Friday, April 29, 2011

Tagged!

Survey time! Marie tagged me (actually, she tagged me forever ago, but better late than never)...

Four places I go:
-Crossings
-Work
-Target
-My Bathtub

Four favorite smells:
-Chocolate Chip Cookies
-Freshly Cut Grass
-A Clean House
-Rotisserie Chicken

Four favorite movies/TV shows:
-Amazing Race
-American Pickers
-Dirty Dancing
-Survivor

Four Recommendations: (I'm too tired to put too much thought into this...)
-Be intentional.
-Be grateful, no matter the circumstances.
-Things might not be going the way you planned, but there is always a bright side (sometimes you just really have to look).
-Long baths fix everything.

Four People I Am Tagging:
-Erica
-Heather
-Courtney
-Mindy

Monday, April 25, 2011

Benton Update: 11 Months

We can't believe that we are now entering our last month before Benton turns 1! It is so bittersweet (much more sweet than bitter though!!!).


Some facts from Benton's eleventh month of life:
-Wearing 12 month and 12-18 month clothes.
-Mainly wearing cloth diapers with no snaps. In disposables, he is wearing a size 4 diaper.
-Eating 3 meals and 1 snack per day. His meals are primarily table food and he is pretty much eating whatever we have, just cut into little pieces. He is now officially off of formula and drinking whole milk, about 12-15 ounces daily through a straw sippy cup.
-Sleeping well. We have made his bedtime a little later, as he was starting to consistently wake up about 30 minutes before we would prefer to get out of bed. He now sleeps from about 7:45pm to 7:00am. We actually think the new later bedtime will work out perfectly for summer! He is also taking 2 naps per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon (about 2 hours each).
-Eat/play/sleep.


Random things we don't want to forget:
-This has been a big developmental month! Benton is starting pulling up on everything, and he is now cruising throughout the living room. He will occasionally stand for a few seconds unassisted.
-Crawling. We just think he isn't interested. About once a week he will crawl (straight leg, straight arm) towards something he REALLY wants, such as our phones, the remote controls, or a random cheerio he sees on the floor. :)
-This has probably been the fussiest month of his life, but we know think it was because he was so ready to be able to move. Now that he is able to cruise, he is much less fussy!
-He greets us every morning either sitting or standing in his crib.
-Ben had his first public meltdown at the zoo one Saturday this month. Basically, he was super obsessed with his bottle...ha. We decided that the bottle that caused the meltdown was the last one, and we haven't looked back since. Ben has done awesome on sippy cups only.
-He celebrated his first Easter. We went to the early service at church and celebrated twice with family. He loved the Easter eggs, probably because they were such bright colors. We can't wait to teach him the true meaning of Easter.
-He has started handing us books when he wants to be read to, and we think he tries to say "books." Yay for a little reader.
-We have started to need a little bit of parenting... As in, he needs just a tiny bit of discipline for a few minor things. He LOVES trying to stand in the bathtub (obviously, this is dangerous), throwing his bath toys out of the tub (gets the whole bathroom wet), and throwing food off of his tray (messy). He either gets timeout (in his crib for about 30 seconds) or a stern no. Not really sure that he is catching on quite yet, but it is definitely time to start.
-He still loves dogs and is definitely saying "dogs." Occasionally, he will do a growl/bark for us. :)

It's hard to believe that we are just days away from sending out invitations for his first birthday party. He has grown so fast and has been such a joy. He are immensely grateful for his little life!

Monday, April 11, 2011

My Newest Talent

So, I took a photography class last weekend in hopes that I could learn how to shoot in manual. Let's just say that I am the worst photographer ever and that I have a lot of practicing to do...ha!

Here is some of my recent work...



Saturday, April 9, 2011

Twin 101

We get MANY questions regarding twins and this pregnancy, so hopefully this will answer some of the questions that you may have! Keep in mind that this is VERY general and basic, and that I'm not posting about random exceptions. So, on to Twin 101...

Fraternal (Dizygotic) and Identical (Monozygotic).
(Our girls are identical or monozygotic.)
-Fraternal twin pregnancies result when two eggs are fertilized by two sperm.
-Identical twin pregnancies result when one egg is fertilized by one sperm, and then the fertilized egg splits in two.

Amniotic Sacs and Placentas. (Our girls are diamniotic/monochorionic.)
-Fraternal twin pregnancies are much like a singleton pregnancy here, in that each baby has it's own amniotic sac (diamniotic) and it's own placenta (dichorionic).
-Idenitical twin pregnancies can vary quite a bit here. Each twin can have their own amniotic sac (diamniotic) and their own placenta (dichorionic), each twin can have their own amniotic sac (diamniotic) and share one placenta (monochorionic), or the twins can share one amniotic sac (monoamniotic) and share one placenta (monochorionic).

Gender. (Our girls are GIRLS!!!)
-Fraternal twins can be two boys, two girls, or a boy and a girl.
-Identical twins must be either two boys or two girls.

Genetics of the Twins. (Our girls are genetically identical.)
-Fraternal twins are genetically as similar as any other siblings.
-Identical twins are genetically identical.

Do Twins Run in the Family? (No, but in our situation, this doesn't matter.)
-There is a genetic link in the families of some fraternal twins. The mother releases more than one egg during ovulation.
-There is absolutely no genetic link with identical twins. It is a complete fluke.

Common Risks and Complications with Twin Pregnancy.
-Pre-term labor. Due to this, and other reasons, a mother pregnant with twins is commonly put on bedrest before term and is monitored closely.
-Twin to twin transfusion. This is almost solely in identical twins. It occurs when a blood vessel in the placenta is shared by the twins. This is very dangerous and requires either laser surgery (early in pregnancy) or delivery (later in pregnancy).
-Elevated blood pressure. This can lead to pre-eclampsia. (I had pre-eclampsia with Benton, so I am at higher risk for having the same issue again.)
-
C-Section. (We have already chosen this option for our delivery.)

Other Info.
-It is recommended that a woman pregnant with twins gain between 37 and 54 pounds. (They have recommended that I gain 50 pounds.)
-
Full term for twins is 38 weeks, though they generally don't let monochorionic identical twins go past 37 weeks. (They have told us to expect and hope for delivery between 36 and 37 weeks.)

Hopefully this answers most of the questions that people ask us!

Friday, April 8, 2011

Blogger Woes

HELP!!!! Does anyone else have problems with Blogger and spacing? I have a few posts ready to go, but everytime I try to publish them it puts huge spaces in between each paragraph or makes a few paragraphs into one big paragraph. Any ideas on how to fix this? I googled the problem, and it looks like it might be due to using Internet Explorer as our browser, but I'm not sure.