Pictures, Preschool, and we are SO ready for Spring!

I have SO many blog posts in my head....seriously.  I just don't have enough hours in the day.  I don't think I ever posted the updates and changes that were going on in the Hollibaugh household last year (read, excuses for not being a good blogger), I'm such a slacker!

As if it isn't busy enough working full time with two 3 year olds and an almost 2 year old, I also felt it necessary last September to start working on my Master's (Healthcare Operations Management), and help start up yet ANOTHER 501c3 organization - Nebraska Multiples Organization (NeMO) - an amazing support, outreach, and social venue in Nebraska for parents of twins, triplets, and higher order multiples!  It's seriously insane.  I have simply had no time to blog, but I have needed to SO badly!

Let's start with PICTURES! We did a Valentine's mini-session with one of our favorite photographers, Samantha Lupo.  The girls look so sweet and Hudson looks so grown up (ahhh!)!!!

Preschool - 
We started the girls in preschool down the street on February 1st.  They seemed bored, and were acting out for my dad when he watched them.  They seemed to be okay for the nanny, but I figured it was time to get them a little more structure, so we gave it a try.  We just signed them up for a Tuesday/Thursday morning program. They LOVE it! Next year we just decided that they will be doing a 4 day a week, AM only, Montessori program. Holy expensive.  But you know, this is the foundation for the rest of their lives, so I think this is the right decision.  Or at least I HOPE it is the right decision.  I guess we will find out, won't we? =)

And I leave you with this....although it has been a very cold winter here in Nebraska, we haven't had much moisture.  The kids are so excited for Spring! At the first sign of rain the other day they couldn't wait to run outside in their Rainwear and their umbrellas and play in the rain!!!  So fun!!!

I hope you all are doing well, and I sincerely hope I will have the time to blog more often.  I did so well when the girls were little, and I hope to get back to it!  It's the little diary of the kiddos lives, and I need to make sure that at the very least the important moments are documented!

So...until next time (and seriously people, bug me if it's been more than a month and I haven't posted!!!!),

Megan

Fall is coming, oh my!

I know that Labor Day is the "unofficial" end of summer, but every year I try to squeeze every last ounce of summer out of the season. I wear white after Labor Day, and I refuse to take off my open toed shoes until the snow falls. Yup, I'm THAT kind of girl.

Si on the other hand hates summer and can't wait until fall. Fall to him signals the start of football, cooler weather, and no longer having to mow the grass (LOL).

This year we celebrated Labor Day by heading off to Memorial Park to try and get some pictures of the girls in their cute little sleeveless dresses next to some flowers before fall came and swept their beautiful blooms away.

Success!

Admittedly, Si was the one to snap some of the best pictures we got, but to cheer me up, he quickly reminded me that the reason the girls were smiling was because they could see me and were smiling at me, instead of me hiding behind the camera. =). So that made me feel better.

Here are some of the pictures we got. And I learned. . .photography is WAY harder than it looks! The first two rounds of pics that I took were in the direct sun and were shadowy and funky, and the third round was taken in the shade - perhaps not quite enough light? This is tricky I tell you! (Any photography buffs out there, please feel free to provide guidance...I'm learning as I go!)

The girlies in the sun, Bri on the left, Livvy on the right

The girls in the shade - Livvy on the left, Bri on the right

I love that last picture! They seemed so much happier in the shade!

So what did you do on your long weekend???

Until next time -
Megan

They did it!!!!

Both girls slept through the night last night!! This means that they went from about 9:30 PM to 7 AM without waking up - not to eat, not to be changed, not to play - AHHHH - it was heaven!!! I still had to get up at 4 AM to pump of course, but I did a super quick 10 minute pumping session and then went back to sleep. Sleep. I had almost forgotten what real REM sleep was! It was FABULOUS!

And today, well, today has been wonderful. It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and being a federal employee means I have today off. YAY! And when I have the day off I have so much fun with the girlies. The girlies have been so happy today that I have spent a decent part of the day trying to catch their smiles on the camera. It's a work in progress. BUT, I snapped this gem this morning. . .this is Miss Olivia. . .LOVE IT!

I attempted the same picture with Brianna, but she wasn't nearly as cooperative. Maybe a different day!

Grandpa (aka Papa Ken) stopped by for a bit to see the girlies and his twin babysitting skills amaze me! Here he is entertaining both girls =)

And a picture of the girlies together=)

So what are you enjoying about today? I find that I love the girlies more and more each day, and enjoy every single second I get to spend with them (even the fussy ones!). Have a great rest of your evening!

Megan

Late addition - per popular demand - here is a picture of Brianna hanging out in her blanket. Not quite as cute as Olivia's, but it was requested that I post it anyway =).

Have a great night =)

2 month update, Merry Christmas, and Pictures of course!

I just looked at my blogger dashboard and realized that it has been nearly three weeks since my last post. THREE WEEKS! In baby time that is an eternity!! The girls have changed SO much in three weeks - it's crazy!

BUT, let me first start by wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! We have been so very blessed this year, and we are so very very thankful. Last year we were in a totally different place; in the thick of fertility treatments, just coming off of our second loss, and all I wanted for Christmas was two pink lines on a pee stick and one beautiful live baby to show for it. If only I had known what 2010 would bring to us. Si jokingly said today that last year I wished "too hard" at Christmas for a baby (is that possible?!?!?!), so this year in February when we were blessed with those two pink lines on a pregnancy test, we were actually blessed with two perfect precious little babies instead of one! And we couldn't be happier. Who'd have thought that this is what our life would look like in just one short year?!


Moving right along. . . the girls are 10.5 weeks old. We were in for our 2 month pediatrician visit (and shots - BOO) on December 16th and the girls are doing AMAZINGLY well. You would never in a million years know that they were early or that they had difficulty gaining weight in the beginning.
Here were their stats:
Baby Olivia - 11 lbs 10 oz, 21 3/4 inches - 70th percentile for weight, 25th percentile for height
Baby Brianna - 12 lbs 1 oz, 22 1/4 inches - 80th percentile for weight, 50th percentile for height

Both girls are doing GREAT overall. Brianna has acid reflux so we are having to do things a bit differently with her - add rice cereal to her bottles, and never lay her down flat/always keep her elevated so she spits up less- but otherwise everything is peachy keen. The pediatrician said that Brianna has the neck control of a 4 month old, which is fabulous, and Olivia has some great social skills and has already started smiling. Olivia has been trying to communicate with anyone and everyone that will listen since she was about a month old, so we kind of figured her social skills would be a bit more advanced than normal=). In the last week Brianna has also started trying to communicate with anyone and everyone who will listen, makes decent eye contact, and smiles. Neither baby smiles every time on command, but they are getting there. I love the smiles!!!
We are very quickly moving out of size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes. I hope they slow down some time soon! We already have 4 mega gigantic boxes of Pampers that we are going to have to take back to Babies R Us to exchange because they grew so fast that they won't fit anymore! Crazy! Bring on the size 2 diapers and 3 month/3-6 month clothes =).

Oh, and talk about the best Christmas ever! We had the Kult Christmas yesterday afternoon and the babies didn't sleep at all the entire afternoon or evening. To say they were cranky come about 6 PM would be an understatement. Crying and fussing for 3.5 hours straight. Si was getting incredibly frustrated and I swear his hair was graying in front of my eyes. BUT, the payoff for dealing with the crankiness was an AMAZING 9 hours of sleep last night. Yup, 9 HOURS. Olivia slept from 9:30 PM - 6:45 AM non-stop. Brianna slept for the same period of time, but got up once at 1 AM to eat. I actually woke up twice to pump, and both times it wasn't because there was a baby awake. It was fabulous!!! Hopefully it wasn't a one time occurrence! We will see=). We have been working on sleep training with the girls, and crying it out (CIO), but so far hadn't seen a ton of results. . . until last night anyway. I'm going back to work part time next week so getting the girls to sleep at night was on my to-do list for the last couple of weeks. I am happy to see that it MAY be paying off!

As always I will leave you with some pictures of the girlies - enjoy!!

Me and the girlies =)


Brianna styling the bow from one of her presents =)


Daddy and Olivia hanging out in the chair =)


Grandpa Ken with baby Brianna


Grandma Pat with baby Brianna =)


Cousin Seth with Baby Olivia =)


Uncle Ben with baby Brianna


Aunt Yim with Baby Brianna

And last but not least, Uncle Jon with baby Brianna. She obviously loves him - look at her looking up at him with those eyes!


I hope you all had a wonderfully blessed Christmas!!!

8 Weeks Old Already!!

Yup, you read right! Our little princesses are 8 weeks old! They are growing SO fast now. Two weeks ago they had just outgrown their newborn diapers and outfits and now they are fitting just perfectly into their 0-3 month and 3 month clothes (how baby clothes are sized is incredibly confusing to me - why is there no standard sizing?!). Anyway, we are chugging right along, growing and changing like crazy every day=).

Sleep is still a bit of a struggle, but I suspect with twins that it will be for some time yet. Some nights we get great sleep (meaning 4-5 hours of uninterrupted sleep), and other nights we get a total of 4 hours of sleep or so, but it's all chopped up between feedings. Last night the girls did great and both went for about 5 hours solid. I woke up wondering if the girls were still okay or if they had stopped breathing overnight or something. It was immediate panic! They were both perfectly fine of course! Does every mom do that? Freak out when their babies actually sleep for a decent amount of time? I almost didn't know what to do with myself!

Our two month pediatrician visit is scheduled for next Thursday so the girls will get their shots and we will see how much they weigh and how tall they are. I'm not looking forward to the shots, but Si will be at the appointment with me so I won't have to suffer alone as I hear the girls scream bloody murder while being poked and prodded. I am looking forward to seeing how big the girls are now, and how they compare to other "average" babies. At our first pediatrician visit the girls were in the 2nd percentile and 4th percentile for weight. That was comparing them to full term newborns of course, but still, we are hoping that they have caught up some. I'm hoping they are in the 20-30th percentile for height and weight now. . .I can hope, right?

So what else is going on? Well, Si took a new job which he is very excited about, he starts on December 20th. It's a longer drive for him and he won't be able to come home over the lunch hour anymore, but it's a pretty decent pay increase so the positives outweigh the negatives at this point. Plus, we have hired a nanny to stay at home with the girls while we work. I talked to my boss on Monday and confirmed with him that 4-10 hour days would be fine for me to work instead of 5-8 hour days. So, I will be working Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. I will be home with the girls on Wednesday, and of course over the weekend. Si will still be working 5 days a week at his new job, but that's okay. He'll get an extra hour or so each day in the morning with the girlies (they are early risers!).

Oh, and the crappy news of the day - I'm STILL bleeding 8 weeks post C-section. My OB did an ultrasound, and it seems that I have "retained some tissue" from the babies and need to have a D&C. BOO. That's scheduled for Friday. Oh well, I will be happy to not bleed for a while before my actual cycles start back up! I am breastfeeding, so I hope I won't get my actual cycles back for a while, but I hear it depends on the person. I probably won't be one of the lucky ones that doesn't have a period for 6 months while breastfeeding. . .I'm just not that lucky!

We got some super cute Christmas outfits from Gramz H. yesterday, so of course we had to try them on today and I had to take pictures of the girlies styling and profiling in them. They are adorable! Nice outfit picking Gramz!! See pictues below. How stinkin cute are they?!





This picture cracks me up! Olivia is our chatty Kathy baby, and in this picture it's like Brianna is trying to cork her! This is my time to shine sister! LOL!!


We also got some surprise outfits in the mail today from one of my partners in crime in Boston, so you can bet the girls will be showing off those outfits too very soon! Thanks for the outfits Allison! The girls love them!!

And here are a couple other random pictures from the last week or two. The girls have been trying to hold their heads up without support for a couple of weeks now so we decided to stick them in their Bumbo chairs and see how they would do in them. Well, not horribly, but not great either! They have the "lean" that indicates to me that they need a bit more head control before they can hang out in the Bumbos for any significant amount of time.

Here we are just a leaning!


Here we are hanging out together in the pack and play =)


Here we are hanging out on our boppies. . .and Brianna is attempting to pet Jameson. He's doing very well with them if I may say so myself =)


Okay, so that's all for now. Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season!!

We are 6 weeks old!

You heard right - time is FLYING by now! The girls are 6 weeks old today and we feel so so blessed to be their parents. I can't believe how much they have changed from when they were newborns! They are still (barely) squeezing into their newborn clothes and diapers, but I know that any day now I will try to put an outfit on them and it won't fit (they are pretty snug now!). I will probably cry the day that happens - just a warning to anyone who may be around that day! LOL.

Tonight we have an appointment with a professional photographer to get our pictures taken. We are very excited! I think she is going to do some of those super adorable newborn pics with the girls - assuming of course that they cooperate. I will bring a couple of outfits with just in case they don't.

Tomorrow we are heading out to Si's aunt's house for Thanksgiving lunch and so the girls can meet some of their extended family that they haven't met yet. I hear that the aunts and grandparents are especially excited to meet the girls. It should be a fun time!

Oh, we met a major achievement yesterday! The girls figured out that each other exist! Previously we would put them next to each other and they wouldn't acknowledge each other at all and would usually just start wailing. Well, yesterday that all changed! I put them next to each other on the twin boppy to feed them. Their eyes met, their hands met, and they started chatting away! It was precious! It was like something just clicked in their little brains, and now their lives have changed forever =).

I got some pictures of the whole ordeal (see below). They even held hands at one point, but my hands were full (I was feeding them) so I didn't get it on camera. It is burned in my memory though - it melted my heart!! The girls proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon laying in the pack n play together talking and touching each other's arms and faces. It was an AMAZING experience!

Oh, and they are looking at the camera now on command! YAY!


Here they are plotting. . .what they are plotting we don't yet know. . .=)


And still talking and communicating even with paci's in!


We continue to be on a relatively consistent eating schedule - every 3-4 hours during the day and every 4-5 hours at night. The times vary by the day of course, but we can generally count on feeding them within a pretty specific window based on the last time we fed them. Get this though - according to my information on average a 6 week old will be eating 4-5 oz, about 6 times a day. Well, Brianna eats that much, but Olivia eats way more! She consistently eats at least 5 oz and has eaten 6 oz + multiple times now. The other day she insisted on eating 5 oz every 1-2 hours! Where does it all go?! These girls are literally growing like weeds! I just hope my milk production can keep up! I have no idea what the girls are actually able to get from me (I'm sure it's more than the pump can), but I am able to pump about 10 oz every 4-5 hours now, or about 7-8 oz every 3 hours. If I wait longer during the night like 5-6 hours (if the girls don't wake up) I can pump 12 oz! That seems like such a massive amount of milk to me! I'm so amazed that the human body can do this!

Okay, I think that's all I have for now! Have a very blessed Thanksgiving!! We are proof that dreams really can come true =). I will leave you with this one last picture - this is Brianna - stying and profiling in her "turkey" hat. One of the church ladies at Aunt Denise's church made these for the girls! LOVE them!!



Have a great holiday!!

One month old!

People tell you to cherish every minute with your babies because they change SO fast. I suspect this is one of those things that you don't pay all that much attention to because between 11 PM/1 AM/3 AM/5 AM feedings, massive sleep deprivation, and 150 poopy diapers a week, there doesn't seem to be time to stop and enjoy your growing babies. We are no exception. The babies are a month old today. A MONTH! Where has the time gone?

Honestly, around that two week point I was praying that time would go faster. We were having a hard time adjusting to caring for two "preemie" newborns, Si had gone back to work, my milk had fully come in so I literally was the milk cow between breastfeeding every 2 hours and pumping, and I was getting maybe 2 hours total of sleep a night. The babies weren't putting on as much weight as the pediatrician and home nurse wanted, and I felt like I wasn't doing a good enough job caring for my babies.

What a difference two weeks can make! The babies are more on a schedule now - feeding every 3-4 hours during the day, and making it nearly every 4 hours between feedings at night. I am exclusively breastfeeding, except one Neosure bottle a night for Brianna, and two for Olivia (so dad can help with the girls in the middle of the night too). They are getting a bath every night - usually between 11 PM and Midnight - then they are both getting a bottle and they will usually sleep until 3:30 or 4 AM! We both get up and feed them when they wake up, then they are usually good to go until 7-8AM when Si leaves for work. Definitely more manageable. AND, we are probably getting 4-5 hours of sleep a night. DEFINITELY an improvement from the maybe 2 hours I was getting before! I can't wait until we sleep through the night, but I can be a bit more patient now and enjoy watching them grow up now that I'm not quite as sleep deprived.

We had our last home health visit with the visiting nurse, and the girls are doing GREAT! For the last two weeks both of the girls have gained a beautiful amount of weight - between 8 oz-10 oz each, each week! Brianna is up to 7 lbs 7.5 oz, and Olivia is up to 7 lbs 6.5 oz! We are almost the size of an "average" newborn now - woo hoo!! We are still wearing newborn clothes and diapers, but I suspect our time is now pretty limited in them. . .maybe a week. The girls are starting to grow up so fast!!!




Oh, and do they have their own little personalities or what?!
Olivia is quite the social butterfly. She LOVES to chat it up with whoever will listen! She "talks", or coos, or mumbles while she is awake, while she is sleeping, while she is playing, and while she is feeding. She is going non-stop! And the faces she makes! Cracks me up!!! I suspect she will be our little drama/speech queen. She always wants to be first, and definitely enjoys being the center of attention. In the last two days she has started holding her head up more, and is pushing up with her feet trying to stand on us. No little one, you don't get to be mobile yet!! This little daddy's girl is full on personality and life =).





Brianna is our more reserved little lady. She is patient, and more calm than her sister. Unless of course she is getting her diaper changed or getting a bath. . .then it is game on and she can scream like no one's business! She has already managed to roll over, although we didn't actually witness it. I put her in her crib on her back last week and I came back in an hour later to her on her tummy! She has been able to roll from her back to her side since she was a week old, but all the way over? That's just nuts! I suspect Brianna will be our more athletic little one. . .she always has her arms flailing as though she is swimming, and she has kicking down pat too! She is most excellent at kicking off her blankets, then crying because she is cold. We have learned that we have to swaddle her pretty darn tight. This little momma's girl is a cuddler who LOVES to breastfeed =).





As we are more on a schedule now I hope to be able to go back to following all of my fellow bloggers, answering emails within the same week they are received (not kidding - sad!), and providing updates and pics on this blog. We shall see! I am totally on my own during the day with the girlies now, so I'm hoping to be able to maintain my sanity while attempting to return to semi normal life. . .wish me luck!

Pics of the twins!

Here's mommy and daddy with Olivia and Brianna =)

Daddy snuggling with baby Brianna

Baby Olivia out cold on daddy's lap! She's a big time daddy's girl already!

Baby Brianna all snuggled up in her favorite blanket =). So precious!

Okay, and I just laugh at this picture! The NICU has a whole bag of "candy corn" hats for the current NICU residents. We put this one on Brianna and her face just cracks me up - like seriously mom?! Do I really have to wear this silly thing? LOL!

I would post more pics, but blogger is being weird and won't let me upload. Strange. . .well, I will post more as I can! Hope you are having a great day!!

22 week OB appointment update

This is the position the babies are in! A yin-yang! Baby Olivia is head down with her feet up in my ribs. Baby Brianna is feet down (on my bladder) with her head up in my ribs. Crazy girls!

So they look great. They are both still measuring ahead, one 1 day ahead and the other 2 days ahead. They are both in the 50th percentile for size, weight, and femur length (which I have been told is excellent for twinnos!). Baby Olivia is weighing in at 1 lb 4 oz and Baby Brianna is weighing in at 1 lb 3 oz. They are getting bigger as we speak! Heartbeats were good, fluid levels were good, and my cervix is peachy. All good news!

I go back in 3 weeks (as long as nothing comes up before then). After that visit (at 25 weeks) I will start my every two week visits. I will do my sugar test at week 27, and then they will start doing non-stress tests on the babies between 28 and 30 weeks. I feel like we are moving right along now! YAY!

Oh, and of course we have some ultrasound pics for you to look at! The girls are getting a little too big to fit their entire body on the screen (or picture) so you get more of pictures of body parts instead of pictures of babies. Too funny. You can see if you can make out what they told us these ultrasound pictures were. HA!

This is a shot of Olivia's face


This is a profile shot of Olivia


This is a profile pic of Brianna (with no head)


This is a pic of Brianna's face (I think it's creepy!)


And here is a pic of a foot! I LOVE feet pics! You can see the little toes!!!


Have a great rest of your week everyone! I can't believe it's already Thursday. . .holiday weeks rock!! =)