Life of a Tally Mom

Twin Pregnancy: 26 Weeks Update

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Tally Mom

I am barely 26 weeks pregnant as of yesterday. I had an OB apt on Monday, which instilled in me feelings of anxiety and nervousness. I don’t know why I feel that way before OB apt but I do.
I met with another midwife in the practice. Midwife Sheridan was very nice and had a great sense of humor. She made me laugh several times during the appointment, which helped calm my nerves.
I have gained 1/2 a pound since my last appointment 4 weeks ago. I am so proud of that, and of the fact that my blood pressure was perfectly normal. Leaving the kids at home( or with other caregivers) during OB appointments helps insure I don’t stress out in the waiting room. Less stress means this mama is calm. A calm mama means normal BP rates.
Everything in general looked fine. No swollen ankles this appointment, Yay!
Midwife Sheridan measured my belly, the numbers are sort of meaningless since I am carrying twins, but it’s protocol. If I were carrying a singleton pregnancy I would be measuring 37 weeks. That is a full 11 weeks ahead of the babies real development. This explains that despite still being in my second trimester, I become tired after awake for more than 6 or 7 hours at a time. Not chasing kids and running a household for 7 hours…Oh no no no. Just being awake for 7 hours. If I chase kids or do any house chores I am tired in 2 hours and have to sit down and take a break.
I nap everyday, even if just for a short time. If I know the kids are well cared for by someone else (husband, my mom, friend etc) and I can truly relax. Then my naps tend to be very long. Today I napped for nearly 3 and a half hours. From about 3pm till nearly 6:30pm. Needless to say, my body was tired………… I am always tired.

A good friend just had a baby two weeks ago and today I had the privilege of meeting him. He is the cutest thing I have ever seen. My daughter held him too. You could tell she is ready to cuddle and snuggle the two sisters that are headed her way. Her brother on the other hand could care less. He wanted nothing to do with the visiting baby and acted jealous. I tried to explain that this baby was just like him only smaller. They both had a nose, toes, legs, arms and eyes. He was not convinced. Oh well….maybe in a few more months he will be more receptive.

It’s funny how our minds work, what we choose to remember and what memories are squashed or lost in a sea of sleeplessness and hormones. I remember both births well. I can recall hours of nursing, but holding my friend’s baby today made me realize just how much I had forgotten. My youngest child is only 21 months old. It has been less than 2 years since there was a newborn in my life, but seeing this brand new baby reminded me of just how fragile newborns are…how tiny……how much they sleep….how they have that “freshly baked baby” smell. In a few more months I will have two “freshly baked” babies to smell, cuddle and love. I am looking forward to it so much. I hope I remember more this time.

Posted in Twin Pregnancy | Tagged Twin Pregnancy | Leave a comment

Rainbow Stick Letters

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Tally Mom

I found these rainbow-colored craft Popsicle sticks at my local craft store. They were an impulse buy, I admit. But once in the car driving home, I realized that they could be useful for the transitional time between dinner and bed. Typically I let the kids play quietly, perhaps watch a few minutes of TV, anything to keep them calm and happy before the bedtime craziness ensues.

Both my kids enjoyed playing with them, though in their own way. My son lined them up by color, put them in and out of his mug and even snapped a few in half. My daughter counted them as she put them in and out of her mug, she configured them into shapes and letters and sorted them by color. Each child tackled the task in their own way, and on their own educational level.

80 rainbow colors craft Popsicle sticks ($1.99) + 2 large coffee mugs (Free)

= 30 min creative play + 10 min letter practice + 5 min counting practice

I would say that two dollars was a wise investment so far. I know there is more rainbow stick letters in our future.

Posted in Homeschooling Ideas | Tagged Homeschooling Ideas | Leave a comment

Silent Saturday

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Tally Mom

Posted in Raising Kids | Tagged Garlic, Housework, Onions, Silent Saturday | 1 Comment

Feeling Grateful

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Tally Mom

I am grateful for…..

New Floors! Bought with tax refund money and installed by friends with TallyDad’s help. They make the house look like a brand new space.
New Paint on the Walls! Between my mom and my husband the walls were painted in the 24 hours leading up to the new floor install. They look amazing. We went with a color called Light French Grey.
The Ability to Give Back. I made a few meals and delivered them to friends and their families last week. It made me feel good to give back in the way that only a hot meal can.
Afternoon Naps. Like manna from heaven, an afternoon nap is essential to my sanity now. Usually TallyDad is home by the late afternoon and encourages me to nap around 4pm. After getting an hour or two of shut-eye, I can then tackle bedtime with a bit more patience.
My Father. Also known to my children as “Grandpa”, he has committed to coming over a few times a week in the evenings, helping me get caught up with laundry, and cleaning my kitchen. He is amazing! It feels so good to wake up to a clean kitchen in the morning. I am so grateful for his kindness and ability to see where my housekeeping skills are weak and in need of help, and to fill that need. I know one day I will not be this tired or pregnant and will not need so much help. But for now I am grateful and accept every offer of help with a genuine smile and a “Thank you!”
TallyDad. With patience and perseverance, and a healthy dose of humor, my husband has navigated this “crazy” pregnancy with me and lived to tell about it. Hang in there hun, only 17 more weeks and then things will really get rough!
My Son. Who this week has shown me the true meaning of determination. Nothing stops this kid from doing whatever he has set his mind to do. Nothing. Not even if I tell him “no” and repeatedly intervene .
My Daughter. Who has willingly started sharing her room, and occasionally even her bed with her younger brother. She actually enjoys the company at night. Comments such as “Can he sleep in bed with me? I won’t let him be lonely, I will be there for him.” warm my heart and reaffirm my notion that the relationship between siblings is a magical thing.

Posted in Life is an Adventure | 1 Comment

Silent Saturday

Posted on April 21, 2012 by Tally Mom

Ever fallen asleep while reading? Our son has.

Posted in Raising Kids | Leave a comment

Our Happy Love Story

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Tally Mom

Today is our 5 year wedding anniversary. Five years of wedded bliss has elapsed so quickly. Seems like just yesterday we were saying hello to each other for the first time.

This is a short-version of our love story:

We met while in college. We were both working to put ourselves through school and had found jobs at the same location that would accommodate our separate class schedules. We starting talking in the break room one day and discovered that we both loved books, and were attending the same college. In a few short weeks, we were dating, walking each other to class on campus, and meeting up to chat during break-time at work. We dated for less than a year when we both knew that we wanted to be together for the rest of our lives. We dated a total of two years, then he proposed. I said “YES!” and then proceeded to literally jump up and down with happiness. We were engaged for one year, while we planned a wedding. We both graduated from college and I was hired as a teacher. He was promoted to assistant manager. He also went through RCIA during this time and became a Catholic. We were married in the church (that I grew up in) on April 21, 2007. We had a big (for us) wedding and honeymooned in London. We were deliriously happy.

In October of that year we found out we were expecting our first child.
We bought a house together and were glad to no longer have the restrictions of apartment living. Our daughter was born in June of 2008. Life with baby was difficult, as we worked opposite shifts and were both sleep deprived and saw very little of each other. When our daughter was one years old, I found a part-time job with a better schedule. We cut expenses and learned to live on less, so that we would have more time together as a family. We were happy.

We found out we were expecting again in November of 2009, and our son was born in August of 2010. My husband resigned from the company he had worked at for 11 years to take a position with better pay, greater benefits and different hours at another company. I quit my job and became a stay-at-home mom to our two kids, our son was 5 months old, our daughter was 2 and half years old. We were happy.
Our relationship blossomed and we discovered that the more time we spent with each other the deeper in love we became. I saw him grow into an amazingly hard-working, patient and compassionate father and he watched me change into a mom who gives her all to her children.

We found out we were expecting again in December of 2011, and decided this would be our last child. Little did we know we would get a “bonus baby”. At our 18 week ultrasound we discovered that we were in fact expecting twins. We were shocked but happy.

We have been a couple for eight years and married, as of today, for five years. As I tell our love story for the world to read, I realize that through all the ups and downs that life gave us, we remained happy because we had each other.

Posted in Life is an Adventure | 2 Comments

22 Weeks with Twins: A Pregnancy Update

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Tally Mom

Disclaimer: This post contains details about my pregnancy.

For those of you who would rather not read all that please check back here tomorrow. I will be blogging about homeschooling.
Thanks!

As for the rest of you, here is my 22 week twin pregnancy update:

With bittersweet feelings I headed to my first OB appointment today. After soliciting my former midwife, friends and relatives for advice on which OB practice to choose, I finally made a decision and picked one.

My records were transferred from my midwife to the new OB’s office, but apparently the nurse who did my intake didn’t know how to read the charts, she asked me 1,001 questions, most of which she already had the answers to in her hand.
Literally in her hand.
She held my faxed-over chart in her lap the entire time she was doing my “first apt intake”. I refused about 20 tests, shots and “the doctor likes to do these on everyone” type of things. All of which was in my CHART, had she just read it. Sigh. So frustrating…
I kept my cool the whole time. I can practice patience when I need to. I am sure by the time she escorted me to the small exam room where I would meet the OB, she was mumbling under her breath “crazy crunchy twin lady”.

Much to my delight, I didn’t see the OB, I saw a midwife. Yes! A midwife! They have 3 midwifes in this practice (part of the reason I chose it) and from what the midwife I met today said, typically mamas meet with the midwifes at routine appointments. Heck yeah! I told her I would prefer a midwife anyway, and would prefer if at all possible to keep the OB at bay for as long as possible. She told me they ‘consult’ with the 3 OBs in the practice, BUT help the majority of mamas bring babies into the world without the OB in the room. Midwife Jane (We will call her Jane, because that is her name) told me she herself is a twin, and that she has experience delivering twins. She even said that she has seen many twin mamas give birth without the need for a C-section. This filled me with hope.

Midwife Jame measured me, and I measured the equivalent of a singleton pregnancy at 30 weeks. I am only 22 weeks. There are TWO babies in there folks! Four legs, four arms, two heads, two bodies, 2 umbilical cords, 2 amniotic sacks, 2 placentas…all taking up precious real estate space in my rapidly expanding belly. This explains why I am already huge. Why I feel many of the symptoms now that I only felt around the beginning of the third trimester with my other two pregnancies. Symptoms such as all-over fatigue, waddle-walk, ankles that swell if standing or walking for long periods, inability to see my feet, non-stop hunger, difficulty picking up and holding my curren children for extended periods, non-stop thirst, and chapped lips. I am slowing down day by day. Most days I am beat by 2pm, and in need of a nap or at least a few hours to lay down in my bed and rest.

I have gained between 10 and 11 pounds so far which puts me right on track with where I need to be. I was already quite heavy before getting pregnant so I am advised to gain no more than 35 pounds this go round. Not 34 pounds per baby, nope. 34 pounds total. I know it will be hard, but ~~I think I can do it. I know I will do it.~~ I will do it anyway.

Did I mention I was without either of my current 2 kids the entire time? Good friends in our homeschool co-op let me drop my daughter off, and acted like her surrogate mamas for that school day. My husband and my father (Grandpa!) watched my son. I went by myself, and enjoyed a few moments without a preschooler or toddler in tow. That definitely helped when it came time to take my blood pressure. My blood pressure was normal. Completely normal. Yay! Must be all that healthy eating, being without kiddos and using the ‘big-arm cuff’ to take my blood pressure that did the trick.

The babies heart beats sounded good, and they made their presence known by kicking and moving while Midwife Jane was trying to get heartbeat readings with the doppler. I have an ultrasound in 2 days and my hope is that this will be the last ultrasound for at least another 6 weeks. I refuse to get routine ultrasounds just because I am carrying twins. An ultrasound every 4 weeks, then 3 weeks, then 2 weeks? Um, no thank you. I think 2 more, after the one this week will be plenty. My babies are not at risk for twin-to-twin transfer syndrome (they don’t share a placenta, cords or a sac), so all this extra monitoring to track growth seems excessive to me.

In other baby news….

A good friend snagged a used crib from another mama’s garage sale for us. We have 2 children and have never owned a crib before. The purpose of this crib is two fold. First, we now have a crib we can sidecar to our master bed. I have never used this method, and am excited about having enough room for both babies to sleep close to me at night. Second, I like that the babies will not grow out of it as quickly as a arms-reach co-sleeper, or a basinette.
That wraps up my 22 week twin pregnancy update. Want to hear more?
Keep checking back for more posts as these babies continue to grow.

Posted in Twin Pregnancy | 5 Comments

For the Love of Sleep

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Tally Mom

For the Love of Sleep

Oh Sleep, I miss you so

Without you I am useless, in dire need of a cup of Joe

For years I loved to share you with my husband nose to nose

Then with my children and their tiny hands and tiny toes

Until little limbs betrayed me poking into every curve and bump and bone.

I want to bask in your calm glory until the morning light is shone

My mind no longer stops in wonder, and recharges in your glow

You no longer force yourself upon me, making my surrender rather slow

Late nights are my quiet time, to think and read and knit

But I miss a good beginning for the day, I miss that quite a bit.

I resolve to meet you often Sleep, as much as possible I think

Perhaps dressed in new pajamas, not in blue but in bright pink.

Posted in Raising Kids, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

“Let me just finish this row”

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Tally Mom

My twin pregnancy belly makes me waddle when I walk, makes me pee frequently and contributes to an all-over whole-body tired 24/7. Accordingly, I have had to scale back my activity level. Knitting is the perfect balance of repetitive calm and intellectual stimulation that I need now. The great thing about this addiction is that all the time spent knitting is not “wasted” time. The result is something useful.

In an attempt to use up my entire yarn stash, before purchasing more, I have started knitting in earnest.

I sit, knit, and watch Netflix in the evenings, after the children have gone to bed.

I knit in the morning, if I can catch a few minutes without a child on my lap.

If the children fall asleep in their car seats during the ride home or on our way to run errands, I merely pull into our driveway or store’s parking lot and let them nap. I listen to NPR and knit.

My knitting is always with me….stashed in the recesses of my enormous purse that doubles as a diaper bag.

I even knit on the sandy beach of our local lake last week. While leaving said beach, I comically waddled away trailing a rapidly unwinding ball of bright blue yarn behind me.
Yes, I am addicted. No, I am not ashamed.

Care to share what’s in your knitting basket?

Posted in Frugal Living, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

A Food Garden Update

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Tally Mom

As the title suggests this post is about our food garden. If plants and gardening are boring subjects to you, feel free to exit now and visit again tomorrow.
Maybe knitting is more your style? If so, tomorrow’s post is perfect for you!

This spring, due to a milder than usual winter, I was able to get started on both typical spring plants and summer seedlings at the same time.

Currently our food garden consists of 2 small (4×4) raised beds, 1 large (8×8) raised bed (of which I have only planted a fourth of it) and 1 large plastic tub.

Here’s an update on our garden as of Easter 2012.

Raised Bed #1 (8×8) contains:

1 yellow bell pepper plant
1 red bell pepper plant
2 cucumber plants
2 short rows of cauliflower seedlings. (I know these are out of season, but my daughter wanted to plant something, and at the time this was the only kind of seed I had available.)
3 watermelon seedlings
2 sunflower seedlings

Raised Bed #2 (4×4) contains:

1 sweet onion plant
2 rows of HUGE green onion plants (No matter how many we eat and give away, we still have TONS!)
5 elephant garlic plants
2 rows of white potato plants

Raised Bed #3 (4×4) contains: