Brave Family Life: November 2016

Will and James | 12 Months

10:31 AM

12 Months! 12 Months! My baby boys have turned one! I can't believe that a year has gone by since I first got to meet my amazing little boys. This has been by far the best year of my life. There have definitely been times that have been challenging but the year overall has been amazing, fun, exciting, full of firsts and I loved every minute of it!

James

Height: 31 inches (Birth 18.5 inches)

Weight: 22 lbs 11oz (Birth 5 lbs 9oz)

William

Height: 31 inches (Birth 18.5 inches)

Weight: 22 lbs 11oz (Birth 5 lbs 13oz)

EAT

Food, my boys sure do love Food! They have become a little pickier this month as they have learned that some foods are yummier than others. For example muffins and pancakes are yummier than just about any vegetable. So I have had to sneak the veggies in where I can.

They tired a few new "foods" (mostly junk food) this month! My parents came to visit this month and my dad Geep was excited to have the boys try whipped cream for the first time. This was a huge hit with William while James on the other hand wanted nothing to do with it, even wiping it off his tongue so funny! They also go to try ice cream and cake. We had photos taken for the boys first birthday and that involved a cake smash, which was basically a complete disaster. My boys hated the frosting and wanted nothing to do with it.

They boys continue to nurse about 4 times a day mostly just before going to sleep for naps and bed and when they wake up in the morning.

SLEEP

The boys sleep this month continues to be excellent. Not much has changed to their routine. We continue to start their bedtime routine with bath time at just about 6pm and they are headed upstairs for bottle and songs by 6:30. They are sleeping most nights until 7:00-7:30 in the morning. During the day they take 2 naps for the most part unless we are out and about during one of the nap times. Their first nap is usually around 9:30-10:00 and lasts anywhere from 1-2 hours. Their second nap varies more just depending on when they get up from their first nap and how quickly they get tired, so they can go down as early as 2:00 and as late as 3:30 and this nap last 1-1.5 hours usually.

GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT and PLAY
This has been a fun month as the boys continue to grow and develop. They seem to really be understanding things now. In the past the boys have been mostly about destruction: taking things apart, knocking down towers, pulling things out of boxes/buckets, but this month they are starting to work on putting things in boxes/buckets and slowly starting to try to stack items instead of just knocking them down.

For several months now I have been using just a few signs with the boys: more, please, and all done, to try and give them a way to communicate with me. This month the boys have started to intentionally use the signs more and please correctly and independently. Their signs don't really look like the actual signs but they are consistent and used with intent so I'll take it!

The boys now know what shoes and socks are for and will attempt to put them on their feet. They are no where near close to actually getting them on but it is really cute to watch them attempt it. They will basically place their sock on top of their foot!

Another big thing this month is the boys are starting to try to imitate sounds/words. William has tried to say bye-bye and James tried to say the word duck which came out as "dut".

This month my parents came to visit! We got to spend 12 days with them and that was lots of fun. While they were here we went to the park, hung swings on the back patio for the boys, visited Yosemite National Park. The boys loved spending time with Grambie and Geep.

And of course this month we celebrated the boys birthday! We didn't really have a party for them, but we did have a little celebration when our friends were visiting for Halloween. Unfortunately Christopher was gone on the boys actual birthday, but I did my best to make to boys feel special on their day! We started the day off with muffins and presents and then spent the day at the zoo with our friends. The boys wore their adorable birthday hats from their Auntie Lauren (I was surprised that they left them on for the whole day, but they did and they got lots of attention at the zoo!)

Birthday Celebration with daddy! Opening presents from mommy and daddy and from our friends Kate, Ross, and Joan.

Morning of the boys actual Birthday November 4, 2016. After breakfast they got to open more presents from Aunt Beth and Uncle Mike and Grandma and Grandpa.

We spent the rest of the day celebrating at the zoo! Both boys got to feed the giraffes lettuce!

James

My Sweet baby James,

Happy Birthday to you! I can't believe a whole year has gone by since I first got to meet you and hold you in my arms. This has been the best year of my life and I have loved watching you grow and develop into the funny, sweet and energetic little boy you have become. You are becoming more adventurous and love going to the park; and especially love riding to the park in your wagon! You still give me the BEST hugs: holding on to me so tight and snuggling your face into my neck. You love your brother (as long as he's not stealing your toys) your dogs and your mommy and daddy! You really enjoy music and will dance to it. You and your brother have a favorite dancing ghost from halloween who I will be sad to put away since you love dancing to the music that plays. I love your sweet personality! I can't wait to continue watching you grow! I love you more than you will ever know Jamie James.

I Love you so so so so so much

William

My William Clayton,

Happy First Birthday to You!! I can hardly believe that a year has gone by since the night you were born. This has been an amazing year and I have loved every minute of watching you grow and develop your silly and sweet personality. You my sweet boy are becoming so brave: you are starting to try to climb things (which is fun and scary). You love going to the park and will head to your wagon as soon as I ask if you want to go. This month I have learned that you definitely know what you want and you have an opinion even if you can't voice it quite yet with words! You let me know that there is something you want and will usually let me know that I'm not getting it for you quick enough! You are so sweet to me and will pat my on the back when I hold you. You love to listen to music and will dance along; especially with your dancing ghost, who you request to have dance multiple times throughout the day. You love your brother and playing out back in your playhouse with him, you love your mommy and daddy and your dogs too! You are an amazing blessing William. I can't wait to watch you grow and to see who you will become! I love you even more than words can say!

I love you so so so so so much

William and James: 12 Month Adventures Together

At the pediatrician's office: Before Shots

After Shots

12 months

Happy First Birthday Eve Will and James | A look back at 1 Year Ago Today

7:57 PM

My last Belly picture: I know it says 35 weeks, but it was actually taken 3 days before the boys were born.

Today is the last day my baby boys won't be one. Tomorrow is their first birthday and I have no idea where the time has gone! As the boys birthday has been approaching I have found myself reminiscing about what I was doing last year at this time. Anxiously waiting to meet my sweet baby boys. By this point last year I had made it to 36 weeks and (after spending much of my pregnancy worrying about the boys coming too early) was ready for the babies to come at anytime.

This day last year I woke up feeling as though my right leg was swelling while my left leg was not. My doctor sent me to labor and delivery to have the swelling checked out (part of me was hoping that they would decide I needed to have the babies). I spent several hours sitting in a hospital bed hooked up to monitors listening to the boys heart beats while I waited to have an ultrasound done on my leg to make sure there wasn't a blood clot. One of the monitors was checking contractions and apparently I was have contractions every so often, but it wasn't anything I could feel. I was lucky no blood clot, beautiful sounding babies and was sent home just being told to prop my feet up (something I had become very good at since being placed on bed rest at 21 weeks). I spent the rest of the evening resting on the couch, napping and chatting on the phone with my friends complaining that the boys were never coming out!! By 10 o'clock I was exhausted and decided I needed to head to bed. I kissed Chris goodnight and headed off to sleep, not knowing that I would be awake in 2 hours and our lives were going to change forever.

At midnight I woke up to make one of my many usual trips to the restroom, just as I was getting ready to head back to bed I felt something that made me stop, water running down my leg. At first I was slightly unsure of what was happening but then the large amount of water that I felt left me in no doubt that my water was breaking. I couldn't believe it, hadn't I just been complaining that I was going to be pregnant forever, I knew that no matter what happened from that point on I would be meeting my baby boys in no more than 24 hours. I went to wake Chris, who had just laid down to sleep, called my doctors office and took a shower to relax and wait for contractions to start or a call back from my doctors office to tell me what to do.

After waiting for an hour and a half I hadn't heard back from my doctors office, but I was experiencing a constant pain in my lower abdomen that was slowly becoming increasingly more painful. I wasn't sure if I was having contractions or not because there was no ebb and flow of pain, which is what I expected the contractions to be like. Once it became hard for me to walk around with the pain I decided we should head to the hospital telling Chris the worst thing they could do was send us home. We made it to the hospital around 2:00am and after checking to make sure that my water had actually broken, which it had, they took us to a labor and delivery room. I was changed into a hospital gown, met my nurses and the on call doctor who would be delivering the babies and then checked to see how much progress was being made. I was already dilated to 7cm! I remember being in so much pain that it was hard to lay in the bed, using choice words to describe the pain I was in and then apologizing about my language to the nurses (who reassured me that there was no need to apologize and that they had definitely heard worse). I finally started to feel some sort of contractions, but the pain never went away it was either extremely painful or just a little less painful. In-between these painful contractions I had to sign papers, giving them permission to do a c-section if necessary, allowing them to give me an epidural, etc., and meet poor med students who had to introduce themselves to me letting me know that they would be in while I delivered. I couldn't wait to get my epidural and by the time the anesthesiologist made it to my room I was already 9 cm and the babies were sitting extremely low. The anesthesiologist had to place my epidural while I was laying on my side instead of sitting up on the edge of the bed like they normally do. The anesthesiologist was wonderful, she was very kind, she did worn me that sometimes when epidurals are placed this late into labor they don't always work as effectively as they are supposed to. After hearing this I looked at her and told her she needed to make it work! Once the catheter was placed and the normal epidural drugs where flowing she proceeded to pump in several other drugs to try and get the epidural working. At first all it did was numb my legs which was disappointing, but eventually the pain in my abdomen melted away and I was able to relax for the first time, It Was AMAZING!!!

Soon after receiving the epidural the doctor came back in to check on me and determined that I was 10cm and ready to push. He had me do a few practice pushes in the room we were in and by that time James was just about ready to come. (When you deliver twins you have to deliver in the OR just incase they have to do a c-section) So we were wheeled down the hall and into the operating room. There were lots of people in there: Each baby had two nurses, I had two nurses, there was the doctor delivering me, my doctors boss, a few med students and of course Christopher. Once everything, and everyone, was in place it was time to meet our boys. I pushed a few more times and at 4:47 James was born, after he was taken to be cleaned up and weighed it was time to push again and at 4:53 William was born just six short minutes after his brother and my life has never been the same!

I look back on that night wishing I could go back sometimes, it was the most amazing night (technically morning) of my life. I put my babies to bed tonight on the eve of their birthday thinking of those tiny babies who a year ago made me a mommy and I have tears in my eyes. I can't believe a whole year has gone by. My sweet boys have grown and changed so much! They are sweet and silly, they are becoming stronger and braver every day! I am so blessed that I get to be their mommy!

Of course a story about the night Will and James were born wouldn't be complete without a few pictures of my itty bitty babies! Happy Birthday Eve my sweet boys!! I can't wait to celebrate you tomorrow!!!

Family Costume

Happy Halloween | 2016

3:40 PM

Lions and Tigers and Bears OH MY! Lions and Tigers and Bears OH MY!

Happy "Be-lated" Halloween!! We had a great time this past weekend introducing the boys to dressing up, trick or treating and candy!!

We were lucky to have one of my childhood friends, Kate, her husband and daughter in town for a little Halloween fun! The boys enjoyed spending the weekend playing with their friend who they normally only see over FaceTime.

The boys started off their first halloween with a spooky breakfast to get them into the mood.

We spent the afternoon playing with our friend and taking a trip to the park.

We were very happy that Chris was able to make it home from work early enough to go trick or treating with us. He was an important part of our halloween costume. We decided to go with a family costume this year and dressed up as "Lions and Tigers and Bears... Oh My!!"

The boys thought that they looked pretty cute with the hoods of their costumes on for about 1 minute before taking them off. But while they had them on they were oh so cute!

My smiley Lion, Will, and Tiger, James.

Once we were dressed and had taken a few pictures, we headed out to trick or treat. The boys enjoyed holding onto their buckets and trying to break into the candy they received. They did get into a kit kat at some point during the night and really enjoyed it!