Photo Shoot of Girls

A friend from Oceanside (who now lives in the Salt Lake area) who has a photography business offered to take the girls pictures once they got out of the NICU.  

She came over the 1st week they were home and took some of the most beautiful pictures ever!!!!  

She came to my home, had so many adorable props and even had a heater to keep the girls warm.  Her work is exceptional!!!!

Here is a link to her website~ 

http://www.cocobeephotography.com

Naomi

Colette

Naomi

Colette

Naomi in pink and Colette in purple

My two angels!

A Day in the Life of Twins

I figured I would start by stating the obvious~

Having twins is a LOT of work!

Having twins plus an 18 month old is even more work!

Having twins plus an 18 month old plus 3 other kids in school is a ridiculous amount of work!

But having these little girls in our lives is such a miracle and blessing~ I can't imagine my life without them.

Everyone I have talked to that has had twins has told me that the first year or two are a complete blur and they don't remember anything about it.  It hasn't even been 4 months yet, and I already can't remember a lot of what has been going on the last couple of months.  So, I figured I would write about what a "typical" day has been like with these girls since being home from the NICU.

One advantage of the girls being in the NICU (yes there is a good thing to come from it) is that the nurses got the girls on a wonderful schedule.  Here is what our day looks like~ 

7 am: Girls get up to eat, burp, diaper change and then go back to sleep (takes the full hour), Korby and kids up and getting ready for the day

8 am: I pump, Korby off to work, kids off to school and Vivian off to daycare

9 am: Girls still asleep, I am either back asleep or trying to get some things done around the house and pump again

10 am: Girls get up to eat, burp, diaper change and then stay awake

11 am: Girls still awake and just hanging out

12 pm: Girls go back to sleep,  I pump and then go pick up Vivian from daycare

1 pm: Girls up to eat, burp, diaper change and go back to sleep while I play with Vivian

2 pm: Play with Vivian and try to get some things done around the house

3 pm: Vivian goes down for a nap, kids come home from school, I pump

4 pm: Girls up to eat, burp, diaper change and stay awake, Vivian wakes up and I help kids with homework and try to get dinner ready

5 pm: Korby home from work, I am still trying to get dinner ready, help kids finish homework, keeping Vivian entertained and taking care of the girls

6 pm: Girls go back to sleep, clean up dinner and I pump

7 pm: Girls get up to eat, burp, diaper change and stay awake, get kids ready for bed

8 pm: Older kids all in bed, hang out with Korby and the girls

9 pm: Girls go back to sleep, and I pump

10 pm: Girls get up to eat, burp, diaper change and go to sleep

11 pm: I get things ready for their night bottles and go to bed

12 am: Everyone asleep

1 am: Girls up to eat, burp, diaper change and go back to sleep

2 am: Everyone asleep

3 am: Everyone asleep

4 am: Girls up to eat, burp, diaper change and go back to sleep

5 am: Everyone asleep

6 am: Everyone asleep

7 am: Start everything over again!

Some other tidbits that go into my day~

*The girls came home from the NICU using Dr. Brown bottles 7 times a day which have 5 parts (x 2 girls) and I pump 6 times a day and that has 4 parts (x 2 sides), plus the containers that I store the pumped milk it to mix their bottles (they have to have a little bit of formula mixed in with their bottles for extra calories)~ that is about 125 pieces that I am hand washing every single day!

*We go through 15-20 diapers a day (between both girls and Vivian)!

*The girls go through enough pjs, blankets, burp clothes that I have to do a full load of laundry for them every other day.

I can't tell if that looks like a lot or not to someone just reading it, but trust me~ it is a LOT!

There are definitely times when I get completely overwhelmed, but for the most part I love my life! I am so blessed to be able to stay home with these beautiful girls and do nothing but care for them. They are so good-natured and easy going babies. 

I haven't taken many pictures since bringing the girls home~ mainly because we do the same thing day after day.  So here are some pictures of what our normal day looks like~

The girls sleeping in their bouncer chairs

The girls sleeping on a blanket

The girls awake and laying on burp cloths

The girls on Halloween sleeping on a blanket

The girls sleeping on a blanket

The girls sitting in their boppys

The rare occasion of the girls in their car seats, going to the doctors  

The girls drinking bottles

The girls helping keep each other's pacifiers in 

They have their 4 month check up next week, so I will have more to update then.

A New Chapter

So, yesterday I checked into the hospital for my 6 week stay!  Even though I am here, it is still a little surreal to wrap my head around being here for that long.  I have started another blog (yikes!  I'm not even that great with this one!) to specifically document this journey that our family is taking. Hopefully it will lessen the overwhelming number of questions that mostly Korby will get about how I am doing and especially for once the twins are born to document their progress.  The address is: http://2littlelees.blogspot.com/ and I will hopefully get a link up to it on the side of my blog here.  While I am in the hospital I will still be updating this blog.  It will mostly be back posting everything that I haven't gotten around to writing or posting pictures about.  So check back on both for regular updates~ remember I have nothing but a whole lot of time these days :)  Quick baby update~ they are both doing great!!!!!!!

We have a date

Korby and I met with our maternal fetal ob yesterday and also one of the neonatologists (NICU doctors) yesterday during my appointment.  I am now 23 weeks and both babies still are looking great!  Yahoo!!!!!  Neither one is showing signs of any problems and they are both still the same size~ so 2 very positive indicators that everything is going as well as possible at this point.  As soon as the neonatologist sat down to talk to us, I got teary eyed.  All of my previous appointments have been left with "everything looks good for now, but we will talk more once/if we get closer to when the babies are viable."  Now all of the sudden we are "here"~ at the point where we are talking about the quality of life these little ones will have depending on how early they are born.  It was just overwhelming to realize that we have just about made it to a major mile stone in this pregnancy.    


It was decided that I will be going inpatient on Monday July 23rd (as long as there is a room available)!  Yikes!!!!  That is just 2 1/2 short weeks away.  I already have so many different lists going~ what to pack, what I need to buy, what books and movies I want in the hospital, babysitting for the kids, what I want to do before going into the hospital, lists of how and when to do different household chores (for Korby), and I am sure I will have more as the time passes.  Is it lame that I get excited about organizing things?!?  Oh well.....  At the same time I am also learning that I am going to have to let go of the reins (at least a little).  So what if Korby doesn't clean the bathroom the same as I would~ as long as it gets done I have to be okay with it.


Something my doctor told me that I am really excited about is that as long as they babies continue to do well, I will not be confined to full bed rest.  After reading a number of blogs of women who have had mo-mo twins there is a very broad range of inpatient stay~ from being monitored a couple of times a day with no restrictions on movement the rest of the time... all the way to full bed rest without even bathroom privileges.  So, I will at least get to start off on the least restrictive end of the spectrum~ which includes being able to go outside!!!!!  You have no idea how excited I was to hear that!!!!   I might even push my luck and ask if I am allowed to leave the hospital for an hour or two, but that might be pushing my luck :)  



All in all, I am amazed at how well this pregnancy has gone so far.  We still know that everything could change literally in a heartbeat tomorrow.  But yesterday was a good day and an encouraging day with the doctors and that will keep us going for the next 2 1/2 weeks.  Thank you for all the prayers and thoughts~ I know they are helping us get through this.   

Me and my girls at 23 weeks

I am already almost as big as I was full term with Vivian!  Yikes!!!!

All About My Dad~ By Jackson

A post not about the twins~ shocking I know!

For Father's Day, Jackson Sunday School class filled out a questionnaire about their dad's and I just had to share Jackson's answers:

My dad's name is: Korban (correct)
He is: 35 years old (correct)
He is: 10 feet tall (not quite)
He weighs: 1,105 pounds (thank goodness that one is WAY off!!!!)
His favorite TV show is: he doesn't really watch TV (true, he would much rather be reading a book or    playing with the ipad)
His favorite food is: fruits and vegetables (not his favorite to eat, but it is his favorite to bug the kids about eating more of)
His favorite thing to drink is: water (again, not his favorite to drink, but he always makes the kids drink water before they can have something else to drink)
He likes to wear: ties (Korby has to wear a tie to work 6 out of 7 days a week- definitely not a favorite!)
My Dad is really good at: helping protect me (ahhhhhhh.... how sweet!)
I like it best when my dad: protects me (I don't know what kind of troubles a 5 year old kid gets into to need this much protecting from, but I'm glad that he has his dad there to do it!)
My favorite think to do with my dad is: wrestle (very true!)
When my dad goes to work he: is the City Manager (close~ Assistant City Manager)

Korby really is the most AMAZING father!  I am so blessed that my children will grow up in a home where they have a loving, involved, caring, fun loving dad!

Still Kicking

22 weeks today and so far so good!  I can feel the babies move every day which gives me a huge piece of mind that everything is still going well.  A couple of people have asked me if I can tell that there are 2 babies in there kicking.... not really so far.  It is still just lots of little bumps and thumps~ but no way to determine if the movements are coming from one or both babies mostly.  Occasionally though, I will feel movements on both sides of my stomach at the same time and since the little peanuts are still pretty small, I know it is both babies.

My next appointment is next week (at 23 weeks) where we will consult more with my doctor and one of the NICU doctors about when to start my inpatient monitoring and what to expect in the coming weeks as we do what we can to keep these little ones growing inside me as long as possible without risking their lives at the same time.  It seems surreal that we are already so close to this point in the pregnancy.  We have known I would be admitted to the hospital between 24 and 26 weeks since the very beginning of the pregnancy, but it is suddenly becoming much more real and as much as I am trying to stay calm about it, I am starting to stress and worry about it more.  I want my babies to stay inside me as long as they can, but at the same time the anxiety of knowing that we could still loose them if we wait too long is starting to get to me.  We still have a very long road ahead of us.  It is just hard to know what to expect since there are so many different outcomes~ from the very worst case scenario to the very best possible scenario and a hundred scenarios in between.  How do you prepare for that?  I don't think there is any magical answer, so I just keep praying and taking it one day at a time.

Believe it or not, there is more to our lives these days then just talking about the twins.  Tanner got baptized a couple of weeks ago, school got out, my kids got their yellow belts in karate, we just got back from an amazing trip to California, Vivian is now 1, Korby climbing Devil's Tower!  I have pictures of everything, I just haven't had a chance to go through them yet.  Once I do, I will definitely get some up!  

Girls Rule.... Boys Drool

Well, it's official~ girls will be running this household!  We found out on Friday that we are having 2 little girls!  Shayden is super excited, the boys aren't so sure yet.  Vivian doesn't know what's going on, but I think she will be pretty happy to have 2 little sisters to play dress up, house, dolls, etc with once they all get a little older.

Our appointment on Friday was reallllly long!  An ultra sound lasting 2 1/2 hours!  By the time they were done I had so much of that gel stuff on my tummy~ the towel they used to wipe it all off was completely wet!  And they still didn't get it all off.  But..... everything looks great, so it was all worth it!!!!!  They are just 1 day apart from each other in growth, which is wonderful.  And so far all of their anatomy looks great!  Our doctor told us there wasn't anything she saw that concerned her!  They will be taking a closer look at the girl's hearts in 2 weeks~ just to get some clearer pictures and so that they will be a little bigger (right now their hearts are the size of a pinkie finger nail- WOW!)

I keep feeling like it is taking forever for them to get her, but at the same time it is all going to happen so fast!  I have an appointment set up at 21 and 23 weeks.  At the 23 week appointment we will also meet with a neonatologist to start discussing the different scenarios of what to expect when the twins are born (depending on how early they are delivered- which could be any time between 26 and 32 weeks!)  Which means that if there was a problem, these babies could be born as early as 7 weeks from now!  Yikes!!!!  We are definitely not ready for that!

Over my last couple of appointments my doctor has let me know that there is another mom, being seen by a different doctor at the hospital, who is also pregnant with mo-mo twins!  She has been talking to both of us to see if we would be willing/want to get in touch with each other just to have someone else to talk to who is in the same situation.  At this last appointment she was finally able to tell me her name and she was going to give her my phone number.  This mom is about 2 months ahead of me and just went into the hospital on bed rest, so I am really anxious to talk to her and visit her to get a better idea of what to expect.

About 2 weeks ago we were able to go and visit some friends that have a baby in the NICU at the same hospital they will be delivering at.  Their little boy was born at 32 weeks (her water broke and they couldn't stop her labor).  He was only 4 pounds 1 ounce but he is doing amazing!!!!!  It was good for both Korby and I  in different ways.  It was good for me just to get a sense of where we will be, what the schedule is like, what the rooms are like.  I do a lot better when I know before hand what to expect, so it was really helpful for me to just see what it was going to be like.  Korby on the other hand was terrified!!!  We are both so worried and stressed about just getting the babies here alive, that he hadn't given really any thought to what it would be like once they were actually born.  32 weeks is our max, our best case scenario!  It is very likely that our babies could be 3 or even 2 pounds when born with significantly more problems.  So it was great for Korby to get a sense of just how tiny these little babies will be and how delicate their situation will be.

To end on a happy note~ I am starting to feel the babies move!  It is going to be so reassuring to be able to know on a daily basis that if my babies are still moving, then things are still going well.  Even though I go in every 2 weeks and I get to see them each time, those 13 days in between appointments it is so hard to always remain optimistic about the situation.  So even though I will soon be complaining about being kicked by 4 feet, punched by 4 hands, with 2 heads and 2 bums that will stick out and push~ I will be so thankful for every movement!!!  I will be so thankful for my girls!!!!!!!
 

Shock and Awe!

*Warning*

This is going to be a long post

I have some extra time on my hands these days and I figured it would be a good time to start this whole blogging thing up (again).  I know I have said that multiple times in the past and I don't have a great track record, but it's worth another shot.  Time is going by way to quick and things are happening way to quickly not to at least attempt to document them better.  

I know my last post was about Vivian's birth.  But she is now 10 months old.  She is still a little peanut (pretty tiny on the scale) and still not sleeping consistently well through the night~ uggh!!!  She is getting better which is at least a step in the right direction.  She is a very good natured little girl and loves to laugh, watch the kitties, pull herself up on everything, babble, eat, play and put every single thing she can find on the floor into her mouth.  Overall a happy and content baby and good thing because her world is about to get rocked!!!!!  

Which leads me to the title of this blog "Shock and Awe"

I'm pregnant!!!!

Yikes!!!!!

Again!!!!!!

What~ that's not enough shock?!?

It's twins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't think of a better word to describe how I felt when I found out I was pregnant (even when I thought it was just going to be one)!  It took us a long time to get pregnant with Vivian and we were both pretty sure she was our last, so when the little stick showed 2 lines I was pretty speechless!  I scheduled an appointment with my midwife and Korby came with me to our first appointment.  Everything looked great, except for the fact that she couldn't see the baby during the ultrasound.  She reassured us that I was definitely pregnant, just not as far along as I thought.  So, I made an appointment to come back in 2 weeks for another ultrasound.  It was going to be a pretty quick and easy appointment, so Korby opted not to come with me this time.  Mistake!!!!!!!!!!

Right away my midwife was able to find something on the screen and as she was looking I kept thinking I saw the baby, but then she would move to a different position and I would think that there was the baby.  I put it together about 3 seconds before she asked me if I was seeing what she was seeing~ TWO BABIES!!!!!

Where was Korby when I needed him?!?  I held myself together enough to leave the office, make an appointment with a maternal fetal dr. for another ultrasound (something about not seeing a membrane~ I was in too much shock to ask), call Korby and tell him the news (which he initially thought I was joking about~ like I would joke about this!) and then I did what any girl would do~ I called my mom.  As soon as she picked up I started sobbing!  I could barely get the words out.   

I spent the next 2 days pretty much just sitting on the couch trying to come to terms with the thought of having a 1 year old (barely) and twins.  I also started looking up on-line what it would mean if there wasn't a membrane and found it could mean a lot of scary complications for my pregnancy and the babies.  Luckily, our ultrasound was scheduled for just 2 days after we got "the big news."  We went in and found out that we are having mono-amniotic twins (aka mo-mo twins).  It basically means that they are identical twins sharing the same amniotic sac.  The scariest complication with this condition is that there is nothing keeping their umbilical cords separated, so cord entanglement is a major problem!  This is also the only situation in which conjoined twins are possible (which they spent a LONG time confirming that they are not~ thank goodness!).  This type of twins are extremely rare (we have heard odds of 1/35,000 to 1/60,000 among twin pregnancies).  They are rare enough that there aren't a lot of studies or stats because there just aren't enough cases.  Anyway, you can look it up on-line and read more if you are interested.    There is also a very high mortality rate because of the cord entanglement~ which makes me a high-risk pregnancy.  I am now seeing a maternal fetal doctor (a high risk ob).  I go in about every 2 weeks.  They do an ultra sound every time to check the growth, heart rates (which has been neat to watch how quickly they grow and develop).  I am on "modified" bed rest~ meaning that they know I have 4 kids, but I should be taking it easy as much as possible (hence the extra time to start blogging while sitting peacefully at the computer).  At about 26 weeks I will be admitted to the hospital and put on full bed rest where I will be monitored 3-4 times a day with ultra sounds just about every day.  And if the twins can make it, they will be delivered at 32 weeks (at the latest), if not earlier (again going back to complications with cord entanglement).  Which will lead to time in the NICU once they are born.  

We are still dealing with the shock of having 6 kids, but we are in awe at what a miracle they will be (if we are lucky enough to get the opportunity to raise them).  It is a lot to take in, but we just have to take it one day, one appointment at a time.  I am 16 weeks and just had an appointment on Tuesday and everything looks great.  Both babies are growing well and so far so good~ which is all we can hope and pray for at this time.  

Me and my babies on Mother's Day 2012!