The Swing of Things

Family Photo

We are starting to get into "the swing of things" now. I'm not posting as much, mostly because I rarely feel like I have a minute to spare, but also because there is less to report on. It is becoming a regular routine we are in. I get up and feed babies usually once, sometimes twice a night; I send kids to school and pick up Otis afterwards; I try to make dinner most nights; I feed the twins when they are hungry, but also about every 3hours during the day. Zed and I have been watching "Last Man Standing" as our evening feeding entertainment. Tim Allen is great. We've loved that show and are almost caught up on all the Netflix episodes. So recommendations a new show of similar style/taste would be great.

Mike on the Left, Will on the Right

Mr J is holding Will and Otis is holding Mike

Mike and Will are doing really well. They are about the sizes that Mr J and Otis were when they were born. They are outgrowing most of the newborn clothes now...which with my older two only lasted about a week! We aren't due back to the pediatrician until December, so no new news on that front.

 I love this shot!

So my sister got the boys these little REF onsies. I thought they were most appropriate to wear on STATE days. So I dressed my guys up as KHS' favorite REFs when the Volleyball team went to the state tournament (&placed fifth!!) and when the football team played for STATE- they took 2nd.

I did take Mike and Will down to see the Ophthalmologist again last week. Their eyes are getting so much better. We've kept taking these boys to the doctor down by my mom's because he has a great reputation. It's a long drive, but both Zed and I felt very comfortable having him check these guys out. Originally preemie babies see an ophthalmologist to check on or treat "R.O.P." which is Retina Opathy Prematurity. If a baby has this and it goes untreated it can lead to a detached retina and also blindness. Mike and Will do not have ROP, but their eye muscles were very immature at birth. We have been following their eye maturation. Mike and Will were first seen by this Dr while in the NICU and he estimated at that time that their eyes would be matured around 45 or 50 weeks gestation. At 44+ weeks when I had them down the Dr said that they were looking good, but not fully ready for him to sign off on them yet. So we have another appointment with him next month also, but he fully anticipates them being ready at that point. At that point we will officially cut all ties from Drs in Las Vegas and transfer Mike and Will to an Ophthalmologist closer to us.

My mom came up to go Trick-or-Treating with us. She inspired my boys to be Pirates! I have a pretty fantastic mom.

Me and My boys

The babes and I: Cat in the Hat with Thing 1 and Thing 2

Zed and I went to a Halloween Party, it was dark and apparently made for a blurry picture, but it's not very often this guy dresses up,  so I had to document it!

These are the treats I made for the Halloween Party. It's a little graveyard.

The day after Halloween we went to church and Zed gave Mike and Will a name and a blessing, placing their names on the records of our church. It was a fantastic day!

So they weren't super happy, but Zed's mom made their adorable blessing outfits. Their shirts are made out of one of Zed's grandpa's old shirts, and the rest of their outfits are made from left-over satin from when Zed's mom made my wedding dress almost 8 years ago

One of the reasons I wanted to blog today is because it is Veteran's Day (ok, I started writing this on Veteran's Day but life just kind of happened, so we are almost a week later now). This day means a little more to Zed and I now because this year we know people who are serving overseas away from their families; I know a lot of wives and mothers who are pulling double duty right now while they unselfishly support their soldiers who are away. I am so grateful Zed came home early. I was putting on my brave face while he was gone, as I'm sure so many military wives do, but I didn't realize just how hard everything was until he came home. I realized how fragile I was through this whole ordeal. I don't know how I could possibly be surviving my current lifestyle without him being home, let alone the roller coaster that we were on during mine and the babies hospital stays. Because I see how much I really needed Zed I feel so much more for those wives who are still going it solo. I have the utmost respect for you strong, strong women.

When I was in high school I went on a trip to Washington DC and visited the Korean, Vietnam, and WW II Memorials. These places were all so humbling. I remember so vividly now, walking through the Korean War Memorial. My Grandpa had served in Korea so it seemed to resonate close to home for me. They say that no matter where you stand in that memorial that there is at least on soldier statue looking at you. I think it is a really beautiful spot to take some time and ponder. In there is where I first came across, first read the words that here are literally carved in stone: "FREEDOM IS NOT FREE". It hit home. It struck a cord with me. I've had a different perspective since then. To me, those who serve in the military are amazing. They risk their lives. Simple being in the service of their country, by having a national pride, endangers their lives. I respect it because they don't have to do it. It is a choice. They have chosen to be our protectors, the defenders of what our nation stands for--freedom.

Yes, we all will have a time that we disagree with what the government is doing, laws that are put in place, and the choices that political figures make on our behalf. But there are always soldiers fighting for our opportunity to have the FREEDOMS to have and voice those opinions.

I am so happy to have a Soldier for a husband. I love him. I love that he has chosen to defend our nation and our liberties. My kids, my 4 sweet boys, can grow up in a place where they are free and protected. God Bless the U.S.A. and is my continual prayer

Due Dates and Checkups

This was me and the boys on their due date, already 2 months old at this point.

Warrior at Heart. Some days I truly feel like I have to be in warrior mode. It’s a constant battle to simply keep sanity I think. Most school days go a little something like this (some of the times are estimated based on how the babies are sleeping):

-1:00am- feed babies (occasionally both by myself, but that is pretty rare because ZED is amazing and usually gets up to feed babies with me. The only times he doesn’t get up with me is when I don’t wake him up because he’s got a big day going on.)

-2:00am-pump & clean up

-2:40-back to sleep

-5:00am-feed babies

-6:00am-pump & clean up

-6:30am back to sleep

-7:30/8:00am-breakfast for the big boys & myself (hopefully)

-9:00am-feed babies

-10:00am-pump and clean up

-10:30am-lunch for Mr. J and Otis

-11:00am-big boys brush teeth and get ready for school and the bus. Lucky for me the bus picks up both boys outside our house. Mr J is in kindergarten and Otis is in Preschool, both at the elementary school campus.

-11:15am- shower

-12:00pm-lunch for myself

-12:30pm-feed babies

-1:30pm-pump & clean up

-2:20pm-pack up twins and pick up Otis from preschool—the bus doesn’t bring preschoolers home.

-3:15pm-Mr J comes home from school- I work on snacks and starting homework

-3:30pm- feed babies

-4:30pm-pump and clean up

-5:00pm-Me time/cleaning/laundry/piano practice, etc.

-5:30pm-start cooking dinner

-6:30pm-dinner time & clean up

-7:00pm-feed babies

-7:30pm-baths

-8:00pm-bedtime routine

-8:15pm-pump and clean up

-9:00pm-Zed and I can finally & hopefully relax a little.

Mr J in SOO loving to these sweet babies. He always wants to do something to help them.

So most nights the babies will sleep 4-5 hours in between feedings. I always pump right before or after feeding times when possible (less possible when we are not feeding the babies at home). During the day they eat every 3-4hours, so the times I gave were kind of just examples. But by time I finish pumping and feeding babies I usually have 60-90minutes before I have to start all over. A lot of times making dinner gets pushed back because the babies need to eat. Sometimes everything gets out of order because one of the babies stays awake, and needs to eat sooner than the anticipated 3-4hours; or one or both are incredibly fussy for no apparent reason in between feedings and nothing gets accomplished in that time that I normally would have to do something…anything.

The other day Zed took a whole bunch of time to treat me to housework. He did ALL the laundry, which means he folded about 500 baskets of clean clothes and then proceeded to wash another 87 loads of laundry. OK, those numbers might be slightly exaggerated, but that is exactly what it felt like for me. He also cleaned up all the dishes—which I’ve actually be pretty good about staying on top of clean dishes I think; it’s because I am cleaning bottles about 14 times a day I think, so I just get the dishes moved to the dishwasher really quick, and start it up if ready.

I got this shot fairly early in the morning. Apparently first thing they did when they woke up at my moms was become pirates.

Today my mother in law took the big boys with her to visit her mother so I had the entire day just me and the babes. I tell you what, it’s been relaxing. For the first time since I came home I had a GUILT free nap….I’ve only had 1 other nap and it was because I thought I was going to die from exhaustion so I called my amazing mother in law at 8am to come watch all the kids so I could go back to sleep, but I felt incredibly guilty for asking her to take over my responsibilities. But today it was great. I had the boys clean up the living room a little yesterday, so today I just put a few things away and am totally ok with how my front room appears. I even just laid on the bed with the babies (who were fussy so I was holding them really) and played on the iPad. I could’ve been cleaning something, but I truly enjoyed relaxing. I had to start this post with a look at my normal day to justify the relax time though. Because that’s who I am I guess. 

It's crazy to imagine that on the left was not even 9 months ago. It was the shot that made us realize that this was not just another pregnancy. We were having twins. On the right is these guys earlier in the week. I am so immensely blessed to have these 2 boys. I can't even imagine only having 1 of them....I can imagine the sleep I might be getting, and the more frequent quiet moments that would occur, but I simply can't imagine our family with only 3 boys and not 4.

Well almost 2 weeks ago was Mike and Will’s due date. It was great to be at the due date and know how strong and healthy my boys are now. A few days later I took them to their 2month check-up. Mike weighed in at 7lb 5oz and Will weighed in at 7lb 10oz. 2 month and both babies have gained EXACTLY 4 pounds!!!! I was so excited! So yeah, they are 2months old and just barely the size an average newborn. They are 2 months old and are still at least 1pound shy of what by other 2 boys weighed at birth. But I am loving them being so big and healthy! The doctor explained to us that for milestones we are looking for the milestones of Mike and Will’s “corrected age”. So basically instead of looking for things that an average 2 month old does, we are looking for things that the average 2week old does. There are a lot of things these guys will do that 2 weekers won’t (like starting to hold their head up) but most things are on the corrected age. 

These boys are almost done wearing Newborn clothes and diapers....almost

There was one thing that we learned that I didn’t like hearing at their check-up. Mike has what is called a “communicating hydrocele”. It is similar to a hernia, or is basically a hernia. It’s not super uncommon, but does require surgery to fix. Will has a hydrocele, but since it’s not communicating it will most likely resolve itself. Both of these happen as the boys’ testes dropped. There is like a channel for them to drop down through and the channel is supposed to close up. Will’s has closed, but it trapped fluid in around the testes. The body will eventually absorb the fluid. With the communicating hydrocele the channel did not close up and the fluid can go in and out and there is risk for the intestines to herniated. PS, if you work in the medical field and are thinking “wow, this girl has no idea what she is talking about” feel free to comment and correct me. I’m just writing how I understand things after having 2 pediatricians separately explain things to me. Anyway…. Mike will need surgery, but we don’t want to do it until his corrected age is 2months; so we are waiting until he is 4 months old.

My styling boys. They wanted to ride their bikes outside even though they kept getting caught in the light rain (thankfully they never got caught up in a downpour!). I can't get over Mr J's Cowboy Hat/Backpack/Neck Tie combo. Otis has TMNT slippers on and his backpack is on his bike. I love that everything is fun for them.

A few days after this doctor visit we went back to Las Vegas to have some follow-ups down there again. The boys both saw their ophthalmologist. He said that their eyes are looking really good, but needs to do 1 or 2 more follow ups in the coming months, then Zed and I decided we will switch to someone closer. This guy is the one who saw them in the hospital and happens to be the leading ROP ophthalmologist in the western states from what we’ve heard. He is making sure that the eye muscles and around the eye mature properly since they were so premature. Right now everything looks healthy, but since they were so early he said their eyes won’t be matured until about 50weeks gestational age (so 10 weeks after the due date). Everything grows, matures, and is learned so much slower outside of the womb. 

My AMAZING mom. She literally gets down and plays with the kids for the longest time. She impresses me every time we see her.

 I had a follow up as well and am doing great. Because of multiple appointments we were able to stay at my mom’s for a few days and make a trip out of it with the big boys too. They L-O-V-E my mom. It makes my heart so happy. She is a fantastic grandma. She just plays with my kids, participates in their games, their make believe, all of it. She encourages it even! This time around she had bought a treasure chest and all sorts of pirate things to go inside of it. When we got there she gave Otis a treasure map she had helped him make this summer and they followed the map to the chest and got to be pirates for the next few days. She was right along with them the entire time. I know it’s a lot of work, and I know she was grateful we were only there 3 days, but she makes my boys feel so special.

This right here is the Pirate fanatic. He knows how to melt my little heart though.

Since we’ve come back home I’ve FINALLY started to work on Mike & Will’s room. I’ve wanted to do it in a Cat in the Hat/Thing1 Thing2/Dr. Seuss Theme. It’s starting to come together a little bit, mostly as I start to move all of the boxes of things out of there from when I came home a month ago and turned their room into a storage room! I’m pretty happy with how things are going. I’m also starting to get mine and Zed’s room re-done. When he first left the country so many months ago, I decided I was going to update our room, so I order curtains, new bedding, and started mentally adjusting our walls. Then I moved away. So I am now starting to get all of those things put together. In the same breath, Otis and Mr J just moved into a room together over the summer and I’m doing their room in a sports theme. These weren’t all supposed to be happening at once. I had originally anticipated doing my room, then the big boys, then lastly the babies. Oh well.

We are blessing Mike and Will at church in 2 weeks. If you don’t already come to our church, or you haven’t been given the information of when and where, just message me and I’ll update you. Thank you again for all the love and support. ESPECIALLY from our ward members. Being back at church these last few weeks has really reminded me how blessed we are in our ward family. I am reminded how many of you really knew who I was through all of this, even though I’d spent the previous 3years tucked behind the piano in primary. I always knew who so many of you were and figured no one knew me unless they did extensive time in the primary room. I am so grateful for your continuous thoughts and prayers on my family’s behalf.

Happy Little Birthday

Their shirts say "LOVED, Protected, Fought For". When our husbands left on the deployment we got these shirts made up for our kids. Our Mommy shirts say "We got this".

2 MONTHS. These amazing little warriors are 2 months old today! I seriously can barely believe that they are that old. We've only had them for 2 weeks and some change, how can they possibly be 2 months?! It's hard to fathom. It's unreal to me. Those 6 long weeks in the hospital seem like forever ago to me now. It seems like our visits to the NICU were compacted into such a short time frame, which at the time seemed to stretch on forever.

Mr J made us this great sign for when we came home. He and Otis also decorated the babies' room and our room with their original artwork.

I am absolutely LOVING having these boys home, having my bigger boys home, and most especially BEING home! We've had a lot of firsts in the last 2 weeks. It's been very exciting for us all.

Seeing double?

-1st road trip...all the way from Grandma's to our house! About a hour drive.
-1st Pediatrician visit....these guys have seen a lot of doctors and nurses, so it wasn't a super big deal, except that this time we went to the doctor instead of the doctor coming in to see the boys.
-1st visit to church with the family...I mostly ended up in the mother's lounge feeding and changing diapers, but sometimes it's just the effort that matters.
-1st outing with mom going solo....I took the boys in for their circumcision all by myself. I looked pretty hard core hauling both babies up to the hospital, one car seat on each arm. I was pretty proud of me.
-1st Volleyball game...I got to go to 3 games this season. Wishing it was more, but I'm not up to traveling with the crew for the away games or tournaments.
-1st mini-melt down from mom...okay, I have 4boys 5years and younger, we are just going to expect melt downs now.
-1st trip into the mountains....That is mom's happy place.

In the car headed to the mountain. Zed let each boy use some binoculars, they were pretty stoked.

Mike

Zed has gone back to work and I've started figuring out how to be a mom again. Right now when people ask how I'm doing my response is the same every time and so very true: "We are in survival mode. As long as me and 4 boys survive each day then it is a win." My house is a complete disaster. It's driving me nuts, but it is not my priority. I've decided that both the babes and myself are more content if they eat from a bottle full time and I take time to pump. They get more to eat since it takes less effort than nursing. I don't have to try to do special tricks for which baby's turn it is to bottle feed. I know that they actually got enough food and didn't just wear out from effort. I just have to take an extra half hour every feeding time to pump. It's working out for us.

Mr. J and Otis have finally started to settle down. Mr. J is 5 and was all sorts of wound up with crazy little boy excitement about us all being home. I could hardly recognize my sweet boy for this hyperactive kid. He has started to come back around as my sweet boy with the expected amount of extra energy I'd expect from a kindergartener. Otis spent the first few days insisting that I drive him to school, or that I be the one to pick him up. We've had to make a few deals about getting on the bus for school some days. He very much just wants to be with us at home, but is starting to feel secure again. Tonight they are having a sleepover at Grandma Bobbie's and Otis volunteered to go. It takes a special effort to make sure that I'm giving these older boys the time and attention that they need. I want to do so much with and for them, but literally don't have time sometimes, because it takes an hour at a time to feed babies/pump. I made sure to have them help me cook/bake, dress the babies, read with me and some other things, but I still feel like they are getting the raw end of the deal some days. They are probably the biggest little warriors of this entire story. They have been through so much this year. I am incredibly proud of them for how they have handled things and continue to be patient with Zed and I as we keep trying to get our feet back under us.

We've had a lot of people asking us what we need. Well, besides a maid, there isn't too much we are in need of. My brother gave us their old crib, so we are up to quota there. Eventually we'll need another high chair, but that is months away still. Mostly the thing we need is just continued support. And diapers. We will always be in need of diapers. The babies take a particular formula that we've just decided to order through Amazon regularly. We will need more bottles I'm sure, but right now I'm just washing what we've got a few times a day. They use the Dr. Brown's bottles and we figure eventually they'll adjust to regular-whatever type- of bottles, but they haven't eaten very well yet the few times we've tried to get them to use the average joe bottle. We are also still styling their room in Dr Seuss and will take any old Dr. Seuss books you find on bookshelves or the DI. But mostly diapers.

And if you come to my house, don't judge me. I use to be a tidy person. Apparently that person is still on bedrest. I'm trying, but having the nice tidy house just isn't a feasible option for me right now. We have clean clothes (even if they aren't folded), clean dishes (even if we have to take them out of the dishwasher because they rarely make it to the cabinets), and everyone of us still bathes regularly. I think based off of those things we are doing pretty well.

Mike and Will are looking more and more individual to us. I took Mike's hospital band off his leg and went ahead and labeled their feet with their initials, just in case. But when we look at them it's seeming more obvious who is who. Both boys are sleeping great at night 4+ hours is normal. During the day they sleep a lot still, but they have their awake moments for the occasional tummy time (I know it's supposed to be everyday, but I forget. It was the same with Mr J and Otis and they are OK).

PS, did I mention that Mr J learned how to ride a bike without training wheels?!?! I'm so super proud of this kid!

We are so grateful to be home, to be going crazy with kids all over. It's pretty much the greatest blessing ever.

Homeward Bound

Now I am totally singing some Simon & Garfunkle.

On to more important matters: we truly are HOMEWARD BOUND!!!! Mike & Will surprised us this week by meeting all of their requirements to leave the NICU!

Last week and earlier this week the boys' favorite game to play with the nurses was "Look! I pulled out my feeding tube!" The bonus round was when Will tried to take out Mike's feeding tube.

Last week was fairly disheartening for us we thought. On Friday both boys had eye exams. Zed went with the ophthalmologist to learn what it was all about. As they were doing the exams the Dr asked our nurse if the boys were going to be there for a while longer for him to do the follow ups or if they were going home and needing to find a different ophthalmologist. Our nurse replied with a yes, that they'd still be around for a while. Then on Sunday one of our NICU Drs came and was talking about waiting for them to really start doing great with their feedings before he'd be ready to send them home.

On Monday Mike pulled out his feeding tube and the nurse just never put a new one in. On Tuesday when we came to the NICU our nurse asked if we had our car seats for the boys' "car seat challenge". We were completely shocked and caught totally off guard. We ended up having another nurse actually explain how we got to this conclusion so quickly. She said that Mike had been bottle feeding/nursing for 48hours and was looking great. Will was still a little behind that, but they figured that he would complete his 48hours without the feeding tube before we took him home. So our whirlwind week began!

They rocked their car seat challenge!

On Tuesday evening we actually got to go out to dinner with my Brother Brice from California and had him come meet his newest nephews. I don't think I had seen Brice in over 2 years! So it was a nice evening. Wednesday was CRAZY and super busy. First thing we had to do was go to my 6week post-partem appointment. I am officially allowed to exercise. My Dr did not, however, explain where I was going to find time to do such things with 4 boys 5years old and younger. After that we cruised from the Southeast end of the valley to the Southwest corner and bought our car seats. That was an adventure in itself. We had gone a few weeks before and picked out our seats, but waited until Zed had gone home and came back with our old car seats to trade in for a 25%discount. When we went back this week the seat we picked was gone--apparently discontinued and sold out. The next choice only had 1 in stock--and they actually had to scour the truck that had just pulled up to find it. Since I wanted matching seats with certain features, we went to our third choice. So far Zed and I really think we got the best one of our choices.

Almost mirror images

After getting the car seats we went to the hospital for the rest of the day and to stay the night. 

And I thought my days of sleeping in hospital beds was over!

As we entered the Labor & Delivery wing (which leads to the NICU) one of the head nurses from L&D saw us and knew who we were and told us which room we'd be in. You know you've been in the hospital too much when nurses who don't work with you or your children still know who you are by sight. We pretty much right away took our boys with us to our room for the night. Now, when I was admitted lots of people made comments that I must start feeling like the walls were coming in on me after being in for so long. But truly, my room was like a Suite or something! It was the biggest on the floor, had an entire wall of windows, was big enough to comfortably hold 3 chairs, a large couch and still have TONs of room for my older boys to dance around on.

This room was the kind that wouldn't take long to start feeling like the walls were coming in on me! HAHA. So tiny, I really realized how lucky I was at the other hospital and in my room.

They pull the same poses so often

After hanging out for a few hours our boys were rolled back to the NICU for their car seat challenge. They had to sit in their seats without any heart or respiratory issues for 90-120 minutes. Normally they do 90 minutes, but since our kids' first car ride HOME home is about 3hours we had to leave them in there for 2 hours to make sure they can handle it all OK. We went out to eat and came back as they were finishing up. Then we took the boys back to our room for the night to actually PARENT them.

Mike when he was ready to leave the hospital

 We spent the night being in charge of diapers, feedings, and losing sleep. The nurses still came in to get vitals, check up on us, and make sure that we kept on schedule. Will had a tough time feeding a few times in the night, but picked back up in the morning. Mike pretty much eats whatever he is offered.

Will looking sharp before we left

 We spent the ENTIRE next day waiting for the doctor to make his rounds to our hospital to discharge these guys. We just hung out in the room, taking care of our babies, wondering how in the world we ended up with 2 babies at the same time. It's pretty crazy really. And scary, overwhelming, awesome, exciting all at the same time. And so many more feelings too.

The brothers together.

 When we were finally discharged our nurse was pretty generous in setting us up for the weekend before we actually go HOME. We have diapers and wipes for now, but we are getting a pretty fair idea of the fact that we will be going through TONS of diapers, wipes and bottles for quite some time to come.

Ready to Roll

 It was late when everything was finally taken care of for us to go home. My parents are out of town so we had our first night of getting to fly solo with twins. My parents were probably grateful they weren't here last night. These guys were a little loud, we were a little tired, we were up all night it felt like, but it was FANTASTIC to have these guys with us. I am loving it!

All Set up

We've got plans to come home next week. Once we are home we will FINALLY be able to set up their little room. We've got a lot of things since they do have 2 big brothers. We will need another crib when they outgrow their cradles, but they are set for now. We are decorating their room with Thing1 and Thing2 and other Dr. Seuss fun. We've got the beginning of the decor. My friends mom made each boy an adorable Dr. Seuss quilt and my brother Brice brought some blankets, truffula trees, and "MIKE" & "WILL" letters in Cat in the Hat colors. I am so excited to put things up and take pictures for the blog.

PS...This is what shopping with 1/2 of our family looked like today. I'm sure we will figure out an easier system sometime.

Did I ever mention that Mr. J started KINDERGARTEN?! I can hardly believe it. He is loving it so very much. Otis has since then also started at preschool. They get to ride the bus together to school and work on homework together afterwards.

And today was the KHS homecoming parade and Game--Go Cowboys!!

Easton collected his candy in his cowboy hat then proceeded to keep wearing the hat on his head.

Mr. J got to be in the homecoming parade on the Kindergarten Float for the Class of 2028. He makes one good looking cowboy!