34 weeks!

Wow what a milestone! We are beyond thankful and so giddy that we have made it so far. And still cooking!! This weekend was fabulous. We got a lot done around the house to prepare for these babies. Fingers and toes crossed that we will be bringing these girls home from the hospital with us (read... NO NICU TIME!!!) Here is my 34 week picture:

My mom came up Friday night and Saturday and we accomplished SO much in the nursery. I didn't realize how many little outfits we had! We did 4 or 5 loads of laundry and got everything put away in their dressers and closet. It is seeming more and more real :) The only thing I haven't done yet is pack my hospital bag (I know, I know.) I have no idea why I am dragging my feet on this, maybe I feel like if I am not prepared to head to the hospital and have babies then it just won't happen. Yea right! My goal for this week is to get that hospital bag packed. 

Tony was also very productive over the weekend, cleaning out the garage (for our soon-to-come deep freezer!) and....

Carseats are installed! I can't believe how close this is getting. We are so ready to welcome these girls home. Hopefully I can swing it physically... I feel like all this time on bedrest has seriously decreased my muscle strength! It will feel so strange to be up and moving around again.

Until next week... :)

It is official...

I have been a terrible blogger. I last posted when I was 18 weeks pregnant and I am now 33.5 weeks along and SO much has happened! Through the joy and especially all the stress I didn't think I was strong enough to put all of my feeling out and document them. I am starting to realize now that I underestimated myself! I am going to do my best to update the past 2 months in a highlights post, starting where I left off...

August 1 (19 weeks 2 days): We found out at our targeted ultrasound that we are having TWO GIRLS!! The joy was overwhelming. I thought Tony might be bummed that there weren't any boys in there, but he is beyond thrilled to have not one but TWO daddy's little girls :)

Pretty Baby B

Baby A talking to us ;)

Tired Baby A

August 6: 20 weeks! And inspiration for this "Half Baked" photo shoot

August 12: We closed on our new house and MOVED!! Don't worry, we had lots of help and I didn't do a darn thing. My mom was here and ensured that I sat in the recliner while she put away my kitchen things. Tony's friends from work were so helpful and got all the big stuff in/put together for us. Sorry I don't have a pic to share of the outside of our new house :( We have 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and a little over 3000 sq ft! Plenty of room for two energetic little girls to grow up! Here's my first belly pic in the new house...

22 weeks

And just for comparison, look how deceiving the shirt is!
My belly looks twice as big when it's bare.

August 30: Some of my wonderful friends at work hosted a joint shower for myself and another friend who is 6 weeks ahead of me... ALSO with twin girls!! Small world huh?! Carlee, Nikki and April did a fabulous job and we had such a fun time at our first baby shower. These baby girls are getting spoiled already!

Great friends!

Two twin mama's-to-be!

Tony came late to help me load all the loot in the car :)

September 2: This is where things turned very bad and stressful. As you know from my last post, I started having Braxton Hick's contractions at 18 weeks. They measured my cervix at that point and everything appeared to be fine. I continued to work and do everything normally (taking it easy whenever I could of course!) but they did follow my cervical length every two weeks after that.  On Sept 2 I had a regularly scheduled appointment with for a growth sono/cervical length, and then to see my doctor. Much to our surprise my cervix had shortened to 2.7cm (always before that it had been 3.6-4cm... 2.5 and under is considered "short"). Dr W decided at that appointment that I needed to be taken off of work at least for awhile (I had just worked the night right before this appointment!!) and she was going to send me home on modified bedrest. At the last minute she decided to put me on the monitor to see if I was contracting regularly, because that would change her plan considerably. Sure enough... sitting in the recliner in the clinic I was having contractions every 4-5 minutes. They didn't even let me get out of the chair. I had a wheelchair brought in and they admitted me directly to Labor and Delivery to get steroid shots and be monitored over the weekend. Talk about scary! I was 23 weeks and 6 days. Just barely viable. I was unnaturally calm for the first few hours of being admitted and then it all hit me. I was on the phone with a relative and said the words "They just cannot be born yet" and I started bawling. I cried and cried. This situation is way too familiar for me as a NICU nurse.... unable to stop contractions, mom received steroids for babies' lungs, and then the end of that story is that I am caring for that baby (or babies) outside of the womb in the NICU. I was overwhelmed with the thought of my daughters being born far too early and having to fight for every hour of their lives. I got the steroid shots and thankfully my contractions calmed down on an oral medication called Procardia. My doctor discharged me to home on bedrest 3 days later.

September 9: My first follow-up appointment/cervical length check from being released from the hospital. Tony and I went in feeling optimistic that after a week of bedrest and medications that my cervix had stayed stable. We had a sonographer that I had never seen before (and with the amount of scans we've had I thought I had seen them all!) and she measured my cervix and sent us up to the clinic to see Dr. W. BAD news... my cervix had measured 1.8-2cm with funneling (starting to open at the upper portion of the cervix, near the babies) I was shocked and devastated. When I was discharged, Dr W made the comment that if my cervical length got any shorter then we would probably need to be admitted to the hospital for the long run... ie: until we deliver these babies. I was just shy of 25 weeks and the thought of months in the hospital was daunting. She did admit me again that day and we settled in for the long haul. My husband, my puppy, and my new house all seemed like they were terribly far away at that point.

A high-risk doctor came to consult us the next day and she was very uplifting. She gave us hope that we were going to be able to keep these babies cooking for a good while longer! Those were amazing words to hear. She also wanted to re-do my cervical length scans because she wasn't happy with the quality of the previous scans. I figured she has seen lots of pre-term labor cases and totally trusted what she had to say. A neonatologist also came and chatted with me that day, letting us know the statistics for a baby born at such an early gestation. I knew all of these things (survival rate, chance of long-term disability) from work, but these were MY BABIES he was referring to!! I refused to let myself think about it too much because we were NOT having the girls right then. We still had time.... I don't think I have ever cried so hard or prayed so hard in my life.

Monday they took me down to re-do my cervical length scan and bio-physical profile. I prayed hard for a miracle; that my cervix would look longer and closed and STABLE. The sonographer spent a long time looking at it and took lots of measurements. The numbers on the screen really confused me, but when the high-risk doctor came right after she said the most amazing thing... "Your cervix is OVER 4CM!!!" I couldn't believe it!! God had answered our prayers in such a big way. The previous scans were apparently not measuring the whole length of my cervix. I wanted to jump up and down and cry and rejoice!! This news made me feel for the first time like I could make it to term (or at least close to it) with these precious babies. Dr W came to my hospital room later that day and said that my cervix was longer than most women walking around. She discharged me home that very day, and I thought I wasn't going to get to see home for months! I remained on bedrest for the contractions, but at that point I would have agreed to standing on my head for 8 weeks as long as I could do it at HOME!

September 12 - October 18: Bedrest at home. Praise God for keeping these babies cooking and keeping me stable at home for so long! We had a few nerve-racking moments... I started being seen in the clinic TWICE per week with weekly sonos and twice weekly non-stress tests. At 27 weeks I had a positive fetal fibronectin swab. Fetal fibronectin is a protein found around the amniotic sac and they swab for it to determine likelihood of pre-term labor. I got a positive and that put me at even greater risk of going into labor within the following two weeks. It is actually a very inconclusive test, but it still put me on edge even more! I had to cancel two separate appointments for our 3D/4D ultrasound, which was a little disappointing. And I continued to have contractions but nothing incredibly regular. I was praying and hoping to make it to this day....
October 15: BABY SHOWER DAY!! My wonderful cousin Jesi hosted a family/friends baby shower for us that ended up being located at our house. It was my one day that I got to do a "normal" pregnant lady thing. I showed off my belly and had a great time with everyone who came. It also marked 30 weeks exactly!! Yay! I have over 100 pics of the day, so I will just share a couple...

30 week bump!!

Me and my mom (Oma-to-be!)

The BEST hostess! My beautiful cousin Jesi.

Tony spent his day at the Illini game,
 but came back in time for a quick photo :)
Bentley was not interested in posing.



October 18: Yes, just 3 short days after the baby shower I was readmitted to the hospital for the THIRD time. I had had an appointment at the clinic that morning where I was having some contractions on the non-stress test. It's nothing too new for me to be having contractions, so they went ahead and sent me home. That afternoon I continued to have contractions every 6-7 minutes for a couple of hours despite trying everything I knew to make them stop. I drank tons of water, kept my bladder empty, laid on my left side, etc. No dice. They were still not painful but they were awfully regular! So I called my doctors office and she had me head to Labor and Delivery once again. I got there and was still contracting, got a couple of doses of terbutaline sub-q (shot) and things seemed to calm down. The on-call doctor was going to send me home but at the very last minute decided to keep me overnight so Dr W could make the call on my care in the morning. It is a very good thing that I didn't get send home that night because just over 12 hours later I was contracting again and on the dreaded MAGNESIUM :( Dr W came in and was also considering sending me home until she checked my cervix... 2cm dilated and 70% effaced. I started having regular contractions again that were even starting to get slightly uncomfortable. So plans changed and I got started on IV mag. It was not a good time. In a nutshell, magnesium makes ALL of your muscles weak including the uterus. I felt dizzy and my eyes wouldn't focus, moving my own limbs/body was nearly impossible, and HOT... for whatever reason it makes you feel like you're on fire from the inside. I had the room at approximately 60 degrees and poor Tony was wrapped up in two blankets and still shivering! I had to have a catheter (awful!) and the babies had to be continuously monitored. Between those things, blood pressure cuff, compression stockings on my legs and my IV I had NINE different things strapping me to the bed. It was a good thing I didn't feel like moving anyway. After 48 hours on mag they finally began to wean it off and started me on an oral dose of terbutaline. My doctor wanted to keep me in the hospital at least until 32 weeks to ensure I was stable. At 32 weeks 3 days she discharged me home! It was amazing news. When I first came in and got put on magnesium both Dr W and I were both doubtful that we would make it to the weekend (31 weeks) with inside babies. She even made the comment that she was just hoping for 24 more hours to get the second round of steroids a chance to be effective on the babies lungs. It was a very scary time. But prayers have been answered once again!! I haven't dilated any further and got to come home to see my husband, puppy and my BED again! That hospital bed truly was terrible...

So today is November 9... I am 33 weeks 4 days pregnant and so so grateful to still be baking babies! It feels so surreal after all this time of worrying about keeping them in that in just a couple of short weeks it will be OK if they are born! I have been gearing up for a NICU stay for my girls all this time and now it is a possibility that they won't need it!! 35 weeks is the cut-off at our hospital. If they are born before 35 then they are admitted to the NICU automatically, if they are greater than 35 weeks then they will only go if they show signs of needing to. Obviously there is no guarantee at 35 (or even 36-37) weeks that they won't need a little extra help, but even having the possibility of our babies coming home from the hospital with us is amazing to me. GOD IS SO GOOD!! Now I am starting to get stressed because our home isn't totally prepared for babies to come home to! My mom is going to come up this weekend and help me wash some baby clothes and take inventory of what we might still need. Hopefully the next time we go to the hospital it will just be to HAVE these little girls! I cannot wait to meet them and get to know them... I love them more than anything already :)

If you have made it to the end of this post you probably deserve a medal! I thought about splitting it all up but that might have gotten even more confusing. Now we are caught up to the present and I promise to be a better blogger from here on out. I really enjoy it and love to look back on old posts too. Coming this weekend I will have another updated belly pic and other updates from a baby-ready home!

A scary weekend, a birthday and two sweet potatoes!

Well I turned 18 weeks on Saturday but Tony was out of town for work... so this photo is from yesterday which was 18 weeks and 3 days. I think I might be reaching the point where covering up this belly would be a good idea. Lol! But for now I took one of each...

Please keep in mind that this was the end of the day after several delicious meals!! It also happened to be my birthday; so I was treated to pancakes for breakfast, Mexican for lunch with a great friend and her adorable son and then Tony grilled steak for dinner! This bump is brought to you by one part food and two parts babies :) 

Over the weekend and in the beginning of this week we had quite a scare. I started having some Braxton Hick's contractions on Fri/Sat! My mom was up on Saturday and we did a ton of shopping and walking around. I had a few instances of a strange sensation in my uterus, but I just thought it might be some movement. It wasn't painful or regular at all. Then on Sunday morning I was laying on the couch and the sensation happened again. I put my hand on my abdomen and could feel my uterus tightening and then relaxing. Of course I panicked and called Tony (who was still out of town) and the patient advisory nurse to see if I needed to come in to the Emergency Dept. The on-call OB said I was ok to stay home (the contractions were only once every hour or two) but to take it easy and follow up with my primary OB. Which of course I did first thing on Monday morning. She took what seemed like forever to get back to me, but then finally got me in for a cervical length and check on Tuesday afternoon. After many anxious moments and tons of prayers we received great news that my cervix looks great! It is not shortening at all or showing any signs (funneling or beaking) that it might become a problem. (More than you ever wanted to know about my cervix right?!) Of course this will be an ongoing thing, but for now everything is looking wonderful and the babies are growing strong! The mild contractions I was feeling were probably my uterus reacting to going from never-been-pregnant to double occupancy of rapidly growing babies. It takes some adjustment time! Add one more answered prayer to the list. God is so good!

As I mentioned, yesterday was also my 27th birthday! It was a fabulous day, even despite waiting in the ultrasound and doctor's waiting rooms for a combined 90 minutes or so. It was so worth it to get the peace of mind and relief from the scan! I am blessed by so many great people in my life they all spoiled me on my birthday! I even got flowers from A and B (with a little help from my mom - their Oma)..

Aren't they so sweet?

We have our BIG targeted ultrasound on Monday! We will get to see every detail of our little ones and finally know what we are cooking in there! We were totally going to go the surprise route, but with two I feel like I need more ability to plan. I am excited to know and get started registering and planning for these stinkers :) I will update when I know!!

17 weeks... two onions!

Please excuse the bags under my eyes... we took this photo when I got home from work one morning. I can't believe how much I am growing every week! That makes me feel good because that means A and B are growing up a storm in there. It is surreal to me that I am 17 weeks already. It seems like just yesterday was 12 weeks! We had our first appointment with the doctor last week and we both love her to pieces! Dr. W is very kind and caring. And I feel comfortable that she is going to take great care of all of us! We didn't get an ultrasound that day (as I was hoping...) but we did get to schedule our targeted u/s. This will measure every little bone and organ that our babies have and look for any potential problems. AND we will get to finally learn what we have cooking in there! Girls.. Boys.. One of each?? I am dying to know! The countdown is on for August 1.. two weeks from today. Then I will have some more ultrasound pics to share, and we will know what colors we should start shopping for!

In other big news... We are moving!! We sold our house a couple of weeks ago and then went on a mad scramble to find a house in our price range that is perfect to raise our babies in (no pressure right?!) There were a couple of high-stress days when I thought it was a good possibility we were going to be homeless, but as always our prayers were faithfully answered. We found a beautiful home with a beautiful yard and plenty of space for our growing family! It is right in the community we were hoping to be in too. The sellers were very anxious to sell as they have already bought a house and are moving in 2 weeks. So we ended up getting a great deal on the house. It was meant to be! Our closing dates on both homes is August 12. Of course I won't be doing any heavy lifting, but there is still a lot of packing and organizing to do! We are very lucky to have lots of friends and family who are ready to help us out.

I think that's all for now! 18 weeks will be here before you know it. 

Playing photo catch up.

Admittedly, I've been a horrible blogger. We have been faithfully taking weekly belly photos and then I get lazy and forget to upload. Before I know it another week has passed! So here are the ones that have been M.I.A :)

13 weeks

14 weeks

 15 weeks

16 weeks... getting rounder!

 

Our adorable little peanuts at 12w5d (NT scan photos) Can't wait to see how much they've grown the next time!

Two Plums. 12 weeks!

Wow! What a crazy busy weekend!! Friday we had the appointment that I wrote about last. Then Saturday, my mom came up (YAY!!). We put together a diaper cake for a friend's shower that I was helping host on Sunday, and then we went shopping! I got a new bra at VS for a steal.. only $14! Thank you babies for finally helping me graduate a bra size ;) After the mall we went to Babyland and picked out our nursery furniture! 

Here is a photo! We will be ordering two cribs, a 6-drawer long dresser (back left, without the changing table lip), a 5-drawer tall dresser (back center) and two of the bookcase/hutch piece (right of crib). Our babies will definitely not have a shortage of books! My mom is a kindergarten teacher and probably has enough to fill two bookcases ready to give to us. We of course won't be ordering the furniture for several more weeks, especially since we hope to move. However it does feel good to have at least one thing decided on.... only 53,547,354 things left to go :)

Here is my 12 week official belly pic. The maternity capris made another appearance and I am definitely going to buy some shorts soon! My legs are truly too pale for shorts, but I refuse to sweat my butt off! The belly looks a little lumpy this week? This was at the end of the day...

And Sunday I was scheduled to volunteer in the church nursery and then rushed to grab the cake and make it to the baby shower by 1p. Thankfully I made it with a few minutes to spare! Jessica is 30 weeks along now with a little girl. I am so excited for her and her husband! They are going to be great parents. And isn't she just the cutest mom-to-be?

That's all I've got for now. Thursday is the 1st trimester screening (aka NT scan) and I will have more pics of A and B to share then! Right now I'm off to take a nap.... three nights in a row at work are staring me in the face, starting tonight! Boo.

1st OB appointment and a shopping trip...

Our appointment this morning went absolutely fabulous! The NP had a little bit of a hard time getting the second hearbeat on the doppler, so she ended up sending me to get a sono just in case. There were a couple of tense moments where I just prayed constantly that both babies were ok and right on track. And as soon as they popped up on the screen I could see them both wiggling around! :) What an answered prayer and a blessing these babies are. More than likely the reason she had trouble hearing the second heartbeat via doppler is because they were both the exact same: 165!! We were probably hearing both and didn't know it. Here are the pics I got today:

Baby A facing the 'camera' :) Baby B's arm and leg sticking out in the bottom right corner.

Baby A profile shot. Look at that belly!

Baby B profile shot. Hand up by the head.

Baby B was too wiggly to get a head shot, so instead we got a nice pic of his/her little frog legs! Aren't they hilarious? Long legs like mommy :)

It was so reassuring to see them again; doing great! I would take a sono every day if they'd let me. Good thing we don't have to wait long to see them again. Our NT scan is only 6 days away!

After our appointment (which took 2 and a half hours after it was all said and done!) Tony and I went and grabbed some lunch and I had tons of errands to run. I hit up Target to get a few things for a baby shower I am helping host on Sunday for a good friend of mine. Tomorrow I am going to make a diaper cake and put together some prizes. I will post pics after the shower! It does bear to mention that I should not be allowed in Target by myself!! I can spend so much money in there. I was feeling pretty brave, so I ended up purchasing a very cute new bathing suit that will flatter my growing belly. I have a feeling there will be LOTS of time spent in the pool this summer! Here are some pics:

*WARNING* Bare belly and pale legs ahead.... look at your own risk :)

As you can see I tried the same suit on in black, but I can't resist purple! It is so cute. Did I mention I looooove Target??

I couldn't help myself. A little post-lunch bump action! 11w6d

Tomorrow I will be 12 weeks! I feel like this time has flown a lot faster than I was expecting it to. Not that I am complaining... I am so ready to be done with the 1st trimester and to have this pregnancy be common knowledge!! We have told close friends and family, it is really just extended friends and work that I am waiting to tell. Soon! :)

Shame on me!

I have been keeping up with pictures, but not with posting. So I am doubling up this time with:

10 weeks... appears way smaller to me than my 9 week pic?! Maybe the bloat is going down?

And 11 weeks :) Yes, my friends... those are MATERNITY capris! It was scorching hot and my other capris squeeze me uncomfortably. My legs are entirely too pasty for shorts, so I busted out these bad boys and they were heaven. No turning back now!

Upcoming: We have our first appointment with my OB office (although it will actually be with the nurse practitioner) tomorrow morning! I am so excited :) Then less than a week to wait and we have our NT scan scheduled for Thursday 6/16. I can't wait to see my sweet little babies again! This Saturday I will be 12 weeks... time is really flying. I promise to be better on updating from now on!

2nd appointment.. 9 weeks 2 days!

Baby B on left, Baby A on right (we couldn't get a good angle to see them both well!)

Good view of B and his/her cord starting to form on the side!

B again! She/he was dancing up a storm and wiggling fingers for us :)

Profile shot of Baby A chillin on her head (cord above him/her!) and body to the right. It's so amazing how much they have changed in the past 2 weeks!!

WE GRADUATED!! It felt so funny to be walking out of the reproductive clinic today for the last time for awhile. We get to move on now to our regular OB and, as the nurse practitioner put it "be a normal pregnant woman". Yahoo!! Everything went wonderful today and it was such a relief to see our little babies again! Here are their stats.

Baby A:

-Measuring 9w2d

-Heartbeat 180

Baby B:

-Measuring 9w1d

-Heartbeat 174

Baby B was very active, but Baby A was just calm as could be in there with a heartbeat of 180. Old wives might say that she's a girl! Of course it is too early to tell, and we will be thrilled no matter what! I just scheduled my first appointments. The first one for bloodwork and paperwork and then the next at 12 weeks for my pap and first prenatal with the nurse practitioner. I am just giddy with excitement about these babies :)

Here is my 9 week photo. There are definite changes happening! They changed my due date again (Christmas Eve now.. 12/24/11) so my weekly bump shot will be migrating to Saturdays! Hope everyone is having a great week!

Gearing up.

Yup, I am headed to work tonight for another 3 in a row stretch after SIX nights off! I feel it is going to be increasingly difficult to get back in the swing of things. The good news is I will work three nights (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) get off work on Sunday morning and we will only be 24 short hours away from our second ultrasound appointment on Monday morning! Yipee! I can't wait to see these little miracles again. Of course I will have pictures and updates for you then :)

Even though I have had six nights off I have not been (entirely) lazy! Most importantly, our house is now on the market!! We have been thinking of selling and getting into a bigger place for quite some time now, but the presence of babieS coming in December is very effective at lighting a fire under our rears. We are going to have to take a hit on the price of our house (compared to what we paid for it and all the work we've done) but hopefully we will make up for that money lost by getting a killer interest rate on our new house. Please send any good, quick-home-selling vibes our way! I'd like to be outta here before I am as big as a house myself ;)