Christmas 2018

This Christmas was pretty great with the new babies. There really is something special about having newborns during Christmas to help remind us of the Savior as a newborn.

We came home from the hospital the day before Christmas Eve. Hallelujah! I was so glad that wasn't in the hospital on Christmas. For the last three years we have spent Christmas Eve with the Bednars and the Noonans. This year I still felt like we should spend Christmas Eve with them but they had to come to our house. 

We did a night in Bethlehem again and had chicken, pita bread, veggies, and fruit. We also acted out the nativity story again which was complete chaos with 18 kids. It was totally hilarious. As Jack was reading the story we had basically 3 nativity stories all acting out at the same time. It lasted all of about 5 minutes. 

Poor Gracie did not feel well at all. She had a terrible cough/cold that had moved into her eyes. You can see in the pictures how awful she feels. She looked more like the angel of death than one proclaiming the Savior was born....

Ruby was one of the cutest shepherds I have ever seen...

Afterwards, the pajama fairy dropped off Christmas pajamas for everyone. However, right before this picture was taken we did have an incident that made everyone pretty grumpy, especially me.

The Noonans had given us a glass Christmas ornament of the leg lamp from a Christmas story. Benny had found the gift bag and opened it up. When Jack saw it he tried to pull it away from Benny and Benny held on. This resulted in the glass ornament being torn in half. Kind of funny if you think about the how it ended for the leg lamp in the Christmas story...

Anyway...I was pretty upset and they both felt bad. So, needless to say, those smiley faces are not quite genuine as everyone was a little bit uptight right before bed. Now I look back on it and it is a funny story but I was not happy that night. Shad is still convinced that he can fix it, so it is currently sitting in our laundry room awaiting a repair.

Haken and Jack's Santa haul

Ruby's Santa gifts

Benny's Santa gifts

Gracie's Santa haul

I didn't get many pictures of Christmas morning because I was still pretty sore and just wanted to sit there and enjoy the day. It was a great relaxing Christmas really. I didn't worry much about cleaning up (mostly because I couldn't bend over to pick stuff up) and we stayed in our PJ's all day. We didn't have anywhere to go and it was awesome.

No gifts for these boys. They got diapers I guess :)

The best gifts we got were these two sweet boys!

This year each of the kids drew a name of one of their siblings and got a gift for them with their own money. It was really sweet to see the things that they picked out for them. They were very thoughtful. Most notable were the twin babies that Haken got for Ruby. She treated them like our twin babies.

Jack also picked out a mermaid and princess drawing book and gel pens for Gracie. They were a total hit. I think she drew for most of the day.

Our big gift for the kids was telling them about a dinner cruise that we are going to do on a riverboat up the Mississippi sometime in the spring or summer. We decided last year after doing Lion Kind tickets that we would do an experience for the kids rather than getting lots of gifts. They loved it, so we did it again this year.

My mom actually spoiled us with most of our gifts this year. All of the presents under the tree were from her. Most notable were the Amazon Echo and dots for everyone's room. They have been so awesome to have. Now all of th kids listen to music in their rooms and we can use them as an intercom throughout the house. It was such a great gift! We really love it when Grandma Lori spoils us.

Gingerbread houses

With Grandma in town this week we are doing some things that I wouldn't attempt doing without an additional adult. Gingerbread houses usually aren't my thing, but my friend had an idea of taking all of our Halloween and parade candy that the kids collected and use them for gingerbread houses. It worked brilliantly.

I made the royal icing and we just used graham crackers to make the houses. I thought they turned out pretty cute and the kids were actually really good about not gorging on candy in the process. They are pretty excited to eat them in the near future though.

Ruby was obsessed with collecting suckers.
She didn't really care much about decorating the houses.

We seriously had SO much candy!

The start of Haken's Wrigley field

Daddy made a lean-to shed. He wants an exact
 replica in our backyard.

Grandma saved the day helping Jack with his house.
The roof kept falling down but she found a way to make it work.

Haken's Wrigley field

Gracie's pink house

Daddy's shed

The other side of Daddy's shed. (The chewed up starburst didn't hold
up the sucker trees as well as he had hoped).

Benny's masterpiece

Jack's 2 story house with a detached garage.

Coming up on the finish line- 36 weeks

Here I am sitting at 36 weeks and 4 days. I thought for sure these babies would be here by now. Today is my grandma Mildred's 81st birthday. I thought it would be pretty special if these babies were born on her birthday as we are naming one of them after her father. 

In my picture on Thursday (Dec 13th, Jack's birthday as well as my great grandpa Alfred Tennyson), I didn't see a lot of difference, I almost feel like I look smaller. A lot of people have said that they think I have dropped so the babies are ready to go. The problem is there isn't a baby head down pushing on my cervix to get things moving.

When I went to my doctor appointment with Shad on Friday we thought we were really going to be able to convince the doctor to take me before my December 26th C-section date, but we didn't. He said that babies just do better if they are taken when they decide to come on their own. Their lungs are developed and they are less likely to have NICU time. This convinced us enough to leave them be for a while. In the ultrasound on Thursday they were measuring 6lbs and 6lbs 2oz. No wonder I am sore by the end of the day, I am carrying around 12lbs of baby!

The hardest reality this week is that my mom flew in the day after my doctor appointment and is staying for a week, hoping that maybe she can catch the babies. I was super convinced that they would come while she is here, but now I am not so sure. Every day I feel like today might be the day and then the day passes without a hint of labor. I've been walking in the mornings and doing all of my normal routine cleaning and that hasn't stirred anything up at all. When the doctor checked my cervix on Friday I was only a 1.5cm and not effaced at all.

We just might have some Christmas babies on our hands... Although I'm not holding out hope that they come before grandma leaves on Friday.

I am just really blessed to have made it this far without any complications and bed rest. I am definitely counting my blessings and hoping that the C-section and recovery goes as well as the rest of the pregnancy has.

Festival of Trees

Last year after Christmas my siblings had the idea of decorating a tree at the festival of trees in honor of my dad. We donated to it and kept it a secret from my mom for a year. Megan and Lisa did all of the shopping and decorating. They did a really great job and captured some fun things about my dad. It was a really great tribute to him. It ended up selling for $1,300 and all of the proceeds were donated to Primary Children's hospital.

They also took my mom to the festival and surprised her. She had no idea that they had done this. When she walked by the tree she was so surprised and broke down crying. They recorded a facebook live video of it. It totally made me cry. It was a really special moment. 

Thanksgiving 2018

Since I'm pretty much homebound being big and pregnant we stayed around here for Thanksgiving. Honestly, I was just fine skipping Thanksgiving all together. The fact that I can't eat like I want to because of gestational diabetes and the thought of being on my feet all day made me not want to do anything. Shad said he would do the whole thing, so I agreed. He did a really great job too. Haken and Shad did all of the shopping and cooking, the only thing I did was the rolls and pie.

 It was a pretty low key Thanksgiving compared to the others that we have had in Illinois where we have hosted a bunch of people and had lots of family over. It was just going to be our little family on Thanksgiving day but the Noonan's decided to stay in Illinois instead of visit family in New York. It ended up being a really fun day. Once again I am just so grateful for their friendship. We really do have a lot to be grateful for this year and I'm glad we had a day to reflect on that.

After our late lunch we relaxed, played games and watched "It's a wonderful life."

The table looked gorgeous

Shad smoked a turkey and it turned out delicious despite the fact that it got a little bit hotter than he was expecting while he was gone playing football in the morning. Monica also made a Turkey in the crockpot and it turned out delicious as well.

He even cooked the neck and everyone tried a little bite.

Our spread.

The day before, we had pie night and made 3 pies. We also bought a pumpkin pie and Monica made an apple pie the next day. We definitely didn't have a shortage of dessert.

33 Weeks!

Tomorrow will mark 33 weeks for this pregnancy. I looked at the calendar and started to kind of freak out as we are really getting down to the last 3-4 weeks. I'm really trying hard to get everything in place for when the babies get here and for Christmas.

Last week I had my 32 week appointment. From now on they will be weekly appointments.

On the ultrasound the babies looked great however... Baby A is still breech. This is a problem as he really needs to be head down in order for me to even try to deliver vaginally. Baby B is transverse but it doesn't really matter what position he is in. I can deliver him vaginally as long as Baby A is head down since he is closest to the cervix.

So...when I went to my doctor appointment after the ultrasound we talked about what our options are. Basically she said at this point there is a 95% chance that they are stuck where they are and aren't going to turn. They are just too big and run into one another so it doesn't happen very often. Although I have heard of a few cases of it happening as late as 36 weeks in a twin pregnancy. The babies are already both over 4 lbs so that would be a lot of baby to maneuver around in there. When I found out how big they were I thought "no wonder I am getting so uncomfortable! I have over 8 lbs of baby in there already!"

The doctor said that a C-section was inevitable with these babies. I am kind of bummed as I really wanted to avoid that. I heard that the recovery is harder, especially when you are trying to nurse and have to deal with recovering from a surgery. However, it is not the end of the world. I just try to keep telling myself that I really just want healthy babies so if that is what we need to do then I will do it.

However, since we are going to be having a C-section that also means these babies and myself might be more at risk and the Gibson City hospital might not be the best place for us to be. It would really stink if the babies got shipped off to Carle hospital 30 minutes away and I was stuck at Gibson City recovering from a C-section.

So, with this news Shad and I decided we better start looking into what it would cost to deliver at Carle. We called the financial aid office and it turns out that the last time I looked into the cost was when we were delivering 1 baby. Now that we have 2 babies coming, instead of only qualifying for 50% financial aid, we now qualify for 100% financial aid like we did with Ruby. Gibson City was offering us 90% so that is one of the reasons we went up there.

When we found this out we were so excited as Carle at 50% is still outrageous and more than we could afford. 100% is a huge tender mercy and we are so grateful that we qualify. Shad makes just a little under what the threshold is for 100%. Next year with his raise we may not qualify, but at least we qualify right now when we need it the most. I am really sad to leave Gibson City though as I LOVE Dr. Austman and her team. Their care is on such personal level compared to Carle. I know the nurses by name and I feel so comfortable with them. I was also really excited about delivering at a smaller hospital as that has always been a better experience for us. But ultimately I also wanted to have healthy babies and since Gibson City does not have a NICU we need to switch over to do what is right for the babies as well.

I feel so bad leaving Gibson City clinic as I did this exact thing with them when I had Ruby because we qualified for financial assistance with them as well. I knew it would be a hard thing for me so I asked him to come to my appointment with me today. I felt a little bit emotional about it as we told them our situation and what we had decided. They totally understood but I told Shad that I felt like I was breaking up with a good friend that I would never see again. They had discovered the twins and helped me this far along and I was very happy with the care that I received.

The nurse switched my records over today and I have an appointment with a PA at Carle on Monday afternoon and then another with the Dr. the following week. I had 3 doctors to choose from and I had only heard of the name of one of them but I couldn't remember where I had heard of him. When I looked up his picture I realized that he looked familiar. I think he was the one who ended up delivering Ruby because our Dr. was signing on a house that morning. So I guess Dr. Hennesay will be delivering the twins if all goes as planned. Although you never know what you are going to get when you go with Carle. It could be a doctor that you have never seen before.

Most likely the twins will go to the NICU because they have one there and they like to have them all checked out, but I am just glad that is an option now and hope they will come healthy and not have to be in there for very long.

Just a few more short weeks and we will meet these little boys. I am anxious to be done with the diabetes diet, although my doctor said that my blood sugar is very well controlled. I do try to do low carb most of the time, but I have had a few days where I cheat a little. I am really trying to see what I can and can not eat. It's interesting that there are some things like white bread, cookies, and candy that send my blood sugar skyrocketing and then other carbs like potatoes, wheat bread, and ice cream that don't do that much at all. It is still important that I eat carbs, just in small doses, so I am trying to stick to that, even though sometimes all I want is a cookie or candy.

I am still sleeping really well except for the 2 times every night that I have to get up to go pee. However, I fall right back asleep afterward so that is a blessing. I do get really sore by the end of the day and I am pretty tired, but I am surprised at how much energy I still have. I try to do some form of work out every day. I alternate between a prenatal workout video, walking on the treadmill, and walking in the field house with my friends. I'm tired by the end of the day when I go out with my friends so those days stretch me a little bit more.

The twin nursing pillow Jennifer Jenson and Monica
gave me. It is pretty amazing and huge.

I haven't really gained any weight in the last month, but the babies have which is what we want I guess with my gestational diabetes. I guess the lack of weight gain is probably due to my diet. At first, I always felt hungry but now I am starting to learn what snacks I can eat to keep myself full in between meals. I'm kind of getting sick of salads though. I feel like I eat the same things over and over again.

Just a few more weeks. I keep telling myself "just keep swimming." The end is definitely in sight!

Tender mercy in the kitchen

Organizing has never been my talent. I like things to be clean on the outside, but if it's put away out of sight in a drawer, cupboard, or closet I typically don't think about it until it starts driving me crazy when it gets too full.

I had mentioned this to my friend Susan who is a master organizer. She set up a time with 3 other friends (Monica, Charlotte, and Rachel) to come over and organize my kitchen. 

It is something that has been on my list for a long time and I have done it before but never very well. I feel like it goes back to the way it was before after a week.

These ladies came at 9:00 am and didn't leave until 3:00. They pulled every single thing out of my cupboards, drawers and refrigerator, vacuumed and wiped them all out, de junked, and put everything back in places that worked efficiently. If I would have done this on my own it would have taken me a week, not to mention the fact that I probably would have kept everything and had the same problem a week later. We took an entire trunkload of stuff from my kitchen to Goodwill! So many things that I don't use and should have gotten rid of years ago. Charlotte also brought brand new tupperware to replace all of my old stuff.

When they left and it really soaked in what a gift they gave me I sat in my kitchen and just cried. So much so that when Shad walked into the house he thought that one of our children had died (granted I had just gotten off the phone with him because Haken was on the other line.)

I'm a pretty emotional pregnant woman right now but I was just so grateful for good friends who would take an entire day to focus on me and what would be a blessing for me and then just do it. I seriously have the best friends in the world. They are such a blessing and make it feel like I might just make it through having twins with their help.