Sick...Again.

It’s been an exhausting couple of days. Both Benjamin and Ella have colds, icky coughs and wheezing. Ella has even thrown up twice in the last couple days. She is probably trying to get that phlegm out of her. Poor babies. Now I have what they have. I went to acupuncture this morning and I fell asleep! I always feel weird falling asleep at massages or acupuncture, so I keep myself awake, but I couldn’t help myself this morning.

Anyway, we took Benjamin & Ella to the doctor yesterday. Their oxygen saturation wasn’t above 95% and they did have something going on in their lungs, so they had us give them use a nebulizer for a while to help with the congestion. It definitely helped Benjamin – it got his up to 98% from 93%. Ella got hers up to 96% but not before we had a little scare when the doctor said it was 85% (which is when we’d need to take her to the ER), but luckily, it was just the machine being finicky and it went up to 96%. We were given a nebulizer to take home and a prescription for the medication. It seems to be helping. I stayed at home with them yesterday, but they went to daycare today (I needed to finish something at work as did Jon) though I may end up leaving work early (I hope). Not surprisingly, the two other girls there today also had bad coughs like Benjamin & Ella. I wonder where they got their colds from…

Another part of the doctor visit that worries me is that Ella weighed just a little over 16 pounds (didn’t catch the exact weight) – that’s what she weighed at their 6 month checkup. I’m hoping it’s because she’s sick and hasn’t been eating really well that that is the reason she’s at 16 pounds. A friend of mine told me her 1 year old just had the flu and lost a couple pounds during that time so that probably is the reason.

Benjamin weighed 22 pounds though I could have sworn he weighed more. Perhaps their scale is wrong and that’s why Ella was only 16 pounds and Benjamin only 22 (only!) :-D (he was 19 lbs 5 ounces at the 6 month checkup). Our stupid scale at home needs a new battery, so I can’t weigh them at home. I don’t know when I’m going to go in search of a new battery. It has to be one of those kind of batteries I don’t have, nor would I have in abundant supply.

Well, that’s about it for now. I’m hoping everyone feels good by this weekend so we can still go to our playdate on Sunday, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen. :-(

Playdates, Cute Stories, etc.

Ella has more and more been found sleeping on her belly. I'll walk in and sometimes she'll get up onto her hands and knees. One day this weekend, she was found laying the width of the bed right up against the bars of the crib. So instead of laying the length of bed right in the middle, she had somehow maneuvered herself to the one end of the crib. She thought it was quite funny when I asked her how she got there.

We went on a playdate yesterday with a support group buddy. Benjamin, who hadn't had a good nap all day, slept through a portion of the playdate. Ella enjoyed herself though until toward the end when she was even sleepy even though she had two naps (though short) before then. On our way back home, they were talking to each other. Benjamin kept laughing too. It was so adorable. They'll do this in the morning too - sometimes I don't want to go in there because it's so cute to hear them talk to each other.

On Saturday, we went to a multiples group meeting and met other twin parents. It was nice to hear from other parents though our babies were the 2nd oldest there so I think we were giving advice more than getting advice. Oh well. :-D

This coming weekend on Sunday, we are meeting with the others in my support group for a big playdate. It will be so much fun to see everyone. We haven't seen each other since December when we had our holiday get-together. I hope our playdates become a regular thing.

Almost Friday

Yesterday, I wrote that I was expecting to find Ella sleeping on her belly any day now. Well, that day was this morning. I walked into their room to get some bibs for the daycare and found Ella sleeping on her belly. She heard me (that girl is a light sleeper) and got up on her hands and knees and smiled at me. So cute.

Benjamin heard me too, but he kept on sleeping. He tossed and turned a bit - probably deciding if he should wake up or not. He decided to sleep just a little bit longer - not too much though. I got to see both of them awake before I left for the bus. Yay! Unfortunately, I didn't get to hang out with them for too long. They were not happy with me putting them down to play while Jon fixed their bottles and I got my coat on to leave. :-(

To answer Alli's question from yesterday - Spiderwick was good, I thought. Sure, they left some things out from the books, but I still enjoyed it. It was nice to go out on a real date - who knows when we'll be able to do so again!

Babies

Hmm, it's been nearly a week since I last wrote something.

Ella is more and more getting up on her hands and her feet (and sometimes her knees). There have been a few times that we put her to bed for the night or for a nap for her to wake up with a frustrated cry she has because she's trying to get on her tummy then to her hands and knees/feet but the crib is in the way. Sometimes, she has got there successfully but can't get past the rocking motion or she goes backwards. I'm expecting any day now to find her sleeping on her belly. It's very cute that when she's on her back to sleep, she puts her hands behind her head.

Benjamin likes to sleep with his arms extended in some fashion. Last night, it looked like he was doing the John Travolta - Saturday Night Fever pose. Cute! Benjamin hasn't really seemed interested in attempting to crawl yet, but she tells some great stories!


Hmm, what else. We took the babies to a birthday party for a 2 year old this past weekend. Benjamin slept through a good deal of the party. Ella slept for a little bit. They came to visit me at work on Monday since I had to work and Jon didn't. Everyone oohed and aahed at them and how big they have gotten since the last time they saw them (in person) on Halloween. A coworker of mine made big hooded towels for the babies with this cute little ribbon on them. Adorable! She also offered to babysit with her 14 year old daughter. My boss and her 20-something daughter came over on Saturday so Jon and I could go out on a date. We went out to lunch and saw The Spiderwick Chronicles. I'm looking forward to bringing my children to movies and see them get all excited about it. My nephew loved the movie so much, he now wants to read the books (I read them a while ago). I'm looking forward to my children being excited about books too - I hope they will be - I'm trying to start to read to them more than I had before so I hope that will encourage excitement in books!

It's a Boy and a girl for us and a boy for a friend.

I just realized that I missed mentioning that on February 12, 2007, we found we were having a boy and a girl. I have to admit that I was happy we were going to have one of each. :-D

A friend of ours e-mailed us this morning to tell us she delivered her baby boy on February 12 at 12:06 a.m. My husband pointed out that Benjamin was born exactly 8 months prior to that - on June 12 at 12:06 a.m. Congratulations Aki!

Felt the need to write this...

A while back, I came across a blog that was all about putting down people who did any type of ART, especially if they used donor eggs or sperm (I'm sure some of you may have heard of this blog). Against my better judgment, I have to read at what craziness she writes. I guess it's like looking at the car wreck on the side of the freeway - you can't help but to look.

Anyway, today she's irritated me more so than before by something that I've heard numerous times that those who use ART are being selfish, self-centered or lack empathy. O.K. I haven't heard the lack of empathy part before - how in the world do any of us lack empathy? The infertile community is a wonderful group of women and men who have nothing but empathy for others. We support each other through so much - I just don't know where she's coming from on that one and I just don't know how to even respond to her - it's just unbelievable the things she says.

And the selfish and self-centered - I've heard this before. This statement usually comes around the time someone says to infertile couples to "just adopt" because we all know that it should rest on infertile couples to adopt while fertile couples shouldn't have to deal with such things. If infertile people are selfish and self-centered for wanting to have children and thus, use ART to get there, I would think that anyone who chooses to have sex to become pregnant are also selfish and self-centered.

I don't consider having children to be a selfish and self-centered thing to do. If anything, it seems like you're being anything but selfish and self-centered as you are devoting your life to another human being and putting their needs above your own. Is that really selfish and self-centered?

New Pictures & Birthday Question

I forgot to mention - I have new pictures on flickr now. :-D

And I can't remember if I've asked this question before or not. Is it silly or fun to have a birthday party for your one year old? I'm trying to decide if there would be anyone who would want to come see Benjamin and Ella stuff their faces with some cake or should it just be us?

Babies & Parking

I got an e-mail today saying my babies are 35 weeks as of yesterday. Huh - I was pregnant for 35 weeks. My babies have been out in this world a day longer than I was pregnant with them.

I came across something today in which people were complaining about seemingly non-disabled persons parking in disabled parking spots. I guess some people don't realize that sometimes the disability isn't readily seen. Anyway, I bring it up because someone then commented that parking for pregnang women (aka stork parking) should go away. I don't see stork parking in too many places, and I didn't use that parking until I was further along in my pregnancy. Sure, I joked about using it when I had just found out I was pregnant, but I wasn't going to use it since I had no problems walking. However, later on in the pregnancy, it became hard to walk around. I remember going to IKEA once and holy crap, was that a bad idea. I had to rest so often. So, I'm thinking this person has never been pregnant.

8 Months!

Happy 8 months to my sweeties, Benjamin and Ella!

How time flies.

My baby girl is getting ready to crawl and dancing her little booty off. Her new favorite game is playing peek-a-boo - with her hiding.

My baby boy is such the talker/singer and such the big boy wearing 12 month clothing.

Things I've Been Meaning To Blog About

Some dos and donts with babies. Funny. :-D

I can't decide if this is a good idea or a silly one. It's great because it would keep the baby's head safe, but I fear I would be seen as a paranoid mom. What do others think?

Speaking of being paranoid, look at all these places you'll find germs. I never really thought about the bottom of my handbag being a place, but it certainly makes sense.

Weekend, Cute Stories, and a Question

This weekend we were quite busy – at least, it felt like it. On Saturday, we went to our caucus to place our vote for the presidential candidate. I had voted many times sine I turned 18, but this was the first time I had actually gone to a caucus. Since the caucus vote was the only vote the Democrats were using to select delegates, we thought it was important to go. I had thought about being a delegate but there was some confusion as to what dates the delegates had to be available for the next step. It’s a good thing I didn’t end up being a delegate because I forgot we’re going to a wedding that day!

Anyway, a lady there took some pictures of us at the caucus that I put onto my flickr site if you’d like to see them. Benjamin and Ella were well-behaved, as usual. Benjamin fell asleep. Ella did not because the caucus is just like a big party! After the caucus, we really didn’t do much other than play with the babies and do some chores.

On Sunday, a friend of ours was singing with a church choir up in Edmonds, so we went to the church service, then we went out to brunch. Benjamin and Ella were again well-behaved and again, Benjamin fell asleep. Ella played with her toys. She would get bored with one, then move onto the other. It’s unfortunate that we only had 4 toys that we brought with us, but she still was a good girl throughout the service. She eventually fell asleep at the restaurant, as did Benjamin.

Some cute stories to share – Ella is now copying Jon with “peek-a-boo”. Last night, she saw her papa put a blanket in front of himself and say “where’s papa?”, then pull down the blanket to say “there he is!” She then got the blanket, pulled it up over her head while we said “where’s ella?”, then she pulled it down and we said “there she is!” and she laughed. SO CUTE. She did that many times.

Jon also told me that they were copying him when he was banging two of their toys together. Oh, and both of them will dance sometimes when we sing songs. Ella will sway side to side while Benjamin will go back and forth. Benjamin also has been saying a lot of different “words” lately. I so wish I knew what he was saying, especially when he’s all fussy and saying his new words. I just say in a sympathetic tone, “I know sweetie.”

I think that’s all the news I have…I do have one question though – when did your child first get his or her first tooth? Benjamin and Ella are 8 months tomorrow but they still don’t have any teeth – they drool like crazy and have been for some time now so I thought they would have had teeth by now.

Cute Stories

Speaking of how lucky I am, I wanted to share these cute stories of my sweeties before I forget all about them.

Ella, sitting/standing in the exercauser, pushed one of the buttons that plays music and she starts to dance to the music. So incredibly cute. Ella is sometimes getting up onto her hands and knees but becomes easily frustrated so she doesn't really go anywhere quite yet but back onto her tummy or backwards.

Benjamin, also into music apparently, was sitting in the Bumbo the other day with a plastic chain rattling the chain against the Bumbo, stop rattling to "sing" then he started head bopping to the music in his head. It was so cute. When he stopped, I thought I would turn on the tv to some music on the digital channels, but he wasn't happy with that. He wanted to sing and dance to his own songs, thank you very much.

:-(

I can't stop thinking of Mary Ellen and Steve and their loss. There were days, especially those first few weeks of the pregnancy and the first few days in the hospital, when I was afraid that I would lose my babies. So afraid of finally achieving pregnancy and later, being so far along in the pregnancy, to only have everything taken away from us. When I read the news of Mary Ellen and Steve's daughters, I remembered those times and how much my heart ached at the thought of losing my babies, but thankfully, I didn't. I consider myself so extremely lucky to have my babies. I want this so much for Mary Ellen and Steve and for the countless others who go through this kind of pain. For those who want to be a parent but can't seem to get there.

I just cannot imagine what they are going through. I wish I could make things better for them. Why does it have to be so hard for wonderful people like them to have children while there are people in this world that treat children so horribly? It's enough to doubt everything you believe in. I want things to be different for them - for everyone who has gone through this kind of pain. For anyone who has ever gone through infertility. I don't want to say they deserve it because it's not a question of who deserves what - it's just - they've been through so much - so many have gone through so much.

Words Cannot Describe...

A lot of us in blogland probably have already heard the news from Mary Ellen and Steve. I just heard the news this morning as I haven't been able to read blogs in a while. I don't know them in real life, but I've read Mary Ellen's blog for a while now. I just cannot imagine what they are going through right now. I cannot stop crying for them. My prayers are with them during this incredibly difficult time.