The Needham Family

From babies to toddlers!

2010-03-21T15:53:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been quite a while since the last blog update. It's amazing how quickly time flies by! We can't believe it when we say it, but our little babies turned one year old last month.
What an incredible, crazy, stressful, challenging, and wonderful year we have had. Simply put, it's been the best year of our lives.
So much has changed since the last blog update, I don't really know where to begin. I guess I'll just dive in to it starting with our little boy Mason...

Mason smiles from the time he wakes up to the time he goes to bed! He is ALL BOY!!! Ever since he learned to walk at 11 months, he's been non stop. Everything he can get his hands on gets its structural integrity tested by slamming it against a hard surface. He loves to take apart everything and figure out how every toy works. He's already outsmarted most of the family with his remote control skills, ordering "on demand" movies and recording shows on the DVR. He is so joyful! It's so much fun to watch him discover the world!!!

And then there's beautiful Maddy. What a sweetheart she has become! She walks around talking to herself in baby talk and laughing at herself in the mirror. She is so fascinated with her own reflection we sometimes thinks she would prefer a identical sister. She is our little social butterfly. She loves to interact with everyone. She also loves to learn the dances from her baby videos and walks around singing "EIEIO"

And let me tell you, when she bats her eyes and blows a kiss, the world tilts on its axis. She's our little charmer. She sure has daddy wrapped around her finger.

Here she is watching her video.

Mason playing at the park in his new shoes.

This picture represents both of them really well. Maddy in the spotlight, watching what's going on and Mason in the background trying to put a twig on the head of a bolt in the wood.

And then there's mommy... She's doing good. Five days a week she watches the babies and does most of the day to day things around the house. Her life is full of diapers and bottles, laundry and bills, and trying to stay on top of everything. The payoff comes in the little moments during the day when the babies do something that cracks her up or melts her heart. She's the hardest working woman I've ever seen... and impossible to keep up with.

Two days a week she works at Jenny Craig. She has been there for 7 years now, and she still enjoys it. And it gives her a chance to get out of the house and talk to adults for a while!

As for me... I'm good! I finished the Fire Academy in December and I've been working at Station 62 in Aloha. I've already had some crazy experiences, and seen a lot of interesting things.

I recently passed my first benchmark and I'm about to change fire stations. I'll now be working out of 64, which is the Tanasbourne area. Life as a probationary firefighter is very tough, but it's still wonderful. It's been a great job so far. I work 24 on and 48 off, so I get plenty of time to be home with the family.

Well, I guess that's about it for now. I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into our lives. Thank you for reading! I'll do my best to update a little more often.

God bless,

The Needham Family

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

2009-12-26T17:41:00.000-08:00

The kids first visit to Santa!

The family got to visit daddy at the fire station Christmas Day

The kids with their loot. They really cleaned up for their first Christmas!

What an amazing year it has been in the Needham household! Filled with such an amazing mix of emotion and circumstance. A year with so much change, life disassembled and rearranged. Fatigue, stress, joy and elation all intertwined. What a wonderful way to experience life.

The year started with Amanda in an amount of physical discomfort I can't imagine, carrying two babies to week 36. I was unemployed, having been laid off from the airlines, and sleeping on the couch (because Amanda needed the whole bed). Then life became so much easier after we had the twins...HA! Mason with his acid reflux, and neither of them sleeping for more than a couple hours at a time. Amanda went back to work after a couple months and still breast fed through the night. Daddy was a full time nanny and full time student, along with the much needed help of the grandmas (We can't thank you guys enough).

Then in August, a HUGE break. I got a job with the Fire Department. This would turn out to be not without it's fair share of sacrifice though. The work days were long and exhausting and the weekends were filled with study groups. Amanda had to pick up the slack on the home front. Needless to say we were exhausted. But, along with this chaos came something amazing. And it came in the form of two smiling little faces in the morning. It came as screams of joy when daddy came home from work. It came as the sounds of giggles from the side by side cribs the babies were supposed to be going to sleep in. In one of the most trying times in our lives, the greatest things in our lives were born. We found ourselves torn between days of frustration and days of pure love and joy.

And now we've entered into a new reality. One that involves me being in a new job, with new challenges and experiences. One that involves a new schedule and new hoops to jump through. Amanda and I are having to redefine, once again, what we choose to define as normalcy. We couldn't be more happy venturing into our new life now. Setting it up as if decorating a new house.

It's been a wonderfully challenging year. I'd be lying if I said we were hoping to keep up the turmoil. We'd prefer a quiet 2010, but we'll take whatever life has to hand us.

God Bless everyone in the new year and remember to enjoy your everyday. Take the good and the bad for what it is, and remember that it's all part of a beautiful life.

The Needham Family

Oh, how things change!

2009-12-11T10:32:00.000-08:00

These kids have changed so much since the last update (which was quite a while ago, sorry, life has been very busy) so I thought I would throw a few of our more recent pictures on here.

The kids are crawling all over the place now, and love to wrestle with each other.

Maddy enjoying time with mommy at Gymboree.

We had to little pumpkins for Halloween.

This is the smile Maddy flashes when she gets caught outside the baby gate.

Can't get mad at that!

Mason is such a happy little boy!

Bundled up for a walk.

We love her black tights. They make her legs look so small.

We are so happy watching these kids grow up day by day. There is nothing more enjoyable than watching them laugh at each other and play.

Amanda has done an AMAZING job watching the kids and taking care of all the household chores while I've been in the Fire Academy. She's worked her butt off!

My academy days are down to 2. I get my badge on Tuesday and start first thing Wednesday morning out at Station 62 in Aloha. I'll be there for 3 months and then be moved to another station.

Life keeps trucking along for us, and we're so thankful for our blessings. We hope that you and your family have a very Merry Christmas.

God Bless,

The Needham Family

6 month pictures!

2009-09-09T21:04:00.000-07:00

Simple Pleasures

2009-08-26T21:46:00.000-07:00

Don't you just wish you could get such pure enjoyment and

pleasure out of something as simple as eating peaches?

It's wonderful watching your kids grow and experience
everything in life for the first time. It reminds us to take joy
in the simple pleasures we take for granted every day.
Like the sweet taste of a peach :-)

Month 6

2009-08-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

We're Lovin' our Peaches!

Gearin' up for football season...Go Ducks!!!

Mason is so full of smiles and giggles. The world is so funny to him!

Don't let the picture fool you, he HATES to sleep! This is a rare occasion.

Maddy, on the other hand, is a sleeping pro. And we sure love her for that!!!

She seems to have it all figured out.

Life keeps rolling on around here. The babies are growing and doing great. They both light up our entire world!

I start the Fire Academy in 2 weeks, and Amanda goes to working 2 days a week. We're both excited for the change. For me it's bitter sweet. I've been so blessed to be able to be home with the kids for the first months of their lives, and I know I'm going to miss being with them all the time. They're such a source of joy and I'll miss seeing their sweet smiles or hearing their little laughs all day. On the other hand, I'm excited to get my career rolling again, and to be a provider for our family. Most importantly, I'm excited for Amanda to get to be home with the kids more. I'm happy that she gets to be a full time mommy. I know how good that is for her and the kids.

So, for now, we're just enjoying the next couple weeks for what they are. We find ourselves more and more just living in the moment, and enjoying what we can in whatever situation we find ourselves in on any given day.

Thanks for checking in on us, and God bless

The Needham Family

July update

2009-07-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

I guess I’m a little overdue updating everyone on our lives. A lot has happened since the last update.
First, and most important, are the twins. They are doing great! They just turned 5 months old on the 4th of July. They’re rolling over, grabbing toys, laughing, and starting to entertain each other. They can almost hold their bottles now, and they’re just starting to grab their own pacifiers. For the most part they are still immobile, but we’re not far away from chasing these little ones around the house. As far as sleep goes, they’re doing better. Maddy is our star performer, she sleeps all the way through the night now in her crib. Thank God! Mason usually sleeps in his crib until 2 am. Then he wakes up hungry and sleeps with us for the remainder of the night. He always wakes up at 5:30 am and is done sleeping, and daddy gets to get up and make a big pot of coffee!!! We can’t complain though, we’re getting a lot more sleep than a few months ago.
Some good news; I accepted a position with Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue for a Firefighter/EMT. I start my training September 1st and I’ll be in training for 16 weeks. We feel so incredibly blessed to get this position, considering the economy, and it couldn’t come at a better time, we’re looking forward to the paychecks. Plus, I’m really excited to do the job itself, it’s going to be a lot of fun.
This job also means that Amanda gets to go down to 2 days a week at work starting in September, which is the ideal schedule for her. She’s excited to be home with the kids five days a week and still be able to work a couple days.
In other news, our condo is on the market. We made a contingent offer on a home in Keizer, and we’re hoping to sell soon. We know how slow the market is, however, so we have no illusions of moving anytime soon. We might get this house in Keizer, or we might not be able to sell, and therefore lose it. We’re leaving it up to God. Maybe we’ll be here another year and then buy a home in the Portland area. I’ve learned that the easiest way to make God laugh is to tell him all of your plans.
Well, I think I covered all of the big things. Babies, job, moving, etc. I hope everyone is having a great summer. Don’t wait to enjoy it…it goes by too quickly! Thanks for checking in with the Needhams.
God Bless.

It's all smiles at the Needham House

2009-06-18T15:23:00.000-07:00

This Picture was taken at 6 days old

This one was taken at 4 months... quite a difference!

The kids at their 4 month check up. Clean bill of health! (except for Mason's acid reflux)

For a kid who spits up as much as he does, you can't get him to stop smiling!

A new swimsuit for our little girl, she's ready to hit the pool!

They like to watch us make dinner in the kitchen.

As you can see, they just keep getting bigger! They really are a lot of fun now, giggling and smiling at everything. They talk to each other and smile at one another. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of how well they're doing.

Life continues to roll on by around here. Amanda is working four days a week, and missing the kids every second that she's gone. She's getting ready to turn 28 years old on June 26th. I'm starting to remind her that thirty is just around the corner :-) She, of course, is so happy being a mommy. And it's no surprise that she's very good at it!

I had my interview at Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue and passed. I moved on to the background check along with 22 other candidates. We're competing for 16 positions in the September class, so I stand a pretty good shot. I'll know if I made it on July 8th.

That's the news around here. Thanks for checking in with us!

God bless,

Chris

What's new with us

2009-05-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

We actually have both of the babies down at the moment and I have a second to write. I thought I would give everyone an update on what's going on with the two of us for a change.

First up... Amanda. She's just about to finish up her first month back at work. Things are going pretty well on that front, she enjoys being back at work and seeing all of her clients and co-workers. She desperately misses being home with the babies though. Her first two days of work during the week are tolerable, but by day three she just wants to be with the kids.

She's looking forward to being a bridesmaid in her good friend Julie's wedding in August, and enjoying being part of the planning process with her. She's also getting ready to have a birthday here soon. A month from tomorrow in fact, June 26th!

I've become a full time Mr. Mom, watching the kids through the week with the help of Grandma's and Nana's. I'm also wrapping up a full load of classes I'm taking as pre-reqs to the paramedic program I'm preparing for. This past week I passed the Physical Agility Test for both Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue and the Port of Portland Fire Rescue. I already have a Chiefs interview next week for the Port of Portland, and I'll hear from TVFR this week. They (TVFR) are not going to interview all of those who have passed the PAT, so I'm crossing my fingers and praying I'm selected to continue with the hiring process. The goal is to be hired by a fire department as soon as possible, and, in the mean time, continue working on the Paramedic Certification.

Well, that's the news from us. Everything else is all about the kids. They are growing up so unbelievably fast! We just acquired a camcorder, and I've been recording them non-stop. I'm still working out the kinks, but I hope to have some small video clips on our blog soon. Until then, here's a few more pictures!

Maddy drinking and driving (notice the bottle)

Here she's making sure daddy stays right where she wants me.

Big enough for the bumbo chairs!

2009-05-20T17:01:00.000-07:00

These pictures don't even do justice to how cute these kids are in these chairs!!!

They wobble around smiling in these chairs, and they look sooo funny!

More Cute Pics!

2009-05-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

This is the Mason we know at 6am after being fed. He's such a morning boy!

This is the Maddy we know at 6am after being fed. She looks like such a big girl!

I love Mason's face here! He's watching TV!!! We do everything we can to keep them from watching the TV but they'll crane their neck and contort their body to watch it. In this case, he was being a pill until Grandma gave him a couple minutes of TV time!

More Pictures

2009-05-06T20:21:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Here are some of our pictures of the past few weeks of our lives. Things are going pretty good, we're getting decent sleep most nights, and the babies just keep on growing!

The Babies at the tulip festival in Woodburn.

That's Maddy hangin' out with Auntie at George Rogers park on a warm sunny day in April!

Quincy has learned to deal with the fact that he now has to share mommy.

The little man hangin' out on daddy's lap, check out his cute little toes!

Our little cupcake showing off her beautiful eyes to mommy!

Mason loves the bouncy chairs! We think it's because he can sit up and see what's going on.

These kids make us laugh everyday!

So much has changed!

2009-04-22T15:29:00.000-07:00

Well, another few weeks have past, and things are continually changing. These kids seem to do something new every day. It's amazing to watch them learn and grow! Mason is doing significantly better with his acid reflux. It hasn't gone away by any means, but his medication has limited the frequency and duration of his episodes dramatically.

As you can see, he has moments when he's a pretty happy little camper! He's our little Mr. Intensity... When he's happy, he's all smiles and cooing. When he's upset, he's a little tornado! Watch out! He's developed a special bond with his mommy, and sometimes she's the only one

Who can calm him.

Of course, then we have our little sweet Maddy girl! She's the easy baby! Well, most of the time!

However, when she screams, put some ear plugs in! This little girl can yell!

She has the cutest cry too! It's hard not to laugh a little at how dramatic she can make her cry sound!

Daddy stuck his tongue out at her last week and she thought that was so funny! What cracked us up was when she started doing it too!!! Now she'll instigate the game. We'll be changing her diaper at 2 am after a feeding and she'll stick her tongue out at you and then get this huge smile on her face! It maybe the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life.

Life with them is getting a little more manageable. They're sleeping at night a little more. We'll get 5 hour stretches of sleep pretty consistently, which is like gold to us. We've also figured out some of they're likes and dislikes, which makes life a little easier. Example; Maddy loves her swing while Mason prefers the bouncy chair.

Still, it's difficult raising two! As you can see in the picture below, sometimes you just need more hands!!! I love Mason's face in this picture, he looks like he's saying "What is going on????"

Having two, it's a rare occasion to not have a baby on you. We've been forced to learn how to do everyday tasks with one arm. Amanda hasn't mastered eating spaghetti one handed yet!

Luckily, mason was out cold and never knew what hit'em.

Well, that's it for now. Thanks for checking in with us.

Enjoy your day and God Bless,

The Needham Family

Our pictures are in!

2009-04-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

We have more that we'll post soon...Pretty cute.

SO SO BUSY

2009-04-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

I'm finally updating this after two weeks! We've been incredibly busy!
Well, things are going okay. We have good days and bad days. Mason is feeling better most days now. Every few days he has an episode and chaos ensues for a day or so, but then he calms down and usually has a couple good days. Maddy has become a little more touchy, and can sometimes out scream her brother! We're getting by though!
The good news is that they are both starting to smile at us! You can tell they're trying to talk to you too! When we talk to them they get all excited and start making little cooing noises. Very cute!
They're eight weeks old today, and headed in for their two month checkup! I think they get more shots today :-(
As for Amanda and me, we've been doing well. I've been busy wrapping up my EMT course and starting a full load of classes for spring term. I've also had to finish my clinicals, working in the ER for a 12 hour shift and preparing for my EMT state and national certification tests. Amanda has been breastfeeding twins... enough said! Any waking moment she has without a baby in her hands has been spent keeping the house and the bills in order. Life doesn't care if you've had twins, it keeps going and going, and we have to keep up!
Here are some recent pictures of the babies around the house and a couple from our beach trip last week! I hope everyone has a nice week!

God Bless

Stress and chaos at the Needham household

2009-03-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a couple of weeks for us! Mason developed some issues recently that we've been trying to deal with, and we're still not quite sure what the problem was!

A couple weeks ago we noticed that he was acting strange after we would feed him. He had more spit up than Maddy and he seemed to be in pain. We assumed it was a breastfeeding issue so we went to see a lactation consultant. While we were there, she noticed him spit up little curds. We were told this was a sign of acid reflux so we made an appointment to see our pediatrician. Unfortunately he was out of town (of course) so we saw the on call doc. The next few days were progressively worse! He was clearly in a lot of pain and was having a hard time keeping his milk down. It was so bad he couldn't even sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time without waking up screaming. We were given a prescription by the on call doctor for the reflux (a billing nightmare, not worth getting into). The problem was that this medication took 5 days to kick in! So, needles to say, it was a long 5 days. On the 7 th day nothing had changed, so we headed back to the Doctor. We were able to see our Doctor this time and he prescribed Prevacid, a much faster acting prescription. (hmmm, why not start with that one?). Well, that seemed to work for a day before we had the worst episode yet. It was horrible listening to Mason in such pain. So... after hours of torture we headed into the Emergency Room. 5 hours of him getting an IV, a catheter, blood drawn, an ultra sound, and every other thing under the sun, and they came up with nothing!

So we went back to our pediatrician one more time to come up with a plan. Amanda is now off of all dairy products, and we've tried a different feeding schedule and some hypoallergenic formula. He seems to be doing better today, but we're definitely not out of the woods yet!

Then there's our little miss Maddy. Just as cute as a button and without a care in the world. She's doing great. In fact, we should think about putting this little piggy on a diet! As you can see she's making good use of the bed bed we're not sleeping in!

Oh... parenting is not easy!

Our Pictures

2009-03-06T17:57:00.000-08:00

Okay... I may be biased, but how cute are these pictures!!! We had the twins photographed last week and these are a few of the pictures the photographer put on her website. We get to see the rest of the pictures on the 12th.

Almost a month old!

2009-03-01T17:00:00.000-08:00

We can't believe we're coming up on the one month mark already!

The babies are doing great, eating well and gaining weight. We're attempting to get them to sleep in their crib at night. So far they seem to prefer sleeping with mommy and daddy. It's frustrating when you know they're sooo tired, but they just will not go to sleep in the crib!

Mason seems especially resistant to the whole crib idea. As you can see, he's all up in arms about it!

Although, it's really cute when we finally pick them up and bring them into our room, they instantly quiet down and are sacked out in seconds. They just love that bodily contact.

As for the two of us, we keep trucking along here. Last week was tough because I (Chris) had to be gone a couple of nights. I did a ride along with Metro West Ambulance on the graveyard shift Wednesday night. And Thursday night I had to do a shift at Hooper Detox Center. The week was all thrown off, but thank God for grandmas! My mom, Amanda's mom, and Amanda's step mom and sister all pitched in and helped Amanda with the babies. Thank you guys!

Well, that's about it for now from us. We hope all is well with everyone!

bye.

Doing great!

2009-02-23T11:22:00.000-08:00

Well, It's been a struggle to find some time to update the blog! We're entering into our third week at home now and things are going great. We've actually managed to get some sleep here and there, and we've ventured out on the town a few times. The kids have been SO good! We were able to take a 30 minute walk yesterday! We've been to Target, and Old Navy, and even the bank.

We were given the "green light" by our pediatrician last week. The babies gained all of the wieght back that they lost afer birth and they're doing wonderful. Actually, they're now up a few ounces and gaining daily. The breastfeeding is getting better as we go along too. All is good with the Needham twins!

Here are some of our favorite pictures from the last few weeks.

I hope everyone enjoys their week!

God bless.

The First Week

2009-02-13T13:51:00.000-08:00

Well, we're settling into our first week at home with the twins. Everything is going great! They are absolutely wonderful babies! We're so blessed to have them healthy and home with us!

Of course we're a little tired... okay, A LOT tired! We're averaging 3 to 4 hours of sleep a day, broken into 3 naps, but it is all so worth it.

Yesterday we gave them their first baths, and they were so good. No crying at all!

Today we had an appointment with the lactation consultant, just to follow up on how things are going. They have now gained 4 ounces each since Tuesday. They are doing wonderful. Mason's jaundice has gone away too!

Well, time to feed... again. I'm not sure were they put all that milk!

Keep checking in, and we'll keep posting pictures.

Bye

We're home!

2009-02-10T15:27:00.000-08:00

Wow. We've been home for a few days and this is really the first chance I've had to throw some pictures up for everyone. It's been unbelievably busy around the Needham household!

The Grandma's have been helping us tremendously! Along with Amanda's sister Melissa, and a few stragglers :-) We've had a lot of help with chores and food, and of course plenty of help holding the babies!

We had our first Doctor appointment today and everything is going fine with the kids. They have lost 10% of their birth weight (normal) and should start gaining it back now. The Dr. appointment was our first official outing. It went pretty well!

Thank you to everyone for the prayers and thoughts this past week. And thank you to all of those who have helped us with food, clothes, diapers, and babysitting! We feel so blessed to have these little ones here with us. It's been an incredibly challenging road to get to this point. And although the challenges continue... we are so happy to hold these babies in our arms and kiss their little heads. God has truly blessed us!

Okay, I better go. We get about 2 to 3 hours of sleep a night now, so my attention span is very limited.

God bless!

The Needham Family

Oh what a night

2009-02-05T09:39:00.000-08:00

The babies are doing great this morning. They were checked out by the pediatrician and all is well! Currently they're sleeping side by side making cute little baby whimpers. They each have had their first dirty diaper too! I was informed by the pediatrician it would not be their last!

Mommy and daddy are doing okay. We were able to get about an hour and a half of sleep last night. Not much! The kids didn't like to sleep anywhere but in our arms. Hard to be upset at that though. They were wide awake a few times last night and it was amazing to see them study their surroundings. It figures that they have slept soundly most of the morning!

We're going to meet with a lactation specialist today to make sure everything is going well. We've had a couple of successful feedings already, but the last few have been a little difficult. The nurse said if you get one good feeding in the first 24 hours your doing fine, so we're not too worried.

That's it for now. Back to daddy chores.

Chris

What an amazing day!

2009-02-04T21:45:00.000-08:00

They're here! We can't believe it! Mason (in the blue hat) weighed in at 5 lbs and 6 ounces and was 18 3/4 inches long. Maddy (in the pink hat) weighed 6 pounds even and was 19 1/2 inches long. They are both doing great! They've breastfed twice already and have taken a couple naps.

There is no way to describe the love we feel for these cute little babies. Just amazing! And when they open their eyes and look around and then stare at you... wow!!!

Amanda's doing great. Her pain level is very low and she's all smiles. I'm sure it feels wonderful for her just to be comfortable! She did great!!!

Well, back to work for me. I don't plan on getting much sleep tonight. Oh well!

God Bless.

Daddy x 2

Quick update

2009-02-02T18:05:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that we're spending the night in the hospital tonight (Monday) to be monitored. Amanda had high blood pressure and a trace of protein in her urine during our appointment today so they are keeping her overnight for some additional testing. The babies are doing just fine! If they find more protein in her urine after they test it tomorrow they may decide to do the C-section soon!!! They want to try to keep the babies in the tummy for another week if they can but it looks like we may be having them in the next week or so. Crazy!

Okay, I have to get back to the hospital, I hope everyone is well and we will keep you all informed!

Chris

Week 35!

2009-01-28T17:03:00.000-08:00

We had our ultrasound and our OB appointment today. The babies are doing great! Mason has passed Maddy now in weight. He now weighs 5 lbs 12 ounces and she's right on his heels at 5 lbs 9 ounces. Kids... they grow up so fast!

We usually get better pictures of his face, but this time she stole the show. Can you see her face looking right at you in this picture? She's going to be beautiful like her mommy!

Amanda is doing okay. She's starting to have a little blood pressure issue. We had to go to the birthing center to be monitored and do a non-stress test on the babies after our appointments today. Amanda's blood pressure went back down, so they let us go home, but we now have to go back in on Monday. Basically, the OB said she wants us to come in twice a week to be checked out until the babies are here. The good news; if Amanda starting going downhill, they can now do the C-section with no problems. The babies are fully developed and a good birth weight. In fact, 50% of twin pregnancies don't get to week 36. (don't believe everything you read though, when it comes to statistics, four out of five are completely made up. And I'm 70% sure of that)

If there's anyone out there who cares how I'm doing, I'm okay :-) I caught a bug yesterday and I've been feeling a little under the weather. Oh, well huh... I've got to suck it up. When the babies get here I won't be able to take a sick day!

I hope everyone is having a nice week!

Chris

WOW!

2009-01-26T16:23:00.000-08:00

Every week that I take Amanda's picture I think she can't get any bigger, but she does! For the last few weeks the pictures have been pretty similar, she's been growing, but it's been hard to see in the picture. This weeks picture is noticeably bigger than last weeks! Check her out...

So we've come to the final few weeks of the pregnancy, although both of us have a strong feeling it will be even sooner than that! We're in our final preparation mode. This weekend was all about getting done with projects and last minute things we wanted off our "to do" list before the babies arrive. I think, for the most part, we're pretty much ready to go (there's a confident statement for ya). I don't know if we'll ever be completely ready. It seems like every time we check something off the list two more chores are added. Oh well, I guess that's the way it goes!

We have an Ultrasound and OB appointment on Wednesday. I'll write an update on here afterwords, and if we get any good pictures I'll be sure to post them.

Oh, an interesting note: I chose the plaid background for this post a few weeks ago. I thought it looked nice, but I didn't recognize it at all. My mom informed me a few days ago that it's the exact color and pattern wallpaper that I had in my bedroom when I was a baby! Interesting. Was I subconsciously drawn to it?

I hope everyone is enjoying their week!

Still going strong!

2009-01-22T10:37:00.000-08:00

We've reached week 34! So far so good. This week is somewhat of a benchmark for us because it means we shouldn't need the NICU. We were worried about having the babies early because Meridian Park doesn't have a NICU. So, if Amanda went into labor we would have to go to St. Vincent, or stop the labor at Meridian Park and possibly be transported later. Anyway, our Doctor said that past 34 weeks it should be a non-issue. If Amanda were to go into labor now, we would just go to Meridian Park and they would delay the labor for two days, giving the babies a shot that would develop their lungs. Then we would have the C-Section and the babies would be fine. Of course, the longer they can stay in Amanda's belly the better, As long as she's doing well. And she seems to be doing fine. She's extremely uncomfortable all the time, and can't stand for more than a few minutes at a time without having contractions, but she's good! We have another Doctor appointment, with an ultrasound, on Wednesday. It should be our last ultrasound, and of course I'll post pictures on the blog the first chance I get. We hope everyone is doing well! bye.

Update

2009-01-19T14:47:00.000-08:00

We officially changed the date of the C-Section to Monday, February 16th. I'll be surprised if we make it that far though!

Also, we're starting a betting pool on the weight of the babies. We're thinking that those who would like to participate can place $5 in the pot, and email us their guesses for each babies weight. The winner will be the one who is closest to the total combined weight of the babies. (example; I think Mason will weigh 6lbs 8 ounces and Maddy will weigh an even 7 lbs for a total combined weight of 13 lbs 8 ounces.) closest guess wins!

At the last ultrasound (19 days ago) Mason weighed 3lbs, 9 ounces. Maddy weighed 3 lbs 15 ounces. Generally, during the third trimester babies gain an average of 1/2 pound a week. send me your guesses!

Today's Doctor Appointment

2009-01-16T18:17:00.000-08:00

Today we had two doctor appointments. The first was to meet with our new pediatrician, Dr Armsby, who was great! The second was with Dr. Allison, Amanda's O.B.

During the second appointment Amanda's blood pressure was a bit high. So, for the first time, she was admitted to the Birthing Center to be monitored.

They hooked Amanda up to all of these monitors and had us hang out for an hour or so. It turned out to be nothing really, her blood pressure was great when they checked it again, and the babies were doing fine. They did see a contraction on the charts, but that's very normal for this stage of the pregnancy. It got us thinking about how close we really are!!!

Officially, Amanda's belly measures 42 weeks, which is 2 weeks bigger than a full term singleton pregnancy! And we still have several weeks to go!

Speaking of that, we are in the process of moving the scheduled c-section date to Feb 16th. We have the okay from the doctor, so as long as the O.R. is not booked, that should be the day. We should know for sure Monday or Tuesday.

Okay, that's it for now.

God bless.

This weeks update

2009-01-15T16:33:00.000-08:00

Amanda’s downstairs wombmates have been driving her nuts!
They are awake at all hours of the night, doing who knows what! They have been stretching her out to the max! We have decided we’re done renting out the womb to those two! Just goes to show you, never do business with family!

So, officially, we’ve posted their 30 day notice to vacate. They have one month to pack up the placenta and get out of the womb, or we’ll cut them out if we have to. And we’re not going to fall for that “but our lungs aren’t developed” excuse! They should of thought of that before they kicked Amanda in the bladder one too many times. Ah…kids!

Quincy seems to be losing real estate on Amanda’s lap at an alarming rate. Give him credit though, he’s hangin’ in there! He’s holding on to what little he has.

He seems excited to see the 30 day notice on the womb…. he has no idea what’s coming.

Well, not much to report on Amanda’s health. I guess no news is good news. She’s doing great so far. She did have an extended contraction a couple of days ago at Babies R Us that caught our attention. It was the first time we both thought something might be happening. It turned out that once we got home and she rested, it went away.

Other than that, all of her problems are related to comfort and/or sleep. She’s having a rough time sleeping for more than 45 minutes at a time. Maybe that’s Gods way of preparing us. I think I’ve outsmarted God though. I’ve moved down to the couch… ha ha ha… Sleeping like a baby! Except for last night when Amanda waddled her way downstairs at 4 am to eat.

By the way, I know it’s not nice, but watching Amanda huff, puff, grunt, flop and waddle her way around this condo is oh so funny to me! I feel so bad, but I can’t help but laugh. Don’t judge me… you’ve never watched her try to get up from lying on the couch! It’s quite a show! Two acts, from lying down to sitting up, and from sitting up to standing, with an intermission in-between. Seriously, at intermission I’ll go use the restroom and pop some popcorn. Poor Amanda.

If anyone cares about me, I’m doing just fine thank you.

Well, that’s what’s new. Thanks for reading.

2009-01-14T19:58:00.000-08:00

Just a little something I put together this evening.

INSTRUCTIONS: Before hitting play on this video, scroll down to the very bottom of the webpage and press the pause button on the green music player. (it's on the upper left, just below the album picture)

Another week goes by

2009-01-07T21:23:00.000-08:00

We're getting so excited for the arrival of the twins! They can't come soon enough for Amanda! She's becoming very uncomfortable now. It's becoming very difficult for her to do anything! She's hanging in there though. She's been working part time for the past few weeks and plans to continue until next Friday, at which time she'll go on leave.

Here's this weeks picture of her tummy, which is in a constant state of motion! The twins are sure getting strong now, and seem to get hiccups every day.

We were able to make it out of town on Sunday, one last time before the chaos ensues. My buddy Chris Shaw gave us a gift certificate to a nice hotel in Lincoln City, so we packed up and headed out for a quick getaway. We had a really nice time relaxing in our oceanfront room, knowing it was our last trip for quite a while. It felt kinda like a last goodbye to our old life, and a celebration of the new life ahead. (Just so we're clear, that's apple cider in the picture). Actually, it was kind of funny, we got to the room and settled in and then realized we didn't have much we could do! Amanda couldn't really walk on the beach, plus it was raining so we couldn't really go window shopping or anything. Plus you need money for that. Amanda can't drink, we couldn't go to the smokey casino! We quickly realized that all we could do was play dice, sit in the jetted tub, and eat. But we had a great time doing that!

This last Tuesday I started my EMT course. I'm taking the accelerated course, so it will be quite a bit of information crammed into 3 months. I go to class out in Milwaukie on Tuesdays from 6-10 and Saturdays 10-6. The school is a private college affiliated with American Medical Response. As I get further along in the class I'll get to ride along with an Ambulance in 911 operations, and I'll get to do job shadows and patience assessments in an ER and other areas of a hospital. I'm excited about that, should be really interesting!

Well, we'll keep you updated as we go along. Thanks for checking out our blog! Leave us a comment to let us know you were here, just click on the "comment" link below.
God Bless

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T13:49:00.000-08:00

Here we go!

We’re entering into a new year, and our final weeks of pregnancy! Poor Amanda is really starting to feel it now. Her hips are hurting, her back is hurting, and she just can’t get comfortable. Who can blame her, she’s carrying around an extra 45 pounds! She’s having trouble sleeping, eating, walking and breathing! I feel so bad for her. I keep reminding her that she’s getting close to the end. I try not to mention that the “end” means major surgery (C-Section) and two babies to feed and take care of at all hours! Shhhhh!

Other than the physical discomfort, she’s doing great! She knows how special it is to feel the babies inside her belly, and she knows that she’ll miss that feeling!

As for me, if anyone cares, I’m doing fine. I sleep on the couch a few days a week now. Just so I can get some sleep! It’s not easy sleeping with Amanda now. She’s constantly uncomfortable and therefore moving all night. And when she rolls over, she ROLLS OVER! Watch out!!! My side of the bed has dramatically shrunk in the past few weeks. During the day I mostly eat and sit around with her. She likes to buy sweets, and real butter, and real yogurt, and real mayo, and fattening cheese, and fattening EVERYTHING… and then she’s never hungry enough to eat it! So… I do. Let’s just say that she’s not the only one out of breath when we climb our stairs!

We had our 31 week ultrasound today! Everything is great, right on track. Mason (left) is 3 1/2 lbs and has a huge head like his daddy. They said his head measures at 34 weeks, so three weeks ahead of his body :-)

You can see in his picture that he had his mouth open, and of course, he was moving all around!

Madison (right) still seems to be a little camera shy. She doesn't like to show her profile as much, but we got a pretty good picture here. She weighed in one ounce shy of 4 lbs!

She did the cutest thing while getting this picture though! She turned and looked right at the camera, and we could see her blinking and looking at it! We wondered what she was thinking right then. So amazing!

Well, now we enter into a new year. I’m happy to see this one go. It’s been pretty tough on most of us. For Amanda and me, it’s been an emotional roller coaster. We started the year struggling to get pregnant, and not knowing if we ever would. That was a scary time because we have always wanted to have a family. Around the same time I was starting a new job, and things were looking great for us on that front. Then the price of oil went crazy and my job was in jeopardy, and at the same time we were so happy to find out Amanda was pregnant. Then the joy we had when we found out it was twins! Then it was the news that it was a boy and a girl, what a wonderful day that was! A couple months later the stock market collapsed and now nothing was certain. Then, in November, I was laid off and we were trying to figure out what we’ll do next. As I said, a roller coaster! What a year!
We know that so many of our closest friends and family have struggled in this past year as well. So, in this New Year, it is our prayer that things get better for us all. And it’s our prayer that everyone keeps in their heart the fact that God will provide! We must keep reminding ourselves that God has a plan for our lives, and everything will work out in Gods time.
For us, I know that God has blessed us with the opportunity to be a mommy and daddy, and to raise a family this year. Our New Years resolution is to be the best parents we can be. To raise our babies with so much love, and to dedicate our lives to them!

We hope that everyone has a wonderful new year and God bless!

Finally... it's raining again!

2008-12-27T18:03:00.000-08:00

I don't know if we've ever been so happy to see 40 degrees and raining! The foot and a half of snow that trapped us in our house is melting fast. Thank God. Portland is really bad when it comes to snow removal and de-icing!
Thankfully, we were able to make it to all of our Christmas events. We did have to shuffle the schedule around a bit, but it all worked out. We spent the night of the 23rd trudging over to Priscilla's in our Civic with the chains on. We made it a record slow time, 1 hour and 45 minutes. But we were safe and sound! We had a nice time chatting with Mark and my mom over a nice meal, and enjoying the festive music. After desert we hit the ice roads once again, but this time made it home in an hour.
The next day we thought we were going to be hanging out at home, but when we woke we saw a window of opportunity to make it south to Salem. We scrambled through the house to pack and hit the road as fast as we could, and then set out for the Andersens. We made it to Salem with little trouble and we were able to be there to watch Emma and Jake open their presents Christmas morning.
Today is Saturday, and we just returned from Larry and Nancy's house, where we spent most of the day eating great food and playing games. Unfortunately, we failed to take any good pictures at any of the three events! So if anyone has any, send them to me and I'll post them.
Tomorrow I get to spend all day in a CPR class. It normally would sound fun, but I've been under the weather, so we'll see how that goes.
Amanda and I have our next ultrasound this Wednesday and if there are any good pictures I'll post them on the blog!
Until then, enjoy the last week of 2008
(kind of a tough year for most of us, not to sad to see it go)
Chris

It keeps snowing, and snowing... and snowing...

2008-12-21T22:30:00.000-08:00

Okay, we're being buried over here. What a winter already! Crazy!

Amanda and I have been stuck in the house for a couple of days now, and we're getting cabin fever. Well, I say we're stuck, but we could leave if we needed to. We just don't feel like risking anything. I have a feeling that tomorrow we're going to find an excuse to go somewhere.

We're thankful that we still have power! So far we've been lucky. The lights flickered a few times but that was it. However, if the power does go out, we have an inside guy at PGE. Our friend Donald has been staying with us for the past couple of days because he's been working overtime at the PGE call center right across the freeway. He hasn't wanted to risk driving back and forth from his home in Oregon City. It works out well for us because he has a 4x4 with chains (seen below) and he brought his Nintendo Wii!

We also took another picture of Amanda today. As you can see, she is getting bigger by the second. It's so cute to me to see my little babies growing inside her! And their getting strong! We can sit and watch Amanda's belly move now, it's so crazy. Mason has had the hiccups twice today. Maddy went on a rolling frenzy this evening.

We were supposed to take a tour of the maternity ward at Meridian Park today, but it was cancelled. I can't imagine why!!!

Well, I hope everyone has found stuff to keep them busy while we wait for warmer weather.

stay warm and dry!

Lazy Day!

2008-12-14T17:29:00.000-08:00

We woke up this morning and looked out the window and it was bone dry. About ten minutes later, as we were lying there dreading getting out of the warm bed, it started to snow! This picture was taken this morning, and it's been snowing all day! We now have at least twice what you see here.

We had planned to spend the evening with the Parker's, but thought better of it after watching everyone slam into each other on the freeways. So now we're just in for the day, doing chores here and there but mostly being lazy. it's a good day for it!

We had a great time yesterday making sugar cookies with our nephew and niece. They were great, as usual. We can't wait to be able to bring our kids down to play with their cousins!

Well, Amanda wants me downstairs now, and I know better than to push the patience of a woman with two babies in her belly. Got to go!!!

2008-12-13T10:57:00.000-08:00

I'm getting a lot of questions about where I am with the fire dept. stuff so I thought I would give everyone a quick update.
I intially applied at Portland Fire & Rescue in August. Since then I've passed the written test, physical test, and interview process. I'm now on a list of 300 people that are eligible for hire. Portland Fire has no idea how many they will hire in the next year, but rumors are around 100 or so. The list is unranked, so the Captain can choose whomever he would like when slots become available.

Portland and Vancouver are the only fire departments that I know of that will allow you to apply without having your EMT-Basic certification. Vancouver Fire is testing in Januaury, and I plan to apply there too!

I'll be taking classes for my EMT-B starting in January and will apply to other fire departments after that.
In the mean time, I'll be looking for a good job. Getting hired as a firefighter can take years, so I want to find another career I can start now and continue if I don't get on with a department, or if I choose to not do the fire fighter thing. But as you can see from the picture, I'd look so good saving babies!

2008-12-12T16:10:00.000-08:00

This pretty much sums up what I think of computers! We had another virus infect our home computer a couple of days ago. This one was brand new, and a good one! Technically it was adware or spyware. It gets into your computer and pops up warnings every time you try to get online that say that your personal info has been compromised. It won't let you go to any other websites except, surprisingly, the website where you can purchase the the product to get rid of the virus! Interesting. Somehow, that site works just fine!

Everyone needs a computer guy in their family, ours is Dale Sloyer. I called him up and he walked me through the troubleshooting process for an hour or so. He said that the company that is trying to sell me the anti-virus software is the one who infected our computer in the first place. Shouldn't that be illegal? In any case, it sure is frustrating.

Long story short, I ended up fixing the problem and killing all the "cooties" in my computer. Thanks Dale. I'm sure the first thing you want to do after fixing computers all day is to help fix my computer!

In other news, Amanda had her blood pressure checked again today, because it was high last time. Everything is back to normal and she keeps truckin' along. She's getting pretty uncomfortable as she continues to grow. Her belly now measures the same size as most full term singleton pregnancies, but she still has another 2 months to go!!! Let's pray that we can make it to full term!

Looks like the possibility of snow is still lingering out there. That would sure be nice!

Could that be snow?

2008-12-09T15:04:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again! Time for the local network news to put a few snow flakes on their extended forecast and tease us with lines like "could a winter blast be on it's way? Find out in our weather forcast, coming up!"

And every year I fall for it!!! Sure enough, I sit and watch the ENTIRE news waiting for the weather segment, which is always last, only to hear that we MAY see some snowflakes in the foothills above 500ft!

They always send out one of their flunkies to the top of Sylvan hill, and the other to the truckstop in Troutdale to report on the non-event.

So here I go again, getting excited as I see the snowflakes on Sunday. I never learn!

On a seperate note, We have officially set the date for the C-section! Assuming Amanda can make it this far, it is scheduled for Feb. 18th.

Plan accordingly!

Christmas Decorating Day!

2008-12-08T16:03:00.000-08:00

Amanda was finally successful in motivating me just enough to do the Christmas decorating. I don't know why, but I just haven't felt the Christmas spirit this year. Nevertheless, we hauled a tree home on the top of the van and I wrestled the thing into the house.

We turned on the Roger Whitacker Christmas album, made some hot cocoa, and dug into the decorations. Even Quincy got in on some of the action! He mostly just got in our way though.

Three hours later, we are done... and spent! It's been a long day!

This morning, before our decorating, we had our bi-weekly doctor appointment. Everything went fairly well. Amanda was having one of her bad days so her blood pressure was up. 140 over 80. Our OB said that if it didn't go down by the end of the appointment she was going to have us go to the maternity ward to be monitored. Luckly, it did go down. We now have another appointment this Friday to double check everything. Other than that it was great. When Dr. Allison put the microphone up to Amanda's belly to hear Mason's heartbeat, he kicked the microphone!

Well, that's been our day. Hope everyone is doing well!

Enjoying the down time

2008-12-07T15:55:00.000-08:00

It's kind of a dark and dreary Sunday today. A perfect day for us to be lazy! We spent a couple of hours on the couch this morning, drinking coffee and watching a movie. Finally we worked up the strength to take showers and clean up the place. I (Chris) was able to watch the Blazer game (we won by 1) while Amanda made a few phone calls and did who knows what upstairs. Our only outing was to Babies "R" Us to do some exchanging. Amanda is having a rough day, so that pretty much did her in. Now she's taking a nap before we head out to dinner with Bill and Linda Allred.

With the exchanges we made today, we're pretty much done with the babies room.

Buiding a nursery is tough work! We're blessed to have had a lot of help though. Thank you to Jenn k. for helping with the painting, nice job on the edges! Thank you Michael for helping cut and hang the trim, and thank you EVERYONE for giving us everything we put in it!

Amanda is getting bigger by the second!

This picture was taken a week ago, and she looks even bigger now! The babies have been doing gymnastics in her belly all day today.

We are so very excited to have these babies! We absolutely can't wait to be able to kiss their little foreheads and look into their eyes! We already love them so much! They are the greatest blessing in our lives.

Having said that, we are enjoying the ability to have a lazy Sunday! We know that we're going to be longing for days like these.

Well, off we go to dinner for now. bye.