I have on been on a little hiatus since having those precious babies.  I have learned to make Homemade Wheat Bread!!  Not only is it actually delicious, but it's good for you.  In fact, my kids were the ones that used to take the crust off store bought bread.  Now, they eat everything!!  I no longer buy bread from the store and make 2 batches a week!  I can make this recipe all white, or add in as much or as little wheat as I want.  Gotta love it!!I got this from a great and resourceful site called Everyday Food Storage.net  go and check it out!

I have searched far and wide for a book to guide me through the trials of getting twins to sleep with the same schedule.  Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins was just released earlier this month by Marc Weissbluth.  So far, I'm taking some of his teachings and methods and have seen a huge difference in the way the babies sleep.  Who knew that sleep begets sleep?  My sons are 7 months now and have been sleeping through the night at 6 months, and lately they can take naps for up to 3 hours!!  Even with those long and re-energizing naps they are able to sleep through the night for 12 hours.  It's been fantastic for them and for me.

I cannot believe how quickly time has flown.  Our family has grown from 5 to 7 people.  Juggling time with the 3 big kids and the twins I'd have to say is one of the hardest things to do as we adapt.  We finally got to take the babies home the day after Thanksgiving.  My morning started off with hitting the Black Friday sales at 3:30am.  I got killer deals at Wal-mart.  That afternoon, the doctor called and asked us if we were ready to take the boys home.  Oh were we ever!!  I was well rested and recuperated from the delivery.  (It could not have gone any better!)

I do have to say, we've been lucky that having 2 babies to take care of is not as scary as I thought it would be.  I thought I'd include some tips that have helped me stay sane along the way.

• Feed the babies at the same time - With the babies in the NICU for a few weeks, they were not willing to take the bottle.  It was my plan to nurse them, but I did the next best thing, I started to pump.  It works out well since I know exactly how much they are taking and I can have helpers.  Now that they are 2 months, occasionally they will nurse.
• Sanitize Sanitize Sanitize - We sanitize our hands everytime we hold the babies.  Since we had winter babies before and in the midst of RSV season, we used the sanitizer for a few weeks and just got laxed about using it. These preemies have to stay healthy during RSV season to avoid a trip to the hospital. The nurses advised us that when the older kids get home from school, they should change their school clothes.  Germs stay alive for 6 hours.  I have to say this has seemed to help, but double the loads of laundry!
•  Sleep when the babies sleep - I've read this many times in the baby books.  But this one is definitely a keeper.  I admit I've tried the super mom thing.  It lasted for a week.  Then a couple of weeks later, I got mastitis.  It's an inflammation in the breast and quite painful with flu-like symptoms and sometimes fever.  The onset happens in just a few hours and a trip to the doctor is needed.  Not the funnest thing to drag 2 newborns to the doctor when you have the chills and feel achy.
• Stock up on diapers - I am so glad we did this.  Not only did we stock up on different sized diapers, we got boxes and boxes of wipes.  The hospital sent us home with 6 packages of diapers but changing them 8-12 times a day, they didn't last as long as we hoped.
• Postpone Visitors - As much as I'd love to have friends meet these little guys, our family decided to wait a few months to introduce them.  The nurses put things into perspective when they explained things to us.  You may come in contact with someone that is sick.  They come and go, but  you're stuck with having to deal with the babies crying all night, or a stay at the hospital.

I'm taking this journey with twins one day at a time and learning along the way.                                                           

After several days in the hospital for preterm labor, my boys decided to arrive a week ago today!!!  

 We are so happy they arrived without any huge obstacles to overcome considering what they went through before they were born.  The first one weighed in at 4 lbs. 9 oz. (the donor baby).  The 2nd one weighed 4 lbs. 8 oz.(recipient).  It doesn't happen very often when twins' birth weight is so close.  They ARE pretty identical. 

Here is something fun to try with the kids for Halloween.  Try making a Glow Bottle with Mountain Dew.  Not only can you use this for the one night of scary and ghoulish fun, this can be used for emergency purposes too!

My new best friend

A little over a week ago, I got a call from my OB nurse and she said that my glucose level was high so I had to take the 3 hour glucose test!  I had a feeling this might happen.  Tuesday afternoon I was beginning to get yet another dizzy spell.  This was just an undiagnosed bout of pure torture.  After taking a prescription my doctor gave me in case this happened again, I went off into lala land and woke up the next morning with no signs of dizziness or nausea.  Since I had been fasting for over 12 hours due to not being able to think about eating, I went into the lab right at 9 am for my first poke.  The fasting blood draw  was to see where I stood with no sugar.  That turned out to be a normal 78.  After getting my blood drawn, I had to drink this concentrated fruit punch and wait an hour before getting blood drawn again.  My 4 yr. old son and I waited in the play area until it was time.  That first hour glucose level was at 194.  For being 28 weeks, the normal was 65-180.  Ok. So I flunked the first hour.  2nd hour the level is supposed to start going down but after the 3rd blood draw, it only went down to 167.  Oh great!  Flunked the 2nd hour.  For my 3rd hour and final poke, with my son behaving like a trooper, I endured another stab of the needle and the glucose level only went down to 166.  1 measly little point!  So it's official.  I have Gestational Diabetes.  "During pregnancy, your hormones make it tougher for your body to use insulin, so your pancreas needs to produce more of it. For most moms-to be, this isn't a problem: As your need for insulin increases, your pancreas dutifully secretes more of it. But when a woman's pancreas can't keep up with the insulin demand and her blood glucose levels get too high, the result is gestational diabetes."-babycenter.com
Well, that brought a phone call from a diabetic clinic that I am supposed to go to on Friday to see what steps I need to take to maintain a consistent and safe glucose level.  In the meantime, I can have 3 meals, 3 snacks, fruit, a tiny bowl of cereal if I want in the morning.  My meal portions have to be the size of a saucer. What?!?  Yes, I am hungry after 1 1/2 since eating. But I'll just get used to it.  I will also have to check my glucose level about 6 times a day to make sure it's in check.

A couple days before I got the call that I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, I had cravings for sugar.  I went to the store and loaded up on ice cream, ho-ho's, a box of donuts and juice for afternoon snacks.  I even made a batch of homemade fudge brownies and endulged!!  Now I will have to patiently wait until the end of the week to see what my diet will consist of for the next 7 weeks.  I've never had any problems with my previous pregnancies, but with all the challenges I've endured with this last pregnancy, I'm not surprised that I have GB. I say, Bring it ON!"  I have to say, I am a bit disappointed with all the problems that my body has created.  TTTS, dizzy spells, gestational diabetes.  But at the same time, my body is developing and nurturing 2 healthy baby boys.  It's a great blessing.  I'm ready to take on this new challenge!

I have been asked about updates with the babies.  Right now I am 25 weeks and 6 days. The ultrasounds each week continue to look great.  It will be 4 weeks tomorrow since having the laser ablation surgery to coagulate the blood vessles in the placenta.  This will let the babies get the blood supply independently.  I cannot forget how grateful I am to the great care I received in Houston.  Dr. Kenneth Moise and Dr. Johnson have great knowledge with fetal surgery.  Not once did I question the care I was given while in Houston. After finding out about Texas Children's Hospital, there was no question on going to another hospital to care for these babies. 

The babies are continuing to grow, in fact, the ex-donor baby, is much more active than his brother.  Right now, both heads are down and I wonder how long that will continue.  Since I need to deliver by 36 weeks, I still have a little while to go.  I'm hoping to go naturally instead of getting a c-section.  I've never had a c-section, but I know the recovery is so much more tougher.  I'll keep you posted!

Wednesday, July 23rd I had my routine checkup.  This would have been my third appointment with a midwife, but because of twins, it's considered high-risk and so I switched over to my regular ob doctor.  The report was clipped to my file, and the doctor sat down looking over it quietly.  He said a little, "Hmmm." Immediately I knew something was wrong.  As the doctor explained what the results of the ultrasound were, my husband and my face went from happy, to horrified.  We found out that the babies were in danger and if nothing was done, there  was a 90% chance that they would die.  What a roller coaster we were on.  As the doctor explained, Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome, or TTTS is the Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) and other complications of monochorionic (shared placenta) twin pregnancies like unequal sharing of the placenta and generally diagnosed by ultrasound.

So with research, family help, and strength, we made our way to Texas Children's Hospital.  After a week and a half of ultrasounds every other day, I was finally able to get the surgery we came for.  Initially  I was only at a Stage I.  This is the stage where the amniotic fluid was too little in the donor baby, and too much fluid for the recipient baby.  Stage II, is when the bladder of the donor baby is no longer seen on the ultrasounds.  But because I was quickly progressing, and very uncomfortable, the Dr. set me up to have the procedure done the next day.   The surgery went great, almost 2 liters of fluid was slowly removed from the recipient baby's sac.  I had an ultrasound the very next day to see how things looked before I was discharged and ready to fly home soon.  We passed a big milestone in seeing 2 strong heartbeats.

Tomorrow, I have my "7" day after surgery ultrasound.  I pray that things will look great and that the fluid in each sac is beginning to level out.  I've was given a diary to record my initial 7 days post surgery temperature.  This would let the dr's know if I ever got too close to having an infection.  This is one of the risks of having the laser surgery. 

My life as a busy mom has just gotten busier!  Tuesday July 22nd will be a day to remember.  Not only was it my last day of work, it was a day that changed our family.  That afternoon, I packed up the kids and headed over to the hospital to meet my husband for a routine 20 week ultrasound.  We walked into a dim lit room, and the kids anticipation was high.  They were finally going to be able to see what was growing in mom's tummy all these weeks.  After about 20 minutes, the sonographer said, "Oh my gosh."  My husband, asked, "It's twins isn't it?" The sonographer confirmed it was indeed twins and we could not stop smiling and laughing in amazement.  There's less than a 3% chance of having identical twins naturally.  We were shocked but everyone was so happy.  Instead of a 25 minute appt., it turned out to be over an hour since so twice as much needed to be done.  We are all overjoyed and excited for our future.

I came across a recipe on baby wipes.  This is a great thing since there are not any nasty ingredients that you can't pronounce, and it's a money saver.  You can tweak it to your liking.  Some like wipes a little dryer like Huggies wipes.  Some like the wet ones like Pampers. 

1 regular roll Bounty paper towels

2 Tbsp. baby bath

2 Tbsp. baby oil

2 c. hot tap water or more

1 empty wipes container, cylinder preferred

(a couple of drops of tea tree oil, or lavender oil optional)

I've noticed using Bounty brand is best, since other brands might dissolve.  Don't buy the double roll, or it won't fit in the container.  Take a serrated bread knife and saw the roll in half to make it short.  Pull cardboard core out and stuff the wipes into container.  Mix the ingredients and pour over towels.  Pull the wipes into the center and keep covered.  Just add water if it begins to dry out.  Voila!!!