We are talking weeks people!!! :)

We are getting more and more ready for these babies each day! I kept feeling like things were just so far away and now it is starting to feel soon. Hopefully not too soon, but like 9 or 10 weeks soon! I mean 9 or 10 weeks!? Crazy!? We have been waiting for Jane for over a year and had been waiting to get pregnant for much longer than that. The fact that we are talking in a matter if weeks is just insane to me!! It's really just nuts!

My belly is very alive with babies! I see them moving all day every day and I love it! It is just the best thing ever!! The moving belly is the thing I will miss the most! I love having them with me every day. However, I'm very ready for Dad to meet his little girls and will be more than ready to welcome them to the outside world!!

I'm having my church baby shower next weekend and I am so excited! Like, really excited!! After that we can start really getting their little room ready. I also registered for a nursing class at the hospital (a fellow twin mom friend strongly recommended wrapping my mind around nursing BEFORE they arrive) and I am going to call and schedule our tour of the hospital. I dont totally see the point of that but why not right? Exciting times!! For now we are just doing random things at the house each weekend that need to be done like fixing broken light fixtures and organizing closets and stuff. I am definitely not moving very, ummm, gracefully these days so I have been trying to get things out of the way before I am carrying around 10+ pounds of baby!

A friend of mine the other day said she was thinking of me and how lucky I am that I am going to have TWO new babies looking up at me at the hospital. I have been thinking the same exact thing! The HUGENESS (is that a word) of this blessing is hard to even comprehend!! I really can't wait to see those two little faces looking up at me! :) I feel very blessed.

Ok off to start my weekend of relaxing with a little organizing thrown in there. I hope everyone has a great weekend too!!

26 1/2 weeks pregnant with the girls (long post warning)

Tuesday I will be 27 weeks pregnant with our little girls. It's pretty hard to believe. I feel like the first trimester crept along so slowly and now the weeks have been flying by. In just 10 short weeks these girls could be born perfectly healthy. I pray every night now for my body to be able to hold them in until they are 100% ready to be here.

I do fear that things are about to get a bit difficult. Pregnancy is starting to be really hard on my body. I am working about 4 hours a day, sometimes more, sometimes less and it is hard. My feet hurt so bad and I have reached a point of swelling that never goes away. It just fluctuates from scary looking to regular swollen looking! I have found that standing for long periods of time really hurts my feet. I have also developed some serious pain in the joints in my hands and when I wake up I usually have to run both hands under cold water for a while to get my fingers moving. It is related to fluid on the nerves in my wrists and I will be ready to get rid of that once these little munchkins are born!

Sleeping has gotten pretty hard too. Turning from side to side each night is hard. My belly feels so heavy! I usually wake up about 3 hours after going to bed with such awful heartburn that I usually switch over to the couch to finish up the night. Lance and I call it the "heartburn alarm". The heartburn has gotten better though. For a while anytime I would lay down after eating I would almost instantly throw up and would have to literally sit up for hours waiting to be able to lay down without getting sick. That seems to be subsiding a bit. Yay!

I have also seemed to get past my migraines!!! I am so thankful and praising God for this!! I feel like I have had some serious symptoms but I am thankful God has allowed them to be spread out! It has been hitting in waves and not all at once.

I noticed one tiny stretch mark and am waiting to wake up one day and see like a million. However, Iam super swollen, have already gained over 30 pounds and I have come to the conclusion that this is an unstoppable force that I can't control so I'm just going with it! Lance and I spend a lot of time laughing at my sausage feet/ankles, our living room turned bedroom and my ever changing belly. Which consists of the remains of a belly button piercing that is staring to look a bit scary!

 For the most part I hear from people how small I look for twins. It's funny because I feel HUGE and am measuring much bigger than 26 weeks! I know one day I am just going to pop out to an enormous size! :) We had our monthly visit with the specialist and Nora was weighing in at 2.3 pounds and Zoe was 2.1 pounds. She laughed, said they were big babies and then looked at me and said, "well, your long waisted hopefully that will help." The tech said they were growing like singletons and were in the 55% and 70% for size. Little Zoe seems to be pretty average size all around and her sister seems to be a little chunker! It was funny to watch the measurements and see the gestational age creep up to 29 weeks at 26 weeks pregnant! It kind of scares me that I will be carrying around lots of baby soon, but I am also very very thankful they are both growing well!!

 One of the best parts has been watching Lance morph into this girl daddy! He is soooo happy we are having girls. He used to say he wanted a son and is now 100% on the girl train. He stops me in stores to point out clothes and will just randomly tell me how happy he is that these babies are girls. The other night we were laying in bed and he just started telling me how happy he is that our babies are girls. I mentioned to him that I would be willing to talk/pray about changing our gender preference for our adoption if he wanted to and he would have none of that! He quickly said no and that Jane was our daughter. Don't try to take away Lances baby girls!! ;) It's been quite the experience so far, but such a miracle!! We are getting sooooo excited and cannot believe these little girls will be here so soon! We have so much to be thankful for. It's still very surreal. I will update with pictures soon. I dropped my phone in the toilet, not even my own toiler...yuck...and it is currently buried in a bowl of rice. We are crossing our fingers it dries out! But until then, no pics. Happy weekend friends!!

Jane Jordan

I thought I should give a much needed update on our little Jane. So here it is! :)

We are now #5 on the waiting list. This is just crazy to me and stirs up a lot of emotions. It is so exciting that we are moving quickly now. However, not much has changed on how long we will be waiting for her. As I have said before, we will likely be getting close to #1 by the time Zoe and Nora are born. Our agency likes there to be about a 6 month age gap between biological kids and adopted ones. So, we could accept a referral at just about anytime after our other girls are born depending on the age ranges, etc.

All that said, we don't know when we will be ready to accept a referral. Once you are matched with a baby it is about a 6 month process (in a good scenario) to be home with your child due to all the legal stuff and travel. Will we be ready to accept a referral when the girls are 3 months old since it will still be another 6 months until Jane will be home? I don't know than answer to that yet. I believe we will have them all home by the twins first birthday. I have thought that for a whole now. But I just don't know. It could be sooner or it could be later. We are going to see how we feel and how things are going before we make those choices. But there is no question as to whether or not we are still adopting her!!

It is a little sad in a way that we have come so close and it is now seeming like we are far again. However, I think it is going to be here before we know it!

We know so many people have been on this journey and supported us in soooo many ways and I want you to know we are still so thankful and this adoption is still a huge priority to us! Little Jane is our daughter just as much as the other girls and we are just as excited to meet her and become her mommy and daddy!!

We will keep you posted throughout the months and can't wait to see how it plays out!!! But God is in control and has been this whole time so we know this plan is perfect! Yay for more babies girls than we ever thought possible!!

23 weeks :)

Me and my "large" girls :)



Please feel no obligation to read these boring updates. They are more for family and those who like details! :)

Today was my monthly appointment. I am 23.5 weeks. They don't do much at these appointments at all but listen to the heart beats, and measure my belly and then I am done. Quick. However, my doctor today did mention that at my ultrasound at 22 weeks my babies were big. He actually said they were "large" and asked if we had big babies in our family. I told him about Betho's rather large children, and then told him how both Betho & I were pretty large too for preterm twins. SO, it looks like I am growing healthy, chubby girls. He said both are in the 70%  and I am assuming that's not all that common with twins. But I think big is good right? Who knows, but I am SO thankful they are growing at the same rate and look good! :)
I was talking to my mom and I don't wanna jinx it, but I think I have finally hit that second trimester "feeling good" mark. Everyone talked about how the second trimester hits and you feel wonderful. That just hasn't been the case for me. But my swollen feet and hands have gone away and my headaches have been much much better too. The heartburn is still a killer but I was just given the ok to take Zantac and it is a LIFESAVER!! All the cramping and braxton hicks stuff seems to be better too.

In other news, I was advised to quit my job due to the fact that I am not immune to the virus CMV which is obviously pretty bad for a developing baby and it is spead in places with lots of young kids. So wierd I know. Who has even heard of this right!? So if you think I have all of a sudden quit liking your child, I haven't and will be back to cuddling and kissing in 3-4 months! My last day at the school was last Friday and I was blessed to get a teletherapy (seeing kids via computer-aka skype therapy) job so I can work from home. However, last night I was hit with the news that they needed me to see kids via teletherapy in California, requiring me to obtain an additional license that could take 1-4 months. Well, I don't have 4 months and was in a bit of a panic. So it looks like I will be doing some part time work for some skilled nursing homes in the area for a while, which is my favorite setting by a long shot as a therapist. Hopefully I can get a good couple months of work in and save up some money so I can keep my plan to only work 2 days a week once babies arrive! :)

Speaking of jobs, Lance got a new job as well! I am so happy for him, and although he will be training for 10-12 months in Spring (not an awesome commute) this is truly the perfect fit for him. He will be working as a rep for a company called Ferguson and it really just fits him to a T. Way to go L!

I think as of now my version of "nesting" is more like talking all excess out of our spending (likely due to the above mentioned happenings)! And I must say by tweaking the cable, Internet, and a few direct withdrawal monthly expenses, I have already added a big chunk of $$ back into our bank account each month! I'm pretty proud of myself. Its CRAZY how things add up and I am going to do a much better job from now on about really looking into what we are spending!

Not much else going on. Getting more excited about these girlies each day! :) Happy Weekend!!

Adoption smiles

I am a part of a Facebook group with people who are adopting from our adoption agency. It's great and helps me stay updated on the ins and outs of the adoption world, delays, improvements, referrals etc. etc.

People are always posting about different things and today people started posting their adoption videos. Videos of them meeting their little ones for the first time and bringing them home on their final trip. Oh my gosh!! I CANNOT wait until this is us!! One video there was a lady who couldn't stop smiling and kissing her little baby. Like literally, it was like someone froze a huge smile on her face! It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen. She was just so so so happy and it was like the months and years of waiting just melted off her and all she could do was smile and kiss her baby! Who knows if we will be kissing a teeny baby or a two year old, but I can't wait to have that smile frozen on my face while we are kissing our baby girl #3 a million times!! 

Sometimes I get a little confused about who is going to live in what room, or how sleep will go with Jane or how in the heck I will take three babies to the grocery store. I have to fight the urge to worry about the amount of exhaustion I might face, or how I could ever be in charge of three little lives all day by myself when Lance goes to work. I even had the thought today that I hope all these matching clothes aren't discontinued by the time Jane gets here because I will need to go get her a matching set of everything the twins have (real problems I know...hehe). 

But one thing I never worry about is how much we will love her. Well, we already love her every ounce as much as we do these little munchkins that I carry around with me all day. Plus, Jane isn't giving me migraines or heartburn or making me run to target and buy bigger, we'll everything on a monthly basis (don't worry girls, you are totally worth it too).

I know life will be crazy and I know Jane is going to be very confused and need time to heal and bond with us. I know we will be really tired and probably will just have gotten two other babies sleeping thought the night when this one comes along. But when I see those videos I don't care about any of it. All my anxiety melts away and I dream about the day when I am that mom with the smile plastered on her face, knowing that challenges will probably lie ahead, but that my baby is FINALLY in my arms and that's all that matters for now!!

Our girls

Today has been just wonderful! We had our follow up ultrasound and the girls looked 100% perfect. We are so thankful. At our 17 week ultrasound they saw what they called echogenic bowel (bright spot in the colon) on Zoe and we went through some genetic testing and other things to rule out any possible complications that sometimes come along with this condition. Everything came back clear and today at the ultrasound the spot in the bowel was GONE! It was likely from her just swallowing some blood and it showing up at just the same time they were looking last time. I am just so thankful for these healthy little girls!!!!

We got some amazing shots of their little faces. They are both weighing exactly the same at 1.2 lbs. However, the doctor said their measurements are different. Meaning, legs, arms and all that are not identical. I am so curious to see how these little ones come out looking. So fun if we have a blonde and a brunette, or one with fair skin and freckles and one with Lance's olive skin!! Ahhh....I just cannot wait to see them!

When we were looking at Nora (baby A) her little face looked SO fat and squished up and she had a tiny little button nose. Then we went to Zoe and she looked like she had a long thin face with a more distinct nose, and chin. The tech said, "Oh look, a face like mom and a face like Dad!" I think I was the fat face, but I'll take it! :) I know you can't really tell from the ultrasounds but from what I could see these little girls look different!

I told Lance even if they are completely different sizes and looks, it won't change the fact that they will be matching until they force me to stop dressing them alike. Jane will match them too don't you worry! ;)

Zoe on top & Nora on bottom! :)  

A little bit of life lately

Here is a snapshot of a little bit of our life lately. It's been a fun Christmas season so far, and we have had fun getting together with friends. I have been feeling like a puffy mama lately. My hands and feel are getting swollen and it's hard to wear my shoes and wedding ring. You can't really tell just by looking, but when you type as much as I do in any given day you definitely notice little sausage fingers! Small price to pay, but not so fun. :) Other than that and the occasional headache...well lets me honest, migraine, the pregnancy is progressing well! Loving the fact that we are officially a "girl family" more and more everyday!! Here are a few pics of some things we have been up to lately.

Our small group Christmas party....I didn't get any pics of the amazingly cute decorations, but it was awesome. The party later turned into a sock bun tutorial party...how did we do!? :) 

Max & Levi went to see Santa. I wasn't there for this but couldn't help but post. Beyond precious!

 



The belly keeps growing and growing and growing....if you are tempted to say, "You don't look that big for twins at 18 weeks" take a look at 12 weeks! Oh my! The way a body can transform in 6 short weeks is crazy. :) I have to add that around the time of that 12 week picture I was walking around all week saying, "Oh my goodness Lance...I had no idea my stomach would get big so fast!!"

 

I'm just sitting at my computer laughing at the potential for "largeness" in the coming weeks and months. What is 18-24 and then 24-30 gonna look like!? I guess time will tell!! 

 

Here is our nursery bedding....I thought I was going to coordinate and not be "matchy-matchy" but I changed my mind and we are going with identical lavender and white bedding! I LOVE it!!

That's about all as of lately. Not sure why the pictures all posted kind of weird. Happy Monday. I saw 32 kids today and am looking forward to my couch, a movie and a giant glass of water...whew!!