Twin Birth Video

This is a video I found on one of the twin websites that I frequent. It doesn't show births or anything, it's just a nice photo montage of mommies and babies and statistics. Enjoy!

Thursday's the day!

After a weekend of hard contractions every time I laid down (and thus very little sleep), I saw Dr. P today. She said I am just progressing slowly and maybe a little more than 3 cm dilated. She asked me about inducing this week and I said I want to. After 5 weeks of contracting and only gaining 2 good centimeters, I'm tired. It is interesting, but my contractions go away or become painless when I walk around. They become very painful and close together whenever I lay down or recline with my feet up. But my poor piggy feet have become very swollen and the swelling won't go away completely. And the only way to make the swelling go down is to sit or lay down, when I'd rather be up moving around to make the contractions more bearable. Also, it wouldn't be so bad if Aidan's feet weren't in the right side of my rib cage. But because they are, every time I contract, I have excrutiating pain in my ribs and I have a hard time breathing. And I have to wonder how it doesn't hurt his little legs to get squished into my ribs like that! I'm still praying for this to happen on it's own before then because I really never wanted to be induced at all. But if nothing happens, we will be at the hospital at 5 AM Thursday morning to have my water broken. It's been two weeks since the babies were measured, but they should be well over 5 lbs and possibly pushing 6 lbs now. I've finally gained all 40 lbs that I was supposed to gain, too. My belly measured 46 weeks today, and they checked the babies' fluid (which still looks good, although it's less and less each week). Both boys are still head down and in position, and the US tech showed us that at least one of them has a good bit of hair!! Judging from the heartburn I've had, I expected that; not to mention, my family tends to turn out hairy little monkeys for babies - especially if they're dark complected. So there you have it - the ultimately informative update! Aidan and Jordan will be here by Thursday!! Please continue to pray them here safely.

35 weeks and beds

Andrew finished the flowerbed this week! I know I put up pictures last week, but he got the soaker hoses in and the mulch down today. There are a few more things we need to plant, but it looks so good!! It's one of the best looking ones on our street, actually.

He also has finished extending our tiny little back patio - excellent work, I must say. We got the idea from my brother's work on his back patio.

And now for the real news. :) I saw my OB today, but not in her office as planned. Last night we ended up at the hospital because I had two hours of 12 contractions and 2 hours after that of 9 contractions an hour. They were getting painful in my back and that's when Dr. P had said to come in. So we went. And I was 2 cm dilated - still. So they did an ultrasound to check the babies' position and found them both head down still. They wanted to keep me and see how the Brethine affected the contractions. So I got three shots of Brethine within an hour and a half and all that did was slow the contractions down - space them out. And really, that could've just happened naturally because I finally fell asleep in the horrible hospital stretcher bed in the triage room. So this morning, the on-call doctor came and said he thought I was a loose 2 cm, but wanted Dr. P to check me so that she can compare better to what she has been feeling. (This is not so pleasant, but) After he checked me, I passed a big blood clot while peeing - that's new! So Dr. P said I could be called 3 cm (which is better than 2!!) and that she wanted me to stay until she could come check me again after lunch. She also said that baby A is at -1, which is the position of his head in the birth canal. 0(zero) station is when they let you start pushing, so we're very close to that. So we walked around the unit a couple of times, trying to make things progress. No luck. Dr. P said she's love to have delivered me today, but we obviously don't want to induce at 35 weeks (or really at all). But Dr. P knows that I'm getting pretty miserable, too. After 35 weeks at St. Vincent's, it is no longer automatic admittal to the NICU. So she said to come on home, stop taking the Brethine, get up and moving and try to have babies! I see her Monday again, and she said we'd talk about whether or not I want to be induced a week from today at 36 weeks. She won't let me go past 37 weeks, but she said she'd leave it up to me if I wanted to go next week or wait it out. The contractions haven't stopped since I got home, but they don't hurt as much when I'm up moving around. So I will not be resting any more!! So don't ask if I am!! :) It's time to have 5 1/2 lb babies!! I don't know exactly what they weigh now, but I'm sure they're close to that. All in all, not a bad stay and not bad news. At least I am progressing, even if it's slow.

So Mama has been here staying with us since Tuesday and we're making some super cute onesies and baby shirts - you can check them out on my other blog, listed over there on the left side. We hope to market them - feel free to place orders! We also got a baby pool and sat out in it on the new patio, and it felt so good to get sun! I bought a Baby Trend Snap-N-Go stroller from a girl in the BAMOM club and Mama and I fixed it to fit my carseats. It's a framework stroller that doesn't have toddler seats. It's only for infant seats to snap in to. It folds up nice and flat and is very lightweight.

Today, David and Sheila came over and brought the baby bed!! My father-in-law is a very skilled woodworking craftsman, for want of a better title. He made the babies a beautiful bed and altered it for my height! It's all set up now and the nursery looks finished!

Happy Father's Day! & Happy Birthday Sarah!

Well, I was hoping to give Andrew babies for Father's Day, but no luck! :) It is also my sister's birthday, so Happy Birthday, soon-to-be Aunt Sarah!! I can't sit through two hours of church, so Andrew had to go alone. But after church he came home and got me and we went out to eat Mexican with his family.

Yesterday we had an eventful day - unrelated to babies, of course! We bought a Snap-N-Go Stroller from a fellow Mother of Multiples for $30, which is a great deal. Here's one: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2265435&CAWELAID=107523633 It allows any style infant seat to be set into it and it folds up smaller than the big Graco one that came with the seats. It's also a good deal lighter because it doesn't have seats. We won't be able to use it forever, obviously, without "big kid" seats, but it's a good thing for now in my little Saturn. We also went and refreshed Andrew's wardrobe at Old Navy because they had all men's stuff 1/2 off. Then, after bringing me home to rest, Andrew went and bought all the plants for the flowerbed in front of our porch. He had worked really hard at digging it out, setting up the retaining wall and filling it up to get it ready and then I went into the hospital for 10 days. So it's been waiting for plants for a couple weeks now. We have Candy Tuft along the wall, Coneflower behind that and Azaleas behind that. We also planted a Crape Myrtle and an Autumn Fern on the side. I think we'll put a couple of Irises in the empty space between the Candy Tuft and Coneflowers to fill in. It looks a thousand times better than what it did when we bought the house and I can't wait for everything to grow and bloom next year!



After we finished up the flowerbed and were getting ready to eat, we realized that our fridge wasn't cooling like it's supposed to. The freezer was working perfectly, but no cold air was being blown into the fridge part. We had this problem a couple months ago and had to replace a fan on it. We decided the same thing was wrong this time and we don't want to keep replacing the fan every couple months. And the cost of figuring out why the fan keeps shorting out could be equal to a new fridge (the old one came with the house). So we now have a new fridge. We got one with a little more space than what we had and it's a side by side with a water/ice dispenser on the front. I won't bore you with a picture of that. :)

Today, Andrew and a friend are working on extending the tiny little back patio with pavers. I'll get pictures of that up this week, I hope. My brother is going to bring us tile to lay in the guest bathroom whenever they come down to see the babies (whenever the babies come) and that should finish up a LOT of the housework. It's nice to know that all the big stuff will be mostly done when the babies do come. Which I'm hoping is this week. ;) Next appt is Monday (tomorrow), so we'll see if anything has changed.

34 weeks

We made it another week! 34 is a great milestone and 35 is when they tell me they won't have to go to the NICU at all. So the goal now is 35 weeks. I'm seeing Dr. Przybysz (that's why I call her Dr. P) twice a week now, so I had appts both Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday they did an ultrasound to measure the boys and they were (baby A) 4 lbs 12 oz and (baby B) 4 lbs 15 oz! That is more accurate than what we saw at the hospital and very welcome news because it shows them growing closer together, which we always want. I probably won't have many more USs, unless she wants their fluid and positions checked before delivery. OR unless I make it 3 more weeks, at which point they would measure them again. Dr. P doesn't seem to think that I'll make it that long, but she said if I do, she'll induce between 37 and 38 weeks. I don't like the idea of induction, so I'm hoping they come on their own before that. Which brings me to the best news of that day - both babies are head down!! Yay, Baby B!! Unfortunately, baby A is sort of on his side with his head down. He's the one on the bottom, so I think his head is not in the greatest position and that's why my cervix isn't changing (which Dr. P confirmed that day). So we're praying that he will wiggle his way down there in a week or so and get things going before baby B decides he has room to flip back over. Because if they both stay head down, Dr. P says she will let me try to go vaginally!! She said they don't usually deliver twins in the OR at St. Vincent's, but she will insist they do for me because it makes her more comfortable (me too). That way, if something happens and we need to switch over to c-section (I'm praying not), we're already there and ready. I will do whatever is best for all of us, but I'd rather not have a c-section. I have some anxiety about being operated on while awake and having my arms strapped down. So we covet your prayers that both babies stay head down and are deliverable in that way. My belly is measuring 42 weeks and I know my uterus is tired of all this!! I've had very consistent contractions all week. They vary from day to day, but one night they were 11 minutes apart for over an hour, yesterday morning they were 5 minutes apart for most of the day (with the exceptions being the hour and a half that the Brethine seems to work starting 45 minutes after I take it). Most of them aren't painful in my back or down low, so they are just uncomfortable (and obviously not changing my cervix). Tuesday after the appt, we went to L & D to be monitored and have an NST (which I've discovered stands for non-stress test) to make sure the babies are still tolerating the contractions well, and they are. That was the shortest stay we've had in that hospital!! Yesterday (Thurs), she checked my cervix and nothing had changed, but she wanted me monitored anyway. So we were there for about an hour and I got a small shot of fast-acting Brethine for the one huge contraction that showed up on the monitor. Babies still handling everything beautifully.

Mama was here Monday night through yesterday lunch, so she took me to both appts and we got out and went a few places (relax everybody, my cervix isn't changing) running errands. Mostly that involved like Babies'R'Us and Hobby Lobby with Mama pushing me in a wheelchair. Not my favorite way to shop, by the way, but thankful that she's willing to push me around. My back has been hurting so much more since both babies turned head down, it makes me really tired to stand up or walk around much at all. And my mother- and sister-in-law and I went to a movie yesterday after Mama left (which is sitting down, excellent, right?). It's always nice to get out of the house for a little while. And actually on Monday before all those appts, the three of us went to a friend's house to get in the pool for a little while in the morning! In the water with my feet up is even better. But I don't think I'll be putting pictures on here of me in my swimsuit. :)

And last, but not least, the belly shot:

33 weeks

Well, we made it to 33 weeks! It actually snuck up on me because of the crazy week of being in the hospital. I'm so lost on what day it is!! But today is 33 weeks and that is a huge milestone. This is a picture of me from Wednesday last week at the hospital.

We're all at home now, too. They discharged me yesterday because there had been no progress in dilation and the contractions are back to about what they were a few days before I was admitted at St. Vincent's. Basically, I'm still having contractions, but the intensity is much lower and frequency has come down a little bit. I think after being on the Brethine for a period of time, my body built up a tolerance and that's why it wasn't working. But since I was off of it for a few days in the hospital, they sent me home back on it in pill form every 4 hours. It seems to be working pretty well, but they always get worse at night for whatever reason. And this time, whenever the contractions get back to 7 or 8 an hour for more than an hour, they won't stop labor. We'll just have babies!

I'm worn out from being cooped up for a week and completely emotionally drained. I KNOW that the babies need a few more days or weeks or whatever we can get for them to develop and grow as much as possible in my womb. And I know ALL the stats on how far along babies have to be to not go to the NICU and all the reasons they would have to stay in the NICU, regardless of gestational age. I KNOW that at this point and up until 35 weeks, they will take my babies straight to the NICU after delivery. But I simply do not believe that my babies would require an extended stay at this point. And I don't need anyone to argue with me or try to change my point of view. I know I sound naive and that all kinds of problems could arise that cannot be foreseen. But I'm carrying close to 10 lbs of babies and they shouldn't be that big at this point. They are way ahead of schedule. And I have prepared myself for the chance that we do have to leave them in the NICU and go home without them. I've prepared myself for all kinds of scenarios, I've read and heard ALL kinds of multiples stories and EACH ONE IS DIFFERENT. I grow very weary of people who think that each case is the same and put a definite on whether or not MY babies will end up staying in the NICU and having developmental problems. A simple "we're praying for you" will do. Even "you're doing great, just hang in there" means more to me than most people can imagine at this point.

32.5 week update

We're still at the hospital.
After taking me off the Mag and finding fluid on my lungs, they decided to stop any meds that would stop contractions. However, things change pretty quickly around here. So I'm back on the Brethine (terbutaline) that I was taking at home, but on a very low dose. They didn't really expect it to stop the contractions, but it certainly has brought down the intensity of them. I'm in almost no pain and getting back to a more comfortable state without the breathing problems. There have been other hiccups, like a bad reaction to Demorol and Phenergan after having taken Ambien to sleep on Friday night. Last night was the first night since Monday that I actually got to sleep without drugs and painful contractions. I'm down to being monitored (babies and contractions) only once every nurse's shift, which is nice. They even closed off my IV, so I'm unattached from everything. They are letting me walk around the unit a couple times a day and go for wheelchair rides if I want to go further. It's an excellent change of scenery just to get out of the room. The nurses have been so nice, too. I mean, above and beyond their jobs. Our favorite nurse so far even took us down to the C-section rooms and let us see inside them. My mom came down Wednesday and stayed at the hospital with me a couple nights. Daddy and Sarah came down, too, but Sarah had to go back on Friday and Daddy and Mama went back Saturday. Andrew's mom has stayed with me and so has Andrew. Unfortunately, Andrew will have to go on to work this week - he took some days off this past week because it was hard for him to stay at work with me laid up in the hospital and babies possibly on the way. Hopefully, the rest of this extended stay won't be too hard on him. We live a good 40 minutes from St. Vincent's, which is downtown Birmingham - so he can't just pop over here whenever. My mom will be back for a couple days this week and Sheila will also stay with me overnight a couple nights. I'm so thankful to have such an awesome family and to have them so close! So June 18th will be 34 weeks. That is the goal, that's the earliest they really are ok with delivering babies because it cuts down significantly on their time in the NICU. The doctors don't really think I'll make it that whole week and a half, but they won't let me go past that mark, either. It is easiest for them to keep me here, in case anything changes quickly. So here we are.

32 weeks at the hospital!

So this is Andrew's first go around at the blog. Anna went to the doc Monday for a checkup and well they discovered that she was 1cm dilated and 50% effaced. So she headed over to the hospital to get hooked up to the monitors. They started her on Magnesium Sulfate for contractions. That is a smooth muscle relaxer, but is probably the strongest thing they will give to stop contractions. They normally do not give more than 2g/hr of the mag, but Anna got up to 3g/hr and was still having contractions. They kept her on the the mag until Wed morning. They normally only give it for 24hrs and kept her on it for 48. They also gave her two shots of steroids between Monday and Wednesday to help the babies lungs develop just in case they came early.

They did an ultrasound on Tuesday and baby A is head down and a little over 4lbs. Baby B is breach and is about 5lbs. They started her on procardia on Wed which is actually an angina medication that helps relax the blood vessel walls, and the uterine walls. The contractions had subsided at that point, but over the night wed they started picking back up.

Thursday morning she was having difficulty breathing. It turned out that the mag put some fluid on her lungs. They have since eased her breathing, but they decided to take her off of all of the medication that is stopping the contractions. The contractions have started back now, and so we are just waiting. Today makes it officially 32 weeks.