02/27/2013-We are 2 today!!!

Top Ten Reasons why I love being a mommy to my adorable multiples

10. More hugs and kisses 
 9.  Extra giggles
 8.  Their Individuality
 7.  I love that they love each other
 6.  New adventures everyday
 5.  They keep me active
 4.  Their love of life & curiosity
 3.  Their confidence and companionship
 2.  Their beautiful bond
 1.  All the "I wuv you's" and did I mention hugs

Happy Birthday to my adorable two year old's whose personalities are so different and yet so fun. We see both of our characteristics in each of them. Dax being the more cautious and Blake being the dare devil of the two. Dax becoming a boy doing awnry things and playing with his trucks, cars, and balls. Blake being the nurturing personality who loves to be in anyone's lap and holding a doll or stuffed animal. Dax loves his mama and daddy time and his morning snuggles.  It's just so crazy how the time has flown by, I remember so vividly of exactly what led us to the hospital, the slowest drive of my life, and the fears of my tiny little babies not making it. I remember my first thoughts and feelings when I saw them for the first time in the NICU, so tiny and so fetus like. Quite frankly Blake scared me to death when I saw her hooked up to all the oxygen and tubes. She looked like a fetus and Dax was wrapped in tubes, wires, and such but looked more like a baby. Those memories are so fresh yet so hard to forget those tough few months. Today we are so thankful to have them in our lives as they have forever changed us as human beings. 

We celebrated their birthday at Gymboree and they had a blast. All the kids donated their favorite book which were given to the Infant Crisis Center along with some old clothes the kids have outgrown. They still walked away with quite the load of toys from a "Big" piano, a slide, and last but not least a humongous bounce house that takes up an entire bedroom. Every time we get home from school they repeat the word bounce or jump and want to go upstairs. It's so funny to watch them as we blow it up they start clapping and put their hands on their face like the home alone kid. Then when they are done with it they tell the bounce house bye as we turn off the blower. 

Baby ? Foster appointment went great this morning, weighing in at 5 pounds 2 ounces according to their computers. Officially released from the high risk doc and the baby has turned and believe me the pressure is definitely being felt.  Baby ? is moving like crazy and growing on target as expected. Still able to work out and all is well, again the easiest and quickest pregnancy ever so April 8th will be here before we know it. Now we are down to getting the crib and bedding put together, bottles washed, bags packed, and clothing cleaned. 

We took maternity photos below and the pictures could not have turned out any cuter. Sharlee Rother Photography pics are below. She is very talented and so patient as with every time we have photos taken Blake and Dax find a way to let the tears and grumpiness unravel. 

http://www.sharleerotherphotography.com

http://www.sharleerotherphotography.com/sweet-mama-f/

Everyone thinks it's a boy, all the strangers that come up to me think it's a girl based off how I'm carrying. We shall see on April 8th. 

After two years, I finally see where she might actually look a little like me.

As previously stated, I'm obsessed with OREO's and M&M's and can not get enough of them. How cute is this next round of photos?

01/27/2013- 29 weeks

I had a recent appointment where we booked  two weeks out for the glucose testing and in that conversation my doctor said and then we will book your c-section. What my c-section, holy cow that is so close to happening it's unbelievable. So for the past 48 hours I have been going into fast forward mode of all the things we have to get done and one of those is figuring out names we can agree on. If I'm not mistaken this is the fastest pregnancy I've heard of:)

Bed time:
Blake and Dax got to stay up late during the holidays and have carried this new routine beyond the holidays. It has worked out well for Richard and I as we have discovered that they get up a little later too. In the past they still woke up early but now they will sleep in for us. Each night when we tell them it's time to go to bed they leave the room say bye and go to their play room. At the same time we have found this to be an advantage in that if we say okay guys it's time for bed they go off and play together allowing us some time to get things ready for the actual bed time like gathering up blankets, turning on the humidifier etc. A very sneaky yet nice touch in the routine.

Parakeets:
I continuously drop things and in my last drop incident I said oh shit, little did I know that my little parakeet named Dax would start repeating the word shit over and over again. Fast forward a couple of days and he dropped something which then followed with shit. I had no idea he would remember. So these days we are now having to watch what we say and it always seems that when you are having to be extra careful you are actually worse in your language...go figure.

Cravings and Pee:
As most know I have an OREO addiction and always keep them out of the house. Since this pregnancy discovery I have given in to my addiction. My favorite OREO's are the seasonal white chocolate covered ones. They are by far my favorite and I have been looking for them for weeks now since they are seasonal. Since the white chocolate covered OREO's are no longer I moved onto M&M's. 

01-27-2013
Baby ? Foster now weighs 3 pounds 9 ounces, looking good, moving like crazy, and bends it like gumby. It's legs were up over it's face however at one point we were able to get a face shot. It really looks like Dax but then I think it looks like Blake. We are officially scheduled for April 8th. The bets are out and the majority believe this little one is a boy. We shall see, a he or a she what will it be...

Big Sis and Big Bro to be:

Blake and Dax had their first ice cream date at Orange Leaf. If you have not tried it you are missing out. I made the mistake of discovering it and go at least once a week. My love of OL is definitely in B and D's blood because they smiled between every bite and were so happy. They patiently waited on the ice cream which was a first. Dax savored every bite eating it at a snails pace while Blake ate it at a race horse pace. 

Once again this month the kids have been sick. I took Dax to the doctor to find that he had an ear infection. The poor child screamed uncontrollably from the time I woke him to take Blake to school till we left the doctor. He would not allow me to hold him while sitting it was only standing and walking around. It was awful. After waiting 20 minutes at CVS which seemed like an hour. Thirty minutes into being home we received a call that Blake was sick.  So off we went back to the doctor to have a second diagnosis. Poor babies and poor mama!

With all the illness I'm really torn on what I should do with our situation. Do I bring another child into the world and risk having 3 babies sick at one time or do I make changes that will best fit our family. As a working mother I'm torn in finding balance for what I've worked so hard to build and then at the same time I have these sweet children I want to be healthy. 

Besides the illness we have had a fun month of firsts. The kids and I have been doing Christmas crafts where we put foam stickers on foam Christmas trees, we look for our elf who sometimes forgets to move to a new place each night. Actually he forgot to move for three straight days but who's counting right. We have been looking at Christmas lights, singing Christmas songs (when we sing Santa Clause is coming to town Dax looks around the room for him), and each night we turn our tree on which is a big deal let me tell ya. It's so fun this year seeing the excitement in their eyes and to our surprise they have not touched the presents under the tree. 

We had our first friend Christmas party where their aunt Mere Mere thought it would be funny to obtain a drum set and a talking Dora phone. "Hola it's Dora" on repeat over and over again went to bed with Blake and then to church the next day. Dora magically did find her way into a hidden drawer.

We decorated Christmas cookies for Santa that mama forgot to put out, had the school Christmas party, decorated paper with Christmas stickers, and built a gingerbread house. The house truly needed a builders warranty as it collapsed immediately. By Christmas Eve all the beautifully wrapped presents I mentioned had not been touched were missing bows or had been opened just a bit and then later taped back up. The kids had a blast opening their presents and playing with their new toys. Santa brought them a kitchen that included a refrigerator, stove, and sink. Santa's elf worked on the refrigerator earlier in the week and thought oh this is cake; however when Christmas Eve rolled around that same elf had put off all of her work and learned that is a bad bad bad idea. Santa's elf got in a fight with the "other" elf who is not a handyman elf and then to top it all off it was a 4 and a half hour project on Christmas eve. All future toys will be put together by a hired elf. 

Part of our routine is to put our paci's back in our bed in the mornings and we can get them out right before bed. Yes I had fed my children their crack addiction as I'm an enabler to my sweet screaming offspring. I really need the Intervention counseling as the enabler. So yesterday we asked both to take their paci's back to their beds and they both did. Dax went around to the other side of the bed reached in got his paci out and said shhh with his finger up to his mouth at Richard telling him not to tell what he was doing. Seriously the funniest thing we have seen. Little did he know he was not telling his secret to the correct person.  

The Pregnancy:
If we all go back to the first round I mentioned all the entertainment I ran into at the high risk doctors office. Well typically when you go to a high risk doc you are there getting your cervix checked and so forth or at least that's what happens to me every time. With that being said most people would be sensitive to what's going on or whats smelling on in that region. Myself being on the sensitive side I know I would be mortified if that region was in bad shape. So at my  last two appointments I took note of how many people I saw in the lobby with greasy dirty heads of hair that I could smell across the room.  So if the top half smells what do you think is going on in the bottom half? Just a little observation.

Pregnancy BRAIN:
It's for real ya'll! I have found myself going to put my shoes on and then stopping in my tracks to think what was I about to do or starting something in the microwave and then totally forgetting I cooked something until about thirty minutes later. And the best to date was washing my hair with Summer's Eve sensitive skin wash (no it's not a douche). I must admit your hair does not get oily and it does give you some volume. 

Baby ? Foster now ways 1lb. 13oz. and had a heart rate of 134 as of 12/27/12. The original due date given was 4/14/13, second due date was 4/9/13, and today we were moved to 4/11/13. I find it so entertaining that  when you don't know when you were knocked up the due date is ever changing. 

Enjoy our favorite pics from this month. 

Between 23 and 24 weeks-thought it was 24 but no idea now. 

3 Under 3 --11/27/2012

The kids would not wear their sunglasses.

We are surprised and happy to announce that we are expecting a baby April 2013. Yes that is correct a baby in 2013 and yes we will have 3 under 3. This little blessing shocked and surprised us and went undetected for 13.5 weeks. Yes I am now a believer in the show "I didn't know I was pregnant" I seriously thought that show was a joke and seriously how could anyone not know they were pregnant. I mean really, seriously there's no way that can really happen. Oh yah it did and I'm now a believer. So let's go back to all the obvious signs that I should have picked up on.

Now here is my disclaimer:

We went through fertility treatments where I barely produced enough eggs to become embryos, my embryos were not even freezable, my only two embryos we implanted only had a rating of a C and a D, and they said we only had a 60% chance of getting one baby with those piss poor ratings. Next on that agenda we were under the impression that it was physically impossible to reproduce. This is in our eyes a true miracle and  I'm already having a waaay better experience as a pregnant person. I'm able to work out, and actually hear positive things from the doctors. They are watching this pregnancy very closely as a result of the pre term labor previously. Weekly injections of progesterone are being administrated by "the bull" aka "father of 3 to be" to get us to 39 weeks. Last time at 20 weeks I was on a modified bed rest, no exercise, sleeping in a recliner, and wearing a back brace. So this go around has definitely been a better experience.  

Leading up to the shocking discovery:

Incident #1: I went to Homeland and while walking through the aisle I found some cheese whiz, bought it, and ate it in the car on the way home. I told Richard I bought it and his response, what? you don't eat that shit. No I don't, I don't know why it just sounded good.

Incident #2: I mentioned to Meredith, gosh I feel so hungry and like I have this ravenous appetite. Do you think it's my metabolism messed up from not being able to work out? 

Incident #3: Puking from the dirty diapers, still had not caught on at this point. (kids had been sick so I just figured it was going around)

Incident #4: The medication they had me on was not giving me my period but I kept waiting. 

Incident #5: The tatas magically came back but again I thought it was this hormone medicine. 

The Realization: 

Realization #1: Babe I'm starting to freak myself out, I feel like I have all the symptoms of being pregnant but that's impossible. He laughs, my response, it's really not funny. Again at this point I go another 3 days because that's just not possible. 

Realization #2: I drive by the sewage in Moore and think I'm going to puke in my car. I call Richard and tell him I really don't feel good and that he needs to pick the kids up. There is no way I can go in that daycare feeling the way I do.

Happy Birthday to me....10/10--The Discovery

Finally I get home and come to terms with I'm going to look further into this. Test = Positive Result!  What theeee?!?!?! Drive straight to the store, take another one. Test = No lines at all! What theee?!?!?!? Okay I'm going to wait till the morning. I'm on the internet all night long looking for answers to false positives, typing away, searching baby center, and of course not sleeping. Test number 3 = Positive! Neither of us believe it so I call the doctors office with the list of medication and leave a long message for the nurse verifying if this medication gives false positives. The nurse calls back and says no. My response---"I'm a fertility patient I don't know what  normal people do in this situation? I need more proof ASAP!! I need blood, I need blood confirmation, I have to have blood and need to know the earliest we can confirm this. The nurse's response you can come now if you like. 24 hours later while driving to OU/TX we get the call confirming what we thought was impossible. After sheer shock set in I came to my senses and had to call back to confirm HCG levels and to make sure that those levels indicated one not two. Even though I know two is physically impossible I had to double check. The levels were very high so according to the numbers we decided it had to be about 9-12 weeks.

Fast forward two weeks and we find out it's actually 16 weeks after seeing the high risk doc. Again this is after my ob looks at the ultra sound and says in shock your 15 weeks. Sheer panic goes through my head. I've had x rays, a girls weekend, labor day weekend, OU football games, anti inflammatory from my foot, oh and the hormones. After another night of no sleep my persistence pays off and I magically get into the high risk doctor which was originally scheduled for another two weeks. They told me people do not cancel but we will put you on the wait list just in case for both offices. Turns out ten minutes later they called me back with an open appointment  

All blood work came back as being a healthy little one so we are accepting our news and preparing for life as a twin mom plus one or 3 under 3. To be honest I'm completely freaking out, nervous, and hoping for everything to run smoothly. The biggest goal is to get to term without all the complications we had previously. Oh and the second goal is for us to not find out the sex of the baby. Well that is if I can go the entire time without finding out. 

On to big bro and big sis:
Blake had tubes put in her ears on Halloween, both caught the flu so we had a full week of sick babies, vomit, and lots of unhappiness. Both went to work with me and destroyed my office pulling every paper out of every spot and dumping absolutely everything out. No way you could tell they were as sick as they were. We went trick or treating with Elle and Riley and the kids all had a blast asking for treats. They really didn't know what they were getting till Uncle Chad gave them a taste of what they were getting. After that we could not keep them out of the candy. Since the tubes Blake's words have been coming along greatly. We are working very hard to break her from screaming for things and encouraging words as much as possible. 

Dax continues to say thank you as he steals something from his sister and the other day I heard the words stop it Blake come out. I turned to Richard and ask if he heard what I thought we heard. This taught me that we have little parakeets in our home as I say stop it all the time.

Both love to run from us, play outside, and get into everything. 

Enjoy our favorite pics by Sharlee Rother Photograpy. 

Shanna and Richard who has now been dubbed back to "the bull" for the time being.

HALLOWEEN

School Halloween Party

Trick or Treating at the Cleveland County Court House

Two Pirates and a Super Girl