Firsts!!!

A few days ago Arvelle said her first word, "BALL!"
A few minutes ago Sylvanna took her first steps and here's a video of it!!!
YAY!!!
We're beaming ear to ear and SO PROUD!

First Birthday and a New House!!!

Wow! It's been awhile since I've sent out an update and I have good reason! We've been very busy moving and celebrating!
The girls are 1 year old! We can hardly believe it!
The house is finally done and we are living in it! We can hardly believe that also!
The girls have been busy - they are on the verge of talking and walking both. Sylvanna, surprisingly has taken the physical lead and is standing on her own very often. She dances, bends over, etc. and I think she'll be walking in a month or two. Arvelle is chatting up a storm. She talks all day and sometimes even at night. She has words for some things - like "day-day" (cat). Before we know it she'll be debating politics. :P

We are in love with our new house! It's beautiful and everything we dreamed of. The girls love it - there's so much room to play and so much land to peacefully walk on. Thank you, so much, everyone who helped make our dream come true!

So, we will stop torturing you and making you all wait...



Arvelle & Sylvanna's First Birthday Party!

To see a virtual tour of the house CLICK HERE

We had a media event at our house to celebrate the first family moving into White Hawk Ecovillage - visit this link to see those news links: www.whitehawk.org/5/

Okay, I think that's everything for now. I'll finish with pictures of the girls :D

Arvelle at the Sciencenter!


Sylvanna having silly summer fun!


BYE till next time, everyone!

We have mobility!!!

Well, it's official, the girls are crawling!
Last week Arvelle crawled to the couch, pulled herself up to standing using the couch, and cruised along the side of it all together! Sylvanna wasn't far behind!
So much has happened in the last couple weeks - they are really blossoming :)
Sylvanna clapped first and Arvelle does this funny "wash my hands of this" or "all done" kind of clap, it's cute. Will have to get it on tape, for sure.
They are starting to wave "hello" and "goodbye".
It's really a joy to watch them grow so fast and learn something new almost every day! Here's a summary video of some key moments in the last few weeks or so. Enjoy!

Movin' Right Along!

The girls are getting big! I'd have to guess a bit over 20lbs by now. We'll find out for sure at their 9 month appointment next week; it falls on our one-year anniversary - May 5th - time flies so quickly!
Not much is new, the girls are enjoying their increasing list of foods they can eat. They love the new luxury of playing outside! Sticks and grass are the yummiest!
I just noticed this morning that Arvelle is getting her third tooth, to the right of the bottom two already in. I'm sure Sylvanna will be next, but she's napping so I can't look right now.
We are excited about our first family camping trip coming up Mother's Day weekend to the Lilac Festival in Rochester. We'll be tent camping at Letchworth State Park - very beautiful there.
The house is in the drywalling phase and we are being told June 1st - let's keep our fingers crossed! Still no crawling, they may just skip it or crawl and then walk very close together. I'm hoping we are in the new house before they get too mobile. I'm tired of this cramped apartment :(
Here are some pictures to brighten your day! They are such camera hams :P

Arvelle


Sylvanna

Easter Pictures

Wow! I can't believe two months have slipped by me! The girls are doing great and are growing so fast, there's so much to keep up with. They both have their two bottom front teeth, they are both saying "dada" and "mama" indiscriminately (they say it but are not sure what it means), and they both are scooting around. They are very close to crawling, but not quite strong enough yet since they hated tummy-time so much when they were younger. As soon as they build up those muscles they'll be off!
We took some Easter pictures and here they are!

Sylvanna left and Arvelle right

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Six Months!

Our sweet girls are now six months old, isn't it hard to believe?!
They're entering such a fun stage! They are exploring everything, they are beginning to communicate (even if it's still with oooohhhhs and aaahhhs!), and they surely keep dips on mommy at all times now!
Arvelle is sitting up completely on her own now! Sylvanna is close behind, a couple weeks and she'll be right up there with her. Sylvanna can sit with a boppy in case she falls and it's wonderful to see them sitting and playing together!

Arvelle is eating solids! She enjoys butternut squash, carrots, avacado, banana, apples, and sweet potatoes so far :) Sylvanna shows interest in the food, but makes the funniest icky face you ever saw when she tries it! lol

They had their 6-month check up at the doctor's today! It went great!
They are around 18pds, with Sylvanna still in the lead! They are still the same height.
We were so nervous today because they started their shots today, they got the DTaP today. I was nearly in tears afterwards - BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T EVEN FROWN! NOT A PEEP, NOT A TEAR, NOTHING!!! I can't believe how well it went! We're so proud of them!

So, that is all for now - Arvelle is resting happily and Sylvanna is playing with Daddy waiting for dinner, so...off I go!!! Here's some more random pics to enjoy, more laters!

Holiday Pictures

Okay, I'm going to do less talking this time and more picturing!
I'll just say that the girls are 5 1/2 months, our house is finally getting started, and the girls are starting to taste some foods and trying to crawl!
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here we go!

Holiday Photo Shoot

Sylvanna: "This is fun!" Arvelle: "Yup, tons."

Yay! A good one!

Sylvanna opening her first present!




















A Teddy Bear! She loves it :)




















Arvelle opening her first present.




















Oooh! A Teddy Bear! I never would've guessed! ;)

Honestly, she loves this bear! It's her lovey now :)

Mmm...Banana!

Daddy is uber fun! (and a little crazy)

OUR HOUSE! The slab is poured and now the walls will be started on Monday :)

Video for fun (because it's a new feature on here and I gotta try it out).

Arvelle in the jumperoo for the very first time:

Okay, that's it for now :) Will be back in the usual month or so!

Thankful for Twins on Thanksgiving!

The girls had a wonderful holiday with their family! They got to see Grandma & Grandpa and Great Grandma & Great Grandpa (both sets!) plus their Uncle Jason and lots of other cousins, friends, etc.

Here is a picture of the girls with their Great Grandparents (Chambers) and their second? cousins!

Arvelle is on the right with Great Grandma and Sylvanna is on the left with Great Grandpa!

Here are the girls with Uncle Jason!


All-in-all the girls had a wonderful time and the drive wasn't so bad :)

Arvelle & Sylvanna will be 4 months old tomorrow! It's so hard to believe! They are doing really well - Arvelle is almost sitting up on her own and Sylvanna is babbling up a storm! They recently discovered each other and spend long moments every day just staring, smiling, laughing, and touching each other! It's amazing to see how much they love each other already!

They are growing so fast! They are starting to teeth already! They already can fit in 6 months clothes, which thankfully we have plenty of. As they are growing though, they are needing some other things - such as the next size up carseat and child-proofing materials for the home. If you would like some ideas for Christmas gifts, please use Arvelle and Sylvanna's gift registry at Babies R Us! You can click here to visit it!

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season! We'll be back after Christmas with some pictures!

Two Cute Little Pumpkins!

Hello everyone!

We know it's been ssssooo long since the last update, but believe me, it wasn't for a lack of trying! Having twins has got to be one of the hardest things to do in one's life! They surely keep us BUSY!

But having said that, they are also twice the joy to watch grow! They are almost 2 months now and really are growing up so fast - Arvelle is holding up her head pretty much all the time on her own. Sylvanna is close behind. Sylvanna is started cooing a few days ago and Arvelle started yesterday. They are both now batting at things and starting to reach (kinda) for things they want. It's just amazing..it really is!
And the best part...SMILES! They've started smiling! We have yet to get a picture, we keep trying! As soon as we do, it's going up :)

We went to Indian Latter Farms today and went apple picking. They had some beautiful pumpkins this year and so we took advantage of it! Click to enlarge the pictures:

ARVELLE

SYLVANNA


TWO CUTE PUMPKINS!

Arvelle & Sylvanna have arrived!

Things are crazy-busy, of course, so I will share some pictures for now and post up the birth story later :)

Enjoy! We sure are :)

(click on images for larger versions)















Just arrived home!















Sylvanna - just hatched!





















Arvelle sleeping :)

LABOR! LABOR! LABOR!

That is the chant as of late! Cheer the babies on, everyone!!!

Well, it is officially 37 1/2 weeks and still no babies! We were so worried about keeping them in and now they won't come out! At our appt on Weds, Dr. Skory started talking about induction by next week (38 weeks). Although this is "normal procedure" with twins because 36-38 weeks is considered the "perfect" time to have twins - we are still nervous and really don't want to go that route. It's not very conducive to the whole natural-birth plan and is associated with higher rates of drugged births and surgical (C-section) births :(

So, come on everyone! LABOR! LABOR! LABOR!
lol

Here is the amazing circus side-attraction belly that my dr's nurse says "defies gravity"...


You can see the wonderful bulging veins and stretch marks in all their glory! :)

Yeah, so we're all ready! Steve has lectured the girls several times so far on the benefits of coming out into the world and has promised them that he will dutifully clean poopy, spit, vomit, pee, etc. with no complaints :P

We just can't wait to meet them! See what they look like...look into their eyes...hold them in our arms...see who will claim which name. I shake just thinking about it...how much they will be loved and cherished :)

Project: Belly Cast

Well, Steve and I just got done with casting my belly! It was really fun and really messy!
Here's some pictures of the process. When it dries I'll eventually have an airbrush artist paint a design on it. I'm thinking maybe the earth (like Gaia's belly) at this point, not positive yet :)

(click on pics for larger views)



It was a really great experience and I recommend it to anyone! It felt really weird when it started to harden and the babies were moving around in there! lol

Pregnancy-wise we are hanging in there. Things are getting a bit more difficult and uncomfortable (note my feet in above right pic), but nothing too intolerable yet!

We are just a few days from the 36 week goal! I will post some belly pics up then and an update from our ultrasound scheduled for that day, Tuesday :)

BELLY BONANZA!

The belly is taking over, the babies are kickin' and mom is exhausted!

We are so proud of how big the girls are getting! We had another ultrasound on June 6th and here are the results:

Baby A - 3lbs 15oz
Baby B - 3lbs 12oz

Woot! This means our little girls are basically 4lbs each! The doctor said these are the weights of singletons at this stage! We are very happy with their weights and progress. They have put on a pound and a half since our last measurement on May 9th. This means that in another month they will be about 5 1/2 - 6 pounds! That is perfect weight for twins and perfect timing, as 36 weeks is full term for twins :)

As some of you already know, we changed doctors recently. We are now with Dr. Skory in Schenectady. We're much more confident in his skills and know that we now have a higher chance of delivering naturally! This means we will be delivering at Bellevue (before 36 weeks) or St. Clares (36+). We prefer St. Clares, so July 10th is our goal. Must make it, at least, to July 10th!

As for everything else, we are getting closer to having the apartment ready. I continue to stay well-rested, although not on full bedrest anymore. I like to get up and help out around the house more :) Keeps the morale up!

I am now officially the size of a full-term singleton pregnancy (same size as if I had one baby and was 40 weeks along). I am definitely feeling it! It's hard to do many things due to a big heavy giant pumpkin getting in the way! We went shopping last week to get the rest of the baby essentials and I am pretty sure that was my last shopping trip, it's just too much anymore. I continue to be amazed at how wonderful pregnancy can be and I'm certainly not tired of it yet!

Here's a special treat, the next progression set (last 3 months):

Well-Needed Update!

Sorry everyone for the delay on the update! We've been so busy with the wedding and getting the apartment ready for the babies!

First off, we want to share the good news! The babies are healthy and growing! Two weeks ago they were 2lbs 4oz and 2lbs 8oz. We are thinking they should be around 3lbs by now :) So proud!
Steve has picked a name!!
Sylvanna
it means "forest"
(and don't say, "Like the light bulb?" lol That's Sylvania and rhymes with Transylvania)

So, we have Arvelle and Sylvanna :) Middle names will remain a secret :P We are not naming each baby yet, we will wait until they come out to see who looks like who.

As some of you might have heard, we had a little "scare" about 2 weeks ago. I woke up feeling some pains and weird sensations, so I called the doctor and they asked me to come in that day. We did so at 11am and they checked me out. They said everything looked fine, took some tests, but wanted me to go to the hospital to have my contractions monitored to see if they were actual labor contractions.

So, we got to the hospital around 12:30pm and they admitted me. Hooked me up to the monitor, IV, the whole caboodle. The monitor revealed that I was having strong contractions 3-4 minutes apart. So, the doctor came in and checked my cervix (no dilation at all) and administered Terbutaline to calm the contractions. They did calm down after about an hour or so, but they were still there so they did another shot. Then another a few hours later just to be sure. Three in all, the max they can give before trying other methods. They were waiting for the results of my fFN test that had been done at the drs office, but it had not gotten prioritized and still wasn't done. The results finally came in around 8:30pm and we were discharged at 9pm. Got home exhausted around 10pm. What a day! ugh...

Yeah, so that was our little scare. Nothing major. It wasn't truly pre-term labor because there were no cervical changes. The contractions were happening as a result of a few things together: baby A's head is directly laying on the cervix b/c she has no where else to go, the uterus is "confused" b/c it's growing SO fast compared a normal pregnancy (and it is my first), and the stress and activity from the wedding stuffs the weeks/days before. Also, working f/t.

The doctors have put me on bedrest for now. I am to remain resting most of the day, but can get up on occasion if I feel up to it. Just have to listen to my body very closely. No more working for me. It hasn't been so bad, Steve is the most wonderful person ever and takes good care of me and makes sure I'm all set :) Friends and family have been a blessing as well! Thanks so much everyone who has helped! I feel so much better now and have not had one episode even close to the last, so all is good.

We are just so happy to be married and feel so lucky for what we have :) Our wedding was way more beautiful than we ever imagined - and not because of the decorations or food or the scenery. It was because of the wonderful people that we were surrounded by - the love and support was SO abundant! Thank you all, so much, for making our day so memorable!! We can't WAIT to share the wedding photos when they come back. Sean (the photographer) does that as a side business and works f/t normally, so it may take a bit longer than usual.

As we accumulate photos we will post them at: www.nalathani.net/wedding

Right now we are on a mission to get the apartment ready for the girls :) It is a long and tedious task...lol

Oh, and the ultrasound video never quite worked out. We'll keep trying...silly VCRs aren't cooperating! :P

24 weeks/6 months - Bye-bye Belly Button!

It's been awhile since I've had time to update everyone on the babies! I've been SO absolutely swamped with planning the wedding (which is only 2 weeks away!), White Hawk stuff, planning the house, packing up, baby prepping, and working full-time! I'm quite the busy bee!!

So, now for the good part :)
Both babies are ........................GIRLS!!!

Beautiful and healthy girls! The doctor is very pleased with their size and closeness in size. They are now:
Baby A - 1lb 9oz
Baby B - 1lb 12oz
With twins it's important that they stay close in size or complications can occur.

Arvelle is definitely one of them and we've decided that Steve will name the other one :)

At the last ultrasound, Thursday, we actually got a video tape of our babies! It came out perfect and we can't wait to share it! Jim is going to attempt to put it into a digital format for us. As soon as we get it, I'll post it up here for all to see! Take care till then!

*DRUM ROLL PLEASE*

Ok...we finally found a scanner so we could get the pics up!
You can click on it for a bigger image.
Here we go....
Yup...you read right....BABY A AND BABY B!!!!
We nearly died right in the ultrasound room! TWO BABIES!!!! OMG!!!
TWINS!! They are fraternal (not identical).
Here are some other shots of them:

They even had the ultra-cool 4D technology up and got this shot of Baby B's face/arm:
This means so much...and we even found out the gender, but might wait to share (in order to have a lotto or some such thing). We'll decide tomorrow, as right now it is very late and I am exhausted....the babies need their mommy to sleep up!! lol