Maternity Pics

I wanted to document this pregnancy with some actual decent looking photos (besides my weekly ones) but didn't want to look for or pay a photographer. Eric and I, being the awesome team we are, ventured out to our go-to picture spot. The high yesterday was 59 degrees so we couldn't pass up the opportunity! I even tried to put my ring on for the occasion, but NOPE, that wasn't happening. Even though I'm ginormous and should have probably taken these a month ago, I think they turned out pretty well (considering we are not professional photographers or editors)!! Here I am, 33 weeks and 3 days pregnant! Enjoy :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two babies!

 

 

 

I'm hoping to get a few pics with Kinsey and Eric as well, but they were not dressed to impress yesterday. Maybe some indoor shots in the near future!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

This was our first year celebrating Christmas with Kinsey. I think holidays can be hit or miss with a one year old, but Kinsey was excited for everything, which made Christmas really fun for us!

She was intrigued by the snow but didn't get to go outside because it was way too cold for my little girl. I think she understood what it was thanks to watching Frosty the Snowman. She did get to play with bowls of snow in the house...and LOVED it! I made a tiny snowman that Kinsey bit the head off of. Of course.

Checking out all that white stuff outside. 

 Kinsey also loved all the Christmas decorations, especially the nutcrackers! She couldn't play with them very long because she tends to create little teeth marks in whatever she touches. She was perfect around the tree and didn't pull on it or attack the ornaments. We just told her to "be gentle" and she would pet the branches. 

We prepped Kinsey with opening presents by letting her open a couple each day starting on Sunday. Here we are on Christmas Eve opening our new blankets!

And I just love this picture because she's smiling right at the camera (she thought the flash was hilarious).

Christmas Eve family picture

For some reason Kinsey was completely ready for Christmas on Christmas Eve...and not so happy we wouldn't let her open all the presents under the tree.

Christmas morning after Santa came!

Kinsey ran to the tree first thing in the morning to check out her new cart from Santa.

All throughout opening presents she would go back to her cart and play with the fake food. 

 She helped Eric and me open our presents when she wasn't too busy playing with her own. 

Checking out her new books.

 Santa also brought Kinsey a princess chair. She'll plop down on it and play with the food in her cart. 

 With all the excitement from presents we forgot about the stockings!! We saved those babies for last and the next few days consisted of Kinsey playing with her new toys. Christmas is the best babysitter ever. 

I can't wait for more Christmases in the future. It's just going to get more and more fun as our children grow!

Kinsey at 16 Months

On Christmas Eve Kinsey turned 16 months old! I can't believe how fast time is flying. She is definitely 16 months going on 16 years old right now. This past month I've noticed more and more how my little girl is changing into a toddler and leaving her baby years behind. It's sad, but I love seeing her learn new things. 

Decorating the Christmas tree for the first time. 

Kinsey still has a huge love for music and dancing. If Eric and I start singing she will most likely dance with her shoulders. She can also "drop it like it's hot" when she's really into the music.  

Dancing with Daddy. 

She has finally entered the climbing stage. I think I like it more than the "getting into every drawer" phase. When she gets up high she is awfully proud of herself, as you can see. One time she struggled to get on a chair and stayed up there for a half hour waving at Christmas decorations. I think she wanted all her climbing effort to be worth it. 

"I did it!"

Kinsey still loves boxes and thinks it's the greatest thing getting inside them. 

She is a VERY fast learner with a great memory! Little K only needs to see something once and she'll repeat it even if she hasn't seen it for weeks. 

Giving herself a pedicure after watching Mommy. 

Kinsey is starting to use her imagination a lot more. Santa brought her a lot of play food and she loves to "nibble" on them. 

She is as impatient as ever and still puts EVERYTHING in her mouth to chew on. She can't bother chewing and swallowing before shoving more food in her mouth, so Eric and I have to be very careful about how much food to put on her tray at one time. There have been a couple choking instances that scared us like crazy. 

She is still my sweet little girl but lately I've been calling her "stink pot" more than anything. Not because she smells bad, but because she's a stinker. She now throws her food, utensils, cup, and dishes off the high chair. We tell her "no" and once we look away she'll try to throw as many things off before we catch her again. Eric has been doing most of the bending over lately and really does not appreciate this new development. We've also started looking into discipline because of this, but she's still so young so I think we mainly have to wait for her to grow out of it and teach her the best we can. 

Dressing like a Christmas tree. 

She understands almost any instruction we give her. It's amazing!! And Kinsey wants nothing more then to talk. I think she will be quite the chatterbox, but she is still really quiet around a new face. She LOVES saying "ho ho ho" when we ask what Santa says. She can also say Santa, banana (nana), hi, hey, doggy, baby, bottle and water (both sound like ba ba), and a few others that I can't think of right now. 

"Daddy, these PJs are really tight."

Kinsey knows the following body parts: eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, belly button, arms, legs, hand, foot, back, chin (which I never actually taught her), and head. She also knows what sound the following animals make, even though she won't do them all anymore: monkey, tiger, cow, cat, and dog. 

There were no tears when she met Santa! She actually had no reaction at all, but the longer she sat on his lap the bigger her smile was getting. Given another few minutes she would have had a full blown smile on her face. Now whenever she sees a man with a white beard she yells, "ho ho ho!"

We love her as much as ever and I'm glad she'll still cuddle with me before nap time and bed time. 

2013 Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

2013 has been the best year of our married life for one reason—Kinsey. After years of trying to start a family, we were able to bring our baby girl home on July 5th. We grew attached to each other very quickly and now can’t remember life without her. She is a mommy and daddy’s girl, and is the joy of our lives. The best day since adopting Kinsey was getting sealed in the Kansas City temple in October. We’re so happy with our little eternal family.

We had the opportunity to travel quite a few times this year. In March we joined the Kooistras in Disneyland to celebrate Grandpa Kooistra’s birthday. We headed off to Utah in May to visit the rest of the family. Once we had Kinsey, the three of us spent a few days in Nauvoo for our yearly family trip. Cindy also took Kinsey to Florida in November for her sister’s wedding.  

A couple weeks after bringing Kinsey home we found out we were pregnant…with TWINS! As you can see, the next year has big changes in store for our family. We will have 2 more daughters, move to Utah, Eric will graduate chiropractic school, and we will start our own practice. We are very excited to start the next phase of our lives with our growing family in 2014!

Eric

This fall Eric started treating patients from the community. Studying for exams and treating patients has consumed most of his time this year. He has been working very hard fulfilling graduation requirements so he can leave school early and gain real-life experience as an intern in Utah. Eric’s favorite part of the day is coming home to his girls and giving them hugs and kisses.

Cindy

Cindy was able to travel to Europe twice this year for work. After adopting Kinsey she chose to be a full-time mom and is kept busy chasing Kinsey around the house. Due to pregnancy complications, Cindy spent over 3 weeks in the hospital, but we are happy to say the babies are still healthy and growing strong. She blogs and crafts in her spare time.  

Kinsey

On August 24th we celebrated Kinsey’s first birthday with a pool party! She loves animals, music, swimming, dancing, babbling, and wrestling with her daddy. Kinsey’s vocabulary is growing everyday, and she is quickly learning her body parts and animal sounds. She is quite the independent little girl as she uses forks and spoons and even tries to put on her own diapers. 

Baby Shower + Update

 Last Thursday my wonderful visiting teachers, Georgia and Billie, threw me a baby shower. The celebration was fitting because it was the same day I hit the 28 week mark, which was the first big milestone my OB gave me. We planned the shower so early because due to all the complications we have no idea how long I'll be pregnant. We were able to move the location to the hospital and I got all dressed up in actual jeans for the first time since Thanksgiving! 

Eric wheeled me to the party before he headed home to put Kinsey to bed. I didn't realize how nice it was to be out of my room until I left, and the baby shower room didn't feel like a hospital to me. Refreshing! We started off by opening presents. I got clothes, blankets, diapers, bibs, a snap 'n go stroller...and if I'm forgetting anything else then it's not my fault. The list is a few feet away from me and I just can't quite reach it. Anything is helpful to us because I haven't been able to do any shopping for the babies yet!

 Then we ate some snacks from this cute little spread!

 And then it was time for baby Scattegories. My team (Heather, Georgia, and me) won, by the way :) But I really can't take any credit because my brain had a lot of trouble coming up with words. I think I snuck a couple in during the 4 rounds we played.  

The group! Minus a few who weren't able to attend. 

 Sadly, it was time for me to be wheeled up for my 9 o'clock monitoring. Everyone thought it was hilarious how small my butt was in the wide wheelchair. You can't tell very well with this angle so you'll just have to trust me. 

Here's my most recent belly shot. I believe this was the day my stomach started aching all the time. The nurse said it's "growing" pains. I'm not sure how much more growing I can handle, but I'm pretty sure I'll make the doctor take them out if they aren't born by 36 weeks. My ribs hurt frequently thanks to Shayla's kicking and it's only going to get worse as they get bigger. I also feel like a dead log when rolling over and getting out of a sitting position. This is probably close to what my 40 weeks would be if I were having one baby. 

28 weeks

 We just had a growth scan for Scarlett and Shayla. Scarlett is 2 lb 9 oz and Shayla is 2 lb 12 oz. They are growing so nicely!!

Kinsey is adjusting to me being home again by gracing us with many mood swings. If you visit and she's happy the whole time, it's all an act. But this girl sure can make me smile. 

Kinsey with her new Christmas present (Monkey Face 2.0)

As for Eric, he is STRESSED. He's handling everything pretty well but he never expected to be mommy and daddy, especially when I'm home lying down on the couch. His patience is slowly getting shorter... It should ease up in a few days, but it's still hard for him to be a full-time dad because, let's face it, being a mom is hard work. 

At least he can squeeze a few naps in. I JUST took this photo ;)

That's about it for now! I'm hoping to get some baby shopping in during Eric's break by him wheeling me around stores. 

Day 24 - Home?!

I am 28 weeks and 1 day pregnant today! 28 weeks was the first big milestone and 32 weeks is the next, so I'm grateful these babies are still cooking. When talk of me going home first started, I guessed that the doctors wouldn't let me out until I hit the 28 week mark. Obviously with all the ups and downs I stopped trying to guess when I could go home...but apparently my first instinct was CORRECT!!!! Not that I had anything to do with it. You can thank Scarlett and Shayla for their good behavior. 

Last weekend was a rough one with lots of decelerations as you may have read in my previous blog. Since Monday morning I have been monitored every 6 hours and there have been NO big decels. Yesterday my doc came in the room and told me if the girls behaved until Friday then I could go home. I didn't want to jinx it and I was actually going to keep it from Eric until it was a sure thing. But then he called me all stressed about his finals and juggling Kinsey so I wanted to share the POTENTIAL good news. 

This morning Eric stopped by the hospital after his final exam. The doctor checked my cervix to make sure I'm not dilated, which I'm not (thank goodness). Scarlett and Shayla looked good all night and after one last monitoring we would be good to go. My nurse said the monitoring would take 20 minutes. Eric started packing and after 20 minutes no one was taking my monitors off. What?! The nurse eventually came in and said they were looking for accelerations in the heart rates before letting me go (it shows maturity in babies). I wouldn't let Eric take anything down to the car because I started doubting if I would go home today. After almost an hour of monitoring the heart rates FINALLY showed some accelerations and we got the okay to leave today. 

Me in all my morning glory after finding out we were going home. Not sure why Eric didn't want to retake this pic... 

 I was kind of nervous to go home. It's like I just took my security blanket off and now I don't get to make sure the babies' hearts are beating every few hours. 

Things I'll Miss: 

-Being waited on

-Having a maid

-Clean sheets every day

-Not having to change a diaper

-Room service

-Hearing babies' heart beats

-Cable TV

Things I WON'T Miss:

-Being woken countless times in the middle of the night

-Not leaving my hospital room

-Continuous monitoring

-Taking a million pills a day (which I'll probably still have to do)

-My food taking too long to arrive

-Nurses constantly asking "Is there anything I can do for you?" even though they asked minutes earlier

Car ride home.

So what does this mean moving forward? The doctor kept saying just "take it easy." To me this means caring for Kinsey and nothing else, but apparently to them it means sitting on the couch and getting up to go to the bathroom. No cooking and no cleaning. We'll see how long I can last with those rules. I can just imagine the state of our house by the time Eric is done with school. And if he did all the cooking I will probably starve. Hmmm...so for anyone who was looking to help (and still want to--no pressure), I would say meals are the number one at this point since Eric is focused on finals until next Friday. 

We cannot thank everyone enough for all the prayers, support, and childcare our family has received during this difficult time. I think the holidays have meant even more to us this year than ever. 

Day 20 - Still Here

I've been meaning to write an update since Friday, but honestly, I've been a little blue and not in the mood to write. As you can see, I'm still here in the hospital. It recently started getting really hard for me to be in here. I don't know if it's the fact that I'm unbelievably sick of the hospital food or that I allowed myself to believe I was leaving on Friday, but I've been extremely unmotivated and emotional this weekend. Due to my emotions, please don't ask me when I get to leave. I don't know. The doctors don't know. And it changes daily. 

Wednesday I was told if everything looked good through Friday then I could go home. At 5:30 am on Thursday, in between my 5-6 am monitoring, my nurse rushed in my room to try to adjust the monitors and find Scarlett's heart rate. She wasn't getting a good reading and soon told me to go on my hands and knees, put me on oxygen, and put a monitor on my finger to see my heart rate (to make sure she wasn't confusing it for Scarlett's). It happened very quickly and I was given another IV site just in case they needed to send me to labor and delivery. I do not like the mention of giving labor this early AT ALL. It was very early in the morning and you can imagine how surprising this was as I was in and out of sleep. 

With the help of oxygen, Scarlett's heart rate did go back up and I was put on continuous monitoring until noon. There were no more decelerations that day so I was able to take breaks from monitoring again. Everything went perfect until Friday morning during my 9 am monitoring. There was another deceleration that was remedied by me moving on my side. I was put on continuous monitoring again until noon. The nurse didn't get to my room until 12:15, and at 12:13 Scarlett had another decel. Of course I was kept on continuous monitoring until Saturday and had the worst sleep of my life. The nurse came in my room soooo many times. I don't think I got more than an hour of sleep at a time. 

And as the cycle goes, I was taken off continuous AGAIN on Saturday. My entire body was extremely sore after my 24+ hours of being on the monitor. It seems the longer I'm here and put on continuous, the harder it is on my body. Anyway, things went great again until Sunday. Scarlett had another issue Sunday morning, then in the afternoon, I was put on continuous, and then another deceleration this morning. So here I am, being continuously monitored yet again. I'm in this vicious cycle and am lacking hope of going home. 

There are a few happy things to mention. My sister was able to come on Wednesday to take care of Kinsey. We are so thankful for this help and stability, as I know it's confusing for her to have so many babysitters. The plan is for Audrey to leave this Thursday and then Eric take over, getting sitters during his final exams. We'll be okay until January and then hopefully I'll be back home so we won't have to worry about more Kinsey coverage. 

Audrey and her little pal!

 My sister, being the Christmas lover she is, went out of her way to purchase decorations so I could decorate a tree with Kinsey this year. And yes, I'm wearing Eric's shirts now. I grew out of one t-shirt and now he thinks I'm too fat for ALL my clothes. I'll just look like a hobo the rest of my hospital stay, no biggie. 

 Kinsey doesn't understand how the ornaments hang, so she just places them on a branch and expects it to stay. I secretly put the string around a branch and tell her "good job."

 The finished product!! Thanks to Audrey for bringing more Christmas spirit into my room. Now I just need tiny presents to go underneath. 

 As for Kinsey, she has been crying out for "mama" the longer I'm away. Because of that you would think she'd run to me when she enters my room, but nope. She just looks around for something to do. It isn't until she's about to leave that she hugs me and doesn't want to let go. I love her little arms holding on to me. I just want to be back home with my baby girl. On the other hand, I really don't want 2 pound babies so they need to continue growing. I just wish that could happen at home. 

Hi from little K!

Day 15

Because I haven't regularly posted about my pregnancy, I just wanted to mention a few things first. Since being at the hospital, I officially have an "outie" belly button. It was in transition for a few weeks so the day I noticed it was an outie was kind of exciting (nerdy, I know). Also, as of last Friday Scarlett and Shayla started kicking a lot harder and in more places. It doesn't hurt, but when they kick repeatedly it feels and looks like mini earthquakes. Lately, I feel sick laying on my back so I have to flip to my side to feel better. 

As of my last hospital post, I did move to monitoring every 4 hours on Wednesday and then every 6 hours over the weekend. Luckily, I'm still on every 6 hours which shows that the girls are doing pretty good. On Monday morning my doctor came in my room and told me if Scarlett and Shayla's heart rates continued doing what they're doing and the growth ultrasound (done today) looked good then I could go home aka I could possibly go home today. Everything looked great during the ultrasound. Scarlett actually has more fluid than Shayla now. Scarlett weighs 1 lb 14 oz and Shayla weighs 2 lbs. There goes the 1 pound I gained this last week :) They are growing well, but I still don't want to meet them until they are at LEAST 4 pounds each. That's my personal goal anyway. 

So everything looked good at the ultrasound, but because Scarlett had a few minor decelerations over the past 24 hours the doctor wants to monitor me for 2 more days. He'll check out my cervix Friday and then I should be going home that day (if all continues looking good). 

Now a quick look at my Kinsey monster. If you read my Thanksgiving post, these chipmunk cheeks are what I was talking about. 

Cheeks full of carrots on Thanksgiving. 

Looking cute and knowing it. 

 Did I mention how obsessed Kinsey is with her belly? 

Like mother, like daughter. 

And just a quick story you may enjoy. Only a couple months ago whenever Eric and I would hug or kiss Kinsey would cry and try to push Eric away so she'd have me all to herself. It gradually grew into if Eric and I kissed then she would need a kiss from me too to make it even. I kind of saw it as her being more attached to me than Eric. She's obviously been spending a lot of time with Eric lately, so yesterday we did the kiss test to see who she'd choose to kiss and she chose ERIC!! They have really bonded these last couple weeks. I'm not jealous though, I'll get her back on my side when I'm home :)