Weekly Update

It's been way more than a week, but what can I say? I've been in the hospital! :o)

Everything is going well. I'm now 36 weeks pregnant and thankfully, only 13 days away from being a mommy to three. It's impossible to believe that this is actually going to happen. They boys are in great shape. The sonographers are able to see practice breathing on the screen which is a good sign for their lung development and they are so big we can no longer see complete body parts easily. We had a weight check on Monday, our final one, and little B who we desperately needed to be at least 4lbs.6oz. (same thing as 4.4 lbs) is measuring at 5 pounds even. Baby W who is going to be our bruiser is officially larger than his sister's birthweight at 6lbs.5oz. The sonographer was careful to tell me that these babies are so large now that it's rather impossible to be absolutely certain that the entire body part they are measuring is on screen. She pointed out to me that little B's femur (thigh) was in particular hard to see in it's entirety, so that they may be actually bigger than that. That is a great blessing and we look forward to the fact that everyday they are putting on more and more fat and just getting bigger. We've seen hair on both babies on the screen. I wonder if it will be red?

It has occurred to me that I am carrying over 11 pounds of baby boy around (not to mention the placentas, fluid, etc). I am getting to be big and cranky. :o) My knees and thighs are really aching from getting up and down and I'm remembering what my OB said to me many months ago. He told me he didn't like to put people on bedrest (this was before mine became very medically necessary) but with twin mommies by the time 30 weeks comes around that I would be putting myself on bedrest. I never got that choice, but I definitely see what he's saying. I am definitely doing more sitting here wondering if it's really worth it to go to the restroom and have to haul myself in there. Of course, nature wins! It's really such a blessing though. I am thankful that I do carry side to side quite a bit, and baby B is soooooo low in my pelvis. My back aches, but I think I've been spared some by just how these boys are situated. It's a beautiful belly though. I love how big it is and although in some ways I'm going to be happy to be back to my old self, I'm going to miss having these babies here with me all the time. It is really lovely to have switched mentalities too from being very afraid that these babies would come too soon to now anticipating their coming. We will always be nervous about little baby B, but are clearly prayerful about that.

I can't even tell you how excited I am to meet them.

AND... onto the photos and miss L.

I can't believe how much she is changing lately. She's really growing up.

A couple of weeks ago she had her last day at little gym for awhile. We are going have to be very vigilant about her not getting sick (and bringing it home) on top of the fact that we are going to be very busy, so she is sitting out this spring. It's sad because she loves it so much, but we'll get back there this summer for sure.

Look at the upper body strength on this kid:



I love this photo. This is L's friend K and that day K ran up to L and said, "I have new earrings." L and K then proceeded to check out each others earrings for a bit and then played together. This photo really reminds me what a big girl L has become. She can play nicely with others. We no longer worry about her pushing or shoving, and she's learning to be a good friend. I just love this one. (and I'm just noticing how short her pants are... that child is always growing!)



Here is L playing with the parachute.



...and back to the rings. These have been her favorite since we started little gym. I can't believe she can pull herself up so much!



Showing off her mad skills.





The funny thing that happened on that particular Saturday was that L became really interested in the bars. She would hoist herself up on them, flip upside down and do a front roll down the mat. I heard that it was crazy, because she would just absolutely go for it. She also enjoyed spending some time just hanging upside down on those bars. She is too much!

















Every class ends with bubbles, and L loves catching them on her fingers!



...and since it was the last class of the semester, she got a ribbon! Good job L!



Here are a few fun stories that I've been hearing from Brad:

• We have dimmers on our lightswitches (thank goodness) and at night Brad lets L have a little while with her light on low so she can read and otherwise have some alone time before he flips the light off completely. One night he turned it down and she said, "No, more up," and he turned it up, and then she wanted it down a bit more and so they took awhile to get the light level just exactly right.
• She has this little "house" which is really just a door. It's fisher price I think, the learning cottage or something like that. It's really for babies but she still loves to play with it. One night she wanted Brad to come through the door, but he would get halfway through, pretend to get stuck and then she'd help push him out and belly laugh the whole time. Then she started crawling halfway through and saying, "tuck!" (stuck) and he would have to "help" her through and she was just laughing.

I can't remember anymore right now, but I'm sure they'll come to me and I'll write them down. I love hearing these stories in the evenings so I thought you might too!

Have a great week. If anything happens I'll let you know and I'll see you soon!

Weekly Update

Goodness my life has changed since I last updated. Don't worry... we didn't have any babies, yet!

Since I last updated I had my weekly visit with the perinatologist which ended with his recommendation that I be admitted on Wednesday to the hospital after a few signs that preterm labor was near. I'm now writing this from a "semi-private" (meaning only that you can't see each other all the time, cause there's not a bit of privacy from conversations) room at the hospital. I LOVE my roommate, which is such a blessing! We've got tons in common including kids around the same age, and we're both having twins. Our goals are pretty similar too. If I have to have a semi-private room, I'm glad it's with her.

L, Brad and my mom are forging ahead at home. I'm not sure what they are doing, but I bet it's pretty close to what we were doing before I left. Brad is visiting me everyday and L gets to visit twice per week. I am looking very much forward to our next visit. Brad has definitely been getting ready for the twins at home. I left with many things done, but definitely not everything! Today Brad struck out on his own (with L) to Babies R Us to buy some crib sheets. Thank goodness for two packs! They are perfect for our two pack! Now there are a few things still to do in the nursery, but we've got the world's tiniest diapers (how did L EVER fit in those?!), washed bottles and cribs with sheets so I think we'll definitely be okay.

All in all, it's pretty good. It feels a bit like camp, only you lay down all the time. I keep calling it pregnancy camp. I even have a schedule! The mornings are very busy with all kinds of nurses and doctors in and out, but the afternoons and evenings seem to be the longest part of the day. I'm so happy that Brad is able to visit every afternoon. I think otherwise it would make for a very. long. day. The food is not great, but I'm getting plenty brought in!

I'm going to try to collect some stories and things about miss L while I'm away. I'll even try to get Brad to take some photos (he's way better than me anyhow) to put up here so you won't miss a thing, and tomorrow maybe he can even take a photo of me! This belly is out of control and growing fast. My skin just aches from the stretching!

Finally... if you'd like much more detailed accounts of the daily happenings in the hospital, we do have a carepages page. You'll need some special information to join though, so just shoot Brad or me an email if you'd like to follow along! We'll send you the information!

See you soon!

Weekly Update

Hello!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas last week. We were blessed beyond reason, which happens every year it seems. There is nothing quite like having a two year old around at Christmas to remind you of the magic of the day. I know that Brad and I have had countless discussions about not wanting to have these big Christmases with tons of stuff and instead focus on our religious and family reasons for celebration. BUT... this year as every year the joy of watching miss L open her new toys and watching her face light up is just too much to pass up. Needless to say, we went way too overboard and this child shouldn't need new toys for another year at least.

Now... onto a bit of an update on the twins. I attended my diabetes training last week and I have to say that it isn't that bad! The pen that I got to actually draw the blood pokes such a tiny hole that I can't even feel it, and since I'm having twins I'm really lucky to have increased carb needs. I'm actually eating more throughout the day since I am snacking and paying more attention to my carbs. I do, however, need to start increasing my fat and protein intake. I'm supposed to eat as much of those as I can get in, and judging by my daily ketone readings, I'm not getting enough. My weight is continuing to increase though which means that those babies are continuing to grow at a good rate, an extremely important thing in our case. My blood sugar readings have all been well within the normal range, so I think we've got this diabetes thing under control. I even somehow got through Christmas with some really great support from my family!

We are now going to doctor's visits once per week. I had my first non-stress test this week during which both babies performed fabulously and we were able to see baby W yawn. That is something amazing to see! Everything else is checking out really well. I'm not swelling much at all, which is a very good sign and my cervix is shortening, but not beyond the normal range. At this point, we are not seeing signs of preterm labor, so that is a major blessing to be sure.

It's hard to believe that we only have five and a half weeks left until the twins' birthday. We are trying to prepare as best we can for the upcoming birth of the babies and the surgery and hospital stay to follow. We're hoping to meet the neonatologist soon and we have our next cardiology appointment next week. I can't believe this is all getting to where it is actually happening! Keep those prayers and warm wishes coming. It's crucial that baby B is big enough and mature enough for this surgery when he's born. At this point it's looking good!

...and now... onto the photos!

We didn't decorate much this year. We mostly only did the tree and the stockings, but I was so happy for the those decorations. I have to admit that it didn't feel much like Christmas this year. I haven't been anywhere besides the doctor's office in over two months, so the normal things you might see or hear to get in the Christmas spirit have sort of been missing for me this year. So even though we only put up a few things, they were even more wonderful than usual for me.



We woke up a little early on Christmas morning and L didn't really even notice her stocking, but after she figured out what was going on, she was happy to get involved.



At some point she decided that Uncle Kyle needed to hold everything that came out of her stocking. In fact, she sort of randomly decided throughout the weekend that uncle kyle needed to hold a whole host of items, but I'm fairly certain that this is where it started.





After the stocking we opened the gift that Santa left the night before. It didn't take her long to remember how much fun opening presents was. I thought it was hilarious that everytime she ripped a piece of paper off she'd hand it to her Daddy or whoever was there and say, "thank you!" I'm pretty sure that she meant, thank you for taking this paper out of my hand so that I can rip some more off...







I think that there is something really nice about being two and the only child on Christmas morning. L certainly got to choose the pace of the morning. When she opened a gift, it was fine for her to play with it and explore it without having to move on immediately to the next thing. I think that's just another one of those lessons that we can learn from our kids... to slow down and let the moments come when they do. I'm not sure I'm actually learning that lesson, but I wish I could harness just a little of it!

So we took it easy all morning. I'm not sure what order events occurred in after that. We opened many gifts with lots of help from L and we ate some breakfast and even had a dance party. What fun!

Here she is opening a lovely book from Uncle Don and Aunt Peggy.







She helped Uncle Kyle with his gift.



She even received some things that needed no unwrapping.





I think that Uncle Kyle sealed his status as awesome uncle during this dance party. What fun!













I was taking video of the dancing from the couch and I had to include this photo to show you just how large I've become. The side view photos are great, but they hardly give you the full picture. Baby W is now transverse, meaning that he is lying across my belly making me quite wide and not just out front. The doctor told me that I would be full term (singleton) size by 30 weeks and I most certainly was. We haven't measured in a while but I can tell you I am way beyond what my belly was ever meant to hold (and I'm definitely beyond what my maternity clothing was meant to hold). :o)



L studying a new CD.



L loves music so we decided to get her an mp3 player designed for toddlers. We preloaded some songs onto it the night before and I think we underestimated how much she'd like it. She'll sit for a long time just listening to her music and going back to find the certain song she wants and just sitting. You guys know that my daughter does not sit still!





By this point in the morning I was tired and very uncomfortable sitting, so I opened my gifts laying down. It's a talent I have. ;o)



L remained focused on her mp3 player.



Even Grandma got to open a few gifts.







We even got L to take a break from that mp3 player to open a little people bus.





...and then a music break. :o)



...and then more gifts. She got a doctor's kit from Grandma!







Finally, she got a basketball goal from her Mawmaw and Pawpaw this year. She's loving it!







L had a wonderful time with Grandma, Uncle Kyle and Aunt Lisa. She just became really enamored of Kyle and everytime he sat on the floor she would run and jump on him. She loves her Uncle Kyle!



Eating was not hard at all! I was worried that it would be really difficult, but instead of having one big dinner we spread it out throughout the day. That way, I got to enjoy all of my starchy sides! It was great!

We also took some 31 week photos of the belly. It had been awhile and I seem to be growing by leaps and bounds everyday. I am experiencing some discomfort due to the size and position of the twins but I'm happy that everyday we're getting closer. Right now I'm at 32 weeks with only 5 and a half weeks to go! Woohoo!





What a great week and a great Christmas! I hope that yours was just as wonderful! See you next week!