The people demand more photos!

OK, you asked for 'em, so here they are...more recent photos of the kids. Here's Mama Chris and Taylor after Taylor's bath. So cute!
Here's Mama Penny and Jordan after J's bath. They love their baths, but hate being cold after the bath, so it is always a race to get them dried off and into new diapers and a blanket for warming and cuddle time.
Here are our Yin and Yang babies taking a nap. Aaahhh...sweet, sweet silence!

Jordan and Taylor are loving their new activity mat that we borrowed from the Twins By the Bay Club that we belong to. They have a great equipment loaner program so you can try things out, or for things that you will not need for very long. We wondered if the kids would like this mat yet, and they do. So much to look at...when they are not busy punching each other in the face or kicking each other. Notice Bear keeping watch and protecting the babies from all that is evil!
Each night after the kids have their bath, we give them little massages to help them calm down and get ready for bed. Here's Mama Penny and Auntie Kelly giving massages one day last week. Thanks for the baby wrangling help, Kell. Some nights we honestly could not manage without you!
After the massages, we swaddled the babies and put them on our bed to further settle down before going into the bassinets. When they were put down, they were at least two feet apart. When we went in the bedroom a bit later, the above picture is what we found. They had scooted themsevles together so that they were touching. It was so cute that I practically cried. Sometimes their twin stuff is just truly amazing!
Here are the kids in their car seats after an outing at the park. They were still sleeping, so we let them continue to nap in their seats. You know what they say...Silence is golden, and never is that more true than at our house these days! We made our first appearance at the San Francisco Dyke March as a family yesterday. Above is Taylor showing off her Pride bib. Love makes a family, indeed! We were somewhat of an attraction at the march. People had lots of questions and even took our pictures alot. The kids slept most of the evening, as the noise of the crowd and the outside air really seemed to agree with them.
Mama Penny shows off Jordan's Pride attire. Truth be told, no one is more proud than the two new moms. At last year's Dyke March, we were wondering if I would ever get pregnant, as we oohed and ahhed over the other gay moms and their kids at the march. And here we are with our little ones at the march this year. What a difference a year makes!

Sarah and Sarah came to the Dyke March with us. They helped out a ton with the kids. Thanks for the holding, feeding, and changing, gals! Our kids love their Auntie Sarahs so much already! We can't wait for you guys to be moms, too. Hurry up and decide to start trying to get pregnant already! :P

I will leave you with a picture of the happy family. Look at those smiles. Could we BE any prouder (a la Chandler Bing from Friends)? I honestly don't think so! Happy Pride everyone!

Don't forget to leave a comment and let us know you stopped by!

Where has the time gone?

Well, the babies are now a month old. Can you believe that? And, after two weeks of "Mimi" (Chris' mom) visiting, we are now flying solo! So far, it is going well, but we are sure missing all the help! Mimi was fantastic at helping with cooking, cleaning, and baby wrangling. She held our babies constantly and they loved her for it! Thank you so much, mom, for everything, ESPECIALLY taking the babies out into the living room every morning by 6 am for their feeding, so that Penny and I could sleep until 8 or 9 am. What an unbelievable luxury! That's Mimi's hand above (with the fancy manicure!), displaying a tiny hand. So cute and already getting so much bigger everyday!

Look at Jordan! What a big boy that he is already figuring out thumb sucking! He is our fussy and gassy boy. But, when he sleeps or is quiet and alert, he is just a little angel and we could gaze upon him all day long! Oooh, don't you just want to eat him up?

We are lucky enough to have Auntie Sylvia and Auntie Kelly right next door to us. They come over loads for their "baby fix" and they help us out a lot with holding and feeding. Last night, Kelly even helped with baths and baby massage! Thanks, Kell! Check out Jordan above with Sylvia's hat on. So funny! We could not let the moment pass without snapping a pic!
I know what you're thinking...Is that a day care center? Nope, it's just out living room! Here's Auntie Kelly saying an up close and personal hello to one of the babies. I think it is Taylor. This post has lots of pics of Jordan. I gotta get some new good ones of Taylor up here soon, too!

Here is a picture that I present for your amusement. Mimi liked to put these foot and wrist rattles on the babies. While they were way too big and kept falling off, they certainly provided some entertainment for us. Not sure whether the babies even noticed them!

That's about it from here for now. We have to upload some more recent pictures from the digital camera. At the babies' doctor's appointment two weeks ago, Jordan was up to 9 lbs 1 ounce, and Taylor was 6 lbs, 14 ounces. They are both getting so much bigger already! They are awake more and definitely more alert. They love to look at themselves in the mirror. And they are getting stronger and trying to hold their heads up for longer and longer periods of time. They also seem to recognize our voices and they love to look into our faces. Before ya know it, they will be smiling, and not just from the gas!

Thanks for keeping up with us. Leave a comment and let us know you stopped by!

We are alive and well!

Hello everyone! Greetings from the land of sleep deprivation and dirty diapers! It is early in the morning, when I feel best, and both babes are asleep. Penny is taking advantage of some extra shut eye, as Taylor gave her quite a run for her money last night! I am taking advantage of the quiet for some blogging and email time. We have been so blessed by the support of our friends. Above are Sarah, Sarah, Sue and Sussi who came over one night for some baby holding and feeding. Thanks guys! You all look like naturals!
Babies are doing well and really enjoy being next to each other. They often snuggle together in the basinett or other places in our house. They like to nuzzle each other and also flail about in an uncontrolled fashion. They are such funny monkeys to watch. They really seem to know each other and to enjoy being close to each other. Truly fascinating to observe!
We are settling into a daily routine of much feeding and changing. They eat about every 2-3 hours and usually give us some good down time of sleeping in their swings or in the basinett in between feedings. As you can imagine, feeding them makes them super happy and changing them makes them super mad. Their little emotions are so all over the place. When it is not super frustrating, it is actually quite comical!
Mama Penny is a natural and the babes love snuggling up to her. In this picture, be sure to observe our monkey boy's back hair. It is a sight to behold, along with the tufts on the backs of his ears. Don't tell anyone, but little Taylor has all the same copious amounts of hair. I think they have both inherited Mama Chris' need to be best friends with a pair of tweezers! LOL!
Overall, we are doing well and we even had our first outing yesterday. Penny put the double stroller together (holy monstrosity, batman!) and we went to Babies R Us. It was a very successful trip, once we figured out how the car seats snapped into the stroller. I'm sure it was a funny site to see us struggling when we first got to the store!

The babies have now graduated from the Kaiser Home Health Program. The nurse came for her 2nd and final visit yesterday. We are proud to announce that both babies are now above their birth weights and weighed in at 5 lbs 13 oz, and 7 lbs, 14 oz. Yay! Our monkeys are growing and thriving and they are getting bigger already! Amazing!

Happy 1-week birthday to our babies!

Hey everyone! Well, we are home and have two lovely little babies! Here is a quick blog update to keep the masses happy with some pics. Time is limited, so I hope you enjoy this quick update and a few pictures! Above is me before the c-section with the belly monitors on. I thought you all would like to see the last belly shot! Holy big belly, batman!
Here is me in recovery with both babies. I have no memory of this pic, so I am sure glad someone snapped it! I was pretty out of it after the section. I vomited in the OR and again in the recovery room. Apparently, someone changed my gown and trusted me enough to hold both babies for a kodak moment! For being so out of it, I look pretty good, if I do say so myself!

Taylor Grace was born on May 10th at 2:34 pm, weighing 5 lbs, 10 ounces. Jordan Amidon was born at 2:35 pm, weighing 7 lbs, 10 ounces. Quite a size difference, especially when you see them next to each other!
This is a pic of both babies in their basinett in the hospital. It was the most amazing thing to see the two of them together. Even when you put them apart, they would skootch their bodies to be closer together. I guess they missed the closeness of the womb. Sometimes they evn made their faces touch one another! So cute!

Here's mama Chris leaving the hospital with both babies on Mother's Day. What an amazing first Mother's Day and what a gift...to be taking home our two bundles of joy. Here is Mama Penny in her sexy scrubs in the operating room right after the kids were born. I am told that while this picture was being snapped, I was throwing up in the background! How lovely! Penny had just showed me the two babies and my response was, "I think I'm gonna throw up!" What a nice story to tell the kids when they are older!

So, hope you have enjoyed the pics. Our first week as moms has been amazing and challenging and scary and exhausting, but we are hanging in there. The nights are tough, but so far we are surviving and each day we are learning more and more tricks to keep the babes happy and full! I am trying to breast feed, but it is tough work! We are also supplementing with formula for now, until we see how much milk I can make. Since I had a breast reduction in 2003, it is a good possibility that I will not make enough milk to meet all the kids' needs. But, whatever I can make, I want them to get, so we are keeping at it.

I will try to update a little more here and there. It is tough to get the time to do it, but we really want everyone to be able to see our little darlings and hear all our news. In closing, I want to say that Penny is a total rock star and I could not do this without her. She has the patience of an ox and is a fantastic caregiver to our kids and to me, as I recover from the c-section. I love you so much honey, and there is no one else with whom I would even consider embarking on this motherhood journey. Thank you, thank you, thank you for everything! Jordan and Taylor are so lucky to have you as their mom!

THE BABIES ARE COMING, THE BABIES ARE COMING!

Hello everyone. It's a big day for news here!

Last week I had an amnio to check for lung maturity of the babies. Not sure what they measure, but a level of 55 indicates lung maturity. Our results came back at 54, whch they told us means that our babies' lungs would finish maturing this week. Yay! Both babies were still head down at the amnio.

I saw my OB today. And, after finally being head down for a few weeks, including last thursday when I had the amnio, the babies are breech again! The OB and I were shocked when we saw both heads high up in my abdomen on the ultrasound! Also, my blood pressure was a bit up and I had protein in my urine. (I am not really sure what protein in the urine means, other than that it is not good. But, did they see some pork chops or chicken breasts in my urine, or what??)

Since the babies were measuring 6 and 8 lbs (at the last ultrasound on 4/25), they scheduled me for a C-Section THIS THURSDAY MORNING! We have to call in tomorrow evening to make sure the scheudle has not gotten too crazy. If things are a go, we have to be at the hospital on Thursday morning at 7 am.

Penny and I are scrambling to get the last minute things done. Holy Cow! We are gonna have two babies in less than two days! And we are gonna be moms by mother's day! Unreal! We will post news when we can after that. Watch this space for pictures and news. We will try to post as quickly as we can, but know that with a C-Section, we will be in the hospital for about 3-4 days.

HOLY BIG BABIES, BATMAN!

Hello everyone. Well, I am 35 weeks pregnant today. Holy cow! I had a Non Stress Test (NST) on Monday to check fluid levels and heartbeats. Both were fine for both babies. Both babies were still breech at that time.

Yesterday I had an ultrasound. Well, bowl me over with a feather, both babies are now head down and ready to go! WHAT? After two months of planning on a scheduled C-Section, we might have the possibility of doing this the old-fashioned way! Can you believe it? I have emailed my OB to find out what the plan is from here. The previous plan was to have an amnio to check for lung maturity. If the lungs were fine, then we were going to schedule the C-Section. Now, maybe we will be scheduling an induction. I am so ready to have these babies and am ready to go when she gives me the go-ahead.

At the ultrasound, we also found out that I am growing some big ol' babies! Now, the ultrasound measurements can be up to a pound off, but this is what we found out yesterday. Baby Girl Taylor (A) is measuring about 6 lbs. Taylor is growing right on schedule and is an appropriate weight for her gestational age. Baby Boy Jordan (B) is measuring a whopping 8 lbs! He is a bruiser and is measuring a few weeks ahead. So, if these measurements are to be believed, I am carrying around approximately 14 pounds of baby! Now that's a lot of baby!

That's all our news for now. We will keep you updated. I am hoping that we have babies in the next week or so. I could probably stand to wait for two more weeks, but that would be about it! I am pretty uncomfortable already! Ciao!

The belly...and an update

So, this is what a 34 week pregnant-with-twins belly looks like. And check out my cute monkey pajamas! Take a close look, folks, as the next time you will see a belly like this will likely be when you are at the circus side show! Holy cow, right? LOL! I have only gained 24 pounds so far, and the OB is just thrilled with that. Given that I was an *ahem* "ample" woman to begin with, I was not expected to gain tons and tons. It will be interesting to see how fast the weight comes off, as most of that is probably actual babies, placentas, and other good junk that will all come out at once. Thank goodness for small favors, right?

Anyway, the belly is doing well, but it sure makes it tough for mama to sleep and get around. As you can imagine, any shoes that do not require tying are now my favorites!

In other baby news, the babies are both still breech, as they have been for the past month or so. This means that, unless they turn head down in the next few weeks (which is unlikely), I will be having a planned and scheduled C-Section. In some ways this might be good: I will get two extra weeks of paid time off through state disability, I will not have to exhaust myself with 30 hours of labor, and the babies will come out looking lovely and without cone-heads, like I had and that my dad made fun of when he saw me. Mom wanted to kick his ass, apparently!

Next week I have a non-stress test (NST) to measure the babies' heart rates and also an ultrasound for growth. If the babies are nice and meaty, like we think they are, then I will have an amnio to check for lung maturity. If the lungs are mature, then we will schedule a C-Section for the following week, when I will be about 36 weeks pregnant. This is considered full-term for twins.

So, that's all the news. Hope you have enjoyed the pictures and the updates. Watch this space, as more fun is to come, for sure! Thanks to everyone who is leaving supportive comments, emailing, and calling to check in on us. It is nice to know that you all are out there and thinking about us and our babies. We can't wait to meet them, either!

The gear...

Last weekend, Jean and Aimee came over to help with gear assembly. Well, mostly Penny and Jean put stuff together (since they are so super BUTCH!) and Aimee and I socialized and played with baby Garett. Thanks to Aimee and Jean for a lovely day of friends, eating, gear assembly, baby practicing, and board game playing. We had tons of fun! Above is the full-size swing we bought with some of the generous Babies R Us gift cards that people gave us. Love the pattern. It is such a nice color green, too!
Above is the table-top bouncy seat from my Uncle Rob and Aunt Cecilia. It is super soft and we have to constantly battle the cats to stay the hell off of it! We have all the gear in the back/guest/baby room, and it is all protected with big waterproof pads to keep dust and cat hair off of the nice clean surfaces. Thanks Uncle Rob and Cecilia!
This is the super soft travel swing that Jess and Chris bought us. It will be put up on a table to be off the floor. We love it because the toys on the mobile are super cute, and the swing folds up very compactly when not in use. Great for storage in a small house and even better to keep kitty paws and butts out of the swing! Thanks, guys!
Above is the twin Pack-and-Play that Bill and Michelle bought for us. It has two basinetts on top, where the bambinos will sleep, until they reach a combined weight of 30 lbs. It is a great height next to our bed and we keep looking at it and not being able to believe that there will be two babies in there in just a few more weeks. Holy cow! Thanks Bill and Michelle! We love it!

The other big gear that we have, but have not yet put together, is the twin stroller and the two infant car seats that snap into the stroller. Many thanks to Mom and Grandma for these generous gifts. We are gonna assemble the stroller soon. The car seats will be installed once we have an appointment with the California Highway Patrol car seat technicians.

Happy Spring!

Hello all! I know we are a bit into Spring already, but Happy Spring to you all! And Happy Easter (yesterday) to those who celebrate. All is well here in pregnancy land, except for the normal fun of exhaustion, not being able to sleep through the night, frequent peeing, and the inability to tie my own shoes with ease. Good times!

I am in my 33rd week of pregnancy now. At our appointment with the OB last week, she told us that once we pass the 34 week mark, they will not stop labor once it starts! Holy crap! That's in less than two weeks. Wow! At our last ultrasound on 3/21, the babies were growing well and all appeared to be continuing as expected. Taylor weighed in at 3 lbs, 3 ounces. This puts her in the 50th percentile. Jordan weighed in at a whoppping 4 lbs, 11 ounces! This puts him in the 75th percentile! He is gonna be our big boy and she is gonnd be our delicate little girl, it seems! Funny stuff. The docs are not concerned about a difference in size, unless one being bigger is making the smaller one fall off of their own growth curve. With Taylor still being in the 50th percentile, she is clearly still growing fine and holding her own. Ultrasound measurements can be off, so the kids might each be slightly smaller or larger than predicted. Only time will tell.

I have been having pretty frequent contractions (just the practice ones - Braxton Hicks), but they are mostly just tightening feelings, without much pain. At this point, the OB is predicting that the babies will make an appearance sometime around 35-37 weeks. So, that puts us with another 2-4 weeks of waiting. Seems like a long time!

This is my last week of work and I am so thankful for that! I worked part-time last week (just 3 days) and am working just three days this week, too. I am at work today, Monday, and then I have Tuesday and Wednesday off. Thursday I have my last Cystic Fibrosis Clinic, and then Friday will be a lovely final day of getting ready to be gone for about 3-4 months. I can hardly believe this week is finally here.

That's about it for now, I guess. We need to take some more pictures and put them up. Penny has been working hard on the former guest room, turned baby room. The babies will sleep in our room in a twin bassinett, but the other room has the changing table, dresser, rocker and mucho storage of baby stuff. Who knew they needed so much? We have a lot of gear to put together (bouncy seat, swings, stroller, bassinet, etc) and we are planning on working on that next weekend. And, we are making an appointment soon to have the carseats installed at one of the local car seat clinics at California Highway Patrol. Love that CA has certified carseat techs to make sure that you have installed your carseats safely and correctly. And it's a free service!

Will try to be better about more posting over the next few weeks. Watch this space for all the up and coming excitement, news, and pics!

Our baby shower

On Saturday, March 10th, we had a lovely, lovely baby shower at our house with about 25 friends and family. It was an amazing time, filled with love and phenomenal generosity! Thanks to all who made it such a special day for us! Above is us outside of our house before folks started to arrive. Many thanks to Sarah Heath, our shower hostess with the mostess, for all her hard work, planning, and decorating!
Chris' mom supplied this super yummy cake, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. Chocolate cake with whipped cream frosting! YUM! What's not to enjoy?
Here we are with some adorable stuffed animals from Aimee and Jean. Penny is especially loving the Piglet, and I will probably have to wrestle it away from her so that the babies can enjoy it! These guys are SO SOFT!
Check out this super cute outfit and the beaming mama-to-be. Is it possible that in only about 6 weeks there will be two babies here who can wear this little number? UNREAL!!

Sarah had a great idea for a shower activity that had many of us in tears. Each of the jars above is for one of the babies. Each shower guest got a stone, and then we went around the room and each person shared their wishes and intentions for the babies and the new family, before placing the stones in the jars. After all the stones were placed, a candle was put into each jar on top of the stones. On the first night that our new family is all home together from the hospital, we will light the candles so that we are literally and figuratively surrounded by all the love and support of our community. Isn't that amazing? Needless to say, it was an amazingly touching ritual! Thanks so much, Sarah!

Here are some of our friends enjoying the shower. We never knew our little house could hold so many people. It was so amazing to be surrounded by so much love and support for our new family!

Here's Chris' family members in attendance. From left is my mom (a SURPRISE shower guest all the way from Florida. She said, "How could I miss my only daughter's baby shower?" Love you, mom!), my dad's brother, Rob, and my aunt Cecilia. Uncle Rob was in on the surprise guest appearance. Thanks for providing the airport shuttle, Uncle Rob!

Another amazing part of the shower was that friends all signed up to bring the new mamas yummy dinners once the bambinos have arrived. Wow! Such generosity. This is a picture of Emily (from my knitting group) taking part in the "Welcome Home!" meals program. Thanks, Emily and everyone else. We can't wait to see what you all have in store for us! Thanks to Aimee for arranging this part of the shower for us! Love ya, Aim!

Here's Kelly and Penny showing off the amazing and generous pile of gifts that everyone brought. Thank you so much to all of our friends and family who came to the shower. The gifts are fantastic and the company was superb. We can't wait for all of you to meet our litttle darlings in just a few more weeks. You all are going to be such special people in their lives and, frankly, they are very, very lucky to have each and every one of you!!

Our last weekend away before babies!!

Our second and final babymoon weekend was spent in Carmel, CA. We stayed at the Carmel River Inn, where I won a free 2 night weekend stay after entering an online contest. Above is a picture of the Carmel Mission that we visited one day during our stay. It was lovely and full of history. Right up Penny's alley!
We also took a drive along the "17-mile drive" along the coast. It was very pretty, but imagine our surprise when we were required to pay $9 to drive along this 17 miles of scenic loveliness! We got a map and there were lots of little places to pull off and take pictures. If we were golfers, we would have been very impressed by being able to stop at the Pebble Beach golf course. We passed!
Here is a picture of our little cabin at the Carmel River Inn. Not bad for free, ey?
And here is a picture of the great soaking tub inside our cabin. Between this and our 1st babymoon weekend, are you sensing a theme? Since being pregnant, I am all about the big bathtubs and soaking my cares away. Calgon, take me away!
And, last but not least, another belly picture. These pics were all taken the weekend of March 3rd and 4th. Getting bigger all the time, no? Babies are getting bigger and stronger with each passing day. Of this I am sure...due to the force of their kicks and punches. Thanks, little ones!

We have arrived in the 3rd trimester!

As of today, I am 27 weeks and 0 days pregnant. It is the first day of the 3rd trimester and I am so excited and thrilled to have made it here.

We had a growth ultrasound yesterday and all went well. Baby A (our girl) weighed in at 2 lbs, 5 ounces. She is in the 51st percentile. Baby B (our boy) weighed in at 2 lbs, 11 ounces. He is in the 53rd percentile. The ultrasound tech and radiologist are very happy with these numbers. They are only concerned when babies are below the 10th percentile or above the 90th percentile.

The babies were both head down, which was amazing to see. They were totally kicking each other! We were able to see some hair on Baby A's head. The tech pointed it out to us. Otherwise, we would not have had a clue! After all these ultrasounds, we are good, but not that good!

Each time we have an ultrasound, we continue to get confirmation that our boy is still a boy and our girl is still a girl. We are not anticipating any surprises at delivery time!

So, I will continue to work for about 6 more weeks. My OB will put me off of work then, if everything continues to go well, and I don't need to go off of work before then. We are anticipating that the babies will be here in about 9 weeks or so. Holy cow! We are down to the single digits of weeks. WOW!

Penny and I are going away this weekend for our last little get-a-way before the babies arrive. We are spending the weekend in Carmel, CA at an Inn and staying in a cottage with a huge soaking tub that I am really looking forward to! We plan on relaxing, eating yummy food, and getting in some good reading time. I am also bringing my knitting with me, as I am desperately trying to complete the ONE blanket that I am working on, before the babies actually arrive. The babies will be small, so they can share one blanket, right? LOL! But, they will have to cherish it together, as mama is a slow and lazy knitter and two blankets will never be done before they arrive...unless I have to go on bedrest. What, me? Wanting to get out of work sooner than 6 weeks from now? Nah!

Meet our furry family.

Penny wanted to make sure that everyone is familiar with the OTHER members of our expanding family. The kitties are Milo (black and white) and Cosmo (orange). They are a hoot and we don't know what they like more: cuddling with each other or fighting like alley cats. They are a constant source of entertainment. Above you can find Bear, our lovely dog, who is so neglected that she does not even have her own bed. She is forced to spend her days fitting her big doggy butt into the little cat bed. Poor, poor Bear. We are hoping that our pets will adjust well to the babies coming home with us in about 10 weeks. They are certainly always helping us to practice being parents, as life with the three of them requires constant patience!

Introducing Aimee and Jean's baby!

We wanted to let everyone behold the cuteness that is Aimee and Jean's new baby boy, Garett Patrick. He was born on December 16th and we are loving getting to spend time with the new family. Thanks to Aimee and Jean for letting us practice being moms, and for letting our pets get in some quality time with a baby to prepare for our arrivals in a few months!