I survived

Almost three year olds have a lot of energy and a lot of will. Holy crap!

Kiernan goes back to daycare tomorrow after a 3 week vacation for his daycare provider. During those three weeks he was with me full time for 2 and was in a morning day camp the first week. The second week I was at the cottage with my inlaws (and Kiernan's cousins to keep him entertained a lot of the time) and this week it was just me, the three kids, and thankfully, my mother's helper.

It pushed me to really start adapting to this new three kids lifestyle and we ended up having a lot of fun and almost no breakdowns, almost ;) I love him to pieces but I do look forward to his return to daycare tomorrow and me trying to finally find my groove with the babies mostly on my own. I've never actually had a full day on my own with the babies (because I am super duper lucky/spoiled) and so this week will mark the start of that. That being said, I will still get my helper to come over a few days and help me get some stuff done around the house. It's her last available week before she's gone for three weeks so I may as well take advantage. And I also think I'll be setting up lots of "playdates" for me with my mommy friends - it's easier when I'm out.

A few highlights of our weeks together:

Not so glidy anymore

When I named this blog Gliding through Motherhood I felt pretty confident the name could stick for a long time. Kiernan was up all night so often, my glider became frequented almost as much as my bed and I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. Eventually though, we did manage to sleep train him and then he turned into the amazing sleeping child. He goes to bed on his own (in fact he refuses to ever sleep WITH anyone) and generally sleeps for 12 hours+ and needs to be woken up in the morning. And then he goes down for a 2+ hour nap in the afternoon!! The child who almost never slept in that first year sleeps like a charm now.

Regardless, I figured the blog name would apply to any future children who doubtlessly would also require hours of rocking/nursing in the chair - who knew that instead we would be blessed with twins. Twins who require far more than my itty bitty glider can provide. I wonder if in a few months we'll get to a place where the babies sleep enough that I could just rock them back to sleep in the glider instead of camping out in my living room with 2 babies, each in their own swings (by the way, that post caused my original swing to self destruct - never ever say you can't live without something) and the blog name won't seem so wrong ;)

Not me Monday #1

I heard about Not Me Monday last week and was super excited to participate. This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did NOT accidentally lactate on a nursing bra I was trying on at the store and not buy it because it was $90. I did not wait for it to air dry and then neatly fold it and stick it back into the box and hightail it out of the change room at top speed.

I did not let the babies sleep in the swings for 5+ hours (each) a day this week (and it most certainly didn't get closer to 10 hours one day).

I did not give in and let me almost 3 year old play Sesame street games daily, sometimes multiple times, just so he'd shut up about it already.

Nope, not me.

My can't live without it products for twins

I'm in a blog carnival kind of mood this weekend! Here is a post from the multiples and more site where they ask what you couldn't live without.

My twins turn two months old tomorrow so I am still learning what does and doesn't work to manage with the chaos of twins but so far, two of the things that I couldn't possibly live without are :

1. My double snap and go. When I first test drove this around the store (with empty car seats) I worried it felt flimsy. At a meeting of new members for the local multiples association we met a couple of sets of parents of 6 month old twins who RAVED about the snap and go. We ended up buying ours used from one of those sets of parents and I'm so glad we did! Having picked up one of those huge stroller systems since, the weight difference is insane. The snap and go flings in and out of the van in seconds and is light enough for me to pick up and lift up curbs or around corners when I get into a tight corner - something that definitely happens more often with a long stroller like this than it did with my single.

2. My fisher price swings. I recently borrowed a second one because they are my life line. I absolutely recommend getting a deluxe swing if it seems like your baby/ies like them. Mine do (particularly the side to side motion which most non-deluxe swings don't do) and the babies spends hours and hours and hours a day in them - both swinging and not swinging. When I'm at my wits end at 4am, I can plop them each in a swing and go to sleep on the floor for a bit. They love to watch the mobiles, and even when they aren't moving they are comfortable in that propped up position because they are both reflux babies. If I had to give up all but one baby accessory, I would SO keep the swings!! (Mine are slightly older versions of the two models seen below :)

Simple Saturday

I love kissing baby chins.

Interview with an almost three year old

As Kiernan and I were eating dinner tonight we were talking about camp and what he had done today when he said "do you want to tell me more questions mommy?" and I thought this would be the perfect time to conduct the interview with him that I've been thinking of doing after seeing them on other people's blogs :)

Q: How old are you?
A: Almost three

Q: What's your favourite colour?
A: Blue

Q: What's your favourite food?
A: berries (there were berries in our supper - this started a trend with some answers being things within eyesight:)

Q: What does mommy like to do?
A: Mommy likes to make me a game (which I believe really meant "let's me play games on her computer)

Q: Where do you like to go?
A: To the mall

Q: What does mommy do when you're not there
A: colours (that'd be a lot more fun than what I usually do ;)

Q: What does daddy do when you're not there?
A: plays with his computer and with his games

Q: What do you like to do?
A: play

Q: What is your favourite shape:
A: triangle

Q: Why does daddy go to work:
A: For the house

Q: Who do you like to talk to on the phone?
A: Shona (Shona, apparently you should be phoning Kiernan more often ;)

Q: Where does mommy like to go?
A: To the cottage (I do!)

Q: Where does daddy like to go?
A: To work (not so much ;)

Q: What's your favourite animal?
A: Sheep and bears

Q: Do you have any brothers and sisters?
A: Yes. There's a brother and daddy is holding the sister.

Answers started getting sketchy after this, but I thought his first answers were a lot of fun :)

Moo

If you've ever exclusively nursed a baby, you know how much work it is. Now, imagine doing that times 2, except for a few occasional bottles. Would YOU want to smack the nurses/lactation consultants in the head who ask you, in a slightly belittling tone, if you're sure you can't find the time to pump for those extra bottles?
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I'm giving them 2-3 oz of formula a day tops (and to be honest, it's just Juliette because Quinn nurses very efficiently and hates bottles and Juliette prefers bottles so fusses for one and often wins for a small top up or two a day) and you're going to give me a hard time? Makes me want to kick them. :P (and then I guiltily try to pump more. sigh)

That one will be all yours sweetie

Having a 3 year old and newborn twins I get a LOT of "wow. so now you must be done!" and whether or not I am done (probably, maybe, most likely) and whether or not I appreciate getting asked this constantly within weeks of having these babies (or wait, while being pregnant with them!) it's brought up the topic of more permanent methods of birth control and people's thoughts on them. And. I'm shocked.

There are WAY more people out there than I thought who still think it's the woman's responsibility. "Will you be getting your tubes tied?" Um, aside from the fact that I don't want to discuss the finality of my fertility with you, NO, I am NOT going to be getting my tubes tied!

I am not getting my tubes tied because :
A) That's surgery, and unless I knew well ahead of a planned c-section that I was absolutely done, then I'm not going in to surgery.
B) WHO is the one who carried and birthed the children? Me? That's right. I'm done with the discomfort in our procreational activities. You get it done, or you can chance me deciding I'd really like another baaaaby in 5 years from now ;)
C) Any man who still thinks a vasectomy unmans them in this day and age needs a swift smack upside the head. And also, I don't care (see B)

What do you think?

Addendum. Eric never suggested I get my tubes tied and this post has nothing to do with us but instead my feelings towards what other people have said. Just in case you thought he was the one who needed the smack - cuz he's not ;)

Our donair poster child

Our local shawarma/donair joint is called Greek Plus and every time we've gone in with Kiernan, since he was eating solids he's offered kiernan a big hunk of donair to chew on while we wait for our food. Kiernan LOVED it and now he's charmed the owner so much I think he eats most of his dinner before we even leave the restaurant with the food. The owner keeps asking for a photo of Kiernan eating donair so he can put him up in the restaurant with his other donair poster children and we finally got around to taking some last night.

Which one do you think we should print and bring in to him? :)

It's raining on me!

I made promises of a walk to the park this afternoon without realizing that the weather was not cooperating. Sunny one minute, downpour the next, by the time Kiernan was ready to go on our walk the skies had opened. With memories of the fun of a summer downpour I offered an alternative - take off all your clothing and we'll go out and play in the rain!

Apparently it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. "It's RAINING ON ME!"



May have only last 3 minutes but it still made for some fun pictures. :)
Also, I wanted him to go naked but Eric insisted, knowing photos were half the point of doing this, that the diaper stayed on ;)

Holy crap - they're 6 weeks old!

The babies are now 6 weeks old and I feel horrid because I have not been keeping track of how things have been going at all!

First things first - twins is MORE than twice as hard as one. It's insane. Also, I definitely think there is an advantage to having an older child, because going into this twin thing with no previous parenting experience would have be so incredibly stressful I can't even imagine. Now it's hard - really hard, but at least I'm not constantly second guessing myself on everything I'm trying to manage to do, I'm just trying to manage doing it all.

I could NOT be managing nearly as well as I am without the army of help we have. Between my mother-in-law and father I haven't had to go without help while Eric is at work. All of these guys' grandparents have been lifesavers - coming to the rescue whenever the exhaustion is threatening to have us start 'losing it'. Starting (hopefully) next week we're hiring a teenager from the neighbourhood to come and help me during the week so we'll be letting the grandparents go back to their regular lives (although they're all going to start going into baby withdrawal ;)

The babies themselves are overall fairly easy babies. Quinn is out moaner and groaner. From birth he's moaned and groaned awake an asleep. We can't sleep through it so it's been a struggle to deal with, and I worried it was a repeat of all of Kiernan's difficulties (despite the fact that we are already not giving them dairy or soy). Both babies are now on reflux medication and I'm told if things don't improve after that I need to accept that some babies just are moaners and groaners and he'll outgrow it. Boo. For now, he's not very good at sleeping long periods of time in bed so for my own sanity I generally hold him and sleep in the chair in their room for the majority of the night - although it's getting better and better. Other than that, he's a really easy going baby who doesn't cry a l ot and is a super efficient eater who already weighs 11 lbs!

Juliette is the loudest. She's proclaimed from the getgo that she may be smallest but she will always be loudest! She goes from 0-100 in no time, making sure everyone knows that she needs attention and SHE NEEDS IT NOW! She is also quite clear in her cries, neighing when she's hungry and ah ah ahing whenever she's just not happy. She is sleeping 5-6 hour stretches a few times a week and if she were a singleton mommy would actually be getting a decent amount of sleep. in bed ;)

At six weeks I can see there is a light somewhere down that tunnel and we may be able to establish routine in the coming months.

Now, here are some photos of my gorgeous children for you to enjoy :)



Kiernan! No licking the babies!

Thems some cute babies

My friend Julie is a photographer and she took some gorgeous photos of the babies when they were a week and a half old. I love them and I think you get a great idea of how small Juliette is since her name in blocks is practically longer than she is ;)
If you're in Ottawa and you're looking for a photographer you should definitely check out Inspired Photography :)

This photo begs for a caption

Where have I been?

I'm sure it's no huge surprise I haven't been around as much lately, but just to give you an idea of how things are going, when I'm not on the couch nursing (and surfing one handed which is not a handy way to write anything including blog posts or emails) I'm trying to sleep - generally unsuccessfully and with a lot of confused wakings ;)

The babies are 3 weeks old and doing well. They're great but we think Quinn has a bit of reflux and he struggles a lot with tummy issues that have him grunting and groaning an awful lot. I'm on the verge of taking him to the doctor, fighting between not over reacting since newborns all tend to have tummy issues to some extent and not wanting to let things get anywhere near the place we got to with Kiernan.

Either way, they're gorgeous, starting to fill out and I love them to pieces, even though I've slept about 20 minutes in the last 3 days ;)

LOOK MOMMY!!!

It's a puppet soother!!

The birth story - long version with coles notes at the bottom

(This is long, but I don't want to forget any of the little details so feel free to skip to the bottom for the coles notes version :)

I wasn't exactly keeping it a secret that I don't enjoy pregnancy but when I hit 36 weeks things REALLY started going downhill. Everything hurt, all the time. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't eat without raging heartburn and reflux (despite meds), and lord oh lord was I cranky!
On Monday I went in for my 37 week (ish) appointment and suddenly my blood pressure was 146/102 (translation - wicked high and totally out of the blue). The doctor was concerned so I had to come back in the next day to get it checked again. It was down to 130/96 but still a concern to my doc. He had me to go for some blood work and when I got back he told me he thought it was time to go in and get induced. (yes!) 37 weeks is considered by just about everyone to be a very acceptable arrival date for twins and I was a day short of that. I was sent home to wait to hear when I might expect to be called in for an induction.
The moment I was told I was going to be induced I became calm. I think I just needed to know it was almost over. Unfortunately the anxiety my husband, mother and mother in law all started feeling more than made up for it ;) Just after 5 my doctor's office called to say that the induction would be going ahead and the hospital would be calling me but likely not until morning. I clarified "So, probably in the morning but possible tonight?" and she said "No, I don't think it will be tonight" and I said "OK, so they won't end up calling me in the middle of the night to come in?" and she said "No, it'll be in the morning.". Ok great - Eric made a plan and started putting it into action... for approximately 2 minutes. That's when the hospital called and told me to have a bit to eat and head on in for my induction! Gah! Ok! Eek!
We packed ourselves up, stopped and got some food, brought Kiernan to my parents' house, ate our food and made it to the hospital in about 2 hours. The entire time I beat myself up for not getting a more accurate time frame on how long I should be taking given their vague "eat something and head on down" instructions and my fear of getting things wrong. We finally arrived at the hospital around 7ish.
And it turned out to be one of those hurry up and wait situations since my doctor didn't make it to the hospital until 10 to break my water. We did keep somewhat busy in other ways though... I had to immediately change into a hospital gown. :P Those things don't close around the majority of people but let me tell ya, there was zero chance it was going to close around my massive stomach!
Then the nurse came in and made me do these swabs (from now on known as nose and bum swabs) to test for a strain of bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics that all patients in the hospital are screened for and she took some blood to check on blood pressure related things and to be able to type my blood because I was at higher risk to need a transfusion because of the twin thing. Then, about an hour later another nurse comes in and says
"so, we've been trying to figure out the mystery of all your names"
Ummm... all my names?
turned out they had accidentally registered me into the hospital as someone else! Not a huge deal except you know those blood tests and nose/bum swaps - sent to the lab with another name. And the lab won't just switch names so we got to do them again! Yay.
Oh, and remember how I came in to the hospital because my blood pressure went through the roof? They took it when I got there and it was something ridiculously low like 120/67. My theory really is that the stress of continuing to be pregnant was so overwhelming it caused my bp to go crazy and as soon as I was told it was ending I really and truly did relax and things got better. Thank goodness they didn't send me home because my blood pressure wasn't an issue anymore ;)
So, 10pm and my doctor breaks my water - which he informs me is SUPER tough to break and took 3 tries and that my cervix had retracted or something. Just another sign these babies really weren't inclined to come out at all! Also, I was about 4cm dilated.
Come 1am, nothing was happening so they started me on oxytocin. I was happy to have the drugs started to get things going but what I didn't realize was that once I was on the drugs I'd have to have both babies monitored constantly. And the only way to have both babies monitored constantly was for me to lie on my back. This had to be the most uncomfortable position ever. As the contractions got worse I was in agony, but more from my position than the contractions. All I kept thinking about was when i broke my left in a car accident when I was 13 and they left me on this wooden stretcher for hours as they were checking everything out. And I was in agony, not from the horribly broken leg I had, but because my butt on the wooden stretcher for hours was just NOT tolerable any more. And I was whining and wimpering and a nurse offered me pain medication and I said yes, never letting on that it was because my ass hurt, not my leg. And that's how I felt in labour - give me an epidural because sitting like this is KILLING me. I could totally deal with the contractions if I could just move, but not if I have to SIT LIKE THIS!
At 4 I get the nurse to check me thinking I must have made a ton of progress in the 6 hours since the doctor broke my water. And... NOTHING. VERY discouraging. So we agreed I'd get an epidural. By 5:30 it was in and working and I got to get a bit of rest.
Around 6:45 the nurse came in and I let her know I was having pain that was getting through the epidural - a weird sharp pain just in my pubic bone. But on a scale of 1-10 it was only a 2 - tolerable, just noteworthy. By 7, they weren't so tolerable and nurse seemed a bit confused, saying maybe I had a block in my epidural that made it not work on one area of my body. This seemed very bad because the pain was getting progressively worse, and fast. Fortunately my doctor stopped in around that time to check in on me, having expected to hear from me in the middle of the night to deliver babies. After my description of the pain I'd been having and the nurse's request to screw one of those heart monitors into baby a's head because the tummy one wasn't keeping track anymore he decided to check things out only to discover I was fully dilated and ready to push.
Start mad frantic scene!
After a test push I'm told to stop stop stop while nurses are called and they madly rush me to an OR. My hospital bed apparently had a bum wheel so despite the very painful contractions I have to admit the ride to the OR was quite amusing as the nurses repeatedly almost rammed me into walls. Oh, plus they were trying to keep my IV pole close enough to the bed to not yank out of my arm. (I wonder if someone else would have found that entirely un-funny ;)
Finally we're in the OR and they're all rushing around saying things like "how do we do this again?" which was not entirely calming but I figure they probably don't often have vaginal twin deliveries and essentially everything was fine. When they finally let me push it had been about 20 minutes and within 3 minutes Quinn was out weighing 6 lbs 9 oz (although they told us his weight in grams and someone guessed he was about 6 lbs and it wasn't until hours later we actually realized how much bigger than Juliette he actually was!) and then 6 minutes later, after a quick decent and having her water broken Juliette arrived weighing 5lbs 10 oz.

It was a shockingly quick turn of events from a long night of nothing that I expected to continue on that way for hours.

So that's the story of Quinn and Juliette's arrival. Stay tuned when, sometime in the next few months, I get around to my rant about hospital stays ;)


Coles notes version
May 12 11am - doctor decides my blood pressure is too high and I will be sent for an induction
May 12 5pm - hospital calls to have me come in
7pm - arrive at hospital
10 pm - Doctor breaks my water
1 am - nothing happening - start an IV of oxytocin
4am - nurse checks me - I've made no progress and want to cry. We decide I'm going to get an epidural to ride things out
5:30 - Epidural in and working. Time for a nap
6:45 - I tell the nurse I'm starting to have these mild-ish pains through the epidural. Nothing to be concerned about in terms of pain management but I thought I'd mention it
6:55 - You know those pains that were like a 2/10 5 minutes ago? they're now at least a 7!
7:05 Doctor arrives to check on me. Pains now a 9 or a 10. He gets ready to check me.
7:15 Doctor announces I am fully dilated and ready to push. Can I give a test push? Ok stop stop! Let's get this girl to an OR
7:15- 7:35 wheeled to the OR and told not to push. Struggling through contractions and trying to ignore people trying to introduce themselves to me.
7:35 - start pushing
7:38 Quinn Dante Wellman born weighing 6 lbs 9 oz
7:44 Juliette Lorelai Wellman born weighing 5 lbs 10 oz

Welcome Quinn and Juliette

Born Wednesday May 13
Quinn Dante - 6 lbs 9 oz - 7:38am
Juliette Lorelai - 5 lbs 10 oz - 7:44 am

More details to come soon :)



We have to work on the fact that Kiernan looks kind of scared instead of smiley when he says cheese ;)

I've never been a patient person

I've gotten to the stage of pregnancy that I may loathe the most... the waiting! I have finally gotten beyond that stage where I desperately wanted to remain pregnant and now I want to NOT be pregnant anymore.

And it's hard because:
- I feel guilty that I don't want them to stay in another week or two, because in my head I know that the longer they bake the better. But... I hate waiting plus it's becoming more and more uncomfortable
- Every contraction makes me wonder if "now is the time"?
- There were more contractions and signs of uncoming labour LAST week than there are now :P
- I have more energy - doesn't that seem like a sign that I'm about to have these babies?
- I feel so stretched that when they kick it hurts. But then I want them to kick so I know they're still ok in there.

And I'm just ready to meet them. 9 months is too long... why do my babies insist on staying in past my ability to stand it? Thank god i'm not an elephant.

Whine whine, moan moan, get out get out!

35.5 weeks pregnant

I had Eric take bi-weekly photos the entire pregnancy with Kiernan, but with this pregnancy... I haven't felt particularly inclined. But really, I'm pregnant with twins - I'd better get SOME record of how big I got, right? So here are a few photos we took last night.
I'm not sure if it's more impressive showing my actual belly or not but I'm being daring and showing that one too.

I think my belly is actually not that huge for 10.5 - 11lbs of baby!

P.S. Have you read this ? Cracks me up!

May!

I woke up yesterday morning and as I lay in bed and Eric was getting ready for work I started getting kicked.... in a way I didn't recognize. I told Eric it suddenly felt like I was getting kicked down low... something I hadn't experienced before, and wondered if Baby Girl had flipped over in the night.

One of the first things the tech said during our ultrasound yesterday? "So Baby A is head down and Baby B is breech." Hmm.. well, at least I clearly am aware of what they're doing in there now. And at least it's baby B. I'm not going to get freaked out or worried because they'll still let me try to have a vaginal delivery with baby b being breech, which wouldn't have been the case if baby A had decided to flip.

I was shocked she had any room in there to flip! Hopefully she'll flip once baby A makes his appearance.

They also are both over 5lbs now, which is something that makes me feel a lot better too. They're getting so big, makes me worry less about them showing up early. Baby A was down so low that she couldn't get a good measurement of his head so we're not sure exactly how big he is, but baby A measured in at 5 lbs 4 oz so we can safely assume that he's about the same.

Today is May. I didn't want these babies to come until May, and it's May! That's also a really big relief! Everyone, except one, who I've known who has been pregnant with twins in the last year hasn't made it past 35 weeks. I'm now at 35 weeks 2 days and, all things considered, feeling pretty good. I want this to be over, but think I can hold out at least another week. And until then, I'm going to keep sitting in my chair with my feet up and I'm going to be grateful that I have people who will listen to me complain about the indigestion, the headaches, the cramping and the difficulties breathing. ;) Won't be long now!

So frustrating

I am exhausted to the point of feeling like I want to just fall asleep on the spot most of the time, but when I lie down I feel sick and can't sleep. It's beyond frustrating because I'm not comfortable sitting around and I'm not comfortable lying down. Blaaah.

I know they're better off inside for awhile longer but OMG I just want to fast forward 2 weeks! I can't wait to be more than a big whiner ;)

Awake

It's 2:50am and I'm awake - shocking! Tonight it's not only that I'm not tired but that every time I lie down I feel like throwing up. Wheee. So far, I haven't been able to fall asleep sitting up either - I guess my exhaustion level just isn't high enough yet ;)

Woe is me.

On the bright side, I'm 34 weeks and almost 3 days. Less than two weeks until I can want these babies to come out without feeling guilty and selfish ;)

Wanna see a trick?

Kiernan has started appearing before us with this question lately. To which we of course always say yes. His response is to do varying acrobatics/yoga moves. The first time he promptly bent in two and put his head on the floor and put his arms out to the side to balance himself. (we then spent about 15 minutes coaching him on turning that trick into a somersault which he can now do quite impressively!) and last night he did what seemed like an attempt at the splits.

My favourite part is that every time I ask him who showed him these tricks he confidently announces that it was Daddy. Daddy likes to act all confused but I'm thinking Eric and Kiernan have been secretly doing yoga or pilates or something while I'm sleeping ;)

Levelling things out

I had another ultrasound yesterday and things seem to be going well. Both babies weighed in at a guesstimate of 4 lbs 1 oz! Yay to Baby A for catching up to his sister :)

Things were looking good although the tech wouldn't give me an update on my cervix claiming she couldn't give me any results. Odd since she told me everything else, so this obviously has me paranoid, but I'm staying as chilled out about it as I can.

We told her we never seemed to get any photos of Baby B's profile so she made an effort and got some great ones! (see below) but nothing on Baby A this time.





Overall my attitude is unfortunately quickly deteriorating lately. I'm feeling uncomfortable, the heartburn is getting worse, my sleeping isn't great, the babies are kicking so much (something I never thought I'd tire of) that it sets off cramping/braxton hicks which hurt, I'm so big no position seems comfortable and I HATE how little I can do. My belly is so tight it feels like it's stretched to the max. The only pants that fit now get stretched one in under one wearing and I have to hold them up when I'm out. I feel like a super big whiner/complainer but I am so ready to be done with this.

I've decided to aim for 3 more weeks (not that I honestly have any control in how much longer I'm pregnant ;) and have decided I can make it that much longer. I can't fathom longer so I'm just not thinking about it. If I make it 3 more weeks I feel confident they'll be at least 5 lbs each and that seems reasonable. So wish me luck. The finish line is in sight, but I'm slowing way down.

Pregnancy is hard :P

Maybe he'll forget there was ever chocolate involved...

If *I* got a giant Kinder Surprise for Easter from my Great-Aunt I'd be all about begging to eat all the chocolate. I preferred to watch and get creative with the wrapping instead though :)

It's a hat

Or maybe more of a bonnet

No, it's a cape!!

Or a lovely poncho!



Happy Easter!

PS, you know what's SUPER fun for 4 boys under 5 to do for relatively extended periods of time at Grammie's for Easter?


Just in case you thought they needed toys or something, no worries. Hanging out behind the couch makes them happy as clams :)

No cause for concern

I think I just need to not get concerned anytime anything seems odd anymore. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and when I inquired further with the doctor about the reason the receptionist gave me when I called to find out about the early ultrasound it turns out it was scheduled because the hospital thinks women women pregnant with twins should have ultrasounds every 2-3 weeks and since my regular doctor wasn't in the office his replacement went ahead and scheduled it. My own doctor tends to not be overly keen on ultrasounds so he was planning to wait 4 weeks.

The whole "your cervix is measuring 33-37 weeks" thing? Ya, it was 33-37mm - totally normal, closed - nothing going on whatsoever.

So I'm just going to try to chill from now on - these scares all seem to be for nothing. Although hey, I'd rather worry for nothing than for something!

Belly shots

Being pregnant hasn't been my "thing". I don't feel well, I don't glow, and I spend more time than I should obsessing that my belly is a bit of an odd shape ;) I decided this time, however, that I was going to take the plunge and get some photos taken of me pregnant. Anna is setting up her photography business here in Ottawa and I think she got some great shots - although really, I think Kiernan stole the show :)

Pregnant with twins - 31 weeks

I've been horrible about blogging this pregnancy. I wish I was better for the people who read, and even just so I remember what this experience has been like. But alas, I find it really hard to motivate myself to do much this pregnancy :P The less I do, the more I feel inclined to never leave the house or do anything but nap and read books. It's kind of depressing and I look forward to the total shift I know will happen when these babies get here.

Last week I had my follow up ultrasound after my scary one and all was good. Eric and I were right, we assume, to think the u/s tech at the previous place didn't take much care in her measurements since this time the babies were only 2 oz apart and both about 3lbs (Baby A 2 lbs 15 oz and Baby B 3 lbs 1 oz). I was ecstatic!

Today I got a call that's got me slightly on edge again. I've been scheduled for a follow up ultrasound sooner than I expected because apparently my cervix was measuring at a 33-37 weeks when I was 29 weeks. Obviously nobody is in a panic because they scheduled a recommended follow up for 2-3 weeks later, but it looks like my body might be getting ready to have these babies a bit sooner than we'd like. So I head back on April 15 to see what they have to say then. Given the fact that Baby A likes to swivel on my cervix (I've actually been complaining about this for the last few days) I think I'm going to be trying to keep myself even more reclined than I have been. They need to stay in there at least another 5 weeks!!!

This weekend is my shower (fun!) so I'll post some photos next week that show you all how big I'm getting ;)

Roller coasters here he comes!

A few weeks ago we ventured out into the backyard for the first time. There was still a fair amount of snow but Kiernan couldn't get up the ladder to the slide with his mittens on. So my strategy was to have him slide down the slide with his hands in the air so that he wouldn't have them land in the snow at the bottom (something that upset him a great deal!)

Apparently hands in the air stuck and he now slides that way every time. Cracks me up. He's ready for amusement parks now!