Our twins are here :)

We were induced on the 6th due to Lacy's growth restriction. We were able to have a natural delivery thanks to both babies being head down at the time of induction. Emma was born head first at 3:33am on the 7th, Lacy did a back flip and came out as a Frank Breech at 3:36am. Both babies are healthy and home with their big sisters :)



Emma 4lbs 15oz

Lacy 3lbs 14oz

35 weeks...

Thought I should probably update my belly pic....this is at 35 weeks :)And here is one where I am looking slightly better...this one is 32 weeks on our way to hubby's Christmas Party :)
As of our last growth scan at 33 weeks Baby A (Emma) was 4lbs 3oz and Baby B (Lacy) was 3lbs 9oz. We are having another growth scan on 1/6 to check-up on Lacy and maybe having an induction that day depending on how she is growing! I am excited and terrified at the same time, lol! I am VERY ready to have my little ones here in my arms but more than a little anxious about caring for 2 such small newborns!

This weeks Growth Scan!

Yesterday was our monthly growth scan and we got some good news.

Emma: 2lbs 15oz ....She had the hiccups the entire time and we could actually see her hair moving in the fluid :)

Lacy: 2lbs 11oz...she was curled up in a tight little ball and kicked every time they tried to mess with her....guess she is like her mama don't mess with her while she is sleeping lol!

Lacy is still in the similar range with her sister which is very good. Because of her cord placement there is some worry that we could develop TTTS (twin to twin transfusion syndrome)...basically one baby gets all the blood flow leaving the other twin to suffer. Since Lacy is holding her own though and keeping the difference to 4 oz each time she seems to be 100% healthy and doing well. They will continue to watch them with another growth scan in 4 weeks and bi-weekly ultrasounds to check the fluid levels (one of the first signs of a problem is if one baby develops more fluid than the other).

Here is the 29 week belly pic....

New pregnancy Pics

Here are the much nagged for new pics ;P

This is my belly shot at 24 weeks.....yes I know I am really starting to pop!















Here we have Baby B's (Lacy) face. She is looking directly into the "camera"
















Here is Baby A's (Emma) face...again she is looking directly into the "camera".

















And this is the funniest one. That is Lacy curled up into a tight little ball. You see that blob on top of her head and arm? That would be Emma's butt. Poor little thing her sister is already making her defend herself! lol :)


Emma: 1lb 10oz
Lacy: 1lb 6oz

Having twins on a budget...

Sounds like an oxymoron right? How can a person buy 2 of everything and not spend a complete fortune? Even more difficult in our situation since we got rid of everything under 9mths when we moved this last time. But it is possible and we are managing to do it so far.

First off I am playing a game with myself to see how much "stuff" I can get used. So far I have not bought anything new for the twins and am very proud of myself. Thanks to craigslist.com I have gotten 2 like new swings for $50 each (retail $200 each!) and three trash bags full of 0-3mth clothes :)

For a grand total of: $220 for everything so far.

Could I have done better well sure but concidering what I could have spent I think that is a pretty decent number considering we now have almost everything we need for the twins for the first 3mths.

We are missing some big ticket items:
*2 infant car seats ($120 for both). We could do without these and just use the convertible car seats we already have but I am going for convenience over thrift on this one. These will be bought new since you should never buy a used car seat unless you know the seller since you can not be sure it wasn't in an accident.
*Double Stroller ($98). Again we could use the double umbrella stroller we already have but I am going for one that the car seats will snap into for convenience. Also will probably be bought used unless I get lucky and stubble over one in the next few months.
*Cloth diapers. ($????) Not sure of the price on these since I am still doing some price comparisons on AIO's and pre-folds...another post to follow on this topic.
* 2 Bouncy seats ($30 for both) I have seen several of these listed on craigslist for $15 each. When I have the time to deal with arranging meetings and pick-ups I will be getting these used.

And that is it folks not to bad of a list! We will of course need to get clothes from 3-9 mths but I am not to worried about that at this time. I will continue to look on craigslist and see what comes available. It is so cool that you can get a whole trash bag FULL of like new clothes for $15! A frugal Mommy's dream come true!

20 week baby pics :)

As you can see things are moving right along over here! Lot of pics from my last big ultrasound :) Baby A was 14 oz and Baby B was 13 oz. Both are growing like little weeds and getting VERY active in there! This ultrasound confirmed that they are indeed identical girls, daddy is still dealing with being the only man in the house with 5 women.

Here is Baby A in profile....so cute!

And Baby B....again SO CUTE!

And then one of my favorite shots....4 little feet :)

Pregnancy Update

As you can see I had my first appointment in the twins clinic this morning and we got to have our first in depth ultrasound! Below is baby A waving at you :) and over on the left is baby B's butt! Lol, hopefully at my 20 week ultrasound they will give me some pictures of BOTH babies :) The Dr could only find one placenta so they are IDENTICAL and one baby was kind enough to let us see her "hoohaa" and they are GIRLS! I am over the moon right now! I was REALLY hoping for 2 little girls and I got my wish. Hubby and mother-in-law are not so thrilled but happy none the less, they were both hoping for boys. Both twins are the same size with the same amount of amniotic fluid (really important when dealing with identical twins) and are both healthy :) They are a little concerned about my blood pressure being high so I have to record it at home for a week and then go back in on Wednesday for a follow up appointment. Other than that we are as healthy as can be and the little ones are growing well! And here is my 16 week belly pic.....

Been MIA

Sorry to my whole 2 readers that I have been MIA for the last 2 months. I have been feeling like poo and looking at the computer screen has a way of making me feel even worse. Good news though is that it has paid off and we are officially in the second trimester with twins :)

I am feeling MUCH better and have finally started to get back in the swing of things around here and am actually cooking again for the first time in 2 months. I hope to be back on here with some new posts about our frugal lifestyle soon, especially since I had to quit working due to this pregnancy.

Getting Back on the Wagon!

OK so I have taken some major hits over the last few months and I am trying to get back my sanity and my life. Today is day one back on my diet and I am determined that this is going to be my last time having to rededicate myself. I am done with feeling like a big ole tub of lard! So back to working out and eating healthy again. It is hard when you are trying to conceive because every month after I ovulate I keep thinking well I am probably pregnant so I don't need to lose any weight....then I won't be and I have lost 2 weeks, just to do it all over again the next month. But I know that I want to be active during my next pregnancy and eat healthily so this is really something that I need to keep doing no matter where I am in my cycle.

As you may or may not know I took the last month off of work to recover from the loss and to just give my body a break. This resulted in our emergency fund getting cleaned out and less being paid on our debts. So here I am back at square one all over again! I went back to work yesterday so we are on our way back to where we need to be. This has been a real wake-up call for me, we were supposed to be surviving on Bry's income for all our monthly needs and my income was supposed to be just paying off the debt. Once we cut out my income though it was clear that we were using some of my income for our monthly needs as well. I am looking at our monthly expenses seeing what we can cut out to get everything in balance again. This is going to be especially important since I am only working part-time right now and don't plan on going back to full time until at least August maybe later.

The thought pattern with all these changes is that my weight and my stress levels are affecting my ability to get pregnant and then stay pregnant. So by working on my weight and my health and cutting back on my working maybe this will result in a pregnancy that will make it.....we shall see!

Baby Number 3 in Heaven

Yes we lost another baby. This time I had a missed miscarriage, the baby stopped growing at 5 weeks but my body "forgot" to miscarry until I was almost to the second trimester. I can't even begin to say how hard that was to think that you have almost made it to the safe zone then to have everything ripped out from under you. Yeah it just sucked. Then to top it all off I had a incomplete miscarriage this time around and after 16 days of bleeding they went in and found that some tissue was stuck. Luckily they were able to remove everything without anesthesia and I was able to go home right afterwards.

I made the call today to start the miscarriage testing to try and find out why this is happening. We won't know anything for months since most of the tests have to be done over a period of time or timed just right with my cycle. We are taking the Dr's advice and taking a few months off from the baby making. We hope that by the time we get home from our trip back to the mainland in July all the tests will be in and we can start trying again.

7 weeks and sick as a dog

They really are not kidding when they say that every pregnancy is different. With my first I was deathly ill and would be sick 9-10 times a day. With my second no morning sickness at all other than being a little tired I couldn't have told you I was pregnant. This time I am sick again but not to the extreme that I was with my oldest. Even though it is not as bad as it was with my oldest it still sucks and I am SO ready to get to my second trimester. Only 5 more weeks....keep telling me it will be here before I know it people cause it seems like an eternity!

Feeling MUCH better!

Well after my appointment on Monday I was not feeling to happy about the whole base OB procedures. I really wanted an ultrasound to tame my fears of another miscarriage. After realizing they wouldn't let me have an ultrasound I asked for a HCG level (the level of the baby's hormones in my blood) and they agreed even though it was not something they normally order. I just called and got my HCG levels back and they were 5,502! OMG those are WONDERFUL numbers! Now I am a little more relaxed about not getting an ultrasound or getting to have an appointment in general till 11 weeks. That is defiantly one healthy baby :D

First appointment....blah!

I had my first OB appointment this morning and it was a blah experience to say the least. They did a ton of blood work and took my history and then told me to come back in April! Now if I hadn't just had two miscarriages in the last few months that probably would have been fine, but I just had a miscarriage in January and I am NOT emotionally over it. I just need the reassurance that everything is OK and that the baby is growing and going to stick. No one seems to understand this though. My husband and mother are both of the mindset that what will happen will happen and I just need to relax and let it happen. Why can people not see that that option is the most painful option of all? To let my guard down and then have my heart ripped out again....I honestly don't think that I am strong enough to go through that all over again. By keeping my guard up I know that if I lose the baby it is still going to hurt but maybe just maybe I can shield myself from some of the pain. To start thinking about what this baby is...give him/her a name and start thinking about the nursery and the future and then to have it all ripped away from me while dealing with uncaring and unemotional Dr's I think that might just break me this time around.

I am going to enjoy the next few weeks and try not to think about anything other than the day I am currently in. I will be praying that I make it to April 3rd, but I will defiantly not be taking it as a given that I will ever make that appointment.

Taming my nerves

Tomorrow morning is my appointment with the OB clinic on base and I am working on managing my nerves. I know that I am still pregnant so that is one huge step forward for me. It will be interesting to see what they have to say in the morning. I am hoping that they will give me an ultrasound right away to date the pregnancy since I haven't had a period since this last miscarriage. I think that is what has me so nervous....what if there is something horrible on the ultrasound....this is the farthest I have gotten in a pregnancy since Sara. I am starting to let my guard down and get excited now I am just waiting for the rug to get ripped out from under me. I will let you know as soon as I know anything....lots of good thoughts people!

What's new with us...

I have been sitting here trying to think of what I have done this week that is worthy of a post and I can't really think of anything! Lets see for my going green goal....well....hmm....I am continuing to make my own cleaning supplies and am going to be making a batch of laundry soap tomorrow. I guess you could say that on this front I am holding steady, not really sure where to take it from here but I am sure it will come to me.

Last week was a wonderful week for my budget and I only spent $74 on groceries for the week and we managed not to eat out the entire week. This week I have spent $163 and they way I have been eating I wouldn't be surprised if that doesn't last 3 days. The majority of this weeks grocery bill went to buying fresh veggies and fruit so I am going to have to look at that for next week. Not really sure at this point how to balance nutrition and money but I am going to work on it so we shall see what I spend next week.

I am happy to say that I am still pregnant and doing well. I am STARVING all day and while I am also very sleepy I am actually waking myself up because I am so hungry! I have made the appointment for my blood test and will be going in on Monday to get the official conformation. I am scared of actually doing it but I know that this is going to be a sticky baby and I am going to have to face my fears and get on with it.

My garden is doing really well. The snails came back and had done some major damage to my zucchini but I think I caught it in time and they are going to survive. The cucumbers are growing like wildfire and the tomatoes are actually starting to look like tomato plants. The onions are still small but getting there, and I think I have 2 bell pepper plants but we will have to wait and see as they get larger.

OK, I think that is it from here. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I will keep you updated on all the new gossip from my end!