The twins have arrived

I know I haven't been keeping up on my blog at all but life just catches up with you and goes forward full force sometimes. Now here I sit in a hospital room, it's midnight and I just want to share the blessing of the past few days.

The Bardos bunch welcomed the twins into the world a few days ago. They were born on December 27, 2014 at 4:25 and 4:27 pm. Soon enough I will give details of the day but for now here is where we stand!

Kamdyn Louise weighing 4 lbs 9 oz came out first. She was a true fighter, being only 32 weeks along, they didn't quite get the steroid shot through my system long enough that it could truly get to the babies. But Kami still came out breathing just fine. She got wrapped up tight and I was able to snuggle my face next to hers for a bit in the surgery room. Since arriving she has struggled a little. She wasn't able to keep the air circulating so they placed her on oxygen to help her out. It has taken her a few days but she is now getting the hang of things and is breathing with just a little push of air but circulating her own oxygen. She is absolutely beautiful, she has the darkest hair, little squinty eyes and she hates being unwrapped. Of course we have fallen in love.

Andrew Randall came into the world just after his sister weighing 3 lbs 15 oz, almost 4 lbs...he wasn't quite able to get the oxygen flowing right away and was placed on oxygen immediately. I got a quick glimpse of him in the surgery room but then off he went with Kamdyn and daddy to the nicu. Since, he has just proven to be a rockstar! He was very shortly off of the oxygen and push of air and been breathing on his own since that night. He keeps all his stats up where they are supposed to be. He is very chill and relaxed almost all of the time. Today they had their first feeding day with breast milk into their feeding tubes and boy did he digest it right up. He's been able to go right into the next feedings without any problems. Andrew's hair is a bit lighter and he likes to keep his light eyes open a lot during the day. He is just so handsome I can't get over it!

Phil, the kids and I are all doing great. I decided to stay one more night in the hospital to be close to them. I'm really pushing myself to pump away and give these babies as much of my milk as I can. I can definitely say it has been a few days of roller coaster emotions for me. Being a mom is one of the best gifts in the world, and I have 6 amazing children already to show for that. I may not have given birth to each one but I have fought for them, protected them, loved them, nurtured them and will continue to for the rest of their lives no matter how old they get. But these last few days have been difficult, here you carry these beautiful humans inside of you for whatever the time frame God allows, then they enter this world and it took me a while to truly understand my role. The nurses and doctors are directly in control of their daily lives, we have of course only dealt with amazing nurses and doctors, but for a mom you feel lost. What can I do to protect them and show them I'm here. But the most amazing thing I just witnessed walking into the nicu at midnight to hand over my one thing I know I can give them, milk, was that they know I'm here for them! God already taught them who I am and all I had to do was say hello and I love you too both of them and I could tell they heard me and reacted to my voice. As we continue to visit as often as we can in the nicu, I'm confident they will just get stronger and stronger and be ready for anything this world throws at them! They better be because their 7 siblings are just dying to meet them face to face and smother them with love and kisses!

Andrew

Kamdyn

Week 23...Sorry lots of missing weeks

Life has been overwhelmingly busy. We got the new house, have been doing some clean up work on it, watching the contractors tear it apart and begin putting it back together through renovations, done 2 weddings, threw a fall festival at kids elementary school, Halloween, had our 2nd oldest begin applying for college, she received her first acceptance, oh and the babies are growing like crazy inside of me! Lol

I haven't been keeping up with my blogging at all because I rarely have time to sit at my computer. These pictures are from week 23. We attended a Halloween party. So it's not exactly my picture next to my board and black does wonders to disguise my tummy but here it is!

Renovating and cleaning begins

We are so excited to announce that our long awaited short sale is finally over...we have been in the short sale process on our new house since February 3rd! That's a total of 9.5 months! Yes, it has felt like forever. Our patience almost wore out and we began looking at other properties. We had found a second home we liked but just couldn't decide what to do...this is where this crazy journey gets confirmed to us as a true blessing!

I believe it was 3 weeks ago, on a Monday, we went into our church to meet with our pastor. We had gotten to the point that we just didn't know what to do with the short sale property and this new house. The new house was ready to move in, had great features for our family, we could hold small events if we wanted to but I just want sold. Phil definitely was! The other house (short sale) worried us because we knew we had 3 months of renovations which put us moving in around Christmas, which is also pretty close to when we expect these twins to arrive. I kept trying to have faith that God always has a plan that is larger than we know, he wouldn't have blessed us with twins if he didn't think we would have a home to bring them into. Phil was mostly worried about me, the stress of moving really pregnant and renovations while knowing the twins are on they're way. So this was why we went to meet with our pastor. We asked him about our prayers and really how to know when God was speaking to us. Pastor Tom, was in the middle of telling us how it's ok to ask God a specific question in your prayers and then move forward if it is not answered. If God does not want us to change our path he will guide us in the direction he wants us to go one way or another. Then as he was telling us this Phil receiveda text from our realtor. Lisa told us that the short sale house was ours and escrow would begin the next day!

Here is the beginning of we started!

18 Weeks...22 weeks to go! OR LESS!

I can't believe it's been 18 weeks already.  We are almost to the halfway point, I'm sure for me and my body probably to the halfway point!  Plus for twins full term is actually 38 weeks, so one more week to the exact halfway mark.  So no more waiting here it is....

 

 

This is actually a picture of a tiny belly and this week I have had more than one of the kids say wow mom you're BIG!  I keep telling them, just wait.

 

 

This week was actually such an amazing and exciting week...we found out that our expansion is now bigger than ever, we got our new house and close escrow this next week.  Now I get to add the renovations to the blog, it's going to be a fun few months!  And stressful! 

 

 

Now let's talk the symptoms and fact for the week:

 

For the most part it's been a really great week for aches and pains.  I did spend most of the week in a business convention which just heightened my back pain.  This week has had a little more nausea, usually if I am not eating soon enough that's when I get nauseated. Other than that just my lower left side of my back. I can't wait to have extra time and money to go spoil myself with a massage! Soon enough! 

Headed home...

I'm finally headed home after being in Vegas for a few days at a wedding business convention. I am so excited to see my kids and hubby!

NAMES???

That has been the biggest question since e found out what the babies are a few weeks ago...so here are some of the contenders.  Phil may just kill me for putting all of these up but maybe you all want to help! I will tell you we of course will make the ultimate decision but I would love to get more ideas or input. 

Middle names...I am a huge middle name girl!  I love when a middle name has significance.  I am guessing this is because my middle name is Carroll, which in reality is a normal girl name except the spelling makes it unique because it's my mom's maiden name.  Since, I do have this love, I kind of chose the middle names already and Phil gets the power of the first name.  For our baby girl, her middle name will be Louise, after both of our mom's, they happen to have the same middle name and I just love shortening it to Lou as a nickname with whatever first name we go with!   Baby boy, will be named after my uncle who passed away a couple years ago from his 3rd battle with Leukemia, he was also my Godfather so I wanted to not only pick this name because of those reasons but also because my dad never had a better best friend then his brother Randy!  Our little boy will be "something" Randall after my dad's best friend and brother!

So here is a list of the contenders for names...girls in pink and boys in blue!

 

Natalie Louise

Taytum Louise

Kamdyn Louise

 

Everett Randall

Tyler Randall

Wyatt Randall

 

We think we have the final names chosen however I would love to hear your opinions!  Please post a comment if you have a preference of any of these or respectful suggestions are great too!

Week 14 to 17....oops long time

I guess I'm just not the best blogger yet! I have missed a few weeks not only for posting but also pictures. I guess I have a little excuse for this, I hate not being in the exact same outfit each picture, lol. So on Friday mornings when I'm supposed to take the picture clothe aren't clean, I just forget to take the picture, or we're late for school and I have no time! Oops!

 

Since last time I posted, we've had first day of school for all of the kids, a scary fall down the stairs, a couple injuries already at school, a first middle school dance and football season started! Phew! Oh and we've done 2 weddings and a birthday party for the business along the way!  The family doesn't slow down much but honestly I don't know if we would know what to do if we had to slow down!

 

Here you will see my picture from 14 weeks!  Definitely got the pooch!

It's not too big, felt almost like it had shrunk right around this time.  But the next one you will see....

Now here it is a really pregnant belly.  It definitely went from being weird is she fat shape to definitely round and pregnant!  And you can also see why the same outfit would work better, I look plain old fat in this white shirt, lol! 

 

Symptoms and Pregnancy Facts as of now:

Carrying really high yet the babies are at opposite ends of my belly right now.  Baby A, baby girl, she is sitting extremely low on the right side of my stomach taking up most of the room.  Baby B, baby boy, he is up on the left just below my rib cage along with I think every organ in my abdomen.

 

I have had extreme back pain....so I had a scary fall down the stairs, about 5 steps, on my back.  I of course was carrying too many things in my hands and slipped on the edge and just went down.  We went to the emergency room to be sure everything was ok, and babies were good.  Only problem I have had is my lower back, just next to my tailbone.  Not sure what's wrong by boy does it kill.  If I bend over the standing up and walking after isn't so easy.  But working through it everyday.

 

Nausea and no appetite, just hasn't come back yet.  I am blessed that I have not thrown up or had horrible morning sickness but I can only eat parts of meals.  Phil is not loving it too much because I usually give him my leftovers, lol!

 

Cravings...nothing new!  Still loving salty things!

 

Weight Gain...no clue! My next doctor appointment is Monday so we'll see!

 

Babies...the amazing part of this is that the babies are growing like crazy, I had an appointment early this week when I has 16w4d and baby girl measures at 17w1-2days and baby boy is at least 16w5-7days.  This is making me feel really good especially with my past premature labors with the first 2 pregnancies that I feel confident God has a plan for these little ones and if they come out early he will be sure they are ready to go!

 

The FULL Reveal!

This post went up I thought a few weeks ago and today I noticed that for some reason it didn't post completely from my phone.  I am so sorry!  Here are all of the pictures from our reveal night.  These completely made my night when we got them back!  They totally show exactly what I wanted.

 As I am sure I mentioned, all of the family was hoping for 2 boys.  So I knew if there were any pink balloons we would get a great reaction from everyone.  And lucky me, I have all of these to look back on one day.  We are all so happy with one of each of course and love these babies no matter what I think the idea of adding 2 girls to the already 4 we have shocked our 2 boys that they would be over powered.  But we are good!!!!!!

 First picture BABY A...look at how nervous they all look!

 

 There they are the pink balloons...some excitement.

 

 There's Devyn's big jump, it's starting to sink in for everyone else, seriously another girl!!!

 

I am dying laughing because this is the whole reason I wanted these pictures.  Trust me they will all love this precious little girl but for now she's a sassy little attitude girl they haven't met yet! Ha Ha

 

Don't you love Matt's gagging his throat, Dillan totally walking away just upset! 

 

BABY B...At this point Phil is totally freaking out!  He has his fingers crossed to me and looks like he is going to break into a cold sweat at any moment.

 



 There they are the amazing shade of blue balloons everyone wanted to see.  We're excited!

 

 And here you see the kids allowing it all to sink in.  Look at that excitement!

 

Isn't this just perfect, here we hoping to get pregnant with another child and God blessed us with 2, a girl and a boy!

 



Yep, tears of joy! 

 One of each and so excited!

 

The amazing technology!  The kids were able to open the boxes for Matt and Brielle and show them the balloons.  Such a fun feeling!

First day of school!

Just another exciting day for the Bardos Bunch! I wanted to share the first day of school with everyone.  This year we have 2 big steps for the kids...one going into middle school and another starting her senior year.  Crazy how fast these kids grow up.  You not only hear it all the time but you truly try to tell everyone you know that has babies but wow it just flies by.  Of course, life happens and we just forget to cherish every single small and big step.  Well here is me trying to capture this because trust me, I am horrible at the sentimental picture taking, and save every momento they bring home!  But I still love my babies all 6 of them...soon to be 8!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL 8-22-14

Here she is...Ryleigh, 17, our big senior!  What?  Crazy how fast high school has gone.

 

 Seriously, how did he get so big!  Dillan, 12, first day of middle school!

 

Matthew, 10, going into 5th grade!

 

 Devyn, 9, big 5th grader too!

Lyndsay, 9, 4th grader this year! Wow!  She's not a baby anymore!

And this would be the big dork that waited in line to get his picture taken too on his way to work!  Gotta love his fun sense of humor, even if the sarcasm takes over the house because all of the kids are just like him and I am surrounded by a bunch of smartie pants!

 

 

Just a reminder, life changes in the blink of an eye, we forget to take in each moment.  Even though Phil and I run a business my first and foremost job is taking care of these precious kids.  Trust me there are days I take it for granted so much, get tired, cranky and irritated with just about everything.  But in these moments, I remember that I have amazing kids!  Each of them so different, so unique with their own personalities, ways of doing things and big huge hearts! 

 

Kids....

I am so proud of each of you kids, you are all so smart, loving and polite, thank you for allowing me to be your mom!  That goes for you too Belle, I know you don't need a mom to tell you what to do anymore but I couldn't be more proud to know you can still call me that when you need me!  And to you 2 babies that are yet unborn, you are already truly loved not only by me and your dad but these beautiful siblings you have are going to overwhelm you with their love and generosity.  Thank you God for bringing each of these children into my life, no matter how they became a part of me I truly love each of them equally for their amazing little human beings they are!

They're a....?

Last night was the big reveal....

Now I have to update you on my day first. All of you women out there will understand, while all the men just don't quite understand and of course there's nothing wrong with that, it's just the differences between men and women. I woke up in a sad, frustrated mood, hormones you have to love them! Let's just say Phil very simply and politely told me that my shirt didn't really match my skirt...which turned into me in the closet crying because I couldn't find anything to wear. Here I was starting a very exciting day and just couldn't get excited.

Of course, the kids and I still had a day of fun. All of us girls got our hair done, so nice to pamper myself and its even better when you're hair dresser is your cousin and one of your closest friends, plus she has the most adorable daughter, my niece! Love them! We enjoyed hanging out there, then yummy in-n-out for lunch! Then some relaxing while it poured outside, love the rain!

Phil came home from work with his phone on face time...he ran over and we all gathered around. It was our oldest daughter in Colorado, her husband Matt, was arriving home from his tour in Qatar. He had been deployed there for 9 months. If you haven't seen one of those ceremonies, man so amazing, emotional and beautiful. The soldiers entered to the sound Proud to be an American, then they did more patriotic songs that just pull at your heart strings. The soldiers were released, 200 something soldiers running to their families...and there he was, of course we saw someone's back as they greeted each other and then the 2 of them together! So amazing and just awesome! It was a great experience for us to be a part of even if it wasn't being there directly!

Then about 530 pm, our family came over, my parents (of course we live with them so they were already here, lol), Phil's mom, Phil's sister and our nieces and nephew. We all went up the street to the orange groves in our neighborhood where our great friends, Chad, Milisa and their son Jaxson showed up with 2 trunks filed with balloons for the big reveal!

We got set up and everyone said we should open both boxes together...My only request was one at a time. Now no one really understood but when I get the pictures back you all will, lol! Everyone wanted boys, because we have 4 girls and 2 boys, so they wanted 2 boys to even the playing field...not to mention there's enough estrogen in the house!

We opened baby A's box and guess what we saw...PINK! The reaction was classic, smiles, but nothing too huge, I think Devyn jumped for joy! I saw the boys give frowns after they realized what they saw. (Pictures will be up tomorrow late night) We all headed over to the 2nd box for Baby B...Phil looked at me like babe please save me, he was so nervous for more pink. Ha ha! Then there they were....BLUE balloons. No joke...the picture had everyone jumping up with joy arms in the air! So classic! Here is the one photo I have.

A huge thank you to our great friends Chad and Milisa who did all this work to make this happen! We love them so much!

In awe with a single kick . . . Week 13

Last night, I laid down next to my exhausted wife as she had already fallen asleep. She was laying on her side, facing away from me, but she had moved one leg up, so she was almost on her stomach.  As she lay slumbering away unaware of my presence, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to see if I could feel the twins moving.  Up until now, she was able to feel little twinges here and there and had tried to get my hand in the right position on numerous occasions, but inevitably, they would go undetected.  So last night, she lay sleeping and I knew there would be no accessory muscle usage or any other movements besides her rhythmic breathing  . . . 

I snuggled up behind her and took my right hand and slowly placed it under her abdomen.  As I lay motionless, I waited for the slightest movement. Nothing. I repositioned my hand. Nothing. I decided to push a little on her abdomen kind of like the ultrasound tech had done to get them to move . . . PAY-DIRT!!!  

It was the slightest little push back, "knock it off Dad!" . . . and then a second kick, "yeah, what he said, knock it off Dad!" (see what i did there, he?).  It almost startled me, but then I was filled with this immense sense of joy.  Because the doctor can tell you your pregnant.  The doctor can show you a picture of the tiny little babies growing within your wife.  And the doctors can show you a video of babies moving inside her even though there isn't any resemblance of a pregnant lady yet.  But recently, my wife's 'baby bump' has began to grow and the little belly that we admired at first with excitement is becoming more and more pronounced and now, couple that visual representation of pregnancy with a physical touch, that connection to our children, it's such a powerful feeling.  It overwhelms me.  And I'm not going to lie, I had that special little moment all to myself.  Quietly in the still of the night, no one else awake or aware of what I had just experienced.  So cool.

That bump is no longer a bump . . .

And tonight, we find out what we're having!!!!  So exciting and we can't wait to know so we can plan for their arrival.  Pictures and the great news will follow!!!!

12 Weeks!

Okay...here is my first profile post!  Now mind you, I think I had Phil take the picture at least 3 or 4 times.  I am not a selfie girl, I don't have a lot of pictures of me and I am so uncomfortable being the center of attention in this way!  Now, I know most of you would say yeah right, but really I just don't like it!  LOL 

 

As you can see there is a small pooch!  I decided to take the pictures first thing in the morning because that's when it is small.  By the evening it's huge! Symptoms haven't changed much.  This week had a lot more headaches, pressure in my lower back and abdomen.  Otherwise, I am truly trying to just enjoy each moment.  One thing I am amazed by is the amount of people we have run into that have been touched by twins.  We have found a few friends and acquaintances that have twins or are a twin.  We are so excited to continue down this journey!  Thanks for checking in and all of the great responses we have had on Phil's Facebook!

Our first baby project!

I haven't updated you on our house lately but unfortunately we are still in escrow.  We had to start the short sale process over again which has caused a delay but we are patiently waiting. We are thanking God for the journey and the fact that it has not gone back up on the market for someone else to grab. 

But with that said, the planner in me doesn't like the idea of not having a plan for rooms and starting on things!  At this point, if we close when we are supposed to we may be able to move in by Thanksgiving.  Yep, forever away!   I will be HUGE by then and setting up a nursery probably won't be that easy.  Of course, I can do little things now but we don't have the storage at all to buy anything yet.  Hopefully after we close escrow the end of August we can begin buying things and storing in the new garages for now. 

Until then, I wanted to start a project that I will use starting next week when I am officially out of the 1st trimester and start the profile pictures.  I see so many blogs and pictures of chalkboards and dry erase boards used that I knew I wanted something similar yet different.  So here it is.  Mind you at this point, the babies room idea is Nautical, Orange, Navy Blue and Gray, no matter the sex.  I will girlie it up more for girls and if its one of each its a great shared theme. 

 Piece of metal...which can be used as a dry erase if wanted (Thank you Amber for writing on her cookie sheet to figure this our for me!)  Piece of 8 foot wood border that Phil cut and painted orange.

No work bench so he is being creative with a cooler!

Adding the nautical rope!

 

Vinyl numbers for the board.  Hopefully they should peel on and off for me to use with each week.  I was able to cut out number 1 to 7 and the word Weeks, however, I need more vinyl to finish!

 

Last step will be to put it all together and take our first picture.  But you will have to wait until next Friday when I am officially 12 weeks!

Real Babies now!

We finally were able to get to our appointment with our OB.  Now, I absolutely love her so when she walked in very pregnant I was shocked!  Just my luck, I was able to catch her on her last day in the office but unfortunately she is not coming back to that office.  Such a bummer!  But needless to say, the reason I was so excited to see her was the fact that she was so excited to hear we were pregnant!  She knew we were going to go through the IVF process, when she walked in she was just ecstatic. 

We were able to get another ultrasound of the babies and now they actually look like babies.  Arms, legs, fully developed organs, little humans inside of my body!  I am not sure this link will work.  But this day, they were actually moving too.  One of the babies was moving like crazy so we took a video. 

Now don't worry, the other baby is not way smaller.  They are actually measuring only 2 days apart and bigger than average which is good.  The angle of the ultrasound wand is why one looks bigger.  If the video doesn't work sorry! Text me and I can send it to you!

 

 

This journey is so amazing!

Official Anouncement!

On our trip to CO, I was able to take this picture so that we could officially announce the pregnancy!

Fun part...Brielle, Ry and Phil all posted on their accounts, competing to see who could get the most likes and comments.  I think Ry won!

 

 

So our beautiful family will have 2 more added to this!

 

Road Trip!

As if I am not crazy already...I decided to take the kids on a road trip to visit our oldest daughter in CO!  Yep, me and 5 kids, in our little car that doesn't have a DVD player.  Ha Ha!

Can you see the luggage in the back piled on top of the window...oh and that is bags between the girls!

 

 

We drove from our house on Wednesday the 9th to St. George, UT.  This was a quick 6 hour drive and then we stayed the night at a hotel.  The kids did great, the only drove me crazy once we were out of the car....questions, questions, questions!  The next morning, July 10th, my 35th birthday (I'm officially getting older, lol), we got up early had the continental breakfast and off we went for the long 12 hour drive to Denver!  Again, kids were amazing in the car.  The drive was amazingly beautiful and the only downfall was stopping about every 2.5 hours for bathroom breaks!  We met Brielle in Denver for a fun birthday dinner!  We even were treated to dinner by my mom in CA, somehow!  That was fun!  Then off we went for the 2 hours to see Brielle's new house she moved into in Fountain, CO. 

 

The 4 youngest drove that last 2 hours with Brielle, so Ry and I enjoyed to quiet car, ha ha!  We had such an amazing visit with Brielle.  Here are some of the highlights of the week. 

 Zoo near Brielle's house...sorry don't know why my phone did this to this picture!

 Zoo Fun!

 We had dinner and evening fun!  One night the boys wanted their nails painted.  I know crazy boys!

 Yep...these are my boys with painted nails!  Don't worry they took it off first thing in the morning!

This was our stop at the Olympic training center...this place is a free tour and so worth it!  If you are ever in the area stop there!  Brielle worked on Monday so we went while she was at work and the kids really enjoyed it!  We actually got to see people training for the next trials!

 

 This was my favorite part of the trip.  Brielle had moved in a few months prior to our visit but she just didn't finish unpacking or hanging or decorating.  I finally got to be like my mom who has blessed many people many times!  We went shopping galore, Target, Hobby Lobby and a cool store out there called At home!  We bought tons of goodies for her house and turned it into a beautiful home.  The best part was when Belle, who has inherited by frugal attitude told me I didn't need to buy her something.  I turned around in Target and told her shut your mouth, it's not everyday I get to be MOM to you anymore!  Her face was priceless and the kids all laughing at her telling her "Mom, just told you!"  And of course, I meant it in the most loving way.  It was truly so much fun to help her decorate and enjoy the time with her!  

 Guest Bathroom

Kitchen...we added more later in the trip but I didn't take a picture after!

 

 

We stayed for almost a week and truly enjoyed every moment with Brielle.  It was so nice to hang out with the kids all together and see them all interact.  It made me that much more excited to add 2 more kids to our family.  I know some will say we are crazy because of the age differences but to see Brielle at 21 (almost 22) paint the kids nails, snuggle and interact made me think of the memories we have all yet to make with the younger kids now being the older ones one day, or even the amazing years we have ahead with a million grandkids all in one house being crazy when the twins will be teenagers and love playing with them!  Life couldn't be better for us right now and I am excited to share our family with these two new lives!

 

 

PS - the way home was a great ride too!  We even stayed at Phil's brothers house in New Mexico which the kids just loved!  Last 2 hours closest to home were miserable but hey we made it safe and sound that's all that matters!