Happy New Year!

We are just a few minutes before midnight and Eddie and I have been talking about all the things we have to be grateful for and our plans for 2008. This time last year, we had no idea what the year had in store and look where we are now!

Gracie and Luke will be 4 months old on Saturday. In the last week or so, they have gone through a major transformation. Gracie's hair has begun to thicken (well, except for that awful bald spot on the back of her head) and she doesn't look as small as she did before. If you put the babies next to one another, Luke looks a little stockier, but that's it. Luke has stopped losing his hair and is having lots of fun making his "talking" noises. He giggles like crazy and has learned how to push himself up (not so helpful when trying to put him in his car seat).

I have tons of pictures to share and lots more to write about. Look for more updates soon!

Merry Christmas!

The Top Ten Things Jen & Ed are Thankful for this Christmas

10) The 2006-2007 Chicago Bears made it to the Super Bowl (even though they lost)!

9) Jenny Craig really works!

8) For pregnancy tests that leave no doubt that you are positively preggers

7) For the amazing technology of ultrasounds that let you see you are expecting twins at four weeks pregnant and that let you see your babies are genetically healthy and are a boy and a girl

6) Dr. Steven Hartford is such a fantastic OB and was at Huntington Memorial Hospital the day the babies tried to come early (he is awesome!)

5) For the wonderful, kind, reassuring, funny, caring nurses in the High Risk Unit who took care of Jen and helped her gain twelve more weeks for the Twinsies!

4) For Dr. Tun who fixed Ed’s leg when he broke it after flirting with the nurses in the High Risk Ward (on 7-7-07!)

3) For our family and friends whose love made Jen’s time in the hospital and Ed’s recovery time so much easier

2) AFLAC! That duck really does pay!

And the Number One thing we are thankful for this Christmas…

Graciela Eva-Loretta and Lucas James,

the best gifts we’ve ever received!

Guess Who's 3 Months Old?!!

You guessed it! Gracie and Luke are 3 months old today!
They celebrated their 3 month birthday by sleeping through the night for the first time. Daddy got a full 7 hours of sleep with the babies. He was very happy this morning.

If the bathroom scale is correct, Luke is now a healthy 12 pounds and Gracie is a petite (but healthy too!) 9 pounds. Their favorite pastimes are smiling and cooing at Mommy and Daddy. Their favorite place is the changing table where they can see Mommy, watch their Chicago Bears mobile go around, and look out at the sunshine.

Gracie is a total morning person. She can be in a dead sleep, but as soon as I pick her up to go change her diaper, she is smiling and trying to laugh. We are having lots of fun putting different bows and headbands on her and collecting lots of great blackmail photos for when she is a teenager.
Luke takes about a half an hour to wake up. He will lie in bed next to Mommy and be moving his legs and arms, stretching, but not really be awake. His newest fun thing to do is hang in the jumpy seat and move around when he kicks his feet (this is good since he hates the bouncy seat and the swing).

Today we are taking our Christmas photo and attempting to put up the Christmas tree. Daddy is determined that the tree will be up for the Twinsies first Christmas. I'm wondering how we are going to do it!

Eddie and I can't believe that 3 months have already passed. Everyone told us that the time would pass quickly, but I never thought it would pass this quickly!

Can I possibly be more tired?

Lots of people have said things to us about twins being very hard.

"Oh, that's going to be double trouble!"

"Yikes, you're going to be busy!"

There are a multitude of things they have said to us and it leads us to the conclusion that some people are lame. Now, if you are one of the people who have looked at Eddie and me with sympathy, don't worry! We don't think you are lame! It is the people who are randomly passing us in the store or happen to see us packing the babies into the minivan. If I had a dime for every comment about how hard twins are, I could stay at home until the babies are ready to go to college!

Twins aren't hard, they just require some serious organization and the understanding that if you don't follow your schedule or keep a list of things to accomplish, you will never get anything done. I can get us out of the house on time if I know my "drop-dead" time (aka the absolute last moment I can leave and get to my destination on time).

Now ask me if I can manage to keep to a daily schedule.

NO!

When I first sat down to write this post, I was doing pretty okay. The babies were sleeping most of the day and I did not mind that I was only getting a shower every second or third day. Today, however, I'm starting to get really frustrated. I don't understand why I could teach 80 seventh graders, manage 3 websites, and be crafty, but I can't keep 2 tiny babies and one husband on a schedule! Everyone thinks I am super organized, but I am seriously doubting my abilities.

My Mom called me today and it took all I had not to break down crying and pull out the "Mommy" wail. I have so many things to do and I can't figure out how to get them done. I have thank you cards to write, announcements to send out, Christmas cards to send, a living room to clean, a kitchen that desperately needs to be cleaned, plants dying from lack of water.

What was I thinking?!!! There is no way I am going to be able to work and be a Mommy to twins. I worry all the time about Eddie being at home by himself with them. I also don't know how I am going to get all of my work done and help my babies grow and learn.

Babies are hard work. Even when they are sleeping, you are working: laundry, dishes, vacuuming. Some days I am so worn out, I forget to take a shower! That is so not me! I am a fanatic about a shower every morning. This morning, I realized I was in the same pajamas I put on two days ago.

On top of all this, I can't manage to take pictures of the babies. We bought a video camera and haven't video taped them once! Who can do this? Will it ever get easier?

The thing is, I think this would be just as hard if there were only one baby. The fact that there are 2 doesn't make it twice the work. At least not yet.

I love my babies. I just wish they came with an instruction manual to help me figure out how to do everything AND sleep.

P.S. Ms. Stith: If you read this, I apologize for my lack of writing consistency. I'm surprised I spelled most things correctly.

Baby Announcements

Babies are expensive. Ask anyone who has them and they will tell you that they are watching their pennies. When having to choose between that grande vanilla latte at Starbucks and a fourth of a bag of diapers, the diapers will win every time.

So, when I started looking into baby announcements I tried to find some that were pretty and allowed me to include some photos. I did not have any interest in handwriting announcements (can we say TWO babies?). I found some on the internet that I really liked, but the sticker shock was too much for me: $2.00 per announcement. WHAT?! There was no way I was going to pay that.

So, I fired up Photoshop, got out my cute fonts and the multitude of photos we have taken, and created my own announcement. Here is the result:

Then, I saved it as a jpeg and uploaded it to Walmart Photo Center. Voila! I was able to order my announcement as photos and paid $35.00 for 100 announcements (50 5x7s and 50 4x6s). That's a savings of $165 by making my own.

Can you tell I'm feeling pretty proud of myself?

2 Months Old and Growing

Guess who are two months old! Yep, you guessed it! Luke and Gracie are 2 months old today. This picture is of them on a beautiful quilt made by Auntie Alison (Mommy's friend from work).

Everyone tells you to pay attention and enjoy every moment because they grow SO fast. People do not lie! It seems like I blinked and Gracie isn't a preemie any more. In fact, we took the babies for their 2 month check up and we were stunned to learn that Gracie (who was 3 lbs 7 oz at birth) is now 7 lbs 4 oz and Luke (who was 5 lbs 8 oz at birth) is now 9 lbs 8 oz. Can you believe it? I can! My back is killing me from carrying them around. The Twinsies' pediatrician was so excited that they are growing so well. People in my family say I should patent my breast milk - 4 lbs in 2 months is amazing growth!

Luke is trying desperately to talk. He makes these funny sounds that I think are meant to be cooing, but sound more like someone is pushing on his stomach. He is also trying to laugh, but it is coming out like the laugh of the nerds in the Revenge of the Nerds movie! He loves to lie on the changing table and kick his legs at the sunshine. He gets so excited and smiles like crazy. He is really getting beefy. His hands have always been big, but now he has the belly and legs to match. He has become my buddy - he breastfed from the beginning and we try to breastfeed at as many feedings as we can. He is holding his head up and constantly scares us by throwing his torso around. He has these amazing eyelashes and brown eyes that can melt your heart at a hundred paces.

Gracie has changed so much, I can't believe she is the same baby. Her cheeks have really filled in and she no longer looks like a preemie. She has chunky legs and can really kick when she wants to. She has a heart stopping grin to match the heart stopping scream she lets loose when she feels neglected. She loves to play with her daddy and is already showing signs of having a major crush on him. Eddie loves her right back! She is following Daddy's fingers when he draws designs in the air and smiles at almost everything. I'm having the best time putting hair bows on her, but she doesn't need them. Gracie looks like a girl, whether she is dressed in pink, purple, wearing a headband or naked. Her eyelashes are getting longer and longer. She is definitely her father's daughter.

People like to try to figure out which of us the babies look like. Depending on who it is, some people think Gracie looks like me and Luke looks like Eddie. Others think the opposite. Frankly, other than Luke's hairline and the babies' eyelashes, I don't see either of us in them. Right now, they are their own people. Maybe a couple of years from now, I'll be able to declare that they look like one or both of us. Right now, I don't have a clue.

One thing I can tell you is Eddie and I are completely in love with our babies. With faces like theirs, who wouldn't be?

The Pumpkin Patch

Every year, the Cook-Arteaga-Uribe-Uribe Clan heads to Cal Poly Pomona for the Annual Pumpkin Festival. Ten years ago, it was just Hailey in her tiny onesie and a bunch of adults asking her if she liked the pumpkins (she was all of a month and a half old). Today, there are six grandchildren: Hailey, Bianca, Brandon, Nathan, Gracie, and Luke. For Nathan, Gracie and Luke, it was their First Pumpkin Patch and their mommies were taking pictures like crazy.

What is it about a holiday, some cute outfits, and some props that turns the most mild mannered mom into a crazed amateur photographer? You should have seen us propping up babies on pumpkins, arranging all 6 grandchildren in a circle of pumpkins. We were crazy. Between Aunt Bec, Auntie Kristen, Nana, and me, we must have 200 pictures. And let's be clear: it's only kids and pumpkins. For crying out loud! I must really be a Mommy now if I feel the need to take thousands of pictures.

Gracie and Luke have 2 different Halloween outfits, but they wore Nana's Halloween outfits today along with Jack-O-Lantern hats that our friends Ida and Olivia gave to them. Gracie's outfit has a witch on the long sleeve onesie and orange and white striped pants. Luke's outfit is one I have seen on countless boys lately: a tough guy shirt with black fleece pants. The shirt says "Daddy's Little Monster." It was pretty warm out there in the field, so the babies wore the outfits while we were looking at pumpkins and then we stripped them and put them into comfy cool onesies.

In the end, we did not buy any pumpkins (although, everyone else did). We did, however, buy a fabulous funnel cake and some fantastic pumpkin bread. Now I just have to find another reason to wear the second set of Halloween outfits!

Who switched my babies?

Something mysterious has happened in the past week or so. My babies have switched personalities. Either that, or someone came in the middle of the night and switched them.

Gracie, the smaller of the Twinsies, has been, since birth, the more anxious of the two babies. She screams like a banshee and goes from quiet and happy to inconsolable in less than a second. Luke was my laid back baby. Gracie could scream and scream and scream and Luke would continue sleeping like nothing was happening. His cries were half hearted at most.

This past week, Gracie has really changed. Not only is she growing like crazy, but her movements have smoothed out and she takes longer to agitate. Her big eyes are staying a dark blue-gray and her eyelashes are so long! She no longer looks like a preemie, instead, she is starting to look like a baby. Even her preemie clothes are starting to be snug! Don't get me wrong. She can still scream louder than the engine of an F18 fighter jet, but it takes longer for her to get upset and she responds more quickly to the sound of Ed's voice or mine.

Luke's face has thinned out and he is the smiler. Even in the NICU, he was the laid back one. When Gracie got a reputation for being "feisty" (read high maintenance), Luke was the baby the nurses enjoyed working with. Recently, he has started to be easily agitated and needs to be held constantly. His cries are heartbreaking! He often cries so hard that he makes himself throw up. He is guaranteed to get the hiccups from crying as hard as he does.

I'm just trying to figure out what happened. Who switched my babies? And who do I have to talk to in order to get them switched back?

Seriously, it is so much fun watching them change. The bonus, of course, is that all this change presents a challenge for Mommy and Daddy. We love challenges. Especially ones as cute as these!

Two by Two is Easy...Two by One is Hard!

For the 4 weeks that the babies have been home, Eddie and I have been pretty much confined to home. We've attempted a few outings (trips to the doctor, one harrowing trip to Target, trips to visit Nana, a long day at Grandma and Grandpa's house), but for the most part, we have been at home. We've really been enjoying watching the babies grow and interact with one another.

While Ed is still in his wheelchair, we've worked out ways for us to tag team baby care. Ed is an expert baby holder and putter-to-sleeper. I am a master at diapers and pumping (don't get me started on that). When the babies wake up in the night, Ed goes to prepare bottles and I change the babies. It has been working for the most part. We are both pretty exhausted, but we are able to function better now.

The key to our success thus far has been that there are TWO of us and TWO babies. Two parents by two babies is not simple, but totally doable. When isn't it doable? When there is ONE parent with TWO babies the chances for success are slim.

This past weekend, Ed had to run an errand in preparation for the Aloha Babies Party coming up on November 3. His plan was to be gone for a few hours and return by the evening. I wasn't worried. The babies had been sleeping for most of the morning and chances were, they'd stay asleep. I could eat my lunch and maybe even take a nap! This is where I made my critical error: assuming anything when it comes to tiny babies.

As soon as Daddy left, Gracie started to cry. She got Luke going and for the next 3 hours, I could not put them down without the babies crying so hard I thought they would hurt themselves. As the hours past, my stomach seemed emptier and emptier. I did not have any snacks I could just eat. Everything had to be heated. I tried to spread a blanket out on the carpet and pretend we were in bed. This did not work and so I continued to go without food and held babies for 4 straight hours. I started crying with them around hour 2. I couldn't take it anymore....

Ed finally called about 4 1/2 hours after he had left. I had one sentence for him: "When are you coming home?" I must have sounded desperate enough for Ed to hear the hysteria in my voice. He told me he was stopping to get me some dinner and then he would be home.

Of course, the moment I hung up the phone, the babies stopped fussing and I was able to put them down. They slept for the next 1/2 hour and were still asleep when Ed came home and for 2 hours after that. Honestly, what did I do to deserve this?! Ed knew I wasn't making up the hours of crying babies, but it doesn't support your claim when your babies are sleeping peacefully.

The moral of this story is this Two by Two is Easy, Two by One is Hard (or at least challenging).

You have to see this!

Luke found his thumb the other day! It is too cute. (Sorry about the picture quality. I took it with our digital camera)

Gracie had to take bubblegum flavored antibiotics. She got so excited about it that she would make little piggy sounds when Daddy tried to give her the bottle.

One Month Old!

Can you believe it has already been a month?

I am sorry that we haven't been better about updates, but WOW! I was prepared for the lack of sleep, but Eddie wasn't. We are both walking around like zombies but we are loving every minute of it.

Since Gracie and Luke came home, we have been working on some sort of schedule for the babies. In the beginning, we stuck with the NICU schedule, but Gracie and Luke decided after the first week that that wasn't working for them. We still haven't found the best option. We're working on it though.

My mom (a.k.a. Nana) came to stay with us for a few days. We wish we had had her longer. Just as we figured out how to use her (why I did not ask her to take care of the babies one night so we could sleep, I'll never know), she had to head home. Eddie and I have been on our own for the last week and a half. For the most part, we are doing okay. Frozen tv dinners and McDonald's are getting old though!

The babies made their first public appearance at the Diabetic Walk on September 30th. Eddie was a very proud papa and everyone seemed happy to meet the babies. The only bad thing was that Eddie caught a cold, which he passed to me and I passed to the babies. We all have stuffy noses, coughs, and are generally feeling yucky. Gracie ended up with an ear infection and we have to give her bubble gum flavored antibiotics. I can't believe she's already having to have antibiotics. I am hoping this is just a fluke. I was very sick as an infant and eventually had my tonsils and adenoids removed when I was 2.5 years old. I also had to have tubes in my ears. I don't want Gracie to have to go through that!

Both babies have been changing very quickly. Every day they look a little different. Gracie has been gaining weight like crazy and now weighs 5 lbs! Not too long ago, she weighed 3 lbs 7 oz! Luke is just shy of 7 lbs and is starting to look like a Cabbage Patch Baby (he has those adorable cheeks). Gracie's face is filling out and she doesn't look like the same baby. We've gone on a few driving adventures and both babies seem to like riding in the car. My mom and I worked out a game plan for any trip and it seems to be working well. If we feed the babies right before we leave, we have 2.5 hours before we have crying, hungry babies.

The babies are very excited to meet everyone. If you would like to come hold babies, please give us a call. We'd love to see you!