Fall Is Here!

And so is all the craziness!! I must say this is our busiest time of year. We are inundated every weekend with weddings, visitors, parties, family reunions. You name it, it always seems to happen from the Sept-Dec window of time.

Now that the kiddies are getting older, it is easier and a little less frightening to travel. We have decided to resume our usual Christmas adventures and make a few stops this year. I am only worried about everything fitting in our car. We have not graduated to a minivan yet, so we are still using the car top carrier (which can hold a lot).

So both children are crawling and starting to be destructive. We already lowered both cribs after a few instances of them peeking over the edge of the crib and laughing at us. Ryan is an expert "army crawler" and is quite fast, I might add. Alaina is of course a dainty, precise crawler. We are starting to experience some teeth, so that joy should be on the horizon.

In other news work has been draining and mentally challenging. I recently got an interview that I was very excited about. After making it on to the next round of interviews I managed to absolutely BLOW it and not move on. I think I psyched myself out because I feel such an obligation to get a better paying job. It was such a great opportunity and while I usually am optimistic and good at letting things go, I haven't been able to stop thinking about this one yet. I find myself thinking about what I would have done differently every morning in the shower and how I wished I would have been more prepared. While I like to think everything happens for a reason, it would have been a huge relief to have gotten a better position and move on with my career. I am trying so hard to let it go, but I guess this one just really got me disappointed. I have now had three interviews in the last six months (pretty good considering the job market sucks), but not been able to close the deal.

I will take a deep breath and just hope something else comes along soon. You can hope that for me too. It helps.

Adventures In Babysitting

Before I launch into this story, just look at these pumpkin heads...
They are starting to move and groove and both can sit up!
Alaina is "breakdancing" on her stomach, but hasn't quite figured out how to move forward. Ryan is still trying to figure out how to balance his giant noggin.

So about the babysitting. Oh, where to begin. You know when you kind of have that feeling? Well, we had a WONDERFUL babysitter from March until July that I was sad to see go. She got another job and relocated, but was kind enough to help us out with a replacement. I guess I just never really warmed up to the replacement. After numerous instances of her siblings showing up at my house to cover for her, I finally realized it just wasn't working out.

Thank god my neighbor happened to come over this past weekend and I shared some stories with her. She is a newly graduated nurse and offered to help out until she finds a permanent nursing job. After that her Mom will take over who is retired - perfect! Everything worked out wonderfully and if you know me and want more gossip, I will divulge at a later date. See this whole inter-webs thing means people smart enough to realize you have a blog just may read it! I will keep all other details to myself in case "others" stumble upon this.

But the bottom line is: Don't take a job you're not interested in. The best way to insult a mother is to have little or no interest in her children. I mean come on, that is the proudest thing we have! Also, if you think it might not work, it probably isn't going to-listen to your mommy instincts!

Mommy Is A Slacker....

Wow. I am again the worst blogger on the face of the earth. If there was an award for posting quarterly, I would surely win. BUT since I can log on at work, I am updating! It sometimes proves too difficult to post when I can barely think straight, so I am lucky I remembered today that I could have secret posting time.

A lot has happened obviously in the past months, but things are going well and I can't believe my little nuggets are going to be eight months old on August 7th! They are doing lots of things like spitting amoxicillin in my face and screaming at the top of their lungs for fun. They are mastering rolling around and we sometimes find them unusually pinned in their crib-legs lodged between the railing or face in the corner. I heard this is completely normal.

In other news we have had a great Nags Head vacation-Matt does a great job of posting the pics because I am lazy. The children loved the water and sand which is awesome because we were going to force them to like it anyway. We had a HUGE family gathering with shrimp and crabs and it was fantastic. Our cool friends Justin and Maggie are getting married in a couple of weeks and we were lucky enough to get invited. We actually have a few people getting hitched this summer/fall so we've been busy with bridal showers, bachelor parties, etc. I swear you think everyone you know has gotten married, but a few trickle in every year.

I would love to post some video on here... maybe I'll work on that.

Um...it's Pretty Much April

Jeez, can you tell I am back at work? Bad blogger, bad! This is how my days are going:

1. Go to work
2. Get home and play with kids for a hot second
3. Make dinner
4. Maybe feed the kids in between depending on their temperament
5. Eat my dinner very quickly
6. Put kids to bed (this can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours)
7. Maybe surf the net, check email
8. Maybe watch a show (if there's no screaming going on)
9. Pass out on the couch around 9:30pm
10. Wake up realizing I've fallen asleep, missed a show and go to bed
11. Repeat

So needless to say, I'm adjusting. Things are actually going quite well to be honest. Work is work and I'm just making the best. I've come to appreciate On Demand as it provides me with Project Runway and LOST. Time is really flying and we're getting better at going out and socializing! We even went out to the Irish Festival last weekend and we are planning on going to a Flying Squirrels game:)

And now the good stuff:

Hanging with Nana at the Irish Festival (see we can still go out!)


















Ryan telling Daddy a good joke















Alaina SnoozMonster

















What Daddy does when Mommy is at work....

The Story of Diane

This week I went back to work and was thinking about how fast the time has gone. As part of my job I do visit hospitals and pediatricians and it got me thinking about one of the nurses we had while the kids were in the NICU. I have to say I've learned a lot about myself and what I need through life. When it comes to caregivers, doctors, dentists, etc I really require someone with a good bedside manner. The thing with doctors is that some are super smart and have no social skills. So I strive to find caregivers in my life that I can handle. But when you have a baby in a hospital all this goes out the window and you get an array of unsavory people. I only had to come correct on one nurse while I was there, but most of them were great.

The biggest issue of the NICU is that there are about forty nurses who work in day and night shifts and thus there is no consistency of who you get. I think a lot of this had to do with the fact that our children were not seriously ill, so they didn't get a regular nurse. Becuase of my job I personally knew about four nurses and two managers that work in the NICU. Again, these nurses were aware that I was there and took very good care of us. But basically every day we walked in to visit there was someone different caring for our children. While nurses are some of the best caregivers out there, some leave little to be desired. Some nurses are very controlling, some are too frazzled to pay any attention to you and some just treat you like you're in the way. But not Diane.

We got very lucky in the first week the twins were born. We had this nurse for about for about six days straight which is very unusual. She was just wonderful and I cried all over her when her shift ended and I knew she wouldn't be back on again for awhile. She was very personable, taught Matt and I everything patiently and was almost like a family member. When we came in she would let us do everything, tell us how they were doing and she assured us the twins would be home before New Year's-even starting some of their discharge papers for us!

So here's the kicker-one afternoon my mom and I were visiting to feed the kids and it was a relaxed day and Diane had mentioned doing something for her church. I asked her where it was and she just said it was a small church. That made me figure she lived somewhere remote-like Amelia or somewhere in the country. So I asked her if she lived far away. She kind of looked at me like she didn't want to tell me and kind of hesitated. Here goes the exchange:

Me: "So you must live far from here?"
Diane: Funny look on face
Me: "Where do you live?"
Diane: "Morehead City"
Me: (with an open mouth) "You mean NORTH CAROLINA?"
Diane: Yes
Me: "How long does it take you to get here?"
Diane: "Five hours"
Me: "You drive five hours to work here?"
Diane: "Yes, that's why I work long shifts-usually four days or more."
Me: "Do you stay in a hotel?"
Diane: "No, I stay with my mother. I used to live in Richmond and my husband retired and we moved to NC. I didn't want to quit, so I decided to work one week every month and drive up here. And that was 11 years ago."
Me: Unable to speak

Seriously, I can't make this stuff up. I just remember looking at my mom in disbelief. This lady drives five hours just to keep working in the NICU-she's been driving there for ELEVEN YEARS. Amazing. And she was the one caring for our children. We are truly blessed.

Nursery Pics!

FINALLY!

A Very Merry Un-Birthday!

This post is WAYYYY late seeing as their "official" birthday was January 31st. Since we've had snow and a revolving door of recent help, I haven't been good with my blogging. I seriously thought being at home all day would make me a better blogger, but I was wrong. I guess it's like my journal writing habits. You start strong and then realize like six months later you haven't written anything in your pink pony glitter journal with the lock on the front.

So my children are officially to their due date. I mean, yeah they are really eight weeks old, but all the books I've been reading say to treat their due date as their true developmental age. I will boastfully claim my children are a little of both. They sleep and eat like newborns, but they are doing everything an eight week old would do. This gets a little confusing for mommy because she wants to put them on a schedule like an eight week old, but that is proving to be very difficult. We are getting better at the bedtime routine, but since they still wake up every three hours to be fed, it really doesn't matter where I put them to sleep! I am doing it mainly to make their brains correlate that crib=sleepy time.

So here are the squirts:

Miss Alaina is 6 lbs 13 oz (although probably more by now) And yes, she is looking so hard she is cross eyed-isn't it precious??

By the way, she has made it into her newborn clothes, so we are officially newborn size!












Here's Mr Throw Up. He has the newborn up-chuck syndrome. He keeps about half his bottle and shares the rest with everyone else. He is 6 lbs 11oz and was already in his newborn clothes like two weeks ago. Mainly because he has monkey arms and legs like daddy.



In other news I've finished the nursery and will be posting pics of that later. I finally got around to painting their names and putting up some stickers. We are staying in our jammies this weekend as the snow comes around again! Unfortunately I don't have any desire to put the kids out in the snow, so we may have to save snow bunny pics for next year.

The Name Game & Gripe Water

I've run into an interesting issue with my baby girl's name. It has only happened at the doctor's office, but apparently no one can phonetically process Alaina. The problem is we thought long and hard about how we wanted to spell it. There are literally a million ways: Alayna, Alana, Elena, Elaina, etc. I liked her name beginning with an A as opposed to an E. But for some reason all nurses/doctors keep saying UH-LON-UH. First of all, it doesn't even remotely look that way. Either people are lazy or just afraid so they guess how to pronounce. I hope she realizes she will have to correct everyone-and she'll like it.

I also got recommended this weird stuff by my pediatrician called gripe water. I had never heard of it, but I suppose I wouldn't having had no children prior to now. It's an all natural remedy for colic/gas that has surprisingly positive results. I tried it on Ryan last night and it had good results. We are slowly trying to create a routine so they both understand night/day and maybe sleep more.


Here's our "going out" hoodies: Alaina is already throwing up the peace sign!





























And lastly, here's some bedtime buddies shots:

To Feed or Not To Feed

Oh breastfeeding and I are not getting along. Just like my crazy hormonal mood swings have come and gone, so has the need to breastfeed. I will admit I was into it at first, but now it is just driving me crazy. It's a love/hate relationship really. I mean sometimes I am into it, but most of the time I am not. I am truly hoping my granola loving pediatrician doesn't shake his finger at me. I mean, come on, I fed two kids for six weeks! I am not actually concerned with what others will think, just mainly myself. I don't want to give up, but it's really not that easy. Even being at home on maternity leave with ample time to nurse and pump and I still feel stressed out. I am going to give it until we visit the pediatrician again next week and then more than likely will let it go.

In other news I am still trying to figure out how to get this guy to sleep:

He's so cute. He'd be even cuter if he slept at night. We are trying some different things and mommy is trying to remember this is baby wasn't even supposed to be born yet! Cut him some slack!



My sis snapped some good "together" pics last week:


I also had my friend Carly (who painted the nursery) come and take some pics for their birth announcement-those should be done soon!

Other than that everyone is doing well and growing! At last check Ryan was 5 lbs 13 oz and Alaina was a whopping 6 lbs 1 oz (she is our little fat elf!)

Sleep Is Overrated

Oh sweet children, why do you torture your daddy and me? For whatever reason, this seems scarce:
And only for this guy. I refer to him as Tater Pants. Or Fussy Face. But his name should be "Confused About What Time Of Day It Is." Obviously I'm a new parent and it shouldn't seem weird to me that my child insists on staying up all night and sleeping all day. I have no clue how to amend this because my doctors orders are to let them sleep and wake them every three hours to eat. Unfortunately my son wants to eat all night. He literally lays there and looks around and then thrashes his binky like I've never fed him before. I guess I'll have to seek some advice from blogs or something about what to do. We've rocked him, put him in the swing, held him, nursed him (just me) and all to no avail. He simply prefers the night life.

Luckily sister has no problem sleeping. Here's me and her and me thinking: "Thank god you sleep all the time."

Of course I say that and she'll be up all night tonight.

In other news the twins are one month old! Can you believe it? I can't. They barely seem like they were just born much less been around for a month. Now granted half of that time was spent in the hospital and we've only had them for a couple of weeks. They are getting nice chubby hands and cheeks and next week at the doc we'll see what their weights are. Until then, I will continue to appreciate not working so that I can sleep during the day. Tonight it will surely be me and Club Ryan.