See You Thursday!

Dear AJ & Jaydyn,

Mommy just wanted to write you a quick letter because she felt like writing this evening. I wanted to let you both know even though my last letter was written a while ago (at least it seems that way to Mommy), I promise I'll be writing another letter before next weekend rolls around. We have an appointment coming up this Thursday and I am very excited because I will get to see you both again since the doctor has ordered another ultrasound. This also means Mommy has to hold her pee again. And since you Mister AJ like to kick Mommy in the bladder when it gets too full, that should be very interesting to say the least. Especially considering the fact that your little kicks are getting stronger.

Also, it just so happens that November 4th is a very special day! See Papaw's 46th Birthday is also November 4th. And since Papaw is so adamant that your Mommy doesn't buy him anything (even though she realllllly reallllly wants to) I've got a different plan :) One I know Papaw will go for! I really hope he'll be surprised

I can't wait to see you both Thursday, you both will be one day shy of 22 weeks old. I wanted to update you on your growth during that week, considering I haven't done that for a while!

Anyways this week your 21 weeks old. So your growth this week is:

-By now you should be about 16.5 ounces- just over a pound!!
-REM, called Rapid Eye Movement, which is essential for good sleep has developed.
-Your skin is red, wrinkled, and see through.
-You're finally starting to gain your "brown fat"
-You are 6.5 to 7.25 inches long!
-You are about the size of a grapefruit!

We're moving right along boys! I can't wait to see you both. Keep growing, and I'll see you on Thursday!

Love you always,
Mommy

20 weeks! We're halfway there!

Dear AJ & Jaydyn,

Hello to Mommy's two very handsome little men! Yesterday was the mark of a special occasion, but seeing as how Mommy has been a little sick, I didn't get the chance to write you a letter about it. So here I am, a day late, but still here never the less, to tell you our exciting news! And the big news is: WE'RE HALFWAY THERE!

That's right boys! Yesterday was the 1/2 way marker in Mommy's pregnancy... 20 whole weeks!! Which means you will be here in approximately another 17-20 weeks! How exciting is that? I can not wait to hold you in my arms!

Also, I just wanted to let you know we're on quite the roll to having everything you'll need upon arrival. Thanks to Papaw, Karen,Daddy and I, and our friends Holly & Tony, we've nearly got everything you need as far as the big stuff goes. So far we have both car seats, a changing table, two bouncers, two swings, two exer-saucers (which you won't use til later but they're great to have in the mean time),your bathtub, and the majority of your diapers for the first few months of your life! Really all Mommy has left to get is:

-2 cribs
-2 crib sets
-extra crib sheets
-wipes
-more clothes (you've already been given some by friends which is exciting)
-baby bath products
-baby hygiene kit
-breast pump
-boobie juice bags
-bottles
-pacifiers
-breast feeding pillow (just in case)
-some more blankets
-onsies
-little shoes
-diaper bag

Really in Mommy's book, that's not a lot even though it looks like it is! Now your Daddy and I just have to find the time to paint your bedroom and start setting things up! I am so excited I just can't stand it!

Anyways, Mommy is going to keep this short, just because our last few letters have been so long! I just wanted to say I am so proud of you both for being strong little boys and making it to the half way point! I'm also thankful to God that He's blessed us with two healthy little boys. I love you both more than you know! Keep growing and I'll see you soon.

Love always and forever,
Mommy

Tests, who needs 'em?

Dear Aj & Jaydyn,

Good morning, Mommy here! It's been a crazy couple of days but I wanted to write a letter to you that I've been thinking of writing for a very long time. But before I get started, Mommy wanted to let you know something. That when you get older, (although I pray the rapture comes before you guys head to kindergarten, lol) no matter what life throws at you, just remember to stop, look around, look at the things money can't buy, and remind yourself you're blessed.

Our weekend hasn't been so great. Your Daddy's car started falling apart Friday as I was headed home from work, and then on Sunday as we were headed to drop off Daddy's car to be fixed and then head to church, Mommy's car got a flat tire...So we drove Daddy's broken car, very carefully, to church. When I got there I found Papaw and just had a good cry. He said come over and he would try to fix Mommy's flat tire after we were all done at church. So after church, we headed home to get started on putting the doughnut on drive Mommy's car to Papaws house. So once we got all of that done, and got to Papaw's house with the broken tire, he managed to fix our tire so we would have to go buy a new one that at this point we just can't afford. (Mommy and Daddy are something called broke. You'll learn what that is all too soon unfortunately) Your Papaw can seriously fix just about ANYTHING! So after we left Papaw's, we went home to get Daddy's car to drop it off at our cousin's house to be fixed. Once we got there, we went inside to visit with them for about an hour, and when we came outside, Daddy's noticed Mommy's car had a HUGE dent in it that wasn't there before. Turns out someone visiting a neighbor next door backed into our car, and then just left. So then we had the call the police and now we're waiting for the cops to find the person who did it. (See how terrible growing up can be, that's why you should just stay little forever and let Mommy and Daddy deal with the adult world drama for you.) And finally when we got home, we found out the kitchen sink has a leak.

But I told you that story to remind you to always look around and realize your blessed. Even though Mommy needed a good cry, and was pretty upset...it could always be worse. I realized that we still have food on our table, our house may have a few problems, but it is our home and we're cozy here in it, we still have clothes on our backs, shoes on our feet, and most importantly, we all still have our health and eachother. Your Daddy and I are healthy and together and in love, you two boys are growing right on target and still letting Mommy know you're ok in there with your kicks, and jabs, and punches... no matter what leaks and what gets smashed in, as long as we've got our health and eachother and we love and serve the Lord, we are so very very blessed.

So anyways, now that Mommy's told you all of that, the reason I wrote you this letter. The title says it all. Tests, who needs 'em. When you boys were about 11 weeks old, the doctor's nurse asked me at an appointment if I would like to have any genetics tests done for you two. Mommy didn't even think twice about her answer, it was no. No, No, No, NO! My boys would have plenty of tests they'd have to pass in life as it came, but until you were here on the outside world with Mommy, I could protect you from those tests and I intended to do just that.

But there was another reason Mommy said no. See I had always said before I got pregnant that I would do EVERYTHING and every test I could to make sure my baby (little did I know it would be babies) was safe and sound in my belly. If that meant doing all the tests I could to know that everything was alright in there, I would. And then I even thought I'd be willing to undergo amniocentesis for my baby (or babies). But then, I met an adorable little guy by the name of Max. Max Charles Martin to be exact. You'll be meeting him too once your here, and I really hope you boys become the best of friends with him. Anyways, Max was born very unique, very special, and the exact way that God wanted him to be born. Just like you will be born very unique, very special, and exactly the way God wants you to be. Anyways, when Max was born, he taught me something very important. Something I thought I already knew...and that something is that love is all that matters. Love for the Lord, love for your child (in my case children), love for your family (even if they are a little crazy on occasion) is absolutely ALL that matters. Max may not be perfect to some people, but to us, to me, to God, to his Mommy, he's absolutely perfect. And he is the one who taught me that no matter what tests say, no matter what the outcome is, it's ok... because I still have so much love for you both already! And the best part is, he's only about 4 months old. So he didn't even have to talk to teach Mommy such a big lesson! Pretty cool huh?

I'm excited for when you two will be old enough to play with him at church and at friend's houses. I'm sure if you become close enough friends he'll have some cool stories to tell you about!

So anyways, that is the story of why Mommy didn't want any prenatal tests done with you. Because a special little guy named Max taught me that tests don't matter anyways, cause I'll love you no matter what the outcome of those tests would or would not have been.

So now that the big important part of our letter is out of the way, Mommy also wanted to tell you that I"m feeling you become more active in there each and every day and I love it. Although it worries me that you two seem to be night owls, as most of the time kicks, jabs, and punches seem to at night when Mommy is getting ready to go to sleep. Rotten little babies that you are already. Anyways, I'm going to finish our letter for now!

I love and need you both more than you know! Keep growing and getting healthy for Mommy, and I'll see you soon.

Love Always,
Mommy

Ultrasound pictures!

These are your profiles!



Jaydyn these are Mommy's first official embarassing pictures of you! Here you are little "Baby B" showing us your goods!



AJ here is your first official embarassing photo as well! Although you were rather proud of your package here! "Baby A" showing us your goods!



Jaydyn this is your little foot!



And Jaydyn this is your adorable and chubby little face!



AJ this is your adorable little foot!



AJ this is your adorable little face!



This is a picture of your faces, side by side! Your very first pictures together :)



AJ this is your profile alone!



Jaydyn this is your profile alone! If you look close you can see your little hand with your thumb in your mouth! You were sucking your thumb! SO adorable!

And finally!



Here is Mommy 1 week before we found out what you were!

I cherish these pictures of you.

I love you both so much.
Love,
Mommy

Our Boys!

Dear Baby Boys,

Although I love calling you my miracle babies, and to me you always will be, I also love that I can now call you my Baby Boys. My two wonderful, amazing, beautiful, and perfect baby boys.

As promised, I wanted to write you and tell you all about our big appointment to find out what the both of you were. October 8th, 2010. 9:30 am. It was the day I had been waiting for since the beginning of September. I knew it was the beginning of so many things for your Daddy and I. It was the beginning of deciding on names, deciding on the nursery theme, deciding on the color we would paint your room... But it was also the beginning of Mommy allowing herself to feel like this was and is real. To Mommy, the fact that God answered our prayers and heard our cries for you left Mommy feeling like it was a dream when I found out God had given both of you to us! But finally being able to see you, to call you both by your names, to know we're nearly half way there and in just a few short months I'll be holding you in my arms...I can finally say all of that is feeling so very real! And I can not wait and I thank God for that.

Anyways. So the morning started off very early for Mommy. Around 6:30 am I do believe. Partly due to excitement, and partly due to the fact that the night before, one or both of you boys had made Mommy crave jalepenos and unfortunately, you made Mommy crave WAY too many of them. So Mommy was up mostly because she felt sick. So after I took a zofran (nausea medicine), ate two tums, and prayed for God to make some of my pain go away, I finally decided to give up and start getting ready at around 7:30. I took a bath and got out and did my hair. Once I was all done it was about 8:15 and I decided it was time to wake Daddy up so that he could get ready too! I was still in a lot of pain from digestive issues (I don't think we'll be eating jalepenos for a very long time even though you make me crave them nearly every day!)

Daddy got ready and we were off. The doctor's office is about 35-40 minutes from where we live, so by the time we got there, it was nearly time to go in for the appointment. Mommy and Daddy were meeting a very special lady there, who your Papaw is quite fond of, by the name of Karen. Just as a little secret between you guys and Mommy, I'm really hoping Karen sticks around and happens to fall in love with your Papaw. I know that she would bet the kind of Nana that I would want my little boys to have in their life! Anyways, I called Karen to see if she was there, and she was! She said she would meet us by the front doors. So Mommy told Daddy we were ready to head in.

We got out of the car and headed to the front doors, when much to my surprise not only was Karen there, but your Papaw was there!! He had surprised Mommy and taken a vacation day at work so he could be there to see you both! I was so very very excited to see him. Your Papaw is my Daddy, and he and I have always been very very close. To say the least, your Mommy is very much so a Daddy's girl! Anyways, we all headed in, Mommy checked in, and we headed to the ultrasound waiting area.

We sat there waiting and I kept praying my belly would calm down so I wouldn't have to run to the bathroom before and during the ultrasound! Plus it didn't help that Mommy had to have a full bladder so that they could see both of you better. Boy did Mommy have to pee. Anyways, I said another quick prayer and about 4 minutes later, they called us back! We headed into the small room, Mommy laid down on the table and our ultrasound tech got right to work, while your Daddy, Papaw, and Karen watched.

First she turned off the lights so we could see better, tucked a towel in my pants, and then squirted my belly with goopy warm jelly. She then put her transducer in the jelly and rubbed it around Mommy's belly. She showed Mommy her cervix and her bladder first, and from there we started to get a good look at you Baby Boy A!

She showed us so many beautiful pictures of you. Your little legs, your little head, your arms, and feet. You were so squirmy that even our ultrasound tech said you were a little wiggle worm! And then she asked us if we wanted to know the gender. I said very much so! So then she went to find out what you were! And apparently you weren't trying to hide it at all! You had both legs wide open, and were spread eagle for the whole wide world to see! And what a sight to see! You were definitely a little Baby Boy! She even was able to tell us that you weighed 7 whole ounces! Then when she was all done looking at you and taking more beautiful pictures of you and your liver and stomach, she headed on towards your brother!

Baby Boy B, you were hanging out next to Mommy's belly button, unlike your brother who was sitting much lower in Mommy's Belly! Once they found you, the ultrasound got right to work repeating many of the same pictures that she had with your brother. We saw your little arms, legs, hands, feet, and head. Then she set to work trying to figure out what you were! And you were not quite a willing to share your goods as your brother was! You had your legs crossed and was intent on not showing us your family jewels. The tech said that she would come back to it and then took a few more pictures! My most favorite picture she took of you and your brother were your profile pictures, or the pictures where we saw you from the side. You were apparently very happy and content in there because we got to see you sucking your litle thumb! I will never forget how adorable that was! I was so in love with you and your brother and just getting to see both of you in there, happy, healthy, and handsome made Mommy so very happy! So anyways, after we got the cute pictures of you, the tech wiggled on Mommy's belly, and Abracadabra!! you opened your little legs to reveal what it was you were carrying! Mommy could clearly see you were a boy, as could everyone else! But you were not as cooperative for the tech to get a picture to prove you were indeed Mommy's little boy! Finally she got a good picture and then told Mommy everything looked good. She told Mommy based on your measurements you weighed 8 ounces!

She also did some measurements of the amniotic fluid that you boys are each hanging out in, as well as the placenta that each of you have! She said everything look wonderful, which made Mommy again, very very happy!

Then she cleaned Mommy's belly, printed some pictures, and sent us all on our way to the next stop of the day, the appointment with our doctor! I let Papaw and Karen hold on to the pictures, and we all spent the next few minutes in the waiting room on cloud 9! We were staring and cooing over your pictures, and I don't think I've ever seen your Papaw smile so much in his life!

Mommy and Daddy went into the appointment, where the doctor looked at our ultrasound pictures and said everything looked great! He said he wasn't even going to poke on me or you guys because everything looked so good. He also recommended Mommy get her flu shot, which I did even though I was a little scared of. So once they gave Mommy her shots, they sent me on my way to make another appointment! The doctor said we would be doing another ultrasound next time, which really excites Mommy because that means I'll get to see you again!

So after wards, Mommy, Daddy, Papaw, and Karen all went out for Chinese to celebrate, and we all ate to our hearts desire! After all the chatter at lunch and all the eating, we headed our separate ways. Papaw and Karen went to Karen's house, and Daddy and I came home. Although I still feel like we floated home on a cloud because Mommy was so happy.

So that's the story of how we found out what you were! We've already got our names picked out for you!

Baby A- You will be named after your Daddy. Your name will be Angel Luis Garcia IV, but so Mommy doesn't get confused, I'm going to call you AJ for Angel Junior!

and

Baby B- You will be named with a "J" name after Mommy, and your middle name will be after your Papaw, my Daddy. Your name will be Jaydyn Timothy Garcia.

Angel, your name means messenger of God, and Jaydyn, your name is Hebrew for Jehova (God) has heard. Which is so very true! God has heard my prayers for both of you and sent you both to me as little messengers to remind me that He is always faithful to answer prayers!

I love you both so very very much! We're nearly 1/2 way there and it won't be long til I'll be holding you in my arms. But for now I'll just have to wait to see you again during our next ultrasound...and that will be on November 4th (Your Papaw's Birthday) at 3:30pm! You will be 22 weeks old and both of you will nearly weigh a pound each! I can not wait until then!

I love you both, and keep growing to be strong healthy baby boys! And just for the record, since you give Mommy so much heartburn, you both had better have a TON of hair! :)

Love you Always and Forever,
Mommy

P.S. Since this is such a long letter, Mommy will post another one right after it to show you both the pictures of yourselves!

Team Blue x 2!

Dear Miracle Babies,
Well it's official! Today was the day where Mommy and Daddy got to find out what you were! Mommy really wants to write an elaborate entry about this but I'm so tired from being up since 6:30 this morning and the days exciting events, that I figured I'll announce it to you now and tell you the awesome story tomorrow :)

So anyways, as if you didn't know already, you both are little boys! Baby A, you were definitely not shy about letting Mommy and Daddy see your little bird! You had it proudly on display and it made Mommy chuckle! And Baby B, the ultrasound tech had to wiggle you around a bit to make you uncross your legs so Mommy and Daddy could get a good look between the legs. You're Mommy's modest little man!

Anyways, I'm so very excited to get things rolling for the both of you now! I am so thankful to be your Mommy and can't wait to be holding you both in my arms very very soon! I'll post pictures tomorrow but for now....sleep!

Goodnight my handsome and beautiful little men! Keep growing for Mommy! I love and need you more than you already know :)

Love always,
Your Mommy!