HELP!!!

Okay fellow moms, I need some help.  I need suggestions on teething.  Hannah is in the process (for the last month or so) of cutting her molars.  About every 3rd or 4th night, she wakes up about 10:30 or 11:00 (hence the reason for a post @ 11:40 tonight...she's in my lap watching Doc McStuffins...) and she cries and cries and cries.  I've tried just letting her cry it out, but she sometimes cries for 2 hours, and when it goes on that long, she eventually wakes Brady up.  About the only solution I've found is to give her Tylenol with Codeine.  I HATE giving my kids medicine.  It is my absolute LAST resort.  I'm the mom that doesn't even give them Tylenol until their temp is greater than 101.5.  So I'm needing some suggestions as to what else to try to keep her from waking up...or to get her back to sleep faster.  I haven't tried teething tablets, but Oragel doesn't touch her normally.  Any favorite teething tablets, or home remedies???  I want my sleeps 12-13 hours straight every night little girl back!!!

For MOMs by MOMs: Baby Gear

There were a lot of things that we wondered if we needed when we found out we were pregnant, and then we found out we were having twins, our list of needs shrunk very quickly simply b/c of lack of space to put stuff!!!

Things that we used all the time...bouncy seats, swing, jumperoo, exersaucer, and our space saver high chairs.  The only thing that we are still using @ this point is the high chairs and our exersaucer b/c it converted to a toddler toy.  I would say that those were definitely our can't live without things. 

The logistics of transportation were huge for me b/c most of the time I am getting the kids out by myself if we get out.  The hubby has a very demanding job and so I knew early on I had to find things that enabled me to get out of the house on my own.  As far as strollers, we lucked into a double snap n go from another twin mom and it worked great when they were tiny and enjoyed their car seats, however, that stage didn't last long and I needed something that I could take to football games, ie, something that I could push up a hill and not die!!!  We ended up trading in the snap n go @ Babies R Us trade in days and got a Combi side by side umbrella stroller which I love for shopping and dr. appointments.  And I searched high and low on Craigslist until I was finally able to get my hands on a BOB jogging stroller.  It is by far my favorite stroller of all that we have had, however, it's not practical for very many inside spaces so that was why we got the Combi also. 

As far as car seats, we had the Chicco Key Fit for infant carriers and I loved them.  They were easy to get in and out of the car and the kids really didn't seem to mind them all that much.  When we started shopping for convertible car seats, there was a lot for us to consider...the biggest thing being that we wanted something that we could fit in the back seat of our Jeep so that we wouldn't necessarily be limited to one vehicle for transportation.  We ended up getting the Diono Radian RXT convertible car seats.  They are on the pricey side, but they convert all the way up to a booster seat, so ideally, we won't have to buy the twins another car seat.  The one other negative about them is that they are HEAVY!!  They are made of a metal frame and so they weight about 30 lbs before adding a kid in.  For this reason, we got the Cosco convertible car seats to put in my mom's car b/c I didn't want her having to drag my heavy ones in and out of her car and end up hurting herself.  We love the Diono b/c they are narrow and they fit great in our suburban with plenty of room to put an infant car seat in the same row with them, however, I will say, if you don't have a car with a big backseat, this might not be the car seat for you.  Because they convert up to a booster seat, these car seats are TALL and so when they were rear facing, Hannah's seat was right behind the passenger seat and the passenger seat had to be pushed forward almost as far as it would go.  This made for not fun road trips when we were all 4 in the car, but since it's mostly just me and the kids it really wasn't that big of a deal.

And since the only reason anyone ever really reads blogs is to see the pictures of kids, here's a couple of pictures of my cuties enjoying all their fun gear!!

 We love this little piano b/c the seat comes out and they can then walk all over it and still play with it, and the songs it plays don't get on our nerves!!

For MOMs by MOMs: Pregnancy

I talked some about my pregnancy last week, so I won't bore you with the same details again.  I will say, that while I loved being pregnant and I loved feeling the babies move and watching my belly move, it was a lot more painful than I expected.  Hannah was high and in my ribs the whole time, and by 18 weeks or so, she had dislocated a rib.  Needless to say, I didn't do a lot of sitting from that point on.  The guys would laugh @ me in Sunday School b/c I would be sitting in the chair as straight as possible, pushing Hannah down out of my ribs the whole time!  I also struggled the whole time I was pregnant with the fear of pre-term labor.  b/c of my job, I have way more than the average exposure to premature infants, and I lived in fear of having preemies every day.  It got really hard the further along I got and when I could go over and look at babies that were the same size as my twins.  I'll never forget going over and seeing a 25 weeker when I was right @ 25 weeks.  It was crazy...in the same way that it created extra fear, it was also really cool to have a visual to see of just where my babies were at.  I went on "bed rest" @ 32 weeks.  Basically, I could do what ever I felt like, but I wasn't allowed to work anymore and I got to the point where I didn't feel like doing a whole lot.  Towards the end, my blood pressure started to get up there and I swelled up HUGE!!!  I went to get a pedicure the week before I had the twins and the little guy doing it was traumatized when he looked down and realized that he had left his finger prints in my foot while rubbing it!!  Definitely one of those funny pregnant moments I won't forget!

I made it to 39 weeks.  My goal from the day I found out I was pregnant was to make it to term, and make it I did.  I tried to convince my Dr. to do my c-section (both babies were breech) earlier, but he wouldn't budge.  Since the babies and I were stable, he said we had to wait...Those last two weeks, I tried SEVERAL times to put myself into labor just so I could be done :) My doctor was great though, and he promised me somewhere around the time I was about 35 weeks that if I made it that far, he would section me as soon as I got to 39 weeks, and he held true to his word.  Part of what made it so hard for me those last 2 weeks was that my best friend was also pregnant and she had her little boy 2 weeks to the day before the twins were born and so since Rylan was here, I felt like he play mates needed to be here to play with him!!!

Like I said before, I enjoyed being pregnant...even if I was stressed out the whole time...and I can't wait to have another one!!  I'll leave you with my last belly picture I took.  This was 5 days before I had the twins and I was DONE being pregnant at this point!!

My Job

I love my job!!  I truly do.  I am not necessarily a fan of working nights b/c of the challenges that presents as far as my family and social life, but I love my job.   A co-worker just text me a video of a patient that we took care of for several weeks walking in rehab.  I'm currently bawling like a baby.  This kid should not have survived, but God obviously has an amazing plan for this boy's life.  Every chip fell exactly as it should the day this kid got hurt and by the grace of God, he is alive and in rehab.  It's so rewarding to see him doing well and to know that I had just a tiny part in helping him get to that point. 

For MOMs by MOMs: My Story

My name is Jennifer and I have b/g twins who just turned 1.  They are precious and the absolute joy of my lives.  My husband coaches football and I am a nurse.  We live in the Texas panhandle and absolutely love it here!! (minus the wind of course)  I am involved in my MOMs group here and it is such a blessing.  I am so excited about what these girls have set up for us online...other MOMs are by and far some of the best resources around.

I sometimes feel weird sharing my story with other twin moms b/c I wasn't taking meds, we hadn't been trying forever, or anything like that.  It's those times that I feel almost guilty, but I have to remind myself that God blessed us with twins and it was his choice for us to be parents to twins.  I have ALWAYS thought it would be cool to have multiples.  When Billy and I got married, we agreed that we were going to wait a little while and get some debt paid off before we started trying for kids.  The summer of 2010 we decided that we were ready to start trying.  I was SUPER anxious about even trying to get pregnant just b/c I had read so many stories of people that it took years to have a baby, and I wanted so badly to be pregnant.  To top it off, we were working on a time crunch...Once we decided we were ready, we sat down and looked at a calendar and decided that we would start trying in August b/c that would give us a May baby.  You're probably thinking we were a little obsessed with timing, but in our defense, you have to be when you are involved in the world of college football.  My husband's busy season is from August 1 to April 30 and I wanted him around as much as possible when our kids were teeny tiny, so a due date in May, June or July was going to be our best choice.  I was nervous waiting until August to start trying b/c what if it didn't happen in that 3 month time window, then what were we going to do.  Little did I know...God had it all figured out.  We tried in August, and August 28th I had a positive pregnancy test.  I was super excited and called the next day to set up my first appointment with my OB...only to be VERY disappointed to find out it wouldn't be until OCTOBER!!!!  Are you kidding me...who makes a pregnant lady wait that long to confirm that a baby is okay...especially a nurse who works in NICU from time to time.  (I primarily work in the Pediatric ICU, but we occasionally float over to the NICU to help out.)  I had a fabulous pregnancy and really felt pretty great, however, I had to buy maternity pants @ 8 weeks and I lost 23 pounds the first trimester...now mind you, I was overweight to begin with and needed to lose weight, and in June of that same year, I had gone to a completely vegan diet and had been losing weight b/c of that.  I did call my doctor once and ask about the weight loss and the nurse told me that as long as I wasn't puking (which I never did...) not to worry about it.  We went in for my first OB appointment and when he put down the ultrasound wand, I immediately saw two little heart beats.  My most vivid memory from that day is sitting in our truck afterwards and just laughing.  I never cried about it, but boy did my husband and I spend lots of hours laughing about the fact that we were having twins.  I loved watching every one's faces when I told them we were having twins.  The looks of shock were the best! 

I had a great pregnancy and made it to 39 weeks when I had a planned c-section.  My doctor is almost certain I would have made it to 40 weeks, but he told me since I had been such a good patient that he would let me have them @ 39 weeks...for that I was very thankful. 

I have loved most every minute of being a mom of twins.  There are times where I could pull my hair out, but then there are times that they are being so cute that make me forget about the crazy times.  I can't believe that my babies are a year old, but I so look forward to what the next year brings. 

Denial

My kids turned one yesterday and I'm totally in denial!!  I can't believe it.  Can't even blog about their first year or their birthday b/c it makes me so sad @ how fast it all went!!!