pregnancy

Babies Update!

Baby Update being a father Parenting multiples Pregnancy Stories Pregnant with Twins

The date is rapidly approaching, that day when we become a family of 7 plus our dog is less than 3 weeks away.. yikes!

Whether we are ready or not, what we have left to do, what we have done so far and whether we are freaking out or not is content for another blog… it is coming.. just not even mentally prepared to put it on paper!

This post is to share the amazing news that our baby boys have cleared the date when their arrival might have been considered risky… Cleared the date where we would have had to go to a different hospital that had special caring facilities for premature babies. We are in the clear. If they were to decide to come into this world tomorrow, we will be able to go to “our” hospital and the delivery would be performed by Becca’s doctors. The ones she’s been seeing since we were pregnant with Nati (that’s right, I said “we”). Moving forward, our babies will he delivered where we received all 3 of our other kids as it is likely that their lungs are developed enough. Again, it’s “our” hospital, our comfort zone – and this is very important at the time of delivery. Trust me, this is my 4^th rodeo.

In addition to the great news above, the babies are doing great! They are growing at a very nice pace and weighing approximately 5.5 and 5.7 lbs respectively. The momma could not be doing any better (considering the circumstances). Yes, of course she is tired, in pain at times, uncomfortable, itchy, etc. but none of these are anomalies for a pregnant woman at 36 weeks of pregnancy. She is rocking this pregnancy yet again – she is good at this!

For the past couple of weeks both of the babies were facing head down in perfect position for delivery. However, on Tuesday we found out that one of them decided to rebel against the system and decided to show the other baby who the alpha kid will be. He decided not only to shift, but also to pin the other baby down so no further movement is possible, or at least the chances are minimal.

What does this mean? More than likely Becca will have to deliver via C-Section- this is new territory for us. But hey, everything about this adventure seems new. Because of the position of our little rebel, the doctors will not perform natural delivery at the risk of encountering complications and having to do an emergency C-Section- they require both babies to be head down.

The bottom line: It sucks for Becca as the recovery is longer. It sucks for me because I will be exposed to things I’ve never seen before and I am not 100% sure how the heck I am going to handle it…. I hope well enough to be Becca’s rock by her side, but I seriously have no idea what to expect … let’s just hope I don’t pass out or are scarred for life.

The good news in this is that unless the babies decide to make an appearance earlier than expected, we will book the delivery date. Doing this allows us to plan ahead, plan who’s going to be watching the kids, who’s taking them to school, who will house-sit, who can we count on for running errands, cooking meals, etc for the kids. Trust me, it is not an easy task. Taking care of 3 kids at once (ages 6, 3, and 1) when you are not used to it can be a daunting task.. only a few people (family :)) are ballsy enough to volunteer for the task.

By scheduling, we can pack our bags, set up our alarm, prepare ourselves and the kids mentally and physically, etc. I like it like this. All of our kids have been scheduled – as mentioned above, Becca rocks pregnancies and kids seem to get comfy in her belly and choose to stay there as long as allowed.. 🙂

Crazy long story short, we are in the final stretch. Babies are, thank God, healthy and so is Becca, I couldn’t ask for anything more. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we embark on this insane adventure in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for “listening”. Can’t wait to welcome you to our world little ones.

What they are not telling you: Pregnancy is hard on men too!

being a father Lessons learned Life Reflections Parenting multiples Pregnant with Twins

Yes, I admit it, it is much tougher on women as they have to endure the body changes, fatigue, lack of sleep, deliver the baby (or in our case babies!), etc, etc, etc. However, it takes a village! It is a long ass process… 9 months (or 10 months as my wife will correct me) of constant support, stepping up our game to cover some of the tasks previously performed mostly by our wives, helping to parent the other 3 kids AND tending to the needs and mood swings of our lovely pregnant wife 🙂 Love you babe.

I am going to go ahead and say it: It is f**ing hard and gets tiring too! Yes, my body is not going through insane changes like my wife’s, but my mind and time management is out of whack! Because a pregnant women’s energy is being consumed by the baby, they often (and deservingly) need more “down time”. This is where our role becomes more important and more tasks are added to our list. It seriously feels like I don’t have time for anything else other than coming home to cook, have dinner with my family, spend an hour or so together, clean up the house (toys everywhere), get kids ready for bed, read, practice phonics, and then back downstairs to finish up cleaning or go to bed. Rinse and repeat the next day. And No Free passes – it’s all got to get done. Thankfully, at home we have a very good team (see previous post here) and Becca, as pregnant as she is, carries a good amount of weight (pun intended) on our daily home chores.

I am thankful that Becca is an amazing pregnant woman; she is a trooper– she is active and rarely complains. Also, during all 4 pregnancies she has not had any middle of the night cravings where I need to leave the house to find a Hot Fudge Brownie with Ice Cream or some crazy stuff like that…. Her cravings are much more manageable, very few and they usually happen at lunch or dinner times (pizza, chipotle, five guys, etc.). Her Coca Cola craving is the only one that is a bit out of hand 😉 especially since it HAS to be fountain soda so there’s no way for me to be proactive and have a 2 liter handy in the house…

Needless to say, at the end of the day it is all worth it. The return on investment is astronomical, but I am not kidding… it is hard on everyone– I am sure other fathers can relate. AND consider this a warning for those men that don’t have kids yet — Yes, she is the one carrying the baby, but the weight you need to carry around the house will also get heavier.

And this is only the pre-game show…. The real deal will begin once the babies are born. Bring it! 🙂

“You may want to sit down” – The day we found out we were having a total of 5 kids!

Parenting multiples Pregnant with Twins

Those are the words Becca chose when I was staring at the Ultrasound after she had gotten back from the Dr. that afternoon. Let’s backtrack a little though…

2 weeks prior to me staring at the ultrasound, Becca mentioned she was not feeling well… Being that she had been pregnant 3 times before, I suspected she could’ve been pregnant so I bluntly asked/commented “you are not pregnant, are you!?”… to which she responded nervously… “I don’t know…”

At that point, we had not yet shut down the idea of having 4 kids, but in reality we were leaning towards “closing the shop” – the kids had been more demanding of our time, and although a lot less dependent on us, they required more direction, re-direction and parenting. They had also started extracurricular activities that demanded more time with them (gymnastics, ballet, soccer, etc).

I said, “we need to find out ASAP”– if we were having a 4^th kid, we needed to know so we could plan accordingly. The list included finances, work, home arrangements, cars, baby needs, daycare, school, drop off, pick ups, night-time schedules and the list goes on and on… So, I went to Publix that same afternoon, handed over the test to Becca and waited for the results… She wasn’t ready to find out, but I could not wait any longer… so I went to the bathroom, looked for the stick, and looked at the results… My first thoughts were “f***, we are pregnant” followed with a smile and a feeling of joy with a “f***, we are really pregnant!”. I shared the news with Becca and together we experienced mixed emotions as we waited for the news to settle… After thinking, “well, we have 3 what’s a 4^th one” and realizing we had all, if not most of the baby equipment needed, we felt blessed and began to embrace the idea. Becca confirmed the news that week and scheduled her follow up appointment for the following day.

This brings us to THE day…. Becca’s appointment was in the late afternoon. After she picked up the kiddos, we decided to meet at the Dr’s office parking lot. This was our 4^th rodeo so we did not feel the need for me to go with her to the appointment and instead I took the kids home to make them dinner while Becca went through what we thought was a “routine check up and first ultrasound”.

After leaving the Dr’s office, Becca called me but I could not answer. She followed the missed call with a text “All is good. No need to call me back”. I continued prepping dinner so it could be ready upon her arrival… And this is where we were….

As I am staring at the ultrasound, this one seemed a little bit odd to me compared to the other 3 kids’ ultrasound images. My initial thought was a concern that there was something wrong with the baby… To me, there was more “stuff” in that picture than I had previously seen… Becca noticed my confused face and when I said “there’s more stuff than usual.. I can’t really “read it”” she said…. “You may want to sit down”… As my a** fell backwards into our kitchen stool, I said “f***, are you pregnant with twins?!?!” Becca’s eyes got a little watery and as she nodded… I was in disbelief… we both were in awe not knowing how the heck we ended up being pregnant with twins!! We don’t have any history of twins on either side of the family and we were not even ready for a 4^th kid, much less a 5^th!!! We held each other, nervously laughed, Becca cried a little, and as in many situations, we were able to find comfort in each other and embraced the idea and the new babies coming into our lives.

It took us a couple of weeks to let the news sink in. Every time we talked about it we could not believe our situation and discussed all the things we needed to do to prepare for their arrival. Getting used to the idea and being able to turn the corner to embrace the new challenge and adventures took time. I think it took me longer than Becca. I am (or try to be) a planner, I like to try to make sure our family is ok at all times, therefore until I got to the point where issues like finances, schooling and house arrangements were taken care of or at least planned for, I had not allowed myself the opportunity to fully embrace the arrival of our 2 little boys. I wish I had done it earlier because at this point, the more I think about raising 5 kids and the enormous amounts of memories we are going to build, I get really excited about the future and know that God has a plan for everyone. And I really like what he planned for us. 🙂

The love and positive vibes from family and close friends as well as reading blogs from parents of twins and multiple kids made it easier for us (me) to get more and more excited about the idea. Surrounding ourselves with such great support has been a key element to helping ease the transition into our new adventure and we are very thankful for everyone in our lives. Thank you.

So, Becca was right. I needed to sit down. What she forgot to mention was to buckle up because we are about to embark on the best ride of our lives! 🙂

B rocking her pregnancy - 26 weeks in :)

Becca has been a trooper throughout her pregnancy. She makes it look easy… Maybe that’s why we keep having kids? JK.