Why Having Twins Isn't That Hard.

When people find out I am a mom to twins, they usually express pity, saying, "Oh, that's rough" or something like that. Once, when we put the babies in a stroller and walked around Target, a woman stopped me and handed me a $20 bill. Confused, I tried to hand it back to her and she said, "No, take it, I know how hard one baby is, I can't imagine two."

Don't get me wrong, that woman was right - having twins is hard. Having one baby is hard. Having two is really hard. But having twins isn't as hard as I expected, and this is why.

I expected to never get any sleep for the first five years or so. The other night, though, Aria and Cadence slept for almost nine hours! Although it isn't the norm, they sleep that long semi-frequently. We talked to the pediatrician about it and he said that in his years of practice, he's noticed that for some reason, twins usually sleep better than singleton babies.

Aria and Cadence sleeping in the swaddlers that Hilo Hospital sent us home with.

Double everything really isn't double everything. Yes, we have two bassinets and two car seats. We will have two cribs. But the girls share the same wardrobe (except for some identical outfits that were given as gifts) and they share blankets, medicine, toys and a lot more.

They are superstars and are loved wherever we go. When we take them to church they are always held by someone else. We never have to take them out into the hall or anything because someone else usually has them and wants to. I always imagined everyone turning in anger towards me during church when one of them fussed, but actually people turn to me excitedly and say, "oh, I'll take her!" We think our babies are super cute, but everyone else also seems to think they are the most adorable things ever because there's two of them!

Even during my pregnancy with twins, it was great! I got "special" treatment from doctors and have about a thousand ultrasounds of each baby. We got to see their faces multiple times before they were born. We saw them breathing, we saw them yawn, we saw their hair floating in the amniotic fluid, and more. Although these babies stretched out my belly almost to its breaking point, I loved my pregnancy.

Things that I look forward to in the future is that Aria and Cadence will be each other's playmates. My mom told me how she struggled with my older brother because she was playing trains, playing cars, talking in "baby talk" for the entire day... and she really craved adult conversation. Aria and Cadence will play with each other and I'll act more as a mediator than a playmate.

They will have to learn to share early on. Because Kurt and I will likely buy one of everything (except things like bikes or other big toys) they will be forced to share with each other. They will probably be sharing a room for most of their young life, and sharing clothes, accessories, and more.

For much of the time, Kurt and I have an equal workload. You'll find us both bottle-feeding them at 4am, both changing messy diapers, both trying to soothe screaming babies. I feel that being able to really share the work has brought us closer together and strengthened our marriage. There's no room for blame or resentment because one person is doing more than the other or feels overworked and neglected.

Overall, although having twins is hard, it is so much fun. We are never bored. They are always keeping us on our toes and we are always having a blast with them! :) I'm sure other twin moms would agree - there's no reason to pity us. I feel lucky and privileged to be a mother of twins!

Vaccinating Twins

This past week Aria and Cadence received their first round of vaccinations since they just reached two months. This round included six vaccinations total: DTaP (whooping cough), Hib (haemophilus influenzae Type b), IPV (polio), PCV (pneumococcal conjugate), Hepatitis B and RV (rotavirus). These vaccines came in the form of three shots and one liquid administered orally.

The nurse told me and Kurt to hold down their arms before she administered the vaccines. Aria and Cadence were fussing during the entire appointment and when they received the shots, they screamed bloody murder.

Aria

Cadence

They were the saddest cries I've ever heard. :(

Immediately after getting bandaged up, though, they both were knocked out. They slept the entire ride home and were really tired the rest of the night. We gave them Tylenol every time they ate and I'm sure that helped with the tenderness. I was really proud of them. Aside from the initial cry when they got the shots, they were both tough and didn't cry much afterwards. We expected them to sleep through the night, but they both got up just like normal, and had their 4 o'clock feeding. They are completely back to normal now, with no side effects from the vaccines.

Although it was hard as a parent to have to watch two of your children (pin them down, even) while they received those painful shots, vaccinating them was a very easy choice. I understand the controversy on both sides of vaccinating children, but personally, I would rather take a gamble on my child being autistic due to an adverse reaction (or whatever the one side is claiming) than have them die from something that could have been prevented like whooping cough.

In other news, they gained even more weight! We weighed them again and Aria was 11 lbs 7 oz. and Cadence was 11 lbs. 1 oz. They are 22 inches long and their head circumference was both 15. They are becoming two little fatsos. :)

Overall, I'm very happy that Aria and Cadence received their first vaccines and are strong, healthy little girls.

Two Months Old!

Today Aria and Cadence turn two months old!! They have grown SO much in these last two months. They each have more than doubled in size, and they have made some huge strides in their development as well. At their last doctor's appointment, Aria weighed 10 lbs 13 oz and Cadence was 10 lbs 8 oz! Let's just take a look at how much their little bodies have grown.

Aria and Cadence a little over a week old.

Aria and Cadence in the same outfits at two months old.

Some things that have changed:
- They drink four ounces of milk at each feeding. Feedings during the day are spaced out now between every 3-4 hours. At night, they can sleep anywhere from 4-7 hours. We love those 7 hour nights!
- They can hold their heads up for a while without assistance. They've been able to hold their heads up sometimes for five or six minutes straight without resting it on us.
- They are cooing like crazy!! We love hearing them try to talk to us or answer our questions. It's sooo adorable.
- They have fat rolls and double chins. Our babies don't look like skeletons anymore! They fill out their clothes and have even out grown some of them!
- They love being bounced in their bouncers. Before, they didn't really like them - mostly because they didn't fit and were really uncomfortable. Now, they love being bounced and fall right to sleep!
- They have moved on to size 1 diapers!! Our little girls are big girls now! "Big-ger" girls, I should say... along with the transition to size 1, they also are using less diapers throughout the day. Not much less, but we aren't having quite as many diaper changes.

Some things that haven't changed:
- They still love to be swaddled. We usually just swaddle them at bed-time, though. It really helps to not startle them and wake them up unnecessarily.
- They are still bottle-fed. We are still working on getting them exclusively on breastmilk, but whether it is breastmilk or formula, it comes from the bottle.
- They still have their hair! Everyone told me that they'd lose all their beautiful hair by now, but it's all still there, and growing!! I love it :)
- They still struggle with tummy-time. Even though their necks are getting stronger, sometimes they fight it with all their might.

- Lastly, they are still the most adorable babies ever!!!

As usual, to commemorate their two month old-ness, we had a photoshoot after church :)

Smiley Cadence

Sleepy Aria

These cuties aren't the only ones who've changed...

In the last two months, I have lost a total of 49 pounds!! With all the breastfeeding, diet changes, and normal exercise from tending to twins, I am now 12 pounds below the weight I was when I first got pregnant.

Kurt has also gained some muscle from carrying our little chubsters around everywhere!!

(Mmmm... what a *hunk*!)

We all have grown (or shrunk, haha) in different ways in these last two months. Kurt and I have had so many awesome learning experiences as parents and continue to learn each day. Aria and Cadence get bigger and stronger every day as well, and we are trying to keep up! It's amazing to see how much they've grown, but the thing that I never expected was that I'd miss (just a little) how small they were. Each day, as they get bigger and older, I just get a little nostalgic of those teeny tiny babies we met two short months ago. But they'll always and forever be my beautiful little babies. :)

First Mother's Day.

This past Sunday was my first Mother's Day as a mother.

Being a mother is something I've aspired to become my entire life. Whenever I had to write a bucketlist of some sort, having children and being a mother was always at the top.

My plans for having children changed as I got older. I remember thinking I would probably have kids when I was in my late twenties. As I reached dating age, I decided I would have kids no earlier than age 24. Now here I am, 22, and I have two little girls that I cannot live without. Two by 22 - it wasn't in the "plan" but I am SO much happier with this than I would've been if I had followed the "plan."

I remember talking to my cousin, while I was engaged to Kurt, about my plans to have kids. Even then, we were going to wait until Kurt graduated from BYU. But as I described to her what we had in mind, she listened and then told me her thoughts. She had been married for six months already and said that she had the same idea before she married her husband. But once they were sealed in the temple, she said, she gained an "eternal perspective." This eternal perspective had her wanting kids, wanting to bring precious spirits into the world as soon as possible. I was skeptical about this, but I found myself having this same perspective when Kurt and I were sealed.

The "plan" changed. Upon my gradutation from BYU, we decided to stop preventing. We didn't do anything that would go under the category of "trying" but we had the attitude that "if it happens, it happens." When it didn't happen immediately, we were disappointed. Friends were getting pregnant after being off birth control for a month, and still nothing for me. I took my fair share of negative tests and decided to stop taking them for a while. I took my prenatals religiously, though, and that was the extent of it.

After a few more months, we started to pray daily for me to get pregnant. We loved our lives, but we felt that thing that my cousin told me about - that our eternal family was just waiting for us on the other side. I would go to work and come home with several hours to myself before Kurt finished work. In those hours alone, I felt a huge void in our home and I longed for the one thing that could fill that void.

Fast forward a few months, and here we are in August 2013. I hadn't gotten my period yet. There were many, many times where I thought I was late, took a test in the stall at the grocery store, it turned up negative and I got my period a few hours later. We decided to wait a few days so that I was at least a week late.

We took the test and a faint line appeared. Not good enough. We took the ClearBlue test and the little hour glass flashed on and off... I hadn't felt so anxious in my entire life! Finally, it gave us the answer to our prayers: PREGNANT.

We both gasped and clung to each other as we realized what this meant. He'd be a father, and I'd be... a mother. We were so incredibly happy. 

Now, I am so incredibly happy to have these two lovely babies in my life.

We prayed long and hard for them, and Heavenly Father blessed us infinitely. I am so happy, proud, and humbled to be their mother. I have never felt so much joy and love as I do now. I feel as though Heavenly Father has given me a calling - to raise these girls up to be mothers themselves, to have sons and daughters of their own, and to be incredible teachers, nurturers, and supporters to them as well. I am so excited to be a mom! There is no job that I would rather have. :)

Six Weeks!

Our babies are six weeks old!! It was around the six week mark that we found out we were pregnant. Back then, they were just little microscopic embryos that had recently split from one to two :)

Now they are two huge, six week old girls that get bigger everyday! We, of course, had a mini photoshoot to commemorate the occasion.

They are already so big! We love their chubby cheeks and bodies :) They are drinking 3-4 ounces and sleep anywhere from 3 to 4 1/2 hours!! Their necks are getting stronger and stronger, and they can hold their heads up by themselves for a long time without help. They are growing like crazy every single day, so we need to constantly be documenting everything before they change! 

We love our little chubsters so much. I just love staring at them and seeing the beauty of Heavenly Father's creations. Never before have I seen something so beautiful. My heart just bursts when ever I hear Aria chuckle in her sleep or see Cadence smirk after I tickle her nose. Those little moments are what fill my day and I feel so blessed to have those daily doses of happiness every day of my life. :)