Cycle Day 7

I cannot believe what just happened. I went in to take my last two pills of Cl.o.mid; while I was opening the package, one pill flew out and went straight down the bathroom sink. I tried to look down the drain but it was gone. L I took the one pill I had left but I can't believe it… I wanted to break down right there. We will see what happens now. It's all in God's hands. I should start testing on Sunday but if it goes as last time-day 14 will be Wednesday, a week from today. I am still having hot flashes and headaches. I looked it up on the internet. Hot flashes occur in 10% of women while headaches occur in 1%. I am so glad that I am in the minority!

I can't help but look at my beautiful children and wonder if I am asking too much. They are healthy and wonderful and there's 3 of them! Why do we want one more? I can't explain it but I feel like we will be complete at 4.

Cycle Day 5

I started taking Cl.o.mid on Saturday. I realized that I never wrote down what I was feeling when I took the Cl.o.mid last time. Josh said that I was well, pretty bitchy. I don't remember being bad but who knows. So I decided to write everything this time in order to remember if I EVER want to do this again.

The last couple of days have been pretty good. I don't feel like I am having many mood swings. Maybe we should ask the husband since he knows it all. J The main complaint that I have is that I feel so hot. I feel like I am having heat waves throughout the day. At night, I have to have a fan directly on my body and I haven't been using blankets either. I also feel like I am having a lot of headaches. Now I do get headaches on occasion anyway but not usually this bad. Other than that, I feel good physically.

Mentally, I am all over the place. I am anxious, worried, scared, terrified, excited, happy… I know that it is all in God's plan as to how many more kids I have and He won't give us more than we can handle…but more than one at a time would feel like it's way more than I can handle! The chance of multiples again is a big thing. I have convinced myself that if it is twins again-I can handle that-but more! I don't know… I am anxious to even know whether the Cl.o.mid is going to work in the first place. I will start testing next Sunday. I could be pregnant in less than 2 weeks! That is so crazy. The nurses tell me that getting pregnant again with the first insemination is very unlikely. Will it happen?!

In other news, Adey army-crawled for the first time today. She was so frustrated. I took away her toy and put it a few feet away from her. She cried and screamed but she finally did it! I couldn't get her to do it again today so we will have to see.

I’m Finally Learning…

I'm so excited. I never knew that I could type blog posts in Microsoft Word. I found out by accident. I always wondered how people got the pretty fonts on their blogs. What is weird that I tried to type on Microsoft today and copy and paste…that didn't work. I was doing my homework tonight. I pressed new for a new document and noticed that it asked me if I wanted to post a new blog. What?! This is totally awesome! I know, I'm a dork!

Testing

The decision has been made...

It has been decided…we are going to try for another baby. We haven’t told anyone yet. Josh really thinks we should make it a surprise for the rest of the family since we aren’t really able to surprise them with a “planned” pregnancy. Some people are going to think we are crazy. Our twins are 10 ½ months…money is tight…etc. But there are many reasons why we think the time is now.

We already know that we want to have a 4th child in the near future. We were going to wait until next year but have decided not to. The main reason is I want to go back to work at some point in the near future. I am in school right now. I will have my associate’s degree this December and will be starting my bachelor’s program in January. It will be 2 years from then until I graduate. If we have another baby, the girls will be in preschool and the baby will be 2 and hopefully ready for daycare. I will be able to go straight to work after graduating. We need this. We want to buy a house and pay down our debt. This just isn’t going to happen on 1 income. Both Josh and I do not want me to go to work for at least the baby’s 1st year or more. So if we wait until next year, I will have to wait to go back to work. Secondly, we are just plain excited to have another baby. I am a little worried about having multiples again, but I know that this is in God’s hands. It is all decided by Him.
Last month, I went in to my doctor to talk to him about having another baby. He did my yearly work-up and gave me the prescription for Clomid again. We signed all the consent forms for the IUI and were just waiting for my period to come. Then my gallbladder got infected. I had to have surgery in order to get it out. I was 4 weeks late having my period. I thought it was never going to come again… until…
YESTERDAY! Aunt Flo came to visit with a vengeance. So tomorrow I start the Clomid. We are taking 100 mg this time instead of the 150 mg that we conceived the girls with. If it all works out like last time, I should be going in for an IUI around October 7th. YIKES! This is happening… Pray for us.

Sick Babies

Ahh...!! The last 2-3 days have been crazy. First, Jocey got a runny nose. I was hoping and praying that it was only because she was teething but the next day Adey had a runny nose too. Full-blown colds came! Thankfully, they seem almost better because they have been so miserable. But I must say it was kinda nice yesterday when all they wanted was for me to hold them. I know those days are few now anyway and soon they will be obselete. :(

We are praying that my husband hears back about a new job that he applied for. It is for the same thing he was doing before but A LOT more money and full benefits. Praying... praying... praying!

Walk and Birthday

Today was the annual Walk for the Cure. This was the first year that we participated in it and it was really fun! Devanne loved looking at all the people. The girls were actually great and loved the BOB that we borrowed. I have to get one of those. I am going to post pictures later!

Today is also my husband's 27th birthday! We went to Red Robin with all of our family and friends. We had a great time.

Josh- I love you more than life itself. Thank you for being the BEST husband, BEST father, and my BEST friend! Here's to another wonderful year!

Rainy Soccer Game and Binkie Update...

So we had our first rainy soccer game of the season but it actually went pretty well. We set up a half-tent for the girls so they could still see out but not get soaked. I sat under there with them because let's face it, I didn't want to get soaked! The girls did very well-even my little crawler who SO wanted in the mud. My big girl did fantastic! She started as forward and almost got a goal! She finished off as defense-she never let a ball get by her! That's my girl! They ended up tying-not too shabby!

The girls did great on their first night without their binkies. They cried for 22 minutes-believe me, I counted! Adey still woke up at her regular times, 2 and 6, but fell asleep by herself within 30 minutes and slept until 7:15 so I would have to say that was pretty much a success. I wonder if she is EVER going to sleep all the way through. She has only done this 2 nights her whole lil' life. Any tips?

Where I live Friday-Living Room Edition

I'm participating in the "Where you Live Friday." We live in an apartment right now to save money in order to buy a house in the next couple of years. Although, I never really wanted to live in an apartment again, I have to say our apartment is pretty nice. It works better for us than our house that we rented did. Our babies have room to crawl and lots of places to crawl around and eventually walk.

This is our living room from the front door.



This is our audio center that I am pretty proud of. I'm not a very crafty person so designing an audio center for our needs is pretty awesome. The design at the bottom?? I put that in... OH yea!



Our t.v. and our "living room" toys. We have toys in pretty much every area of the house!



The look from our living room into the dining room.

Baby Schedules

Everyday I get asked how I do it. "How do you handle twins when I can not even handle my one?" I think this is a dumb question. What am I supposed to do, not take care of one? When you have two babies you just have to take care of them both-you don't really get a choice. But I do know one thing: having a schedule with twins for me is KEY! Since the girls were born, I have kept a pretty strict schedule. It is hard to remember sometimes that they are two seperate babies but for the most part, the girls have ate, slept, and played at the same time, TOGETHER-which has saved me numerous hours of sleep and work. Of course, as they have grown older, I have had to switch around naps and bottles according to their needs but they always do everything together. Right now, they are taking two naps and drinking 4 bottles a day. But I can see that they are starting to not want that second bottle so at some point, I am going to switch it around so they won't be starving by lunch. That is a big factor to scheduling for twins-you have to go with their needs or it will never work.

Some people think I am nuts because I rarely go away from our schedule. I find that when I do, the babies are cranky and do not eat or sleep well. This might be to my detriment when they get older but I think it is the parent's responsibility to make sure that your baby knows what they are going to do during the day. It gives the baby a sense of security knowing exactly what is going to happen. Not to mention, that it makes it 1000x easier when they are newborns. Here is what we do during the day:

6:30-7 A.M: Wake-up for the day; 6 oz bottle
7-8:15-Playtime
8:15-8:45-Breakfast
8:45-9:00-get dressed; read books
9-10:15 Naptime
10:15-11:00-Playtime
11-6 ozs (but they are really eating about 2-3 now)
12:15-Lunchtime
12:45-2 Playtime
2-3:15 Naptime
3:15-4 Playtime (depending on how cranky they wakeup we might have a snack)
4-6 ozs
4:15-5 Play with daddy; most of the time we take walks outside
5-6 play with daddy
6-dinner
6:45-7:15 Bathtime (we love bathes!)
7:30-6 ozs and bedtime

This is what we do pretty much everyday over and over. If I go out such as if I need to go grocery shopping or want to go somewhere, I do it during one of their playtimes. I try to never go out during their naps or even when they are supposed to eat. It's hard feeding two babies on the go! On the weekends, we have a lot of leeway. Since daddy is with us and he can help with feeding and crankiness, we go to big sister's soccer games, grocery shopping, out to eat, etc...

I think having a schedule has really helped my children to be such good little girls! :) Hopefully, I can make this happen with any other children I have.

Look at these beautiful girls!!

When are we going to get some sleep??

So sleep around here is a rare commodity. Well, maybe not that dire but seriously aren't 10 month olds supposed to sleep through the night? Let me clarify: Jocey sleeps like a champ=Adey throws parties every morning starting around 3:30 and ending at all different times. Sometimes they don't end...Let me start off by saying that my 9 year old slept in bed with me. There might be some people that absolutely love co-sleeping-I have no problems with that but I hated it!! I can't sleep, I need to be able to roll around and sleep like an angel if I want to. Devanne slept with me until she was 2 at which time it took me MONTHS to get her to sleep in her own bed. When I was pregnant with the girls, I told my husband, NO way, NO how were they going to sleep in our beds! And I have pretty much stuck to that. We had a co-sleeper that we hooked to our beds when they were newborns. I always put them down in their beds, I rarely held them when they were sleeping. As they got older, I tweaked their schedule to their sleeping needs. When they were 3 months olds, we moved them to their own cribs in their own rooms. We would feed them at 7, go to bed, dream feed at 10 and they would sleep until 5 where they would dream feed again and go back to sleep until 9. Man! those were the days...

Until recently, I had them going to bed at 8:30 and wishing that they would sleep until 7:30. I figured out that this wasn't working for Adey so I switched to have them sleeping at 7:30 and waking up at 6:30. This worked for about 3 days. Last night Adey woke up at 3:45 and had a party in her bed until 5. At this point she was screaming her head off and I had to get up to give her her binkie. She actually fell back to sleep which I was grateful for because this does not always happen.

This weekend I am planning on taking away their binkies. I feel mixed on this because I know that I want them gone by 12 months but those are my lifeline to getting ANY sleep. I have read books, I have a super strict schedule-what else can I do?

New Blog and a Promise

So I started a new blog because I couldn't get the other one I had to look the way I wanted it to (blogger designs is a WHOLE other post), but I am determined to do a better job at blogging. When the twins came I promised myself that I would write every little thing down in their baby books but they are only about half-way filled up. I feel like time is passing crazy fast and I want to document my family's lives before I become old and senile. So here's an update:

Devanne is going to be 10 years old next month! She just started 4th grade and doing wonderfully as always. She is such a little smarty pants. Her biggest milestone as of late is getting a cell phone. I always told myself that I wouldn't let her have a cell phone until she was at least 13 (even though everyone else has one, MOM!) but I decided to let her walk to school this year. Usually I am pretty strict about making her go everywhere with me or another adult but I just couldn't see getting the twins out of the house every single morning like I did last year. The school is only .3 miles away and there are crossguards on every corner so I let my baby fly the nest. I did get her a cell phone (which she was more than thrilled with) and she has to text me every morning when she hits the school doorsteps. She has done pretty good at that except for one day-I automatically called the school asking if she was there!She is playing soccer again this season and has gotten quite good. I really enjoy going to her games now! She is still my little helper with the babies. She loves them to pieces and their eyes light up everytime she enters the room. I can't believe how big she is getting. Before I know it... she is going to be a teenager!

Jocelyn and Adelyn are 10 months old (did I just say that?). 10 months! 2 more months until their 1st birthday!!! That is insane to me. My two babies could not be more different than one another. Jocelyn is outgoing and constantly moving. She learned how to army crawl a couple of weeks ago and will now not stop until naptime. SHe is constantly rolling and crawling. She is a terror of our kitties. But her smile and eyes will stop you in your tracks. She "talks" constantly and can say "mama," "dada," "nana", and "lala." Her new favorite is "goo-goo, gah gah" Way to be such a baby! She is constantly interacting with anyone that crosses her path. She laughs hysterically. She has started pulling herself up on things now and even almost escaped the bathtub last night!

Adelyn is my little sweetheart. She has not learned how to crawl yet. She gets so frustrated when her sister crawls off without her. She does not babble as Jocey does but mainly just listens to her sister. She has had a few health problems that are all starting to come together. She was having febrile seizures that landed her in the hospital for a week at a time. She would stop breathing and Josh even had to do CPR. It was the scariest moment in my entire life. We have since figured out that she has kidney reflux. It is where her pee refluxes back into her kidneys causing UTI's. The UTI's cause fevers and then she has seizures. She is on antibiotics for the next year. We are hoping that she will grow out of the reflux so she won't have to have surgery. She was on a seizure medication when I decided to take her off of it (against medical advice). She was a little baby zombie. She wouldn't sleep at night-tossing, turning, moaning, and groaning so during the day she couldn't even keep her head up. She wasn't moving or talking at 9 months old. Since taking her off the medication, she has really started to open up. She is starting to squeal and get her voice out there. She is rolling and trying to crawl. She has started to drink from a sippy cup-all of this in a span of 2 weeks. She loves her sisters and loves to "talk" and laugh at Jocey. She loves her mama...she is still having a hard time going to sleep and staying assleep but I am not sure what we are going to do about this.

Josh and I are doing fine. We love our life with our kids. They really are everything to us. Josh got a new job working for the state which is about an hour commute each way. He hates it but it is paying the bills and gives us great health insurance. I hope he finds something soon that he will enjoy doing. We are contemplating on having another child. We both know that we want one more and the time just seems right since I am going to graduate with my bachelor's degree in 2 years and would love to go back to work after. The new baby would be old enough for daycare and the girls would be in preschool. It seems so crazy but right. We will have to see how that one goes.

Hopefully, I am going to post everyday at least a little something. Without further delay, here's my beautiful kids!