Norovirus Sucks

Well, the Yepes clan will be quarantined to home for about a week until we are no longer contagious. Yes, that blasted Norovirus has struck our household. So far I'm the only one to exhibit full symptoms, but we figure Tm brought it home from work as his unit is basically quarantined with the bug. I'm just now starting to feel a little bit better, but last night and yesterday were hellish. Tm stayed home to help take care of the boys, who are not yet showing any symptoms. It's my hope that the magical properties of breast milk will keep them from getting sick.

Please pray for our family and we'll see you again in about a week and a half. It's my understanding that even after symptoms go away, that the virus can be passed on for about a week.

My Birthday Present

Well, my birthday present from my hubby finally arrived today. Yes, my birthday was back in December but it was well worth the wait. It feels good to have a ring on my finger again. My wedding ring still doesn't fit (yet) so I am wearing my present on my wedding ring finger and when that hand slims back down the 1/2 size, I'll wear it on my other hand (that has always been slightly bigger sized than the left). I'm so happy! The boys names are inscribed in the ring (silver) with their birthstones (November).

The Time it Takes to Make Toast

I'm writing in the time it takes to make toast, so who knows how much I'll get to write. I guess it depends on my thought processes and how fast I can type. Being a mom is an amazingly difficult and rewarding job. Taking care of these two little babies is certainly a full time job - I really look forward to when Tm comes home to assist with our little ones. They are growing every day, in size and in development. It's wierd to think that even though they are 11 weeks old now, they are only 5 weeks old adjusted for their prematurity. They've been home now for about 9 weeks.

Ding - toast is done.

Recliner x 2

Dario had to get into the act as well. This is at 6am when the boys decided they were hungry.. again! I bet they are going through a growth spurt. No rest for mommy!

Lounging in my Recliner

This picture was taken in the middle of the night / morning (about 4am) after one of those late-night feedings. My son was completely content, lounging in his boppy with his feet up. I had to take a picture. You're so cute, Raymond!

Scrubs

Merry Christmas!

We had a "fun" time taking pictures for our photo Christmas cards. Last year we took about 50 pictures of us with Hershey, trying to get the ideal photo with the cat in the picture. This year we only attempted to get the babies in the picture, and that was tough enough! Here are some of the pics that were super cute but didn't make the "cut" for the card. Enjoy!

At Home

Blessedly, Raymond came home the Monday before Thanksgiving, and Dario came home just 2 days later, Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving. Here we are at home taking a little rest..
These boys are really thriving! They had a pediatrician appointment today - Dario went from 6 lbs 9 oz to 7 lbs 6 oz, and Raymond went from 5 lbs 10 oz to 6 lbs 7 oz! They are doing great, and Mommy & Daddy are sleep deprived but happy to have them home.

Sorry I haven't posted lately, I'm sure all you other new parents out there completely understand. I hardly get 10 mins a day on the computer to check email, much less catch up reading other folks blogs and posting to my own. I'm starting to get nervous that the boys have been sleeping for so long - what's the likelihood that we'll get any sleep overnight? I'd better go take another nap.

Handsome Boys

The boys have graduated to a shared open crib :) Aren't they cute? I guess I'm a bit biased but honestly, they are doing great. We still don't know exactly when they'll be coming home but hopefully soon.

The Yepi Boys Have Arrived!!

Yes, they are early. Yes, it was a surprise. :) They were born Friday night / Saturday morning (November 4th) at 12:30am at 34 weeks, 3 days gestation. Everyone is doing well, including Mom who was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday. The boys will be spending some time in the NICU as they are premature and have some skills to learn before coming home.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is pleased to share with you some wonderful news.
We've had a new birth and you have been invited to meet the new baby online!

To visit the baby's WelcomeSite, please click the link below.
You will need to know the mother's last name and her secret word, which appear below.
Mother's Last Name: Yepes
Secret Word (for Dario): twins
Secret Word (for Raymond): twins2

You can find this WelcomeSite at any time by visiting www.welcomenewborn.com and entering the Mother's last name and secret word into the fields provided under the Friends and Family section.

Pic of the Day

This is our friend, Boston. He has his own blog at http://babyboston.blogspot.com/ I purchased this coat as a gift for Boston's "Happy Homecoming" and now it finally fits him :) DJ & PJ were kind enough to wait around for us after church so that we could see Boston sporting his coat. You think he looks cute now, you should have seen him heading down the stairs into the T station, with the hood flopping over his head the whole time! What a cutie!

Baby Shower Recap and Other Fun Stuff

What a blessed woman I am! Such thoughtful friends I have! Our nursery theme is Sesame Street, as you can see the cake and napkins were a perfect fit. One of the things I have really wanted during pregnancy, but can't have, is sushi - so the menu was hand crafted with a no-fish sushi theme. Everything was excellent! Kind of funny - I was visiting with ladies in the entry hall and hadn't even gone in the dining room to see the food yet. And I could smell the spam-musubi! I asked, did you guys make spam musubi? Yup! KM was amazed that I could smell it especially since it had been made the night before. Great job, ladies :) You really know how to make a gal feel special and loved.Here's our good friend CY playing one of the shower games "Multi-tasking Mommy". She was the champion of the game with a time of 1 min 35 seconds. In this game you had twin babies to care for (one was sleeping at the beginning of the game), talk on the phone (without the aid of a speaker or headset), and fold baby laundry. When all the laundry was folded and socks matched up, you were done. Everyone who played did amazingly well, and the rest of us had a great laugh. It was especially fun to hear them have a pretend conversation on the phone with another one of the ladies in the room, then to have our hostess start making baby crying noises, that the other "twin" had woken up and needed attention too! Great game!!Here I am with KR, who was the creative genius behind it all, with the help of CM and all the ladies of our community group. Thank you to all of you, but yes KR, you are deserving of a special thanks, especially since you yourself have reason to be tired and low on energy - growing a baby is hard work! I feel especially blessed by all of you, thank you so much.
And, a belly update. This was the same day as the shower - 32 1/2 weeks.

Now, you may be wondering why I'm writing to my blog at 4am. Well I was finally "lucky" enough to catch a real cold. Everything leading up to this was simply congestion and post-nasal drip due to pregnancy. Now I'm convinced I have a "real" cold. My sore throat does not go away, I have a scratchy throat (on the right side especially) that induces coughing fits that make me feel like I'm going to either choke or cough my pharynx right out. Even though the nurse at my OBs office said I could have certain medications, and I went out and bought some, I haven't opened it and I feel uncomfortable taking it because I looked it up and it's a category C drug. I just feel like unless I'm dying that I should just deal with the symptoms instead of putting my babies in any potential danger. It does mean for even more interrupted sleep, however. I'm sitting up now writing this as I am drinking a cup of tea, trying to soothe my throat a bit. And, it's not like I'm not tired either - I could fall asleep right now on this keyboard. But I think my sore throat or coughing would wake me up pretty quickly - so I drink this tea with the hope of at least some relief. Any of you moms (or doctors) out there have advice for me, what is safe to take, what non-drug remedy I could try to make me feel better? I did try gargling with warm salt water last night and that did seem to help for a little while, but it definitely is not a long-term fix.

Okay, now I really am starting to nod off at the keyboard. Time to finish my tea and try for a little more sleep.

Thank You (in advance)...

... to all of the wonderful ladies who are planning to attend my baby shower tomorrow. I know we are going to have a wonderful time, and I am so excited to see all of you and celebrate with you. Thank you especially to my best friend KR and also to CM for planning & hosting this event. You really know how to make a lady feel special, and loved. Thank you, my sisters, for this wonderful gift.

One Step Closer

After about 3 hours of construction & frustration, shifting furniture around, and reading assembly instructions, we finished assembling the crib, complete with bedding, crib tent (to keep the cat out), and Sesame Street mobile. I think Tm was about to cry when I wound up the mobile and it started playing "Sunny Days".

Today I'm touring a childcare facility to get on their waiting list (just incase) and Wednesday I have another checkup in the ATU with ultrasound & monitoring to see how the boys are doing. They were really shifting around a lot this weekend, so it will be interesting to see what position they're in now. :)

My Greatest Fear

Some would say that this is my greatest (irrational) fear. I'm certainly not one of those people in this case however that is convinced that "it couldn't happen to me." I think about lying to random people who ask about my pregnancy - telling them I am due later than I really am, that I don't know what I'm having, withhold the information that we are having twins, and more regularly carry around my pepper spray (yes I have a license for that).

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/13/national/main940646.shtml

It was even scarier to me that as I was searching for a news story to post in this blog entry that there was a story dated TODAY that took place in Pittsburgh.

Little Miss Sunshine

Today Tm and I went to see Little Miss Sunshine.


You've got to go see this movie before it's out of theaters. If you happen to miss it in theaters, then put it on your Netflix list right away so you'll get it as soon as it's out on DVD. This was a GREAT MOVIE if you haven't already figured it out from how I'm telling you to go see it right now.

From the official website:

"LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE is an American family road comedy that shatters the mold. Brazenly satirical and yet deeply human, the film introduces audiences to one of the most endearingly fractured families in recent cinema history: the Hoovers, whose trip to a pre-pubescent beauty pageant results not only in comic mayhem but in death, transformation and a moving look at the surprising rewards of being losers in a winning-crazed culture. A runaway hit at the Sundance Film Festival, where it played to standing ovations, the film strikes a nerve with everyone who's ever been awestruck by how their muddled families seem to make it after all.
No one among the Hoovers quite has it together, but it's not for lack of trying. Father Richard (GREG KINNEAR), a hopelessly optimistic motivational speaker, is desperately attempting to sell his 9-step program for success -- without much success. Meanwhile, the Hoovers' "pro-honesty" mother Sheryl (TONI COLLETTE) is constantly harried by her family's eccentric secrets, especially those of her brother (STEVE CARELL), a gay suicidal Proust scholar fresh out of the hospital after being jilted by his gay lover. Then there are the younger Hoovers with their unlikely dreams - the four-eyed, slightly plump, seven year-old would-be beauty queen Olive (ABIGAIL BRESLIN) and Dwayne (PAUL DANO), an anger-fueled, Nietzsche-reading teen who has taken a staunch vow of silence until he gets into the Air Force Academy. Topping off the family is the grandfather (ALAN ARKIN), a foul-mouthed pleasure-seeker recently kicked out of his retirement home for snorting heroin.
They might not be the picture of perfect mental health, but when a fluke gets Olive invited to compete in the fiercely competitive "Little Miss Sunshine" competition in California, the whole Hoover family rallies behind her. They pile into their rusted-out VW bus and head West on a three-day tragicomic journey filled with madcap surprises and leading up to Olive's big debut - which will change the entire misfit family in ways they could never imagine. "

From us:

It was often laugh-out-loud funny (and not just us, the whole theater), clapping, hooting, applaud at the end quality of movie. I would say this is the best movie we've seen in a long time. Go. Now.

Pic of the Day

Just having a little fun with Picasa..

I just gotta say, I really love my husband.

I hadn't really thought about until now that our legacy of self-portraits might go out the window when the twins arrive. At least, I doubt I could get all 4-of-us in a shot together, but who knows. One could document our lives together with self-portraits. We'll really have to try taking one in the hospital when the babies arrive :) I know, we can always have others take a pic of us together, but even when others have taken a pic for us, we always STILL take a self-portrait, I guess now because it's tradition, because we like how it looks - because it says something about us - it all kind of started on our honeymoon. I thought, we aren't going to have any pictures of us together because wherever we go, it's just the two of us! Well, we remedied that right away and perfected the skill of taking self portraits while still including interesting background in the shot. My nephew is 6 years old now, and my sis' has been training him to take pictures so I suppose when the twins are older we can put them to the task sometimes, but I think we will always cherish these "self-portraits" and continue the legacy for years to come. :)

Twins Update

29 weeks!!!

Twin A (measurement by ultrasound): 2 lbs, 15 oz.
Twin B (measurement by ultrasound): 2 lbs, 11 oz.

Both boys are doing great, growing well, moving well, etc.
Twin A is currently head down, so it was hard to get a good image of him.
Twin B is currently breech (head up) so his picture is a little prettier as it was easier to get.
(Their current positions are not necessarily what their positions will be at birth.)

 

No Apples, but..

Our CG was planning on going apple picking yesterday at Marino Lookout Farm but due to the rain, we decided to postpone the outing. So - instead of picking apples & asian pears with our good friends, we got a lot done at the apartment (with the help of our good friend SH, thanks Mountie!)

I found and purchased a dresser for the babies this week, which we picked up yesterday in the Mountie-mobile.

The cool thing is that the top folds out to be a changing table! And, I only paid $40 for it.

We rearranged the living room so that 1) the RCA cables would reach from all the electrical/entertainment components to the receiver (and) 2) we have room for both the pack-n-play and the new dresser. The corner where all the misc "stuff" is right now is where the pack-n-play will go when the babies come. The pic is a little dark and the room is still a little messy, but you get the idea.

We actually picked up the dresser in Charlestown, got all of the speaker wire run and speakers hung for the surround sound, hooked up all of the components, and got the cable internet and phone back up and running all before 2pm. Then we ate some lunch and watched disk 5 of Lost: Season 2 before putting the books back on the bookshelf, setting up the pack-n-play to be sure it would fit in the space we saved for it, and unpacked newborn and 0-3 month clothes into the dresser. What a day! My feet and ankles are huge from all the work we did, but it was worth it. We still have a long ways to go to get completely settled in but we made a lot of progress yesterday and we are both really pleased with how it turned out.

Pregnancy update: I'm trying to keep positive despite the physical difficulty of being pregnant in the 3rd trimester with twins. I wake up in the morning with hand, knee, and foot pain. I'm waking up more during the night not because I have to use the bathroom but because I'm uncomfortable with pain (rib pain last night) that wakes me up. Granted, I don't get the rib pain if I sleep on my huge pregnancy body pillow, but it is huge and sometimes I just want the opportunity to cuddle up to my husband before I fall asleep. Anyway, the babies seem to be doing great, they are kicking me all the time and moving around. It is so strange when they move into a certain position where either their head or their butt is pressing against the outside of my belly and that one spot is so hard and even raised up a bit. Aliens, I tell you.. Aliens :)

Tm and I are having a little bit of a reality check thinking that these kids will likely be here within 10 more weeks. I really should get all of my Christmas shopping done early this year, cause you know I'm not going to be doing any shopping in November or December! We do want to put the babies on our Christmas cards this year, so that will have to wait at least.

We recently got new cell phones, complete with a camera (and flash!) Here's some of the pics I've taken with it in the past few weeks, just for entertainment sake.

Aches, Pains, & Aliens

It seems a bit silly to blog (read: type) about how much pain I am experiencing in my fingers / hands. I feel like a person with arthritis (which, I'm sure this could be classified as so, since arthritis just means inflammation in the joints). It's the worst in my finger knuckles, not so much in my thumbs, although there is some pain in my toes as well but I'm not trying to pick things up, grip, and function with my toes as I am with my hands. Ouch.

Heartburn is back - I wonder if it is here for good or just for the day. I've read that as the babies grow larger and take up more space, that heartburn will come back in the 3rd trimester because of this (if it ever went away to begin with). I must say that I have NOT missed this during the 2nd trimester and am quite sad that it seems to be returning.

Aliens - yes aliens - are living and growing inside my belly. Or so it might seem when I recline a bit and the babies are moving. I'll notice my shirt move out of the corner of my eye.. It's really strange to watch when I pull up my shirt and look directly at the skin, especially if they are really active. It is just wierd to see your body moving of its own accord, jumping and swirling.. Other folks had told me this would happen but now that it is happening, I still need to make note of it. 'Cause really, it is very very strange. But oh so cool at the same time ;)

Oh, and if you'd like to see my belly gallery, you can check it out here.