So.....this morning after the first feeding of the day we were playing on the floor as usual. Just playing and singing and being silly. I was loving on Ben, right in his face. And that little buger chose that exact moment to spit up in my face. There I was, in my robe with baby spit up in my eye. I cannot even begin to tell you how gross that was. Ahhhh...the joys of motherhood that no one warns you about.

Anyways, I couldn't resist taking some pictures of these little guys while they were playing! They're getting so big, and have come quite a ways in these short 11 weeks. Just in the last several days they have discovered their smiles, and it's so sweet to watch them smile at me and kick their legs in excitement.
Here is Ben playing in the Baby Einstein Exersaucer that the girls from work gave us. They're still a little bit too small to really play with it, but they really seem to like looking at all the bright colors and fun shapes. Lots of visual stimulation.

And Drew is laying on the boppy (my very best friend these days) playing with this toy that he lays underneath. He looks up at it, and watches all the lights and listens to music. They just kick their little legs and coo, so I guess that means they like it.

This was taken when my sweet sweet friend Katharine came to visit while on her way to Atlanta (sorry Anna Banana! I just HAD to steal her for the night!).

Ben gives his Aunt Britt some good lovin'. I'm so glad that she lives in town!!! Some days she is the only way I get to take a 15 minute shower!!! Sad, but true. She's in grad school, so she's got lots of time to come out to the house, or run errands with us.

And here Aunt Britt gets to give DrewBoo some love.
We've had such a good week. In addition to Britt hanging out with us, Angie, one of our friends from church, brought her little boy Elijah over to play one day. He's a good bit older than the buddies, but he seemed to have fun playing with all the toys. And yesterday we went for a walk in the park with Darci, her son Brax and Sallie, who should give birth to Eli in just a few weeks. We have such a great group of friends, and it's so neat to be a part of group of people to raise your children with.

Today it is super icky outside - thunderstorms and rain and lightning. So, we are not going out to lunch with all the mommies like we'd planned. Instead we are having a fun day at home and just hanging out.

Thanks for checking in with us!!! I'll keep you all posted on how Ben and Drew are doing as soon as I get another spare second. Love you all.

A Christmas to Remember...

In front of our Christmas tree at home...

The twins with my Nana and Papa, their Great-Grandparents...

Sleeping through Christmas day in front of the fire...

Well, we headed to my parent's house in Montgomery, AL on the Thursday before Christmas right after the boys got their 2 month shots. They didn't like it very much, and they let us know it. But they were little troopers, and slept almost the whole way home. Honestly, it was probably harder for me to watch them cry, than it was for the boys. But they survived and so did I.

Once we got there and got all settled in, Drew began crying uncontrollably. If you've spent any amount of time around the twins, you know that they just don't cry very much. So I immediately knew something was wrong. I picked him up, and for some unknown reason checked his hernia. It was protruding much farther than normal, and he acted like he was in pain. So we called the pediatrician and the on-call nurse at the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital (where the boys will have their surgery on the 27th) and they said that if it were to get worse, it would be best to be near a Children's Hospital. Feeling worried for our baby boy and sad about leaving family, we threw everything in the car, and headed back to Nashville at 10:00 pm on Christmas eve. We got home at about 2 in the morning, and walked in to an empty house, a bare fridge and two boys who were WAY off their schedule. But Michael built a fire, and we pulled dinner together with what we could find, and we made the boys' first Christmas one we'll always remember! At least you can't say we're boring...always an adventure! Merry Christmas!

it's about time!!!

i cannot believe that ben and drew are 8 weeks old, and i have not posted one thing since their birth! i'm horrible at this whole blog thing. but what can i say? things tend to stay pretty busy around here. to be honest, it's really comical how many times i've sat down, and actually tried to update this page. but inevitably, just as soon as i start, someone will start crying or need something. even now as i sit here and type, ben has spit his paci out by accident and is telling me that he'd like me to come and put it back in his mouth.

life has held so much for us since the birth of our little guys: first baths, first halloween, first thanksgiving, and this past weekend we had christmas with michael's family. next weekend we will be with my family in montgomery. the twins have no idea what christmas is, or even that there are presents involved, but we are enjoying this season with them. we took them to the opryland hotel to see the lights, and i got so much pleasure from watching the boys watch the twinkle lights. they loved it! their eyes were as big as saucers, and i don't think ben even blinked. so cute. they've come quite a long way from their meager 4 pound start at life. we go to the doctor on thursday, and i'm certain that they now weigh more than 8 lbs a piece! here are just a few pictures from our journey thus far. ... and i promise to do better with the updates! ;)


though this is a terribly unflattering picture of me, i had to include it because it shows just how little my sweet baby boys were when they were born. i get teary just looking at this one.




here is a picture taken at the breakfast with santa at otter creek. i just love our church!!! and since getting anywhere with these little fellas is quite an ordeal, we were very very late getting there. but we got the picture! for those of you who still can't tell them apart, ben is on santa's left, eating his hands because he's hungry, and drew is on the right!


and here we are at the opryland hotel. all four of us!!! look at how big ben and drew are! merry christmas!!!

Our Babies Are Coming!

okay, we went to the doctor yesterday, and - as promised - here's the latest:

unless ben and drew decide to come on their own before, we will do a c-section on october 21st!!!!! i am so excited i can hardly stand it!!! i mean, that's so soon. it's only a week from friday. i will admit that i'm not thrilled with the idea of having surgery. but dr. crowe feels like it's the safest and best route to go for all four of us. so, naturally, we went with her opinion. we'll have to be at the hospital at 5:30 that morning (do you know what time that means i'll have to get up?!?!), and they'll do the surgery at 7:30. so that means by about 9:00 our little boys will be here!!! oh, i can't wait to see what they look like. it's unlike anything i've ever felt before to have them grow and live inside me, and to love two people so much that you've never even met before. now that it's almost over, i wonder if i'll miss being pregnant once i'm not anymore.

anyways, that's the scoop. i'm sure that there's more to say, but honestly, i can't think about anything other than getting ready for them. thanks again for checking in with us and keeping us in your prayers...please continue to do so.

What a Weekend!!!

This weekend came and went in one big blur! But it was such a wonderful weekend on so many levels! Mama and Daddy were here for the Zoe Conference, so it was great to see them...it always is. And they'll be back up here in just a couple of weeks when the boys finally get here. Can you tell that the anticipation is killing me??? And on top of that, Katharine came to stay with me for a night too! Man, I really really miss having her here.

But the real highlight of the weekend was that I finally had my shower from the girls at work and it was just the most fun I've had since I've been on bedrest. I miss my friends so so so much, and though I try to tell them, I'm sure that they don't know how much they all mean to me. I get weepy and teary eyed everytime I think about each of them, and not being there...and I don't think that it's just my out-of-control hormones. It's true emotion stemmed straight from all of the ways that they've each touched my heart. No work place is perfect, each has it's own fair share of faults. But Dr. Hunter's office really is a special place full of special people and I find myself feeling very fortunate to have been a part of it for the last year and a half. The only real consolation is that I really believe that we'll stay pretty close. The day was lovely, and as soon as Shelley (she and Diane are the work event photographers) emails me the pictures, I'll post them on this site for you all to see. The girls really went to so much trouble for me, and Michael and I were just so touched by such love and generosity!

I will admit though, that my body is very worn out after all that busy-ness this weekend. And since Michael is in New York for the day, I'm doing my best to not do anything at all. I'll post more tomorrow after we go to the Dr's office...it should be a good one!

Day 9 and Counting

Okay, okay, okay. Now, I have shown ultrasound pictures to my Nana and Papa. And they have told me that only a proud mama could actually see a baby in the pictures. But seriously, these are the pictures from yesterday, and I can definitely see two of the most beautiful faces I've ever seen. The top one -- just in case these need an explanation -- is of Ben's profile. See his sweet little nose and mouth?! How cute is he???!!! The next one was taken looking down on Drew's face. And the last one was just so sweet. Both of their little heads are down and touching side by side. They have been in this position now for the last couple of months, which means that I often wake up with a sore rib cage, or with a lop-sided tummy from all the knees and feet that poke at me. But don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, and I love that there is so much that the three of us have shared that no one else will ever know about. I think that that is the part of being pregnant that I'll miss the most. Well, that, and of course having both of my arms and hands at my own disposal.

The visit yesterday was good. The Dr. said that both of the boys look great, and it looks like the medicine helped them be a little bit more content with staying inside for a little while longer. The only really noteworthy thing that came from our visit was that at next week's visit we will go ahead and schedule a date for the end of October sometime to induce labor if they don't come on their own. That will be pretty cool to choose their birthdate. However, if I know my husband, then I'm sure he'll pick some date relevant to UT football...like game day so he can have "Rocky Top" playing in the room when they come into the world, or something crazy like that.

Anyways, today is day 9 of bedrest, and since I have the most wonderful sister in the whole world, it hasn't been quite as bad as I'd dreaded. She comes over when she doesn't have class, and hangs out with me, and gives me something to look forward to. I try to keep my activities to one thing per day, and that works out pretty well since much more than that makes my feet swell up and I get exhausted.

Well, time for me to head back to the couch. I'll post more as soon as there is more to write! Thanks for checking in, and keeping us in your prayers!!!

What a Ride!

i have to make this short and sweet, as being on the computer isn't really supposed to be a part of the definition of "bedrest." so here goes, for those of you who don't know...

last wednesday i suddenly began feeling terrible. i mean, really really awful. so i called my dr. and they sent me to the hospital. as it turns out, i had been having contractions about every 2 minutes, and had no idea. on top of that, i was dialated to 1 cm. so, they admitted me to the hospital. they gave me a steriod called beta methazone which was supposed to help the boys' lungs develop sooner, in case they decided to make their appearance early, and they gave me high doses of magnesium to make the contractions subside. that was good, but the mag really made me feel even worse, if you can believe it.

after 48 hrs on the mag, they took me off of it to see what the boys would do. the only problem was that somehow i had also gotten an upper g.i. bug that made being on the magnesium look like a paid vacaction.

today is monday, and i got to go home, and that has been the best part so far! we are hoping that the boys will develop at least another 2 weeks. but if they decide to come on sooner, then the dr. feels really good about how they might do. that is very reassuring.

i need to wrap this up and head back to my spot on the couch. but i just want to tell each of you thank you for your prayers, love, visits, support, and goodies while we were in the hospital. michael and i feel so blessed to have such an amazing group of friends to share this time with. you all are so wonderful, and i feel like there just aren't words to describe how much we appreciate all you have done for us and our babies. we love you all, and hope you'll continue to pray for the 4 of us....we are continuing to pray prayers of thanks for you!!!