Ocular Triathlete

The amazing women behind the popular Proactiv(R) Solution have done it again. Dr. Katie Rodan and Dr. Kathy Fields once again have taken the dermatology world by storm with their award winning, innovative, and proven anti-aging and all around skin care products!!!  The best part is you get to use them in the comfort of your own home!

It was a couple months after I had the boys when I took a look in the mirror and saw someone I swear had aged 5 years in a very short span of just having kids. That and spending LOTS of time in the sun :-).  My skin was dull and I had wrinkles and dark circles under my eyes for the first time in my life! I knew I had to do something. So I reached out to a friend (her husband graduated optometry school with me) who also has twins who was selling Rodan and Fields. I had to ask…”will that eye cream work on these tired looking twin mommy eyes?”  She answered with a resounding YES!

I’ve always been a soap and water kind of girl, but after using the REDEFINE Multi-Function Eye Cream and seeing my own results I was sold.

I also got really excited because I finally had an answer for all the times when I am asked professionally “what can I do about the puffiness and dark circles under my eyes?”.  Something so easy and easily accessible. I can now not only help my friends and family achieve healthy and younger looking skin, but also help my patients learn how to as well.  WIN WIN.

So what can Rodan & Fields do for you?  What can I do for you as an Independent Consultant? Are you ready to change your skin and change your life?

Click HERE to learn more about Rodan and Fields and their amazing products. Or feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  You will be hearing much more soon!!!

Wow life really does slip you by when you have kids and then double that with twins!!!  I’ve said it before but there are many days where I feel like I am barely keeping my head above water.  My language capacity and organization skills are being challenged in the fact I can’t remember a durn thing these days.  None the less I have some exciting things going on this year.

I love love love my comfort zone! I thrive on being steady and tactical with a plan. So any time I go outside of my comfort zone means I must feel passionate about things.  So for my first crazy endeavor I have decided that I must get back into triathlon (slowly), but I wanted to do so for a reason. Well my main reason are these two!!!

Look how big they have gotten :-). But my second reason is also these two.  I decided to join a new triathlon team that is out there raising money for a cause near and dear to my heart. Eleonore Rocks!!

Eleonore Rocks Foundation is on a mission to change the lives of the families of sick children one rocking chair at a time.  I love it!!!  After spending 12 days in the NICU at Huntsville Hospital I know the value of comfy chairs.  Our measly 12 days doesn’t even compare to those that spend MONTHS in the NICU or in the PICU for that matter.  Some times all you want to do is to hold and rock and love on your child.  Eleonore Rocks Foundation is doing this.  Please read more to their story here!!!

So I am on a mission to raise at least $1,000 for the Foundation this year.  My goal is to do more of course around $3k would be amazing :-). BUT I am trying to raise enough to get a few of these amazing looking rocking chairs in the NICU and PICU in Huntsville Hospital.  While the couple of rocking chairs were available they weren’t the most comfortable to be able to love on and hold our babies.

Please if you feel so inclined you can donate HERE or the picture above!!!

Part 2 coming… can anyone say healthy younger looking skin??!!! Don’t we all want healthy younger looking skin?  I can and I do and I’ll tell you more soon.

So let’s be real here. Being a new Mom of infant twins is a lot of work. I am blessed that I get a ton of help from John, but point blank we are exhausted. My free time when the boys are asleep on the weekends or at night is spent decompressing, washing bottles, doing laundry, or getting things prepared for the next go around. Am I wrong if I just want to ‘sit’ there and watch tv or get on FB vs putting away my own clothes? I try to be efficient and use my time well, but mamma sometimes just needs a break.

That being said Christmas decorations have been more of a “me” project. I usually end up doing the bulk of the work, which is fine. I love Christmas just as much as the next person, but frankly I just didn’t have the energy to move a couch, get a tree, decorate the tree…ect. Heck I haven’t even done Christmas cards. So if you are expecting one from me I have high hopes in getting them ordered soon, but you may not get them until after Christmas. But no I don’t have a tree or any “extra” decorations around. I plan on getting a table top tree this year to put the boys first Christmas ornaments on. Yes I feel guilty of not going all out, but hey anyone is welcome to come put it up and take it down :-). I am just exhausted thinking about it.

Next year next year it is going on the calendar to remind me to start decorating and order cards and address cards… But for this year it is what it is!!!

Until then, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Throughout the last months of pregnancy and bed rest we had mentally prepared, or so we thought, that these two babies were going to show up early. As each week rolled on I got more confident that perhaps I could go further than we originally thought.  But at my 33 week visit we had to step up our mental preparation as I was dilated between 3 and 4 cm.  This plus my history of contractions my doctor said that once we hit 34 weeks anything can happen, but we didn’t want an emergency situation. Seeing I had footling breech twins that plus water breaking is something the doctor was trying to avoid.

2 days before delivery (33.5 weeks gestation with twins)

Monday morning (33.5 weeks) I went to the hospital to get my next round of steroid shots and a non stress test to measure contractions, all standard procedure.  I was confident I would be in and out and be back the next day for my second and see the doctor Wednesday.  But my body had other thoughts. I was contracting every 2 min. This may seem close but I had been having small contractions remember for quite some time.  So the on call doc decided to start me on Magnesium Sulfate to calm the contractions to guarantee I made it through my two rounds of shots and get to 34 weeks on Wednesday.

My fate was sealed. Wednesday, June 18, would be the day my boys I had worked so hard to keep in my body would be joining the world.  All of a sudden I didn’t feel prepared.  I was scared! Going from the known to the unknown is frightening. All I could do was cry and pray or attempt to put on a strong face. But no doubt about it I was scared.

I’ll avoid the details of my c-section, but I can say it wasn’t as bad as I had heard. My husband John was a champ and never stopped holding my hand or talking to me the whole time.  Well until the babies came out and he left with them to go to the NICU.

Ah yes the NICU.  Again I thought I was prepared.  I have friends who had babies stay in the NICU so I leaned on them heavily to try to prepare myself.  We even made a special trip to the NICU and tour with a friend who works there so it would be a shock to the system when we got there.  But seriously nothing prepares you to see your little one being monitored with wires and IVs. I am very medically minded so I was slightly able to put out of mind the chords and even Bobby’s CPAP machine. Nothing prepares you to not hold your baby or be able to fix issues that crop up.

SIDE NOTE: NICU life is much different than anything else.  The babies there look like full term but are not.  It is hard to remember these babies are suppose to still be chilling in amniotic fluid having life being provided my mom!  So times you can interact with them goes from nill to some during care times. The reason: stimulation, like being held, burns precious calories and prevents them from entering into REM sleep. REM sleep is when growth hormones are released and they grow more efficiently and quicker.

First Family Photo

Welcome to the world WILL!!!  4lb 10 oz and 18 inches long

Will was like a champ right out of the gate.  With in 2 days was taking food and they gradually over the following two days got him off his IV and moved him to the progressive side of the NICU (there is an intensive care side and a progressive side). Well the upped his volume of food a smidge too quick and his poor belly just couldn’t handle it.  Starting this past weekend every bottle he took he would end up spitting it up hours later. This is not normal like spit up during or right after feeding time. He of course has lost weight due to this and most babies tend to do this.  But we are week out and I had hoped he would have turned the weight loss corner.  Anyways, after spitting up hours after his feed for about 2 days he was put on feeds strictly through a feeding tube.  These set backs are to be expected but despite knowing this nothing prepares you for this.  So Monday evening it was suggested that we let Will rest and not hold him.  John and I both agreed this was for the best.  So here we are 4 days later and I think I will finally be able to hold my baby again.

The hardest thing has been knowing the only thing you can do to make it better is to do nothing. When all you want to do is hold him and make it better.

We hope to see a turn around as we get closer to 36 weeks gestation this coming Wednesday.

Welcome BOBBY!!  4 lb 13 oz and 17 inches long

Bobby was a blue baby but I did get to hear him cry and they swept him away to the NICU with his brother and he was placed on a CPAP.  Just like your dad or relative may use for sleep apnea yup baby CPAPs due the same thing.  We weren’t able to hold Bobby till he got off his CPAP 3-4days later. They have to wain the strength of the CPAP and then the oxygen level as well.  But it was amazing to see how quickly his respiratory rate was so high and then over 2 days he looked so much more calm with his breathing.  And once he showed he could maintain his resp rate and blood oxygen levels he joined his brother about a day and a half later on the progressive side.  Once on that side Bobby has really taken off.  His feeds have increased and we are enjoying holding and even for me trying my hand at breastfeeding.

First time to hold Bobby

I’ve been blessed that they came when they did because I know too many people that have had to struggle longer with their babes coming much earlier into this world. Despite the heartache that comes when you have to leave your babies and try to go back to “normal” while you are away, there are some upsides I’ve tried to find while we are in there.  John and I have become pros at changing diapers through arm holes of the isolette. When we get to a changing table it will be a breeze.  I have been able to recover at home without having two babies to tend to. We can actually get the nursery ready for when they come home. And I’d rather them be in the NICU and have these hiccups in their growth than at home. They are in really good care. But I would trade any of those things to have babies I could have taken home at full term.  But these are the cards we were dealt and we are doing our best to keep plugging on.

We take each day as a new day for progress and improvement.  Take a positive approach makes it so much easier.  We have two boys who need us at the top of our game.

We love you more than the world itself Bobby and Will.  And we can’t wait to take you home when the time is right.

Happy 1 week old!!!

You want a good test of your mental endurance?  Be put on bed rest!  Wow! There has been no athletic feet that has compared mentally to the ups and downs and the ins and outs of bed rest. Most people think its a great time to relax and just lay around. “That would be so nice to not work and just do nothing”. It’s not bad, but it ain’t a day off at the spa either.

Think about it. Being confined to your house, maybe two rooms (for me I’ve recently limited myself to my bedroom/bathroom), you can get up to use the restroom or shower every other day, and if you are lucky you an get yourself a snack occasionally from the kitchen, but even that is a luxury.  On top of that you can’t pick anything up, can’t fix yourself any meals (if you can help it), no house work either! The only time you can get out of the house is to go to your doctor’s appointments or the hospital.  *NOTE: there are so many variations to bed rest from kick your feet up to hospital bed rest that involves constant monitoring, catheters, ect.

Still sound like the coolest thing ever? I highly doubt it. There are tons of reasons people get put on bed rest. None of which is the Mom’s fault. This isn’t a choice. Well I guess if you didn’t want to give the baby a fighting chance you can consider it a choice. Most moms to be that are on bed rest are doing their possible best with in their own means to keep those babies put pushing back the impending pre-term labor that usually lurks over them.

When I got the orders for bed rest I went through a range of emotions. I was scared, like really scared, overwhelmed, and sad. Now that I am over 4 weeks into bed rest it has gotten easier but I still get scared a bit, but also I feel lonely and isolated.

Yes you can be surrounded by friends or family and still feel lonely. However, I have had the best support group with friends and family that come and visit and bring me dinners.  My sweet Mom calls and checks on me if not visits every day. She and my Dad, with the help of John, have gotten all the furniture in the babies’ room and got the clothes organized. I’m sure she will be helping me get the rest of the nursery ready once I receive more things. John has been more than helpful when he is here,. The one thing that I’m finally getting use to is asking for HELP. It is very hard to do if you are so use to being on the go and doing things on your own.  Despite what you think you can’t do it all on your own especially if you are on so many restrictions.

As for me I have just under 6 weeks left of bed rest at least.  Come this Wednesday it will be 5 weeks. Things I’ve found that have made my weeks go by faster and the hours tick away: blocking out my day with things to do (I mentally check them off as the hours pass), I’ve learned how to nap (I never could nap but if makes the time fly by and helps me relax), looking forward for friends to come over and bring dinner (yes I love my husband but it’s nice to see a variety of folks though out the week), and make goals (this is how I break up a long car ride as well as a long bike ride or run).

As for lessons learned: I am NOT responsible for me being on bed rest (I didn’t will myself into bed rest, nothing I did made me end up on bed rest ect). It may seem hard now, but ALL the sacrifices you make will be worth it in the end. I am not in charge of the outcome. Worrying does me no good. I have done everything in my power to get these babies further along. God is in charge, not me.  PRAYER WORKS! HAVE FAITH!!!!!!