of time fussing. And at no set time the fussiness would turn into screaming. We typically have screaming at some point in the morning and in the evening, but it is not something you could set your clock to. When they are unhappy, they really want to be held close, but it is hard to find the right position for them. And it is impossible to hold both and calm both at the same time. Sure, you can hold them both - but you won't calm either of them down that way.

Some of their other behaviors are pointing to reflux, although they are exhibiting different symptoms. We put them both on Zantac yesterday and are hoping to see some improvement over the next few days. Fingers crossed, because I have to tell you - our house is not very fun these days.

Fertility Clinic picnic

2011-04-14T14:54:00.004-05:00

Every year the fertility clinic we have gone to throws an annual "baby shower" for all the people they have helped have kids. It is their way to see all the families that they have helped to create. This isn't just for the ones who have had babies over the last year, it is for anyone who has ever had a baby through their services. We went when Jacob was a baby and thought how great it would be when Jacob was a bit older.

Besides the fact that it was his nap time, I think he had a great time!

Petting all the animals (although he really just wanted to play with the feed):

In the bounce house:

Swinging like a big boy (I snapped this picture probably 1 minute before he fell off the swing on onto his face - poor kid):

Riding the train:

Thanks to my mom for going with us so that someone could be following Jacob around and we still had 1 adult for each baby!

One month old

2011-04-14T14:20:00.006-05:00

So, I know that the babies will actually be 2 months old in 9 days, but I am finally getting around to posting about them being 1 month old. I hope I can keep everything straight and only tell about things up until they were 1 month old.

Joel

Jeremy

Stats:
Joel weighed 8 lbs 3 oz (20th %-tile!!!!), was 20 in long (5th%-tile) and head circumference of 34.5 cm (under 5th %-tile).
Jeremy weighed 7 lbs 11 oz (10th %-tile), was 19.5 in long (under 5th %-tile) head circumference of 35 cm (5th %-tile).
These all are pretty good to us since Jacob didn't make it onto the growth charts at all until he was 2 months old. And both babies outgrew preemie clothes soon after they hit 2 weeks old.

These babies are such good babies. Joel gets some good awake time in every day or so, Jeremy not so much. That boy just likes to sleep.

They got their first baths (and a few more) and it seems like Joel seriously dislikes bath time. Jeremy is a lot like Jacob was - seems to enjoy being in the warm water but take him out and be prepared for the screams.

Joel's first bath

Jeremy's first bath

They are pretty good about eating on schedule (every 3 hours during the day) and we have started letting them just sleep at night until they wake us up. They have gone for a few longer stretches at night before waking up, but the bad news with letting them just sleep is that it means that we don't have a set schedule from day to day. One day they may be up eating at 6am (which determines the eating times for the rest of the day) and other days it may be 7:30. So it is really up in the air still.

Other than that there isn't much more to say about these little guys (I'd hate to give away what's been going on over the last 3 weeks).
Jeremy on the left, Joel on the right

Joel and Jeremy's newborn photos

2011-03-17T09:24:00.004-05:00

My friend Laura is an amazing photographer. We had her take the twins pictures last week and it was super hard to pick out just a few to post here on our blog. If you are on facebook, they are all posted there.

Can you tell who is who?

If you are in the Houston area and ever need a photographer, we highly recommend Gilgen Photography.

The twins are 2 weeks old!!

2011-03-10T12:16:00.005-06:00

In some ways it is hard to believe the twins are already 2 weeks old - at the same time it feels like how are they only 2 weeks old?!?

Joel with the elephant

Jeremy with the elephant

Both boys with the elephant

The first 2 weeks have actually run pretty smoothly because we have had as many adults here as children. Until today. Today Justin went back to work and although things started out a bit crazy, the day has gone pretty smoothly. I'm not looking forward to the day that it is just me with all 3 boys here though. I'm not sure how I feed both babies and Jacob at the same time. Or how I put Jacob down for a nap while I am pumping and a baby needs to be fed.

So far, the babies sleep a lot. We have tons of pictures of them sleeping side by side.

Up to this point, Jeremy has been a lot sleepier than Joel and Joel has been a better eater than Jeremy. Yesterday at their 2-week check-ups Joel weighed in at 6 lbs 12 oz (7th %-tile) and Jeremy weighed in at 6 lbs 4 oz (under 5th %-tile).

Although they both sleep a lot, the last couple nights the babies have taken turns being fussy instead of sleeping for periods of time. I'm really hoping this is a growth spurt that will pass VERY soon.

Overall Jacob has been adjusting to the arrival of his brothers pretty well. He gets worried about them if they cry and he gives them kisses before he goes to bed. He gets jealous if one of them is in the swing because he likes it so much. He wasn't such a fan of it when he was a baby.

Jacob is not interested in holding the babies or even sitting next to them. Here is when I tried to get a picture of Justin with all 3 boys.

One more cute picture of our newest family members.

They're here!!!!

2011-02-25T16:17:00.004-06:00

Our babies were born on Wednesday, February 23rd.

Tuesday night Justin asked if I wanted him to take my 36 week picture. My response was "in a little bit". Later he headed up to bed and I slowly started up the stairs and realized we never took that 36 week picture. Oh well, I thought - we'll take it a day late.

Once upstairs, Justin was getting into bed and I headed into the bathroom to get ready for bed. A few minutes later I called out "My water just broke." Justin's response was "Are you serious?"

He put his regular clothes back on and went downstairs where my mom was still working and said "Looks like we are headed to the hospital - Julie's water just broke." My mom's response was the same as Justin's - "Are you serious?"

It was a long night of being on baby monitors and starting contractions before the decision was made to NOT proceed with a C-section and administer petosin to speed things along.

At 1:10 pm Joel Michael was born weighing 5 lbs 14 oz and measuring to be 19 in long.

At 1:13 pm Jeremy Mitchell was born weighing 5 lbs 10 oz and measuring to be 17.5 in long.

It was a traumatic birth for both babies (and for mommy), but definitely more so for Jeremy since he was breech and ended up being both pulled out by his feet while the 2nd doctor was pushing him out by putting all her weight on my belly.

Joel and I are definitely being discharged tonight and hopefully Jeremy will be as well (his bili levels were high and he has been under the lights all day today).

13 days and counting

2011-02-16T12:55:00.005-06:00

Definitely the least attractive picture taken of me this pregnancy. 35 weeks pregnant with twins = super tired and uncomfortable

At my appointment this week, my doctor decided that I could have the babies whenever I want. Everything looks good with them and I am super, super uncomfortable. Baby B has his head way up in my rib cage and both babies are so crowded now that there is no turning for him.

At first it was really tempting to say to schedule the C-section for next week when I will be 36 weeks. But from the very beginning I really wanted to make it to 37 weeks. I know it is better for the babies to make it that far, plus between mine and Justin's families there are already more birthdays in February than any other month (and it is the shortest month). I know that is a silly reason, but I really didn't want to add 2 more birthdays to the month of February.

As of now, we are scheduling (maybe already scheduled?) for C-section on Tuesday, March 1st assuming I don't start having contractions again and everything looks fine at my appointment next week.

Update on our crazy day from last week

2011-02-08T19:33:00.004-06:00

I set another personal record today. I am 34 weeks and the twins are still safe and sound in my belly!!! In case you didn't know - I had Jacob right at 34 weeks.

I haven't had any more contractions like I did last Wednesday, but I am also taking medication to keep contractions at bay. Yesterday both babies measured to weigh about 4.9 pounds and Baby Boy B is still pretty stubborn and head up. The bigger these guys get, the less likely I think it is for him to turn. The good news is that I am still only dilated 1cm. So despite how uncomfortable I might be, hopefully we have at least 2 more weeks before the babies decide to make an appearance. Big huge thanks to our family who helps us out so that I can take it easy and just grow these babies!

I've had a few people ask about what the ENT said about Jacob's hearing. Apparently he hears fine, although his ear drum doesn't vibrate as much as it should - it isn't anything that should cause him to have hearing problems. So his hearing is not why he doesn't say any words yet. Not that he doesn't talk. He talks a lot - it just isn't a language that we understand.

Now for the frustrating part of the update.

We are still in limbo after the accident from last week. I'll attempt to make a long story short.

We got the impression that the guy driving the other car was avoiding talking to his insurance company (Farmers). Well, today we learned that as of now they are considering no one at fault for the accident. The other guy told the lady handling our claim in his statement yesterday that he stopped at the intersection (although he didn't), so it is currently Justin's word against his. It takes 7-10 days after an accident before the police report is available, so we are just hoping and praying that the report says he was at fault because he failed to stop. In fact, when we had our minor fender bender in December the police that came to the scene said that any time an accident occurs, if a report is written they have to assign fault and issue a ticket. Justin didn't receive a ticket so we are assuming this other guy did and that will be that.

We aren't sure what he thinks he is achieving by lying to the insurance company since the police report should support Justin. But in the meantime it is super frustrating to us. We know we can go through our own insurance to get the ball rolling while we wait for the police report, in fact we have already talked to our company about everything but the truth is it really just complicates things. Things like the type of rental vehicle we really need will cost more than what we had elected on our insurance. It would be fine for us to pay the difference (for now) as long as we were certain that the police report supports Justin and we would be reimbursed, but to be honest we have no idea what is in the police report.

The whole thing is just super frustrating/aggravating right now and it makes me wonder why people feel the need to lie. In fact, the lady at Farmers let Justin know (in a round about way) that she doesn't believe the other guy's statement. She told Justin that at the end of the statement before turning off the recording device she asks if everything they said in their statement was true. The guy didn't answer and everything was silent. After a certain amount of time had passed and he hadn't said anything she asked if he was still there and he replied that he was. So she asked again if he was truthful in his statement. After another slight pause he said yes.

Maybe he does have a guilty conscience about lying?

can you say "crazy day"?

2011-02-02T18:44:00.008-06:00

Today has been a crazy day around here.

I woke up around 6:30 with my back killing me and feeling pain - stronger pain than I have felt this pregnancy (I have had lots of pains this pregnancy due to all the stretching to accommodate 2 babies). I adjusted my position and tried to catch a few more zzz's. About 15 minutes later I felt pain again and our power went out. Hmmm.

I got up and started getting ready for the day (in the dark) but the pain in my back wouldn't go away and the other pain kept coming back. Our power was out for about 20-25 minutes and we learned that rolling black-outs were occurring all over Texas today. After trying to lay in different positions for a while and the pains still coming back, I called the doctor's office. I was instructed to go to Labor & Delivery to be checked out.

Jacob had an appointment this morning at an ENT to be checked out to see if they could find a reason for why he isn't talking, Justin had not gone into work so he could take Jacob to the doctor. We all piled into the van (Justin, Dorothy - Justin's step-mom, me and Jacob). Our first stop was to drop me off at the hospital, and then everyone else headed out to Jacob's appointment.

My contractions seemed to stop for the first 20 minutes or so that I was on the monitor, but then they came back with a vengeance. The nurse came in and said that I could head home, but I let her know I was having a lot more pain again. It seems like the monitor wasn't really in the best place to pick up the contractions, so once it was adjusted they saw that I really was having stronger contractions and my doctor decided that something needed to be given to me to get them to stop. I received a series of 3 shots and a prescription for medication to take at home to keep the contractions from coming back so strongly.

While I was in the hospital getting my contractions under control Justin, Dorothy and Jacob were heading home from the ENT. Due to the rolling power outages stop lights are out at various places around the area. When they were not too far from home, they got to a light that was out and stopped. It was clear one way, but a bigger vehicle was blocking Justin's view of seeing any traffic from that direction so when the bigger vehicle started to go, Justin went as well. Turns out that a kid was coming from the other direction and not paying any attention to the fact that the light was out and he was supposed to treat the intersection as a 4-way stop. Somehow the kid and the bigger vehicle missed each other, but Justin ran into the side/back end of the truck. Sadly our van got the brunt of the wreck (instead of his truck). The van ended up turned 180 degrees from the direction they were heading.
We are pretty sure that the van will be declared totaled. Which makes us really sad. We got a great deal on it and had it for less than 6 months.

The plus is that it seems like no one was seriously injured. The air bag deploying caused a burn similar to a serious rug burn on Justin's hand. And both Justin and Dorothy are already feeling sore backs from the impact. We should hear by Friday what the kid's insurance decides as far as our van and a rental vehicle are concerned.

We are very glad that the contractions have stopped and we aren't having babies yet. And that no one was seriously hurt in the accident. We are also grateful to our friends and neighbors who were able to go pick up everyone from the accident and take them home.

Today hasn't been the best day, but we have definitely been blessed!

A milestone

2011-02-01T20:23:00.003-06:00

We hit a milestone this past week! When I was pregnant with Jacob I went into the hospital at 32.5 weeks. I am 33 weeks today and still at home!!!

I tell you - this shirt fit me about 2 weeks ago. It looks so tight now. :(

The babies are growing well (obviously). By ultrasound measurements yesterday it looks like Baby Boy A is 4.25 pounds and he is head down and all ready. Baby Boy B is 4.6 pounds, but he is standing up with his head in my lungs, ribs, etc. I would love it if he would turn around - if he doesn't I will be having a C-section.

Today has by far been the most uncomfortable day I have had so far. Baby B's position makes it difficult to breathe, to eat, or to sit comfortably, and Baby A's position keeps me needing to go to the bathroom. The uncomfortableness makes it hard to say but I hope we have at least another 2 weeks before our boys arrive!

**If you are reading this on facebook, you might be thinking that I already posted most of this. I post updates as my status on facebook after my doctor's appointments but the next day I take my picture and post to my blog, which gets imported into facebook. I have contemplated changing the settings to no longer import blog postings to facebook, but I think more people read these postings on facebook than actually come to my blog to read it. What's a girl to do?

Rough times for Jacob

2011-01-30T21:11:00.003-06:00

Jacob has been going through a really hard time lately. For the last few weeks, when Jacob gets frustrated with something he hits his head either against the wall or the floor. We are pretty sure it is mainly because he still can't talk and we have a real communication barrier. So he doesn't know how else to let us know he is aggravated.

This past week hasn't helped. His mom who used to be his caregiver during the day can no longer care for him and no longer picks him up at all. He doesn't understand what is going on and he can't vocalize anything either.

Add in that he has some 2 year molars that are trying to come through and we have a very grouchy little guy here. A little guy who has been hitting his head against things a lot more often over the last week. From what I have read online, they say kids won't hit their head hard enough to really hurt themselves and that you just have to ignore it and they will stop.

Is this considered not really hurting himself?

Justin tried to put him down for a nap and instead of going to sleep he screamed. We didn't hear anything that sounded like he was hitting his head, but obviously he hit his head a number of times. After letting him not just cry but scream, Justin went to get him after 20 minutes and this is what he looked like.

Any suggestions on how to get our kid to stop hurting himself before he causes himself brain damage?

The Inevitable

2011-01-25T10:48:00.000-06:00

32 weeks today!!!

As soon as we knew for sure we were really having twins this time, I knew that at some point in time I would be put on bed rest. I have quite a few friends who have had twins and most of them either spent time on bed rest (a lot of time on bed rest) or had their babies really early. I only know a couple people who carried twins full-term (at least 37 weeks) without bed rest.

At first I said that my goal was to make it through teaching last semester before I was put on bed rest, then I said that I hoped to get through 2010 without being on bed rest. For the last several doctor's visits I have had a bag packed just in case I wasn't sent home and was sent to the hospital instead.

Even though I was trying to be prepared for being put out of commission, the further that I got in the pregnancy the more I thought that maybe I would be one of those amazing stories of being pregnant with twins and never being on bed rest and carrying the twins to at least 37 weeks. I had after all been taking it easy almost the entire pregnancy as it is.

Yesterday, the day before I hit 32 weeks, that all changed. My back had been killing me all weekend and when I told my doctor she got a little concerned that I was experiencing some pre-term labor. Sure enough, I was dilated 1 cm. My doctor sent me over to the hospital to be put on a monitor for an hour to make sure I wasn't having frequent or strong contractions. After being on the monitor, the decision was made that I didn't need to be admitted to the hospital but I am on moderate bed rest. I can take a shower everyday and be up a bit, but I need to stay down as much as possible and no more lifting anything much over the weight of a gallon of milk.

This means that I can no longer take care of Jacob everyday. Luckily, Justin's step-mom is available to come stay with us for a while and help us out for now and then my mom will be able to come out as well.

My doctor told me it is only for 2 weeks and that she just wants to make sure I make it to 34 weeks for lung maturity. Even though Jacob didn't have to be on a breathing tube or anything like that, I still really want to make it further than 34 weeks but I don't think I am counting on 37 anymore.

31 week ramblings

2011-01-19T09:05:00.003-06:00

Beware - this post is very long with my ramblings!!!!

On Monday I had a regularly scheduled appointment with my OB and an ultrasound. I had hoped to post the ultrasound pictures, but they turned out terrible. You can hardly make anything out on the pictures at all and the babies were in terrible positions, so even if the resolution had turned out ok, you can't tell what you are looking at at all. Baby Boy A was in a head down position and measured in to weigh about 3.7 pounds. Baby Boy B was pretty squirmy - starting out laying across the top portion of my belly and 5 minutes later was in a breach position. He measured in to weigh about 3.8 pounds. I know that these measurements come with a margin of error (I am a statistician, after all) but while the babies are still small that margin of error is small - as they get bigger, the error gets bigger and they say those measurements can be off by a pound (plus or minus) for a full-term baby.

I also received 2 steroid shots this week - the first on Monday and the second Tuesday. If you didn't know, steroid shots are given when they think you will have your baby (babies) prematurely, to help their lungs develop and help them accumulate fat faster (to keep them warm). So far, amazingly enough, I haven't shown any signs of pre-term labor so we are currently in the bast case scenario right now. It takes a few days of having the steroids in your system before they are really helping the babies so I am really glad to have gotten them even though it doesn't look like I need them. I know that the steroid shots helped Jacob when I suddenly started leaking amniotic fluid at 32.5 weeks and I'm glad that if the babies end up needing them, I got them - if I carry them to 37 weeks (what we are hoping for) the shots won't do them any harm.

This pregnancy has not been easy for me. In my What to Expect book, there is a chapter about expecting multiples and it gives a list of things that can be bigger problems when expecting twins or more. As I read through it the other night I was mentally checking everything off on the list: worse morning sickness - check; worse other digestive problems - check; worse exhaustion - check; worse other pains - check. There may have been more.

The thing that has been the most difficult to deal with is the exhaustion. In case you were wondering - I no longer clean my house, please don't drop by unannounced and expect it to look presentable. I guess part of cleaning the house is doing dishes - I don't do them anymore. Basically the more time I spend on my feet, the more likely I am to feel like I am going to fall over or pass out, and bending over to put things in the dishwasher with my big belly and chest kills my back, so I don't do it. I don't go grocery shopping - too much walking around is exhausting. Plus, it is just hard to deal with taking Jacob anywhere and getting him into and out of the vehicle. Pretty much we bum around the house all day.

The past month or so, I feel like I am just surviving the week. Once the weekend gets here I am so tired and sore, that I sit or lay around all weekend while Justin takes care of everything. By Sunday night I feel better and like I can tackle the week, but by Wednesday I am definitely ready for the weekend and Justin to be home to take care of Jacob. This week I have felt a little bit better - maybe the steroid shots have given me a bit more energy? I still know not to over-do it though and I make sure that I recognize those feelings of - if I don't sit or lay down now I may pass out.

By the way - Justin is amazing. It can't be easy to work full-time and then come home and have to take care of all of us. Everyday I think about how lucky I am to have Justin.

Here's to another 6 weeks before babies come!!!

30 weeks

2011-01-13T09:16:00.002-06:00

This week I hit 30 weeks. I am huge.
As of 3 weeks ago, Baby Boy A is laying across the bottom and Baby Boy B is laying across the top of my belly.

Around 22 weeks, I was the size I was when I was admitted to the hospital when pregnant with Jacob (at 32.5 weeks). I camped out around that size for the next 4 weeks or so, but over the last 4 weeks my belly has exploded. Amazingly - I only weigh about 5 pounds more than I was at 32.5 weeks with Jacob.

Now for a little TMI.

I never took any belly pictures when pregnant with Jacob. I felt like I never looked pregnant - just fat with big boobs and I really didn't want to document that. I think in this picture, it is obvious that my belly is big, but it is also masked by how large my chest is. I have always been top-heavy and used to say that it would be nice to have a reduction one day. I now say that a reduction will be a necessity one day. Unlike most - my chest did not shrink when I stopped nursing Jacob. And even though I started this pregnancy the same weight I started the last one, my chest started 3 cup sizes bigger (I gained a cup size during my pregnancy with Jacob and another 2 cup sizes when my milk came in). Now I am 4 cup sizes bigger than before I was ever pregnant. I am pretty much terrified by what will happen when my milk comes in this time around.

December ups and downs

2011-01-02T13:21:00.004-06:00

Our December was really like a roller coaster.

All the things we wish hadn't happened this past month:

Jacob got sick and it rapidly turned from just a cold to worse. Luckily we caught it early so it was only a mild case of pneumonia. Jacob had about 4 really awful days before he really started improving so we are glad we caught it early so that he was feeling lots better by his birthday.
I got sick and had a lot of trouble breathing in addition to feeling like I had the worst cold of my life. After 3 days of using an inhaler and still wheezing, my OB sent me to our general doctor where a nurse listened to me breathe and instructed me to go to the hospital. Luckily I started to dramatically improve while waiting to be seen - my wheezing stopped and a chest x-ray showed I didn't have pneumonia like Jacob did. Although very grateful to have such a sudden recovery - we know we won't be happy when we get the hospital bill.
We were in a minor fender bender in our newest vehicle - the Seminole Van. It was really minor, the damage is hardly noticeable and luckily no one was hurt. The whole thing is mainly frustrating. The people in the other car were facing us and trying to turn left across our lane, but they pulled partway into our lane and just stopped. The speed limit on the road is pretty fast, so slamming on our brakes wasn't enough and we hit front license plates. Because we weren't at fault we filed a claim with their insurance and they will pay to fix the van - we just have to figure out when to take it in, arrange for a loaner vehicle, etc. Just a huge inconvenience when I am having enough trouble just functioning day to day due to complete exhaustion.

And to end on a happy note - the ups from this past month:

At each of my doctor's appointments everything looked great with the babies.
We had great family pictures taken before anyone got sick.
My friends threw a nice little baby shower for me where there was great company, great food and cute baby stuff. Luckily the shower was before I got sick.
We had a great Christmas and enjoyed Justin's time off work. He didn't take any vacation time, because we are saving it for the when the babies come.
We found out that Justin has almost an entire 2 weeks of vacation that he saved to roll over to 2011 to use for the babies. So glad that his company lets him do that - I know lots of places have a "use it or lose it" policy.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-01T10:02:00.010-06:00

It is a good thing that we had decided a few months ago that we weren't going anywhere for Christmas this year. At my doctor's appointment on the Tuesday before Christmas I was informed that being pregnant with twins and in the 3rd trimester meant I wasn't allowed to travel anywhere. So we had a pretty low-key Christmas at home.

Christmas morning it was just the 3 of us. Santa brought Jacob a basketball hoop that he immediately started playing with.

The horse was from Justin's aunt and uncle. We aren't sure how long it has been in the family, but we know that Justin's cousins kids played with it when they were smaller. Who knows - maybe Justin played on it when he was little too. At first Jacob wasn't so interested in the horse - he just wanted to play basketball. Then he warmed up to the idea.

It took some work, but we finally got Jacob to start pulling things out of his stocking. Santa brought him some bath toys and some cars in his stocking.

We gave Jacob a Thomas the Tank Engine play tent. Jacob loves to climb into his tent - especially when Colby goes in with him. For some reason he thinks it is particularly funny for Colby to be in the tent with him.

Justin's dad ordered things for us that he had shipped directly to us already gift-wrapped. Here was one of Justin's gifts and Justin saying that it is his.

Here is a close-up of the tag on the gift. Looks like Amazon got their tags a little messed up.

Somewhere out there, someone named Robin got a gift whose tag said "To Justin From Santa".

We had a great Christmas and we finally got a Wii. We have been wanting one for a while so Justin was pretty excited to see that we had gotten one (since I'm the one that bought it, it wasn't a surprise for me).

Here is Jacob watching one of us play something on the Wii. He is too little to play, but he really seems to enjoy watching.

My parents got to our house around 1 in the afternoon on Christmas Day. We are really grateful that they came because we had a great Christmas dinner thanks to them. I mainly sat around while others worked on dinner.

It was nice to just stay at home for Christmas this year, but we will be happy in the future when we are able to be with more of our family for Christmas.

Family pictures

2010-12-28T08:30:00.006-06:00

We wanted to have our family pictures taken in November but I didn't call and schedule in time to get a November date. My friend, Laura, is an amazing photographer and I need to keep that in mind next year when I want to schedule our family pictures - her calendar fills up too fast!

Luckily we were able to have our pictures taken the first Saturday in December - barely in time to get Christmas cards out before Christmas and before Jacob got pneumonia.

It is hard for me to pick my favorites, but here are some of them. I posted all of the pictures on facebook.

Some of my cute little man:

Love this one of my two guys together:

Not sure if you can tell, but I'm pretty pale in this last one. This was snapped right before I realized that I was done. I had no energy left and had to call it quits on our photo session and actually lay down for a few minutes. Being pregnant with twins is hard!

Jacob as a 2-year-old

2010-12-27T14:08:00.004-06:00

Jacob has grown up so much in the last year.

Talking: Jacob doesn't have any words that he says, but that kid loves to babble at times. He doesn't even have a name for me or Justin.

Eating: A year ago we couldn't get Jacob to eat solids at all and he lived off of formula. Now he eats 3 meals a day and drinks less than 20 ounces of milk a day (as the pediatrician recommended) but he is seriously one of the pickiest eaters ever. He won't touch a fruit or vegetable - we even tried to give him freeze-dried apple crisps that looked like the baked chips he loves and he wouldn't even put it in his mouth. He has about 3 different things that we rotate feeding him for dinner.

Understanding: We can tell that even though Jacob doesn't talk, most of the time he understands what we say to him or at least a majority of what we say to him. A year ago, it seemed that he didn't understand anything we said to him.

Watching: For a long time Jacob has liked having the They Might Be Giants kids' DVDs on in the background, but now he has a few shows that he really loves and will actually watch them. He loves to watch Thomas and Friends that comes on PBS and he loves the movie Bolt. He also really likes Cars and Monsters, Inc.

Playing: Jacob really isn't much for playing with other kids right now, but he loves for adults to play with him. He also loves to be outside and play on the slide, swing or just wonder around and stick grass through the holes in the fence. He loves bubbles and is really happy about the bubble machine he got for his birthday.

Things Jacob likes: Jacob loves to "help" in the kitchen and will get upset if he isn't allowed up on a stool or chair to help or if he didn't get to help enough. Jacob loves books and will have me read him the same books over and over. He has been known to request me to read the same book to him 10 times in 1 day, even with other books sitting nearby.
Jacob and my pregnant belly

Jacob is 2!

2010-12-27T13:16:00.008-06:00

Justin and I decided a few months ago that we would keep Jacob's birthday really low-key this year. He didn't understand it was his birthday and we had a big party for him last year. We decided we would just have cake as a little family and give him a couple birthday presents. Because of my lack of energy and terrible carpal tunnel we were going to pick up a cake at the store. My parents wanted to come down and see Jacob to wish him a happy birthday and my mom offered to help me make a cake for Jacob, so we celebrated his birthday the Saturday before his birthday (3 days early).

The bad news is that Jacob started getting sick a week before his birthday and was diagnosed with a mild case of pneumonia on Thursday the 9th. So on Saturday he was still feeling pretty miserable. He was able to enjoy part of opening his presents, but he didn't enjoy his cake at all. Which made me a little sad because I think it turned out really cute.

Here is Jacob while we were singing happy birthday to him. Our singing must have been really bad.

The next night he was feeling a lot better and was able to enjoy his cake a little.

On Jacob's actual birthday (Tuesday the 14th), we sang to him again and let him try to blow out his candle. Instead he tried to grab the flame.

We also tried to take a picture of him with his elephant. He thought it was a big game.

Good thing we won't be attempting another picture with Jacob and his elephant for another year!

Halloween

2010-12-23T22:28:00.004-06:00

I know I'm quite a bit behind, but thought I would post some pictures of the cutest turtle ever.

And some of Jacob's other Halloween clothes.

This pregnancy

2010-11-14T09:00:00.001-06:00

Since we use our blog as a journal for our lives, I thought I would jot down a few things about this pregnancy.

First off I want to say that when I was unable to get pregnant (I almost said infertile, but we're still infertile - we just know what we have to do to get pregnant now) one of the things that I really hated was when people would say "I'm so ready to not be pregnant" or anything along those lines. It was infuriating to me because I wanted to be pregnant so badly. In fact up until this point I haven't really written about this pregnancy because I don't want to complain about being pregnant. So, I hope that as people read this, you keep in mind that I'm not trying to complain but keep a record for myself.

I think when I was pregnant with Jacob, I never loved it (I have heard of people who just love being pregnant and feel so great the whole time), but it wasn't terrible. I had morning sickness, but really only when I woke up at 6:30 to go teach class so on those mornings I took Zofran and felt fine. About half-way through the pregnancy I started experiencing a little heartburn and had to deal with carpal tunnel while I slept but each were easily remedied - Tums and wrist braces. It was a pain when I was told I had gestational diabetes, but I learned to deal with it and was able to always keep my blood sugar under control. We have no idea why I started leaking amniotic fluid at 32.5 weeks, but Jacob was able to hold out until 34 weeks to be born and although he was in the NICU for 10 days, he never had any problems.

This time around:

I started having really bad morning sickness around 5 - 6 weeks along. And I'm not sure if it is me or because I'm carrying twins but even though I felt so sick most of the time I was almost never able to throw up so I did plenty of dry heaving. Doesn't that sound lovely? Even once my doctor put me on Zofran, it only helped with the nausea but didn't totally take it away like last time. And last time I craved things like cheeseburgers and tex-mex food even in the first trimester. This time I still haven't had any cravings but especially up until around 15 weeks along I had a lot of trouble finding things I felt like I could eat and I would gag a lot while trying to fix food for Jacob. (I know a lot of people have worse morning sickness than that and I'm not sure how they survive.)

This time around my heartburn started right as my nausea was getting bad and the heartburn this time was a killer. It doesn't matter what I eat, or how slowly I eat so I am on prescription-strength Prevacid to take care of it. And if I forget to take the medicine in the morning, oh do I ever feel it in the afternoon/evening.

This time around the carpal tunnel started around week 9 or 10 and it is seriously about 10 times worse than last time. Some nights I am fine wearing the braces, but some nights I wake up without feeling in my hands and my wrists are killing me. The first time it happened I thought the braces weren't helping me anymore and I took them off for the rest of the night which proved to be a huge mistake, because by morning my hands and wrists were both so sore and numb that I could hardly grip anything and had trouble getting Jacob out of his crib and dressed. Last time I never had problems with carpal tunnel while I was awake, this time I have trouble grading papers, chopping things (in the kitchen), sometimes just trying to eat my hands start tinging and going numb. A friend who works as an occupational therapist showed me some stretches that are supposed to help carpal tunnel, but anytime I have done them I have the worst nights of all - maybe gestational carpal tunnel is totally different from regular carpal tunnel? Yesterday was by far the worst day so far with aching hands and wrists but today they are feeling quite a bit better (but still not totally fine).

I have really felt this time like I went from the feeling-awful-first-trimester to the uncomfortable-third-trimester with no wonderful 2nd trimester in between. I had almost no energy up until a couple weeks ago, but even now that I have some energy back I have to be super careful not to over-do it. When I over-do it I start feeling like I could pass out if I don't lie down and I have lower back pain later in the day (I never had back pain with Jacob).

I hope to carry the twins for another 3 and a half months before they are born, and I hope that I have the strength to make it through all of this because I know it isn't going to miraculously get better anytime before they are born.

2010-11-04T16:17:00.006-05:00

At the end of September when I went in for my OB visit, they did an ultrasound and told us that Baby A looked like a boy. Baby B was being especially modest. By the way, the nice thing about being a high risk pregnancy is how often I get the see the babies and make sure they are ok. I'm pretty sure I've already had a dozen ultrasounds and I just hit 20 weeks 2 days ago.

I was actually a bit disappointed because Justin and I had our hearts set on having at least one girl this time around. We had really hoped for a girl when we had Jacob, and since we don't think we plan on having any more this was the last chance. But we were hopeful that Baby B would be a girl.

Monday of last week we went in again and learned that both Baby A and Baby B are boys.

I have to admit, I had a tough week last week. I think just about everyone hopes for at least one girl and one boy when they have more than 1 child. You know if I had gotten news that I felt was exciting it would have been up here later that day, not 10 days later. But the fact that I am posting it now should say wonders about how much better I feel about our news.

I have chosen to not allow comments on this post because even though I know that people are trying to be encouraging and helpful, too many things have already been said to me that definitely don't make me feel any better. But in case you were wondering - I am grateful that we are having babies and they look to be healthy; we don't think there will be a next time so this is it; and to tell me that boys are easier and girls are just drama queens also doesn't help.

Here are our babies last week - the top picture is Baby Boy B and the bottom picture is Baby Boy A.

At least we will save some money because we won't have to redecorate the nursery at all.

CyFest

2010-10-21T16:20:00.004-05:00

A couple weekends ago the college that I work at threw their annual give-back-to-the-community-free-festival they call CyFest. Justin and I went a few years ago and thought that it would be a lot neater if we had kids.

This year we took Jacob, but a lot of things they had there would still be better for him once he is older. That and word has really spread and it was super super crowded.

Jacob's favorite part was the moonwalk, or bounce house. And they actually had 2 bounce houses - one for kids 3 and under, the other for older kids. He played in it for about 10 minutes right after we got there, and then for another 10 minutes before we headed home.

We thought Jacob would really enjoy the petting zoo, because he really likes animals, but he seemed not to care so much. In fact, all he wanted to do was play with the animals' feed. Strange kid.

I think he actually has feed in his fists which is why they are clinched so tight.

Our big little boy

2010-10-20T11:16:00.004-05:00

About a month ago, Jacob wouldn't eat very well while sitting in his high chair. But once we got him out, he wanted to be at the table with us eating. One morning for breakfast we decided to forgo the high chair completely and just stuck him in one of the chairs at the table.

We went out later that day and bought him a little booster seat instead - he is growing up so fast!

Mommy's Little Helper

2010-10-20T10:58:00.005-05:00

For as long as I can remember now, Jacob has been entranced by things that make loud noise that I might be using. Especially one of the three mixers in the kitchen, but when my mom was here using the sewing machine, he was equally entranced. He really wants to be up so he can see what is making the noise and what it is doing.

I used to start the mixer and then pick him up so he could see, but as he has gotten heavier and I have gotten more and more exhausted with pregnancy I can't really do that any more. So instead I pull a chair over for him to stand on and see what is going on.

Today I am making bread for the first time in a few months and as soon as the mixer started kneading, of course Jacob needed to see what was going on. Here is my little man, completely captivated by the mixer and "helping". I had to bust out the camera at how cute he is!

Our new ride

2010-09-21T09:00:00.003-05:00

The biggest item on our need-to-purchase-before-the-twins-arrive list was a bigger vehicle. Seriously - compact cars really weren't made for anyone with kids and the last 21 months have been tough anytime we wanted to go out of town. Especially when the entire backseat is taken up by a dog and a baby and the trunk really doesn't hold much more than 2 carry-on sized bags and a pack and play.

I know some people feel like they don't want to drive a minivan, as if it gives off a certain impression or something. Justin and I have never felt that way. Maybe we are just too practical, but we always knew that one day after we started having kids we would get a minivan.

We planned to get a minivan by the end of the year and we had been checking prices for the last few months and just getting an idea of what was out there, what we could afford, etc. Then just over a week ago, we were trying to attach a new sun shade to Jacob's window in the back of the Focus and the motor on the window gave out. The window kept sliding down as we drove and we kept having to push it up and closed every time we stopped.

We decided that it just didn't make sense to pay to fix the window on a car we were planning to replace in the next couple months anyway. And yes - we replaced the Focus and not the Civic, even though the Focus was younger and had fewer miles. We bought the Focus 6 years ago because we could afford it and it got good reviews online, but for a number of years now we have hated that car and all the problems we had with it. So we stepped up our search for a minivan.

Justin took the day off work on Thursday, and even though it was a long day (just ask Jacob how long the day was), we came home with what Justin has referred to as our "Seminole van" because of its color.

It is a 2007 Honda Odyssey EX-L with just over 47K miles. We got a really good deal on it and even though it doesn't have some features that would be nice (like a back-up camera), it has every feature we were wanting - including a warranty on the engine and transmission for as long as we own it (which will be a long, long time).

We have already taken a day trip to Austin and we are still in love with it!

Gearing up

2010-09-20T13:40:00.005-05:00

When Texas had its back-to-school tax-free weekend, there was one thing that I knew we needed. Lots of diapers. We hadn't announced it to the world yet, but we knew we were expecting twins which means we would be going through lots and lots of diapers.

We ended up spending about $300 on diapers that weekend (so we saved about $24 in taxes plus I had about $25 worth of coupons - I am always of the opinion that if it is something you know you need and not just want then spending money to save money is always smart). We got about 3-4 months worth for Jacob. But for the twins we came away with only about a month's worth. When Jacob was newborn, he went through about 10-12 diapers a day, so we are guessing that a box of 84 newborn diapers will only last us about 4 days.

We got 4 boxes of newborn diapers, 4 boxes of size 1, and a thing of 2's and 3's in addition to all the size 4's we got for Jacob.

We know we have lots more diapers to buy in addition to other things like a second high chair, second pack and play, triple stroller, second infant car seat. There's probably more. Maybe I should make a list.

Privacy

2010-08-31T20:59:00.002-05:00

It has been a couple years, so just a reminder that we are attempting to stay a little private without having a private blog. When leaving comments or linking to our blog from yours, please do not use our last name.

Thanks!

This summer

2010-08-31T08:29:00.013-05:00

Since classes started yesterday and my summer is now officially over I thought I would write a little something about what my summer was like.

This summer I did not:

take Jacob out to play as much as I thought I would or as much as I should have
work on making my curtains
keep my house as clean as it should be
organize any of the things I planned to organize around the house
bake much bread
work out after July 1st
pretty much do anything productive

This summer I did:

have about 15 doctor appointments
spend much of the last 8 weeks laying on the couch
spend the 4th of July weekend in bed
take medications from almost the beginning of my summer break until last week

What has been going on around here this summer?

Here are pictures of our two little embryos on July 2 - just minutes before embryo transfer.

And here are our two beautiful babies just yesterday. Top picture is Baby B and bottom picture is a profile shot of Baby A as well as the top of Baby B's head.

Our twins are officially due March 22, 2011. We are hoping they don't try to make an appearance any time before February 15th (35 weeks).

Jacob is a nut

2010-08-18T15:27:00.009-05:00

Over the last month or so, I've been taking pictures of the strange things our son does.

He loves to put these Rubbermaid containers on his head and walk around. There is one that is too small to fit on his head, so if he picks that one up and it won't go over his big noggin, he starts crying.

He loves to push Colby's big container of dog food all around the kitchen.

We think he likes cake, but he has really only had cake at his birthday and then he got a cupcake leftover from a baby shower I helped throw. What a waste of a cupcake, Jacob.

Lately when we give him his bath, he likes to lay down on his tummy in the tub. It would be much better if he would lay back on his back and let us rinse the shampoo from his hair.

Back in May we moved the coffee table in the living room out from the center of the room to right under the front window make room for tables. Then we decided to just leave it so the room was more open. But when Jacob started doing this recently, Justin moved the table back to the center of the room.

We loaned Jacob's Bumbo to a friend and recently got it back. Ever since getting it back, Jacob loves to sit in it.

And this is when he realized I was taking his picture so he made a cheesy face for the camera.

Jacob has learned how to pull himself up on the piano bench and he loves to play the piano. Let's hope that continues and he doesn't fight too much when I want him to take lessons.

Jacob loves playing with wheels, so someone taught him that if you tip the stroller over, you can play with the wheels. I can pick the stroller up and about 10 minutes later, I hear it crashing back to the floor again.

Jacob is such a nut!

Bad hair day

2010-08-05T13:36:00.002-05:00

Last week Jacob woke up with his hair sticking up every which way. After wetting it down and brushing it twice, I finally got it calmed down to this:

18 months old

2010-06-29T14:23:00.004-05:00

A couple of weeks ago Jacob turned 18 months old!

Jacob was a little tired and grouchy in this picture. Sundays are rough and leave this little guy without his nap so sometimes this happens on the way home from church:

It took 3 months, but we finally had molar #4 break through about 2 - 3 weeks ago! Now he has started working on getting those canines or eye teeth in. Does anyone else's kids take forever to cut teeth? I hear people say they had a miserable weekend while their kid cut teeth. If Jacob only had a miserable weekend that would be fantastic - instead he has a miserable couple months. Then we only get a couple week break before the next round start coming through. Teething is definitely the pits!

I took Jacob in this morning for his 18-month well check and he weighed in at 22 pounds (7th%-tile), and was 31 inches tall (12th %-tile). There is a little concern over the fact that he doesn't say any words, but he has always been a little more behind on his language development. I'm going to guess that this means he will start talking in the next month or so. And when I say talking I mean say a word or two that we understand because that kid loves to talk his baby babble.

The best thing about Jacob being 18 months old is that he is now old enough to go to nursery at church! The last 6 months have been difficult trying to keep Jacob entertained during Sunday School and Justin used to take Jacob into Primary with him at the end of church so he could be there for their singing time. But he has been a handful because he doesn't usually like to sit still!

I think something alerted Jacob to the fact that he was almost 18 months old and had never had an ear infection. So at the beginning of the month after getting over a cold he started running a high fever and feeling pretty crummy. A trip to the urgent care (because it was a Saturday) let us know he had his first ear infection ever and he started taking antibiotics that night. The next day he still acted like he was feeling horrible, but by Monday his fever was gone. We assumed his ear was getting better but he started having the worst congestion ever - he was snoring so loud because he couldn't breathe well. Finally that Wednesday I took him in to his regular doctor to find out that his antibiotics must not have been doing anything for him at all. The poor kid had to get a shot of antibiotics at the doctor's office and start on a much stronger prescription the next day. Jacob figured if he was going to have an ear infection, he was going to make it a memorable one.

Jacob likes:

playing outside
books
grilled cheese sandwiches, yogurt, french toast, pancakes and taco soup
balls
cars and trucks
being in his stroller and going for walks (too bad it is so dang hot here!)
playing the piano
looking out the windows
seeing dogs or playing with dogs
Wheel of Fortune
his bath

Jacob doesn't like:

any type of fruit
any type of vegetable
juice
being put in his car seat when we leave the gym
having to come back inside
for Mommy to leave him anywhere

An upgrade

2010-06-28T08:36:00.005-05:00

Lately I haven't liked trying to take pictures. Our little camera used to be great, but over the past several months it has been so difficult to get pictures that turn out decently - they are either not totally clear or they look like it was super dark and the flash is just illuminating the subject of the picture. And anyone who was here for bunco in May can tell you how annoying it was when it took 5 minutes to find a setting for the camera where the pictures would turn out at all.

On Saturday when we were at Costco we saw a great deal on a really nice point and shoot camera. Check out the difference!

Picture taken this morning with our old camera (this is actually a really good picture):

Picture taken this morning with our new camera:

Wow - you can tell that we don't live in a cave!

Jacob's new pool

2010-06-21T21:51:00.003-05:00

Jacob loves to play outside. I do not love the hot Houston summers though. So I decided to get Jacob a little pool he could play in and I could stick my feet in. I think he likes it.

Justin and Julie trivia

2010-06-10T14:37:00.004-05:00

In honor of our 6th anniversary, I decided to write up some Justin and Julie trivia. Some may read this and say - yeah I knew all that, but hey - this is all for posterity, right?

Justin and I are the same age and graduated from high school the same year. Technically though I am 3 months and 13 days older than him. I guess he goes for older women.
I finished my bachelor's degree 3 years before Justin finished his (thanks to his 2 year LDS mission in Samao). Justin finished his master's degree 1 semester before I finished mine.
Justin and I went on our first date August 28, 2002. Our second date was 6 months later on February 28, 2003. (Why 6 months between first and second date? Another blog post. Maybe.)
We decided we were definitely dating just after Spring Break in March 2003. Within a week I had accepted a summer internship in Kansas City and he had accepted a full-time job starting January 2004 in Tampa.
Everyone told me I was crazy for going to KC for the summer and that I would miss Justin too much. I told them all they were crazy because we had just started dating.
Justin drove out to Kansas City with me in May 2003 and we discussed the possibility of getting married.
Within a few days of being alone in KC I bought a plane ticket to fly back to see Justin in Tallahassee for the first weekend in June (because I missed him too much).
Justin came to Kansas City for the 4th of July weekend.
We were engaged in the Nauvoo Grove in front of the Nauvoo LDS temple on the 4th of July in 2003.
Our engagement lasted 49 weeks (forever for Mormons!!!) because we wanted to make sure I finished my degree but we didn't want to get married and live in different cities.
For the first 8 or 9 weeks that we were married Justin was out of town for work and we only saw each other on the weekends. We were basically living in different cities just like we did that last semester I was in school.
I grew up in Texas (from the age of 6 until leaving for BYU when I was 18, then I was back in Texas for 3 years before going to FSU), but Justin had never lived in Texas before August of 2006. Even though that makes it seem like Justin had no ties to Texas his dad and step-mom live about 20 minutes from my parents in the Dallas/Ft Worth area, and most of his dad's family live in Texas (especially around the Houston area).
We were married in Houston on Friday, June 11th and had a reception in Houston that night. The next day we had an open house in the Dallas area and 2 weeks later we had an open house in Tallahassee - I got a lot of use out of my wedding dress.
On our first date, we sang Guster songs together in the car. (Don't know who Guster is? That's not surprising since they aren't well-known, which is why it was interesting that we were both familiar with them.)
For our first anniversary we decided to go to Destin, Florida and enjoy the beautiful beaches there. The first tropical storm of the season also decided to go to Destin and we didn't get to go to the beach at all.
For our second anniversary we decided to go to Orlando and visit theme parks before we moved out of state. The first tropical storm of the season also decided to go to Orlando the same weekend so we only got to go to 1 park and it rained half the time we were there.

Urgent Care

2010-05-28T08:24:00.003-05:00

This week has not been the best week here. Amid car problems and a fussy kid (seriously, the molars started coming in 2 months ago and we still only have 1 all the way through) I tried to put us back on our normal routine and headed to the gym on Wednesday morning.

I have been trying to become a jogger again (I have never been a runner, but I have jogged a half marathon before) so I am starting my cardio on the treadmill everyday. I would love to be jogging a 5K everyday, but so far I have only made my way up to 2.5 miles. But on Wednesday I was feeling pretty well and was certain I was going to get my 5K in, when at 2.25 miles I saw the lady come out of the Kids' Klub make eye contact with me and motion for me to come down.

Urgh!!!

I just knew that Jacob's fussiness he had at home must have followed us to the gym and he was done. That and the people working there must have been done with him. I felt really bad when I walked in and saw that Jacob's forehead was bleeding. It seems that Jacob had something that another kid wanted so the kid came up behind Jacob and pushed him. He fell face-forward into the corner of the wall. Poor kid.

We ended up at Urgent Care where they were able to put Jacob back together with liquid stitches.

In the process we learned that for some strange reason the urgent care places closest to where we live don't open until noon Monday - Friday. Justin found one online for me that opened at 9, but when I got there the lady acted like I was crazy for walking in and informed me that although they opened at 9 the doctor wouldn't be in until 2:30 and they couldn't see any patients. Yeah, I'm still not understanding why they were open if they couldn't see patients.

At this point it was 11:30 so we decided to head back to the first urgent care place we went to and be the first ones there instead of heading to the ER where the wait would have likely been much longer. That and we only have a $20 co-pay for urgent care, but the ER would have cost Jacob's $300 deductible + 10% of the charges over $300.

And I was very happy that the blood stain came out of his little shorts!

Bread

2010-05-18T15:01:00.004-05:00

Last year I learned how to really bake bread. I had baked bread before, but I learned how to make the most amazing 100% whole wheat bread that can be as light and fluffy as white bread - no dough enhancers - just time, patience and A LOT of kneading.

I ordered a wheat grinder and got it a year ago, but then let it sit in the box for about a month before I finally got it out and started using it. I am proud to say that I haven't purchased a loaf of bread at the store since sometime last June! Now there have been times when we ran out of bread and we were breadless for a couple days before I baked again, but we have loved eating healthy homemade bread.

Some things I have learned over the last year - you can make whole wheat bread with red wheat, but it isn't nearly as good as it is with white wheat. I have also learned that bread turns out best when it is made on a less humid day which is hard to come by down here in the Houston area.

Even though I keep saying I am going to try another recipe from the lady that taught me how to make bread, this Buttermilk Whole Wheat is the only one I have made so far. One reason I love it is that it only has 7 simple ingredients - whole wheat flour, water, buttermilk, salt, yeast, brown sugar and butter.

When I was taught, we kneaded the dough by hand and it was a lot of kneading. The first time I made it at home by myself I also kneaded by hand and after a bit I gave up and the bread didn't turn out as light and fluffy as it should have been. Then I borrowed my mom's old mixer that is awesome!!! I hope she never wants it back!

And yes - that is my KitchenAid behind the older mixer. The lady that taught us to bake bread told us that the motor in a KitchenAid isn't strong enough to knead the bread and I have seen a few other recipes online for whole wheat bread that say the same thing. I use my KitchenAid for everything else though.

Baking this bread is quite the process - it starts at least a day in advance. Then it involves lots of kneading (even with a mixer), autolysing, lots more kneading, rising again, rolling out and shaping, rising again and then finally baking (I can only make bread when I know I will be at home for a large chunk of the day). But the final result is amazing!

The Splash Pad

2010-05-17T15:03:00.004-05:00

Last summer I didn't do much but hang out at home with Jacob. It was a killer hot summer last year and it hardly rained so it was best to just stay in the air conditioning. Plus, Jacob was so little that he didn't do anything if we went out anyway.

This year I want to get out and do things with him more often, especially since he likes to play so much. I took him to the spash pad for the first time ever just over a week ago and I think over time he will really like it. If you are wondering, a splash pad is an concreted area with all different kinds of fountains that the kids play in. It scares me a little to take Jacob to the pool by myself, but I don't have to worry about him falling into the water at a splash pad.

While we had family in town, we went to a splash pad on Friday and this time I was determined to get some good pictures of Jacob playing in the water (I forgot my camera the first time I took him). He saw the water grate and walked over to it and sat down to start playing with it and I got the camera out to take a picture.

What neither Justin nor I noticed was that right above the water grate was a bucket that, once full, turns and dumps all its water out. I thought I got the picture right before Jacob was clobbered by the water, but because of the delay our camera has it looks like I stood back and took a picture of my son practically drowning.

Also what you don't see is that Justin was just out of the shot and ran up and grabbed Jacob right after he was so brutally knocked over. This was the only picture I took on Friday because we spent the next little while trying to console our screaming child. Luckily, after a little while he seemed to have mostly forgotten the incident.

33 already?

2010-05-17T14:44:00.004-05:00

Last week I celebrated my 33rd birthday. I don't really mind getting older, because so many people always tell me that I don't look that old. :)

We had some of Justin's family in town, so Justin took the day off work (and the next day too) and we celebrated all day. We went to breakfast at IHOP and then headed down to the Kemah boardwalk for a few hours. We took Jacob on the train there and due to a problem with the first train we got on, we got to take him on the ferris wheel for free. He loved both of them!

Justin, Jacob, Julie and Justin's mom, JanJacob loving his train rideThanks Eric for being our photographer while we rode the train!

After spending a few hours in Kemah it was time to head back home so I could get everything ready for Bunco. I agreed to host Bunco this month way back in October last year. At first I was a little bummed to be hosting and in charge on my birthday, but then I was pretty excited to be able to throw myself a big birthday party. Another one of my friends has the exact same birthday, although she is quite a bit younger, so I made each of us a giant cupcake as a birthday cake for our dessert that night.

My cake is red velvet with cream cheese frosting, Kaytryn's is a dark chocolate cake with a fluffy frosting that I made chocolate on the bottom and left vanilla for the top (but colored it pink).

I was completely overwhelmed with birthday wishes on facebook this year and couldn't respond to everyone. But it really was a great birthday!

Infertility Etiquette

2010-04-27T06:29:00.007-05:00

As I said in my last post, people sometimes say the dumbest things to you when you are infertile. I guess sometimes they are trying to be helpful, but most of the time it really just comes across as mean and insensitive.

Just days after we found out my tubes were blocked and it was impossible for us to get pregnant on our own, we had a big dinner party at our apartment. It was the beginning of December and all of our Christmas decorations were up (we didn't have much, but it looked like a good amount since our apartment wasn't nearly as big as our house is). Someone commented on how cute the decorations were and how they needed to put theirs up. Someone else there who I didn't know as well said something to the effect of "Yeah, it must be sooo much easier to make things like that a priority when you don't have kids."

Even though what she said was rude and she had no idea of knowing our situation, it wasn't as much what she said but how she said it. She continued to make comments all night about how my life must be so easy since I didn't have kids. Even after the party, another friend apologized for how rude this lady was. I was glad that I never saw her again.

Another lady at church used to say things to me quite frequently as well. Things like "You guys go out of town a lot, it must be nice to just be able to take off like that. Those of us with kids don't get to do that." Again, it wasn't really what she said but it was how she said it. She would make a comment about things I did that I wouldn't do if we had kids every time she talked to me. After a few months of trying to avoid her, she walked up to me while someone else was discussing my fertility doctor with me. The look on her face was clear that she had no idea we weren't able to get pregnant and from that point on she never made those kinds of comments to me again that she had always made before. I guess before she thought she was going to guilt me into have children. Who knows.

On a side note - people who seemed the rudest to me about having children were in Tampa. No wonder I didn't like living there much. Maybe it is because there are a lot more people around me here who have fertility problems so as a general rule people are more sensitive to it. This isn't to say that everyone I know from Tampa was like this - most of them weren't. But if you have ever wondered this is just one of the reasons I was slightly miserable there.

Everyone knows someone that is infertile (whether you know they are or not). If you are reading my blog, then I guess you know me (I don't think anyone reads my blog that I don't know outside of cyberspace). Because everyone knows someone infertile, everyone should be a little familiar with things they shouldn't say to people who are infertile. This article has some great information about things to say or not say to someone who may be having fertility issues. You can read the article in its entirety here, but here are some of the things that stuck out to me the most.

Don't Tell Them to Relax
I'm infertile, not uptight.

Don't Say They Aren't Meant to Be Parents
Someone once said something like this to me as she ignored her kids. I went home and cried. How could she be meant to be a parent and not me? That is just ridiculous.

Don't Complain About Your Pregnancy
It is hard to believe that this one has to be stated, but a lot of friends complained to me about their pregnancies before I ever got pregnant with Jacob. Even 2 years later, I don't really want to hear women complain about how uncomfortable they are/were the last month. I would love to be pregnant and go through that last month - at least then I would know that there was a better chance of my child being healthy and not worry as much about them having problems.

But something you can do:
Remember Them on Mother's Day
One of the most depressing days of my life was Mother's Day of 2007. Not only was it Mother's Day, but it was also my 30th birthday. Only 2 of my friends remembered me at all and called to talk to me. We spent the day with Justin's family and most of them didn't even realize it was my birthday. I felt like I didn't matter at all. It is terrible to have people forget your birthday, multiply that by 10 when it is Mother's Day and you aren't a mom.

Awareness week

2010-04-26T07:31:00.002-05:00

I just found out that this week (more precisely April 24th - May 1st) is National Infertility Awareness Week. It looks like it isn't the same time every year, but isn't it interesting that exactly 2 years ago we were starting injections for in vitro?

Being infertile is the hardest thing that we have ever gone through (and continue to go through). And while most people are understanding, so many people say the dumbest things to you when you are infertile. I'll give people the benefit of the doubt though and say that I'm pretty sure they don't intend to be as mean as they seem.

If you don't know much about infertility, Infertility 101 is a great place to start.

Finally some new posts

2010-04-06T13:52:00.002-05:00

The last month has been busy around here and mostly because everyone at our house has spent a bit of time under the weather.

I had planned to get a lot of stuff done over my spring break (including starting on those stupid curtains), but I started feeling lots of congestion on Monday of spring break week. At first it seemed like it was just some allergy problems and a couple days later I started feeling a little better. Then the next day I started feeling way worse. I then proceeded to have one of the worst colds I have ever had. Why do I always, always get sick over spring break?

This year, I decided to share my cold with Jacob. Justin didn't need my cold, because this year he has been suffering with the worst allergies he has ever had.

I have a very strong belief that no one on earth has worse allergies in the spring time than Justin has. His eyes have been so irritated and scratchy that he hasn't been able to wear his contacts for a month. That may not sound like a big deal to most, but since Justin has keratoconus it means Justin has been practically blind for the last month. And if Justin spends any time outside lately, his eyes turn all red and get all goopy. Yuck. Plus his eyes feel like they are burning.

Once spring break was over I was still sick, but the semester gets busier and busier the closer we are to the end. I feel like I am caught up for the moment, but in the next 5 weeks I will give 3 exams (2 of which I haven't even written yet) so I will have lots of work to get done before the semester ends.

After 2 weeks of being sick and another week and a half of feeling fine but coughing all the time, I think I am finally better. Now if we can just get Justin through the worst allergy season that Houston has ever seen...

Not a milestone to really celebrate, but...

2010-04-06T13:41:00.003-05:00

On Sunday as we were driving back from Texas City we hit a milestone in our youngest car.

We really aren't liking the fact that both of our cars now have over a hundred thousand miles each on them, but we aren't willing to invest in a newer vehicle yet.

15 months old

2010-04-06T13:11:00.005-05:00

We did take a few pictures of Jacob with his elephant a few weeks ago when he turned 15 months old (I have just been too busy to post them).

The last update that I did about Jacob was when he was a year old, so I thought I would tell a little bit about Jacob now and how he has changed.

At 1 year old Jacob had 2 teeth. At 15 months he had 7 teeth and he now has 8 (and has some molars trying to come in that are making all of us miserable).

At 1 year old Jacob wouldn't really eat solid food and many times when we tried to feed him he would gag and throw up everywhere. Over the last few weeks Jacob has gotten a lot better about being able to eat solids, but he is super picky about what he will eat. He still doesn't like things like apple sauce or mashed potatoes (I guess because of their textures) but he loves bread items so he eats french toast and grilled cheese a lot. He really doesn't seem to care for any fruits and he doesn't like most vegetables but I can get him to eat some of my homemade chicken noodle soup that has pieces of carrot and celery in it as well as cauliflower and sweet potato puree.

Even though he is eating solids now, he doesn't really get that these are his meals and wants to drink lots of milk. Because we know he doesn't eat enough to get all the nourishment that he needs we are mixing his sippy cups and night-time bottles with half toddler formula and half whole milk. In the last couple of weeks he has decreased his milk intake from about 40 ounces a day to more in between 25 and 30 ounces a day since he eats more.

At 1 year old Jacob was crawling everywhere. At 15 months old Jacob is pretty good at walking and usually prefers to walk, but when we want him to walk, he crawls instead. Stubborn kid.

Jacob loves playing with balls and taking them over to the tile floor so he can make them bounce (or depending on what type of ball it is, so it makes a loud noise when he throws it down). He also loves things with wheels. He loves to take toy cars, trucks and things with wheels and turn them over on their sides or upside down and spin the wheels.

At 1 year old, it was hit or miss if Jacob would sleep through the night or not. Now he usually sleeps until between 6:30 and 7 every morning as long as he isn't sick or something like that.

We love seeing Jacob grow and his personality develop!

Easter weekend

2010-04-06T12:34:00.008-05:00

We spent our Easter weekend with friends on Saturday and family on Sunday making it a great weekend.

On Saturday we had some friends over for a cookout. We grilled, ate and visited while the kids ran around like crazy. Well, Jacob didn't do much running around. He was super fussy the entire time and made it difficult for both Justin and I to take turns eating. We kept trying to get him to try the food, but he didn't want any of it.

I made a bunny cake to celebrate Easter and it was delicious (and not at all good for you). I think the bunny may have turned out looking better the last time I made it, but oh well.

On Sunday morning the Easter bunny had visited and brought Jacob a few things.

Patiently waiting for his basket.

The Easter bunny knew that Jacob would like the Fridge Farm he is holding above because he really liked playing with it at Grant's house a few weeks ago.
A little boy can never have too many trucks, right?

After I spent the morning making rolls, we headed down to Texas City to Justin's cousin's house to celebrate Easter with Justin's dad's family. We got there just in time for them to start the egg hunt and the kids lined up outside for pictures.

We couldn't get Jacob to stand up with his cousins and then he decided that checking out the pretty pink flowers behind everyone was neater than having pictures taken.

A picture of the kids with great-grandma and grandpa before the egg hunting could begin.

Just as we thought, Jacob didn't hunt any eggs. He was too busy playing with leaves and grass, but he did enjoy the egg that we gave him.

We hope everyone else had a great Easter weekend!

The first haircut

2010-03-15T12:53:00.006-05:00

We broke down and took Jacob in for his first haircut on Saturday. His hair was always in eyes and at times it was looking like it was out of control, at other times it didn't seem too long at all.
Here is his before shot:

We took him to Cool Cuts for Kids because we knew that they would cater to a little one, but I really think that $18 is too much to spend to get his hair cut. I guess we'll figure out what to do next time when the time comes.

He loved the little car they had him sit in.

In fact, he didn't pay any attention to the little TV that was playing right in front of him, he just kept steering the little firetruck and trying to reach forward to ring the bell. I think that Jacob may be a little smaller than most of the kids that come in because they brought over an extra cushion to put in the bottom of the car so his feet wouldn't be dangling. That may have been a mistake though because he kept trying to stand up and crawl over the top to get to the bell.

We were definitely the cheesy parents there with both a video camera and a still shot camera. After a little while Jacob started to get super frustrated that we weren't just letting him play with the car so I put the camera away and had to hold him back so he could get his hair cut. Justin got all the fun and commotion on video, but I can't remember how to transfer the video images to the computer.

And some after shots (sorry about his runny nose - yuck!).

Like Brothers

2010-03-12T08:00:00.004-06:00

We love the fact that in a lot of ways, Jacob and Colby are like brothers. Colby seems to like Jacob and is often times jealous that he gets to go with us anytime we leave the house. Jacob just loves Colby and laughs at him, plays with him, etc.

Yesterday Colby was laying on the floor and Jacob decided to join him. Amazingly I was able to get a couple pictures before either of them got up.