The Lydiksen Life

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

5 Months and Crafting

Well, the boys are 5 months old now! It is crazy how quickly time goes by. With them sleeping 12 hours at night, taking long naps during the day, and only eating 4 times a day, it almost feels like I am back to normal life! The days of waking up several times in the night and spending all day pumping, freezing, thawing, feeding, burping, changing, soothing, and cleaning (not to mention dealing with oxygen tanks and an apnea monitor) those tiny humans almost seem like a dream now. It is nice to have things less crazy, but sometimes I get sad about how fast they grow. I keep telling them to STOP but they don't seem to listen :) It's a little ridiculous though, that even though they're growing an ounce a day, they are still not even on the charts for weight!

They have started smiling and laughing and it is so much fun! It is so entertaining to find what things they find amusing. I have started to swing them around and throw them in the air and they both love it! But, one time Ethan saw Michael throwing Jaxon around and he got SOO upset! It took me several minutes to calm him down. It scared him to think Michael was hurting Jaxon. I guess Ethan's going to be a protective big brother :)

Here are some pictures!

Ethan catching some pre-nap zzzz's, protesting the swaddle

Jaxon found his thumb and I LOVE not having to contantly give him his pacifier!

Ethan

Jaxon, Ethan

Ethan, Jaxon

Jaxon, Ethan

Ethan, Jaxon

A few weeks ago my sister Brittany (aka the Crafting Queen) came to visit me and the boys. I asked her to help me hang a headboard, and before you know it, we were adding crystal tufts and painting the wall! In one long weekend, she made me a clock, installed a towel rod thingy for me to hang my necklaces on and helped me finish decorating the guest room! Oh yeah, and played with the kids I guess :) Here are some pictures of our handiwork!

It is way nice to not have to spend 10 minutes untangling them every time I want to wear one!

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

I'm not sure what I will do with myself when I run out of space to decorate! I may have to take up scrapbooking or something :)

Friday, August 9, 2013

Catching up

Okay, it's been a really long time since I blogged last because life has been CRAZY, so I'm going to dump a whole bunch of stuff on one post. I'll start with a collection of preggo pics (including some that never got posted.)

13 14 15 17

27 28 30 31

32 weeks

I was in labor when this last picture was taken. I just didn't know it yet. I went to the hospital just a couple hours later. I thought I was having braxton hicks contractions but they wouldn't go away. I went in thinking that they were going to laugh at me and send me home, because I wasn't in any pain, but when they checked me I was at a 3 and 90% effaced. They tried to stop my labor and called the life flight team to come get me and take me to Salt Lake. But when they got there, I was progressing too fast and they said they couldn't take me because Jaxon was breech and they were afraid I would deliver on the plane. So they called out a team for my babies instead. However, Michael was already almost to Salt Lake (3 hrs away). He had to turn around and come back, and he almost missed the birth.

Ethan and Jaxon were born at 12:49 and 12:51 am on Monday May 20th via C-section. After they were born, Michael flew on a plane with them to the U of U Hospital in SLC. I was left in my recovery room all alone to worry about my babies. Those may have been the saddest few hours of my life. Luckily, my wonderful sister, Karly drove down from Idaho THAT NIGHT (on her birthday) to come stay with me so I wouldn't have to be all alone. On Tuesday, I was discharged and left for Utah to go be with my babies.

The next few weeks were quite a roller coaster. You get so excited at every milestone, but sometimes they seem to go backwards and it is very frustrating. Here are a few pictures of their NICU stay. I don't know why I am posting some of them. They still make me cringe. They were so tiny.

Ethan

Jaxon

Ethan's first bath

Jaxon's first bath

Jaxon

Jaxon left, Ethan right

Ethan

Ethan's car seat test the day before coming home

Luckily, they progressed quickly and we got to take them home after just 4 weeks. That's 4 weeks before their due date!

Coming home day

They LOVE to snuggle in their boppy :)

Ethan left, Jaxon right

Jaxon left, Ethan right

And Jaxon already knows how to reach DEEP into daddy's pockets.

Speaking of money, the hospital/life flight/NICU bills we have received so far total up to more than the value of our house! Thank goodness for insurance!! And, they decided to be allergic to milk, so they have to have this extensively hydrolyzed hypoallergenic formula that has the milk protein predigested. Seriously, I think a crack addiction would be cheaper haha. Good thing daddy brings home the bacon :)

Overall, the boys are doing AWESOME and growing like weeds! They weighed 3,12 and 3,11 when they were born and they were 5,4 and 5,2 when they came home. I took them to the dr this week and they weighed 8,7 and 8,12!! That is still the "0th percentile" for a 2.5 month old but they are catching up!!

Here are a couple Photoshop projects that me, my mom, and my sister Mandy worked on :)

And, here are the pics of the nursery. I finally finished it!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, I feel like I've been working on it for a year. Oh wait, I have :)

AND they slept through the night (sort of) for the last two nights. My little guys are champs! I just love being a mom. They are so sweet. Even though life is hectic sometimes, I wouldn't trade it for anything. They love to cuddle with me and it is just my favorite thing in the world. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to raise these sweet boys. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for trusting us with His precious children.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

28 Weeks!!

I can't believe that I have already made it to 28 weeks! This pregnancy has gone by so fast (at least the second trimester). At my appointment this past week, both boys were doing great. The doctor measured Baby A to be 1 lb 15 oz and Baby B to be 2 lb 12 oz. He said that he thinks he got a skewed measurement on B's head, though. He thinks both babies are right around 2 lbs, but B might be a little bigger. I can already tell that these boys are going to be little hooligans. Baby A likes to scare me by making me think he's asleep and then BAM! out of nowhere he kicks me so hard that I just about jump out of my skin! Baby B is much more calm, but he has made his little toes a permanent nest in my ribs :) These kids must be growing fast because I sure am! Here are some pictures :)

26 weeks

27 weeks

28 weeks

I think my 27 week picture looks even bigger than my 28 week picture. Sometimes my boys just like to play womb hockey and it changes my shape!

Ghost Town

Rock Springs is such an exciting place to live that we decided we would have more fun in a ghost town. So we packed a picnic and headed out to Winton yesterday. With our sense of direction, getting there was more than half the adventure :) We did eventually make it, and it turned out to be pretty fun!

Here are some pics of the biggest structure that you see when you first drive in.

"Hell bound" haha

I needed to use the bathroom, so I went behind the building and saw this beauty staring straight at me. Mr. Grim Reaper scared the pee right out of me!

And yes, it started hailing on us. Hard. Maybe the sign should have said "Hail Bound." Luckily the hail disappeared as quickly as it came. Here are some pictures of other things we found.