Tuesday, December 26, 2006
dreaming of christmas time...
Noah loving the jolly jumper
Bouncin Ari
Ari would rather nap with Daddy
Noah is all smiles
Noah has a thing for blondes
All the Loewen cousins.. 06
Ari opening presents with Auntie Tam
Christmas morning play time
Just what I wanted under the tree this year!!
Merry Christmas all and Happy New Year.. hopefully this abundance of pics will keep you going for awhile.. we are off to Ontario on friday and I am not sure how much I will be posting.. enjoy the rest of your holiday season.. much love to you and yours.. from us the difran clan....
what the heck *$#&%#*
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
introducing my new best friend...
yes folks its my ultimate chopper and it does all Chef Tony said it would. i have been using her to make baby food - and make baby food i do.. i have been filling my freezer each day with a new food. everyone should have an ultimate chopper. the boys have been enjoying there new foods for the most part although Ari is so constipated.. its sad watching him groan and grimace as he tries to push his poop out.. its amazing how he went from runny explosive poo to having such a hard time.. he is on a prune and pear diet until his little tummy can handle it again...not much else going on.. can't believe christmas is coming up so quickly.. i am done all my shopping, baking and wrapping all thats left to do is wait...we leave for ontario the end of next week as well which will be fun.. we havn't been there in a long time and noah and ari have a couple of aunties and a cousin they are dying to meet..hoping it won't mess them up with sleeping and stuff...
now with all this baby food making santa will you bring me a deep freeze PLEASE!!!!
Saturday, December 16, 2006
what a week...
the rest of the week was full of stuff.. mostly good. i have been discovering how much fun it is to have twins.. they are discovering each other more and more and its pricesless to see them smile and talk to each other.. especially when they wake up and just want to chat it up.. they are napping much better although ari is quite reluctant some days. they go to bed like champs around 7pm each night and are sleeping till 5 or sometimes 6 and then they are up for a power nurse and back to bed for a couple of hours.. mom definitly functions better on more sleep...
yesterday was dave's work banquet.. i was an authentic participant opposed to the many years i just go to go because i was the boss's daughter.. Koolers (where dave works) is closely associated with DA Loewen (my dad's company) and so they do things together.. we all piled into a bus and headed to Winnipeg to Celebrations.. it was AWESOME.. the show and the servers.. so funny.. they did a Monty Python type comedy with all Beatles music.. they always amaze me. the food was ok.. and i did enjoy a few ceasers... yes moms night out.. we left the boys with my sister in law Tam. the boys did so good for her.. they ate like champs and went down for night so good and didn't make a peep....
funny story.. i decided i should take my trusty hand pump to the city as we would be gone for a few to many hours and i knew i would be feeling the "pressure"..well silly me forgot my pump under my chair in a plastic bag... ugg just as we were leaving the city i remembered. luckily (or not so luckily) daves boss was still in winnipeg at the hotel... so embarresed me calls him and asks him if he can look for the "item" i forgot.. when he asks what it is i was so embaressed and fumbled for my words trying to come up with a slick way of saying it and he chimes in "oh you forgot your milker" needless to say i was the laugh of the bus for a bit and a few minutes later he called back to say he had it in his possesion... that will be nice sitting on dave's desk monday morning...
along the lines of the pump.. i never used it and was planning on when we got home but with it gone i just went to bed.. ouch.. when the boys woke up at five they could barely keep up as the pressure almost blew there little heads off. poor guys...a few life lessons here but the first... never underestimate the usefullness of a pump..
thats about it for now..
a few updates on the boys now that they are almost 7 months old:
they can roll over
grab things (they love to suck on EVERYTHING)
they eat cereal now (love the oatmeal. the rice really plugged them up)
they love avacados
and of course they laugh and smile and flirt with any woman
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Saturday, December 02, 2006
early holiday cheer...
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
boycott.
in other news I was looking at the counter on my blog and am amazed that over 20,000 people have viewed my blog. please keep coming back.. there will be pics posted again soon for all of you who want to see the boys.. we have been busy with Christmas approaching it seems there is always somthing to do...
Sunday, November 26, 2006
life these days...
we bought a van this month as well. we love it. its a used honda odyssey and its a dream. so nice to have more room to throw all our gear. we enjoy the command start and the automatic doors on each side.. nice as the weather here has quickly turned to winter.
i must go but wanted to update you all and thank you for your kind words as we trained the boys to sleep. there were a few hard nights but i know that this was the best thing for them and they are better babies for it. love to you and yours and to my american friends happy thanksgiving..
ANNOYED
Saturday, November 18, 2006
progress
the boys have been on a better schedule and have even been napping in a regular pattern of 45min to an hour, then up for two hours and napping again and so on.. the nights have been good too.. seperated the boys into two seperate cribs and have only had minimal crying in the middle of the night.. night one - 22min for one and 17min for the other. night two - 30 min for one and 24 min for the other. night three - no minutes for one and 12 min and 4 min for the other at two seperate times.. feeling better for sure..
they are put down around 7:30 or 8:00 and other than the small bouts of crying around 2ish they then will sleep till 5am when i will feed them and they will sleep till about 7:30 or so.. its working its really working and they seem that much better for it..
i'm encouraged that i am doing the best thing for them.. they are still smiling and laughing and being just great babies! tonite at church i was reminded how blessed we are... they are so content to just play with their toys and sing when everyone is singing... its so cute.
gotta run. lots of love to you and yours...
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
torture
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
desperation..
the boys nap about 2-3 time per day (if we are lucky) but only for 30-45min (if we are lucky) they nurse about every 3 hour. in the evening they are always TIRED.. and miserable.. i will nurse them about 8or8:30, burp, change and put down by 9 usually.. they sleep restlessly till anywhere from midnight or sometimes 1am and then all hell breaks loose. they are crying, tired and just plain horrible for the rest of the night.. none of this seems normal to me..
i have read everything from no cry sleep solution to the baby whisperer and even tried a bit of CIO which doesn't help them at all... it does make them go back to sleep after 15min of crying but only for an hour max and then we are up doing it all over..
now lets remember that i don't have ONE baby i have TWO and this makes life very difficult..
since i am being honest i don't really want comments telling me to hang in there it will get better and all that cuddling crap (right now thats how i feel) if you are reading this and you have some tried and tested methods of schedules or sleep advice then you can comment or if you just want to tell me man heather that sucks.. that would be great... otherwise just read and move on and pray for us... good thoughts for the difran clan... so before anyone writes this deep down i know...
THIS TOO SHALL PASS BUT FOR NOW ITS NOT WORKING!!! any advice????
ok adding this a few hours later.. all the above is still true with the modification of they are not always miserable.. they are sweet, cuddly, and they smile lots. they don't play strange and when they laugh its enough to melt my chilly heart... i love them to pieces
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Friday, November 10, 2006
beta betta?
Saturday, November 04, 2006
the condition or quality of being human
we love our kids right.. we do the best we can by them and still somedays we feel we might loose our minds. i think i am doing a pretty good job with these two and feel i keep somewhat of a clean house, i manage to do laundry and get supper on the table most nights.. but if i look deep down there is more that i need... more peace that needs to settle and surround my whole self...
somedays being knee deep in poopy diapers and mounds of laundry and dust circling my water cooler and screaming that i can't seem to do anything about gets to me. it just does and that my friends makes me what i fear the most... human.
i am going to post this instead of reading it over and analyzing my thoughts, afraid of the comments i will get because i long to be real i long to overcome my fear and just be human.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
all in a weeks work..
i have been learing so much too about my role on this planet and how easily i revert back to the mind set that i have to have ALL things together... the perfect wife, mother, friend, daughter, sister) at my women's bible study group last week i shared this.. and someone gave me an encouragement - its not possible to be perfect but in doing everything we can strive to be excellent.. yes, i have been trying to be excellent in all i do and not being so hard on myself when the floor is dirty, the dishes are everywhere and my stupid cassarole is rock solid frozen after being in the oven for what feels like forever.
so in the small things i continue on.. and when i look back at last week i did pretty good..
cleaned my house - one room at a time
did massive amounts of laundry
baked a pie
caught up with an old friend
changed ALOT of diapers (you should make a guess at how many i go through in a day)
played with my boys
pulled out all my flowers and got the yard winter ready
made a card for a friend whom i miss dearly
baked cookies
taught Ari to nap in his crib
got supper on the table pretty much most nights
cuddled with my husband
did i mention laundry
laughed with my boys who turned 5 months old yesterday
cleaned up so many diapers along with some poop that went up to the shoulders
spent time with friends
attended my weekly women's bible study
turned off the tv every once in awhile and listened to a good cd
its all in the small things..
Monday, October 16, 2006
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
the view from here...
we had a good thanksgiving weekend - i love long weekends when dave can be home. have not been sleeping well these days. noah and ari have decided to have a major growth spurt so feeding LOTS and not at the same time which gives me a total of about 2-3 hours sleep (never consecutive) that has been hard but we will press through.
not much else is new here.. just gearing up for cold weather. another update to come soon. here is a little collage of new noah and ari pics..
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
27 years...
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Sunday, September 24, 2006
tWiN bEnEfITs
so little old me ready with my wagon and rubbermaid tub begins the process of covering this vast space. trying to negotiate my way amoung all the crazy people. the first hour is open to only members (who by the way have been lined up since before 8am) so as i am shopping i look up every once in awhile from the piles of stuff and see the "public" lined up 4 times around the outside of the glass staring in hoping you won't pick up that outfit or hoping you will leave that train set for them. there was a point where i actually had to laugh i mean this was hard core. so i spent about an hour and half throwing mass amounts of things into my tub only to wait in the longest lines ever at 10 checkouts. i walked away with so much and spent exactly my budget of $100. as i left and started to make my way home i would look in the back seat at my huge garbage bag of clothes and toys and stuff and smile one for having come in the first place and two for having survived my first sale. can't wait for spring to do it all over again.
back to being nervous about leaving my boys..i pumped this last week and broke into my emergency freezer supply to leave dave some bottles to give the guys. i fed them around 6:30 before i left and apparently my little angels were so good for their dad. they played and laughed (they started doing that this week - all out laughing) one ate at 10:30 the other dave had to wake up at 11 to eat) and then they hung out again till i got home after 2. i felt refreshed and overwhelmed with how much i love my boys after being away from them.
so the bottom line if you are a twin mom and you have a group you can join DO IT! it was so fun to be around all these twins and triplets and to have the benefit of this awesome sale. i heard they had over 600 people come through in the 4 hours it was open. anyways thats it for today. i have more to write about but will save it till tommorow.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
life with twins....
Bath time is fun now that we have two baths. Here are Ari and Noah just hanging out.
People often ask what life is like with twins and the question sometime stumps me because its hard to put into words what life is like. Its days that flow together, its double the feedings, its double the catnaps, its lots of diapers, its double the smiles, double the coos, double the hugs, double the baths and double the clothes. Its double the happiness, double the laughs and double the love. Its full. Life is full.
I keep telling people I kind of feel like in the last few weeks I have come out of a cloud. My days are more regular and becoming a bit more routine. The first few months were a blur. Trying to figure out how to take care of two and it feels like I was just treading and trying to stay above water. Now we are swimming and it feels good. I enjoy my days so much more. The boys stay awake longer and the three of us talk and play which is fun. They are so expressive. There little personalities are coming out too. They are different in so many ways.
Ari is my relaxed baby, he is pretty laid back in most ways although he is quite the eater. He loves to eat maybe that’s why he is bigger than Noah now.
Noah is more aggressive and excited. He is expressive and he knows what he wants. Especially when he is hungry. They have different cries now. And they only cry when they are hungry, scared or they just want to be put down and go to sleep.
Our feeding schedule is pretty routine. They each get a breast and it takes about 20 minutes to feed, burp and feed some more. Then when you think you are done the other guy wants a turn. It amazes me somedays that I stuck with it; the beginning was so hard but now its normal and easy. I would encourage everyone to stick with it. It does get better.We go through lots of diapers each day..I have never counted but I would estimate about 10-15/day.
They still sleep quite a bit during the day but for shorter amounts of time. Our nighttime routine is to feed them around 8:3o-9:00. In their crib together by 9:30 or 10:00 and they are so good now that they just fall asleep usually within 15 minutes with no crying no problems. Then our little angels sleep till about 4:30 or sometimes 5:00 - I feed them and back to bed till usually around 9am. We are happy with that for sure and the best part is that we didn't have to do anything to achieve this it just happened.
So that is the practical stuff. I was trying to think of things people always ask me about having twins so I could enlighten you...
*They have just started to notice each other. They will sit together and suck on each others arms and turn their heads when the other makes a noise. There has only been one attack when Noah scratched Ari so bad on his face it was bleeding. Other than that they are pretty calm with each other. They sleep in the same crib and do not seem bothered by each other. If one is sleeping and the other one crying the sleeping guy won't budge.
*Breastfeeding is much easier than people would think. I have tried to tandem nurse and don't really like it. So usually I feed them seperately which I like cause it gives me private cuddle time with each one. One gets one side, burps then back on the same side. Switch Repeat for the next guy. Its true that you can feed two. I have never had any problems with supply and I still pump once a day which is ok with me.
I think thats about it.. Like I said before I really feel like I am coming out of a cloud and enjoying life more. I am not a fan of hearing how my life must be full of double trouble because in all honesty I can't imagine life with one and I feel my day is full with double blessings. I mean seriously look at those faces. Noah's smile here is awesome. How could that be trouble?
Sunday, September 10, 2006
16 weeks
i have been enjoying reading other multiple moms blogs which i will be putting links too soon. i am amazed each time i stumble across another mulitple mom and get to hear her stories and see how their life has been blessed by two. another multiple mom reminded me that i too don't mind hearing people always feel like they have to say "double trouble" because us twin moms know there are the sweetest secrets and treasures to be had by having two. sometimes my heart feels as big as it could get and then they do something to make it swell even more.
the down side to the last two weeks is we have all been sick. noah got a cold first then me and now poor ari is struck with it. its sad watching little guys so congested they have to struggle to learn to breathe through their mouths. we are hoping this will be behind us soon and not turn into a vicious cycle of us infecting each other over and over. all i can say is its getting tiring trying to remember which breast is ari's and which is noah's.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
growing so fast..
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Friday, August 18, 2006
a mothers voyage..
as the title of this blog i have been pondering what it means to voyage. Voyage: meaning to uncover the events of a journey with exploration and discovery. this is what life is about right? well being a mother is definitly a voyage and journey; filled with ups and downs and more downs some days. there are often thoughts of wondering if i am capable of raising these boys in light and love as much as they need. some days i feel as if i have nothing to offer them... my frustration gets the best of me and in most circumstances i just hold on. i guess thats what alot of life is about.. just holding on. i also have been journeying through my own expectations that i placed on myself as i became a mother. so many things i have had to lay down and some things i thought i would never pick up i have had too. but in this journey of self discovery i guess i am learning that perfection is not the aim... if thats my aim i will always fail. my boys love me for what i give them; they love me!
if i keep aiming for perfection i will always let myself down. i must journey to discover what is best for us and not worry about everything else that doesn't get picked up along the way..
so in this journey of self discovery here are at the moment some of my favorite things...
1. sharpie markers - i love sharpies not the big fat ones but the fine point ones. great for writing in cards and sending loving thoughts to those i miss.
2. paper - pretty paper. i love to go to scrapbook stores and find great paper.
3. coffee - yummy - i love good coffee. i miss that about vancouver. coffee also makes me miss audrey cause she loves good coffee too.
4. along with coffee i love my big starbucks mugs. one from vancouver and one from seattle. every morning i love to sit with my boys and enjoy a big mug of good coffee.
5. avacados - these are a recent passion of mine. did you know they are good in almost any form. but especially in this mexican salad that Crystal introduced me too. as Racheal Ray would say YUM-O!
6. Chantal Kreviazuk - really looking forward to her new cd coming out on august 29th. i love honest acoustic music where you can tell the song writer means what she writes. not too mention she is beautiful and i want her hair colour.
7. stain remover - when you have poop up the back at least once a day its a miracle for baby clothes.
8. Carter's clothes - thanks to Carly i have the cutest clothes around. you can wash and wash them and they look the same as the day you bought them. now thats good quality.
thats it for now...i'd love to hear how you are discovering yourself and what you love and how that fits in your life.. i hope to write more on my self discovery especially as i venture into motherhood. love to you all.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Sunday, August 06, 2006
102 Combines, 162 acres, 11 minutes 16 seconds!
|
Friday, August 04, 2006
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
10 weeks
can't believe the boys are 10 weeks old... we got the final results of the placenta test yesterday and they were right all along. we have identical twins. we were pretty sure about it anyways but its nice to know for sure.
they have been changing so much lately. smiling lots more and just generally maturing. they are so strong already.
we had a good weekend..its been so hot here though which is hard because we don't get a chance to be outside much. tommorow is suposed to be not as hot so maybe we will get out for a walk.
we are looking forward to this month as we have a few visitors coming our way.. auntie evelyn will be here next week for the whole week..jamie and craig come see us on the 22nd...daves parents are here the 20th for 10 days and our ywam friends will get to meet the boys on the 25th..we can't wait.
here is a picture of noah fresh out of the bathtub (in the blue towel) and ari right after his bath.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
splish splash
well the weekend was a success. we all had a great time. it was nice to have a change of scenery and really get to relax.
i figured it was about time i wrote about my mother... there is no chance i could have survived the last while having the babies home without her. faithfully she walks in the door at 9am and helps me all morning..she helps me feed, change, wash dishes and clean and just spend time with ari and noah. she gives me time to shower and make coffee and we share a chat over toast with crunchy peanut butter. i look forward to her coming each day. then she either comes back in the afternoon to help me (usually returning with groceries of some sort and usually dinner) or i pack the boys up and we head over to her house. its hard around feeding time with only two hands. usually they are both hungry and if not being held they tend to scream and scream and scream and that makes the mommy stressed out!!! having my mom here really calms me down.
i just wanted you all to know how much she means to me and how sane we are only because of her. i am panicking a bit for august as they are taking some much needed time to tour around on their Harley. they planned there week long vacation for when my inlaws were supposed to be here but then my inlaws bumped there trip back a few weeks and now i will be left alone.. without my mom. she is panicking too which doesn't help but i know i have people i can call up for help its just not the same. so if anyone wants to come visit me.. just ask audrey how much fun it can be to hold babies all day long.. maybe this will be good for me as it will for sure make me appreciate my mother even more. she really is one terrific mom and a superstar grandma.
we love her. mom we love you...
love heather, ari & noah
Friday, July 21, 2006
firsts...
we have had a good week - many firsts.. first doctor appointment which went well she was happy with how much weight they are gaining. noah weighs 9lbs2oz and ari weighs 9lbs. little porkers. she wasn't too concerned with ari's hernia and told me what to look for if it should take a turn for the worse. its huge but not painful for him. they both are awake alot more and staring at me and SMILING!! oh my what a feeling when they gaze up at you with these goofy little smiles. i love it!
dave and i were looking through my birth pictures (our midwife was allowed to take crazy pictures of the c-section) anyways we came across this picture taken a minute before we walked into the operating room. scary - remember i had been in the hospital for 4 days already which doesn't do much for your looks (or hair ugg)... enjoy. i will post when we get back... love to you all.