Preston and Ethan's First Christmas

Guess I'm a little late. We took a ton of pictures during the Christmas season. Christmas was a blast with our new babies. We were filled with so much joy, especially after going through 2 Christmases without Karissa. Here are a few...

~Our Christmas Tree~

~Our stockings hung on the mantle~

~Karissa's Tree~

~Cute Christmas Butts~

~4 generations of Ashley men!~

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The pillow shown in the following 3 pictures was made by my sister. Every month we will take a picture of the boys next to the pillow as a fun way to see how much they've grown from month-to-month.

~Preston~

~Ethan~

With twins, it all flies out the window!

As I sit here writing this, I have two screaming babies, both in their swings and in their separate rooms. I'm about ready to lose my sanity, which is why I'm just letting them 'cry-it-out.' I have twins, don't judge me. I was never a believer in the idea of letting your child 'cry-it-out.' I also despised pacifiers, bottles and formula.

Before Karissa was born, I was adamant about not giving her a pacifier or formula. I never bought a pacifier and she never had one single taste of formula. Giving her a bottle, of pumped breast milk of course, was pushing it. I intended to do the same with the twins, but it became quite apparent to me, very quickly in fact, how much different things are with 2 newborns.

I had every intention of exclusively nursing the twins. I was heartbroken when our Lactation Consultant, whom we met with on various occasions, said that I would need to supplement with formula to get the boys' weights back up. They had each lost more than 10% of their birth weight and my body wasn't making enough milk yet to nourish two babies. We followed a crazy feeding schedule for a few weeks and finally got to stop the formula once they had gained weight.

But...as much as I despise formula, I still use it. Life with twins is beyond crazy and formula is now my sanity saver, as I prefer to call it!! And, quite honestly, I don't really feel like sitting around all day long nursing either. I don't really give them all that much, maybe 4 oz max/day, so, I guess I'm not doing all that bad. Oh, and pacifiers are lovely little devices too! Now, I'm off to nurse a baby or two.

9 years

Yesterday, Mark and I celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary! Originally, we had planned to stay at home, but Mark's parents offered to watch Preston and Ethan...yay for another date night!!! Over a fabulous dinner, we reflected upon how much we have been through over the past nine years. It has been quite an interesting journey, one filled with much joy but A LOT of heartache. I am so thankful to be married to a man that has stuck by my side through the good, the bad and the unimaginable. I am quite certain that many marriages wouldn't have survived after the loss of a child, battling depression and dealing with infertility. I cannot imagine going through all of life's up's and down's without my husband and without Christ as the center of our marriage. I am so thankful and blessed.

Preston and Ethan Birth Video

One of these days I will get around to posting my birth story. The past 2 months have been absolutely crazy!! For now, here is the birth video...

My birth story through the eyes of my sister

I was so happy to have my little sister with me throughout my entire labor and delivery. She captured the events of the day so beautifully. I will post my birth story in a few days, or rather, shall I say, when I have a second. Here is her recollection of what was one of the greatest day of my life.

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Auntie Chelsea’s Brief Recollections:

I thought before it begins to dull in my memory that I would jot down the events of November 10, 2010: the day when my two precious little nephews made their first appearance in this world.

I was sitting in our lower bedroom sewing an apron when I saw a call from Adrianne. These days anytime that she would call, especially due to the rarity of her telephone calls in general, I would consider “is this it?” Sure enough, after a few phone tags, we got a hold of each other and she had been checked into the hospital that morning.

I got on it and set up dog-sitting for the pups, packed up some belongings, and waited for Robby to get out of the surf and get on home. We made our way up and about ten minutes from the hospital were held up by an unexpected pit stop. Our Honda decided a couple of exits away from a Honda dealership that it would get itself a rock stuck in its wheel and make a horrid sound. So, like the stylish aunt and uncle we are, we arrived to Kaiser in a minivan shuttle.

From my point of view, especially in comparison to labor with Karissa, this all happened rather quickly. On Karissa’s turn a few years back, I had time to watch an entire U2 concert, drive up and wait hours and hours in anticipation, only to end up back in San Diego by the time she decided to come on out.

Robby and I entered the L&D floor to see Adrianne, as expected, hooked up to quite a few monitoring devices. With the epidural in place and the Pitocin dripping, her contractions were going along as hoped. The first OB doc, whom I can’t remember the name of, so I will refer to him as "Dr. McConaughey" (sorry ladies, but I am referring to the Texas drawl, not the looks) and Dr. P each checked on everyone. After a few practice pushes, Adrianne was 10 cm and ready to roll.

Last minute, Adrianne decided she’d like me in the OR. And like her unique personality, her mind was made. It didn’t matter that the room would be jammed full with multiple MD’s, RT’s, RN’s, an anesthesiologist, etc.,…she held the VIP card and got her way. So as I was there at the start (i.e. the conception…not all of it! the IVF part), I was also there for the delivery.

Now for the real show: In a rather swift time, and after some impressive coaching on Daddy Mark’s part, Adrianne worked her little butt (yes, I’d choose another word, but after all this technically is a children’s story)…so she worked her little butt off, okay, so not so little…but she pushed and pushed and out came Preston at 1755 weighing a healthy 5’11 lbs. If you think that’s a good size for a twin at 37 weeks, just wait. As seen in previous ultrasounds, Preston’s little brother thought he’d show his older brother up by giving Mom that much more work. In a controversial vaginal delivery, little Ethan taunted everyone for four more minutes with his tiny feet teasing the OR audience. Following more amazing coaching by Mark and further astonishing pushing by Mama, Ethan was convinced by Dr. P’s shaky hands and some pointers by Dr. M to flex his head and join the world outside of the womb. Weighing 6’1, Ethan said hello at 1759.

After that game Ethan played, it’s surprising to think that it had been Preston that was so much more active in the womb. Of course, it does make sense that Preston has the higher pitch cry of the two, as if to say…just because he put on a big show doesn’t mean you can forget about all my activity over these past 9 months so easily!

After a couple suctions and getting the little guys all cleaned up, Mommy got to hold her long awaited strong baby boys.

The story could continue with details of the joyful grandparents getting to see these little guys, the only private recovery room on the unit that the Dr’s wife got, all the congratulations of Mark’s caring co-workers, a delicious welcome home steak dinner with a bottle of S. Lucia Pinot…but really that’s all just a backdrop to how elated we all are to have Preston and Ethan finally here.

Epilepsy Foundation-National Epilepsy Awareness Month

Epilepsy Foundation-National Epilepsy Awareness Month

Progress & Heartbreak

This entry was written a few months ago, I just never got around to posting it:

I cannot believe the progress I have made with Karissa's room. I don't know how I did it...must have had a little help from an angel up above. I organized and labeled almost everything and put it all in her closet. The other closet has all her toys and new stuff for the boys which I will put in the other room once it is complete. I cleaned out her dresser and moved it out of her room. A few of her pictures are still on the wall. It is breaking my heart to take them down. We have put some in our room. But, what is the most heart-breaking is taking down her bed. The other day I just cried all day about it. I told Mark that when it goes, it will feel like it is no longer Karissa's room.

I did end up throwing a few things away but I kept mainly everything. Eventually, I will move everything out of her closet but at the time, my mind (and heart) could only process so much. It was very tough. How do you put memories in a box, or, in my case, many boxes?

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Since writing the above, we have made quite a bit of progress. The rooms are done. Actually, they have been done for a while but I just haven't gotten around to taking and posting pictures. The babies will be staying in our room in the co-sleeper until they are too big.

The yellow room was Karissa's room. We kept the color the same. I finally managed to move Karissa's bed out of her room, only I didn't do it. I had Mark and my dad take it down while I was at my baby shower back in September. The last picture is one of the closets in Karissa's room. All of her things, from clothes to special keepsakes to school projects are in the closet.