San Diego Trip Details Part 1

Our trip went very well. The girls were great car riders except for a few moments. Riley is suffering from separation anxiety so she was attached to me the whole trip. She rode over in my parents car and Addison rode with us so we could have someone in the back seat with each girl. Addison rode with Jesse and I and she was happy and did really well.

We stopped in Yuma (the half-way mark) to eat. We found a KFC with a buffet and that worked to allow the girls to sample everything off of my plate. Here are pics from the lunch:

Addison

Riley


Here are some pics from the car ride:
Riley:

Addison:


We arrived at the condo and got settled. It took some work to get our room set up and 2 pack n'plays but we figured it all out. The girls were a little unsure of their new surroundings. It took them a bit to get used to sleeping in a new place. They enjoyed crawling all over the place and getting into everything.

Here is their first pic with the ocean:

Playing in the condo, Riley:

Riley eating with her new travel high chair. Those were perfect for traveling and a big hit.

Addison:


We went out to lunch with Sara and her boyfriend and Grandma Barb (great grandma to the girls). We ate at Mimi's Cafe and enjoyed the good company. Here is the family shot.


Addison being pulled around by Jesse on her blanket. She had so much fun.


I will post more about going to the beach and all the fun we had. Stay tuned.

Monday Weigh In (post vacation)

On our vacation I indulged a bit on the Southern California cuisine. I decided to eat sensibly for breakfast which included my oatmeal but all bets were off for lunch and dinner. We went to a yummy Mexican restaurant, ate fish and chips at the harbor, had ice cream several nights after dinner, ate In and Out Burger, Olive Garden, and Del Taco to round out the list. I ate more than my normal portions and really enjoyed the yummy food but now that I am home, it is time to get back to reality and back to eating better.

My weigh in this morning put me up 1.5 pounds at 139.8. I really thought it would be more with all the food and snacking but I think we kept busy enough to burn some of that off.

Now, I am all stocked and prepared to get back on the wagon and lose the last 10-15 pounds to get to my goal weight. I know that I really need to incorporate exercise in order to reach that goal but so far I haven't made the time. Jesse is now off for the summer from teaching so maybe he can watch the girls when I get home so I can get some exercise time in. Jesse is also going to change his eating habits over the summer and find time to exercise and bulk up a bit.

I will be posting about our trip and some pictures here in my next post. I have found it hard to keep up with the blog. I find that I am posting more on facebook and forgetting about my posts for the blog. Do any other bloggers see that happening to them? I am also hosting two online message boards for pumping moms. I guess I am filling the time I used to spend on school work with more computer time responsibilities. The question is, will I keep up?

Happy 13 Months Girls

I know that the month milestones get a little less attention after the 12 month mark but I still wanted to get a little post in to celebrate another month in the lives of our amazing girls.

We are enjoying our trip in San Diego. The girls had some adjusting to do to get used to sleeping in the Pack n' Plays and their new environment. After a few days, they got into a routine and they have had fun.

So far on this trip, Addie has been standing up by herself for a few seconds after we get her balance for her. I know the physical therapy will come in handy and the girls will be off and walking here soon. On another developmental note, Riley has finally started crawling properly. Before she was doing a very fast army crawl that looked like she was a lizard on the ground. Today she really got herself up off the ground and was crawling around just like Addie. I hope she continues to crawl this way and build her butt and leg muscles.

I am slowly starting to wean from pumping. Right now I am pumping 3 times a day and I am trying to figure out how to drop my middle of the day pump. I'm trying to pump for less time on each pump to signal my body to produce less which will make things more comfortable for me to drop the middle of the day pump. Wish me luck

Happy 13 Months Girls!!!!

Another Picture Post

Riley is almost rash free. You can still see a couple of small spots but overall, the Benadryl is doing the job of getting her better. Addison's head wound is also healing nicely. Right now we are working on getting everything ready for our trip to San Diego. My parents will be taking the girls out early on Sunday and we will meet them on Monday night after my training is finished at work. We hope everything will work out and my parents will have enough room to take everything over and be able to handle the girls until we meet up with them.

Here are some pics from over the last few weeks:

Addie girl


Another classic Riley smile


Cruising the furniture


Wild hair Riley


Addie


Sleepy Riley


Addie


Addie


Crazy bath time hair, Addie


Riley


Addie


Addie


Riley


Riley


Addie and my dad


Messy girl Riley and me:

No Real Answers

We don't really have any answers as to what caused Riley's rash. The doctor said that she could of had a viral infection or it could have been something she ate. It really turned into hives today and looked 10 times worse than the pics I first took of her. The good news is she doesn't seem to be bothered by the hives as she is not itching or acting extra cranky.

We are going to use a course of Benedryl (generic of course, in light of all the recent recalls). At least she will probably sleep a little better until she clears the rash. On another good note, Addison seems to be rash free and she is happy as a clam. We gave her some Benedryl to help clear her continuous runny nose and that did the trick right away.

Here are the pics of our poor baby girl:

Monday Weigh In

Last week was a slow one for me. I'm only down .2 of a pound from last week. At one point I dropped down almost a pound from last week but I gained it back. I was eating more like I was in a maintenance phase rather than weight loss phase. So at least I know that when I get to my goal weight, I can maintain it pretty easily.

My ultimate goal was to be at 135 by the time we left for San Diego. I'm 3.8 pounds away and although I may not hit that ultimate goal, I am very happy with the way my body looks. My new clothes fit great and I'm about ready to be in a size 6 for work pants!!!! I'm usually a size bigger in jeans since they are more restrictive.

I bought a few cute shirts and tank tops at Kohl's this weekend during one of their super sales. I only spent $22 on 4 new shirts/tank tops.

In other news, we will have to leave a day later than we planned for the vacation. I was put on a new promotion team at work and we have some extensive trainings going on during the week we were supposed to be gone on vacation. It was a honor to be apart of this new team and some raises are probably in the future. The bad news is I will be required to attend a 5 hour training on Monday, so we will have to wait to leave for San Diego until after work rather than heading out Sunday morning. My parents have offered to take the girls out with them on Sunday to the Condo and get them set up. I am surprised they want to take on such a task. I am a little afraid about how the girls may react to a 6 hour car ride and new surroundings while being away from us, but I think it might be nice to have a day and a half away from the girls and allow my parents to play grandma and grandpa. I hope the girls are not too much trouble for them. At least it is only 1 night that my parents have to deal with and we should be arriving at the Condo after bed time on the 2nd night.

A bruise and a rash

What a fun title this is, right?

Riley has developed this rash over the last few days. We aren't sure what it is from as we haven't fed her anything new or strange. We did give her some yogurt bites that had strawberries in them and usually if we do that, she gets a rash on the back of her neck but this new rash started appearing a day before we fed her the yogurt bites. Each day the rash looks worse rather than better so a trip to the pediatrician may be in order on Monday if things don't clear up. I'm not even sure how to treat it.

The rash is in her diaper area and all over her belly. She doesn't seem to be bothered by it as I don't see her scratching herself or being cranky.

Here are some pics of her rash:





Then this evening, Riley pulled a TV tray down on the top of Addison's head and she got quite the bonk which lead to a bruise. This is the first real head wound for either child so it was a little traumatic to see hurt like that. She had quite the cry, but also seemed to recover pretty quickly. I know this is the first of many bumps and bruises.

Here are Addie's war wounds:

Developmental Assessment

The girls were seen yesterday by our amazing physical therapist at Phoenix Children's Hospital. This physical therapist specializes in preemies and multiples and she is great at what she does. We share many things in common like extended breastfeeding and an interest in getting into lactation consulting. I know I haven't talked much about my interest in becoming a lactation consultant on the blog, but now more than ever, I am really interested pursuing work in the lactation field. I will probably make another post about that sometime soon.

On to the girls development. The girls are doing well in many categories. At this age, the specialists like to see the babies start to close the gap between their adjusted and chronological age. They have an adjusted age of 10.5 months and a chronological age of 12.5 months. For every category besides gross motor skills, the girls scored right in between their adjusted and chronological age. With gross motor, we learned the girls will need some physical therapy. Both girls present with very low muscle tone. Both girls are extremely flexible (just like their gymnast mommy), but being flexible is not a good thing as they are learning to pull up on things and eventually walk. They are both not using their hip and butt muscles and they are compensating with locking out their legs and getting up on their tip toes.

Addison is not pulling up to standing. She will pull up to her knees but because she isn't using her but and hip muscles she can't get up without help. Once she is up, she wants to stand on her tip toes rather than using her whole flat foot for balance.

Riley is bound and determined and she will pull herself up with the use of her upper body strength. She is not engaging her hip and butt muscles and she also likes to lock our her legs and get up on her tip toes a bit.

Their scores put them at a 25% delay for their adjusted age. They would need to be 50% delayed to qualify for the early intervention program. In a way it is a good thing that they are not too far behind but we will need to get them into private physical therapy in our area to work on these skills.

The therapist feels that Addison is doing a bit better than Riley even though she isn't pulling up to standing yet. She thinks that with the therapy, Addison will be walking in the next 2-3 months but without therapy, the girls are a long way off from walking. Riley's personality is daring and determined and that is why she has been able to pull herself up but as the therapist said "the ways she is doing it is real ugly". Riley also doesn't engage her muscles in crawling and that is why she is still army crawling she she puts her legs in a frog position rather than straight. So Riley will need more help and it may take her awhile to learn to do it the right way rather than her way. That girl takes after her mommy in so many ways. LOL

We hope that with some help and therapy, the girls will join the rest of the walking world soon. Wish us luck!

Mother's Day

I celebrated my second Mother's Day but this was the first Mother's Day where my girls were home with me. Last year they were still growing strong in the NICU and I had to go up to the hospital to see my sweet girls. This year I was woken up at 4:15 am to be reminded, that Yes, I am a mom. Lil' miss Riley thought it would be fun to wake mommy up bright and early on Mother's Day. Normally she would go right back to sleep after having a bottle, but this morning she was not interested in sleep. She didn't get the memo that mom wanted some extra sleep and 4:15am was a bit early for a Sunday morning.

I was pretty cranky to start the day but how can you be upset with such a sweet face that you created staring up at you and wanting to cuddle. Addison was a great girl. She woke up at 5:30am for a bottle and went back to sleep for 3 more hours. If only Riley could sleep a little longer, I could have got some sleep. But who needs sleep, anyways. A mother certainly does not get very much sleep.

My best friend Brea was super sweet and did a craft project with the girls. She helped them make a memory stone with their hands and feet prints. The girls also scribbled in my card. I just love that I have something from them when they were so little. Next year they might actually understand a little bit about what they are doing. I just can't wait for all the handmade things that I can treasure for years.

Around 10:00 in the morning we met Brea and Chris at a restaurant over looking the city for a Mother's Day Campaign Brunch. The food was excellent and I think we found a new tradition to carry out each Mother's Day. The kids did really well and the atmosphere was perfect allowing the kids to be kids without offending anyone around us.

I finished out the day with a little shopping with my mom and more cuddle and play time with the girls. I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend and all the mom's out there enjoyed their special day. I also thought about many of my friends that are still waiting to be mom's. I know a few will be able to celebrate Mother's Day next year.

Monday Morning Weigh In

It is another good Monday. I enjoyed the weekend with the Mother's Day Celebrations. We went out to eat on Saturday to celebrate with my parents, brother & Sister-in-law. We ate at TGI Friday's. I was good and ordered a sandwich on whole wheat with a side salad and a cup of soup. I only ate half of my sandwich and had the other half for dinner. On Sunday we went out to a Mother's Day brunch and I ate a little more than normal but I did eat sensibly. Because brunch was so late, I only had a little cup of chili for dinner.

Today the scale reports I'm down 2.6 pounds this week with a weigh in of 139 pounds even. On Sunday morning I was down to 138.8 but I put back on the .2 in the breakfast, I'm sure.

We will be in San Diego in 2 weeks. We leave Sunday the 23rd. I'm hoping to lose 4 more pounds before we leave, but I won't be upset if I don't quite make it. I have already exceeded my original goal of losing 15 pounds before the trip and I am very happy with my results so far.

20 Pounds Down

Yesterday I hit 20 pounds lost on my non-diet diet. I feel really good and I can see the results. I wish I would have taken more before pictures so I could have a good comarrison for my weight loss. The only picture I have that shows some of my body is one from our TX trip with Trinity and Jenny.



You can see my pregnancy belly still sticking around and my arms had grow so big. Yuck...I really detest the way I look in that picture.

And here is my now picture, 20 pounds down:


The picture is blurry and taken from my camera phone but you can get the idea. I am happy with my arms and the weight loss around my belly and hips.

I still have a goal of losing 10-15 more pounds and toning up. I need to get going with an exercise routine to help tone up some more.

Sick Household

Officially everyone in our house is sick including my mom who takes care of the girls. I got this little allergy/cold thing about a week and a half ago and I don't seem to be affected by it much but the girls and my mom were hit pretty hard. The girls sleep poorly when they are congested. Riley uses her thumb as a soothing mechanism and we she isn't able to breathe through her nose, she can't suck on her thumb, making for several times of getting up during the night too sooth her.

Addison has been snotty for the same amount of time as me and she is sleeping through the night with 1 occasional wake up time. My mom just started getting sick Monday night and didn't get much rest so I needed to stay home yesterday to take care of the girls so she could rest.

Then Jesse comes home from work yesterday complaining of a sore throat too. That is the way it started out with me and my mom, so I'm sure he is catching it also. So there you go, a sick house. At least I feel fine with the occasional break to blow my nose.

I hope everyone recovers soon so we can get back to our normal schedule.

On a side note, I am down another pound! Woot!!! I'm down 19.6 pounds in exactly 6 weeks. Maybe it is feasible to lose 5 more pounds before the San Diego trip in 2.5 weeks. Either way, I am very happy with my results. My original goal was to lose 15 pounds before the trip and now I am 5 pounds over that goal. To be down 25 pounds before the trip would be icing on the cake. I plan to start incorporating more exercise and weight training to start toning up my body.

Monday Weigh In

It is a good Monday morning, don't you all think??? The scale gods have been nice to me this week despite my over indulgences. I seriously went a little crazy this week. Last Sunday was the girls birthday party and I had some extra treats that day. Then on their actual birthday (Monday), we went out to dinner at Olive Garden. I had not eaten at Olive Garden in ages and I was not going to miss out on the yummy Italian food. Normally Jesse and I split an entree since their portions are so large. We ate our normal meal (Brazed Beef Tortellini) mmmm mmmm good. I had the salad while Jesse had the soup. My parents also split the same meal. We gave the girls bites off of our plates and they are now hooked on Olive Garden. I ate 2.5 bread sticks and I loved every single bite.

I was taking the risk knowing that Olive Garden would probably pack on the pounds, and that it did. I stepped on the scale the next morning to a 1 pound gain. Well of course, all that pasta was hanging out in my tummy still.

Then, at work the next day, I had a giant chocolate muffin. There was no excuse there, my boss brought them in and normally I have been good about saying no to work treats, but this day, it was not happening. I even put a little peanut butter on the muffin. Eeeek. Can you say, bad Amy???

Wednesday night after the girls 1 year check-ups, I didn't want to cook so we picked up El Pollo Loco and I indulged in Mexican Chicken goodness with rice, beans, and 3 tortillas. Yes, Bad Amy again.

Then (yes, there is more) on Thursday night it was my mom's birthday and she wanted to go to Outback Steakhouse. I ordered chicken but I got it with cheese and bacon melted on top with mash potatoes on the side and I ate every single morsel on my plate. I also had a few bites of my mom's birthday ice cream sundae and I ordered a White Russian to drink. Yum Yum.

Now you are probably thinking that the scale and my body went crazy with all this food, but instead, the scale was kind to my over eating and I saw a very nice number this morning.

141.6 !!! down 2.8 pounds for the week. Woohoo!!!!

Now I did get my eating under control on Friday and over the weekend so that probably helped but I was surprised to see such a nice loss over this week. I am down almost 20 pounds. Man, that feels great.

My biggest problem now is that none of my work pants fit at all. I mean they are hanging off me and you can't see my nice new figure under all the excess material. I hope to get some shopping done this week so I can wear clothes that fit or I might dig into my skinny clothes bin and see if any pants fit in there.

Happy Monday to all!!!!

1 Year Well Baby Visit

The girls visit went really well. The great news is that I was given the clearance to move forward with giving the girls cow's milk. Woohoo. No more formula. Looking back, the girls only had to have a small amount of formula for 2.5 short weeks and I didn't even have to buy a can, we just used the 2 cans of samples we were given for free.

This solidifies the beginning of the weaning process. I am currently pumping 5-6 times a day and I want to slowly start dropping pumping sessions and allowing the girls to have small amounts of whole milk to make sure they handle it well. By the San Diego trip in 3.5 weeks I want to be down to 1 or 2 pumps a day to be able to enjoy the vacation rather than setting the day in 3-4 hour increments of time where I have to pump.

Here are the girls' stats:

Addison:

Weight: 18 pounds 5oz 10th%ile
Length: 28 3/4inches 25-50th%ile
Head: 18 1/2 inches 90th%ile

Keep in mind, the percentiles don't reflect their adjusted age of when they should have been born. If they did that, the girls would be right on the top end of the charts with their head circumference off the charts. :)

Riley:

Weight: 18 pounds 7oz 10th%ile
Length: 28 1/2inches 25-50th%ile
Head: 18 1/2 inches 90th%ile

It is interesting to see Riley weighing in 2oz bigger than her older sister. I think this is because Riley really likes her carbs like her Gerber puffs and she also sleeps an extra 2 hours a day longer than Addison.

The girls got their vaccinations and did really well with just a few minutes of crying. They also had a repeat hemoglobin test since they were slightly anemic last time but now they are not. Yay Iron rich food. We are going to start moving away from the baby foods and start giving the girls more of our food. They do really well with finger foods and love to feed themselves. We also have to start the transition to the sippy cups. The girls love love love their bottles and haven't liked a single sippy cup yet so this will be a tough one. Riley does well with drinking out of a regular cup and even a straw so she may do better, but only time will tell. If anyone has any suggestions on this, let me know.

All in all, things are going well and the girls are right on track for their adjusted age. They will have a home visit from the developmental specialist in 2 weeks along with a visit with the physical therapist to check on their development. Hopefully we will continue to have good news to report.

One Year Ago Today......

A year ago today I welcomed our sweet girls into the world. They came into the world 7 weeks and 1 day earlier than they should have, but the day was still a glorious one. My water broke the day before around 8pm and I had an ultrasound to let us know that both girls were head down and I could try for a vaginal delivery.

Here was the first time I met Addison at 12:33pm:



She only took a few short pushes to come into the world, all 4 pounds 6oz of her. Addie is my sweet happy girl. She has the most infectious laugh. She loves to be tickled and played with. She is great at stealing her sister's toys even if she has the same toy in her hand. Can we say, "the grass is greener on the other side?" She was the first to enter this world, roll over, sit-up, crawl and I can bet she may walk first as well.

Riley was our second born, our baby "B". I was happy to learn after delivering Addison that Riley was still head down allowing me to continue with the vaginal delivery and not have to have a c-section. Riley came out in a pancake position with her head and feet together in a pike style. She was tiny at 3 pounds 12 ounces but she looked happy and healthy to me. I didn't even notice how small she really was.

Here is my first view of Riley delivered 8 minutes after Addison at 12:41pm:



Riley is our strong-willed child. Doesn't every family have one? She knows what she wants and wants it right away. She loves to talk and get attention. She has the best smile with so many little teeth coming in. She loves the camera and will poss for you almost on command. She is a thinker and is great at fine motor skills. She will find the smallest speck of dirt on the floor and put it in her mouth. :)



This year has been exciting and challenging to learn to be parents with not just one baby but two. We get double the joy, but also double the crying and late nights. We take them all in stride and learn from our mistakes. We waited so long to be parents and Addison and Riley brought us exactly what we were looking for.

Happy Birthday sweet girls! We hope to have another great year with many firsts and new experiences.

Quick Monday Weigh In:

This is a great Monday morning knowing that my girls are 1 year old today. We had so much to do to get the party ready so I didn’t focus on my eating as much as I was earlier in the week. I had stayed at 144 even for several days but then over the weekend I went up .4 of a pound. I am happy that my weight didn’t go up much at all with the extra calories I consumed.

So overall for the week, I was down. 2.4 pounds even with my .4 increase. I hope to continue losing around 2 pounds per week until we go to San Diego allowing me to lose 8 more pounds before the trip. Wish me luck.

Today I am going to focus on the girls actual birthday and put together a post remembering this day a year ago.

Birthday Party Festivities

We had such a great success at the girls party. As a parent, I learned the stress that goes along with putting together a big party and taking care of 12 month old girls at the same time. I had a few melt down moments leading up to the start of the party but once things got going, I was happy to just sit back and watch my girls enjoy their day.

The girls' nap schedule was a little off and I worried that they would be too tired but they actually did really well. I only think we heard a few cries at the end of the party. We feel so blessed to have happy healthy one year old girls that bring us so much joy.

Here are the pictures from the big day:

Riley and my Mom:

Party decorations:

Riley with our Friend Michael:

Addison with Aunt Joan:

Taking a bottle break:

Enjoying the festivities:

Riley with Daddy and our neighbors:

Brea and me:

My cousin John's daughter London playing with the balls:

Cake Time:



Riley:

Addie:

Riley Yum Yum:



My two favorite:
Addie using her cake as a leg rest

And the beautiful messy face and hands

Riley with my Dad:

Present Time:





Our big money!!!

Their favorite present - Tissue paper:





Brea and Riley:


If you made it through all the fun, great job!

Thanks to everyone who showed up an thanks to those that helped us set up and clean up. The day was so much fun and the girls are now sleeping peacefully after such a long day.

Happy 1st Birthday Girls!!!! Mommy and Daddy love you so much!!!!