Friday, November 6, 2009

My Silly Little Boy

Yesterday was one of those days.....you know where you don't really feel like doing anything except for going back to bed and sleeping all day.  Three of the kids were up in the middle of the night several times so my night wasn't very restful.  Anyway, I was just kinda having a down day.  But my ornery little two-year-old made me laugh anyway.  (Try not to get a mental picture to go along with this story.:)  So I was just getting ready to get in the shower, and Gage comes running in the bathroom.  He stops when he sees me, starts giggling and says, "Mommy, your tummy looks like an elephant!"  To which I said, "What!?!?"  He said, "It looks like it goes...." and he proceeds to make the elephant sound!  Apparently my stomach and my belly button add up to looking like a saggy baggy elephant!!  Thank-you Hadyn and Everett!!  Anyway, despite receiving such a wonderful complement, I had to chuckle! 

Last week Tim and I came home from Missouri and the boys were all in bed.  When Gage got up the next morning, I gave him a big hug and told him I missed him and he said, "yeah you did."  :) 

My kids bring joy and humor to my days (most of the time)!

How can you resist such a smile!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Eight months old!!

Today the twins are 8 months old!! I can hardly believe that only 8 months ago they were so tiny!  On the other hand I can hardly believe that it has already been 8 months!  Sadly I do not have enough time or energy to post any pictures tonight (I will soon), but I just thought you should all know we are alive and well.  I took the twins to the doctor today for a well baby check and they are growing perfectly.  Everett weighs 18 1/2 lbs. and is 29in. long and Hadyn weighs 18lbs. and is 28in. long.  Everett is starting to level off with his weight mostly because the little boy CANNOT SIT STILL!!  He crawls under and over everything and is starting to pull himself up to stuff and then proceeds to fall and cry!:)  So as you can tell instead of blogging I have been saving him from falling, kissing his bonks on the head, rescuing dead ladybugs from his mouth, rescuing tiny toys his brothers leave lying around from his mouth as well as Hadyn's mouth, and making sure they are not eating dirt or chewing on shoes, and feeding them lots of new foods, and taking adorable pictures of them, and doing all of their laundry, and many many many other things that my brain is too tired to think of right now.  
I have so many pictures and stories to post and hopefully soon I will have more time to post them. Until then, I hope you all are doing well and having a wonderful November.  Oh and Congratulations to my cousin, Liz who just had a beautiful baby boy!!  I love his name, which I won't even type right now because I have no idea how to spell it, but it is adorable!  I will get back to you on that!  Aren't I annoying!?  :)  I need sleep, must go!!

Friday, October 16, 2009

Comin' Through

The twins are definitely on the move!!  Life is very busy around here, making sure that they are not into something that they are not supposed to be into or that they are not eating whatever droppings they can find.  The boys are quickly learning that they can't leave small toys and cheerios, etc... on the floor.  Hadyn still loves eating paper and Everett will eat anything that he can get into his mouth.  He finds microscopic crumbs on the dining room floor and then chokes on them.  I don't remember my boys being quite so scavenger-like.  :)  He also likes to crawl into or over anything and everything.  Neither one of my first two boys were climbers and I was very thankful for that.  Apparently now it's my turn.  
Everett also loves to crawl over his sister.  In this picture there was actually something to get to on the other side of her but usually there isn't, he just likes to crawl over her. 


                                  Poor Hadyn!

Oh and to clarify, they aren't crawling normally yet.  He army crawls and she army crawls with only one arm and one leg.  Yeah, it is as funny as it sounds. :)  He has crawled a little bit for real, but it takes him to long and he can army crawl with lightening speed (okay just too fast for mommy to keep up:).  

Everett really and truly said "Mama" yesterday!  The first couple of times I thought it was a fluke, but Tim heard him say it a couple of times as well!  He is the first one to say Mama before Dada!  Yay for me!!  He is only a little over 7 months!  They are growing so fast!  I will have more to come of all our adventures this summer, soon.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

One Year Ago....

....this weekend, we found out some very exciting news!  I went to the doctor for a routine ob visit and my doctor thought I was measuring a little large and she wanted to do an ultrasound.  My heart was pounding, I was so excited and hopeful!  We did the ultrasound and THERE WAS TWO!!!  We told our family right away and then I went to the Fall Festival in Kalona and I think by the end of the day the news was spread to everyone who cared to hear (and probably those who didn't).  


Sooo much has changed in the last year!!  We are now a family of six instead of four and life is busier than ever!!  Stressful, but fun. It's amazing how time flies!



Sleeping update:  Hadyn is now my little sleeping angel.  After only 3 nights she decided she would just lay right down and go to sleep without crying, even for naps.  I love it!!  Everett on the other hand was easier for the first few days, but has not been feeling all that well and therefore wants to be held to go to sleep.  


Gage update:  Gage has been doing much better.  He still has a runny nose and cough, but the wheezing is gone.  The doctor wouldn't say it, but I think that it had a lot to do with the fact that he was on a hayride the night before and it was very dusty.  Next time we'll know.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Our Newest Adventure.....

Cloth diapering. I know, that's a shock isn't it.:) I'm pretty sure somewhere along the line I probably said that I would never cloth diaper my kids. A good, case in point of never say never. :) Well I did it for two reasons: to save money--I spend almost 200.00 in diapers pull-ups every month as I essentially have four kids still in diapers! (Yes, Reese is still in pull-ups due to a long-time issue with pooping--another post altogether.) Anyway, I am only cloth diapering the twins and hopefully sometime in the next year both Reese and Gage will be fully potty-trained. My second reason: it is better for them. Disposable diapers contain dioxins and chlorine, both of which are not good for a baby.

My husband has been rather reluctant through the whole process so I keep disposables on hand for when he wants to use them and for when we are gone.

We just started last week and at first it was a little overwhelming. I have to do laundry every other day and still sometimes don't have quite enough. Now I am in a little bit more of a routine and I don't mind washing the diapers.

So far, my favorite diapers are one size Bum Genius pocket diapers and the one size Happy Heinys pocket diapers. I am coming into this a little late considering that I waited until babies 3 and 4 to start but I decided that it's never too late to try something different especially when it's better for them.

They are pretty cute actually! I'm still getting used to how much bulk it adds to their clothes. I bought some onesie extenders which help a lot.

I love their chubby little legs!!
Life is a journey and we are just trying to make the right choices with God's help and to the best of our knowledge. Hope you are all having a good and blessed day. (And more productive than what mine has been so far:)

Monday, September 21, 2009

Apples, Doctors & Mice...

....these three things have nothing in common, but all played a part in my day. My day started at 6:30 this morning with Gage crying and not being able to breathe very well. He has had a cold for about a week now but just today started wheezing and running a temp. I held him for a while but alas, today was applesauce day!! 125 quarts of applesauce to be exact. Most of which I didn't help with. :( I did help (in between taking care of sick Gage and feeding Hadyn) until about 1:30 and then decided that Gage should indeed go to the doctor!

Thanks to my mom, Karla, Grandma Ruth, Martha and Barbie the apples got done! I have two WONDERFUL families. And did I mention that they kept my other three kids here while doing applesauce. (And even got Hadyn to take a bottle--an accomplishment let me tell ya!) Thank-you Lord for family!!

Well, back to the doctor story........Gage was in bad sorts when we got there. He cried the whole time we were in the waiting room and everyone just looked at us--some looked sorry for us and others looked plain annoyed. I decided I didn't care what they thought, I knew that he was in pain and not feeling well at all and if he needed to cry then I would let him cry! So there!:) Anyway, I finally got him calmed down enough (sleeping actually) to let the doctor listen to him and he decided to send us over to Mercy Hospital to do a chest x-ray to make sure it wasn't pneumonia--it wasn't thank the Lord!! That was an experience I don't want to repeat ever again!! They put him in this thing called the piggy. I know doesn't the sound of that just create warm and fuzzy feelings all inside of you--NOT!!! The tech warned me over and over that it would be very tight and that he would cry a lot but I was still in tears. He had to straddle this small hard piece with his legs dangling below and then his arms had to be raise straight up and then this see-through cage of sorts was strapped around him so he could not move a muscle. His shirt was off and the plastic thing was digging into him and he was hanging by his crotch--it was awful and he cried and yelled for mommy!! Mommy was crying!! It looked close to abuse. But she said that it keeps him from moving and she got two good quick pictures and didn't expose him to too much radiation, which was a good thing. Anyway, we both recovered quickly once I got him out. He gave me a big hug right away and said I love you mommy. I wanted to cry all over again. He is the sweetest little boy! He even told the tech thank-you when we left.:) I don't think I would have, if it was me in the piggy.

Well now that I have gone on in great detail, the doctor said that sometimes with colds and other allergens in the air, kids will get really tight in the chest..........so we did a nebulizer treatment in the doctor's office and then they sent me home with one to do it at home. He hates it but it helps a lot. Oh and did I forget to mention that he also has an ear infection! We went to Wal-Mart after we left the doctor and spent an hour and 20 minutes waiting on his prescriptions to get filled! It wasn't their fault but I was getting annoyed and Gage and I were both very hungry. Enough with the complaining though, I am very thankful that he doesn't have pneumonia and I am continuing to pray that he gets better. It is very hard to watch my 2-year-old not be able to breathe without a lot of effort, so we would much appreciate your prayers as well.

Oh yeah, about the mice, they weren't even that big of a part in my day but enough to make me annoyed. At around 7:45 this morning I was standing at my kitchen sink when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a mouse scurry across my bathroom floor and disappear underneath the basement door. Then later in the morning I was in the basement taking some stuff out of my freezer and bent down to pick up something and I smelled an all too familiar and horrific smell coming from underneath my freezer--a dead mouse. We found one underneath the freezer several years ago and it smelled awful, still had maggots on it and my husband MADE me sweep it up with the sweeper, in efforts to toughen me up I guess. Then I MADE him empty out the sweeper (it was a canister), I think I probably got the bettter end of the deal.:) Anyway, back to today, I didn't even try to look, I am going to most kindly and graciously ask my husband to take care of the matter and I will most likely not be around when he does. Since his married "job" description includes killing spiders and taking out dead mice. :) I love him!!

Well I am off to bed since I am now writing about "today" and it's actually "tomorrow." Are you confused yet?:) Thanks again to all of the wonderful women who did my applesauce for me, while I took Gage to the doctor. That meant a lot to me! I love you all!! I hope you all have a good night/day!!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Sleeping Update

Well we have lived to fight another day.:) Everett gave up quite quickly last night, I think he thought his sister was crying loud enough for both of them. :) Hadyn is just like her momma--she is VERY STUBBORN!!!! It was exactly one hour and five minutes until she finally gave up!! This morning when she woke up she gave me a big smile and Mommy's heart melted with a huge sigh of relief that yes, she still loves me! :) Here are some updated pictures and to show you that they really are happy babies (when they aren't crying themselves to sleep:).


Friday, September 18, 2009

PLEASE GO TO SLEEP...

... my dear little ones. Somehow we got all the way to six months and the twins will not go to sleep by themselves. So, Mommy is on the verge of a meltdown because it can be 11 or 12 o'clock when one or both of them finally settle down for the night. So tonight, we are doing the 'cry yourself to sleep, while mommy cries downstairs waiting for you to go sleep' thing. It is so hard!!! We are going on 20 minutes now with no letting up. God, please hold them and tell them it is okay to go to sleep. I hate this but I also hate not having any time to myself so I hope this works. If anyone has bright ideas to get them to go to sleep, let me know. Otherwise, there is going to be lots of crying by babies and mom over the next few days.

Everett and Hadyn, Mommy really does love you and I hate to say it but this does really hurt me more than you!

Friday, September 11, 2009

SO MUCH TO WRITE...SO LITTLE TIME...

I am way behind in posting. I promise I will catch up this coming week. Just to catch you up a little about what has been happening in our lives... The twins are now 6 MONTHS OLD!!! I can hardly believe they are that old already but it's true. I will have a post about that coming soon as well as a post on our trip to Indiana and other random things I might like to post about and bore you all with.:)

As for right now, it is 2:10 in the morning and I should be in bed but I finally (2 hours ago) got to sit down and be completely by myself for the first time in several days. Tim is in Kentucky right now, so it's just me and the kids and whoever else I con into helping me, like my mom, Karla, Barbie, Kristi, Jodi, and anybody else who would like to stop by.:) Well, I am feeling less than creative in my writing at this moment in time so I think I will drag my tired body up to bed and leave you to look forward to all of the upcoming posts (with pictures). :) Hope you all have a good day tomorrow, oops I mean today. I'm sure I will be tired.:) A price I will pay for a couple of SWEET, QUIET hours to myself!! Now that I have rambled on and on, I am going to bed!!!!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

5 months old!!!

I can't believe the twins are already 5 months old!!! Time flies when you are crazy busy and having fun (most of the time:)! I am way behind in posting pics of my precious little ones. So here they are!Of course I couldn't get them both to smile at the same time.:)
YOU BOTH . . .
love to chew on everything
roll both ways
smile at everybody
giggle
love your brothers
think your dad is the best
are healthy
very active
sleep 8- 10 hours a night
are happy babies.
HADYN, YOU. . .
rolled over first
exclusively breastfed
have brown eyes (Daddy wins:)
weigh 15 1/2 pounds
are 26 1/4 inches long
have an adorable smile that lights up the room
love to eat paper :)
are the most precious little girl ever!!!
EVERETT, YOU. . .
giggle like crazy
eat like crazy
still have blue eyes (Mommy is crossing her fingers)
weigh 16 1/2 pounds
are 27 1/4 inches long
are half bottle and half breastfed
have smile that makes me melt
are a solid little boy
just discovered you like to suck your thumb
are one of the three most precious boys ever!!!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

New Deck, New Recipe ...

I apologize for being so sporadic with my posting. Life just gets very crazy around here! I have many pictures and stories to post and hopefully I will be able to catch up in the coming week. I will start with last Saturday.

Tim and his Dad started work on our new deck by the back door. It is pretty small but very wonderful. Getting in the back door before was always a production. I don't know how many times I have fallen or almost fallen down the steps trying to get in the back door with something in my hands. So this was a very exciting day to be sure!! They started around nine in the morning and quit around nine at night. It isn't "finished" yet but it is usable and we love it!! My husband is so amazing, I love watching him make things with his hands! He is so smart, I wouldn't even know where to start! Speaking of the handsome man, here he is!!In this picture you can get a better idea of the deck, I will post more pictures when the project is completely done. Bryan and David are giving moral support apparently. :)
For supper, Karla, Christina, and I decided to make something new and yummy that Karla and I saw on a blog, Real Mom Kitchen--Grilled Pizza. I have never done this before but it looked so yummy, I had to try it. It was very yummy!! We made 20 personal size pizzas. Everyone loved them, the grill gave them a very nice flavor.

And then after the kids were in bed a few of us had dessert--frappuccinos! Yum!!
What fun you can have being creative with friends!!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

WHO GETS SICK IN JULY?!?!?!?!

WE DO!!!!!!!!! That's right me and our four little ones have all been sick this entire week! We all have colds, and not just little sniffles colds, no I mean the whole head feeling like it is going to explode, fevers, constantly runny noses, coughs, possible ear infections, and I could go on but I will spare you all. I have been in a fog this whole week but I feel like maybe I am finally coming out of it today a little bit. Sorry there will be no pictures today because I have had no time to download them. I will update soon with pictures, I have some great ones for instance yesterday Gage fell asleep in his highchair! I think that was a first. It was so cute, he was so tired and did not feel good at all.

On a much happier and joyful note, today is our 5TH ANNIVERSARY!!! I am the luckiest woman on the earth to be married to the most wonderful man in this world!!! (That was an interesting sentence, okay so the fog isn't completely gone yet:). Anyway, to my wonderful husband Tim, I love you with all my heart and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you!! We are going away this weekend and leaving all four little ones with their grandparents. I feel sort of guilty and yet I am so very excited!! I get to SLEEP!!!!!! How boring huh!?!? To me that right now is the best gift I could ever get! Hope you all have a great weekend, I know I will!!! :)

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Big Hole...

No, we have not fallen off the face of the earth!! :) We have had a very busy month! There is so much to blog about but obviously it will have to come a little at a time. A couple of weeks ago we had a guy come and fill a huge cistern in our backyard. The cistern was covered by a huge cement slab but was starting to crack and there was a small opening with a lid that the older boys could easily move. You can tell by the pictures it is not something we wanted our children to fall into. The cistern was about 9 feet deep and had about 3 feet of water sitting in the bottom. It took them about 4-5 hours to complete the job. My boys thought it was grand fun to watch the backhoe and the dump truck. The guy that did it said that the boys kept him entertained. :)
We were looking at a poor little frog trying to climb up the wall while they were getting the water drained out. After they started filling the whole with dirt, Gage asked, with great concern, where the frog was. The man just told him that he went bye-bye. Didn't quite have the heart to tell him the frog was buried alive!!
Anyway, now our backyard is a huge mess because the ground was pretty soft when they drove the backhoe and dump truck through it. We have had so much rain we haven't had much of a chance to do anything about it yet but hopefully soon we will get it back to normal. I am just very thankful I don't have to worry about my kids falling down in that hole anymore.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Happy Birthday Gage!!!


Happy Birthday to my sweet, wonderful, ornery little boy, Gage!! Okay so this post is a week late, but due to a horrific abscess in my tooth, we celebrated his birthday a little late. His birthday was actually last Monday, the 11th. He turned 2!! The above picture was taken on his birthday. Because I wasn't feeling well we postponed his birthday party, but I still wanted to do something special on his birthday. So, at 8pm (bedtime) I took Gage and Reese to Casey's and Gage got to pick out a chocolate bar. He loves chocolate!!! We went home and he ate the entire candy bar before he went to bed (well I might have had a couple of bites myself:). He woke up the next morning and before he even got out of bed, he asked for more 'choc-yut'.

On Saturday evening we finally had a real birthday party for him with our families. But as you can tell by the pictures, I was not as creative with his cake as I was with Reese's. Poor boy, his birthday came after the twins instead of before. He still thought it was great and loved his 'choc-yut' cupcake!!

Here is the birthday boy looking really guilty after dipping his fingers into the frosting and licking them. I just laughed!
After every present he opened, Tim would tell him to say thank-you to whoever gave it to him. Well, he went a step further and had to go and give them a hug . . . so one by one he went around the room and gave everyone a hug as he opened his presents. It was so cute!!
Gage has lots of fun playing with his brother Reese and is always ready to tell the twins "it's okay, baby", when they are crying. His smile can brighten up my day and I love to hear him talk. He speaks in full sentences and has an adorable way of saying everything. He can also be very naughty and ornery. He is very independent right now, wanting to do everything for himself. My favorite thing he does right now is he will randomly come up to me and give me a hug and say "I love you, Mommy." That melts my heart every time!
Happy 2nd Birthday, my adorable little Gage!!! I love you so much and our family would not be complete without you!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Fun Outside

I love spring and summer!!! My boys love it too, they love to be outside! Yesterday we had a day out in Iowa City for an appointment. Then we had to get the vans tire fixed, so I dropped everyone (my mom, Martha and the kids) off at Village Inn and I took the van to a shop and then walked back to Village Inn, which was only about 5-10 minutes. I enjoyed being outside for a little walk but of course on the way back to get the van, the boys wanted to go with me and it was raining. Reese thought it was grand fun and ran giggled the whole way there because he was getting wet.:) Gage on the other hand, wanted me to carry him and said that he was cold and wanted his jacket. When we got there though, he entertained the guys that fixed our van by telling them all about the rain and how cold it was and that he got all wet. They thought he was very cute and funny! What can I say, he is!!

We have a sandbox outside with a playhouse above it and Reese and Gage and their cousins next door love to play in it. Well, this morning the little boys were up in it too. Kyle (cousin) is the same age as Gage and he is not scared to come down the slide but Gage is still kind of chicken to come down so I had to climb up the slide and get him. I put him on my lap and down we went. Now, picture the slide fairly long for a little kid but at the bottom the slide isn't very high off the ground which is perfect for a child's legs but not exactly perfect for an adult like me. So we hit the bottom and my legs hit the ground and catapulted us onto the ground. Luckily I didn't land on Gage. He looked at me like he was going to cry and I started laughing so hard and then he did too and we laid on the ground just laughing. It was grand fun but not something I will probably try again soon. :)

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Sickness and Sweetness

Gage has had a rough week, he has been sick since Friday. He was either vomiting, had diarrhea or both, he was miserable. He was a very grumpy little boy. This picture was taken on Monday. He was eating toast and drinking 7-UP and did not want his picture taken. Normally I don't let them eat toast on the couch but, I make exceptions for sick little boys. It was quite comical watching him drink the 7-UP, he is not used to pop. He is finally feeling better and getting back to the normal, rambunctious little boy I know and love. On a happy note, the twins are 2 months old already!! Time flies, even when you are exhausted and not getting a whole lot of sleep. They are both growing like weeds and are generally very good babies. Everett sleeps around 6 hours a night usually and Hadyn sleeps around 4 -5 hours. What can I say, she likes to eat, just like her mommy. :) Here they are hanging out with Daddy. Hadyn still goes quite cross-eyed when she is trying very hard to focus on something. :) As for my husband, he is the best husband in the world and I don't know what I would do without him! He is a wonderful Dad and loves his kids more than anything in the world! I am not biased or anything. :) But, seriously, I thank God everyday for giving me a wonderful, Godly husband.

Baby Dedication

A few weeks ago we had the privilege of dedicating our precious twins to the Lord. They are truly a gift from God and we give them back to Him and pray that they will grow up to love Him with all of their hearts! We did it on Easter Sunday and my family came to our church to join us in dedicating them--it was a special day! My sister gave them each an adorable little outfit to wear for the special occasion. Here are a couple of pictures from that day. Hadyn looks very uncomfortable in the first picture but Everett is smiling away. Aren't his dimples adorable!!
This picture is during the actual baby dedication. Wow, would you look at that great posture!!:) Apparently Elmer said something funny when this picture was taken.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Tunnel Vision

I've been having to remind myself lately that we are in a tunnel and we will come out of it sooner or later and to just enjoy being in it. Having four kids age four and under presents new challenges every day. Yesterday Gage woke up in the morning and promptly proceeded to vomit and continued to do so throughout the day. Today he was better but still not himself. He kept telling me to put the baby on the floor or in the swing so I could hold him. He was so sad and I felt so bad that I couldn't just sit and hold him the whole day.

I feel like sometimes I read other moms blogs and think they have it all together and their families are perfect and wonderful. Well, just in case you were wondering--WE ARE NOT PERFECT AND I DO NOT HAVE IT ALL TOGETHER!! I love my kids and my husband more than anything else in the world, but there are days when I would kill to have an hour alone with no interruptions. Okay, so to be honest I could handle an entire day alone but an hour sounds a little more attainable. Baby steps. God is trying to teach me things in the midst of all this (you would think He would give me a break during this chaotic part of my life:), such as leaning on Him and especially about not complaining. When I start letting myself complain and whine about things not going the way I want them to or other not-so-fun circumstances (sickness...) that come along, I know it only makes things worse for myself and those around me like my family. So I am trying to be more positive and have a good attitude about everything that comes at me. After all my "job" is to be teaching and training my children to be lovers of God and to do all things without grumblings and complaining. So to all of you out there, I hope you have a complaining-free day and hope that if you ever hear me whining about something you will call me on it. Have a blessed day!!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Birth Story Part 3

So, as I said before we decided to do an emergency c-section. Do you remember that window of pain that I talked about, well I could feel some of the c-section through that window. Not exactly a pleasant experience. My husband was wonderful through it all and sat behind the curtain with me, held my hand and reassured me everything was going to be fine. And at 2:40, only 24 minutes after her brother, baby Hadyn was born! She was perfect, she weighed 5lbs. 15.5oz. and was 19in. long. Below is Daddy with his first little girl. (She's already got him wrapped around her little finger.:)A closer look at her chubby little face.
I was told by my family that she was not impressed by the nursery and she screamed almost the whole time she was in there.
Such a sad little face. This world is cruel when you're used to being snuggled up in a cocoon where nothing can hurt you.
Delivery didn't quite go as I had hoped it would, but all in all it was a good experience and we have two beautiful little miracles! We thank God for them everyday!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Birth Story Part 2

Around 2:30 in the afternoon the doctor came in and checked to see how far I was dilated and by 2:40 baby Everett was born!! I had a mirror to watch and with only 3 pushes he was out. It was amazing!! I pushed a long time with the other boys. He was a beautiful healthy baby boy. He weighed 5lbs. 8oz. and was 19 inches long. I got to see him for about 10 seconds and then they took him and soon gave him to Daddy, while they worked to try to get baby number 2 out. But sadly she wouldn't turn the right way so after ten minutes of the doctor sticking her arm up to her elbow inside of me and pushing around on the outside of my belly with the other hand to no avail, we decided to do an emergency c-section. I was praising the Lord for epidurals by this point! :) I will give more details of that in the next segment. Here is Everett with Aunt Kim and Grandma Slabaugh. Here he is very awake about 15 minutes after birth.
In the nursery after being all cleaned up and under the heat lamps.

I love this adorable picture of his feet.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Birth Story Part 1

The photo story of the twins' birth will come in several different segments. This is part 1: the labor. We arrived at the hospital around 8:15am on Wednesday, March 4th for a scheduled induction. It didn't take long for them to break my water, get me all hooked up and away we went. Okay so it took a little while before the drugs started to do what they were supposed to. It was about noon before I got the epidural because my contractions had to be every other minute before they would give it to me. Something I thought was interesting was that my contractions felt harder than what they were showing up on the monitor and they said that because my uterus was so stretched out with twins that it couldn't contract as far. Anyway, true to me and my body my epidural still had a window of pain in my right side, where I could still feel the contractions. But I was thankful the pain wasn't all over and I wasn't going to feel them coming out.:) So here I am all hooked up and smiling--must have been after the epidural or in between contractions. :)The babies were being monitored too. Everett on the inside and Hadyn on the outside.
Here I am again just waiting for things to get going.
I loved my nurse, I had her with both Reese and Gage too. She was so sweet and fun. In this picture you can kind of see how extremely large I was. Yes, my belly really does stick out that far, it isn't just the blanket.
And here is my wonderful husband just hanging out waiting to get all queasy and pale-faced.:) He almost lost it when they gave me the epidural and had to leave the room. I love him dearly but he can't handle it when I am in pain.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Never Say Never

So our pediatrician told us that strep almost never occurs in infants. Well the nurse called this morning to say that Everett's strep culture came back positive. He is already on amoxicillin for his ear infection so we didn't need to do anything different. I feel so bad for him, he is only five weeks old but I think he feels better and we are all on our way to health again!! Praise the Lord!!

Tonight we were at Karla's house and she helped the boys dye eggs. After Gage was done he came in to the living room to tell me hi and had blue around his mouth. I asked him if he ate the dye and he said, "no, I eat coffee." Apparently anything dark in a mug is coffee to him. :) It was very cute. I hope easter egg dye is non-toxic.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

LOOOOOONG WEEK!!!!!

Today was finally a little bit more normal (normal as we can be around here). Here is our last week and a half: Reese had strep, Gage had double ear infection, I have strep, Tim probably has strep but did not want to go to the doctor, and the twins have both been a little stuffy but Everett has been worse and been coughing. We were all at the doctor on Tuesday and Reese and Gage were fine, Hadyn was fine and Everett just had a little sore throat and congestion. They wanted to do a blood test on him just to make sure everything was for sure okay. They had to do it twice because the first reading was not right and they stuck him four times in his tiny little heel and all in the exact same place. He was beside himself and so was Mommy. Anyway, sometime in the middle of the night he started running a fever and they said to call immediately so I called Wednesday morning and they sent me to the hospital to do a chest X-ray and more blood work. By the time I got off the phone with the nurse and called my mother-in-law to see if she could go with me, I was in tears. But God is good and everything went great, my little Everett is so brave and he didn't even cry when they drew his blood from his tiny little arm. We had the best lab technician we could ever have asked for. He made one huge grimace from behind his pacifier when she went in but that was it. He was doing better than Mommy. The chest X-ray came back fine as did all the blood work. When we got to the doctor, he did have an ear infection in the right ear. Just the day before his ear was fine. So the doctor thought the fever was probably due to the ear infection. I am glad we caught before he was in too much pain from it. The problem now is that the antibiotic gives him tummy ache. But I have two healthy babies and I am so thankful for them!! Things can only get better from here is what I keep telling myself.

I promise there will be more pictures soon!! Thank-you to everyone that has been praying for us, we have definitely felt them!! We love you all!!

Oops, I almost forgot the best part! The twins are growing like weeds. Everett is 7lbs 10oz and Hadyn is 8lbs 7 1/2oz!!

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Alive and Sick :)

We are alive and some of us are doing well and others are sick! Everyday for the past month I have had the intention to blog, but alas my life has gotten busy and chaotic!! I wonder why?:) The picture above is of my sick boys 2 days ago before their fevers spiked too high. They are actually smiling in that picture. They have spent this week sitting around and watching movies. On Sunday, Gage started with a fever of 102 and then Reese developed a fever as well on Monday so I decided that I am not going to mess around with it and wonder what it is, I am just going to take them in. Yesterday morning saw us at the doctor by 9:15 in the morning, I was pretty impressed with myself, although I did have someone helping me. :) Anyway, Reese tested positive for strep and Gage tested negative but they said sometimes it can test positive over the next 24 hours so I am waiting on a call to see if it is still negative or if it turned positive. Last night after we got home their fevers both climbed to over 103 degrees and they both acted miserable and Gage started to get kinda delirious but we drugged them up and got them to sleep some and they woke up this morning fever free!! Praise the Lord!! Gage slept until almost 9am and when I went in his room he said "Hi mommy, I wuv you mommy!" My heart pretty much melted right there, my sweet little boy is back! We are definitely still not normal today but we are on the road to health!

Well, I have lots more to blog about but my time to blog is very limited so I will give you a preview of what is to come and I promise I will put more pictures on soon. The twins are doing great, they are growing everyday and right now we are praying that they can stay healthy through all of their brothers sickness. Oh and if you want to see some professional pictures of the twins and our family go to www.gehmanphotography.com and then click on 'enter main site' then on client login and the password is 'bender'. So long for now I will update again soon.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Blocks

The boys were having lots of fun on Sunday night playing blocks with Daddy. They built towers and houses and Gage had lots of fun knocking them down! I laid on Reese's bed and greatly enjoyed watching all of my boys having so much fun together--one of those heart-warming moments. :)
Our world is about to dramatically change and I don't think any of us has any idea how much, especially Gage! I am officially 37 weeks and 1 day!! I am now considered full-term with twins. God has been amazing and I could not have asked for a better healthier pregnancy. Other than being completely agreed on names we are pretty much ready for the little ones to arrive. I have been sleeping better at night and still have been really tired during the day, I think maybe my body is trying to get all the sleep it can get before the big day!! Well, I will try to keep you all posted on our upcoming adventures as we are about to be a family of 6!

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Babies

Yesterday I had another routine non-stress test at the hospital (they know me there pretty well). I was only on the monitor for about 50 minutes but the nurse came in and said that there was an extreme decceleration in Baby A's heart rate. She said it was just by chance that they caught it on the monitor and it was probably nothing to worry about but the doctor wanted to make absolutely sure so they sent me down for another ultrasound. They watched for movement and to see that they were trying to breathe on their own (their chests were moving up and down). They both passed with flying colors--they got 8 out of 8. Then the technician started playing and tried to get some good pictures for us but they were being kind of stubborn. The above picture was the best we could get of Baby A. You have to use your imagination but the right side of his/her face is looking straight at you. The picture below is my favorite, it is Baby B's hand and wrist and you can actually see the fat rolls on the wrist!! I am so excited to meet them!!!


This is the bottom of Baby B's foot.