Reality Bites!

Reality has a way of smacking you in the face at the most inopportune moments!  As we were sitting in the twins’ room the other night, I glanced over at the “diaper supply”… only FIVE bags left!  Yikes!  The time is finally upon us that we will actually have to purchase diapers for the twins!  We made it four full months on the generosity of others and we thank all of you who donated to the cause!  The final five packages we had were returned to the store for a larger size.  That’s right… our little ones are not so little anymore.  We managed to exchange those five bags for three boxes of size twos.  No more newborn or size 1 diapers in our house… ever.  Well, I can’t really say that… Paige will be given what is left one day to “practice” on her baby dolls! 

Lucky for us, when Noah was little, we learned that the parent’s choice Wal-Mart brand diapers are fabulous!  We tried every brand with him… nothing beats Huggies newborn diapers, but after that parent’s choice won hands down!  They were the only diapers where we had no leaks and we still haven’t after five sizes!  Unless it’s our own fault of course!  I don’t think any diaper would hold three glasses of juice and a four hour dinner excursion with no extra diapers!  Oops!  Oh don’t lie… you’ve done it too!

When Noah was a baby he spit up constantly.  I mean, every bottle!   Jay and I, and even the cat (yes Noah, you threw up on the cat a few times!), got tired of it and decided to switch to soy because both Jay and I were allergic to milk as children.  The throwing up stopped almost immediately!  Because of our love for parent’s choice diapers we check the label on the parent’s choice formula.  Let me just tell you… it’s exactly the same as the name brand formulas, and even better in some areas!  I can’t tell you how much money we saved just checking the label!  Needless to say, the twins were put on the same formula from the start.  Paige still throws almost everything up… but that’s another story! 

So, the dwindling diaper supply got me thinking about what these precious angels were costing us and I’ve decided to give you a small glimpse into some of our reality.  And now that reality is upon us, here is the breakdown:

Diapers:  Noah wears a size 5 and we buy one box at a time.  A box will last us about three weeks, maybe four (I think… I don’t actually deal with that, Jay does).  Noah has begun potty training so we are hoping his diapers will disappear in the near future! We won't even add Noah's diapers and pull-ups into the equation... we'll just focus on the babies!

The twins go through roughly a box every week and a half to two weeks!  On average, they claim twins go through roughly 4702 diapers the first year!  And by “they” I mean random websites on the internet!  Let’s do some math people… 

First, let’s look at time spent.  It takes roughly four minutes on average to change a diaper.  I’m using an average because sometimes with Miss Squirmy Paige it can take you a LOT longer!  So, four minutes per diaper times 4702 equals 18,808 minutes, or 313.5 hours, or 13.06 DAYS of the first year of their life we are changing diapers!  Can you say RIDICULOUS?!

Now let’s look at the cost… Our diapers run roughly $13.97 for 96 diapers.  Yes, I know it is a penny cheaper per diaper if I buy a box of 200, but that is only going to save about $1.04 so give me a few dollars to be off in my math for my own sanity…  Now 4702 diapers translates into 49 boxes of diapers.  Multiply that by $13.97 and you can see that we will spend $684.53 in the first year on DIAPERS!  Seriously?!  On a piece of plastic that my kids can soil and throw away, it’s like buying trash bags!  We have to pay to throw our crap away in a nice neat bag, just so some dude can come along and squish it, break it open and have a cluster of open bags!  This reminds me, not only will I throw $684.53 in the trash this year, but I also buy cute little bags for a diaper pail to put my money in!  Maybe now people will understand why pee-pee diapers go in the kitchen trash and only dirty ones go in the pail!  But I digress.  If you add wipes into the equation you are looking at another $75 per year!  It’s doesn’t sound like much, but just wait till I get going here!!! 

Now let’s move on to FORMULA!  I am a firm believer that once kids reach one, all bottles and formula are GONE!  Last week when we returned from our trip to Gatlinburg with Noah (which you can read about here), we realized that we were almost out of formula, so daddy had to run to the store at 10:30 at night to get a fresh supply for Miss Dana for the week.  It was then that we realized that we had gone through two full cans of formula in 5 ½ days!  This translates into THREE cans a WEEK!  Holy cow!  Now let’s do some more math!  A can of formula costs us $13.97 (I swear parent’s choice has a thing for this price)!  Multiply that by three equals $41.91 a week, multiplied by 52 equals $2,179.32 for formula for the first year!  And this is at six ounce bottles!  Paige is already trying to get us to give her eight ounce bottles… this price is going to go up by about another $500 to $700 when that starts!  WOW!  Don’t get me started on the fact that Miss Paige Karrigan can’t seem to keep this formula in and we end up with $15 a week on our clothing, which then translates into more laundry detergent, and time doing laundry…

Which brings me to CLOTHING!  I’m a sucker for a good deal.  I laugh and say that Jay made me cheap when we got married.  He is a very humble man and my name brand self needed to be humbled!  The funny thing is it seems that I’ve surpassed him on my cheapness!  I’m constantly looking for a good deal and I LOVE consignment sales!  My children go through clothes like CRAZY!  They started in preemie, and then finally got to newborn around two months, then 0-3 around three months.  They are now four months old.  Carter is still content in most of his 0-3 clothes, while Paige is heading into 3-6 here soon.  These kids grow out of clothes SO fast, or throw up on them and ruin them, that I cannot see spending $15 per outfit just so they can wear it once and be done!  So, I buy them a boat load of cheap, slightly used clothes that will actually be useful, and then I buy them one new outfit every now and then!  I never thought this before, but this season Wal-Mart has some of the cutest little spring outfits I’ve ever seen!  Anyway… we spend about $100 per month on clothing for all the kids, including shoes and socks… shhhh, don’t tell Jay, he thinks I’m thriftier than that! 

Laundry totals out to being FIVE to SIX loads of laundry per week!  I spend all day Saturday doing laundry and sometimes, if not all the time, it runs into my Sunday!  So, for those of you wondering why I’m never around, I don’t visit, or don’t seem to have time to call… I’m doing the freakin’ laundry!  I try to do the kids’ laundry on Thursday, so that our dear nanny can fold it for me on Friday.  Then I do the other four loads over the weekend because it is the only time I have to get it done!  If on the rare occasion we end up spending our weekend away or visiting, everything is thrown off schedule and it creates a cluster of work for me, and unwanted stress!  And as any parent of multiples can tell you… getting off schedule is NOT good for our family!  We go through a bottle of laundry detergent every two weeks and our washer and dryer are running for hours on end.  If I was home, there would be a load a day.  As it is now, the dishwasher is run every single night. 

Now, just for the added enjoyment, let me talk about DOCTORS!  Yes, doctors!  Let me start by saying that I actually have fabulous insurance through my company and my children are all covered on my plan.  All of their well-visits and shots are covered 100% at no cost to me… however when one gets sick, all THREE get sick!  When you have three sick children, here is what you are looking at off the top.  We carry a co-pay of $30 on my insurance plan, which was fabulous because we never got sick and if something did happen, that $30 got us every test known to man and awesome care that you only receive when you carry such great coverage!  Since the twins were born, they’ve been sick.  I had a cold when they were born, so that was the way they entered the world.  That was followed by a stomach virus Noah brought home when he was in daycare, followed by another cold, then RSV and now they are getting over what we hope is our FINAL winter cold!  We went from paying $30 per visit for Noah when he was sick (which was once before the twins came) to paying $30 per child, per visit for three children since the great family expansion!!!  But that’s not all… RSV sent us to the ER FIVE times!  Not only do you have to pay a $30 co-pay to the doctor, but then you have to pay a $50 ER visit co-pay!  $80 per visit per child to the ER!  And don’t get me started on certain emergency rooms being in-network, but their doctors are out-of-network and you have to pay them full price, but don’t find out till after the fact!  Yes, that is what we are currently fighting!

It may sound like I’m complaining about the cost of my children, however I’m really not.  I’m just trying to give you a very small example of some of the added cost of having multiples.  This is just the tip of the iceberg; I haven’t even touched the subjects of childcare, toiletries, solid foods, car seats, strollers, toys, highchairs, furniture, and vehicles.  Imagine life when they start school, learn to drive, want to go to college!  When you have multiples everything is amplified.  The stress, the costs, the work, the headaches.  But at the end of the day, the smiles, the laughs, and the pure enjoyment of watching them grow and learn make it all worth it. 

I love my kids, I’m amazingly blessed to have them, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.  I’d pay the world twice over if I had to in order to keep them happy and safe.  Any mother would.  Jay and I are lucky.  We’ve been blessed with relatively good jobs that come with decent pay and we get by.  But next time you see parents pushing a stroller with twins, trips or quads around… take a minute to realize the stress those parents are under, the financial hardship of unexpected multiples, the strain on their marriage.  Multiples are definitely a blessing, but they come with added responsibility.  When those parents need a new highchair, need a car seat… they don’t have the cost of just one coming at them… they are looking at two, three and four!  When their kids get sick, doctor bills are flooding their desks and they are fighting with insurance companies in double.  When you see how they are raising or managing their children, don’t judge them.  Life with multiples is hard, and they are just trying to get by, just trying to get through that one moment in time, while trying to find one spare moment to actually stop and enjoy their kids, to actually stop and watch them grow up before it's too late.

Don’t feel sorry for them, they are truly happy and they know how blessed the actually are.  But keep in mind, just because life blessed them with such a great gift, there is a lot more going on behind closed doors then cute little giggling babies... they are lucky when they find the time to sit down and enjoy those smiles.

Behind closed doors, here is what we clean up every night (on a good night):

Behind closed doors, here is what we wash weekly (not including the two loads I did prior to this, or the load of random things we used while I was running these loads):

Behind closed doors, here is what we wash nightly:

Behind closed doors, here is what we hear:

Behind closed doors, here is our reaction:

Okay, so that is SO NOT our reaction, but we can pretend for today. 



And that, my friends, is a peek into our reality.  Thanks for listening to me ramble... I'm not sure I remember the point of this post now! And that's what I was aiming for!

Mommy's Little Helper

Being stuck in the house with three children for three weeks has been draining.  I’ve been back at work for a week now after dealing with RSV.  We spent this past weekend on lockdown waiting to see if we would come down with the horrible stomach bug that has plagued my office since I returned.  Every day we watch as another co-worker falls victim and runs home in misery!  Luckily, we seemed to have done something right and God granted us a pass on this illness…

Noah has handled solitary confinement quite well these past few weeks and he’s been a great help to us as well!  Last week, I finished feeding the babies and was working on getting them changed into pajamas and into bed when Noah did the cutest thing!  There I was, sitting on the nursery floor, just finishing getting Paige all bundled up for the night when Noah squats down next to me, hands on his knees, puts his little face right in mine and says “Noah help?”  WOW!  “Sure” I say, hey even help from my one year old is still help!  “What do you want to help with?” I ask him.  “Carter diaper” he says!  And he proceeds to go to town!  I sat there in total shock witnessing my almost two year old help me by changing his brother!  Yes, the process would have been quicker if I had done it myself, but I know an opportunity for a blog post when I see one!  Not to mention seeing the sense of accomplishment beaming from my son when he was finished!

Please disregard the state of the nursery in these photos!  We have never had time to finish decorating it and the twins’ dressers are still being built so their clothes are stored in bins!  It’s amazing how you run out of time to get these things done once they actually arrive!  Our changing table is still in Noah’s room and I’ve found that having this makeshift changing spot in their room, with their clothes is actually more efficient than running back and forth!  And when you have multiples… efficiency is key!  Oh... and please ignore the fact that Carter is covered in puke... he can be as messy as Paige some days!

Here is Noah’s understanding of how to change a diaper from watching mommy and daddy:

Step 1:  Give Carter his binkie, even if he spits it out… and be sure to crush his rib cage in the process!

Step 2:  Put on a glove.  This step was learned by watching daddy!  Daddy does not do diapers without a glove and Noah is just like his daddy… he even put it on the correct hand!

Step 3:  Violently rip Carter’s pants from his body!

Step 4:  Unsnap Carter’s onesie!  (I love how Carter has no idea of the danger he is in)!

Step 5:  Remove diaper!

Step 6 and Step 7 must remain in your imagination because daddy did not feel that photos of Noah cleaning Carter’s winkie with a wipe and putting on a clean diaper were appropriate for the world to see… and I can’t say I blame him!

Step 8:  Throw out the dirty diaper and wipes! 

Mommy stepped in at this point and re-dressed Carter in his pajamas!  I am so grateful to have such a wonderful helper!  He takes pride in helping me out as much as his little body can!  He takes bottles to the sink, he gets burp clothes, he retrieves binkies, and he burps the babies during their feedings!  Okay, so he only enjoys burping them because he can smack them as hard as he wants and he doesn’t get in trouble… but still, he’s helping!!!

Now if only he would teach Daddy some of these tricks!  Just kidding Daddy!!!  You are a wonderful help too, but then again you don’t get the thanks that Noah does… you helped create this chaos we call life! 

RSV? Yes, Three Please!

RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) struck our house in early February.  For those of you who have children who have had it... I'm sorry.  For those of you who have never heard of it... it's hell!  This is the short version of our week with RSV.

On Thursday, February 2nd, I took Noah to the park.  I noticed he had a runny nose, but it was a nice day so I let him play.  By Friday evening when I came home from work he had a fever and wouldn't move from the couch.  We gave him some Tylenol and he seemed to get some relief... until around 9pm when his fever reached over 102.  Daddy took him to the emergency room and we discovered Noah had RSV.  Nana (my mom) came over and watched after the twins so that I could go and be with them at the hospital.  I packed up Brobie (yo gabba gabba) and raced to be with him.  After torturing him with a bunch of tests, they gave him a breathing treatment and sent him home.

We got little sleep that night because the babies were cranky.  Saturday went well, we gave Noah Tylenol throughout the day. 

Saturday night we once again didn't sleep because the babies were cranky.  By Sunday afternoon Daddy took Paige to the ER.  Her breathing was very labored... after torturing her with x-rays, blood tests and breathing treatments they decided she had congestion and sent her home.  By Sunday evening she was gasping for air.  Daddy took her back to the ER around 3am.  Turns out she did have RSV. 

They admitted her, gave her oxygen and once again Nana came to be with the kids so that I could go be with Paige at the hospital.  Shortly after I arrived at the ER they transferred us to a children's hospital thirty miles away.  I rode in the ambulance (mobile intensive care unit... it was even better than an ambulance) with Paige.  It was both of our first ride in an ambulance so we were pretty stoked!  When we reached the children's hospital at 8am on Monday they hooked her up to an oxygen monitor and told me to settle in. 

Daddy came right away and stayed most of Monday with Paige and I.  The boys were with Miss Dana (their Nanny).  It was decided that I would be staying at the hospital overnight with Paige so Daddy went home to get us some supplies.  Paige's oxygen levels were very low, but they never gave her any more oxygen or breathing treatments. 

We brought Carter out to the ER at the children's hospital and had him tested for RSV as well.  He had it, but not bad enough to be admitted and he was sent home with Daddy.  By Tuesday afternoon they released Paige and we brought her home.  Tuesday night, I was rushing Paige back to the ER because she wasn't breathing.  After running through all the same tests, they sent us home with steroids and liquid albuterol. 

We finally saw the kids pediatrician on Wednesday.  She was shocked that the children's hospital had released Paige.  She thinks Paige should have been in there for several days because she is so little and so very sick.  She set us up with two nebulizers and told us to administer breathing treatments to all three kids every four hours and to come back in two days. 

On Friday, the kids were not getting better so the treatment were upped to every three hours! 

This made for a VERY long weekend... but it paid off! 

Today, our pediatrician gave us good news!  Noah and Carter are doing much better and their breathing treatments are being moved to every six hours for a few days, followed by every eight hours for a few days and then off them completely.  Paige, on the other hand... our little attention hog... still has to have treatments every four hours for a few days, then down to six for a few and finally to eight and then off.

Jay and I thought dealing with the twins and Noah was tiresome enough, but to add a sickness into the mix... well, I'll just say we haven't slept since February 2nd when all of this started!  We are dragging, but we are so delighted to see that our babies are on their way to a full recovery! 

The entire experience was draining and I don't want to even think about the bills that are on their way to our house from this.  I can't count the number of times I broke down and cried this week. There is nothing like seeing your three month old baby girl strapped to a stretcher and wheeled into the back of an ambulance.  There is nothing like seeing her wheeled around the corridors of the hospital and you not being able to touch her.  There is nothing like seeing her in a sterile crib with sides that raise six feet in the air just in case she has to be tented.  There is nothing like seeing her struggle for air and knowing exactly how that feels.  There is nothing like being watched and talked down to because your baby girl is so sick.  There is nothing like seeing your kids not eat for almost a week and to hear them cough violently all hours of the day...

There is nothing like having your pediatrician commend you for all you've been through, for a sleepless week and a half, and for getting your kids on a path to recovery in such a short period of time from an illness that normally lasts weeks!  Thank you doctor O!!!!  And thank you to all of you who prayed for our family!  God was beside us the entire time... and we plan to see him this weekend when we go back to church after a very long absence!  I am excited to return to work tomorrow after being out for over a week and we are extremely greatful that we had Nana and Miss Dana to help us through all of this!  Now I'm going to go and give my three beatiful babies hugs and kisses and get their Valentine's Day gift ready for tomorrow! 

Blogging is a Blessing

Today I’m feeling amazing!  I want to thank whoever it was that created blogging.  Since I started doing this I’ve realized how blessed I really am. 

Just writing about the good times has made me temporarily forget all those nights where I’d lay in bed listening to Paige and Carter scream through their monitor, waiting to be fed, and thinking ‘why in God’s name did I think having more children was a good idea’ or that ‘I hate this life’ or ‘I’ll never forgive you Grandpa for being a twin’ or ‘if I died right now, would they even care as long as someone, anyone, gave them a bottle’ or ‘why in the hell has this not woke daddy up yet?’ or ‘I wonder how much a night nanny would cost us’, this doesn’t even include the thoughts I’ve had during the day while running between the two of them to get them to keep their binkies in their mouths and be quiet while Noah is screaming he wants juice and cookies, or just plain screaming for no apparent reason…

My kids are amazing!  My husband is amazing!  I’m one of the luckiest girls in the world… and I can feel that today. 

My cardiologist told us that I can’t have any more children because my heart can’t handle it and won’t handle it.  It was fine with me to only have two children when Jay and I decided that I would have a tubal ligation… but to be told you CAN’T have more makes things more permanent and takes everything out of your own hands.  I like to think that God knew we would regret stopping at two… I remember asking Jay once before we knew about the twins “What if this isn’t God’s plan for us, what if He doesn’t agree with our decision”.  Jay’s response was simple “It’s God honey!  If he wants us to have more, we’ll have more.  You’ll either get pregnant despite the surgery, or he’ll give us twins”.  God’s plan must have including us having three children because he made it happen!  And I really believe him having a cardiologist tell me that I cannot have any more children was his way of telling us His plan was done.

It dawns on me every now and then that this is it… I might not be fond of the “helpless baby days”, but I’ll never experience it again.  I’ll never feel a baby kick in belly again, I’ll never hear that first cry again, I’ll never get to see that first smile again or see the first roll over.  Yes, I have many firsts I still get to look forward to, but as I’m sitting here thinking life will get easier when the twins can walk and feed themselves, I’m realizing that for every first they have… it’s also a last. 

So yes, I’m blessed!  I might not get to have any more children but God has given me my last experience in double vision!

A Day With Noah

As I mentioned in our history, Noah is getting to the age where he starts doing and saying the funniest darn things!  I’ve been waiting since he was born for this and I’m so excited about it I can’t stand it!  I’m not much for the “helpless baby” stage, but I love, love, love the toddler years…. even though it comes with the “terrible twos”, which Jay and I refuse to believe exist! 

The other day I came home from work and couldn’t help but notice that Noah had shiny stuff on his face.  Upon further inspection I realized it was glitter.  I hadn’t noticed an art project on the kitchen counter, so I knew Nanny Dana didn’t have craft day.  She then proceeds to tell me about Noah’s day (my day reports from her are quite amusing).  Here is what that day brought… Nanny Dana had gone into the bathroom.  In the two minutes she was gone Noah opened up his normally locked closet door (he had broken the lock a few weeks ago and we hadn’t replaced it yet).  I had moved all of our craft supplies into his closet so that Nanny Dana could access them better on craft day.  Noah found two jars of glitter.  He proceeded to open them and throw himself a party!  Glitter ended up all over his room and all over him.  After hearing this I realized that he not only had glitter on his face, but all over his body!  At this point I dare to take a glance at the babies… they were sparkly too!  Within ten minutes of being home we were all sparkly because, as I’m sure you all know, you just CAN’T clean up glitter!  Later that night I learned that the hardwood floors don’t give up glitter easy and that Noah’s bed looks like he spent the evening at a strip club and brought home a bit of the girls!  I have to give mad props to Nanny Dana over this one because had it been me… I would have not handled it so well!  She cleaned it up the best she could and because it happened on her watch, I’m able to laugh hysterically at the fun my little guy was having!

After Nanny Dana left the babies were enjoying some tummy time… of course Noah was right there “helping” them roll over!  He then decided he needed to “play” with them and leaned in to get a good “look”… it ended with Noah laying on top of his baby brother and me having to rescue Carter from being “squished” as Noah would say!  After the baby rescue, Noah and I decided it was time for his dinner.  I made him a lovely spread of macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets… I even threw in a pickle garnish which he loved!  He gets all excited about dinner time and drags his chair over to the coffee table (or dining room table is currently the Island of Sodor under construction) while I bring in his plate and juice!  We get him all situated eating and I go back to the kitchen to clean up the dishes.  I finish up in the kitchen and look in on Noah (the rooms are right next to each other) only to find macaroni and cheese and juice all over the floor!  Here is what progressed from there:

Mommy:  Noah, what did you do?

Noah:  Huh?  (his favorite new response)

Mommy:  What did you do?

Noah:  Babies (with this look of guilt on his face)

Mommy:  Are you saying the babies made this mess?

Noah:  YES!

So, the blame game has started and he’s not even two yet!  Noah helps me clean up the mess and we move on.  Here is a picture of Noah... not even on the same night, but it will give you an idea!  At least this time he was immobilized!

I put Carter in the bumbo (bimbo as we call it) chair and I start playing with Noah.  My phone rings so I walk to the kitchen to grab it.  I come back into the living room and immediately notice that Carter is missing, bimbo chair and all!  I turn to right to find him chilling in his bimbo in Noah’s room.  

Mommy:  What is going on?

Noah:  Huh?

Mommy:  How did Carter get in your room?

Noah:  Noah push

Mommy:  Why did you push Carter into your room?

Noah:  Brother need play!

So they played!  I’d love to say this was the end of Noah for the day… but it continued into bath time when his starfish fountain floated away from him and he couldn’t get to it in time. 

Noah:  Oh shit!

Mommy:   (laughing hysterically) What did you say?

Noah:  (turns around all innocent) Uh-oh!

When your two year old can use such colorful language in the perfect context, you know you are to blame!  I can’t take all the blame for this, as this isn’t the first time he’s said it.  We had a lovely car ride once, where Daddy could not stop saying it.  I think he was saying it just because he couldn’t stop…

Daddy:  Oh Shit

Noah:  Shit

Daddy:  Shit, I need to watch my mouth

Noah: Shit

Daddy:  Shit, I said it again!

Noah: Shit

This went on for about five minutes while I just giggled in the passenger seat keeping my mouth shut because I had finally gotten something over daddy and I didn’t want to accidentally say it!  Needless to say, I guess mommy and daddy need to work on their potty mouths before we end up in timeout!!!

By far the best thing he’s ever said to me:

Noah:  Mommy pretty!

The First 12 Weeks

Since we are late starting this blog we thought we’d give you the rundown of the last twelve weeks to get you up to speed.

We have been to the doctor several times now with the babies.  They left the hospital weighing close to 5lbs each (Carter being the smallest).  At their first doctor’s appointment Paige weighed in at 7lbs 1oz and Carter came in at 7lbs 2oz, passing his sister up by just one ounce!  Not bad weight gain for twins who are only one month old!  Their next appointment was at two months… Carter weighed in at a whopping 9lbs 13oz… and Paige had to beat him this time with 9lbs 13.5oz!  The doctor was thoroughly impressed with them skipping the 6lb category and the 8lb category all together!  Both babies are now getting “on the curve” with babies the same age as them!  The both fall in the very low percentile range, but for babies who are 4 weeks behind their actual age we are very impressed!  It was nice to see their graph charts… when they were born they weren’t even on the chart and then suddenly they shot straight up and into curve!

They took their shots pretty good, only crying for seconds before calming back down.  It was pitiful to hear Carter cry because he rarely does it, but we were expecting Paige to bawl as soon as the doctor looked at her.  She is a total center of attention, drama queen just like her mommy!  It wasn’t until two days after their shots that I realized I totally forgot to give them Tylenol before hand, poor kids!  At least I’ll be ready next time.  I’ve already put a reminder alarm in my cell phone!

The twins (before they were born I swore I would never call them that) are eating pretty good.  They take between 4-6oz every four hours during the day.  Some people think this is a lot for 12 week babies, but they will freak if they get less!  Paige sleeps through the night now, from about 9pm or so until 6 or 6:30am.  She will occasionally wake up in the night to eat, but not very often.  Carter, on the other hand, still gets up once in the night to eat.  Jay and I have started taking turns on who feeds him because we both work full time jobs and have to get up early.  It is nice to occasionally get a full nights sleep again, but it sucks when it’s your night to sleep and Paige decides she’s hungry… that means we both get up to feed and you lose your night of sleep. For the most part we like this new system.  It’s so much better than what the first ten weeks were like.  I swear we never thought we’d sleep again!  They were both up every four hours to eat… doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it takes 30 to 45 minutes to feed them and change them (each if you are by yourself), then another 15 minutes to get them back in their beds and fast asleep… at this point an hour is gone.  THEN you have to get yourself back to sleep… another ½ gone… giving you approximately 2 ½ hours before they have to get up again.  I remember at the beginning when Jay was working nights for a road widening and I’d do all this myself.  The 2 ½ hour window of sleep back then was only 1 ½… and Noah was up at 6am!  My Lord I was tired!

We have learned that sleep deprivation can be fun!  At first we complained about it.  Now, we find ourselves doing the most humorous things and we find the dumbest things absolutely hysterical!  I can’t tell you how many times my co-workers have to hear me say “man I need some sleep” after the dumbest things flow out of my mouth!  But, we’ll save that for another post!

After the babies were born, we ended up pulling Noah out of daycare and hiring a Nanny!!!  Nanny Dana joined us in the middle of December.  She was home with me for about three or four weeks before I went back to work.  She was totally awesome and I was able to come and go as I pleased.  Looking back I know I should have listened to Jay and used that time to sleep, but I don’t sleep well during the day and things needed to be done!  You’ll probably hear a lot about Nanny Dana as she has become part of our family in a very short amount of time!

Paige and Carter are now 12 weeks old.  Carter started rolling over around 10 weeks and at that time Paige cried if you tried to make her do anything she didn’t want to.  She surprised us though and started rolling completely over (and off her mat) at 11 weeks.  She was so proud of herself that she couldn’t stop smiling, and I even heard her first giggle!

When we first brought the babies home they slept in our room in pack and play.  That lasted about a month and a half before I said they absolutely had to go!  We moved them both into Noah’s crib (he had moved to his twin size bed months before).  Once Carter started rolling at 10 weeks we got a little nervous and had to put up another crib for Paige.  So, yes at 10 weeks they were separated.  I personally think Carter had a harder time of it than Paige.  She slept like a rock and he would fight us when he had to go to bed and he’d fuss for about ½ hour.  He is much better now and we believe he has the same crush on “Beth” the starfish light as Noah once had!

Noah loves the babies as much as any 23 month old could!  If we lay the babies down for tummy time, he is right there showing them how to roll and even “helping” them along!  The other night I found him in Paige’s bouncy seat with her, and we occasionally find him in the bassinet of the pack and play!  He gets bored and a little jealous sometimes with the attention we have to give the babies, but he handles it well.  We feel bad during the week because he doesn’t get out of house much and he is begging to go bye-bye, but try our best to be sure at least one day on the weekend is spent letting Noah do what he wants.  We go as a family, but it’s all about Noah.

Jay finally got his own job site after about six months of “training” on another site.  While he loved working with Grandpa (his dad) on this site, we are very excited about him going it alone!  The site he is currently on is close to completion and his new site is starting all at once.  This makes for very long days for daddy!  He leaves before I do to go to work and doesn’t get home until after 8pm.  We recently had a long talk about our schedules (and by this I mean, I came up with some ideas and now he just has to fall into our routine).  I get home from work and say hi to the babies, and play for a bit.  Then I play with Noah and make sure he’s fed, given a bath if it’s bath night and get him in his pajamas.  Because Nanny Dana has helped us get onto a schedule, the babies don’t eat until around 9pm after I get home giving me more time to spend with Noah.  When Dad gets home we make our dinner and he tries his best to play with Noah, then we try to eat really fast and get the babies fed!  Then the babies go to bed and then Noah goes to bed.  If we can get all of this done before 10pm we are giving high fives!  We use to try to have Noah to bed around 8:30pm, but with two crying babies he couldn’t sleep so we figure it’s better for him to be involved in the last feeding and then be put to bed after the little ones.  He sleeps until 7am or 8am during the week, and till 9am or so on the weekends.

Now that you are all caught up… our posts will probably become a lot shorter!  Thanks for sticking with us through our history!

Twin Facts

Along our journey of growing twins, we learned something interesting about twins that I thought I’d share with anyone who might be interested in twins!

Identical twins are not hereditary… they are actually a fluke of nature (sorry for all you identical twins out there, I don’t mean that in a bad way)!  Anyone can have identical twins, it just happens.  An egg that is supposed to be one happens to split into two!

Fraternal twins are hereditary.  They do not skip a generation like many believe… they can pop up anywhere.  But here is what is most people don’t know… it’s only the girls that will have them (yes, I know what you are thinking… that was a dumb thing to say as only girls can have babies, but hear me out)!  My grandfather was a fraternal twin.  He passed it to my mother, who passed it to me… now… Noah and Carter will only have twins if it runs in THEIR wives’ families, however Paige can have twins!  Does this make sense… here is another example…. My mom passed it to me and both of my brothers, however my brothers would not have frats unless it ran in their wives’ families, however their daughters could have them!  Interesting?!  Basically since my grandfather was a twin, all my female cousins could have them, but none of the male cousins, but their daughters could! 

I guess the science behind this is simple:  Fraternal twins are hereditary.  There is a gene in there somewhere that causes a FEMALE to release two eggs at random times (thanks grandpa).  And BAM… both eggs are fertilized and you have twins!  Obviously, boys don’t release eggs so they have nothing to do with the equation… this is why Jay blames me personally when the twins are bad!  Haha!

Meet the Family

MEET MOM AND DAD

Mom’s name:  Karrie

Dad’s name:  Jay

The quick version:  We met through a bible study at our church.  We became fast friends and stayed that way for some time.  For anyone who knows me (mom) you know that I flat out refused to date Jay… for anyone who knows Jay, you know that he refused to give up!  He won and I am grateful!  We began “officially” dating in October, 2007 (and by “officially” I mean “Karrie’s admittance to the fact that we were already dating”, Jay would tell you April, 2007 but hey, who’s counting).  Jay proposed to me in June, 2008, we got married in March, 2009.  Finally, we had our first little boy in February, 2010!  Mom currently works as a legal assistant at the Charlotte office of a large law firm out of Birmingham, Alabama.  Dad is a self employed contractor who is currently in a 10 year project of building gas stations for a wonderful company out of Oklahoma. 

MEET NOAH

Noah was born on February 22, 2010.  8lbs 2oz.  My entire pregnancy went pretty smooth, but it ended up a little rough.  After a few hours of labor my blood pressure shot up and so did Noah’s heart rate.  We were rushed in for an emergency c-section.  I was put to sleep and when I woke up Jay handed me the cutest little baby!  Awesome way to have a baby if you ask me! 

Turns out I developed preeclampsia after giving birth.  My blood pressure was through the roof and they gave me some medication to bring it down.  They brought it down all right, they almost killed me.  Thank God Jay was watching over me and caught it in time to get the nurses in there to fix me back up!  We were in the hospital for about a week and finally got to go home.

Noah is an amazing little guy!  He is about to turn two now!  He began walking around 9 months.  He started talking around 1 – 1 ½ years.  Like most new moms, I was worried he wasn’t talking enough, but let me tell you… he hasn’t shut up since!  (something I am loving every minute of)!  Noah likes Veggie Tales, Thomas the Train, Toy Story, and recently he’s decided he likes Yo Gabba Gabba and Annie!  His favorite foods are cheese balls, pizza, beefaroni and popsicles!  He hates vegetables just like his daddy!  Noah has recently started talking a LOT and some of what he has to say is getting pretty funny… even when he’s being scolded he somehow makes us laugh!

I wish I’d started this blog when he was born so that you could watch him grow these first two years, but I didn’t.  He has his baby book to look back at for his infant moments and he’ll have this for his toddler and childhood years!  The twins will have this as their baby book!! 

YES I SAID TWINS!

MEET PAIGE AND CARTER (THE TWINS)

Paige and Carter were born on November 4, 2011.  Jay and I decided to try for our second and last child.  We made jokes that if God wanted us to have more than two children, he’d send a miracle… and boy did He!  We were a little shocked the day we found out, but accepted it the best we could.  We were happy, surprised, but happy!  The day we found out it was a girl and a boy we were stoked!  We expected all boys so we were a bit apprehensive about a little girl… after all, we had Noah, what did we know about baby girls?!

My pregnancy started out smooth.  I never thought I’d make it to the end.  Honestly, I figured I’d lose them somewhere along the way, so you can imagine my surprise when we got to the day of our scheduled delivery!  Around 7 months pregnant I developed gestational diabetes and had to change EVERYTHING good in my life… bye bye chocolate, bread, potatoes, pasta, fruit… hello lettuce!  For anyone who has ever had to do this, I am truly sorry and I feel your pain (and I don’t just mean pricking your finger and testing the blood four times a day).  It was extremely hard, but we got through.  Around 8 months I developed “on again – off again” preeclampsia.  I went to the hospital a few times for dehydration (turns out that Diet Cherry Pepsi over ice is NOT considered water intake).  I had contractions starting around six months or so, and I demanded to have another c-section because “why in the world would anyone want to go through that”?!  (keep in mind, I did labor and deliver Ethan, the son I lost years ago, and I did labor some with Noah, so please don’t send me comments about not knowing how it feels)!  The doctors finally said we had to schedule our c-section for 36 weeks!

At this point I could not stand up.  My legs and feet were so swollen.  You couldn’t touch ANYTHING below my waist or I’d holler in unbearable pain.  It was horrible… but I ate my lettuce and got through it! 

I was awake for this c-section, it was AWESOME!  With Noah we had an emergency situation and when they went to cut, I felt it all… so they had to put me under.  I thought this was a fabulous way to have babies, up until I had the twins!  Now, I am happy to report that I have had children all three ways possible and being awake during a c-section is the best way to go!  Recovery sucks, but it’s better than labor!  The reason I say this is that when Noah was born I saw him while I was waking up… I honestly don’t remember much of those minutes because of the anesthesia.  When they delivered Paige and I heard her cry it was the most amazing moment.  I immediately began to cry.  I am sure you can all think back to when you heard your baby cry for the very first time… and if you can even try to image them holding a second baby out to you, Carter, and having that overwhelming feeling all over again when you hear another one cry… it was insanely awesome!  I didn’t think I’d react that way until it happened, but I’m glad it did.  I’m glad I got to experience that first moment without anything to block my memory of it.  I wish I’d had that moment with Noah, but I’m okay with it… heck, until I had it with the twins, I didn’t know it existed, and we made it this far without it!

Paige and Carter arrived at 36 weeks and 2 days!  Paige weighed in at 5lbs 4oz, and Carter came in at only 4lbs 12oz.  Carter is my preemie!  According to the nurses, anything under five pounds is considered a preemie, so I get to say I had twins, and one was a preemie!  Cute, huh?!  The babies did fabulous!  They held good temperature, held good weights, had good color and pooped enough for us to consider buying stock in diapers!  We were about to go home… when everything changed again!

There must be something about me and delivering babies because once again… I almost died!  Everything was going fine until this nurse, who was around when Noah was born and annoyed us thoroughly during that stay, walked into the room!  My blood pressure shot through the roof.  She started telling me all these things I needed to do, that I physically couldn’t do, (like lay on my left side when I couldn’t breathe laying down).  At one point Jay told her “you might want to leave before my wife goes all wolverine on you”… needless to say, she was banned from our room by the head of the nursing staff!  The doctors thought I had pneumonia due to my need to cough while laying down and not being able to breathe.  After a CT scan, 3 EKGs, Constant monitoring on an ECG monitor, pulse/oxygen monitor, oxygen breathing tubes, echocardiogram, 4 chest x-rays and being registered to three hospital rooms all at one time (one of which was the ECU; yeah, where they keep those with TB, MRSA, and other highly infectious diseases)… they realized they were wrong.  My doctor was fabulous and realized that I had cardiomyopathy, or heart muscle disease, a rare side effect of giving birth to multiples.  My doctor said he’d seen only three cases of it since he started practicing years ago… I was number three.  Most people recover fine from this in anywhere from three months to two years.  I was lucky and there was improvement in three months!  I’m currently on numerous pills, including blood pressure meds, and will continue on them for at least a year, and I’ll be visiting the cardiologist for the same amount of time.  The good news is that I only gained twenty pounds with the twins and lost it the minute they were born… Thank you gestational diabetes and heart problems!  Gotta look on the bright side!

Back to the babies… we went home after about a week and life has been insane ever since. 

God really gave us something to be thankful for.  Not only did He teach me a valuable lesson about loss with my first son, he gave us an incredibly awesome little boy, a perfect little girl, a miracle baby boy… and he took an EXTRA twenty pounds off before we left the hospital… for a total weight loss of 40 pounds!  Halleluiah!