Happy Birthday to the Twins!

Jacob Daniel was born on Tuesday February 18, 2014 at 8:21am. He weighed 6 lbs 2 oz and was 19 inches long. 

Luke Andrew was born 8 minutes later at 8:29am. He weighed 5 lbs 15 oz and was 18 1/2 inches long. 

They are beautiful and perfect.

Now for the birth story....

Ben left on Monday night to pick up his mom at the airport. He got home and we went to bed at 11 pm. I woke up at 4 am to another painful contraction. It wasn't a surprise to me because I wake up several times each night and had been for over a month to awful Braxton Hicks contractions. I got up to go to the bathroom and my water broke. I waited a little because I wasn't actually sure if it was my water that broke. I woke up Ben and he called my doctor and I started to clean the bathroom floor and get ready to go. We left our house at around 4:30am. On the drive I tried to count between contractions. I had about 4 really good ones on the drive down that were distinctly different from my usual Braxton Hicks. So we assumed they were about 20 minutes apart. Ben and I kept good conversation on the way down. We got to the hospital at around 5:45. I was at a 4 cm when the nurse checked me. And she proceeded to tell me that my contractions weren't 20 minutes apart, they were 1-3 minutes apart. My reaction, "Oh okay, that's good."

  At 6 am the shifts changed and the new nurse finished all of my registering while I answered questions and breathed through a few contractions. She checked me afterwards and I was at a 10. She was shocked, I was shocked, and then it was time to quickly roll me into the OR because these babies were coming. We had to wait for my doctor to arrive. When he did, I started to push. It is sooooooo hard to push during contractions, especially when there are two babies there getting squashed. I could do it, but it wasn't very effective because the pain surging through my body made it hard to concentrate. Was I pushing? Was I pushing correctly? I couldn't figure out what I was doing. After a half an hour of pushing I heard a nurse say, "Let us know if you want an epidural." Oh, I could have that? Okay. Sure. I am so glad I did. Not because I couldn't handle the pain. I'm not gonna lie, the pain isn't as bad as people say. Instead I got the epidural because it so helpful in helping me figure out what my body was doing. I could concentrate, push, and have success. So I pushed for another 30 minutes and Jacob Daniel arrived. It was so quick, he cried, and then it was onto baby #2.

Baby #2, Luke Andrew, was breech. So my doctor tried turning him. It took awhile and even then there was no success. So he pulled the kid out feet first. It was going well until his poor head got stuck. Ben filmed it and it is the longest few minutes ever. Everyone in the room was dead silent and I could see by the look on my doctors face that things weren't going as well as they should. Not only was he stuck but he was purple. After a little push a few minutes later he came out. But he wasn't breathing. After the longest couple of minutes of my life I finally heard a weak little cry coming from Baby #2. Throughout my entire laboring process I didn't really make a sound. I didn't scream, or cry, or yelp in pain. But as soon as I heard Luke's cry, the emotions flooded over me along with a lot of tears. He was okay, and that little cry was a huge relief. 

The rest of my stay at the hospital was so good. All of the nurses were excellent. The service and care were excellent. I have nothing to complain of. We were able to narrow the names down to 3 by Wednesday morning and by Thursday morning we finally confirmed the names. I was home by Thursday afternoon and have quickly recovered. I am adjusting to the lack of sleep and have a lot of help from Grandma. They are on a pretty strict schedule and so far they only wake up once a night for feeding (at around 3am) and then they wake up again around 7am.

Both babies were healthy and strong. They are perfect. They are gorgeous. They are completely different from one another. Jacob has brown hair. He needs a little more attention than his brother. He prefers nursing over a bottle. He struggled eating anything at first and now he's a champion eater who requires more food than his brother. He hates diaper changes and he struggles sleeping and has tummy aches.

His brother Luke is our little squawker. He is chill but he'll randomly shout out to let everyone know he's still there. He is blonde. He burps like a grown man. And sleeps so well. He's already gotten a cold and recovered. He refuses to nurse and will only take a bottle. 

Lucy loves her brothers. I would've sworn she's done this before. She's interested in her brothers, but not really enough to smother them. She gets bored playing with them so she does her own thing most of the time. Their crying doesn't bother her. She ignores them more than I thought she would. She's actually pretty helpful. 

I am so happy to be home with them. I hated the last couple months of my pregnancy and now I know why...My braxton hicks were as bad as real labor! But I am so grateful my body stuck it out so that my boys could be healthy and come home with me. I am so grateful that I had a wonderful doctor who was willing to deliver these boys naturally and that it was successful! I am so grateful that my water broke so that I knew when to go to the hospital because I had every intention of going back to bed. I am so grateful that Ben's mom arrived the night before. I am grateful that Ben was such a good support throughout the whole thing. This entire process has been miraculous. It is no question in my mind that Heavenly Father wanted these boys to come to earth and join our family at this time.  

Jacob (Left) and Luke (Right)

Luke (Left) and Jacob (Right)

Jacob

Luke

Luke (Left) and Jacob (Right)

BYU Alumni Hockey Game

Last minute we decided to go to the BYU alumni hockey game again this year. Ben scored 2 goals and assisted in 3 others. He got to play with his original line from college, Jimmy and Josh Burkart. They had such a good time together. I wish I was better at taking action shots because I didn't get any good pictures of the game.

Lucy had such a fun time. She was well behaved the entire time and stayed by me. She loved clapping and cheering. She also got to participate in "Chuck a Puck." She was thrilled to get to throw her blue puck. I couldn't lift her so some random guy lifted her for me.

Afterwards, Ben took her skating.

Ben's a stud. I'm glad he got to play. I'm glad I got to go and support him, but man those benches are extremely unconfortable.

Yes, it's another pregnancy post (sigh)

I swore I wouldn't be that girl that blogs and posts on the internet every little detail about her pregnancy. I have officially become my worst nightmare. I never dreamed of making it this far along and I am getting really antsy, so I blog.

35 Weeks

I'm 35 weeks. Can you believe it? I am grateful I have made it this far. And I want the boys to stay put as long as they need, but holy cow I am ready for them to get out of me. The magic number is now at 65. 65 pounds that is. And I feel as though it is all in my belly. I haven't really swelled or gained weight anywhere else. The puffiness in my face, I am almost positive, is from my lack of sleep and severe cough and cold.

Ben got me this darling diaper bag for Christmas. I love my JJ Cole bag. I love that its a backpack so I can still have my hands free.

I also love the bedding that Ben got the boys for Christmas. I got orange sheets for them and I can't decide if I'm sold on the orange sheets. What do you think? We finished setting up the nursery this weekend. These boys are so spoiled. Lucy never had a nursery. She had a crib and a stroller. Clothes were organized in boxes on the floor and pretty much anything she had was hand me down or gifted to her. No jumperoos, no playmats, no swings. These boys have got it all. But I figure they may be my last, so I'm gonna live it up. And Lucy has been getting a lot of perks lately too considering she's going to be the only girl. Tomorrow's perk, sparkle shoe shopping for my little princess.

Hopefully this is the last pregnancy update and the next update is on the handsome little boys' arrival.

Baby Shower and Pregnancy Update

Last weekend some of my really good friends put on a neighborhood baby shower for me. Over 20 people came. It was amazing to receive all of that love and support. I have a great neighborhood. Emily, Melinda, Tiffany, Becca, and Ashley spent so much time and effort putting it together. They are over achievers. Emily and Ash spent 12 hours the day before making the amazing cake! Not only did it look amazing but it tasted amazing too! I failed to get pictures with the hosts. They are seriously amazing.

This last week my pregnancy has turned upside down. I have felt as you would expect someone with twins to feel when they are pregnant. This last week has really got me complaining. My nighttime contractions are getting more and more painful as the babies are getting bigger. They keep me up most of the night, along with heartburn. The doctor gave me a prescription to stop preterm labor and I take it 3 times a day. I also had to go in to get some corticosteroids to help speed up the lung development of the boys in case I do go into labor. The morning after I took the contraction medicine I woke up like this:

I went to bed with skinny cute feet and woke up like this. I have been massaging my feet and it has helped a lot.


On a good note, the babies are doing excellent. As of my 32 week appointment they were about 4 1/2 lbs each (who knows how accurate that is though). On Monday after my NST my doctor said that their fetal monitoring charts were the perfect model for what they want to see happening with the babies. They have good heart beats, good movement, good development, you name it. And now that they've have the steroids for lung development they should be healthy if they arrive any day. They might have trouble feeding until after 35 weeks but that is expected.

31 weeks

 33 weeks

I was determined to dress better this pregnancy because I didn't get ANY maternity clothes last time. I went to DI and bought some very large tent clothes that still had tags on them and altered them. The two shirts above are my favorites. I wish I had taken a before picture because they really did look like tents that had major ruffles.

At around 20 weeks when we found out we were having boys I started to collect all the gear I needed. I noticed Lucy's old car seat was pretty faded and needed to be recovered so I worked on that. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

I made a matching canopy for it that I love. One baby will be orange and grey child, the other one will be blue and green. 

I have also recovered the bobby to be more gender neutral. I love that this pregnancy forced me to pull out the sewing machine again. It had been a while.


Today's goal is to pack the hospital bag and wash all of the baby clothes. The dresser that we ordered is in transit as we speak and this weekend we're headed to target to buy everything else we need including the bedding.

New Year Resolutions

I've mentioned this before but I love making resolutions. I kept my 2013 goals in mind all year round and was able to accomplish all of them for the most part.
Review of 2013 Goals

1. Read 25 novels. I read 23 novels. I went on a reading hiatus sometime in June when I was really sick and it took a couple months to get back into it. I really enjoyed my reading list with the exception of a few. My favorites were probably The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Scarlet Letter, and Divergent. My least favorites were Catch-22, Me Talk Pretty One Day (I don't suggest ever reading it), and Anne of Avonlea (that girl drives me nuts!)
 2. Get Lucy in gymnastics and preschool. Grantsville doesn't have gymnastics available anymore but dance has been amazing.
3. Buy a car. I love my Traverse and it has really made my days go with ease especially with all of the doctor appointments and things that Lucy needs to get to.
4. Go on a big vacation. Ben and I wanted to go somewhere tropical but we ended up going to St.George which was a blast! It was so fun.
5. Build back porch. This goal got put on the back burner when we had IVF and bought a car.
6. Frame entire basement. Instead of framing the whole basement we decided to complete one entire room so that we have a guest room after the boys arrive.
7. Catch up on scrapbooking.  Accomplished
8. Get 100% visiting teaching.  Accomplished
9. Send out birthday cards to all family members. Accomplished
10. Follow my daily schedule. Accomplished
11. Have FHE every week. We did fairly good but struggled for a few months when I was sick.
12. Read the Doctrine & Covenants and The Pearl of Great Price. Accomplished
13. Go to the temple every month. I went 10 times but Ben made it all 12 months.
14. Go on a date every month.  We did so many fun things this year.


2013 was an amazing year. We have had so many blessings occur and did so many fun things as a family. The most exciting news of course is that we got pregnant with twins. That whole experience was full of ups and downs and we are so happy to have it over with but we are grateful for the things that we learned during the process. Ben did well at work and had a lot of fun on local sport leagues. He put together his own softball team and ended the season by winning the championship game making their stats 18-0. He's been working hard on building a room in our basement. Lucy started preschool and dance and continues to go to story time weekly and Home Depot's kid's club monthly. She has a busy schedule for a 3 year old and handles it well. She has become so helpful. This has definitely been my favorite year of parenting, although I have loved every one.  I have been filling my time teaching, and driving Lucy around to all of her activities. I feel like I have become a better parent to Lucy this year and that is probably the accomplishment that I feel the proudest of for 2013. I have been keeping myself busy with projects and in Primary.

2014 Goals
1. Read the Book of Mormon and memorize the Book of Mormon scripture masteries. 
2. Start my morning with a prayer.
3. Read 15 novels.
4. Lose all of the baby weight. 
5. Finish landscaping the front yard.
6. Listen more and talk less. 
7. Stay positive even when I'm tired. This sounds so silly but I'm a really good complainer and starting in a month or so I won't be getting any sleep and I don't want it to affect my family.
8. Stop breaking my split-ends.This also sounds like a silly goal but it's an awful habit.
9. Have professional family pictures taken.
10. Continue having FHE every week and continue going to the temple frequently. 


Things I look forward to in 2014:

1. My baby boys arriving! The excitement didn't really set in until late in this pregnancy. I was so concerned with possible complications that it was just until recently that I've been able to enjoy the idea of having two new babies to hold and to cuddle.
2. Finishing up preschool at home(mainly I'm excited to clean it all up!)and sending Lucy to Pre-K. I feel like my house is turned upside down. I would do it again in an instant but I think it is time to pass the torch over to Karma's Kiddie Korner.
3. Lucy's birthday! We promised her Disneyland when she turns 4 but she's agreed that the Circus would be alright too if the boys are too tiny.