The Twin Essentials

I was asked by a close friend what things were useful to me as a new twin mommy.

I chuckled when she asked me because I still feel like a chicken with my head cut off and am not sure I know what I am doing. I will do my best to tell you what has worked well for me... and maybe I will add in a couple things that have not worked so well for me.

 I also think it is funny because my girls were 7 months as of yesterday! And I really have what I call the first time mommy blues because I am always feeling inadequate and wondering what the heck I am doing-but the show must go on!

 Our very first purchase was the Baby Jogger City Select Twin Tandem Pushchair. It is my most favorite purchase we have made. The day we got the call that our birth mother was in labor and I wanted to jump on a plane that very instant! But our lawyer told us we had to wait... So naturally I did the next best thing... I went shopping! I couldn't just stand still.I had waited so long to buy anything because of the last failed adoption we had. I had a house full of baby things with no baby to play or use them. I was heart broken then but this was different. I made Nate make haste and head to the store.

My Serenity

This stroller is amazing! Walks are the best for a cabin fevered Mom. This stroller allowed me to have my serenity with all the chaos going on. It is a smooth ride and very versatile.It is worth the investment. It isn't specifically made for running but it works just as well. It is easy to take a part and store in your car and the babies absolutely love it!

I love that it allows you to snap in the babies car seats-especially when they are so little. You can buy adapters for several different car seats.

We chose the Preg-Perego brand. My husband researches products like there is no tomorrow. He was able to find us a really good deal on our car seats. We bought the year 2011 model instead of the 2012 model and it saved us a whole lot of money. We found them through Albee.com

The Car Seats

We really felt that these were the safest car seats for us. We love that it "exceeds the most stringent Side Impact Protection in the world,"Unique, softly padded five-point safety harness and Side Impact Protection wings move as a unit to five positions, protecting baby’s head and body from all angles, has a removable cushion for newborns,  (Albee.com) and so much more. We love our car seats.

The Baby Whisperer...

This is the Mamaroo. When Lily was out of her incubator she had a lot of trouble staying asleep. The nurses decided to put her in the Mamaroo. They called it the "Baby Whisperer." My heart plummeted when they told us she loved it and slept well because Nate and I had looked at them at Buy Buy Baby and the price was disheartening.Babies are expensive.Twins are expensive.We were trying to pinch every penny. Well, when we were able to bring Aryiah home she was struggling to sleep... we were exhausted...and nervous because we were so weary and we only had one home...so we broke down and invested in one and we have never looked back. The girls are 7 months old and we still use it! They will not sit in a normal swing. We love the car ride selection and tree swing selection. Definitely worth the money and sleep ;)

We purchased ours at Babies"R"Us with a 20% off coupon.

The purchase the we have used the most and cannot have lived without is the Fisher Price Snuggle Bunny Rockers.

The Life Saver

Our girls had reflux problems and had difficulty sleeping flat. We purchased these while we were in Arkansas and the girls were in the hospital. These are awesome because they are light weight, the fold up, and can be taken anywhere! To bring it home we put it in our suitcase on top of our clothes.I take them with me when I go to my Mom's or Inlaws so they have a place to sleep. They are wonderful! They are still sleeping in them. We are transitioning them to their crib right now but these are wonderful and we will continue to use them.

I know I said I was going to post more but both girls just woke up so I will have to post more later :) 

1 Home, 1 To Go...

On July 29,2012 Aryiah Michele Voorhies was discharged from Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She weighed 6lbs 4oz and this is just shy of gaining 2lbs from her birth weight, which was 4lbs 6oz. Both doctors that have been working on our girls told us that our little ones will be slightly behind in developing because they were born prematurely.

She has such a sweet disposition, as you can see


She does not like to sleep during the evenings and this makes for some fun sleepless nights ;) She loves to be held and finishes her bottle in about 2 minutes! She loves to eat.

Today she had her first bath out of the hospital and if you ask me, we were triumphant!

She also got to do some tummy time. It  was neat to see her relax and look around while on her tummy.


Aryiah got to go see her birth family today. It was tender.  Here are some pictures :)

x`

Their birth family loves these little girls so much. It is touching to see them with the girls.

 

"There's no use in crying over spilled milk...."

Do you ever wonder where the saying "There's no use in crying over spilled milk," came from? Odd question, but it is one that is growing increasingly frustrating in my current position.

This morning a little past 2:00 am I had just finished pumping and was getting ready to feed Aryiah, when she woke up and was ready for her bottle-Yesterday. She got even more agitated when I decided to change her little bum before feeding her. Groggy and flustered I tried getting her bottle ready and amidst the crying, semi-darkness, and my lack of sleep the bottle slipped out of my hand and milk spilled EVERYWHERE :(  To get 2 1/2 ounces it took me 30 minutes of pumping, needless to say I was fuming at my lack of carefulness. I couldn't believe myself.

Good thing I have Superman husband who rescued both Aryiah and me. He is so patient, calm, and long suffering. Not sure how he pulls that off but he does.

So, I decided to Google  "There's no use in crying over spilled milk," and Google said this:

"This saying comes from the days when dairy animals were milked by hand into a pail. Milk does get spilled occasionally when the pail is tipped over, and then there simply is no getting it back into the pail. Like many other times in life, crying or complaining won't help at all, and it's better not to waste the time or energy and instead just get back to the task at hand.

It means what happened has happened. Alternate spellings: Don't cry over spilt milk. This idiomatic expression means that it's no use worrying about unfortunate events which have already happened and which cannot be changed."

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_meaning_of_'There's_no_use_crying_over_spilt_milk'#ixzz22B2mbAdO

Idiomatic or not... I "cry over spilled milk."

Flying Paper and a Chinese Buffet

07/20/2012

Today we had the privilege of taking some of our birth family out to lunch today!

 It was a lot of fun but before the fun we got to stop and help out some men who were chasing flying papers! Okay, so maybe there were not actually "flying" papers but their truck was transporting boxes of paper from a warehouse when some boxes spilled and the papers went EVERYWHERE! It was 103 degrees outside with with who know how much humidity and the wind was blowing when we stopped to help. I felt awful for the guy! Cars tried not to run over stuff but it was unavoidable.


Picking up the papers made us a bit late to lunch but all was well :) We arrived to their home sweaty and red faced but excited. When we pulled up to their home the door opened and Etije and Dan's oldest daughter Jenny(14) popped her head out of the door followed by Jason (4), the second to youngest. They were all smiles and it seemed as though they were enthused to see us.

When we went in Etije was sitting on her couch. Her youngest son Don (2) ran in and jumped on her lap hiding his face. She told us he was shy but soon enough he was playing peek-a-boo and waving to us.

Trying to figure out where to go to eat was a funny event. We had been texting all day, asking the family where they would like to go but we received no answer. When we asked where they wanted to go once we got to their house and they replied, "We will go where you want to go." This put us in quite a predicament because we have no IDEA where places are down here. It was quite comical. The finally resigned to deciding where to eat! and it was...

The Golden Dragon Buffet! Now those of you that know me know that I am not exactly a fan of buffets... that is probably an understatement but they love buffets! It was fun. I really wish there wasn't the huge language barrier but luckily their niece Lala came and interpreted for us.

Etije, Dan, Lala, Jenny, and James came with us to lunch. It was funny because every time Nate got up to go get food he would hit his head on the lamp above his head. Dan thought that was the funniest thing!

We really did have a good time today. This family is beautiful and I consider them apart of my family now. I love them and think the world of them.

It's Official!!!! We Have Bands and EVERYTHING!

July 18, 2012

Our court time was at 8:30am. We woke up excited and somewhat sleepy from our restless night, but today was the day!

We arrived at the courthouse early. We went through the metal detectors and security screening to go find our lawyer. When we found him he proceeded to take us to our courtroom.

(Side note.... I couldn't help but think of Harry Potter and Mr. Weasley making their way to the Ministry of Magic after Harry's breach of under aged wizardry, of course we were at the courthouse for a much more pleasant hearing but still, that is what popped into my mind.)

We waited for about five minutes for the judge to arrive. Our lawyer is a very kind man. He has adopted 5 out of his 6 children and so he understands the stress and anticipation we experience. He told us that the judge we were assigned to is  bit stoic or apathetic. Another judge at the same courthouse has a bunch of candy for the kidos and loves taking pictures with the families. He told us not to be discouraged about our judge and to remember that the finalization is the important part.


We finally were called in to see the judge. He had already been signing everything as we were walking in. Once he finishing signing he shook our hands and that was it- the girls were ours. It wasn't quite what I had expected but nonetheless Aryiah and Lily are ours!

We then got to apply for their birth certificates.

After finalization the hospital was able to give us bands that matched the girls so that we didn't have to keep signing the visitors log each time we visited.

A Gift

Last week Nate and I received this gift from a couple whose twins were in the NICU at the same time as ours.

Their names are Kristie and Jeremy. They were blessed with twin baby boys, Benjamin and Kreigger. Kristie and Jeremy are the epitome of Southern folks :) Their long southern drawl is warm and friendly. The card they gave us has Samuel 1:27 on the front;

"I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him."

Many of us know the story of Hannah and her desire to bear a child. This scripture is dear to this couples heart as they tried for years and years to have children. Their boys weighed 3lbs 3oz and 3lbs 11oz. We see each other everyday and we love our little chats.

The South has some of the sweetest and most friendly people I have ever met. Remember I lived in Texas. Although I do not have a desire to live here I love the Southern Hospitality.

Speaking of Southern Hospitality, I am going to do a post tomorrow on the family we are staying with. They are amazing!

I also had a cool experience at the Sprint Store down here. I was getting my phone fixed when a woman inquired about me being here. She overheard that I was from Utah and she asked me what I was doing here. I proceeded to explain what we were doing here and as I finished she said, "Let me give you my phone number. You can call or text me if you need anything. When I say anything I mean ANYTHING! If you want good food, a person to talk to, if you need directions, or even if you need my company-YOU LET ME KNOW!" This was shocking to me because we were complete strangers! She didn't know if I was some weirdo or not and she still offered her phone number and her help. Trust me when I say this, this is not the first person to offer help and assistance to us.

I am amazed at the pure goodness in people. Many of you who know me, know that I am a skeptic and I usually exercise caution when it comes to strangers and new experiences. Too many things go wrong in life for me not to be. I guess this is an experience for me to learn to have a little more faith my fellow brothers and sisters than what I have in the past.

I want to close with what Kristie and Jeremy wrote to us in our card.

7/10/2012

We just wanted to let ya'll know that we are so happy for ya'll. We know how hard it is to desire to have a family and we are just so excited that ya'll now have two girls as blessings. We pray for you daughters daily. If there is ever anything that we can do to help ya'll or if you just need to talk we are here. We understand this is an emotional roller coaster at times. Congratulations to the both of you!

In Christian Love,
Jeremy and Kristie Young

My Niece Mila Learning the Babies Names

Mila is my sister Mandy's daughter. She is my absolute favorite. When I watched these I got all teary eyed. She is so cute and I know Aryiah and Lily will just love their cousin!

It is funny because my sister is filming Mila on her phone so she can see herself. You will see she keeps smiling at herself. It is priceless! 

These will make you laugh!