Mini-van...

So, the time is coming.

Like getting really, really close.

The Sub.aru is going to get traded. My once upon a time "mom car" is already been/being out grown. It will likely be a better fit in a few months when the boys turn around in their car seats, but in reality, the amount of stuff required for traveling with twins + our monster very well loved stroller + monster car seats = a need for a much larger car! I am so excited to be able to get everyone inside the car and then worry about getting everyone strapped in and ready to go. Seriously, I HATE standing in the rain and also as the boys get older it is becoming more possible to get in and out of stores without the stroller, but getting one to stand with me while I strap the other in-- IMPOSSIBLE. Its time. I kind of didn't think I was ready, but the time has come and as we think about adding to our family I know it is one of those things that just cant be avoided.

So, my dear readers, which one do you have? Have you rented one on a vacation that you loved? We aren't planning to buy new- it is just not our style. At this very moment we are almost certain, we'll buy a Honda Odyssey.

Diapers, baby food, toys, OH MY!

Hey guys! Today's post is pretty much my shameless plug for Amazon Mom. Just to get this out of the way from start, if you DO sign up using my link I will get some amazon credits which I will use for the MILLIONS of diapers and wipes we go through around here! BUT you will also win-- For a limited time new Amazon Mom members can save $25 on eligible diapers in addition to 20% off diapers, wipes and other family essentials! So, SIGN UP... and use my link... I dare you!

 

THIS LINK!

 

 

I really, really cannot tell you how many times Amazon Mom has saved my butt when it comes to buying diapers. It is dang near impossible to buy a box of diapers, while pushing a double stroller and buying ANYTHING else. So I order my diapers.. ALWAYS. It is just so much easier, and they come right to my front door just a couple of days later. THE.BEST. 

Updates!

It has been so long since I've written much other than a monthly update for the boys. So here are a few bullet point to get things caught up!

• Insurance is still lame. I was denied by another company for a private policy, so we've decided for the moment to have Hubs continue working where he is. On the plus side, the infertility coverage remains, and depending on how long he stays at this job we may be able to use the remainder of our IVF benefits.
• Depending on the above, baby number three may be thought about sooner than originally planned. Likely closer to a year from now instead of two this is both exciting and terrifying at the moment!
• We went on a family vacation a couple of weeks ago. Nothing too grand, we just rented a great big house and hung out for five days! Relaxing and fun!
• I am still taking met.formin... on the days I actually remember. I was SO good about it when I was on it and trying to get pregnant. Now? Not as much. I'm hoping to get better about it, because I know it will help.
• My lack of summer clothing is somewhat comical. I was hugely pregnant last summer and the summer before I didn't buy many new things because I was doing IVF and hopeful I'd be pregnant and expanding soon. So, that leaves me with things that are a few years old, a little dated and worn out! Its time to go shopping I guess!
• Over the weekend hubs and I removed some furniture from our living room and rearranged it so we could add a large-ish gated area for the boys. They are both crawling and climbing now and we had to do something before I went INSANE!
• 9 month sleep regression... not my favorite. 9 month sleep regression coupled with two babies with a cold... a little slice of hell. 
• The boys HATE finger food. H will try a few things, A turns his head and clinches his lips. Any tips tricks, food ideas?!?
• We're in the market for convertible car seats and a side by side smallish (reclining) double stroller.... any recommendations?
• I'm so excited for summer! Farmer's markets, festivals and fun outing with my little family on the weekends- pure joy!
• We finally put both cribs back in the nursery- I love the way it looks!
• I currently have one child napping in the swing that I need to return to a friend- They haven't been in it in months because I was trying to wean them from it. Buuuut, mama would do anything for a little nap time with two cranky stuffy babies
• It seems insane that we are already starting to semi-plan the boys' birthday party! We are really excited and want it to be plenty special for our little guys-- I have approximately one million craft project to complete in the next three months.
• My husband asked me the other day what I wanted to be when I grew up. I responded first with 'am I not grown up?' and second with 'I'm doing exactly what I've always dreamed about. Being a mom and taking care of my family.' It is not always (or ever really!) a glamorous job, but it is pretty close to perfection in my book!

Just in time...

With the exception of one wall hanging that hasn't yet been completed, the nursery is DONE! We hung the final things this afternoon and we both LOVE how it turned out! The pictures are FAR from professional - super fancy cell phone photos, but it is so dang easy to go that route! The wall that isn't shown is mostly white doors, two into the closet and one into the hallway. 

 Jenny Lind Cribs- I made the crib skirts (gray & white hounds-tooth) and blankets- Hubs painted the letters to match the beads of the not yet completed abacus- We made the artwork that is above the cribs out of wooden embroidery hoops we found at a thrift shop, attached and painted orange.

The dresser is from Ikea- Hubs painted the green diaper pail and the A- I made the orange and white chevron curtains (I am NEVER making full length lined curtains EVER again!)  Someday the huge abacus will be competed and hung over the dresser.

.... and because you all wanted to see it...

This was taken a few days ago at 37w3d- 50 enormous cm  and 36 lbs.

34w 3d appointment...

It has been an eventful day at our house.....

Hubs is working from home in order to let his poison oak wounds breathe. He made a second appointment with the doctor this morning and was on the receiving end of a needle to the rear- he now has steroids on board  so hopefully he will be healing soon.

I had an OB appointment. She did a quick bedside ultrasound and it looks like Baby B has found himself in an even more undesirable position than before. Not only is he transverse, he also has his back facing down -meaning all of his 'handles' for an extraction (if necessary) are hidden. I'm ok with it, we had already decided that a c-section was the best choice for us and our boys, so this was really just confirmation. 

I had my group B strep swab- no big deal, just a simple swab. It likely will not really matter either way because we are planning on a c-section.  

Since I was already undressed from the waist down (back to these appointments?) she went ahead and checked my cervix. 1cm dilated and about 80% effaced.

I had my t-dap injection today- again, no biggy. 

Today the doctor said to keep in mind it is considered average for a twin pregnancy to result in birth around 35 weeks. I'll be 35 weeks on Monday- I don't think it will happen that quickly, but she assured me every day/week I make it past Monday is frosting on the cake. 

I made my appointments from here through the end of pregnancy... that is three more appointments. Did you catch that? I will have no more than 3 more weekly appointment- perhaps less. 

We will have one more ultrasound at 37w 3d if I make it that far. This will be to check on the size of the boys and to see how they are doing in there. 

As a whole our OB practice likes to deliver twins at or around 38 weeks. I'll be 38 weeks in just a little more than three weeks! These boys are almost here! 

And now, I better buckle down and finish packing those hospital bags and I think we better find time this weekend to get the car seats installed in the car- H & A could be here any day now!

A little of this and a little of that...

I've reached a point in this pregnancy that just seems surreal. Like it all happened so quickly, and now we are finally in the home stretch. As things get marked off the list (like making curtains for the nursery and a blanket for each of the the boys!!) it becomes a little more real that these boys are coming... and SOON-ish. At the moment there is a bouncy seat in my living room, a pack'n'play in our bedroom and a fully set up nursery. We have our hospital orientation/tour scheduled in a couple weekends and we are still on the fence about a weekend birthing class at the beginning of July.

This is all becoming very real. Pretty soon, we will have two baby boys, and those boys will completely and totally rely on us... for everything. It is no doubt a daunting task, but it is also a pretty exhilarating feeling. Soon, these babies will be here and we will be parents of babies that reside on the outside of my body! It doesn't help that the two people I've talked to recently that have twins, had them at 33 and 35 weeks. To be clear, that is 4.5-6.5 weeks from now- as in having my babies NEXT month. Holy cow.

I am praying my little heart out that these little boys will stay put until sometime in August, but I'm slowly preparing myself for the idea of them not. I'm anxious to see our new doctor next week and hear his thoughts on the when and how of our boys' birthday. I'm a planner and I love to have an idea of how things might go. I don't need it to be set in stone, but it would help me start preparing a little better, because at the moment it still feels like a very surreal day that will happen waaay in the future.

The list is dwindling and I'm nearly sure it will be complete or almost complete by the I'm 30 weeks... yahoo! This weekend my mom and I are going to cook a few things to put in the freezer, and next week I have a couple of friends coming to spend the day and cook up a couple more freezer items. I am trying to be as prepared as possible for the days and weeks following the birth of our little guys.

On a completely unrelated note... the twin episode of Pregnant in Heels? Holy crap. It was really reassuring when that a mother who admittedly had no idea what she was doing just weeks/days before her babies came said it all came very naturally once they were there- hopefully the same will be true for us! The main thing that was overwhelming to me was the stack of bottles the woman said you would need for ONE DAY! We do plan to breastfeed at least part of the time if not exclusively, but that stack of bottles really stressed me out. We have some bottles, but I'd estimate only about 14 of differing brands and styles. Is this going to be enough to get started? Sure we can always wash bottles... it isn't like it is the end of the world. Those of you who have done this ahead of me, what would you do? Also, was it a good idea to get multiple types of bottles to see what works best for us, or should we just offer one type and then have them get used it it?

Another question for twin mamas... I think the last thing on our 'to-buy' list is a twin nursing pillow. Is this something you used or would have liked to have had? In our multiples class it seemed useful for even bottle feeding two at once, but obviously I don't have any real like experience. Thoughts?

Change of Heart...

What a difference a month makes. A little over a month ago I wrote this post about consignment sales. I had just returned from my first, and to say I was overwhelmed is an understatement. I think it was partially because I had NO IDEA what I wanted/needed for the boys and I was still on the edge of being excited and terrified about having twins. Now I own the fact that the next year or two of my life is going to be one crazy, exhausting adventure.

Since that first sale I have gone to three more. One was super small and I only found $6 worth of clothing for the boys... nothing too exciting. This past weekend my husband and I went to a multiples consignment sale about an hour before it closed on the first night. Sure, it was totally picked over in the gear/furniture/carrier department, but it was not at all overwhelming and there were no crying children! We found a couple of books for the boys, a bouncy seat, two wooden toys and several clothing items. We ending up spending something like $50 which seems like a pretty good deal to me. 

Yesterday I hit the third sale. It was advertised as an 'upscale' consignment sale only accepting higher quality brands. I decided that today I'd go in with a list of things I'd like to find and zero expectation of actually finding any of them. My mission was a very specific discontinued sling in the proper size, a boyish boppy cover, a bumbo and any random clothing items I might find after first focusing on the other things. MUCH to my surprise I found the sling I wanted. We used it at our multiples class over the weekend and I fell in love with the secure feeling of it. After trying it out and being able to see my life easier with it, the instructor informed us that the company who made them is no longer in business and you can now only find them at resale shops. I've been searching for one online and was prepared to hit up some baby consignment shops this weekend, but thankfully I found one in the proper size and a good color at the sale instead! Yahoo. I could have found nothing else that that point and my day would have been made, but I managed to find a great boppy cover, a couple of outfits and two unopened crib sheets in the color I was looking for. 

All this to say, I take back everything I said about consignment sales. They can be really overwhelming, but they can also be the jackpot for things you're looking for. Thankfully this good experience came just days before the biggest sale in my state. I'm sure I'll be updating you on my love/hate relationship with consignment sales after Friday's adventure!!

Registry...

We are planning to start our registry over the weekend, and while we generally know what we want/need if any of you mamas out there have favorite items  (especially mamas of twins!) please feel free to comment! Also, are there items that you wish you would have had more of... crib sheets, changing pad covers, pacifiers, swaddling blankets?

Consignment Sales...

Lets talk about baby consignment sales.

oh.my.gosh.

There are several in our area, and because I am not yet a massively large and angry pregnant woman, I decided to go to one of the smaller ones this morning.

First things first. As I arrived about 30 minutes prior to the opening of the sale I saw that there was a line across the entire front of the building.... and it was raining. The rain isn't a huge deal because we live in the PNW and frankly most of the population lives in a raincoat the majority of the year. However, today's rain was of a special variety. The kind that comes with wind that blows it in more of a horizontal fashion than vertical. The kind of rain that there is no hiding from. It finds you and makes you soaking wet within minutes. Awesome.

Next up, we get inside the building and I really had no idea where to begin. All I could think about was how lucky I am that my mom will be attending the really big consignment sale with me in a few weeks. This was supposed to be a small sale, and it was massively overwhelming! I looked through the slings and front packs, but I just don't know what I want yet, so it was too hard to buy anything. Then I went back to the 'gear' section. I thought for sure I would find a bouncy seat, bumbo or swing that I liked, but instead I found heaps of hormonal women most of which with a screaming infant or toddler in tow and I walked out of the section as quickly as I arrived!

I did end up with some great deals on some little boy outfits. I got 12 pieces for $25 which seems like a pretty good deal to me. Thankfully I will know for sure what we are having by the time the big consignment sale rolls around. This time I was a little afraid to go too crazy on boy stuff just in case baby B turns out to be a little girl instead of our maybe baby boy!

I can say now, that is was worth the time and effort to go, but holy cow-- overwhelming! My advice to you in your consignment sale adventures is skip the purse and put a small wallet in your pocket. Most sales apparently will not allow you to bring in a purse that is larger than your head (someone show we something functional that is smaller than your head!) so this means getting out of line and returning your bag to the car, or leaving it in the coat check area- both options are lame, so just be prepared!

On a more exciting note, my new couch is arriving this weekend and my new sewing machine should be here early next week! I see many afternoons of sewing burp cloths and blankets in my future :)

Baby Stuff...

We're finally feeling confident enough in this pregnancy to start buying things for the babies as we see things we love. Daddy would buy everything under the moon if it was up to him, I'm still reining him in a bit until we know the sex of the babies because his choices don't tend to be gender neutral. While we were on vacation we bought a couple of boyish out fits, a couple of neutral gowns and two Christmas bibs and Halloween bibs that were on crazy clearance. The previous week I bought a couple of muslin swaddling blankets that seem to be all the rage with new mamas and before that I found a diaper bag at a big discount. It is so weird to start seeing a pile of baby things in their room. Now, if we could just get the rest of our stuff out of that room and start thinking about the bigger baby items. I can't wait to go into that room and see two cribs for the babes in my belly :)

Haha!!

You guys were cracking me up yesterday as I was laying on the couch nursing a nasty headache! Don't worry, we aren't buying anything just yet, especially anything big. We ARE however researching and choosing exactly what we want so when we are ready... closer to 20 weeks, we can just pick up the things we're already set on.
From what I've read from other twin mamas, things start getting kind of uncomfortable around 24 weeks and lots of twin pregnancies see some level of bed rest sometime in the final 12 weeks. Hence, the research and early-ish shopping.

At this point, I'm even more confused than before about what kind of chair to get. I think I'm officially putting the idea of a glider to rest, that just doesn't seem feasible if indeed I'm able to tandem (please for sanity sake let it work!!!). I've read a few things about not wanting something that rocks when you have two babies precariously attached to your nipples on some big pillow- makes sense. But, a big comfy recliner seems like a grand idea if they are going to be up a million times per night nursing. I am assuming I'll do a lot of the daytime nursing on our bed or the couch, but after Hubs goes back to work it will be ideal to be somewhere other than our bedroom at night.

Also, did I tell you that I went to the bookstore to look for a twin pregnancy book? Yeah- nothing that wasn't published at least ten years ago. Everything I looked at seemed a little irrelevant. One of them spent about half the book talking about who has twins and how they happen. While I'm sure that is interesting (at least somewhat) to someone who has spontaneous twins, I know EXACTLY how these babies were made and I'm way more interested in knowing what I should expect over the next several weeks. I did buy one book, but it is more about the first year.... Holy overwhelming! So, if you have a twin pregnancy book recommendation I'm all ears!

Calling all Mamas....

I know it is early, but we are looking at doing our baby shopping in spurts. Knowing that the bigger ticket items will not be purchased for us as shower gifts, we're considering getting a head start on some of them in the next couple of months.

The items we are thinking about right now are the cribs and the chair for the nursery. I have a feeling the average glider may not be ideal as I'm *hoping* to tandem nurse and those gliders just don't seem wide enough for one mama, two babies and a giant nursing pillow... am I right? What do you suggest? Where is your favorite place to nurse your babies? Will I want something that rocks, or is an over stuffed chair a better option? A rocking recliner?

Also, I've been looking at nursing pillows and it seems the overwhelming majority prefer the twin 'My Breast Friend'. Nearly every review I've read says it is worth every penny that was spent on it. Anyone?