Lately...

What we've been up to lately...

Getting our house ready to sell.

In the last month or so we have started thinking about moving to a home that will sustain our family of 6 long term.  We love our house now.  It is 1100 square feet and it doesn't even feel too small for us right now.  But we know that while it feels comfortably full, there is no room for growth.  NOT that we are planning to grow any time soon or anything... but we aren't ready to say we are done with having kids.  We have no idea how they may come in the future (naturally, through foster care, through adoption) but the next house we buy will need room for the possibility. 

After thinking about this (and also that we need to live in a little different neighborhood with small children), we have found wonderful houses twice.  Both times they have sold before we could make an offer.  Mostly since no offer will be taken seriously until our house is on the market.  Now that our dream houses (for the right price) are no longer out there we are still feeling motivated to move.  Even if we rent for awhile, that is okay, since owning a home is currently holding us back from being able to buy a new one (especially since we aren't interested in renting ours out and becoming landlords).

So we have been moving forward getting ready to sell.  We have lined up someone to do repairs around the house.  We are getting a new front door.  The bathroom ceiling has been repainted.  Several other rooms will be painted in the process.  We are rearranging furniture to make more sense to potential buyers... And as someone who loves to decorate and "stage", I am also having fun making the house look nice! :)

We are also still dealing a lot with Peanut's health issues.  Pray for him.  There are too many things going on with him to even list.  There is also a court date coming up at the end of May that will give us an idea of what his life holds for the next season.  Just pray for Peanut if you think of him.  Pray God's will be done.  Pray protection for his little life and for complete healing for his illnesses/complications.  Lately, it has started to make me very sad to see how delayed he really is... I am starting to feel helpless to help him improve- even doing all of the therapies, etc. it is hard to wait for improvement that comes so slowly.

Peanut started to say "Mama" this week.  My heart melts every. time.

Melody is a little girl now (she would say a big girl :)).  She is potty training.  It is going well so far.

The twins are doing great.  Craig is humongous.   I call him a "hoss".  Georgia is precious and peaceful.  Melody has started to call her "Georgie".  Sleep wise the twins are finally on a pretty good routine.  They eat around 6am, 9 or 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 6:30pm and 9 or 9:30pm- with the occasional extra feeding thrown into the late afternoon.  Then Craig has been sleeping until 5am or 6am (depending on if the last feeding is closer to 9pm or 10pm) and Georgia is still waking up once at night- usually around 3am.  I don't nurse the twins together- they are REALLY big.  It is kind of hard to juggle them both at the same time.  Not to mention it means I am stationary if I feed both together.  I need the ability to chase my other little ones around or care for them (make them meals, bottles, etc) so while I don't "Tandem Nurse" I do "Tandem Care" for my family.  I am usually nursing a baby while giving Peanut his morning bottle, or nursing a baby while I help Melody go to the potty.  I have started to use a ring sling which has seriously helped the nursing while doing something else thing. 

All in all we are insanely busy.  We are also insanely crazy thinking about selling a house/moving while we adjust to twins and care for Peanut in the midst of all of these health issues.  But it is fun.  And one day when we live in a house that we aren't going to move from for a long time and Peanut is a little bit healthier and the twins are a little older, life will feel positively easy.  Easy Peasy as I like to tell Melody.  But I'm not longing for that kind of easy at the moment.  I am loving these crazy days.  As I said on Facebook recently, this is a good kind of chaos. 

Our children are blessings.  Our life is crazy, but happy.  And again, we are so thankful to everyone who has helped us in this season.  We really are doing well because of you. 

I am off to get a few hours of sleep now.  Well... after I attempt to clean up our living room a little bit.  We moved furniture around tonight, so it needs a little help... then I will get a few winks- I promise! :)

Love,
Rachel

Twins & Peanut Update

30 minutes to myself = time to write a quick disjointed post about how things are going... please  forgive the incomplete sentences and punctuation errors that are bound to occur!

Last Wednesday the twins were four weeks old.  The last four weeks are a blur.  It is amazing how many things have changed in four weeks though...

Milk supply has gone from shaky to pretty solid...

I have gone from not sure how to handle twin feedings to starting to get a system...

I have realized that ANY system of feeding twins (breast, bottle, pumping, combination, tandem, staggered, etc) is HARD.

I like feeding the twins one at a time, but I inevitably fall asleep while feeding the second twin.

I have never appreciated the ability to nurse lying down like I have with twins.  My body gets so tired... even if I am not sleeping, lying down is SO much more restful.  Sitting up to do the burping = no fun. 

There are so many baby products that I have changed my mind about since having Melody & Peanut... Example: I was gung-ho for glass bottles with Melody... no plastic near my babies! Now I am gung- ho about Breast Flow Bottles since they mimic the breast and help keep babies' suck strong and in a correct placement while nursing.  Potato- Potahto I guess...

It is weird to me that some things work better for different babies...  Butt Paste & Pampers Swaddlers & Sensitive wipes from Wal Mart are the perfect diaper combination for Peanut (no leaks, no blow outs & diaper rash goes away in one application)...  But Balm-X & Sensitive Wipes from Target are the best for avoiding diaper rash for the twins... it is strange to me that you really can't use just any product for any baby on sensitive baby skin. 

I am waiting a little longer to begin cloth diapering with the twins.. Sometimes you can change 5 diapers in a 15 minute period with twins... I am going to wait a few more weeks before we start that adventure.  We will... just not quite yet.

I am finally to the point that I am so tired that I am okay if the twins cry a bit before they sleep.  The irony in this is that when I finally decided to let them cry until they slept (being sure of course that every other need was met) they only cried for about 2 minutes before they calmed themselves and drifted off... Oh irony... I was scared about two babies crying loudly at the same time for hours (or you know, 20 minutes or something) and it has RARELY every happened that way.  Again, ironically, the more I try to intervene to help them soothe to sleep, the longer they cry (even with me holding them)... lay them down and they are out in no time flat- even though they are LOUD for a few minutes.

Last crazy thing for today before I go have 10 minutes to myself that's NOT on the computer... Peanut had an ear nose and throat doctor appointment today where we discovered that he has partial hearing loss (meaning only hears REALLY loud noises)... He may have not heard our voices EVER in his life.  The doctor believes it is temporary caused by fluid build up behind his ear drum that will hopefully drain eventually (or we may have to help it along somehow)... I can't even write my response to how this makes me feel.  It would take hours... I just keep looking at Peanut and wanting to cry because I keep wanting to talk to him and I keep re-realizing that he can't hear me.  We have to wait a month to go back to see how his ears are doing.  It will feel like a long month...  Pray for Peanut to regain his ability to hear and for everything to resolve itself simply!

Thanks for listening to my random tangent...

Love,
Rachel

Georgia and Craig

Georgia and Craig- 3 days old

We are a six person family now.

Yesterday was our first day at home without extra help.  No moms, no nannies... just us.

This morning I am sick with some kind of cold, but yesterday was... close to perfect.

Calm.

Peaceful.

Enjoyable.

One thing at a time.

No dishes were done, no laundry was folded.  Just playing with our kids.  Taking naps.  Nursing babies.  Husband and wife talks.  Dreaming dreams for our family's future.  Making plans.

I will be thankful when my sister arrives in town tonight or tomorrow morning and when our housekeeper comes to do the deep cleaning tomorrow, but yesterday told me that we can do it!  We will eventually (keyword- eventually!) go back to being a self-sufficient family.

In the meantime thank you to everyone who has given gifts, brought food, called to check in, watched Melody and prayed for us.  We wouldn't be feeling nearly as peaceful without you.  You have been God's provision for us.

Love,
Rachel

Inspire Me! Monday... Birth Stories

This momma is super tired!  So I am avoiding writing much and simply sharing some inspiring and amazing (some difficult and some feel good) stories about birth.  Enjoy!

Twin Birth with a Suprise

Embracing the Unexpected

Fighting for Natural Birth

Another natural twin birth

A C-section Birth

And as a bonus... I'm sure I will learn many things from having twins... this is what one mama has learned in a year!

10 things I've learned...

Happy Monday to you!

Love,
Rachel

Preparing for twins continued...

A little while back I wrote this post about how my head was spinning a little trying to figure out how life is going to work when we have newborn twins, a special needs infant and a toddler.

I thought I would share how we're doing tackling the list I made of things left to do to prepare for Baby Boy and Baby Girl's arrival.  Here goes...

1. Plan an overnight for Christian and me away from the kids and chaos of life.
This idea has officially been nixed... by me... Somewhere around two days after I wrote this down, I began to feel so big that I wouldn't have been able to enjoy a week-end away if I wanted to. However, I did spend two days in bed last week-end from being sick while Christian took care of the kids.  In an odd way, laying in bed felt really good to my super-pregnant body.  We will have to do a special trip for the two of us another time when I can enjoy it more.  We will be having the baby go overnight away soon though, so Christian and I get a little extra rest before the twins come.

  2. Clean out the clutter from our house and make room for two more babies.
This is a work in progress, but I do feel like progress is being made.  So far Christian and his brother moved all of the big pieces of furniture we don't have room for anymore out of the house, general housework is being kept up with and just this morning, I sat down in our future playroom and spent an hour organzing things to go to the attic, to toss or to give away.  It is taking time, but we will get there.  My parents are also coming this week-end, so I look forward to having their extra hands around to make even greater progress toward getting the playroom and baby room ready.

  3. Tie up as many loose ends as possible before babies get here.
This one is hard.  I have loose ends hanging all around (it feels like).  Things to do for me, for the dance studio, for my business, for the kids doctor's appointments, for the twins... I am definitely trying to stay on top of things, but being tired ALL the time makes it difficult.  I will keep plugging along here.

  4. Pack a hospital bag and solidify plans for our kids in case of early delivery.
I am pretty sure we have a plan and a back-up plan for where our kids will be during delivery.  But I have still not packed anyone's bags... I feel like it's one of those things that still hangs in the loose ends category.   Gotta get on this one... It's kind of important!!

  5. Pre-register for birth at the hospital and sign up for birthing classes, making sure I know the hospitals policies about twin birth since I want to do it naturally.
I finally made the call yesterday to set up my pre-registration appointment at the hospital.  I have decided against birthing classes since a) we have a lot on our plate already and b) I still remember vividly a lot that we learned there and we have pretty much run out of time to sign up.  

And that's how we're doing getting ready for the twins to grace us with their grand entry into the world... We still have lots of things to order for the nursery (and 2nd crib, a dresser, etc) but like I said, we are slowly getting there.  I know that we are running out of time, but I also can still only move so fast!  I told my brother-in-law the other day that I feel like a manitee out of water... I wish I was kidding... 

But we are getting lots of help from friends and from a new part-time nanny/housekeeper that I have hired and so I have lots of faith that we will get everything ready in time.  

So here is the updated list of what we still have left to do...
1.  Clean out the clutter from our house and order what we still need for two more babies.
2. Tie up as many loose ends as possible before the twins get here.
3. Pack a hospital bag for myself and one for each of the kids.
4. Type a general birth plan for my pre-registration meeting at the hospital.

One step at a time!

Love,
Rachel

Big, Big Babies!

Yesterday, I went in for an ultrasound to see how the twins are doing... They are some big, big babies!

We are 32 weeks preggers now...

Baby Girl was estimated at 4 lbs 7oz.
Baby Boy was estimated at 5 lbs!

That is a WHOLE LOTTA baby goin' on!

Who wants to take guesses at how big these babies are going to be when they are born? (Remember, I will be induced before 39 weeks.)  Leave your guess in the comments! :)

31 weeks and couting...

7 weeks left to go...

This time is moving so slowly... Mostly because I am moving so slowly.

But I am trying to take the advice I have read about from others who have endured multiple pregnancy... Take things one day at a time.  Make it your goal to keep the babies cooking for one more week.  See your life in (very) small chunks of time.  This makes life feel more attainable.

So every day, I am trying to make a list of four things I need to do.  I can't do ten.   I can't do twenty.  But (usually) I can do four.

#1 is always "Take care of kids"
#2 is always "Go to appointment" if I have one
then I have a teeny bit of room left to tackle something productive... Small and productive. 

This way I don't feel stuck... since it is easy to feel stuck when your body is getting more uncomfortable all the time.  (I really can feel four little feet underneath my ribs... I swear Georgia has long toenails that keep scratching the inside of me when I breathe deeply!)

Anyway, so one little step at a time.  One moment and one task at a time.  Then a break.  Then eat.  Then do another task.  Then rest rest rest. 

Just focusing on today...

Love,
Rachel