Christmas 2011

It's been busy times at our house. Im sad to say Oma has to go back to work as she has finished her leave of absence from her job. I am forever grateful for her time here.....those 3 days a week were my favorite as I got to spend time with my Mom, Brooklyn bonded with her Oma and the boys got more cuddles than they would have ever gotten just on my own....not to mention, I got more sleep and made more milk with her here:)

The good news is that the boys are sleeping through the night (consistently)....the bad news is that they are already teething!!! (that's early as they are still only 3 1/2 months corrected age). Brooklyn was 6 months old when she cut her first tooth and although the teeth havn't cut through the gums yet, I can see the white edges of each tooth just below the surface. Brooklyn was never really fazed by teething so I never did much other than give her the odd tylenol but the boys seem really off their game. Im not sure if it's just because there's two of them fussing or what but I went ahead and ordered two Amber necklaces online after 3 days of fussy baby's (poor guys are in a lot of pain). Amber has anti-inflammatory properties in it and I have met several Mom's who swear by these. Its simply a baby necklace that they wear during the day, made of authentic amber stones that emit healing properties.

I recently found my first grey hair, ha ha.....kind of symbolic of twins and exhaustion but I count my blessings all the time and I still feel like I won the lottery! ha ha.

Brooklyn enjoyed Christmas very much. She had a little Christmas party at her new daycare (which we love) on the 23rd and it was all fun and games until Santa took off his beard and hat in front of the kids! My thoughts... "WTH!?*!?", lol. You have a room full of 2 -7 year old's (the 12 year old's new it was their Dad dressed as Santa for the daycare kids but the other kids didn't!) and you take of your Santa suit in front of them! I couldn't believe he did that! Let's just say it left me scratching my head and I think it may have confused some of the little one's. Thankfully, I don't think Brooklyn noticed too much because Santa graciously bought her some "my little ponies" and hair accessories that she was into. She was also very spoiled by the "real" Santa, not to mention by all her grandparents. Our house officially looks like Toys 'R' Us puked all over it! I cant believe how many toys and how much baby equipment we have in our living room! In another month's time we are going to have different stations so we can rotate the baby's.....for example, the exersaucer, the jumperoo, the vibrating chairs, the bumbo chairs, the swings, the playpen and the activity mats! We are out of room and spilling over into the basement at this point. It's going to be jam packed with equipment until the baby's are walking at which point we can get rid of a lot of the baby gear like the swings etc.....and then we will just have toys, toys and more toys! I suddenly feel like we have outgrown this house and dream about a bigger house with a huge basement and a huge back yard but that's a long ways away yet!

Christmas was so much more fun with Brooklyn this year...she couldn't believe Santa ate all the cookies and milk by the fireplace (so cute!) and I was blessed to have my mother-in-law cook two great meals on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.....I just didnt have the energy to do it as we pretty much are run off our feet from dawn until dusk around here. Brooklyn sure loved seeing her Nana, Papa, Oma, Opa and Grandpa and she was very entertaining.

We recently started sleeping the boys in their cribs upstairs and it has been a hard transition with the teething etc. The bedroom routine is taking about 2-3 hours (including feeds) at this point which is way too long in my opinion. Teething sucks!!!! ha ha.

December

Well, the twins are already 5 months old...where does the time go!? Of course they have only been home for 3 1/2 months but we finally have a fairly predictable schedule. The boys recently started sleeping through the night but they still wake once a night from time to time. I am still utterly exhausted despite having my Mom here to help me 3 days a week (such a godsend) while hubby is at work but she put in her last shift a few days ago as she has to go back to work full time in January so I am officially on my own *sniff sniff* and am going to miss her a great deal. I couldn't have gotten through the first 5 months without her and needless to say, I have some anxiety as to how I will get through the next 5 years on my own because all my friends with twins say it get's harder when they get mobile and again when they start biting, hitting and waking each other up etc!

All I know is that my 28 month old is a HANDFUL and if these boys are anything like she is, I'M IN BIG TROUBLE!!!!! That being said, I found my first grey hair yesterday and I directly attribute that to Miss Thang.....aka. "Brooklyn". She has been most challenging these days as she is at that age where she is very much testing boundaries and trying to rule the roost. She is going to daycare 3 days a week and I CHERISH those days because I get to actually s-i-t down and I also get to c-u-d-d-l-e my sweet boys! Yes, I did say "sit"...I get to sit down to eat my lunch instead of standing to eat (all my meals are eaten standing since the boys came home) and I get to hold my precious baby boys when she's at daycare and she indeed LOVES going! I am very happy with how she has transitioned to a new daycare and she is enjoying it immensely! We all need that break and she thrives on the socialization and activities she does there with her caregivers and friends!

I am blown away with the work load of three kids in diapers though....the laundry, bottles and dishes never stop......it's crazy! We have to empty our diaper genie every day but Im hoping to potty train Brooklyn VERY soon! I just havnt had 3 consecutive days in a row to devote specifically to potty training her and I dont think I will be able to do it until the new year. She is definitely ready but I need to have Chris or my Mom here to take care of the baby's while I commit to it (although I am breastfeeding one baby (I alternate baby's) so I will have to stop to feed a baby every 2 1/2-3 hours because the potty training book advises you to follow your child around like a hawk for 3 days to pick up on their potty cues and to catch them in the act ie. having an accident in order to rush them to the potty etc). The boys are still a pound apart.....Ryder is my "Big Boy" and weighed in at 14 lbs today and Cruz is my little guy and he weighs 13 lbs. They are about 1/2" different in length as well. Its easy to tell them apart but if they were the same weight, I imagine it would be much more difficult as they do look very similar but Mama always knows! lol. Ryder has a much bigger head compared to Cruz right now though so I can tell them apart a mile away, ha ha.

The twins have really started to mellow out and I am enjoying them immensely. They are such sweethearts and I am madly in love with them. There's nothing like 4 hazel eyes gazing up at me....and those smiles.....they make me forget how much work they are! lol. I still feel like I won the lottery with these kids and am greatful for my two little babes that were just 3 lbs of fight when they were born. My pediatrician was amazed at how quickly they have caught up and said they are in the 95% isle for height and 75% for weight for "corrected age". "Corrected Age" is the age they "should" be, had they carried to term. The reason they say "corrected age" is because you cant expect a premature baby to meet their milestones based on their actual age but rather based on their "corrected age". Once the boys catch up completely (they say usually between 18 months-2 years old) is when you can STOP saying "corrected age" (I cant wait for that...as it tends to be confusing for some and I have difficulty keeping track of two "ages" with how tired I am all the time.

Its amazing how much attention twins can draw when you're out Christmas shopping (and just for the record, I only went out twice locally and happened to have the twins with me) so I get tons of questions and everyone feels the need to tell me about their cousin's twins or their friend's friend who also has twins and I find the easiest way to avoid the conversation is to avoid eye contact! ha ha. I don't mind sometimes because I know people are just being friendly and are drooling over my gorgeous babes so Im okay with that but normally I have to rush every where I go or else I will run into their feeding times while Im running errands and that's when it get's tricky so I try to push my 6 foot long stroller of baby's with my head down so I can "getter done" so-to-speak and get them home to feed again. I really dont get out much though as you can imagine and I still havn't taken all three kids somewhere on my own.

Ryder's birth mark on his eye lid has almost disappeared completely (yay!) so we are very happy with his progress on his medication and the specialist at Children's is as well. He will probably be on the medication until he turns one to ensure it doesn't grow back. His other hemangioma's are still there but have flattened out and faded in color quite a bit. Ryder has emerged as the BIG FLIRT as he often will stop eating because he's so busy smiling at me or Oma and trying to get our attention. He makes me laugh because he's always smiling and more recently started giggling! Cruz is slightly more serious but he too has started to giggle and I love every minute of it.

Brooklyn is very excited about Santa these days and often will break out into "ho-ho-ho!". She's met Santa twice already and seems to like him! We often take her for walks around our neighborhood to see all the Christmas lights and she really enjoys that. She is still a little bit confused by all our neighbor's lawn "blow-ups" as our neighbor across the street have a blow-up Christmas penguin and a blow-up Santa and reindeer on their roof and for the last 5 days or so she wakes up every morning, looks out the kitchen window, points at the collapsed penguin across the street and with great concern says, "broke!", "Mama broke!?" I had to explain that the blow-ups go "up" and "down" so now every morning she points out the window and says, "down!....Mama down!" and I say "yes, Brooklyn they are down during the day and blow UP at night"....she finally get's it and is no longer worried about the poor penguin, ha ha.

We also made a gingerbread house with Oma this year and although Brooklyn mostly ate the candy instead of sticking it on the gingerbread house, we still managed to decorate a house together. Unfortunately it didn't last a week before her and I demolished it though! Brooklyn was obsessed with that thing because it was sitting within arm's reach on the kitchen counter and she would constantly ask to pick off of it so we had a little bit each day but by day 3 or 4 we were eating the walls and the roof at which time it completely collapsed and eventually went to the gingerbread graveyard (ie. into the trash) but it was mostly crumbs by that time, ha ha.

Brooklyn is also very excited that her Nana is making her, her very own stocking this year. We explained that everyone get's their own stocking but that hers isn't on the mantle just yet because Nana is bringing it with her next week and made one "special" just for her! She is very excited and will often point to the stocking's hanging from the fireplace and say, "Daddy own, Mummy own, M-Y own!".....she cant wait to get her stocking! Nana made Daddy's stocking over 30 years ago...then made Mummy one about 4 years ago (mine is a pink high heel and very chic, ha ha) and now she's made a special one just for Brooklyn.......and hopefully next year she will have time to make two more for the boys too. I can't wait to see it and I will be sure to post pics once she get's her special stocking.

THING 1 and THING 2

I just love these pictures of the boys in their THING 1 and THING 2 outfits. I know I am biased but I think they are the cutest pair I have ever seen! hee hee.

Twins Update

Well, the boys had their 4 month vaccinations today and we weighted them while we were at the health unit too. Ryder is the chunky monkey at 13 lbs and Cruz is a whole pound less (12 lbs). Ryder eats more so he has taken a lead in weight gain. They were the same length just two weeks ago despite their weight difference but today Ryder measured 1/2" longer than Cruz. Im sure Cruz will catch up eventually. They are in the 95% isle for height and 75% isle for weight right now for their "corrected age". No surprise there! ha ha.

They also FINALLY slept through the night! Two days in a row they have slept 8-9 hours consecutively. They are no longer sleeping in the same crib because they were getting too heavy for the play pen downstairs but now that they are sleeping through the night, we may move them upstairs at night to their "real" cribs and I may put the playpens away. I was thinking of putting our beer fridge in their nursery as well for their middle of the night feed (they sleep 8pm-4am or 9pm-5am right now) BUT I dont want to count my chickens before they hatch because as soon as I think we have a "routine", the baby's change it! That's the way it goes!

Its been so great having my Mom here 3 days a week. She has been so helpful and is also my sanity at times! Brooklyn has started asking for "Oma" almost every morning after she wakes up and some days I have to tell her Oma's not here but I love it when I get to tell her Oma is downstairs. She recently started saying, "My Oma" and "My Baby's" in reference to her brother's, which is so adorable. That kid get's cuter by the day! She's talking more and more all the time now!

Ryder has been on his new medication for 2 weeks now and his birth mark has decreased by about 50%! It's amazing to me that he has had such great results with it in such a short period of time. I am very pleased and am grateful he hasn't had any side effects thus far.

I'm getting very excited for Christmas this year and am trying to convince my husband to put up the Christmas tree but he's on the "December 1st" train, ha ha. We may have it up before then and I will certainly post pics of the beautiful 9 foot tree that my Mom bought for my Christmas present last year (I LOVE THAT TREE!). Hopefully Brooklyn wont wreck the ornaments this year! ha ha. Next year I will have two little monkey's yanking ornaments off the tree. They will be a handful for sure once they are walking! I cant wait to have the kids picture taken with Santa this year, although I think we will overwhelm Santa with two little babes and a roudy 28 month old! Santa's arms and lap will be full and one of the twins is bound to cry, if not both of them! ha ha.

As for the day-to-day stuff......our house hold is crazy busy as you could imagine. It always blows me away how messy my kitchen and living room get on an hourly basis. The laundry and dishes (tons of bottles etc) is ridiculous around here! Its impossible to keep up. I may get our clothes washed and dried but folded and put away is a totally different story. I find myself picking out things I need out of a messy pile of clothes dumped on TOP of the dryer because I don't have time to fold laundry and put things away. Anything on TOP of the washer and dryer is clean and anything on the floor is dirty! Makes sense to me.....I just wish I had more hands and more time because I hate picking things out of a disorganized pile but that's the way it's got to be for a while. A bigger house would help solve some of our problems......suddenly this house and it's layout seems too small for my rapidly growing family but moving is not an option right now and we do really enjoy this house....its just that the walls seem to be closing in a little faster than we expected so-to-speak.

Halloween & the Nursery

Long time no blog again......

Sorry for my lack of updates....its busy to say the least here. The boys are doing so well and I fall deeper and deeper in love with them everyday. Brooklyn has adjusted so well and really only had a few weeks of bad behavior over a month ago but she's back to her sweet self and seems to really enjoys her baby brother's. Sometimes I still cant believe I had 3 kids in just under 2 years but I feel very lucky and I am grateful for these 3 little blessings!

So Halloween has come and gone and it was a hoot! Brooklyn was the cutest fairy I have ever laid eyes on and she enjoyed her fairy wings and the candy most. We practiced "trick or treat" for a few weeks before hand and then I got her a plastic pumpkin to put all her candy in. She would practice trick or treating at home every day and I would put snacks in it for her...so it's no surprise that she still says "trick or treat" in hopes of getting some goody's 3 weeks later! ha ha.

We experienced for the very first time that "sugar high" that parents always refer to and it was NOT pretty! She was literally bouncing up and down on the couch (she never does that) and running laps around the island 10x faster than her normal speed, she was yelling, shrieking and it took her about 2-3 days to recover from all the candy. Thank goodness Halloween is only once a year because it was a rough couple of days post-candy. I dressed the twins up as Superman which I thought was more than appropriate seeing as how they have proven to possess amazing strength since they were born so pre-mature! I thought they looked so sweet in the their Superman costume's and I even got a grin out of Ryder for a photo.

Ryder has a vascular birth mark (also called a "strawberry" or a hemangioma) on his right eye lid that appeared about a month after he came home. It surfaced around the time of their "due date" and has grown quite rapidly since. I took him to our family doctor who knew nothing about them and so I just kept watching it but could see it was continuing to grow, had increased in volume and redness and was starting to make his eye lid sag. I was concerned it may cause damage on the inside of his eye and after researching hemangioma's quite extensively, I opted to take him to the ER to fast track a referral to a specialist at Children's hospital that came highly recommended from another twin's Mom I know, who's son also had a hemangioma. Hemangioma's are quite common in premature baby's. Ryder has 8 of them and Cruz only has one but the only one that concerns me is the one on Ryder's eye of course.

I took Ryder to the ER on Friday and got an appt. with the specialist at Children's on Monday! That was f-a-s-t but I was glad because going back to my GP to get the referral could have added another month or two after all was said and done and by then the hemangioma could have been huge! My sister-in-law and I drove Ryder to Children's where the specialist looked at all his hemangioma's, measured them and documented all their locations. She then sent us directly over to the opthamologist for his opinion as she too was concerned at the size of the birth mark and location. The opthamologist said Ryder had a mild stigmatism on that eye and felt we should treat the hemangioma with medication right away.....so we went back to the dermatologist to get a prescription for propranolol which is a medication more commonly used for high blood pressure but is a relatively new medication for treatment of vascular birth marks. We were at Children's hospital for 3 1/2 hours but I was glad they squeezed us in to the see the opthalmologist so we didn't have to come back another day.

Im happy to report that after just 3-4 doses of the medication, Ryder's birth mark has improved and every day it seems to look better and better! I am very happy with his progress and grateful for this new treatment. Im hoping it's goes away completely in another month but time will tell.

I find it pretty easy to tell the twins apart but of course Ryder's birth mark is a dead giveaway...not only that but Ryder eats way more than Cruz does so he is bigger at the moment. I would guess between .5 and 1 lb bigger but I will find out tomorrow when I take them to be weighed and measured. That being said, if the boys are dressed the same (which they rarely are), I tend to mix them up all the time! I have to pay closer attention to size, hair and birth marks or I will surely mix them up so the easiest way is to dress them differently....but its soooooo cute when they are dressed the same! The problem is that they don't puke, poop and soil themselves at the same time so it's next to impossible to keep them in the same clothes for more than a photo or more than a few hours, ha ha. I do love dressing them the same, it's just not that practical, lol.

Lastly, we f-i-n-a-l-l-y finished the nursery! It took us a long time but it's done and I think it looks fantastic! We designed it to look like a hockey arena and chose bright yellow for the base boards to look authentic. Canucks fans will have to forgive me for the Boston Bruins theme but hubby is a hardcore Bruins fan and so we went with that! I am thrilled with how it turned out and I love spending time in their even though the boys are still sleeping in playpens downstairs. We will move them up to their cribs once they are sleeping through the night but for now it's easier to have them downstairs where all our supply's, swings, bottles, fridge etc are.

Wow...long time no blog!

Wow....long time no blog! Sorry guys. It's been crazy this first month since the boys have been home. Tons of changes for our 2 year old of course and she is just starting to act out a bit which is to be expected. She is really good with the boys and is already trying to help them with things. When one of the boys is crying, she finds a pacifier and shoves it in their mouth or puts a blanket over them to keep them warm. She always kisses them before she goes to bed at night without being prompted which is pretty cute and if you ask her where her brother's are, she points to one and then the other.

I can tell you that two newborn baby's put together are easier than caring for one 2 year old! Two is a hard age for sure and I honestly dont know how Im going to cope when I have two 2 year old's testing me and a 4 year old to boot. I have heard some people say "the terrible two's" AND the f***ing four's!", ha ha. It's difficult because Brooklyn can see me nursing one of the boys on the couch and knows I cant always get up to discipline her right away for something so she is trying to get away with murder. I try to de-latch the baby, put the baby down and follow through but if I did that every time Brooklyn needed me to take something away from her or discipline her, the baby's would NEVER eat so I can only follow through part of the time. Its frustrating for sure so I pick my battles wisely.

The baby's eat every 3 hour during the day and are awake more and more all the time now. They are very different already as Ryder seems to be the laid back baby, chills out on his own all the time and seems pretty low key but Cruz is a lot more sensitive and is upset frequently if he isnt being held and snuggled. They both love to be cuddled! I could really use more arms and more breasts so Im wondering what Santa can make happen for me this Christmas! ha ha. Actually, what I really want for Christmas is more sleep!!!! lol.

I dont know how I would get through this without my Mom here 3 days a week and my Aunt has really come through for me too:) The days Im on my own are very overwhelming but I have accepted the fact that the baby's are going to need to learn patience and learn how to wait their turn to eat but the only problem with that this early in the game is that they get so upset, they hold their breathe and turn blue! They have that dreaded silent cry and I cant let them get that worked up so I HAVE to pick them up when they are that distraught. Blue is not a good color on your baby when it's their face and their lips that are blue!! Brooklyn did that a few times as a newborn but I think it's more common in prems! (ie. premie's).

Everyone asks us if we can tell them apart and the answer to that is "most of the time". Chris on the other hand has more trouble telling them apart but when they are dressed and have hats on, neither of us can tell them apart! If it's dark in the middle of the night, I have to turn the light on to check the hair to make sure I know which baby I have because they have different needs when it comes to eating and comfort. The key to telling them apart is their hair. Cruz has lighter, thinner hair and Ryder's is darker and has a small bald spot where the nurses shaved it to start an IV. They also have different birth marks that are a dead give away but you can only see those when they are in their diapers so those aren't helpful on a regular basis.

On average, I change between 20-26 diapers A DAY!!!! Three kids, all in diapers and of course newborns go through diapers quite frequently because they digest breast milk incredibly fast! We are hoping to start potty training with Brooklyn but we aren't rushing her and she is starting to sit on the potty on her own so she should be out of diapers in a few months hopefully but only time will tell. We simply dont want to overwhelm her with changes because as you can imagine, her world has been turned upside down.

Chris and I did something really cool.....a friend of mine emailed me about her kid's talent agency looking for a 3 legged dog this past summer (Thanks Carissa:) so I emailed her agent some photo's of our 3 legged pooch (aka. "Tri-Pod dog" or "Roxy") and she was chosen for the movie but the gig only paid $35 and since that wouldn't even pay my gas to the set, I declined the opportunity (too bad, I thought Roxy was going to be a 3 legged STAR! ha ha). I had mentioned to the agent that I had just had twin boys and that I would rather spend the day visiting with them in the NICU than participating in the dog job at which time he asked me if I was interested in using our baby's in a movie at the end of September that needed newborn twin boys. I told him if the opportunity was suitable (ie. location, requirements of them, whether or not Chris had those days off work and adequate profit) that we may be open to it so he asked me to submit a few photo's of them, which I did (even though they still had nasogastric tubes in). Every couple of weeks the agent would ask for an updated photo of the boys and by Mid September he informed me that the boys were chosen for the movie at the end of the month!

What I didn't know was the calibre of this movie nor did I know the title until after they were chosen and all I can tell you is that it's the biggest movie to come through Vancouver in years and if there was ONE movie I had to choose for my boys to be in, this would be it! We spent two days on set filming and it was A LOT of work and a lot of sitting around in Cruz and Ryder's trailer waiting for their scene! I dont think we would do it again since we had to daycare Brooklyn for 2 days and had to arrange for someone to pick her up since the shooting went WAY over the expected call time and it was a bit of a nightmare that way. Eight hours is a very long time to be in a trailer with two newborn baby's and the trailer wasn't equipped for baby's so the second day we lugged a lot of baby gear down there with us. Overall, the experience blew us away because one of the best actor's of our generation was holding and kissing the baby's and shooting the breeze with Chris and I....including the world famous director and his wife. It was fun, they were very kind to us, fed us and everyone drooled over the boys. The cast and crew asked us on numerous occasions how we got "this gig" and they all laughed and high fived us when I told them it all started with our 3 legged dog! ha ha.

MY BOYS ARE FINALLY HOME!!!!!

We were finally able to bring our two lucky charms home on August 30th! Its been a long 53 days of driving back and forth to two different hospitals over the last 7 weeks every single day! The hospital only gave us 24 hours notice to come get the boys and I was pretty annoyed after originally being told the baby's most likely wouldnt go home until around my due date which was September 22nd....then I was told they would probably go home in a week and then all of a sudden, the hospital phones me and says "there is a discharge order written for today, can you come get them tonight!". Talk about getting the boot! I was angry with the hospital because the discharge planning was weak and sudden (I can say that because Im an RN and I know what typically goes into discharge planning) and I didnt feel they prepared us or asked any of the right questions before the baby's came home. My boys were taking up two beds and they were doing well and so we were asked to leave very suddenly. Dont get me wrong, Im thrilled they are FINALLY home but I just felt it was rushed and some things got missed along the way.

Moving on.......our boys have been home for three days and I have had two sleepless nights already. They "recommend" we do not swaddle the boys but after they have been up all night two nights in a row, Im going to swaddle them tonight to see if they will settle like they do during the day when they are swaddled. Everyone knows baby's sleep better when they are swaddled. The nurses swaddled them in the hospital every night but since our discharge was so sudden, they didnt have time to get the boys on the "back to sleep" program a week before discharge where they stop swaddling them so they get used to sleeping freely. I am all about the sawddle so hopefully tonight will go better.

Brooklyn has been great but it's only been 3 days thus far, ha ha. She seems to have some interest in her brother's but not a ton. She turns on their swings and brings them bottles and pacifiers and even put her care bear on top of baby Cruz today. She was trying to share, ha ha. The boys were eating every 3 hours in the hospital like clock work but they were getting bottles of my breast milk there and had somewhat of a schedule but now that we are all at home and I am strictly breast feeding, it's hard to determine how much they are getting from me and so they are eating a little more frequently than every 3 hours.

Its been challenging but I had my Mom here for the first 2 days which was a HUGE help but I didnt want her to leave so soon (she has to work a few days a week while she is on her part-time LOA). She is going to be here 3 days a week with me so I am incredibly greatful for that and looking forward to spending time with her and the boys. She is just as smitten with my boys as I am:)