Hanging Out In Fuzzi Bunz

Reflections...20 Weeks Ago

It was 20 weeks ago today that Shawn and I entered the room to have our first ultrasound ever during a pregnancy to find out if we were truly having one or two babies. I remember being so sure they were going to tell me it was just one baby, a big baby. Just a few short seconds after the ultrasound was placed on my belly, the technician asked if we wanted to know if we were having one or two babies, we answered, "yes" and she stated, "you definitely are having two babies". I immediately broke into a sob of a pure sense of overwhelment. As I sobbed, Shawn reassured me he would make sure I had help for the first month every moment he was gone and it was going to be OK. As I could not pull myself together, he asked the technician if we could have a few minutes alone.
I immediately knew I still wanted to have a home birth but knew our preparation and plan would need to be adapted.
Over the next few weeks we prepared for twins. I, reading many books and having many discussions with Joy about our birth plan.
Everyone would ask us what we needed meaning clothes, cribs... My reply was always, "I am still trying to wrap my brain around birthing two, we will have a better idea what we need after they arrive".
As we tried to remain patient through a few false labor alarms and we approached 40 weeks, I felt great. We maintained our normal daily activities for the most part.
Finally, the day arrived, one day before their "expected date".
The emotional roller coaster that day brought was completely unexpected as the first baby boy was born after a very short labor just minutes after Shawn and Joy walked in the door, with the older kids missing it as they were downstairs. And then transferring to the hospital almost 12 hours later for the birth of the second baby boy via C-section.
Two healthy beautiful baby boys.
The events of that day strengthened our marriage, strengthened me as a natural childbirth educator and tested our ability to adapt and forgive among other things.
The following few weeks brought more unexpected challenges as my body healed, one baby had a mysterious ailment, we re-taught a baby to nurse, we had to figure out how to get 5 car seats in a mini van and still be able to access the buckles, I fought a rash and Shawn patiently dealt with a plethra of water problems in the house....
Blessed with help from family and friends, everyone's needs were met.
Wow, I am glad those challenges are in the past.

God has given me the grace to approach each day positively and most moments with patience in dealing with 5 children age 6 and under.
Truthfully, I am really enjoying this! Sure, some moments feel totally crazy but most are awesome moments like when the babies smile at each other, two sets of eyes gaze at me as they nurse, big sister labels the bathroom faucet "H" and "C" for little brother when he turns the cold off first, daughter says "I love ALL of you" with all the exuberance you can imagine, big brother comforts baby brother before mom gets to him.
This was all in his plan. Two years ago we bought a new dining room table and the salesman threw in two extra chairs for no extra cost.
Who would have guessed?

Snowmen In April

Last month at a friend's birthday party, Anika won a cute little recipe book. That evening, Aubrey was paging through it and decided she wanted snowmen cupcakes for her birthday party. To a mom of twin babies and 3 others, the cupcakes looked ridiculously time consuming. The week of her party I made numerous attempts to direct her otherwise, I told her to look through the book and see if there was anything "neater". She appeased me each time, and always came to the same decision. As it became obvious her little heart was set on Snowmen cupcakes in April, I sent Shawn shopping. As happens occasionally, I took on too much in the 48 hours prior to the party including going back to work for half a day for the first time since the babies and teaching a 3 hour class an hour after getting off work with the babies in tote. After 2 hours of work on the cute little cupcakes the morning of the party, the babies needed to eat so I left the cupcake finishing to my mother in law who arrived just in time!!! She did a great job of finishing them off with eyes and hats!

Ahhh....Relaxation!

Last night when Shawn got home from work he told me I needed to have both babies content at 8:30 pm. I thought that was a little strange but blew it off and went about my typical evening. By 8:30 he had the older kids in bed and sat with me and chatted in the living room as I fed the babies. At 9 pm there was a knock on the door, it was a friend of ours who has her massage therapy license and is currently a stay at home mom, she was going to give me an hour massage. What a treat!
Needless to say, I was very relaxed by bedtime and Shawn says I have the bounce back in my step today. Apparently he had this scheduled a few times over the last couple of weeks but each time, something came up with her family or I had something planned he was not aware of. The babies cooperated pretty well for him as he tended to them downstairs during the massage. Thanks Shawn!!!

Put away the books, today's lesson is bathroom cleaning!!

Instead of working on academics today, I decided it was a good day to give the girls a formal lesson on bathroom cleaning. I walked them through cleaning the toilet, counters, sinks, faucet, towel holders, cupboards, everything except the tub and floors. I introduced them to the light, safe cheminals we use and how to identify them under the sink. They have always been great at doing a quick scrub of the toilet or wiping down the counters and sink for me but today's lesson was cleaning "mommy style". I then made a laminated card listing the steps to cleaning the bathroom so they will not forget a step. The card hangs on a necklace, similar to the cards they wear each morning listing the steps to "get ready for the day". The test will be given Saturday morning as we prepare for Aubreys birthday party. Each girl will be assigned a bathroom, so if you join us that day, please let them know what a great job they did!!!
Well, I gues they are in the cleaning spirit (they must get that from Shawn!), now they are cleaning all of the upstairs windows to the height they can reach!!!

Easter

Who Knew a Table has Cheeks and Doctors Turn the Power Off?

Tonight just before I served dinner, Elijah spilled Anika's glass of water (a spill is almost a nightly occurance) so Anika decided to move to my regular seat. She stated, "I am sitting at the head of the table", there was a moment of silence and Aubrey added, "I am sitting at the cheek".
As they were enjoying ice cream after dinner Anika turned to Aubrey and stated, "I think chiropractors turn the power on and doctors turn the power off" (referring to the statement Shawn often makes that an adjustment of a subluxation turns the power to the nervous system on). Earlier in the day, I walked downstairs to notice on Anika's whiteboard a picture of two hand drawn spines, one labeled 'bfor' (which was not straight and the other labeled 'aftr', of course straight). The things they do and say!!!!!

Daddy's Birthday

Shawn's mom took the day off and joined us on Tuesday to celebrate his birthday. We had a photo cake made with a picture of the kids and I made one of his favorite dishes from Ciattis, spicy chicken penne. Anika decided we needed placecards which she designed using blue construction paper, Aubrey decided each chair at the table needed some flair with blue and red streamers and then the girls each colored a flurry of pictures and taped them all over the upstairs. We had a great meal and even took a few pictures of all of us together, something we do not do enough! Thank you Jody for joining us, it was really special!

Finally Joining the Blogging World

Welcome to our family blog! We hope to use this to keep family and friends up to date on our families day to day adventures, passions and dreams. We will also post photos for those of you who think we live so far away, so you can watch us grow!