Joy and Heartache

Just before Valentine's Day we joyfully shared with our families that we were expecting another baby.  Telling our children included a pre-birthday celebration with cake and baby related presents.  Kaomi was the first one to vocalize the idea we were presenting them through the presents that they were opening.

Cake for our party

Presents for announcement

Over the next couple of weeks we talked with joy about the new baby.  The kids were attempting to come up with names for us to consider and everyone was excited with the anticipation.  My Dad and Mom gave me a great new maternity shirt for my birthday.

We had studied Psalm 139 in our Biblical worldview class, we had studied it in our Adult Bible Fellowship class one Sunday, I had studied it in my personal devotions, and Jeff had discussed it with our family one evening during family devotions.  All of this was before we shared the news with our children.

Sadly, our baby passed away when I was eleven and a half weeks pregnant.   We looked at the tiny baby and truly the words from Psalm 139:13-16 returned to my mind and I knew it would be okay.

"For I you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

Our baby's tiny thread-like fingers on a tiny hand, the eyes, nose, veins were all wonderfully made and God knew how many days our baby would live.

Jeff built a little box and we buried our Baby "J" as a family and mourned as we realized this was the only thing Jeff would build for this baby.

God knew that our joy over this baby would only be a short number of days and his peace is comforting.  The heartache is something I've never felt before, but all I could pray in the following days was "Thank you God for a beautiful baby."  Our children brought comfort they don't even know they were giving through their impromptu hugs, unexpected comments, laughter and smiles, piano practice of the song Blessings and others.

Thoughts of a grieving father:
I just can't imagine going through this without a deeply rooted relationship with my Creator. February 24th was by far the most emotionally difficult day of my life...I felt a pain and deprivation I have never felt before. It is a mystery to me...how can I so deeply miss someone who I have never met? Why do I love this unborn child so much? I can't fully describe it. I didn't understand my own emotions and I still don't (many who know me would be surprised that I even have emotions). Those emotions are even welling up as I write these words...6 weeks after that day.

And yet, through it all there was never a moment that I doubted God's goodness, sovereignty, or mercy. Never was I angry with him. Never did I question his authority over my life...over all life.  I am saddened, and yes, even still experience moments of sorrow, but who am I to question the Almighty Creator? Who am I to say he made a mistake or that he owes me something better? I have to believe that this plan...that I did not choose...that I did not want...is the best plan for me and my family.  I also have faith that my sweet baby is at perfect rest with Jesus, and he will never have to experience this life with sin and pain and sickness. I rejoice that God chose this special path for my baby, and as Su said above, we still got to experience joy for a short time because of this blessed child. Appropriately, we have chosen to call our baby 'J' for the joy and peace we all experienced through the whole thing, even until now.  Without God, we would have all the emotional pain and sorrow, but none of the hope, peace, and joy.  I couldn't survive without that, without Him.

When you see me, you won't see my sorrow because of the words of Psalm 139:

Psalm 139:1-6
[1] O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
[2] You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
[3] You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
[4] Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
[5] You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
[6] Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it. (ESV)

Funny Quote of the Day

This evening I noticed Quinn laying around in the living room and I thought that he probably hadn't been to the bathroom in a while.  I told him to go potty.  As he was walking toward the bathroom I heard him mutter, "It's about time someone told me to do that.  I've been needing to go."

Historical Fiction Reading Projects

Today the kids presented life-sized characters from the books they have been reading.

Kent with Joris

Kent read The Winged Watchman by Hilda Van Stockum and made a posterboard character with cloth clothing.

Katy read A House of Tailors by Patricia Reilly Giff and made a paper doll character.

Katy with Dina

Kaomi read Pioneer Cat by William H.  Hooks and made a mask for her to become her character.

Kaomi as Kate 

A Little Fun at School

     This year I have 6 students and 2 babies.  I was feeling overwhelmed by trying to teach from 3 teacher guides and keeping up with grading and making sure everyone was completing their assignments in a timely fashion.  I also have 1 student who I was feeling needed a lot more teaching with instruction and less assignments to have to read and complete on her own.  So when we restarted at the beginning of August we decided to try something a little different.
     Now I have one main teacher guide, I copied a couple assignments from another one for one of my students and I'm using a very small amount of the third teacher guide.  We've combined everyone into one class wherever possible.  I'm finding my days much easier to get through and we are all working together, so everyone's assignments are similar and easy for me to grade.
     My 3 oldest students bring their assignment notebooks to every class and I give the assignments for everyone or individual assignments as needed and they write them down.  For any assignments that I need to make sure are completed or are due at a later date I write down the assignment on a master checklist along with the "due date" and check them off when they are complete.  Having my master list helps me to know who still has to finish an assignment and helps me remember to check up on each person as needed.

   So you may be wondering how does this all fit together.  We are using a structured day with scheduled time for individual work, classes I teach, and Kindergarten.  Kent (7th), Katy (6th), and Kaomi (4th) begin their individual work at 8:30 every morning.  I write the list of individual work on a white board and the fist three to four items are what they need to make priority for this time.  It usually begins with: study dictation, science, math, and complete any previous assignments.  While they are getting started I am finishing up getting the babies fed and settled for the morning and making sure I have everything I need for the day ready (including my breakfast if I didn't get it earlier).  Often I send Felicity (Kindergarten), Clark (Kindergarten), and Quinn (preschool) to play outside in the backyard.  Sometimes they play for 20 minutes and other times for an hour.  At 9:30 we all join together for Bible (everyday) and Biblical Worldview ( 2x/week).  We complete reading and I give assignments and then the oldest three work on their assignments until 10:25.  At 10:30 I try to have some activity boxes out for the Kindergarteners and preschooler.  They have fun playing while I teach Language Arts.  Language Arts consists of dictation, grammar, writing, and reading.  Usually, we work through those items in that order.  Sometimes there is just an assignment for them to complete by the next class, and other times there is instruction time.  If anyone needs to work directly with me for one of the assignments we try to fit this in before 11:30, when I teach Kindergarten and Preschool.  From 11:30-12ish we cover math, fine motor skills, handwriting, and storytime.  Then we break for lunch.  We meet back again all together at 1:30 for history often the babies are with us during this time as well.  Felicity, Clark, and Quinn each have their own history notebook that they draw a picture that I assign them to work on while I am reading the lesson.  Today they drew Patrick Henry giving his speech :)  After history I read storytime to Kaomi, unless our lesson was a long one.  Then I teach reading to Felicity and Clark.  They each need to work with me by themselves, so I rotate who begins, since there are some days that I can't fit teaching them both in.  I try to be done with them by 3:15 and then I am available to the oldest students if they need to see me for any of the assignments they are working on.  I try to be all done being the teacher by 3:30, so I can take a short break before afternoon chores and dinner begin.

     Overall I like the way this is working for us.  The older kids don't have quite as much freedom as they've had before to just plowing through everything and finish quickly, but they are welcome to do that with their individual assignments.  We are definitely seeing where they need to work more on their own time management, but hopefully we can continue helping them learn and the skills that go along with that will grow too.

July 2016 Update

     This month we celebrated the 4th of July with a family get together with Jeff's brother and their famliy at their home and and evening fireworks watched from our front yard.  The fireworks weren't as fun as sometimes, but we enjoyed spending time together.  The weekend of the 4th Jeff and I tackled a few projects around the house and got Quinn moved upstairs to the boys room before putting up some decor in the nursery and moving Kade into the crib.  Colt (our night owl) still sleeps in the living room or master bedroom, but I hope to transition him to the nursery soon.
     Then Katy and Kaomi went to VBS at our church, followed by a busy week cleaning the bedrooms.  Kent got to take a trip to New Mexico with Grammy and Jeff's sister and brother-in-law.  Then Katy and Kaomi attended Kid's Praise Camp at our church for a week and participated in three productions of "The Kingdom Connection" and they really enjoyed it.
     I've also worked on cleaning my closet and bathroom this month trying to tackle some much neglected cleaning before we start back to school.  I worked on some school plans and have redone our schedule to include most of the kids in several of the classes we have this year.  We'll see how combining grades works for us, but just looking at our tentative schedule is providing a sense of relief for this teacher/mom who was having trouble trying to fit in "everything" for three different levels.  We have plans to start back to school on August 8th, so this next week we will be trying to put any final details on getting ready for school and I am going to work on cleaning my sewing room/guest room.

Colt and Kade - 1 year old 2016

They're ONE!!

Colt and Kade

Colt (1)

Kade (1)

May 2016 update

School's finished for May.

Planning for next school year is in progress and all books are ordered.  Most of them have already arrived.  We start school again in June, but I haven't decided exactly when yet.

Kids have been playing outside, digging a hole in the backyard, and making "pets" out of roly-polies.

I picked our first green beans of the season from our small garden this morning and am looking forward to serving them for dinner.  Our garden is also proficiently growing volunteer basil plants.  A few other things that we planted are growing, but several seeds didn't sprout this year, so I am hoping to make it to a garden center to get a few extra plants sometime soon.

I've enjoyed having a little extra free time and playing the piano for a short while.

The twins are growing again and Kade likes to get out and crawl or cruise around.  Colt doesn't mind staying in the play-yard, but he's only been crawling for a short time.

Even though we don't have school, the kids seem to be getting up earlier in the morning than they were before school ended, so I've been having to enforce our morning quiet time until 7:30.  Some children have a harder time being quiet than others :)

Are Your Children a Burden or a Blessing?

Earlier this year I had a short conversation with a seasoned mom who mentioned that her now grown children told her they felt like they were a burden to their mom while they were growing up.  She said she never meant to make them feel like that and admitted that she was very busy with normal life, a child with special needs, and getting a home business off the ground.  She said she probably had too much on her plate.

As I’ve pondered her words, I’ve prayed that I haven’t made my children feel like they are a burden in my life.  If I have made them feel that way I hope that when they are grown they will not remember, unless they also remember that I love them and I worked hard to make them feel like they belong to our family.

What can I do to make sure that my children don’t think they are a burden?

Note:  I started writing this post a few months ago and had plans to add scripture to help remind us that the children God has given us are a blessing from him.  If God gives a blessing, who am I to undermine him by making my children feel like they aren’t a blessing.  Since I've been busy and haven't I wanted to post these thoughts anyway.

My prayer for those of you who read this post is to ponder the idea of how you look at your own children or other family members.  Do you treat them like they are a burden or do you strive to enjoy them, no matter how busy you think you are?

March Break

This week we've had our break from school.  The kids have been enjoying the lovely weather and just having time to play and pursue their own interests.  I had a list of things I wanted to work on this week, too, but so far only 1 of the items has been cross off the list.  That item was cook bacon.  Two other items have been partially completed.

Since it can be discouraging to not get the things done I wanted to do I started making a list of all the things that I did do.  It helps a little to see the things I've done with my children on their week off of school and to know that I'm just being a mom and doing what God created me to do.  Taking the week off of school means I don't have to teach, but my children still need me and my wishes aren't necessarily something that gets to take first place.  Putting aside my selfish desires is hard.

Here's the list of just a few of the things I've done this week:
-went to the library
-went to the playground
-baked cookies with a few of my children
-helped paint shape and race cars (3 days)
-built Lego's with Quinn and Clark
-cleaned part of my desk
-took care of some of the mail pile (4 days)
-read stories to littles
-ate chocolate
-enjoyed dandelions
-stayed up late playing peek-a-boo with the twins, because baby laughter is so much fun
-walked to the end of the street and back (4 days)
-played outside x2
-listened to Clark and Quinn signing songs while they were coloring
-made hot chocolate
-got school plans ready for preschool and kindergarten next week
-worked a Sudoku or two every morning while drinking my coffee
-watched a movie with the kids


I'm not ready to start back to school on Monday, but I still have the weekend to hopefully finish getting school plans ready.

Sometimes...

I just want to curl up in a corner and cry rather than muddle through whatever we are supposed to be doing.  Instead I pray, let the babies scream, wash the dishes, and clean the kids closets (they are helping), while wishing I was brave enough to take eight kids to the grocery store.  We are really supposed to be working on school, but I wasn't prepared so they are having life lessons instead.  Maybe I'll be ready to start school tomorrow.

Clark's REALLY Good Memory!!

Wow! Clark must have a really good memory. 

Today for snack I served him a heart shaped cake.  He proceeded to tell me that he remembers that I (Mommy) ate these when he was a baby in my tummy.  I don't remember eating these then, but who knows :)

He was very excited to have one of these for snack because he said he had never tried one of these before.

(The photo-bombers were completely not planned, I had a picture without them, but thought this one was more interesting.)

De-cluttering in 2016

Last year I participated in a 34 week home de-clutting/cleaning.  The weekly challenges were just what we needed to make some great progress around the house.  I wasn't able to finish the challenges, but knew decluttering is a process that needs to be done regularly.  This year I am going to attempt joining a 91 Day Declutter Challenge.  While I don't plan to blog about it each week I am looking forward to seeing how much I am able to tackle just by doing a little bit everyday.  I'd encourage you to tackle the clutter in your home and free up some space that you've been finding annoying.

Happy New Year! -2016

A new year, with new things to do.  So far my calendar for the year is pretty empty and I'm happy to keep it that way.  I like to stay home and do stuff with my family.  Trying to get out for outside activities can be quite overwhelming by the time we've managed to gather everything we need and get buckled into seat belts.  I'm hoping for another fun year.

Here's a funny story from December.

Two of the kids had dentist appointments one morning at 10:00.  I worked really hard despite several things that wanted to attempt delaying us and managed to get out the door and we pulled into the parking lot two minutes before ten.  Everyone lined up next to the van as I got the twins into their stroller.  We bustled into the busy dentist office and I started to sign the kids in when the receptionist said, your appointment is at 1:00 this afternoon.  Talk about being frustrated, but I smiled said something about practicing a trial run and we loaded back into the van and went home where I fixed my breakfast and then hurridly got lunch on the table for the children so that we could be back at the dentist by 1:00.  We made it on time to the 1:00 appointment, and the receptionist jokingly asked if we could move our appointment to 3:00.  I laughed, but am so glad she was joking, because if she wasn't I probably would have gone home and cried.

Merry Christmas -2015

I wrote this letter last week hoping that I would get Christmas cards mailed.  I didn't so I thought I'd post it here.

December 18, 2015

Merry Christmas,

God has blessed our family much over the last year.  Last Christmas we were excited about adding to our family in the Summer of 2015.  In February, we found out that we were going to have two new family member and not just the one.  We walked on clouds for the next couple of weeks.  We bumped our late spring trip to visit family on the east coast up to March, while it would still be safe for Suanna to travel.  In May, we took a family field trip to the Legoland Discovery Center in Grapevine, Texas.  We knew that this would probably be our last time to galavant around as a family for a while.  At the end of June, Suanna’s parents arrived before the babies did and we enjoyed having them join us and see how our family works.  On July 7th, Colt and Kade were born and I sit here now with Kade watching me and laughing while Colt naps in the other room.  It’s been an adjustment to having two babies.  We still sometimes just stop and look at them and are amazed at God’s blessing on our family and comment, “There’s two of them,” or “There’s another one!”  These were two of the comments Quinn (2) has given us.  Since July the months have seemed to fly by.  We spent Thanksgiving at Jeff’s parents home.  We still have some “sleepless” nights, but God is good and when we aren’t sure how much more we can go on very little sleep, He gives the babies a few extra hours of sleep allowing some much needed rest for us as well.  We are continuing to homeschool and have worked to keep a lighter schedule this year.  Kent is in 6th grade, Katy is in 5th grade, Kaomi is in 3rd grade and Clark and Felicity are eagerly anticipating starting their kindergarten program next month.  We are looking forward to seeing what God has in store for us this next year.

                            Love,
                        Jeff and Suanna &
            Kent, Katy, Kaomi, Felicity, Clark, Quinn, Colt, and Kade

Totally Worth It

Long nights are totally worth it to see smiles like this.

Kade, 11 weeks

Kade, 11 weeks

Colt, 11 weeks

Colt, 11 weeks

A Day with Me

     It’s 3 am.  Kade wakes up and wants to eat.  By the time he is finished eating, had a bottle supplement and burped it is almost 4 o’clock.  He’s bright eyed, so I put him in the bouncy chair and get Colt.  I nurse, supplement with a bottle and get Colt back to sleep while watching Kade kick and smile.  Kade is still wide awake.  It’s 4:35 and I figure I might as well nurse him again.  At 5:15 he’s back asleep and I decide to go back to bed.  It’d be nice to sleep until 7, I think.  At some point my husband wakes me up.  He wants me to move over; the next thing I know Colt is fussing and wants to eat.  It’s 6:15.  I guess I should have just stayed up.  Jeff gives him to me and I nurse him in bed while dozing.  Jeff goes for a run.  It is so hard to wake up.  Jeff’s getting ready for work and encouraging the kids at their chores.  He changed Quinn’s diaper and got him dressed for the day.  Jeff heads out and I finally make it out of bed.  I don’t look at the clock, but guess it’s close to 8:00.  I enter into the usual chaos in the rest of the house.  I fix breakfast for Clark and Lissie.  I’m still not really awake, so I sit down to try and finish waking up and check my e-mail.  Both babies are still sleeping, so I take advantage of that to fry an egg and eat breakfast, while fielding school related questions.  Kent (11) starts “freaking” out about a plastic spider ring.  This type of behavior is on the normal side for him, so I ignore it and continue eating.
      It’s almost 9:00.  The older kids have science class today.  I need to hurry.  I get Kade up.  He has lots of cute smiles for me, but he’s drenched.  I change his diaper and clothes and get out a clean rag and Felicity got me a clean blanket.  I sit down to nurse him.  At some point Kent asks for help.  I guess he put the spider ring on his finger and can’t get it off.  It doesn’t look like its cutting the circulation off and I have no free hands to help.  He’ll have to wait.  I finish feeding Kade and it is time to leave, but before we can leave I need to change Quinn’s diaper and Colt’s diaper and clothes.  As I buckle Colt into his seat he looks at me with a puzzled expression, he thought he was going to be fed.  I send everyone to get in the van and Kent isn’t ready to go, even though I had said to be ready to go twenty minutes ago.  On the way I remember the spider ring and told him he’d have to wear it until he got home and I would help get it off then, but he had already removed it.  We pulled into the parking lot where the science co-op meets two minutes before class time.  Kent, Katy, and Kaomi hurry to their class and I drive back home. 
     I help unbuckle Clark and Quinn at home and we unload from the van.  By 10:35 Colt is finally getting to eat.  Clark and Quinn play with little legos while I am feeding Colt and Felicity wants to know what the activities are for the day.  She has to wait since I haven’t pulled today’s activities out yet.  She plays and talks to Kade while waiting.  Colt fell asleep so I put him in his rocker and grab the daily activities, before I feed Kade.  Today’s activities are the cooking set, markers, Doodle Dice, books about boys or girls, and floor puzzles, which I didn’t get out.  I’m disappointed because I don’t think we’ll enjoy preschool today.  On Thursday’s I need to be up no later than 7 in the morning for me to be able to help the morning run smoothly.  I’m hoping for a late morning cup of coffee when Kade finishes nursing.
     Yeah!  There was enough coffee leftover in the pot for a cup.  I drank it while putting sweet potatoes in the oven to bake and making lunch for Felicity, Clark, and Quinn.  Today they had peanut butter sandwiches, peach yogurt and a cookie.  I found some leftover tamales in the freezer and warmed them up for my lunch.  While they were warming I handed out reward stickers to the preschoolers for the activities they did this morning.  After I ate my tamales I sharpened colored pencils while chatting with my children.  Jeff dropped Kent, Katy, and Kaomi home from science and they started making their own lunches and I handed out their reward stickers.  Then I had twenty minutes of free time in which I printed a coloring sheet for school, held a sleeping baby and changed a diaper.
     At 1:05 pm we started school with story time and I fed Colt.  I read for about 45 minutes.  The books we are currently reading are Mystery of the Silver Coins and The Illustrated Book of Knights.  Then Kent, Katy, and Kaomi worked on their school and met with me as needed for instruction while I fed Kade.  Quinn went to his bed for nap time and Lissie and Clark sat on opposite ends of the couch with books and their blankets for quiet time.  By 3:00 I was completing most of the instruction that I needed to give.  I have had a little time to get on my computer this afternoon when it wasn’t being used for math class.  The older children continued working on their work to wrap up everything possible by 4:00.  I didn’t give instructions to everyone about their reading project, so we will add that to their list of assignments for tomorrow.  Anything else that hasn’t been finished by 4 o’clock will also be added to tomorrow’s assignments.  The goal is to have everything completed by this afternoon or no later than noon on Friday, so we can watch our Friday movie.
     From 3:00 to 4:00 I attend to some of my children’s needs and help Katy with a few ideas on how to make her writing assignment better.   I made sure everyone had a snack of unhealthy candy.  I didn’t have the energy to find something else and what was on my snack menu I didn’t have in my pantry.  I’m also feeling the end of the afternoon drain.  I’m so sleepy, but naps aren’t an activity I get to participate in, because even if I were to fall asleep someone will come and wake me up with a question or argument.  Feeding babies, again, fits into the late afternoon.  Most of the kids are making sure their chores for the day are completed and having free time.  I’m thankful it’s cereal night.  I don’t have to prepare anything for the kids dinner.  I’m not sure what Jeff and I are going to have, so I sent him a text to see if he wanted to bring something home for our dinner.  Auto correct kicked in on a text and it said something about him bringing “snot” home for dinner.  I was trying to control my laughter and not draw the attention of all my kids.  I snuggle with Kade for several minutes and help Kent check on his fantasy football team.
     Quinn asks me to change his diaper.  Then, I head into the kitchen to fix Kade a bottle.  He keeps fussing, so maybe he needs a little extra.  He eats and continues to fuss, so I put him in another room.  While in there I take care of the sweet potatoes and get out the cereal for tonight and pour portions out for everyone to eat when the children are ready.  They heard breakfast was ready and all ate promptly tonight.  I clean up a few things in the kitchen and it is time for Colt to eat again.  Around 6:00 Katy wants to hold Kade and see if she can help him stop fussing.  Colt is ready for a bottle, too.
     Jeff arrives home with Schlotzky’s for us while Colt is finishing his bottle.  Kade is still fussing and it’s almost time for him to eat.  I feed him with hopes that he will be happy and we can eat without babies needing me.  We ate, Kent went running, and the other siblings provided distractions for the twins.  Then I washed baby bottles, mixed formula and worked on something for school.  Jeff took five of the kids for a walk and Kent was given permission to turn on the Thursday night football game.  The Denver Broncos are playing.  I asked Kent to help fold laundry while he watched the game, since the pile to be folded has exceeded the number of pieces that usually get folded in a day.  I joined Kent in folding the laundry to see how much we could get squared away in a short time before the twins would need to eat.  Jeff and the kids got back from their walk and they made a crowd in the living room to watch the game.  We sent them off to bed at half-time and then Jeff and I had a snack and watched a tv show and picked up most of the last quarter of the Broncos game to see the defense pull off a win.  Now its to bed.  Hopefully the twins will sleep a little later than 3 am tomorrow.
    
    

8 Weeks - Colt and Kade

Here are their 8 week old pictures.

Colt - 8 weeks

Kade - 8 weeks

Birth Story of Colt and Kade

    I'd been having sporadic contractions that wouldn't get going regularly off and on for a few days.  I had an appointment with my doctor first thing on Tuesday morning.  When he saw me he said he was surprised I hadn't gone into labor yet.  I told him I was ready to have the babies, as pregnancy was very uncomfortable at this point.  We went ahead and had an exam done which showed I was already 5 cm. dilated and realized we were closer to having them then I thought.  Jeff and I discussed our options and we decided to go to the hospital after lunch where the plan was to have the doctor break my water to help get labor going.  We went home had breakfast, puttered around getting things ready to go to the hospital, got supper going in the crockpot, and had lunch.  While I was fixing lunch I felt a contraction or two and thought I hope this keeps up and won't have to have my water broken.  By the time we headed to the hospital I'd had a few contractions, but they still didn't seem to be getting regulated.  After we checked in and they hooked me and the babies up to the monitors we found out the contractions were regularly coming 8-10 minutes apart and I just wasn't feeling all of them.  After struggling to get 20 minutes of the twins heart rates, which seemed to take more like 45 minutes because twin B kept kicking the monitor off, I was allowed to get up and go for a walk.
    After the walk, we returned and they hooked us up to the monitors again.  The contractions were in the 6-10 minute range and I was just starting to feel them a little more.  The doctor came in around 6:10 and we decided to head out for another walk to keep things going.  We headed out onto the skybridge, which connects the building where we were with the main hospital.  Shortly after starting out to walk I had a stronger contraction and stopped for it to finish before I kept walking.  Jeff had gone to meet his sister and get something from her that she was bringing him.  My mom and Jeff's mom were walking with me.  I walked a little farther and then began having a contraction that just didn't seem to want to stop.  During this contraction or maybe I should say series of back to back contractions, Jeff and his sister came to where we were.  Jeff looked at my face and asked me if we needed a wheelchair.  I said, "Yes," but as he started to walk away I said "That's a pushing contraction."  Jeff took off running for the Labor and Delivery ward and called for our doctor and a wheelchair.  Our doctor heard him and took off running for where I was.  I remember looking up and seeing our doctor sprinting as fast as he could up the skybridge with Jeff not too far behind.  Following them was the rest of the labor and delivery ward nurses coming in what looked like slow motion.  The doctor called for a gurney after he got to me.  It was time to push though.  One of the first nurses to get to us helped lower me down toward the floor.  We thought the baby was going to arrive there, but the gurney arrived and between pushes the doctor, Jeff, and two other people lifted me onto the gurney and Colt was born a few seconds later.  They put him up on my belly and he was just precious to look at. 
    They raced me back to my labor room.  Jeff was handed the scissors to cut the cord, which he did for the first time of any of our babies.  Then my doctor broke my second bag of water and felt for the position of the baby.  The cord had prolapsed and he shoved it back inside while he got ready to help twin B come into the world.  I heard him say, "I feel hands and feet," at which point he asked if we were sure we were only having two babies.  I told him that we had only ever seen two babies on the sonograms and it would be quite a surprise.  If there were still two I told him I hoped one was a girl.  I thought maybe he was joking around.  He pulled Kade out feet first with the next contraction, five minutes after Colt was born.  Then he told the nurse he needed to check to make sure there wasn't another baby.  There wasn't ;)  WHEW!
    We were excited to have our boys born healthy.  Usually, twins are delivered in the OR because of the potential for an emergency c-section, but I guess Colt had other plans.  Jeff's sister hadn't expected to get to be there for their births, but her timing was perfect and she was very excited to be able to be there, as were both Jeff's mom and my mom.  We were the talk of the hospital and the first to have a baby born on the skybridge.   Colt was 9# 2 oz. and 19 3/4 inches long and Kade was 8# 6 oz. and 21 inches long.

Welcome, Colt and Kade!

Colt (orange) and Kade (yellow) with Daddy

Our Twins Have Arrived!

The twins were born tuesday at 39 weeks 2 days. 
Colt was 9 pounds 2 ounces and 19 3/4 inches.  Kade was 8 pounds 6 ounces and 21 inches.  They arrived healthy and safely and with a bang and a lot of drama.  Sometime soon I hope to get the birth story written up for those of you who like to read about births.

July Pregnancy Picture Update

Last week:

July 1st - 38 Weeks

 This week:

39 Weeks

39 Weeks

Hoping for the arrival of the twins to be soon!