One Month Old

Martha and Jaina celebrated their one-month birthday yesterday. It is hard to believe they are already a month old! According to my mother's scale, they are now both over 7 1/2 lbs. It is crazy how fast they are growing. I took them to our herbalist again because we were having issue with them not sleeping well (thereby me not getting any sleep), runny noses, and general fussiness. They both have a slight case of thrush, the beginning of a virus, and slight gastrointestinal problems. They are both on stuff to clear all that. We also discovered that Martha needed chamomile for calming and that Jaina gets overwhelmed easily. It is amazing how quickly they responded to the natural remedies. We saw immediate improvements in their fussiness levels and they slept last night! I only got up once with each of them for a feeding. It was great to get sleep.

I am constantly reminded about how great a God we have. He not only created us, this world, and everything on it, but He created all we needed to fix ailments and problems that might arise. How naive I was to His power and loving kindness in creating answers to our problems before we even knew we had them. We are also learning how much information the Bible has about how to live our life. It does make a difference what we eat. God created perfect foods for our proper nutrition if we would just eat what He created and not what man has created (processed foods, high-fructose corn syrup, etc). I am so thankful that He has opened our eyes to what He has for us and that we are returning to living how He intended for us to live. May we continue to grow in the knowledge of Him!

Happy Easter!

Easter is such a joyful day because Christ, my Savior, rose from the grave and overcame death! It is glorious that not only did God send His one and only Son to die on the cross for our sins, but that Christ conquered death and lives today! Hallelujah!

We started out the day trying to get all seven little girls in their Easter dresses. It didn't help that Chad wanted to get to church early to not only set up for his Sunday School class, but also get ready for his first sermon. That's right, Chad preached his very first sermon on Easter Sunday! Our pastor and his wife went to Arizona to visit her parents and asked if Chad would fill the pulpit. Although I didn't get to hear the whole sermon (I ended up nursing Jaina in the nursery), I hear that it went well (we thought it was being taped, but a cord was unplugged unknown to the sound guy). He received lots of compliments from those present. While Chad was preparing for his lesson and sermon, I tried to get a group picture of the girls. Boy, it isn't easy to get seven little girls to all look at the camera and smile (and not cry!)! Although none of the pictures are "wall-worthy", I at least got a picture with all of them in the shot!

After church we went to Chad's parents' house and enjoyed a wonderful Easter dinner with Chad's parents, his sister's family and our cousin and her kids. It was nice to have someone else be able to take a family picture of us as our last one is now out-dated because it doesn't have Martha & Jaina in it. We then had an egg hunt after dinner (of course!). We had over 300 hundred eggs filled with money for the kids to find (over $30!). There were 10 kids searching for the eggs and they had so much fun. The littlest ones had help from their daddy's.

Beautiful Niece & Delighted Nana!

We traveled to Muskegon on Friday to see our new niece, Madalynn and to take Martha and Jaina to meet their Great Grandma. My brother, sister-in-law, and Madalynn joined us at my parents' house to celebrate an early Easter dinner and for all the new cousins to meet. Madalynn is so beautiful. I almost started crying when I saw her because she is just so precious! Madalynn looks just like she fits perfectly into our family. In fact, she looks so much like our girls that Sabra was a little confused until we pointed out that there were three babies!

Madalynn has been having some problems gaining weight, but my brother and his wife are doing all they can to make sure she nurses a lot and are giving her formula until she can get her weight up. We continue to pray not only for her healthy growth, but also for the breastfeeding to get easier for mommy and baby.

My Grandma, the girls' Great Nana, was delighted to get to see Martha and Jaina for the first time. Grandma was moved into a nursing home about a year ago and loves to not only have company, but absolutely loves when the great-grandkids come for a visit. She thought Martha and Jaina were beautiful and completely precious. She is so thankful to have so many great-grandkids (25 great-grandkids and 1 great-great-grandchild!).

She is looking forward to receiving updated pictures of them as well as the other girls. She really appreciates when the girls color pictures to send to her. Although she wishes we could visit more often, she understands that driving two hours with seven little girls is a little rough. She wishes we would move closer so we could all visit her more often. She says being around the little ones makes her feel young!

Happy Birthday, Sabra!

Sabra celebrated her 3rd birthday on Friday, March 21, 2008! It is amazing how fast she is growing up. We had agreed that she was going to have a purple and yellow purse cake, but on Thursday, she changed her mind and decided she wanted a Snow White cake. Since I didn't have time to create a Snow White cake, I had to put a Snow White figurine on a cake instead. The nice thing about doing it that way was that she also got a toy to play with and it was easier for me!

We pray that she continues to stay healthy and grows into a fine young lady. We also hope this is the year for getting potty-trained. She was awful close to being potty-trained before the babies arrived, but then we had a setback. We are sure she will grow by leaps and bounds this year!

New Niece

My brother and his wife had their first child on Sunday, March 16, 2008. Madalynn Lucille was born at 2:00 am. She was 6 lbs. 11 oz and 19 1/2" long. We will be heading to Muskegon to see her this weekend. The girls are excited to have a new cousin to play with.

Sleepless Nights

I have not been getting much sleep lately. I thought I had the girls on almost the same schedule, but for the last four nights, it has been terrible. Martha has decided that she would like to nurse for only 5-7 minutes and then eat every 2-3 hours. Jaina will nurse for 10-15 minutes and eat every 4-5 hours. It seems like I am always getting up to feed one of them. Then, for some reason, they have been fussy during the night. Tonight Jaina is actually sleeping well, but Martha is being really fussy (hence why I am up writing this at 4:30 in the morning!). I pray they will get on the same schedule soon or I might lose my mind from lack of sleep! I try to take naps during the day, but to time their sleeping with the other girls' afternoon naps isn't easy either. I can sometimes get about a 1/2 hour nap, which helps, but doesn't completely renew me either. If anyone has any ideas about how to get them on the same schedule, I would greatly appreciate it. Also, keep us in your prayers!

Martha & Jaina update 2

Martha and Jaina are both doing well. They were weighed at 10 days old and they were both just 2 oz under their birth weight. We were told that was really good. They are starting to sleep longer, but still aren't on quite the same schedule yet. I am trying to work them into the same schedule by waking the second one up right after the other wakes up and nurses. I can tell when I eat something that must have had dairy in it because the girls get really fussy and gassy. I have to watch more carefully about the foods I choose. Chad has realized how much my Mom was helping out when she was here as he now has to get up at night and help with the girls!

Jaina felt very comfortable in Papa's arms when he came up to take Nana back home. They both fell asleep in the chair and took a good long nap!

Martha and Jaina both got fussy during family devotions last night so I sat in the living room with both of them so Chad could continue the devotions with the other girls. They cuddled up to each other and fell asleep in my arms. At one point, Jaina was sucking Martha's thumb and Martha was trying to get Jaina's thumb in her mouth! I just had to get Chad to take a picture of the girls as they obviously have a tight connection with each other.

Silly Girl

Cora was sitting quietly reading books and the next thing I know she is wearing the book basket on her head! She thought she was hilarious and kept taking it off and putting it back on. Each time she would crack up laughing. Of course the older girls also wanted to try putting the basket on their heads, but their heads were too big.

Little Yoda

I got the girls dressed yesterday and the infant gown that I put on Martha had a hoodie. When I put it on her head, I immediately thought she looked like Yoda from Star Wars. Now, I'm not saying that she is ugly (because she is absolutely beautiful), but my first thought was Yoda. I have taken to calling her Yoda as a nickname now. I am sure she won't like it when she gets older, but I think it's cute!

Our Birth Story

I've been wanting to share our birth story for a while, but haven't had time to sit and post, so although it has already been a week since it happened, here it is.

I woke up early Monday morning with contractions and thinking my water may have broke (not completely, but leaking). I called my midwife and doctor and both said to head up to the hospital. The doctor I had been seeing was on call when I called in, but was off by the time we arrived at the hospital, so I had to see one of her partners that I had never met before.

After talking with him for a few minutes, we knew we were in for a rough day because he hadn't read our birth plan and was all for having a c-section (which I didn't want). He told me that my water hadn't broke, but I was dilated to 3cm. We decided to go walk around the mall to see if we could get my contractions stronger and closer together.

We walked around the mall a few times, had some spicy lunch and walked some more. We ended up running into a few people we knew so we stood and talked for an hour and since my contractions continued while we stood and talked, I figured we were good to go. We headed back to the hospital and found out I was dilated to 5 cm so they admitted me. We continued to talk with the doctor about our desires for a natural birth and fighting about a c-section. Finally in late afternoon, we consented to deliver in the operating room if he agreed to not do a c-section automatically if the second baby was breech. We had to sign a handwritten consent form saying we were going against the doctor's advice, but we feel that God is in control and know of many women who have delivered a second twin that was breech with no problems so we wanted to give it a try.

Around 8 pm, the doctor broke my water to get things moving even more and it was shortly after breaking my water that he finally read our birth plan and said that he thought he could accommodate us. Just before 11 pm, they took me into the OR to deliver. We had 12 people in there with us because two residents had asked to observe because they had never seen a twin natural birth before! The doctor allowed my midwife to deliver Martha at 11:05 pm and then we discovered that Jaina was laying sideways. The doctor and midwife were trying to turn her when he ordered for the anesthesiologist to be called to be ready for a c-section. It was at that moment I closed my eyes and began praying. I felt surrounded by prayer as I knew Chad was praying as well as one of the residents and one of the nurses (they had shared their faith with us earlier in the day). Well, God is good and Jaina was delivered by our midwife at 11:23 pm just moments before the anesthesiologist showed up! I must say that this delivery was the easiest for me and I believe it is all because I was in constant communication with God from the moment we entered the OR until Jaina was born. He was by my side comforting me and granting me His peace.

Both babies were doing well. Martha's blood sugar was a little low so they ended up giving her some formula to bring it back up, but other than that, they were perfect! It was amazing to see God's hand at work throughout the day. We were so thankful the doctor allowed our midwife to deliver as she has delivered 4 of our other 5 girls. It was also great to see how people kept popping into our lives who shared their faith and encouraged us when we needed it.

The next day we began struggling with the pediatrician who was on call. She wanted us to give the girls formula because they weren't waking up to eat every three hours. We continued to tell her that the girls were fine and we would feed them when they woke up, but she kept talking about statistics showing how they need to eat every three hours. Since we have struggled with this with our other girls, we knew they would be okay. I finally got a little testy and said, "God doesn't care about statistics!" I knew He was taking care of our girls. And it so happened that it was then that they woke up and ate! God is so good!

We hope that we were able to positively affect the lives of those we dealt with while in the hospital and can continue to encourage others with this story of how great God is.