For those of you who don’t know what I’m referring to, I submitted our love story for a contest on Chelsea’s blog.  There were a total of 4 stories in the running, and our story ended up winning thanks to everyone’s votes via Facebook — we won with 88 votes!  So thanks again for all your votes!!!  Here’s our story if you didn’t get the chance to read it…

After I was done making them, Dhara wanted a little playtime with the whales — I watched as she showed the whales to her toy bear (which she lovingly named, “Fency”).  She goes on to say, “See Fency, mama made this.  Be gentle.”

So I dug into my secret stash of Kokka fabrics that I had purchased a year ago (I’d been saving this special stash for our next baby, or babies!), and chose prints for a couple wet bags.  I’m not the biggest fan of “baby prints” — I’m actually not a fan at all, but Kokka makes the most beautiful vintage prints that come off looking nostalgic of days gone by.  Like this one, titled Far, Far Away Snow White Meadow, or even this titled, Sunday Dress — so darn cute, I just love it!  The Japanese sure do have a handle on textiles and style.

Kokka fabrics are almost always a cotton/linen blend which give the fabric a more mature, modern and stylish look.  The linen fabrics I ended up choosing caught my eye with their vintage appeal — they reminded me of vintage flour sacks for some reason.  I ended up making two wet bags — the first being 12″x18″, and the second being 14″x18″.  Each bag can hold around 8-10 diapers.  I just might have to whip up a batch of these in block printed Indian fabrics for the Susie Mey shop!

These past couple weeks I’ve begun to feel more preggo.  I feel like a waddler.  I’m having more and more back/hip pain if I stand or walk around too much — shopping excursions with Dhara are becoming more difficult.  I usually like to save all my errands for one day of the week, but these days more than a couple hours on my feet means pain.  I feel pretty sore turning in bed, and getting in and out of bed must look pretty hilarious.  And every hour or so (maybe even more) my tummy tightens up like a basketball from a Braxton Hicks contraction — I don’t remember having them as often with Dhara.  I’m feeling a whole lot of movement — these guys are definitely trying to get comfortable in there, but it must hard due to the lack of space.  I do feel more movement than I feel kicks; although once in a while I’ll feel a strong kick which really takes me by surprise!  Even more recently I’ve begun to feel little hiccups which fondly remind me of Dhara, she used to get them all the time.

I still can’t believe there’s two of them in there.  I can’t wait to meet them, see what they look like — if they look the same or if they look different, if they look like Greg or look like me, kiss their little feet, snuggle close, give them soothing Indian oil massages, and tote them around in a comfy wrap.  So exciting!  Let’s hope they turn in the right direction come delivery time!  Next week I hope to post some of the baby sewing projects I’ve been working on — some cute stuff, stay tuned!

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I’m horrible at making a meal without a recipe — it’s like I’m not creative in the area of food — I need something to inspire me, (Pinterest, how I love thee!).  I’m also horrible at eating breakfast — I can usually scrounge up something like a fried egg sandwich, or some cereal, but I’m also great at skipping breakfast altogether — not a good thing, I know.  But give me a recipe, and I’m set!  I love finding amazing recipes that I can stash away in my little red recipe box — adding a tried and true recipe to the mix always makes my heart happy.  I love cozy meals, a sweet place setting, homemade bread, a piping tea pot of Greg’s chai, and making things that taste good — whether it be nutritious, or calls for a little too much butter!

I also feel bad because I know I could make Greg something special for breakfast every morning before he’s off to work — but I’m pretty slow in the mornings, so he usually walks out with a mug of cereal and a spoon — although, I must say, the boy could live off of cereal — he loves it that much.  Yet, I still feel bad as a wife because I could be giving him something more — something made with hands and heart.  When it’s time to give Dhara breakfast every morning, I’ve been resorting to toast with jam, yogurt, cereal, or the occasional simple egg sandwich.  This makes me feel bad too because I’m home, and I have time, and I really do enjoy cooking.

Sooo, last week I decided I would work on a weekly meal plan that incorporated a good breakfast and 1-2 dinners a week.  (We live in my parent’s house — so we split up who cooks dinner every night.)  And lunch is usually comprised of leftovers or a sandwich.

The way my mind works, I’m an organizer at heart — almost in an OCD way — so a meal plan really gets me excited to be in the kitchen because I know what I’m making on any specific day, and I know I have the ingredients for whatever I’m making because I went to the supermarket the week before in preparation for the following week’s meals.  Yes, it’s a good thing, at least for moi over here.  Moreover, it helps my family eat alot more healthier.  So here’s what last week looked like:

Monday:  Fried egg, bacon, avocado, and tomato on wheat toast (sooo good!) with an enzyme smoothie (coconut water, strawberries, blueberries, mango, banana, kale, orange juice concentrate).  Homemade ginger honey cheesecake for dessert.

Tuesday:  Cereal with a probiotic smoothie (kefir, plain whole yogurt, blueberries, mango, banana, orange juice concentrate).  For dinner, I made a simple burrito bar with whole wheat tortillas, seasoned chicken, black beans, onions, cheddar cheese, cilantro, jalapenos, sour cream and salsa.  Mama’s Red Raspberry Brew before bed.

Wednesday:  Wheat waffles with syrup and strawberries.

Thursday:  Cream of wheat topped with strawberries.  For dinner, it happened to be my mom’s birthday, so my sister and I cooked up a meal of onion bhajis with cilantro chutney, chicken tikka masala, Szechwan green beans, naan, and mango lassies topped with a dash of crushed cardamom.  Mama’s Red Raspberry Brew before bed.

Friday:  Yogurt and cereal with an enzyme smoothie (coconut water, strawberries, blueberries, mango, banana, kale, orange juice concentrate).  I was supposed to make buckwheat pancakes as per the meal plan, but something came up!

This week, my meal plan includes: breakfast bran muffins, homemade granola, gluten free sandwich bread, fish soup, and a homemade iron infusion.  Meal planning, hmmmm, yes.

A few of my cousins and I celebrated birthdays this month, so we decided to take a group trip to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania and rent a house together.  It’s amazing to see all the little kiddos between all of us — and with three more on the way!  We pretty much relaxed, played games (pictionary + mafia), drank lots of chai (thanks gigin!), gave gifts, had a cozy dinner, the boys went skiing while the gals chatted it up back at the house.  It was nice to see lots of snow since we haven’t seen any this year in Maryland.  Plus, it was the first time ever that Dhara got to play in the snow — she naturally loved it!  It was definitely a hoot trying to get all the kids together for a picture in the snow.

dhara and lucas bubble bathing

a cozy dinner of chili, cornbread and roasted potatoes at a long farmhouse table

the gang

For the past two years I’ve been toting around a Vera Bradley diaper bag — I like it alot, but I’m ready for a change.  I want something a little more “city,” as I’d like to call it. Something a little more stylish and not diaper-bag-like.  I’d prefer a nice leather bag, but of course that’s not practical considering I’d be carrying around bottles, food, and a wet bag of soiled cloth diapers.  So the search for the perfect undiaper bag has been pretty hard!  Someone seriously needs to get on the ball and make better looking diaper bags, because I must say that most diaper bags out there are so darn unattractive.  So I recruited my best friend, Gifty, to help me on the diaper bag search.  It took a while, but we narrowed down the options to 3 bags.  All of them being backpack type options because I honestly think a backpack would be the most convenient for toting around twins and a 2 year old.  I’m really torn between what to choose.  What would you choose?

SYM Charlie Diaper Bag - I love that this looks like a travel bag of sorts.  It’s got leather handles and even turns into a backpack.  I contacted SYM’s Catherine Choi, the designer of this bag, and she said she knows mothers of twins who use this bag and it totally works if you aren’t a person who carries alot.  I’m just not sure if it would hold enough for three kids.  But I overall love the look, and the fact that it’s a full fledged diaper bag that doesn’t look dorky.

Infusion Rucksack Bag - I LOVE that this is just a normal bag — it’s not a diaper bag.  I especially love rucksacks: a backpack in it’s simplest form.  This bag is so classy looking for a simple backpack/rucksack, in my opinion.  The only thing is that this bag isn’t lined inside, so accidental spills could ruin it.  I also contacted Infusion’s Abby Meadow, the designer of this rucksack, and she mentioned that there are moms who use this bag as a diaper bag and love it.  Overall, love it’s simplicity.

Okkatots Diaper Bag – This is NOT my ideal bag, but I included it in my top 3 because it’s so darn roomy.  This backpack honestly seems like the most ideal bag to carry 3 kids worth of items, and in a completely organized manner.  Look at all those compartments!  If I choose this bag, it would be functionality over fashion for sure!  In the end, I’m not opposed to choosing a bag for its functionality because it would probably pose as the easiest/most convenient solution, but then again, a girl’s gotta have a nice bag, right?  ; )

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So what does my newborn stash look like?  Simple, all prefolds and covers!  I feel like they grow so quick in the initial stages that it’s more affordable to just go with prefolds.  Thank goodness Greg has been so open to cloth from the beginning (with Dhara)!  Now I just need to get my mom and sister on board — they will also be changing diapers since there are more bums to go around.  Good thing cloth is super cute — I’m excited to see these two little guys’ bums wrapped in cloth.

Our Newborn Stash:

36 newborn Indian prefolds from GMD / $24 dozen (purchased for Dhara)

10-12 workhorse fitted newborn diapers from GMD / $4.95 each

4 snappi fasteners / $3.95 each (purchased for Dhara)

2 Thirsties x-small covers / $11.50 each

3 Weehuggers size 1 covers / $16 each (on sale)

2 Imse Vimse Organic Fox Fibre newborn covers / $15 each (on sale)

disposable liners

Baby Bum Drops wipes solution / $12 (makes 50 cups)

cloth wipes / $9.95 dozen (purchased for Dhara)

2 handmade wet bags

diaper sprayer / $44.95 (if Greg doesn’t decide to make it himself)

It might look like alot, but some of these items were purchased for Dhara when she was a baby, and newer items can be used for future babies.  So there you go, cloth diapering 2 babies for the first couple months and more — I’ll let you know if this really works!  : )  Oh, and if any of you cloth diapering moms have any advice or recommendations, please feel free to chime in!

baby A: 23 weeks – 1.9 pounds / 26 weeks – 2.4 pounds, 149 beats/min

baby B: 23 weeks – 1.9 pounds / 26 weeks – 2.7 pounds, 145 beats/min

Back in mid August 2011, when we first found out we were pregnant with our second (at that point in our minds it was a singleton), we decided we’d like to look into birthing at a local birthing center.  So we drove an hour to the closest birthing center — a cute, old, white house — and took the tour.  While it seemed like a nice option, we felt that birthing at home would be a similar option, if not a better option.  I didn’t feel inclined to birth on their queen sized beds for some reason — it was a very clean facility, but just imagine sheets from the 70′s.  Although their birthing tub seemed more up my alley for a water birth — dim lights and a calm atmosphere.  But we still concluded that the birth center was not for us.  We really like the idea of a home birth, but not in my parents house!  …Maybe one of these days we’ll have my home water birth if God grants me my dream of a cozy old farmhouse or victorian cottage that Greg could fix up.

Now that we’re having two bambinos, the both of us seem to be the most comfortable birthing in a hospital.  There just seems to be too many risk factors involved.  One being that Baby A be in the head down position to have a normal birth and avoid a c-section.  The other reason being that Dhara had a high case of jaundice, and there is a chance that these babies could too; although we are praying that they don’t, because it’s really hard on our hearts and their little bodies.

Overall, everything is going great, and there are no complications, thank the good Lord!  We are getting our room ready for two little ones to join us, although I’m still not sure what we’re going to do with Dhara since she still sleeps in our bed.  We finally found a double stroller we love, and started a little pile of boy clothes — although, I must say, boy shopping is no fun.  No, not at all!