A Picnic in the Park....

Our Memorial Day weekend started out at Heritage Park with some of our dearest and best friends, the Davis'. Chuck and Jill pretty much set Eric and I up on our "first date" 11 years ago...who knew we would end up married? So they are the reason for these babies! HA! When Graham and Evie Claire both start crying at the same time I should start calling them! :) Jill was also in the operating room with me and Eric when G and EC were born. She took all those amazing pictures for me!! Without her I wouldn't have had a clue what all was going on in that room! 

Anyway, their kids, Alex and Mallory hadn't been properly introduced to Graham and Evie Claire yet. When I was pregnant I would ask Alex what was in my belly and he would say "BABIES." I would then ask him how many and he would say "TWO!" 

Mallory meeting EC for the first time....She was a little unsure at first...

Alex meeting Graham....he wanted to share his juice with them and for G and EC to swing with him! 

Jill and Chuck with EC and G.....

Trying to get a picture of all 4 of them was easier than I thought....

That was our first of 3 picnics this weekend! Graham and Evie Claire are partying hard their first Memorial Day! Remember, this weekend while you are grilling your hamburgers and hot dogs how many men and woman gave their lives for our country so that we have the freedom to picnic with our loved ones! 

We have lift off...

So big advancements this week in the Kittle house...Evie Claire pushed up and Graham rolled over (from his back to his stomach). I layed EC on her belly the other day and she just pushed up on her own...I, of course, grabbed the camera....She will do it a few times and then she gets mad and starts to squeal. Notice in the background Graham just lays on his stomach...no attempts to push up. I am sure he is thinking "why bother...it's too much work." 

Last night, however, Eric and I witness his first big roll over from his back to his stomach. It took some effort and when he finally got over he just layed there like he was worn out. 

We are also sitting up in our Bumbo's! Whoever invented these things are a genius! EC is a little better at holding her head up than Graham but he will get there soon. He is already doing a lot better. When they are both holding their heads up well we will be starting rice cereal!!! 

Wait, where did you come from???

It has been a fun past couple of weeks....EC and G are just now starting to notice each other...they look at each other and smile and the other day Graham reached for Evie Claire's face.....then her ear, and her hair! I am so excited to see the relationship develop between the two of them!

Spring Chicks....

Stephanie, at Ila Grace Designs sent me some little chick hats for Graham and Evie Claire to model. How cute did this turn out? To see more of my little models click HERE. 

Happy Mother's Day!

Last Mother's Day I sat and wondered if I would ever become a mom. Almost 3 weeks later I found out I was pregnant....and 2 weeks after that I found out it was twins! What a difference a year can make! Appropriately on Mother's Day this year we dedicated Graham and Evie Claire to the Lord at church. It was raining and nasty outside and would have been easy to say "oh, let's just not get the babies out and stay home" which I am sure that is what the devil wanted us to do. But we made it...it was a long morning but totally worth it!! Earlier in the week we attended a meeting at church about baby dedication where we were given the spiritual meaning of our child's name and the corresponding Bible verse. How perfectly appropriate each verse and it's meaning fits Graham and Evie Claire to a T. 

Graham: 

Spiritual Meaning: Generous

Supporting Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:13... "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

Evie Claire:

Spiritual Meaning: Full of Life

Supporting Scripture: Psalm 16:11..."You make known to me the path of life;in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

So, here are a few pictures from the dedication.... (excuse my painfully white legs....when looking for a dress I should have picked a longer one and one that did not require ironing....after wrestling the rain and G and EC all morning there was no point in even ironing it).

And here are a few pictures of me with my little munchkins....

Evie Claire was supposed to have on a headband with a little bow on it so you could tell who was the girl since they were wearing the same gowns....however she decided she didn't like it and cried when I put it on her.....

Happy Mother's Day!!

Graham and Evie Claire got me a beautiful Pandora necklace with my birthstone in the center and their birthstone on each side! I think their daddy might have had a little hand in it as well....

Happy 4 Months!!!

Graham:

You are laughing a lot

You enjoy being outside on the deck

You have started scooting from the bottom of your crib to the top in the middle of the night

You are reaching for the giraffe on your bouncy seat but have no depth perception to actually get him. 

You went to church for the first time

You went to a restaurant for the first time-Sweet Pepper's Deli

You are sleeping through the night.

You are getting better at holding your head up

Evie Claire: 

You are smiling and cooing

You are starting to laugh

You have found your hands and are constantly chewing on them or staring at them

You sleep with your hands behind your head

You went to church for the first time

You went to a restaurant for the first time-Sweet Pepper's Deli

You have found your ears and like to pull on them

You have finally started wearing 0-3 month clothing

You are holding your head up

We're all VOL!

Football spring training is in full effect and Graham and Evie Claire are already geared up and ready for some Big Orange Football!!! When fall gets here they will be big enough to hold my pom poms and cheer....or hit us in the head with them....I vote for the latter. Their daddy was none to keen on this picture but when he's away the VOLS will play! :)

Sunday, Sunday...

Yesterday was our first Sunday back at church WITH the babies. We braved Sunday School only and took them with us instead of putting them in the nursery. They did great! Here are a few pictures...

Nutrition.....Interrupted

Warning: I am going to talk about breastfeeding in this blog....if it wierds you out in any way then you probably don't want to read this (because I wouldn't have wanted to read about someone else's nursing issues before I became a mom).

We hit a little bit of a "snafu" 2 weeks ago. But first let me say that I had to Google the world snafu because I am anal about spelling and I had NO idea what it stood for!!! It's pretty crude. I don't think I will be using it in my vocabulary too much anymore. You should Google it if you don't get offended easily! OK, anyway so 2 weeks ago on a Tuesday I had to go to court to testify in an old case (in which they found the defendant not guilty after he confessed...anyway that is for another crime scene blog from my former life that I could spend years writing..Eric always says I should write a book about my crime scene/autopsy/working with child molester days...maybe I will do that in all my free time!). Anyway Eric came home from work to watch the babies while I went to court. On the way home I called him and he said that Graham had been so fussy the whole time I was gone. Granted, Graham is definitely a fussier baby but not as bad as what Eric was telling me. It continued ALL week long. He was NOT happy....by Friday I was at my wits end. And at this point Evie Claire had chimed in and was just as fussy, which is when I knew something was wrong because she is the most content child. On Friday night we weigh both of them just to make sure they are gaining weight. So we weighed them that week and neither one of them had gained any weight. Graham was at 8 lbs 6 oz and Evie Claire was at 7lbs 4 oz. I called our pediatrician, Dr. Stephanie, on Saturday morning and told her what was going on and she wanted me to bring them in. Thank goodness she works on Saturdays and she has twins so that is one reason why we chose her. They weighed them and sure enough Graham was the same weight on her scales and EC was an ounce less at 7 lbs 3 oz. Dr. Stephanie said they were in the 5th percentile for weight and that they need more calories. They should be gaining 5-7 ounces per week at this point and taking about 4-5 oz of breast milk each feeding. The thing about breastfeeding is there is no way to gauge what each child is getting. They said a breastfed baby is getting enough if they are content and gaining weight....which neither of mine were doing at that time. Her suggestion was to nurse them and then follow up with a bottle of a couple of ounces of frozen breast milk until I depleted my frozen supply and then add in formula. I did this for 2 days and it was too much. We were back to square one with it taking over an hour to feed them. Eric was able to help me since it was the weekend so I would nurse and hand him one of the babies for him to bottle feed. But when Monday came around it was going to take a while. So Monday I decided that I would just start pumping and giving them bottles. That way I knew how much they were getting each feeding. It was working out MUCH better. Graham was taking about 4.5 oz and EC was taking around 4 oz. I weighed them this past Monday and Graham was up to 9 lbs 3.5 oz and EC was at 8 lbs! EC finally made the transition to 0-3 month clothing at 3.5 months! So the last couple of weeks have been a little crazy but I finally have my happy, content babies back and they are off their baby Weight Watchers program that I didn't even know they were on in the first place.
It took me about 6 weeks to build up my stash of frozen breast milk...I had the whole sidebar of my freezer chest full of milk.......and sadly, it took me about 5 days to deplete the stash!!!!!!  Now they are getting about 3 bottles of breast milk a day and 2 bottles of formula. I have to admit the first feeding that I had to give them formula I cried. I felt like I had failed some how as a mom and meeting the nutritional needs of my children but then I stop and tell myself that I do have twins and most twin moms don't nurse at all and a lot of them don't produce enough milk. So I was lucky and fortunate to solely nurse them for a little over 3 months. They got breast milk during the most crucial time of their life so I think I did pretty good.

So let me say this.....breast feeding is not easy, well at least it wasn't for me. For all the women out there who have a baby and they just latch on the first feeding, say a prayer of thanks. Maybe I had a hard time because mine were preeemies, maybe I didn't know what I was doing....I don't know. Maybe it's because I have a set of twins.....but I did not enjoy breastfeeding. I will say that I think I would have enjoyed it much more if I was just nursing one. But nursing one baby while the other one is screaming because they are hungry too is not enjoyable. You have to do what is best for your baby and for mom's sanity, I have learned.  My love language is "Words of Affirmation" so I needed someone to tell me what I was doing wasn't working...I got that affirmation at the doctor. And from the help of a few wonderful friends! :) One thing I have learned since becoming a mom is that everyone has an opinion on being a mom! But in reality the only opinion that matters is Graham and Evie Claire's! And I think now, they think I am doing a pretty good job!