Maybe 2 girls....

So I was looking online at Target, and found a cribs that I want, and baby bedding for girls that I want!!! Maybe this is a sign that I am having two girls! LOL. Well see in a 5-6 weeks! Anyways. Here's the cribs I want. I decided to go with the twins having the same exact cribs, but different bedding. These cribs are nice, and affordable, since I am shopping for 2! I also want the changing table, but I only need one of those. The crib converts into a toddler bed too, so when they first transition, I don't have to buy another bed. I like the color wood too. I had black (stain, not painted) crib, dresser, and changing table set for Makenna and I liked it a lot, but I want something different, and I have light colored wood tones unless it's white. I am not doing white because Makenna's furniture is white, and I want her to have something separate from the twins. I don't want her to feel like they are taking over and have to have the same things as her.  

I also found adorable bedding sets that will go great in the room. I do not want them to have the same ones, but I want them to be similar, at least in color, so I think these two work great! One will have owls and the other poke-a-dots. Then I can do their room in the owls and dots. This way each baby will have their own individuality, but their room won't clash. Plus, I just love the bright colors!!! 

 

 I already found what I want for a boy a while ago, and I'll do a post about that later. Getting pretty tired.

House Work

House work is something that I sometimes dread, but sometimes, it helps me get through the day. Cleaning, to me, sometimes, is an anxiety reliever. Sine feeling crappy from the pregnancy, but housework has become less. The house is still clean, but I find myself not picking up Makenna's toys 500 times a day, or not washing laundry every day. I have no energy!! I hate this! But, with some energy coming back, I am getting back to my normal anal self. LOL!!

The one thing I hate is laundry. I never use to until I moved into this house. We have a German washer and dryer, which takes 1 hour and 46 minutes to wash in cold, and 2 hours and 12 minutes to wash in warm or hot and the dryer takes nearly 2 hours! Needless to say, getting behind is a BITCH!! LOL!

Dishes aren't bad. We have a dishwasher, but I hate using it all the time. It does a horrible job sometimes. If it gets used a lot it starts doing a crappy job, so using once in a while is best. When Brandon was deployed, we hardly ever used it. We have a sink, well, half of one sink, and doing dishes in it is a challenge in itself, but we have adapted. I don't know what I'll do when I have a good dishwasher or two sinks.

Mopping and sweeping is a pain, mainly a pain in my back. We have hard wood floors throughout and tile in the bathrooms and kitchen. I usually take the vacuum on the wood floors but use a broom on the tile. I mop with a normal mop. I think it's important to have clean floors because my daughter is always on them, so that is something that gets done all the time. The bending is something that hurts my back, but if I don't do it, it won't get done. LOL

Dusting gets done weekly and window washing gets done bi-weekly. The windows get pretty dirty, well on the outside because of the horse farm around the corner, and whatever windows Makenna can reach, get finger printed daily.

There's the constant battle with toys, but that'll never change. I just try to pick them up at the end of the day. I use to like every 5 seconds, but that kills my already very sore back, and there really was no point, if she was just going to drag them back out as soon as I was done.

I like a clean house, not a perfect house. I have a husband and a daughter that make mess, and don't clean up after themselves all the time, and that's okay. I do my best. and some days I am so tired that doing anything is a battle, but I have to get over it, even if I don't want to. Having my husband on vacation means he helps me a lot more, and that is making the first trimester a bit easier. My kids deserve a clean house, organized house, and a orderly house, and that's what they'll have, even though it will never be perfect!

Beach Day

^Rischka^

Today we decided to go to the beach for a couple of hours. The beach wears out Makenna, so we didn't want to stay all day, she'd get cranky. Anyways, we went to the Gunzenhousin Beach, about 25 minutes away. When we got there, we rented this thing called a Rischka. It's a pretty cool bike thing. We rode around the beach in it for a while, but Makenna wanted to steer and not sit in the seat, so we didn't get all the use out of it that we wanted. We still had fun. The weather kept nicely too. Then we parked the Rischka and had a picnic lunch. We bought a picnic blanket the other day, and I packed sandwich stuff for lunch. We enjoyed sitting on the grass(well on the blanket on the grass), looking out at the lake, and eating a nice healthy lunch. It was just nice to do something different. We enjoyed it, and will defiantly do it again! All in all, a fun day. Makenna was pretty good, and enjoyed playing in the water the most.

Baby needs, Baby themes, and Baby names!

I'm heading into the 11th of my pregnancy. It's still early, but I don't believe that shopping in the first trimester is bad luck. Expecting twins means having to buy double of everything! Since we are not rich, we have to save to buy things all at once, or buy things little by little. I hate saving to buy all at once, because I enjoy getting something new for the babies. So we have a plan to save to buy the baby furniture (2 cribs and 2 dressers) to get all at once, but we are buying everything else little by little. We do not know the gender yet, and should hopefully find out in mid-July, so I'm not shopping for clothes yet. I have a ton of girl clothes because I have saved all of Makenna's, but I am not sure what we'll actually use because the weather in Germany, where Makenna grew up is a lot different than the weather in Florida, where the babies will be growing up.

Here's What I Have From Makenna:
1 High chair
1 bumbo chair
1 activity mat
1 car seat (pink and brown)
1 Jumperoo
TONS of girl clothes sizes newborn to 24 months/2T (Makenna wears 24 months/2T now.)
Girly Baby Blankets
1 Car Seat toy
Bath Towels and Wash Clothes
1 Baby Harness
Tons of baby toys

What I Have Bought So Far:
1 Swing
1 more Car Seat (unisex)
1 Sock monkey blanket
1 camo outfit

What I Need To Buy:
1 High Chair
1 Bumbo Chair
1 Activity Mat
1 Jumperoo/Saucy Seat
2 Cribs
2 Dressers
Baby Hangers (tons!)
Bottles and Brush
Breast Pump
2 Bobby Pillows
Cloth Diapers
2 Bath Tubs
2 Bouncer chairs
Double Stroller
Diaper Bag
Burp Clothes (if expecting a boy)
Blankets (if expecting a boy)
2 Crib bedding set
1 Car Seat Toy
Accessories and Baby Hygiene and Care Items
Baby Clothes (if expecting a boy)

Some things I'll only need to buy if one of the babies' a boy. There are still small things to buy like wipes, soaps, etc. but that's the list of what I'll need the most. I have tons of baby toys, for a boy or girl too, so that doesn't matter either.


We finally settled on how we would like the nursery to look too. If we are expecting 2 boys, or one of each, we are going to do a frog theme. I found very cute nursery crib sets that are frogs. I found a boy one, and a girl one. If both the babies are girls, we are going to do an owl theme. Not the traditional brown owls, but the turquoise, teal, purple, pink, etc. owls. It's super cute. Picture to the right---------------------------->>>>>



We also settled on baby names!!! We settled on boy names a while back but now we finally agreed on girl names!

If we are expecting 2 boys:
Reese Jacob Hetherton
Wyatt John Hetherton

If we are expecting 2 girls:
Raelan Sawyer Hetherton
Quinn Taylor Hetherton

If we are expecting 1 of each:
Reese Wyatt Hetherton
Raelan Quinn Hetherton

I love the names! They are unique, but not crazy weird like "Apple". LOL! I am just so excited! I can't wait to see them in late November, early December! I'm going to try to cook them as long as possible! LOL!

Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body

One of my Drill Sergeants once told me (by once I mean, once a day) that "pain is weakness leaving the body". I have to agree with his statement. I am 21 years old, a mother, wife, sister, student, and well, many other things. I also have been diagnosed with something that is not life threatening, for now, but something that will remind me everyday, I am 21 going on 70. I was diagnosed with this fancy neurological disorder. To dumb it down (I don't think your dumb, I needed this version of it too) I have pain in my spine because the nerves in my spine are always freaking out because they want to ignore my brain, when my brain says everything is ok. Now, this could be easily managed, had well, I found out 15 years ago, but since I didn't, there's wonderful medicine you can take, that has a low addictive power (but still could be addictive). (I chose no though) Well, that would be all great and dandy, if I also did not have muscle deterioration in my lower back. The muscles that stretch from the lower back, left and right, deteriorated a bit, and so what is left is compensating for what is lost. I do also have scoliosis, but I did find that out when I was 14, it's just slowly getting worse. Nothing to worry about for at least the next 10 years. I also have lupus. It's a minor case of lupus, luckily. But they think that is how I got the muscle deterioration in my spine. Lupus is an auto-immune disorder where your own body's immune system attacks healthy cells, like the muscle tissue in my back. Though their is no test to prove that it is the cause of the muscle deterioration in the back, we are pretty much waiting for it to attack something else. Until then, medication is optional, so I chose no. (I hate medication) Physical therapy didn't help, and it wouldn't, but hey, I tried.

I have a lot of pain because of my health problems, and now I am pregnant with twins. I am learning to live with pain, and not let the pain live my life. One day I will live pain free, but until I can figure out away to make that happen without medication, life goes on. I refuse to be another pill poppy stereotype. I know there is something out there, whether it be another answer or diagnosis, and one day, I will find out, but until then, I'll deal with the pain, ignoring it as much as possible, and enjoy the fact, that one day it will probably be worse, a lot worse, but for now, I still am ME!

Munich Mother's Day

Saturday, my husband and I decided that we wanted to go to Munich while he is on leave, and what better day than Sunday! Yes, we decided to go to Munich, which is about a 2 hour drive away, with no real plan. We booked a hotel at the Holiday Inn Express, and were just going to go site seeing. To save you some long details, we drove their Sunday, checked into the hotel and my wonderful man found brochures in the lobby. We went site seeing down town Munich, Sunday. It was so beautiful. Then Monday we followed brochures, and went to the Olympic Stadium. The Olympics were held there in 1972. After realizing that we did not need to walk across the entire Olympic Stadium (after we already did) we got to the small aquarium. It was small, like I said, small, but fun. After that, we decided to go to the Munich Zoo, and well, it's bigger than I thought. Needless to say, I was so sick from all that work, my hips felt like they were going to break open, my calf muscles were so tight, that nothing, and I mean nothing, would loosen them up! It was so painful. We got to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe Munich Sunday night, and Salcelito's (sp) on Monday. The bed was so painfully uncomfortable, I couldn't wait to go home. I enjoyed the vacation so much, I just wish I hadn't been in so much pain!!!

I got to see people dress up as invisible men, shrubs, and statues for money. It was really cool, but so freaky all at the same time! This post sounds depressing, because of all the pain I had, but it was honestly one of the best vacations I have been one!

Makenna's Clothes

I get so many compliments about how I dress Makenna. People tell me all the time, "she always dresses so cute, you must spend a lot of money on her clothes!" And my reply to that is, "no, I don't spend a lot" and then I go into details about how I feel that how a child dresses is important. I don't think that the clothes matter, or name brands, but I think that it's important for a child to look nice. Nice doesn't mean wearing your Sunday best, but wearing something that is cute, but comfortable, trendy, but age appropriate.

Now, I don't get the luxury of be able to by second hand, and I don't get any hand-me-down's either, so I have to buy Makenna's clothes brand new.

Challenges:
Cute and trendy
Fun and colorful
Unique but not weird
WALLET FRIEDLY!


Now everyone just thinks that Walmart is well, Walmart, so they must be the cheapest, and sorry to knock on a store that is great, but their not! They have cute stuff, sure, but they have stuff that every kid on the block is going to be wearing.

To fulfill my cute, trendy, fun and colorful challenge I shop around. Makenna owns a few things from Walmart, so do not think I boycotted them. I love Kohls, Children's Place, and Old Navy the most. I mix and match outfits from various places so that I can great that "Unique" aspect of my challenges. Now, they say that those are name brands, and maybe they are to some, and maybe not to others, but either way, they can be cheap! SHOP AHEAD AND SHOP THERE FREQUENTLY!  I get super saving coupons emailed to me for shopping there often, and I shop ahead to get sales. I also shop at peak times. Makenna will need a new size of clothing this fall, so in March, when all the winter and fall items were on sale because of the new spring arrivals, I did some shopping. I am slowly obtaining clothes for the fall, for Makenna, whenever I see a sale item. I don't always shop for on sale items, but about 80% of the time, it's on sale.

Here's some example of Makenna's clothes!

Shirt from Children's place, Skirt from Old Navy, Shoes from the PX, and leggings from H&M

Skirt from amazon, tutu, tights, leg warmers from H&M, flower hair piece from walmart

boots from walmart, tights, skirt, and sweater from  the children's place, headband from the German dollar store.

Shirt from the px, necklace from who knows, and sun glasses from walmart.

outfit from kohls

one hand me down from her cousin, Paisley (first hand me down ever, wish she got more) Headband and bow from grandparents

PX outfit

Outfit from PX, shoes from Deichman (german shoe store)

tights from children's place, skirt and shirt from walmart, top hat bow from the German Claires

Outfit from kohls, shoes from Diechman, hair bows bought variously since she was born

too big for her now, but got these cuties from kohls.

outfit from kohls, hair bow from amazon

Makenna Sue

So it's been a while since I have written a post just about my little Diva!!! Let's see how she's been doing.

Makenna will be 19 months old in 2 days. She stands at a whopping 37 inches tall, and weighs a whole 26 pounds! (Yeah, I know she's a skinny giant!) She says many words, but of course on her time. Her favorite thing to say is "oh, yeah!" That's her response to many things. It's so cute. And she knows when to use it too, because every time she says it, it is pertaining to what we are talking about. We are still waiting for her to fully talk (without any baby jabbering) but their's no hurry for that. I'm enjoying my baby still being a baby. She walking, and has been for a long while now, and she likes to do summer salts (sp) and spin in circles to make herself dizzy. She loves being dizzy.

Her beautiful big blue eyes!

Her physical appearance is beautiful, if I do say so myself! She's real tall, and skinny, but she's got a butt for days! LOL! (She got it from her Daddy) She only wears a size 4.5 shoe, which someone her height should be closer to a 7. She has giant blue eyes and a dirty strawberry blonde hair color(my natural hair color). It is getting really long too, and thick as ever! It fits in a pony tail all the way with about a 4-5 inch tail. No bangs, because I hate bangs(unless their side bangs). Her hair falls to about 3-4 inches down her back, but the bottom flips out, giving her hair some sort of wave. She loves having her toe nails painted, and sometimes her finger nails. She likes it when I "fake straighten" her hair, so she can do what Mommy is doing. I have a little travel straightener, I let her play with when I am doing my hair, so she'll try to do hers. It's adorable! She has 8 teeth, 4 on bottom and 4 on top. She's cutting the rest of hers all at once now, and it's been so painful for her! I feel so bad for her!

She loves her jewelry and girly things like that, but she also loves her blocks and stuffed monkeys the most. She really isn't into her baby dolls. I try to get her into them, but unless they sing, she don't care about them. And when they do sing, she plays with them for a whopping 2 minutes, and is done. She loves her kitchen, second best, compared to her monkeys. She makes fake food, and comes out into the living room to feed everyone it. She even tried to spoon feed her cat a bottle of fake ketchup. He wasn't thrilled by it at all, but I wish my camera would of been handy to capture that moment! I'm sure she'll try again soon. She is getting into a "I want to do it myself" stage. I mean, she has always been very independent, it's just getting worse. She has to Velcro her shoes or try to tie her sneakers. She wants to do her own hair, and mine and Daddy's hair, and she wants to dress herself. I'm starting to let her choose what she wants to wear, sometimes.

Her beautiful locks! LOL!

She is off the sippy cup. Well, we use them when we are out and about and we aren't really stopping anywhere, but other than that, she doesn't get them. She does really well with a big girl cup, and we couldn't be prouder. She first had a sippy cup when she was 4 months old, and loved it! She's had one ever since. She was off the bottle at 11 months old, and that was really easy to take away. She was off formula at like 9 months because she handled the milk better than the formula. They stopped making her formula, so when I had to switch her, she couldn't handle it well, so I put her on milk, and she did great! She's been feeding herself for months now. She wouldn't let me feed her once she was off of baby food, so since she was like 10 months old, she's been feeding herself. (there's that independence again) She moved into a toddler bed in December, so she was 14 months old, and then when she was 16 months old, we bought her a twin size bed. She loves her bed. I am fortunate that I tell her it's nap time or bed time, and she'll crawl into bed herself, cuddle up, and go to sleep. She does it even when she doesn't want to. When she doesn't want to she'll fake cry her way to her bed, but still grab her glow worm, and cover up, and go to sleep. I have had a few times where she has not wanted to nap at all, but I eventually get her to sleep.

She doesn't hardly sleep with us. When Brandon was deployed she did, probably once a week. I didn't want her to get use to it. She loved her crib, and loves her bed and always has, so sleeping with us hasn't really been a problem. She, in general, just loves her bedroom! (more independence) When she's sick or can't sleep, she'll come sleep with us, but sleeping with her is like sleeping with a 5,000 pound elephant. She magically has Brandon and I pinned to the edges, and she's taking up an entire king size bed! I don't know how it is possible, but it happens every time. Needless to say, we don't like her sleeping with us! LOL!

Her see-saw

She started and ended dance class back in February, due to the lack of people that will get off their fat lazy asses, and get their kids involved with activities. I was pretty bummed about it, but we still do our own dance class in the living room. Makenna likes to get all dolled up in her leotards, tutu's and shiny shoes. She just stares at herself in the mirror, or insists I take a picture of her, and I have to let her see the picture too, just so she can flirt with herself. (I'd be like that too, if I was that beautiful! LOL!)

She's all over the place. She still loves her books and she always wants to be there to help you. She helps me with laundry all the time. I hand her clothes and she'll either put them in the washer or the dryer. It's adorable. I just hate it when she pushes the button to turn it off, half way through the hour and 45 minute cycle. (It's German, that's why it takes so long) It's a little frustrating, but I of course deal.



The weather is getting really nice out, and Makenna is enjoying her quad, sandbox, see-saw, and tricycle. Well, she loves her quad and see-saw, the bike and sandbox aren't really her thing yet. The sand in the sandbox is wet, so I think that is why she doesn't like it.

Unexpected expectings

When I was only 3.5 weeks pregnant, I had a positive at home pregnancy test. This seemed very weird for me because I couldn't get a positive pregnancy test until I was nearly 8 weeks along, with Makenna, my 18 month old. I have also been very sick. Now granted, I was very sick with Makenna too, but this time, I think it's much worse in some ways, and better in others. With Makenna I was sick at the sight of food, or anything that looked gross, and the smells. I would instantly throw up the entire contents of my stomach. This time, I am extremely nauseous, but the only thing I have thrown up thus far, is pure acid. I would rather throw up food, over acid any day! What is worse with this pregnancy for sure, is that I am so tired. I was tired with Makenna, but this is a 100X worse!!! I go to sleep at 1030 at night and get a good 9 hours of sleep, but when I wake up, I feel like I haven't slept at all. I am a zombie!! I know it's horrible to consume caffeine while pregnant, but sometimes, like this morning, I needed a cup of coffee, or I'd fall asleep standing! Well anyways, we had our first baby appointment yesterday and ultrasound, and I finally got answers to why my pregnancy symptoms are so strong, it's because I am expecting TWINS!! Yes, TWINS!!! I am a week further along than I thought I was, so on Wednesday, I will be 8 weeks pregnant, only 32 weeks to go!!! LOL!! Well, less than that. I will be having another c-section. With one baby I could of tried a normal vaginal delivery, and had about an 80% chance of still having to have a c-section, now with twins, they aren't even going to let me try. The Dr said that they'll want to take the babies out at around 36 weeks, but if I am feeling ok, and their is nothing wrong with the twins, then I am going to keep them in there as long as I can. It may be a little more painful on my end, but with twins they may already be small, and taking them out too early, will almost guarantee they will be small, too small, and if they are too small, that leads to complications. I am hoping for two very healthy 6-7 pound babies. I can suck it up, and deal.

The twins!

FEARS:
I have quite a few fears walking into this pregnancy. Like any pregnancy, the first trimester is crucial. That is when most miscarriages occur. Now, we had a miscarriage back in October, but I was not even 3 weeks pregnant and the only reason I knew it was one, was because I had a huge blood clot, and got it checked out. I know TMI! Most people don't get that stuff checked out, therefore, never realizing a miscarriage has occurred. So that is a fear, and another fear is the development of the babies. Sometimes one twin will "use everything up" and leave nothing for the other twin. A friend of mine was carrying twins, and one passed about halfway through her pregnancy because of that. But the other twin, was perfectly healthy, thankfully. I hope to not have many complications, because risks are higher when carrying multiples. I am going to keep my stress levels down, and swallow my pride, and ask for help, so that my two babies will be safe and sound.
I also have a superficial fears, like gaining a lot of weight. I don't want to get too fat this pregnancy. I want to gain a healthy amount of weight, which is abut 35-45 pounds with twins, but that's it. I gained 27 pounds with Makenna and the healthy weight gain for a single child is 25-35 pounds. I was able to lose the weight and then some after Makenna was born, so I plan on doing the same after the twins are born. We are moving to Florida and the apartment complex has a 24 hour fitness center, so I'll be taking advantage of that. I just don't want to gain like 100 pounds, like I have seen people do during a pregnancy. I am watching my diet, and I am not being lazy, so I should be okay. I just hope I don't get called to be on bed rest, which I can't do anyways with a nearly 19 month old! LOL!

So after finding all of these out, leaving soon, and school on top of my family, I stepped back as the softball coach to the 10-12 year olds. I think that it is too much for me, and I need to prioritize things. I have 2 great assistant coaches who will take over and the girls will continue to play and grow as a team. I feel bad, but like I said, my assistant coaches are really good at what they do, so I am not too worried.