Happy Thanksgiving!

Babies first Thanksgiving went well...they both enjoyed having family around as my family is in from Iowa and Michigan. We are celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas together!

Jack appears to be deep in thought over this whole Thanksgiving thing.

Our happy girl!

2 months old

The twins are 2 months old today. Has it been 2 months already? Oh wait...its only been 2 months?!

They are both doing pretty well...last weight check Jack was 10lbs 4oz and Mackenzie 9lbs 9oz. She is not gaining as well as we would like due to some reflux. Lately it has gotten worse and she generally cries every time she eats and wont eat much. We are using some medications and thickening her formula with rice cereal trying to figure out what works. Hopefully we will get it under control soon and she will be back to her normal eating habits.

Both babies have started to smile a little bit, Mackenzie definately smiles more than Jack. They both enjoy play time and like to look around-but they like their naps too!

We are generally on a 3hr schedule with them...eat (30 mins.), play (10-45 minutes), sleep; lather, rinse, repeat! They generally get fussy and show sleepy signs before the 45 minutes of play time is up though. If one baby gets hungrier sooner I will try to feed the other as well just to keep them on the same schedule. Although lately with Mackenzie struggling to eat we try to feed her every 2hrs but Jack is still doing well with the 3hr schedule...as they get older and are awake more we will change it to a 4hr cycle.

Jack is able to sleep a good 6-7hr stretch at night, Mackenzie was sleeping a good 5-6hr stretch but right now we are waking her every 2-3hrs to try to eat.

4 weeks old

Today the babies are 4 weeks old! Time has gone by both fast and slow...time occasionally seems eerily slow on days when I'm home by myself.

They are both doing well. We had a pediatrician visit last week and Jack weighed 7lbs 8oz and Mackenzie weighed 7lbs 9oz. They are eating every 2-3hrs and sleep most of the rest of the time. Although they are starting to have more awake time now.

Our first family pictures

The twins are almost 3 weeks old now. At their last weight check on Monday Mackenzie weighed 6lbs 3oz and Jack weighed 6lbs 5oz...so they are both growing well!!

Today we took our first family pictures...they both did a great job and looked adorable of course!

We have babies!!!

John "Jack" David Suter III and Mackenzie Karen Suter arrived on September 13, 2008. Mackenzie arrived first at 2:52pm and weighed 5lbs 8oz. Jack arrived next at 2:53pm and weighed 5lbs 4oz. I was exactly 36 weeks.

33 Weeks

Yesterday we had an ultrasound (sorry we cant post video, our ultrasounds are 45min-1hr now so just too long). Everything looks good! Babies weigh about 5lbs each and are in the 50th percentile for a singleton...pretty good for twins!! I cant believe I have 10lbs of baby in me, crazy! Both babies are head down and are pretty low and it appears that they like to be close to each other as their heads are always right next to each other.

I am doing pretty good...starting to feel pretty uncomfortable. I usually sleep in 2-3hr segments as I just cant get comfortable or my mind starts racing with thoughts of the babies arrival. John and I are both getting very excited to meet our little ones.

We will have weekly ultrasounds from now on; in about 2 and a half weeks I will be full term for twins. I cant believe how fast this time has gone by...but I'm definately about ready to be done with this pregnancy :-).

Here is my latest picture...

Nursery

We've finally finished the nursery and I love it!! Here are a few pictures...

Oh, and Mackenzie's crib is in our room for now :-D

30 Weeks

Just wanted to give a little update. Things are going pretty well, I am 30 weeks now so about 6ish more weeks to go hopefully!
The babies are very active and we love watching my belly bulge when they are moving around. John loves to poke them and wait for them to kick back.
I am doing pretty well. I've had a few minor complications in the last few weeks. I developed a pregnancy rash called PUPPs. It starts in stretch marks and then spreads to the rest of your body-it is not harmful to the babies it is just very very annoying, stressful, and uncomfortable to mom! For me it did start in my stretch marks, then spread to the rest of my belly, and then spread to my arms and legs. The itching was overwhelming and no cream, lotion, or pill seemed to help. It was pretty miserable for a couple of weeks and I honestly didn't know if I could make it 6-7 more weeks. I then went to see the doctor about it again Monday because nothing was helping. He gave me a shot of steroids (the same steroids often used for women in pre-term labor to help babies lungs mature) and it has helped TREMENDOUSLY! The rash has cleared on my belly, I still have it on my arms and legs but I'm hoping it will fade too. I do still have some itching but it is nothing compared to what it was just 4 days ago; it is definitely bearable for 6 more weeks!
Other than that I just feel big. Doing anything these days is quite a task...I go up the stairs and then have to rest for a few minutes, when doing laundry I have to have John get the laundry out of the bottom of the washer because my belly doesn't allow me to bend over and get it, rolling over in bed is quite a task, and bending over to pick anything up off of the floor is just out of the question.
It has also just occurred to me that we have not announced the names we have picked out on the blog. So, our little boy will be John "Jack" David Suter III and our little girl will be Mackenzie Karen Suter. Many of our family members love referring to them as Mack and Jack :-)
We have a couple of doctors appointments next week and will hopefully be getting an ultrasound to make sure they are both still doing well and growing properly. We will hopefully post some pictures or video then!!

Here are a couple of pictures of my ever growing belly.

28 week doctors appointment

Yesterday we had an ultrasound and appointment. Our ultrasound went well...both babies are weighing in at about 3lbs...which is really good for twins. So they are already bigger than I was when I was born (2lbs 4oz) and almost as big as my sister was when she was born (3lbs 6 oz), unfortunately they will not be bigger than John was when he was born (8lbs-ish)
My belly measured about 35 weeks, so I'm measuring about 6-7 weeks ahead. I am starting to feel uncomfortable at times...mostly I just feel big.
We are starting to make final preparations so that everything can be ready by the time I am about 30 weeks because you never know whats going to happen...these little ones will come out whenever they are ready or whenever they think they are ready.

28 weeks

Here are some of the latest belly pictures-28 weeks. Yes the stretch mark monster has attacked me...they are inevitable, no matter what people or products tell you they are genetic and cannot be prevented (although my mom never made it far enough in pregnancy to develope stretch marks apparently both my aunt and grandma had them). You will also notice I have a kind of line going down my belly...this is called linea nigra.

Nursery

We began working on the nursery over the weekend. We received all of our furniture-5 pieces-on Friday and were able to put it all together in 1 weekend without any major incidents...pretty big accomplishment!

Here are a few pictures so far; we will post more when it becomes more organized...we were just excited to get furniture up!

BEFORE

EVERYTHING CLEANED OUT

AFTER

And a little video to help get the whole effect http://s59.photobucket.com/albums/g298/hsuter/?action=view&current=100_1011.flv

25 Weeks

We recently had our 25 week ultrasound and are happy to report everything looked good! Our little boy is weighing in around 2lbs and our little girl 2lbs 2oz. They are both measuring in the 60-70th percentile for a singleton.

24 Weeks

Here are a few pictures of me and my belly with our new car!

20 Weeks

Here are some pictures from our latest ultrasound. We forgot to bring our DVD in so unfortunately we dont have a video.
The babies are both growing well...our little girls weighs 15oz and our little boy 13oz.

Baby A's face in a 3D scan

On the right are a set of feet kicking the other little one

Baby A's heart beat

Baby A is on my right side and in the breech position

Baby B's heart rate

the big line is when he kicked

19 Weeks

Below are a few pictures of my ever growing belly at 19 weeks.
I am able to feel the babies kicking now and I will say it is one of the neatest things I've ever experienced. John was able to feel them kicking the other night as well, which he was very excited about!
At our last appointment the Dr measured me and said I was measuring about 7 weeks ahead, so this would be the size of my belly at about 26 weeks if I was carrying a singleton.

17 week anatomy scan

This past week we had our anatomy scan. We are pleased to announce that we are having 1 BOY and 1 GIRL!
They are both growing well; our little girl weighs 8oz and our little boy weighs 9oz.
We have posted a few pictures below and will post the video as soon as we can! Enjoy!

15 weeks

Heidi at 12 weeks

12 week ultrasound OR when baby "B" got hiccups

12 week ultrasound part 2

April Fool's Day at the Doctor's Office

Well, we had a doctors appointment last tuesday (April 1st) for our 12 week checkup/ultrasound. We had a good ultrasound and will be putting up the video from that once we get some computer issues sorted out. The ultrasound technition got a little excited so we have a bunch of pictures to post as well.

Anyway, the doctor we talked with after the ultrasound had a medstudent with him so he had her try to guess how far along Heidi was. After she examined Heidi's stomach her guess of 20 weeks made us all chuckle. The doctor then went on to explain that we were having twins and that Heidi was only 12 weeks along.

9 week Ultrasound

9 Weeks

9 Weeks and 3 days

The babies

Top: 3D picture

Bottom: Baby "A"-looks just like a peanut

3D picture of the babies