#BlogtemberChallenge: Blog Mood Board

 I think today's #BlogtemberChallenge prompt is so much fun!  

"Create a collage or inspiration/mood board that describes your blog."

 

Currently: September

This month, I'm jumping in on the "Currently" link-up with Jenna at Gold and Bloom and Anne at In Residence.  :-)  It's a fun, easy little link-up concept, and I'm looking forward to getting to know and checking in with some lovely ladies in this community :-)  

So these are the things I'm reading, making, pinning, anticipating, and loving currently...

Reading: There is a book club within my twin mom club, and we read one book per season.  The autumn book is The Girl on the Train, so I have that on my phone and just need to start on it :-)  I used to get a fair amount of reading done during overnight bottle time, but as the babies get older and are dropping overnight feeds, I'm chatting with them more instead of trying to keep them half-asleep ;-)  

Making:  This is the most recent thing I've made... I've been looking for a twin mom shirt around the internet, but all the ones I've seen have either been SUPER expensive (which I understand, but still can't justify spending), aggressive (because, guys, I know twin moms are awesome, BUT SO ARE SINGLETON moms, so be nice!), and/or use "Mama" instead of "Momma."  So... I grabbed a cute, inexpensive tee from Kohl's (on sale for $7, I had an extra 15% off, and actually just spent Kohl's cash) and made my own with my Silhouette Cameo!  Fun!  This will probably happen again with a hoodie or something very soon :-)

Pinning:  We're hoping to go to our first carry-in with our new church this month, so I've been pinning dishes I think I might like to bring.  Also, fudge.  Fudge is fun to make, and there are SO many tempting varieties on Pinterest :-)  I have a whole fudge board, and make myself hungry on the daily :-) 

Anticipating:  Robert Hogan of No. 9 Images Photography is coming over on Tuesday to take the twins' 3 month pictures.  I'm excited to have more professional photos of them, and to work with Robert (who did our maternity pictures) again.  But I will admit to being the teensiest stressy about what we'll all wear! 

Loving: I got this super snuggly, lightweight cowl-neck sweater from Kohls... I haven't been able to find it online to link to (or buy more, because I need more of them!).  It's so cozy and flattering and easy to wear... I'm really digging simple clothes lately.  I want to be able to grab almost any top and almost any bottom and have an outfit :-) 

#BlogtemberChallenge: Introduction

I am so excited about the "Blogtember" Challenge over at Brave Love!  I have been wanting to sort of ease back into blogging more regularly since the babies came because I miss the community, but I've had a hard time coming up with things to write about other than "LOOK AT THIS CUTE PICTURE OF MY BABIES!!!"  Enter Bailey and her challenge... 30 prompts, one for each day in September, with link-ups every day... solving both my inspiration problem and my blog-friend-loneliness problem :-)

Today, our prompt is simply: Introduce yourself however you like! Pics, vlog, collage, your choice :) 

Since I have a fairly thorough About Me page, I thought I'd share the highlights and a couple "bet you didn't know"s :-)

The Highlights:

• I'm Katie :-)  Married to Ethan, Momma to Charley (a maltipoo), and Abigail and Samuel (human twins).

• I love to bake (and eat), craft, DIY, decorate, read, talk... I used to sell my handmade jewelry, but that passion has taken a back seat to baby-making and raising.

• I take too many pictures of the twins, many of which can be found in my Instagram feed. :-)

• We tried to get pregnant for five years.  We finally did IVF at Barbados Fertility Centre, and were so overwhelmed with how well we were treated (and our success, of course) that I love to spread the word about them.  More people should know there's an alternative to the usual impersonal and stressful model of infertility treatment in the States!

• I have had Type 1 Diabetes since I was 12 years old.  I use an insulin pump and sometimes a continuous glucose monitor to control my blood sugar.

• I have an M.Ed. in school counseling, and am licensed to practice in Ohio.  I don't practice, because we did IVF right after I earned licensure... then I was pregnant... now I have my hands full ;-)

Now for the random things you may not know:

• Instead of imaginary friends, when I was little, I had imaginary children.  Among them was a set of boy/girl twins.  I've always wanted to be a mom, and I guess maybe I subconsciously had an idea it would be of twins :-)

• We put a LOT of thought into naming our twins, but I almost rejected the perfect name for our son.  Why?  Because it had been the name of my goldfish when I was 7.  Thankfully, I realized how silly that was and our baby now shares a name with that fish :-)

• I went from passionately hating lasagna to craving it in the hormonal aftermath of the stimulation/retrieval phase of IVF.

• I've been tased.

• My first childhood crush was Doogie Howser.  Ethan's nickname as a kid... Doogie Howser. :-)

• My back is super-ticklish.  More so than my feet or ribs (although, yeah, those are ticklish too!)

• I'm terrified of spiders and most other things with more than six legs.  But, I think snakes and lizards are SUPER cute! 

• My left foot is a whole half-size bigger than my right.  People like me (with fewer scruples) are why the cashiers check the sizes on both shoes when you buy them ;-)  This is also probably why I love to buy shoes but hate to wear them!

In Pursuit of My Glow

I am currently part of the Wellness VoxBox from Influenster, and the timing on this box could not have been more appropriate.  I've felt like I look a little blah since having the babies... I never felt like I glowed while pregnant (probably because the twins were sucking me dry of all extra nutrients)... my skin was dull and dry and my hair was limp.  Those luscious pregnancy locks we're all led to expect while pregnant...?  Nope. 

So I was pleased to get a VoxBox with some products to help get my glow back, including shampoo from ATTITUDEliving, Active Botanicals cleanser from Olay, Wet Skin Moisturizer from Jergens, and enamel-strengthening mouthwash from Colgate... as well as an ache and pain reliever from UrgentRx to help with the constant aches from carrying around more than 20 pounds of baby all the time :-)  

Let's talk about the Wet Skin Moisturizer today...

via

I've been using this product for over a week now, and I do think it is making some difference in how my skin looks and feels.  I can't really compare it to my previous moisturizer, because I haven't used a body moisturizer consistently in a long time.  :-)  But this product is making it easier for me to use regularly because I put it on before I even get out of the shower.  The wisdom behind this is that the extra moisture your skin absorbs from the shower evaporates fairly quickly and can actually leave your skin drier than before you showered.  By applying moisturizer before your skin dries, you are able to lock in more of that moisture.  

Pros:  Easy to integrate into a busy routine. Applies easily and cleanly.  Lock in moisture before it evaporates.  Softer skin (compared to no moisturizing routine).  

Cons:  The gardenia scent is a little strong (and old-ladyish)... pleasant at first, but can overwhelm.  Supposed to "pat dry," which takes longer than rubbing dry.   

If you want my reviews on the rest of the products in this box, keep an eye on my Facebook page and Instagram feed!  :-)

 

PS:  These products were provided to me, free of cost, in exchange for my honest reviews, courtesy of Influenster.

This App is a Life Changer!

Got your attention? :-)

I love almost everything about scrapbooks.  I love pictures, I love pretty paper, I love cutting and gluing and journaling, I love looking at finished scrapbooks, I love the idea of having stories and pictures preserved where Abbie and Sam can look at them someday. 

What I don't love is the time (and money) involved.  While I love to lose myself in my crafty room for hours on end, it still takes a long time and a lot of trips to Michael's to finish a book.  As a matter of fact... I've never finished a book.  Ever.  Our wedding album is the closest I've ever come, and it's probably only 1/3 of the way finished.  

BUT!  I was peer pressured influenced by a bunch of busy blogger types on Instagram to try the Project Life app.  I downloaded it not long after Abbie and Sam were born... it's one of the only apps I've EVER paid for ($2.99).  I've also bought a few "kits" of themed "cards" and some extra layouts.  Altogether, I've probably invested less than $15 in this app.  

In the first week or two I had the app, I built an entire 19-page scrapbook of my induction and delivery and our time in the hospital bonding and meeting family.  I didn't have to print photos, I didn't have to run to Michael's, and I don't have more extra paper and embellishments piling up that I may never use :-)  I can make a page in a few minutes using photos from my camera roll or Dropbox account... my favorite time to "scrapbook" was while feeding babies over night.  Then I saved the finished pages to Dropbox to print at a later date.  For the labor and delivery book, I'm planning to upload each page into a photo book and have the whole book printed when I get a great coupon code.  I can even make extra prints of the book - one for us, one for Abbie, one for Sam - without having to remake each page.  

Now that I'm caught up from their arrival, I have been able to scrapbook all major scrappy occasions the next day... birthdays, 1 and 2 month pictures, our anniversary... all scrapped and waiting to be printed.  The prints can be slipped into scrapbook page protectors (among "real" pages or on their own) or even displayed in square frames.  Pretty nifty!  For this stage in our family's life, where the photo opps are many and the extra time is sparse, being able to make scrapbook pages so simply and quickly is a huge giift!  I'm not being compensated in any way for this post, just hoping to spread the word and hope to other moms or busy people who are convinced they'll never catch up on their photo memory preservation :-)

What's In a (Pair of) Name(s)?

As soon as anyone confirmed that I was, indeed, pregnant and not just massively bloated around the midsection, they asked, "Do you know what you're having?" We were super-excited to say that we were having a girl and a boy!  The follow-up question was - almost without fail - "What are their names?"  

If you followed this pregnancy, you know that we did not announce names prior to delivering the twins.  We had a handful of reasons for this, one of which was that we were being so open about all aspects of our IVF and pregnancy experiences, we wanted to keep a small part of the process between us.  Another reason is that we honestly weren't 100% certain of either name before we met them!  

Naming a person (or two) was one of those things that felt like a huge, huge responsibility to me.  These are their names, not just for their whole life, but forever.  As I was filling in the family tree pages of their baby books, I wrote in the name of my grandfather who died while I was pregnant. It struck me that even though he's gone, the stories we tell about him will always be tied to his name, written on the pages of those baby books.  My mother in law loves exploring her genealogy, and often tells us about her relatives from several generations back... by name.  Long after our babies have lived, their descendents will read these names and connect them to the stories of the people who carried them.  Kinda huge, right?

So we didn't want just any name we pointed to in a baby book.  We wanted them to have meaning, both to us and in the "your name means ___" sense.  We wanted them to be able  to be playful for a child, with an adult option in case they run for office someday.  (I've always kind of wished that Katie was short for something more grown-up.  Not that I'd probably use it, but it would be there if I wanted it.)  We wanted something that wasn't too modern and had stood the test of time.  We wanted combinations of names that had an easy cadence and flow with our last name, and that fit with each other as siblings and twins.  And we wanted something most people could pronounce :-)

Abigail is a name we fell in love with early in our fertility struggle.  It's of Hebrew origin and means "Her Father's Joy" (although we prefer to edit it to "parents' joy," since she makes me pretty happy too).  We know several Abbie/Abbys who we love dearly, and would love if our daughter grew up to be like them.  It's a name we clung to through so many ups and downs that sometimes when I call our daughter by her name, I choke up because Abbie - OUR Abbie - is really here, and it's not just an abstract name for a hypothetical someday child.  Her middle name, Rebecca, means "Captivating" and is in honor of a dear friend of ours... another woman we will hold up as a role model to Abbie, an example of grace, faith, and strength.

Samuel was the son of Hannah, in the Bible.  She was heartbroken in her infertility and is famous for praying so earnestly and silently while praying for a child that she was assumed to be drunk.  The popular verse among those parenting after infertility, "For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of Him" (1 Samuel 1:27) is a quote from Hannah.  Samuel means "asked of God" or "God heard," and I cannot think of a more fitting name for the child we cried, begged, and prayed for for five long years.  Ethan means "Strong" and is, of course, after his Daddy.  It's a tradition in my family to give the first son his father's name as a middle name, so this was set in stone in my mind from the beginning.  So we just needed to find a first name that flowed with Ethan as a middle.  It's harder than you'd think! :-)

We're so pleased with the names we chose, and that they allow us to testify to God's love and grace when we share them with people. How did you choose your children's names?  I'd love if you'd share them with us in the comments! 

Twin Birth Story: Abigail and Samuel, Part 2

This is the second part of Abigail's and Sam's birth story.  You can read the first part here.

We left off after 54 hours of labor, with Dr. Abtahi telling me that I'd finally be having babies in about half an hour.

Ethan and I were still trying to wake up fully and process this information as our room was almost immediately swarming with medical staff.  The nurse told us we would not be coming back to that room and to pack all of our things.  As Ethan hurriedly packed everything back into our bags, I was introduced to our anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist (I can't remember)... Rob.  He was super nice and laid back, cracking jokes with us as he started injecting fun stuff into my IV and epidural.  Within just a couple of minutes, I was being whisked down the hall toward an operating room.

When we got to the doors of the OR, a nurse told Ethan to hang back to put a surgery coverall on.  We hugged, squeezed hands, and - of course - selfied, and parted ways.  They pulled my bed right up next to the operating table and asked if I could move my legs to help them get me on the table.  That would be a big, numb, NOPE.  Someone put my right leg on the table, and I got startled when I glanced over and saw it laying there.  Because I couldn't feel it being moved, and had no "connection" to it. SO WEIRD!  Anyway, I'm moved over and prepped for surgery.  When my doctor came in, she saw me almost shivering right off the table, and brought me a warm blanket to lay across my chest.  I asked when Ethan would be able to join me, because it sure seemed like we were close to go time.  The anesthetist told me the rest of the prep steps that needed to happen before he'd come in, and kept up a stream of small talk to calm and distract me.

Finally, Ethan came hustling through the door, sat down at my head, and grabbed my hand under the blankets across my chest. My two doctors (Kovac and Abtahi) and a bunch of nurses and techs were in position around me, so I took a deep breath and asked Dr. Kovac to narrate.  She said, "uh sure.  I'm almost through the skin layer..." Pretty sure I blurted, "What, already!?"  It's still so strange to me that I was being sliced open and had no idea!  Ethan told me later that as he sat down, he saw the silver flash of the scalpel as she made the first cut.  So cool!

I felt a bunch of tugging and my body bouncing as Dr. Kovac told me she was separating the muscle layers.  I said "Ow... wait, no, 'ow' is the wrong word... I'm not in pain... it's just weird."  :-)  Finally, after what felt both like hours and like mere seconds, someone announced that Baby A was almost out.  We were able to watch Dr. Abtahi lift our beautiful Abigail out of me, and we heard the sweetest little cry... almost like a kitten's.  I immediately started bawling :-)  Someone called out her time of birth: 6:09am, 49 minutes after Dr. Abtahi came in to check my cervix.  She was quickly rubbed clean and taken to the side of the room to be briefly checked out, while we waited for the doctors to deliver her brother.  One minute later, "here we go" followed by a loud, indignant wail.  Suddenly, we were parents of two perfect, tiny newborns.  One of the nurses called out Sam's birth weight - 6lb14oz - and brought him over to Ethan.  Soon after, Abbie was carried over, too, and Ethan had his arms full of brand new life.  I was so mesmerized watching them and watching him watch them... when Dr. Kovac continued with her narration, I had no idea what she was saying.  I said, "What?!"  She repeated herself - something about a placenta - and I told her she could stop narrating... "the good part just happened."

My reaction as Abbie cried for the first time...

After I got to nuzzle the twins a tiny bit, nurses led Ethan out to the recovery room with both babies, Dr. Kovac left to get cleaned up, and Dr. Abtahi got busy sewing and gluing me back together.  I thought I'd feel intensely lonely when my belly was empty and my husband and babies were in a different room, but I was just reveling in this eurphoric glow.  I was a mom.  They were here, healthy and safe.  I had worked so hard for nine months for that to be true, and I was basking in a job well done.

When Dr. A had finished reassembling my abdomen, I was "unprepped" - rolled side to side, had tape ripped off my back and some areas wiped clean - and moved to a bed.  Someone wheeled me into recovery, and I could see Ethan and a nurse by a warmer across the room, hovering over our two tiny darlings.  We got to spend two and a half wonderful hours in recovery, bonding with Abbie and Sam, trying to nurse, and soaking in their amazingness.  Their blood sugars were both low, and we tried to raise them with a bottle and nursing.  Finally, it was determined that they would need to go to a transitional care nursery for a few hours to be put on glucose IVs.

Brenda, my nurse from the day before, had come on shift and gotten herself assigned to me.  She made sure to keep me well dosed with pain meds, and I felt pretty great.  So great that I kept forgetting to breathe :-/  I was put on oxygen because my O2 sats kept dropping.  That meant that I had to go to the PICU instead of a regular post-partum room, so I would have to be separated from the babies until we were all stable again.  I told Ethan to stay with the babies so they wouldn't be "alone."

About 6 or so hours later, I heard Ethan's voice from the doorway, announcing that he had a surprise for me... he wheeled Abbie into the room in her bassinet.  A nurse was finishing up Sam's bath, and brought him a few minutes later. They weren't entirely cleared, and had to keep IV cannulas in for a couple more hours, but we were together! 

 

PS: If you followed along with my bumpdates, you'll appreciate this... while I was in PICU, my inlaws brought me this...