34 Week Update!

I've made it to a new milestone in this twin pregnancy! If I were to go into labor naturally at any point from now on, they will not take measures to stop it. Yay! That means that they would be considered healthy enough at this point for it to not be dangerous for them to come into the world. Even if they had to spend a little bit of time in the NICU, they would be quite healthy. I am proud of us for lasting this long!

So I received some good and bad news at my appointment yesterday. The good news is that both babies are measuring 5 lbs even and head down. They have never been more than a couple of ounces apart through the whole pregnancy, which is a very good thing for identical twins! It means that they are getting equal amounts of nutrients from their shared placenta. The doctor was also pleased with my blood sugar numbers and said that we can continue managing with diet only.

Now for the bad news. My blood pressure was high again for the second time in the last two appointments. It wasn't frighteningly high, but just enough to be concerned. The doctor ordered me to be on limited activity but NOT bed rest, praise the Lord! I am supposed to stay off my feet as much as possible but am still allowed to take care of my kids. I am being checked for pre-eclampsia but I am praying that it is just gestational high blood pressure, which isn't as dangerous as pre-e. I go back in a week and if my blood pressure is still high, then we will reconsider the timeline of when the best time for the babies to be born will be. They may come a little earlier than expected.

I am so thankful for family and friends who have come around to help us in so many ways! Right now two of my sisters in-law are downstairs cleaning my house for me. I am horrible about asking people for help and always feel bad but am very thankful for those who read between the lines and come over to help anyway. I better get used to it because I know that we will be needing more help after the babies come! We are learning a good lesson in accepting the kindness and generosity of others. :-)

Christmas Cinnamon Rolls/Mounds

Oysters, cinnamon rolls, fruit salad, and hot chocolate. Sounds quite delicious! That's my husband's family's traditional Christmas breakfast. It doesn't sound much like a breakfast of champions for a diabetic, does it? I guess the oysters would be fine, if they weren't cooked in Bisquick like pancakes. But I don't even like oysters to begin with so I guess there's not a whole lot left for me to enjoy except a little bit of fruit salad. It's times like this when I wish that I could be on medication so that I don't have to worry quite as much about my diet! However, I really want to avoid taking more meds so I had to find an alternative. I scoured the internet for low carb cinnamon roll recipes and finally found a few that I was able to combine to make my very own recipe! I call them: Cinnamon Mounds! I'll explain why later.

I really hate finding recipes online that are about 95% pictures but can understand why people take pictures every step of the way. Some people are more visual learners. But I just want to READ a recipe and ignore all the other junk. However, I feel the need to make this educational and entertaining so I took a few unnecessary pictures. I'm sorry if you are like me and just want to read the recipe.

Irene's Cinnamon Mounds
Ingredients for mounds:
2 cups almond flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 Tbsp baking soda
1 Tbsp baking powder
3 Tbsp flax seed (optional, but more fiber=more health benefits!)
2 eggs
2 Tbsp unsweetened applesauce
1 Tbsp unsweetened almond milk
1 Tbsp honey

 I tried to do one of those cool ingredient pictures you see on every other blog but it didn't turn out that great. I'm just not much of a photographer (or baker).

 Filling:
1 1/2 Tbsp melted butter
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cup Splenda/sucralose (I used Walmart brand sucralose)

Icing:
3 oz cream cheese
3 Tbsp unsweetened almond milk
1/2 cup splenda

1) Add dry ingredients to medium sized mixing bowl. Add wet ingredients to small bowl and combine. Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and stir.

This is where I think I messed up a little bit. My tablespoons of applesauce turned out to be pretty heaping and I think it made this stuff just too sticky. I read that it would be sticky anyway, but this was beyond the realm of sticky and more like nasty goop (that just happened to smell like cinnamon apples)!

2) Form mixture into a ball and refrigerate at least 20 minutes until harder. I kept mine in all day because I ran out of energy and simply could not get past this point. 

3) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a piece of wax paper with cooking spray (clever, never thought of this before) and press dough flat into a rectangle. I highly suggest using your hands because it is just too sticky for a rolling pin. 

4) For the filling: Combine splenda and cinnamon in small bowl. Brush melted butter onto flattened dough then sprinkle with cinnamon/splenda mixture. 

5) Using a pizza cutter (or knife, or whatever you have), cut 5 strips to roll up into rolls. 

Looks pretty great, right? Oh, you just wait!

6) Begin at one end and roll each strip with the cinnamon/splenda mixture inside. The first strip rolled beautifully. The rest stuck to the paper and my fingers like nothing else! I tried squeezing the cracks together but that just broke the dough apart more and made it stick even more to my fingers. These made gigantic rolls/mounds so I cut them in half and glooped them in a greased baking dish. 

I was sad and I must admit, the evil pregnancy hormones reared their ugly heads and made me cry a tiny bit. Every past baking failure came flooding back into my head. But I quickly realized that the way they look will not affect how they taste and I was just fine!

7) Place in oven and bake for 25 minutes. They will be browned along the edges and on the top. 

8) Icing: Using an electric mixer, mix cream cheese and milk until well combined. It will be a little runny. Add splenda and continue mixing until smooth. Spoon over cinnamon rolls after they come out of the oven. 

They don't look too bad covered in icing!

It tasted pretty good but left that typical sucralose after-taste in my mouth.

Overall, I think these are good as long as I call them cinnamon mounds. Adjusting expectations can often help you view things differently! As long as I don't expect this to be just like a cinnamon roll, I can be happy and enjoy my mound. :-) 

Another Food Post

I feel like all I write about or think about lately is food. It will be so nice to go back to eating almost anything after the babies are born! I'm going to educate you a little bit in the diet of a diabetic. You see, one slice of bread, whether it be whole wheat or white, has around 15 grams of carbohydrates, which is considered 1 serving. That means that having a sandwich gives me about 30 grams of carbs (or 2 servings) plus whatever else may be in the sandwich and all of the sudden I have just eaten about half of the carbs that I am allowed for the day (that's a SLIGHT exaggeration). But I am really excited about these wraps that I found at Kroger the other day.

I think they're technically flour tortillas but I am just going to use them for making wraps. One tortilla has 14 g of carbs, 9 g of fiber, and 5 g of protein. Anything that is high in fiber (above 5 g) kind of cancels out some of the carbs because high fiber foods are digested more slowly, so it's kind of like each tortilla is only 5 g of carbs (kind of)! Plus anytime you have carbs, you should be eating protein as well. The way I understand it, protein somehow helps the carbohydrates absorb slower into the blood stream. At least I think, someone please correct me if I am wrong. And I'm supposed to be eating somewhere around 100 grams of protein a day so I love finding things that have a little hidden protein in them. So anyway, today I had tuna with light mayo on a wrap with low fat mozzarella cheese and fresh spinach. I couldn't really tell the difference between this wrap and others that I have tasted even though it is SUPER healthy. This was exactly the kind of lunch that I need every now and then to be reminded that being a diabetic for the moment really isn't all that bad. The only problem I see with these wraps is that they cost a lot more than I really want to pay. So even though I want to eat them every day, I will have to use them sparingly. HOWEVER, I love knowing that there is GOOD food out there that I can eat guilt free. 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! It is now 2015. I can't believe how fast time seems to move these days. This is the year that my husband and I will turn 30. It's odd to think of myself as a near 30 year old because I still feel like a young lady. In my youth, a 30 year old was someone who had their life together and was, well, old! And now that I'm almost 30, it doesn't seem very old to me at all!

More importantly, however, is that this is the year our twins will be born. We will be seeing their sweet faces in no more than a month and that is incredible!! My only goals are for these babies to stay put as long as possible and for our family to make it through this year alive and well. That's not too much to ask for, right? ;-)

So please pray for us as we step into what will be the biggest year of our lives! It's going to be a crazy one and I am so excited!

10 Things I Can't Do That I Could With My Previous Pregnancies

This post is not meant to complain, but to remind myself that it is important to view things with a sense of humor sometimes and not take things so seriously. The other day somebody told me that I looked like a beached whale. I was not offended in the LEAST BIT because a) it was from someone that I am very close to who knows EXACTLY how I feel, also being a mother of twins and b) it is a very good description of how I actually feel. I probably wouldn't make it through the day if I couldn't see the humor in my many discomforts and annoyances. And looking at it from this perspective reminds me that I am blessed. The pain of being pregnant with twins is not a punishment, but an absolute gift from God that I am truly thankful for. 

So here it is, my list of 10 things that I can't do that I could do with my previous pregnancies:

1) Put on and take off socks

I actually CAN put on socks but it depends on the kind of socks, the time of day, and whether or not I can manage to hold my breath at the time. However, a friend from church gave me an occupational therapy care package complete with a sock putter-onner and a sock taker-offer (or what we call a "getter"). I'm sure they have other names but I don't know what they are. So now I can manage! I also have an amazing husband who literally gets a thrill out of putting my socks on for me. I guess it has something to do with me needing him. :-) I wonder how he'll feel when I ask him to cut and paint my toenails tonight. 

2) Drive

I can still manage to squeeze into the van to drive but the car is definitely off limits. With how fast these babies are growing, I'm sure I won't even be able to drive the van by my next OB appointment! 

3) Eat whatever I want

Yeah so I couldn't exactly eat whatever I wanted in my previous pregnancies but I never really had to worry. I ate well and managed to gain the minimum amount of weight in both pregnancies, but I didn't have to calculate every little thing before I even took a bite. "How much is a serving? Woah, a half of a cup isn't very much at all. How many carbohydrates are in this? How much of that is sugar? Does it have fiber in it? Okay, 23 minus 5. That's doable. Now I need something with protein. Protein. Protein. What has a good amount of protein in it?" This literally goes through my mind before I eat ANYTHING. And I didn't have to poke my finger 4 times a day! 

4) Bend over

Any woman who has ever been pregnant can tell you that bending over always gets difficult towards the end of pregnancy but I could still manage to do it with some discomfort. However, it has been a couple of months since I have been able to bend over without feeling lightheaded. And now the pain in my back, hips, and pelvis is so severe that bending over is just not really an option. I'm thankful to have willing little servants helpers who can easily bend over and pick things up for mommy! 

5) Special time with hubby

Impossible. Enough said. *blush blush*

6) Go out in public

I have never been so worried about germs in my life! I caught the swine flu when I was 37 weeks with my first and was SO sick! I ended up having to stay a night in the hospital. When my husband got sick a week later, I was so worried that we would be bringing our baby into a house of death. I can't imagine going through that while pregnant with twins! Now the chance of bringing germs into the house is much greater with two young children. The chances of having babies with compromised immune systems is also much greater with twins, so we are trying to limit contact with the outside world. I guess Amazon will be my buddy for the foreseeable future!

7) Make it through the day without crying

Whether it's broken glasses, almost late library movies, a sweet moment with one of the children, a kind gesture from my husband, a bad blood sugar reading, pain, lack of sleep, a sappy movie (or commercial), inability to find a shoe or my purse, or even the cat attempting to get on the kitchen counter, I can guarantee you that I will cry pretty much every day. 

8) Speak to my children calmly

I have no patience with the kids and I am constantly on the verge of exploding. I have been praying for patience and self-control but boy, those are hard to come by these days! 

9) Hold my children

This has been a tough one for me. I've never been big on carrying my kids around everywhere and only used some form of carrier when necessary, like when baby girl was always fussy when I was trying to make supper, but what mother doesn't enjoy holding her children on her lap and reading them a story or just giving them cuddles? I'm too big and uncomfortable for that now! As my son said the other day, "Mommy, your lap is getting buried." 

10) Get comfortable...ever

Yes, everyone knows that it is impossible to get comfortable at the end of pregnancy, but having more than one baby in there brings discomfort to a whole new level. And as my OB said at my last appointment, "It's going to get worse before it gets better!"

On the bright side, I know that it is all worth it. Soon we will have two new beautiful little blessings to add to our growing family. And I can only imagine how much easier future pregnancies (if there be such) will be! This has been a struggle and I know that the struggle will not end with the birth of our babies, but it is my prayer that God will use this experience to transform me into a more self-controlled,  patient, kind, mature, organized, and disciplined woman with a stronger desire to have a better relationship with the Lord. 

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4

eMeals

Have you ever heard of or tried eMeals? In case you are unfamiliar, you pay a small fee to receive a weekly meal plan with a grocery shopping list. They offer a variety of categories of meal plans- low calorie, budget friendly, low fat, paleo, gluten free, slow cooker, diabetic, kid friendly, simple gourmet, and many others. Most people who try eMeals seem to like it. We tried it about a year ago and really loved it. I mean, if Dave Ramsey endorses something, it must be good, right?? It helped us to save some money by having a meal plan and shopping with intention. We planned out each trip to the grocery store and didn't buy a bunch of extras that we would never eat. We used it for 3 months then decided that we had learned enough about meal planning to venture out on our own. It worked for a couple months, until I went back to my old way of meal planning- remembering at 4:30 that I have a family to feed and trying to scrounge something up at the last minute.

When I found out that I had gestational diabetes, I was at a loss for what food to eat! It wasn't like I could gradually change my diet, I had to change it immediately for the health and safety of myself and my babies. I really didn't know how to eat. I knew that I could manage for breakfast, lunch, and snacks but supper is always the most stressful meal of the day. Making something that a) everyone likes and b) is well-rounded and healthy can sometimes be a little tricky, especially with my style of last minute cooking.  So we decided to go back to eMeals and use their diabetic plan and figured that would at least help me with preparing a supper that the whole family would enjoy and that I could eat. 

So far we have used about a week and a half's worth of meal plans because of Christmas and spending time with family, but we have found some very interesting meals that we will definitely be making again. Our surprise favorite was Pineapple Glazed Meatballs with brown rice. The recipe called for whole wheat couscous but since we are trying to SAVE money, we decided to just use cheapo brown rice. I ate my meatballs on a very small helping of rice and it was so delicious! I gotta tell you, we aren't exactly known for our adventurous eating habits in this family, so this was a little out there for us and we weren't too excited to try it. But we all really liked it and my husband asked me to make it again sometime!  

So lesson learned. Just because it seems unusual to me, doesn't mean that it won't be good. It may just be my new favorite! I'll check back with more interesting meals when we come across them. For now, it's turkey chili leftovers tonight. Yum!! 

Major Update!

So I'm not very good at this. As you can see, it's been a while since I wrote a new post! A lot has happened in that time and I have had many ideas of what to write but never managed to make it to the computer with them. I wish I could say that I've just been too busy with Thanksgiving and Christmas and all that goes into the planning and preparing for both holidays, but I haven't actually been that busy since I decided to only leave the house out of absolute necessity a few weeks ago. I have just found other things to do with my time. Plus I have the memory of a peanut, making it difficult to remember to sit down and get to work.

So here is a not-so-quick update:

Our 5 year old son had surgery in mid-November to fix an intestinal issue. It was the most stressful and nerve-racking experience in my five years as a mother! However, he healed remarkably well and has had no other issues. Praise the Lord for a full recovery!

Right before Thanksgiving we were blessed with a beautiful mini-van for a very low price. The owner of the car lot goes to our church and gave us a fantastic deal, better than anything we could ever imagine! We are so thankful for him nudging us towards something that was a little out of our price range but that was completely worth it. It is the newest and nicest car that either of us have ever owned! We are living a debt free lifestyle so we paid cash and the van is officially ours!

We spent Thanksgiving with my husband's family then took off the day after for a trip to the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky for the weekend. We had a great time and learned a lot about God's creation! The kiddos did really well on the trip and we really enjoyed taking the road trip in our new van.

Where else do you get to ride a triceratops? 

Little girl LOVED the moving, roaring dinosaurs!

Shortly after returning from Kentucky the lovely ladies at my church threw me a baby shower! It was beautiful and fun and I feel blessed beyond measure that my church family was so thoughtful. We won't have to buy diapers for quite some time!

Our favorite time of the year is Christmas time and we really enjoyed taking part in our annual Christmas traditions! Decorating, looking at lights, baking, making gingerbread houses, singing Christmas hymns around the piano, and opening presents. We love celebrating the birth of Jesus by doing a nightly devotion with our Advent calendar. If it wasn't for our sweet boy loving that tradition above all others, we would have forgotten! My husband's family Christmas will be next weekend so it isn't quite over for us yet.

Our beautiful children

Our five year-old's first gingerbread house 

The boy loves setting up his own nativity scene

We are big fans of Christmas lights and were thrilled to have enough lights to put on the outside of the house this year!

My husband, son, and I worked together to make these cookies on Christmas day. A sweet woman from our church gave us the kit to make them, otherwise we never would have thought to do it!

Two very excited children on Christmas morning!

I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes in mid-December. I was so disappointed and remember crying the whole day I found out! I had never had issues with my blood sugar before and felt like it was the end of the world. I was quite dramatic about it. I had NO IDEA what to eat and the prospect of poking my finger with a needle four times a day for the next couple of months was quite daunting! However, it turns out that I have a pretty mild case and my doctor and I are hopeful that I can manage it with diet and stay off of medication. It has been difficult to retrain my brain from what I thought was good, healthy food to what is actually healthy for ME. Breakfast is the hardest meal of the day but I have been eating a lot of eggs and breakfast wraps. We joined eMeals with a diabetic family plan and have been able to eat some new yummy meals that everyone likes. I will be sharing some of my favorite meals on here in the future. My husband's family Christmas breakfast is oysters cooked with Bisquick and cinnamon rolls but I don't like oysters (or any seafood really) and I can only eat about 1/8 of one those delicious cinnamon rolls. So this week I am going to attempt to make my own diabetic friendly cinnamon rolls using almond flour, almond milk, applesauce, and Splenda. I'll update you on that venture!! 

I am currently 32 weeks pregnant with my sweet little twinnies! Despite being head down for most of our ultrasounds, they are currently head up. Baby B enjoys banging around inside the bottom of my rib cage and Baby A has decided that my bladder is a soccer ball. My back, hips, and pelvis have been more sore than I could imagine and I am waking up every hour at night to hips that are screaming in pain. Heaving myself to a different position is no easy task and it usually takes a while for me to fall back to sleep. I have contractions daily, although they are few and far between so I am not worried about pre-term labor (yet). At my last appointment I had a slightly high blood pressure which put the doctor on edge but since it went down a little bit after taking it again 15 minutes later, he said that we won't worry about it for right now. If it's high again at my next appointment then we'll go from there. My doctor is really great and believes in taking hurdles one step at a time and not dwelling on things that haven't happened yet, which cuts down greatly on the worry. But despite those things, the pregnancy is going well and we are praying for two healthy full term babies! 

Out of all the many ultrasounds we have had, our sweet girls have only had their heads apart once. Every other time their heads are right next to one another. I can't wait to see them sticking together after they are born!

This is me at 30 weeks with a tummy about as large as full term with my other two children. :-)