Macy and Makayla - Our Perfect Angels...Already 1 week old!

Most of you know, Macy Faith and Makayla Grace arrived last Tuesday, August 11th. It's hard to believe that it's already been more than a whole week!!! And it's taken me that long to get an update for the blog completed!! The first lesson we've learned is that our "timeline" for getting things done goes out the window...we're on "baby time" now!

Macy made her appearance on Tuesday at 7:36 pm. She came out perfectly, and was quickly swooped up by Daddy to work with the doctors to get cleaned up and ready for the world! Macy was the smaller of the 2, weighing in at 6 lbs, 2.8 oz, and was 19 inches long.

Makayla made us wait just a little longer (it seemed like about 3 days for mom!), and made a grand entrance at 8:31 pm. She came out with just some minor fluid in her lungs that was quickly taken care of in the nursery, and was soon cuddling in our arms as well. Makayla weighed 6lbs, 13 oz, and was also 19 inches long.



We could never have imagined what a feeling it is to hold our babies in our arms! After a long, hard night, we were moved into our postpartum room and ready to begin our journey as parents!

We had several visitors in the hospital, including Grandma and Grandpa Childers, Grandma and Grandpa Reed, Aunt Sheryl, Aunt Melissa, Aunt Sabrina, Great-Aunt Crystal, Cousin Shawnna, Auntie Melissa, and Josh and Abby. The girls haven't picked their "favorite aunt" yet, but have a lot of competition!! :)

Apparently there was "something in the air" in Mooresville late last year, because the girls were one of 4 sets of twins born within 3 days at that hospital, and the girls were instantly "made famous" in the Statesville Record and Landmark! (Hopefully this link to the article will still work: http://www2.statesville.com/content/2009/aug/15/area-hospital-delivers-four-sets-twins-three-days/)

After the newspaper pictures, the girls said goodbye to our wonderful doctor, Dr Adams, and our patient nurse and child birth education teacher, Laura. We could not have asked for better care through pregnancy and delivery!

We came home from the hospital on Thursday evening, and took the girls around to check out their new room and the pack and play in our room that we're using as "temporary quarters" while we all adjust. They seem to like everything just fine!

For the past week, we've spent a lot of time getting to know each other as a family of 4.

The babies sleep A LOT (which we're trying to enjoy while it lasts), and LOVE hanging out in their bouncy seats. Mom and Dad have definitely had an adjustment to their sleep schedule! We are currently waking the girls for feedings every 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours, which can be painstaking around 3 am!! We are all anxiously trying to make sure that the girls eat as much as possible so that they can put on some weight, since they started so small, and have, as usual, dropped several ounces over the last week. We're making lots of progress, and are blessed with the fact that everything else about the babies checks out perfectly!

Now that we're settled at home and starting to develop something of a routine (although there's still work needed), we'll try to do better with blog updates. It's been an overwhelming week, but we've realized, however unqualified we might be, God has honored us with a special gift, and we're just loving every minute of the experience and looking forward to the adventure ahead!

The Date has been Set!

Yesterday we planned for the arrival of our little girls! We will go to the hospital at 7am, Tuesday, August 11th, to be induced, and should expect the girls to make their appearance sometime that day! We are SO excited!

We've only got 5 more days to make our final preparations for their arrival! (unless they decide to come SOONER!) We'll send out an email when they get here, and will do our best to post pictures and updates on the blog as soon as possible!

Until then, keep us in your prayers as we prepare for the awesome adventure ahead of us!

Welcome to Macy and Makayla’s Crib!

We have finally finished the nursery, and are washing linens and getting ready for the arrival of the new tenants! We've had a lot of fun putting all of this together, and have been able to realize that we both enjoy "crafts" more than we thought! It's been quite a stretch for us, and we're proud of the fact that we worked together to get the room set up (with some significant help from family), and are very pleased with how it turned out!

We started the project back in March, when Gary’s entire family swooped into town to get us to painting! In one weekend, we picked out the bedding, chose the paint colors, and painted the entire room! The guys did the “bead board” on the bottom, and the girls worked on painting over that “nautical blue” paint that once covered the room! (Unfortunately, we didn’t get any “untouched ‘before’” shots, but you can get a pretty good idea from the pictures below.)




Here are the pictures of what the room looks like today!! Notice the nice, clean, and organized room! We’ll be hanging onto these to remember what that was like!!

As for a "pregnancy update", there's not much news to tell. Mom is still pretty miserable, and having to sit and/or lay around more than she's ever done in her life! Dad's been extremely patient and accomodating, and has to be getting pretty sick of hearing mom whine! We're getting so close, so we're both very anxious to hear what the doctor has to say at our appointment tomorrow!!

For the past few weeks, we haven't had ultrasounds, but have had "No Stress Tests" done on each baby to measure their heartrates over a 20-25 minute period of time, and to measure contractions. Everything has been perfect so far, so with each visit, the doctor sends me away to continue to "wait patiently"! While I keep hoping for a little bit of "light at the end of the tunnel", we're happy that the girls are hanging in there so well, and, obviously, want them to stay in there until they're "good and ready" to make their appearance!

Hopefully more news to follow SOON!!

Celebrating the Girls' Arrival

I know I'm REALLY late with posting an update from our showers, but I'll blame it on those who were supposed to send me pictures (that sounds like a good excuse, but it's really entirely my fault!)

Unfortunately, I didn't really get any good group shots at any of the showers, but thought I'd post the "candid" shots that I have! Again, thanks to everyone who attended or sent gifts...we're STILL getting gifts!! We have such fantastic friends and family!

Our first shower was at my mom's house, and was hosted by my mom and all 3 of my dad's sisters.

Among our many great gifts, we recieved a few very special "personalized" items!


The second shower was at Abby Wilson's house, and was given by the awesome girls in our Sunday School class at church. (I don't have any pictures of this one yet!)

The third shower was at work. All of my co-workers played "guess how LARGE Mandy is". It was quite an eye-opening experience, and I'm pleased to say that most of them guessed WAY over!!
Here's a picture of Gary and Leslie taking the "official" measurements.

Notice how some people expected me to be as wide as the table??!!


The fourth shower was at Matt and Ashley Raymer's house, given by my wonderful group of neighbor friends.
Here's a shot of some of the girls doing what we do best...standing in the kitchen chatting it up!

Michelle made adorable (and YUMMY) pink cupcakes, which complemented all of the other awesome food that was served! I never leave a neighborhood event without overeating due to all of the good cooks of Crown Harbor!

And here's a picture of some of the gifts...I received so many extremely thoughtful gifts and cards...


The fifth and final shower was at my Aunt Crystal and Uncle Terry's house, and was given by Crystal and my cousin, Shawnna, my mom (Pam), Gary's mom (Marian) and Gary's sisters (Melissa, Sabrina, and Sheryl).
Everything was perfect, complete with adorable "floating" centerpieces...as would be expected, our girls will be quick to recognize airplanes!

Princess Haley was escorted in by her Dad and her Uncle...:) It was a perfect night out by the lake!

I know there are a few of you who still claim you haven't seen my BIG belly, so here's a nice side shot...and cutting the wonderful cake!

Haley helped us open a gift or 2...she wasn't all that into this "little kid" stuff, though...she's such a big girl now!! :)

Among the many fantastic gifts and cards, we received little pink cowboy boots to match the ones grandma and grandpa got for Emmy Cate at her shower. We'll have some country superstars in just a few years!

Here are a few other candids as well...



We had such a great time at each shower! It was great seeing family and friends that we don't see that often, and, again, we're so thankful for the love and support from everyone! We look forward to introducing Macy and Makayla to their new friends and family soon!

Getting Closer!!!

We had another doctor visit and ultrasound this week, and left with, once again, an excellent report! Both babies seem to be growing fast...Makayla passed up her sister and is now measuring right at 5 lbs! Macy's not too far behind at 4 lbs 9 oz. They're still both ahead of the game in the 70th and 60th percentiles, respectively. I'm thrilled that they're doing so well, but having trouble imagining how I'm going to survive through 4 and 1/2 more weeks if they keep growing at this rate! I never knew the meaning of the word "UNCOMFORTABLE" until now! :)
It's so worth it to know that everyone is healthy and safe, but boy is this pregnancy thing a tough one to get through!!

Below are several ultrasound shots...there's not a whole lot to see, since the images aren't that clear, but it's easy to see how much the babies have grown since the first postings.

The first picture is of Makayla.

The second is a shot of the tops of their heads! For the first time, the babies are lying head to head! This is great news, since now, both are head down, ready for delivery, and Makayla no longer has to lay her head on Macy's butt! :)

The final picture is of Macy.

On top of the good doctor report, we've been honored with 5 baby showers from various friends and family, and have received amazing gifts and support from those at the showers, as well as all of our out of town family and friends as well. We are SO BLESSED to have such wonderful people in our lives, and are able to say that we are truly set for the arrival of our little ones. We could never have imagined all of the wonderful gifts that we would get and the generosity that has been shown to us. To all of you who have been a part, we can't say THANK YOU enough times!! Our girls are in for a special treat to meet all of you!! :)

I still need to get pictures from our showers (various "photographers" have to send me their "work"), and I'll post those when I can. We are also finishing up on the nursery, so we should have pictures of that to post soon as well! We're very excited with how it's turning out, and can't wait to show off our final product! (We have to take plenty of pictures now, while it's clean and tidy!!)

Macy and Makayla

We're a little behind on updates, partly because we didn’t have any good new pictures to post, but we’ve been to the doctor several times, and thought I should give some sort of update! We had another ultrasound almost 3 weeks ago now, so that the babies could be checked out and measured, and, as far as they can tell, everything looks fantastic! The babies are both just above average (~70th percentile), and almost exactly the same size! At that time, Baby A measured at 2.86 lbs and Baby B measured at 2.84 lbs! We can only guess, after 3 weeks, that they’re both well over 3 lbs now! We are very blessed to have such good reports, and can only pray that things continue in this pattern! Below are a couple of ultrasound pictures, (Baby A on top, Baby B second) but there’s really not that much to see. You're mostly looking at their heads and the tops of their chests. The babies are getting too big to get any really clear shots, and after the 3D pictures from before, it makes the 2D pictures even harder to make out!

We did have another doctor visit last week, and the babies heart rates were still healthy – 135 for Baby A and 145 for Baby B. It could be partly because she may have been sleeping, but Baby A’s heartbeat had quite a substantial drop! This is also a GOOD sign, though, since this tends to happen as the babies mature in the womb. Additionally to that, mom is consistently growing…I’ve gained almost 40 lbs!! I measure what is fairly standard for a singleton pregnancy at 37 – 38 weeks, so the doctor was confident to assume that I’m appropriately uncomfortable, and will be for the next 7 or 8 weeks! :) It’s all for an amazingly good cause, so I just have to suck it up, keep the air conditioner turned LOW, and wait it out!! For the first time in my life, I’M the one constantly adjusting the temperature down! (The dogs like it, at least!)

The big “announcement” is that we’ve officially settled on first names for the babies (some of you have known these for a while, but I haven’t really made the official announcement)! So…Baby A will now be referred to as MACY and Baby B will be called MAKAYLA! We’re getting close on middle names, but figured we’d go ahead and lock down the first names, at least allowing us not to have to call them “A” and “B” anymore!

Other than that, not a whole lot to post…we’re slowly building up to the big day. Mom’s FINALLY slowing down at work, Dad has been doing lots of chores around the house (with a lot of much appreciated help from Aunt Melissa), and the nursery is coming together nicely…furniture in place, bedding is ready, and recliner is in position for some serious rocking action! As soon as we get it all put together, we’ll post pictures!

We’re very excited about the showers that some of our friends and family are graciously hosting for us over the next several weeks. While we’re appreciative of anything and everything, we’ve posted links to our registries over to the left. We’re registered at Target and Babies ‘R Us. Hopefully we’ve made logical selections…neither of us ever dreamed how hard and intimidating it would be to register for a baby (not to mention TWO babies!)!! There’s so much stuff to consider! We look forward to celebrating with everyone as the final countdown progresses!!

Aloha!

I know this blog is meant to be about the babies on the way, but we just got back from an AWESOME trip to Maui, Hawaii, and I decided I might as well post a "scrapbook" of our one last fling prior to changing to our new role as "responsible parents"!! We had a blast and couldn't believe how fast 10 whole days flew by! We managed to make the most of our trip, and stayed pretty busy the entire time, but it was SO worth it! (Tiring, but worth it!)

We did take time to rest and hang out by the pool at the beautiful Ritz resort where we had priveleges as part of our house rental. It was an awesome place to relax, drink "lava flows" (Gary's new favorite drink), and play in the pools with Haley, Reganne, and Riley! We also spent plenty of time on the beautiful beach, where Gary, Clayton, and Jason tried surfing...of course, the girls who wanted to try it were smarter, and they took lessons and had much better luck! :)

Besides hanging out at the pool and having lunch by the ocean, Gary, Whit, and I took multiple "Jeep Adventures" around the island. Gary and I officially circled the island by our last full day! It is definitely one of the most beautiful places on Earth! "The Road to Hana" is one of the most famous "attractions" on the island, but the day before Sheryl's wedding, Gary, Whit, and I found that the South route to Hana is actually better than the more famous north route! There is little vegetation and no rain forests like there are on the "official" road, but the cliffs, mountains, and valleys are unbelievable! We traveled to the "seven sacred pools" (although there aren't 7 and they aren't sacred!) which was a beautiful sight, and finished off our trip with a visit to Charles Lindbergh's grave. He planned his burial place himself, and couldn't have found a more primitive spot! The road is pretty bumpy, narrow, and curvy, and Whit and I were both pretty sore by the end ;-), but it was well worth the trip! We had to hurry back to be ready in time for the rehearsal dinner back at the resort.

The morning of the wedding, we made a quick trip just past our resort in Kapalua, only to find that we were staying within about 2 miles of roads as beautiful as we'd seen the day before! So that we wouldn't be late, we turned back for that day, but Gary and I started our own "road to Hana" trip from there later in the week.

The wedding was absolutely beautiful! Sheryl looked gorgeous, of course, and Ryan was studded out in his beach "tuxedo"! They released butterflies at the end of the ceremony, per Hawaiian tradition, then after champagne, cake, dancing, and pictures, everyone headed to the reception, which was a traditional Hawaiian luau. The luau was so much fun, and the food was amazing!! Whit surprised us all with a little bit of stage dancing, and Reganne and Ryan did their share as well. The highlight of our show was watching the kids. I've never seen more happy children as Reganne, Riley, and Haley were. They especially LOVED the fire eating and twirling!!

The sunsets in Hawaii are everything you'd expect...some of the most beautful sights you'll see. Unfortunately, haze moved in later in the week due to the eruption of a volcano on Kona, which was a bummer for the sunsets, but there's no cooler excuse for a bad sunset than to know it was hazy due to a rupturing volcano!! On our final evening in Maui, Jason, Jen, Riley, Reganne, Jim, Marian, Gary, and I did a sunset cruise on a catamaran. The kids loved that too, and it was so peaceful and relaxing!

Speaking of sunsets, we also saw our share of sunRISES! The 6 hour time difference made us miss very few toward the first part of the week (although we got more lazy as the weeks passed!) and we could even see a pretty good set of colors from our own bedroom! Afterward, Gary would share tea with Haley, and then play in the koi pond on our patio! :)

The day after the wedding, Melissa, Whit, Gary, and I made the long trek up to Haleakala (volcano) to watch the famous sunrise from there. We had to leave our house at 2:30 am, and had heard it would be cold, but had no idea what we were really in for! We had stripped blankets from our bed, but still couldn't hardly stand the cold! It was a beautiful sight, and we were glad we made the trip up to 10000 feet anyway!

The other main adventure of our trip was a day trip to the island of Oahu, where we toured the Pearl Harbor memorials. The USS Arizona is the ship that has been laid to rest in the Pacific with a beautiful monument built over the top. You can see the ship in the water, and can even still see trickles of oil rising to the surface. What a way to celebrate Memorial Day weekend! Beside that, we toured the USS Missouri, the ship were the peace treaty for WWII was signed with Japan. No trip would be complete without a visit to the Pacific Air Museum. Unfortunately, this was a pretty rushed trip, but we saw what we needed to, and then headed to the airport to catch our flight back to Maui!

On Monday before we left, Gary and I headed out on our own trip to Hana! As mentioned before, there were lots of beautiful flowers, plants, and waterfalls along the complete trail. Between this road and the others that we toured, I've never seen more bumpy, curvy, and scary roads, but luckily, Gary drives like a champ, and we made it safely all the way around the island! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make the hike to see many of the "hidden treasures" promised along the road, but there's no way we would have made it to all of the stops anyway, and Gary was glad I wasn't able to kill him with hikes! :) We stopped for some amazing banana bread in one little town, and picked up a box lunch that we ate at a different stop along the way.

By Wednesday, we were exhausted, but VERY sad to leave the beautiful island...and much dreading our trip home! Fortunately, we slept most of the way home, and then stopped over in Atlanta to see our beautiful new neice, Emmy Cate! After a quick overnight visit, Gary headed to work, and I headed home. Back to the real world...

Anyway, the babies seemed to have no issues on the trip, and I think I grew several inches while we were there...we've officially entered the 3rd trimester, and went back to the doctor today. No major news to report. Very good doctor report based on baby heartbeats and all of mom's measurements and vitals. We go back for an ultrasound for baby meaurements next week! We'll post more updates as soon as we have them!