Wordless Wednesday

 My almost 2 year old daughter wearing a 9-12 month onesie; a regular staple in her wardrobe

(Petite but healthy)

"Tell me about what you made, Sam." 

" [It's] Daddy."

(That boy spent so much thought and effort to each part he added to his playdoh sculpture- he even added eyes and a mouth)

I Confess

I have a problem.  The first step is admitting you have a problem, right?

Well this is my problem:  My twins are almost two and I am a little OCD about coordinating their outfits.  I always felt pretty good about the fact that I rarely put them in 100% matching outfits.  They had very few things that were exactly the same, which wasn't too hard because they are different genders. 

But they must coordinate.  This is how I must match them every day:  if one is wearing jeans and a long sleeve T, the other must also be in jeans and a long sleeve T.  Bonus points for similar colors and similar styles (like picture on one shirt, picture on the other).  Today, Anna has on a yellow top, and so Sam's shirt also has some yellow in it.  We have knit pants day, snap long sleeve onesie day and hoodie day; overalls and fleece days too.  I'm just a little embarrassed to admit that it's as specific as this:  If Anna has on a fleece outfit and the pants are not fleece, then Sam cannot wear fleece pants with his fleece shirt.

I think it would actually be painful for me to put them in different kinds of outfits- like if Anna was wearing a hooded outfit with matching pants, and Sam was in jeans and a T.  Or if one was wearing zipped footie pjs, while the other was in pajama separates.  It doesn't even matter if we don't leave the house and no one sees them.  Wow- typing that out makes me feel like I'm even more OCD than I thought.

So I coordinate their outfits by color, type and style.  This is challenging sometimes because most of their clothing is used and we have gotten quite a few things from different people.  This weekend, I started washing Anna's 24 month stuff and I realized she has 5 hoodie outfits... while Sam currently has none.  I'm seriously fighting the urge to go out and buy him some so she will actually wear hers.  It's hard.  I try to remember that their closet is already stuffed full and they need more clothes like they need more holes in their heads.  But then I rationalize- what's the use of Anna having 5 sets of hoodie outfits if she isn't going to wear them since Sam has none?

Please note I've already confessed I have a problem. 

I have gotten better since they were babies though... It used to be that if Anna had 8 onesies, Sam must have the same number. If Anna had 4 snap sleepers and 6 zip sleepers as infants, then you can bet that Sam's count was exactly the same.  Yup, down to the zip or snap closure on their sleepers, they had to coordinate.  At least the number of types of clothing doesn't have to be the same in their closet or dresser anymore.

Is there a 12 step program for this? I promise I won't send them to kindergarten still coordinating their outfits...

(If I had access to the thousands of photos I take right now, I'd share examples.  Maybe later I'll add some!)

Clothes

Most people bemoan the fact that their children grow out of the current size of clothing.  I've read many a blog post talk about tears shed while packing away baby clothing that no longer fits.  I've never really been that way.  Maybe it's because Sam and Anna were in their newborn size clothing (or any size really) longer than most babies are, or maybe it's because they were so small at birth (5 lbs even and 5 lbs 10 oz) that I was eager to have them "catch up" to other babies their age.  I think a lot of it has to do with the eating issues we had for the first 6 months of their life, when we had bottle refusal due to their uncontrolled reflux and weight gain was constantly on my mind.  Or maybe I just like new clothes. :)

Whatever the combination of reasons, I've always been a little excited when Sam or Anna are able to start fitting into the next size up of clothing.  I'm itching to wash the new stuff, and reorganize their closet and drawers to make room.  Pretty consistently, Sam and Anna have fit neatly into the size of clothing the way it is labeled: 3-6 month clothing when they were 3-6 months old, 6-9 month clothing when they were 6-9 months old, etc.  Sam typically could start wearing the next size a little before he turned that age, and Anna could typically wear the next size a little after she turned that age.

That means, as my little ones are almost 18 months old, that it is about that time to break out the 18 month clothing.  I excitedly washed and dried some of it yesterday, and made room for it in their room this morning.  I'm looking forward to cooler weather to be able to put on some of their pants and longer sleeve outfits!

*Although this is my little 17 month old girl wearing a 6-9 month shirt. 

I also have a 3-6 month dress from last summer than she swam in then, and can wear just fine now.  It's a little short, but not too tight around the waist.  Finding pants that fit her tiny waist but are long enough for an average 1 and a half year old this fall and winter will be tough!

Help!

I have been struggling for weeks to decide what Sam and Anna should wear for their 6 months professional photos. We are getting them done next weekend (a little late, I know- but we were busy the two other weekends after they turned half a year old, and I really didn't want to do them early or on a weeknight). I wanted two outfits- one dressier, and one with jeans and basic tops (I envision a cute photo of mom and dad in jeans, each holding a baby's hands so they are standing in front of our legs which is the only part of us you can see- Sam and Anna also in jeans). I also considered getting apple hats or pumpkin hats from etsy to wear with jeans (but had no clue what tops they'd wear).

My first quandary: I don't know what tops to put with the baby jeans. I wanted something basic, and coordinating. But I don't want Anna to look too boyish. Long sleeve white T? Long sleeve gray Ts (Carters has a boy one and a girl version with a scalloped neckline and a little pink rosette so that would add a touch of girly-ness to it)? But would white wash them out? Would gray wash them out? Some sort of handcrafted Ts (maybe from etsy?)- but if that, what? I was thinking maybe solid red or something like that- but I just can't find anything that goes together girl/boy. Don't even get me started on the jeans either- it is so hard to find baby boy jeans and baby girl jeans that are in the same wash. What's with that? I can't find two jeans in different genders that match (except Circo from Target, but Circo's waists are too big for my skinny minnies). HELP! What do I do???


Second quandary: The dressy outfits. I'm big on coordinating but not being too matchy-matchy. Our 3 month professional pics had blue/pink outfits, so I'd rather stay away from that this time (which is, again, so hard to do!). And their 9 month outfits are already picked out (LOL, I know) and are blue and pink. Ideally, I wanted fallish colors for the outfits without any pictures like animals on them (so hard to find!) . Maybe a plaid or stripped collared button shirt for Sam. (side note- what is it with every place boycotting warm cozy fallish reds, oranges, etc.?) But that has been proving difficult. I've checked Gap, Old Navy, the Children's Place, Gymboree, Kohl's, Target, and a few online places. Nada. This is the best I've come up with that sort of fits what I want. (Click on them to see them larger) I don't love the bear face on front. I don't love that the dress is off white (hard to find tights) What do you think?

With this sweater over it to make it more "fall-like" and coordinating with Sam's outfit:

Please give me your two cents- what do you think? If you don't like it, be prepared to give me some other ideas of where to look! I'm all out of ideas.

Anna's Reciprocal Photo Shoot

Anna checked in at a "whopping" 12 lbs today (hey, for her that's pretty darn good!) which means her days of 0-3 month clothing are dwindling. She has worn a few 3-6 month outfits, but the 6 month ones still dwarf her. If she keep gaining like she has recently, we should be in 6 month clothes very, very soon! Here are some pictures of outfits that are on the way out, all of which are wayyyy cuter in person:

This is actually a newborn outfit. I could hardly get it over her head, and I couldn't even get the bottom snaps close to meeting, which is why the photo is so cropped.

This girl has always got her hands in her mouth

This was the last one I took. Can't you just tell what she's thinking- "Are you done, yet?"

And one more of Anna, just because I like it:

Mother and daughter :)

They're Getting Bigger...

The 0-3 month onesies started getting a little snug and the 3 month clothing is fitting very well right now. It seems like just a few days ago both Sam and Anna were transitioning from newborn sized clothing into the 0-3 month stuff, which still dwarfed them at the time. They were in newborn sized stuff for over a month. Today I washed all of our 3-6 month clothing and made room for them in the dresser and closet. Sam even wore his first 3-6 month onesie today. It's so hard to believe that only a little over 2 months ago my two little ones were in preemie sized clothing!

Both babies are very close to double their birth weight by now too...

(A little late, but here's a picture from our first mother's day)

More Firsts

Yesterday was the first time we left Sam and Anna with non-relative babysitters. Before this, my parents watched them at our house while they were visiting so my husband and I could go out to eat for his birthday (they were just under a month old at the time). It has been a month since we've been able to go out to eat just the two of us. I couldn't have asked for better babysitters: my co-teacher and her daughter both are licensed birth-3rd grade teachers, currently teaching kindergarten. My co-teacher's daughter worked at a childcare while she was in college. I was very confident that things would go well, and didn't even call to check on them once. :)

Last Thursday I took the babies to visit my students at school for the first time. It is an understatement to say that it wasn't easy to haul them there on the 30 minute drive by myself, especially since neither one likes car rides. Sam cried the entire drive there. It definitely felt weird to walk those halls and see my class, since I hadn't been there for 9 weeks. I realized that I am really out of teacher-mode! I have only a few weeks until I go back on May 20th to finish out the school year and needless to say, I'm dreading that immensely. Yesterday my husband and I talked seriously again about letting our savings take a big hit so I don't have to go back for those 3 weeks. My class just doesn't really feel like "my" class anymore on top of how horrible I know I'll feel to leave my babies for so many hours a day.

I plan on bring the babies to visit my old school (where I taught 4 years ago) this week. I still keep in touch with several of the teachers I used to work with there. It is an hour drive one way, so wish me luck! I hope we can time it so that they end up sleeping on the way there and back.

Sleep at night has continued to get better around here- Sam had his first STTN experience last week- he went from 9 pm until 4 am. Anna's consistently sleeping from about 9:00 pm until 6:30 am. So they both STTN that night! Awesome! I can't wait until they both go 9:00 pm to 6:30 am. We've gotten better at a regular bedtime and nighttime routine lately. We typically start at around 8 pm. Last night was the smoothest transition to sleep yet: both babies got put in their cribs drowsy but not yet asleep and both fell asleep on their own with minimal fussing. This was great considering we had been using a blow dryer running in their room at night for the last week or so to prevent struggling to get them to sleep for over an hour after we started to put them down. They have gotten so much better at self-soothing, which is encouraging. I am looking forward to the days when daytime naps go that well too.

Firsts for me: I am back in my pre-PG underwear, and several of my looser pre-PG tops. I tried on jeans yesterday and although I'm no where near my pre-PG size (which was the smallest size I've ever been), I'm no longer in the biggest size I've ever been. I'm trying to remind myself when I get discouraged about the flub around my middle that in high school my jeans were a size bigger than what I can wear now. So hey, progress is being made. Now if I can only find time to actually do the 30 Day Shred...

The best packages!

Today was a great mail day! First, I got my replacement box of Mama Mio Tummy Rub Butter (which I was really missing since I ran out a few days ago), I got my shipment from Target.com (there was a baby sale this week so I got a few good deals on bottles and lap pads- two of the few things left that we needed more of), AND the best of all- there was a small package containing the most adorable baby hats ever from Carol at Happy High Heels! Her blog is private, but she is a fellow expecting-twins-after-IVF blogger, and only three weeks behind our due date.

I absolutely LOVE THEM! She made them to go with our preemie hospital outfits (we got those and newborn outfits, just in case). Now I'm almost hoping our little ones are small enough to fit into preemie size clothes so they can sport these hats in their first ever photo op. I don't have a picture of the newborn outfits, but here's a picture of the preemie outfits to go with the hats:

THANK YOU CAROL! YOU ROCK!

Baby Laundry

7 baby laundry loads later this weekend... all the washable stuff we have is washed and put away!

(The plan was to do this over winter break, but then our dryer broke. It wasn't fixable. Since our microwave and dishwasher have also broken in the month or so, we got a new vehicle and bought the dressers, a new dryer wasn't an option, really. We really lucked out and got a dryer on Craigslist for $50- that actually matches our washer. After getting some baby stuff on there too- I'm really beginning to love Craigslist!)

I've been finding out that it is a little bit of an organizational nightmare to make sure we have enough clothing in each particular size and about an equal amount of each type with one boy and girl on the way. It would be sooo much easier if they could both wear every single article of clothing we have, but someone I'm guessing my husband won't let me put our son in a pink and flowery outfit. So I've made a list of what we have and what we need to be covered (according to twin books I've read) trying to balance out the number of onesies/sleepers/outfits/hats/bibs/socks/etc. by gender. I think we have newborn to 3 months pretty much covered now. Yay! We could use a few more boy outfits to make things more equal, because my coworker gave me a slew of girly outfits so that's a little off balance, but outfits aren't really necessary and we do have a few boy outfits. I'm okay with not having enough 3-6 month clothes or beyond, because I'm not really sure how big they'll be for the warmer summer months and I plan on going to garage sales this summer to help with that.

My husband also put together the two dressers last week, so it was very exciting to hang AND put stuff away in drawers. It's really beginning to feel like things are coming together. I'm itching now to buy a new window covering, since that's really the last thing the room needs. I do want a small bookshelf for books and a lamp, but those things aren't as important. I kept my husband busy this weekend: he also painted letters to hang above the cribs with the names we picked- we hung them to get the nails in place and then took them down to keep our secret until the twins' birth day!

A shot of the closet- these are only newborn and 0-3 month sized clothes that can be hung (excluding outfits and onesies):

Here are the finished quilts, as well:

Notice the fabric that is carried through both quilts. Brown and sage green are the colors of other things in the room like the changing pad cover, wall color, and hopefully the window treatment. I know I said it before, but it should be said again: I am so blessed to have such a talented friend to make our babies the quilts for us! They really help tie in the coordinating colors for both babies in the room.

Belly Shots 25-27 weeks

25 weeks

26 weeks

27 weeks

Wowza... I get even more huge every week! I'm going to spare you the bare belly shots from here on out, because stretch marks made their first appearance this week. It started with two tiny lines under my stomach on Tuesday, then when I woke up this morning there were a couple more... Maybe it's because I'm still measuring 9 weeks ahead according to my OB; my belly is the size of someone pregnant with one baby at 36 weeks right now. I still have my belly button though, thanks to a deep innie to begin with. Interestingly enough, I weighed the same at this appointment as I did 4 weeks ago; still a total gain of 40 lbs. I've noticed my face looks a little fuller, so it's not just in my belly any more though.

Other milestone moments this week, besides stretch marks: I woke up in the middle of the night to what I think are the first hiccups I remember feeling. My crappy sleep might be getting to me, but my little ones can wake me up at any time and I'll still love feeling them move. I also had my glucose test today- I'll find out tomorrow if I didn't pass. I wore and bought my first XL maternity top too- the one in the 27 week picture (so much for the recommendation of buying your pre-pg size). Most of my small and medium pants are still fitting, thank goodness. It is hard to justify buying new maternity clothes when any day could be my last pregnant day . But a girl's got to have more than a shirt or two that fits!

My OB was very laid back and reassuring about the contractions and hospital stay that I had last week- he's not at all concerned about a higher risk for pre-term labor and the babies showing up earlier because I had them. He thinks (as I do) that it was a isolated event. I start OB appointments every other week now that I'm pretty much in the 3rd trimester (according to different sources, the 3rd trimester starts anywhere from the beginning of week 26 to week 28). Our next perinatologist appointment (and u/s) is next week on the 8th. I think that means between the two doctors, I'll pretty much have doctor appointments every week until the twins are here!

Halloween 2010

I have two families of twins in my classroom this year- a set of girl twins and one boy from a set of boy twins. I mentioned some time ago that the mother of the boy twin told me right away that her boys are the result of IVF as well, and she has really been excited to hear about how things are going along the way. She has given me maternity clothes (not really the style I would wear, but it is the thought that counts) and a few baby clothes. This week the mother of the girl twins was helping in my classroom and we started talking about twins- She shared that her twins were Clomid babies. I also let her know that we found out we are having one boy and one girl. Then I jokingly said now I can't buy all of their cute girl twin outfits from them! (Those two girls are often dressed to the nines in the cutest coordinating outfits. I like that the mom doesn't always have them wear the exact same thing, but maybe the same dress in two different colors, for example) The mom went out to her car during recess and came in with these glow-in-the-dark onesies for my babies:

Her girls were obsessed with skeletons this year and had their own glow-in-the-dark skeleton shirts. The mom said they begged her to buy them for my babies when they saw them in the store, and so she told them when I found out what I was having they would get them for me. I guess every time they went to the store the girls would count how many were left, and when there were only 2 of each still there, the mom went ahead and bought them so it would work either way. It was such a unexpected surprise- and one of the best moments in an otherwise really crummy week. I can't wait until my little ones can wear them next year!

Spilling the Beans at Work and Other News

I did it- I spilled the beans at work yesterday- my first day seeing my co-workers since the beginning of June. I have so much to say about that, but I'm still so exhausted from actually working for the first time in months to go into it now.

My u/s is now moved up to Friday- yay for shaving off a few more days! More to share about that development later too.

I went through the tops in my closet today and removed anything that I can't get by with wearing for the next 8 months or so. I have a pitifully empty closet now, and only a handful of shirts that are still loose enough to somewhat hide my belly. Crap. I'm scared to do the same weeding out with my bottoms (pants, capris, skirts). Will someone please tell me when the maternity clothes fairies stop by with their gifts?

Um, kay- that's about all I can muster right now. I'm off to take a nap. I will try to edit later.