Halloween Party Time!

This past weekend, we went to three separate Halloween parties. The first one was Saturday morning with one of the multiples groups we are members of. Ben & Ella had some fun playing with some crayons (to my knowledge, this was their first time with crayons) and going through the bowls of "prizes" that went with each of the games. Ella decided on some crayons and Benjamin had a monster guy, but ended up putting him back. After that, we visited the park right by the center that the party was at. Ben & Ella went on the swings - we got some good pictures of them on there. I need to upload them soon! A ladybug and a crocodile/alligator on the swings.

That evening, we went to a friend's house for dinner and ate some yummy food and talked a little bit with everyone. We ended up leaving rather soon so we could get the children to bed. Turns out, they needed the sleep. They surprisingly didn't wake up (or we didn't hear them) until 8:15 that morning - sleeping in time - so we had to rush to get ready to go to church that morning.

Later on Sunday, we went to the church's Halloween party. It was a rather warm day for October and even warmer inside so eventually, their costumes came off. We stayed there for a bit, then headed to the park in between parties. The next party was a pumpkin carving party. We didn't end up staying too long as it was rather difficult to keep the kids away from the knifes and food, but we wanted to come say hi to everyone as it seems we don't see many of these people that often anymore. And to those of you at that party, I do not just feed my children potato chips and chocolate treats. In fact, they don't really have much of that at all.

I'm not sure what we're going to do on Halloween night. We might take the kids around to say hi to the neighbors or go to the mall to see if they have things for the kids or we just might stay home to hand out the candy from the huge bag I bought at a warehouse type store. Decisions!

Cute Child Post

The daycare/preschool told me the other day that Ella has been teaching the kids on ways to get the teacher's attention when the teacher is giving activities for the older kids to do. A father of one of the other little kids said "there's the ring leader" when he saw Ella. Ella is the only girl in the under 2 group so naturally, the kids want to follow her. :-D Apparently, one of the ways she was showing them on how to get the teacher's attention is to move this soft slide toy that has velcro on it - when moved, it makes a noise as velcro does and so the teacher looks to them and they smile and laugh and hide in the tunnel. Ella did the multiple times before the other kids thought they would try it too - yep, it works! Silly children!

The teacher also told me that Benjamin loves to talk. He talks to everyone. Yep, Benjamin likes to talk...though so does Ella. I did hear Benjamin the other day say "I wuv oo" - awww! I wasn't sure if he was talking to me or to Ella. Either way, that's pretty cute. We mentioned to my OB today that we've heard them both say "hewo. how are oo?" when talking on the phone and she said that's surprising as boys tend to be slower when it comes to stringing words together. Not with Benjamin. He's been saying that with the phone for a while and thank you. Most of the time, I can't understand what he's saying or what Ella's saying but they're pretty sure they're talking in a language we understand, so we just say 'oh really' or 'that's great' or nod our head and they're probably saying something like "I'm going to go take out all of the clothes from the laundry and put them all over the floor, o.k.?"

Oh, and lately, Benjamin likes to point up to the sky - usually to a bird or to a plane, but sometimes, I'm not sure what he's pointing at. When we get home - if it's nice - we play out in the front yard for a bit. They really like that, but they don't like to go inside at all - especially Benjamin.

Well, that's all for now. :-D

OB Visit

Today, I had another OB visit.

I asked my questions on the flu shot and of tying my tubes (mentioned in last post) and I asked about whether the size of the baby would make a difference on whether the scar could rupture. On the last question, she said the chance of a rupture is still 1%. Because of that, if the baby is in the right position, I think I'm going to try a VBAC, so if any of our friends would like to volunteer to watch the kids for us if labor happens at night, that would be great. :-D

They also weighed me, as they do every single time, and I haven't gained a single pound or ounce since last month. The OB doesn't seem worried by that, but she did say she'd like me to gain at least 2 pounds by next month. So I guess I need to fatten myself up some. I don't suppose the salad I had for lunch just now is going to help with that. Nothing else sounded good.

Then next was the time to listen to the baby's heartbeat. At first, it seemed she couldn't find it so there was, what seemed like, a minute before we finally heard the heartbeat. I apparently was holding my breath until the OB said "there it is" as I let out a big sigh of relief. I was getting nervous - Jon said he was too.

That was about it. Not much else. Next time (in 4 weeks), she said she's going to start checking my cervix as that was one of my issues with the last pregnancy. She also said she's going to do the fetal fibronectin test as she did a couple times with the last pregnancy. Then I think a short time after that appointment is when I do the gestational diabetes test - blech.

We have to start thinking of baby names - I have no idea what to name this child! Time to get that baby name book out...

Questions from other day and one more to add to it.

First, about the questions I asked the other day.

With the bottles, we have gotten rid of the night time bottle and sometimes the mid-morning bottle, but not the morning bottle or late afternoon bottle. They get their milk from a sippy cup when they don't get it from a bottle.

I'm anxious to get them off the bottle and my husband wonders why. It just seems like they should be off of them by now. I especially want them off the bottle when the new baby comes. In the next couple weeks, hopefully, we can get them off the remaining bottles.

As for the flu shot, my OB does want me to get one, but I didn't get one today because I'm still fighting a cough so I'll have to come in next week to do it.

For tying tubes, I was going to write this in my post about the OB visit today, but here will do. She said that if we did a c-section, then tying the tubes would be easy to do. If we do a VBAC, then she would recommend an IUD or for Jon to get a vasectomy. She did mention that it is permanent so we need to be sure. I know I don't want to have any more kids, but right now, I'm just leaning toward an IUD. I think I'm going to try VBAC too. More on that in next post.


What about getting them out of cribs and into toddler beds? Benjamin is a tall boy, so I'm thinking we'll need to get him into a toddler bed soon. And based on my first comment, I need to clarify what I mean by this question. I'm afraid of him being able to climb out easily and falling, so that's why I wonder if I should move him to a toddler bed. Any thoughts on that?

Questions

Almost forgot that I had a couple questions for all of you - perhaps if I put my questions in a separate post, I might get more responses...

1) When should children be off bottles completely?

2) When you were pregnant, did your OB suggest getting a flu shot? I've never had one before, so I'd rather not, but I'm wondering if I should. I'll be asking my OB this Friday.

3) Not really a question, but something I've been thinking about. I'm thinking of tying my tubes after the 3rd baby comes. I have to admit to being sad about doing so - not because I want to have a 4th child, but because...I'm not sure how to explain it...

Anyway, it's something I've been considering doing after the birth of #3.

Update - Twins & Pregnancy

I don't have much to write about, but I figured I should write something for whenever I get around to making the scrapbook for this pregnancy (still haven't finished the last one).

Baby is moving around every so often. I really felt the baby move around when Jon and I went to a coffeehouse the other night to listen to some music (Jon's mom watched the twins for us). Did baby like the music and was dancing or didn't like the music because he or she was trying to sleep?

This past weekend, we took Ben & Ella to a farm to go into the pumpkin patch. We didn't really go into the pumpkin patch, but we went on a hayride and went through the corn maze. The corn maze ended up being too long for me. Pictures are on my flickr site!

Hmm, what else? I still haven't picked up the baby name book that I borrowed from an ex-coworker, so I have no idea what this child's name will be. Still have about 19 1/2 weeks to go to think of one(if I go to 40 weeks).

This Friday, I have an OB appointment and next week, I go to my first physical therapy appointment for this pregnancy. I went last time and it seemed to help, so I'm hoping it will help with the hip issues again.

I think that's about it. Feeling mostly alright - just hip issues. Somehow managed to sleep nearly 7 hours without having to get up to go to the bathroom. Not sure how I managed that. I know I was super exhausted and fell asleep on the couch about 8:45. I've been fighting a cough and just when I think it's gone, it makes a comeback. Unfortunately, Ben & Ella have it too.

So Many Things...Pregnancy Edition (Question at end)

Just feeling the baby move - feels like popcorn going off in my belly (or what I imagine that would feel like).

Anyway, we had our ultrasound last Tuesday - the anatomy ultrasound. We chose not to find out the sex of the baby and well, I could go either way. At one point, I thought it looked like girl parts, but another, I thought I saw boy parts, but we could have been looking at something else - probably were.

The ultrasound went well though this baby seems to be rather mellow - much like I remember Benjamin being in the womb - and the tech had to persuade the baby to move onto its side so we could get a profile view of his or her face. It's sad that this child won't have as many ultrasound pictures as the twins.

Other than that, things are going mostly well. I finally called to set up a PT appointment for my hip pain, but had to leave a message for them to call me back. I ended up having some contractions around 1:30 or so Sunday morning and I'm pretty sure it's because I ended up having to go to the multiples sale by myself and carrying stuff around (Jon was going to go with me but our babysitter forgot we asked her to come and well, I wanted to pick out clothing for our children), then we went to the park, then to Costco, then I took Benjamin to Target to find some shoes since I didn't find any at the sale. So it was a busy day on my feet, so I need to take it easy so I don't bring any more on. I did get a good deal on a single snap 'n go stroller (it was only $4) so I can go walking with this baby while out on leave (if the weather is nice); the twins will continue to go to daycare so I can bond with new baby.

I haven't decided on what to do about VBAC versus another c-section. I'm leaning toward VBAC though I want to ask my OB at what weight the baby is estimated to be would she recommend a c-section over trying a VBAC to lessen the chances of rupture happening.

Having contractions in the middle of the night made me think about something - of my friends in the Seattle area, who wants to sign up for possibly being the one we call in case I go into labor in the middle of the night and we need someone to watch the twins?

So many things...Ben & Ella edition

It's been a little while and so much to update! This first post is about Benjamin & Ella. They just turned 16 months yesterday!

Benjamin & Ella have somewhere picked up how to do high fives or will at least slap your hand when you ask them to give you five. Cuteness! I guess I mentioned this before, but I'll mention it again.

Both are now holding onto phones and saying "hello, how are you?" It sounded like Ella said "I'm good" the other day. Jon has finally heard Benjamin say "thank you" when Jon handed him something. speaking of the phone, they have this plastic set of keys that they will pretend is a phone and will talk into that. It does kinda look like the pretend cell phone in a way - same colors.

Ella knows what a sleepsack is and will go get it when I ask her to (most of the time).

We went to the park on Saturday and let them walk across the soccer field to the playground. Benjamin saw two older kids (let's say around 9) playing with a football and Benjamin had this look on his face that it was the coolest thing EVER! He wanted to play too. Older kids are so cool and they're playing with a ball! So we had to gear him away from that - next time, will bring a ball of our own for him to play with.

Ella was very interested in the colored areas of the astroturf field. At one point, she tried to pick up a yellow circle painted onto the field. She was a little disappointed that she couldn't.

They did not want to leave when it was time to go home for a nap. Of course not. Ella really wanted to go back in the swing - she put her hands up for me to put her back in there. We try to go there often, but can only do so when it's nice out!

I can't think of anything else. They both like to talk. They both have a cute little dance. When they are standing when I ask them where their feet are, they dance around. SO CUTE!

Any advice?

I went to my OB appointment on Friday. All is well. We heard the baby's heartbeat and tonight, the OB's office called to let me know that the bloodwork came back negative for Down's and other genetic abnormalities.

She asked how things were going. I told her about my hip and she suggested physical therapy again, so I need to get that set up sometime.

I've scheduled our 2nd trimester ultrasound for next Tuesday morning. That is when we could find out the gender of this child if we wanted to, but we're keeping it a surprise.

So now onto my question that I'm wondering if anyone has any input on. She told us about the pros and cons of doing a VBAC or a c-section. Up until now, I've thought, I want to try a VBAC, but I'm not sure now.

The pros of a c-section is that we can plan that and make sure that we have someone here to watch the twins. With a VBAC, we would need to wait until we go into labor and I just don't think I can call someone at 3 a.m. to come watch my kids. Of course, I could always go into labor before the scheduled c-section and we would need to find someone anyway.

The cons of a c-section is that there is a longer recovery period.

The pros of a VBAC is that I'll feel like I'm doing things the way they were meant to be. There is an easier recovery period with a VBAC then there is with a c-section.

The cons of trying a VBAC is that there is a possibility of there being complications and a c-section would be needed anyway. There is a small chance that tears could happen and the c-section scar could pop (I'm sure there's a better word for it) and cause some complications with me and the baby. She said there is a 1% chance of that happening.

I need to read up on this more and figure out what to do, but if anyone has any input, let me know.

New Words

Benjamin - has started to actually say the word no as opposed to just nodding his head, though nodding is still his favorite way of saying no. He also said "out" when wanting to go outside and something that sounded a lot like thank you. He said hi to me when I walked in the door tonight. :-D

Ella - hasn't really said any new words lately that I can recall.

Both of them have learned to give high fives. So cute.

Tonight is the 2nd night of going without nighttime bottle. We are phasing out bottles and going with just sippy cups to give them their milk. So far, so good. Next up is morning bottle.

I think that's about all that's new with the kids. I have uploaded new pictures onto flickr if you want to see!