Bouncing Toddler - 2.5 year Update

Hello my wonderful readers. So our big girl will be 2.5 years old tomorrow! I just can't believe how fast time goes by and that we are half way to 3 already. She is learning so much and developing so much. She talks up a storm everyday, all day, which isn't a surprise if you know my husband haha (she is his mini me). She is wearing size 3T clothing and size 7 shoes. We have started somewhat potty training with some pull-ups and a little potty, we aren't fully there but still working on it. She wears size 5 diapers now when we use disposables, otherwise she is in cloth and all the rise snaps are unsnapped. She has started to throw fits on the ground when not getting her way and she yells "it's mine" when you take something away from her that she wants. She listens when we tell her to do something but not 100% of the time, she is a typical 2 year old. We have a good routine for the day that we try to keep her on (post to come on routines). She has gotten two new siblings since turning 2 which is a huge change that she is doing really well with. She has an issue sometimes when we say "not now we are doing something for the babies" but most of the time she says ok. She is eating anything really, her favorite snack right now is air popped popcorn, goldfish and apple sauce pouches. 

 Above is her and her little potty. Below is her testing out the babies bouncer before they came. 

 Above is the day we brought the babies home after a week in the hospital. Below is her holding her baby sister. 

 Above is our annual visit to the snow and below is her on Valentines day this year. 

 Above and below are her doing two of her favorite things right now coloring and playing dress up with my old Halloween costumes from when I was growing up. 

 Above is her before church one morning. Below is her and her sister watching Beauty and Beast and she is eating popcorn. 

I hope you enjoyed this update on our beautiful Penelope Ann. Can't believe the next update will be her 3 year! Wow how time flies!! Lots of love! 

Month 4 with Twins

Hello my wonderful readers. I honestly can't believe we are at the 4 month mark already time has gone by so fast! They are getting so big and growing so fast. They had shots at the doctor and were just fine. Andrew is a little over 13 lbs. Juliet is a little over 11 lbs. Juliet is turning over from back to front and starting to crawl. Andrew is also working on it but not as close. They are both in size 1 diapers now and both are fitting into our cloth diapers now so we are trying to use those most of the time. 

Clothing Size: both are in 3 month size clothes, no more newborn for either one.

Sleeping: We are kind of getting the 4mo sleep regression here and there but for the most part they are sleeping through the night in their beds in our room still.

Feeding: They are eating every 2 hours on the dot... Andrew eats 5oz and Juliet will eat 3oz-4oz

Routine: We are pretty much in a routine now with big sister, every so often we get out of routine but we try to get it back on track as soon as we can.

Firsts: They had their first St. Patrick's Day, First trip to my mother-in-law's house, First Daddy's birthday celebrated with him and First time in the church nursery (they were champs, no problems at all), and first bath all in the tub together (they were in a little bath tub in the big bath tub with big sister and Andrew screamed the whole time).

Pictures:

 

 We put them in the bouncer together, they didn't care for that too much haha. They love the black and white baby books from Usborne Books.

 Sister is showing them her toys.

 My mother-in-law bought these for them before we knew what their genders would be. I normally am not a fan of dressing them in matching outfits but these were cute! #twinning

Hope you enjoyed the update! Lots of love!

Easter Baskets 2017

Hello my wonderful readers. We are coming up on Easter this next Sunday. It will be the twins first Easter and we are having everyone over to our place to host for the first time (post to follow Easter). I wanted to share the kids Easter baskets with you since I got them done. We decided they didn't need a lot since they all have a mountain of toys already. Penelope's basket I got her for her first Easter in 2015 from Lillian Vernon I think and the twins bags I actually won from a facebook group my friend has called Three Little Chicks (https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThreeLittleChicks/). 

 We got each of the twins a little book and a stuffed monkey that we can attach to the stroller, carseat, etc.

 Penelope we got a puzzle, two books (she loves princess' and Abby), a bunny and a tutu. 

I thought these all turned out super cute! Next year I will try to get the twins each a bigger basket like P's but this year the bags are more than big enough for their stuff. Lots of Love and show me your kids baskets. 

My Bullet Journal

Hello my wonderful readers. Something a little different today besides the mommy posts and baby posts. I have been trying out for about 4 months now using a bullet journal. Now I know you have most likely already heard of this because I am late to the game but I just wanted to share mine with you and what I found is working for me because I am loving this type of "planner". I am a planner junkie so for me to love a format is pretty wonderful! Now if you don't know what a bullet journal is you can google it and find out or just look at mine and I will try to explain it. I don't use the original traditional format and that is what I love about it, you don't have to! You can customize it to whatever you need it to be which is amazing when you are type A list maker. I have a month at a glance and each week at a glance. I have meal planner for every week and I make my grocery list off of that, I have even put post its on the page of what I have in my pantry and fridge so it was easier to make a menu off of it. I have my travel bucket list, blog ideas, what to pack if P goes overnight somewhere, what to pack for the twins for a whole day out, birthdays by month, monthly bills, and homeschool brainstorming for the future. I used a notebook I already had that I knew would fit in my purse because I wanted to try the format out before I bought another nice notebook that was bigger to have a longer time.

Here are a few of my pages:

 I loved looking on Pinterest for ideas for my journal. Above is one I found my grateful page, love this concept. Also I have a memories page for each month with all the main things that we did that month. 

 I used this to plan the family Christmas we held at the beginning of December.  

 This is glimpse of my week at a glance, sometimes I write about the day after it is over about how I felt or what happened that day. 

 Here is a blank meal plan I use. I now try to plan and shop for 2 weeks at a time so it is nice when the weeks are side by side like this. 

Here is a month at glance for this month. 

I just love doodling and making it look pretty. Hope you enjoyed a look into my planner. If you want to know what a traditional bullet journal looks like you can always google it and it will take you right to the original site of the maker. Lots of Love to you and yours. 

Birth Story of Andrew and Juliet

Hello my wonderful readers. So I have finally got a second to sit down and write the twins birth story. It started on December 12, 2016, I was 37 weeks exactly, I had a doctors appointment at 4:30p. Aaron took off work early to come home to watch Penelope while I went to the appointment. Something told me that I should finally put my hospital bag in the car that day so I did and I also got the feeling Aaron should drive me to the appointment instead of driving myself, so him, Penelope and me got all loaded up in the car and went to the appointment. I went into the appointment and I peed in a cup like normal and was weighed and blood pressure checked a couple times. Doc came in finally and did an ultrasound to check the babies' heartbeats and they were perfect. Problems that were pointed out by the doctor was my blood pressure was high a bit and there was protein in my urine, which both suggest preeclampsia. I failed to mention my c-section was scheduled for a week from this day at 38 weeks exactly. She then sent me over to the labor and delivery building to have a fetal monitor put on for a couple hours and blood pressure taken every so often. My mom had just got off work so I called her and said she should maybe pack a bag and start heading our way since it would take her a couple hours to get there. A couple hours go by laying on the uncomfortable hospital bed starving because I wasn't allowed to eat yet, my husband took my daughter to get some food so she wasn't starving and not long after he came back, my mom showed up and then the doctor on call came in and said "How would you like to have some babies tonight?" Right after she said that the blood pressure machine took my blood pressure again and it was pretty high since I felt like I was panicking since this was not the plan! We were not supposed to have babies for another week I had so much to do still I felt like to get ready for them. So my mom took Penelope home to our house and got her bathed and to bed and went to bed herself since there was no need for anyone really to be hanging around the hospital. During this time my dad and mother in law had been called and told and said they would just come the next day to see the babies. We then proceeded to be checked in fully and moved to a labor suite until it was time to prep and go in for the c-section. It was about 8:30p-9p when we got moved to the suite I believe. They came in and gave me antibiotics I think and prepped me and gave Aaron his scrubs to wear in the OR and every doc that was going to do anything to me came in and introduced themselves and said exactly what they would be doing. My nurse then asked me all the usual questions and said she would be back at 11p to take me to the OR. Well 10:45p comes and there is an emergency c-section and we are bumped back a time slot since I was not in distress or anything and the babies were just fine we just had to wait. About midnight they wheeled me into the OR and got my spinal put in and went over everything with themselves, it was kind of an out of body experience because you are numb from the chest down and have a curtain up in front of your face. Aaron was then let in the OR and watched the whole thing, he said it was the craziest thing he has ever seen. 

This is the picture I took right before we left the house for my appointment that day.   

At 12:34a on December 13, 2016 Andrew James was brought into this world. He was 6 lbs 3 oz. He was really shocked about being born. He had a little fluid in his lungs so he was immediately taken over and worked on a little to get it out. In this process they had to put a c-pap machine on him, when they did this they kind of filled his tummy with air. Over the next few days he had to first have a feeding tube in and IVs in to feed him because he wouldn't keep any milk down due to a tummy full of air. After he got over that problem he was border line jaundice. He was in the NICU for a week, which broke my heart. They had put me on something for my blood pressure that they would not allow me to go down to the NICU to see him with, so I did not hold him until he was almost 24 hours old. I did pump and take milk down to him and feed him and Aaron was with him a lot of the time in the NICU. His nurses and doctor were amazing! 

At 12:35a on December 13, 2016 Juliet Rose was brought into the world. She was screaming very well and kicking like crazy with eyes wide open. She was 5 lbs. She was perfectly healthy and was able to be in the recovery with me start breastfeeding right away and she was with me the whole time we were in the hospital. We were able to take her down to the NICU with us to see Andrew also. 

After they were taken out, they had to put me back together, this is the part where I think was the hardest because of all the pressure from them moving things around and putting things back made me throw up and pass out. I came to not too long after passing out and they finished up and I went into the recovery area where I had the shakes so bad Aaron had to feed me ice chips because I couldn't hold the cup still enough, it was the worse feeling I have ever had. It wore off in time to go to the postpartum room. At this point I have no idea what time it was or anything. I was worried about Andrew so much it was so hard to not have him with me. We were in our hospital room for 5 days, then me and Juliet were discharged. Our hospital has a thing called a boarder room that you can use for 48 hours after you are discharged if your NICU baby has not been discharged. We stayed our 48 hours to the minute and then spent about 5-6 hours in the NICU with Juliet in tow waiting for the doctor to discharge Andrew so we could all go home together. She finally came and she was hesitant on discharging him that day but she did and I am so thankful we all got to go home as a family. During the week in the hospital I pumped and we both ran milk down to Andrew and I fed Juliet and tried to go down and feed him. We came home on December 18th. We all got home for Christmas I was so happy! Penelope had come to the hospital the day they were born and saw Juliet but she was too small to go in the NICU so she had not seen Andrew until we brought him home, I think it finally hit her that there were two babies. This was an amazing experience and I know God put it in my life to make me stronger! I feel so much now for the people who have babies in the NICU because even just a week in there was really hard. I hope you all enjoyed hearing how our twins came into the world. Lots of love!

Being a SAHM of 3 - 2 and under

Hello my wonderful readers. So I didn't know how or what I would write on this post but I wanted to do a post about my postpartum journey since I had the twins. My birth story will post next week so keep a look out for that but just to get you up to speed I had a c-section. I thought I recovered quite well from the actual c-section itself with getting up and getting moving as soon as I was able to and in the hospital for a week getting up frequently from the bed to the chair helped a lot. I did bleed however from the time they were born to about the 2 month mark because I went through the postpartum bleeding then stopped breastfeeding so my cycle came back as well right after the postpartum started to let up. Emotionally I have had an ok time. I am really tired with two newborns and a toddler so that makes you irritable and also makes your partner irritable because they aren't sleeping either. I wasn't as hard on myself this time around with not getting to breastfeed that long because I knew for a fact it was better for the twins to have formula because they weren't getting enough with breast milk. They actually went right up to a healthy weight about a week after being on formula when before they weren't gaining much weight at all. I was being drained of energy and as soon as they were done eating I would pump and clean everything up and it would be time to feed again, I was getting zero rest in between which wore me down big time physically and emotionally. I am still a little emotional with some things when it hits me the wrong way or something because of the hormones which is normal but annoying. Weight wise (which doesn't matter as much) I got down to the weight I was before I had my toddler which was awesome and I felt good about my body but slowly am starting to pick at it again and I think that is just insecurity in general. My goal this postpartum compared to my last is to feel good with my body inside and out, emotionally, physically and spiritually and also be good with Aaron. When we had Penelope our marriage changed big time and we fought a lot at first because as new parents a baby is very strenuous on your marriage, this time around I feel like we have been more of a team which is wonderful. We are coming out of that newborn stage so things are getting a little easier thank the Lord! I think just getting on a routine is helping things out a lot. Hope this postpartum honestly is what you wanted to hear this week! Love to all! 

Month 3 with Twins

Hello my wonderful readers. I cannot believe I am writing already about month 3 with our twins. They are just growing so very fast and time is flying by. I have even started pinning ideas on Pinterest for their first birthday. We are now in that baby phase and less of a newborn phase, we can see through the haze now haha.

Clothing Size: Juliet is just now going out of her newborn size to 3 months and Andrew has been in 3 months clothes for almost a month.

Sleeping: They are sleeping very well at this point in bed around 7pm and up at 5am all night in their own beds in our room.

Feeding: They are switching from the newborn formula to one for babies with gas issues since they have been having that a lot. They are eating 4oz every 2.5-3 hours.

Routine: We are getting into routine of feed, active, sleep in their own beds. I have been trying to let them nap in their real cribs to start getting them used to them for the future. We do however put jammies on and start feeding bottles no matter what by 6:30pm and then put them down in their beds for the night around 7pm and that is really helping we haven't had much of a fight from them.

Firsts: They really only had two small firsts this month, first Valentine's day and first walk at the park in their double stroller together, they fell asleep.

Picture: Valentine's Day was fun! Anyone else in love with LuLaRoe Leggings??

 Couldn't help but share this cute picture of them with their lovie blankets.

Keep your eyes out for the 4 month update in April and also Penelope's 2.5 year update. Lots of Love.