Say What?!?!?

OMG are they twins?  Are they identical? Are they fraternal? They look so much alike! They look nothing alike!  How do you not know?  ----Yup, those are the same questions I get asked on a regular daily basis.  If that wasn't exhausting enough, I hated not being able to give an answer.  Sometimes I would just say no they're fraternal just to shut people up, but honestly the "not" knowing was eating me alive.  As a mother, how did I not know what my little girls are? I know I always make fun of people for asking me so many silly twin questions but the truth of the matter is I don't really blame them.  Before I found out I was pregnant with twins, I didn't know anything about it either.  I, too, was ignorant about the subject.  So before I can jump into the whole finding out thing....let me give you a quick lesson on twins lol.

There are three types of twins:

• Mono/mono - This means both babies share a sac AND a placenta, therefore they are identical.  This means that they come from one egg. Identical twins can only be the same sex; girls or boys.  Boy/girl twins are NEVER identical.
•  mono/di-  This means the babies are in separate sacs but share the same placenta.  This also means the babies are identical unless they had different placentas but ended up fussing together.  In that case, they babies can be fraternal.  Yes, I know, a bit confusing.
• di/di- This means the babies are in separate sacs and separate placentas.  This typically means the twins are fraternal, from two different fertilized eggs.  There is however, a 20-30% chance that the babies could be identical.  This means one egg spit in half and separated very early on.

*Identical twins can happen to anyone.  It's a "freak of nature."  The egg splits into two. Your chance of having twins again does not increase.
*Fraternal twins is genetic or happen through fertility drugs.  Two eggs are fertilized.  This is also common in older mothers over 35.  If the twins were conceived naturally, then the chance of having twins again increases quadruples.  Fraternal twins may look similar or different, just like siblings, they just happen to be the same age.

My twins are Di/Di twins.  They didn't share a thing lol. In my head it made sense.  Twins run in my family.  Yup, I thought my body dropped two eggs and boom...TWINS!  I still knew there was that small chance they could be identical.  Once we found out the sex we still couldn't be 100% sure because both babies were girls.  Then we found out that they had the same blood type because Brad and I have the same blood type and therefore all of our children will have the same blood type.  Yup, still no answer. 

Once the babies were born I could tell them apart right away.  Still to this day they look so different to me.  But I also know that they have many similarities: same color eyes, same color hair etc.  So after thinking about it for a very long time, we decided to do the zygosity test. My friend recommended the same place she used to find out what her twins were, Proactive Genetics.  So I went online and bought the zygosity kit. It was so weird because I got really anxious as soon as I bought it. I even started to sweat lol. 

After a few days we finally received the kit with all of the instructions.  We had to do several cheek swabs on two different days. 

 

 

Juliana thought it was so funny to have that in her mouth.  Isabella hated it.  She's like get this thing away from me haha.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After I mailed it, the waiting game begun.  Deep in my heart I always felt my girls were fraternal.  How can my two distinct little girls be identical?  However, a part of me wanted them to be identical so that in the future we could have baby #3 and not worry about having twins again.  Then finally the results came...  I had to wait until Brad came home from the gym to see the results together!

 



Ahhh I didn't have to read this at all.  I could see right away in bold letters...IDENTICAL!!!!  Say What?!?!?! I cried.  I was so happy to finally know.  I was very happy with the results.  I mean how cool...to think that my egg split in half!!!!  Brad must have super sperm haha.  I spent the next few days thanking the girls for splitting lol.  I'm so lucky to be amongst the few to have di/di identical twins.  I'm so blessed that this "freak of nature" happened to me us.  I can't imagine life without my little twins!!!

♥I hear that identical twins share an even stronger bond ♥

Half Way to TWO!

Can you guys believe that our twinkies are 18 months old?!?!?! Seriously, time is flying by, which reminds me that I will be 27 in less than a month...eww.  It's so hard to picture life before the girls.  I feel like they have been around my whole life.  I can't thank God enough for blessing us with them.  They're beautiful, healthy and happy...it doesn't get any better than that =)  Yesterday we found out they are IDENTICAL (blogging about that soon!).  Here are a few pictures of our 18 month photo shoot.  Taking pictures of them is getting harder and harder.  They don't want to stop for a second.  All they want to do is explore and run around.  Enjoy!

 My beautiful family ♥

 We each get to play with one hehe

 Absolutely in love with this man!

 Mama and Isa ♥

 Dada and Juju ♥

 I love that the girls are smiling

 Juliana

They wanted to play with the flower

Isabella

When the Heart Aches

I only usually post about my twins, but tonight I have to vent a little.  A good friend of mine called me today almost in tears freaking out.  Her boyfriend is deploying next month for 8 months and she can't stop crying.  She's former Air Force and has been deployed herself but didn't have a boyfriend at the time.  Now she's on the other side, the one that gets left behind.  She has nobody else who she can talk to about this besides me.  I'm the only one she knows that can relate to this.  So what advice can I truly give her?  Honestly, nothing I can say will make it better because the truth is deployments SUCK!  That's exactly what I said.  All I can do as a friend is listen to her and give her my own advice of what I experienced.  Just hearing her over the phone and listening to all her worries brought back so many memories.  It's crazy that it has been 7 years since I went through the deployment with Brad, yet I can remember things so vividly.  To this day, certain songs will make me tear up and little things will trigger my memory back to that time.  When Brad deployed we were newly weds and I was still very young; only 19.  It was hard enough being the only one in my group of friends to be married let alone having my husband deployed to Iraq.  I'm so very grateful to the online friends that I made that were going through the same thing and my amazing friend, Tanya, whose husband, then boyfriend, was deployed with Brad as well. 
I'm happy that I can try to help a friend, even if all I do is listen to her.  I told her that if they can survive this, they will come out so much stronger when it is all over.  Saying goodbye has been one of the hardest things I ever had to do. But like I told her, homecoming day is so amazing.  Being able to hug and kiss your man after so long is such an amazing high...one of the best feelings in the world.  Not a lot of people get to experience that.  So with that said, my heart aches for her because I know exactly how she's feeling and exactly what's going through her head.  I pray that they make it through this and that he comes home safe.

To all my amazing friends that still have to deal with deployments, I love you!  I will forever be grateful to your man and you for making the sacrifice ♥


The day before I said goodbye to Brad I gave him a scrapbook that I made for him.  In return, he made two videos for me.  I tried posting the link but is not working.   

Brad in Iraq 2006 during a convoy



First time seeing each other after 8 months

Brad and Josh

♥My Babies You'll Always Be♥

I feel like time is going by way too fast.  There's always something to do that I've been too busy to stop and write about some of the moments that I don't want to forget.  Moments that in the future I want to read about, whether I'll need them when my girls go on their first date, go away to college, when I've had a rough day or just when I feel like they're driving me insane.  These are some of the moments that happened recently that makes every cry, tantrum, sleepless night etc so worth it!

* Isabella fell on the floor and started to cry.  Juliana started chasing her around the living room, which made Isa cry even more!  Finally Isa came to a stop by the couch and Juli patted her on the back and gave her a kiss.  It was such a SWEET moment.  It's like she knew her sissy was hurt and she wanted her to feel better.

* Today as I was in the bathroom, Juliana came in gave me a kiss, waved, said bye and closed the door.  Loved it!!!

* The girls started to spin around in circles.  They think it's the funniest thing.  Brad and I enjoy watching them because when they stop they can't walk straight lol. They look like drunk babies haha.

* Every morning when the girls wake up I love to hear them giggle and talk to each other.  Ever since they learned to say "Uh oh" they say it all the time when they drop something on the floor.  So now in the mornings all I hear through the monitor is "uh oh" because they're throwing their blankets, loveys and stuffed animals on the floor =]

* It's amazing to see how much they understand now.  I can tell them to sit down, give me or the dogs/cats kisses,  put their toys away, etc and they'll do it. 

* They are now obsessed with bracelets (I take full responsibility for this).  They love going in my room and getting all the bracelets out of my armoire and wearing them.  They've already broken two of them =(  They do, however, look absolutely adorable walking around wearing them.  I have little divas!

* When they get really excited about something, they start to move their feet really fast up and down.  I love watching them....this leads me to believe that they'll be great dancers like mama ;)

* The girls learned how to give "high fives" a long time ago but now they can do it with each other!!!

* Peek-a-boo is so much more fun now.  They actually put their hands over their eyes to play it.  They also put their hands over my eyes to play it.  They're so cute because they only say "boo" and it just makes it that much more cuter.

It's sad to know that they're getting so big, but we're truly enjoying every stage of their development.  It's very bittersweet!

Salt Life!

Well, I feel like I'm playing catch up.  I really want to blog about the girls' 1st birthday party, baptism, Easter and Mother's Day.  Seriously, I don't have enough time to sit here and blog my life away.  However, today was a pretty special day and I'm so eager to blog about it.  So all those other blogs will have to wait.  I have been dying to take the girls to beach.  I feel like they're growing up so fast that I don't want to rush and do everything at once.  I still want to have many "firsts" to look forward to.  So finally at 16 months old we decided to do it =)  We originally wanted to go on Mother's Day but ended up being too busy.  So today we got up, packed up our bags, packed lunch and we headed to the gym.  Hey....you can't skip leg day! Ha!  After the gym we went straight to the beach.  The girls took their nap in the car while on our way there.  The day was perfect.  It was sunny and warm and even better there wasn't a lot of people at the beach.  I was expecting my girls to cry or hate the sand....but seriously they LOVED it!!!! They had so much fun and we had a blast watching them enjoy it.  We even took them in the water with us and they didn't get scared at all.  They started splashing the water and giggling every time they felt a wave.   I can't wait to take them to the beach again.  I forgot to bring my camera so I was only able to use my phone.  Oh well, I didn't get to take that many pictures anyways because we were too busy in the water.  Enjoy!

Trying to walk on the sand

Taking in the beautiful view! Ruffle butt!!!

Safety first with the sun block =)

Juliana and I

My little family ♥

They were having a blast with the waves

Juju bean

Isa holding her hat...so cute!!!

Playing and eating lunch

They played with the sand for a while.

 

What an amazing day! These little angels make everything so much more fun! I can't wait to go back again. I couldn't have asked for anything better =)

I picked these sea shells to put in each of the girls box.  They will always have a memory of their first time at the beach ♥

What is this you speak of?

Ok let me first start by saying that this post is about MY experience during pregnancy and motherhood.  I don't want to be judged for anything that I felt or I'm feeling now.  These things were not written in a book, nobody told me about them....they just happened.  I'm aware that not everyone goes through the same things, but here is a few things that I wish someone had told me!

1.  Pregnancy- During my first trimester I had a really hard time with gaining weight.  It was exactly during the time that you're starting to get a bump, but don't look pregnant yet.  I was worried about what other people thought.  Please don't judge me.  This is how I felt.  I was so happy about my pregnancy, yet hated this stage.  That stage where you're too big for your regular clothes, yet too small for maternity clothes.  I felt really guilty for feeling this way.  I would cry to Brad saying I looked "fat."  I know a lot of it had to do with my hormones and part of it was the fact that I couldn't workout anymore.......and well, everything I had worked hard for was "changing."  Once my belly started to grow and I looked pregnant.......I absolutely loved it!!!! I never once cared about how much weight I gained or how "fat" I looked.  It was the beginning stage that was hard for me and realizing how much my body was going to change.  I have only talked to two people about it prior to this.  I hope not to offend anyone.

2. Damn you epidural for making me itch like a crazy woman.  I have never heard that this could be a possible side-affect.  Shame on me for not really looking into it either. 

3. Holy crap breastfeeding HURTS!!!  Ok, it only hurts at first.......then your nipples lose any sort of sensitivity lol.  There is nothing like two little mouths sucking on them to make them raw and bleed.  Pumping is just as bad.

4. Boobs!!! Yes, once you are producing milk your boobs look huge and amazing.  Unfortunately, I got engorged all the time!!!  That shit was PAINFUL!!!!  I pumped a lot to have enough supply for both of my girls and to freeze some of it too.  So I pumped every 3 hrs, sometimes 2.5, around the clock, yes even in the middle of the night.  It was the hardest job to do.  I felt like that's all I did all day...Brad called me his COW and would proudly show people our milk supply in the freezer lol. 

5. Since I got engorged a lot, my boobs felt so hard.  Touch your tile floor or the table next to you and that's how my boobs felt.  The only way that I was able to relieve the pain was to pump/breastfeed.  I literary felt like I was going to explode!!!  The first initial pumps did hurt because my boobs were so sensitive, but after that, it felt amazing to extract the milk. My boobs would start to feel normal again, if only for a short period of time.

6. The decision to stop pumping/breastfeeding was made for me.  I didn't get to choose.  I had to go back to work and there was no way I could pump every 3 hrs at work.  There was no way I could tell the students "hey kids, my boobs are leaking and hurting like a mofo, I'll be right back in about 15 mins.  Please continue to do what you're supposed to do and please, please don't talk,"  Yeahhh right. 
Although I was happy to be done with such a time-consuming "job" of pumping, it was really a hard decision for me to do physically and mentally.

• Mentally- I had a large amount of milk supply in the freezer.  All those weeks of hard work had paid off.  However, I knew with two babies to feed and the amount of milk they were increasingly taking in, that supply would quickly deplete.  I hated the fact that my babies would be drinking formula at almost 3 months old.  I wanted to continue to provide for my babies.  It was such an amazing, gratifying experience to know that you could provide everything they needed to grow healthy and strong.  I cried for many days about this.  I hated having to pump and would complain so much about it, but I hated MORE not giving my breast milk to my girls.  Till this day, I'm so jealous (in a good way) of mothers who can breastfeed/pump for many months.  I truly recommend it, although I know it is not for everyone either. 

• Physically- Ok I will say that trying to stop my milk supply was the most excruciating and painful thing I have ever felt.  I will go through labor again and have a c-section any time before I have to go through that again!!! I stopped "cold-turkey" because that's the fastest way to dry-up your milk supply.  The first day was the worst.  After 4 hours, I had to pump a little bit, otherwise I would have exploded lol.  I read a lot of ways to stop your milk production, but the most effective one was to just stop altogether.  I never want to feel that pain again...I don't even wish that upon my worst enemy.  I used cold cabbage leaves on my boobies and somehow it did help a lot!  Yup, I walked around smelling like a salad haha.  Not sure who thought of it, but damn she must have been a genius....thank you!!!!

7. Let's be honest. Being pregnant messes up your body....bad!!!  You gain weight in all the wrong places, and then you either push that sucker out of your vajayjay or even worse, have to have your stomach cut open.  Don't even get me started on stretch marks, cellulite and lose skin.  Blah!  Ok, I knew all those things could happen....specially carrying two little ones.  Then these precious bundles of joy arrive......and..........they continue to mess with your body.  I lost count of how many times I have been pinched, scratched, punched, hair pulled, bit...and the list goes on and on.  Either way, I would do it all again in a heartbeat =)

8. Sleep.  What a beautiful thing it is.  Even after your baby(ies) start to sleep through the night, sleep is no longer the same.  You can never sleep deeply.  In my case, there's that constant worrying.  Not to mention all the sounds they make throughout the night.  Say goodbye to naps too ;)~   Even if you have a babysitter at night so that you can go out with your hubs, you still have to get up early in the morning.  I rather stay at home and catch up on my sleep, than be miserable in the morning lol.  The memory of waking up at noon on the weekends is slowing fading away...

9. See my beautiful house, it is now designed by two toddlers =)  You know it has not been a successful day until you stepped on a TOY!!!  Most of my decorations have been put away, tables have been moved out of the way and a thousands of toys have taken over.  Even worse if you have a two-story house.....then everything multiplies.  You have to have enough toys in both areas and you need a changing table station downstairs too.  One day, I'll get my house back, until then, I'll enjoy all of it. I think know one day I will miss it.

10.  What is that smell and where did it come from?  Once you have a baby, you have seen it, smelled it and cleaned it all.  You will get poop on your hands, puke on your face and clean nasty boogers.  You don't realize how important poop will become to you once you have a kid. It ranges from diarrhea to constipation. 


There are many more things I would love to write about, but I just don't have the time ;)  For all of those pregnant or childless friends out there, please don't be scared.  None of this matters once you see your beautiful children smile, kiss you and hug you.  It is all WORTH it!