Twins is a full time job, I will definitely say that. The hardest part about the first months was breastfeeding. They were pokey eaters, and I struggled to meet their demand. I pumped after every feeding for the first 4 months, and now am finally slowing down on that to give myself a break. At almost 5 months now they still have yet to both consistently sleep through the night. Jocelyn is the better sleeper. Jackson is just a momma’s boy. Their cries have definitely changed now, but at first Jackson’s had the underlying dialogue of “Mom, I’m just really sad can you please pick me up”, and Jocelyn’s was “I’m dying and I need you to get me RIGHT NOW!!!!” There was a clear winner for whose cry I would rather hear, but now that they are older, I’d say they are both pretty demanding in their cries.

I wouldn’t trade a minute of what I do every day for any other job. These babies are the best thing that could ever possibly happen to us, and though life has totally changed, it is so much for the better. Austin is an excellent husband and father, and still manages to stay afloat in his ridiculously difficult dental classes whilst being awoken several times a night by crying babies. Some milestones I just had to document:

12/01/11: Jocelyn rolled over from belly to back. We didn’t try again for about a week and a half, but then she did it again and again!

12/28/11: Jackson finally rolled over from belly to back while we were in El Dorado Hills, CA for Christmas.

12/11: Sometime in December they both started smiling. It was so very cute and rewarding. Jackson smiled a little bit more at first, but now at 5 months they are pretty even.

2/12: They both started grabbing at their toys on the playmat. Awesome.

3/12: The ultimate extended laughing out loud from Jocelyn. CUTEST THING EVER.

October 2011: The twins finally arrived! Wednesday October 12 I made this gourmet lasagna dinner complete with dessert for our next door neighbors, and that put me into labor :) I was really nervous and the contractions were 8 minutes apart that whole night. Thursday night the contractions were 4-5 min. apart and we went to the hospital! They sent me away because I wasn't progressing and told me to come back when it hurt more :) Saturday morning, October 15, they hurt a lot! I finally got out of bed at 6 am and told Austin now was the time and we had to go to the hospital now! We quick took showers and made it by 7 am to the hospital where I found out my water had broken (I was like 50% sure it had...) and so they let me stay :) By 10 am I wasn't progressing fast enough so they put me on Pitocin....and oh boy do contractions hurt on Pitocin! I was proud of myself for making it to 4 cm without an epidural, but then I got it and life was so much more pleasant after that. I felt like it was candy, it was great. At 7 pm I was wheeled into the operating room and at exactly 7:30 our little Jackson James was born at a hefty 5 lbs. 7 oz! They cleaned him up and I got to hold him for like 2 seconds before I had to give him back and work on getting Jocelyn into this world. Poor Jackson had breathing troubles when he was born. His breaths became more and more laborious, with his nostrils flaring and stomach muscles trying to help with exhaling. The following comes from Austin who was in the infant prep room with Jackson: “I said a quick prayer, then asked the nurse if I could give him a blessing.  With the oxygen mask on his face and the nurse watching, I blessed Jackson that he would begin to be healthy, breathe better, and grow up to be a strong man.  Immediately after the blessing, Jacksons labored and grunted breathing eased.  It was a miracle.”  He still was fragile and needed to have tests, so he was sent to the NICU unit for a couple days.  32 minutes after Jackson had been born, Jocelyn finally decided to grace us with her presence.  Usually twins come out about 5 minutes apart, but Jocelyn just loved the new space.  She had the jacuzzi all to herself now and she was relishing every moment to stretch out and eat all the vitamins she wanted before coming out into the cold outside.  She came and yelled a very high pitched and cute squeal, announcing her presence to the world.  She was a tiny 4 pounds 7 ounces and was by far the smallest and cutest baby girl in the whole nursery.  She was surprisingly healthy enough that I was able to hold her right away, and she didn’t need any special treatment.  I didn’t get to see Jackson at all until 1 o’clock in the morning, after I was disconnected from everything, settled into my room, and had Jocelyn in the nursery.  Jocelyn was dubbed the “little peanut” by the attending nurses, and this name has stuck.  Jackson was the cutest little boy too, and had a million tubes and sensors on his body.  They gave him an IV in his right hand and taped it up with a splint that took up his whole arm.  The thing flopped around as we held him, and I’m sure it was building him a nice bicep.  He had an oxygen mask on for the whole first night, but hated it so bad.  He arched his back and screamed with a red face for hours.  It was awful, and we cried for our little boy who was in so much discomfort.

After 3 days in the hospital I was so excited to go home! We got to take both babies (Jackson was discharged from the NICU after 48 hours but had to stay in the hospital an extra 24 hours), and they were so cute and teensy in their carseats! For the first week after we got home, Jackson arched his back a ton and was super restless in his sleep. I wonder if it was carry-over from his NICU experience. Jocelyn was so still and quiet I would have to put my hand on her to make sure she was breathing.

                                                       2 weeks old first walk outside

                                                          Jackson after 1st bath

                                                    Teensy peanut in the tub

                                       Happy Halloween! (They're gonna hate us later for this one)

                                                      Grandmama is in love at 1st and 2nd sight

                                              Jocelyn:  "I didn't ask for this for Christmas."
                                        Jackson: "Hey don't complain, you look better than me!"

                                                             2 months old with Harry

                                     A Rarity! Simultaneous smiles caught on camera! (4 1/2 months)

           A moment to remember: March 2, 2012 Jackson and Jocelyn were held up by Mitt Romney at a rally at CSU. Pictures and video later followed on abc news, fox news, obamadiary.com, and other websites :)

                                                             Blessing day 11/27/11

September 2011: Austin continued to study very hard at Dental School (he is at Case Western University) and continued fix ups on the home. We did lots of fun things even though I was enormously pregnant. At 32ish weeks we went to a Cleveland Indians game (Austin's first MLB game ever), at 33 weeks we went bowling (I looked like an awkward penguin), at 35 weeks we played football and frisbee in the park, and all the other times in between I was relaxing at home watching Netflix or running errands :)

                                                    33 weeks pregnant apple picking in the rain

                                                                       34 weeks

                                                                    31 weeks

                                                                  30 weeks

Almost a Year in Review

Well the time has come that I finally have a little bit of time to update our blog! I find that the task seems daunting, because so much has happened, but I will start at the beginning and just do a brief synopsis and hopefully I will be caught up in no time! 

July-August 2011: We moved into our house in Cleveland, OH! Austin did a ton of fix up work on the house: painted almost every wall, knocked out the whole kitchen, tore out the grimy carpet, tile, and woodwork from the basement, and lots of other things. Our redone kitchen looks oh so much better and I got it all decorated thanks to the help of my family that came out in August to help!

                                                                      Our house!

                                                                Babies' room

                                                               Jocelyn's bow board

                                                                    Garage and lawn

                                                                  Our Balcony

Singing in Maine...and other adventures :)

I'm currently in Maine at the Atlantic Music Festival! It's been a really fun experience performing several times a week, refining my performance craft, and improving technically as an opera singer. I miss Austin a lot, and he has done so many amazing things while I've been away. Last week he went to Cleveland, found a house, and signed the papers to get the keys and officially close on it when we move out there July 26th! He is amazing and has had to deal with so many technicalities that go into buying a house. This week Austin has been packing up the apartment in Utah with the help of our amazing ward. I can't believe all this has happened since I've been away! My baby bump has definitely gotten bigger since I have been in Maine (pictures soon to follow). It's amazing the size difference of just 2 weeks! I have loved the experience here but will love being united with my Austin soon.

 I walked for graduation in April 2011, (I officially graduate in August 2011), and Austin graduated April 2010, but this is our official gradumacation picture! YAY!

Senior Recital, 29 April, 2011. All the family got to come down and see it!

Austin and I snowboarding in January. I'm a lot better now. Austin is awesome. My first experience was a little rough, but I have much improved since then :)

Some of our favorite pictures together...We are very much in love :)

We're having twins! One boy and One girl!

Well we had our 20 week routine ultrasound last week Friday (June 24th), and it turned out to be anything but routine! We had expected to just find out the gender of our baby, but when the nurse said "well, there's one head, and there's another" I was totally shocked! I instantly burst into tears out of shock and motherly hormones and my first words I think were "shut up, shut up, you're joking" and Austin jumped up and looked at the screen and took off his hat and was like "what! no way!". He broke into a huge smile and as I was still crying we took in the news that we were in reality having twins. There were two distinct heads in there, as well as two placenta's, two amniotic fluids, etc. We're having fraternal twins we discovered, and we first discovered one of them is a boy. Austin jumped up and said "Yes! We get to play football, and basketball, and volleyball, and baseball!" The nurse could tell he was a little excited that he got the boy he so wanted. We were so excited when we discovered our second little one is a girl! Both are healthy and have 4 chambers in their hearts, perfect sized brains, and everything else. Our goal now is to keep them that way! Right now our little boy is 1 day ahead of schedule at 11 oz, and our girl is 2 days behind schedule at 10 oz, both of which are totally normal. The average for one baby at 20 weeks is 10.5 ounces, so they are perfect! Right now we are just getting used to the fact of twins, and I'm trying to eat and rest for 3 now! Things are going great and we couldn't be happier!