TTTS - things just got complicated

Today at my ultrasound we found out that our twins have TTTS (twin to twin transfusion syndrome). It is only in stage 1, which is good news, but has developed in less than 2 weeks, which is not so good news. It only occurs in about 15% of monochorionic twins (twins who share a placenta) or about 1 in 1000 pregnancies, so again, we are an anomaly. Basically what is happening is that Baby A is not only getting nutrients from the placenta, but is also stealing nutrients from Baby B through a shared connection to the placenta. At this point the only thing wrong is that Baby B has significantly less amniotic fluid and his amniotic sac is wrapped around him kind of like seran wrap. Otherwise everything looks good...both heart rates are great, kidneys are working, and bladders are filling and emptying.  As any of these indicators change, the TTTS will progress to further and scarier stages.

If the TTTS does not progress, then it will just mean more Dr. appts. to monitor growth and progression (multiple appts. with the specialist each week in addition to my OB visits which will start to happen weekly as well) and a very likely early delivery as soon as the risks of having them out become less than the risk of having them in. I reach viability tomorrow when I hit 24 weeks, which means that the babies could survive outside the womb with significant medical assistance, but of course, we want to keep them in there longer because 24 weeks is still super scary early to deliver and there is only a 50% survival rate). They gave me steroid shots to give the babies lung development a little boost in the event that we do have to deliver in the next 2 weeks.

If the TTTS does progress, though, I will likely need to fly out to get surgery early next week because the surgery cut-off is around 25-26 weeks. The surgery has a really great success rate (85% survival for one twin, 70% survival for both), but of course, intrauterine laser surgery is not without significant risk. This will also most likely lead to an earlier delivery (34-36 weeks) and a really complicated insurance mess. My Dr. is saying he will send us to California for the surgery, but it looks like there is a practice that can perform the surgery in Salt Lake at St. Marks Hospital, so I am going to talk to him about going there instead so we will have a place to stay and a good support group to take care of us.

So, tonight, I worry and I am sure I will worry tomorrow and Thursday too until I go in on Friday morning to see how things are progressing and find out what course of action we will be taking. This is certainly turning out to be a challenging season of our lives, but I know that there is a reason we are being asked to endure it and I have faith that we are being watched over and that the Lord is mindful of us. I am thankful every day that my partner on this journey is Seth...he is amazing in every way and not only picks up all the slack and makes me feel like I am doing a great job, but does it cheerfully and is the greatest father to our children through it all. I think that actually raising our twins may seem easy after the craziness of this pregnancy...here's hoping anyway!

And then it all came together...

This is the story of how everything worked out with our housing situation.

To understand the whole scope of the story, I think it helps to understand how we got where we are, but it is kind of long, so feel free to skip down to the part about where we find a house if you want. :) Back in August when we were looking for a rental home here in Tucson, we thought we knew what we wanted. We wanted something with between 2400 and 3000 sq ft, 4+ bedrooms, a fenced pool and grass in the backyard. We knew the school we wanted the kids to attend and the boundaries of that school covered 2 different wards, so I had contacted both wards in advance to see if they had any insider tips about places for rent and found that both were great wards with a lot of young kids.

When I came out to look at houses, I looked at house after house after house and nothing really seemed to be a perfect fit. It was as if every house we looked at had some major flaw. Case in point, the first house we looked at (which is the house we ended up renting) didn't have a fenced pool, was a little smaller than we were looking for and was dotted with bubble glass throughout the house. When I got home from my trip, I was thinking of going with a house that would have been a pretty good fit for us, but was a little higher priced, and the more I got into the application process the more I determined that that leasing company was a nightmare to work with and just felt uneasy about the whole thing, so we decided not to apply for that home. In fact, we decided not to apply for any of the homes I looked at because we just didn't feel that "this is where you are supposed to be" feeling with any of them, like we had with our home in Lake Oswego. After making this decision, the agent that had showed me the first house called to follow up. I told her it was a no go and hung up. Seth and I got to talking about it though, and determined that the location was so great (it was the shortest commute option for Seth) and the price was so low, that maybe despite the other downsides, we could make it work...if we could get them to install a pool fence. Fast forward a whole bunch of phone calls, and we worked out a pool fence deal and had a great feeling about moving forward with the house. Everything just fell into place.

When we arrived in Tucson, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the home wasn't as weird inside as I had remembered and the rooms were also bigger than I remembered and the one level floor plan was just fantastic! Not to mention that the yard was perfect for our needs, the pool was so fun, the mountain and sunset views were so stunning, the bus stop across the street was so convenient and the park across the street was just the icing on the cake! We found our ward to be so friendly and wonderful and started to get involved right away. Then some young families moved into our neighborhood and onto our street and the kids were in heaven. It just seemed like everything had fallen into place and we thought...we can totally just stick around here with this super cheap rent for a few years. Then when we found out twins were headed our way, I freaked out about how in the world we would fit them in this house when already we were feeling a little cramped. But I sketched out some room plans and figured out where we would put all the beds and after talking through it, again we felt like we could make it work and decided that we would just stay put. All the while I continued watching the rental market and receiving notifications when new homes that matched our criteria went on the market, and there wasn't anything through this whole time that better met our needs than where we were.

So after all of that, finding out that we would need to move was hard. Not just because moving is hard, or because we are expecting twins, or because there was nothing on the market, but because getting to where we were was a rocky road and we finally felt at peace with sticking around there for a while.

Bringing us up to now. After looking at every single house than even kind of matched our criteria and having multiple leasing companies not return my calls (weird and annoying), I was wondering if we were ever going to find something. My mom and John wanted to come the week of our move to help and kept trying to figure out when to book, and finally they just decided to book the last week of March whether that was the move or not because I just felt like it might be a while before we found something that would work. Every time Seth and I sat down and reviewed the options, we ended the conversation feeling like none of the options before us were the right option, and that we would just have to be patient and keep looking. So, when our neighbor brought his daughter and her husband over to meet Seth the other night (I was at scouts) and told him about their home that they wanted to rent, I didn't get my hopes up. Sure on paper it sounded perfect: 3200 sq ft, 5 bedrooms, a large playroom on the main level, 3 car garage, walking distance from school and the ward building, grass, a pool and a hot tub in the backyard, sunset views, fruit trees, lots of storage space and a quiet dead end street in a kid friendly neighborhood; but there were a couple of downsides: we would have to switch wards, and the house is too close to the school to offer bus service. The more Seth told me about it though, the more I got the feeling that this was going to be the house. 

The next morning, my neighbor told me how his daughter felt like meeting us was an answer to her prayers. He explained that they had been searching for a house with horse property for months and months and finally put in a low ball offer on a home and it had been accepted that day. In fact, that is why they were at his house, to tell him the big news and about their new stress of finding someone to rent the home, when he mentioned us and brought them over to meet Seth. Then I got a message from a friend in our ward telling me she had heard we were considering renting from this family and how wonderful they are and how great they would be to work with. All day, I just had this feeling that this was going to work out, but I tried not to get excited because I hadn't even seen the house yet. That afternoon I got a call from the family and they invited us over to come and see the home that evening. We walked in and even though the walls were pink (and purple and red and blue and yellow...the late 80s versions of all of them) and the light fixtures were outdated and brass and the kitchen countertops were pink laminate, I surprisingly didn't get hung up on it because I knew this was the house. I finally had that feeling of "this is the place" like I felt in Lake Oswego that I had been waiting for. Better yet, because of their closing date on their new house, the house would be ready for us the last week in March...right when my mom and John would be in town...and right before I hit 30 weeks which was my mental "moving deadline".

After the kids had a grand old time playing on the swingset in the backyard (which sadly won't be staying), eating homebaked cookies, and making themselves right at home while we discussed details, we went home to discuss. Seth and I agreed that the whole house would have to be painted before we could move in our stuff, but the thought of it was so overwhelming. I obviously wasn't going to be up on a ladder painting the 2 story walls in the entry way at 30 weeks pregnant, and 3200 sq ft is more than Seth could handle painting on his own (amidst working full time, moving, and taking care of a 30 week pregnant wife and 4 kids). And after hearing how much more the electrical bill would be in that house vs. our house, we felt like a little bit lower rent than what we had discussed with them would be more managable...yet, it still felt like it was going to work out. At 4 am, though, I was wide awake tossing and turning wondering if we would offend them by asking if they would take a little less in monthly rent since it was already pretty low compared to what we have seen and worrying about how to possibly get the house painted to where we could move in without it being super stressful. I had tried to distract myself by picking out paint colors and mapping out where furniture would go and at 6 am as I was scrolling through DIY countertop refinishing projects on my iPhone pinterest app, I got a text message. "We have decided to hire someone to paint the house neutral colors and install neutral countertops so it will be easier for you to add accent colors if you want. Let me know what you think." What an answer to my prayers! I was completely humbled and so grateful. 

We debated about asking for a lower rent before Seth left for work, but we determined that this was going to be the house for us either way. Seth suggested we ask so we didn't regret not asking, so when she called later that evening to see what we were thinking, I asked. She agreed to the lower rent without hesitation and I couldn't help but be completely overcome with the thought that Heavenly Father had worked it all out again! As I thought back on everything that had happened since we moved from Portland, I could see that all of it was leading us here. I wonder if getting to know people in both wards was a part of the plan for us. I wonder if He just knew that kids being able to ride the bus would be essential during the first trimester + of this pregnancy. I am pretty sure I wouldn't have agreed to another house with more than 3000 sq ft before I found out we were having twins and coming from our Lake Oswego house, I was very hesitant about stairs, so I wonder if we just needed to be groomed into the mindset that this would be the right house for us. I am so grateful that our lives are guided by a loving Heavenly Father who can see the whole picture. I never doubted that it would all work out, but I wish I could have worried less about the how it was going to work out element. I am so happy that we could be an answer to someone else's prayers just as they are an answer to ours.

So there you go! We sign a lease next week and we move the last week of March! Hooray for things coming together! Now to pack...

Perspective

We have been sick for what feels like forever. After finding out that we would be moving and still mid-freak-out for me, Ellie came down with a nasty virus. We had her tested for the flu so we could catch it early and give her tamaflu, but it was negative, and her lungs were mostly clear so we ruled out RSV, but for a little baby girl with reactive airway (asthma), anything involving a croupy sounding cough is scary and horrible. For 6 days she had a fever accompanied by a horrible croupy cough and some nasty congestion. Her days consisted of breathing treatments, sleeping and cuddling on mom's lap with an occasional couple bites of food here and there. She was so miserable. When the fever finally lifted, she was left with just the horrible cough and runny nose for another couple of days and now finally...2 weeks later...she is back to her normal cheerful self.

A few days after she started getting sick, Seth and I started getting the achy fever...and then the cough and congestion...and then his turned into a sinus infection and I lost my voice (which was particularly helpful since I was scheduled to sing in church). Morgan and Chloe each had a bad day or two where they were just feeling a little icky and had a cough, but nothing serious, and then Brynn came down with the cough and fever right as Ellie's fever was lifting, so it was back to breathing treatments, cuddles, and lots of movies and resting.

Finally, we are all on the mend. I am still talking a little bit like a man, and Brynn's cough will take awhile to go away completely (thank you asthma), but I feel like we can get out of the house without spreading our germs far and wide and infecting everyone we know.

The funny thing about all of this is that I was freaking out about twins and getting ready for them, when I found out we would have to move and all of a sudden, I had a new perspective on all those silly worries that were causing me so much stress. Who has time to worry about how you are going to tell the babies apart (blankets/color coded wardrobes?) or which type of stroller is the best when you have things like packing and finding a house to worry about? And then there I was completely freaking out about finding a house and packing up our life (again) and getting sick seemed like the worst possible thing that could pile onto my plate at that point, but really, it gave me a dose of perspective too. When you are worried about whether your little one will be able to breathe through the night without a trip to the ER for some oxygen and how to prevent her from getting dehydrated, you just don't have time to stress about where to get boxes or what to pack first. It was as much as I could do to just wake up in the morning, make sure everyone who wanted to eat food got something, get kids out the door to school and put in a new movie for the kids each time one ended. We ate a lot of soup from a can and we all slept a lot, but you know what, we survived it! I was forced to focus on just the basics of survival and let the rest of it go, and I am happy to report that it has really helped me to realize that whether we find a house today or in a month, we are going to be fine. Sure, I am still wanting to find a place sooner than later, and of course I am stressed that there is nothing out there that will work for us as of yet, but I know that the right thing is going to come along. I am being a little bit picky because I really want this move to stick for at LEAST 2 years, but also because I just haven't gotten that feeling of, "this is where we are supposed to be" yet. I know it is going to come along and every day, I pray that it will come along soon.

Today, the realtor had someone come and take pictures so they can get the house listed early next week. It was stressful trying to get everything ready and looking good and reminded me that, yes, this is going to be a huge pain, but I have to say, sitting here in a spotlessly clean house is quite lovely, so maybe the efforts to keep it clean will benefit our family as well. :) I am ever grateful for the little things that bring me a bit more perspective so I can stay focused on what is truly important and just be patient enough to let the rest of it fall into place in time. I do wish I could learn this lesson well enough already that it wouldn't take so many reminders to get me back on track. :) Either way, grateful to be in a place where I can see so clearly what a blessed life we lead.

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On an entirely separate note, today marks 21 weeks! I cannot believe it! Since I will likely deliver around 36-37 weeks, that means only about 15 weeks left until we get to meet these little fellas! They have both been very healthy and active at all of my appointments and both are growing well. Baby A loves to kick Baby B (rude!) and Baby B is pretty chill about it. He often turns his head away from us, so he doesn't have to get kicked in the face though. Baby A has a swimming pool and Baby B has a hot tub which means we are not quite out of the woods yet as far as TTTS goes, but my MFM thinks that since they are both growing well, we are still fine and the risk decreases significantly in a few more weeks. At 19 weeks I had only gained about 6 lbs., which I am certain is my lowest weight gain for a pregnancy thus far, but I am sure that will change now that I want to eat everything in sight! My appointment was cancelled this week since my OB was sick, so this is the first week I haven't gotten to see the babies on an Ultrasound for a while, but I have a growth ultrasound next Tuesday and an echocardiogram for the babies on Thursday, so it will be a double whammy next week.

Pregnancy wise, it is hard to tell exactly how I am feeling because I have been fighting this virus for so long, but I seem to have quite a bit more energy now that I am on the mend, and my appetite is back in full force because I am starving 24/7! May have something to do with supporting 3 growing bodies. Because of this increased energy, I have been able to go out on walks with the kids, and take on Costco shopping by myself, but inevitably I pay for it later in the day when my energy runs out and I can't move. The heartburn with this pregnancy is worse than anything I have experienced in my other pregnancies/entire life (a common theme with this pregnancy it seems) and without zantac, I can't sleep, drink or eat anything. Weird pregnancy dreams are in full swing and my belly is definitely getting in the way of my comfort. In the morning I feel about the same as I have around 20 weeks with my other kids, but by 8 pm, I feel like I am past 35 weeks and it isn't pretty. My belly is not poking way out because it is pretty well spread out top to bottom and side to side, but it is distinctly a pregnant belly. You can see a picture from a few days ago on instagram here. My legs and hips seem to be toting most of the bulk at this point, which historically means a much longer bounceback afterward, darn it! I am feeling lots of kicks and movements, but not all the time, not in a painful way (yet) and definitely not able to distinguish between them.

My biggest fears at this point are ending up having to get a c-section because I just really don't want to have to go through the recovery with 2 infants and 4 older kids, and getting placed on bedrest before we are able to find a house and move. I am hopeful that neither will be an issue and that we will be able to take on the rest of it as it comes. I am feeling confident that we will be able to get them on a schedule quickly, that I will be able to nurse them easily, and that things are going to be easier (albeit much more chaotic) when they get here. I am certainly not planning on it being easy, but I think it will be manageable. The kids are already in love with the babies and kiss my belly goodbye before they get on the bus in the morning. It is so sweet to hear them pray for "the babies in Mom's tummy" each morning and night and I always have to smile when I find Brynn's drawings of a person with two little people inside of it. The first time she pointed out that it was me and the 2 babies in my tummy and it has now become such a common art subject for her, that I recognize it immediately. Yes, we are all excited to welcome these two little boys to our family and to love them like crazy!

feeling unsettled

This morning I am feeling a little bummed, so I have to apologize in advance for the following complaint post. Monday afternoon, I got a call from our leasing agent letting us know that our landlord had decided to sell the home we are living in. She went over what the law requires as far as us making the home available for showings and apologized that this change in plan happened after such a short time leasing the property (3 1/2 months to be exact). I informed her that we are expecting twins and that we were sad because we had planned to stay here for another 2 years, but also went over my concerns with showing the house under the current circumstances. I was calm and reasonable and she was going to talk with the owner and discuss possibly extending the lease or the option of letting us out of our lease so that we wouldn't be responsible for showing the home.

Then, my brain started going 500 miles a minute. The more I thought about it, the madder I got. It is no small feat to move a family of 6 + a dog. Sure it will be a local move, but it is still a big job and a lot of work. Plus, moving is expensive...not just the cost of the movers/moving truck, but there are deposits and fees, cleaning costs, packing supplies, utility start up charges...having done this 3 times in less than a year and a half, I am acutely aware of the expense of moving and it is not cheap. Then there is the money that we have put into this house to make it work for us: the fence we installed around the pool, the pool cover, the plants and furniture we have had to purchase to make the home work for our needs...again, a rather expensive endeavor. Not to mention I am pregnant with twins and taking a shower, feeding the kids and having a plan for dinner is a very good day at this point. I am healthy, the babies are doing great, and there are no complications, yet I am exhausted 24/7, I have heartburn 24/7, I haven't been able to sleep very well, the aches and pains I am experiencing are similar to what I normally feel during the last month of my pregnancies, and to top it off I spend a few hours every week at the doctors office for check ups and ultrasounds. So, with all of that in mind and the thought that at any point it could get worse and I could be on bedrest...showing the house didn't seem like a good option. I have done the showing a house with kids + dog thing and it is miserable. In fact avoiding having to show a house is probably the primary reason we have chosen to rent while we are here instead of buying a home again, because I pretty much never want to deal with that again. In fact I was so stressed about it that I started having painful contractions and had to leave the dinner table and go lie down for the rest of the evening.

The next morning (Tuesday) by 10:30, I was driving myself insane with the stress of not knowing what was going to happen, so I called the leasing agent to check in. The owner definitely wants to sell right now, but was willing to let us out of our lease and even offered to make right with the pool fence we installed. The dates are still up in the air, but it sounded like they would be pretty flexible in accommodating our needs. After hanging up the phone, I felt much better about the whole situation. There is just something about not-knowing that is so unsettling and even when you know that the path is going to be a hard one...it feels better to know which path it is. Of course, that doesn't mean that all my stress was gone, in fact far from it. Now knowing that we were going to be moving, the professional mover in me started knocking tasks off the list. I pulled up craigslist and the realtor.com app to look for rentals, called on a few of them, made an appointment to see one, figured out how to make room in our budget for another deposit and another set of move in fees, started thinking about where to get boxes, made a mental list of what I could start packing immediately and what we could avoid packing and leave in drawers and bins since this would be a local move, talked to some friends about rentals they knew about and even drove around to look at some areas.

Which brings me to today. There is a total of 1 house that fits within our space requirements, pool requirement (and yes, we feel like that is a reasonable requirement. Remember how I am having twins and we live in Arizona and it will be hot and my kids will not be able to go anywhere this summer because I will be busy feeding and changing babies...the poor little darlings need something fun to do), the geographical requirements for school and work, and our budget (which we have been pretty generous with in our search). ONE house. I am looking at it tomorrow, but there is a chance it could already be leased by then. I am so discouraged and don't know whether it makes sense to move forward with the house if it is still available and we can make it work even though it is quite a bit more a month than we pay now, and in a different ward, and too close to the school to have a bus route, but too far to be a really quick walk for a giant pregnant lady) or if we should wait for something better. The market for rentals here is slim pickings, so there just isn't a whole lot of new stuff opening up and we are kind of on a deadline so we can settle in before the babies come.

I go back and forth between bursting into tears because I feel so overwhelmed and going 500 miles a minute checking tasks off my list. I have moments when I try to see the good in the situation and get a little excited about a bigger house, closer to the school with no bubble glass and more windows and moments when I can't possibly believe this is happening right now. Even in the bad moments, I remind myself that Heavenly Father has a plan for me and for our family. Even though I can't see why right now, I am certain that there is somewhere He needs us to be, and I am trying to have faith that we will find it and maybe be able to stick around for a while. I am heartbroken at the thought of moving our kids again...to a new neighborhood and new friends and a new bus (or maybe no bus at all, which would devastate them), and possibly even a new ward. We will definitely keep them in the same school, because I just can't bear the thought of making them switch schools. This school transition was harder than the last, and it would be horrible to make them go through it again. We will miss our little cul de sac, the neighbor friends who always want to play and our park across the street. They are being champs about it, though...not a single complaint from them when we broke the news...though there were a few requests that we just move back to Utah. :) Oh how I wish my little babies. I crave that feeling of being settled somewhere and knowing that we will be there for more than one of any given season. Of having friends whose babies have grown up with mine so much so that I feel like they are my own. Of having a home that I feel excited to decorate and improve because I know I will be there to enjoy it for at least a few years. Of not having to use a separate page to write down our housing history for the past 5 years. Yes, I crave the consistency of being settled. Yet here we are once again, looking out at the great unknown and wondering where the next few months will take us and praying for the best.

Boy oh Boy!

The verdict is in and there are 2 little boys on the way! The kids have known all along...and even been announcing it to people ever since we told them about a baby on the way, but we were skeptical. I had completely resigned myself to the fact that they were going to be little girls because the last two times hoping for boys had resulted with girls, and I had gotten used to the idea. Truly, I was happy with either. Little girls are fun and dramatic and emotional, but you get to dress them up in pink and ruffles and dresses and bows and tutus and all sorts of sparkly fun. Little boys are rambunctious, and messy and physical, but they are easily entertained, even-tempered, low maintenance and generally easier to manage in my experience (or maybe Morgan is just a little gem).

this is a 3D image of their two heads nuzzled together, baby B is in front 

sucking his thumb and reaching out to touch baby A who is head down.

We are thrilled to have babies dressed and snuggled in blue again, and for Morgan to finally have those brothers he has been praying for since before Brynn was born. I am excited to have a little bit of the stress lifted on our wedding fund planning, and to replace it with a food budget for the years of having two teenage boys at once, not to mention simultaneous missions. I am so excited for little boy clothes and shoes and for the ease of getting them dressed in the morning. I am relieved that I won't have to blow dry 5 heads of hair in addition to my own each morning and excited to build train tracks and hear sound effects coming from the play room. Of course, we have very little baby boy stuff left after all these years (and moves), so it will expensive, but kind of fun to start from scratch for these little guys. All in all, we are so excited for little boys!

And while I am definitely excited, I find myself unexpectedly mourning the fact that there will be no more baby girls. No more pink blankets filling the closet, no more newborn bracelets or blessing dresses, no more tiny bows glued on newborn heads with gel, no more tiny tutus and pettiskirts. I started going through the clothes that Ellie has outgrown and found myself with tears in my eyes unable to part with a few little outfits that I know we will never use again, but that are so precious to me even with their stains and faded colors. I am sure that part of it is pregnancy hormones, but every so often I look at my little Ellie, who is getting more and more grown up each day and I cry that I will never have a little girl this age again. I make her snuggle me for an extra long time before I put her in her crib to sleep so I can try with all my might to soak it all in and not let it pass me by and be forgotten. I am glad she is such a snuggler because she puts up with it and even offers up snuggles and hugs at random followed by a great big giggle and grin of pride because she knows how I love it.

 Baby B profile with baby A's hand reaching into the shot

 Baby A's profile and hand

But, it isn't just baby girls that I am mourning...it is this beautiful chapter of our lives that is ending. Never again will I see a little pink plus sign on a pregnancy test, never again will I hear that very first heartbeat on the doppler and never again will I anticipate whether our little one is a boy or a girl. And while I have no question that this is the end of babies for us and no question that these two little ones will complete our family perfectly and no question that I don't ever ever ever want to go through this whole pregnancy thing again, these experiences have shaped our lives so much over the past 8 years that it is bittersweet to be approaching the end of this chapter of our lives. I am surprised at how sentimental I am about it though, and I'm certain it will only get worse as the little boys arrive and each of their firsts are our very lasts. I think I am starting to understand how hard it is for moms to let their youngest kids grow up. Ultimately, I am so grateful for my family. I have been richly blessed, and I realize it more and more every day. Each of my children is so strong and so caring and so unique and I know that if I can just provide them with the gospel, discipline, values and love they need, they have great things to accomplish in this world. I often wonder if I am really up for the challenge of raising them, and then I remember that I am not doing it alone. Where I fail, Seth fills in the gaps, and any difference that remains, Heavenly Father makes up.

Word of the Year

Yes, a new year means a new annual theme for our family.

"Explore" was definitely a fitting word for 2012. We explored every bit of Portland and the Oregon coast that we could fit in. We picked berries and produce, we saw lighthouses, found favorite beaches, toured wildlife preserves, braved the adventures of downtown Portland a few times, spent hours and hours at the lake, hiked, explored waterfalls, ate delicious cheeses and ice creams, enjoyed museums and zoos and spent lots of time with friends!

We explored new opportunities which brought our little family and a great big truck full of stuff on a very long drive to our new home in Tucson, Arizona. We explored new landscape, researched cacti and how to react if you see a mountain lion, bobcat, coyote or javalina (since such creatures regularly roam our neighborhood), we explored places to find fall leaves and a whole new world of planting and gardening. We spent lots of time playing at the park, sitting in the sunshine, and watching gorgeous sunsets. so many wonderful discoveries!

We explored the idea of expanding our family and after prayerful consideration and a whole lot of gearing ourselves up to do this whole baby thing again, we decided to go ahead and add one last little one to our family. And, as we explored that 12 week ultrasound, we found that Heavenly Father  had blessed us with not one, but two more little ones. Since then we have explored quite a bit more about twin pregnancy and raising twins and while there are still a lot of unknowns, we are getting excited!

In trying to think of our 2013 word, the word Survive came to mind quickly! However, since we like a challenge, we brainstormed words together as a family while we enjoyed our New Years Eve fondue dinner and Shirley Temples. Ultimately, we decided on a word that I think will be perfect...

DELIGHT

Yes, delight as a verb! We want to delight in each other, delight in our family, delight those around us with service, delight in making new friends, delight in the gospel, delight in learning, delight in two little babies and every second of their little lives (this whole last babies thing is getting to me), and delight in all the challenges that those babies are sure to bring! It is going to be quite a year for us...one I know we will look back on and hope that we delighted in it while we lived it! May 2013 be a wonderful year for each of you as well...a year filled with delight!

Heavenly Father has a sense of humor

At my 12 week appointment we got quite the surprise...baby #5 has a buddy in there! Yep, this last baby of ours is actually 2 last babies. TWINS! We truly cannot believe it! I have been writing this email since we found out 9 days ago, but it has taken me a while to get all my thoughts in order, so apologies for the "old news" for most of you, but this is the whole scoop for those who want to know.

Finding Out
Seth didn't come with me to the ultrasound even though he was off work for the day..."It is just a 12 week scan...you can't really see much, no big deal," he said. I agreed...this is our 5th pregnancy after all. So I went on my own. I almost decided to bag it and just tell them I didn't care about a 12 week ultrasound when they told me how much it was going to be (I was thinking it was just part of the pregnancy bill I would get later), but I was already there, so I paid and sat down. As we started the ultrasound, I was chatting with my brand new OBGYN telling her about how this would be our last baby and we would be done and telling her how much I like being induced a week early and how I really hope we can make that happen again. I am pretty sure we were mid-conversation when she looked at me and said, "are you seeing what I am seeing?" I glanced at the ultrasound screen and acknowledged, "oh, there's the baby." (5th time I've done this, remember!) "There are 2 babies," she clarified and pointed them out. No.words. I looked at the screen totally stunned and not entirely believing. She rattled off a whole bunch of information about how this changed my due date and we would need a full baseline scan and that I would be visiting a specialist and getting regular ultra sounds from 18 weeks on. She talked about risks and delivery and while she was talking, I was in utter disbelief. This could not be right. We have NO twins in our family...on either side. Seth has one set of cousins that are twins, but that came from the in-law side. There have been loads of babies on both sides and NO twins. My doctor asked me if I was ok...I think I looked a little dazed. I assured her I was fine...just in shock. A little later she asked again, "are you ok?" and again...and again. I was really not adjusting to the news well, obviously. She sent me home with pictures, an appointment for 2 weeks later, and orders for another ultrasound and meeting with the specialist asap.

I got in my car...shaking...and called Seth. He was just as shocked. When I hung up the phone I said a little prayer. I think it went something like this, "Dear Heavenly Father. Are you crazy? How in the world am I going to handle 4 kids and twin babies. Do you realize that our families live 14 hours away? We only know a handful of people here in Tucson! I know, I know, you know best...I just want you to know that I am going to need a lot of help. I am sure you have a plan. I don't have any idea what it is, but I know if you are sending me twins, you are also going to help me handle it. Right?" And then I got home.

My mom and John were getting ready to head back to Salt Lake that afternoon, but were still at our house, so once I got inside, it was a whirlwind of discussion about whether or not this was really happening and looking again and again and again at an ultrasound image - my ultrasound image - clearly showing 2 little babies. We had planned to pick all the kids up early from school to go out to lunch with Grandma and Grandpa, so we were able to tell all of them at once about the big news. They were all surprised and excited and Chloe just burst into a giddy little giggle fit. It was so funny. Morgan immediately expressed his hope that they would both be boys, of course, and all the other kids agreed. Brynn didn't seem to care one way or another and of course Ellie was just Ellie. She doesn't have any idea what is about to happen to her little toddler world. I decided that facebook was probably the best means of announcement so I didn't have to individually call a bunch of people while I was still in complete shock (and still feeling not great), so once I posted it, it was a flutter of comments and calls (some of which I have still not returned yet...haven't forgotten about you!). There were a lot of question marks and exclamation points on my wall, but we just felt overwhelmed with the faith that all of you expressed in our ability to handle this and the love and support from so many friends and family.

Overwhelming Thoughts
To be honest, having another baby was not an intimidating thing for me. Been there, done that x4, so I was expecting this pregnancy to be just as horrible as the last 4, and the result to be a darling little bundle to love and, most excitingly, never having to do it again. Sleep training, nursing, adjusting to a new schedule - no biggie. After all, when you have 4 kids, what is one more? I had planned it all out: where the car seats would go in the car, how I could get into an exercise routine to get my body back...for real this time, how I would suddenly have all this energy to be the mom I want to be to my kids since I was done with the whole having babies thing, and especially how excited I was to use all the baby gear one last time and then get rid of every last bit of it before our next move!

Enter the twin factor and all of a sudden I feel like a complete parenting novice. Ignoring the fact that there will be 2 babies at the end of the whole thing for a minute, I find myself wondering if I will actually be able to survive the pregnancy part of this. Up to this point, I have been blessed with healthy uncomplicated pregnancies. I go to the doctor on the normal regular schedule. I have only had one pregnancy where they did any additional testing because there were any irregularities and she (Brynn) got to come a tiny bit earlier than normal, but still turned out just fine despite the small scare. I have always had nausea and complicated appetites and have taken zofran for most of my pregnancies, but still been able to be a functional, checked-in mom, wife and homemaker...and even employee with half of my pregnancies.

This pregnancy is a whole new ballgame. I spend my days on the couch, moderating the chaos happening around me as I rest and try to distract myself from the nausea by browsing facebook, instagram, pinterest, news articles, and most recently everything I can find on twin pregnancy: pretty much anything I can read or look at as long as I can access it without too much effort on my iPhone. My interaction with the kids involves a lot of snuggling, book reading, and admiring their artwork...as long as it can be done while sitting on the couch. I have made approximately 5 dinners in the last 6-8 weeks. Seth has been doing the laundry, cooking the meals, helping with grocery shopping, putting kids to bed, mopping floors, scrubbing bathrooms, picking up toys and working his normal job. If I can't do it from the couch, it probably isn't going to get done by me. We have put the kids to work with more chores than they have ever had in their lives, and they have been fantastic about "taking care of mom". Finding out that there was a legitimate reason why I have been so useless did make me feel a little less pathetic, though. I have started to feel a little better since hitting 12 weeks, but unless I get feeling a lot better soon, I worry that I am not going to be able to get everything done before these babies get here.

Then there is the stress of the rest of the pregnancy. The high risks, the bi-weekly ultra sounds, the non-stress tests, the getting enormous, the staying hydrated, the getting enough nutrients, the possibility of bedrest with 4 older kids to take care of, the fact that I will probably go into labor on my own (that has never happened before and it kind of terrifies me), and the delivery which has an extremely high likelihood of being a c-section. There is just so much that is foreign to me and foreign=scary.

Of course after the initial shock of "how am I going to get through this pregnancy" you get to the shock of "how I am I going to manage 4 kids and 2 infants". It is a constant whirlwind of worries and questions:
- Where will we put them all in the car? Am I going to have to get a club van...or a bus?
- How will I go grocery shopping?
- How will I keep track of a not-quite-2-year-old and 2 newborns...is there a stroller for that?
- Where are all these kids going to sleep?
- Adjust the financial plan to accommodate 2 more college funds and 2 more wedding funds. Yikes!
- How will we ever go on a date again?
- I am going to turn into a milk cow...will I do anything but feed babies and change diapers?
- We need a LOT of diapers and wipes.
- If I thought I got a lot of comments about having my hands full before...
- We will never be able to take our family out to a restaurant again!

And that is just the start...there are a lot of questions going through my mind and a lot of things I want to just figure out, so I can check them off the list of worries and move to the next one.

After Meeting With The Specialist
While I do have a very boring pregnancy history (which in the pregnancy world = GOOD) and a very good chance of a healthy, uncomplicated twin pregnancy and vaginal delivery, twin pregnancies are high risk. In our ultrasound the specialist could only find one placenta and a very thin wall between the two amniotic sacs (also suggesting that there is only one placenta to be found). This signifies that these twins will be identical. While this is exciting and fun to know, identical twins are an even higher risk pregnancy as they share a placenta and have a risk of twin to twin transfusion where one twin transfuses blood and nutrients from the other instead of from me. While this is rare, there is a surgery that can be done to fix the problem if they catch it early enough, so they will be monitoring me with ultrasounds every 2 weeks starting now and going through the remainder of my pregnancy.

So from now (week 13) until the arrival of our twins, I will go in to the specialist for an ultrasound every other week (25 minutes from my house, mind you) and on the opposite every other week, I will go in to my regular OBGYN for checkups. Toward the end of the pregnancy, those visits will increase for non-stress tests and weekly OBGYN appointments. The thought of having to work our family schedule around all of these appointments is intimidating and overwhelming, but I am so grateful for the blessing of modern medicine that makes it possible to keep these little ones safe and healthy before they are even born. Since everybody asks this question: we do not know the gender of the babies yet, but have our anatomy ultrasound scheduled for January 8 to find out. :) I'll keep you all posted!

Newness and News

We are all settled in Arizona! I had the house completely unpacked within a week of moving with the exception of some furniture that needs some extra love and repair after the move and we have just been enjoying settling into our new life here ever since. I miss our Oregon friends like crazy, but I must admit the daily dose of sunshine here in Arizona makes me realize just how much Oregon's weather and I did not mesh. I LOVE THE SUNSHINE!!! I see pictures of the lovely Oregon landscapes under an overcast sky and I feel like I need a dose of sunshine just to recover from seeing the photos. I still give Oregon props for the most amazing summers ever, the heavenly Lake Grove Swim Park and some of the most wonderful people we have ever met, but we are grateful for this move to Arizona and for the change that has come over our my mental health!

We are finding that Arizona is a wonderful fit for us! We have loved the weather. We swim when it is really hot, play at the park every day, go for walks, watch the gorgeous sunsets from our yard each night, and wear flip flops to the bus stop each November morning...truly we love it here! We had a chilly weekend this past few days, but one week ago, the kids and Seth were out swimming in the pool...in November! We are not loving how spread out Tucson is...you have to drive 30 minutes to an hour to get anywhere in the city because we live so far north. The freeway access is subpar, but fortunately we can get along pretty well just hanging out in our little suburb and at least gas is pretty cheap here. We are ecstatic about the news of an LDS temple to be built in Tucson and hope that the process is speedy so we can enjoy it!!! Another lovely perk of where we live is one level living...after the dozens of stairs at our house in Oregon, it is sooooo nice to live on one level! Seth's job is going well. It was a little interesting right at first adjusting in and we were surprised to find out that he would be the only provider in the clinic for a few months while there were some other staffing changes taking place, but it has turned out to be just fine and his patients already love him (big shocker there - ha ha). The disadvantage is that we won't be able to travel home for Christmas since they would have to close the clinic without him. Sad.

Our ward is gigantic and we have met many wonderful people and made some good friends already. I am sad to say that we have not jumped in and made ourselves at home in our community to the extent that we normally would, but that is because I have been a little "under the weather" while I have been growing TATE BABY #5. Yep, one more baby for this not-so-little family of ours. This is definitively the last baby for us, which makes it a little easier to endure what is turning out to be a very rough pregnancy for me. I am surviving between doses of Zofran with a lot of naps and a lot of help from Seth and the kids. Really, they have taken over all the cleaning, cooking and laundry. I don't know how I survived pregnancy when Seth was in school and working full time, but I am grateful every day that we are in a different place this time around! I am 10 weeks along and yesterday I got to see a little heartbeat on the ultrasound for the first time. It is so amazing to see the miracle of new life growing inside of you! I am extremely hopeful that I will be feeling better in 2 weeks, so hopefully you will hear more from me then. :)