This Girl is a Guest Blogger!!

You guys, I think I am {finally} a legit blogger because I am being featured on another blog!  I know what you're thinking.  How can someone who posts {maybe} once a month make it as a guest blogger somewhere else? Well, I am kind of asking myself that too.  But lo and behold, today you can find me over at Twin Talk Blog where I will be sharing the boys' birth story.  

I never imagined I would be a Birth Story Sharing Kinda Blogger, but if you are at all interested in a little insight into Henry and Parker's big debut, head on over to Twin Talk Blog today.  And if you are a twin mom yourself, FOR SURE add Twin Talk to your blog list because it is an awesome community of twin moms!  Meredith and Amber, both mothers of twins and even from the DFW area, started the blog together as a way to share and collaborate with other moms on ALL THINGS TWINS.  Like if you were/are super googling during your pregnancy about twin births or wondering what the heck your twin baby bump was going to look like at week 32, then this my friend is the place for you. {Sidenote: I do not want to relive what my belly looked like, ahh}  Meredith and Amber, as well as tons of other twin moms {::cough::me::cough} share everything from their favorite baby products, great ideas for what to feed your littles, and even help you find other Twin Mamas in your area for TWIN PLAY DATES.  Can you even imagine?  I guarantee you will want to be BFFs with all the awesome ladies on Twin Talk.

Ok whew.  Twin mom rant over.  Welcome to any new readers who found me from my guest post and DISCLAIMER: I submitted my birth story post to the blog like months ago, for real.  I don't even remember what all I wrote, so I hope I don't cringe when I read it.  But yes, welcome!

That's me and my husband Mark, Parker (on the left) and Henry (on the right).  

When Meredith emailed me to let me know that my story would be on their blog today, she was like OMG I can't believe your girl turned out to be a boy and I was like OMG I can't believe I actually kind of forgot about all that!!  Or at least I don't think of it that often.  These little guys are so a part of our family that I cannot even dream what it would be like if we had a girl in the mix instead.  The picture above is actually from July 4, taken outside our house.  We recreated a picture we took last year on the fourth, which I posted on social media as an announcement about my pregnancy:

Notice anything different?  Yes, last year we had a blue chair and a pink chair.  This year, we replaced that pink with another blue.  It was a truly shocking and fun surprise to hear that nurse say, "oh they're both boys!" right after our little guys were born.  The brother bond Henry and Parker already share is the best thing ever.  And I don't think Henry even notices that his bed is pink....... ;)

In other news, school inservice starts on Monday for me, so tomorrow is actually my last official day of summer vacation and my last day to be home with the boys.  I am sad but also so excited to start a new year and get back into the swing of the school routine.  We are laying low this weekend and hopefully will have a smooth transition back to my Working Mom schedule.  The boys and I have been busy making the most of our freedom these past several weeks by visiting grandparents, hitting up the pool and taking lots of walks before it gets to be 104 degrees outside.  My parents live on a ranch, and Henry got such a kick out of "driving" their mule around their property every morning we were there, to check on the cows!  

Everyone have a good weekend!  And don't forget to follow Twin Talk.  They are also on Instagram here.  If you are a twin mom and blogger too, leave me your link!  I am always looking for others to follow.  And if you don't have a blog, let me know where you are from.  Any Dallas area moms?  I'd love to get together!  Twins or no twins!

xoxo

Brothers

Both boys are home!!!

Henry (L) and Parker (R)

This picture was taken just after both boys had their baths.  They were all clean and cozy and happy to be getting ready to eat.  Too bad we didn’t know at this point that they would both have major meltdowns later that night.  Oy!

Parker came home on Tuesday, on his three week birthday.  Yesterday was the first time since October first that neither Mark nor I had to go to the hospital.  That’s 51 days straight of being there or visiting to see the boys.  What a great feeling!  We are all at home together, all our stuff is here at the house, and we don’t have to mess with nurses or doctors or heart monitors or trying to find enough chairs in our NICU room for both Mom and Dad to sit and hold a baby.  What a relief.  I just have to remind myself of these feelings at 4:00 in the morning, when Henry and Parker are both crying and hungry at the exact same time.  Thank goodness they don’t out number Mark and me!  Sleep is overrated, right?

Homecoming

Henry came home from the hospital on November 11, when he was 13 days old.  Having him at home with us is like a party every day, a party that I was waiting to throw for the two long weeks since he was born.  It is bittersweet though, since Parker is still in the NICU.  Knowing that Henry is with us all day every day, getting snuggles and kisses, while Parker is still in his little bed at the hospital gives me plenty of tears and heartache.  Now that we have Henry at home, I can’t go visit Parker as often, since we can’t take Henry back up to the hospital.  So either Mark and I go one at a time when he is home from work, or we get our parents to come stay at the house with Henry while we go up to the hospital.  This means that we really only get to see P for a few hours each day.  It tugs at my heart for sure.

Well we just got some great news that will hopefully be putting all this behind us for good!  Parker’s nurse practitioner called to let us know that they are taking his feeding tube out today (!!!) and letting him try all eight feedings a day on his own (!!!)  If he can successfully eat on his own for 48 hours, he gets to come home!!  So that would mean Parker will be home with us on Tuesday.  Henry had the same process when he was discharged and passed his 48 hour observation with no problems, so I just know his brother will have the same results.  After a month and a half of being at or going to the hospital daily, the thought of being at home with our whole family all day is like Christmas come early. {Side note: I don’t even want to think about how much we’ve paid the hospital in parking fees alone.  No free parking over almost 50 days of visits, eek.}

So please pray for our sweet Parker, that he has no problems over the next two days, so we can get him out of there for good and at home with us!!  Henry is anxious to show his brother the ropes of living at home.  And these two boys haven’t been side by side since they were in the womb.  Now that they are nearly three weeks old, I can’t wait to get them back snuggled up together.  I think Parker owes Henry some kicks and jabs :)

And now, to celebrate Parker’s upcoming homecoming, here’s some pictures from when Henry came home last week!

Even though I’d been walking in and out of that hospital for the past ten days, they still had to wheel me out in a wheelchair holding Henry when it was finally time to leave.  

3/4 of our family

Dad buckles him in for the ride home!

Mom rides in the backseat, to keep an eye on Henry during his first car ride

Like a champ.  Slept the entire way home.

SURPRISE!!

Friends!  I have not abandoned you!  Even though it has been a week since I've last posted, it has been one of the craziest, BEST weeks of my life.  I have so much to update everyone on, which I will work on doing in a few posts.

Let's start with the best news... the babies are here!!!!  And.. we have one sneaky little trickster on our hands, because Baby Girl was actually a Baby BOY!  Yes.  That was a shock to say the least.  So our little girl name, Annabelle Grace, was not going to work.  So poor little guy was just "Baby B" for the first day of his life while we pondered his new name.  Mark and I knew right away though, but just wanted to sleep on it to make sure.

Introducing....

Henry Alan and Parker Alan

Born October 29, 2013

4:21 and 4:23 p.m.

Henry came in at 5 pounds, 9 ounces (it's his big head), Parker at 5 pounds, 3 ounces

It's been a whirlwind of a week.  I am home now, but both boys are still in the NICU at the hospital.  I have so much to share, so I'll start updating more on the blog today.  But in the meantime, they are doing great, we are in love, and I'm trying to catch up on all that nesting I missed while I was on bed rest and before they come home... hopefully soon!

Thank you to everyone for the prayers, good thoughts, gifts, calls and visits while I was waiting out these little guys' arrival.  I can't believe I missed the entire month of October inside those hospital walls. But it was 100% worth it!

Breaking News!

We interrupt our regular blogging with this breaking news --- I am at home!!  Yes.  Home.  In my own bed, on my own sheets, and showering in my own, made-for-a-grown-up shower. (Did I ever mention the hospital shower was a whopping 2 feet wide and shaped like a tiny triangle??)

Yesterday morning, when my doctor came by to see me, she told me she had a "proposal" for me.  I could go home and continue on bed rest there.  Everything they were monitoring for me was staying so steady, that I could go home, check my blood pressure several times a day, promise to stay in bed, and come back to be checked twice a week in the doctor's office.  HECK YES.  I called Mark, who left work to come pack me up and we happily signed the paperwork and left. The nurses said there was a good chance that I would eventually be readmitted, but I told them that if I even got to spend two days at home and then had to come back, it would be so worth it.  So for the past 24 hours, I've been at home.  It's been so fantastic!

To make yesterday even more of {The Best Day Ever}, my sweet Book Club friends surprised me by all coming over last night and bringing a delicious HOMEMADE dinner!  After two weeks of eating hospital food and take out, I had two large helpings of a regular meal from home.  My friend Christina had told me last week that she wanted to bring me dinner this week, so when she asked yesterday if she could bring it up last night, I happily accepted with the change of bringing it to our HOUSE instead of the hospital (woo!).  So when the doorbell rang and Christina walked in, imagine my surprise when three other friends followed her in the door!

We all enjoyed the yummy dinner (me laying on the couch).  It was the perfect end to my first day back at home.  Laying in your own bed all day is so, so, so much better than a hospital bed!  Hopefully I can stay here for the remainder of my pregnancy.  Fingers crossed!

And now I can eat ice cream whenever I want to

Hello my Loves!

Oh hey, it's been another month since I've posted.  And so it goes.  We'll just move right past that, shall we?

What have we been up to lately?  Well, quite a lot.  On the off chance that you are reading this and I don't actually know you in real life, then boy do I have some news for you.

Yes, that is two babies.  Twins.  We are having twins.  A boy and a girl.  Holy cow.

If you do know me in real life, you likely know that I have ALWAYS WANTED TWINS.  For as long as I can remember, I have had this feeling that I would have twins.  Like I knew it was destined to happen.  So now that it is actually happening, it just feels normal.  I've always told Mark I was going to have twins (ok so maybe not during our early days of dating, but once we got serious/married/somewhere along the line I told him how I knew this was going to happen), so over the years he has even made comments like "well when we have our twins..." or "since we're going to have twins..."  It has sort of been our little joke whenever we would talk about our future family.  When we got married three years ago, our loose plan was always to start a family when I turned 30.  I knew I wanted lots of kids (ok, like 3 or 4), so I always told him once we started, we'd have to have a bunch back to back, so I wouldn't be having babies for an entire decade.  But even he would point out, well we're going to have twins, so that will help.

Well then in November, I turned 30.  So we put the plan into action.  Ok, maybe the plan went more into action sometime in year 29, but now here we are, five months pregnant with two little babies.  When I had my first sonogram around week 6, the doctor leaned over to tell me, "Amanda, there are two."  To which I said, "Okay."  Mark wasn't even there.  He had just started a new job and didn't want to take off, so I went by myself.  I remember the nurse in the room leaning over to see me and saying something like, "Is your husband going to be okay with this news?"  And I was like of course he is!  When I left the appointment, I drove back to work thinking holy cow, it's all really happening.  As cheesy as it might sound, I felt like I was getting everything I had always wanted.  How did I get so lucky?

Since we're just past the 20-week mark, I am definitely already at least halfway through this pregnancy.  Twins come early, so I won't be seeing week 40.  Which blows my mind.  It has been pretty darn easy, so far.  Until recently, I've hardly even felt different, which I know is such a blessing.  In fact, sometimes I think I am not milking this nearly enough, since I'm not getting any sympathy for carrying around two growing humans all day, every day.  As a matter of fact, as I type this, Mark is out buying me ice cream because I pulled the pregnancy card out for the first time EVER tonight.  It went like this:

Amanda: Hubs, I really wish I had some ice cream.

Mark: {silence}

A: Huuuuuubbs, I am pregnant and I want ice cream!  You are supposed to go get me whatever I want, whenever I want it!

M: But it's raining.

A: Even more perfect!  Just like the husbands in the movies who run out to the store to buy whatever their pregnant wives want, even if it's snowing and in the middle of the night!

M: If I go get you ice cream will you make dinner tomorrow night?

A: Su----

M: And it can't be a pizza.

A: Oh. Well what am I supposed to make then?! {wife of the year here}

M: ...

A: Ok!  I will make tacos!  Can you pick up some taco stuff while you are out?

M: {eye roll, but gets up to put his shoes on}

A: {thinking Yes!  This is actually working!}  Oh and can you get some Tums too?  The berry kind?

And so, Mark is currently out buying multiple flavors of Bluebell for yours truly, along with some heartburn medicine.  Pregnancy for the win!

I wouldn't really say we've been in denial about this huge life change that is quickly approaching, but we are definitely very chill about it.  So much so, that until recently, we had not purchased a single thing for the babies.  No booties, cute little toys, not even a single onesie.  Sure we hit up all the baby mega stores quite often to look around, and we always breeze through the baby section at Target now, but we had not spent a single dollar on anything.  Our anniversary was last week and we decided rather than spend money on dinner or presents or even cards for each other, instead we'd actually go out and buy something for the kiddos.  But then that night, after Mark got home from work and I got back form babysitting, we just didn't feel like going out to shop.  So I did some online spending instead and today my order was delivered.  So, these little babies officially own their first articles of clothing:

My two little foxes.