The Time Daddy Finally Gets To Hold His Twinners!

The twinners started out high on his chest... and eventually would end up below his moobs (man boobs).

I'd go over and bring them back up on his shoulder, and the'd sink down again... over and over.

I asked him later,

"How was it, holding them together?"

He said, kind of hesitantly, "it was great."

I asked why the weirdness?

He said, "well it was really hard. They kept squirming. I don't know if I want to try it again."

It really is hard holding them together at this stage. They are both so tiny you have to be so careful, and they both have head movement than you'd think. 

I promise he's not naked here... basketball shorts were included in this family affair. 

Love,

Brittney (and Trevor)

The Time I FINALLY Get To Hold My Twinners!

Seriously, can't describe the joy at holding my guys together.

They started out apart, like so.

Savannah started to fuss and move and head bang me. She eventually migrated over on her brother's head - and was immediately content. 

And then she decided that wasn't comfy enough and laid her head on his back. It was so cute. They both slept so soundly together and didn't fuss at all.

She's such a poser. She's always got her hands in these diva like positions.

Love,

Brittney

Thor and Loki

 We had our 16 week gender ultrasound today. I’ve been seeing the Nurse Midwives group at IHC, and they don’t tell you the gender until your 20 week anatomy scan. We had already had one ultrasound through them, but was too early to tell gender. They did say 70% they thought girl.

My friend’s Dr’s office offers a 16 week gender ultrasound, complete with a DVD and pictures, for $30. 

Pay $30 and find out the gender a month early. That was a no brainer for Trevor and I. It isn't affiliated with a Dr. and isn’t a medical exam. They said on the form we had to sign it was solely for “entertainment purposes” which I found hilarious.

The night before, I was so excited I didn’t really sleep. I’ve fallen in love with this baby. It was a tough road, coming so unexpectedly, but I’ve fallen for this little baby head over heels. I often would start tearing up because I wanted to hold Thor so much. The last week waiting was utter torture!

Trevor filmed our last ultrasound, which I’ve watched many times since. I asked him to film this one as well, and then we realized we get a DVD. So I thought he wasn’t going to film it. Luckily he did. They finally call us back and I lay on the table, bursting with excitement to see my baby and find out the gender.

There is a big screen in front of me showing the ultrasound. Before I even look at the screen the ultrasound tech says, “so you know you are having twins, right?”

Uh…. I can’t even describe what went through my mind at that point. I weakly get out, “What?”

She says it again. Twins. I then begin to tell her this isn’t funny, there is only one baby - we just had an ultrasound.

Thank goodness Trevor did decide to film this! We have this moment of utter shock all on camera. The best part is he is filming what is obviously twins on the screen, while I haven’t seen them yet, I’m looking at the tech and arguing with her about teasing me about twins.

Trevor is nervously laughing in the background. It’s awesome.

At the end I say, “What do we do?” and Trevor says, “take care of them.” Thank goodness I’ve got this awesome man by my side! I’m so grateful for him!

As soon as she said twins and I saw these gorgeous babies on the screen, I started crying. It was such an emotional moment. I love how the video shows the emotional aspect of it, while also being utterly hilarious.

We’ve got a set of boy/girl twins.

Turns out Thor (baby B) was too lonely and needed his sister (Baby A). We’re calling her Loki. Seems fitting, being the sister of Thor. Plus I’ve been informed Loki is a Hawaiian name and means flower. So there you have it. The true story of Thor and Loki Schauerhamer.

We’re thinking Oliver Thor and Elaina Loki. Kididng. Well, maybe not. We’ll see J

We are completely in shock. Our world has been turned upside down. This pregnancy was totally unplanned (and shouldn’t have been able to happen in the first place…) and has taken me 2 months to accept and another to get excited for. And now we’re told at 17 weeks it’s TWINS! I feel like I just found out I’m expecting all over again.

Financially, physically, emotionally – in every way this changes our plans and our lives dramatically.

It has helped validate this pregnancy though – I’ve been so sick and so tired and all my symptoms seem worse than other pregnant moms at my stage. I was starting to get down on myself thinking I’m just weak or I’m being a baby.

Finding out about the twins makes everything fit together. Getting big so fast, being so so so sick and tired, the achy joints already. It all fits.

When I first found out I was pregnant, I had a dream I was pregnant with twins. I’m not a prophetic dreamer, so part of me brushed it off. The other part wondered if the Lord was preparing me for something. 

Then my stomach popped out way early. I thought for sure it was twins. I kept telling Trevor, “I’m too big for a single baby. It has to be twins.” He did research at work one day on twin symptoms, haha. He’s so cute. When I went in for the first ultrasound, I was super nervous to find out if it was twins or not. And the tech only found one baby (which I think was Loki. She is in front, Thor is in back. Plus she said she thinks 70% girl, so that is my guess) so we left completely relieved that there is just one!

 

Then to find out over a month later there are TWO!

 

And all the ultrasound pictures! I’m already the crazy mom who posts hundreds of pictures almost the same of her kids because she can’t choose the best one – they are all amazing! Even via ultrasound I think these guys are ADORABLE! 

 

TWINS!

 

 

 

 

 

Baby A - Female - LOKI

 

Baby B - Male - THOR

 

 

Tribute to the Worlds’ Greatest Husband

Seriously.

This pregnancy hasn’t been easy on me. I don’t think pregnancy in general is ever easy, but holy moly is it harder than I ever expected.

I’ve been really sick. I don’t throw up, I dry heave. I get sick like I need to throw up, and then just dry heave over and over and feel so sick afterwards. If I start in the morning, the rest of the day goes downhill from there. And occasionally my body will give me a nice surprise by actually throwing up, when I’ve become conditioned to thinking no matter how sick I feel, nothing will come out (this happened one morning and luckily I was holding my breakfast plate and threw up all my breakfast over my remaining breakfast. Gross. Or the time Trevor asked me if I wanted a banana in my lunch and I thought about eating a banana and got sick).

Being this sick means I can’t do much. I can’t go in the kitchen, which means I can’t make food, open the fridge (or be in the living room when the fridge is open), do dishes or even fill up my own glass with water. It’s been so frustrating to me to be so utterly helpless. I’ve had to depend on Trevor for basically everything nutrition wise. I’ll try to get myself water and the sink sets me off and I’ll just start dry heaving and have to lay down till the nausea subsides.

One day I stayed home from work and had to warm up the lunch Trevor left for me. After several unsuccessful attempts to get near the food, I sprayed the kitchen with fabreeze, stuck a Preggie Pop (these things actually do work! They help a lot with the nausea) in my mouth, covered my face except for my eyes in a shirt and was able to get the food in the microwave.

This is my life.

I struggle to allow anyone to help me, let alone ASK for it. It’s been something I’ve had to work on in my marriage. Being this sick has given me no choice but to ask Trevor for just about everything.

On the mornings I get frustrated and fed up and just want to be able to do something for myself, I’ll start to fill up my water bottle or get something from the fridge and immediately I’ll start dry heaving. Trevor will yell from the other room, “I don’t even feel bad for you right now! All you have to do is ask me and I’ll help you.”

Our mornings consist of Trevor waking up while I struggle to accept I have to get out of bed/try to come back from my coma-like state. He makes us breakfast. He comes and gets me out of bed while singing and smiling and telling me he loves me. We eat breakfast. He does the dishes. He fills our water bottles and packs our snacks/lunches.

I try and eat, get dressed and brush my teeth without dying.

EVERY SINGLE MORNING.

The man doesn’t complain. EVER. Not only does he never complain, he is ALWAYS HAPPY. He is always happy to make breakfast, do the dishes, grocery shop.

I’m not kidding. I keep thinking he’s going to get frustrated with me over my lack of being able to do anything, even get out of bed (pregnancy fatigue IS SERIOUSLY NOT OK) but he doesn’t.

I can’t go grocery shopping. I walk into the store and try but get sick and have to leave. He’s done all our grocery shopping since we got pregnant.

The fatigue has been brutal as well, which means we still haven’t unpacked/clean from our move. Life in the cave is messy and chaotic and congested and it’s driving me nuts. But between being sick and exhausted I haven’t made much headway.

There are a myriad of other symptoms I get to deal with on a daily basis, but the sickness is the worst.

Now that I’m in the second trimester, I’m starting to feel much better.

I can now go into the grocery store without getting sick and having to leave. I’ll still gag sometimes but usually can plug through it.

I’m able to help with cooking! I still can’t do meat, but I can help with veggies and the rest of the meals.

It’s slowly getting better.

This pregnancy has definitely brought Trevor and I closer together. It’s taught me a lot about humility and asking for and letting Trevor help me. It’s also shown me what an amazing man I married.

It’s given him the opportunity to show me how much he loves me, and how willing he is to help me, no matter what. And his attitude! Holy cow. He is always helpful, always happy. I know it’s exhausting on him to carry the brunt of most of this stuff I can’t help with anymore. Or am too tired to help with.

I love him so much, and am so grateful for all he does for me every day.

I am so lucky to be married to my best friend and the best man in the world!

Love,

Brittney

Baby names

So, we haven’t finalized names or anything, considering we don’t know the gender and we have to see what this baby looks like.

But, we have some strong candidates.

Oliver Dee 

Dee is my dad’s middle name, Jerald Dee Johnson.

Dee is my grandpa’s name, Dee Taylor Johnson.

Oliver is my great grandpa’s name, Oliver David Johnson.

Oliver is my great great grandpa’s middle name, Benjamin Oliver Johnson.

Also, my great great grandpa on my grandma Johnson’s (Post) side is Oliver Speed.

I think it would be so cool for our *hypothetical* little man to be able to say he’s named after 4 generations of his grandpa’s on his Johnson side. There are more Oliver’s further back in the Johnson line, so it is very much a family name. My middle name is Deann, named after my grandpa Dee and grandma Ann, so he’d be named after me too.

If we have a girl…

We are thinking Elaina after Trevor’s mom and grandma. Trevor’s mom is Lisa Elaine, and his grandma is Elaine. We don’t love Elaine, but we do love Elaina!

For middle names, in Trevor’s families side we’ve found some pretty German names. My favorites are Mette, Sophie and Kirsteen (pronounced Ker-steen).

So we’re thinking about

Elaina Mette

Elaina Kirsteen

Elaina Sophie

We really want to use family names. I think it’s so special for kids to be named after their ancestors.

What do you think?

Love,

Brittney

Wake up, Thor Baby!

At our ultrasound, the midwife made the mistake of telling Trevor the baby can feel any pressing on my stomach. If the baby is sleeping and you press, it will feel it and wake up.

So, Trevor will come up to me at random times and repeatedly poke my stomach and say, “wake up Thor baby!! Wake up!!”

The baby hasn’t even been born yet and already Trevor is tormenting it.

Poor Thor baby.

We told my dad that, and he reminded me of his flicking my foot when I was a baby so I wouldn’t fall asleep for a nap and thus, my father, would solve the problem of newborns not sleeping through the night.

My mom is a nurse and after her maternity leave was over went to graveyards so she could be with me in the day, and my dad at night.

She called from the hospital to check in, the first time leaving her new baby. She could hear me screaming in the background.

She asked my dad what was wrong? He responded that every time I started to fall asleep he would flick my foot until I woke up. He had a screaming baby, but I was awake. I would sleep through the night.

She began to cry, and I’m sure they had a fight. That isn’t the part of the story my dad likes to tell.

I can only imagine the torments Trevor will invoke on this poor baby. He’s already started.

Love,

Brittney

The Secret is Out!

Once we had the ultrasound and knew everything was looking great, we told our families!

 

We told Bob before, so she could tell my parents at the same time. I sent this cute shirt to Seth as the way to announce to my parents. I love the idea of including family members in the reveal - and I think it will be special for our baby to have this link to it's cousins.

 

I sent this adorable picture of Seth to McKenzie with the ultrasound picture:

 

 

 

She said she was putting a .PPT together for school, and would put these pictures at the end. She'd call over my parents and have them review the .PPT and then they'd see the pictures at the end. I'd kind of envisioned she would show the picture of Seth first, then when the got it, move to show which daughter was pregnant.

 

When my mom called me, screaming, I asked if she got the message from the picture of Seth?

 

Mom: "Well, the picture was mostly of his feet so not really."

 

Me: "What?"

 

Mom: "Well, she was showing us pictures of puppies and then this picture of Seth but his head was mostly cut off and you could only really see his feet. And then we saw the ultrasound with Schauerhamer baby..."

 

HAHAHA. Sounds exactly like I had envisioned it.

 

After work, we went to Aaron and Sarah's to give the kids their reveal shirts. We wanted to tell Trev's parents with the kids in shirts as well.

 

Trevor gave Sarah the shirts, and she looked at Williams and smiled and said it was cute. Then she read it again and it started to click... and she started saying "Really!? Are you serious!?"

 

Then she started tearing up. It was so sweet.

 

When we gave the shirt to Roz and asked her if she knew what it meant, she said "Lacey is my cousin!?" Haha, she wishes.

 

William has been pretty sick, and he wouldn't let go of Sarah to get a picture. So Sarah brilliantly thought to put the shirt on backwards and we were able to get a decent shot.

 

We took the picture to Trev's parents house - his dad works every night this week so we just showed his mom. Again it took her a while to get what it meant. Then she just kept saying "OH MY GOSH" over and over again.

 

 

Everyone has been so excited for us. It's been so amazing to feel everyone's love and support. Especially where this wasn't planned and I've struggled coming to terms with it, it's been great to have such support.

 

Love,

Brittney

Thor Baby

It’s official – we are pregnant!

We found out January 28^th but didn’t want to make it public until we had heard the heartbeat and had an ultrasound to make sure everything looked good.

We had our 12 week baby appointment today (I am 11 weeks 2 days today) and we heard the heartbeat! I looked over at Trevor and he was teary eyed. It was adorable. This baby is already in the palm of daddy’s hand.

The midwife said the heartbeat was strong and healthy.

Then I asked if we could get an ultrasound? We weren’t due for one, but since it’s our first baby we both were just beyond antsy to see the little baby.

She snuck over to the ultrasound room to see if it was vacant (they had an ultrasound specialist in that day, so they were booked solid for ultrasounds) and luckily for us, it was. They were right between appointments.

It was a minute or less before she had our baby up on the screen! And boy, was our baby moving around. Summersaulting, stretching, standing on its head, standing straight, twirling…

 

Stretching out

 It was amazing. I cannot comprehend that there is a little baby inside of me, moving around like that.

We call the baby Thor. It’s been an inside joke with Trevor we will name our baby boy Thor Schauerhamer. And since I got pregnant, we just started calling it Thor. Sachi made the comment, "I sure hope it's not a girl, or else she will come out with a unibrow" HAHA. 

The midwife said it’s too early to tell, but if she had to guess she’d say 70%  chance of a girl.

We don’t even know what to do with this information. We’ve both only thought boy since we found out. 

 

Mikail said now in light of this information we should call it Thornrose. McKenzie has been calling it Conrad, and I have no idea why. When I told her what the midwife said about a girl, she said it should be called Conrad Bob.

I’m still hoping for a boy though.

Thor is measuring 2 days ahead, at 11 weeks 4 days today.

 

My due date is October 4^th.

 

We love you, Thor baby!

 

Love,

Brittney

Baby Bump - 9.4 weeks

My first baby bump picture of my life!

Ah! I am obviously not so good at it yet.

But here is Thor at 9.4 weeks!

I'm getting too big too fast. Twins? I doubt it, but I'm still getting big quicker than I'd like.