M&M Have Arrived

Last I wrote, I was on strict bed rest and Shiloh had adjusted pretty well.  In retrospect, I've realized that when I was put on bed rest, it affected Shiloh in so far as she stopped sleeping through the night again.  Poor Marc had to get up almost every night at 4 am and sometimes at midnight too.  The first night I was off of bed rest, she slept from 8 pm to 7:30 . . . unfortunately she only got one night of me being off of bed rest.
Although I was still on bed rest for Shiloh's First Day of Mother's Day Out, I am so glad I got to get her ready and go with her.

On my ONE day of no bed rest, I went to Firewheel with Shiloh, played at the train, got her a new pair of sneakers, and got her FIRST hair cut. 

I was taken off of bed rest Wednesday, September 7, which was 36 weeks and full term for twins.  I had my check-up on Thursday, September 8 and I honestly didn't think the twins would be coming.  I told my mom not to catch an early flight home and my dad not to worry because there was nothing leading me to believe the twins were coming anytime soon. 

On Thursday Sept 8, I went into the sonogram and the technician got really quiet and kept looking at the same spot for a while.  She had never done this before, so I started to think something was wrong.  She told me she needed to call the doctor to have her take a look.  They both stared at the screen quietly and the doctor told me to go ahead to my room and she'd meet me in there.  The sonogram technician told me the fluid was a little low in McKenzie's sac so the doctor would probably want to talk about it.  I still wasn't sure if I'd be meeting my girls, but I really wanted to because I thought that if they were no longer thriving in utero then why keep them in there.

When Dr. Vu came in the room, she asked if I was ready to meet my girls.  I was shocked and so excited!!  She asked when the last thing I ate was and told me we'd have a c-section as soon as we could.  She scheduled me for 8o clock Thursday night, but said if I was ready sooner then we'd begin surgery then. I met Marc at home and we said bye to Shiloh.  We went to the hospital and they immediately started prepping me for surgery.  I was surprised at how quickly everything went.  Surgery started around 8:20 and the girls arrived at 8:40 and 8:41. 

Now that I am healed and have had a chance to process it all, I think that the worst part of the C-Section was my fear of surgery; particularly my fear of the epidural.  All in all, it wasn't too bad, and we are so blessed to have two healthy baby girls!  The best part of the surgery (other than seeing the girls for the first time), was when they told me the NICU team was leaving and didn't think the girls needed to go there at all.  I was elated!  The girls got to stay with us and cuddle with their mommy and daddy much longer than I thought they would.

I cannot believe that McKenzie and McKinley are 3 WEEKS old today!  Time has really flown by!  Although feedings, diaper changes, swaddling, and chasing Shiloh around has consumed my time lately, I can honestly say that I am LOVING it!!  The twins have already gained a pound, which is great because that means nursing is going well.  I will admit that a tiny part of me was sad about their weight gain because they have already grown quite a bit.  It seems like time is going so fast that I wish I could slow it down to help me savor the beauty of my family in this season of life.

I'm going to include lots of milestones with some short explanations.  Here goes:

Shiloh's Milestones (23 Months):
-She is LOVING being a Big Sister; every morning she asks to see the babies right when she wakes up. She normally refers to them as Baby or as Kinsley, which is a combination of their two names

- She enjoys hugging, kissing, holding and burping her sisters

- She had a few rough days of Mother's Day Out after the twins were born.  She pushed kids in her class down, but THANKFULLY the teachers think that she is getting better!!

- She can sing LOTS of songs; to name a few:
-- The Wheels on the Bus
-- The Itsy Bitsy Spider
-- The ABCs
-- Row Row Your Boat
-- Old McDonald Had a Farm
-- The Barney Song (I Love You); sweet story about this song.  Shiloh asked Marc and I to sing this song to her at bedtime a few weeks ago so we did.  After a few nights of us singing it to her, she turned and sang it to us, hugging and kissing us at the appropriate time in the song.  The sweetness of that moment made our hearts melt.

-Her vocabulary grows leaps and bounds daily.  Some things that have impressed us are
-- her ability to distinguish big and small things
-- her ability to describe location; ie behind the chair, in front of me, etc.
-- Her sentences.  She usually speaks in sentences now instead of simple words and phrases.

M&Ms Milestones:
- at birth McKenzie weighed 5 pounds 10 ounces and McKinley weighed 5 pounds 5 ounces
- at their two week check up McKenzie weighed 6 lbs 10 oz and McKinley weighed 6 lbs 4 oz
- Lengths: at birth McKenzie was 18 1/2 inches and McKinley was 17 3/4 inches
-they can clasp their hands together, which according to Sami is a newborn milestone (I didn't even know that)
- so far they are sleeping really well; we've had to wake them up to feed them at night.  Last night (the night before they turned 3 weeks), both girls woke up every three hours on their own.  Hopefully they are just hitting a growth spurt and will continue to be good sleepers, but we will see.  I'll keep you updated.

Here are some pictures!

Our Family of 5!



My amazing doctor, Dr. Vu

Family walk

Helping Daddy carry her sisters

Shiloh "swaddled" her bunny and put her in the bouncy seat

 Shiloh went to our neighbors and ate lunch with them.  The twins have helped me to get even closer to some of my neighbors with kids.

I didn't prompt Shiloh to do this; she just walked out of my room with a basket on her head. 

Silly girl!

Sweet sisters cuddling

Their first bath in the infant tub :)

Nice and warm after their bath



Strict Bed Rest it Is and The Girls Nursery Complete

After a few weeks on modified bed rest, I am sad to announce that I've been given strict bed rest until farther notice.  Up until a few weeks ago, everything was looking great.  At about 30 weeks, the doctor noticed that my cervix had thinned quite a bit.  They told me to go onto modified bed rest, which meant lifting nothing over 2-3 pounds and laying down as much as possible.  My doctor said that I could still walk around but that I needed to be off my feet as much as possible. I tried to do that for the last two weeks.

On Tuesday of this week, I progressed a little more to being slightly dilated.  I'm only about 1CM, but that bumped me up from modified to strict bed rest.  I am supposed to remain laying down and should only get up to grab a drink or go to the bathroom.  On a positive note, the doctors gave me a very accurate test that said I WILL NOT be going into labor for the next two weeks!!  This means the girls should be in there until at least 34 weeks, which is August 24.  After that- we'll just see and pray that I make it until 36 weeks (Sept 7).  :-) I'm very hopeful that will happen!  There is other preventative things they will do if I start going into labor, but will only intervene if necessary.

I feel so blessed to say that bed rest has been at home, which has allowed me to be with Shiloh everyday.  She has gotten used to me laying down and will play around me!!  My days have mostly been spent watching her play, and playing games on my phone. 

As challenging as it is to just lay here, I am so grateful that I am allowed to spend this sweet time with Shiloh before the twins arrive!  I am also really thankful for the numerous visitors we've had and people that have come to take care of us!!  Thank you so much to all of our wonderful friends and family!  We truly feel blessed by you all!!

Here are some pictures from August/ my bed rest :-)

(Yes that is my feet propped up on the couch behind Shiloh)

Abby and Levi came to play!!

Nino and Shiloh



M&Ms nursery

Count Down Until the Twins Arrive

I am 4 weeks and 1 day away from being FULL TERM with M&M!!  (Our goal is to make it 6 weeks and 1 day from today but 36 weeks is considered GREAT)

We are so excited to see what McKenzie and McKinley will look like.  Our last sonogram was with the high risk doctor, and the girls profiles looked just like Shiloh, so we are really curious to see if they will all three look similar or if the twins will look more like me?!?  Regardless of that, we are praying for two healthy baby girls!!

As far as everything else for the twins is concerned, I am now on modified bed rest, which means that I'm allowed to walk around a little bit but need to stay reclined as much as possible.  I've needed someone with me everyday to help with Shiloh.  Thankfully, friends and family have really been helping out and I am so grateful!! Thank you to everyone who has and is planning on coming over to hang out with me and help out with Shiloh! 

I am so pleased to say that Shiloh has handled this transition really well.  The first week was tough for her because she is not used to a mommy that does not run around and play with her all day, so she was pretty clingy and emotional for a few days.  Now, going into week 3 of bed rest, she is much more aware of Mommy and wants to make sure I'm okay but overall seems to be loving having visitors and more attention.

I'll be using a wheel chair in the coming weeks, so I am allowed to get out more!  I know if I had to stay on strict bed rest I could do it, but my doctor said it's fine if I go out as long as I'm in a wheel chair!  Thank goodness!  Those who have been helping me know that I've been getting a little stir crazy.  (Missy and Jackie- you girls are amazing for handling hospital bed rest so well!!  I'm praying that I won't have to be :))

In the Marc and Reci Smith Family, we've been spending lots of time with Shiloh and with each other before the craziness of newborns hits us! This summer we had Shiloh participate in gymnastics, which was a blast and a great learning experience for her.  She learned to hang from a bar, to somersault, to walk on a really low balance beam, and to follow directions from another adult. 

If you're just tuning into my blog, then I'll forewarn you.  I started this blog to keep track of the Smith Family happenings and to help me keep track of Shiloh's and future little Smith's Milestones.  This blog is sort of my family scrapbook and baby book all in one; I'm trying to share our lives with anyone who wants to read it but mostly keep a record of it for us!

Shiloh Physical Milestones at 21 months:
- all of the gymnastics things mentioned above :)
- running (very fast)
- jumping with both feet off the ground
- drawing circles
- walking backwards (she's been doing that for about 2 months now)

I'm also SO excited to say that behaviorally she has improved a ton lately!!  Starting about mid July she really began responding to our firm No's.  For about the previous 2 months, she was spending lots of time in various corners of our house for Time-Out, which made me really sad.  Thankfully lately, she has been responding well!!

Shiloh's Verbal Milestones:
- she attempts to sing many songs (ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Row Row Your Boat, Old McDonald Had a Farm)
- she has spoken a few five word sentences
- she uses please and thank you (typically with a gentle reminder but we're getting there :))
- she can count to 10 with a little bit of help

PICTURES!!

Playing with Mommy's old jewelry

 Sharing jewelry with Daddy

Happy 4th of July

Daddy and Shiloh "finning" or spinning which is one of her favorite things right now!

Here are some of our Maternity/Family Pictures

My aunts threw a baby shower for me, and here are some pictures from that!!

"Nino"got Shiloh a double stroller with twin babies!!  Shiloh couldn't have been more excited!!  She LOVES babies, which we're hoping will translate into being an excited big sister!!