First Born

Originally uploaded by mikes_muse

I stole this from a friend because I thought it was cute, I hope she doesn't mind!

1. WAS YOUR FIRST BORN'S PREGNANCY PLANNED? Yes. Michael and I tried to get pregnant for 28 months before it finally happened.

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? We had been married for almost 4 years.

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? I got the phone call and all I could say was "I am?" And then I started to cry, and the nurse had to book my next appointment for me because I couldn't talk.
4. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 22

5. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? It was the first month that I did not take a pregnancy test, because I was so sure the cycle had failed. I was waiting for the nurse to call me back and say it was negative and give me the protocol for the next cycle. They hadn't called with my blood results by 4:45 and the girls at work kept telling me to call them. Michael was on his way to pick me up so I waited for him so that he would be there for me to cry to. The receptionist answered and said "let me go get the nurse," which I took as a sure sign of it being negative. She got on the line and said "honey, you're pregnant. Your beta was 278!" I said "I am" and Michael just broke out in the biggest smile and said "I'm gonna be a daddy!" We're lucky he didn't crash, he was so happy I don't think he could concentrate on the road!

6. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? I immediately got on the phone with my family (all four of them just happened to be at my parents house and they all started screaming) and Michael called his parents.

7. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? Definitely, I like to have everything planned out. Plus I wanted to go shopping!

8. DUE DATE? January 7th, 2009

9. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? I had all day sickness! It was the first time I had thrown up in over 10 years!! And I am not lying.

10. CRAVINGS? Pineapple and Mandarin Oranges. My sweet visiting teacher Nicole O'Neil brought me some cans of oranges.
11. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? The rude comments. Like people saying "well that's what you get for doing fertility treatments" when I told them I was having twins. Or being told that I was selfish for doing the treatments because I could have "easily" adopted a child.
12. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? Two girls! I was convinced we were having one of each though.

13. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? No, we would have been thrilled with whatever we were given.

14. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? I lost 25, and gained 17 of it back by the time I delivered.

15. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? Yes. I am spoiled rotten and I had 3! My amazing sister -in-law threw the first one for me and it was beautiful. Then my visiting teachers threw one, and my sweet sister and Teri threw the last one.

16. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? I knew about all of them, but my Grandma did fly up for the 3rd one to surprise me.

17. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? Yes. I had bleeding early on and was told that I was probably going to lose Reagan at the first u/s. Then I had some umm *difficulties* that landed me in the ER. Then because of Reagan's size they thought I had twin to twin transfusion. Then all of a sudden my cervix shortened, I was contracting, and Reagan's water broke, so I ended up in the hospital, and everyone knows the rest!

18. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? In Reno at St Mary's. I looooove the labor and delivery nurses and could not have been happier with the care I received.

19. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? 24 hours. The stupid on call doctor did not believe me that my contractions had broken through the 3 meds they had given me and that I was having back labor.

20. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? We walked! Okay, so Michael drove me to my doctor's appointment because I wasn't allowed to, and she is right across the street from the hospital.

21. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? My husband, two doctors delivering, the anesthesiologist, two nicu nurses, a nicu doctor, two respiratory therapists, and a nurse to assist the doctors delivering.
22. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? Emergency c-section. It sounds much cooler if you say emergency :)

23. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? I didn't have a choice, but I would have asked for an epidural even if I didn't have a c-section.

24. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 1 pound 14 ounces and 2 pounds 4 ounces.

25. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ? 12 weeks early on October 16, 2008

26. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Bailey Jane and Reagan Lee

27. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN? 4 and a half months!

Valentines Day

I love Valentines Day. I love making cards for my family, baking sugar cookies and decorating them. I just love it. I think it's because I'm one of those mushy romantics (shameful, I know). Unfortunately, my husband hates it. Don't get me wrong, he is a very loving and romantic man. He just thinks it's ridiculous to have 1 day devoted to the people you love, instead of showing them you love them all year round. Because of this, and the fact that the girls are still on oxygen, we are not doing anything this year *sigh*. Oh, speaking of oxygen, the girls did their room air test last night. We turned off their oxygen tanks and attached them to a machine that measures their oxygen saturation and records how many desaturations they have. They spent the whole night like this and I think they did pretty well. As soon as the darn medical supply company comes to pick up the machines, they'll give the results to the doctor and she'll let us know if the girls can come off. Maybe once they are off they will seem like real babies instead of preemies. It's hard having your child confined to one room of the house and not being able to carry them around with you. Okay, now I'm just starting to complain, and that's not the point. The point is that Michael and I want what is best for the girls even if it means tripping over and pulling on cords for a little while longer. 

Food

I love food. And I love to cook food too, not just eat it. Whenever I am stressed or sad, I'll go whip something up in the kitchen. I also love cooking magazines and looking for new recipes. I'll share these two that I just found because they are soooo easy and really good too. They are from Katie Lee Joel. I like her stuff because it's so simple and you can do a lot of it in minutes. If you decide to try them, great, I think you'll like them. If not, I still love you :)

Chili Cheese dip:

1 pound ground beef

1 packet of taco seasoning

1 16 oz. jar of salsa

4 oz. cream cheese cut into cubes

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Brown the meat in a skillet. Pour out grease. Add taco seasoning and salsa; reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes stirring every so often. Add cream cheese and cheddar and stir until melted. Serve hot with tortilla chips

Reese's Brownies

This recipe is even easier. Prepare a box of brownie mix according to the instructions on the back. Pour half of the prepared mix into a pan. Top with Reese's peanut butter cups (the big ones, about 16). Pour remaining half of batter over the peanut butter cups and bake according to instructions.

Not much going on

Okay, I'm quite proud of myself so I had to share. This is the cake I made for my sister's 22nd birthday. It was my first time ever doing a "sculpted" cake and also my first time working with fondant. It's not perfect, and it definitely had it's flaws, but I think it turned out pretty cute. The cake was delicious by the way. I got the recipe from Williams - Sonoma and it was fantastic. And even though my sister was probably a little old for this cake, she humors me because she's my princess and best friend.

In other news, can you believe these cuties are already over 3 months old? Seriously where has the time gone? They fill every day with love and amazement. I am so lucky to be able to stay home with them every day. They are tons of fun. I have started losing my hair though because they both love to grab onto it and pull it to their faces. When I finally get free, their chubby little hands are wrapped around 5 or 6 strands of hair. This happens multiple times a day, and I'm thinking I may need a haircut before I go bald! Anyways, Bailey loves to snuggle and makes the funniest faces we've ever seen. She is constantly making her Daddy laugh. She has also started pushing up with her arms and lifting her head at which point she rolls her body side to side or does this hilarious head bob. Reagan is our little sweet pea. She is rarely fussy and is perfectly content just looking around, cooing and sucking on her hands. She is such a sweetheart and still a tiny little thing. So far we have avoided RSV, colds, and the flu, and we are praying it stays that way. Daddy started school last week and the three of us girls miss him a ton when he's gone. But we are so proud of him and always look forward to seeing him at the end of the day. The only exciting thing coming up is the girls' appointment with the pulmonologist on February 4th. She should determine that day when the girls can come off the oxygen. Mommy can't wait because she is so fed up with all of these tubes and wires!!

Reagan and her cute little mohawk!
Hehe, I love this face. I caught her right before she started to yawn.

Bailey and Reagan's room

Okay, so the girls' room has been finished for a while now, thanks to my amazing husband. He painted the room, dresser, and set everything up for me! I'm so proud of how it turned out, so I thought I would share. Plus, I'm kind of bored. *You can't really tell because of the lighting, but the room is a pale green. It's very similar to the color of the background of this blog.

The top of their dresser. Their initials are next to their set of footprints.
Two diaper cakes from my showers and a shadowbox I put together with stuff from the hospital. It has their hospital birth announcement cards, hats they wore and more footprints. What can I say, I love their tiny little feet!
My recliner, which Michael's sister gave to us. It is so comfy, I love it. I've loved fairies ever since I was little, so a few years ago Michael bought me the hanging metal fairy mobile in Apple Hill. It is the cutest thing.
I know I keep bragging about my husband. But he picked out the girls bedding. It is gorgeous, and I couldn't have picked something better myself. 
The wall letters that we painted. We thought about putting "and" in between the names so that it doesn't look like one name, but it looked funny.

2008

So this was the first year that I didn't send out Christmas cards. It's not like I didn't have the time, I just didn't feel like doing it for some reason. Instead I'll just catch you up on some of the highlights of this year. Most of it is old news, sorry!

January- My sister Juliann was married January 5th bringing another Michael into the family! It was also the same day as one of the worst snow storms of the year. We just barely ended up with a reception! 

February- I had surgery the day after Valentine's day.

March- We went to Cancun, Mexico (one of our favorite places to visit) with our friends Jamin and Taneil, Andy, Janet and Michael's brother Chris.

April- We found out I was pregnant on April 30th.

May- It's twins! We also went to visit Michael's sister Nicole and her husband and kids in Utah. We had a lot of fun.

June- My brother Skyler graduates high school. 

July- I turned 23!

August- We found out we were having 2 girls on August 5th. Michael and I celebrated our 4th anniversary on August 7th with a week long trip to Vegas. We went and saw Blue Man Group again and had a very romantic dinner! Even if you aren't very far along in a pregnancy, Vegas is miserable in the summer!!

October- I was hospitalized on the 3rd. Bailey and Reagan were born on the 16th.

November-Reagan and Bailey both have heart surgery the first week of the month making it the most stressful week of our lives! Michael turned 27.

December-Bailey and Reagan make it home just in time for us to spend their first Christmas with them!

The girls first Christmas

The girls both came home on December 23rd, making this the best Christmas ever. We thought that Reagan would come home first and we would be visiting Bailey in the hospital today. I guess she decided she didn't want to be alone at the hospital and started eating like she was supposed to. They are both still on oxygen though and apnea monitors, which we are greatful for as they have alerted us to several apnea/bradycardias. So anyways, Nana and Uncle Chris came over to open presents with us. Poor Papa was sick so he stayed next door and watched us on ichat. The girls are wearing the Christmas dresses that Grandma made them. We couldn't find any small enough to buy so she used a dolls dress pattern for them. Aren't they cute? Grandma and Grandpa came over later with Uncle Skyler and we opened presents from them. The girls got some fun books and toys and lots of cute clothes of course. Mommy and Daddy got a lot of fun presents too but all we really wanted for Christmas was to have our sweet little angels with us, and we got that. Santa was good to us this year!

Bailey is on the left and Reagan is on the right. We kept pushing Reagan's arms down and she would raise them right back up.
The two best presents under the tree
Mommy and Daddy are a little tired. It was a long night!