Monday, April 22, 2013

Monday Madness

Well it's Monday again and this weekend was a busy one. You think I have learned after having my daughter that weekends are crazy on our schedule without adding family outings and other "stuff". Well the answer to that question is I don't...

Friday night we (my husband, myself and our daughter) ventured out the the Waterpark and had a great time. We knew it would be a late night as the event didn't start until 7:30pm and our daughter's bedtime is 8:00pm. This was a special night with just Mom and Dad :) Well we had a great time, Grandma babysat the boys so we were able to enjoy ourselves. A little self discovery is that I really don't like waterslides (this was the first time I did one in 4 years), and I am around kids to much during the day when I am excited as a teenager when going to the waterpark for our annual event. Time went so quickly that before I knew it, it was 9:45pm and I needed to get my little one to bed. I left my husband there to get a ride home so he could enjoy it a little more and I took her home. She was an absolute zombie but crawled into bed and actually slept in until 7:45am the next morning. She still talks about it and is asking when she can go back.

Saturday worked out to be another afternoon away from the boys, but that is so my husband and I could go to the car show. When we bought my Rav4 2 years ago we were anticipating only 2 kids in car seats so we opted not to get the 3rd row seats that were an option. Now realizing that for any type of holiday it is going to be a tight squeeze in the car with 3 car seats in one row (they look like squished sausages), a dog and all our stuff. We have talked about getting a truck for awhile...so off to the car show. Wow lots of cars and some really nice...if I had $98,000 I would get a really nice buick SUV but really??? Who with kids has that kind of money to spend on a car?

Sunday you think would be the day that we would take is "easy"...nope! The day was actually pretty quiet, naps were actually on schedule and I actually was able to take a morning nap! The evening is when I really should have put my foot down and said no, but alas I went along with kids, diaper bags and booster seats in tow. Our outing consisted of going to my in-laws for dinner. Now on occasion I really don't mind but this is EVERY SUNDAY! 

Don't get me wrong I am really glad that my kids will have a good relationship with their grandparents, and cousins, but there is such a thing as a little too much family! I really don't think this is the place to get into all the details about our visits, but what I really don't like about every sunday is that we don't end up leaving to go home until well after 7:30 pm and the kids ultimately suffer. They are late going to bed and often don't fall asleep right away and are miserable until they do drift off. Then the night falls and we are usually up an average of 3 times, not to mention they are then awake for the day at 6:00 am. Naps on Monday are usually a hit and miss and by the end of the day I am ready to explode at someone, but hold it in usually mumbling to myself when my husband is in the 1/2 hour shower when the kids are screaming and need to be held. How nice it must be to have a 1/2 hour shower...I am lucky if I get one a week!

So here we are Monday again and I was just able to get the boys down for the morning nap...who knows how long it will last but I will take what I can get!

Now if we can only get through the week without any chaos that would be the ideal world in our house :)

Monday, April 15, 2013

Twins

The day that you get that BFP (big fat positive) on a pregnancy test your world changes. You have a mix of emotions from excitement to fear to uncertainty. Whether you are a first time mom or veteran these emotions are there every time. After the initial reaction your mind starts racing as to what you need to do and get before your bundle of joy arrives. Yes, usually when you find out you are expecting you usually have another 8 months to get things done but that doesn't stop an expectant mother from planning. It's like an excited bride...you want to get everything done early so that you can enjoy the rest of the time with no stress. You may or may not feel pregnant in the early days (I know didn't) but as soon as you have that first Dr. appointment when you hear the heart beat for the first time your feelings about the pregnancy solidify. Then there is the first ultrasound...

With both my pregnancies the first time I was able to see the baby was at the 19 week anatomy scan ultrasound. There is excitement and butterflies in my stomach as I sat in the waiting room with a very full bladder. (NOTE: When the dr. says to drink a liter of water before your appointment...don't! As a pregnant woman you only need a 1/2 liter at the most). My name is called to then go to the ultrasound room. The lights dim and the monitor is turned on. After what seems like an eternity the tech has finally located the location of the baby to start the scan. This time around the tech asked me if I was measuring larger than normal. I expected to show sooner because this was my second pregnancy...well the next thing he said changed our world forever. There were 2 babies! We were speechless...The next 20 weeks were filled with monthly Dr. Appointments, routine ultrasounds and non-stress tests. We were waiting and hoping that everything would be good. Twins are normally born between 36-38 weeks and again I make a comfortable home for my little bundles. At 39 weeks to the day my water broke and I was in labour. As told in my previous blog I had a very fast delivery and we welcomed two baby boys.

Once we arrived home the reality of twins hit. They slept and we cuddled until about 2am when they both woke up and cried. My husband and I tried everything to get them to sleep, I fed them, changed them and we rocked and paced the living room together. In the end I realized I made a first time mom mistake...they were cold. I didn't realize this until 2 hours later and being very frustrated. Our next few weeks we passed by learning about babies all over again. Twins are really not much different from one baby, except everything takes more time. At night in the beginning, it took me 2 hours to feed and burp both babies and then I would get about an hour sleep before we were up again for the next feed. The first 3 months were a blur and I am really thankful that my husband took a month off work and family was around to help every day.

In those first few months I became pretty good at feeding them together (this saved a ton of time), changing a poopy diaper in record time as I usually had another baby crying for a change, and mastered the art of picking up two babies, cuddling them at the same time and figuring out how to put one baby in the crib while holding the other without waking either up.

There were lots of challenges and lots of tears along the way in the these last 8 months and what I have learned is that you really do need to take one day at a time.

Other tips are:

- Your noise level in the house will never be quite again and when you actually do have silence you really don't know what to do with it.

- Twins really do want to be fed at the same time, and need diaper changes at the same time (at least until they start to eat solids)

- As much as one may be crying at night, the other will eventually learn to sleep through.

- It takes twice as long to get out of the house with twins and a toddler in tow. On average it will take me 30 minutes to get everyone ready and packed up and in the car before we can go anywhere.


The boys are now crawling (they learned really early - 6 months) and are doing stairs so they tend to take advantage of when I am getting one out of trouble, the other will do something else. The other day I was making lunch for the kids and I hear crying. I drop what I am doing to investigate and found Victor is standing and holding what little hair David has in his fist while David is trying to sit down. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself as I released his grip, as I thought...and so it begins!

I really can't imagine what my life would be like without my kids and everyday is an adventure.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Life as we new it...

Now that I kinda understand how blogging works I thought I would write about how my life has changed for the better in the last 5 years (Warning this will be a long post). Not that I had a terrible life before...I had a great childhood, but I married the love of my life and created my beautiful family.

6 years ago my now husband proposed upon a ledge at the Grand Canyon with my best friends around. Now you need to understand that my husband and I had been dating for 13 years at this point and have gone on a few "mini" vacations together where I thought "this is it...we are going to get engaged". Up until that point at the Grand Canyon I had absolutely no idea that this was going to be the trip that he would propose. I was surprised and thrilled at the same time. To have our friends around made this a very special memory to us.

Fast forward a year and our beautiful daughter was born. I was lucky with that pregnancy in that I put on 39 pounds and was very uneventful in terms of medical risks and such. In fact I made it such a comfortable home in my tummy that my daughter decided to stay put for an extra 12 days. The day before she was scheduled to be induced, she decided that is was time to introduce herself to the world. With a 3 and a half hour labour she was born at 6:49am with no complications and welcomed with open arms. She is now almost 4 years old and an absolute joy. We play and do crafts and she is a huge help with her brothers.

When I say brothers I mean twin boys. A year ago last week my husband and I went to our routine 19 week ultrasound for the first time and discovered to everyones surprise (including the doctor) that there were 2 babies. We were shocked and I think the first thought that went through my husband and my mind was "how did this happen and what are we going to do now?" we were only planning on 2 kids and here we are expecting two at one time, making out kid count 3. Once the shock wore off with us (which took a few months) and our family we were in the nesting and planning stage. 2 of everything...this is going to be expensive I thought. Well being frugal I managed to find a crib exactly like our daughter's online that had never been used and half the price of what we paid 3 year earlier.

In August (after a typical singleton pregnancy) at 39 weeks (totally not normal for twins) I gave birth to healthy twin BOYS. We were not expecting boys...I was shocked but upon seeing them for the first time in total love with my boys. I was expecting the birth to be a little different from my first...mainly because there were 2 to be born, but I was mistaken. This time around my water broke at home (thankfully in the toilet) and we quickly went to the hospital. I was prepared for the worst scenario...the possibility of a natural birth for the first twin and a c-section for the second. Well luckily I was able to have both boys naturally but not without a little drama in the delivery room. Baby B decided to flip from a head down position to a foot first position(my biggest fear) so he was literally pulled out by his feet. After 2 hours in the NICU my second born baby boy was in my arms and I was never going to let them go!

Once home (2 days later) we quickly settled into a routine of feeding, diapers and babies sleeping, but with a 3 year old toddler whose naps were starting to become few and far between I was luck to get the odd afternoon when all 3 kids were sleeping at the same time. When they say "sleep when baby sleeps" I think they mean when you are a first time mum because there is no way that a second time mum will be able to sleep at the same time when you want to spend time with your toddler to have them feel like they are still as important to you even though there is another baby/babies in the house. We have had our challenges but after 8 months we are surviving and thriving as a family of 5 and I would not change a moment for anything. More about the challenges of twins in a later post :)

Monday, April 8, 2013

A New Season...New Beginnings

Welcome to my blog...I have never done this before but then again in life what have we done before. I don't know if this is how it's done but here is a little about myself

I am a mom of a beautiful 3 1/2 year old daughter and cute 8 month old twin boys, I love to bake and decorate cakes for people and have a wonderful husband family and friends. That being said it's a little crazy around here at times :)

As the title says it's a new season and a new beginning. I have struggled with my weight for a long time, but to look at me you would not guess the number on the scale, but after the birth of my boys I have developed the mummy tummy (I had it after my daughter) and a little bit of the dreaded "twin skin". That is where your belly has stretched so much that the skin kinda sags. My tummy looks like a deflated balloon and not to mention the stretch marks. I never knew that they could run horizontally and vertically. I am in no way ashamed of my stretch marks (I view them as my tiger stripes). What I don't like and I am going to work on is the number on the scale and getting my stomach back to a relatively normal shape. 




That is where this blog comes in...I think that if I have a place where I can vent my frustrations and successes by writing it down I will be a little more accountable for my actions and will have success this time around. I am hoping to at least write once a week, but if I don't well...with 3 kids on the move you can understand.

Now on to the day's accomplishments...

With only 4 hours of sleep last night I have managed to eat what I had planned for the day and I have done my fist day of Mom's into Fitness exercise program. 30 minutes of kickboxing, and weight resistance and core. I am tired but feel better that I have done it. Now the challenge is to stick with it! My usual pattern is do the first 2-3 days and then feel too sore and tired and don't do anymore. This is a 60 day program and I am committed to making this work!

Now for my bragging in the kids department...

My daughter is loving being a big sister and is learning to play with her brothers instead of just playing. It helps that her brothers are at the age that they are curious about everything and she loves showing them how things work.
The boys are crawling and doing stairs so we have baby gates everywhere so that I can make sure that no one will fall without me looking as their favourite pastime is to go in different directions. They are in full teething mode and my first born son now has 4 teeth and is working on number 5 and the second born son is working on teeth number 3 and 4. It makes for short naps and sleepless nights. They are my pride and joy so for this short time I will endure the unhappiness of the boys and try to ease the teething pain with popsicles and cold wash clothes.

Thank you in advance for reading the rants of a stay at home mum. I love being at home with my kids and would not change anything for the world.

 - Bronwyn -