Preemie Poem

Did you ever wonder how the mothers of premature babies are chosen? Somehow, I visualize God hovering over Earth, selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As he observes, he instructs his angels to take notes in a giant ledger. "Beth Armstrong, son. Patron Saint, Matthew. Marjorie Forrest, daughter. Patron Saint, Celia. Carrie Rutledge, twins. Patron Saint ... give her Gerard. He's used to profanity." Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles. "Give her a preemie."

The angel is curious. "Why this one, God? She's so happy."

"Exactly," smiles God. "Could I give a premature baby a mother who knows no laughter? That would be cruel."

"But does she have the patience?" asks the angel.

"I don't want her to have too much patience, or she'll drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wear off, she'll handle it. I watched her today. She has that sense of self and independence so rare and so necessary in a mother. You see, the child I'm going to give her has a world of its own. She has to make it live in her world, and that's not going to be easy."

"But Lord, I don't think she even believes in you."

God smiles. "No matter, I can fix that. This one is perfect. She has just the right amount of selfishness."

The angel gasps, "Selfishness?! Is that a virtue?"

God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she will never survive. Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect. She doesn't know it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a spoken word. She will never consider a step ordinary. When her child says 'mama' for the first time, she will be witness to a miracle and know it. I will permit her to see clearly the things I see – ignorance, cruelty, prejudice – and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side."

"And what about her Patron Saint?" asks the angel, his pen poised in the air. God smiles.


"A mirror will suffice."

A Poem by Erma Bombeck that meant a lot to me. ♥

Starting Solids

My twins are 6 months old tomorrow. I can’t believe how fast this is going. People say it all the time but there are moments when you just want to slow the clock down. There are moments where I hold them tight and try to engrave the moment in my memory so I can remember every feeling and sense of that very second.

Today was a big first. We let the twins try their first “solid” food. The twins do not go to the doctor again until December 20^th. This will be their “6 month check-up.” At the last appointment the doctor said we would discuss starting solids at this visit.

I had a feeling the twins wanted something more than a bottle for a couple of weeks now. I started reading and researching about preemies and how and when to introduce foods. To make a long story short tonight Mike and I gave the twins their first solid food. They had Oatmeal Cereal mixed really running with breast milk. I am staying away from the Rice Cereal because of all the recent arsenic issues.

They loved it! They pushed most out of their mouth with their tongues… but they loved every second of it.

It was actually so much fun giving it to them and watching them.

They were opening wide, cooing, and grabbing the spoons from us.

Here are some pictures!

Thanksgiving

I am thankful for this wonderful life I live every single day! I love more than I can ever say with words... and am so thankful for this blessed life. Thank you God for this amazing life and all the wonders of the world.

Picture time!






My amazing mom made these for both sets of twins!

Yes Twins Run in my Family!

I got pregnant naturally with my twins at 26 years old. Three months later my 1st cousin got pregnant naturally with twins at 25 years old. We both had di/di twins. Here is a picture of us and our babies :)

Post-Partum Problems

Post-Partum Problems

So I have had a lot of  post-partum problems that I have brushed off as normal and doubly normal due to the fact that I have two infants and life can sometimes be a little hectic and stressful.

But I just learned that I had a bigger health issue that was intensifying these things.

 “Hey, I just had two babies!” With the value of hindsight I should have questioned some of these things…

   Here are the symptoms I had:

·         Extreme tiredness

·         Sluggishness

·         Foggy Memory/Scattered Thoughts

·         Anxiety

·         Irritability

·         Mood Swings

·         Stress

·         Increased appetite

·         Hair Loss

·         Weight Gain-  I lost 27 pounds 6 weeks post and I am now up 3 pounds since then. I lost the 27lbs fast and then would not lose more and slowing started gaining. I gained 40ish so am still not near pre-preggo stats.

Why I didn’t think anything of the symptoms?

·         Extreme tiredness – I have two infants, they sleep well but I don’t sleep as well because I am always in “alert” mommy mode. I am breastfeeding two babies it drains me. It really does… I feel asleep pumping just the other day.

·         Sluggishness – I don’t sleep as well.

·         Foggy Memory/Scattered Thoughts – I don’t sleep as well. Always trying to do too much.

·         Anxiety – I am a new mom! Trying to do everything the best I can!

·         Irritability – I have a lot on my plate.

·         Mood Swings – I have a lot on my plate.

·         Stress – I have a lot on my plate! Stress is good because it helps you get things done!

·         Increased appetite – I am breastfeeding two babies! I was told by many doctors I need to eat more.

·         Hair Loss – my hair got really thick and pretty during pregnancy… so now I am shedding it.

·         Weight Gain – my increased appetite and not having time or energy to work out.

So what’s the real issue?

One I don’t like to admit that anything is wrong with me and all these things can pass as normal symptoms of post pregnancy and I was justifying the intensity of them by saying well I had two babies.

The real issue is I have Thyroid disease.

During my pregnancy I was found to have a hypothyroid. This was discovered at my 8 week ultrasound by a blood test. My doctor put me on a low dose of synthriod to help correct my thyroid. Hypothyroid means my body does not produce enough thyroid hormone, so I have what is called low thyroid counts. I asked the doctor if the pregnancy caused my low thyroid and she said no. I had the issue before I became pregnant. She said most people development low thyroid after pregnancy. At this time my thyroid (TSH) level was a 5 (in Nov 2011), which my doctor explained to me is just outside of the normal limits. My thyroid was tested several more times throughout my pregnancy and was found to be in normal ranges.

Last week I went to my general physician. I needed a synthriod refill, so he retested my blood to know where my thyroid levels were. At this appointment he told me he wanted my levels to be around 1. He told me, he was surprised that my levels were a 5 and that my OB had not given me a higher dose of synthriod.  

Well my blood results just came back and my thyroid is a 17, which is considered “extremely high.” The symptoms were really from my low thyroid hormone and not normal issues of post-partum.

But having a hypothyroid is a common post-partum issues and my extra low TSH count can be a result of being pregnant.

Yesterday I was very scared about all the additional health problems that a hypothyroid can cause… but am now reassuring myself that those scary symptoms (one example: infertility) are without treatment so I should be good.

My doctor is confident that with my increased medication dosage and with time my thyroid will be corrected and my symptoms will be gone and I will be feeling much, much, much better.  I will be getting everything rechecked in 8 weeks.

Very thankful I found this out sooner than later!

If you are having some questionable symptoms post-partum do not brush them off like I did! Get them checked out! As my doctor told me, it is very common for women to have thyroid issues post-pregnancy!

As always… I hope this helps someone!

Heather

Starting Family Traditions

So I don’t know if there is a name for my need to plan and organize… whatever the case I am just really excited about Christmas this year! My babies’ first Christmas, my first Christmas as a mother, our first Christmas as a family… I am excited to make memories and start traditions!

So I have already started planning a list of outings we are going to do. My list is more complete than Richmond.com’s at this time. I am sure as things begin to post to their website the closer we get to the holiday season my schedule with be more jam packed and their will probably be some scheduling conflicts where I will have to pick and choose which events we should attend.

This is probably a new mom mistake… but I started buying holiday outfits for the twins back in August… so they already have a ton! I am sure they have way more than they need… they will have a new outfit for each outing! Hey I don’t think I will ever regret all the cute pictures in different outfits, so what the heck!

So if you are reading my blog and you don’t live in Richmond this post wouldn’t do you much good. But you could look to see if your area does some similar things! My area does a lot and this list only includes what I think/want to actually do with 7 month old babies.

 Unfortunately we will have to pass on the board way production of “The Grinch that Stole Christmas” and “The Nutcracker.”

Christmas Happenings Richmond, VA 2012

Lewis Ginter Garden

DOMINION GARDENFEST OF LIGHTS 2012

Nightly 5 - 10 p.m.

Nov. 23, 2012 - Jan. 7, 2013 (closed Dec. 24 & 25)

Dominion GardenFest of Lights is a "rain or shine" event and is only closed for extreme inclement weather. Admission: $11 adults; $10 seniors; $7 children ages 3 - 12; children under age 3 free; Garden Members $5; child on Membership (ages 3 - 18) $4; Member on Member Nights: FREE. 

Dominion GardenFest for Fidos

Select Thursdays, Nov. 29 & Jan. 3

Leashed pets allowed; suggested $2 pet admission benefits the Richmond SPCA.

Richmond Metro Zoo

Miracle of Christmas -

Live at the Zoo

You are invited to join with us as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ through a live re-enactment of the Christmas story featuring animals from the zoo. The twenty minute pageant will be presented 3 times each evening. Live music before and after each pageant will be provided by local churches and performing arts groups.

December 21, 22 and 23

7:00 p.m. - 1st Pageant

7:45 p.m. - 2nd Pageant

8:30 p.m. - 3rd Pageant

Free Admission and Parking

Maymont

Victorian Holidays

Experience the Wonders of the Season

November 16, 2012 through January 6, 2013

For seven weeks, Maymont is decked out for the holidays! Kids and adults alike will enjoy the beautiful decorations and delightful events that attract visitors from all over the country and the world. It’s a wonderful way to celebrate the season!

 

Discovery Church

Dec. 14 Living Nativity* 7:30 PM

Dec. 15 & 16 Living Nativity* 5:00 & 7:00 PM

Dec. 24 Christmas Eve Services 5:00, 6:00 & 7:00 PM

Legendary Santa Children’s Museum of Richmond will come down the chimney daily at the Children's Museum of Richmond Central Location until Christmas Eve. He will be accompanied by his lovely Snow Queen and helpful elf! A visit with Legendary Santa is free to the public. Or you can beat the lines with one of our special ticketed programs like Sunrise or Sunset with Santa.

Nov 23- Dec 23 see website times open vary by week.

 http://www.c-mor.org/legendary-santa/hours

Legendary Santa Photo Prices

Capture your magical moments with Legendary Santa! All net proceeds from photography sales will benefit the Children’s Museum of Richmond.

Digital Packages

USB Flash Drive - $27.95

(with copyright release)

Photo Packages

Save $10 on any photo package with the purchase of a digital package!

Package A - $19.95

(2) 3½ x 5 photos

Package B - $29.95

(4) 3½ x 5 photos

Package C - $29.95

(2) 5 x 7 photos

Package D - $29.95

(2) 3 ½ x 5 photos

(1) 5 x 7 photo

Richmond Christmas Parade

The 29th annual Dominion Christmas parade will take place on Saturday, December 1, 2012, at 10:00 a.m. in Richmond, Virginia. The parade will depart from the Science Museum on W. Broad Street and continue east to 7th Street.

http://richmondparade.com/

The Twins’ 1st Halloween!

The Twins’ 1^st Halloween!

They were the cutest little sock monkeys! My mom handmade the costumes… we are so blessed to have her in our lives.

I really wanted to do something with them for their first Halloween. But didn’t feel like taking them trick or treating was really appropriate since… they obviously can’t eat the candy and I would feel kind of lame walking up to people’s doors asking for candy for myself. LOL, I have to stop using I just had twins as an excuse to be fat sooner than later!

So I found that the local Children’s Museum was hosting a Halloween bash. This sounded perfect to me. We could dress the twins up and go do “something” as a family for their first Halloween.

So we dressed the twins up and went. We were there for probably 15 minutes total, 20 minutes max. We walked around checked out, had random people take their pictures, and then we went trick or treating through the little village in the museum. This was more than enough fun for our 5 month olds.

So basically it was perfect for them and us. Because we felt like we did something. We had fun dressing them up. We saw other kids and babies dressed up (which I loved). Then we came home, bathed them, feed them and put them to bed.

A pretty simple, but happy, perfect 1^st Halloween!

Here are some pictures!

A year ago...

I posted this on my facebook yesterday as halloween was the day I found out I was pregnant. We were so busy celebrating our firstr halloween yesterday I never posted it on here!

So...

A year ago  today my life forever changed...I had the worst heartburn of my life! I NEVER have heartburn... wondering what I ate to cause it... I googled "heartburn" and "early sign of pregnancy" came up in the search result. HMMM I thought. I couldnt stop thinking what if...  On my way home from work I stopped by Target and picked up an EPT. I still had a week until my missed period so I was NOT expecting too see two lines as soon as I peed on the stick!  It would be several more weeks until I got the surprise/shock of my life... and found out my baby was actually BABIES!!!!!

Tonight we celebrate our two little pumpkins' first halloween :)

Pumping at Work.

Ok. There is no way around it… it is weird and a major inconvenience in my working day. It would be WAY easier to get and just give them formula. Most of their night time bottles are formula now. Since it is hard to leave the babies with enough breast milk each day… (I have to leave 36 ounces with the granny nannies a day) They don’t get formula bottles every night and I still have 60ish ounces in the freezer (which for some reason I am guarding with my life), but giving them a formula bottle at night helps to take some of the pressure off of me to over produce. I don’t want to say that I don’t make enough because that’s not really true. The main issue is the babies just jumped from drinking 4 ounce bottles to 6 ounce bottles. They don’t always finish all of the 6 ounces but sometimes they do. So there is more waste then there use to be. A problem with scheduled feeding is the baby may not always want as much! But 4 ounces wasn’t enough and sometimes 5 ounces isn’t enough! Sometimes 6 ounces is too much! Sometimes they drink all 6 ounces so fast you think do they need more?!

SO as I was saying… It would be WAY easier to just give them all formula. But it wouldn’t be easier for my financial goals or wallet, and it wouldn’t provide the babies with my immune system and natural nutrients which is what I believe my preemies deserve!

But I have accepted the fact that is okay for them to get formula when needed because I can’t do it all!

Pumping at work… yes I have had a supply decrease but that is mainly because I am not pumping every 3 hours I am a wake like I was when I was at home with the twins. The first week I had a major drop in production, but found a few things that helped in addition to things I had already done/tried to increase production.

They are as follows

1.      Eat oatmeal! It works like crazy. Eat a couple of bowls a day. I try to eat mine towards the end of the day and before bed. So that I have time to pump it out. No point eating it first thing in the morning when it will be 6 hours before I get to pump again.

2.      Baby pictures… look at pictures of your baby while you pump, it’s a weird emotional thing that results in a larger production

3.      Drink lots and lots of water!

See pervious blog about how to increase supply: http://www.mcmunnbabies.blogspot.com/2012/08/pumping-how-to-increase-milk-supply.html

 So you can do it! You just have to decide that it is what is best for you and your family, and remember some is better than none. So if you have to give one bottle a day of formula it’s not the end of the world! My doctor told me that is the best of both worlds so that is the way I look at it.

Side note: all babies will not adjust to formula or be able to switch from breast milk to formula. I am lucky my babies take both with no problem! Also there is nothing wrong with giving your baby formula it is my personal decision to pump for my babies and I have no judgment towards mothers who do not!

As always,

Hope this helps someone!

Heather

I declare myself a working mom! The 5 year plan!

So I have been back to work for a month now. I am getting into the swing of things and there are a lot of things that I enjoy about being a working mom. I think it’s one of those things that is hard to always give a straight answer because it involves so much emotion (which is why this post is a little blah, blah, blah) and the day to day of that can always change. Sometimes I am sad to be a working mom… for example when my mom called me and said, “Heather, when did Noah start rolling over?” and my answer was I guess he started today. No mother wants to miss those firsts and I am not happy about missing those.

How have I dealt with being away from the babies?

In typical Heather fashion I have dealt with this by coming up with a detailed plan! I am always planning my next move, my future, our family’s future! This is just me. Planning out my future in blocks of times as never failed me and always helped me to achieve my goals and get what I want!  These pre planned thoughts allowed me to buy my first car by 16, get my first job after graduation, buy my first home completely on my own by 25, gain my master degree. And this one was totally out of my control but I did get married and have children before I was 30… which is something I always said I would do!

The planning of the next 5 years all started with the days leading up to returning to work. Of course the thought off returning to work and leaving the babies was hard (harder than actually doing it was!). So I would constantly say I DON’T WANT TO GO BACK TO WORK! I WANT TO BE A STAY AT HOME MOM!

(Being a stay at home mom was not even something I considered or really thought about when I was pregnant.)

My rants with Mike not wanting to return to work put some pressure on him because he was raised with a stay at home mom and a dad as a sole breadwinner.

So Mike and I comprised. I would return to work this year (I had already signed a contract) see how it goes and if I hate, I don’t have to return next year.

Well I have been back to month for a now… and I know I will be returning!

It’s nice to know with Mike’s growing business it could possibly be an opinion in the future.

But really I think I am just going to be a working mom. I am a teacher so I will always have the summers!

We have our weekends packed with family fun and we enrolled in ROMP N ROLL and are doing that one day a week after school. With these weekend fun trips and activities I feel I am able to enjoy my family and help with income so we are able to do these fun things! This is the key to me being okay for being away from them 40+ hours a week. I make the time with them count!

The detailed 5 year plan that my family has with be most successful if I am working. At the end of the 5 year plan the twins will be starting Kindergarten so they will be at school anyways. So I will keep working.

So I think I am officially declaring myself as a working mom!

The five year plan!

1.      Eliminate debt

2.      Increasing savings

3.      Purchase a minivan by end of 2014

4.      Enroll twins in Montessori preschool Fall 2015 ($) get on waiting list Fall 2014.

5.      Sell our current/house and buy a new house by the end of 2016 the twins start kindergarten in Sept 2017

6.      Have more kids? (Most likely yes and we have also discussed when but this is not blog ready information yet!)

So yeah we have a lot of things planned for the next 5 years and my income and health insurance coverage (I am the provider) will help us live the life we want to provide for our family. Mike’s business is in his third year and is growing rapidly but because of this rapid growth we are not really seeing the benefits yet because of the added expenses. For example he is now paying rent for his office space… and he will soon need a bigger space which means more money, and secondly he just hired his first employee which means someone else to pay!

So I declare myself a working mom working towards a 5 year plan and the type of life I want my family to live!

-         Heather