Hookaholic March of Dimes Fundraiser!

Well it's that time again, we're giving away another adorable accessory for the little one in your life!

The wonderful Stephanie from Hookaholic Yarn Design Studio has graciously offered to make a hat of your choice and size for someone who donates to the March of Dimes this week!

The twins have her owl hats and I was going to take cute pictures of them this morning but Amelia is throwing up non-stop so I opted out of a photoshoot. Consider yourself lucky you don't have to witness this mess...or smell her. Ugh. ;)

These are the hats we got from Stephanie awhile back and we LOVE them! We get compliments on them every time the twins wear them. They're so adorable.

You know you want one ;)

So here are the details on how to enter to win one of the hats!

• Giveaway fundraiser will be open until Monday 3/5/12 at 12:00pm PST
• To enter, simply donate $5 to our March of Dimes team! You can donate with the March of Dimes sidebar. Quick, look to the right! For every $10, I will give you an extra entry, so if you donate $5 you get 1 entry, $10 you get 3! (I get emails on everyone who donates so I will put everyone's name in a spread sheet as you donate!)
• If you don't feel comfortable donating, you can still enter! Just facebook or tweet this giveaway and leave me a comment with your facebook or twitter name, as well as your email address, and I will add your name to the giveaway.
• The more you donate, the better your chances are of winning!
• I will select a winner on Monday then be in touch with you to let you know that you're awesome and you won!
• Winners can select ANY HAT from the Hookaholic Shop in the size of your choice!
  
  
  

Good luck everyone and let's get fundraising for healthy, full-term babies!

There's still time to join our team and walk with us at Exposition Park in Los Angeles on April 28! E-mail me emily.pepka@gmail.com for details :)

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Lets's start with the ugly...

My sweet baby boy had his nap study with the pulmonologist. His lungs are doing fine but need a little extra help when he sleeps so we're giving him oxygen at night and during naps. Just .5 liter flow but still, he hates it, fusses and wakes up when we put it on him, but he's such a little champ and is getting used to the canula again.

The bad...

Jack's tummy and allergies are a mess! He's not digesting well, he has bad reflux, so he's on medicine for those issues. We tried him on some hypoallergenic formula and seems to help his mysterious rash. The GI doctor has decided to put him on a 30 cal diet (he was on 27, a typical baby gets 20calories per oz), since he's not gaining weight and he's on special hypoallergenic formula. It smells like a vanilla milkshake, so now all my clothes smell like vanilla. I'm still breastfeeding predominantly, so I've stopped eating dairy which breaks this 2001-2002 Blair County Dairy Princess's heart. I'll always love you cheese, and I'll be back on a few months ;)

And there's a few good things....

We went to Disneyland this week,

I've found my crafty spirit,

AND itty bitty Amelia is almost 15lbs! Jack is over 27 inches, so they're growing!

I also have a lot of fun playing with my munchkins every day ;) they're so fun lately, chatting and sitting and scooching around :)

And best of all...next week we're going to do another fundraiser! This time it will be an adorable hat from Hookaholic Yarn Design Studio! You'll get entries for every $5 you donate to the March of Dimes and entries for sharing the fundraiser with your friends :) Get excited, I'll post all the details on Monday!

Have a great weekend! :)

Memory Lane

Last Thursday I had the chance to participate in the March of Dimes Days of Gratitude. I was there representing the families who have personal experience with a premature baby. There 2 were March of Dimes staff members and myself and we went to Providence Tarzana Medical Center. I baked a few batches of cookies for the nurses and staff of the Maternity, Labor and Delivery and NICU units.

Purple for March of Dimes, naturally.

Since I can't be in Pennsylvania to constantly drown the doctors, nurses and staff who took care of my little ones with cookies and treats, I figured I'd spread the love on the West Coast.

I brought the twins with me and everyone was so excited to see the little NICU grads.

We went to each unit and chit chatted with the nurses. The March of Dimes provided them with pamphlets, books, lots of info about their "Healthy Babies are Worth The Wait" campaign, and some free CEU's for some of the nurses....and of course they got lots of cookies, hot chocolate, teas and other goodies ;)

So that's the logistics of what I did, but I didn't think it would be as hard as it was. We got to go into the NICU, which was so nice of them to let us take a peak in to the unit. This was the first time I'd been in a NICU since we brought the twins home, which feels like forever ago! It was a lot more emotional than I thought it'd be. They have a Level III NICU, so they care for the tiniest of babies. There were several babies there who couldn't have been much bigger than 2lbs. The nurses immediately handed me a box of tissues. I told them my story and about the twins and they were all so excited to hear how well they are doing.

A lot of them talked to me about breastfeeding which I was surprised about. I told them I was still nursing and pumping, I'd gone the first 3 months or so exclusively pumping until Amelia got the hang of nursing. They were really impressed and encouraging which was nice to hear. I say all the time I'm going to quit, then I get little boosts of motivation (other than seeing the price of formula when we have to buy it) that keep me going.

It was a bit surreal seeing all of the equipment and tubes and wires and machines that looked oh so familiar. It was definitely a trip down memory lane. It was nice to go there, see the nurses and tell them thank you for all of their work, but I definitely don't miss going to the NICU every day. 

I'm hoping I get to do a lot of similar things with the March of Dimes in the future. It was a really great time and I'm glad I could give back, even just a little bit, to the people who save preemies lives every day. Our next March of Dimes event is next weekend, it's the big kickoff for the March for Babies! If you live in the area and want to attend the kick-off, please let me know! :)

Once upon a time

Once upon a time i wore clothes that fit, showered daily, wore my hair in a style other than ponytail, did crazy things like got starbucks, go to the gym, and worked a full time job.

Remember life before children? What on earth did I do with all of that free time? Let me show you my life with children...

I need a nap.

Dear 8 Month Old Twins...

8 Months? Seriously? Stop growing. Now. Thanks :)

At 8 months, my babies have rolls! Ok...just Amelia does, but she has rolls to share with her brother. She's sweet like that. That's a lie, she's a tornado. That's the only way I can describe her. A growling, howling, weeble wobbley ball of madness.But we love her!!

So here's some 8 month old info for you:
Weight: Jack-14lbs
      Mia-13lbs 7oz

Height-Jack 26 1/2"...I think they measured him wrong since he hasn't grown much, I helped measure him this time so that's legit
Mia-25 3/4"

Foods: Jack has been cut back to rice cereal due to his allergies. Since then we've only reintroduced sweet potatoes, pears, apples, peas, and plums. So far, no allergy issues.

Mia has eaten the world. And then some. She must have an amazing metabolism. Here's her list...
Sweet Potato, butternut squash, avocado, banana, apple, plum, pear, mango, grape, peas...there has to be more. We've given her 95% homemade food but she has had 2 of the squeezy pouches of organic foods. She sucks those bad boys up like they're going out of style. She's also tried baby mum-mum rice cake things. Our occupational therapist brought them to see if they could handle feeding themselves and chewing. Mia practically ripped it out of her hands, threw it in her mouth and started chomping at it. Therapy session over. She passed. Jack was a little more hesitant but did well with it too. I don't think he's quite ready for the next stage of foods but we've started mixing foods for him (the few that he's had with no reactions). We're going to start giving Mia puffs to start getting her to chew and feed herself. Clearly, she doesn't have any issue with feeding herself. We've also been giving them transition cups to see how they'd handle sippy cups. So far they love holding them and know where the milk comes from, but they can't grasp the idea of tipping the cup up for the milk to come out. We still need to work on that ;)

Other than their adventures in solids, they've been on mostly breast milk. A bottle or so of formula a day when I've been sucked dry by Amelia and the pump.

My biggest issue since eating solids so much is that Amelia doesn't want to nurse. She's too busy and seems to just want to chug her bottle then go about playing and eating her fruits and veggies, which she loves. Any tips from nursing moms out there? Is she really done nursing already?? I pump almost enough for the 2 of them a day, but I don't want my supply to dwindle because I'm not nursing a baby.

Other than that, they've been rolling a bit, mostly front to back but I have seen Amelia roll back to front. It scared her to death. Now she rolls over to her side, just on the edge of flipping over, reaches for the toy or whatever is out of her reach on her back, then flop back to her back. She could easily just tip over to her belly if she wanted to but I don't think she's a fan of that idea. Oh silly girl. Jack does the side laying stretch out move too but he's not as coordinated as her and usually falls back to his back.

Mia can sit up on her own for a few seconds. Usually to play with a toy. As soon as the toy is spent up, she will just fall over, or tip herself forward so she's almost on all fours. I think she's about a second away from crawling, sitting up, and going all over the place. She needs a little more balance and arm strength and she'll be there. Maybe for her 9 month old update ;)

We had GI appointment this month and everything is fine. Since eating more solids their reflux has improved dramatically so I'm happy about that. And so are all of my stinky clothes. We have a pulmonologist appointment for Jack this month as well as a dermatologist appointment. So there is lots to keep us busy :) Next month is also their big 6 month adjusted eval with early intervention so I'm anxious to see how they're "catching up"!

Official 8 month picture time ;)

Big babies!

Grandma has been here for the past week hanging out! Say hi bestamore!

Crafty Fun

So I'm lucky enough to have many crafty friends.
Like super crafty.

Like, make me feel bad that I can't even look at thread without making it weave into a knot kind of crafty.

I'm not going to even mention the homemade knitted sock monkey costume and it's insane adorableness on a baby. Where do people get their talent and why was I left out of that?

And they're crafty enough to make adorable preemie beanies!

Dear Alyssa, I stole your picture. Thanks ;)

For preemies!! Can you believe it? How stinking cute are these? I'm completely green with envy! I'm going to go stare at my ball of knots of yarn now and cry. Thanks ;)

I mentioned when I first said I was doing the March For Babies that I wanted to get some preemie hats together to donate to the NICU where my little bambinos were taken care of. I've had a few people volunteer, including the oh-so-insanely-talented Alyssa, and I'm SOOO excited for June!

If you have mad skills, let me know if you want to make a hat or 2 for some adorable itty bitty preemies! I'm going to be taking them to the NICU in Pennsylvania when we visit in June so you have lots of time to perfect your craft. Ask me how many hats I've "attempted"...go ahead. Now ask me how many are suitable to be viewed by anyone other than me. On second thought...don't ask me that. I feel like once I figure out how to get past the few little hiccups I've had though I'll be able to whip a few hats out no problem. But this wouldn't be possible without the crafty people in my life, so thank you friends, you're life savers!

Keep the donations coming! And if you're not crafty, have a few bucks in your pocket, and would want a chance to win an adorable hat for your little ones, I'm doing another fundraiser! Soon! Seriously, stay posted! I promise more details soon :)

A week

This week has been...well a disaster. For oh so many reasons.

I think I've given up breastfeeding about 10 times. As i sit here with my daughter latched on.

I think I've cried about 50 times.

I think I slept about 5 hours.

I think the twins have been angels, considering I woke them up at 4am yesterday to get ready to be at the doctor by 7am since Tom couldn't help out. Who makes a mom of twin infants have the first doctors appointment of the day? For shots? And drive in rush hour traffic 20 miles from our house? Ughhh. Rant done...proceed.

I got a preview of what the next few many weeks of my life will be like with my husband's works schedule. I don't like it. I'm not a fan. I might die. Send cookies.

Let's look on the positive side though...

My kids got their 4th synagis shot. 1 more to go! woohoo! They weighed in for the month and I'm happy with their weight gain, but not as happy as I wanted to be. More on that when I do their monthly check-up next week.

My husband today has been a savior. I took a nap. It was glorious. I want a nap every day. haha I know, I'm funny.

I've been doing a FIT mom's bootcamp for the past month and it's been AWESOME! It's not only a great workout, and muscles ache that I didn't know I had, but it's a great time to vent to other mom's. The best part? The daughter of the woman who teaches the classes is home schooled. She gets her "gym" credits by running after kids and lifting infants while I get an entire hour to work out, with my kids in sight, but not have to worry about their every cry. GLORIOUS.

My mom's coming to visit for 3 weeks! woohoo!

I'm doing my first official March of Dimes Family Teams Committee function and attending a Day of Gratitude at a local LA hospital this week :) I'll share more after our trip later this week!

Speaking of March of Dimes, I'm still fundraising! Keep the donations coming! I watched Teen Mom this week (yea, you heard me right) and one of the Teen Mom's raised over $700 for March of Dimes and her preemie. Good for her! Don't let her beat me haha We're going to do another fundraiser at the end of the month with Hookaholic Yarn Design Studio! Keep checking back for more details near the end of February!

Token twin picture is a flashback to September.

They look like such little itty bitty babies! What happened to my sweet sleeping little babies? They would never sit so peacefully like that anymore.

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend! :)

Yes, I cook. If it's on pinterest.

Did you know I used to write a cooking blog? I actually like to cook a lot. Almost as much as I like to drink coffee. Yea, I went there.

So the big question...do I still cook with 2 attention hogging infants?

And the short answer, yes! I do! But here's where things change...if the hubby is TDY, I don't really cook. I eat snacks, eat at friend's houses, or eat frozen meals. And I don't cook big fancy dinners 6 nights a week like I did pre-babies. I make 2-3 big dinners, 3-4 quick dinners, and we still try to have 1 dinner a week of take-out or go out to be part of the outside world or to just get a meal a week with no dishes and cleaning...I look forward to this meal ALL WEEK.

And here's the biggest change, I'm very rarely coming up with my own recipes anymore. I will edit pretty much every recipe to fit what works for us, but I won't just come up with things and experiment in the kitchen like I used to, which is really why the cooking blog ended. I didn't have much to share because I was just stealing other people's recipes.

So I thought I'd give you some idea of what we have been eating and where I find my recipes these days for mom's on the run.

A quick dinner is usually really simple. The less dishes needed, the better. Quick dinners are usually something grilled (burgers, veggies, chicken), pasta and veggies is a favorite. Or something really quick like tomato sandwich (all you need is a cutting board, score), salsa and chips (it happens, don't look at me like that), or cereal/yogurt/fruit/granola breakfast special for dinner.

My big dinners are usually something that requires a lot of planning ahead, a lot of dishes (yuck) and all day to make, in between feeding, pumping, playing, cuddling, and during screamfests. They take a lot of work, so if I can make more than 2 a week, I consider that a win. If I make 3, well, just call me mom of the year. This week we had orzo with chicken and lemon and a garden vegetable tortellini bake. Yum!

So the big question...where do I get my recipes? I don't google them anymore. I don't go to recipes.com. Oh no, I go to pinterest.

If Pinterest isn't your newest obsession, then I'm not sure we can be friends.

Luckily, I have great friends who make and find cute recipes. They pin them, I steal their pins, and end up with great dinners like this...

Source: bhg.com via Emily on Pinterest

 without chicken...delic.

and this....

Source: cookinghealthyforme.com via Emily on Pinterest

and one of my all-time favorite dinners...I'd even throw this in the "quick dinner" pile...

Source: ohsheglows.com via Emily on Pinterest

So to answer your question, yes, I cook. But only if it's on pinterest. Thank you pinterest for helping me browse recipes by pictures alone. and thanks friends for pinning great recipe ideas! You can follow my boards and if you have a food or recipe board, let me know so I can follow and steal your ideas ;)