Preemies Awareness Day

Ok, this is a cause that's very close to my heart. Please take the time and sign the petition to the right. Thank you!

Premature Birth is Still on the Rise

The March of Dimes speaks up for babies every day -- and on Prematurity Awareness Day, we make sure even the smallest babies are heard.

The March of Dimes has released a Premature Birth Report Card for the nation and every state. We scored a D overall because the number of babies born too soon in our country is 60 percent higher than the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Healthy People 2010 objective of 7.6 percent. State-by-state grades are also available in the Report Card. Visit March of Dimes and find out how your state measures up.

For the past few weeks, we've been asking everyone to sign our online Petition for Preemies and help us send a message to our newly elected local and national officials. Thousands of caring people have already responded. If you were one of them, thank you for your support! If you missed it, go to marchofdimes.com/petition. Don't forget, you can sign up for advocacy alerts to make sure you won't miss any opportunities in your area and nationally.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

36 hours, 3 birthdays, 300+ miles

I just love a nasty virus that set us back for weeks. No fix it program was able to get rid of it. Instead, we had to wipe out the entire laptop and start over. Between saving everything and then reinstalling everything, it took forever. But now it’s as good as new and hopefully, we’re back on track.

As you can tell by the title of the post, we had an extremely busy weekend. in just under 2 days, we had 3 birthday parties for 5 kids. The ages ranged from two 2 yrs old, a 3 ½ yr old (we were celebrating the half birthday), a 4 yr old and a 5 yr old. Not only that, but the parties were all over the place and we drove over 300 miles. And if that wasn't enough, we manage to squeeze in two dentist appointments as well. Nothing like getting your teeth cleaned for all the sugar.

But it was all totally worth it. We got to see friends, the kids got to play. We got to eat food that was good for us, and more importantly – food that wasn’t good for us. We got cake, ice cream, dolmas and sushi. The kids tried out a trampoline and found out they love bounce houses (guess what they're going to have for their 2nd birthday). Luke had his first PBJ sandwich and made a friend.

First birthday were our friends, M&F. They turned 2 and all our local twin friends were able to attend. It was an ice cream themed party, and we loved it!

Our second party was a sushi making one. L&B are too young, but it was still fun to watch (and get ideas for future birthday themes). Kids don't know how to jump yet, but loved the trampoline.

Our last birthday had the coolest bounce house. Once the big kids were gone, L&B had a blast. The birthday boy also took it upon himself to be a big brother to Luke.

[Blog Tip]
Occasionally, blogging for me is hard. The thought of going thru the hundreds of photos and selecting a few, uploading them and then writing about it is sometimes daunting. Fortunately, my friend Sharlene, suggested Picasa 3 which has made the process easier. If you haven’t tried it yet, you really should. Now if only they’d invent the automatic cutest-picture-eyes-aren’t-closed-selector program…

Baby Mama

Thanks for all the well wishes and congratulatory comments/emails from our last post. It’s great to be able to finally share the news, because we’re obviously over the moon.

I’ll also mention I’m not pregnant, our surrogate is. Didn’t see that one coming, eh? As mentioned in my bio, I had a complicated pregnancy and a complicated delivery. I’m so thankful L&B were born perfectly healthy and required no NICU, but I’m also unable to be pregnant again. That was really rough to accept, but I’ve had some time to come to terms with it. And to be honest, I’m thankful I’m able to play with my kids, run after them, pick them up and have them crawl all over me because if I were pregnant we wouldn’t be able to and not for a long time. We also have an incredible surrogate who’s just as excited and so happy for us.

If you’re wondering how we know there are two, here’s the very first ultrasound pic.

Now WE were thrown off because we transferred 2 embryos and expected twins, however only 1 embryo took AND THEN SPLIT. See how they’re in the same sac. I have to admit I think it’s really cool to have identical twins. One of my favorite movies when I was a kid was Parent Trap, except I’d always wished I was the ID twin. I think having ID twins is the next best thing.

According to an online due date calculator, the babies should be 12 ½ weeks now. At Tuesday’s ultrasound, they were measuring at 12+6 and 13 weeks. So we’re off to a great start. Better yet, the first trimester will soon be behind us!

Btw, I haven’t seen the movie with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. I’m a little apprehensive on how surrogacy is portrayed. Obviously, it’s a subject matter that’s very personal and I don’t want to be upset or offended. If you’ve seen it, you can tell me how it was. I don’t mind you giving away details. Yes, I’m like Harry and will read the last page first.