Blessing

We blessed the twins this past Sunday. We waited 3 months because we wanted their immune systems to be strong. Although, we started getting nervous because it seems RSV is still rampant. But they have been healthy so far and hope they continue to be. (But I must add that I am becoming quite obsessed with essential oils and I blame their healthy little bodies on an amazing oil called On Guard by Doterra oils. It's supposed to be antibacterial/antiviral and we've put it on them and they've been around snotty nosed coughing kids and they are still healthy)
It was such a perfect day! Justin gave them such amazing blessings. Mercedez wore the dress, shoes and sweater/shawl I wore when I was blessed. My great grandma made the shawl and I love that Mercedez got to wear it. I love sentimental things like that. Her grandma Stevenson bought her a darling bracelet also. I got Sawyer's outfit at Old Navy :) Sorry buddy, your dad didn't have his blessing outfit. I had to put the above picture in because they're holding hands! So precious.

I know, I know....there's more pictures of Mercedez on here than Sawyer. It's just that Sawyer's expression in all the pictures were pretty much the same, whereas Mercedez had a lot of different shots to show all the different angles of her darling little face! Plus, let's face it, frilly dresses and feathery headbands are so much more fun to take pictures of.



Not the best shot of her, but it's the only picture I had that showed her whole outfit with the shawl.
This little guy has the cutest little face. His eyes are always wide and big, whereas it's actually more difficult to get a picture of Mercedez with her eyes wide open and staring. He has always been very aware, ever since the day he was born. And super mellow. He pretty much just hangs out.
What a stud!
Me, Sawyer and Grandma Stevenson. Justin's parents and sister Hannah stayed with us from Wed-Tues. It was so much fun having them here! I get soooo much sleep when they come to stay, it's awesome! We were sad to see them go back to California.
I wish we got a better picture than this of all of us, but it'll have to do. I have like 6 shots, but there's someone not looking their best in each one. Oh well.
Grandma and Grandpa Stevenson.
Grandma and Grandpa Jones. It was a great day with family and friends! Thanks for all your support!

Recap

In all the chaos of pregnancy, bedrest, hospitalizations, having the twins, and the first couple months of having the twins home I failed to recognize some major events that took place. So here's a recap of what's happened since December!
Justin graduated with his Bachelor's in Technical Sales in December. His family came from California to stay with us. I am so proud of him! It's such a big accomplishment. I was on bedrest, so I couldn't go. I was so sad and even thought that maybe I could bend the rules a bit and just go. Yeah right! Look at the picture below of me and him. I was so huge! I could barely stand long enough to take a shower I was so weak and hurting everywhere! There's no way I could have even had the strength to walk across the parking lot I'm sure. So our wonderful friends, Adam and Melody, live streamed the whole thing from the Dee Event Center and I watched it live on my computer at home. It was awesome! I wish I could have been there but it was the second best thing to being there!
Justin with his parents.
Me and my graduate! This was 12 days before I had the twins. Look at my stomach and puffiness!

JANUARY
Justin's family is from California and these babies are the first grandbabies! How fun is that?! But it was so sad because we had them, then it was Christmas and Grandpa Stevenson got Bronchitis!!! So they had to wait till the end of January once he got a good dose of antibiotics in him to be able to come see them. It was sad to have to wait that long to meet, but it was so much fun having them here for 5 days. They will be coming back the end of March for almost a week for their blessing and we can't wait to see them again!

Last but not least, our first born, baby Sky has been having a hard time. When we got her she was puppy pad trained, which was good because the condo we lived in before was on the 3rd level and we weren't even supposed to have dogs, so she couldn't go pee outside anyway. So she'd pee on the pad in the bathroom and it was awesome. When we moved to our new house, we had planned on having her go outside and in our bathroom on a pad at night or when it was too cold. Also, the plan was to have wood floor downstairs so we wouldn't have to worry about pee on carpet. Well, the wood cost too much to install, so we ended up getting carpet and you have to have a leash on your dog to take it outside and Sky FREAKED when we put a leash on. Who knew you had to train your dog to wear a leash? I had no idea. I thought they'd just put it on and let you walk them. Not the case. She thrashed about like she was possessed, running into the couch and coffee table trying to escape the tension that was now pulling on her. I had to let go of the leash cause I was afraid she was going to break every bone in her body. So, peeing outside went out the window. To make a long story short, there were two incidents that I think traumatized her and threw her whole world upside down, which then throws her well-trained peeing techniques off. When I was hospitalized and gone for 8 days she started peeing in the hall. Then when the twins came, started peeing on the carpet AROUND her pads downstairs. Lovely. So, Saturday we called ChemDry. They came in with their black light to do the urine analysis and you could see clearly the spots she'd peed. Then they spray this awesome oxidizer that completely dissolves and gets rid of the pee completely. It was amazing. No more pee!!!! Yay! So Sky is under strict house arrest. She can't roam the house at all by herself for at least the next week. We're retraining her to pee far far away from the carpet and putting dog repellent on the places she used to go. It better work because I am so anal when it comes to carpet. I make people take their shoes off because I don't want any dirt on it whatsoever. So good luck Sky! I know you can do it!

My Valentines

(Real men wear pink...I think Sawyer's onesie might have been for a girl....but it works) Check out Mercedez cheeks! It's pretty much impossible to get a good picture of both of them together. Sawyer looks a little miffed, about to yell.

A little late, but Happy Valentine's Day! Sawyer and Mercedez wore their Valentines outfits all day and me and Justin celebrated with a little candlelight 'red' dinner including barbecue chicken and raspberry jello. We gave eachother some fun small gifts and enjoyed eachother's company. I love my 3 Valentine's!

More Pictures.....

Sneak Peek

My sister-in-law did the twins pictures a couple weeks ago. Here's a sneak peek. I know I'm their mom, but aren't they so stinkin cute??? I can't wait to see the rest! They were so good during this 2-3 hour session! They are one month old today and seriously they are the best babies. They sleep for 4 hours, then start stirring and we feed them again, then they sleep 4 more hours! They hardly ever cry, unless we wait too long to feed them, then usually Mercedez gets pretty riled up. I hope their mellowness sticks with them and it isn't just a newborn phase. They are so sweet!

I should be used to it by now.....

I know I've posted before on what "NOT" to say to pregnant people, but I just had to throw in one more post. So as you know, I was VERY swollen during my pregnancy. As the preeclampsia progressed, so did my swelling. I was excited to have the twins so I wouldn't be swollen anymore. Well, I got WAY more swollen after the c-section than I had been during pregnancy if that's even possible! I didn't want any visitors at the hospital it was so bad. My feet were so swollen I couldn't wiggle my toes at all without a searing hot pain to the top of my feet as my skin felt like it would tear. I even got little blisters on the tops of my feet because the skin was so swollen. I should have taken a picture of my feet. I"m sad I didn't. Anyway, it took awhile for the swelling to subside. I got my feet, ankles, calves and legs back after about 8 days, but it's taking longer for my face and fingers. They look tons better, but I still can't fit my wedding finger on and I can tell my face isn't completely back to normal. At the hospital my grandparents came to see me and they didn't even recognize me. They hadn't seen me or the babies since. So when they came to my house a couple days ago, and I looked pretty much normal, my grandpa said, "Well, you're looking better!" (he should have just left it at that) What followed was, "The last time I saw you you looked like a puffed up bullfrog!"
Then my niece came to see me who had also seen me at my very worst, right after the c-section when I was swollen and uncontrollably shaking, and she said, "You look skinny again. Not swollen" which I replied, "Yeah, I was pretty swollen" which she then said, "Yeah, like really swollen, your face was like (and then she made the face similar to the boy's at the top of this page)"
I'm glad that there are people to tell me how swollen I was since I had no idea. Why can't they just keep it at "Hey, you look really good" ?
Now I don't want to offend my grandpa or my niece. Especially my niece because she's like 11. And really they are just stating the facts. I was very swollen. Luckily I really am not someone who gets super offended. But what if I was? It just still makes me think of if someone like, had back surgery and couldn't move around or exercise for a long time and they got really fat, then they finally got better and could exercise again and got back to normal. Would you tell them, "Hey you look really good! You were pretty huge!" No, you'd just tell them how good they're looking. I don't know why it's ok to comment on how huge you get when you're pregnant. It's like they think it's ok because you're pregnant, and it's not really your fault that you got big. Like it's not like you were lazy and ate fast food all day and got fat so that makes it ok to comment on it. But it's not. It's the same as if you had surgery and got fat, it's not your fault really. You were limited. But I don't see people responding the same way. Anyway, there's my soap box for your enjoyment.

TWINS UNITED AT LAST

Sawyer James just a couple days old in the NICU.



Mercedez was in the NICU for 5 days for feeding issues. She got to come home on day 5, the day after I was discharged from the hospital. What a grand day it was! She really ate pretty dang well from the night she was born.



Sky meeting Mercedez for the first time. She was super curious. She has been pretty neglected since. Sad. Hopefully someday we can pay more attention to her.

Mercedez first bath! We had just Mercedez home for almost 4 days before we got to bring her brother home. It was so sad that they had to be separated for 8 days from the day they were born. But I guess at the same time it was good to bring just one home and give us a bit to adjust slowly to 2 babies. I will say that there was a big difference from one baby to two!!!!




On day 8 we got to bring Sawyer home from the hospital! He had to stay longer because within the first day he wasn't moving things through when he was eating so they gave his tummy and gut a rest for 4 days and didn't feed him anything. We were a little nervous because they were saying things like obstruction, and that maybe his intestines didn't form correctly and a necrotizing bacteria that kills the intestines. My dad came and gave him a blessing with Justin and right after he pooped! They still rested his bowels for 4 days and it ended up his gut just took a little longer to move things through, but after 4 days he got to eat and then just had to work up to eat enough to come home.

So on day 8 we got to bring Sawyer home to be with his sister! Finally!!!! Sky was like, "What the heck??? Another one?"
It's been so cute. We'll lay them by each other but facing so they can see each other and Sawyer will look over at Mercedez and just smile. He's such a good big brother! (even though technically Mercedez is the big sister :) So these pictures were taken like over a week and a half ago, and we have been adjusting since. It's actually been really really good. They are such good babies! They sleep for 4 hours at a time, then wake up to eat, then sleep some more! So far so good. And Justin is the best husband ever and is amazing at helping. I couldn't ask for a better husband. I love him so much! He just loves these babies so much it's been so much fun! Well, other than the few days that my hormones were adjusting and I was so depressed and sad for no reason I thought for sure I'd need some medication. Like I was having panic attacks. I never understood those, but now I do. It was pretty crazy. But now I feel back to normal, just tired. I'm glad it didn't last long! Also Cortney my sister in law has done pretty much the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. She had asked for contact information from when I was doing baby shower invites and I assumed it was for the shower, but really she set up a whole month's worth of dinners/help for each day throughout January. What a major help that has been!!!! She is wonderful! So thanks to everyone that is helping! It is so much appreciated!