Twins Update

Yes, that's right...we are going to be welcoming two baby BOYS this summer!!  I think I am still in shock that we are going to have two rambunctious little boys the exact same age.  I can say rambunctious because they are already quite active, the feeling of two babies moving around in your stomach is something I can't really describe but just know there is a lot of activity going on in there.

Madelyn is getting used to the idea of two babies joining our household, she has been very helpful in getting the nursery ready.  Anytime the door is opened and the light on in the boys room she is immediately there to help, I have even found her playing in there with her baby a few times.  The other night we went through all the books on her bookshelf and picked out which books she is to big for now, she was happy to pass them along to her brothers.  She is going to be a big help!!!!

We have decided on the names for the boys, we have had one name picked out from when I was pregnant with Madelyn.  We wanted to incorporate family as best we could so the names will be...Carter David and Colten Stephen.  Many of you know that Carter is Adam's middle name and we have been hoping to use that for a boy for quite some time, the middle name David is after my (Sara's) father.  The name Colten we liked and if you know me then you know I am OCD and had to have something that sounded good together and had the same amount of letters.  Once we decided on Colten we knew the middle name would be Stephen after Adam's dad.  So there you have it, Carter and Colten!!!!

I had a doctor appointment yesterday with an ultrasound, we decided it would be fun to take Madelyn with us so she could see the babies and get used to the idea of mom having doctors around in preparation for the hospital.  I have explained how the babies will be born, she is in the stage of asking LOTS of questions.  I explained the c-section and how she was born, she has asked about my scar before so I figured I would try to explain.  She must have understood because on the way to the appointment yesterday she asked if the doctor was going to "cut my stomach open and let the babies fall out".   She watched the screen during the ultrasound but was more concerned about what was happening to me and all the other equipment in the room. 

Both babies are doing well, Baby A has a heart rate of 156 and weighs 1 lb. 7 oz., Baby B has a heart rate of 152 and weighs 1 lb. 5 oz.  They both had full stomachs and bladders so we know they are swallowing and producing waste appropriately, we were happy to see this.  Baby A seems to be hogging most the room and Baby B is having to fight for room, I can feel him up under my ribs a lot and that's because A is pushing him out of the way.  For some reason I have a feeling it will be this way for years to come, both of them fighting for "space".  I have appointments every two weeks right now and will have my next ultrasound in 4 weeks.  The doctors will then begin keeping a more watchful eye on their growth and development.

Adam and I are busy getting the house in order and doing our best to get things organized in the next 4 weeks because after 28 weeks who knows when they might decide to make an appearance.

Now, I am off to take a nap!!!

Double The Fun

Most of our friends and family know the adventure we are about to embark on, Adam and I found out the beginning of November that we were expecting our second baby. We were both thrilled and excited that once again it happened very easily for us, we have been extremely blessed.

I immediately called and set up our first OB appointment where they said they would do an ultrasound to verify everything was okay. The appointment was on November 26th and of course we were very excited but I was nervous as well. That first ultrasound is always nerve racking, I seem to always prepare myself for the worst just in case the news isn't good. We showed up for our appointment at 8:30am, we weren't going to be seeing the doctor but just having an ultrasound which is standard at my OB office at 8 weeks. We sat patiently in the waiting room for my name to be called, a few short minutes later it was time!

We headed back into the ultrasound room with Cindy; she had done our ultrasounds when I was pregnant with Madelyn. Cindy gave me instructions and left the room for a few minutes, at this point we were holding hands and I had grown pretty quiet with anticipation. When Cindy entered the room she immediately got started pulling my file up on the computer, I could see my name on the large flat screen TV in front of us. As she began the ultrasound we could immediately see the baby and I could see the heart flutter. She focused in on the heart and we got to hear the heart beat at 8 weeks, we were thrilled. She then began checking other things like the yolk sac and my uterus, that's when I saw it!! I immediately noticed what looked like two yolk sacs with two babies. I said "IS THAT TWO"? Cindy looked at us with a small smile on her face and said" well that's what I am checking but yes, it looks like twins". My immediate reaction was uncontrollable laughter that quickly turned to tears of panic. What??? We cannot be having two more babies; to my surprise Adam was very calm and reassuring. I am fairly certain he was flipping out on the inside but did an excellent job of staying calm and collected on the outside. Adam held my hand and just kept saying it's going to be okay, we will be fine.

We went on to check Baby B with the ultrasound and he or she also had a strong heartbeat but was measuring a few days smaller then Baby A. Cindy the ultrasound tech and nurse Julie said not to worry as this is very normal and especially so early on. They did a blood draw and gave me some new instructions that were a bit different then if I had just been having one baby, for example I was now to take a prescription strength prenatal vitamin plus folic acid 3 times a day. I think the biggest shock was they told me to eat around 3500 calories a day, I just kept thinking how’s that possible. I am sure they told me other things as well but with just learning the news of twins everything seemed to blur.

Before leaving the office they had us schedule another ultrasound a week later so they could measure Baby B again to be sure he or she was growing and gaining weight. Adam and I walked out of that office in complete shock but also very excited. I remember the elevator ride down stairs being very quiet! We said our goodbyes and headed to work, how in the world I worked that day I am really not sure. I called Adam an hour or so later just to be sure he was okay, I was still in shock.

Later that night we came up with a plan to tell our parents, we hadn't even shared that we were expecting yet so this was going to be a double surprise for them. We decided that coming Saturday we would invite his parents to our home to watch the IU basketball game, my parents thought they were coming to watch Madelyn while we went Christmas shopping. I had already purchased a cute shirt for Maddy to wear that said "Merry Christmas to me, because I'm a big sister to be". Maddy was wearing the shirt when they all arrived and it didn't take long for them to figure out that we were going to be having a baby. After the excitement of the baby died down a bit that's when I asked if they would like to see the ultrasound pictures because we had one more surprise. TWINS!!!!!! Lots of hugs, tears, laughter and shock set in. I am sure my dad actually had to pick his chin up off the floor, he was shocked. Then the cell phones came out and the news was being shared with family. It really was a fun and special night!!

Since that first ultrasound I have had three more for a total of four so far, everything looks great and the babies are both growing fast and strong. Baby B has caught up with Baby A and right now they are positioned head to head. I'm sure it won't be the last time!

The shock has begun to clear and now it's more of preparation and organization. We are going to have to make some changes in our lifestyle and get ready for these babies but we couldn't be happier!

 

Official Pin Head

It's official, I'm a self professed Pinterest addict.  There are not enough days in the week for me to possibly complete all of the ideas I have found on Pinterest.  If you haven't checked out Pinterest yet I highly suggest you do!!

I recently completed two of the projects I had found on Pinterest, both were pretty easy.  One is a simple picture frame turned dry erase board!  I wanted it in our kitchen where I constantly need to write things down we need at the grocery.  I felt it would be great to use for reminders but also a way for Adam and I to write notes to each other.  As an added bonus I hadn't thought of, it also worked well to keep Madelyn busy drawing pictures the other night while I made dinner.

I simply found a pretty black frame I liked and purchased some burlap, then all you do is cut the burlap to fit the frame and put it in like a picture and put the frame back together.  Buy a few dry erase markers and you have a cute board.  Love it!!

The second project I wanted to do was to organize all of my necklaces, I have a great jewelry drawer in our dresser but they kept getting all tangled up.  I saw an idea on Pinterest that showed a bathroom towel rack with shower hooks to hang your necklaces from, I liked the idea but didn't want to put extra holes in the wall or have them hanging out in the open.  Adam gave me the idea to use a shower curtain rod instead of the towel bar.  I decided to put it in my closet behind my clothes, each morning I can pick out my outfit and have all my necklaces right there.  I installed one of the tension shower rods with the shower rings and then hung all of my necklaces.  No more untangling them each morning!!

Thank you to Pinterest for the ideas!!!!

Madelyn's 1st Colts Game!

We love the Colts!!  Madelyn knows the two teams we cheer for in our house are the Colts and the Hoosiers...however she hasn't figured out that they aren't the same team.  We are still working on that!!  Every year we have shared Colts season tickets with Adam's family, we usually sell the pre-season tickets.  This year we weren't able to sell the first home pre-season game and Adam was busy that day so I decided to take Madelyn.

I dressed her up in her Colts cheerleading uniform and bow and off we went!  She LOVED it and everytime we see a football game on TV now she thinks it was the game we went to.   I even had the Colts game on in the car on Sunday and after a few minutes she said "mama, is this a football game were listening to?".    She is offically on the right track to being a Colts fan for life!! And the Hoosiers! 

P.S.  If you haven't heard Madelyn say "Hoooooosiers" then you are missing out.  So cute!

Pantry Re-Do

Some of you may know that my sister and I had started a blog together a while back where we were sharing recipes, DIY projects and miscellaneous other things.  Well, as you may have figured out that blog has since gone by the wayside, I mean I barely have the time to keep this blog up, let alone a whole separate blog.  So, I decided I would use our family blog to share all things that are our family...not just Madelyn updates.  This is one of those updates!!

We don't have a very big pantry in our kitchen, yet it had become overwhelming with all the disorganization.  I couldn't tell what we had and I knew some things that were shoved to the back probably needed to be thrown out.  So I decided it needed to be cleaned out, I literally took each and every last thing out of that closet pantry.  I wiped the shelves down and then began my throwing away process, surprisingly I only had a few items that had expired, mainly can goods.  I put the items we use the least on the top shelf, let's face it, no one in our family is winning any height awards.  I decided to take all of the granola bars, bags of popcorn and other snack things out of the boxes and stack them in a basket.  I also made Madelyn her own little bowl of her treats like fruit snacks, applesauce pouches and of course Oreos.

So I organized everything and now it appears we have NO food!!  I mean it's amazing how much room the boxes things come in take up, it's a good thing we recycle because I had a ton of cardboard to get rid of.  I also learned that I don't need any white balsamic vinegar, I had three bottles.

Here are the before/ after pictures!!  I realize this is only exciting to a few people, for me it's the little things in life I guess...like an organized pantry!

 

BEFORE

AFTER



1st Dentist Trip and the State Fair

Madelyn had her first dentist visit with her Aunt Margaux last weekend, we had attempted it one other time but she was scared so we let her watch Adam and I get our teeth cleaned.  The second trip was a success, she climbed right up in the chair and was a super star!!  Margaux was so good with her and explained what everything was and what she was going to do, she even gave her a cool pair of sunglasses to wear so the light wouldn't be too bright. 

I am happy to report she had a great report...mom on the other hand needs to have her wisdom teeth taken out. :(

What better place to go dirty your clean teeth then the Indiana State Fair?  We ventured to the fairgrounds later the same afternoon, we took in the sights, got to see lots of animals and of course had "junk" food.  Madelyn is a big kettle corn fan so we got a big bag of that, I had a yummy ear of corn, Adam got his Indiana Ribeye sandwich and we finished with shakes from the Dairy Barn.  Next year we probably won't schedule our teeth cleaning on the same day we plan to visit the fair.

Madelyn loved the horses this year, I think we saw and attempted to pet every single horse at the fair.  This of course made me proud, I have always loved them as well.  I keep trying to convince Adam we need horses!!  I will let you know if that ever works out for me, for now we will have to settle with seeing them at the fair every year.

Our Cheerleader!

We have quite the active three year old these days, it's been very hard keeping her indoors on these 100+ degree days. Adam and I have spent many nights being entertained by Madelyn as she sings, does gymnastics and likes to dress up and perform for us.  She even moved the coffee table out of the middle of the living room by herself the other night so she could work on her forward rolls. 

After researching the area dance classes, gymnastics gyms and cheer gyms we decided to enroll her in a weekly tumbling and cheer class at Indiana Elite All-Stars.  So far she has attended 2 classes and she seems to be more interested in the tumbling part then the cheer part.  Our first night at the gym she immediately wanted to know where the "bars" were?  We watched a lot of the Olympic gymnastics!  As of now we are going to continue with this class and at the end we will see if we need to move on to more of a gymnastics class vs. the cheer.  There is no denying the girl is ridiculously strong!!

Here are a few pictures from her first class, sorry they are a little dark.