Daddy's Pictures

Jesse likes to get cute photos of the girls. Usually they contain funny things like the girls holding video game controllers or the remote for the TV. And you can't forget pictures of the girls wearing his team apparel. Here are Jesse's recent shots and they are very cute, I might say!

Riley rocking daddy's NY Yankee Hat


Riley


Addison's Turn

11 months 2 weeks and 5 days

I'm sad to be making this post. I had the goal of providing the girls with exclusive breast milk for the 1st year or until I could start transitioning them to cow's milk but I didn't quite make my goal.

My decision to go on a weight loss plan has drastically decreased my supply and I also thought I was close to my goal and I dropped a pump a little too early which also led to my supply dropping. Prior to the supply drop, I was making 55oz of breast milk a day on average. As of late, I am only making 30-35oz a day. If I was only feeding one baby I would have tons of frozen milk and I would make plenty each day but since I have two mouths to feed, I can no longer keep up.

I thought I could just supplement the girls with cow's milk early but the pediatrician didn't think that would be a good idea for their nutrition. As preemies, they will need the extra calories and nutrition that can only come from breast milk or formula. The pediatrician wants us to keep the girls on breast milk or formula for a while longer, probably closer to their adjusted age of one year which will be in June. I will know more about how long when we have the girls 1 year well baby check-up on the 28th.

I did have a can of Similac Advanced that we were given as a sample that I thought I would never have to use, but today I opened the can and mixed my first bottle of formula. I only gave the girls 2oz of formula mixed with 4oz of BM but I still feel like I failed a little on my goal. I know there is nothing wrong with formula and my girls will not be harmed in anyway but I'm still sad about not being able to keep up.

Cribs, Teeth, and Biting

Now that the girls are mobile and able to sit up, it is time to move their crib mattress down to bottom notch to make sure they don't pull themselves out of the crib. And boy is it a pain to lay your children down in a crib when they are on the very bottom notch. I feel more comfortable knowing they are safe and secure in their cribs now, but I am a little sad to see another milestone hit that means they are growing up.

On to teething. Addison is still our girl with no teeth. If you look in her mouth, you can see the two bottom teeth right below the gum line but for some reason, those teeth will not come through yet. They are really close and I can tell that Addison is feeling the pain. Riley on the other hand is cutting teeth for the both of them. Just the other day she had about 3 teeth coming in at once. She was a hot cranky mess that day to say the least. She has about 6 teeth now. Yesterday was a little better day since most of the teeth finally cut through and she had some relief. So far we haven't had too much interruptions in their sleep patterns even though they are both working on teeth at the same time.

Biting! Ugh...Riley has figured out that she can bite people now. My mom says that she has bitten her a few times and I got to experience her sharp bite last night. I was carrying her into the nursery to feed her and rock her to sleep. As we were going into the room, she leaned her head down and bit down hard on my shoulder. Ouch...that child has some sharp teeth. I know she doesn't know what she is doing but I still tried to tell her no in a stern voice to help her catch on to the no-biting people thing.

There are the baby updates for now.

Fun in the Sun!

The weather has been gorgeous in Phoenix lately. April and May are usually nice months and the weather is nice enough to be outside. After May, things get way too hot and being outside is usually uncomfortable unless you are in the pool.

We decided to buy our annual pool toys and this year the babies got some of their own. We spent Saturday out in the pool playing. Riley absolutely loved the pool and she didn't care that water was still a little cold. Daddy took her around the pool in her new floaty and she loved every second of it. Addison hung back on the deck with me and watched all the fun.

Here is the pictures from our fun:

Check out our bathing suits! Riley:
 

Riley:
 

Addie:
 

Riley checking out her new pool toy:
 

In the water:






After all the fun we had to get her dried off and warm:




We then decided to fill up the play pool with warm water so Addie could enjoy the fun and Riley could warm back up. The girls had fun playing together but Riley kept splashing Addie in the face. Poor girl.

Monday Weigh In

Is it Monday again? I felt like I was just doing my last Monday post. The older you get, the faster time goes by.

Anyways, back to business. I’m weighing in at 146.8, down 13.4 pounds in just under 4 weeks! I’m pretty proud of the results and my clothes are just hanging on me these days. I’ve been stuck at 146.8 for three days though so I hope I can get some exercise in here to jump start another round of loss. This last week was really busy with school and family things so I didn’t get out with the girls on our walks as often as I would like. I did buy them a new stroller and I am dying to try it out so I hope I can get a good long walk in tonight to help prepare for our 5K walk for March of Dimes. Saturday will be the big March of Dimes walk and I hope the girls will cooperate and enjoy the walk and all of the people.

On another side note, I am 1 week away from finishing my degree. The end is really almost here. I have 1 paper to finish and a final exam standing in my way. I hope to get both items accomplished before the weekend so I won’t have to do any work before or after the big walk.

I’m hoping to lose 6-7 more pounds before San Diego. I hope I will reach that goal. I’m still not too happy with my body in a bathing suit, but what woman is?

We've got crawlers

The girls are really on the move now. Addison has been doing an army crawl for a while now and getting up on her knees and rocking but she prefers to pull herself along. Lately both girls have really taken off. I knew this day was coming where we have to pay attention to everything they can get into.

Addison loves to go over to the cat's food and water bowls. We caught her with two fistfuls of cat food and possibly a few pieces in her mouth. I know most kids find it fun to get into the pet food. We will really have to keep her out of that part of the kitchen to avoid her digesting more cat food.

Riley gets up on her knees and rocks put also prefers to pull herself around rather than get into a full crawling position. We tried setting up our baby gates to keep them contained but they didn't like and we didn't like leaning over the gates all the time so for the time being, we will just keep a close eye on our traveling girls.

I'm just so excited for another milestone. Also be on the look out for the birthday invitations. They are going out this weekend and the party has moved to Sunday April 25th at 1:00pm.

What am I eating?

I got a comment on my diet about what I am eating. I'm not doing anything crazy or following any fad diet. I'm just eating smart choices and getting plenty of whole grains, fruits, veggies, and lean protein. On any typical day my diet is as follows:

Breakfast at 5:45 am: 1 package of Quaker Lower Sugar Instant Oatmeal - Maple and Brown Sugar. I also put a teaspoon of peanut butter in the oatmeal. You may think this strange but it is very good and I get a little bit of protein in my early morning breakfast. My Breakfast includes my vice - Caffeine. I have a L0-Carb Monster energy drink instead of coffee with lots of cream and sugar.

Mid-Morning 9:00 am - An egg beaters omelet with mushrooms, tomatoes, green and red peppers, and green onions served with 1 slice of whole wheat toast and a Side of fruit.

Lunch 11:00 - 12:00 - Turkey or tuna fish sandwich on whole wheat with many veggies. I stop at Subway a few times a week to get my sandwich fully loaded with veggies. Along with a side of apple slices and peanut butter.

Snack: almonds

Dinner: Boneless skinless chicken breast or lean turkey with a side of veggies like green beans, or asparagus. Sometimes I will included a small side of chicken flavored rice.

Occasionally I will have a desert. I will have a 60 calorie pudding snack or 5 vanilla wafers with some peanut butter.

I vary from some of the options listed above but not by much.

Monday Morning Weigh In - 7 Weeks until San Diego

Well it is another Monday. I'm sad the weekend is over again already but I'm happy to still be doing well with my weight loss program. Today I weighed in at 148.6. That is 11.6 pounds down in about 3 weeks. I'm very happy with the results so far and I even enjoyed a little Easter food yesterday. I still ate smart choices and small portions but the lunch was more food than I have been eating. I was happy to still see a loss on the scale this morning. It was a small loss of .2 pounds but hey, it is something right???

Here are my stats so far:

Week 1: down 4.8 pounds
Week 2: down 3.8 pounds
Week 3: down 3.0 pounds

I'm happy to report more than the 1-2 pounds a week that most diets recommend. The firs two weeks the pounds were melting off mostly from detoxing from all the crap I was eating and getting my body used to eating smaller portions. I know that the weight loss will slow a bit and I will have to do more exercise and get creative with my food choices to stay on track.

I'm only 3.4 pounds away from my original goal to lose 15 pounds before San Diego. I'm so glad that I am almost there. I would like to see if I can lose 20 pounds before the trip. I will need 8.4 more pounds to do that. I think it is possible but it will require some work. Wish me luck!

1st Easter Celebrations.....Long and Pic heavy

Today was the girls' first Easter. At first I wasn't going to do anything much for Easter, I wasn't even going to buy them baskets because I was thinking, "Well, they can't eat chocolate this year so why do they need baskets. Luckily, I got my senses back and decided they needed to have baskets to celebrate the holiday as their first and they can still get some plastic eggs, toys, and a new outfit. Next year they can get a little candy.

My parents were out of town this weekend so I was a little sad that they wouldn't be here to celebrate with us but I was glad that my mom lives with me and she also got the girls a few things.

Today I really felt guilty for not going to church in such a long time. As a little girl I remember wearing my Easter dress to church and celebrating Christ rising again. So far, we haven't taken the girls to church. Jesse and I haven't gone to church at all during our marriage. Jesse grew up without church in his life but my upbringing was different. I would really like to get back to church soon and give the girls the gift of God in their lives.

Anyhoo....back to the Easter Bunny fun. Here are the girls getting up in the morning to see their baskets:


Their smiling faces once they saw the baskets:


Check out all this cool stuff sister:


What are these egg things?








What are those silly things on your head sister?










After the fun at our house, we went over Brea's grandparents house to celebrate with them. Brea's kids enjoyed the Easter egg hunt and the girls watched all the festivities. We had so much fun. Here are a bunch of shots from the day:

Brea holding my girls:


Brea and Me with the girls:


Brea and I and all our kids:


Braedon and Riley:


Brea and I:


Brea's Family: Chris, Braedon and Cohen


Riley in Pink - Addie in Blue-Green






























We had such a fun day and the girls were so worn out. I hope they sleep well and wake up refreshed. I'm hoping the yummy Easter food did not do anything to my weight loss. I will be posting my Monday morning weigh in tomorrow morning. Stay tuned....

Fun at the mall

I try as often as possible to get up to the mall on Fridays with the girls. Some Fridays we have appointments or other things going on but when we don't we love to go visit with the Westrum side of the family. The girls love all the attention they get from Grandma Jean and all of their great aunts. Their second cousins love trying to entertain them as well. Overall we have fun playing in the play center and going to the food court for lunch.

This last Friday Aunt Shannon took some pictures of the girls and I together which is a rare picture opportunity. Normally, I am the one taking the pictures so it was a nice change to get in the pictures with the girls. Here are the pictures from the mall this last Friday.

Here is Haley and her friend holding the babies. The lighting was bad.


Addie:


Grandma Jean and me feeding the girls:



Me and Addie:




More with me and the girls: