going private again...need your email addresses

We don't want to exclude anyone, but as a new mommy I am nervous about putting all the details up for ANYONE to read and at the same time don't want to leave anything out. So before I do we're gonna go private on the blog. Friends and family and friends of family of our friends and family are all invited to give us your email addresses and we'll add you to the blog. (just leave it in the comments OR email me at saralaclaire@gmail.com)

I am anxious to give you the details. What a miracle we experienced! Our little babies are so perfect and wonderful. We are so happy to have them in our family. Truly, thank you to everyone for all of your love and support and thoughts and prayers and well-wishes. We hope you will all get a chance a to meet our little angels.

love,

Sara & Joel

ps. if you were on our blog when we were "private" last time, you should still be in our system & i won't need your email again. :D

A Few More Pics

Here are a couple more pictures that we took of the babies. Thank you all for the comments, Sara hasn't had a chance to see our blog since before the delivery. But I'm sure she will be the one to give you the "play by play." She has been anxious to let people know what happened. Again, thank you for all the sweet comments, phone calls and visits. We appreciate your prayers.

Isaac and Scarlett

So here they are! Both babies are doing good and though Mom is a little sore she is also doing great!

little tiny feet...

...hanging out of my cervix! yes, that is what dr. judd found today at my appointment. he made a comment like, "i'm just trying to push this foot back in" and i laughed thinking he has such a funny sense of humor. but no, it turns out Scarlett, who continues to be breech, has figured out she can get more leg room if she just sticks her foot outside of the uterus. i didn't even know that was possible. anyway, we are just waiting for my water to break or contractions to get intolerable. hopefully my water breaks first. i'm dilated to a 4. dr. judd said he would bet on sometime before this weekend. :D

Mollie Jane Photography special!!!!

For the months of January and February Mollie Jane Photography is offering free family portrait sessions. Don't miss out on this amazing deal!

The Fine Print: The session has to be during January or February and on a weekday (Monday thru Friday). And a $25 travel fee will be applied if the location is 20 miles or more away from Redlands.

Hello! This is an incredible opportunity for anyone looking to get family pictures done. As you know, Mollie is one of my absolute favorites and just fantastic with the camera. I wish I was in CALI since this is perfect timing for me to get new family pictures.

maternity shots

the boys were really great during this photo shoot and we got some cute, fun pics. all 3 of these boys are excited and anxious to meet scarlett & isaac! (of course mama is too)

some of the things i bought this pregnancy

this is one of medela's nursing bra. it's has no underwire and is a sportsbra style. you can hook & unhook it with one hand. it's pretty stretchy and comfy. my only complaint is that it comes up pretty high in the back so it's visible under many shirts BUT it's comfy & not obviously a bra. it kinda looks like a racerback tank. i also got this on ebay for $26 & free shipping. i've seen it retailed for $35-40 at baby depot. all in all a great deal on the nursing bra especially if you get pretty big up top. i got a large in this one.

this is the girdle i purchased. it's different than the one i bought with miles which did not come up around the shoulders. but with all that extra skin from my tummy being stretched it had no where to go but up. so this time i got one that smoothed everything even in the back. it has eyelet hooks up the front and then it zips so you can't see the hooks through your shirt or scrape your baby while you're nursing. this was only $24 and shipping was free on ebay. it also snaps at the crotch so you don't have to take the whole thing off when you go to the bathroom. i will be taking this to the hospital and wearing it home. last time i wore my girdle for 3-6 hrs a day or for as long as i could stand. it helps with the muscle memory cause you're forced to suck it in. i bought a small even though my measurements are not "small" but i wanted something that would definitely be tight. i don't think the brand is as important as having the right size and those hooks.

this one i got because my friend nikki blogged about it and it's exactly what i've been looking for. they trim your hips and hide back fat all without hurting your precious preggy tummy. unfortunately i didn't find this gem until i hit about 31 weeks so i haven't worn it all that much but i love it nonetheless. spanx retails these for about $30-35 plus shipping and i got them on ebay for $10 plus shipping. shipping of course is more on ebay but still WAY cheaper than retail.

i already blogged about the bella band which i did use at the beginning of my pregnancy and LOVED it. if anyone else has any maternity/postpartum faves, let me know!

thanks

thanks to everyone for making me feel good about myself. i kinda feel bad about eliciting so many "you look so good" comments but in all honesty, it does make me feel good. so thanks again! to anyone who cares, my 2 secrets that i share freely are body butter and girdles. i am still stretch mark free because this pregnancy i used curel's pregnancy lotion and palmer's tummy butter on a daily basis. i will also be wearing a tight-as-can-be girdle after these babies are born. question it if you want but i did both of these things on the advice of my mother while/after pregnant with miles. i have learned my lesson and listen to my mom. trust me, it works. anyway, here's hoping i get my old body back after these babies. oh! i also firmly believe 9 months in, 9 months out. i don't start to stress about the baby weight being gone until 9 months after. so congrats to those of you who look better than before pregnancy a month later (becky & weedle) or fit into their skinny jeans two months later (kim & jenny) but i'm thinking it will take me at least 9 months (hoping actually).

joel just asked if i'm gonna tie my hips so they go back and the answer is yes. something my japanese family advised on. worked last time.

Miles' first school picture

This was a little Christmas gift from Miles' dad to us. I love this picture and even though I constantly complained about Miles' short hair, I really like it in this picture and am half tempted to cut it short. :D His little crooked smile is sooooo adorable. He really does love the camera. I know I never took a school picture that was ever THIS cute. I might say that's just the mom in me but I don't think so. This kid is handsome! My little boy is growing up! Only 13 more pictures like this to come.

miles gets a fortune

Miles opened a fortune cookie tonight and asked me to read it.
"YOU WILL MAKE A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER"
Miles does this jump in the air and says, "Yeah, you're right!" and then shouts, "For the BETTER!"
Miles, you had me at hello. You are cracking me up today.

please tell me it's all belly

To all those who are sick of seeing my henna tummy on facebook and would like to see me from the side, here it is. I'm 41 inches around and protruding farther than I ever imagined possible. Looking at this picture right now, it doesn't even look real. I remember thinking back at halloween while trick or treating, "how can I get bigger than this?" Well folks, I'm definitely bigger. Tomorrow I will be 33 weeks pregnant. I'll tell you a month ago I was praying that I'd make it this far and that our little babies lungs would have more time to develop. Here I am with one week to go before the doctors won't try and stop labor! It's amazing. I can't believe it. As ready as I am to have my body back (I never really felt the reality of that statement until now and only because I'm really tired of being kicked all day) I'm also a little terrified of what 2 more babies is gonna do to our lives. Joel is back working 5a-12:30p in Salt Lake and going to school Mondays-Thursdays some nights till 7p. He's still doing my little odds and ends jobs around the new place (pictures still to come) and finds time to play with the boys, make pancakes on Sundays and make dinner most nights. What an amazing man! The boys are great and bigger than ever and becoming very independent, but I worry what new babies will do to their worlds. Either way, we all feel very blessed to have each other and look forward to the addition of these cute little angels.

Ps. Scarlett has got the cutest lips I've ever seen in an ultrasound. Isaac was a little too squished to show off any mentionable features. All I can say about him is he's definitely a "he".

explanation

a common phrase in our home is: MOM!!!! come wipe my butt.
yes, this is what it comes down to. my son shouting at me from the bathroom. there is no nice way to put it but the way he says it is even less delicate. oh well, i guess i have posted pictures like this of my son. :D payback sucka!

ps. he has out grown this phase of sitting on the toilet backwards BUT he does have to take off almost all of his clothes to go #2. why?

a routine visit that wasn't so routine

Today was my first visit to the Utah Valley fetal Medicine Dept. At first EVERYONE was confused as to why I had waited sooooo long to come see them but after I explained that our insurance switched with the New Year and we had to change hospitals they all understood. Well, Dr. Gainer was our perinatologist. She was really nice and seemed just as happy about the progression of our babies as Dr. Ball was at Timp. There was a lot of review and all I can say is thank goodness I've kept this blog and a journal during this pregnancy cause I was able to recount most of the happenings from this pregnancy. Scarlett is back in baby A position and breech. The little stinker has got her butt right on top of my cervix. Apparently it's not very likely she'll move so we're probably looking at a c-section. As I go back each week for my non stress test they will do an ultrasound to check fluid levels and at that point check to see if she's breech. Also when I go into labor they'll check to see if she's breech and if so, into the O.R. we'll go. If not, we're game for a vag delivery and more likely than not Dr. Judd will just "reach in and grab the other one out." (A little scary but apparently he's a pro at that.) Anyway, Scarlett is a healthy 4 lbs and should be well over 5 lbs in a month. Isaac is 4 lbs 7 oz!!! That's almost 2 lbs of growth in the last month. I can't even believe it. Dr. Gainer said we would need to make another appt for a month from now but will most like have had the twins by then. Also she said if we are still pregnant she won't let me go past 37 weeks cause it would be too painful so it looks like the first week of February, ready or not, we will have 2 more babies in this house!

Since I am 32 weeks I had my NST appt right after my peri appt and went over and got hooked up to a monitor for Scarlett, a monitor for Isaac and a monitor for contractions. Within 3-5 minutes Scarlett's heartrate drops from the 130s or higher to 80 bpm. I saw it and thought what the heck was that? Well the nurse came right over and said, "You had a contraction. Did you feel that?" No I didn't!!!! And I'm an old pro at contractions at this point and feel things much worse than that almost daily and thought if that thing that I didn't feel made her heartrate drop that much, how much damage are the big ones I do feel doing? Well, the nurse calls Dr. Gainer in and they start talking about an overnight visit at the hospital and do I have someone who can pick up Miles and if her heartrate keeps dropping during contractions we're gonna need to seriously think about having a c-section tonight/tomorrow. At this point I'm trying very heard to fight back the tears. I'm trying to stay calm and just know that the babies are gonna be fine. They take me back to the ultrasound room to make sure Scarlett's umbillical cord isn't wrapped around her neck or anything but they thought that maybe she was sitting on it or holding it. The u/s was fine and both of the cords were in good shape so they moved me to Labor and Delivery. I get changed and set up with a bunch more monitors. The nurse calls Dr. Judd who basically wants me monitored for about an hour and then he'd make some decisions. Long story short the hour goes by and both babies are great so they send me home. That is a little nerveracking cause apparently I won't feel any problems and unless I just stay monitored 24/7 there's not much we can do. So I'm taking it easy, hoping for at least 2 more weeks of pregnancy and just getting ready for these babies to join us.

Miles was with me for this and was a really good boy the whole time. He was a little bored and did have to "wipe his own butt" cause he had to poop and I was strapped up to a bunch of monitors but we both survived. :D