Hippity, Hoppity, Easter's on its Way!

Today Mom and I went to the Olive Garden for soup, salad, and breadsticks. It was a great lunch, and the girls were perfect little angels! Afterwards I needed to have my engagement ring and wedding band inspected to maintain the extended warranty on them so we ventured out to the mall. My rings checked out fine, and just as we were leaving Kay Jewelers, I noticed the Easter Bunny sitting in the middle of the mall.

You would have thought I was 5 again I got so excited about the girls sitting on his lap to have their picture made. Ella was a bit of a squirm worm and we had to take several shots before getting one with her eyes open and her headband positioned on top of her head. Addilyn just kicked back in the bunny's arm all relaxed.

It wasn't until after the girls had their picture made with Mr. Easter Bunny that I thought about how creepy the bunny really was. He didn't move or make any noise. He didn't even talk to me when I was trying to get the girls situated in his arms. I'll take Santa over the Easter Bunny any day. At least Santa Ho Ho Ho's! Haha! Seriously, the Easter Bunny looks all jolly and happy, but what's really lurking behind that mask?

7 Weeks

Addilyn and Ella are now seven weeks old. Addilyn weighs 7 pounds 14 ounces and Ella is 7 pounds 8.5 ounces. They are growing so fast! Here are a couple of pictures I took of the girls today. Ella was not being very cooperative. I think she was sleepy. Anyhow, enjoy MY commentary on the girls.

Ella: Hey sis, let me eat your elbow.

Addilyn: I don't think so!

Ella: Sis, your elbow was tasty.

Addilyn: Yuck! You got it all slimy!

Ella: But it was so good. C'mon, just one more little nibble?

Addilyn: Chew on your own elbow! Seriously, back off before I elbow you in the face!

Ella: Waaaaaaa! She won't let me taste her elbow!

Addilyn: You had it coming!

Date Night!

Saturday was the first day I've been on my own with both babies since we brought them home from the hospital. Since I was snowed in, my mom couldn't come over to help, and I definitely wasn't taking my chances on the road with two small infants. It was all me from the time Matthew went to work until he got home. A good 12 hours, just me and them, and briefly the Dish Network guy who came to repair a cable (but he didn't look like he was into babies, and probably wouldn't have been any help!)

After being snowed in with the blizzard, my fantastic hubby suggested we call up my parents and kindly ask them if they would watch the girls for a bit while we enjoyed some time together and went to dinner. My parents graciously agreed (or should I say jumped at the opportunity) and Matthew and I enjoyed dinner at Cheddar's tonight. It was nice to have a little bit of a break from the babies. Don't get me wrong, I love them dearly, but everyone needs some grown up time! We are so wild these days that we ran a couple or errands afterwards to Target, Wal-Mart and Lowe's. I know! We better slow down a little and stop living on the edge!

Anyhow, I got mom to take a couple of pictures when we picked the girls up. Enjoy!

The Aftermath

I ventured outside and took a few pictures of the snow before the sun melts it away. It's hard to say how much accumulation we have since we live in the country and the wind blows it around so much. If I had to guess I would say 8-10 inches. We have snow drifts almost as high as the fence on the side of our property. Hopefully this is our last blast and we can enjoy spring again.

Leapin' Blizzards!

Apparently the weatherman wasn't delusional. I'm not sure how much snow is on the ground, but this morning when we fed the girls at 10 o'clock, I peeked outside. I could see the trees in our yard, but nothing past that. The snow was blowing pretty bad, so hard in fact, you couldn't tell if it was snowing or just blowing.

Roads are closed all over the panhandle. As a matter of fact, we couldn't leave if we wanted to. FM 2219, the main road that leads out to our house, is closed. Matthew got a snow day from work too! I was not brave enough to venture out to take pictures. Matthew bundled up and headed out to take a look at how bad the conditions really are so I asked him to take pictures. I was able to keep my tootsies nice and warm in my slippers!

Gone are the days that this much snow excited me. I'm not sure how Matthew feels about it, but I think it holds more excitement for him than it does me. He was up late last night anticipating the wintry blast. I don't think he came to bed until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. I am thankful that I have a few years to prepare myself for snowman, snow fort, snow tunnel and snowball making with the girls.

I loved playing in the snow as a little girl. Maybe with our girls I'll gain some of my childish ignorance back! I don't think I'll ever LOVE the snow again, but maybe I can learn to tolerate it every now and again for the sake of making memories with our little ones. Thank goodness we live in a crazy weather environment and it doesn't snow often. Unfortunately, it seems to snow in the spring rather than winter. Yesterday's high was in the low 70s. Today it is in the low 20s.

Our front yard and new tree we planted four days ago.

My poor flowerbed that was just "waking up" with our warm spring weather.

The neighbor's house, barely visible across the road.


My crazy husband, brave enough to venture out in this yucky weather.

Blah! Snow...?

Tonight Amarillo is under a blizzard warning. Seriously, a BLIZZARD! The weatherman is forecasting 6-12 inches of snow tonight. Winds are supposed to be 35-40 mph tomorrow with gusts up to 50 mph. All that wind is said to cause snow drifts 10-20 feet!

Amarillo ISD has already cancelled school for tomorrow. This act in itself needs to go down in history! AISD NEVER cancels school. When I say NEVER, I really mean that. Last year we had an ice storm come though town. Ice was so bad that you couldn't even get your car doors open and had to be almost a half inch thick. You can imagine what the roads were like, yet AISD didn't call off school. Where's the logic in that decision?

I HATE, HATE, HATE snow with a passion. It's too cold and too wet! Bravery pending, and at the risk of getting cold toes, IF this storm hits like it's predicted to hit, I'll pop myself outside long enough to take pictures. We haven't had that much snow since it snowed in May a few years ago.

Matthew and I live in the country on a dirt road. We might be snowed in since the nearest main road to our house isn't travelled much and is one of the last roads to be plowed. Neither of us drive a four wheel drive vehicle. Speaking of snow plows, driving home from my parents tonight I did notice that plows were already taking up residence in the local movie theater parking lot in preparation of this arctic blast. I'm really hoping the weatherman was smoking a doobie and slightly delusional when he said the word BLIZZARD. I guess a few hours will tell. Until then...

Six Weeks

Addilyn and Ella are six weeks old today. They are growing so fast. They have outgrown almost all of their preemie clothes and are now wearing newborn sizes.

I got out the baby scale to check their weight gain today. Addilyn weighs 7 pounds 5 ounces. Ella weighs 6 pounds 15.5 ounces. They are both right on track gaining about 1/2 pound a week. I sure am glad it's them and not me!

Chloe, our cat, of course, can't stand for the attention to not be on her. She had to steal the spotlight by laying on the scale and making sure we weighed her as well. She's a whooping 12 pounds 15 ounces.


Chloe is very curious when it comes to the babies. Gracie, our other cat, is not too fond of them. I think she thinks they are too noisy and usually stears clear of them. Chloe, on the other hand, likes to supervise feedings. She watches them when they are on their activity mats and even comes into the nursery if the babies are crying. I think she will be very sweet to the girls as they get older, that is until the girls are old enough to want to dress her in doll clothes. Then we might have another story on our hands!

St. Patty's Day

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day a little differently this year. There was no green beer and no rowdy "Irishmen." My mom and I took the girls out for lunch. We enjoyed lunch at Chili's and they slept quietly. Then we went shopping at Hobby Lobby. A double stroller with two tiny girls draws a LOT of attention. We won't be able to go anywhere discreetly for some time! It was a fun day.

Prior to St. Patty's Day I looked high and low for cute outfits for the girls. Unfortunately, the girls are still too small to fit into anything geared towards shamrocks and leprechauns. We made do by dressing them in green. They were cute! I can't wait to dress them up for Easter! (We already have bunny hats!)

The girls were five weeks old on Monday. Addilyn now weights 6 pounds 13 ounces. Ella weighs 6 pounds 8.5 ounces. I can't believe how quickly they are growing!

Doctor Update

I saw my doctor on Thursday with hopes that my blood pressure would be down and I'd be off the meds. Not the case. It's still up (140/98). I have to continue taking the meds and return in three weeks. He's still hopeful that it will return to my normal pre-pregnancy range of 120/70.

On the bright side of things, after only 4.5 weeks post babies arrival, I have been given the okay to resume working out! I'm thrilled! I have missed working out almost as much as I missed wearing heels while I was pregnant. Maybe working out will relieve some stress or whatever is making my blood pressure high. A girl can hope anyway.

Busy Days

My days are busy with the girls, thus lots of photo opportunities. Ella is our ham. She grunts and groans all the time. I teasingly say we should have named her Ella "Grunt" Hutchison instead of Ella Grace! Addilyn is our quiet one. She's going to be our "thinker" and the one encouraging Ella not to do something that might get them in trouble.

Today I took pictures of them during tummy time on their activity mats. Neither one of them fussed over tummy time today and both girls are getting a lot stronger.

Oh, and did I mention that Chloe, our cat, also likes tummy time? After Matthew set up the activity mats, Chloe was underneath it, on her back, batting at the toys with her paws. It's almost as if she was showing the girls how they are supposed to play with their new toy.

On Monday, Matthew and I gave the girls a bath before their one month old pictures. Instead of dressing Ella right away, I swaddled her and put her in the bouncer so we could bathe Addilyn. Here is Ella peeking at us!

Ella's smart, too. I flipped on the light in the girl's room and Ella hid her eyes. She cracks me up!

I took pictures of the girls at mom and dad's yesterday. They were just too cute to pass up a photo opportunity.

One Month

One month ago today Addilyn and Ella greeted the world with loud cries. They are doing so well and each day Matthew and I count our blessings for healthy, happy babies. Addilyn Kate is now 6lbs. 2.5oz. and measures 19 inches long. Ella Grace is 5lbs. 15oz. and measures 18 inches long. They are beginning to fit into newborn size clothes. Of course they are still a little big and made for babies a bit wider than Addi and Ella!

Matthew and I are finally figuring things out, with thanks to my mom. We had a rough couple of weeks with the girls at night. They weren't wanting to sleep and we were running on empty being up with them so much. We've started keeping them awake during the day at least an hour after feedings before letting them go back to sleep. Our nights have been much smoother. The girls still wake up every three hours to eat, but now we usually have one stretch in the night that they go four hours before needing to eat again. It's wonderful!

I am feeling much better about recent decisions I've made. I feel more like a human again. I see the doctor on Thursday for another blood pressure check. I'm hoping for good news and that I will no longer have to take blood pressure medication.

Matthew and I exhausted the girls today with a photo session. Enjoy their one month old pictures!

Motherhood

What can I say? It's tough work. I never would have guessed sleep deprivation would be so tiring or trying to breastfeed so frustrating. So many thing have changed in the last month. The girls will be four weeks old on Monday and I am already looking forward to the nights in the future that they sleep all night. I feel bad...almost like I'm wishing time away, but I miss sleep in the worst possible way.

I have found that I no longer have time to eat either. Two weeks after the birth of Addilyn and Ella, I was already back at my pre-pregnancy weight. Oh, and remind me to pee, too because I no longer remember or think about that either.

Matthew and I tried to watch a movie last weekend, and I couldn't even make it through half of it before confessing my exhaustion and climbing into bed. I'm lucky if I get a shower on a daily basis, and my poor house doesn't know what happened to it. It's dirty (well, dirtier than I'd like it to be), and filled with baby stuff that has no room for it other than the living room. I already feel as if we've outgrown our house, but on the flip side of that there is no possible way I could keep a bigger house clean right now.

Have I mentioned that the most action my stove has seen has been boiling nipples for bottles? I haven't cooked in over a month. Who has time? I certainly don't. My poor washing machine sees at least a load of baby clothes, burp cloths and potty pads daily. The diaper genie gets disposed of every two days. And my poor hands realize the meaning of "dish pan hands" from washing bottles. I thought having a sterilizer would help, but it deceives you. You still have to wash the bottles before you sterilize them. It never ends.

Today I made the hardest decision I've had to make since the arrival of the girls. I was trying to breastfeed, but due to the girls being premature they have latch on issues. I pumped instead and realized that I had a low milk supply (like 1 ounce of milk after pumping for 20 minutes.) I asked the doctor for a prescription to increase my supply. He prescribed Reglan, but it made me super sick to my stomach to take. So I stopped for a few days and tried taking an herbal supplement called Fenugreek and drinking Mother's Milk Tea. My supply decreased dramatically, so I asked the doctor if I should start out slow on the Reglan to let my body adjust. He said that I should try. He also recommended a beer a day. Over a week later, I'm still not producing much, and finding the time to pump is hard. When I have the time to pump, I'd rather be sleeping.

So with many tears shed, and feeling like somewhat of a failure, I've decided for my own sanity that it's time to stop and dry up my boobies. The Reglan is making me resent the girls and affecting my moods too much to be worth it. I want to enjoy my girls and not feel ill feelings towards them. Matthew is being very supportive especially knowing how important it was to me to breastfeed the girls. Some things just aren't worth it.

I took some cute pictures of the girls today. Mom and I were keeping them awake as long as possible to make nights easier for Matthew and me. I will also post pictures of their first baths.

Addilyn wants Ella to share!

Ella loves her big sister.

Ella and one of her usual faces.

Ella was not thrilled with her first bath.

Addilyn's first bath.