Nate and Laurel: A Series of Fortunate Events: December 2013

The twins are 3 months old! As hard as the newborn phase was, I'm really sad it's over, like tearing up this very moment sad. It's strange, there are rough days when I wonder if it will ever end, but then when I realize how fast the last three months have gone, I start to panic. Before I know it, they will be walking and won't want to snuggle with me, next they will be going to school and I'll worry while they are away from home all day, then they'll be teenagers and doing crazy things like driving and dating, and then one day they will move away and I will bawl my eyes out. I don't know if I can still blame it on the hormones, but I tell you what, since having kids I've been a basketcase of emotions: worry, panic, gratitude, and overwhelming love!

The last month, the girls have really started to develop their personalities. Lydia has become so talkative. I wish I knew what she was saying but we have fun making up conversations based on her facial expressions. She gets so excited when when we talk to her and just grins and babbles away. She tries to laugh too. It sounds more like a groan but it's still adorable.

I wish her eyes were open, but Miss Lydia is just so cute when she giggles

Meanwhile Eden has become quite active. (Well, as active as you can be when you don't actually move anywhere.) She is constantly kicking her legs and waving her arms. It's interesting that when I was pregnant, I rarely felt Eden move but Lydia was always kicking, punching, and rolling. I think Eden got the short end of the stick when it came to womb space and she couldn't move around much, so now she's just so happy to be free!

I love Eden's gummy grin

Sleep has been pretty good this month. For almost two weeks straight, they slept for 10-11 hours at night! The last couple of nights they've gone back to waking up once a night. They are starting to bust out of their swaddles and I think this is what's waking them up. You experienced mom's out there, when did you stop swaddling and how did you wean your baby off it? Both girls love being swaddled when they sleep, and I fear we will have a total sleep digression as they grow out of swaddling.

I've had a few Mommy-fail moments this month. The worst was when I accidently clipped the tip of Eden's finger off while cutting her nails! I think I cried as much as she did! I felt like a horrible mother and have since designated all nail cutting to Nate. (Thankfully, Eden's finger has grown back as good as new!) To keep things fair, I also failed with Lydia one day. For some reason, I set her down on the floor right in the walk way between the kitchen and the living room. I was planning to pick her back up in just a minute. However, before I finished whatever I was doing, Ollie heard something at the front door and went sprinting from the kitchen to the door. He had no idea Lydia was there, and ran right over her! The second she started wailing, he knew he was in trouble and went and hid under the piano. Fortunately, she just had a minor scratch from the incident. Hopefully, I can learn to be a better mother!

Here's another Mommy-fail moment. Both babies are crying, Eden has one shoe kicked off, Lydia has her dress hiked up. and my foot is in the bottom of the picture.

This one shows their personalities. Lydia is content to lay there and grin and Eden is kicking and flailing away. By the way, they are not dressed as boys in blue and red. It's purple and pink in bad lighting.

Me and my beautiful twins on Thanksgiving day

Over the last couple of months, we've been blazing through my list of things that seem impossible to do with twins but actually aren't. Our latest accomplishment was flying! We flew to Utah for Thanksgiving. I would not go so far as to say we pulled off the trip without a hitch, but it certainly could have been worse.

Since having the twins, I've been forced to become more organized. I literally spent hours planning and writing out the schedule for our day of departure to figure out when we needed to wake up, when I would feed the babies, when I would pump, when we would eat, when we would need to leave.....I had to have perfect timing to make sure the babies were hungry for take off to help their little ears pop. I felt confident when the day arrived, but as is the case with most of my well-laid plans, something (or many somethings) always goes amis.

The day actually started out following my plans beautifully. We even left early for the airport. As part of my plan, I was going to pump while on the drive to Tulsa, so we could give the girls bottles while they were in their carseats. I remembered my pump and the car adapter. All set, right? Wrong! You know how they say "pregnancy brain" makes you forget a lot of things and causes you to do some stupid things? Well I think the brain damage continues on after pregnancy. In my mind I was thinking I wouldn't need a power cord since I had a car adapter, so I purposely left my cord at home. How I expected that to work, I don't know. Fortunately, my pump can also run on batteries, so we stopped at a gas station on the way to buy some. Nate ran in, bought four batteries, and we were off again. The only problem is my pump didn't work! Then I realized there were two places for batteries and I actually needed eight batteries. Quick, turn around, buy four more batteries, and back on the road. Good thing we left early!

Once we got to the airport, security was a breeze! We were directed right to the front of the line and we didn't even have to follow any of the protocol: we didn't have to take off our shoes, belts, or jackets, or remove our laptop or liquids. Basically we walked right on through! Awesome!

As we walked through the airport, we certainly got a lot of attention. We didn't check any bags so we each had a baby strapped on the front, a back pack on the back, and a wheeled bag behind. It seemed like everyone was looking at us: some with pity in their eyes, some with admiration, and some with fear that we might be on their flight! Whenever, you go anywhere in public with twins, people want to talk to you. It's usually the same conversation: Do you have twins?!?!? You sure have your hands full. Are they identical? Do twins run in your family? I don't mind people talking to us, but I'm annoyed that after people find out they are fraternal, their next statement is, "Oh, so you have a boy and a girl." Come on people, which of these babies dressed in pink with a fruffy bow in her hair would you guess is a boy? Ok, moving on...

The actually flight went pretty well. When I first sat down, the lady next to me looked at me like I just brought a pet alligator on the plane. I wanted to tell her, "Seriously, it's just a baby, and a very well behaved baby if I do say so myself!" Fortunately, the flight wasn't full and the flight attendant was able to rearrange so Nate and I each got an empty seat next to us. (We can't sit by each other because there is only one extra oxygen mask per row.) I was worried the girls might cry the whole way, but they barely let out a peep the entire time! The only mishap was Lydia's MASSIVE blow out. Have you ever tried to change a diaper (and a very messy one at that) in a tiny airplane lavatory? It sucks. I had to lay Lydia on the toilet seat lid. I used all but one wipe in attempts to clean her up. (I had to save one for Eden.) How was it possible that I was out of wipes and had 15 diapers in the bag? If we were at home, I would have taken her out back and hosed her off! That's how bad it was. After I got her as clean as I was able, the next problem was what do I do with the soiled outfit? If it wasn't so cute, I would have thrown it out with the diaper. Then I remembered my liquids were stored in a Ziplock baggie, so I just dumped those out and stuffed the clothes in there. Once we got back to our seats, Lydia decided to spit up all over me.

After we landed, it took us a good 10 minutes to gather our stuff and strap the babies back on. Nate forgot the ceiling was so low and bonked poor Eden's head while trying to lift her into his carrier! Luckily, after a short crying session she was as good as new. Needless to say, our first plane ride with the twins was eventful, but I'm so grateful they didn't scream and cry the whole way.

These sweet girls would never cry on the plane

We had such a wonderful time with my family while in Utah. We haven't all been together in over two years and since then, we've added six people to the family through marriages and births so it was a long overdue reunion. We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, went to Catching Fire, attended a session at the Temple, took family pictures, went to a big tailgate party for the USU vs WYO game, Nate went to the BYU vs USU basketball game, and we spent a lot of time visiting and catching up with family members. We were also able to bless the girls while there. It worked out perfectly because Nate's family was in Utah for Thanksgiving also so we had a lot of family members able to attend the blessing. It was a beautiful sight seeing my little girls dressed in white being blessed by their father. We had a great vacation and were so excited to be able to introduce our babies to their extended family!