6 Month Stats Are In!

Patrick Christopher

26 inches long

19 pounds

17.25 inch head circumference

Jameson Paul

26 inches long

17 pounds

18 inch head circumference 

Aria Rose (just for fun)
38 inches long
31 pounds
20 inch head circumference 

6 months! Well tomorrow…but I may not get another chance to update!

Well hello there lovelies! I am sitting here in the lull between Halloween and Thanksgiving…well Daddy Kevin's birthday really. I have been meandering away at Pinterest, being an activity I can do while holding, feeding, bouncing a babe. I am inspired to decorate my little house. I had forgotten how happy crafting and art makes me. I really do need to find time to do a few projects here and there. I think a happy mommy will be a good mommy to my babies and well creating beautiful things makes me happy. Of course 3 of those beautiful things are my Aria, my Patrick and my Jameson :)

I can't believe the boy are SIX months old! A half of a year!! Woohooo, by golly we've done it! This means, I've been breastfeeding exclusively (save 1 bottle a night) for 6 months!!! I am proud. My boys are happy and healthy! They are big and strong. I promise I will get their stats down this time, but shhhh for now they sleep.

Speaking of, I am trying a new sleep routine. Bed still at 8pm-9pm, depending on their moods, though honestly most night we barely make it to 8pm, they would love to go down at 7pm, but I just can't risk them being wide awake at 4am. The boys still seem to only need 8-10 hours of sleep, rarely 12. Fairly consistently they sleep 8pm-1am, this is great, a good 5 hour stretch. After this is where in lies my woes. After 1am, they are up every 2 hours, sometimes less. Of course I, mama, don't go to bed until 12ish, mainly due to the sweet Aria's ability to be the two year old college kid, whose fun part of the "day" starts at 10pm :(. I pump before bed, about 8 oz and split it into 2 4oz bottles. When the boys wake at 1-2am I leave them swaddled and prop up the bottle for them, 50/50 they go back to sleep another 2 hours or they are up and need snuggled/changed and put on their bellies. 4-5am is when they naturally want to wake up. They coo and smile and seem to think it's morning time. It takes me about an hour to get them back down. Here I've been trying a new thing of giving them a formula bottle. Too soon to judge yet, but doesn't seem to be making too much of a difference. I think I might be feeding them too much at night, because they seem to be very gassy and need to poop several times. Aria, while a beastly sleeper, never pooped at night; I never even changed her at night. I'm trying to cut out dairy to see if it's an allergy, but it seems just as bad when they get formula, so I don't know.

The boys are becoming more aware of each other everyday. Most recently If I face them on the ground toward each other during tummy time, they are very smily and love to grab at the others hands and clothes. They love Aria too and she is definitely enjoying the fact that they notice her. Just putting them facing each other can stop a meltdown, it's pretty sweet.

I thinking what I should get them for Christmas, maybe some learning toys or teethers. I ordered them their stockings from PBK and got Aria a new one as well, because I have no idea where hers ended up in the move and I don't want to upset anyone trying to find it, possibly in Grammy's attic. Actually Auntie Dobby got it for her because mama ain't got no monies! Tear.

Patch's hemangioma on his toe is fading. A while back I took photos of it and I'm glad I did, because he might want to see what it looked like when he's older.

I'm trying to reposition both boys all the time so their heads round out… here goes nothing.

Miss Aria can count to 10! And she is saying so many more words and what sounds like sentences! Whenever I leave a room she says, "where you going?" and always the little lady, "thank you" and "welcome" every single time she gets or hands something.

Kevin has been trying to sleep in Aria's room with her to get her used to her big girl bed, seems to be working. Several nights she has slept in there by herself and woke up at 8am. Last night Kevin was out late watching the Oregon and Stanford game. The little butt slept in their by himself and I had all the kids in my room! Oh well, he probably would have woken us up anyways, he's a wiggly sleeper.

I'm doing the Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown dvd. I'm feeling stronger already 2 weeks in! I was very excited because I thought I lost 10 pounds, but turns out our scale is faulty it you set in on the carpet. I only lost 7. Oh well, 7 is better than none, but I need to kick butt to feel better about myself.

Well, baby a is awake.

Until next time, xo Rosie

Our Family has Grown x2!

Well, hello there, I know it has been a long time. And let me tell you this past year had been busy busy.

The most important thing you need to know is that we have just welcomed our two beautiful boys into the world. Yep Aria is a big sister! I found out I was pregnant in September and it's been craziness since then. In October the doctor surprised us with the news that it was twins! Shock of my life, let me tell you. I've always thought it would be cool to have twins, always. But never, in a million years would I have thought it would actually happen. I still can't believe how incredibly lucky we are to be blessed with TWO new babies!

There were many ups and downs during this pregnancy. It started off with a bang with terrible, horrible morning sickness at barely 5 weeks. And it lasted through week 17. Ugh, I forgot how much I loathe the first trimester. Finally in the end of December I started to feel better. But alas being a twin pregnancy, all the later aches and pains of growing a child hit me earlier this time around. I started to feel like my pelvis was splitting apart come March. 

Also in March at our 28 week growth scan (we had scans every 4 weeks to ensure that the twins were growing properly), we were told that our "Baby A" had an enlarged left lateral ventricle of his brain. This condition is called vetriculomegaly. Normal ventricles are about 4-6mm and his was measuring at 10mm which was just the cutoff or high end of normal. Of course I had brought my mom to this appointment with me to have fun and see the babies and they spring this news on us. To make a long story short, we did a fetal MRI the next week and they found no other "abnormalities" so the condition was considered isolated and therefore less likely that he would have any serious problems (with a 97% probability that he'd be fine). We found this out the Friday before St. Patrick's Day and I had been saying extra prayers to St. Patrick so felt like he was watching out for my Baby A, who is now known as little Patrick Christopher. That 3% chance of a problem left me nervous the rest of my pregnancy but I just had to trust that things would work out as they should. When the babies were born I was absolutely thrilled that they were both healthy as can be. We will just continue to monitor his head size and whatnot through his pediatrician.

My beautiful precious little boys are now 12 days old and working hard to gain weight. We have been having weight checks everyday until they finally gained weight on Thursday and now don't have to go back until this coming Thursday. The doctors have us feeding they breast milk in bottles for now so they don't burn calories trying to nurse. I miss being able to nurse them but it is nice that Kevin can help with their feedings every 2-3 hours. We have been splitting our nights, where I go to bed around 11pm and then we trade between 4-6am. This has been allowing me and Kevin to get more sleep which is amazing with two newborns.

Quick version birth story: Thursday (May 9th) I went into my appointment after the 24 hour urine collection and had massively high BP and tons of proteins in my urine so doctor said we needed to induce that day. They induced but luckily I had walked in already at 5cm (had been feeling tons of Braxton Hicks that were apparently dialating me!). The induction started at 3ish by breaking my water and it was less than 2 hours before the babies were born and in my arms. With twin births you have to place an epi and give birth in the OR as a precaution. The anesthesiologist was just there to place the epi before the nurse realized it was already time to push (no time to pump it with meds). The boys were born 10 minutes apart and I had no tearing! Unfortunately after their birth I had to be put on magnesium for 24 hours b/c of my BP and had horrible side effects which tainted my otherwise amazingly easy delivery! I'm feeling so in love with my babies ♥ 

Of course once the boys started to gain weight my poor big baby Aria came down with a horrible virus. She had a fever of 104 and has been so so sick. I had to send her to my parents house to try and minimize exposure to the boys. I felt so sad when my mom came to get her, like I was abandoning my child in her time of need. But I know she got the best possible care with my mom and Auntie Dobby. She finally came home yesterday and I never knew I could miss a little person so very much. She is still running a low fever but it much much better.

Well, there are a million and 1 more things that I should update on and I will attempt to keep a weekly update just as I did for Aria's first year. Wish me luck and I WILL be back soon!

xoxo Until Next Time, Rosie