Nursery

Here are some pictures of their nursery. They are in the same room right now making thing a whole lot easier! I really recommend it to other twin moms and dads.

I got these letters from JoAnn's and painted them with craft paint. I used Scotch Restickable Tabs to hold them to the wall and they haven't fallen yet. (It's been 3-4 months now)

The wall decor I bought on Amazon for super cheap. They too are reusable and don't pull the paint off.

Here are some links to they supplies I got;

Wooden letters

Scotch Restickable Squares

Removable wall appliques

Finger Painting

I am a full time stay at home mom and I'm struggling to find fun activities to do with the boys INSIDE the house. For the past few weeks it's been over 100* in our part of the country. It's also very time consuming to get the boys ready and out of the house. With two it seems to takes three times as long!

1/4 cup Cornstarch
2 cups Water
Food Coloring

First boil (stirring constantly) the cornstarch and water in a sauce pan until it is clear and thick. Let cool and divide into individual containers for each desired color. Add food coloring until you get the shade you desire. I did 3-5 drops the first time, stirred, and added more if it needed it. Mine came out pretty opaque. The finished product is very slimy but not sticky.

We did this outside (because it was the first nice day and why not got enjoy it!) on the back deck. I stripped them down to the diapers so I taped a blanket to the deck to prevent any splinters. This is how a set up the "studio"...

Taping down the corners of the poster board helped keep it from both blowing away and getting ripped to shreds.

Ollio enjoying his mustache

Timmo gets a goatee

Both boys seemed to enjoy it a lot but bored pretty quickly. I might try it again, without help, in a few weeks. Definitely NOT an everyday or week thing.

Ollio's

Timmo's

Introductions

First picture together!

My name is Kate and together with my husband Seth (The Hubster) we are the proud parents of an amazing set of twin boys. My parents give me a hard time because when I do things, I really do them! I like to go above and beyond expectations. For example the courtship of Seth and I. We were only together for three months when I found out I was four weeks pregnant. Two weeks later we found out that we were having twins. On top of the pregnancy being "unplanned", the seven and a half months I was pregnant were truly the worst. I had cholestasis of pregnancy, gestational diabetes, I didn't gain ANY weight for the first four months. (It was so bad that my doctor ordered Seth to force me to eat and eat and EAT!) I was also diagnosed with pre-eclampsia 2 days before giving birth.

On top of all my issues the boys weren't having a great time either. Early on we found out that Ollio (twin A) had a two vessel cord and that is was attached to the far side of their placenta (They were Mo/Di twins, two sacs one placenta). Because of all these factors my (awesome!) doctor had me on monthly (and eventually bi weekly) doctors visits with him and with a specialist.

On October 17th (I was only 32 and a half weeks prego) I went in for a routine non-stress test and measurement ultrasound. At the same type of appointment the month before twin A was around 2.7 lbs and twin B was 3.3 lbs. At the last one on the 17th twin A was only 3 lbs and twin B was around 6 lbs. There was something wrong. I was whisked away to labor and delivery to await my doctor's orders. (Of course Seth had a test that day, and silly me for thinking it was going to be a quick appointment, I told him not to bother coming. So there I was, alone, in labor and deliver. It takes 45 minutes to drive to the hospital from his school. Freaked out, to say the least, I had a million and one possibilities run through my head. My doctor gave me the news that our boys had Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome or TTTS. I cried and cried and spent the next two days being monitored 24/7 and anxiously waiting for my two little ones to join us. (Here's a link below for more info on TTTS)

http://www.tttsfoundation.org/

3 days old 

Twin A (Ollio) was the donor twin while twin B (Timmo) was the receiver. We knew from the beginning that there was a possibility for TTTS but we never really thought it was going to happen to us. No one ever does. The doctors told us to expect a long stay in the NICU but they couldn't really promise anything either way. When they brought my babies to me after they were deliver (before being rushed to the NICU) it didn't have time to sink in just how bad Ollio looked. Going back to the pictures that were taken I can't believe that I held it together. Ollio was born at just 3 lbs and Timmo was almost twice his size at 5 lbs 11 oz. When they brought Timmo over to say "Hi" to me the NICU doctor quickly showed me one of his hands. She told me that he has a limb deficiency on his right hand. He is missing the top couple knuckles on all his fingers. In the O.R. I just thought, "Ok, he's breathing, and beautiful." It didn't hit me until I got to go see them in the NICU. It just seemed as though we were getting pooped on over and over. (Now I look back and can see that it wasn't SO bad. There are lots of people that are in worse situations than us and I am so grateful for our blessings.)

During our stay in the NICU Timmo began to develop a hemangioma on his chest, above his heart. In the beginning it resembled a heart shape. We have had it checked out by a specialist and everything is just fine with it. It should not effect him in anyway and it as already started to go down. Again, another blessing. We stayed in the NICU for about 3 and a half weeks. While there they both had bili lights on them for a short time. Ollio even had to have a blood transfusion. Finally we were released to go home! Timmo first, followed a week later by Ollio.

We've hit a few bumps along the way, Ollio had to have a surgery to correct a hernia in his groin (which I was told was very common) but other than that we have been hospital free! (Well, we do go to specialist for Timmo little hand and hemangioma) I love my boys and am so grateful for them. They have taught me a lot already and I can't wait to learn more!