My girls are amazing

I absolutely love being a mommy, my three girls are amazing. Last night I actually got a lot of sleep, Mackenzie went to bed at 7 and the twins at 9. In the morning I woke up before all of the kiddos, they all woke up at 7:15. I woke up at 7, looked at the clock and freaked out because I hadn't gotten up in the middle of the night with the babies. I couldn't believe that they slept through the entire night. I am such a better mommy when I get sleep:)

San Diego Trip

Nana and Ken with Rylee
Nana and Emma

Aunt Carla, Aunt Jacque and Rylee

All four cousins

All of the cousins

Great Grandma, Rylee and Emma

Family of 5

All of us girls at Por Favor

Auntie Lisa and Rylee

The whole group

Uncle James with Emma

This past weekend we loaded up the car and headed to San Diego. On the way there we only had to stop once for a half hour to feed and change the babies, and then on the way home we drove straight through, way to go babies!!! We visited with Nana (Bret's mom) and then headed to Bret's grandma's house to visit the whole family. The babies and Mackenzie were great and loved seeing everyone. We then saw James and Lisa and the girls on Saturday for dinner and on Sunday we headed to Carlsbad to see Brandon, Bret's best friend run a 1/2 marathon. We fit in a ton of events just in three days, but had a great time!!! Here are a few pictures from all of our fun.

My Dad's Visit

Eating lunch

Dad putting bunny ears on the girls, you can't take him anywhere

GP stood like this for 45 min keeping Rylee warm while waiting for the Dr. , his poor back!!

The girls waiting for the doctor

My dad came to AZ last week for a visit to help me out. At first I gave him a hard time because he doesn't change diapers, gives the baby back the second they get fussy etc. so I told him he wouldn't be of much help, but I was wrong. My dad helped a ton and I was so thankful. I am getting ready to have another grand opening for stroller strides, so I had to advertise, which is hard with three kiddos so he rode in the car and waited with all of them as I ran into different stores, this was a four hour process.... thanks so much dad. He also helped me because it was their first month check-up, which would have been hard taking them by myself. We went out to eat a lot, and I never had to pick up the bill:) It was a great trip to be able to spend time with my dad and in the end he was a HUGE help!!!

Routines are the BEST

Emma all ready for her bath
Emma's first big girl bath

Emma loved the water

Emma all done

Mackenzie and Emma

Emma ready for bed

Rylee's big girl bath

Rylee loved the water too

Not a happy Rylee

Rylee

Two clean babies

Proud big sister

Emma in her jammies

Rylee in her jammies

Rylee all swaddled

Emma swaddled

All ready for bed

sweet dreams Emma

Sweet dreams Rylee

As many of you know, I am a very structured person, I love schedules and routines so I knew when we were having twins that they would have to get on a schedule early on. I did this with Mackenzie and she was sleeping through the night in her own crib at 7 weeks. I know this won't take place with the twins because they are still so little in weight, but we are getting closer. Emma and Rylee are no longer sleeping in our room, they are in bassinets in their own rooms. They are such loud sleepers that Bret and I weren't getting any sleep, so with the help of video monitors they are now on their own in their rooms and are doing great.

For our night time routine I have been doing sponge baths, but tonight was their very first big tub bath and they did great. So we start with a bath, they get lotioned up, get their jammies on, they get swaddled and then eat and then it is off to bed. We start the routine at 8 and by 9-9:15 they are sound asleep in their beds. As they get older I will move their routine up. Rylee is my good sleeper she is asleep by 9:15, wakes up at 4:15 eats and then goes back to sleep and wakes at 7:15, Emma is a little more high maintenance and is asleep by 9:15, up at 1:15 eats goes back to sleep, up at 4:15 and then up at 7:15. Not too bad for twins, but hopefully they will be sleeping more, especially Emma in the next few weeks. Here are some pics of their routine from tonight!!

My babies are four weeks old!!

Rylee

Mackenzie and Emma

Emma

It was a little crowded at my 2 week check-up

I can not believe how fast four weeks go, it seems like just yesterday I had my c-section and my little ones arrived. Now they are already four weeks old, where does the time go. Both Emma and Rylee are doing great, Rylee is my little petite girl, who we call "little man" because she looks like a little old man and then Emma is my chunky baby who we call "Emma girl". Emma is exactly like Mackenzie, high maintenance, and adorable, while Rylee is a lot like Bret, she is very independent. Both babies are on a great routine, and are both sound asleep every night by 9:15, then Rylee sleeps until 4:15 eats and sleeps until 7:30, Emma sleeps until 12:15 eats, then wakes up at 4:15 eats and then 7:30, this is why she is my chunky one.

Both babies are really calm and really only get upset when hungry. Things definitely take a lot longer to do for example get out of the house, but we still are doing it. These past two weeks Bret has been off and we have had a lot of fun, we have run tons of errands, gone to the race track, been out to eat, worked out etc all with our family of 5. I took all 3 kiddos to have their pictures taken at the mall by myself and it went well, and we have been going to stroller strides at least 3 times a week just to get the little ones used to the routine. I am working out a little, but still need to take it easy because of my incision and it is killing me, but I don't want to have a set back.

Bret goes back to work on Tuesday which I am dreading because he has been such a huge help. My dad is then coming into town for a week to help me because I am opening up a new location for stroller strides on Feb 2nd and need to advertise and get things ready. Mackenzie is just loving being a big sister, she is fabulous with the babies, even if she does wake them up sometimes. She just loves them so much and wants to hug them even when they are sleeping, which drives me crazy at times, but you have to let her because she is just so in love with them. I will keep you posted as our little ones just grow and grow!!

The Babies have Arrived

Our first family of 5 walk

Daddy and his two babies

What a good big sister

Mackenzie and Rylee

Emma and Rylee

First trip to visit stroller strides

First trip to Starbucks

First trip to the grocery store

Mommas three girls

Rylee...touchdown

Bret and I going on a date we had enough babysitters:)

Happy New Year

Nielsen family of 5

Party animals

Too cute

Two babies and Momma

Emma and Rylee

First time in real clothes not just sleepers

Emma and her pudgy cheeks

They mix in well with Mackenzies stuffed animals

Rylee enjoying the swing for the first time

Emma...Mackenzie used to love this mat

The Nielsen Babies have arrived and they couldn't be more perfect. I had a planned c-section on Dec 18th because Rylee was breech and everything went well. Rylee weighed in at 6lbs 6 oz and Emma weighed in at 6lbs 5 oz, they both were 19 1/4 inches. They are so tiny compared to what Mackenzie was, but for being twins they are considered big. The c-section was brutal, thank goodness I won't ever have to go through that again. My pregnancies are always great, but my recovery is always so hard. The night before I delivered my feet began to swell and then when I went in for delivery my Dr. said that I had become pre-eclamptic, which is common with twins and usually goes away once the babies come out. I went in for the c-section, which wasn't painful except for my shoulders hurting from my abdomen being open, which still grosses me out. Then they took the babies to the nursery and I had to go to recovery for 3 hours, my body was in shock so literally I shook for 3 hours as if I was sitting naked in a snow storm. I had heated blankets all over my body and my head and it still didn't help. Finally after 3 hours I was taken to my room where I got to see my family and my babies. I became really nauseous so they decided to give me morphine through my iv for pain meds, which made me delirious. Finally after two days they took me off of the morphine and I felt better and could eat. At the hospital where I delivered Mackenzie wasn't able to visit us because of the swine flu so she would come to the waiting room and if I wanted to see her I could only see her there, she also couldn't see the babies. This was really hard for her, because I have never been away from her for 5 days and everything was scary for her. My sister took great care of her during those days and I got to see her for a few minutes each day, but I wasn't feeling well so I couldn't stay out in the waiting room for more than a few minutes at a time. Finally I was going to get to go home, and then I got a migraine and was throwing up. If you have ever had a c-section and then had to throw up, you know how horrible it is, with your incision. My blood pressure also stayed extremely high so I was put on blood pressure meds and monitored closely. After 5 days in the hospital I was going insane, same with Bret, he was by my side the entire time, so we were glad it was finally time to go home. Recovery has been hard, but my blood pressure is under control, it is a little low now, which makes me light headed, but better than being too high. My incision is healing great and I am moving around much better. The babies on the other hand are fantastic. They are the easiest babies. Rylee is already sleeping 5 hours a night and Emma is about 3 hours. They are on the same schedule for feeding, which is nice. All in all things are great, Mackenzie is the best big sister ever, and is absolutely adorable with them. I will post more when time allows, it is definitely a crazy life right now with 3 kids, but also amazing