Easter

Easter Sunday we headed over to Draper and celebrated with my parents and my brother's family. Lucy plays so well with her cousins and they really have grown to love each other. They had an Easter egg hunt and it was hilarious to watch. Kylie and Lucy bolted to all of the eggs. They were so fast.

2 month checkup

The last two months have been so fun. I love being a mom. All the kids are doing so well. The boys are growing so fast! We had their two month checkup and here are the stats:

Jacob

Height: 1' 9"

Weight: 10lb 14oz 

(That's almost 5 lbs more than birth!)

Luke

Height: 1' 9.5"

Weight: 9lb 13oz

Our day begins at around 7am when the boys wake up for breakfast. Ben and I feed them a bottle. Jacob is up to 6 oz every feeding and Luke drinks 4oz. Then we have another feeding around 10-11am, 1-2pm, 5pm, and 8-8:30pm. We have a pretty strict routine but feeding times change according to fussiness. We feed, then change diapers, playtime/tummy time, then nap. We swaddle them for naps and they love it. They sleep in separate cribs now. After the 5:30pm feeding we keep them awake until bedtime. We put them down at 8:30pm and they sleep until 6:30am or 7am and then we start again.

They both love the car. It soothes them so much. We are back into our routine of going to the library, and running errands. I leave a lot of time to prep for each trip. Everywhere we go I park, get out the double snap-n-go, get both babies out, let Lucy out and then we head to our destination. I have to allow for a lot of time but I love it. It has really helped me to slow down. Instead of rushing everywhere and getting grumpy when shoes and jackets aren't on, I can take my time, drive slow, and get where I need to go on time. I don't get as much done in the day but that is fine with me.

Both boys are smiling now. It takes a lot of work to get it out of them but it melts my heart every time. 

 Lucy has started to take selfies and her smile is pretty cute too!

Baby Blessings

On April 13th Ben blessed the boys in Sacrament meeting. It was amazing to see how different the two blessings were. I am so grateful that Ben has the priesthood. My brother and his family came along with my parents.

Jacob Daniel was blessed first. He was blessed with:

- Knowledge of Heavenly Father's love and a testimony of the restoration of the Gospel.

-Diligence in sharing that testimony

-Stalwart in defending the Truth

-Will prepare to serve a full time mission where he will continue to share the Gospel.

- Blessed with health

- Love of family

-Strong desire to learn

- Will live a righteous life

- Prepare to meet a worthy young women who he will marry in the temple and have an eternal family

- Firm defender of faith with strong testimony to share

- Blessed with other talents and things the Lord has in store for him.

Luke Andrew was blessed next. He was blessed to be:

-Strong and Smart

-Will be a leader and example

-Will bring peace and happiness to family and those around him.

- Desire to search the scriptures

-Athletic talents and other talents

-Strong testimony and deep understanding of the atonement

-Strong testimony of prayer

-Will receive strength and happiness through Heavenly Father

-Serve a full time mission

-Ability to get to know many people

-Meet a righteous lady to marry in the temple

-Will have an eternal perspective

- Have peace and joy

-And many other blessings that Heavenly Father sees fit

Afterwards we came back to our house for a small lunch.

Family Pictures

In March we got family pictures taken. I am so happy with how they turned out!

February and March

The boys are now two months old and the time has gone by so quickly and has been so fun. I have really enjoyed my time with the kids. Ben's mom was out here for two weeks and helped out while I recovered. After about a week, I felt pretty confident that I could handle things on my own. I continued preschool for a few weeks after the boys were born and then decided it was time to end it. I really tried to simplify our lives and it was such a great decision for everyone's happiness.

Throughout February and March the boys slept until 3am or 4am and then I would feed them. When one wakes up, I wake up the other. It has worked out really well. For a few weeks I would feed both of them in the night. I decided to recruit Ben and he then would feed one while I fed the other. We would go back to bed and then start our day at around 7:30am. The are really good babies.

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.