tales of two monkeys

yes we are still alive. its busy these days! we are blessed to have audrey here this week which has been so nice. we missed her and the boys are having fun cuddling with their madrina! i will write a post this week filled with more details on how we are and what we are up too but i wanted to get some cute pics up from this past weekend. our little monkeys are just too cute!!

happy fathers day

well we are making it.. every day seems to get better and better. its amazing to see the progress our little guys are making. they get bigger and bigger each day. on thursday our midwife came and weighed them and noah was 6lbs1oz and ari was 5lbs14oz.
i plan to write a better blog this week but here are some more pics to tide you over till then.

we are home!!!

so happy to be home and in our own crib together at last!
we will update you more later... when we are not all so sleepy!

and then there were three...

well we have had our little noah with us since friday evening. what a wierd feeling taking him from the hospital without his brother.. it has been going real well. he is so sweet. he has done so well in the midst of these circumstances. its amazing how adaptable they are. we are staying at a house offered to us by complete strangers (friends of the fabulous friends we had been staying with). we go in to see ari when we can and although it doesn't feel like enough ari is resiliant and continues to be a champ at breastfeeding and the most mellow easy going guy.
we are hoping to be bringing ari home with us tommorow. we all need to go home. i have been in winnipeg for far too long. today is the boys 3 week birthday and although time has flown by its long overdue to head home and settle into life with our new family.
we will update you more as the week goes on. i really appreciate having this medium to share with you all whats going on and know that we have so many people sending positive thoughts our way. hopefully next post it will be just the four of us enjoying snuggles in our own bed at home.

almost home

well the journey looks like it has an end in sight... we are hoping to be home by the end of the weekend. noah is ready to go and ari needs to have no breathing episodes and he can go too. they both have grown so much this past week. its amazing to see their progress and how they have turned into little newborns all of a sudden. noah is over 5lbs and ari is quickly catching up. in the last couple days ari has been eating like a little piggy. they are allowed to eat whenever they want and however much they want now as opposed to their schedule. so that is the update for now we are hoping to be ready to go saturday or sunday morning. we will keep you posted. for now enjoy some newer pics of the two of them. they are taken this week. notice how much their faces have
filled out..my little piggies.

*the picture of little noah in the carseat is him passing his first test making him ready to go home!
*ari and mom
*ari and noah together again (these two were taken today - thursday)

my 100th post

well last night i slept in my own bed and it was nice.. it was wierd coming home yesterday without the boys especially since everything is ready for them to be here. it was nice to sort through some stuff and it will be good to get some stuff done today before we go back later this afternoon. in no time the boys will be home and i will not have time to tie up loose ends.
we called the hospital this morning to check on them and they had a fabulous night!! both gained weight and noah is almost at his birth weight. ari had no breathing spells all night which is amazing. and ari took a whole feed by bottle which is amazing!! we have to get them full feeding by breast and bottle so that we can get rid of tube feeding them so they can come home. we were so pleased with the progress they are making. hopefully by the end of next week we will all be cuddling at home.
dave and i are good a bit of an emotional roller coaster we feel we are on but its been good how it has brought us closer together and we see them extreme need for each other. this is a crazy experience and there is no one i would rather share it with.
so now that my pregnancy is over and i have beautiful babies i will leave you with some of the things i notice and love every day that i can do now that my belly is gone..

1. i stare and stare at my feet and ankles as they are so small - finally!
2. i can lay on my stomach whenever i want (as long as its not close to pumping time)
3. i can turn over and move around when i sleep which is a great feeling
4. no more nasal congestion and no more snoring
5. i do not have to run to pee every 5 sec
6. dave does not have to bend his back to hug me anymore
7. i have the most beautiful babies in the whole world!!

(can you tell who is who?)

sleepy babies!!

this week..

i have a few minutes before i need to get going and spent some time reading comments you all have made since we entered the hospital 10 days ago. maybe its the craziness of this all but i was so overwhelmed by your beautiful thoughts and was sitting here having a good cry. thank you for making us a part of your life and for reading. a special thanks to JB a few posts down it was just what i needed to hear.
well my most fabulous husband has left to go back to work. having him leave last night was incredibly hard as he has been my rock and been the best friend i could have ever asked for. watching him hold, kiss, change and love on our boys has brought me to tears so many times. his gentle heart overwhelms me. for those of you who really know him he brings a mellow vibe everywhere he goes and has transferred that to the boys (for now) its lovely to see.
i have family coming a few times this week and dave will be back wed evening and then for the weekend. think of him as leaving the boys was harder on him than he thought.
spoke with the boys doctor yesterday and we are looking at another 7-10 days. they just need to mature and fatten up. they are doing so well and everyone is so pleased with their progress.
i have a cell phone and would love to hear from people. i was not sure how to send an email to all those who would want to know so if you see this and want the number email me (i am guessing only those who have my email would really want to speak to me anyways) it would be nice to hear familur voices. i will check in tonite and get you the number.
love to all of you and again my heart is lifted knowing we are so well taken care of in thoughts and prayers from all of you. we will try to post pics again soon.

me and my brother back together again...

well to the faithful who are still checking in. thank you. it is good to be home from the hospital and sleeping in a regular bed with my super amazing husband who take such good care of me. i am doing well other than dealing wtih a horrible backache due to my bodies relapse after carrying 50lbs of belly. we spend all day at the hospital with our brave strong boys who are amazing us daily with all they can do. Noah and Ari are lovingly taken care of by the nurses in the NICU and we are blessed by them. All we are doing is letting them grow and get stronger and in no time (hopefully by the end of the week) we can take them home. i was going to name this post me and my breast pump as we are now best friends. but i have to hand it to my new best friend who is now helping me feed my boys exclusively the good stuff. Noah is even feeding during the day from me and Ari who is a bit slower is learning lots. we thought you would enjoy seeing our boys together now that they are all off the Iv's and stuff. it was amzing to stare at their beautiful similar yet different faces. we are overwhelmed with love and awe of our little guys. hope you enjoy the pictures. keep checking back i will keep you all posted. dave will be heading home on sunday to go back to work next week and i will stay here and spend the days at the hospital and hopefully before we know it we can take them home.

here they are! Noah is on the left and Ari is on the right. the first of many family photos!

Welcome to the World!!!

We know you are dying to hear the news and we are excited to tell you about our beautiful little boys. Ari Jeremiah was born at 2:49pm on may 22 weighing 4lbs 7oz. 17 3/4 inches. Noah Emery followed at 2:50pm weighing 4lbs 10.5oz. 18 inches. Birth story to follow once mom is doing a bit better. Boys are being watched in the newborn ICU and are both doing well. Ari had some breathing issues but is now breathing on his own. Both are feeding well. Please keep us in your thoughts as spending a week here has been a bit hard on our little family. Heather should be discharged tommorow and will stay in the city as long as the boys, which is now looking like at least another week may be 2. They are progressing more and more everyday. They just need time to grow.We will update again this weekend. Love to you all!!

Enjoy looking at our cute little babies

3 days and counting....

A rare apperance here by Dave writing to let you all know what is going on and why all the silence from Heather. Heather had a fetal assement on thursday which showed very active, thriving babies. The cord was not presenting but seems baby A has his little foot jack knifed way down with baby B's head pressing on it. She then saw her doctor who did an exam to find her 3-4cm dialated with water's buldging. She was informed it was too dangerous to go home should the water break. Heather was then admitted to the hospital that afternoon. So, here we are at the end of day three a bit weary & tired and still waiting.... We are waiting till Monday to see the Dr. again and re-assess the situation or unless her water breacks. A C section seems the only possibility as of now, the question is when? Please keep us in your thoughts as it is hard to be far away from home living in a hospital. When we know more we'll fill you in! Thanks for your love and prayers. Heres to healthy babies soon.
Dave & Heather

come on little guy you can do it

i guess the countdown is on.. i find myself wondering where i'll be and what i'll be doing when it's time to meet the boys. i debated writing this post but figure i could use all the good warm thoughts you would all send our way. we have a few options at this point and will know more on thursday when we have our appointment in winnipeg. as of now baby a is footling breech with cord hanging down by his feet. baby b is heads down but not far enough to get in front of the other babies feet.
the risk of my water breaking is what is the concern because the action of the water could bring the cord lower and then as is natural either feet or the other babies head will begin to press on my cervix cutting off the cord for baby a. scary. so...we are hoping that either baby a still has room to move heads down or he can skooch his little feet way up so baby b can get his head lower (and then he would be come baby a) confused? stay with me.. i've really been fighting with fear the last few weeks and the unknown and having to give up all the thoughts i had around what my birth would be like. i have begun to realize that whatever the outcome my thoughts can dictate what my birth ends up meaning to me. my midwife has been so good had helping me process all that. so on thursday we will be able to tell more whether or not i get to go till i go into labor or if they will schedule a csection after the long weekend (which would put me past 36 weeks). please keep us in your thoughts as we only want the best for our little guys. we can't wait to meet them. yesterday dave was sitting across the room from me and looks over his eyes really wide and says "so, soon we are going to have babies here? two of them." like it had just hit him. it was pretty cute.
thats about all for now. just remembering to enjoy the moment and all that surrounds me, waiting eagerly to meet our boys.

happy birthday...

to the best husband in the world!!
a winner in most everything!!

baby pool

its been so quiet here in blog land. i find myself checking for comments and checking other peoples blogs and its far and few between. maybe its wearing off...i hope not. anyways.
we went for another appt in winnipeg yesterday and got to see the little guys. they are doing really well - moving alot and growing ALOT!! we were so surprised to hear they both are about 4lbs14oz. Can you believe that! i have almost 10lbs of baby inside. they are still not in optimal positions.. baby a (right) has his little bum down and feet dangling below tickling my cervix which is not good as they would call this a footling breech and would not let me deliver "naturally" but i would have to give birth by ceserean. they are also cautious because the cord has slipped down there with the feet and that means if my membranes rupture (water breaks) and they are still in this position that causes many risks to the babies. so.. we are doing everything possible to get baby a to switch position. baby b (left) is head down but not far enough to be the first baby yet. please say a prayer for us if you think of it.
ok on to more fun we have set up a baby pool and we want you to all go and enter what you think the babies weight, length and date of birth will be. (there will be prizes). all you have to do is go to http://www.ExpectNet.com and enter our game name which is DoubleBlessing. Dave and I did it seperately and he picked the same day I did. How wierd is that!! Its really easy to do. Remember no points for guessing the gender thats a freebie!
We'd love to hear from you!

today i miss most things vancouver. i would like to eat sushi. i would love a good cup of coffee - i am still not under the impression that tim hortons equals great coffee. i miss my friends. i would like to walk up and down the drive with them. i really miss craigslist... man we need a desk and if only we had craigslist we would have desk within minutes. i have not even peeked on craigslist till today and had to exit quite quickly it's still too soon. the wound is too fresh. did i mention i miss my friends..
on a better note this was the after thought of a good prarie storm.
God is in the beautiful details.

home sweet home

just wanted to share some pictures of our house. these are main floor pics (all newly painted by my wonderful husband!) we are really happy with the way it has turned out so far. enjoy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92072146@N00/

the beautiful parts...

before we left vancouver we attended the best prenatal classes ever (if you are or get pregnant check out Birthing From Within) there were many reasons it was amazing but i learned so much about me and my inner journey. we explored fear and the way we cope with every day life. there was one evening where we broke into male/female groups and as females we uncovered our deepest question.. its a really neat excercise meant to have you really dig deep to discover what might be holding you back. out of this time my question took on many shapes and what i got out of it is.. How am I surrendering to each moment? this has always been huge for me as i tend to get wrapped up in the how and what and what if of it all. i have really been making concious decisions to bring myself back to that question throughout this pregnancy and it has made a difference in my every day life. in surrendering to the moment i am also gaining valuable insight into what makes pregnancy so beautiful in and around the hard times.
i have been touched by so many of you that stop here to read my thoughts or see my pictures it means so much to me! i have enjoyed the random bloggers stopping to leave comments and giving me more blogs to read. thats another glimmer of the beauty of pregnancy.

turning heads...

alright folks its official my belly is large and beutiful. i found out i am now turning heads and being asked how it feels to be overdue. yeah strangers ask that question... i measure a whopping 41.5cm which is what a women with one baby would feel like a week and a half overdue but me i have 7-9 weeks left. don't get me wrong i am still on the path of growing big healthy babies so having them inside is what we want but where do people come up with these things.. i decided to make you a list and hope you never become the kind of person to do any of these things...

Never ask a pregnant woman.. (that you don't know really, really well) espcially someone expecting twins...
1. Are you overdue? Just don't!
2. Do you have stretchmarks ? Since when would that be anyones business?!
3. When are you being induced? Seriously.
4. Can you sleep or even move at night? Maybe your husband should install a poll for you that hangs from the ceiling so you can get out of bed better.. uhh yeah enough said.
5. Probably not any clothes that fit you any more hey? No your right there aren't but don't ask!
6. Your huge, big, large, massive - anything along those lines.
7. Wow your feet are really really swollen - really?? i hadn't noticed.. did it occur to you because I DON'T WEAR SHOES ANYMORE??? Dumb.

Ok I am done. Other than all that I am feeling good. Of course I'm feeling full of baby because I am full of 2 babies but I am excited that they are moving and doing so well. I had a fetal assesment yesterday at the hospital I will deliver at and it was so pleasant and fun. I got to see the boys and hear there heart beats and even hear the blood moving through the cord which was so cool. They both weigh a big over 3lbs and are moving lots. Everything we would hope for. Baby A does not have his head down though which he needs to do right now his little bum covers my cervix. Baby B is head down and has his bum in Baby A's face. Litteraly. This is funny. We got a shot of Baby B's parts (scrotum) right on Baby A's nose. It was hilarious. So he is sitting on his brother. Maybe a sign of whats to come. Ahh at least they are keeping each other occupied. I got cute shots of their little faces. I will try to scan in pics later but am not sure they will scan well. We will see. Anyways yes we are all doing well and can't believe in 7 weeks or so we will meet our little guys face to face. Can't wait!

time is flying by

not a very clever title to this post so many things to report. last week was good. i found out i enjoy doing nothing; having no schedule and just being able to putz around however i want. i did alot of that..dave had a very busy first week working 37 hours in only 4 days. he is really enjoying work. i even got to go to wpg with him on a work errand the other day so that was fun. friday we had easter at my parents which was great. good food, good fun. the weather here is amazing. its been in the 20's for the last few days and i can't get over seeing sun everyday!
saturday we had our OB consult in Wpg. better than the last but still wierd. our doctor is hard to explain but reminds me of a plumber. he's messy, older, irish and for lack of a better word strange. but we liked his approach on childbirth and feel quite confident in his ability to give us as close to the birth that we want. with my midwife in attendance i feel well taken care of. he was funny. he could not get over how petite i was and asked me many times if i knew that i was small and how i saw myself getting even bigger than i am. i guess he never went to that school that told him your size has nothing to do with your ability to give birth.. yes i am large in the belly i measure 40 weeks pregnant with about 8 weeks to go. thats the other thing he was eager to do a fetal assement because he didn't believe me on my due date.. again muttering something about how small i am and how could my belly get any bigger. i will go in again this week for a fetal assement and will let you know how the boyz are doing in there.
before we left vancouver daves friend nick took some lovely photos of us and here are my two faves so far. i will write again this week with more news oh and pics of the house.

no need to worry

yes it looks as if pregnancy has changed my color completely but its only the camera doing the trick on my 30 week picture to the left. please don't be alarmed the water here is not bad or anything...
havn't given many updates on pregnancy lately so i figured its about time. i am well my belly is growing bigger and bigger when i last saw my midwife (last tues) i was measuring 38cm. you usually measure according to what week you are in pregnancy so you can tell that makes me BIG and looking like a woman about to give birth to one baby. its hard to imagine sometimes that i have two months to go wondering where they will fit and how on earth i will be comfortable. my feet are about double their size and even my legs are swelling. all those nice maternity clothes i bought are just barely holding on..
this saturday we have our consult with our OB in Wpg which will hopefully be a better experience than this last meeting. my midwife has worked with him and speaks highly of him and his attitude towards vaginal twin births which is wonderful. i am about ready for some good news in that regards.
i am excited to meet these boys and do relish in the miracle working inside my body every day. i don't take it for granted and can be thankful for all of this as long as my boys are healthy and doing well.
anyways that is about all. we are all doing well. dave works long hours - leaves the house at 7:30 and doesn't get home till 6:00 so that has been an adjustment but he is enjoying it as i am enjoying puttering around the house. i am missing the familur friendships i had, not sure how to seek people out or if maybe too much time has passed and the time apart has lost something. i hope not maybe its just an adjustment period for everyone involved.
must go - hungry again.. seems to be all i do eat, sleep, pee... the never ending cycle!