It's Your Birthday

And yours
And yours
And mine, and if I could add, my sister's brother's and mom's. Well, not today, but all with in 2 weeks. The kids start talking birthday in April. Which got 5 of 8 all excited. Everyday she would ask "It's my birthday next?" And I would have to tell her, no, we will have babies first. She'd say, mine's after that? And I would say, no then its 2 of 8's. Then. mine next? And I would say, no then 1 of 8. Mine next? no, then 4 of 8. Mine next? No, then me. Mine next? No, then 6 of 8. Mine next? No, then daddy's. Mine next? YES!. Then 3 of 8. We have a few less now than when she started asking in April.
Yesterday was 2 of 8. Thursday is 1 of 8, and Friday is 4 of 8. We will have 4 of 8's party tonight, because my sister is getting married in the Oqquirah temple on Friday. And for their birthday I let them pick out their favorite meal and desert. Yesterday was breakfast burritos and chocolate cake, tonight chicken fingers, fries and pasta, tomorrow beef strognaff and pecan pie. On top of all that, I have to get the house ready for the babies blessings, and the luncheon after. Thursday is half shot, because we have 7 of 8's (hopefully laast) biliruben check. Friday is completely shot, because this wedding will take all day, and Saturday, I will have to squeeze in the last of the prep. Like all the salalds and meat I'm making for the, Best Bites french dip. I'm hoping I can get my house put together. It is going to have to be done last, because with 8 kids... Anything done, will be undone. I did the kids bedrooms yesterday, and uncluttered the upstairs today. I will wait to do floors until Saturday. Trent is in charge of outside. There were a few remodeling projects I wanted done before this, but I have to not think about it. It is what it is. Everyone has seen our 'project' before. So, maybe I'll survive and check in Tuesday. Oh, maybe not, I forgot I am going to let the kids have a birthday party this year, on Tuesday.

1 Month

My babies are one month today. And yes, like I always say, It feels like I was pregnant last week.
All 5 of my girls. I don't feel like I have a lot of girls, until I say 5 girls.
The whole Famn Damily
And, 2 of my boys. Yes he's still a bit yellow. His jaundice level is still high. But it is finally starting to go down.
Baby boy, 7.7 lbs
Baby girl 7 even.

Squidward

Trent thinks 7 of 8 looks like handsome squidward.

Delerious

I have hit that wall. You know, when the excitement of having new babies home, wears off, and it just becomes hard. When a few hrs here and there worth of sleep just doesn't cut it. I knew it would come. it always does. 7 of 8, has his schedule down pat. Sleep from 9-12, eat, burp, then up every few minutes from 1-5. Throwing a good night in every 4-5 days, just so you still like him. That's my boy. 8 of 8, for some reason thinks she needs to be up with him. Fortunately, she doesn't feel like she needs to be vocal about it. She just lays quietly, or goes back to sleep. We are now on week 3 and a half of this. I have to remind myself they are still new, and this could take a few more weeks to straighten out. Which is hard, I feel like they have been here for ever. And I guess it would, if you are not breaking the days up with sleep. You would think time would drag, being so tired. But I will get up and look at the clock, feed, change burp them, and it's 2 hrs later. Time is going by so fast, I can't fit sleep in there.
And just to apologize to anyone I have tried to have a conversation with. I just can't any more. Delirium has set in. I can't think straight, I can no longer take an idea from room to room with me. You know, when you get up to do something, get to where you need to go, then forget why you went there.
I am tired.

I'm a Gittin'

I feel like we are finally getting back into some sort or routine. The babies are starting that 1 hr awake, 3 hrs sleeping schedule, instead of the sleep all the time thing that is so unpredictable. They have even coordinated, so they wake up at the same time. Mostly. Last night we even got 2, 3 hr stretches. Ahhh, so nice. My other kids have even quit rioting. We still have an occasional upheaval, but, these things take time. We have even ventured to the store. I can take all 5 little ones if I walk. I can not get every one loaded into the car by my self. And I have to say thank-you to everyone that expressed how hard this was going to be. With out that, this would possibly be difficult. I was so nervous about not being able to do this, and now that I am doing it, it's not too bad. I still wouldn't wish 2 at once on anyone. It is hard. Just not as hard as I thought. I'm sure we will have LOTS of bad, horrible, melt down days. Even with 1, I had those. But for now, we'll just go with the flow.

Thank goodness it's summer. We will not be doing swimming lessons this year. I cannot do that. But I hope to plan other fun things to do. I may even buy a zoo pass.

Lights Out

We are finally off the lights. Both babies were sent home on bilibeds, for high jaundice levels. I should have expected it. all of my babies have had jaundice. Some higher than others. Well, 2 of 8 is the only one that didn't need photo therapy. If you know anything about jaundice, you know, with no underlying factors, biliruben peaks at 3-5 days. We hit day 5, day 6 day 7 day 8, and still really high numbers. By day 7, 8 of 8 started coming down. But 7 of 8 was still really high. Come to find out, he has breast milk jaundice. His body was processing protein in my milk instead of the biliruben. So my options were, quit nursing him for 24-48 hrs, or let him have jaundice and monitor him for 3-10 weeks, until he got it worked out. I chose the breast milk fast. I hate it. I had my supply built up for 2, then went back to 1, now I have to get back to 2 again. I feel like I am constantly feeding a baby. And it takes 30 minutes per kid, and they have started waking up at the same time. Which would be perfect, except for the fact that I can't tandem nurse yet. They are too small, and 7 of 8 doesn't latch well yet. Eventually she does, but we spend the first 10 minutes adjusting positions, and it takes both hands. I totally get why people bottle feed twins. When he was on formula, he was done in 10 minutes. Besides the making the bottle part, it was a quick process. But, I am determined to tandem nurse. It may take a little while, but it will happen.
It's nice to be back into our routine. Kids in school, Trent at work (although honestly, I would have kept him another week. I think he was done and ready to go to work again). Now if I could just catch up on my house, teach 6 of 8 how to use an inside voice, get her potty trained, and get 5 of 8 to stop crying about, everything. We would be in good shape.

Adding 7 and 8

So I finally get around to posting about our new additions. See their pretty color? It was a nice shade of orange earlier this week.
On Friday the 20th I had a dr appt, where my dr told me I was a 4 +, so being full term and considering my quick labors and being strep positive, we decided to set an induction date. my original plan was to hold off until labor started on it's own, but by 35 weeks, I was in so much pain. It got worse as the days went on, and not sleeping on top of that, I was getting mean. We got a date for the 21st.
I got up on Saturday morning about 4. I couldn't sleep. I would like to say I was excited, but that was the way I had been sleeping for the past 4 weeks. I called the hospital to see if they were ready for me at 6:30 and they told me to call back at 8. At 8 they told me to come in at 9:30. packed the kids up and took them to GMA's. So much for getting the garden in.
10:30 I was hooked up and antibiotics started. At 11 I asked the nurse to turn down the pitocin, my contractions that had been painless for the past 3 weeks were now painful and 3-5 minutes apart. She told me she hadn't started the pitocin, and I was in labor on my own. She checked me and I was at a 5+ and my bag of water was bulging. They decided to do an U/S to see if the babies were still head down, and found the girl in position A. The boy had been in position A the whole pregnancy.
After my first round of antibiotics my dr came in and broke my water about 3, and I was moved into the OR at 4:30 to deliver. My epidural only worked on half of me, and I was ok with feeling the contractions, but at the last minute decided to let the anesthesiologist fix it. Boy am I glad I did that.
At 5, my nurse asked if I was ready to push and I said I didn't know because the epi was awesome, and after being checked I was told the baby was right there. 1 push later 7 of 8 was born, and it was the boy. Then they broke baby B's water she moved. My dr. went to grab her, and felt a head, and a foot. After trying to fix that for 5 minutes she flipped breech and he decided to grab a foot and do a breech extraction. After he got her out, it took the nurses 5 minutes to get her breathing. I was back in my room before I really knew what was going on.
When I finally saw her, she was really bruised. From head to toe, down her left side. And apperently bruising causes them to get jaundice, and my babies get jaundice whether they get bruised or not. I came home on Monday, with bili lights and 2 healthy babies. Both are eating and finally coming down on jaundice levels. Both have day and night confused. Both are up from 1-4 in the morning.
I can't believe it has been 9 months. It really went by fast. This whole experience has been full of faith building trials. And I am grateful. I am grateful for 2 healthy babies. And I am so grateful for a husband that takes care of me, and his family.