Hospital Pictures

On a mega update roll here...make sure you scroll down to catch up in order!


Enjoy!

Stud. Getting ready to go into the OR to have some babies! Holding my babies finally! Our first family pic....I love this picture! Waited a long time for it... Mommy and Jenna Daddy and Caden My two peas in pod! They love being close together and love to snuggle w each other. Getting ready to go home! Me and my sweet little boy Hello....i'm really cute. The girls... Nana and Papa Mema and Pape Nana has her arms full! Aunt Rob and Soon-to-be-Uncle Brad Jenna is NOT a fan of the 1st carseat ride. Dont worry, she loves it now:) Old man Krinkle Caden.

At the Hospital...

So yes! We are alive and loving life as parents. They are absolutely precious...absolutely precious. I can't say it enough. I'm working on typing up their birth story because it is a) amazing and b) I don't want to forget it! hehe so check back in soon for that and some adorable pics! yea!

For now, I'll tell you the "rest of the story" from our previous post. (BTW, kudos to Ryan for being such a good updater at the hospital! He totally had everything covered every time I thought of something or someone to call!)

So as you know, we had the babies. :) After the kids were born and I was back in a regular room, Jenna was wheeled right in to me. It was sooooo sweet to see her and hold her...as you'll hear in their Birth Story, I didn't get to ooohh and aaahhh over her b/c they immediately started working with me on getting Caden out. Jenna was just perfect and needed NO special attention or NICU observation. What a praise! I know many of you have prayed for that along-side us for months. The first thing I asked for was a big fat Coke to drink. ahhh it was so good :) I got to enjoy some alone moments with Jenna while the nursery worked with Caden. His blood sugar was low so they had to work with him and observe him a bit longer . He quickly joined the party after about an hour or two in the nursery.

My parents, Ryan's parents, my sis and Ryan's Grandparents were all there to celebrate with us when both babies came in. When they wheeled them in next to my bed, the first thought I had was "oh my, both of you were inside of me a few minutes ago!" They looked so big outside! Anyway, we had an awesome time with friends and family over the next few days. We had lots of visitors to come love on our sweeties.

The babies were SOOOOO good. You could do whatever you wanted to them and they just went with it. We worked on nursing...Jenna was a pro, Caden had some latching issues. Thankfully we had an awesome nurse the first day/night and she worked with Caden throughout the night in the nursery and helped him learn how to latch on correctly. (Thank goodness!). The first night was no sweat, the nursery workers brought them back to us every 3 hours to feed them. I felt great the next morning! (remember I had been on the 2hr schedule for months due to being so large and having to use the bathroom all the time.) Ryan was not used to that schedule so he needed some extra coffee that first morning :) So began Day 2- Tuesday. Something happened to our sweet babies around lunch of this day. We started seeing them come alive a little more. They let us hear from them a bit more than the day before, but once they were put together in their little bin or if one of us was holding them, they were just as precious as could be!

Tuesday night: oh my. Babies started turning and tag- teaming us. They cried and cried...me and Ryan looked at each other like "what happened to our sweet babies!?" When one was quiet, the other flared up. In fact, listen to this: Miss Jenna got kicked out of the nursery around 2/ 3 am. The nurse (who didn't help anything at all !) brought her back in to us and said "she's inconsolable and has been crying the entire time she's been back in the nursery. Here ya go." WHAT? Neither Ryan nor myself knew what to do or say so we just faintly uttered "ok." She cried and cried, we tried to nurse, change diaper, console her .... nothing.

Wednesday am. We are both needing some mega coffee today! All throughout the morning, the babies were off and on again. I finally have my mega breakdown...and it just so happens to be when everyone in the world stops by: my OB,the pediatrician, our discharge nurse, and the lactation consultant. They all saw the ugly cry. I told Ryan later that they all probably walked out and put a big red flag in our charts thinking this mama was crazy and was going to loose it! After a mega session with the lactation consultant, we worked on some issues and started tandem feeding them to save on some time. I calmed down and started focusing on the afternoon...going home day! We snapped some pics, got them in cute outfits (thank goodness I bought one pair of preemie outfits! all the newborn clothes I took fell right off), signed six million forms to be discharged and off we went! My mom came home with us and stayed with us first. We enjoyed the car ride home...silence. ahhhh. Forty-eighth ours later and we were off to the next adventure of our new life at home as a family of four!

They're coming!

Today is going to be the day! We arrived at the hospital around 5 am this morning and everyone is doing well! Praying for continued health and a smooth delivery! Psalm 118:27a - The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us.

The Nursery

...is finished! I am sooo pleased with how it turned out, I love being in there...hope the babies feel the same way :) Now for some fun before and after...

Before...


After...


Before...


After...


Before again...


After again...


Closet before...jam packed:


Closet after...still jam packed :)



Now for some specifics:

My mom, sister and I found these cute starfish at the beach this summer and I knew immediately we would paint them to match the room decor...love them!



Here's the corner hutch we found on craigslist that Ryan had to work so hard on...didn't he do good getting it back in shape?



My friend Bri has mad connections and worked with me to come up with these adorable decals..aren't they cute?



Here is Little Miss Jenna's:





My proudest moment of the nursery right now...a paper mobile that my Mom and I made! I can't stand how cute it is! We put it over the changing table to give the babies something to look at.



Here's a close up of the bedding :)



Of course we have my favorite picture up...their first u/s picture :



Here's the glider...jam packed in our little corner but it's there!



This is my changing table from when I was born....we worked on it and changed some knobs...I'm so happy with how it turned out!




Everything is done! Now, we are just waiting for a pair of babies to put in there!

Freedom!

I know I'm a broken record by now, but I CAN'T believe we made it this far! Maybe b/c every twin book and class and twin mom you meet in the store had their babies premature and try to prepare you for it. Yesterday I was 36 weeks pregnant with two beautiful babies! My labs were awesome , BP still low as ever, no Strep B...all good to go!

The babies looked great, still in the same positions and happy as can be. SOOOOO I got the news we've been praying for: NO more medication and I'm officially released off Bed rest! Hall-le-lu-jah! I asked her what she had seen as far as a timeline after medication and bedrest have been stopped. She said anywhere from 24 hours to having to be induced! So we really have no idea, but she is the second doctor who said she didn't think it would take long :) I'm still 1 cm, 50% effaced and J is at the minus 2 station. So, we still have a ways to go, but it sure does help when you have a brother on top of you pushing you down :)

Soooo....yesterday my mom and I celebrated! We went to Target, Panera Bread, Homegoods, then Ryan and I went back to Brier Creek after dinner, THEN I went on a walk in our neighborhood! It was fabulous, I felt totally energized and loose...sign me up for a 5k. :) I had a rough night "feeling" lots of things, time will tell if it was just all in my head or not :)

So now...we wait. Any day could be the day! woop de woop!

I have to stop and share the gratitude my heart feels. The Lord has been SO gracious to us during this process! I can't tell you how many calls, emails, visits our friends and family provided to help the days go by. Our parents have come over and cooked dinner, run errands, and called (daily just about hehe) for check-ups. My Aunt brought us a meal (and by meal I mean at least 2 dinners and a lunch) of delicious home cooked food EVERY week! My Mom has taken her new retirement time and spent it mostly on me - the past month especially - taking me to Doc appointments, cooking, cleaning my house and just keeping me company. And Ryan...what can I say. He is a champ - plain and simple :) He completely and wholly served me 24 hours a day and even got irritated with me when I tried to do something on my own! He has been a beautiful example to me of how to love others. The babies and I have no doubt Daddy loves us with his new resume of skills including but not limited to: cutting toe-nails, making fabulous grilled cheese sandwiches, cookies, yard sale auctioneer, bathroom cleaner, kitchen cabinet Clorox-er, vacuum master, tennis shoe fitter, baby nursery designer and picture hanger, and grocery shopper.

P.S. If you made it to the end of this post, here is your reward: COMING SOON (as in today probably) I will post pictures of the nursery! We finished it last night and I have to say, it.is.cute.

The mysterious Jenna...revealed!

That's right! At our very last appointment with our specialist, our sweet little girl showed us her face! We were so excited and enjoyed looking at her move around. At first we thought Caden was going to be quiet, but oh my, these babies already have personality! After we finished "oooo-ing" and "ahhh-ing" over Jenna, little man flipped right around and gave us some even better shots! haha

We will get the "boring" stuff out of the way first... haha jk! The kids look great! I think the shots I had 3 weeks ago really helped them out. All of their organs looked great and developed / functioning the way they should. We know their ability to swallow is established b/c a) we watched them do it! b) their stomach's, kidney's, and bladder's all showed fluid being processed normally. So now we just pray that they will have the coordination to suck, swallow and breathe at the same time and we could get away with NO NICU time!

Jenna is still head down...and I mean down; and Caden is breech...bless my babies, they are so out of room. They are such good size (tell you in a second!) that as we were looking at them on the screen, they were getting kicked, shoved, pushed around by the other one. It looks like they just want to stretch so bad! :) Now, one of the most important numbers we were looking for : the weights. Caden checks in at a healthy 5 lbs 9 oz!!!! Woo Hoo! Jenna, sweet Jenna, was so crunched up and contorted and covered by her brother that they were not able to get a definitive weight on her. From what they could see and parts they could measure they gave us a number. But the tech even said before she "announced" the number that she believed it incorrect and higher than what she really is. They have her in the chart at 6 lb 2 oz!!!! ummm yea, no way little girl grew 2 lbs in one month and left her brother in the dust. hehe So we all agreed after looking that they are probably both right around Caden's weight of 5 lb 9 oz. Yea! Praise the Lord He allowed us to get to that 5 1/2 lb mark! AND since they are similar in size, a natural birth is still on the table for now! Overall it was just such a great appointment, you couldn't smack the grins off our face :)

Soooooo here are some pictures of our sweet little babies!

Caden...looking adorable if you ask me. Still sporting Ryan's nose and now has some meat on those cheeks!







And now...drum roll...introducing Angelina Jolie! ..... I mean Jenna. Where did those LIPS come from? I know the image is distorted a bit and tends to be flatter...but even accounting for that...whoa!


Yea! We got at least one good profile shot of her:



Here is Little Miss Lips...and that large tumor thing over her right eye? Caden's foot...

Weekend Happenings

On what was perhaps our last weekend without babies (ooooohhh!!!) We spent time being both productive and not-as productive. See examples below: Productive: Ryan putting the car seats in! He defeated the car seat giant and had both car seats in...tight...in no time. Took a little bit of reading the manual and re-do's but we had a good time checking this off the list. Notice the confidence level rise with each video clip...:)





Not-as-Productive: Casey getting extremely bored and tired of being lonely on Sunday so she drew some friends to hang out with. :)

35 weeks woop woop!

Can you believe we are here? So close!!! On Wed morning I woke up and just had a praise session with Jesus for bringing us this far! I realized that VERY soon we will have two adorable, cuddly, hungry, fragile and crying babies in our house! hehe This also means that I will be OFF bedrest! So, since my time is coming to an end I decided to take advantage of it one morning and stayed in bed until noon and kept my pajamas on all day. (I have been getting up and taking a shower, getting dressed so I still feel halfway human and normal).

At my 35 week appt yesterday I was sooo eager to hear what the Doc said...I've definitely felt different this week...having ALOT of movement still. I have felt some strong contractions every day and I have hit a wall with my energy. The biggest different this week is my inability to breathe! I've done so well for the most part but all of a sudden...no air for mama. My labs were still awesome and get this: my iron went UP! My doctor tested it to make sure I had not become anemic since I could tell such a different all of a sudden in my energy. My nurse just looked at me and laughed. (remember they had told me at the beginning that it was all but certain that I would become anemic carrying two babies so I would really have to watch it and do my part to get iron in my diet.) The other "exciting" number ( I use exciting cautiously here) is my weight. I finally got up to where they wanted me: I've officially got up to 50 smaker-oos! Oh, the thought of loosing 50 lbs does NOT excite me...esp since I'll be going through the ever-glorious Thanksgiving/Christmas food festivals time frame! However, if we have good healthy-sized babies next week then every pound was worth it :)

I had not dilated any more and I"m still 50% effaced. So the meds and flat bedrest have done the trick! So here is the plan: We go to the Specialist on Monday to see the babies: make sure lungs, stomach, weight all look good and developed and ready to be functioning outside the womb. If all goes well, then I stop my medicine AND BEDREST !!! My fingers just tingled with excitement typing that :) hehe From there, we just wait and let the babies come. My doctor said she thinks they will come quickly after the medication stops (its completely out of your system in 6 hours once you take your last pill!) and once I'm upright letting gravity help do the work. SOOOOOOOOOOOO, that means this time next week we could be very close to having some babies! woop woop!

I'm already getting my game plan together for places I want to go once I'm released from our house! I still wont be able to drive so I'll have to line up some drivers, but I'm hitting the town up! I can't wait to go on a walk in our neighborhood each night...the weather has been so beautiful, from what I can tell looking out the window heha and CHURCH, I hope I can come to church, but that is looking doubtful that I'll make it past next Sunday.

This pic below will have to do as my 35 weeker. My good friends Jenn and Amber came by and brought me Starbucks and a Canoli! Heaven! I had such a good time having girl talk...I was so energized by their visit! Here are the facts about the picture below. Amber and I have due dates one week part. Yep. Look again. My 40 week due date and her 40 week due date is only 7 days apart. Look. how. ginormous. I. am.