Chaos

It's been too long since I've posted, but with good reason...our life is pretty hectic around here with a 21 month old and two 2.5 month old twins. Their arrival was hectic and then there was the NICU stay. Then Finn came home after an 8 day stay in the NICU and Patrick was 5 days later. We felt so blessed to have our whole family together. Since then life has been chaotic but full of love. The little boys are changing so much and have grown from their birth weights of 5 lbs 10 oz (Patrick) and 5 lbs 15.5 oz (Finn) to 11 lbs 12 oz and 13 lbs respectively, at 10 weeks old! They are smiling and cooing BUT not yet sleeping through the night. When I asked our pediatrician if that was normal, as Calan slept through the night at 10 weeks old, she politely said that we were pretty lucky with him! Still, I pray every night that I don't get that 2 am wake up call. We keep the boys on the same schedule so when one eats, they both eat. I feel like Finn could probably sleep longer, but we don't want them eating at different times because then we'd just be feeding someone every hour!

Here's a little run down on all 3 fellas and what we've learned about them so far (the little guys):

Calan - a sweet, sweet, sweet big brother who wants only to give kisses to his baby brothers and to participate in "tummy time" with them (he says tummy time anytime he sees them on the floor!). Occasional near-2 year old tantrums are starting...God help us. Calan loves other children more than anything and is very social. When we drive by a park, he chants "kids, kids, kids" and says "get down" with much force. He is starting a play based preschool in June 2 days a week. We hope he loves it!

Patrick - Baby A, born 2 minutes before Finn. Looks eerily similar to Calan's baby pictures and acts eerily the same. LOTS of personality and tons of facial expressions. You know when this one's mad too...just like big brother. But when he's happy, he's oh so happy, smiling and so cuddly. I think he'll be an actor with all his facial expressions and dramatic looks :)

Finn - Baby B. Moved constantly in the womb and still does. I think we may have an early crawler (not now, but wouldn't be surprised if he crawled/walked early). Mr. Cool and laid back...not too bothered by his brother Patrick's screaming...just sleeps right through.

And there they are...I hear someone crying....until next time!

34 Weeks

I am 34.5 weeks along with these 2 littlest Goodwins....needless to say I am ready for them to vacate their current living quarters so we can meet them and I can reclaim my body! That said, I had a dream last night that they arrived now and were in the NICU. The dream freaked me out so much that I am now truly motivated to make it beyond 36 weeks. Previously, I thought if I could get past 34 we were good, but just the thought of them being hooked up to machines really scares me.

The past few weeks have been getting increasingly hard. I must have a driver for anywhere I go, which is basically just the Dr's office, but all my Dr's are in San Francisco, so it's a juggling act figuring out who can drive me and when. I am able to do less and less every day and for the most part I'm just sitting with my feet up. I feel like I'm complaining too much, but this is probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Especially since I haven't been able to play with Calan and go anywhere alone with him in months. I know that when the boys arrive it will be hard (especially the lack of sleep), but I am so looking forward to meeting them and being able to do simple things like drive to the store and walk up the stairs (without feeling like I'm going to break my water).

Calan has been so sweet to me lately and I know he doesn't know how is world is about to change, but I do think he's going to be a wonderful big brother! He says "baby" constantly and is very gentle to any friends' babies that we see.

I can't believe we're only a couple of weeks away from meeting the 2 new fellas! I can't wait!

Chatter box

My sweet baby boy has got to be the chattiest little thing alive! He repeats EVERYTHING we say and remembers the words as well. He is also growing like a weed! We measured him 2 weeks ago and then again yesterday and he'd grown a full inch...in 2 weeks! He's now 2'10 (34 inches) tall :) Last time we weighed him at the Dr he was 33 lbs. And so strong. I call him Bam Bam (like the kid from the Flinstones). I also think he's cluing in on the fact that we're about to have some new arrivals. Okay, so I don't think he knows we're having twins, but he loves babies and says "baby" everytime he sees one in a magazine or anywhere really. Sometimes he will come to me, hand me the PBK catalog and say "baby"....this is my cue to flip the pages so he can checkout all the babies! He has also been really into his "I'm a Big Brother" book the past couple of days.

I am also ready for these babies to arrive. Although I know our lives will never be this calm again, I can't wait to meet these 2 boys! I must admit that I didn't care for being pregnant with Calan and this is an even more trying experience. BUT, that said I don't want to have them come too early! I am 31 weeks along now and I really need to make it to 34-36 weeks. I know that I will be so miserable by then, but I just have to keep reminding myself that it's a short time compared to what the babies might endure due to being born early. It's gotten to the point that anytime I stand up, I have braxton-hicks contractions or cramping, so I really try to sit most of the time. Boy is it hard to be at home sitting all the time. I will admit to not always following the bed rest orders - like our trip to Target today, but I try to most of the time. I have another ultrasound on Thursday and I'm excited to see how they have grown in the past month. They were measuring big last time, so it'll be interesting to see if they're still considered "large" for their gestational age.

Hippo?

Calan's favorite word is currently "hippo". He has a book about hippo's and their belly button's and a few other books with hippos in them. He loves saying hippo so much that we actually try not to say it, as he will get on a "hippo" kick and say it non stop for at least 10-15 minutes! Since I have been pregnant I've been showing him my belly and saying "bee-bo" and "babies", to which he will often reply: "hippo". So, he is now correlating the belly button to the large, pregnant belly and to the hippo's. You might have guessed where this is going.....Niki (our nanny) took him to the park yesterday and sure enough he say a pregnant woman, walked over to her and said "hippo"! I had to laugh when she told me that, as the woman has no idea of the bee-bo, pregnant belly, hippo correlation. Niki just told her it is his current favorite word. Oh my...good thing he's cute and still babyish enough to carry that excuse off! Here are a few current pics of my growing little man - he is such a little ham!

Bed Rest

I haven't updated in a while, although I have no excuse, as I was put on modified bed rest almost 4 weeks ago (at 24 weeks gestation) due to premature cervical thinning. I go back weekly for checks and so far things have been stable, which is good. I go in tomorrow (Thursday) for another check, so hopefully things stay as they have been. I'm a little worried because I think I may have overdone it on Saturday, as I went to Target and shouldn't have. It's just so hard being cooped up all the time! I have only taken new pics of Calan with my iPhone lately, as I misplaced my camera (oops).

Twins

So, as most of you know, I am 20 weeks pregnant with twin boys! Of course, this was quite a shock a few months ago when we found out but we are nothing but thrilled. We went to the "BIG" anatomic ultrasound yesterday, which lasts much longer when there are 2 babies to evaluate. So, we were there for almost 2 hours. By the end of it, we had seen all of Baby A and Baby B...and they are both doing wonderful and are perfectly healthy! My cervical length was also good, and I was very relieved to hear that. As you may remember, I was put on bed rest at 28 weeks with Calan because of my cervix shortening (thinning) prematurely. I do NOT want this to happen with these 2 fellas, so I am tackling this pregnancy very differently than the first. While pregnant with Calan, I still worked out 5 days a week, traveled vigourously for work and pretty much led my same ole normal life (with few modifications). This time around, I have not exercised since early in the 1st trimester...I was not feeling well until around 18 weeks and now that I'm feeling better, if I stand for too long I basically feel like I need to sit. Obviously, everything is much more accelerated, so I really feel like I'm 30 weeks pregnant, when I'm only 20 weeks along. I've not had much of an appetite still, and have only gained about 6 lbs at this point, but I feel confident that the babies are getting what they need after seeing them in there yesterday.

Too long...

It's been too long since I've updated our blog. Calan has been learning so many new things and keeping us on our toes. He has been walking for a few weeks now and is almost up to a full run! He's also saying so many words - Mama, Dada, Dog, Ball, More, Block, Nana (banana), duck, bus, and a few more that I can't quite remember at the moment. His first year has flown by and i can't believe he is already 13 months old. Still my baby though :) I've posted some pics from his 1st birthday party last month. It was a blast and he LOVED the cake (as you can see)....it took him some prodding to dig in, but once he did, it was ON!