2 Months Old!

Our sweet babies hit their two month mark on the 15th of April.  I can't believe it's been two months since they came into our lives, and yet it seems like we've been parents for forever? Here's a little bit about each one:

Mr. Crew

Crew was almost a pound bigger than his brother at 7 lbs 4 oz at birth.  He was breech in my belly the entire time, and had his large head wedged underneath my rib. 

Crew started rolling over from his stomach to his back at 2 weeks.  We thought it was a fluke until he did it 2 more times after that.  He hasn't stopped since that day and is faster at it than ever. We're in trouble.

He has a TEMPER.  From the day he was born when he cries he will get so mad that he holds his breath and turns purple until we blow in his face.  I use to get really upset and start to cry when he did that... I'm over it. :)  Apparently when Brian was a baby he would hold his breath until he passed out and then have seizures every day until he was 18 months old.  So I'm grateful we don't have that going on!  Poor Brian's mom.

He's so handsome....  (Hello ladies...)

He likes to lay on his belly (to help with the gas), and sitting upright resting against my legs until he falls asleep.  He also likes to be bounced and walked to sleep.  Daddy does it the best.

 

 Mr. Finn

 

Finn was born 2 minutes before his brother at 6 lbs 6 oz. He would get the hiccups at least once a day and I loved feeling the rhymthic movements

 He's so handsome too! He has a calmer demeanor than his brother and will sometimes put himself right to sleep.  Well, he use to... :)

 

He likes to do these weird stretches when you pick him up when he's been asleep and will stay in that shape in the air

He is an amazing eater, and has since overtaken his brother in weight. We'll find out tomorrow their specific weights for their two month appointment.  I'm sure he just wants to be older and bigger than his brother.  Pretty sure they'll always be competing in some way? 

He loves sleeping on our chests and getting his back patted until he falls asleep.

 

They love to take baths and ride in the car, and they're starting to look more and more alike.  Often times we'll have to take a second glance at which one we're holding to see which baby we have.  If it weren't for their head shapes it would be much harder to tell them apart.  (Don't worry, if we ever get desperate and don't know who is who, Finn has a birth mark on his bottom) (kidding people) (but seriously, he really does have the birthmark). 

 

 I can see them acting like the Weasley twins and trying to fool people, especially their momma, on a daily basis.  Who am I kidding?  They're Brian's children, they'll be jokesters til the day they die.  Sometimes they'll start to cry and when we get to them they'll stop and crack an eye open to see if we're there.  I often don't leave my bedroom because they tag team all day.  One will start crying and as soon as I get him settled the other will start.  "Okay brother, you can stop now, I'll get her for a while.  Hehehehe."

 

I hope they'll be best friends.  Brian told me a few weeks ago that when he was younger his family moved around a lot and often times he would walk the playground all by himself.  Heart. Breaking. I love that my boys will always have someone they can play with, and I'm so excited to see how they will react and play with eachother as they get older. 

 

But for now I'm content with my little boys who aren't quite so little.  Anyone know the way to Neverland?

 



 

A tale of two boys

The boys are sleeping!  Quick I better hurry and get this down before one or both of them wake up. :)  I'll just jump right in and start from the beginning. (By the way, the abundance of detail is more for my benefit so I can remember this in the years to come, sorry if it's too much for everyone else)

On July 4th of 2012, Brian and I were on our way to Brett and Patsy's house to celebrate the 4th.  While getting out of the car I casually said to Brian, "You know, I'm almost 5 days late. Weird."  He probably just shrugged because as many of you ladies know, when you get married it's pretty much a fact that you'll be wondering about whether you're pregnant or not.  Not to mention just how many pregnancy tests we go through to make sure.  As we walked in I also told my mother in law about me being late.  (Don't worry, she's pretty cool.)  I remember the look she gave me when she said, "Go get a pregnancy test."  I honestly didn't think I was pregnant because I had taken so many over the past year.  But hey, what the heck?  So Brian and Chloe ran to the Dollar Store and picked up a couple of tests.  By this time several family members and friends were arriving for the festivities and Brian and I ran upstairs.  As we waited for the test we began to see two little red lines appear.... I believe at this point I began to hyperventilate, for I had taken enough of them to know that 2 lines means yes.  Brian, however, thought it was the other way around and let out his breath, "Oh it's negative." "No my dear, it's positive."  This was one of the most wonderful moments in my life as Brian and I hugged each other for several minutes and were crying for joy.  It was so crazy at that time for me as a woman to actually know that I had a little life (lives ;) inside me and that my body was capable of such a thing. Then it hit us.... we sat down and said about 10 times...

 "WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?!?!"

 

The infamous pregnancy test picture

 

 It was still very early at this point to be telling anyone, but we obviously couldn't go downstairs with our red puffy eyes and say, "Nope, false alarm." So we walked down the stairs and into the kitchen where the few people who knew what we had been doing looked at us anxiously.  We probably didn't even have to exclaim, "We're pregnant!" because they could see it on our faces.  Us getting pregnant was incredible because the month before I had found out that they had found a growth on my pituitary gland that causes irregular hormone levels and infertility.  Brian and I thought that we might not get the chance to have children, and Patsy confided in us once, "I was gearing up to the fact that you might not have kids."  It was and is an absolute miracle.  Funny story, that same day Brian had really been thinking about his lifelong dream of being in the military and had said to me, "Would you be okay if I were to join?"  I told him yes but asked if he still would if I got pregnant in the near future.  He said, "Then I wouldn't go."  Sorry Bri!! Well, we couldn't not share the news with one side of the family and not the other, so Brian and I immediately hopped in the car to go to my parents house, where there was another party with my extended family.  We told them the good news and if I recall, we got a dance or two from my mother! 

 

Fast forward to the beginning of August.... Brian and I went to see the nurse practioner at 9 weeks for my first appointment.  The nurse's name was Cindy and she was wonderful.  We got to listen to the heartbeat ( I wonder which baby it was?) and that was so amazing.  As Brian said in the previous post, she only found one heartbeat though.  Because of my pituitary adenoma, Cindy decided to schedule an early ultrasound to check for abnormalities.

 

WE WERE SO EXCITED.  I had been very sick at this time and my mother had made a joke the morning of the ultrasound.  Her joke was, "Hey, maybe you're pregnant with twins!"  Yeah right mom....

 

 I don't recall the man's name who did our ultrasound but supposedly he is considered the "Yoda" of ultrastonagraphers. As the little baby came on the screen, we exclaimed and Brian said, "Holy crap."  "Yoda" then replied, "You don't know the meaning of holy crap," and moved the scope over to show us another little baby body. I realized what he meant but Brian didn't quite understand until we both told him, "twins", "there's two!" or something like that.  And then Brian swore out loud.  Haha great moment.

 

Ultrasounds are incredible.  I feel blessed to have such modern medicine and technology so that I could see one my babies move when they were only 9 weeks old.

 

Brian and I were ecstatic and astonished at the news, but I recall having to sit down and take a few breaths on the stairs before getting back in the car.  It was time to share the news!  If anyone knows Brian they know that he is a HUGE tease.  He teases and jokes with his family and mine relentlessly to the point that nobody listens to him or believes what he says.  We called up Patsy who was with Megan in Arkansas and tried to tell them we were having twins.... they didn't believe us.  It really took 5 minutes and a picture before we heard the screams of belief!  Then we conferenced Brett in... and it's so weird, but he didn't believe us either :)  After that call we called and told my parents who were at a family reunion in Wyoming and my mother screamed, "Laura's pregnant with twins!!" to the entirety of my extended family.

 

I'll fast forward through my pregnancy because to be honest, it was pretty miserable.  I remember lying in bed and feeling so sick that I would shut my eyes until I passed out from exhaustion.  My doctor was the fiery Dr. Vicki Macy, who has a reputation for handling high risk situations and being very strict.  We loved her immediately and she treated us well.  I would recommend her to anyone. 

 

 

 I only took a few pictures during my pregnancy of the babies bump because I got massively huge and disgusting, but here's one at 15 weeks.





This picture was taken right before I went to the hospital for pre labor contractions.  There were many hospital visits during my pregnancy and scary times but those babies stayed in and did amazing.

 

We found out the gender of the twins on October 9th.  Brian always knew they were boys and at the time I secretly wanted girls.... (Sorry boys! Momma loves you.) However, I could not be more thrilled about two boys.  Two identical girls during the ages 12-18?  No thank you! :) 

 

 

We called over family to tell them the good news and put two blue colored balloons in a box and had the grandma's open it.

 

I was put on bed rest at 25 weeks and the weeks somehow went by.  My two moms cooked and cleaned for me while I had to lay around on the couch all day.  Sounds nice doesn't it?  It was... for about 2 days, then it got old.  There were days that I thought it would never end and these babies were never going to come. Poor Brian. I can't count how many times I cried in his arms or how many Priesthood blessings I was given. I was so blessed that the twins stayed in my belly and how much support, love, gifts and help that was given to me for months. We would keep saying, "Okay, just make it to Christmas, just make it to the New Year, just make it to the baby shower."  And in the end we had to rip them out!!

 

Speaking of baby shower, I had the cutest one on the planet.  Big thank you to my moms, sisters (Ashley especially, she planned everything) and the blogger moms for all your help.  We got so much stuff!  Everyone was so generous.

 

I had ultrasounds every two weeks, and I looked forward to seeing their cute little bodies every time.  I had them every two weeks to check for Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome, which is where one twin takes the nutrients from the other because they share the placenta.  Heavenly Father watched over them and they did great until the very end. Unfortunately, I think that sharing is going to be an issue in a couple of years....

 

I don't know how to turn them??

 

Dr. Macy told us that 38 weeks was full term for twins, and giving their size and my miserable state, she agreed to take them via cesarean (Crew was breech and we didn't want to risk complications) on Tuesday, February 12th.  I was so happy.  I was massive.  I was tired.  And I desperately wanted to meet my babies.  On Monday the 11th, I woke up with a sore throat that I had battled with for weeks and weeks over several courses of antibiotics.  I called Stefanie, Dr. Macy's nurse (We were just the best of friends by this point) and to my dismay she told me that we had to postpone the delivery.  I was beyond crushed.  I know it was for the best but oh was I so sad!  We rescheduled the c-section for the 15th and I was put on another round of antibiotics.  Brian brought me home flowers that night.  What a good man!

 

The night before was Valentine's day and Brian, my parents and I enjoyed a candlelight dinner and then went to bed.  We had to be at the hospital at 5 the next morning to prepare for the delivery at 7.  Needless to say I did not sleep at all, but Brian slept like a baby! Actually, he slept like a husband, because as I now know, babies don't actually sleep that long or deeply.  We woke up early, got ready, grabbed our bags, and off we went!  I'll show you the last picture I took of me on a later post- scary.

 

I was very nervous, and even though I haven't experienced true labor, I think I can honestly say I would prefer it over a c-section. I didn't like it one bit! But it wasn't long though before I got to meet my precious babies!!







 

Finn was born first at 8:12 am weighing 6 lbs 6 oz. 

Crew was delivered at 8:14 am weighing 7 lbs 4 oz.

 

 

Sorry I don't know how to turn them!! They're still cute sideways

 

 

Proud grandmas

 

 

Proud daddy

 

We stayed in the hospital for 5 days.  I wish we could still just call for food and send the babies to the nursery at night.... just kidding.  But seriously. Coming home was the most wonderful thing in the world and I'm so grateful that we live with my parents at this time.  They have been amazing and my in-laws live just a mile away and are extremely helpful as well.

 

I'm sorry this was so incredibly long.  I wanted to remember the experience of carrying my boys because it was truly a miracle.  Looking back through all the little things that could have gone wrong but didn't: We weren't supposed to have kids; we got two.  Identical twins can have serious complications in the womb; ours didn't have any. I had pre labor at 25 weeks; they went to full term and didn't spend one minute in the NICU.  Finn and Crew are happy and healthy and we love them.  They are an absolute miracle and our absolute joy.  I thank my Father in Heaven every day for their precious little souls and for letting me be their mom.