A Tale of Two Pregnancies

I'm not posting bare-belly photos. Unfortunately, that's most of my documentation from Carter's and Ellyson's pregnancies. So here are some fully-clothed comparisons. I apologize for the "mirror" photo. Jack was out of town all week and I couldn't trust Carter to get the right angle. ;-)

16 weeks with Carter

10 weeks with twins

By belly is higher currently, but aside from that, I think I'm about the size I was at 16 weeks with Carter. No wonder some of my fellow Bunco girls discovered my secret last weekend!

A Change of (Pregnant) Pace

When we found out we were expecting a third baby, I planned to coast through this pregnancy just like I had the others. We were surprised and hadn't planned on it for another year or more, but we're old hats at this by now. Pregnancy suits me well. I don't get sick. I don't stop running. In fact, with Ellyson, I worked out pretty hard right up to the day I went into labor. I don't get fat. We have big (8lb 8oz and 7lb 14oz), healthy babies. I may not have glamorous deliveries, but I own them. I love my midwife (and the other two who now practice with her), and she was my rock during Ellyson's delivery. When I learned we were having a third so soon, I knew I'd follow the same path I had before.

And then everything changed. There were two little babies on the ultrasound. Two little heartbeats. In our case (luckily), two placentas. Still in shock, I started reading about twin pregnancies and births. And I found out this pregnancy is not like the others I've carried. The delivery will not go according to the plan I've used before (still to be discussed with my midwife, who for now, I am still allowed to see). I learned that twins, on average, come at 35 weeks instead of 40. That running is not recommended during the pregnancy because the uterus is so fragile. That half of twins are born via c-section, and deliveries often occur in an operating room instead of L&D, just in case the second twin requires an emergency c-section. (Did you know you can deliver the first, and then require a c-section for the second??)

In the course of 24 hours, I went from feeling like "I got this" to feeling so many worries. Will I make it full term? Will I go crazy in my third trimester, when I can't go out running? Will I be able to use my midwife? Will I be able to have an unmedicated delivery? Will I need a c-section? Will the babies be in the NICU? Will they be born too soon to breathe on their own, to eat on their own? Will I be able to nurse twins? Will the older two allow me the time to nurse and/or pump? If the babies are the same gender, will I confuse which is which (we are 99.99% certain they are fraternal, so at least they should look different)? Will I be able to get all FOUR kids in bed by myself when Jack is traveling? Will I ever be able to leave the house again?? And those are just my worries for the kids and me. I know that Jack has his own.

It's funny how one extra little, tiny, fig-sized baby can completely change the playing field.

So, you see, even though the blog has been quiet lately, our lives have been anything but.

One final note. I mentioned we are almost certain the twins are fraternal. They are developing on opposite ends of my uterus, with their own placentas, and are operating as singletons. The sonographer was able to see that my ovary actually released two eggs on its last cycle. (Did you know they could see that?? I didn't!) So there is a minute possibility that one egg split and implanted in opposite ends of the uterus, while the other egg did nothing. But that is highly, highly improbable.

Preparing for a Zone Defense

One night late last year, Jack and I sat at a quiet dinner, in a happening in-town restaurant, free of the kids for a night out. Like most nights away from the kids, we talked about ... the kids. The ones we have, and the one more that we'd like to have one day. I commented that I finally feel like I can breathe again after Ellyson, and that I was ready to think about having another - the third that we'd always planned on. But we also agreed we really liked the spacing between Carter and Ellyson - the fact that he was out of his crib, potty trained and in preschool when she came along.

The next month, I was staring in disbelief at a positive pregnancy test. Okay, I didn't mean I was that ready.

So much for a quiet 2012!

Oh, did I fail to mention that we're expecting twins? I am soooo not kidding. We're about to have four kids, four and under. Three under two. For real.

P.S. All those breastmilk issues that popped up in early December? Umm, yeah, they were only mildly related to my running. The bigger culprit was pregnancy. And a few weeks later, the fact that drinking anything made me gag. So trying to stay hydrated enough to sustain a double pregnancy, lactation and myself was, well, nearly impossible. I went from downing a gallon of water a day, to barely choking down a few cups. And most of that was in the form of Gatorade or sugary fruit punch.

E: 11 Months

Feeding: Almost entirely table foods. She loves corn, peas, carrots and potatoes. Oh, and cheese - especially feta cheese. She nurses only once a day, first thing in the morning. It's the only time I have enough milk to give her a full feeding. The rest of the day, she gets bottles of pumped milk (a combination of thawed and freshly pumped). I have been slowly thawing my frozen stockpile. Now that she is 11 months, I will actually begin switching her to cow's milk.

Sleep: She finally is sleeping through the night (10-12 hours). Can I get an "amen"? It took us long enough! She sometimes wakes at about 10 hours (5-5:30 a.m.), nurses, then goes back to sleep for another hour or two. This works for me, since I get up at that time to run.

Size: She just moved into her 12-month clothes, within the last two weeks. She's just shy of 20 pounds, which puts her just below average for weight.

Mobility: She isn't walking yet, but she's a speed-crawler. More than Carter ever was (but he was walking before 11 months). She also has learned to climb the stairs ...

Teeth: She has six. Kind of. The four that have been present for a few months ... and two more just barely broke through the gum line last week.

Words: Dada, brother (bra-bra), Mama, Nana, bottle (ba-ba), dog and I'm pretty sure Carter (cah-tah). She is starting to play with making sounds with her tongue, so we're getting lots of sing-song-y "lalala". And we've found out that she loves mimicking Jack singing. She's like his little echo.

Wordless Wednesday

Communicating with a 10-Month-Old

I'm behind on blogging. I swear I will catch you up in the next two weeks, if you'll just bear with me.

I have been meaning to post about Ellyson's communication improvements, though. Since Christmas, she has started saying "mama," "nana," "ba-ba" (bottle), and is waving hello and blowing kisses. I even catch her saying "da-doo" when I hand her a pacifier, which is what Carter used to say for "thank you."

The first few times she said "mama" at home (I hear she actually might have said it while I was in Colorado and she was looking for me at Nana's house) ... she would only use the word if she was mad at me. Specifically, if I was working in the kitchen and had left her in her high chair, she would grunt a couple times and then scream "mama!" I am happy to report, though, that she has moved on from only using my name in anger. :)

She says "ba-ba" and makes a funny noise with her lips at bed time. Since my supply is low, I'm not producing a full feeding worth of milk from one feeding time to the next. So I'm supplementing with pumped milk (some from the freezer and some that I'm pumping at her normal nursing times). So I've switched her to a bottle of pumped milk at bedtime; during the day, it's half and half. But before bed, I want to make sure she gets a full serving of milk so that I won't be worried she's hungry if she wakes during the night.

Wordless Wednesday

Jack's Promotion

Jack was promoted at work, and it was officially effective today. Since his car accident last year, he'd been helping with some special marketing assignments for his company, in addition to his sales role. Once some decisions were made about the future of the marketing development, he was offered the job of managing their marketing group. So for the first time in his career, he actually has a job with a real office - he's always been either working from a construction trailer, or from a home office. He is excited about this move to marketing.

Braden Dillard

Our nephew arrived on New Year's Day - a week late. Braden Daniel Dillard weighed 7 lb, 5 oz, and was 20.75" long. He is happy and healthy, as are his mom and dad. Carter is already having pretend phone conversations with his cousin.

Wordless Wednesday

Katya's Wedding

Now, back to the reason for our trek into the wilderness - Katya's wedding. It was beautiful.

Katya and her dog, Augustus.

Katya and Dad.

Katya and Greg.

Family portrait. Note Carter is passed out on Jack's lap. He slept through the whole reception. I'll blame the time zone change.

My dad with his three sons-in-law.

My dad with his three daughters.

Fathers of the groom and bride, making their toasts.

Rocky Mountain National Park

So, while my posts were auto-publishing last week, I was actually in Colorado for my baby sister's wedding. We planned to make the trip as a family, but E came down with a cold and re-infection of her ears. The pediatrician said her ears wouldn't be able to pop on the airplane (not to mention the high altitude once we arrived), so at the last minute, we decided to leave her with Jack's parents. Definitely the right decision. She would have been miserable.

The trip was short but fun, and the experience of seeing the Rocky Mountains in winter, was spectacular. The wedding was scheduled to take place inside Rocky Mountain National Park, but some severe weather conditions caused a last-minute venue change (last-minute meaning five minutes before the ceremony was to begin). We ended up caravanning back into town, and the wedding still had a beautiful backdrop of a frozen lake and the Rockies. But back to the park.

In addition to some breath-taking mountain views, we saw a whole bunch of elk. They even had breakfast across the street from our cabin one morning.

We also saw The Stanley Hotel, which was Stephen King's inspiration for The Shining. The rumors of hauntings are debated, but we kept a safe distance just in case.

Then there was the snow. And the ice. Fantastic. Once morning, it was coming down pretty hard, and we trekked around a frozen lake. We even got to see a frozen waterfall. Pictures just can't do it justice.