Date Night on Bedrest

Oxymoron? I think not. This week I got a particularly strong itch to get out of the house! I think I also clearly grasped how close we are to finally meeting these babies. These two in combination with loosing my Snuggle Bear formulated an intense need for Date Night. I did have to do some begging and promising to adhere to the rules set by Mr. Little....but we did it !

We left our house after dinner and drove downtown to the Cupcake Shop to get Cupcakes and Coffee and then drove to Fletcher Park, rolled down the windows and enjoyed the fresh, fall air! It was wonderful...never has the drive down Glenwood Avenue been so interesting to me! hehe I followed the rules and had the seat laid back. I wanted to go sit on a park bench, but compromised with Ryan and stayed laid back in the car ;) I absolutely loved it!




It is so life changing to think this will be our last Date Night without kiddo's! (I know it will be b/c Ryan was not too fond of this one and only caved in b/c I was desperate!) I love my husband and I'm so thankful for the past 5 1/2 years with him, but I'm also so ready for the next phase too...husband AND father!

I just thank the Lord so much and try to thank Him often as I lay around the house for the blessings He has in store for us. It is humbling to think He had all of this planned so long ago and remained faithful to bring it to pass even through my doubt and anger and unbelief.

"And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will bless the fruit of your womb..." ~ Deut 7:13

a view from the outside...

Last night the babies were ready to play. They would not settle down for some reason! I've told Ryan before that we are in for some fun...these babies dont have a day time / night time...they are very active and want to spread out and run ALL the time! I put my bookmark on my stomach so I could a) find it when I was done reading and b)reach it! hehe Well, it turned out to be a great way to show everyone what I feel all the time!

If I'm being honest, it definitely hurts, especially when one of them kicks or throws an elbow, but I'm so very thankful for their hyperactivity :) Just another re-assuring blessing from the Lord that they are alive and kicking (literally). I'm so thankful the Lord gave me this opportunity to feel life inside of me and poured a double blessing out for me! I had many nights where this feeling seemed far far away. Thank you Lord for giving me the desire of my heart!

Sorry for the grainy video, it was my cell phone....we will work on getting some big somersaults on video soon. For now....Caden and Jenna, take it away....

34 weeks!!!

I'm amazed each week that is passed so quickly! The Lord is showering us with blessings of healthy children, good appointments, supportive friends and family and more! We made it to the big 34 weeker on Wednesday!

My Doc appointment went great. I think the nurses are getting excited for the Little Twins too! Or maybe it was just a slow day, but several came over when I was doing my lab work to check in on me and see how they babies were doing. All of my labs are still great which surprised my Doctor a bit. My BP was 102 / 70 which she said was remarkable. I'm really not doing anything on purpose to control that....it's just the Lord watching out for us! Babies looked good moving all around on the screen. Jenna is head down and VERY low as in ready to go, Doc could feel her head when she was checking me. Caden, still King and of the crib and moving wherever he wants and spreading out breech.

The fantastic news is that the medicine, in all its ugly, shaky side-affected glory is working! I had not dilated any further and cervix felt the same. So, you know me, I had to ask what the plan was now :) Plan is this: take the meds two additional weeks to get to 36 weeks(until the week of October 10th), then stop taking the meds, GET UP OFF BEDREST and move around and let the babies come! The doctor said she thought it would happen pretty quickly. I'm day dreaming about being in the hospital the weekend of October 16/17th with two beautiful babies - but we will see.

Thanks for the prayers...please pray nothing goes awry with my Blood Pressure or my water breaking where they would have to do a C-Section between now and 36 weeks!

In some sad news, its quiet this morning at my house...I have no Snuggle to snuggle with. Ryan took him to my parents house last night for the big drop off. He will stay with them for a while until we can get in some sort of routine with the twins. I miss him sooooo much!

One more piece...

One more piece has been added to the Nursery! Still waiting on a few things to put on the wall, THEN you can see the final product, but I wanted to do a post for a special thing my sweet Uncle Jim did. A few months ago, Uncle Jim called and said he wanted his special gift to be for ME and the babies and that gift was a Glider for the nursery! I loved the idea and thought it was incredibly sweet, but as soon as Ryan put up the cribs...I was worried we were out of space. (it's the craziest thing...you put up two small cribs and Ta-Da your out of room already! hehe). So we had to wait a bit to get some other furniture in the room first (changing table, dresser etc...) then re-evaluate what the situation was.

Although it was going to be tight, it was sooo sweet of my Uncle to want to do this for us and he was really excited about it so we decided we would make it work somehow! So a few weeks ago, he came up from Goldsboro for dinner one night and the "boys" went to work on assembling the chair. I did NOT volunteer to be the first to sit in it :) We had a good time and amazingly no parts were lost, broken, stripped or split. I love the glider! I definitely go sit in it alot now and pray and think about how many good times I'll have rocking my sweet babies in that chair!




Thank you Uncle Jim, Ty and Mrs Ivey! Love you!





Snuggle assisted in trash / plastic pick up.

I dont know why the colors are so dark in the pictures...its a beautiful mint green.

Beautiful Sight....

This post is for Tammi, Bri, Rachel and others who have been in my life long enough to know my obsession with CoverGirl Lipslicks Lipgloss - Starlet (formerly Hint of Shimmering Pearl). I have been using this stuff since 8th grade of High School...seriously.

Slowly but surely, retail stores have stopped selling my color! Not the entire line, mind you, just the color I use. It was a big hit the day Walmart stopped supplying my demand. We were down to only Walgreens. Well, last week, Ryan went in to stock up on some for me while they were on sale and came back with the news.... no more. Oh my. No Bueno. I've never had a Plan B when this day would come and didn't know how I would handle it! (p.s. come to think of it, this all happened last week when the contractions started!!! hhhhmmmm......) :)

Anyway, I came home slightly in a panic and turned to our friend, the Internet. I found a website that had them BOGO AND free shipping! Needless to say, I am set for a while now...all is well. aaahhhh, NOW, i'm ready for the babies to come hehe :)

All is Well!

Just a note to update ya: all is well and quiet so far. Maybe a few contractions here and there...but then again, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be "looking out for." I'll go back to my Doctor's again next week at least once from here on out to make sure the meds are working.

Thanks for your prayers...the medication is still the hardest thing to adjust to right now...makes you feel quite crazy! However, I told Ryan to keep me accountable in not complaining....I think the Lord has been quite gracious the past 8 months of this pregnancy, I think I can be content with 3 weeks of feeling "yuck." :)

The nesting plague hit the Little household again today. Ryan cleaned the entire house, bathrooms, vacuumed, emptied EVERY cabinet in our kitchen and chloroxed it, sorted through junk and re-sorted our stuff. Definitely another check off the nesting checklist!

Surprise!

Well, one thing is evidently clear....from the beginning (and I mean very beginning) these babies have kept us on our toes and taught us to expect the unexpected! They are definitely going to add so much to our lives and keep things interesting that's for sure!

Exhibit A:

Yesterday I was waltzing in to my 33 WEEK APPOINTMENT! hehe woo hoo. Went right on in and continued with my good weight, labs, and blood pressure. I had one thing on my agenda for this appointment: my left wrist. I'm so afraid I have done something to injure it. It feels very different from the carpal tunnel I have in my fingers and Right wrist. I heard a popping noise one time when I was pushing myself up off the bed (I guess it's not use to this teeny tiny bit of extra weight -ha!) It is so different from my other wrist, I can't pick up our 10 lb dog with it or pick up a pile of books....ummmm problem. I have two babies to hold so I kinda of need all "hands on deck." no pun intended hehe!

Anywho, I went in, we chatted with my Doctor (this was my first appt with her...I was very much looking forward to it b/c she delivered twins!!). First thing first, she checked my cervix and said "hmmm." Not good. She asked if I was dilated any last week to which I responded quickly "no!" and I was really trying hard and proud of myself for adhering to bedrest and on and on.... She smiled and said "your dilated 1 cm now." She asked if I was having contractions to which I said no, and couldn't think of anything that had changed! Anyway, she checked the babies heart rates and positions (they look great - J is head down / C is breech again) and said she wanted me to go over to Rex Hospital to be monitored to see what was going on.

Ummm, scuse me? This totally threw me for a loop. So she called to Rex and told them I was coming...I was supposed to meet my mom for lunch so I called her and said "change of plans" hehe. She met me at the house and took me to Rex where we checked in right on the L&D floor (the lady next to me had her baby while we were there!). I got all strapped up with more wires than I could count (does each baby really need their own EVERYTHING?) and proceeded to lay there. As SOON as the nurse got everything up and running she came over and felt my stomach and asked if I was feeling anything: pain, tightness, contracting...."nope! I feel great!....why?" Turns out I was having a contraction. This made me and my mom laugh so hard. I didn't feel a thing. I told the nurse that all I feel 24 hours a day is a kick here, a jab there, a huge somersault roll into my lungs, a tickle on my ribs....but no contractions.

Anyway, long post short, I was monitored for about 2 hours where they found I was having contractions every 7 minutes....ummm yea! So they decided since they were producing dilation that I needed to have some help. They came in and gave me a steroid shot to help in the babies lung development so they will be ready sooner if this doesn't slow down and they started me on anti-contraction meds. I was monitored another 3 or 4 hours to see if I had any reactions or if the medicine was working. The meds definitely slowed contractions down....I only had a spurt of about 4 in 45 minutes at the hospital and I think I only had 5 or 6 last night.

(funny story: when my mom would see the print out showing a contraction she would tell me so I would stop everything and concentrate on what I was feeling trying to learn what I should be looking for hehe).

Good news is that they discharged me yesterday evening with the anti-contraction meds to take from here to 36 weeks. By then, I'll stop and it will be ok for the Babies to come. I have to go back to the Doctors today and finish the steroid series for the babies.

Please pray that the medicine will work and stop having these weird side effects (I feel funny, my heart might literally explode out of my chest and you would think I have some muscle problem....shaking and can't sit still which is not good when you are on serious bed rest now.) Pray for Ryan as he really does have to do most everything around the house now on top of responsibilities at Church, and a huge project at work.

This is the pic I sent to Ryan which sent him into a minor freak out mode. :)



oh yea, the wrist issue? totally left my mind after our little surprise finding...will have to wait til next week!

Check out the Ticker!

If you have lots count of the days....look over to the right on our little ticker....yep! 32 weeks today! Thank you Lord! When our Doctor told us the beginning of April she wanted us to do whatever we could to make it to 32 weeks, it sounded so far away! We'll, it's here and with the Lord's hand, we have made it. Here we come Rex Hospital! (remember if we delivered before now, we would have to go to a specialty NICU at Wake Med or Duke). Thank you for praying us to this big benchmark.

Up next: 36 weeks (the date that Ryan and I want to make it to). Another month and at the rate these babies are growing...could have some healthy good sized twins!

Psalm 139:16 "You scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe." The Lord knew we would make it this far the entire time and He knows how much further we have to go! How comforting...

Appointment Update

I went to the Doctor twice this week (31 weeks). My OB appointment went great, medically speaking. BP, heartbeats, lab work all came back perfecto. Only gained 2 lbs the past 2 weeks so we are up to 42 total so far. Cervix still closed and I"ve had no contractions! Babies looked good on the U/S with Caden doing yet another circ de soleil move and ending up breech. Steady Jenna is still head down, ready to come!

The appointment was going along great until we got to my activity discussion. I immediately went into defense mode and told them how I was doing very well taking it easy...only doing one outing a day (sometimes not even doing that!) and really slowing down in my opinion. Well, stink...shouldn't have said that much because my Doctor gave me a look and said " no more. " I "graduated" to strict bedrest...staying lying down as much as possible to keep gravity and weight off of my cervix. Her exact words were that " you get an outing a week now...and that is to come see me - your Doctor!" ick. After some explanation I understand why they are doing this as a preventative action. I have two babies, two placentas, two amniotic sacs (one which is super full remember), lots of extra blood and I'm measuring 40 weeks now. So naturally my body is going to think its go time since all of these factors are in play. So the more I stay flat, the less gravity is working against me, the longer the babies stay in...that simple:)

After a day of pouting, I'm better now...this is what is needed for the babies, it wont be long...a small sacrifice on my part to keep these babies out of the NICU.

Now, move forward to Monday when we went to the specialist to see the babies! Our u/s tech had a tough time seeing who was where and what body part belonged to who...we are running out of room in there! Babies look great, heartbeats awesome, all organs working great. J is still stubborn as her mama, no pics of her and Caden did his dance and has moved transverse again. This time, he turned to face my back too so he politely declined any pictures:) Everything went great and we found out how much these little blessings weigh...maybe "little" is the wrong word... drum roll please....

Jenna is 4 lbs and Caden is 4 lbs, 5 ounces!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT???? Whoa!We have some big ole babies in there! We are so thankful they are growing and healthy. All the eating is paying off!

And then for the most amazing news of the day: Caden's fluid level is perfectly NORMAL! Thank you for your prayers....here is proof that the Lord answered them! They want the babies fluid sac to be under 8....at some appointments, Cadens' was twice the amount of Jenna's and close to the 10 mark. Yesterday it was down to 5.8. Yea! Thank you Lord and thank you for your prayers! We are humbled at how well this pregnancy is going and how the Lord is blessing these babies growth! I don't have to go back to the specialist for a MONTH!...that is, if we make it another month! yiippee!

No pictures of babies this time, we're out of room in this small one bedroom..... :)

Labor Day Weekend - 2010

So this is the first Labor Day Weekend that I have not been at the beach in forever...probably since I was playing v-ball in college and we had a tournament or something. So I was really sad to be stuck at home while the rest of the fam was enjoying Hurricane Earl and Dairy Queen at the beach :( BUT...there is no other reason I would rather be home than growing two babies! Ryan and I both got infected with a major case of nesting...yes, Ryan too. He took Friday off from work so we had FOUR entire days together to get the house ready for chaos!:) It was awesome and we got alot done. Here is a little snapshot of what we accomplished:

1- Found a bookshelf/extra set of drawers for the nursery. It is VERY old so Ryan worked and worked on it fixing it up and painting it. It. looks. awesome. I love it! (You will have to wait for nursery before/after pics to see it though)

2- Took a mound of cardboard 5 ft tall (exaggerating here) from all of our baby showers to the recycling place as well as bags and bags of stuff that needed to be shredded. It has been sitting in our bonus room all summer. ugh.

3- Got some guys to come out and paint our trim / garage door. This was Ryan's ultimate thorn-in-the-flesh. For some reason, it was bothering him so much! I must admit...good money spent, it looks awesome! Ryan = relieved. Check!

4- Went to Babies R Us and Target with our Registry Completion coupons / gift cards and finished up getting the bigger items we still needed. I have to stop and say Ryan was super-champ and ultimate husband. He went to every store and really helped me. He didn't just go and push the cart and tolerate our day. I love him so much for that! He helped me think through things and helped me not feel so alone when I had no idea what to pick or what this or that item was used for! hehe We had a good time.



5- Since we got most of our big items, we used this time to get the house ready by moving things, trips to goodwill, trips to the attic to store stuff and moving / setting up baby items! I have to say that it is really becoming real walking around the house seeing things like this:







It reminds me how awesome our God is and how thankful I am for His perfect plan. My "heart leaps for joy" like Psalm 28:7 says.

One of the items we scored big time on was the Baby Bjorns...I found 2 on Craigslist for super super deal. So we went and picked them up and came home to try to figure our how to work these things! We had a good time pulling and tugging and clicking until we got the hang of it. Ryan thought this was hilarious and snapped a shot...we both came to the conclusion it will probably work and fit better once the babies are OUT of the stomach :)



5- Last but not least, I know all of you are wondering about little Snuggle and how he is handling all of this change. First, he is a huge fan of my bedrest...



and second, he still brings out the charm when he is feeling a little left out and breaks out a move to get our attention....



I thank the Lord for this time we had to prepare and I thank the Lord for such an amazing husband. He is fully fully in this and ready to participate, help, sacrifice, love, care and guide these babies to serve and love the Lord. He is going to be an awesome Dad! Love you, Rhino!

This little camel...I mean piggy

I love this picture! and I'm so excited for the little camels on the way. My two girlfriends from Campbell are both expecting...we are all about 8 weeks apart from each other. The Little twins are coming in October hopefully, Baby Peed in January and Baby Swain in March. We've had so much fun on our annual beach trip this summer and talking on the phone about pregnancy and our little babies. We find out what Baby Swain is next week...can't wait! Caden wants a playmate since he is the only boy right now, but Jenna and Baby Peed want another girl so they can be close friends like their mommies :)

YM1 & Friends Babies Shower!

* Note: keep scrolling down to read the new blog posts in order...major catching up to do today!

I was so excited for this shower! YM1 is our Lifeclass at church that we have been part of for 4ish years. YM stands for "Young Marrieds." I made my friend Caitlin promise to host my shower if we ever had a baby, even if we were all old and grey and moved away. Bless her heart, in the midst of buying a new home and renovating it, she kept her end of the deal and hosted a beautiful shower!!! I'm so thankful for her and the many many others who went in and contributed to our special day. I'm sure I dont even know everyone who brought a food item, drink, chair, decoration etc... My heart was full and my cup definitely ran over that day!



The girls had awesome decorations all over....they doubled as presents! Cute little Onesies were hanging all around. So creative!




One thing I could guarantee you....the food would be awesome with the cooks in our class! I think I ate myself sick...definitely did my part to gain weight on this day! Really wishing I had some of those oreo balls and chocolate dipped oreo's right now...Look at my face...I dont even know where to start!!!






Hehe and look at Sarah's face...she looks just as distraught as I do about what to cram on the plate!!!



The girls all wrote their best Parenting Advice on notecards for me and ryan to have and refer back to....very relevant, very truthful and very funny cards I have to refer back to!




I love all of our friends...they are truly excited for us and have prayed for us and these babies more than I'll ever know on this side of Heaven! So thankful for them!







In case you didn't believe me, take a look at these pics...I was blown away at the love that was shown to these babies in the form of gifts! So many people gave so much, it really touched me and Ryan both. We are so thankful!



Adorable little piggy banks!



Now Jenn, is that necessary? hehe She will kill me for putting this up here..




So this is me passing on the frame before I absolutely break out into my "ugly cry" as Oprah calls it. My friend Briana and her mom put together this frame that I truly truly treasure. Its the first picture we have of Caden and Jenna and the Bible verse: Jeremiah 1:5..."Before I made you in your Mother's womb, I Chose You." It took me by surprise and in one flash I re-lived the past 2 years wondering if God had it in His will for us to be parents. I longed to have a YM1 shower for a long time...and there I was with not one but two babies growing inside!



What a wonderful, blessed day. Thank you to all who were involved! Not even sure who reads this, but anyway... :)




Love these girls who planned and gave so much!!!!

A HUGE 29 weeks!

* Note: keep scrolling down to read the new blog posts in order...major catching up to do today!



Mega happenings this week! So Mega...here they are in bullet form:


1- Had a Doc Appt at my Doctor's office. Had to take ANOTHER Gestational Diabetes test even though I passed my first one since I'm such a higher risk of developing it. Ick. Ick. My doctor measured me and I am officially measuring a full 40 weeks. Yep, look at the Blog post again...I'm only 29. Oh, how is this stomach going to stretch for 2 more months!??? At least I'll know what I would have looked like with one baby full term :) My Blood Pressure is still perfect and Hallelujah,Praise the Lord, my Iron has not dropped at all ! Both my nurse and my Doctor were shocked and told me to keep doing whatever I was doing ! Some other interesting news: I had only gained 1 lb in 2 weeks so at first I was concerned about this and worried. However, a few days later I went to the specialist to check on the babies and they are growing growing...so this means they are eating all of that fat I stored for them in the 1st and 2nd trimesters! yea! :) So I'm now officially at 39 lbs of extra Casey, not rounding up like I have been to 40 :)
**Update: I passed my second Glucose test too ! No Gest Diabetes for me!

2- One night this week we had a major happening in the womb...I had no idea what was going on, but I called it an "epic battle" happening in my stomach. I almost called Ryan b/c I didn't know if this was labor or what! My stomach was literally alive in all places moving around like 10,000 gremlins were in there. It was SO painful! Anyway, after about an hour it stopped and all was peaceful again and I went back to sleep...but what in the world! (we would later find out...keep reading!)

3- So, out of the blue earlier in the week, our Specialist called and said she wanted me to start coming ever 2 weeks now to keep an eye on the extra fluid issue. Of course I freaked out a little bit wondering why they wanted to see me so often if it was just extra fluid / "let him swim" like they said last time. But at the same time, I was excited to see the babies yet again and praying we would see Baby Jenna this time! The appt was quick...still a ton of fluid in Caden's sack, but both babies are healthy and moving. Turns out the "epic battle" was Caden moving from one side of my stomach, pushing his sister out of the way and going to the other side, then flipping upside down. Ouch buddy! There are alot of internal organs and another baby in there...we dont have room for that! So Jenna is still head down (we didn't get to see her yet again, no pictures :( ) and Caden is now currently breech, but still a ham in front of the camera. Look at my cute baby boy!

Hello Mini Ryan Little! He has Ryan's EXACT nose!






I think he looks like the Joker from Batman here...he was opening his mouth and swallowing when she snapped this :)




Please pray for this fluid situation to start receding. It still is no real threat to Caden, but the Doctor told me this time that as I get bigger, if the fluid continues to build that they will have to draw some of the fluid out so I can breathe and so the fluid does not become too constricting for Jenna's growth. We do NOT want that! The positive here is that we go to the Specialist 2 times a month now...so we will be seeing our sweet little ones just about every week between our two Doctors!

4- I had my long awaited, long anticipated YM1 (and friends) shower ! It deserves a post all by itself so keep watching! I'll just say that it was worth the extra 2 years of waiting! Awesome!

5- Finally, we praise the Lord for reaching it this far! The babies are now 95% viable!!!Our next big benchmark is 32 weeks (September 15th). This was my Doctor's minimum goal for me the entire time and if we reach this date, we will be able to deliver at Rex instead of a specialty hospital with an advanced NICU (WakeMed or Duke). Please help us pray for this important benchmark!

6- We also finished our "Preparing for Multiples" birthclass this week. We learned alot and saw alot! oh my ! But more than anything, it got us really excited and ready to see our babies!

The "Moms" Shower

* Note: keep scrolling down to read the new blog posts in order...major catching up to do today!

On August 14th, the Mom's hosted a shower for me that was AWESOME! It was really fun getting to see long time friends of both sides of our families. Each shower I have been blown away at the love, support and excitement everyone shares with us! We are loved and blessed with Godly support system...these babies are so blessed already! We got tons of adorable cute outfits, toys, and STUFF! Can't help but mention the food either...all of my favorites! Delicious!

Thanks Mom and Dad for all of your hard work! I loved my special day!



The Moms and sweet Mema. Thanks Mom Little for all you did for the babies big day!



FOOD! And a really cute Baby Bottle centerpiece my Mom made...



yea! We got our bedding from my Aunt Alice and Cousin Jamie....ready to put it on the crib!



Here's my little cousin modeling my old crib. My mom brought it and had some of my dresses from when I was little hanging around the room.



Here is my baby crib that was handmade for me back in 1983! It has since gone through all of our families' babies..my sister and all of our cousins...very special for sure.



My mom put together a cute board that had pictures of me and Ryan as babies...so funny and cute! I think we are going to have some cute babies!!!!





Can't believe my Mom still had these....proof that I've always been a beach bum!



I was sooooo glad Ms Peggy could come! (a.k.a. my "adopted" grandma)



Dad gets the "Dad/Grandpa of the year" award...he came to help my mom set up for the shower and never left! He just made himself at home like one of the ladies! hehe. He really only intended to stay to see some of his cousins and aunt that was coming, but ended up staying the whole time...what an awesome Dad! Now, we just need to find another baby to put in the other arm and we would be set!




Thank you Moms, Aunt Alice and Jamie for all you did - I had a great time and was extremely blessed!