28 weeks

We had our 28 week appt and ultrasound today. It's always so much fun to get to see the girls (we got confirmation again today that one of them at least is still a girl) : ). It was extra fun to have Ryan along this time too.

Both girls had good movement, good heartbeats, good measurements (on track) and good fluid levels (which I was worried would start being a problem since that is why I was induced with Ava).

Another huge praise was the fact that my glucose and hemoglobin levels were really great . . .especially considering I'm carrying twins. In fact, they both were better than when I was pregnant with Ava. So hurray for no diets (although not that it would be all that bad for me to eat better). : )

Currently, baby A was measuring at 27 weeks, 5 days with a weight of 2 lbs 9 oz (they want their measurements within 2 weeks of your gestation).

Baby B was measuring at 28 weeks, 1 day with a weight of 2 lbs 8 oz. It's crazy to think how close we're getting to babies who could come home from the hospital! I'm starting to panic about what we still need to get done.

But both girls seem to be right on track and doing great which we're so thankful for!

I've been feeling much better since I've slowed down, albiet tire pretty easily. I currently measure bigger than I did the day I delivered Ava (as I should) and I am starting to daily shake my head and ask how my belly is going to keep stretching for 2 more months! I may just start wearing a cow bell in another month. : )

I find myself riding a see-saw of wanting to be assured they won't let me go past a certain time frame so I"m not a complete whale (movements are starting to get pretty ackward and I"m definately noticing the extra weight on my back) . . ..with wanting to avoid induction at all costs if I can. As some of you know, I had a horrendously awful and VERY long post-partum recovery with Ava which I am convinced is partly due to being induced. So it's kind of one those, "one day at a time God!"

And even when I try and pretend to myself that I can control any part of when or how these babies will come, I know in reality the 3 of us are all in God's hands and He'll get us through whatever outcome we find ourselves in. So it's a daily conversation of surrender on that end! And some days, it's an easier surrender than others.


Thanks so much for all your continued prayers!!

it's nice to see my daughter's devotion habits starting early

christmas's galore

It's been a whirlwind of christmases .. ..yesterday found Ava and Mommy both exhausted, grumpy and a teeny bit emotional (poor daddy . ..can you just imagine his life in 15 years when all 4 of his ladies are that way?!). Thankfully, today has gotten increasingly better as we all finally got a good night's sleep, we celebrated Christmas with our little family, Ava FINALLY took a good nap for the first time all week and life slowed down a bit. Ahhhh. I love a day with no agenda!

But here's a massive recap of our past few days!
Christmas Eve found us celebrating Christmas with Ryan's family.

Ava opening up her stocking

Tasting Pez for the first time . ..someone is a fan! : )

Playing with Grandpa's Race Track

Going "fishing" with Daddy and his new fishing pole

Ava didn't think the matching aprons she and Grandma got from Grandpa were as cute as we did.

Playing with Uncle David's present

Ava's new stereo for her bedroom was huge hit. Here's she's showing me how she sings along with her new cd.






Dancing to the music

This "play/pause" button is REALLY neat mom.

Snuggling the babies

Opening Aunt Callie's present

Playing hide and seek in her christmas pj's and slippers

Playing with the "choo, choo"

Christmas morning we opened stockings before church . . ..Ava's ring pop and new necklaces made for one happy little girl. The rest was just extras. : )




After church we headed off to Mattoon to spend Christmas day with the Prevo's. Ava got this cozy bathrobe from Uncle Bruce and Aunt Debbie.

Here's our resident trash picker upper hard at work

Grandpa Prevo opening up his presents

Ryan's cousin Zach was Ava's favorite playmate of the day!

This morning, Ava got to open her presents from Mommy and Daddy (and a bonus present we saved) : )

Playing with her new stroller and one of her twin baby dolls (thanks Annika for such a fun gift - Ava loved her new babies!!)

Driving her new car around with Daddy - we had to pull her out from it to eat Breakfast. She just kept wanting to drive her car and didn't want to get out!

Merry Christmas!

It's our Christmas prayer for you that regardless of the joys, sorrows or struggles that you've known this past year, that the peace of God can be real for you and your family. HE is our reason for celebration: yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Our little munchkin grows up with each and every new day. Ava loves to talk, dance, or sing . . .and has even been known to attempt all three at once. : ) At 16 months, there isn't a word she won't try and more and more I see her initiate words on her own. It's so fun to see her communication increase with every day. Her energy level at times exhausts me but I delight in how she delights in the world she's been given and am thankful for such a happy and healthy little girl. Her compassion and care when playing with her dolls lets her daddy and I know that she'll make one great big sister. Her next big milestones to come shortly? A smooth (or so we're praying!) transition to her big girl room, a final good-bye to her bottle (she only gets it before bedtime) and, yes, did I mention two new sisters on the way?
Ryan and I continue to look back on this past year in amazement at how much our lives have changed and in both excitement (and a little trepidation!? : ) ) at what the upcoming year may hold. We're so thankful that God is a never-changing constant as we ride the rollercoaster of parenting and anticipate two more little girls. Ryan makes a world-class daddy and is a constant blessing to me with all his help and encouragement throughout the pregnancy and in day-to-day mommyhood.

I've been thankful for an overall, very healthy pregnancy - although to even try and describe this time around as "different" seems to be an understatement. At my appt this morning, I measured at 36 weeks (seemed accurate to me!), although currently find myself in my 27th week of pregnancy. I alternate between being amazed how fast and smoothly these past months have gone with wondering how my body is going to make another 2 1/2 months! Yet with the current activity level of these two little girls within me, I think I'll cherish the relative quiet these remaining months will bring (I think they'll be able to keep up with Ava just fine). : ) We look forward to another look at our little girls next week where we'll start getting an idea of their sizes as we anticipate their soon (but not too soon) arrivals.

As we praise God for the miracles of babes in our own family, I have to marvel at the miracle of ONE PERFECT little baby's birth many years ago. He is our reason for Hope and I pray He can be yours as well.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is officially here . . .

Christmas officially arrived this past weekend - we celebrated with Ryan's Gramm side on saturday! Here's a few snapshots of the day . . ..

Busy learning all the new features of her "new phone"

Mommy is just trying to figure out how to turn off the Elmo song that plays every time she opens it. : )

This would be a classic expression of our little cheesball hamming it up

Snuggling the new puppy and kitty she got from Gpa and Gma Prevo

Someone remind me why we buy presents when our children rather be pushed around in a box?

Snuggling Grandma-Great

4 Generations

(We're going to have to try again to get one with Grandma's eyes open . . .but I still liked the picture)

Playing with all the beanie babies with Gpa and Gma

Our family!

chicago - maybe not the brightest move

Last weekend, Ryan and I went to chicago with some friends that we do a date night exchange with for a day without kids together.



It was so nice to have a relaxing day, find some great deals and yes, take a sit down break at Ghirradelli's! YUM.



While I knew the trip wasn't something my doctor would probably jump for joy at knowing I was doing (that might have been understated), I was convinced I could take it easy, take lots of breaks, and be all right. I mean, the only thing we had scheduled was eating! : )



We made it through the day and headed our merry way home. Here's a couple snapshots before we left for the night.

On the way home, I was feeling tired and definately experiencing sore feet, but commented I felt like I was holding up better than I thought.

Well, Ryan and I got home and that's where the fun began. This not so fun thing called contractions. Yep, not so smart Amber.

It was a slightly anxious (and a little bit uncomfortable) night as we waited to see if I could slow things down with rest, water, relaxation and medicine or if we'd be making a trip in to the doctor.

Thankfully things slowed down and minus the beating I was giving myself for pushing myself more than I should have, babies seemed to be doing well.

As the week progressed I took it very easy. And while I felt better each day, my doctor did have me head in to get monitored tuesday night to make sure we didn't have any preterm labor occurring. Thankfully, all that was discovered that night was my pre-registration info. : )

For a further safe guard, Dr. Nord also had me come into the office wednesday to check my cervix.

The good news? No dialating and internally the length of my cervix looked strong with no big worrisome changes.

The bad news? He says my cervix is 50% softened.

More good news? I'm not on bedrest.

More bad news? I have been given stern instructions to eliminate further shopping trips from my schedule as well as other activities that find me on my feet for any extended length of time.

Sigh. My beloved swimming is no more.

Dr. Nord thinks that for the most part, Sunday was just a result of doing too much.

However, it was a good wakeup call to me that I can't in any way try to pretend I don't need to dramatically slow down as I don't desire to meet these little girls any earlier than we need to. I really have been doing that at home - chicago just wasn't the brightest move.

But it does lead me to present you all with a prayer request.

Ryan started a new job position the beginning of this month. While we're excited and thankful for the opportunity, it does bring some heavy year-end work that needs to be done and will most likely require some longer hours through january and the first half of february. The big date to get through, Feb.16th.

37 weeks, which is the latest the babies will be born by, puts me at March 3rd.

See the small window here?

So our big prayer request here is obviously that babies can wait to be born as long as possible (I may have to repeat that to myself at the term used to describe Mary as "GREAT with child" is ringing closer and closer to home these days) : ).

Yet, if they do need to come earlier, our prayer request is that they can wait until after Feb. 16th (which would put me around 35 weeks).

Even more specific?

That I can avoid bedrest through Feb. 16th.

As I think ahead to soaking in these last few months of relative quiet and time with just Ava and I, obviously bedrest doesn't fit my ideal of spending the time.

The two of us live a quiet life these days at home and I am able to take it pretty easy. I'm hoping it's a pattern we can continue for a while here.

And God bless a husband who helps out above and beyond what I could ever ask or hope!

We're so thankful that through this all, both girls continue to be very active and look great. Hopefully at my appt. next week we'll start getting an idea of their sizes too!

So that's our week's update!

On a little "lighter" note . . ..while in Chicago, Ryan and I bought these adorable bunny slippers for Ava.

They were supposed to be a christmas present but a certain daddy couldn't bear to wait. : ) So we went ahead and gave them to her.

She was pretty cute and got very excited.

That night after Ryan had put her to bed I checked on her as I headed upstairs.

This was the sight that greeted me.

How do you not fall in love with the little girl?!?! She didn't want to take them off to go to bed.

Makes me quite excited for two more little munchkins around this place.

and just because

I just love these two . . .and love the two of them together.

Playing with Daddy and the train

We miss you Brandon!!! Thanks for all your work!!! (I couldn't get Ava to smile for the life of me)

If I had a million dollars . . .

. . . and was going to spend over a $100 for Ava's christmas dress, this would SO be it. I've admired this from "afar" (ok, from online) many times the past couple months. So I decided maybe posting about it would help make me feel like I got to briefly "purchase" it. : )

Isn't it just gorgeous!?!?

Disclaimer: I would be willing to accept this as a gift should someone ELSE want to purchase it. : ) The size 2 should fit her perfectly next christmas. cough. cough.

contrary to what you'd think . . .

So it's been a bit of a silent blog this week again. Sorry! You'd think I'd have been running around getting lots lof things done with a spotless house - right?!

For the sake of transparency, let's just throw that idea out the window - shall we?

Although the exciting news is that these piles of clothes outside the laundry room DOES mean that laundry is in the process of completion today! : )

So what have we been doing?

(contrary to the other popular opinion that may have been formed by the pictures, I promise it wasn't nothing! : ) )

We're in the process of redoing Ava's big girl room!

I say the "we" loosely.

My cousin Brandon is here this week doing alot of the painting for us. It's been so fun to have him here and Ava loves playing his shadow. She wakes up every morning and from her naps asking where he is and wants to go find him. I'll have to get a picture of the two of them.

But I have been running around finding some extra pieces for the room, picking up paint, lunch (have to keep the help happy you know!) and trying to keep Ava out of Brandon's hair.

Oh - and did I mention grow two babies in the meantime?

Thank you. I'm quite tired too. : )

Once things have reached a more "completed" state (it may be another week or so), I'll have to post some pictures. But I've LOVED how the color turned out. It's been fun to finally see things start to come together.

And here's just one more snapshot into our week - Ava and Annika playing while Ryan was home on his lunch break tuesday. What fun little girls.

Happy Birthday Annika. We love you lots!

why not

So I decided I'd just go ahead and post our few random pictures we took from the trip - but since I'm tired, lazy and braindead (don't I sound fun!?), they are out of order. : ) I'll post more as I can . ..since my sister's are better!

Ava had a blast swimming each day. She's getting a little braver than her mom would like at times but it's fun to watch her take the risks and have so much fun.

Ava LOVED Pluto - until he put his hand on HER daddy's shoulder's. She didn't like the idea of sharing daddy.
Ava thought she was big stuff hanging out in the stroller with Brynne.

Our tired family at the end of the day.

What more can a little girl ask? A day at Disney, Minnie Ears . . . AND a chocolate covered pretzel.