An update on the twins

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, this pregnancy has been less than a joy ride thus far. Hyperemesis Gravidarum (just another way of saying excessive puking) has made most normal every day tasks impossible, as most days I can't even sit up without nausea or vomiting. Still, the 2nd trimester is approaching (albeit much more slowly than I want) and I have hope that things will improve at that point.

My husband and I had our second ultrasound a week ago which revealed two quickly growing little peanuts. Baby A had a heart beat of 160 at our 6 week appointment, this time "he" had a hb rate of 185 and measured at 2.26 cm, apx 9w along.

Baby B had a heart beat of 130 at our 6 week appointment and this time had a hb rate of 192 and measured at 2.08 cm, apx 8w5d along.

I'm a little bit worried about the size difference between the two - even though two days doesn't "seem" like that much, in the world of a fetus it's more serious. My babies are also sharing a placenta, which makes them high risk since it increases their chances of developing what the doctors call twin to twin transfusion.

Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome occurs in identical twins sharing the same placenta. The short version is that one twin receives more of the blood and placenta than the other, which can result in death. There are treatments for TTTS, but it is not a situation I hope to have to face. I'm currently waiting for the doctor to call me back this morning to let me know what her thoughts are on the last ultrasound. Since it is only two days I do have hope that things will be alright, and the fact that the smaller baby had such a good heart beat is reassuring. All I can do is pray.

I thought I'd answer some basic twin questions for those of you curious, so here we go :)

1) Are the twins Identical or Fraternal - and how do you know?
Answer: Our twins are identical! We know because of the way the twins are positioned in the womb. Fraternal twins have their own placenta and sacs, as they come from two separate eggs. Identical twins share a sac/placenta, as they are one egg that split.

2) Do they run in the family?
Answer: Lets start by saying that Fraternal twins are hereditary and are carried on the mother's side. So no, there are no twins on my mothers side of the family. However, even if there were, it wouldn't matter. Identical twins are in no way hereditary. They are merely a blessing from God, a "chance", as previously stated it happens when 1 egg splits, that is not a genetic trait.

3) Do you know what gender they are?
Answer: Not yet, we won't find out for a few weeks or so - but since they are identical, they will be the same gender :)

4) Do twins change the way a pregnancy usually goes?
Answer: Yes! Dramatically! Firstly, if you are pregnant with twins you are automatically considered high risk. Secondly, since there are two and therefore less room to grow, most twins deliver around 36 weeks instead of 40. Twins present a whole new world of risks and complications, but the blessing at the end is worth all the hardships!

If you're curious about anything, please let me know and I'll add some more questions here :) I enjoy sharing my journey in life with people and what is birth if not the beginning of the greatest journey? I'll update as things progress, in the meantime prayers would be wonderful and so much appreciated.
God bless!

As For Me and My House

I haven't been here much lately, as everything exciting that was going on in my life could not be made public until very recently. That being said, Marcus and I are officially expecting! Not only that, but we're expecting TWINS! The news nearly knocked us off our feet, but we have never been more happy, excited, or grateful in our lives. Everyone is asking me if I am afraid of having twins, and I honestly am not - I cannot wait! It's going to be difficult, sure, but every first child is hard! It's going to be a new experience and I'm going to love every exhausting, new, exhilarating moment of it. I do have a history of miscarriage, so we are praying very faithfully that this pregnancy will be different. Thus far, it already is. Previously I had untreated hypothyroidism, which my doctors are fairly confident is the cause of the miscarriages. Also in my previous situations, there was never a heartbeat - but this time there is! We saw two strong heartbeats at 6 weeks and the doctors are confident that it will continue. All those factors aside, God is good and with Him all things are possible! So I am simply keeping faith in the fact that he will walk us through this and keep our little ones safe - and if not, there is a reason.
Anyway, I digress. The inspiration for my blog today came from a conversation I had at work today regarding some of my ideals and opinions in regards to raising my children. My decision to use cloth diapering, home-school, and frugal shopping at gently used stores were ridiculed and mocked. It was then followed by someone saying that all new mothers have these great ideas that they're going to do things differently but eventually they all just fall into the easier way of doing things. It was right then that I realized something. My decision to pursue a healthy lifestyle does not end with eating the right way. Its so much more than that. Its about raising my kids with a dedication and commitment to bringing them up in a way that's best for them and their future. I will not take the easy way out. I will be stronger than that. I will not compromise whats right for whats easy. So even if its a little more inconvenient to do another load of wash instead of throwing hundreds of diapers in the garbage, if it takes more effort to teach my children myself so that I know they're being learning good morals and the truth, and if buying someone elses baby clothes that were worn once helps my family to survive so that we can afford for me to stay home and raise my children, I have NO problem with that. Others will chose their own paths - but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

March... In like a lion, out like a lamb?

Whew! What a blustery beginning we had to March! Okay, technically it was an end to February, but in my book it still counts. Here in good ol' upstate NY they say that March is the craziest month for winter storms, but after this, spring begins to pop up. Ah spring! This will be our first spring/summer on this all natural lifestyle, and I've gotta say I'm SO excited! There are just so many things that you can do that you cant really in winter. Marcus and I are going to be starting our "self sustaining" journey this summer - we plan to do the "easy" stuff - you know, Tomatoes, Peppers, Carrots, Garlic, Herbs, Strawberries, Raspberries, etc. It also marks the beginning of really good produce at our local Farmers Market (which just so happens to be right down the road!). It's open year round, but lets face it - who trusts red peppers in the middle of winter that are actually "local"? Not I. In fact, my hope is to grow enough produce to either jar or freeze so that I can use them throughout the year and not worry about buying them from the stores. I think a good way to go about this is by purchasing local organic fruits and vegetables from someone else during the summer months, and canning/jarring/freezing all of our self grown produce to use during the winter. I use lots of tomatoes so that will be on the top of the list for sure. I also want to be able to make my own jam, so it's going to be a summer full of experimenting! Hopefully the end of the year will also bring about some bulk meat purchasing from Lindsay at Smoke Ridge Organics - which means we will be working on the farm as part of her Co-Op plan. It should be good times! Also, we soon hope to make it out to the country to purchase raw milk, as we have yet to do so, and I very much want to.

Another step we've taken is one to eliminate chemicals and junk from our home by purchasing Soap Nuts. These are exactly what they sound like! All Natural little soap nuts that grow on a tree and are harvested. You can use them from everything from Laundry to all purpose spray - really the possibilities are endless. And if you buy them in bulk, they are SO affordable! Marcus and I purchased the 5lb bag and intend to use it for laundry. You throw 5 of the little soap nuts into the wash bag it comes with (all natural fabric, of course!) and throw it in with your laundry. No detergent, no fabric softeners - it does it all! Typical life of a batch (5) of soap nuts is apx 5-6 loads in hot water, and up to 10 loads in cold water. That means if you use mostly cold water you could get about 1400 loads out of the 5lb bag - and it costs 48 dollars. Break that down - it comes out to about 3 cents a load! I think I can handle that! Not even the store bought detergents are that cheap! We haven't used them yet so I cannot vouch for their effectiveness, but once we get them in and use them, I'll be sure to let you all know!

We're going strong together and I feel better about myself and our life every day. And I can totally notice now when I eat something "unnatural" - my body is beginning to reject it, and its almost hard for me to stomach now. This lets me know I am on the right path and my body will thank me for it for years down the road. I hope you're all doing well out there! I'll be sure to blog again soon :)

May God bless you and keep you and your family safe in His arms!

E. Coli Beef Recall

After watching Food Inc, my husband and I have been much more conscientious of the types of meat we're putting into our bodies, espically beef. There's just something about knowing your hamburger has been through an ammonia wash that makes it a little hard to, well, swallow. For our wedding (as you will see in upcoming posts) we had all organic meat that was provided by a friend of mine, Lindsay who runs a local c-op called Smoke Ridge Organics and Butterfly Farm; and after reading about the most recent E. Coli beef recall, I am SO glad we did! If you haven't seen Food Inc yet PLEASE see it, they talk so much about things like this. I refuse to be one of the masses that suffer from the side effects of this type of food.. Buying local grassfed meats has never been so necessary as it is now.

Homemade French Onion Soup

A few weeks ago I made a meal using organic french onion soup, and I was advised to make sure I knew exactly what was in the soup because sometimes there were some little hidden ingredients that we don't need or want. So this time, I made my own! I'm going to be using it for the classic french onion soup dish some night this week for dinner, and I'm also going to use it for my grandma's french onion roast tomorrow night (I "splurged" on a grass fed chuck roast) - two birds, one stone =) I thought you might enjoy this recipe, its so easy! You pretty much spend about 20 minutes on it in the beginning and then let it do its thing the rest of the time.

French Onion Soup
4 Large Sweet/Vidalia Onions
6 cups organic beef broth
2 tbsp butter
3/4 cup red wine
1 tsp organic cane sugar
2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
fresh ground pepper

Heat a pan on medium low and add butter
Slice onions very thin and add to the pan
Season with salt and pepper
Let the onions cook until translucent - about 15 minutes on the lower heat setting
Add 1 cup of beef broth and worcestershire sauce
Let the broth cook down with the onions until the onions appear brown in color
Add the rest of the broth and wine and bring to a boil for 5 minutes
Turn the heat down to low and cover
Let simmer as long as possible - the longer you can do this, the richer the flavor will be
Enjoy!

Lifting the veil

I never noticed, until recently, all the garbage that the food industries try to feed us - no pun intended (okay, maybe a little one). Now that I know more about how the production and processing companies work, I see these things all over the place. Things I'd never have seen before, but that I'm sensitive to now. Things that would make you believe what God provides just isn't good enough. Today I saw a vegetable wash that said "because rain just isn't enough!", a few days ago I saw some fruit with the phrase "giving nature a helping hand", a box of popsicle's I wanted to buy said "all natural" but when I looked at the ingredients it included all kinds of junk, like high fructose corn syrup. The supermarket is FULL of it - nothing less than false advertising more often than not, gross exaggeration at other times, and omission of facts others. I love Wegmans, so its hard for me to admit that theyre part of this game, but when I asked them today where their beef came from I was told they didn't know, other than it comes from Canada, USA, and Mexico. Great. You don't even know what country your meat is coming from?? The food industry wants to keep us from the truth, that their products are ALL about benefiting them and truly they could care less about what happens to you. I'm taking a hospitality class in college and one of the sentences in my reading today said, flat out, that the hospitality and tourism industry's goal is to "extract as much money from the customer as you can without losing him/her". This is what these people are TOLD to do when they earn their degree! And you had best believe they are so good at what they do! Their goal is to squeeze every cent out of you and hold on to every penny they possibly can - it doesn't matter what lies they tell you, so long as you add another figure to their profit. I will be one less person to buy into their gimmicks, I am going to put my faith, family, and health before putting chemicals into my body to simply save a buck. Don't be blinded by the lies, the truth is all around you - you just have to open your eyes.

Sawmill Gravy

This morning I made some of my homemade biscuits and sawmill gravy. I was going to post a picture until I realized the picture just really doesn't make it look very appetizing lol so just trust me on this - it's really good! Here's the recipe

Sawmill Gravy (my way)

4 pieces of organic bacon (I had to use up what was left of mine from before, but this can be easily omitted)
1/2 lb ground turkey
1 tablespoon honey
1 1/2 cups whole wheat (or 50/50) flour
1 tbspn organic butter
Kosher Salt
Pepper
Milk

Cook the bacon in a large pot until done, remove pieces and set aside on paper towel
Add the turkey to the hot pan (should still have some grease in it) - if you want to dump the bacon grease and use a healthier oil, you can definitely do so
Add the honey on top of the turkey while browning
Cut up the bacon into little bits and add to the browned turkey
Add the flour and mix until absorbed by the meat
Add butter and mix in as well
Add milk until meat is covered (make sure pan is on medium high heat)
Stir and wait for mix to boil, it will thicken
Add more milk, stir, wait for it to reach thickness again
continue to do this until you have a good "gravy" consistency
Season liberally with kosher salt and pepper
Serve over warm biscuits and enjoy :)