Pregnancy Must-Haves

I've found that a few things are absolutely vital to my survival and happiness during pregnancy.  In no particular order:

1. My Kindle - I've spent more and more time on my bed with my feet up during this pregnancy than my others and my Kindle is always in my hands!! How nice to be rid of the stack of books on my dresser.  I even read my scriptures from my Kindle every night. LOVE it!
2. Ice Water - It's always been difficult for me to drink enough water but now it always sounds good to me.  There's nothing like a giant cup of ice water to keep me feeling refreshed throughout the day.
3. MAC Studio Fix Powder and Concealer - Some lucky ladies get that "pregnancy glow" but I get the "pregnancy blotches" instead.  I hate heavy makeup and never wear foundation.  These products give me just enough cover to look normal and cover the dark circles without being a greasy mess.
4. Fruit - Luckily, I'm always craving a good piece of fruit.  Don't get me wrong, I still need my chocolate and the occasional candy but often if I eat a piece of fruit first, I feel satisfied!
5. Jonathan - With only 13 weeks left to go (can you believe it??) I'm starting to slow down and have needed my honey's help much more lately.  He has been a wonderful support and partner through it all.  He'll often make me lie down while he bathes the kids and puts them to bed.  He lets me nap if I'm super tired and he's not drowning in homework.  I love this guy!

What are some things you can't live without?

The first of many this year

You might think there was something going around the Green/Bush families when you hear the number of babies joining our families this year.  On the Green side, 4 of the 5 of us girls are pregnant.  That means there will be 5 new babies this year, starting with Audra who is due in just a few days.  Then there's me and the twins, Laura and her second baby, and Annie with her third in October!  For the Bush side, we've got Melissa who just had a beautiful baby boy this week, me (with the two), and Natalie with her fourth in August. 

Grand Total: 7 babies

My sweet sister-in-law, Melissa, had her sixth little bundle of joy a few days ago on the 30th of March.  He is so precious.  Melissa found out after a few months of her pregnancy had passed that the baby had Down Syndrome.  He also has clubbed feet, meaning his feet rotate inward at his ankles (the cutest little feet you've ever seen).  Needless to say, it's been a difficult journey for her and her family to adjust to the reality but what a blessing that little boy is!  He's been in the NICU since he was born trying to gain his strength and things are looking really good for him.  Jon and I were able to drive up to the hospital yesterday to visit them and to see the baby (he's still nameless ;) ).  Melissa had requested that I be there at the birth to document for them but that little guy decided to come a few days earlier than scheduled!  

Being in the NICU was a new experience for me.  If you've never visited one before, here are a few things I observed.  First, you have to scrub in (yes, I was living my Grey's Anatomy fantasy).  Being in the NICU is an emotional thing.  All of these babies wouldn't have had a chance 100 years ago.  It's a miraculous thing.  It's kind of a solemn, peaceful place with dimmed lights and angel nurses tending to these little, tiny humans--some with feet no bigger than my big toe.  I'm grateful that those babies and families have the second chance a NICU offers.  I also know that I don't ever want my babies to have to go there.  It's emotionally draining and difficult to see your tiny baby with countless tubes and wires connected to their little body.  It seems unfair.  Looking back on the births of my two kids, I'll always be grateful for those first hours I could spend immediately after birth holding them next to my skin and nursing them and enjoying them.  With NICU patients, most are whisked away immediately after birth to start treatments, often without the mom ever touching them.

Baby McKrola was born on March 30th, 5lbs 9oz.

Welcome to the Bush family, little guy!  We love you!

My Jonah is 4 years old.

We celebrated Jonah's 4th birthday last week.  He's been asking about his birthday for months and each time we'd venture to the store and there happened to be toys, he'd ask for something and I'd have to tell him "Maybe for your birthday!".  Magic words.

Jon and I decided to get Jonah a bigger bike this year because he's been riding a little tiny one we borrowed from Jon's brother and he's outgrown it.  We picked it up the night before Jonah's birthday and Jon put it together while I decorated the kitchen with balloons.  Jon was so excited to be building Jonah's first bike for him.

The next morning we wheeled his new bike out during breakfast and his reaction was classic:

Then he got to ride it when he got home from school that morning.  It is taller than his old bike so he has to learn to hold it up and balance it which makes him nervous.  He did great!


That night we went to Pirate Island with Jon's family to celebrate and Jonah was so excited!  I don't think I've ever seen him so excited about something before.  The kids had a great time playing games and I had a great time sitting and watching and eating pizza!

We celebrated with cake and ice cream on Sunday with Jon's family.  I asked Jonah what kind of cake he wanted and for a while it was a "bowling cake" but I was able to convince him to have something a little more age appropriate (all the bowling cakes I saw pictures of online also said, "Happy 80th!").  Jonah decided on a Knuckles cake (Sonic and Knuckles).  After a few minutes of free-hand drawing the cake, I worried I'd be frosting over the whole thing with blue frosting instead. 

Happy Birthday, Jonah Boy! We love you!

An Artist Emerges

I've always tried to encourage my children to develop and explore their artistic sides.  I consider myself more of a right-brained person and enjoy expressing creativity (however poorly its done) so I'm always pleased when one of my kids shows me a project they've been working on.

Yesterday was just a normal day and as the afternoon wore on, Sophie woke up from her nap around the usual time.  We've pretty much completed the day-time potty training so when I heard her at her door saying, "I went potty!" I figured she'd done so in her diaper and didn't worry about it.  We haven't quite reached the nap and sleep time training.

When I opened the door, it was as if someone had thrown a ton of bricks constructed completely of POOP right at my face.  I looked down to see a naked Sophie with poop-crusted hands up to the wrists.  All I could say was, "Go get in the bath, now!" to which she responded happily, "OK!"  I found the soiled diaper on the floor, along with a nice giant poop streak on the floor. 

I began gathering up the dirty sheets and blankets nearby and looked up to find another little surprise on one of the twin beds.

I was pretty mad at this point and made sure to get back in the bathroom to tell her how mad I was and how naughty she was.  She responded by asking for more bubbles.

I grabbed some towels and headed back to the room to begin cleanup duty when my eyes lifted from the carpet and up to the walls.  Cave paintings.  Poop smeared everywhere.  Poop on the wicker chair where she stood to reach the walls; poop on the twin bed's comforter; poop flakes on the floor in a visible trail around the bed; poop on the wall on the other side of the bed.

At this point I decided to go back in to the bathroom in another attempt to make her feel guilty (an impossible feat) and soon gave up and decided to growl and groan and mutter under my breath, hoping someone in the cosmos would be listening and understanding my pain.

It took approximately 1 hour, 5 towels, 2 washcloths, 3 paper towels, a good dose of Oxy-Clean, 3 loads of laundry, and finally a sweep over the soiled carpet with the carpet cleaner to remove the putrid smell and remnants of Sophie's artwork.

Proud?  I say, Let's try another medium...maybe crayons on some good, old-fashioned paper.  Shoot, draw me a few nondescript scribbles and I'll secure the means for your very own exhibition and gallery.

Going to take some time...

I know you're probably going to be thinking, "how on earth will she ever find time for this!" but it's something I've wanted to do for a really long time.  I finally decided to go for it and used my birthday money to pick up my first guitar.  I learned to play on my mom's classical guitar about 10 years ago and it was already about 30 years old.  It was in major need of repair so I gave it back to her a few years ago because I knew I'd never trust myself to have it done.

I've been working on my cords and toughening up my fingertips.  Boy does it hurt!  Maybe someday I'll be able to whip out my favorite songs and learn to pick a little like my good friend James--Taylor, that is.

Don't count on any videos any time soon.  Maybe I'll have a goal of learning a song by the end of the year.  You know, I'll just strum away while I use my giant nursing pillow to hold my nursing twins.  What a sight that would be!

For your viewing pleasure...

I made a little video of the girls' ultrasound.  It's nice and short (as opposed to the 22 minutes of looking at every part of their bodies).  Make sure you turn off my automatic playlist before you hit play on the video.  Enjoy!

21 Weeks

I joined a forum for moms expecting twins in July on Babycenter.com and in the last few weeks there have been several moms who have been diagnosed and had to have surgery for TTTS (Twin to Twin Transfusion).  I couldn't help but be worried that I'd be part of that 20% of monochorionic (sharing a placenta) pregnancies that also have the complication of TTTS.  It's a scary syndrome and within weeks your babies could be near death if things go untreated.

On a happy note, I don't have TTTS!!!  We went in today for my comprehensive ultrasound where all the body parts and organs are measured to make sure growth is even and there isn't too much fluid in certain areas.  Everything looked perfect!  My babies are measuring at 13 oz each and are measuring just under 21 weeks which is perfectly normal!  I, on the other hand, am measuring at 25 weeks as opposed to the 21 that I am.  This is also great!

Baby A (I think I'll name them soon so I can call them something more personal than A and B) is still breech and Baby B is transverse and lying across the top of my belly with her feet right in Baby A's face.  How nice!  At least they don't stink.  So Baby A's face is absorbing all the kicks from Baby B instead of letting me feel them.

Here are some glimpses of the progress:

Baby A - Profile

Baby A - (From top to bottom) Feet, Leg, Arm

Baby B - (Much less cooperative) Legs

Baby B - (From Top to Bottom) Profile, Head

I asked Jon to take my 21 week belly bump picture and instead of waiting until I was ready, he just started shooting.  I think he likes the feel of my camera taking continuous shots.  Thus, the silliness:

21 Weeks

And for comparison's sake, here is my 25 week baby bump with Sophie:

25 Weeks with Sophie

For those of you that are interested, I'll also be posting a video of the 21 week ultrasound.

Car Seat Canopies for my Doublets

I finished my first project for the twins today and posted about it on my craft blog.  Check it out!

madeitmine.blogspot.com

Nothing but gratitude

This morning on my way to take Jonah and Jon to school, I noticed a package on the front porch and reminded myself to bring it inside when I got home.  I figured it was for my in-laws since I hadn't ordered anything.  When I got home, I went out to check and it said my name on it.  What??  I took it inside and opened it up and just couldn't help but break into tears.  This is what I found:

My amazing friend, Jamie, sent this to me.  When I found out we were having twins, I went on Babies R Us and started a registry just so I'd be able to keep track of all the things we needed to buy.  I never intended for it to go public. 

Be it pregnancy hormones or just overwhelming gratitude, I was totally beside myself and so grateful for her generosity.  I can't wait to snuggle with my tiny baby girls on this pillow.

Since I'm going to try to breastfeed the doublets exclusively, I knew I wouldn't make it without one of these.  Jamie, you're amazing and I love you!

19 Weeks

Well, it's been 4 weeks since our last checkup on the doublets and yesterday we got to go see them again.  My mom is in town so my sister and I scheduled our appointments back to back and were all able to be there for the respective ultrasounds. 

Once again, I was relieved to see those little hearts beating and to see them moving around.  I've been feeling quite a few kicks in my lower abdomen and was wondering how the babies were positioned since I was really only feeling it in one area.  I'm not going to lie, I was worried that I was only feeling one of them.  I got the reassuring news that they are both breech (not a worry at this point) which explains all the movement down low.

When the doctor first put the device to my belly, we caught a glimpse of the girls' heads right next to each other.  It looked like one baby was kissing the other on the cheek.  It made me realize how much they're going to love being next to each other when they come out.

The doc says I'm measuring right where I need to be.  I measured 21 weeks even though I'm only 19 which is typical for twins.  The gap starts to get larger during the second half of the pregnancy.

Another fun thing is that I'm already starting my visits every 2 weeks instead of once a month.  This is due to the fact that they'll be monitoring for TTTS (Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome) very carefully until delivery to make sure the babies are growing at the same rate.  I'm hoping and praying that everything will go smoothly and my doublets will learn to share early on!

Sophie and Jonah love seeing their sisters.  They talk about them and Jonah often snuggles my belly and Sophie gives them kisses.  Let's hope the kindness continues when they're actually here.