Our Year

I REALLY wanted to send out Christmas cards this year, but it just didn't happen (I wonder why?). 

2014 has been our year. So much has happened this year and although it's been stressful and our lives are busier than ever, we are so happy!

We started our year out with IVF fertility treatments which was one of the most emotional, stressful, painful things we've had to go through. I went in to the clinic 3-4 times a week and all we could think about the whole time was how much we wanted just one baby and the dream just felt so far away.

One morning at the end of January, after spending the morning in the clinic getting my blood drawn, I got back into bed with tears in my eyes anticipating the phone call I'd receive. I couldn't bare the idea of it not working out. At 9am exactly, We got the phone call. When the nurse told us we were pregnant, Cameron and I just broke into sobs and held onto each other. One of the most happiest moments of our life. A couple weeks later, we found out we were having twins.

In March, we went on vacation to San Francisco, Monterey, and Carmel California. We were both sick for the plane ride there, but once we got past that, we had a blast! We both loved being in Monterey, but we both fell in love with Carmel. The views there were breathtaking and it was a great place to forget about our worries and relax. I can't get enough of the ocean and was really sad to leave.

This old couple insisted on taking our picture for us =)

In March, while we were in San Fran, our beautiful puppy Cinders was born. She was the cutest newborn puppy I ever did see! She has brought so much joy into our lives - she's so sweet and is the biggest cuddle bug! 

Bruno and Cinders are best friends and love playing with each other.

2014 was also the year we built a house. We didn't build it ourselves, but it was still quite the endeavor. We love it here and it's nice to finally have a place of our own to call home. We moved in at the beginning of July.

Starting at the end of May/beginning of June, I started to have a lot of problems with heartburn. It was extremely painful and the further I got, the harder it was to get the heartburn to go away. There were times it lasted 12+ hours and we made many trips to the hospital to get it to go away.

I also started with the weekly stress tests and ultra sounds.

Our little girl had a two vessel cord and wasn't getting all the nutrients she needed. Each week we were so stressed as to how she was doing. 

Cameron was so supportive through everything. He's been working so hard and he's amazing at what he does. He's a Web Developer and is contracted out with some agencies - the main one being out of Seattle. He also does a lot of direct to client work. He loves what he does and he's really good at it. 

In July, we bought a car. We had a 20 year old Ford Explorer and we thought it best to get something we felt comfortable driving the babies in. 

On September 18 we went to Sacred Heart to have our babies. We left early in the morning, and the sunrise was there to greet us. 

Our doctor was running behind, so we had a lot of time to ourselves to get excited for the birth of our babies. 

Cameron thought it was a good time to tell stupid jokes lol

This was the most incredible day of Cameron and my life. It was so emotional and seeing our babies for the first time was surreal. They are so beautiful and we couldn't be more in love with them. 

We have been so blessed this year and are so happy! I think we're looking forward to a couple of laid back years compared to this one. Our babies have already grown up so much and their personalities are so unique. At this moment we're just taking one day at a time and trying to enjoy it all. 

But It'sssnot!

Classy title, I know. I don't like being sick, but what I hate even more is my babies and dogs being sick. Literally every living thing in our house is sick at the moment. Despite being vaccinated, Bruno got kennel cough the other day (thank you doggy daycare), and now Cinders has it. I can't....I can't...I can't even! You thought sick babies was gross, sick doggies are even worse. They've both been hacking and coughing, but Cinders actually spits grossness up. She's got doggy snot coming out of her nose and doggy drool coming off her jowls. I've quarantined her to her bed and it's the saddest sight you ever did see. Giving them their meds has been icky as I've had to pretty much shove the meds down their throats.

Bruno is doing better than he was yesterday.

The babies aren't running fevers anymore, but are still congested. They've been fussy in general lately. We've had lots of extra cuddle time.

They had a check-up yesterday and they both had to have shots (they've had a rough week). Ollie is up to 10 lbs 6 oz and Madelyn is 8 lbs 12 oz. 

We've Got the Croup

So Sunday night, Ollie and Madelyn started showing signs of a cold. By Monday morning, all three of us had it. Madelyn who is normally so happy, has been so fussy. She projectile vomited everything she had in her at one point on Monday which was traumatizing for all involved. I had been taking both their temperatures on a regular basis and I got some Vick's Vapor tabs to put in the humidifier.

Well, last night I picked Madelyn up to change and feed her and she was burning up and having a hard time breathing. I took her temperature and it read 100.4. We took her to the ER and by the time we got back to see someone, her temperature had lowered to 99.8.

We had to wait a super long time to see someone, but by the time the doctor got to us, he was pretty great. They were very thorough with their testing. It was late and poor Madelyn just wanted to sleep. They gave her a nebulizer treatment, they inserted a catheter right after she had wet her diaper which proved to be pointless; they pricked her foot and squeezed and scraped blood into a vile (very traumatizing!) and they took a chest x-ray.

They mainly just wanted to rule out pneumonia and RSV, but they did diagnose her with croup. Poor girl had a rough night, but once I got her home, I gave her a bath and put her to bed. Luckily the babies slept pretty well for the rest of the night.

Today, it's been more of the same. Lots of congestion, fussiness, and extra spit-up. Ollie's temperature has been getting higher, but luckily it's still under 100. I'm hoping it stays that way. It's hard taking care of two human beings when you're feeling super crappy yourself. I'm not sure I'd have it any other way though.

2 Crazy, Blissful Months

The babies are two months old, and while I wouldn't say that it's gone by quickly, I've loved it and wouldn't trade it for anything! It's amazing how quickly your habits change after having a baby. In my 26 years, I've never, ever had the ability to wake up before 8 (at the earliest) without serious reinforcements and at times, sheer force - and that was after a good 10 hours of sleep (i'm not ashamed to admit that).

Nowadays, I feel for the most part satisfied if I get at least 6 hours of sleep here and there and my day normally starts at 6 or 7 in the morning. We've gotten into a routine which is how I stay sane. The babies eat at the same time give or take a half hour and sleep at the same times. My day usually goes like this:

In the morning I change their diapers, get them out of their PJs, and feed them. Afterwards, I set them in their cribs to stretch and hang out. When they get tired of that, I put their clothes on and either let them hang out more in the cribs or I swaddle them.

I feed them every three hours, if they're asleep I'll wake them up. Sometimes I'll lay a blanket out in front of the fire and let them hang out there for a while and I spend a lot of time holding them or bouncing them on my lap.

Madelyn loves eye contact and will just stare at me for hours. She has been starting to smile more and it's super adorable! She loves the baby swing the most and doesn't like to spend a lot of time flat on her back. She loves being curled up in a ball and it's really difficult to get her to stretch her legs out as she doesn't care for that much. She loves being swaddled, more so than her brother. She tends to hate being in her carseat which makes traveling somewhat difficult at times.

Ollie is so much bigger than his sister it's funny how big the difference is (about 2 lbs). He has such big eyes and loves to stare at anything and everything...sometimes at nothing. He makes the funniest faces. He loves being swaddled, but more so than his sister, he loves to just lie on his back and kick and stretch his arms and legs. He keeps himself occupied doing that throughout the day. He loves to be sung to and rocked to sleep. He can fall asleep without it a lot of the time but if he's having troubles, I can generally get him to sleep by singing to him.

They've started recognizing each other when they're lying next to each other. They'll stare at each other as they fling their arms willy nilly at each other. For bath times, Ollie prefers to be in the shower, so a lot of times I'll hand him to Cam as he's in there and Madelyn prefers the bathtub. I tried giving them a bath together the other day and Ollie didn't quite appreciate it.

I'm crazy in love with these two!

As for bedtime, we struggled to find a routine with this. We had several nights where they slept for 7-8 hours, but for the most part they would wake up every three hours and we struggled to get them back to sleep at times. For a while, we tried waking them up around 10-11 at night to feed them in hopes that they'd sleep longer during the night, letting us sleep longer - however, that never worked. We realized that when we put them to bed at around 7-9 at night, they fell asleep more deeply and slept longer. When we had been waking them up late at night to feed them, we were interrupting their sleep and they had a hard time falling back to sleep after that. 

Since starting that routine at the beginning of this week, they've slept around 7-8 hours straight for the first part of the night, we feed them around 4 and then they sleep until 7/8am. I've been loving the extra sleep and it's so much easier to take care of them throughout the day when I've had sufficient amount of sleep. 

That's my life at the moment. It's crazy, stressful and sometimes I truly feel as though I'm going insane, but at the same time I'm loving every minute of it and I'm so afraid of it going by too quickly. I'm so in love with these two and am so grateful for the opportunity to be their mother. 

Anberlin & Anniversaries

One of Cam's favorite bands is Anberlin and we have gone to see them every time they have come to Spokane. This was their final tour, so of course we HAD to go - we were worried that we wouldn't be able to make it due to me having surgery and two babies, but it worked out. Cam's parents were kind enough to watch the babies and it so happened that the concert was on the 5th anniversary of Cam's and my first date. 

The Nursery

We just finished putting up the wall decals today and although we have yet to get a couple things, the nursery is mostly done.

From the beginning I knew that I wanted to just get the basics of everything that I needed. I could have easily gone overboard and bought two of everything and there's so many options for baby stuff out there and most of it you don't need.

I did really well and just bought what I needed and then after all was said and done, I allowed myself to splurge on a couple things that I didn't necessarily need but wanted - like decorations. Even so, I did a really good job of finding deals and bargains so I don't feel too bad about it. All in all, I think I did a pretty good job.

The dresser I got at hobby lobby as well as the birch tree vase on top. The flowers and the mirror I got at TJ Maxx. In the top drawer I keep socks, some cute slippers, and some extra bottoms/pants. In the second drawer I have my reusable breast pads ( Bamboobies, ) and some extra washcloths and milk storage bags. In the bottom drawer I keep xtra wipes, batteries, etc. 

 

I really like how the wall decals turned out, I got them off etsy. The cribs I got at Walmart.

I didn't want to get two of everything - just because I didn't really think it was necessary. I did get one bouncer and one swing. I figure that while one baby is using the bouncer the other could be using the swing.

I got most of our baby items off of Amazon. I really like Aveeno's products and heard good things about their baby product line so I got their diaper cream, lotion, and shampoo for the babies. I got a wipe warmer which I think will make diaper changing easier. 

In this box I have all the washcloths, extra burp cloths, shampoo, brush, and comb. In the canister (which I got from TJ Maxx) I'm keeping all the binkies, binky clips, and hair bows/flowers.

This is Cam's stuffed animal Dillon that he's had forever.

And this is my teddy bear that I've had forever. The swaddle blankets are the muslin swaddle blankets and I got them off of Amazon.

Again, I tried not to get too carried away with buying a bunch of stuff we didn't need. As for clothes, I do have an extra basket stored away with some bigger clothes for when the babies get older, but I figure that we'll get most of what we need as we need it. In these baskets, I have one designated for Ollie's clothes, Madelyn's clothes, and then a shared basket for their sleepers. These are all 0-3 month clothes. The baskets I got from TJ Maxx.

I think Bruno approves of the chair. The purple Afgan is one that my mom made me when I was younger. I imagine myself sitting in the recliner with the babies and wrapping the blanket around us. 

The recliner we got from La-Z-Boy for a really good price and we were even able to pick the material for it. It's a great chair that we'll have forever.