The beginning...

I decided to write a blog for myself, and for anyone who might be curious what life is like with four under four. On February 20, 2009, my husband (Darren) and I will blessed with twin baby boys to add to our brood of a three and a half year old girl and 22 month old boy. The adventure had begun!

The twins are now 11 months and life is busier than ever, but I seem to still have some time to sit down and write, which is what I think I need to do to process the craziness! Here's a glimpse of 2009...

2/20/09

Birth of Twins

I went in for my appointment on Friday (february 20th) and all looked good until they checked my blood pressure and it was elevated. Since I was already dilated to 3 cm the doctor thought I should probably be induced so that my blood pressure wouldn’t get any higher.

They started the pitocin at 12:15, at 12:45 the Dr. broke my water. The contractions weren’t too bad until about 2:15 when they were coming 2-3 mins. apart and pretty strong. So I asked for the epidural, which of course doesn’t come for about an hour. After “some” relief from the epidural, they checked to see how dilated I was at about 3:45. The nurse checked me than ran right to the phone, then out of the room. I was wondering what was going on. She came back and said the head was right there. So my Mom asked does that mean she is a ten? And the nurse said yes, and if she sneezes the first baby is coming out!

I was feeling pretty good by then, so it really didn’t concern me, but all these people rushed in and put me on a gurney and wheeled me into the ER (which is standard when you have twins). The Dr. got there a few minutes later. At 4 p.m. I started to push, and pushed 3 times and Weston Dean was born at 4:10 and weighed 6 lbs. 15 oz, big boy!

Then they saw that the second baby was breech (he had actually turned head down in the last week), but since his brother was out he had a lot of room and flipped back. The Dr. spent some time pushing from the outside and the inside (thank goodness for the epidural) and had a hard time moving him back head down. I sent a quick prayer that he would turn head down, and about 15 seconds later he did. The doctor told me to go ahead and push and in about one push his head was out and the second the rest of his body. Wyatt Edward was born at 4:19 p.m. weighing 5 lbs 4 oz. He’s a little peanut.

May 13, 2009

Costco- first outing with four kids!

Weston and Wyatt are almost 3 months old. I decided to attempt to go to Costco with all four kids. I could have dropped Claire and Will off with a friend, but decided that I wanted to try and do this myself.

I strapped everyone into their carseats and made the 15 minute drive to the Woodinville Costco. I didn’t have to buy anything big, so I knew I could fit what I needed in the cart.

I parked near the carts and pushed one over to my car. I took Wyatt out of the car but kept him in his car seat and put him in the basket of the cart. I took Wes out and put him into a baby bjorn connected to my front. I placed William in the seated area of the cart and Claire walked. I am sure we looked like quite the spectacle, but I was determined. It was about the fastest trip to Costco I have ever made. I whipped in and out of the aisles gathering everything as I went. Wyatt and Weston continued to sleep and Will ate his crackers and played with my phone and Claire happily walked along side. I got quite a few glances and I am sure people were wondering what on earth I was doing coming to Costco with four kids!

The sweetest woman came up to me and asked if I had twins. I said yes, and she went onto explain that she has twin boys who are now 11 and two others. She was so sympathetic and told me I was doing a great job! I told her thanks and that this was my first time out on my own! She told me she remembered those days and it will get easier. I sighed, and said, “Good, I hope so!” I was proud of myself for making it out on my own with little incident. The kids did great!

July 10, 2009 – My facebook status “it's pretty sad when the night before, I look forward to my morning coffee. Especially on Fridays, when my husband buys me a latte!”

I truly do look forward to my morning coffee. I was up at 1 a.m. (fed Wes) 3 a.m. (fed Wyatt), 5 a.m. (fed Wes), 5:45 (darren's alarm) and 6:30 (Claire and Will up for the day!). It is going to be a LONG day. I find myself going to bed thinking about my coffee the next morning. Fridays are a special treat because Darren buys me a tall non-fat vanilla latte after he works out at the gym. Ahhh, that little things that I look forward to!

July 24, 2009 – “POOP!” from an email I wrote Darren

So Will just finished off the entire bottle of gummy vites! I had given them some and they were on the couch, I thought I fastened down the lid, but apparently didn't and not five minutes later he came over to me and said, "bitamins all gone!" I looked at the bottle and saw there were none left and grabbed his mouth and looked inside and he was chewing on one. I made him spit that out and then looked around for the rest and there were no more to be found. He started crying because I freaked out at him. I figure he ate 15 or so as there were not many left. I looked up their website and they said that if they eat a handful (or in our case two handfuls) his body will naturally let go of it. They are made for kids with that fact in mind and shouldn't be harmful. They aren't made with iron so that shouldn't plug him up.

I swear, if it isn't one thing, it is another. Just thought I would share with you that little tid-bit of my day.

Second email…

By the way, after that I went outside to dump the pool and Henry's poop was floating in the big one. Claire said Milly put poop in it. Nice! Then Will stepped in poop and Wes has had two poop explosions today resulting in 3 outfits and it is only 11 a.m. Sometimes I think I should be on a sitcom!
I then updated my facebook status to say : “sometimes I think my life should be a sitcom and the title of today's episode would be "poop!" Actually that could be the title most any day.”

September 9, 2009 – Just to get out the door

Today was the first day I went to my Bible study without help from Darren as he was at work, not working at home. My morning started out with waking up at 4 a.m. to Wyatt’s cry. I nursed him in bed then put him back to bed around 4:30. Darren’s alarm went off at 5:45 and then I fell back asleep. At 6 a.m. Weston woke up crying because he was hungry. I nursed him in bed and then woke up at 7 a.m. in a panic when I heard Darren downstairs and I knew I needed to get up so I could go on a run.

I left the house at 7:15 a.m with the dog and went on a 3 mile run. I think I was asleep for the first mile, but I made it through. As soon as I got home a half our later, I nursed Wyatt. Then I started the blueberry coffee cake for Bible study. Claire and Will helped (kind of) and then I went upstairs and took a shower while it baked. Ten minutes later came down and fed Wes and Wyatt solids and then brought Wyatt upstairs to change his clothes and dry my hair. Brought Wyatt down and put him in his car seat, brought Wes upstairs changed him and then put on my make up. I brought Wes downstairs put him in his car seat and dressed Will. Ran back up stairs got Claire and Will their shoes then helped them into the car. Strapped everyone into their car seats, went back inside got my Bible, coffee cake and baby bag, got back into the car and we were off.

After Bible study I rushed back home took the babies out of their car seats and into high chairs and starting making lunch for Claire and Will while the babies snacked. Fed the babies carrots and rice cereal as Claire and Will finished their lunch. Then I cleaned up the babies and put Wyatt in his crib. Came back downstairs while Wyatt wailed upstairs and gave Claire and Will popsicles and they played outside. Cleaned up Wes and once Wyatt was quiet put Wes down and for nap. Went back downstairs and cleaned up the breakfast dishes. Got Will and changed his diaper and put him down for a nap. Then got Claire and her sleep in my room.

Ahhh, quiet. Wait, not really. Will was awake, had to get him back to sleep. Then heard Claire and told her to go to sleep. A few moments of quiet and then I cleaned up the kitchen from the lunch mess. Felt good to get things cleaned up. Checked my email and facebook, then started writing this journal. Since I started writing this at 2:30 p.m., Wes has woken up and now Claire. It is now 3:40 p.m. and I am just about to finish writing. Wyatt and Will still asleep, but up soon. Who ever said motherhood was easy? If anyone did say that, they must have never been a mother.