Bedrest....

Life Horizontally is not quite all its cracked up to be! We are now home from the hospital and learning to take life day by day... trying to control contractions and keep these little ones inside while friends and family fun after Quinton.

The good news is that when we left the hospital I had not progressed any further which means that the bed rest is doing its job keeping these babies inside. We have been very blessed by willing friends and family that have been bending over backwards to help us take care of Quinton. And Nana and Papa Miller drove up from Arkansas to keep a watchful eye on Quinn. I think they are quickly realizing why I am in preterm labor after running after Quinton for a day... he is one active little boy.

I am learning to keep my eye on the prize and not to worry about all the little things that I wish I could get done everyday. I am learning to let people serve and help me. I am trying to remember that in the scheme of things this time will be over before I know it. I have been so encouraged by so many of you and your stories of how you have survived bed rest and early labor.

I wish that the Lord would let us in on His timing for these babies but I suppose that is where faith and trust in Him comes into play. The Lord has been good in giving me the grace to make it through every day. And every day He is weaving these little babies together inside of me. We are so thankful that they were able to give them both of the steroid shots to mature their lungs. The two of them move like crazy inside of me. I really think that they move at least twice as much because when one starts going to other joins right in... they are playmates already. I think Quinton will thoroughly enjoy his new playmates when they arrive.

Thank you all for your encouragement. If anyone has any helpful hints about bed rest please please shoot them my way. We are so blessed by all of your prayers. Keep them up... they seem to be working. Praise the Lord for His timing is perfect and He has great plans for our family... I mean after all He has already given us double the blessings at once with two babies. We could not be more thankful for our family!

PLEASE PRAY

We write to you all with tears in our eyes and scared but confident hearts... we remain confident that the Lord is good and in control and ALWAYS working for the good of those who love Him. What an amazing promise that He gives us to cling to in good times and bad.

Our doctors appointment yesterday resulted in another trip to the hospital when the doctor discovered that I was already 2 cm dilated and my cervix felt thinner than the week before. And this time I got stuck here... not sure if or when I will be going home. The babies are still doing well and they look fabulous despite all the other action going on with my body. They gave the babies a steroid shot yesterday and will give them another one today to help develop their lungs. From all that we have heard and read it rapidly helps their lungs to develop and gets them ready to breath on their own. The babies are still a good size but we are praying desperately that they keep growing inside of me for a while longer.

Psalm 139:13-18

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me
were written in your book before one of them came to be.

¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

¹⁸ Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.

It is overwhelmingly comforting to know that the Lord had this all planned out and he knows exactly when these babies are coming and all that is going on. He had more thoughts of these two than we do and believe me, Dan and I think and pray for these babies and our family like crazy.

Dan is truly an incredible husband and dad and is taking good care of Quinton. He is a strong rock for me through all of this. And truly loves me, Quinn and these babies. He is already bending over backwards for me and loving and caring for Quinton through all of this. You can all keep Quinn in your prayers too as he will have some adjusting to do... That brings tears to my eyes and I miss him terribly. When you go from being glued to someone to having to be away from them it is so hard and my heart aches to be able to take care of him again. I know he is in good hands and this is only a short season in life but he is my best little buddy!! I am truly blessed to have such a great husband, family and group of friends to help us through all of this.

Please keep our all our babies in your prayers. We are scared of the unknown to us but confident in the Lords good plan. He is so faithful and loving and has blessed us so much already and for that we are truly thankful. Hopefully they will get everything under control and I can go home and rest at home with my family. And every day that these two little ones stay inside of me is a huge deal we are told so pray for many more days in the comfort of my uterus :) Thank you all for all your thoughts and prayers. We truly appreciate them and are blessed by them!

Just Call Me Minivan Momma!

Today we officially became the proud owners of a 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport! Now I know that most of my friends will be jealous. We had bets going in college as to who would be the first to drive a minivan, I was never the favorite but with these little ones on the way a minivan was inevitable! It is in great shape and the man who sold it to us is a father of twins and gave us a great deal on it. Hopefully it will serve us well for a while!! And... for buying a used vehicle the color is pretty nice!!Pretty nice!!

Mr. Independent likes to eat watermelon by the slice as opposed to cut into chunks!

I turned my back for a moment only to find that Quinton enjoyed a handful of dirt while I wasn't looking. He seemed to think that it tasted just great!

Peaking through the tunnel hole at the park! So sweet!

Playing together!

Dan ventured into the tunnels with Quinton at the park... I didn't dare for fear that my belly would get me stuck in there!!

I took this picture to show off Quinton's fabulous tan from his crocks. He wears them practically every single day so it's no wonder that he has developed a tan from them. The two little dots are from the holes on the top of the shoes. Pretty funny!

My Curly Haired Little Buddy!

Quinton is becoming such a big boy and my favorite little buddy! It is absolutely amazing the amount of things that he understands, the new words that he is learning daily and how much fun he is to be around. He has discovered the moon and can say moon, he makes dinosaur noises (imitating his dad and I), he makes truck noises while pushing around his truck, he is amazing at spotting bunnies (we have lots of bunnies in our area) and then chases them till they run away, he waves to anyone and everyone while we are on our walks, he loves to brush his teeth and then he loves to brush my teeth, he helps me and his dad brush our hair, he is just a delight!

He is becoming more independent in everything (although I am still right beside him) but he is learning so much!

Check out these beautiful curls on this boy! One of his favorite things to spot when we are on a walk is a flag so my 80 cent find at the store is a HUGE hit and the past couple of days we don't go anywhere without our American flag!

Quinton and I watching a parade in the rain on the 4th of July

Last I checked, eight teeth were broken through, only one molar, but he is putting them to great use. He seems to enjoy spicy foods (just like his mom and dad), spicy guacamole on a cracker is a much loved treat, and fruit is his all time favorite thing to eat, and he can say "blueberries" and "watermelon"! Difficult words but he does really well and gets very exited to eat them! And of course as you all have seen in the past, he LOVES popsicles! If anyone has any good ideas on how to get this boy to eat vegetables PLEASE let me know, he eats blueberries until blue comes out in his diaper but he will not eat any veggies. He drinks some V8 juice (doctor recommended) to get a serving of vegetables but I just can't get him to eat them! I have even tried eating them in front of him and offering him some, believe me I don't enjoy them, but he still won't eat them!

I know you see them a lot but popsicle pictures just never get old to me!

Aunt Kelly came for a visit the other weekend. We had a great time catching up and playing with Quinton! Family is such a wonderful thing and I am thankful for her taking the time to come and hang out with us. I wish we all lived closer so we could see each other more often!

Kelly was also my inspiration for sewing! She coached me through a lot of my projects that at one time were just ideas but they are not realities!! I borrowed a friends sewing machine and have gone crazy! Dan is very impressed with my skills though! I have covered four pillows, the previous covers were all coming undone and stuffing was coming out. So I decided to cover them!!

My more exciting project has been making the bedding for the twins cradle and a moses basket I found at a garage sale. I have finished the bumper pad for the cradle (it is the paisley one on the bottom) and the moses basket pad cover (the poka dot one). My friend is going to help me finish the rest of the moses basket which will be in the paisley fabric and then make some fitted sheets in the poka dots for the cradle. I am so so exited and very impressed with my own abilities. It can he quite addicting once you get started. I will have to post some more pictures when it is all done to help you get a better feel for it!

Wee #2 and Wee #3 are doing great. We are 24 weeks along and i am already bigger than I was with Quinton. I will try and remember to have Dan take some pictures. It is amazing how fast these babies are growing, I swear every morning I wake up I am bigger than the day before! I still feel pretty great though and we are still doing everything we did before although when I go on walks I have to walk very slow because I already have a lot of contractions, I am told not to worry since I had a lot this early with Quinton too. We have another doctors appointment and ultrasound next week. I always look forward to them just to hear that everything is ok. The twins kick like crazy in my belly and it is always fun when you can feel little body parts (although I don't know what I am feeling it's still wonderful). We still cannot believe it's twins but feel so blessed and excited. Keep us all in your prayers, I want these babies to be big enough to take home with us from the hospital right away! Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers!

My Walking, Talking, Shaving, Swimming, Muscle Boy!

I could add a lot more to the title of this entry, but that is just a glimpse of what life is like with Quinton.... BUSY!! but we sure do love it!!

The picture above is Quinton trying to imitate his dad by flexing his muscles. But the video is priceless!! I hope you enjoy it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRC174u4sCU

He is a walking man now and I am pretty sure that he thoroughly enjoys the freedom that comes with walking. He has also tackled climbing onto the couch by himself and if there is a railing he likes to climb up stairs on his feet now. He is totally a hot shot!
Here is a walking video from a couple of weeks ago. He has gotten even better at walking since this video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgsIjztHrAk

Quinton's new favorite treat is a Popsicle! He loves them... especially when he gets to hold them himself. It usually requires a bath or getting hosed off afterward but it keeps us cool in the summer!

What a joy he is!

Watching airplanes has become quite a popular past time in the Rude home. Even when we are inside and he hears one go by he points upward. Although sometimes a lawnmower is mistaken for an airplane. But we sure do spend a lot of time looking up in the sky for them. Every time we have planned to go out near the airport it has been bad weather but we are hoping to get out there soon and watch some planes!

Although the bib covers over half his body he still manages to get the popsicle everywhere!!

Enjoying his Popsicle!

We have not blown up his kiddie pool yet (I suppose getting a pump would help in that whole process). But his baby bath had served us just fine. Between that and the hose we have plenty of fun with water! Sometimes I even sneak a bath in while we are outside, the tricky mom that I am!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!
What a wonderful day we had! After church festivities were over it was off to the pool for the Rude family. Quinton LOVES his dad and enjoyed playing in the pool, swinging and just being with his dad! He had a special treat earlier that morning and got an early lesson in how to be a MAN from his dad as he learned how to shave!! Dan is truly an amazing father to Quinton. He likes to toughen him up a little and he makes sure that he gets wrestled around a little bit and picked on! They truly are the two biggest blessings in my life! And I cannot wait to continue on this journey of our growing family with Dan!

This picture does not capture it... but Quinton really did find the whole shaving experience pretty entertaining!

Quinton LOVES bubbles. He will grab them off the shelf in his room and say bubbles as he walks to the front door. He finds it quite fascinating to pop the bubbles!

My Little Helper in the kitchen!! He was sitting on the counter while I cut up the strawberries and he just needed a few to snack on!

I just had to take this picture... I can't believe how big my baby is getting! How precious he is as he sleeps!

Even before we discovered that twins were on the way I was on the look out for a cradle to have in our upstairs (Dan and I sleep upstairs and the babies rooms are downstairs) for when the babies are first born. I stumbled upon a FABULOUS deal and walked away with this beautiful wooden cradle and bedding (although I hope to make new bedding) for $15. Needless to say I was thrilled. It doesn't appear very big in the pictures but in person two babies will be fine sleeping in it together for a couple of months. From what I hear, twins prefer to be together at least for a while. I can't wait to fill it up with Wee #2 and #3!!

Some girlfriends were thrilled with the news that we are having a girl and have already gone shopping for girl clothes!

We are now 22 weeks along with the twins. Please continue to pray for a safe pregnancy. Even in just one week they have become such a part of our family. We can't wait to meet them!

TWINS!!!!

I am sure that the word is out by now but this past Thursday the Rude family received an exciting but shocking surprise... We arrived at our 4th doctors appointment (our first appointment with an ultrasound) and quickly discovered some amazing news... we are expecting not just one healthy baby but TWO BABIES!!! A perfectly healthy little boy and a perfectly healthy little girl! Wonderful additions to our growing family.

The slightly ironic part is that I have always told friends that I wanted twins and I prayed for twins and hoped for twins but never expected to be blessed with twins. I have even told Dan multiple times this pregnancy that I was getting way too big way too fast that there must be two babies on board. The night before our ultrasound I said to him that I was feeling movements all over my belly and that there must be two babies in there... but seriously never expected it.

So we are thrilled by our news! All of the sudden the end of our pregnancy seems so much closer. But despite the many changes that will need to be made in our lives, Dan is such a solid rock in trusting the Lord that He will take care of us and provide for all our needs. It is pretty exciting to see the Lord bless us in such an amazing way... I mean two kids, one pregnancy... what could be better!!

Quinton is going to be a wonderful big brother and if these two babies are anything like him we cannot wait to welcome them into our family. Quinn has set the standards high in our minds for cuteness, sweetness and all around best kid so we are excited to see how two more children steel our hearts. Dan and I cannot imagine loving any child as much as Quinton... but I do hear that it is possible and we are so excited to make room in our hearts for two more lovable little ones. We hope that you all share in our excitement and we cannot wait to share our growing family with you... although we hope that it's not till at least 36 weeks!

More pictures to come this week... just a lot on our minds :)

June Visit to Arkansas

Quinn and his folks visited Nana and Papa in Arkansas. We all had a fabulous time! (click photo to enlarge)


The real exciting news is Quinn is beginning to walk! This video was not his best effort, but the push toy seemed to throw off his balance.


Wearing Papa's hat.


Hanging out on the boat with Nana.


My first swim in Lake Balboa (it was very short).


Splashing in the big stainless steel bowl on the deck (just like my Mom used to do).

Then Dad tricked me and turned it into a bath - I was not happy.


Whew - Mom saved me.


Nude with Nana!


Back in the lake!


Popsicle on a hot day.


Fun in the rocks.


Driving the boat with Papa.


Sniffing the flowers with Nana.


Time to say goodbye....