Teething sucks. . . and other thoughts =)

LOL. It's just the beginning of teething for the girlies, but they already hate it, and so does mommy! Their little gums hurt and they just scream and drool and poop and scream and chew and drool and scream some more. I feel so bad for them! We give them Tylenol to try to help with the pain and we hold and rock them like crazy, but it doesn't always work. Bummer. So far their sleep schedule hasn't suffered too much. Maybe going to bed a bit later or getting up a bit earlier, but all in all not bad. We consider ourselves lucky. Then again, we know the worst is still yet to come.

In other news, we LOVE our nanny.

Best decision we made. If you can afford it, go for a nanny over daycare. The nanny comes to your home so you don't have to take your kiddos out, and she can even help with the baby laundry and dishes. LIFESAVER. And the girls absolutely love her. It makes me kind of jealous to be honest. . .they get so excited to see her, which is great! But I don't think they get that excited to see me!

In girls news, the girlies still haven't rolled over. They just have no desire. They just lay on their tummies during tummy time and scream. Because obviously we don't have enough screaming going on in our household already and need more! HA! Of course they thrash around on the blanket and kick their legs and move their heads around, but that's it. That's the extent of their effort. Slackers =). Oh, and they are refusing to smile for the camera anymore. I think they think that the camera is stealing their little souls or something. I get out the camera and they immediately stop talking and smiling and just stare and glare. I hope it's just a phase!

We went and test drove cars on Sunday. Okay, we're not getting a minivan. I didn't like how they drove (They were so slow to accelerate - I felt like I was driving my 4 cylinder Cutlass Sierra from HS!) and I didn't like how I felt behind the wheel. I felt like a soccer mom. And while I may be a soccer mom in 10 years, I'm not now. I don't know, maybe the Highlander commercials have brainwashed me, but I would really prefer an SUV with all of the amenities of a minivan (which ironically the Highlander doesn't have - in my opinion). Of course the only problem with getting this "perfect" SUV is that this is WAY more expensive than a minivan would be. We found a vehicle that is perfect for our needs - a GMC Acadia - SLT2 package. It has 4 wheel drive, captains chair's in the second row and a 3rd row bench seat, a whole host of amenities including the rear hatch release (just like the minivans), DVD player/entertainment system, leather seats, sunroof, auxillary jacks, navigation system, back up camera and sensors, heated seats, the list goes on and on. The coolest feature was that when I was driving it the speed is actually projected up on the windshield. When the turn signal was on, that also projected onto the windshield, as did the volume for the radio. Craziness. To the tune of $30K for a 2008 craziness. Yikes. A Mercedes SUV from the same year is only a couple thousand more. Yikes again. If you look really hard you can find a 2009 for $30K, but they are usually several states away (I know, because Si has made it his mission to find one of these cars in our price range, regardless of it's location). If you drove it though, I think you'd love it as much as I do. I never should have driven it! Now I can't stop thinking about how awesome it would be to have one. . . . higher car payment here I come. . .boo. . .

Oh, AND the TV went out today - talk about MAJOR DRAMA. 5 days before the 9th annual Super Bowl Shindig AND in the middle of a blizzard. Luckily it was only the bulb (it's a DLP rear projection TV). We had just replaced the $200 bulb in July, so we were irritated that we needed to replace it again, but at least we didn't have to replace the whole TV. And the picture is so nice and bright again! =). Crisis averted!

Okay, that's all for now! I wish we could get a break from the snow, but it is Nebraska in the winter, so its to be expected!! Here are the girls sporting their snowflake outfits fron great grandma while it's snowing like crazy outside! Note that they are sitting up. . .they love to sit up now and hate to lay. They are growing up. Sigh. Have a great night!

Megan

3 months old, and my first full week back at work

The girls turned 3 months old this week. They are getting SO big and are changing every single day. They haven't mastered any new skills this week, but they are sure working on it! New this week - Brianna has started trying to roll over, has been very very vocal with her coos, and seems to be working hard on finding her voice range. It's quite comical. Olivia has started mimicking what other people are doing, follows you everywhere with her eyes, and is perfecting the art of sleep (dad is SO proud). Both girls have also discovered their hands this week and are quite content trying to stuff as many fingers as possible into their mouth at a time. Crazy kids! They are finally out of size 1 diapers and are on their way out of 0-3 month outfits (I thought that would happen weeks ago, but I think they had just come off a growth spurt when I made that prediction).

This was my first full week back at work, and on Wednesday I thought everything was going perfectly and that this was going to be easier than I thought (HA). Um no. See, I was busy at work on Monday and Tuesday. Like I barely had time to remember to pump busy. I had Wednesday off (I work 4 - 10 hour days). So when I went in on Thursday I figured it would be crazy busy too, but it wasn't. I mean I had stuff to do, but I wasn't busy. Same thing on Friday. Add onto the fact that Brianna decided that her current sleep schedule was crap and should be thrown out the window on Wednesday and Thursday night, and I was TIRED. 10 hour days are hard enough. They are even harder when you get less than 4 hours of sleep a night. Sigh. I was seriously dragging by Friday evening. I'm hoping next week is better. On the bright side, the nanny seems to have done very well with the girls - YAY! Brianna was fussy all day Thursday and I think it wore on her a bit, but she still came to work on Friday, so apparently it wasn't too bad =). And she is helping with dishes and laundry when she isn't super busy with the girls and it is awesome to have that extra little bit of help around the house. For us, a nanny really was the right choice. It's only part time, and it is expensive, but it's worth it!

What else is going on? Well, Sheila and Andy and baby Adam came over to visit yesterday. We left the guys at home with the babies and Sheila and I went to Cheesecake factory for some non-mommy time! It was much needed. Of course we ended up sitting there talking about the babies the whole time, but still, it was nice to actually be able to eat food while it was still hot and talk to an actual other living breathing adult =). We must do it again very soon. We snapped a picture of all three of the babies together before they left to go back home yesterday - they are so cute together - now if only we could get them to smile! It's a work in progress=).

Sheila and I have also decided that we are going to make our own baby food. We are organic food eaters anyway (at the very least with produce), and organic baby food is SO expensive, so we are going to give making it ourselves a shot - at least with fruits and veggies =). Hopefully it will be cheaper and more fun for us to make it anyway. We gave canning a shot a couple of years ago and had a great time so I hope this effort is equally as fruitful (ha - no pun intended!). I think we have decided that we are going to use the special ice cube trays with lids to freeze the baby food. Do any of you have any experience with this or any other aspect of baby food making? Any tips or cautions for us? I'm kind of wondering how much we should be making at a time. . .hmmm. . .

And of course I won't leave you without pictures of the girlies from the last week!
I personally think there's nothing cuter than a sleeping baby. . .here's a picture of Brianna asleep in my arms =)

Do you ever wonder what the babies are thinking when you take a picture? Try interpreting this look! LOL! Olivia cracks me up!

And last but not least, here's a picture of Si, asleep, after watching the Bears/Seahawk game holding the girlies who are obviously very much awake =)

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

Megan

Harder than I thought. . .

The first 4 weeks or so with twin babies was hard. I hate to admit it, especially after all we had to go through to get these little munchkins here, but there were several times during that period that I wished I could go back to work. My thought process was that everything would be back to "normal" if I went back to work instead of being the resident milk cow and mommy 24 hours a day 7 days a week - which is SO very hard. I enjoyed being mommy to the girls, but it was exhausting, and I really felt like I lost every ounce of who I was during that time period (I never left the house, didn't get any sleep, etc.). Since then it has gotten much better. The feedings have been further apart. I have learned to pump and feed the the girls what I pump instead of breastfeeding every time they needed to eat. They have been sleeping more at night, and have been taking longer naps during the day. They have started cooing to communicate. They have started to smile =). I am comfortable taking them out in public by myself. I REALLY enjoy being with them ALL the time.

Well, I started back to work last week. Part time. 2 ten hour days. WOW is all I have to say. I go to full time next week. I will be working 4 ten hour days. People told me that it would be hard to go back to work, but I seriously underestimated how HARD it would be to leave the girlies every day. I mean WOW. I miss them SOOOO much when I'm gone. And they don't even realize that I'm gone right now - they are still too little to comprehend what is going on. It's only going to get worse. What am I going to do when they can look at me and say "Mommy, I don't want you to go"??? UGH. Not looking forward to that day.

I am very very lucky to have an understanding boss that is letting me work 4 - 10 hour days as opposed to 5- 8 hour days. That gives me a whole extra day home with my girlies, and an extra day that I don't need to pay the nanny to stay with the girls. Don't get me wrong - we have a great setup. My dad (Papa Ken as he is passionately being referred to) is staying with the girlies 1-2 days a week depending on his schedule, and we have a friend who is in college who is nannying for us for the remaining 2-3 days per week. The girls don't have to leave the house at all, and we are very blessed to have wonderful people to watch them when mommy and daddy aren't around. But it still isn't the same. It's not me at home with the girls. And even though I thought it wouldn't bother me all that much to go back to work, it is.

Unfortunately we don't have the option at this point for me to stay home with the girls. Si recently took a different job with a decent pay increase, but it still isn't enough to make ends meet if I stayed home. I am the breadwinner, and I guess this is one of the negatives of being in that role. Sigh. Grandma Pat will be eligible for retirement in a couple of years, so maybe she will want to stay home and watch the girlies. Or maybe Si really will be able to start his own business and I can stay home and work for him. Only time will tell. All I know for now is that everything happens for a reason. While I was very worried about daycare while I was pregnant with the girlies, I had faith that God would show us the path we were supposed to take with them. Boom - Grandpa and nanny Whit and 4 -10 hour days. Awesome.

Next on our list - we need a minivan. I really want a 4WD Toyota Sienna. . .but we can't afford the $40K price tag for a new one, and that's really what we would need to buy to get the payments where we need them and a good interest rate. My grandparents have a Town and Country Touring and they LOVE it, so we are looking at that. It's not 4WD though, and we do live in Nebraska and the winters here can be nasty and can make 4WD a necessity. Right now we have a 4WD Ford Escape and I love it. . .it just doesn't have enough room for the girls AND all their stuff, and there's no room for the pugs. We must have room for the pugs. They travel with us all the time when we go out of town. Since the girls have been born we simply haven't gone out of town because there isn't enough room in the Escape. Sigh. A minivan. I never wanted a minivan. Si still doesn't want a minivan. Does anyone have any insight on what minivan would be best for a decent price, or what SUV you have if you have multiples, and if it has enough room for everything? We don't have 3rd row seating and I wonder if that would be enough and then we could stay in the realm of SUV's. I think if you have 3rs row seating though you don't have the extra storage space in the back for all of the stuff that goes along with babies. . .well, unless you have a Tahoe or something. But I digress. . .let me know if you have any insight.

What else is going on? Oh, well, miss Olivia is sleeping through the night without waking up for a feed EVERY NIGHT. Every night! Or at least every night for the last 10 days. It's great. Brianna did really well for about 4 days, going to bed at 10 or so and waking up at 4 or 5 AM to eat then going right back to sleep, but the last several days have been totally different. Not going to bed until Midnight, up at 4 or 5 and NOT going back to sleep. Boo. I'm back to work now - didn't she get the memo?! Momma needs her sleep too! And then if she doesn't sleep she is a bear for grandpa in the morning. Come on kiddo! Take a lesson from your sister =). LOL. Actually we know how lucky we are to have twins sleeping essentially through the night at 12 weeks. Bri has just had a couple of slip ups is all. More often than not she makes it through the night. And it is WONDERFUL. I forgot how great it was to sleep. It's glorious. Thank you CIO (cry it out) and sleep training.

During the day we are doing Eat, Play, Sleep cycles and that seems to be going pretty well too. The girls are actually really good and relatively easy babies. It makes life a lot easier =). And it will make life easier for the nanny too. And a happy nanny and happy babies lead to a happy mommy and daddy too. YAY. I will keep you guys updated with how everything goes next week when I am back to work full time. Yikes.

I will leave you with some pictures of the girlies. They can hold their heads up totally on their own now. It's amazing when they learn to do something new! The next thing I expect them to do? Roll over. It's coming. . .any day now!

Here's a pic of momma and the girlies from the other day =)

And here's a pic of me and the girls too, but this is more me proving to people who doubted me that this really can be done! I am simultaneously feeding both babies. . .it's much easier now that they have more neck control. I've also noticed that since I am gone all day and pump during the day that I am dead set on breast feeding while I am at home with them. It's my special time with them, and I love it. =)

Here's a pic of the girls from today - hanging out in their boppies next to each other. Both are smiling, although you can't tell as much from Bri (on the right). She's still perfecting the perfect smile, and she hasn't mastered holding it for more than a second- which is never the second I am flashing the camera of course =)

And here's a pic of the girls out cold in their car seats. If you need them to sleep, stick them in the car seats and drive around for 10 minutes=). They usually wake up pretty soon after we get back home and out of the car, but sometimes a cat nap is all they need to feel refreshed and not quite so cranky=).

Okay, that's all for now! Hope you all are doing well - and as always - comments are welcome =).