Shot the family Christmas Card this weekend. Probably cut it a little too close to lunchtime, and we had a very pouty Caroline to deal with. I worked around her for the most part, and basically got two usable frames of her with siblings, and even that took getting a ham sandwich into her just to pull it off. (Needless to say, those two are in the final product, and not here.)
For those who Kristina has on our list, I won't blow the surprise of the final card, but I did want to share a couple of my favorite shots of Declan and Audrey. I'm pretty sure the two individual ones here will make it onto our walls in a nice 20x30 or so.
Since I'm away from home again, Kristina's been breaking out the camera on her iPhone and sending me little snapshots to make me homesick or something like that.
Audrey (foreground) is now 9 lbs, 13 oz, while Declan's a big ol' chunk at 10 lbs, 14 oz. Audrey tends to like things quiet and not overstimulating, while Declan loves loves loves new places and experiences. Still wondering where all the blonde hair came from, but Declan looks a lot like I did in terms of facial features at his age.
I'm pretty sure the look on Audrey's face here can be best described as, "Do. Not. Want. Mom, get me out of here!"
We're in for a doubly sleepless night tonight... But, my, it's good to have my family all together at home finally.
Congratulations to Jennifer and Ben, who hit the March 27th date exactly. No secret how they picked the birthdate... it's exactly 6 months before their wedding day! The $100 worth of gift cards to Malone's should be going out in about two weeks-- I left them on the table in the studio before I headed back to Long Island. (Whoops.)
Declan Samuel, born 2.30 PM March 27th. 6 lbs, 9 oz, 19 inches.
***
Audrey Rose, born 3.39 PM March 27th. 6 lbs, 4 oz, 18 inches. 
***
Mom and kids doing fine!
Thanks to all who stopped by my booth at the Lexington Bridal Show at the Convention Center today! I had a great time talking with so many of you. And with that in mind, we're going to have a contest.
As I'm sure you know, Kristina and I are getting closer to the birth of the twins, who are due on April 20th. So here's the deal: Use the contact form on IanLozada.com to submit your information, including your wedding date and the date you think the twins will be born. Keep in mind that twins are usually born before their 40 week due date. The bride (or groom) with the closest guess gets a $100 gift card for Malone's.
The fine print: One guess per couple, and you must be getting married in 2008 or 2009 to enter. If two or more people guess correctly or are the same number of days away from the actual birthdate, then one of those entries will be drawn at random for the gift card. If the twins arrive on either side of midnight and have two different birthdates, and two people guess one of the correct dates, each will get a $50 gift card for Malone's, provided they are the only person to select that date. I hate the fine print, don't you?
Good luck to all!
At every point in the process, if you asked either of us what Kristina's first pregnancy was, we would have told you we both felt it would be a girl. Caroline Grace proved us right.
This time, from the very beginning, we have both felt we were looking at a boy and a girl. In fact, Caroline always said she wanted a brother AND a sister. Well, we're getting pretty good at this prediction thing.
The lower child (who will be born first if delivered naturally) is a son, and the upper one is a daughter. We're overjoyed.
Now all we have to do is agree on our son's name... (See last post.)
When Kristina and I were expecting our little Caroline Grace, the name was a state secret. Even though we knew she was a girl, the potential boy's name (since discarded) was closely held.
I don't have that luxury this time. We definitely have a 1st choice girls name. No problems there. But we have very different ideas about boys' names, and she's told me in no uncertain terms, that she needs to know that my first choice name for a boy is not too outlandish for words. Even if it's going to be one of a pair of twin boys.
As you can tell, I don't have the most common name in the world. I like it that way. I know that when someone calls out, "Hey Ian!", they're talking to me. I want that for a potential son. I also like Irish and Scottish names. No matter what we pick, you can be assured that all of the names we are discussing come from either Ireland or Great Britain.
While we are not Catholic, my first choice name is a saint's name, and it means "full of goodness", although there is also an alternate meaning out there of "man of prayer." I like both qualities.
Depending on whether or not the other twin is a boy or a girl, we have two major options on the middle name to go with it:
Declan Samuel (other twin is a girl)
Declan Spencer (other twin is a boy)
Please share your thoughts in the comments. Kristina and I both really would like to know what you think.
As a select few people know, Kristina and I found out that we were expecting at the beginning of August. Well, we've had a bit of a wild ride since then.
About nine days ago, we went in for Kristina's first sonogram. At the time, we believed her to be about 9-10 weeks along. What they told us was that they found two sacs in her uterus, but one appeared to be empty, and the other had fetal tissue, but was showing no heartbeat. Clearly, this was not good. They ordered some blood tests, and told us that the levels of pregnancy hormone would tell us if we still had reason to believe that the pregnancy was still continuing. They also said that in many cases, people conceive two, and only one survives the initial few weeks, but until sonogram technology got to a certain point, most people knew nothing of the other child. In other words, we were iffy to have even the one child out of this pregnancy at this point. The one hope we clung to was that the original physical examination had us much further along than we anticipated, and perhaps they had the wrong conception date down, and the increased uterus size was from the fact there were two embryos. It wasn't a lot of hope, but my, how we clung to it.
We did a LOT of praying over the next 24 hours. The hormone levels kept going up, so they were cautiously optimistic, and scheduled us for another sono, this afternoon. Kristina had some familiar symptoms from when she was pregnant with Caroline, so we were hopeful to see one pregnancy continuing, but we were still praying hard for both children.
Kristina didn't want to look at the screen this time, so that was my job. I didn't say anything, but immediately, I saw some familiar shapes in both sacs. Sure enough, the sono tech changed the number of fetal pregnancies on the machine from 1 to 2. Soon afterward, the sono tech told our midwife, "I hear two heartbeats."
Sometimes, God rewards your faith and your prayers in an amazing way.
When Caroline was born, we put a Bible verse on her birth announcements, and it's pretty appropriate right now:
"The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy."--Psalm 126.3
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)