I'm going to have to rename my blog!

SURPRISE!

(We were surprised too!)

We are currently about 10 weeks pregnant (with ONE little peanut). Sorry I didn't fill you all in earlier, but honestly I figured we would miscarry (jaded I know, but such is the life of an infertile I think). The baby was measuring behind for several weeks, I was bleeding, etc...the bleeding has since stopped and the baby has caught up (a whole week!), so we are finally (kind of) breathing a sigh of relief.

Anyway, all seems to be going well at this point, so I figured it was relatively safe to clue you all in!

So...any ideas on new blog names? =).

Have a great night ladies!
Megan

The bubbles, the bubbles!

I'm ecstatic...the girls finally like bubbles! They have spent the last 6 months of their little lives being terrified of them, but tonight my friends, we crossed a major bridge in our relationship with these strange floating iridescent phenomena.

Ryan and Kim got us the coolest purple octopus singing bubble blowing bath toy in the world for our first birthday. Like super cool. So cool that mommy kind of wants to play with it too...I love bubbles!

For the last month I have been trying to reintroduce the girls to bubbles at night in the tub. Every time they scream bloody murder and try to vacate the bathtub just as quickly as they possibly can.

Until tonight...

We got our bubble blowing bath on tonight, and we LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT! Can you see the joy on Bri's face, and the amazement on Livvy's face?! Awesome!

So, were your kiddos ever afraid of bubbles? Is it some normal phase that little ones go through? Or are my girlies just bubble scaredy cats? LOL =)

Until next time,
Megan

In memory of Meghan...

I don't know how many of my followers are also followers of Meghan's blog "Wishing & Hoping & Thinking & Praying & Planning & Dreaming", but I suspect at least a couple of you are. Meghan had her triplets on 10-15-2010, two days after I had the girls. I loved reading her blog and exchanging comments and ideas since our kiddos were all so adorable (hehe) and so close together in age. I hadn't heard from Meghan in a while, and when checking my stats I noted that I was still getting hits on my blog from her blogroll, so I thought I'd bebop over and check on her.

What I found was beyond disheartening.

Meghan passed away on October 26, 2011 after a 5 year bout with cancer. I'd known that she had had several surgeries since having the babies, but I thought she was doing better, I thought she had been on the mend for a while now. I figured she was busy with the kiddos and that was the reason for the lack of posting. There was nothing posted on her blog after her last post when the triplets were 9 months old, so I was reading through the comments on her last post, fully intending to leave her a comment about hoping all was well and couldn't wait to see the one year pics and update when something about the comments just didn't seem right. I found a link to her Caring Bridge site and went backwards and read through what had happened.

On September 29th after a trip to the ER the doctors found that Meghan had three tumors in her brain. They set her up for surgery the next day. She did okay with the surgery, was in ICU for a couple of days, then on a normal hospital floor for a little while, then in rehab for a bit. She was still in pain and still had a ways to go in terms of her recovery after her brain surgery, but she was home in time for the triplets first birthday party. I'm sure she was thrilled to be home for such a monumental occasion!

Sadly, shortly there after, on October 26, 2011 Meghan had an unexpected brain hemmorrage and passed away.

I am so so sad for this family. I did not know Meghan personally, but over the last year I have gotten to know her and her babies through our blogs and am so saddened by her passing. Her babies will grow up without a mommy. Her husband will raise their children without his wife. Meghan was 33 years old. So disheartening.

The funeral was November 2nd in Broomfield, CO. A memorial has been set up for the triplets education if anyone would like to donate. The information can be found here (this is a link to Meghan's Caring Bridge site - you can also read her Caring Bridge journal updates here).

Things like this always make you remember just how short and uncertain life really is.

Live fully...love deeply...laugh often. You never know when your last day will be. Cherish every second. Sorry for such a heavy post, but I thought it was important that everyone who knew Meghan know about her passing...

Megan

Leaves are the coolest!

It's been pretty chilly here in Omaha over the last two weeks so the girls haven't been able to go outside and play hardly at all. To say they are going stir crazy in the house all day long is a definite understatement. I'm not looking forward to the winter at all!

Tuesday a TON of the leaves fell from our big maple tree out front making a perfect leafy wonderland for the girls. Once it warmed up on Thursday I made a little pile for the girlies to play in. This was their first exposure to leaves.

It's official, they think the are pretty amazing!

The only picture I took of them where they are both looking at the camera and smiling...lol...one of 45 pictures...of course it was the very first picture I took!

Livvy getting ready to tackle Bri....note the massive smirk on her face....it was all downhill from there. Two toddlers wresting in the fall leaves! HA!

Do your kiddos love the leaves as much as mine do? Have you had decent weather this fall to actually be able to enjoy the leaves?

Have a great weekend ladies!
Megan

Just lovin the crazy chaos

I'm way behind in blog updates. I know this. But I've been really busy with these two crazy beautiful mobile (walking!) ladies! They have turned into little people; these are not babies anymore ladies and gentlemen!!

Bri has been walking for almost a month now, but Livvy just started really walking last Tuesday. She is so proud of herself. It's so cute! She's still a bit wobbly (more of toddling sometimes than walking) but now that we have two walking (Bri nearly running) toddlers, I have found that there is even less time in the day to get things done. Even factoring in daylight savings time...and that's sad, after all we did GAIN an hour!

So, updates since I last posted:

1) I am done breastfeeding and pumping. It's been 4 days. It's been hard, yet kind of nice at the same time. I miss the closeness of breastfeeding, and knowing that they were getting the best possible nutrition from me, and now they aren't. On the bright side, not having to cart my pump to work with me every day has been stellar, I'm not going to lie. And I'm saving a ton of time by not pumping multiple times a day. Still not sure where this time has gone then, and how I've still had zero time to blog...hmmm...

2) The girls had their 1 year well check on October 21st. Yeah, like over 2 weeks ago. I know I'm a slacker. But, here are their stats... definitely some healthy girls!

Miss Olivia - AKA Baby A
Weight - 24 lbs 0 oz (86th percentile)
Height - 29.75 inches (62nd percentile)
Clothes - mostly 12 months, some 18 month, but most of the 18 month are too long in the legs or arms
Diapers - size 4

Miss Brianna - AKA Baby B
Weight - 25 lbs 4 oz (93rd percentile)
Height - 30.0 inches (62nd percentile)
Clothes - about 50/50 between 12 month and 18 month
Diapers - size 4

3) Livvy has kicked the paci habit, except at bedtime and naptime. She always had that thing in her mouth, so we took it away. She did fine! And she is talking SO much more! We took it away about 10 days ago, and has since learned how to say "baby" (we met Baby Jackson - the girls new cousin last weekend) and "ba-la" (Bailey, one of our pugs). She is talking SO much more without her paci! More than her sister now, and that, my friends, is a feat in itself! So glad we took it away when we did =)

4) Halloween was an epic fail in terms of costumes for the girls. We got them the cutest little costumes (Livvy was a pink elephant and Bri was a lamb), but they REFUSED to leave the headpeices on, and Bri figured out how to get her outfit off about 5 mintues after we put it on. We had grand plans to parade the girls around the neighborhood in their cute little costumes, but since we couldn't keep the costumes on them, that idea went totally out the window. We are going to try and have their pictures taken in their Halloween costumes when we get their pictures taken this weekend. Wish us luck...I'm not holding my breath!

5) The sippy cup transition has begun! The girls get their 50/50 juice/water only in sippy cups now, not in bottles, and they have responded pretty well to it. They are ticked when you try to put milk in a sippy cup though, so that is going to be a work in progress for a while I think. But hey, any progress is good.

6) Bathtime! Bathtime has morphed into both girls at the same time in the tub. Too bad they have no intention of sitting in the bathtub, and think it is crazy fun to play with the faucet and shower head more than their bath toys. Sweet.

7) Feeding time - The girls now do a lot of their own feeding. Bri loves it! She really isn't a fan of getting fed much anymore. Stick everything down on her tray and let her go to town! Livvy on the other hand is fine with getting some food on her plate, but she really prefers to be fed. Funny the differences between the girls!
Here's a pic of the girls after we let them go to town and feed themselves spaghetti. They LOVED it! They did go almost directly into the bath after this though (lol)...

I think that's all I have for updates right now. I promise I have been reading all of your blogs, sometimes commenting, sometimes not (I can't comment at work), but I am at the very least reading all about your trials and tribulations =).Keep up the good work ladies!

Happy Tuesday!
Megan

Can you learn to love your body again?

While I was pregnant with the girls I kept going back and forth in my mind about how I felt about a C-section vs. vaginal birth. I really wanted to have a vaginal birth. Really really. I thought it would be an easier recovery and easier to lose the baby weight (which was 74 LBS!!!) after the babies were born. When the time came though, I wasn't really given the option....pre-eclampsia was in full swing and while they could "try" inducing me, there were absolutely no guarantees that it would work and I could very likely end up with a C-section anyway. So...I opted for the C-section. Good thing I did. When the OB was in there (taking the babies out) he told me there was no way I would have been able to deliver Miss Olivia vaginally, so I would have been forced into a C-section anyhow.

So what's my point with this rant?

Well...I have had a difficult time accepting my post baby body. After being on pelvic rest and a no exercise restriction for the last 6 months of my pregnancy, I felt fat and unhappy. Sexy was by far a thing of the past. Post C-section my tummy was anything but toned (more like deflated balloon!). I am sure many many of you share my sentiment. So, once I was given the okay, I started trying to tone my body again in my "free" time (HA). Unfortunately I continued to weigh the same from 3 months post birth to 8 months post birth. It was very disheartening. Then for the last 4 months I decided to change things up. I have been doing 75 sit ups every day, speed-walking a mile, and done other miscellaneous toning exercises (and a smidge of yoga) along with watching what I eat.

The results?

As of the girlies 1 year birthday, I am only 3.1 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight!!! Can you believe that?! Now of course my body is never going to actually be the same as it was pre baby girls, but I can go and buy (relatively form fitting) clothes and feel comfortable in my skin again! 71 lbs...that is just crazy!!! It took me a FULL YEAR to get there....I'm just glad I kept working on it!

Now here's to hoping that once I stop breastfeeding I don't gain any of it back! Fingers crossed! And then of course I still have 20 lbs to go before I hit my pre-IVF weight....I'm not holding my breath...

So for full disclosure....

Here's me 6 weeks pregnant with the girls (documentation picture of what size I was going into it - lol)

Before giving birth to my two princesses:

Now, 1 year post babies (no spankx or any other suck me in's involved!):

Sure, my body is totally different, and I still have the extra "deflated balloon" skin, but I'm okay with it =). My OB said if/when he delivers our next/final child (via C-Section) that he will go ahead and do a tummy tuck free of charge....sweet....

So, where are you in your post baby weight loss journey? Is it something you are having to constantly work on? What has helped you lose the weight that you have lost so far? If you have lost all of your baby weight, have you been able to keep it off?

Oh, and a breastfeeding update since I just brought it up....I am in the process of weaning. I am pumping 3 x a day now, and Bri has stopped nursing entirely, even in the mornings. My supply has dropped significantly in the last 3 weeks, so I suspect in another week or two I will be able to stop pumping all together. Bittersweet! The girls don't need it anymore though, so I'm okay with it =)

Okay, that's all for now!
Have a great weekend ladies!

Megan

We are ONE!!

Happy 1 year Birthday Olivia and Brianna!

As of 8:59 and 9:00 PM tonight, Olivia and Brianna (respectively) are officially 1 year old. And what a wonderful year it has been! I can't believe how much our lives have changed in one short year.
In the beginning....

Now....

WOW...WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!

So what’s new with our precious little one year olds? (Oh geez, I have a hard time even saying that!)

We are becoming more and more independent every day. We are very interested in what is going on around us and how things work. We are incredibly curious. We have figured out how to flush the toilet, open up drawers and cabinets, unroll the roll of toilet paper, and empty the trash can. We aren’t trouble makers at all! They also both love the water and the hair dryer and insist on assisting mommy in the bathroom every single morning while she gets ready for work. I don’t mind one bit =)

Okay, so now on to toddler (yikes!!) specific facts for 1 year…

Miss Olivia – AKA “Baby A”

Favorite activity: Cruising the furniture, playing peek-a-boo, reading books
Mobility: She is cruising like a wild woman! She will take a couple of steps between two pieces of furniture, but can not walk unassisted yet. She is making an effort to stand unassisted, and she loves her new push carts that she got for her birthday, so it's just a matter of time before she is walking. Crawling is still her preferred mode of transportation.
Favorite food: NOT CAKE! LOL! I would say mashed potatoes, pancakes, and any sort of puffs or food that she can eat easily on her own are her favorites
Personality: Drama Queen, yet very tender hearted. Very outgoing. Is waving at everyone, especially daddy, mommy, and sister first thing in the morning and any time any one leaves the room or the building (LOL). Wants to be involved in everything that is going on. Definitely very observant. Also very smiley =).
Favorite Person: Still Daddy!
Teeth: 4 currently, 2 on top and 2 on bottom cutting 5&6 (both on bottom) as we speak
Words: Da-da, ma-ma, hey, yep, ut oh, hi
Can sign: "All Done" and "More" on occasion

Miss Brianna - aka "Baby B"

Favorite activity: Splashing in the bathtub, playing in the dog water, and anything that lets her be outside for any extended period of time
Mobility: WALKING! AHHHHH! She started walking last Thursday (October 6th). She took 5 unassisted steps from her daddy to the middle of the floor. Since then she has continued to take unassisted steps, but so far not any more than 10 at one time. She still prefers crawling to any other mode of transportation. Well, other than being picked up and carried around...that is still by far her preference...
Favorite food: Mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, triple berry ricotta pancakes, cake (LOL), shredded cheese, grapes, and puffs. And you, little peanut, still nurse first thing in the morning =).
Personality: Shy/Reserved. Will smile at and interact with you, but has to warm up to you first. Loves to be around others. Does not often enjoy being the center of attention...unless there is cake involved (hehe). Loves to chatter away while she is eating.
Favorite Person: Mommy or Papa Ken, depending on the day
Teeth: 6 – 4 on top, 2 on the bottom
Words: Da-da, Ma-Ma, yep, oh, thank you, hi, hey
Can sign: "Milk" and "All Done"

You little princesses are growing up TOO fast!!!! Mommy and Daddy love you both so so much and can't fathom life without you! We are so honored to be your parents!

Until next time -
Megan