Random Stuff from the Weekend

So I'm excited to say we bought our stroller and car seats!  I was really stoked because I got a 20% off coupon from BRU for this weekend only, so Eric and I were very strategic in hitting up a couple BRUs in the area so we could use the coupon for each purchase (little did I know this deal comes around ALOT, so the amount of work we put into it was pretty moot, but still, its nice to have them purchased).  With the discount, we spent around $500 for all three, which Eric's dad and step-mom are taking care of.  We have been very lucky with how helpful our parents have been, first with my parents buying our nursery furniture, and now with this.  It really helps and I couldn't be more appreciative! 

Anyway, we ended up going with the Combi Twin Sport and the Chicco KeyFit 30.  I used the "box is banged up, better be on the safe side and open the stroller" excuse so I could play with at least one thing... and I total plan on pulling out the car seats sometime soon to see how they fit in my car (I have a Mazda6 and hubby has a Ford Escape, so I'm trying to determine if Eric's car is going to have to be our day to day car, at least while they are in the infant car seats).

In other weekend news, I had a total meltdown on Saturday about child care.  I'm not sure if I have ever talked about it here (although I know I have on WTE), but childcare in the Northern VA area is ridiculous.  To use an actual "school-type" day care costs $350-400 per week PER CHILD.  They do sometimes give a discount for multiple children, but its mostly on the order of about 5% off.  And to top it off, these places have HUGE waiting lists.  I mean, apparently you have to put your name on a list the second you start thinking about trying for a baby, and you're screwed if you wait until 3-4 months.  So, obviously, these places are out for us for these two reasons (although, its mostly due to the cost).

For the past couple weeks, I've taken up a mission to look up in-home day cares.  The Fairfax County web page has tons of listings for licensed people, and I even took some advice and looked at CraigsList (which made me cringe at first, but there have actually been some great people on there).  I've seen a pretty large range in the total costs, which is basically about $250-300 per child per week, again with many of these places offering discounts for multiple children.

So I decided this weekend, Eric and I would sit down, go through all our bills and monthly costs, and determine how much money we have available for child care.  And the results made me have a mental breakdown.  I mean, I knew money would be tight as long as we were in this area, but it's coming down to penny pinching.  We decided we really can only spend a maximum of $500 per week on childcare.  The place in the lead right now will be $450 a week, so at least we are still in budget, but all I could think was how we will not be able to give our children everything they need if we are living paycheck to paycheck.  I mean, I feel my husband and I are pretty well established, and I know we do have some extra expenses, but I am still baffled that people in the area have multiple kids all the time.  I can not see how they do it!  This utter panic coupled with raging hormones turned me into a balling crying crazy lady unable to listen to reason, and left Eric utterly bewildered on how to proceed without making it worse.  After about an hour of crying, I calmed down.  I'm still worried, but I guess that's only natural. 

Anyway, this basically re-established that we need to get out of NOVA.  So operation "Lindsay find a new job in Richmond" continues to be the plan for the Fall.  Everyone please keep their fingers crossed this works out.

Those are the big notes for the weekend.  Tomorrow is another OB appointment, so I'm very excited to hear some heartbeats!

Know the Sex, Start the Nursery, Part II

Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I get the big things like the stroller, car seats, and nursery furniture out of the way, I just move on to new items to stress over.  This week's stress du jour is the nursery decor, specifically baby bedding.  Somewhere along the lines, I got this perfect vision of a nursery in my mind.  It was simple, no over the top themes, just basic colors and patterns.  And it was blue, and green, and brown, and white, and ADORABLE.  I even found lots of color examples at Lowe's for when we are finally able to paint said nursery.

But now that I have this awesome nursery in my mind, I can't find anything to put it together.  None of the bedding I look at fits what I want, and anything that is close or workable costs $400+ a set, which is just out of the question (because I can't imagine someone, especially me, spending $800 on baby bedding)... I also tried to find a place that will sell individual pieces where I could "build my own" baby bedding set, but the selection is slim and not really what I am looking for.

So I'm kinda at a loss... anyone have any ideas out there??  Here are a couple pictures of nurseries I found online (mostly through Google images) that I like:

This is pretty much as close to perfect as I could find.  I love the colors and the simplicity of it, the brown bumper, the green skirt, the blue blanket... and the RUG, love it!  I would probably do a solid shag rug since this one is probably expensive, but I do love it!

Another example of the colors that I love.  I was able to find these wall decals, so that may be on our list of purchases in the future.  We are probably going with a solid brown chair, but isn't this one fun??

So anyway, there's an idea of what I am looking for, and now I am calling out to anyone who might have a clue where to look... I've tried all the basic places like BRU, Target, Buy Buy Baby, etc, but I'm still not having any luck!!  Suggestions welcomed and encouraged!!

Know the Sex, Start the Nursery

With all the excitement of the ultrasound on Tuesday, I forgot to mention that, while home visiting my parents this past weekend, I found and purchased some nursery furniture (two cribs and a combo dresser).  It was just one of those situations where everything aligned and I decided to go with it.  Now, I must admit, I'm a little picky about things (OK, a-lotta-picky), especially when it comes to home decor and furniture.  A few weeks ago, I visited USA Baby in Richmond and loved basically all the furniture there... but of course, that's because most were solid wood and cost ALOT.  Everything I have looked at since has just seemed cheap.  I've been to BRU, Target, and finally Baby Depot (aka Burlington Coat Factory).  Walking around Baby Depot, I had that same feeling (i.e. the feeling of "This is all crap that will not stand up to a baby, let alone the test of time to be able to use the convertible crib for its full purpose").  Then, I turned the corner, and there is was...

The Suite BeBe Hampshire collection.  I fell in love.  It has darker wood like I love, but it also has a very slight cherry color to it, which made it different.  It was made pretty solid, and I couldn't get enough of it.  Plus, I got a 20% off discount on one of the cribs for having twins, and I had a coupon for 15% off the dresser, so I saved about $200 total... AND it was in stock.  Granted, we were 3 hours away from my home and my hubby wasn't there (though I did send him pics and links so he would see and approve), but my dad picked it up in his truck and will be bringing it to us the last week of June.  I. CANNOT. WAIT.

The room we will be using as the nursery is pretty small (9x10, currently our office), so I'm thinking we will start with one crib and wait to set up the second one.  Right now, we live in a townhouse that we rent.  Even though we have been in Northern VA for 5 years now, and have looked into purchasing a home about 3 times over those 5 years, it really just wasn't possible (and boy am I glad we didn't buy, since I'm seeing how much housing costs dropped for my friend's who did buy during the housing peak... some are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars and are essentially stuck). 

While we knew we could afford to buy, we didn't want to be "house poor", plus we have been discussing (for the better part of 3 years) leaving Nova to be closer to friends and family, by moving to the Ric.  The trouble is finding a new job, but we have decided, we are making the move... the "plan" (in quotes because plans never seem to work for us) is to spend the last month or so of pregnancy and hopefully my maternity leave looking for jobs (I'm probably not being realistic, but oh well).  I'll return to work around January (assuming they do not come too early) and keep up the search.  Our lease ends in February or March, and hopefully, by then, I'll have found another job and we can get outta here.  Luckily hubby doesn't have to find another job as he can work remotely from home.  Its me holding us up at this point, so fingers crossed it will work.  I'm hoping that even if I don't find something before our lease ends, we could still make the move due to the lower cost of living based off my husband's pay, but that isn't ideal and I would like to avoid that.  Two paychecks is better than one!

Sooo why am I tell you all this?  Well, basically because my dream nursery is gonna have to wait.  Since we hopefully won't be in the townhouse for very long after the babies are born, I'm going to hold off on painting and hanging things.  I will plan to have it all purchased and ready, but I will just have to wait on completing the final project for a little while.  It makes me a little down, since I feel like I'll be itching to do stuff during the nesting period, but I just don't want to have to deal with painting everything back to white before we leave.

Anyway, this post ended up longer than I had anticipated, so I'm going to forego my discussion of nursery themes and colors for right now.

Decisions and Updates

Why hello, everyone!  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I spent this weekend in Richmond with my hubby and best friends attending our 4th year at Colonial Downs Strawberry Hill Races.  It's one of my favorite events of the year.  It typically takes place April, but this year it was moved to May, probably because of the pouring rain that April has brought us the past several years of the event.  This year, the rain was replaced by blistering heat.  I love this event because we get all dressed up, and spend the day outdoors, having fun, drinking wine.  Of course, this year, there was no wine for me, so I was the sober one, but I still had a great time. 

I am happy to say that we have FINALLY made a decision on the stroller/car seat front.  We plan to get the following:

Infant Car Seat: Chicco KeyFit 30 (pattern TBD, as hubs and I can't seem to agree, but I can't lie, I like the one shown below, its fun!)

Stroller: Combi Twin Sport in Cranberry Noche (hopefully... this is only sold at BRU and they are sold out right now)

We also plan to use a Snap N Go when the twins are first born, because every single twin parent I have talked to said this is the best way to go, and I am listening!  I still have some parents telling me to ditch the side-by-side stroller and go with a tandem, but I have heard really good things about the Combi and its ability to fit through doors, so I am pretty confident in my decision.  Plus, like I have said from the beginning, I want a stroller where both kids can see, and you lose that with a tandem stroller.  Now we are moving on to picking out nursery furniture.... so of course, I am open for all suggestions for places to look.

Today was my monthly OB appointment.  I am 13w2d.  I got to hear both of the heartbeats (which were in the 160s... could we be having girls???), which totally made up for the fact that I had to wait 45 minutes to be seen.  My next ultrasound is on June 1st.  I'll be 15w2d, but I'm really hoping they will be able to determine the sexes.  If not, then I'll be going back around Week 18-20.  Fingers crossed, as I am ready to know NOW!

And lastly, an updated belly pic from this morning... I can't really tell if there is much of a difference from last week... Any thoughts??

Stroller FAIL

Ugh, I'm so upset right now. I FINALLY thought I had a stroller plan, at least one I could stick too for the time being, just to be crushed. I decided to go with the Chicco Trevi Twin plus a Snap and Go for when they are young. But alas, my inquires to Chicco as to why every.single.store was sold out yielded that the stroller was discontinued, to be replaced by the new tandem Cortina Together (which I also like, but I really wanted a side-to-side option). Oh well, back to the drawing board it seems.

The Great Stroller Debate

I'm starting to realize that each week brings a new item of stress; last week it was weight, this week its baby gear. I never thought I could be so stressed over trying to decide what kind of stroller or car seat to get.
For starters, I am totally jealous that they do not make twin travel systems. That would just be so much easier! Instead, I have to buy it all separately, except I am leaning more towards a side-by-side stroller, and I have yet to find one that I like that holds two infant car seats. I have found a tandem stroller that I like and that will take two infant car seats, but I feel bad because I know once they are older, I will want them side by side. If anyone has ANY advice or input in this area, please let me know, because I am about beside myself trying to decide.

And don't even get me started on the whole Infant Car Seat vs. Convertible Car Seat debate... because I can't seem to stay on one side for very long.

So, here are some of the strollers I like so far:

Chicco Trevi Twin

Right now this stroller is in the lead. I've heard some great things about it from a twin mom friend of mine, who had used it since birth, and the brand has great ratings.

Pros: Lightweight, easy to maneuver, side-by-side design, reclines for infant use

Cons: Does not take infant car seats, Seems to be sold out everywhere

Cost: ~ $175

Chicco Contina Together

This is the new tandem stroller from Chicco. I also really like this, but it just came out last month, so while all the reviews are great right now, I don't know if there would be any long term issues

Pros: Accepts two infant car seats, but also reclines for use with infants

Cons: Front-to-Back design (which could limit what one child sees once older), new item with very few reviews, Seems to be sold out everywhere

Cost: ~$300

Bumbleride Indie Twin

When I first started looking at strollers, I must admit, I went straight for the Bumbleride... but the more I looked into it, the more I realized the reviews for this stroller was right down the middle. People either loved it or hated it. I rarely saw the happy medium.
Pros: Nice looking, positive reviews are raving, reclines for infants
Cons: Only takes one infant car seat, Negative reviews are very strong, VERY costly
Cost: ~$660

Snap and Go

This seems like a staple for most moms when baby is first born, and use for the first 6-12 months.
Pros: Lightweight, Accepts most infant car seats, relatively inexpensive
Cons: Once babies outgrow infant car seats it is useless, sold out in most places
Cost: ~$100

I looked at the Graco Quattro Double, but decided that if I was going with a tandem, it would be the Chicco Together. Also eliminated were BOB and Peg Perego, not because I didn't like them, but because they basically had the same issues as the Bumbleride, and were just as expensive so I categorized them together.

So what are your thoughts? Any feedback on the strollers and/or brands I have listed or do you have any new suggestions? I feel like a fish out of water right now!