Family Stories

On our way to the polls with all our ladies on the night of the Election!  The little old lady poll workers loved our entourage.  I’m holding Stella, JD has Zoey.  Didn’t realize how sorta dorky we look being political nerds!

In all seriousness, it felt so special to cast my vote in the public high school that my kids will go to someday and my Dad would have gone to if his family had stayed in Buffalo, especially being a teacher.  I hope that next time we take this walk with all our girls, when Lucy has just begun Kindergarten in 4 short years, a lot has changed for the better in our educational system.  I won’t open that can of worms at this hour of night.  BUT- I hope a lot has changed (for the better) with the war, the economy, the student loan system, health care, women’s health and birth issues, early childhood education, social security, veteran services, equal rights for same sex couples, issues of poverty, americorps programs and on and on and on and on……. Hoping for positive growth all around!

Zoey and Stella are both 1 month old today.  Its so crazy.  They’ve been home for 2 1/2 weeks now and are noticeably bigger, chubbier and becoming more alert.  Zoey is hovering around 6 lbs. and gained almost a pound in a week!  Stella is gaining a little slower and is about 5.5 lbs.  They are also sleeping together nicely and have started to look at each other which is so cool.  Sometimes they even try to nurse on each others hands or foreheads!   We have had 5 nights in a row now where they have fed 2 times at night and gone pretty much right back to sleep.  I think we might have a system that works down!  I am hoping to post some new pictures of them on flickr soon.

Not only is it easy to tell them apart, their personalities are also emerging different.  Stella definitely likes to be held more and likes to look around a lot.  She is also generally more patient when waiting to be fed, but is not as good at eating.  Zoey really only demands your attention when she’s hungry, but she loves her pacifier big time.  Zoey sleeps soundly and Stella does a lot of moving and noise-making while sleeping.  So far, they are very different, which is what I expected.  Its so inevitable, but so hard not to compare them.  This will be life for them right?  We are trying so hard to get to know them individually and not do the “dress them alike” constantly routine.  Its incredible to think of how life would be different for them if they were simply born at different times instead of how it happened, by luck, to be created at the same time, albeit from different DNA. Read the rest of this entry »

I hate to get hopes up but the Dr. told us today that Stella is at least coming home tomorrow!  Zoey also may come home with Stella tomorrow.  Zoey graduated to an open crib today as she struggles to keep her own body temperature up.  So far so good though.  She was put in the crib at noon today and when I left around dinner time for home she was still maintaining.  She must maintain her temperature for at least 24 hrs. before she is cleared to go.  They are both almost back up to their birth weight also, so that might figure in to discharging them both tomorrow.  We could end up with Lucy at home, 1 newborn- Stella- at home, and 1 at the hospital still- Zoey.  Not sure until late tomorrow afternoon what will happen.

I hesitated to post this because the last 2 weeks have been the hardest and longest roller coaster for Jason and I and Lucy for sure and I really, really don’t want to get my hopes up about them coming home at any certain day.  Who knows, maybe they will end up not getting home tomorrow.  Its really hour by hour.  However, they had 4 more sets of twins (2 girl-girl- all in our girls’ pod, 1 boy-boy and 1boy-girl) born and put into the NICU in one night recently so they are kinda edging ours out the door! 

On the other hand, its pretty scary thinking about both of them home with Lucy and how we will juggle everyone’s needs and spend quality time with each of them- let alone get them all fed!  My neighbor and good friend, who had her second son 3 days before we had the twins (we were in the hospital together too!) told me her goals for this summer were for no one to get hurt and everyone to stay fed!  HA!  Very realistic actually!  In all seriousness though, we know those sleepless nights all too well and how easy it is to wear thin and not be at your best for each other in these difficult times.  BUT, Its totally true that you find out what you’re made of, how strong you are, how vulnerable you are, how strong you can be for each other and what you can take for each other at times like this.  This is without a doubt the hardest time of our lives so far and I am sure we’ll still continue to struggle for a while once both the girls are home.  These are also the times of incredible growth too, which I really look forward to and know we’ll be proud of later.

I have to also thank everyone who’s been supportive of us through all of this either by spending time with Lucy, giving me rides to the hospital everyday since I still can’t drive from surgery, holding the babies in between feedings at the hospital, bringing food to us or simply sharing laughs and listening through tears.  I also have to thank Lucy for being so patient, sweet, happy, understanding and flexible with us and all the running around and upheaval that’s been our life the last several months since I was put on modified bed rest in May.  She is really the best kid in the world and has never complained or been anyone other than her laid back, contented self through all this. Thanks to both our Moms and Dads, Aunt Chris and Uncle Bill, our siblings, Brian and Kari, my Gram and Aunt Michelle, Aunt Marge, Kim, Melissa and other friends and family members that sent along good wishes and gifts!  I know that you’ll all say to me “Stop thanking me already!” but really, you have no idea how its pulled us through.

Ok- I’m off to tie up some last minute loose ends before tomorrow!  I am hoping I can post some great (but tired) news very soon!

No Swimmies!

My Aunt Chris sent us this picture today in response to Melisa’s ‘Swimmies‘ post. She didn’t see the picture in the email at first (read the email on her Centro), so it was even funnier when I pointed out it was me when I was little! Thanks for making our night Aunt Chris!

This was the answer Jason gave me late last night when I commented that I didn’t know how he seemed to stay afloat among all of this running back and forth to the hospital to see the babies, taking care of Lucy, taking care of me, the house and going to work every day until the babies come home.  All I could do was laugh!

This weekend has got me thinking about “highs and lows”.  My great friends from the U of R Warner School (where I got my Masters in Science Education and still seem to not be able to tear myself away from) will be familiar with this if you ever spent any time in class with April (Dr. Luehmann)!  I used to love starting class hearing about everyone’s personal and professional highs and lows lately, realizing they are so intimately attached.  This reflection on how things are going has always stuck with me (kinda like Warner!) and I find myself often thinking this way, reevaluating moments, taking stock of experiences and just simply how things are going.  Its an awesome way to critically evaluate work, personal stuff, etc. and learn from your own experiences- highly recommend it!  The highs and lows from this weekend make me think about what our metaphorical “swimmies” just might be lately… Read the rest of this entry »

I was importing today’s pictures into iPhoto and decided to go back and look at Lucy’s birth pictures. Very interesting! Take a look for yourself - no resemblance or anything, huh?

Lucy right after she was born.

Stella right after she was born.

Zoey right after she was born.

Hey, how’s Lucy doing?  Lots of people have been asking so I thought I would update you on her latest accomplishments (which as her parents of course simply amaze us!)

• Sniffing the toes on pictures of baby feet in books just like Daddy does after her bath!  She is also building talent in the area of lifting her toes to your nose so you can sniff them.  I don’t know how many other kids have this, but our kid’s toes actually smell bad!
• Eating all kinds of foods now that are not related to the general “noodle” category with her newly mastered pincher grasp.  Yay- no baby food!
• We knew she already had many dance moves up her sleeves usually arranged in random 2 second stints and repeated, but now she has added a spin around.  She loves spinning around in a circle while adding various dance moves!
• Putting feet on the table while eating and trying to grab food with her toes.  That one is hard to keep a straight face for when saying no.
• Screaming in delight when Daddy opens the cabinet to get snacks for her causing Daddy to break things because of being startled.
• Dramatically banging her body against baby gates that block her from going outside when the doors are open.  That kid just can’t get enough fresh air.
• Learning to run in random directions and generally delighting in her own independence (which is so wonderful to watch).  She is also remembering things she sees one time and doing them again- which is amazing.  Sponge!

I could go on and on…..what a ham!

There are some things that pregnant women report happening that seem to come just before delivery of their baby (or babies).  They are kind of informally the “signs” of impending birth, but some women never have any and some women have several.  When I had Lucy I had very little warning I feel like (except my water breaking, which is pretty obvious!) or at least that I paid attention to.  I hadn’t gained that much weight, wasn’t uncomfortable and kept rolling forward actively with our everyday lives.  Things are different this time around and now that I think I understand and notice those changes in my body more, I have been noticing some of these!  You can check out the list through the link above which generally includes the big changes women report, but is not all inclusive.  Lately…. Read the rest of this entry »

That’s right, we found out yesterday that baby “A” is estimated to be 4 lbs. 9 oz. and baby “B” is estimated to be 4 lbs. 12 oz.! That’s almost 10 lb. of baby! They each seem to be putting on about a pound every 2 weeks. So, I am hoping to hold out for 2 more weeks. The perfect time would be around 36 weeks (July 26) to have them. I am 33.5 weeks and marching toward 34 this weekend. After this weekend, if I go into labor that’s that! They would ideally be about 5.5 lbs. each- which is what Lucy was too. Obviously the bigger the better though, so as long as it takes to have healthy babies that is fine. I’m not gonna lie though, this is getting tough. Its bad enough being uncomfortable moving around and doing normal life things like “walking”, but now just sitting and laying around is not comfortable! Also having a few “warm up” contractions each day now. They are painless and just feel like a lot of pressure, but still since I never had them with Lucy are a little unnerving. Hopefully things will happen in the next 2.5 weeks or so. Trying to be patient…

As posted earlier, I was going to try and create a stenciled effect in Lucy’s new room using DIY Wall Decals after browsing on Etsy and finding some very inspiring, but very expensive premade designs to buy.  The original idea was to actually stencil or free hand draw the design like I did in her original room and paint it in with white paint, but in an effort to make things simpler Jason found a great link suggesting the use of contact paper.  So off to target we went and picked up some regular white contact paper (also, make sure you call Target to make sure they have it before you go- only one Target (the giant one) had it around us).  They even had “stainless steel” contact paper which was intriguing, but we passed on the urge to contact paper all our appliances!  How much contact paper would that take??  That would probably look tacky though- anyone tried?  Anyone tried the chalk board contact paper??

Anyway, it took me about 2-2.5 hrs. from start to finish to complete the design on two walls of her room.  I will probably repeat the design under her second window later too.  The pictures are below if you’d like to look.  Here’s how I did it:

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I’m getting there and getting bigger and bigger and bigger.  I’m 32 weeks now and marching on to 33.  The Dr. said by 34, whatever happens, happens and by 38 weeks, they won’t let me go any farther.  I’d love to make it as far as possible of course, but at the most, its 6 more weeks.  My next goal is to get to 34 weeks (around July 12th).  Not that the inability to breathe or numb arms when I wake up aren’t so glamorous, but really, now I know what it means to be pregnant and uncomfortable.  I never got to this point with Lucy because she was so small and early.  I actually woke up from a dream the other day where I was wearing my favorite normal jeans- yeah, not maternity stretchy ones.  So nice.  I won’t go on and on about these things because I feel lucky to be this far and look forward to going farther.  My BPP and NST tests at the hospital this morning were again great.  So we wait, patientlyand take in as much ice cream as humanly possible.

In other news, while shopping on Sat. at Wegmans, Lucy was getting kind of antsy so I took out the savior of ants in the pants, none other than the snack container.  My girl can hunt down a goldfish like no ones business, even when buried in numerous other crackers.  Anyway, she shoved another of her favorites, a pretzel, into her mouth.  Kinda a big piece I thought, but I weighed that against getting my finger bitten off with her surprisingly sharp baby teeth (which after nearly happening once before seemed pretty scary) so I kept a watchful eye.  Wouldn’t you know 30 sec. later she started choking.  I mean the no sound coming out, eyes watering, struggling for breath choking.  Terrified I tried to remember what to do and tried to pry her out of the seatbelt thingy on the cart to no avail so I tried to do the infamous finger sweep.  This DID NOT work.  It pushed the pretzel back farther and I started to freak a little.  By the time I called JD over, I had finger swept her like 3 more times, more forcefully (which I wasn’t sure I should have done) and it was all over and I flung that pretzel piece 1/2 way to Japan.  Anyway, we finally freed her from the belt and picked her up and she was surprisingly calm, with tears down her cheeks, but not crying freaking out or anything.  I thought I would have a break down, but we made it through a couple of more aisles and I was much more calm and she was back to her normal pointing and asking what everything is self.  Anyway, how scary.  It reminds you that you do what you can in an instant, right or wrong and try to remember how to do all this lifesaving stuff (we even took a baby CPR and First Aid class before she was born) but sometimes its sheer luck.  I can’t imagine what it would have been like if it’d been a worse situation.  Needless to say all the big pretzel pieces around our house are hidden now.  For a while.

Jason’s grandma passed away earlier this week and it has been hard on everyone.  We miss her terribly, but are very glad that she doesn’t have to experience pain any longer.  She had the best laugh, loved her kitties and was always so funny.  No matter the company, she never failed to say what was on her mind, which gave us much to talk and laugh about.  Whenever I think of her, I can’t resist getting a smile across my face thinking of all the ways she made us laugh.  She was really one of a kind and an incredible grandma, mom and great grandma too.  We miss you already grandma, but are glad you are peaceful!

The part of all of this that I can appreciate though is spending some extra time with family.  Although the circumstances have been draining on everyone, it was nice to see everyone this week and be able to be at home to rest and play a little in between.  Jason and Lucy have been home since Wednesday afternoon so we have gotten some walks and play time at home that are usually reserved for only weekends when things aren’t rushed with dinner, bathtime, etc.  Also, it was nice to see Lucy with our family, especially our aunts, uncles and grandparents who adore her.  Its comforting in a time like this to see her be so happy to just be herself and be with others who are having a hard time.  I think it was a relief to have a little smiling, laughing and now full on walking toddler to break things up.  I was so proud of her being so easy-going, entertained and “good” the entire time.  I’m feeling pretty thankful for lots of things in this hard time.

Jason and I have never been fans of the packaged baby room decorations that the major chains sell, so we tried a more creative route with Lucy’s room and painted a life-size one color tree in a darker green than her walls on two of the walls from a free hand outline I drew.  The idea was to add leaves to the tree and some bird silhouettes to represent the 3 of us, but the day I was getting out the paint was the day she decided she couldn’t wait and was born!  Thus, the tree is still stuck in “winter mode”, but still gives the room a lot of unique character.

So, with the new room we created for the babies (which, now ended up being Lucy’s new room because we can’t fit two cribs in there!), we want to again do something different.  We chose Lilac for the wall colors and white for the trim and wanted to do some stenciling.  However, how does one make their own stencil quickly?  Again, it wasn’t our style to use the commercial roses, ivy, ,etc. stencils that are out there in most craft stores and by the time I searched around for plastic to cut a stencil so Jason could paint it… well you get the picture.  Plan B was for me to again free hand draw the design on the wall (by the way, chalk is an excellent way to mark on walls without erasing, etc.  It just rubs off and its nice and white so you can see it easily on any colored wall).

So, we chose a mod bigger than life kind of poppy pattern or something like that to go around the windows and walls of the room patterned after some incredible vinyl wall art decals we found on Etsy.  Etsy had so many to choose from, it literally took us a while to narrow down what we were looking for. Again, the plan was to freehand the design on the walls and paint it in later.  Then….

Jason found this link on how to make removeable, DIY vinyl wall art!  Duh!  All those college years of contact paper in apartment drawers will finally come in handy.  I am on the hunt today for white contact paper and I’ll let you know how it goes.  Best of all, if it works, it’ll be faster, less messy, no paint fumes and removable down the line.  I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.  Anyone done this before?

On Monday, I went to Sisters Hospital in Buffalo to the Fetal Testing Unit where they do just that. My Dr. considers them the best at testing, especially with twins, so from here on out each Monday I’ll be there getting a Non-stress test (NST) and a Biophysical Profile on each baby (BPP) to see how they are each doing in there and making sure no one is having a hard time. This is what happened Monday. Read the rest of this entry »

I went to the annual Senior Awards dinner for my school last night and presented some awards to three outstanding seniors that I advised in our high school’s Key Club (Key Club is sponsored by Kiwanis and is the largest “service to the community” organization for young people in the world).  I had such a good time having dinner with my colleagues and I forgot how funny the people I work with are!  We laughed and laughed and laughed. To my surprise also, some of my colleagues put together some care packages and boxes of diapers to help us get started and me pass time while at home.  How thoughtful and incredible!  I didn’t know what to say.  I really work with some amazing people!

After dinner, my award was thankfully like the 4th or 5th award of the night out of pages and pages of awards, so I could get it over with because I hate getting up and presenting these things!  I get so unnecessarily nervous!  Anyway, it was hard to express how special these kids are to me in front of 200 or so people, but I tried.  Just after giving them the gifts, cards, certificates and hugs in recognition, they turned the tables, bringing up a HUGE wrapped gift, a card and flowers from the Key Club!  I was speechless!  They desperately wanted me to open it in front of all the people there, but I tried to gently coax them to bring it off to the side of the room and I’d open it after the awards ceremony.  I was so taken aback, overwhelmed, etc.  WOW!  Anyway, we all had a seat and waited to open it at the end of the ceremony.  At the end of the ceremony, we visited and I opened the present which turned out to be a front and back double stroller that will fit our car seats that the club members had saved all their money up for and bought for us.  Just incredible.  I still keep tearing up thinking about what an amazing thought, let alone present, they worked hard and contributed to get us.  I mean, they make minimum wages at HS jobs and imagine how much they had to have saved??  How could I possibly thank them all!?  They did this all on their own without me knowing and without any guidance or help.  Jason was in on it too but was surprised when he saw what they got us- also very thoughtful (but sneaky!).  I just can’t believe it.  I wish I could hug them each over and over!

After all of this the real reason I am actually writing this post is that while watching the slide show of pictures of our seniors now and as babies, I thought of our babies.  Read the rest of this entry »

If you are close to us and have spent time with Lucy, you know that she is a constant talker (she is my child after all!).  The Dr. calls her a little ahead in language (now if she could just change her own diaper!).  She started with Da-da, then Ma-ma, then cat (loves the cat), now up, dog, ball, that (constantly asking “whats that?” and pointing) and the list is growing.  She is also becoming more and more expressive, like screeching when she’s excited or to announce her presence when one of us don’t notice her behind us, inflecting her voice when she points like she is asking a question and can follow some simple commands.  She also laughs at stuff we do and she does.  Its so fun and her personality is starting to come out a lot more day by day.  She seems to have a lot to say about everything and when she is not talking she is usually crawling, climbing, taking things apart, opening things and generally being super busy all the time (often while talking at the same time!).  Even when I come in to get her in the morning in the crib, she is walking around and around her crib waving around her bear blanket.  The kid never stops!

So, I was doing some research on the interweb about language development and its interesting how young people develop their language (especially as a teacher).  By 12 months, most kids use about 1-5 words and by 18 months, this grows to about 7-20.  They also start using inflection by about 18 months too and will show emotion with body language.  Lucy now lays on the floor face down when she is tired- a little subtle huh?  They will also start using consonant sounds and lead to a spurt in vocabulary around 18 months.  By 19 months, they can understand up to 200 words and will pick up 10+ words a day!  Some can add a new word every 90 minutes!  Yikes!  They also start to combine words in sentences by the end of the second year and will express needs, wants, likes/dislikes and emotion.  Wow, that’s fast and simply amazing.  Its incredible to imagine how things will change when she can tell us what she wants and not.  Now its just trial and error!

Any stories about early language that you’d like to share?

So, I’ve been home from work on “house arrest” since May 16th now- my 26th week of pregnancy.  House arrest simply means that I need to be off my feet most of the day, not lift things (such as Lucy) and generally take it as easy as possible.  Being home has been really different than teaching every day and pretty mundane, but not as hard as I thought it would be actually to not being doing much.  I guess when your body tells you to slow down, you have no choice.  I spend my days doing stuff on the computer, some light stuff around the house, watching ridiculously mind-numbing TV and finally, meeting JD at daycare to pick up Lucy together.

What is strange though is that I don’t have Lucy with me during the day and can’t fully care for her when we are alone.  It is simply hard to get off the floor and get down onto the floor with her at this point, let alone changing her and lifting her in and out of her crib.  I watch her leave with JD in the morning for daycare and wonder what she is doing with other people and kids all day- that is the hardest part.  This morning, she crawled away from me to JD and called him Mama, giving him a hug, when she was sad.  I was so sad.  Due to me not being able to physically handle her, our relationship is definitely changing and she is relying on Dad more, which is sweet, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t sad sometimes about us losing some closeness.  I try to maintain perspective that this has to happen and is a natural part of growing a family and is seen in all cultures, but still at 6:30am I want to be the “Mama”!

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