Resolutions Update: January 2016

One month into the new year and I'm doing pretty good on my resolutions so far. How about you? I'll remove some of these as I complete them but, as promised, here's an update on how I've done so far.

Read 20 minutes every day. In 2015, my Goodreads reading goal was 36 books for the year. I ended up reading 52! I'm hoping to take it to 55 books this year. I'm an avid reader so it shouldn't be too tough. I'm probably reading more than 20 minutes a day. I read when I'm feeding the kids, and even when I'm pumping. To date, I have read 7 books - that's 7 books in ONE month!

Join a gym. After these babies are born (and I'm given clearance to start exercising), I plan to join a local gym. I love taking classes like Zumba and spin classes, and my local gym offers a bunch of group fitness classes. Time to get my sweat on! Not yet- when do I have the time?!?!

Run 5 races. Before I got pregnant, I had just gotten into a groove with running. It's a dream of mine, really, to be able to say "I'm a runner" and I'd love to eventually run 10k's, 1/2 marathons, and full marathons. I've only done 5k's so far, and I hope to be able to run at least 5 of them this year. I'll do this in the spring/summer.

Drink 6 cups of water everyday. I fail on drinking water big time. I'd much rather have a big glass of juice or soda. I want to try and give up soda completely, but don't want to set myself up for failure. I love it too much. So I'll just settle on drinking 6 cups of water each day. If I can do that, I'm off to a good start. There were days that I did, and lots of days that I didn't. Now that I'm using MyFitnessPal again, I'm going to try to hit this everyday in February.

Get the basement organized. I started cleaning up parts of the basement, but it's really in need of a thorough cleaning/organization session. We just have way too much stuff down there. I'd like to reduce the amount of stuff in the basement by half. I've spent some time in the basement, but not nearly enough. Hey - I've got all year to complete this goal, right?

Save money for our next trips (cruise in 2106 and Disney World in 2017). I love traveling more than anything in the world. I know that it's only going to get more expensive and a lot more difficult to travel with twins, so I need to be more diligent about saving money from each paycheck. Not a single penny. How sad is that?

Cook one new recipe every week. I already started picking out some new recipes I want to try in the new year, and I figure Sundays would be a great day to try them out. I'm used to being on the go all the time, but I want to start taking it easy on Sundays and spending more time at home. I'll have more time to clean up the house and cook some yummy new grub. YES! I'm really enjoying this one too.

Take a little time each week for personal growth. This one is going to be so hard for me, but I need to take a little bit of time, even if it's just an hour a week, for just me. I could get my nails done, read up on a subject I enjoy, or take a class. I'm looking forward to this one. Hmm...I'm thinking I should print out this resolution list because I forgot all about this goal!

Eat 2-3 servings of fruits/vegetables every day. I am the worst at eating fresh fruits and veggies. Doctors recommend high serving amounts every day, but just starting off with two or three would be good for me. This one is easy!

Take better photos. I always bring out my big camera, but hardly ever take any pictures on it. All pictures I use are usually taken on my cell phone. I need to put my phone down and pick up my nice camera from time to time. I think I'm going to have to reevaluate this one. I actually like taking pictures on my cell phone, mainly because all pictures I take are immediately uploaded to my Google account and can be viewed on my laptop chronologically. Who needs the fancy camera? I'll be deleting this goal since I take pics of the twins every single day.

So there's January. Not too bad. Hopefully I can knock some more off next month.

Weekly Recap #7

This week was spent mostly at home, with lots of friends coming to visit. It's been freezing cold lately (dangerously cold they say), so I suspect spending lots of time at home is in my future. It was so nice to have friends bring me dinner everyday this week, and I've learned that my girlfriends can cook! We never had a bad meal - every single one was delish!

To start off the week on Monday, the twins had their first doctor's appointment. I am so surprised we made it on time! Trying to get out of the house with two babies is freakin' hard!!!

 

We learned that both babies gained weight since they left the NICU 3 days ago, so that's a really good sign that they're still continuing to thrive at home. I chose a new pediatrician for them, Dr. Kelly, since our old pediatrician is affiliated with a hospital I'm not crazy about. The office visit was just ok. The office is pretty small, and the nurse originally weighed them with their full diapers on (I was the one to bring it up to the doc, who assured me that, no, it wasn't normal to weigh newborns with their diapers on). Other than that, though, the visit went well. They are both slightly heavier than their birth weight. YAY!

On Monday, my friend, Laura, brought over a Three-Cheese Mostaccioli that was so good - even Brayden ate it! I loved having some company from my girlfriends all week.

Brayden even wanted to help with the babies. For one, I'm just glad he doesn't hate them. For months before they were born, Brayden had a serious aversion to all babies. He's come a long way, but like most 5-year-olds I imagine, he'll help if he's not "busy". If he's watching a show, or playing a game on the tablet, fat chance that he'll come to help me do something with the babies. It just so happens that he had some free time Monday night.

Tuesday was spent at home, and I dressed the kids up a little bit. I have some really cute newborn outfits that I'd like them to wear at least once before they grow out of them. I made the mistake of waiting for an occasion to wear nice outfits with my other kids, and they just grew out of them before they could ever wear them. Well not this time around. If I have a nice outfit, they are definitely going to wear them at least once!

On Tuesday, it was my friend Julia's turn to visit and she brought chicken tetrazzini. YUM!

Wednesday was another day spent at home. It was today that I saw up close, just how tired I'm looking. My husband took a picture of me with both kids and I look TIRED! Tired and awful. This is real life with twins, ya'll!

The twins, on the other hand, are just adorable.

On Wednesday it was Sarah's turn to visit and she brought over beef stew. Wednesday is also the day I started to forget to take pics of my friends coming over. :( No more pics the rest of the week. Boo.

Thursday Stefani came over with spaghetti with Italian sausage, garlic bread, and her out-of-this-world brownies. The brownies were devoured quickly! Here's my daily twin pic.

On Friday, Sharon came over with Maciano's pizza - my family's favorite local pizza place. It was also another day for cutsie clothes. I love the adorable little outfits!

My sister also visited with her family Friday night. I had to change Lauryn out of the cutsie clothes in the afternoon, and I was shocked to see my niece in the same outfit as Lauryn. My sister and I are so much alike!

On Saturday, my husband's brother and his family visited for a few hours, as well as my good friend, Kristin. I'm sad that I didn't take more pictures since they all spent quite a bit of time here. In fact, the only pics I took that day were of Lauryn in a bouncy seat. If I'm going to be chronicling my life with my kids, I need to be much better at taking pictures. 

I was finally able to venture out of the house on Sunday to do a little grocery shopping. I also kept up with my New Year's Resolution to make a new recipe every week. I made Homemade Garlic Knots this week, and it was hard! Well, maybe not really so hard, but definitely time consuming. I've never made anything with active yeast before and I had to wait for the dough to rise twice! Pillsbury crescent rolls would have been so much easier to do. Ha! My friend, Lindsay, brought over chicken parmesan with a ceasar salad, and at lease the garlic knots complimented the meal perfectly. I'm so lucky to have so many friends that can cook - my family ate well this week!

I'll leave you with Sunday's pic of the babies. :)

The first full week of the twins being home is over! My goals took a backseat this week, and I need to get back on track! Here's how I did.

• Goal #1: Eliminate soda for 1 more week - this would be the 3rd week in a row! YES! I really haven't craved soda lately so that's a good thing!
• Goal #2: Make sure all Christmas decorations have been put away.  75% done. I started putting everything away, but didn't quite get it all done. This will definitely get done next week.
• Goal #3: Spend 30 more minutes organizing the basement. Didn't make it to the basement this week, even though I need to look for a few things down there.
• Goal #4: Organize one kitchen cabinet. Not yet on this one. Hopefully I get it done before my husband notices I haven't done it!
• Goal #5: Purchase and install blackout blinds for the twins.  My husband and I decided to table this one for now. The sun really hasn't been an issue with them napping, so we'll buy the blackout shades later - probably in the spring.

Tough week. BOO! I have got to get with it! These are the goals I hope to tackle this week.

Goal #1: Eliminate soda for 1 more week - this would be a whole month soda-free! I can probably remove this after another four weeks. I crave it sometimes, but I'm better off without.

Goal #2: Make sure all Christmas decorations have been put away. This got started last week, and will be done this week for sure.

Goal #3: Spend 30 more minutes organizing the basement. Little by little, I can get this basement looking so much more organized.

Goal #4: Organize one kitchen cabinet. While the twins nap, I have got to get this done. My husband already took some baking items out that he wants me to store in the basement. He's starting to get impatient and I need to get it done. Shouldn't take too long.

Goal #5: Clean off a few toys for the twins. I have a ton of toys from when my son was a baby that are just waiting to be wiped down.

Goal #5: Get an oil change. I'm past due for an oil change. If I can't go myself, I need to have my husband go before he goes back to work next week.

I'll let you know how it went next week!

Weekly Recap #6

This week was mostly spent at the hospital visiting the twins in the NICU. It was so weird going back there on Monday, after being discharged from the hospital myself just the day before. Weird, and sad at the same time. I absolutely hate having to drive there by myself and leave by myself. :( With visiting the twins, this was a very busy week. Here's the daily play-by-play (with pictures!).

Monday - Even though I was just released from the hospital yesterday, there were still things that needed to be done, and people I needed to feed. I went grocery shopping by myself in the AM. I seriously regret pushing myself because I felt awful. I powered through, but I probably should have waited.

And, I have some really awesome friends. Knowing how awful I was feeling for having to leave the twins in the NICU, they sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Ans, the emotional mess that I am, I totally cried.

Then, it was off to the NICU. Today I visited from 5:45pm to 10:30pm. I really didn't like their morning nurse from 7am to 7pm. Her care reminded me of some teachers. You know how there are really great teachers that love there jobs, and how you can tell who is only there for a paycheck? Well, I found that that extends to nurses as well. We've had some really great nurses so far, but then there are some, like this morning, who I feel don't really try. The night nurse from Sunday put their feeding tubes back in because they regressed a bit Sunday night which was really hard to hear.

Peyton

On Tuesday I drove myself to the doctor's office to have my c-section staples removed. Thankfully, it did not hurt as much as I thought it would! I went to the same Thai place for lunch that I visited a few weeks ago, Mai Thai Cafe in Wheaton. A few weeks ago, I thought the place was great, but now they don't offer table service anymore, just carryout. It was weird - and the food wasn't as good. I wonder what happened.

I visited the NICU from 12:30pm - 6:00pm on Tuesday. The twins had a better nurse this time (Jami). I was so happy to see NO feeding tubes. I was told that the twins are now on an "On Demand" schedule where they don't have to drink a certain amount of food, and they are fed when they want food. The goal is for them to gain weight on their own, without being force-fed. While I was there, Lauryn was awake alot, but Peyton has day/night mixed up and is more awake at night. Later that night from home, I called the night nurse and she said they only lost 5 grams (they are weighed every night around 9pm) which is less than 0.2 of an ounce. Their original feeding goal was 55 cc's for Lauryn and 50 for Peyton. Last night Lauren took 65 and Peyton took 60! They are doing so well!

Lauryn

Peyton

On Wednesday I was headed back to the NICU, of course. The hospital is more than 20 miles away from my house so it's quite a drive each day. I had the opportunity to stay at the Ronald McDonald House during the day (not overnight), but I mostly stayed home and played with Brayden during the day. He seems to be having a rough time lately ever since I was in the hospital. He goes into his room a few times a day to "relax" and I worry about him. He seems a little depressed so I'm trying to spend as much time with him as I can.

Lauren held in her paci with her hand - so cute! Was told that I should bring in outfits for them to take photos, and their car seats so the nurses can perform a car seat test that would last an hour and a half. They won't be going home tomorrow, but it's better if they get this mandatory test (for kids born at less than 37 weeks) done before we are discharged. All they need to do now is gain weight for 2 consecutive days and they can come home! Woo hoo! Late that night I got a call from one of the nurses (that I requested because I needed to know if they gained/lost weight) and was told that they both GAINED! One more day and they'll be released. I was so happy to hear that!

On Wednesday, I also stuck to one of my New Year's Resolutions and made a new recipe this week. I love almost everything The Pioneer Woman makes, and this week I decided to make her Salisbury Steak Meatballs from one of my Pinterest boards. Oh my word - those things, over egg noodles, are the BOMB! what's even better is that my whole family - including my super-picky-he-only-eats-chicken-nuggets 5-year-old - loved it. I'll definitely add this to my favorites rotation!

Thursday - I spent a lot of time organizing today. I put together all of the baby swings and bouncers that we had, spent some time tidying up the basement, and making sure we were just about ready for the twins to come home. Today I was asked to bring their car seats to the NICU so they can perform a car seat test. All babies born prior to 37 weeks gestation need to pass a car seat test. After a feeding, the child is placed in their car seat for 90 minutes while the nurses monitor their heart rate and oxygen levels to make sure they can handle a long car ride without slouching and cutting off their oxygen. They are almost ready to come home, ya'll! I also brought in some outfits for their photo shoot that's scheduled for tomorrow morning. They were asleep for most of the time I was there today though. :( And I was there for 6 hours! I also called the nurse to see how their weight was, to hear that they both GAINED again!!! Woo Hoo! It still isn't for sure that they will come home tomorrow though since Peyton only gained 5 grams, which is less than 0.2 of an ounce. It's all up to the doctors tomorrow.

Here's their NICU room. It's just about time be be outta here!

On Friday afternoon we learned that...

The twins can come home!!!

We got the call early afternoon and decided to pick them up later in the day. My son has been having cabin fever lately, and we feel really bad for not being around much to do stuff with him. My husband earned his #1 DAD title today by taking Brayden to the mall, that included a trip to the bouncy house place. Brayden was in heaven. He was affectionate with my husband and thanked him so many times. Then it was off to get those babies!

Bringing those babies home!

Saturday was spent mostly inside with the twins. I was so busy, I hardly even took any pictures (I did take a few though!). Talk about sleep deprived! I only left the house to buy a few more items at Babies R Us, and I had to cut my time short in order to get home before the twins were ready for their next diaper change/feeding. They are on a 3-4 hour schedule that the NICU nurses set them up on. Like clockwork, one wakes up first, and the other follows about 20 minutes later. It's great! My husband helps a lot with feedings, he's just not as comfortable changing them because they're so small. I got a few naps in late evening so I'm grateful for that.

On Sunday my dad came over for a visit. I don't know why I didn't get a photo of him with the twins. He didn't hold them, though, so maybe that's why. Lol I'm thankful that I didn't leave the house at all today. It is COLD in the Chicago area! We'll have to take them to the pediatrician either tomorrow or Tuesday, so I'm hoping it's at least a little warmer.

Daily visits to the hospital were part of my daily routine this week, but was I able to stick to any goals? Here's how I did.

• Goal #1: Eliminate soda for 1 more week. This one is starting to get easy. I really haven't craved soda lately so that's a good thing!
• Goal #2: Attend post-holiday party on Friday. Nope. I really wanted to, but the twins came home on Friday - WAY more important!
• Goal #3: Spend 30 minutes organizing the basement. I finally started this on Thursday! It's going to take a lot more time, but I'm glad I at least got it started.
• Goal #4: Organize one kitchen cabinet. Not yet. The twins were in the NICU most of the week, but this is a priority for me since they're home now.
• Goal #5: Purchase and install blackout blinds for the twins.  Not yet, but I'm positive this will get done next week.

Two out of five this week. BOO! I have got to get with it! These are the goals I hope to tackle this week.

Goal #1: Eliminate soda for 1 more week - this would be the 3rd week in a row! I've actually been feeling pretty good since I gave up soda. I think I can make it another week.

Goal #2: Make sure all Christmas decorations have been put away. We are 12 days into the new year, and we still have our Christmas decorations up. It's time for them to go.

Goal #3: Spend 30 more minutes organizing the basement. It felt good to start on this this week, I'm hoping I can get it in again.

Goal #4: Organize one kitchen cabinet. While the twins nap, I have got to get this done. My husband already took some baking items out that he wants me to store in the basement. He's starting to get impatient and I need to get it done. Shouldn't take too long.

Goal #5: Purchase and install blackout blinds for the twins. This has eluded me 3 weeks in a row. I vow to take this off the goal list this week!

I'll let you know how it went next week!

10 Resolutions for 2016

I don't know about you, but I LOVE setting New Year's Resolutions every year. I like starting the year off with a set of goals I hope to follow for the year. Do they last all year long? Never. But just the process of writing them down and trying to remember to adhere to them help me keep them up for longer than I would have had I not taken the time to think about them.

So without further ado, here are my resolutions for 2016!

Read 20 minutes every day. In 2015, my Goodreads reading goal was 36 books for the year. I ended up reading 52! I'm hoping to take it to 55 books this year. I'm an avid reader so it shouldn't be too tough.

Join a gym. After these babies are born (and I'm given clearance to start exercising), I plan to join a local gym. I love taking classes like Zumba and spin classes, and my local gym offers a bunch of group fitness classes. Time to get my sweat on!

Run 5 races. Before I got pregnant, I had just gotten into a groove with running. It's a dream of mine, really, to be able to say "I'm a runner" and I'd love to eventually run 10k's, 1/2 marathons, and full marathons. I've only done 5k's so far, and I hope to be able to run at least 5 of them this year.

Drink 6 cups of water everyday. I fail on drinking water big time. I'd much rather have a big glass of juice or soda. I want to try and give up soda completely, but don't want to set myself up for failure. I love it too much. So I'll just settle on drinking 6 cups of water each day. If I can do that, I'm off to a good start.

Get the basement organized. I started cleaning up parts of the basement, but it's really in need of a thorough cleaning/organization session. We just have way too much stuff down there. I'd like to reduce the amount of stuff in the basement by half.

Save money for our next trips (cruise in 2106 and Disney World in 2017). I love traveling more than anything in the world. I know that it's only going to get more expensive and a lot more difficult to travel with twins, so I need to be more diligent about saving money from each paycheck.

Cook one new recipe every week. I already started picking out some new recipes I want to try in the new year, and I figure Sundays would be a great day to try them out. I'm used to being on the go all the time, but I want to start taking it easy on Sundays and spending more time at home. I'll have more time to clean up the house and cook some yummy new grub.

Take a little time each week for personal growth. This one is going to be so hard for me, but I need to take a little bit of time, even if it's just an hour a week, for just me. I could get my nails done, read up on a subject I enjoy, or take a class. I'm looking forward to this one.

Eat 2-3 servings of fruits/vegetables every day. I am the worst at eating fresh fruits and veggies. Doctors recommend high serving amounts every day, but just starting off with two or three would be good for me,

Take better photos. I always bring out my big camera, but hardly ever take any pictures on it. All pictures I use are usually taken on my cell phone. I need to put my phone down and pick up my nice camera from time to time.

I hope to provide an update once a month, so the first one should come at the end of January. Wish me luck!