Facts about Quinn and Bryson

Bryson, Quinn

-Those first 2 weeks was CONSTANT PEEING while diaper changing. Constant I tell you. Probably 3 times a day at least per boy! I don't remember it being like that with Maxson haha.

-Speaking of diapers, we go through 16-20 diapers a day between the twins. Insane right? Throw Max in there and I'm a professional diaper changer.

- If one is happy and sleeping, you can bet the other one is going to be giving you a hard time. (How in the world do I have 2 hands to blog right now with everyone else being gone? I'm boggled. Actually I keep having to get up and re-settle Bryson as I write this. And now that Bryson is completely settled finally Quinn is beginning to squeak, ooy).

- It does not matter what goes in who's mouth or nose because they're going to dang share it all. Pacifiers, bottles, nose bulbs. All that matters is that you as the parent stays sane.

-They squeak. They are definitely squeakers when they're not pleased with something going on. And then those few times where we've waited way too long to appease them boy howdy are their little cries loud.

-They totally sound the same. It's hilarious when they happen to make the exact same cries or noises at the exact same time. Makes me laugh.

-When they're completely lying still and their faces are totally at rest, they TOTALLY look like identical twins. But as soon as they're awake and using their face muscles they have differences. It's like their overall expressions are very different.

Quinn, Bryson

-Quinn's face always looks a little more red than Bryson's

-Both of Bryson's eyes have clogged tear ducts :( Meaning he pretty much always has goop in his eyes that we're trying to clean out. Quinn's left eye is the same thing

-They very much enjoy sleeping on the boppy pillow. Even more than the boppy pillow would be in someone's arms.

-They both have runny or plugged noses :( It's the saddest thing ever. They stayed clear of catching it from Maxson the first week home but then it was inevitable they got it. Pooey. I feel so bad for them. I feel like we're doing everything from saline drops, snot sucking, humidifiers, smelling Casey's mom's essential oils, being propped up to sleep. Next we should stick them in the bathroom while someone takes a cold shower and I'm thinking about buying one of those nose fridas.

That's it for now, a baby is calling.

Morning routine with newborn twins

Wake up. The boys aren't on a eat-at-this-time schedule, they just go more along the lines of it's-been-2-or-3-hours-feed-me schedule. So wake up time varies. No matter what their wake up time is though, I'm exhausted usually in the morning. At the maximum I've gotten to sleep in 2 hour increments. Breastfeeding these two is so worth the little sleep but oh man it is sure is hard. Glories be to my mom for being here. She completely takes care of Maxson and I'm so beyond thankful for her help. Whatever time Maxson wakes up at, she gets up with him and then I just keep sleeping until I need. Sometimes I've gotten up at 8 and other days I've gotten up at 10. I don't know what I'm going to do without her.

But whatever time we do start in the mornings I nurse both in bed. I still have to sit up propping them with my enormous set up of pillows. Usually they choke on milk this time of the day since your milk is fullest in the morning. I feel like they don't nurse for very long because they get so much so quickly that they quickly give up/get full too quick. Usually near the end of breastfeeding them or after I'm done Maxson will wiggle his way into our room. He comes boisterously bouncing onto our bed exclaiming "babies! babies!" As I continue to nurse, Maxson does things he shouldn't: find my makeup bag, drink out of my water bottle, climb on Casey's dresser drawers to reach hand sanitizer, etc. I usually yell to my mom or Casey to come intervene. We change diapers at this time (usually we do it before all feedings but this feeding I choose to do it afterwards for some reason…). Sometimes we have to change clothes in case they've peed through or sweated and made themselves damp. We transfer everything downstairs: nursing pillows, water bottles, babies, any dirty laundry, the infant attachment to the pack n play.

Once downstairs we get the babies all situated, usually they just keep sleeping (completely soundlessly during the day more so than the night, I swear). I refill water bottles, say hello to Maximus, chat with my mom for a second. I'll then grab some form of breakfast and take it upstairs with me; here is where I multi-task to the utter maximum. Using a hands free pumping bra (a NICU nurse told me to just take an old sports bra and cut holes in it, works like a charm and WAY less expensive!) I simultaneously pump, eat my breakfast, put on my makeup, and listen to a conference talk. I'd lie if I said I wasn't proud of myself during those 15 minutes.

After pumping, I bring all the stuff downstairs (hoping Maxson doesn't get to the milk before I do…not going to lie, it's happened a few times…). I put just a little of that expressed breatmilk into 2 bottles for them so I can mix it with their vitamin (so annoying that their vitamins have to be drunk with milk instead of just a straight form like the Vitamin D drops). I put 1 ml of this vitamin in with about 10 ml of milk and just let it sit on the counter until their next feeding.

Finally my morning routine is done. In just over and hour Quinn and Bryson will be hungry again and it's back to diaper changes and nursing.

Although it feels like I do that exact same stuff everyday (I do) sometimes I can throw in a few variables here in there. Yesterday I walked to the tractors with Max (Yes I walked and didn't have to drive us in the car! I felt so youthful and fit and full of energy now that I'm not pregnant!). We also took a quick trip to the library. One day a friend knocked on our door and said she was playing the backyard with her kids, she offered to have Max come out and she'd watch him too but I wanted to join and we got to talking and it was so great. I do try to sit a lot and blog and go through pictures. That's what are mornings consist of for the time being.

Man, these babies sleep so much! Aside from nursing because they practically sleep while they nurse or they may be awake too, they sleep what seems 22 hours of the day. Babies are so cuddly and cute and adorable. We are soaking up our time with these tiny babies. Without a doubt Maxson agrees. I am always so surprised at how sweetly he treats these babies!

 I hangout like this as much as I can. After nursing them I somehow juggle them up on my shoulder to burp that together. I never have enough hands to gather burp rags so my shirt always turns into their burp rag. Ahh, this too shall pass.

 Bryson

 Quinn

Time out for us

When it was just Casey and I before kids, neither of us felt a very strong pull to go on "dates." In reality everything was a "date." We did everything as just him and I. We had 3 years of constant solo dates.

Then came Maxson. We were infatuated with Maxson. First and only baby, of course take that baby with us to wherever we went! Dinner? Ya! A movie? Ya! Maxson just made everything more fun and we always wanted him to be apart of our time together. So dates were pretty much always all 3 of us, but we liked it that way.

Now comes the twins. After a rough pregnancy, an 11 day NICU/hospital stay, newborn twins at home with Max, school and tests, I felt like I hadn't spent time with just my husband in AGES! After putting Maxson down of the evening, the twins were content downstairs in their pack n play, Casey and I finally just laid on the bed next to each other and took and breather- a moment to connect and just be US! I can't begin to express how nice it was to just laugh and talk and discuss the past few days and weeks with each other with no interruptions. Oh man we were sure needing that break.

I can now foresee lots more babysitters in our future so we have more one on one time with each other. Spending quality alone time with each other is definitely going to be a vital point in keeping each other and our marriage strong and happy. But even when a babysitter isn't available, we'll take 10 minutes just lying on the bed too. 

Love you, sweetie.

Halloween 2014

I present Max and his wild thing from Where the Wild Things Are.

 As soon as Maxson began totally loving the book where the wild things are months ago, I thought it would be so fun to dress up as characters from it. Alas, I was induced 10 days before Halloween and hadn't worked a ton on our costumes. So the night before the induction, I stayed up late working on their costumes. Thank goodness my mother came in town and put all the finishing touches on them for me! They sent me tons of pictures from before and during the trunk or treat and I was smiling from ear to ear looking at these two. I love that Casey was just as excited to dress up.

 The Welch's as Mary Poppins and Bert

 Maxson's really cute tail.

The Blomstedts as Wizard of OZ characters

 My mom was so nice to FaceTime me during a bunch of the trunk or treat including the actual walking around part of candy gathering, my momma heart was so happy and grateful to be apart of that night. I loved watching my little Maxson (who really should have been a Wild Thing himself because he sure was WILD that night!)

 The twins and I got home Halloween morning. I made sure we ran to store that afternoon to pick up pumpkins to carve; tradition had to stay alive plus I wanted to see Maxson's reaction to touching the pumpkin seeds and slime inside, ha. 

 He wouldn't touch any of it. Ha, he completely refused, even when we told him it was like worms! I was really surprised.

 It was a great family activity

 A great family activity until Maxson was running away from us on the couch and fell onto a baby :(

 I cut out the top, Casey scraped the inside, and my mom cut the face out. It was definitely a team work pumpkin.

 Intermission for cute baby picture. I think Quinn...

 Out for a quick trick or treating! It was literally freezing that night, totally stunk. We went to just 2 of our neighbors houses for fun. Max had just as much fun running to answer the door for trick or treaters. He was also off the wall this night and trunk or treat night from so much candy! SO much as in two suckers… crazy boy.

 Family picture!

Costume Details:

Maxson: Max.
Crown from Burger King spray painted gold.
Fur from Joann's for tail and a piece around crown.
Sweat shirt from Amazon
Pants sewn by me from an old shirt of Casey's.
Claws from felt sewn on edges.
Buttons from old pins I painted and temporarily pinned to the sweatshirt.
Whiskers pipe cleaners hand stitched on

Casey: Wild Thing
Sweat shirt turned inside out.
Yarn for hair.
Felt for nose and eyes (eyes stuffed with old pin cushions)
Claws and teeth from felt sewn on edges
Huge random piece of cool fur stuff my mom ran across at Joanns

It was such a fun Halloween. Next year we'll have a full family of 5 to dress up with! Also I'm so done with having all this candy around, it's driving me nuts how much Maxson asks for it/how much I eat it! But dear old dad insists we keep it around, blah.

Happy Halloween!

The end of an era aka the end of pregnancy with twins!

36 weeks 

The night before I was induced was a happy one, I knew I was so so close to being done with this pregnancy so I needed to enjoy it. We spent some of the night outside with friends watching them carve pumpkins, drinking spooky punch, discussing the impending change!

 Last family picture of 3!

 Violet, Kylie, Zach

 Jared, Julie, Grace, Katie

 Myself and Katie

GOING HOME DAY!

The night before we were all to be discharged Casey texted me this picture. It got me so excited! We were officially ready to be bringing the twins home! Car seat bases in, middle seat taken out, and Maxson's seat moved to the back (I think once visitors leave we'll see if we can fit Max in between the twins.)

We were to be discharged the morning of Halloween! I was so giddy. Woke up pretty early (a half hour before their feeding) and got the room and all our stuff all ready to go! The nurses brought in these sweet Halloween gifts to us.

The carseats sat there waiting for bbies to be placed in them for what seemed like forever!

The Parents NICU group (alumni members) make costumes for all the NICU babies. Sweetest gesture ever! It really just made my heart so happy that they'd have Halloween costumes! Two cute little M&M's.

We were discharged right when Casey arrived and we piled those boys in their carseats! So tiny!

 Casey and I were so excited to take them downstairs and introduce them to Maxson!

When we pushed the stroller out of the elevator, Max came a running over so interested in what we were pushing. He immediately peaked his head into the lower car seat, picked up the blanket and with an intrigued smile on his face kept saying "babies, babies?" He looked at us questioningly and then went to peak at the other brother. He went back and forth between carseats doing the same thing over and over. He seemed so very happy!

 As soon as we began pushing the stroller he was all over in helping with that, he loves pushing any and all stroller pushing.

 First family picture of 5! Notice Maxson is still so very interested in the babies.

 Once we brought everyone inside Max decided it was all his business to keep pushing the pacifiers in the babies' mouths. Ha, he still loves to do that over and over, and taking them out of their mouths too ha.

 We immediately asked if he wanted to hold the babies. He got a big twinkle in his eye and starred at us while he grunted (his version of yes, ha). He jumped onto the couch for us, reached his arms out and asked for "babies!" As soon as we placed one baby in his arms, he pointed to the other saying he wanted that one too, ha. He still always does that, points to the second baby as soon as the first has been placed in his arms. My heart wanted to EXPLODE with fireworks and confetti watching him interact with our new babies. I was on cloud 10199347. Pure bliss.

 And then our first attempts at an ok family picture of 5, funny experience. I realize the circus has only just begun.

 When we brought Bryson and Quinn home we had them give a present to Maxson. It was meant to be an entertaining gift for him while he came to the hospital to visit us all but that didn't really work out. He didn't know or care though so it's ok. He opened a remote control race car. He'd been obsessed with our neighbor's one for months so I knew this was the perfect gift. Boy was I right. We then had Maxson in return give the babies their BYU stuffed animals. I was/still am impressed that Maxson so eagerly gives the animals to them and doesn't try to hoard them to himself, haha. As you can see he was more than happy to keep giving them to the babies.