Monday, July 30, 2012

Life sure has changed!

I know that it has been a VERY long time since I have updated our family blog but I promise that there was a good reason for the delay....we added fraternal twins to our family! CJ (Colin John O'Connell Jr.) and Grace Elizabeth O'Connell were born on January 17, 2012.
                                         (CJ is on the left & Gracie is on the right)

It was a long road to get them here and honestly I was so focused on the twins that I forgot about updating our blog. Then when the twins finally arrived and I forgot what sleep felt like! At our 8 week ultrasound Colin and I found out that we were expecting twins (which is honestly the last thing that we thought would happen to us). When the technician asked if twins ran in our family we both responded, "No, why"? To say that we were shocked is an understatement. We went through every range of emotion: laughter, nervousness, terror but ultimately were thrilled. We were going to be expanding our family by 2!

In typically O'Connell fashion, the fact that we were pregnant with twins didn't slow us down. We bought a new house, remodeled it, moved, bought a new car, and prepared for the birth of twins. At 28 weeks I was placed on bed rest and remained on it until the birth of the twins at 37 weeks 1 day. I can't thank our families enough for everything that they did for us and for Catie while I was on bed rest (almost 3 weeks of which was in the hospital). It was a very difficult time (especially since it was over the holidays) and we required a lot of help. Our families took care of Catie, grocery shopped for us, did our laundry, friends delivered meals, etc. We truly thank everyone for their help and support.

It took a little while to adjust to life with two new babies and  3 1/2 year old. We quickly got the twins on a schedule and our home became a well oiled machine with all hands on deck. We joke when people come and visit by saying, "Here hold a baby, we have plenty of them to go around". The twins have completed our family and Catie is an incredible big sister.



This past Saturday Catie turned 4 and the week before the twins turned 6 months (which in twins time is kind of the turning point on things getting a little easier).


On Saturday we celebrated Catie's birthday by throwing her a Princess Party. The real Snow White came to her party and all of the little princesses had a wonderful time decorating crowns, watching a puppet show, having their face painted and getting balloon wands made for them. It is hard to believe that Catie is 4 years old. Happy birthday Catie. You fill our lives with so much joy, laughter and love. We love you from the moon to sea and everything in between.



Well, now that life is settling down (as much as it can be with three kids) I am excited to start our blog back up and updating all of our family and friends on the many adventures of Catie, CJ and Gracie. I am sure that it is going to be a wild ride. After all, Catie makes three and the twins make 5!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful pictures :)