two!

Lately the blog has been focused on the twins a lot, but Saturday was ALL ABOUT WILL!  Our sweet boy turned TWO years old!  It seems so unreal to me that he is not a baby anymore.  The past two years have truly been the best of our lives.  Will is such a blessing to our family, and I can't wait to see him continue to grow and become a big brother!  

Just a few words that describe Will at two years old:  hilarious, curious, determined, smart, loving, talkative {except around new people}, and absolutely so LOVED.  I love that we can have conversations now.  It is so amazing to get to hear what's going on inside his mind...he is constantly surprising us!  A few of my favorite "Will" phrases right now include..."that noise?!" {said when he wants to know what a noise is}, "where'd he go?" {pretty much anytime he wonders where something or someone went...and usually said while shrugging with both hands up in the air}, "love you mama" and "goodnight mama!"  And I should mention that Will's favorite thing to say is "keys please!!"  He will ask anyone for their keys, and good luck trying to get them back if you surrender them!  His other favorite is "hold it!!" - said emphatically anytime he wants something.  He also loves singing the ABCs and counting, and he's pretty darn good at both.  I could go on for days listing things I want to remember about this age.  Seriously.  So fun!

Since I'm in the hospital, instead of throwing a big party, we just had a small family get together in my room. I won't lie....the morning of Will's birthday was the hardest time at the hospital for me so far.  I skyped in with Will and Matt for their birthday pancake breakfast, and I was just so bummed that I wasn't there to celebrate.  {and it really didn't help that the tricycle I ordered in PLENTY of time had been delivered damaged, and the replacement got delayed in shipping out of the warehouse, so although it had been promised that it would arrive in time...it did not.  Toys R Us FAIL.}  BUT....then my mom came up with decorations, Sesame Street plates, and an awesome cake, and we turned my room into a party.  Then after naptime, Will and Matt came up, along with Mimi & Duke, Nana, Aunt Ryan, Uncle Alex, Uncle Jonathan, and Jordan.  Will had a blast, and I honestly think that he had more fun with it just being our small group because all eyes were on him the entire time, and he loved hamming it up for everyone.  Here are some pictures and videos.

We started the party with some squeezable applesauce...perhaps Will's favorite thing in the world right now. 

We read some cards {sitting at Will's fun new picnic table from Mimi and Duke!}

We even wore party hats for about 2 seconds before Will ripped his off.

Awesome Elmo cake!  Thanks Mimi!!!

Lighting the candle!

After blowing out the candle, Will immediately leaned over and took a bite out of the cake!

mmmmmmm....icing!

While he was taking his first bite, I made a comment about letting him do it because it was his cake, so he sat up, looked at me, and said, "let him do it!"  Then he went in for another bite!  Total power move.

After a few bites from the whole cake, we traded for a piece.  He loved spooning the icing into his mouth!

And then he remembered that it's easier to just jam your face into the cake! Ha!

Here's a little cake eating video.  Please excuse all of our background conversations...I really wanted to post this to remember Will eating the cake with no utensils and saying, "delicious cake!"

Then we opened some more presents...Nana got Will a Spiderman themed gift, complete with his very first suitcase!  {Not sure if I've mentioned this on the blog before, but Will and Matt have a hilarious game that they play where Will stands up on the bed and yells "SPIDERMAN" as he collapses into Matt's arms.  Love these guys!}

Kind of a random picture, but I love how the light hits Will's sweet little profile.  Melt my heart.

Will definitely put some balled up wrapping paper inside his shirt and declared, "babies in there!"

I got in as many hugs and snuggles as possible!

Will used the baby belly as a nice little seat, and I loved it.  Unfortunately this was my last day of holding Will for awhile...I ended up having enough contractions that night after the party that I had to have a shot of terbutaline to stop them. {don't worry...they weren't productive, but the doctors still weren't loving them considering our situation}  Soooo....no more lifting this sweet 28 pound boy until after babies {and after c-section recovery!}

After a fun party day on Saturday, it was back to reality for Will today.  He had to visit Dr. Denison for his 2 year checkup.  Considering his disposition at his last few well visits, he actually did great today!  My mom and Matt took him, and I hear that the weight and height checks were a bit rough, but it sounds like he held it together pretty well for the actual visit with the doctor.  He got a great report, and here are his stats:

Weight: 28 lbs, 2 oz {50%}

Height: 34 1/4 inches {45%}

Head: 19 3/4 inches {80%...big brain?}

And I'm ending this post with a video from Saturday of Will singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  He had to be bribed with the promise of getting to play with Uncle Alex's keys in order to get a repeat performance for the camera, but I'm so glad we got this on video.  Priceless!

Happy birthday, sweet Will!  We love you SO much!

twenty-nine!

Today = 29 weeks!!  I can't believe that we will get to meet our sweet girls in 3 weeks or less!  {hopefully not sooner than three weeks, girls...don't get any ideas!}  This week has been nice and uneventful, except for a few contractions Tuesday, but everything is just fine.  My doctor thinks the babies are probably just having a growth spurt that may have caused those.  

Babies are growing!!

We got to see the babies on Monday AND Thursday this week, and we did measurements on Thursday.  One baby was measuring 3 lbs, 1 oz, and the other was around 2 lbs, 15 oz.  Hooray for 3 pounds!  

here is baby B!

And here are a couple of pictures of Will playing with the Ernie and Elmo balloons that Jennie brought him.  He LOVES them.  His favorite game is to hold them and let one {or both} go, and then say, "Come back, Elmo/Ernie!"  So fun.

He sometimes just carries Ernie around while he plays with other toys.  And by toys, of course I mean the buttons that control my bed, the buttons on the monitor, or someone's keys.

 I can't believe that our baby turns TWO tomorrow.  Where did the time go?

twenty eight!!!

Today is 28 weeks!!  Hooray!  Of course, we ultimately want to make it to 32 weeks before meeting these sweet girls, but 28 is a big milestone in terms of their ability to do well if they had to be delivered, so getting to today with two healthy babies is such a blessing!  

Here's my awkward bathroom mirror cameraphone belly pic...

{how fun is my pink "28 week" balloon from my sweet mom!?!}

And here's a profile picture of Baby B from our Wednesday ultrasound...she's sorta kissing baby A!

 And I have to document Will's new favorite part of visiting me in the hospital...dinnertime!  As I've mentioned before, dinner is served anywhere from 5 to 5:45 here at Hotel Presby, so Will is usually visiting when my tray arrives.  He LOVES it.  It's really pretty amazing, because he will try {and enjoy} things from the hospital tray that he would never eat at home.  {And I can personally vouch that the food at home is better in every possible way.} Maybe it's the novelty of eating while sitting on a bed?  Yesterday before dinner had even been delivered, Will jumped up on my bed, settled in, and said "Dinner please!"  Love him!

Happy Friday to everyone, and happy 28 weeks to the babies!!

pictures!

Oh what a fun surprise I got today!  My friend and fabulous photographer, Kristin {check out Kristin Dunn Photography} recently took some family/maternity pictures for us, and she sent them to me this afternoon!!  I was totally going to pick a few favorites and only post those, but I can't pick.  And since I print the blog as a scrapbook, I want them all in!  =)  

Ok, this next one needs a bit of explanation.  So we took the pictures in Deep Ellum, and Kristin planned ahead and brought a few dollars in case anyone stopped us to ask for help.  And someone did.  And then he maybe misunderstood her donation and thought we were sort of paying him to join us and entertain Will...or something along those lines.  Unfortunately Will wasn't impressed...but clearly I thought he was hilarious!  ;)

I just love this one.  It probably perfectly sums up Will's feelings about all of this...a bit bewildered, and completely clueless about what is coming!

Were you wondering what he's putting in that pocket in the picture above?  Such a boy...

Mr. Blue Eyes!

Thank you, Kristin, for capturing these precious memories for us!!! 

happily unexciting

I'm happy to report that things are still uneventful up here!  Our monitoring sessions have become a bit more challenging this week, because Baby B is very feisty!  Baby A is almost always in about the same place, and she will sometimes move around and get off the monitor, but most of the time she comes back without anyone even needing to adjust it.  Baby B, however....is a different story!  She will flip, move, kick, and even nudge the monitor off of herself!  I love that I feel like I'm getting to know these girls during all of our monitoring times together.  :)

Other than some extra long monitorings, things have been pretty routine this week, which is exactly what we want.  I'm excited to get to see the babies tomorrow morning!  Here are a few picture updates from the week.

Playing games with Will....love him!

Will had his FIRST trip to the dentist on Monday!  I was really worried that he would completely freak out, since that's sort of his standard move at the pediatrician's office.  He surprised us all and was a model patient!  He even let the dentist use the tooth scraper and the electric toothbrush!

And finally...how cool is this?  My mom found a TWIN flower growing in her yard in the middle of winter!  {although it doesn't feel like winter out there..}  There were no other flowers growing, and this sweet little one sprouted up.  Gotta be a sign, right?!

twenty seven!

Our sweet baby girls are 27 weeks today!  Hooray!  Twenty-eight is a big milestone for their development, so I'm excited to be just one week away from that.  I took a couple of pictures to document the belly:

 {No, I did not actually unhinge the bathroom door and put it on the other side.  I had to flip the picture after I downloaded it when I realized that my "27" was showing up backwards in the mirror, oops!}

So in baby news, all of the monitoring sessions have gone well today.  I really think they totally listen for the sounds of the monitor and start dancing immediately when it turns on!  We even spent some time today guessing whether we were feeling elbows or feet as they moved all over the place while my nurse and I were holding the monitors on my belly.  I also got a round of steroid shots today, which should help my batting average tremendously.  Oh wait....no, these were for the babies' lungs.  

In other news...I failed my second glucose test, boo!  So I apparently have gestational diabetes, which my doctor said is more common with twins because more of the hormone that interferes with insulin production is released.  It's been less awful than I originally thought...the new diet isn't necessarily fun, but it's not so bad.  Definitely the least enjoyable part has been the finger stick blood tests four times a day.  UGH!  But it's really pretty nice that I'm here rather than at home, because I don't know if I would have the guts to gather my own blood four times a day.  So it's really nice to have a nurse take care of that while I look in the other direction.  

But I always get to look forward to THIS time of the day:

 And I just got these fun pictures of my boys, having a dinner date with some wonderful {and generous} friends.  What fun!!  It is such a weight off of my shoulders to know that our family and friends are taking such great care of them.  

making pizzas

milk date!

and finishing the night with some yummy ice cream.

What a fun night!!  Thank you, Whalens!  :)

ultrasound wednesday!

See, I told you I'd be posting more often!  :)  Just wanted to share a picture of one of our sweet girls and an update from this morning.  Only one twin would cooperate for a profile picture, but since they're identical, just imagine this times two:

Both girls are looking great, and they are measuring exactly the same...right at 2.5 pounds each!  Their cord knots still look about the same {which is a good thing}, and they are still getting good blood flow through the cords.  Hooray!!

They've looked great on the monitors all day, so it's been a fabulous day except for one tiny thing....I failed my first glucose test on Monday.  BOO!  So there's still a chance I don't have gestational diabetes, but I have to take a more intense test tomorrow to find out for sure.  So if anyone happens to be up at 5am, I'll be chugging a whole bunch of sugar solution at that hour, and then having blood drawn every hour until 8am.  {maybe I can sleep through it all?  no?}  But you know what?  If there has to be a hiccup along the road, I'll take this one!!

However...I'm going to eat an extra cookie tonight just in case it's my last one for a few weeks...