Our big boys

Posted on February 19, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

Our boys are days away from being 4 months old, that’s crazy. They are getting so big and growing up so fast. It is so much fun to see what all they are learning to do in such a short amount of time. We have changed a lot lately because the boys are becoming more active and their needs have changed.

Lets start with the changes to their beds. Jonathan went in one morning and found Hayden had scooted all the way over to the side of the crib with his face right up against the crib bumpers. So that was a sure sign the bumpers were needing to be taken off! Just by taking off the crib bumpers, the whole environment, from their perspective changes. The lighting changes, the amount of air or draft they feel is different and they see more through the crib slats, where as before they just say the bumpers. So everything they knew had been changed.

Both boys have been sleeping in their miracle blankets and they absolutely love them! Well they have started moving so much that they are wiggling out of their blankets are we were afraid that they would get all tangled up in them.

all snuggled in their miracle blankets

So we are no longer putting them in the miracle blankets and they are now in their sleep sacks, or as we like to call them, their happy sacks. The sleep sacks are like a long vest that zips up and covers their legs without the worry of a blanket covering their face during the night. We weren’t sure they would like the new sleep sacks because they love being wrapped up and when they aren’t wrapped up they don’t know what to do with their arms. The first night wasn’t great, Hayden did ok, he just woke up several times because, Iike I said earlier, he didn’t know what to do with his arms not being wrapped up. Ian on the other hand, he didn’t do so well. He screamed for 30 minutes straight (of course we would go in and check on him periodically) and after that I decided he wasn’t ready to make the switch yet. So I wrapped him up, rocked him for about 5 minutes, and he was asleep. We tried to change way to much on him in one night, so we let him get used to not having the bumpers around the crib for a few nights and tried again. This time he did great and has slept in the sleep sack ever since.

Hayden in his happy sack

Ian is a mover and shaker at night. When we go in during the night or in the morning, we never know where he is going to be laying or in what position he will be in. Hayden, on the other hand, pretty much stays put throughout the night.

both boys have learned to sit and stand up, with our help of course, and love it. In fact, it is what they want to do all day long! They don’t like being in their bouncy seats or swings as much because they can’t sit up. So I decided to find a big boy toy for them. I wanted to get an exersaucer type toy that they could sit it and eventually jump in, but not take up the entire living room (because we will need to get two). I found an awesome one online at Amazon that they would love so I ordered one and if they liked it I would order another one. Well, while I was at a resale shop the other day selling some clothes I found the exact Fisher-Price SpaceSaver Bounce ‘n Spin Froggy
(man that’s a long title) that I ordered from Amazon…and, it was $30 cheaper. This one was in really good shape, hardly looked used, so I brought it home and they loved it. Hayden was the first one to try it because Ian was asleep when I came home.

Hayden enjoying his new toy

Ian sleeping through all the fun

Ian got to try it out the next day and loved it just as much.

Ian enjoying the new toy

We have really enjoyed having two of the toys because we set them nose to nose while the boys play and they can watch one another. Sometimes they play so much they both end up falling asleep while sitting in it.

Hdiddy & Ididdy playing

Hayden has never been one to like tummy time, and Ian does when he is in the mood. They have both learned to like it a little bit better and Hayden even rolled over from his stomach to his back the other day by himself. They also like to lay on their play mat and look at the mirror and toys above them. Ian will lay under there for an hour sometimes just playing away.

Ian doing tummy time while waiting on his turn for a bath

Not only are the boys more active now and wanting to move more, they are a lot more vocal. They both love to talk and tell us everything that’s going on. Ian has been “talking” for a few weeks now but Hayden just recently started really “talking”, and when he gets on a roll, he will talk your ear off.

This is difficult age because they are at an inbetween stage. They want to sit up and do more, but are not able to do it by themselves and we can’t sit there all day long and hold them so they get fussy more now than they have in the past. But, needles to say we are loving watching the boys grow up and learn new things. I love watching their faces when they do something they didn’t realize they could do before. Watching Hayden roll over for the first time was priceless, his just got this huge grin on his face. They have grown up so much in the last 4 months, it will be amazing to see how much more they learn in the next 4 months!

My 3 Valentines

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

As you all know, this past Monday was Valentine’s Day. In all honesty, I don’t think you need just one day to show the one you love that you love them…it should be all the other 364 days as well. But anyway, this year I got to spend it with 3 of my loves!

My #1 Love: My hubs…Jonathan.

Valentine's Day '11

Went out for a dinner date on Friday night and my parents watched the boys for us. It was nice to get out and it just be the two of us, we could take our time eating, not have to stop mid conversation and calm a fussy baby or put a pacifier back in a mouth. It was great! On Monday, actual Valentine’s Day, we just came home from work, ate and then spent the evening with our boys. Ooooh and we did spend a small stent of our day in the ER, but it wouldn’t be a Valentine’s day without something like that happening. The first V-Day we ever spent together was at a funeral home, last year we were at Target buying diapers, and this year we were in the ER for a little while. Oh how romantic our valentine’s days are! But no matter where we are and what we are doing, I’m with Jonathan so it doesn’t matter.

My # 2 and #3 Loves: My boys…(in no particular order) Hdiddy and Ididdy

Hdiddy & Ididdy

The boys don’t know it yet, but I will be their only valentine until they are like 25! I mean I’m the only woman they will ever love, right? Ha, okay probably not! But I will be their very first valentine.

Hdiddy

Ididdy

Things I love about being a mom

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

There were many things I looked forward to about becoming a mother. Watching them grow up, teaching them new things, doing things together as a family, etc. But there are so many little things that remind me everyday why I love being a mom. As Jonathan says, “it’s the little things that get you” and it’s so true…for example, I just got my old (I’m talking 6-7 years old) toaster oven back from my brother who got a new one for his wedding, and I have never been happier. Thanks Brian!

Anyway, Here are the top things that make me love being a mom:

I love love love all their little noises, especially the sound of them sucking on their pacifiers, it’s soo cute. I love seeing their smiles (and they looove to smile) and hearing them laugh – I’ll do anything to get them to laugh. Its funny to watch them laugh in their sleep…what does an infant dream about to make them laugh?! I love getting them up in the morning and watching them stretch, Hayden especially loves to stretch. I love watching them get all fidgety and fiesty when its time to eat. I love watching them try to suck on their fingers (they still jerk them out of their mouth too much to actually suck on them). I love Hayden’s little “goat” noise and Ian’s noise he does when he’s hungry. I love giving them baths because they love bath time. I love watching them watch Presley and now each other. I love to snuggle with them, but I think they love it even more. There are so many things I love, I could go on and on but I won’t. I’ll leave you with a video I put together of the boys laughing.

3 months old

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

The boys are 3 months old today. They have changed so much over the last month, its crazy. They don’t have a check up this month, we go next at 4 months. So we don’t know what they weigh, but 3 weeks ago Hayden weighed 11 lbs 3 oz and Ian was right at 10 lbs. So if I had to guess, I would say Hayden is somewhere around 12.5 lbs and Ian is about 10.5 maybe 11 lbs. From what I can tell, the boys have two completely different body types, but it could just be because Hayden has consistently been eating a lot more than Ian and he just hasn’t caught up to Hayden yet.

We now have both boy’s reflux under control and it is such a good feeling to have our happy boys back. Hayden is still on his Zantac twice a day and doing great while Ian is on Zantac and Prevacid twice a day. Ian is like a completely different baby. It took a while to get him where he is now but he is finally eating great and without any problems. We have an appointment with a GI doctor at Children’s in about 2 weeks. We would probably be fine not going to see him now since Ian is doing so well, but since he is requiring two different meds to control his reflux, it’s probably a good idea to go.

A month ago when we saw the pediatrician we started the Prevacid and kept the Zantac for the inital 2 or 3 weeks because it takes a good 2 weeks for the prevacid to kick in. After those initial 2 weeks we were to back off the Zantac until he was off it. Well after 2 days he started having some problems again so we are back to twice a day zantac. She also told us to remain on the Elecare formula for now (until we saw the GI doc) because at this point we still weren’t sure if it was a formula issue or just reflux. She did tell us we could take Hayden off the Elecare and put him on a regular sensitive formula. She said we would know within 2 or 3 bottles whether or not he would tolerate it. Since that appointment he has been on the sensitive formula and doing great with it! So we got to take one baby off Elecare but still had one on it.

Fast forward about 3 weeks and Ian is finally doing great on his 2 reflux meds but now he is only eating like 2 or 3 ounces at a time and because of that, wanting to eat every 2 hours. So we asked he pedi if we could add some rice cereal to his bottle to help fill him up some. We started doing that and it did help, but he then started getting some red, dry patches on his neck and chest. I think it was from the cereal but we won’t know for sure, so I wanted to get him off the cereal…he is still a little young for it anyway. This is where mothers intuition takes over. The doctor can only go by what we tell her but we see Ian everyday and see how he responds to things and such. Well since we didn’t see much of an improvement with him when we put him on Elecare I didn’t think his issues were formula related. Since he was doing great on his meds and we didn’t think it was formula related, I took the liberty of switching Ian to the sensitive formula that Hayden was on. I figured if it is a formula/milk issue then we’ll just deal with the consequences and then switch him back to the Elecare, but if it isn’t then we just saved ourselves a bunch of money and frustration with a baby that is hungry all the time. Well, he took the formula great and hasn’t had a problem since. He is now eating 5 full ounces every feeding (6 ounces right before bed) and is a much happier baby because he’s not starving. YEAH- they are both off Elecare!!

It is much better now that we can actually just go to the store and buy their formula, but the only problem is that not too many place have the specific formula they are on. They either run out really fast or just don’t keep it in stock. It is pretty hard to find, so when we do find it, we stock up! Of course, our boys only want the best and like the ready to feed formula…the powder tends to upset their stomach.

So Hayden is now eating 7 ounces consistently, sometimes as much as 8 ounces and Ian is eating 5 ounces and 6 at his last bottle at night. They are now both sleeping through the night!! They do wake up some, usually because their pacifier came out or they just woke up and can’t go back to sleep. So we aren’t completely sleeping ALL night, but they aren’t eating in the middle of the night (except for an occasional night here and there). They get their last bottle about 8:30 PM and then we put them to bed (whether they go to sleep is another story) and then they eat again at 5:00 AM. Eventually we will be able to move the 5 AM feeding to 6 or 7, but for now I’ll take what we can get.

Both boys are smiling and laughing now. Ian was cracking up this morning. Jonathan was tapping his nose and it just cracked Ian up, it was pretty funny! Hayden will laugh in his sleep but he has laughed a few times today in response to something. Even though they have laughed before, today was the first time Hayden and Ian both laughed as a response to something they thought was funny, so today was a big day in the realm of laughter.

They have both successfully been transitioned to their own crib. They had been sleeping in the “bassinets” in their room since they came home and we thought it was time to move them into their cribs since they will soon outgrow the bassinet. They still use the miracle blanket at night which keeps them wrapped up….and when Hayden isn’t wrapped up, he won’t go to sleep.

They like to lay under their play mat and as much as they dislike tummy time, they put up with it. They will usually fall asleep when we put them on their tummy.

Hayden enjoying tummy time

We will put them in their bumbo seats for about 5 minutes at a time and thats about all they will tolerate. Their still a little young for those but it helps them learn to sit up.

Bumbo Time

Ian likes the bumbo seat a lot better than Hayden does, I’m sure its because he has a little better head control and strength in his neck.

Ian

They both have pretty good head control and love to sit up and look around. Hayden still has some trouble keeping his neck/head straight up, he tends to tilt it to the right still. It is getting better though. They were evaluated a week ago for DOC bands and we were told they both needed one. Hayden definitely does need one because of the way he was positioned in the womb. Ian could use one, but would probably be fine without it so we are asking our pediatricians opinion next month on whether or not she thinks he really needs one. Their insurance will cover a little bit of the treatment cost but not until they are 4 months old, so we have to wait another month to start treatment.

This has turned into a rather long post, so I guess I’ll wrap it up….overall, the boys are doing extremely well and it is so much fun watching them grow and learn new skills.

Happy 3 month birthday boys – I love you!

What we’ve been up to

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

Since I’ve been back to work, the posts have obviously decreased in frequency. Generally from 7:00 PM on we are giving the boys baths, feeding them and putting them to bed and then once that is done, we go to sleep – anywhere from 10:00 to 12:00 depending on how well they go to sleep. So I usually don’t have much down time at home after work, and on the weekends we’ve just been busy lately.

I had mixed emotions when I went back to work. I was ready to go back because I had been off work for 5 months, but at the same time, I didn’t want to leave the boys. So I brought the boys with me to work…

We are extremely blessed to have our mothers watch the boys a few days a week while we are at work. Putting two infants in daycare was an outrageous amount of money. Basically, there was no reason for me to work if they would be in daycare, my entire check would go to pay for someone else to watch them. So we are sooo grateful to our moms (and dads sometimes) to watch the boys for us. Not only does it help financially, but its just a huge burden lifted off our shoulders to know who is watching our boys and to know that there is nothing we have to worry about. We know they will be taken care of and loved just as much as if it were Jonathan or myself at home with them.

Our moms have done a great job keeping the boys on their schedule and giving them their medicine, etc but we have noticed that the boys have realized that it’s not us at home with them all day. Its not a bad thing and its nothing our moms are doing wrong by any means, the boys just know its not mom and dad at home with them.

They boys are 12 weeks now and growing like crazy. I’ve packed away all their preemie and a lot of their newborn clothes and are pulling out their 0-3 months clothes now. Hayden is packing on the pounds while Ian is slow to catch up, but he will in time. That’s all I’ll say about them right now….you’ll get more later this week for their 3 month update.

I went to the cardiologist Friday morning because I had been having episodes of severe chest pain that would last anywhere form 30 mins to 2 hours. She told me I had coronary artery spasms, which basically is what it sounds like. My coronary arteries spasm which causes episodes of severe (and I mean MASSIVE) chest pain. So she gave me a prescription for nitroglycerin to use when I had an episode and if that didn’t work, she gave me another medication to take on a daily basis. She said it was more than likely caused by the pregnancy…well the hormones from the pregnancy, and it should go away within 6-12 months.

Well we had an exciting night Friday night. I woke up about midnight with massive chest pains and knowing what they were I did my nitroglycerin the cardiologist gave me but after 2 shots and about an hours time they didn’t go away, so we thought it would be best to call 911. So the ambulance got there and took me to the ER. After about 2 hours from when the chest pain started, it finally stopped and I was able to get some relief. This was about 5 minutes before we got to the hospital! So of course when they bring me into the ER I am having no pain. I told the EMS they could just turn the ambulance around and take me home…they didn’t agree.

The ER was a waste of time and all they did was tell me to follow up with my cardiologist on Monday – uh Duh, I could have told you I needed to do that! So, needles to say I got the other prescription my cardiologist gave me filled and have taken it every day since then. Hopefully it will keep the episodes away and I won’t have another one like the one on Friday night. That was painful!

The boys had an evaluation for DocBands (therapeutic helmet) on Friday. I say boys, we actually only had an eval for Hayden but ended up having them look at Ian’s head as well. Since they are twins, the chance of them having a misshaped head increases from the lack of space in the womb. Poor Hayden’s head has been misshaped since day 1 since he was basically squeezed into my pelvis for 8 1/2 months. He also had a tight neck from the way he was in the womb so he didn’t really turn his head from side to side. Because of that his head is flatter on one side than the other. It has also pushed his forehead forward and his ears are misaligned. We found out today that our insurance won’t cover anything until they turn 4 months old so we have to wait another month to start treatment. The good news is that they will cover some of the costs…it doesn’t even make a dent in the total cost, but I can’t complain because there are a lot of people that don’t get any help from insurance.

I finally printed some of the photos I have taken of the boys and got them framed so I could hang them on the wall in the living room.

The next week will be spent getting ready for my brother, Brian’s, wedding which is next weekend. I can’t believe he is getting married.

Brian and Stephanie

We live in the same neighborhood as Brian and just as we move into our new house in May, he leaves. His fiance has a bigger house so they will be living in her house. He may be leaving but we get a pretty sweet trade off because Jonathan’s sister and her husband are going to rent Brian’s house!! They will basically be around the corner from us so it’ll be fun to have them so close.

We have also been dressing up like superheros…well the boys have, not us.

Hayden as Batman

Ian as Superman

And there has been a lot of smiling around our house lately…

Mr. Chuckles

Mr. Big Grin

So that’s pretty much what we’ve been up to lately…

Snow Day

Posted on January 16, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

I didn’t think we were going to get any snow this winter, actually I didn’t think we were going to get below 50 degrees this winter. So I was rather shocked when I looked out our window last Sunday and saw SNOW! Then it kept coming and coming. By Sunday night our entire yard was covered with snow.

Snow Day 2011

Of course, the boys are way to young to know what snow is or remember have any fun in it. But, we did take them out to get pictures in the snow so we could show them pictures of their first experience with snow, and maybe the only one until they are 5. I wished we would have taken a picture of all 4 of us together but it was cold so we were trying to make it snappy and our tripod broke. I’ve learned to just accept that you get what you can when you are dealing with babies.

Daddy with the boys

Mommy and the boys

We kept it a pretty lazy day around casa de blundell while the snow fell outside. We had the blinds on the windows open so we could see out, had a fire going and just enjoyed hanging out as a family. The boys had some tummy time (along with Presley) by the fire….but not too close to it.

tummy time with Presley

Grandma Margie stayed Sunday night at our house so she wouldn’t have to drive in it Monday morning to come watch the boys. Both Jonathan and I ended up going to work a few hours late and by the time we were on our way the roads weren’t that bad.

It was a great way to end the weekend and I always welcome snow!!

The Holidays

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

So this is waaaay over due but it’s been a little hard to get stuff done around here lately. With both of us back at work now, we’re a little more tired than we were before and when we are at home with the boys we don’t want to spend out time online. The boys are also more aware of things and take up a lot of our time, imagine that, huh?!

Anyway here is a wrap up of the holidays with our new little family. We’ll start with Thanksgiving since I didn’t ever post anything about it – ha.

First Thanksgiving

We had lunch with Jonathan’s family on Thanksgiving and introduced the boys to his side of the family. We ended up meeting his aunt, uncle and cousins for lunch the weekend after Thanksgiving and unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures, can you believe that? Continue reading →

caption this

Posted on January 2, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

I took this photo during our new years day “photo shoot” and absolutely love it! It’s one of my favorite pictures of them and completely shows off their different personalities. Hayden is more of the serious, subdude, calm type and Ian is more of the gotta see whats going on, curious type. So here’s the picture with our comments as to what they are saying…

Hayden to Ian:
“Dude, you gotta calm down”
“Hey, the more you smile, the more they’ll keep taking our picture”
“Seriously, calm down man”
“I wish you would just calm down and put your tuxedo on like your supposed to”

Ian to Hayden:
“Come on, why aren’t you smiling, this is fun”
“Cheeeeeeeeeese”
“Po sucker, you got stuck with the penguin suit!”
“aren’t you glad they aren’t making a goofy video of us this time around”

It will be fun to see if their personalities continue to be like this or if they switch.

Turlindelzi Christmas

Posted on December 31, 2010 by Laurie Blundell

This is waaay over due. It’s been sitting in my blog dashboard for a while now unfinished. So here it is, a few weeks late.

The Turlindelzi Christmas is more commonly called the Turner-Medlin Christmas or Medlin-Turner Christmas, depending on who you ask. But since we have added us and the Lattanzi’s to the last name mix, I came up with a new name – Turlindelzi. Our two families have been doing our annual Christmas get together for years…I mean years, we’re talking 20+ years. It’s one of two events all of us “kids” look forward to every year! The other one is our New Years Day extravaganza to celebrate my dad and Bob’s Birthdays. Now that the “kids” are starting to have their own kids, we hope they will look forward to it as much as all of us do!

Next generation Turner-Medlin crew

We always have a wonderful meal, usually Vicki’s chili and other yummy foods and a birthday cake for Jake. This get together has turned into a family birthday party for Jake as well.

After dinner we do Jake’s birthday celebration (cake and gifts) and then let the little kids open their gifts. Every year the little kids get a new pair of Christmas pajamas from grammy and granna Vicki.

The boys in their new jammies

After the little kids, we let the older people open their gifts – haha. I mean our parents. This is usually funny to watch and there is almost always a story that is “the funniest thing you have ever heard!” OR There will be a story behind every gift between my mom and Vicki! Fun times in deed.

The last couple of years us older kids have started doing a white elephant gift exchange instead of getting gifts for everyone. We kind of changed the name of the gift exchange though to the green brown bag white elephant gift exchange. Its green because it is something nice but that we already have and don’t want anymore. For example, picture frames or a candle holder, etc that’s still nice but you aren’t using anymore. Its brown bag because we wrap it in a brown bag instead of using wrapping paper and then the white elephant is self explanatory. This is usually a fun time and of course is more fun when people steal gifts!

Growing up we would always end up staying around and playing games, laughing at stories until we pee our pants and who knows what else but now that we have kids we typically end up calling it a night so we can get the little ones to sleep.

This year was a hard year for us all during the celebration because we were missing one key person, Bob. We were all sad that he wasn’t with us this year but he was in spirit and in our memories of him. The hardest part about it was watching my dad. Bob was his best friend and he looked lost without him there this year. I am glad the boys were there because he was holding one the majority of the night and I think they helped distract him. The two of them would always just sit back and watch us all be crazy and laugh at us while talking about golf. I know it was hard for him and I can’t imagine how hard New Years day is going to be on him.

Like I said earlier, this is one of 2 events I look forward to every year and I’m already ready for next year!

2 months

Posted on December 21, 2010 by Laurie Blundell

Hayden and Ian 2 months old

The boys are 2 months old today! I can’t believe how big they have gotten and how chubby they are now. Since I am back at work now and Jonathan is home the next few weeks I left the task of taking the boys’ 2 month photo in his hands. He did get a good one, I knew I could count on him.

This past Thursday I got the boys all dressed and ready and then proceeded to take their 2 month pictures. Only to realize, they weren’t 2 months yet…they were 8 weeks though. I got some good pictures either way! This is one of my absolute favorites but it does make them look a little chubbier than they actually are.

Hayden & Ian 8 weeks old

Both boys are starting to smile, coo and are getting little personalities. I love all the little noises they make but mostly I love to see them smile. I got a picture of Ian smiling the other day but I haven’t been able to catch one of his really big grins. Hayden gave us a BIG grin at Vicki’s last week and I was able to catch that. Anytime I need a pick me up, I just look at these two pictures and it works! (pay no attention to the formula stain on Ian’s clothes)

Hayden & Ian Smiling - 8 weeks old

They now have all that cute baby chubbiness that makes them so irresistible! Hayden is now about 9.5 – 10 pounds and Ian isn’t too far behind, probably right at about 9.5 pounds. Hayden is our stretcher! In the morning when you wake him up and unwrap him from his blanket, he stretches or about 2-3 minutes straight and anytime he wakes up from sleeping he does a big stretch. It is soo cute to watch. Ian still does his little “hungry speak” as we call it. He makes this noise when he’s hungry that is adorable. He also does a little cute noise while he eats, very hard to describe what it sounds like so I won’t even try…you just have to hear it!

Neither of the boys really like tummy time but they have to do it so they live with it. They don’t scream or anything, they just fuss and cry a little. They are getting better though and now that they have pretty good head control they seam to like it a little bit more. They got some new toys to play with during tummy time so we’ll have to try them out and see how they like them.

They are becoming more aware of things like the mobile on their crib and will lay under it and watch it while I clean or do stuff around the house. They got a cool toy for Christmas that projects a picture on the ceiling so we can’t wait to try that out and see how they like it…we have to get batteries for it or else we would have used it by now. They are also able to focus more on things and will turn towards our voices if they hear us.

Yesterday I was looking at some pictures of the day they were born and I still can’t believe how small they were. They are getting so big so fast, I can’t imagine how they will look in another month!