Pictures at home

 

 Noah contemplating the meaning of life

This happened while Brent was at Target and I was home alone.  This picture makes me laugh so hard I almost cry.  I survived and got a really good picture out of it :)

Poor Riley was playing Edward Scissorhands with his face.

 Sweet Noah

 Noah's first bath at home

 Riley's first bath at home

 Cute little brothers.  They love each other so much!  It melts my heart.

The Birth Story

Last Friday, April 8th, was the day I had my c-section scheduled.  At the beginning of my pregnancy I knew I wouldn't make it that long.  Who makes it a week past what is considered full term with twins on their FIRST pregnancy?  Um, that would be me.  At my last doctors visit I was measuring 47 weeks.  My doctor happily told me that I was his second biggest stomach measurement EVER.  Yay?  Definitely a good thing, but not if I had any ambitions to become an ab model in the future (luckily I don't).

Since my hospital bag had been packed for a month and a half, we didn't have much to do to get ready.  Friday morning we checked in at the hospital at 5:30am, with a surgery time scheduled for 7:30.  After we checked in they brought me to a room I would be recovering in after surgery.  I changed into my gown and got my vitals taken and the babies monitored.  They made me drink some really nasty antacid stuff that tasted like a warhead, minus the sweet part.  I got my IV and my awesome doctor and anesthesiologist came in to talk to me.  At 7:30 I was walked over to the OR and Brent was left by himself for a few minutes to put his scrubs on while I got my spinal block.

Once I got to the OR they sat me on the table and I could not stop shaking for the life of me.  They said it was completely normal and that it was just from nerves.  Then they said, "Don't worry, there's nothing you can do to stop it."  Talk about magic words.  I am not a fan of being told I can't do something.  So I sat there on the OR table and willed the shakes out of me.  After about 20 seconds I was done shaking (so maybe these stubborn boys waiting until they had to be taken out at 38 weeks to come into the world take after their mother a little) and they gave me a shot of lidocaine to numb my spine a little.  Then they put in the needle for the spinal block.  It was not bad at all.  I was pretty nervous about this part, but it was NOT a big deal.  I started feeling more numb and Brent was brought into the room (he looked so cute in his scrubs).  The big curtain was drawn in front of my face and the c-section started.  I had no idea they were even cutting and thought that I was going to feel it, but before I knew it the anesthesiologist told me, ok we're getting close!  At 8:00am Riley Charles was born weighing 6lbs 12 oz.  At 8:01am Noah Rlynn arrived weighing in at a whopping 7lbs 8oz.  I will save the math for you.  That's 14lbs 4 oz of baby that was hanging out in my uterus.  No wonder I was measuring 47 weeks.  I started crying when I heard them cry for the first time (I'm choking up now just thinking about it, but everything makes me cry right now.  And I mean EVERYTHING) and could look over to my left and see them being cleaned off.  Brent got to help cut Riley's cord while they delivered the placentas and stitched me up.  They told me I would feel a lot of pressure but it really wasn't bad at all.  I expected my c-section to be so much worse than it was.  It was honestly not bad at all.  Recovery was a little rougher, but still not as bad as other people had made it out to be.

Once I was stitched up we got out of the OR and went back in to the recovery room.  I had hemorrhaged during surgery and was bleeding more than they wanted me to, so I had to stay in there a little while longer while they gave me pitocin to help slow the bleeding.  During this time they took the babies vitals and Brent and I were able to be with our sons (crying again right now) together as a family for the first time.  They put Riley on my chest for Kangaroo Care while Brent held Noah.  It was one of the most amazing moments of my entire life.  I've been told how people feel when they are with their kids for the first time, but I didn't know what to expect.  It was the most calm, peaceful, amazing love I have ever felt in my life.  As the days go by my love for them gets stronger and stronger and I cannot put in to words the way these boys make me feel.  They are the most miraculous little humans I have ever met and when I even start to think about how blessed we are to have them in our lives, I start crying (see a trend?).

After the bleeding had slowed down we were taken to our hospital room where we would stay until Monday morning.  My parents came and got to meet their grandsons.  Seeing my parents with newborn babies is the most adorable thing.  You can see how much they love them and it just melts my heart how excited they get just being around them and talking about them.  My friend Alycia came that evening to meet the boys and she took some awesome pictures (that's nothing new, she always takes awesome pictures).  The next day our good friends Dan and Brianne brought their cute family to visit.  It was such a nice stay at the hospital and it was so fun to have people come say hello and meet the babies.

The recovery part was the hardest.  I tried to sit up a few hours after surgery and ended up throwing up.  I was so mad!  I was pregnant with TWINS and didn't throw up my entire pregnancy.  A few hours after surgery and I'm gagging and reaching for the barf bag.  Annoying.  A few hours later, though, I was able to sit up and then stand and take a few steps.  Later that night I walked to the bathroom for the first time.  By the next day I was doing a few laps around the halls with the babies in their little portable cribs.  It was definitely painful, but it was not as bad as I expected.  I'm still in pain, but I've been taking my pain medicine to help.  I refused to be stubborn about that.  I was offered it and so I took it and I think it helped a lot.

Now here we are and the boys are a week old today.  I can't believe they're already a week old!  They are seriously the most adorable little babies I have ever seen in my entire life.  I love their little personalities (already VERY different) and the little facial expressions they make.  Even after only getting an hour of sleep last night (ahem...Riley...) I can't help but adore everything about these guys.

Now on to the fun part!  Pictures!

 Cute boy in his scrubs

 Drinking that nasty antacid stuff

 Proud dad!

 My mom brought the boys a birthday cake

 Proud Grandparents

 Riley after his first bath

 Noah after his first bath

 Sucking on his brothers head

 Heading home!

 Meeting Chip for the first time

The babies are coming, the babies are coming!

Well, maybe not today.  But SOON!  I get to go off my contraction blocking medication Friday (I will be 36 weeks) so we'll see if that makes a difference.  My doctor said that when your uterus is this stretched out sometimes it has trouble contracting so I just might make it to 38 weeks.  April 8th is the official date we have scheduled for our C-section.  Baby A just does not want to turn his little breech butt around, so we don't have a choice other than to do a c-section.  And I am 85% ok with that.  My doc told me that recovery from a scheduled c-section can be easier than a difficult labor.  And who knows how labor would be, so I guess it will be nice to go in and just have them take the little guys out!  I am pretty scared for how much it's going to hurt after, though. 

As of Monday I was measuring 43 weeks.  That's 3 weeks more than someone at full term with one baby.  And I still have two weeks to go.  Needless to say, I'm huge.  I found that I have zero sympathy for other pregnant women.  Luckily I don't have whiny pregnant friends.  But some of the people I'm "friends" with on Facebook drive me nuts.  They complain about every little ache and pain and how tough it is to be pregnant.  Here's an idea.  How about you look at your tummy and be grateful for the little life you have growing in there.  I said at the beginning of my pregnancy that I will NOT complain about anything that has to do with being pregnant.  So when people ask me how I'm doing I smile and say good.  Because I AM good.  I refuse to complain about swelling or pain or how many times a night I have to get up to pee.  Because the reason that I feel that way is because I'm carrying two little guys!  Even if I have days where I don't feel the best (and that's ok) it's because I get to be a mom of two sweet little boys very soon.  I'm sure my feelings have a lot to do with the fact that we tried for so long to get pregnant and the steps we had to take to get there.  So in some ways I look at that as a blessing.  Maybe if I had gotten pregnant right away I would have been Pregzilla when I got to this point.  While I definitely wasn't happy about it at the time, I'm grateful that I was able to go through what I did so I can realize how special it is to be able to carry a healthy baby (or two!) and how I need to focus on the positive aspects of pregnancy.

My doctor also told me that 75% of twin pregnancies don't get as far along as I am now.  Most are born between 34-35 weeks.  Brent and I were SURE that these babies were going to be born in early/mid March.  But here I am, still gestating away.  And I owe so much of that to Brent.  I don't have to do anything around here.  He gets home from his super busy day at work and does whatever chores need to be done around the house.  Then on Saturday he does all the big stuff (vacuum the house, mop, clean the bathrooms, etc).  I miss cleaning sooo much (I'm nerdy like that), but it's been so nice to not have to worry about having a messy house or trying to do it myself.  He is such an amazing man and I'm so grateful for all the support and help he's been these last 9 months.  And because of him and the fact that I can lay around most of the day, our babies are big enough that they probably (cross your fingers) won't need NICU time for being small.  Our last growth scan at 34 weeks had the babies weighing in at 5lbs 3 oz and 5lbs 8 oz.  And this week during my doctors appointment the doctor said that they're really starting to look chubby in the ultrasound (which is awesome because chunky babies are so cute!).  Plus, I told Brent that right now as the babies are still growing in me they're getting Girl Scout Cookies, banana smoothies, PB&J's, etc.  When they come out they get formula.  I can't blame them for wanting to stay in for as long as they can!

It's crazy that we're at this point.  Everything is built, (mostly) washed, organized, and the cribs and pack n play have been tested out by Maggie (they all are still standing after Moo sat in them for a little).  So now we just get to sit (or in my case lay) and wait for these cute little buggers to get here! 

Maternity Pictures!

Talk about talented!  My friend Alycia is an AMAZING photographer and she took some pictures of me and Brent in downtown Snohomish.  We had such a fun time hanging out and getting our pictures taken.  Brent also happened to be going home teaching right after, so that's why he's wearing a suit.  But since he wears a suit 6 days a week anyway, it is pretty accurate to real life.  If I was trying to make myself accurate I would have had a sweatshirt, comfy pants, and a pony tail.  And the pony tail would be if I was extra ambitious that day. 

I know maternity photos are supposed to be about the mom and her bump, but I can't get over how hot Brent looks in the pictures.  That's right, I said it.  I think he's hot. 

Thanks for doing such an amazing job, Alycia!  If anyone wants to check out her website or book her for pictures her website is: puzzlepiecephotography.com
and her blog is http://puzzlepiecephotography.com/blog/

Fur Balls!

My awesome friend, Alycia, is an amazing photographer and I told her that it drives me crazy when I try to take pictures and the flash makes my pets blink or makes their eyes look demonic.  So she got out her camera bag and dug around for a second and whipped out this light diffusing thing that clips on the top of your camera and makes the flash not as bright.  I was playing around with it tonight and I LOVE it!

Macie absolutely HATES getting her picture taken.  But for some reason when I had the light diffuser in my hand she wanted to sniff it.  So I let her.  Then I put it on top of the camera and she was soooo intrigued!  She actually let me take a bunch of pictures of her and they're some of the best we've gotten of her in a long time!  She also got her teeth cleaned Friday and a bath yesterday so she looked extra pretty.

 I love this one!

 Chip was napping when we started the Macie Photoshoot

 But woke up pretty soon after we started and wanted in on the action.

 Little poser.

 The kitties came downstairs later and I tried to get some pictures of them.  Emma did pretty well, but only let me take a couple.  I love this one of her, even though she's kind of giving a stink eye.

 Maggie, on the other hand, was much more difficult.  She might be a hardcore Momma's girl, but she takes after her dad when it comes to having sensitive eyes and blinking for pictures :)  In every picture I took of her, her eyes were half shut, or shut all the way.  Oh well, she's still a cute girl.

Little Chunks

Every 4 weeks we have a super detailed growth scan of the babies to make sure they're growing well, one isn't a lot bigger than the other and their fluid levels are good.  We had one this past Friday.  What we found out makes me laugh a lot. 

I'm currently measuring 37 weeks, even though I'm only 30 1/2 (my doctor said I'm right on track for having twins) but then I started thinking about how big I'm going to be in a few weeks!  During the growth scan they measure 3 different angles of the head, a couple different measurements on the stomach, the thigh bone, and the upper arm bone.  I think there might be another one, but I forget what it is.  Anyway, they take all these measurements and calculate them to see what the babies weigh and how big they are measuring.  At 30 weeks Baby A weighed 3 lbs 6 oz and Baby B weighed in at a whopping 3 lbs. 14 oz.!  I thought that sounded pretty big.  And then they took out the comparison chart.

Turns out the chart is for singletons.  So my twins were getting compared to single baby growth rates at 30 weeks.  Baby A was in the 81th percentile for weight.  And Baby B was in the 96th percentile!  I am growing some seriously large babies!  No wonder Baby B's cheeks looked chubby in the 3D ultrasound pictures :)

This did make me super happy, though.  I keep reading that this is the time that twins start slowing down in growth since they're almost out of room.  So my minimum goal is to keep these little (or not so little) guys in here until they weigh at LEAST 5 pounds each. 

3D Babies!

Here is a picture of me at 25 weeks 2 days.  I've grown a lot since then.  I've gone online and checked out pictures of other moms having twins at 25 weeks, and surprisingly I could be a lot bigger!

  Last week (at 26 weeks) we had an ultrasound and they were able to get some 3D pictures of the little guys.  Their little faces melt my cold black heart already.

 Baby B was a little less shy posing for pictures.  I think it looks like he has chubby cheeks already!

I absolutely love being pregnant.  Sure, there are some things I am really looking forward to after the babies are born (like eating cookie dough and putting on my right sock. For some reason, I have trouble with the right one), but for now I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to grow two little babies.  Especially now that they're moving around so much!  Last night I was laying in our Love Sac and looked down at my belly and something moved across it.  I don't know if it was a knee or an elbow or if he was just flipping over, but my entire belly looked like it had a mind of it's own and it was crazy!!!

On the coordination scale from 1-10 I'm normally a 4 (MAYBE a 5 on a really good day).  Pregnancy makes me go into the negatives, if that's possible.  Especially if I'm trying to climb out of the Love Sac or roll out of bed.  I feel like a weeble wobble all the time, except for the fact that when I'm down I normally stay that way. 

Seeing these pictures of the little guys makes me so excited for them to get here!  But I would definitely have them stay inside me for a couple more months so they can finish growing and chunk up a little more :)

Little Update

Aside from Christmas and New Years, I feel like we haven't been up to much.  After we got back from Utah for Thanksgiving I had a doctors appointment and discovered my cervix was beginning to funnel (open) at the top.  Considering I was barely 20 weeks pregnant, it was not a very good thing.  So he put me on some meds and told me to keep off my feet as much as possible (a very nice way of saying modified bedrest, without using those words).  Since I would much rather spend time laying around at home than laying around at the hospital, I did a very good job of not doing much.  And it paid off!  My last visit I was able to stop the medication and he told me to keep taking it easy, but I didn't have to be quite so extreme. 

My last visit I had to do the gestational diabetes test.  I was a tiny bit worried since the chance of developing GD with twins is a lot higher, but luckily the test results said I didn't have it.  Next appointment, thanks to my Rh negative mother sharing her negative blood type with me, I have to get my Rhogam shot.  I'm pretty much a pro at getting shots by now, so it's not a big deal.  But I still told my mom she owes me a Blizzard since it's her fault. :)

We've gotten most of the big baby items now, and it's so crazy to think there will be two little boys here to use them soon!  I definitely procrastinated a little on getting stuff because I've been pretty superstitious about the whole pregnancy.  But I figured that I'm 25 weeks now and it's probably time to get some stuff for these little tikes.  I've also been pretty emotional lately about being pregnant with these boys.  I walked into the nursery the other day and saw all the stuff we had and started crying.  I just honestly never thought I would get to this point.  And now we're about to have not just one but two little miracles come into our lives.  I will never be able to describe in words how much these babies mean to me.  And even though we had to go through so much to get them here, it is completely worth it.  Trials suck.  I'll never say I'm grateful for them.  But I'm grateful for when they're over and that I've learned so much from them. 

I've always known how lucky I am to have Brent.  But he never fails to amaze me even more than he already has.  When I was put on bedrest, he completely took over the house.  He works 10-12 hours a day and comes home and takes care of the house.  On the weekends he does an amazing job making sure the house is clean and everything is in order.  It's been hard for me not to be able to do things around the house (especially since I was a crazy cleaning lady before), but I'm so grateful for him stepping up and taking over everything.  Not just that, but he does it with a smile on his cute face. 

I'm getting pretty huge and I'm perfectly ok with that.  But chances are I probably won't be putting many pictures up on here :)  but to paint a mental picture of what's going on: Brent told me when I had my robe on the other day it's funny because the tie on my robe is getting shorter and shorter.  Pretty soon I wonder if there's going to be anything left to tie!

Belly shots

16 weeks 2 days

 18 weeks 2 days

 20 weeks 2 days (we take these on Sunday.  I don't normally dress up during the day.  Brent's lucky if I have clothes on at all when he gets home)

I realize (and enough people have told me) that if I'm this big at 20 weeks, I'm going to be huge.  I told Brent I'm not going to be a house, I'm going to be the whole freaking cul-de-sac.  And you know what?  I can't wait.

I FINALLY felt the babies move.  At about 17 weeks I felt my first kick.  But then I didn't really feel anything for a couple weeks.  Then at 19 weeks Baby A started moving up a storm.  I actually got to feel him have hiccups!  It was the cutest thing :)  Baby B is a little tougher to feel because his placenta is in the front, so if he kicks he gets the placenta and not me.  But I started feeling him a little a couple days ago.  Best feeling ever!