My mom has been here for a while to help out with this major life adjustment we call having twins. Oh, I have been so grateful for the help. I'm not sure how we would be surviving without it. Anyway, yesterday she was gone for most of the day running errands. As she left I gave myself a pep talk thinking "OK Camille, you got this!" It was a great trial run for what it will be like without stay-in help. Let's just say it was interesting. :)

It was mid-afternoon and at that point I had successfully fed/burped each baby twice, bathed both of them (with lots of screaming.. from the babies of course), been pee'd and pooped on (that's a right of passage, right?), changed lots of diapers, and then swaddled both little babies. A miracle happened and they were both out smack dab in the middle of the floor. I was so exhausted! I felt like I had run a marathon. But then I chuckled at this image and thought "this is life now!" But I love it. It's amazing.

I grabbed my camera and tried to capture this moment of my two sleeping burritos in the middle of the nursery. I wanted to document every detail of their sleeping faces. Max and Clara are just over two weeks now and I am wanting time to stop. I cherish the cuddles and faint smiles. I have been told that every stage is so fun, but I am trying to revel in this fleeting newborn stage.

So yes, my "trial run" yesterday was a bit crazy and hectic, but I am just so grateful that this is my new life. I sure do love it.

Max and Clara

I am a tad bit late on posting about this, but our perfect little babies came on October 15th!

Maxwell John (6 lb 5 oz, 19.25" long, born at 8:58 am) and 

Clara Evelyn (6 lb 7 oz, 19.5" long, born at 9:23 am)

This is the first picture we have of them together. They were about 6 hours old at this point. 

I think Max looks just like Russ, and Clara looks a lot like I did as a newborn. 

And for a quick rundown of how they made their entrance into this world. I had been feeling really uncomfortable since Sunday morning. After little to no sleep that night, I woke up Monday morning feeling like something was different. I remoted in to work for most of the day just to distract myself from the pain. By about 3:00 pm my Mom drove me down to my OB to just get checked out and see if what I was feeling was in fact labor pains (Russ was working). I was 5 cm dilated! I was sent to labor and delivery and after a quick ultrasound we found that Clara had flipped yet again and was breach - they started preparing me for a C-section. By the time the doctor arrived at about 6 pm she had flipped AGAIN! The doctor felt we could try for a vaginal delivery. I was finally fully dilated at about 4 am. At 4:30 am I started pushing. I pushed for over 4 hours (yes, that is correct) until Max finally came with help of forceps. That little stinker just didn't want to come out. It took every ounce of motivation to push again, but after holding him for about a minute I found it in me to push again. I was so exhausted. However, with help of forceps as well, Clara was finally born. 

Both Max and Clara had to spend a few hours in the NICU to check out their lungs, but I was able to have both of them in my room with me by about 2:00 pm. What an amazing blessing. 

I love them so much, and I am so grateful to have two little perfect babies. Thank you to everyone for their continued support. It's been a long road, but so worth it. 

Clara feeling pretty as we were leaving the hospital.

 

Mr. Max snoozing next to his sister on our first day at home.

And now to go cuddle these babies some more. I seriously can't get enough of them. 

Pre-Baby Ramblings

I was going through my "Baby Stuff" Pinterest board a few days ago and I saw this e-card and laughed out loud... again. This is truly how I feel! 

I'm still on bed rest (obviously) but will be 36 weeks on Wednesday. That is a very "average" time for twins to come, so really, these guys could come pretty much any day. And maybe I'm freaking out a bit?

Not in a bad way, don't get me wrong. I want them here more than anything. But how in the world do you begin to prepare for going from "just Russ and I" to parents of TWO newborns? Besides the obvious checklists of 2 cribs, 2 bouncers, diapers upon diapers, clothes for two genders, etc., I don't think you can. I'm pretty much expecting this to be a day-at-a time experience. It will be crazy. It will be exhausting. But I am also positive that it will be amazing. 

It's still very surreal. We bought two Fisher Price Rock n' Plays last week and as I sit on this couch and stare at them set up in the living room it seems so crazy that soon, very soon, my son and daughter will be laying in them. I feel so blessed. It's been quite the year, and I have a feeling that it's only going to get a little crazier from here on out. 

Bring it on!  

Laundry Room!

One of the few projects we were set on completing before the babies came was our laundry room. I love our house, but I had always HATED the laundry room. It is in the worst location (in between the garage and the kitchen). It is cramped. It allowed zero room for "dumping" the every day items before walking into the kitchen. These factors then translated to everything flooding into the kitchen resulting in constant clutter. Let me show you our "laundry room" before:

The shelf above the washer/dryer was nice, but it was very hard to keep organized (and was so visible!). We knew we wanted a new washer/dryer -- especially with all the laundry we will be doing very, very soon. We had bought our used ones from an old retirement home when we got married for $300 combined. They were very used. I was also positive we needed front-loaders. Since there was no counter top, we would place things on top of the washer, then when it came time for laundry I would move the clutter either onto the counter in the kitchen, on the floor in the kitchen, etc. And then when it came time to clean up, the clutter ended right back on top of the washer, and the cycle continued. 

After racking our brains on the best arrangement of our new washer/dryer, cabinets, shelving, and hangers, we finally came up with an arrangement that has made life a lot easier (and cleaner).

We decided to stack the washer/dryer and add a cabinet and counter top that would be the perfect "dumping place" for the purse/mail/keys when we came in from the garage. 

We used the original shelf and just cut it in half and added brackets. These shelves are the one area where things didn't work out as planned - I wanted a small rod on the bottom shelf to hang clothes that shouldn't be dried. However, after we finished the shelves and almost placed the rod, it was too shallow for hangers. DANG! If I knew this wasn't going to work, we probably would have hung the shelves a little lower, but such is life. We ended up removing the door from the closet and hung the rod there - this is basically where I'm standing in the picture. This is also where we can now take off shoes and store laundry baskets during laundry time (as opposed to the kitchen).

The baskets and mail organizer are from Home Goods (and the baskets are actually empty)! The cabinet ended up storing everything! I'm sure I'll find stuff to put in there before too long. :) The magnetic chalkboard is an old magnetic board I had from Freshman year of college that I bought at Ikea. I just spray-painted it with chalkboard paint so that you can write on it as well as hang up invitations, coupons, etc.

The cabinet and drawers have been soooo nice. All the cleaning supplies and odds and ends can be placed in this cabinet rather than in plain sight above the washer/dryer. I painted the cabinet (that is just from Home Depot) one of my favorite paint colors - Benjamin Moore's Palladian Blue. The counter top was the left over butcher block from our DIY island project.

So there ya go. My main "nesting" project is completed, and I am oh-so-happy about it. Besides the new washer/dryer, I think we ended up spending maybe $200 total since we used a lot of supplies on hand (i.e.: the counter top, shelf, magnetic board, etc). It feels good to get such a big project out of the way before these two crazy babies turn our world upside down!

Bedrest

A week and a half has gone by since we were admitted to the hospital for preterm labor, and I am just so grateful that these twins decided to wait it out a little longer. We were there from Friday evening till Monday evening -- definitely not the kind of weekend getaway I would have chosen, but it was worth it. I had already progressed quite a bit, leaving the hospital at 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced. However, the ultrasound with the parinatologist showed that the twins were doing awesome, so much so that they were both measuring "ahead of schedule." As of last Monday, baby girl was 5 lb 14 oz and baby boy was 5 lb 4 oz. Such a relief! The doctor released me from the hospital on strict bedrest with continued "hospital behavior" (aka I can't do anything). 

Bedrest has been an adventure. I have been able to remote into work which has been really nice actually. It makes me feel somewhat productive. There has been plenty of TV and movie watching, reading, and online shopping :). I have been completely overwhlemed with the kindness and service we have received from friends and family. The friends in my neighborhood stop by regularly to make sure I'm not going too crazy. My friend took it upon herself to organize weeks worth of meals brought into our home. Last night a friend even came to my house to cut and color my hair -- just the pick-me-up I was needing. And of course, Russ has been the kindest husband and makes sure I'm well taken care of. I know some women have to be on bedrest for months, and my hat goes off to them. It is harder than I would have thought, but again, so worth it.

I will be 35 weeks tomorrow! We are getting to a much safer place and I'm not as worried about the health of the babies should they come early. I probably have about a week or two max until they come. Yikes!

One of the few activities I have allowed myself to perform is making headbands for baby girl! There are plenty more I plan on making, but I think I have a good start for when she comes. Some of the tutorials I referenced include my good friend Sada, here, and here.

I will continue to try to keep this blog updated as we get closer and closer to the twins arriving. I cannot wait for them to come. Life will be very different, but definitely for the better. 

Thank you again to everyone for the calls, texts, visits, and love sent our way. It has meant so much.